Chief Petty Officer Tim Vaughn, 36, member of Team Navy, of Marysville, competes in a race at the Warrior Games on June 2 at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Vaughn was slashed and stabbed in the throat by a barber in Imperial Beach, California, in 2014. This week, he is competing in the Department of Defense Warrior Games for the first time. He is using the games as an opportunity to recover from the effects of PTSD. (Photo/Miranda Daniel, Grady Sports Bureau)

Chief Petty Officer Tim Vaughn, 36, member of Team Navy, of Marysville, competes in a race at the Warrior Games on June 2 at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Vaughn was slashed and stabbed in the throat by a barber in Imperial Beach, California, in 2014. This week, he is competing in the Department of Defense Warrior Games for the first time. He is using the games as an opportunity to recover from the effects of PTSD. (Photo/Miranda Daniel, Grady Sports Bureau)

Veterans find hope and healing through Warrior Games

Tim Vaughn, of Marysville, a member of Team Navy, competes as he continues to recover from an assault.

By Michael Hebert |Grady Sports Bureau

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — Tim Vaughn thought he was getting a haircut that day in October 2014. But his barber snapped, and Vaughn left the shop in an ambulance with severed muscles in his neck.

The incident, Vaughn said, brought up traumatic experiences from his time in the Navy.

Vaughn, a Marysville resident, used his participation in the Department of Defense Warrior Games earlier this month at the U.S. Air Force Academy to continue his recovery — his “lifelong” recovery, as his wife, Monica Vaughn, described it.

Vaughn competed in track and swimming in his first Warrior Games. His best finish was fifth place in the 800-meter race.

The games made him more aware of his need to keep healing, he said.

“It kind of opened my eyes to strive and say, ‘Oh my God, I really have something,’ ” he said.

U.S. Navy Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Joe Paterniti, a 1983 Bothell High School graduate, also competed at the Games.

The Everett paramedic has been attached to a voluntary Navy training unit for three decades.

He competed in rowing, field, powerlifting and cycling. All but field were new sports for the Games. Paterniti’s best finish was fourth place in a rowing sprint.

Chief Petty Officer Tim Vaughn, 36, member of Team Navy, of Marysville,competes in a race at the Warrior Games onJune 2 at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Vaughn was slashed and stabbed in the throat by a barber in Imperial Beach, California, in 2014. This week, he is competing in the Department of Defense Warrior Games for the first time. He is using the games as an opportunity to recover from the effects of PTSD. (Photo/Miranda Daniel, Grady Sports Bureau)

Chief Petty Officer Tim Vaughn, 36, member of Team Navy, of Marysville, competes in a race at the Warrior Games on June 2 at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Vaughn was slashed and stabbed in the throat by a barber in Imperial Beach, California, in 2014. This week, he is competing in the Department of Defense Warrior Games for the first time. He is using the games as an opportunity to recover from the effects of PTSD. (Photo/Miranda Daniel, Grady Sports Bureau)

The Games are tough, he said.

“It’s training your mind to being really comfortable with being uncomfortable,” he said in a Department of Defense story about the competition.

Throughout Vaughn’s time deployed in 2011 and 2012, he saw children who had been shot and he himself had to avoid gunfire in areas such as Kabul, Afghanistan.

But on Oct. 13, 2014, Vaughn was stopping by for a routine haircut at Vic’s Barbershop in Imperial Beach, California. It was impossible for him to be prepared for what happened next.

As an active-duty Navy petty officer up for promotion, Vaughn was recovering from hernia surgery and yearning to get back to work. The barber, Daniel Flores, asked Vaughn if he wanted a neck shave. Vaughn, thinking nothing of it, agreed, preoccupied with looking at pictures his wife had sent of her parents’ new home.

Flores, whom Vaughn had not met before that day, took out the straight razor and cut his neck. Vaughn shoved him off, but not before Flores stabbed him in the same area.

Bleeding profusely, Vaughn reacted quickly. He stumbled to the back of the shop and laid down with his feet up. He recalled himself yelling, “Call 911! I’m a 32-year-old male, I’m O positive and I’m going to need a blood transfusion.”

Navy Chief Petty Officer Tim Vaughn (left), of Marysville,hugs track coach Kyle Putnam (right) after Vaughn competed in the men’s 1500 meters at the U.S. Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado, onJune 2 . Vaughn is an athlete competing in the ninth edition of the Department of Defense Warrior Games. (Photo/Zoe L. Smith, Grady Sports Bureau)

Navy Chief Petty Officer Tim Vaughn (left), of Marysville, hugs track coach Kyle Putnam (right) after Vaughn competed in the men’s 1500 meters at the U.S. Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado, on June 2 . Vaughn is an athlete competing in the ninth edition of the Department of Defense Warrior Games. (Photo/Zoe L. Smith, Grady Sports Bureau)

Another barber came out of the bathroom and Vaughn directed him to grab some towels and squeeze him in the neck until he “couldn’t talk.”

The first responders were surprised to see that Vaughn’s blood pressure was so low. He might have saved his own life.

Flores received a 10-year prison sentence for attempted murder.

Vaughn spent the next few years doing his best to get better. He noticed himself getting angry often, mostly since people couldn’t seem to comprehend what happened to him.

Monica Vaughn, from Bakersfield, California, watches her husband, Chief Petty Officer Tim Vaughn, of Marysville, Washington, compete in the men’s 800 meters during the Department of Defense Warrior Games on Saturday, June 2, 2018, at the U.S. Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Monica cheered Tim on from the stands for each of his track events. (Photo/Christina R. Matacotta, Grady Sports Bureau)

Monica Vaughn, from Bakersfield, California, watches her husband, Chief Petty Officer Tim Vaughn, of Marysville, Washington, compete in the men’s 800 meters during the Department of Defense Warrior Games on Saturday, June 2, 2018, at the U.S. Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Monica cheered Tim on from the stands for each of his track events. (Photo/Christina R. Matacotta, Grady Sports Bureau)

“I don’t think I’ve gotten the attention I needed, so I was very bitter,” Vaughn said.

That anger was alleviated after Vaughn discovered the Navy Safe Harbor Foundation in November 2017.

Through the organization, Vaughn found the Warrior Games. He qualified for four events.

“It’s just getting up every day, and believe it or not, just having something to look forward to,” Vaughn said.

Competing has changed his outlook. He found camaraderie and learned to depend on others, he said.

“You’ve got to allow people to help you,” Vaughn said. “Me talking about it is kind of therapeutic. I’m now an open book — here I am, this is who I am.”

The Grady Sports Bureau is part of the sports media program at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.