Dr Dan Pronk — Special Operations Doctor, Afghanistan
Ex-SASR Special Operations Doctor · Author · Medical Director, TacMed Australia

Dr DanPronk

4 Tours · Afghanistan100+ Combat MissionsSASR2CDOSAS AustraliaThe Combat DoctorThe Resilience Shield
"I had seen dozens of people die horrible deaths. This time it was a friend of mine dying in the dirt in front of me, and it was my job to save him."

I spent 15 years in the Army — the last five with Special Operations. After four tours of Afghanistan, I thought transition would be easy. I was wrong. Now I help veterans, first responders, and frontline operators understand what's actually happening to them — and build a genuine roadmap out of the dark.

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3,500+Newsletter Readers
240+Course Students
15 yrsMilitary Service
As seen in
SAS Australia·Men's Health·Sky News·Business Insider·ABC·Daily Telegraph·The Combat Doctor·The Resilience Shield·SAS Australia·Men's Health·Sky News·Business Insider·ABC·Daily Telegraph·The Combat Doctor·The Resilience Shield·

"Once you know it's black,
it's not near as dark."

— Matthew McConaughey · adapted by Dan Pronk for transition from defence

The Shit Nobody Tells You

Transition Is Going
To Suck.

I had thought I'd seen the cliff coming. I had prepared myself well. I was wrong.

Within six months of leaving the Army, the demons caught up. The identity was gone. The tribe was gone. The purpose was gone. And I was doing worse from a mental health perspective than I'd ever been in Afghanistan — despite being safer, home more, and earning more money than ever.

Research shows 44–77% of veterans experience high levels of stress during transition — yet most of the support system is built around PTSD diagnosis. Transition stress is a different animal. My courses are built to address it.

🪞 Loss of Identity
Your training pipeline stripped away your civilian identity and built a new one as a soldier or first responder. Transition rips that away — and most people have no idea it's happening, let alone how to rebuild.
🤝 Loss of Tribe
Identity fusion with your unit is one of the most powerful bonds humans form. When you leave, you're evolutionarily cast from your tribe — and the stress response that follows is very real. You were not built to go it alone.
🧭 Loss of Purpose
Self-actualisation in those roles is real. Maslow would recognise it. Ikigai describes it perfectly. Losing all four pillars simultaneously — what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, what pays — doesn't come with a manual.
😴 Dysregulated Cortisol
Your stress system has been running at highway speed for years. Civilian life feels like a school zone. The boredom and unease are physiological — not weakness. Sleep, cortisol regulation, and finding new flow states are part of the fix.
Online Courses
Frontline Courses · Dr Dan Pronk

Real Knowledge.
Life-or-Death Stakes.

Not motivational content. Not theory. Built from combat deployments, emergency medicine, and a decade of hard-won personal reckoning with transition.

🔄 Start Here
Thriving in Transition — civilian looks in mirror, sees soldier
Course 01
+ Free Book
Thriving
In Transition
🔄 Online Course + Digital Book · 17 Students
Thriving in Transition + FREE BOOK
Loss of identity. Loss of tribe. Loss of purpose. Loss of flow. All at once. The psychology of transition is brutal — and almost nobody prepares you for it. The roadmap I wish I'd had.
🎁 FreeIncludes Sh*t I Wished I Knew Before I Discharged as a free digital download — delivered instantly with your enrolment.
IdentityTribe & BelongingMaslow / IkigaiPTG3 Modules
A$89one-timeBook included free
Enrol Now →
Dan Pronk on range Afghanistan
Course 02
Gunshot
Wounds
🎯 Online Course · Most Enrolled
Understanding Gunshot Wounds for Military, Law Enforcement & Medical Responders
Terminal ballistics. Wounding profiles. Assessment and treatment priorities when a casualty has a bullet in them. Taught by a doctor who's treated them on the battlefield — not in a simulation.
Terminal BallisticsInjury PatternsCase StudiesTreatment Protocol5 Modules
A$88one-time
Enrol Now →
Sleep optimisation — soldier sleeping in field, Afghanistan
Course 03
Sleep
Optimisation
😴 Online Course · 78 Students
Sleep Optimisation for Military & Emergency Responders
Shift work, abnormal cortisol, chronic stress — your sleep is wrecked in ways that differ from the general population. Evidence-based techniques built specifically for roles where bad sleep costs lives.
Cortisol RegulationShift WorkTactical Recovery
A$44one-time
Enrol Now →
By Dr Dan Pronk

The Books

Combat-tested psychology, hard-won medical knowledge, and brutal honesty about what it takes to survive — and thrive — on the frontline and beyond.

