The soldier who never stopped moving: Jaco van Gass and what drives veterans to push further

Minus forty degrees. One arm. No option to stop.

Somewhere on the Arctic ice, a former paratrooper is dragging a sled. The conditions are brutal, the terrain is relentless, and the objective is still hundreds of miles away. He adjusts, keeps moving, and carries on.

There is no dramatic pause and no moment of doubt that changes the plan. The plan is still the same, just harder now. That part will feel familiar to anyone who has served.

The profile: who he is and what he did

Jaco van Gass was born in South Africa. At the age of 20, he sold everything he owned and moved to the UK with one goal: to join the British Army. He passed P Company, one of the most demanding selection processes in the British military, and became a paratrooper. Of the 108 who started his intake, only 22 made it through.

It was during his second tour of Afghanistan in 2009, with two weeks left to go, that a rocket-propelled grenade changed everything. He lost his lower left arm, suffered a collapsed lung, punctured internal organs, shrapnel wounds, a broken tibia and a fractured knee. He had eleven operations. His army career was over.

What followed was not a retreat from challenge. It was the opposite.

What came next

In 2011 he joined the Walking With The Wounded expedition to the North Pole, trekking across the Arctic ice alongside other wounded veterans. He then went on to compete as a Paralympic cyclist for Great Britain, winning multiple medals at the Tokyo 2020 Games and retaining his titles at Paris 2024, where he won two golds and broke two of his own world records. He was awarded an OBE in 2025 for services to cycling.

That arc, from a young South African who moved to Britain specifically to serve, through severe combat injury, through the Arctic and the Himalayas and eventually the Paralympic podium, reflects something that does not switch off when service ends.

Why that kind of challenge, and why it resonates

On paper, heading to the North Pole after losing an arm sounds extreme. In practice it follows a logic that many veterans recognise. A defined objective, a team around you, and a reason to keep moving.

After service, that structure often disappears. The pace changes, the expectations shift, and the sense of direction can become less clear. For some, that absence is genuinely difficult to replace.

Challenges like the North Pole expedition fill that gap in a very specific way. They bring back purpose, routine, and a reason to push through discomfort. The conditions are different from service, but the mindset required is not.

The psychology behind it

There is a reason veterans are often drawn to things like this. It is not about chasing danger for its own sake. It is about finding something that demands the same level of commitment.

You have a goal that is non-negotiable. You have a process that you follow every day. You measure progress in small, consistent steps.

There is also something about controlled effort. Not suffering for its own sake, but a kind of exertion that gives meaning to the work. You know why you are doing it, and that matters.

For many veterans, that combination is familiar. It is not a replacement for service, but it echoes parts of it.

It is not just one person

Jaco van Gass captured attention because of the scale of what he overcame. But the underlying pattern is not unique to him. Variations of it appear across the veteran community.

Walking With The Wounded have built entire programmes around this principle, organising expeditions that push people physically and mentally as part of a broader recovery and community-building model. In May 2025, a team of four British military veterans, including Veterans Minister and former Royal Marines Colonel Al Carns, completed a world record journey from London to the summit of Everest and back in just seven days, raising funds for veterans charities.

In early 2025, five Special Forces veterans rode camels 1,100 kilometres across Saudi Arabia and Jordan, retracing the route of Lawrence of Arabia to raise funds for the Special Forces Club Benevolent Fund. The scale varies, but the pattern is consistent.

You do not have to trek to the North Pole

Most people reading this are not going to cross the Arctic or summit Everest. That is not the point. The point is understanding why someone would choose to.

There is something in that mindset that resonates. The idea of setting a clear objective, committing fully, and seeing it through. It does not need to be extreme to be meaningful.

What matters is the structure behind it. A goal, a process, and a reason to keep going when it gets difficult. That is the part that translates across all scales of challenge.

A different kind of challenge

For those who are interested in something more structured, organisations like Walking With The Wounded offer opportunities to take part in organised challenges alongside other veterans. These provide support, guidance, and a shared sense of purpose.

You do not need to start at the extreme end. The scale can vary enormously, but the principles remain the same. Start with something that feels like a stretch, and build from there.

The important part is recognising that the instinct itself is not unusual. It is something many veterans share.

Still moving forward

Stories like Jaco van Gass's stand out because of what he overcame. But they resonate because of something deeper. They reflect a mindset that does not switch off when service ends.

That drive to keep going, even when things are difficult, does not disappear. It just finds a different direction. Sometimes that direction is the Arctic. Sometimes it is a Paralympic podium. Sometimes it starts with something much smaller than either.