Ben Owen

BlackRifle Co

President

VP of Strategy

Director Of Operations

GiveCredit

Advisory Board Member

We Fight Monsters

Co-Founder

Flanders Fields

Chief Executive Officer

MMA Signatures

Chief Marketing Officer

PartServ

Co-Founder and VP Sales

Re.Tech, LLC

LifeWatch Services, Inc.

Area Sales Manager AR/TN/MS

Pfizer

Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

US Army

Infantry

Daddy to eight (sometimes ten), humanitarian, doer of good things, fighter of evil, bringer of hope, former addicted, alcoholic and homeless Army Infantry Veteran (barely).  

A serial entrepreneur whose mission in life is to go back into the hells I escaped and show the path out to those left behind.

Owner of BlackRifle Co, which has nothing to do with coffee, and everything to do with using data intelligence and digital media to generate strong ROIs for our clients, while philanthropically using our device level, OSINT and observed behavioral data to assist in conflict evacuation efforts, fighting human trafficking, and locating missing people.

Founder of Flanders Fields, which is an entirely volunteer run organization that takes once struggling vets, makes them whole, and helps them find purpose through taking part in world changing missions to help anyone we are able to.  We go into the worst places in America and abroad to bring a light into the darkness, freedom to the oppressed, hope to the hopeless, and safety to the terrified.

One of our original anti-trafficking shirts is back!  All sales fund our work combatting trafficking and housing survivors on some of the worst streets of America - get yours by clicking here - https://lnkd.in/eqnXbW32

Today’s been a good day, but as most days, the wreckage of my past casts a shadow on things - and that may never stop.  But it won’t stop me from being present.

This little angel has ONLY ever known parents free of drugs and alcohol.

God willing, the chaos I so needlessly inserted into the lives of her siblings will always remain a foreign concept to her.

James, almost 8, had it the worst on paper - he kinda lived in a truck with Jess and I when he was 2-3.  But he doesn’t remember it as “bad”, to him it was normal.  By the grace of God, he might be the most well-rounded of the bunch today.

The six older kids (ranging from 13-20) had their lives ripped out from under them.  

Multiple times.

It left a mark on all of them.

They all handle it differently, some have forgiven me, others haven’t, and some don’t yet know they harbor resentments that will need addressing - but it’s always there.

Addiction destroys families, and like the other calamities you see us involved in - war, genocide, trafficking, and the like - kids always bear the brunt of the decisions the adults in their lives make.

I talk often about the physical toll my addiction took - getting stabbed, two heart attacks, losing an organ, being kidnapped, held hostage, more broken bones and scars than I can count.

And I talk about the financial toll - six figures wasted on dope, lost two houses, seven vehicles and several businesses.

And I also talk about the more “comfortable” emotional toll - watching all my friends die or go to prison, being homeless and hopeless.

But the emotional toll it took on the kids is a hard one to stomach.  

And it’s one I can’t undo.

All I can do is be present for them and be better than I used to be.

Just for today.

Daddy to eight (sometimes ten), humanitarian, doer of good things, fighter of evil, bringer of hope, former addicted, alcoholic and homeless Army Infantry Veteran.  

A serial entrepreneur whose mission in life is to go back into the hells I escaped and show the path out to those left behind.

Owner of BlackRifle Co, which has nothing to do with coffee, and everything to do with using data intelligence and digital media to generate strong ROIs for our clients, while philanthropically using our device level, OSINT and observed behavioral data to assist in conflict evacuation efforts, fighting human trafficking, and locating missing people.

Founder of Flanders Fields, which is an entirely volunteer run organization that takes once struggling vets, makes them whole, and helps them find purpose through taking part in world changing missions to help anyone we are able to.  We go into the worst places in America and abroad to bring a light into the darkness, freedom to the oppressed, hope to the hopeless, and safety to the terrified.

John Naugher

Slapped this on a t shirt that funds safe housing for trafficking survivors, and spreads a message of hope.  Y'all help us get some of these moved so We Fight Monsters work battling child suffering can continue!  Available here - https://lnkd.in/eYkt7sn3

St Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan.  My mom used to come here and pray for Jess and I, light candles for us, begging for God to intervene and help us find a better way.  

I didn’t know that until today, when my dad sent mom a pic of Jess and I here, with him, lighting candles and saying prayers for those still sick and suffering from the same calamities that almost took us off this earth until we found rock bottom five years ago.

Prayer works.  Recovery works.  God is in ALL the details.

The last time I remember being in this church, ground zero still reeked of fuel and fire, and I was with my cousin Matt.  It was just after the towers came down.

My life went one way and his went another, I enlisted in the Army and he went to prison.  

But we ended up in the same place over a decade later - homeless, hopeless, addicted.

Matt left us in 2022, one of a long list of people we love that we lost to fentanyl.

I’ll never know why God spared Jess and I, but I believe my mom’s prayers in this place had something to do with it.

And I believe our prayers today will help shape our mission so we can save even more like us.

We’ve saved more than we lost, but nowhere near as many as we want to.  We want our mission to span the nation, and then the globe.  Which sounds insane, but it was insane when I said “I’m going to shut down this dope house” and it was insane when God told us to “buy back this block.”

Yet here we are.

Today, we’ve shut down a few dope houses, saved some lives, housed some women and kids, but we’ve also tapped out both donations and our own bank accounts doing the work we’re doing.  And that’s ok.

Because we’ve gotten great things done.

And we will find a way to replenish the funds as God sees fit for us to continue.

Move towards that thing that breaks your heart, find a way to make a difference in it, and in that action, you will find your purpose on this earth.

I have mine.  What’s yours?

These photos were taken a year apart, with about five feet separating the vantage points.  I was almost murdered behind this house ten years ago.  A year ago, we acquired the house, put a stop to all the narcotics and human trafficking taking place around it, and assembled a team of unexpected allies and heroes to change the house, and the neighborhood, into something positive.

We’ve seen more than just a house renovated, we’ve seen lives saved, kids reunited with parents, Americans putting down decades old addictions, drug dealers and pimps put down their old ways and come alongside us in our work battling the very same calamities they once made a living from.

I’m not aware of anyone else in the country doing what we’re doing, but we ain’t special and we want to show everyone what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

Whether you believe it or not, you CAN make a difference.  Memphis may be one of the deadliest places in America, but she’s not beyond redemption.

We started on one block.  We’ve expanded to another.  God willing, we’ll find a way to afford to do another and another and another until Memphis is restored to the bastion of creativity and hope that it once was.

Memphis matters.  Recovery is possible.  And this world is full of good people.  You just have to be willing to put in some work.

One of my favorites! God called each of these people for a purpose. Some of them were extremely flawed, but he used them for greatness. Be like them! Get it here 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/e3c93V3z

Who wants a super cool shirt that funds ops saving lives on the worst streets of America???  You do?  Great!  We got em!  Every sale goes to combatting human trafficking and housing victims/survivors of child abuse and worse - get yours here - https://lnkd.in/ex8YxiEt

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