Social media gun influencer and Iraq war veteran Neal Currey, 42, committed suicide on Saturday, according his wife, after a long struggle with the post-traumatic stress syndrome from his time at war.
Casey Currey, who has her own prominent Instagram, Twitter and Facebook presence, posted on Instagram that the lingering memories in Afghanistan and Iraq weighed heavily on her husband and he waged an ‘internal war which was not unlike combat.’
‘Despite his incredible ability to fight and persevere, Neal unfortunately and ultimately lost this war and took his own life on September 10th and tragically became one of the many in a long line of statistics that has come to be a long-term and painful reminder of the costs of our twenty-plus years at war,’ Casey Currey, 30, wrote on the platform.
Neal Currey, 42, Iraq War veteran turned gun shop owner and social media influencer killed himself September 10, his wife says, over trauma he suffered during the war
Neal Currey, 42, was able to compartmentalize his psychological trauma that he suffered during the Iraq War, his wife Casey Currey said, but it eventually became too much
A much younger Neal Currey (right) during his time as an Army Ranger. He joined the military after the terror attacks on 9/11
Neal Currey, who was a former Army Ranger served four tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan as a member of a private security force.
In an emotional Instagram post, his wife, Casey revealed that the ‘perfect life’ that followers saw on social media disguised a more painful reality.
‘Although Neal lived what many considered to be the ‘perfect life,’ it is also important that people know that there was another side of him that reminds all of us that life is never a perfect as it seems and that the struggles we face in life, especially those of soldiers who have seen the horrors and trauma of combat, are real no matter who we are and what our lives seem like on the exterior,’ the crushed spouse wrote.
She said that her husband kept that side hidden from most people and even tried to ‘compartmentalize’ his pain.
In an emotional letter to his fans and friends, Casey Currey revealed the trauma hidden behind the ‘perfect life’ that he presented on Instagram
‘Neal struggled, like many of you with the unseen wounds that follow soldiers home from war and continue to live within the recesses of their psyche for the rest of their lives, long after the battles are over and the accolades of their service go silent,’ she said. ‘Although Neal was able to compartmentalize this part of his life most of the time, the struggle would periodically surface and became an internal war which not unlike combat, sees days of triumph and days of loss.’
Currey, who came from a family of adventurous outdoorsmen, grew up in Utah helping his father who was an international white water rafting guide.
After his service in the military, he moved back to the Provo, Utah area were he launched his Ready Gunner gun shop.
His rugged All-American looks, perfect body and goofy videos – mostly involving high-powered weaponry – made him an Instagram hero to gun enthusiasts.
‘To know Neal was to love him. We have lost a wonderful husband, father, son, brother and friend. We will never be the same without Neal in our lives,’ the wife wrote.
In another post, she wrote: ‘I cannot begin to show my thanks for the outpouring of love and support for our family.
‘I know this has left a gapping hole in everyone’s heart.’
A viewing for Currey will be held on September 16, followed by his funeral a day later.
The couple, who lived in Lindon, Utah, outside of Provo, had one child together, and both raised four children from Neal’s previous relationship.
Social media gun influencer and Iraq war veteran Neal Currey, 42, died Saturday, according to a post by his wife on Instagram
Currey, 42, and his wife Casey Currey, 30, in the desert. Neal died on Saturday, September 10 of unknown causes
Neal Currey, left, with his wife Casey Currey, 30, ran the popular Ready Gunner gun shop, which runs classes and training in handling weapons (pictured here with rapper Post Malone)
‘I cannot begin to show my thanks for the outpouring of love and support for our family. ‘I know this has left a gapping hole in everyone’s heart,’ his wife Casey wrote on Instagram
Only three days ago, he posted a video of himself riding a surfboard in the wake of a power boat on Lake Powell during a family vacation in Southern Utah.
He came from a family of adventurers, according to Coffee or Die magazine.
His grandfather Jack was a white water rafting river guide on the San Juan River, developing the vessels that are still referred to as J boats. His father Stephen was an outdoorsman too, taking river rafting international by being the first to navigate the Upper Yangtze River in China, the Upper Ganges in India and the Caura River in Venezuela.
The younger Currey boasted setting foot in every continent before he joined the military, according to the coffee lifestyle magazine, often paddling a supply and luggage raft in the rear.
Spurred by the terror attacks on 9/11, Currey joined the Army at the age of 24 and served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006.
It was during one of his tours that he discovered that his father, who was planning a trip to the Arctic, had come down with cancer, according to the profile in Coffee or Die.
The Curreys cut a glamourous profile of a beautiful couple who loved family, the great outdoors and guns
Neal Currey, top center, cut a rugged, but fun-loving figure on Instagram to help promote his gun shop – Ready Gunner
Casey created viral videos for this gun shop Ready Gunner, like this one in which he fires a machine gun on a skateboard
Currey used to joke about his love for guns on Instagram
‘From diagnosis to the funeral it was 40 days,’ Currey told the publication. He vowed to make his father proud.
After the military, he remained a gun enthusiast, starting Ready Gunner, gun shop and shooting range and then co-founded Black Rifle Coffee in Orem, Utah.
Currey and his wife Casey cut the perfect image of a Western family on Instagram.
The square-jawed, muscular former soldier seemed ready made to be Instagram famous, posting jokey videos – like the one of him firing a machine gun on a skateboard.
There’s no mistaking his stance on the Second Amendment. In nearly every post, Currey can be seen with a different type of high-powered rifle and in some posts, a shopping cart full of them.
Casey had her own following, as the ‘Miss America’ of the gun community, under the social media moniker @BuffCookie, posting bikini photos that show off her figure.
She said that she took comfort in all the guns in her house.
Neal and Casey joke around about a 50 mm machine gun on Instagram. His cause of death remains a mystery
In previous interviews, Casey said that America is suffering from a mental health crisis, not a gun problem.
‘We don’t have a gun problem in our country, we have a mental illness problem. That should be our main focus,’ she said.
The couple have five children, four of his, one of hers.
‘I like the comfort of knowing that if something happens we can protect ourselves,’ she said. ‘Fear comes from the unknown. Firearms and firearm safety are very well known in our family.’
‘They know they are not a toy and are to be taken very seriously. Proper firearms handling is so important, and the earlier you teach it the better,’ she added.
Neal Currey became so enthralled with guns and social media that he started a third company, 2A Media, which was geared on helping spread a positive message about guns on social media.
The most important image that he could present, he said, was that of a good father.
‘We’re not here forever,’ he said. ‘I learned that early. I just want my kids to look back and be proud of their dad.’
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