The Combat Doctor cover
Memoir · Combat Medicine
The Combat Doctor
The unvarnished account of what it's like to be a doctor in Australia's most elite special operations unit. Four tours of Afghanistan. Dozens of combat missions. A front-row seat to modern warfare — and the psychological cost.
MemoirSASRAfghanistan

"I lost sleep reading this. Open, honest and introspective — I couldn't put it down." — Verified Purchaser, Amazon AU

Buy Now — Worldwide →
The Resilience Shield cover
Non-Fiction · Resilience Science
The Resilience Shield
Co-authored with Dr Brendan Nicholson. The science and practice of building resilience across five domains:biological, psychological, social, professional, and spiritual.
ResiliencePsychologyPerformance

"One of my top five books. This book has changed my life for the better." — Verified Purchaser, Amazon AU

Buy Now — Worldwide →
📊 Take the Free Survey →Explore the Course →
Average 70kg Dickhead cover
Motivation · Special Forces
Average 70kg D**khead
How an average bloke with average grades passed SAS selection, served four tours of Afghanistan, and built an extraordinary life — one goal at a time. No special powers. Just grit, SMART goals, and the refusal to quit.
GoalsMotivationSpecial Forces

"Light, funny, easy read. Changed my perspective on how to achieve life long goals." — Verified Purchaser

Buy Now — Worldwide →
Sh*t I Wished I Knew Before I Discharged cover
Transition Guide · Veteran Support
Sh*t I Wished I Knew Before I Discharged
The companion book to the Thriving in Transition course. Identity, tribe, purpose, PTG, and the Transition Suck Factor — the roadmap Dan wished he'd had leaving the SASR.
TransitionIdentityVeterans
Buy Now — Worldwide →
📥 Digital Download — A$9 →
Co-Author · Resilience Science

The Resilience
Shield

Co-authored with Ben Pronk DSC and Tim Curtis, The Resilience Shield distils hard-won lessons from Australian Special Operations into a peer-reviewed, academically validated model for building resilience across five domains — biological, psychological, social, professional and spiritual.

The book is the foundation. The online ecosystem — including the free Resilience Survey — is how you apply it to your own life.

5Resilience Domains
42Survey Questions
3SAS Co-Authors
🎓 Explore the Online Courses → 📊 Take the Free Survey First → resilienceshield.com ↗
The Resilience Shield book cover
Free · 5 Minutes
How Resilient Are You?

The TRS-42 Survey measures your resilience across all five domains and gives you a personalised report — the starting point for everything that follows.

Take the Survey →
Live Events &Corporate

Speaking &
Workshops

Not a motivational speaker. A combat-experienced doctor who delivers clinically grounded, evidence-based programs on resilience, mental health, and performance — built for people whose work can kill them.

See Dan in Action
Keynotes · Workshops · Advisory

Book Dan to Speak

Keynotes, half-day workshops, multi-day programs, and advisory roles. Dan speaks to emergency services, corporate organisations, military units, and veteran transition programs across Australia and internationally.

Speaking Enquiry →
AFF
Not-For-Profit

Aussie Frontline
Foundation

Dan is a founding member of the Aussie Frontline Foundation — a not-for-profit committed to improving the mental health and wellbeing of Australian emergency services workers, veterans, and their families.

The Foundation delivers evidence-based programs, workshops, and peer support initiatives to the people who carry Australia's hardest shifts — and who too often carry them alone.

Emergency Services
Tailored mental health workshops for paramedics, firefighters, and police.
Veterans & Families
Transition support programs and peer networks for veterans and their families.
Research & Evidence
Every program is evidence-based — not wishful thinking.
Support the Foundation → Learn More →

Writing by Dan

Field-tested psychology, physiology, and hard-won experience — from the Friday First Responder newsletter and LinkedIn. No fluff.

