Green Beret Who Survived an IED Now Battles Ukraine’s Deadly Landmines

Ryan Hendrickson spent 22 years in uniform learning how to locate deadly devices buried beneath the ground. After the United States left Afghanistan, the retired Green Beret found himself struggling to understand who he was without that mission.

“I had no identity anymore, because my entire military career had been wrapped up in Afghanistan or Iraq,” Hendrickson said His search for a renewed purpose is chronicled in “Safe Ground: A Green Beret’s Mission to Remove Ukraine’s Landmines,” now streaming on Prime Video in the U.S. and U.K.

The documentary debuted Sept. 12, the anniversary of the day Hendrickson stepped on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2010. He had been attempting to rescue an Afghan soldier when the blast struck.

Hendrickson recovered from his injuries and returned to Afghanistan seven more times. In 2016, he received a Silver Star after leading an IED clearing team through a Taliban ambush in Baghlan Province.

After retiring from the 7th Special Forces Group, Hendrickson returned to Afghanistan as a contractor. He left in July 2021, shortly before the final U.S. withdrawal, and came home hurt, confused and drinking heavily.

Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 gave Hendrickson a new direction. Although he had no personal ties to Ukraine, he remembered his father’s warning about reaching the end of life burdened by regret.

“I knew if I got to be an old man, and I didn’t at least go and try, I would regret it,” he said. In March 2022, Hendrickson flew into Poland carrying roughly 10 bags of donated humanitarian supplies.

Members of a Ukrainian missionary team asked him to bring body armor, American Reese’s cups and beef jerky. After moving between drivers and safehouses, he reached Kyiv approximately three days later.

The journey revived instincts shaped by Special Forces training. “Well, everything went back to my training. It’s like, this is Robin Sage,” he said, referring to the final Special Forces training exercise set in a fictional country at war.

Hendrickson volunteered with the missionary organization Youth With A Mission. On the day he arrived, he was driving a bus into threatened areas to evacuate women, children and elderly residents.

When Russian forces withdrew from areas surrounding Kyiv, the team entered newly liberated towns including Bucha. They delivered food, medical supplies and materials needed for shelter.

Hendrickson said the humanitarian work “completely rewired my brain after Afghanistan, and now I had my purpose, and I had an identity back.” But as residents returned, landmines, booby traps and other explosive remnants began injuring people.

He started assisting Ukrainian territorial defense units through the familiar Green Beret mission of training, advising and equipping. Hendrickson returned home to raise money for detectors and safety equipment, donated the supplies to a unit, then continued to another.

That effort became Tip of the Spear Landmine Removal in October 2022. Hendrickson said the nonprofit has since brought him back to Ukraine 13 times, while also giving other veterans a chance to recover a sense of service and identity.

At a recent gala, he announced the Tip of the Spear Veterans Humanitarian Corps. The planned expansion is intended to support mine clearance, reconstruction, agriculture, teaching and medical work.

“In the military we were trained to protect the people of America and our way of life through war. But now, we’re utilizing these same skills, but for saving lives and rebuilding. So you go from killing to healing,” Hendrickson said.

Producer Colby Barrett, a former Marine captain, spent more than a year discussing the documentary with Hendrickson after the Green Beret initially rejected the idea. Hendrickson said Barrett personally funded the production, which became part of the Faith in War documentary series from the creators of “A Faith Under Siege.”

The mission also helped Hendrickson confront his own struggles, including thoughts of suicide. He later underwent ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment at a clinic in Mexico, a psychedelic therapy also examined in the veteran documentary “In Waves and War.”

“But the fighting inside myself has stopped,” Hendrickson said. He added that he remains unsure whether he has reached peace with himself or merely a cease-fire, but he now feels pride in the man he sees in the mirror.

Now almost 50, Hendrickson is exploring related work in Nigeria and Burma. He also intends to return eventually to Afghanistan to help its people, while offering struggling veterans a direct invitation: “Let me take you on a mission.”

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