Veteran Adventure and Legacy at SOAR 2024 Las Vegas
Veteran Adventure and Legacy Begins Long Before Vegas
At Wyld Peak, we know that adventure is not just about peaks and trails. Sometimes it is about showing up, listening, and being present with stories that deserve respect. SOAR 2024 in Las Vegas was one of those moments. It was a chance to witness veteran adventure and legacy in action, and to stand alongside people who lived it.
This journey started long before Vegas. Earlier in the year, our team spent time in Da Nang, Vietnam, where we first met Larry and Xuan, both MACV-SOG veterans. Those conversations on the ground shaped how we approached everything that followed and gave deeper meaning to our time at SOAR.
Understanding SOAR and the Legacy It Preserves
SOAR, the Special Operations Association Reunion, brings together veterans from all branches, but its heart remains the special operations community. Units like MACV-SOG and ARVN Special Forces operated under extreme conditions during the Vietnam War, often deep behind enemy lines. Their missions demanded trust, courage, and adaptability in ways few will ever experience.
SOAR provides a space for these stories to be shared honestly. It is a place where legacy is not just remembered but carried forward through connection and respect.
From Wilderness to Reunion
Before Vegas, we spent time with Recon Marine Mike, a close friend and longtime companion in our shared journey. Meeting with him set the tone for everything that followed. Later, we linked up with Xuan in Los Angeles, strengthening bonds forged earlier in Da Nang.
Rob from Savage Game Designs, who worked closely with Hayden and Mike on S.O.G. Prairie Fire, reunited in Vegas. Bruce from the SOG site, who had joined our Da Nang trip and whose father served in SOG, added another layer of history and continuity. These connections made SOAR more than an event. It was a living network of people, history, and shared purpose.
SOAR 2024 Vegas in Action
The reunion was grounded and deeply human. Veterans across generations and services reconnected. Some were seeing each other after decades, others meeting for the first time. Stories flowed with laughter and reflection, humor and gravity naturally coexisting.
Larry and Xuan carried their experiences with quiet strength. Rob and Savage Game Designs offered a hands-on connection to history through S.O.G. Prairie Fire, a game that educates and immerses players in the realities of MACV-SOG operations. For veterans and history enthusiasts, it is a rare way to experience history interactively.
What SOAR Taught Us
SOAR highlighted that veteran adventure and legacy go beyond uniforms and medals. Life after service can be complex. Finding purpose, rebuilding community, and managing identity are all part of the journey. These are real challenges, often invisible to outsiders, but central to understanding veteran experience.
Being part of this reminded us why Wyld Peak exists as more than an outdoor brand. Resilience is built together. Listening, learning, and showing up are just as essential as any trail we hike.
Adventure Without a Trail Map
There were no trail maps in Vegas, no summits to chase. Yet adventure was everywhere, in conversation, shared stories, laughter, and reflection. Meaningful journeys do not always have a visible endpoint. Sometimes the greatest challenge is simply being present.
Carrying the legacy forward
SOAR 2024 was not about visibility for us.
It was about being present in rooms where the stories were already bigger than anything we could add. It was about listening properly, standing beside people we respect, and remembering that legacy is not preserved by polishing it until it feels safe. It is preserved by carrying it honestly.
That is why the Special Operations Association matters. The work does not end when the reunion closes or the room clears. It continues through families, friendships, records, reunions, projects, and the people who keep showing up for the Special Operations community long after the public attention moves somewhere else.
For anyone wanting to understand the wider mission behind SOAR, the Special Operations Association is the right place to start.
A personal note on Mike
The passing of our dear friend Recon Marine Mike after SOAR made this harder to write and impossible to treat like a normal event recap.
Mike was part of the road that led us there. His friendship, humour, stories, and presence shaped how we understood the trip, the people in it, and the quiet weight behind moments most outsiders would miss.
His loss is a reminder that supporting veterans is not something that belongs only in speeches, reunions, or once-a-year posts. It is listening when someone talks. Checking in when the noise dies down. Remembering that PTSD, grief, identity, and life after service can sit quietly behind people who still look strong from the outside.
We are grateful we got to share part of this journey with him.
We wish there had been more.
Where to go next
If this story matters to you, do not let it end here.
Visit the Special Operations Association to learn more about the community behind SOAR and the people working to support Special Operations veterans, families, and survivors.
Follow Savage Game Designs if you want to see how MACV-SOG history is being carried forward through S.O.G. Prairie Fire, veteran interviews, research, and interactive storytelling. Their work gives people another way to understand the history without flattening it into a museum label.
And for the chapter that came before Vegas, read Larry Trimble Revisits Vietnam. That return to Da Nang with Larry, Xuan, Rob from Savage Game Designs, Bruce from SOG Military Collectibles, and Hayden from Wyld Peak shaped the meaning of everything that followed at SOAR.
Some stories start on a trail. Some start in a jungle decades earlier. Some continue in a hotel ballroom in Las Vegas, in a quiet conversation over breakfast, or in the memory of a friend who should still be here.
We are honoured to have stood near this one.
And we will keep carrying it with care.