12/08/2025
At Techtrend, we've spent nearly three decades helping organizations create innovations that matter. Sometimes the most important innovations aren't about market disruption—they're about saving lives.
Zach Paschall is building one of those innovations.
As a Navy SEAL Chief, an RPG exploded a foot from his head in Afghanistan. The blast was never documented. For six years, his body and mind deteriorated while doctors dismissed his symptoms—one even accused him of faking it.
The VA eventually confirmed a significant traumatic brain injury.
His buddy Ryan faced the same invisible battle. The system failed him too. Ryan took his own life in 2017. The autopsy revealed brain damage caused not by enemy fire, but by years of training with their own weapons.
The gap between threat and protection was clear. The innovation to close it didn't exist.
Now Zach is building it:
→ Blast overpressure reducing materials
→ AI-driven concealment systems
→ Nanotechnology armor—double the strength, half the weight
→ Quick-release systems that actually work underwater
This is operator-led innovation at its best—every product born from problems actually faced in the field.
Our founder Phil McKinney serves on The Adullam Company's Advisory Board, and Techtrend is proud to contribute our expertise to help Zach achieve his mission: bringing warriors home whole.
✅Phil wrote the full story for The Innovators Network.
👉 https://open.substack.com/pub/theinnovatorsnetwork/p/bringing-them-home-they-said-his?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
A Navy SEAL's fight against the invisible wounds killing America's elite warriors.