All newsletter issues →All LinkedIn articles →
Dr Dan Pronk in the field
Mar 2024TransitionIdentityLinkedIn

You Are Not Broken — You Are More Complete

For years after discharge, Dan felt like service had broken something in him — that a part of him had died in Afghanistan. This article reframes that experience using Jung's shadow theory and Jordan Peterson's concept of the inner monster. The insight that changed everything:you haven't lost something. You've gained something most people never will.

Read on LinkedIn →
Dan Pronk Afghanistan
Sep 2023Mental HealthVeteransLinkedIn

Cutting the Rope

When a drowning person grabs a lifeguard, they can take them both under. Dan writes honestly about distancing himself from veteran mates battling PTSD — the guilt that followed, and the brutal trade-off between moral injury, vicarious trauma, and protecting your own hard-won stability.

Read on LinkedIn →
Dan Pronk special forces
Sep 2023Mental HealthFirst-ResponderLinkedIn

R U Really OK?

The R U OK slogan is good — but the conversation technique matters. Dan borrows from FBI hostage negotiation's 5-Step Behavioural Change Stairway and US Army tactical questioning to show how you actually move a struggling mate from resistance to help.

Read on LinkedIn →
Frontline operator
Nov 2023PhysiologyPerformanceLinkedIn

Intermittent Fasting — Three Lesser-Known Benefits

Beyond the weight-loss hype — Dan uses his own continuous glucose monitor and blood ketone data from a 48-hour fast to demonstrate autophagy, gluconeogenesis, and the metabolic flexibility that gave our ancestors a survival edge. Documented. Nerdy. Useful.

Read on LinkedIn →
Special forces field
2017Tactical MedicineFirst-ResponderLinkedIn

The Tactical Primary Survey for First-Responders

The original article that kicked off Dan's writing career. Special Forces medical principles for high-threat first response — scene safety, threat-aware casualty assessment, and the tactical considerations that civilian training systematically skips.

Read on LinkedIn →

3,500+ first responders, veterans & operators get this free every Friday.

Join The Friday First Responder →
Free Every Friday

The Friday
First Responder

One high-leverage idea every Friday — drawn from Special Forces, emergency medicine, and the psychology of transition and resilience. Read in under 5 minutes. No fluff. No filler. No bullshit.

No spam. Unsubscribe any time. Read by veterans, first responders, and high performers.

On Air

Podcast Appearances

Combat medicine. Transition psychology. Resilience science. Dan has been a guest on some of Australia's most listened-to podcasts — pulling no punches.

Combat operations
2 Worlds Collide Podcast · 2024
Featured · 2024
2 Worlds Collide Podcast

Service, Resilience & the Aussie Frontline Foundation

Dan talks his journey from Special Forces combat doctor to co-founding the Aussie Frontline Foundation — the psychological toll on frontline workers, PTSD, and what genuine resilience actually looks like.

Listen Now →
Military field photo
ED JAM Podcast · 2022
Featured · 2022
ED JAM Podcast

Military Trauma, PTSD & Resilience

Chest decompressions in the dark. Surgical airways with night vision goggles. Dan talks the realities of Special Operations medicine, trauma management under fire, and what it takes to stay functional after repeated combat exposure.

Listen Now →
Life on the Line
Journey to Special Forces & Combat
Two-part interview covering Dan's path to the SAS, four tours of Afghanistan, and the realities of combat medicine at the pointy end.
Listen → ↗
The Unforgiving60
Goal Setting, Failure & Post-Traumatic Growth
Dan talks dealing with failure and loss, his approach to goal setting, and the internal struggle to achieve post-traumatic growth after service.
Listen → ↗
Combat Story
The Darker Deployments & Building Resilience
Part two of Dan's Combat Story — the harder tours, the build-up of PTSD, and how the lessons of Special Forces translate into civilian resilience.
Listen → ↗
Zero Limits Podcast
SASR Doctor, Author & Entrepreneur
Dan's full story — from failed triathlete to SAS doctor to author and entrepreneur. Four tours of Afghanistan, decorated for conduct in action.
Listen → ↗
The Unforgiving60
The Making of The Resilience Shield
Dan returns to discuss the making of The Resilience Shield — and what all three authors do in their own lives to build and maintain their resilience.
Listen → ↗
Podcast Hosts
Want Dan on Your Show?
Combat medicine. Veteran transition. Resilience science. Sleep physiology. Dan brings hard-won real-world experience and clinical depth to every conversation.
Podcast Enquiry → ↗