The Toughest of Challenges

Growing up in Fairfax, Virginia, Constantine was always interested in the military. His father and brother served in the Air Force, and he applied for an ROTC scholarship in college. When he didn't get it, he assumed at the time that he would not ever realize his goal of entering the military.

But while he was attending law school at the University of Denver, Constantine learned about a program in the Marine Corps for lawyers. He attended officer candidate school, finished his degree, served as a criminal defense lawyer for Marines in Okinawa, and spent four years as a prosecutor at Camp Pendleton, California.

He left active duty in 2004 and joined the reserves. Two years later, he joined a civil affairs group looking for young officers to deploy to Iraq to work with local leaders to rebuild communities destroyed by the war. Constantine deployed that fall, where his life would soon take a dramatic turn.

On October 18th, 2006, Justin was on a routine civil affairs mission in Iraq's Anbar province. Suddenly, a sniper's bullet hit him behind his left ear and exploded through his mouth, inflicting devastating damage. The Marines around him thought he was indeed dead, but a young Navy corpsman rushed into action, performing an emergency tracheotomy so Constantine could breathe. He was rushed to the nearest field hospital, then Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Doctors in Germany doubted he would survive the trip back to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, DC.

Although the original prognosis was that he had been killed in action, Justin survived thanks to risks taken by his fellow Marines and a courageous Navy Corpsman. When Corpsman Grant first rolled Justin over, he was no longer breathing. But he persevered, fighting every day to survive until he was well enough to travel.

Weeks after his surgeries, Justin was back in the United States. He was missing almost all his teeth and in the midst of numerous surgeries that took bones from his hips and legs to reconstruct his face. Still, despite the incredible tragedy, he was going through, Justin was aware of how fortunate he was to survive.

"I'm the luckiest person you'll ever meet," Constantine said years later, standing on stage in front of a crowd at TEDxBeaconStreet.

Despite his injury, Justin was the Honor Graduate of his class at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. Justin retired from the Marine Corps at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. For his service in Iraq, Justin earned the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon and Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal.

Key to his recovery at the time was his then-girlfriend (and later wife) Dahlia, who left a Ph.D. program at Cambridge University to care for him. As he worked to recover, he took a job at the Department of Justice's Office of Immigration Litigation, researching and writing briefs.

"It was perfect for me," Constantine said in an interview with Black Rifle Coffee Company in 2019. "I had my own office, and I didn't have to talk to anyone. I could write."

He later worked on counterterrorism cases at the FBI, but on the side, he'd been developing his own business in a surprising field: public speaking. He had been invited to speak at events for military members, veterans, and first responders and found he still enjoyed getting in front of a crowd.

Speaking in front of crowds, given his condition, was intimidating for him at first. However, his perception changed immediately when people learned about his story and his incredible resiliency and were eager to hear what he had to say. Once he discovered the courage to overcome these odds, he focused on helping others do the same.

Justin Constantine

Celebrating The Life of Justin Constantine