About Tug Morkel
A Soldier’s Journey. A Man’s Awakening. A Voice for the Broken and the Brave.
Who is Tug Morkel?
A Soldier’s Journey. A Man’s Awakening. A Voice for the Broken and the Brave.
Tug Morkel’s story begins in the mud and heat of Africa — and runs through the cold corridors of conflict, trauma, and recovery.
A former Special Forces soldier, farmer, and international auditor, Tug’s path has been anything but ordinary. He has walked through moral injury, lived with bipolar mood disorder and PTSD, and faced the long silence of his youngest daughter, who has never spoken a word in her life.
These are not scars of defeat — they are the marks of endurance.
From that crucible came the D.R.E.A.M.S. framework — a grounded, human way to rebuild mental resilience through Diet, Routine, Exercise, Alcohol (control it), Medication or Meditation, and Sleep.
It’s simple, it’s lived, and it works.
Today, Tug is known for his voice of warm authority — speaking from lived experience, not theory. His memoir, Tug’s Trek: A Memoir of Moral Injury, is both confession and compass — a raw account of what it takes to walk home from the battlefield within.
Through his YouTube channel, talks, and writings, Tug helps others find balance, honesty, and strength in a world that too often pretends to be fine.
Tug Morkel: D.R.E.A.M.S. is more than a brand — it’s a call to those who’ve seen too much, felt too deeply, and want to find their footing again.
Read the Chapters That Started It All
A soldier’s story. A man’s reckoning. A new beginning.
I didn’t set out to write a book.
I set out to make sense of what war does to a man’s mind — and how to find the road home again.
Tug’s Trek: A Memoir of Moral Injury is my true account of service, trauma, and recovery — a journey from the battlefield to the mindfield.
These free chapters are where it all began. It’s raw, unvarnished, and honest — not written for sympathy, but for truth.
If you’ve ever faced the dark night of the soul and wondered if healing is possible — start here.
This is where D.R.E.A.M.S. was born.