Seth Barta vividly remembers his launch into adulthood and the moment he left home to join the United States Air Force: “The minute I joined, it was like, my dad gave me 200 bucks and said, ‘Here ya go, kid. Good luck.’”
The Grand Canyon University Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing student spoke as he sat in a drop zone after a parachute glide in San Antonio. Parachuting might be a hobby now, but in the Air Force, he served with pararescue special operations, part of an elite corps that could jump anywhere in the world to rescue American military operatives and soldiers.
Barta trained with special ops to become a paramedic. His skills, actions and confidence led him to lead a team in pararescue. The road to leadership was filled with challenges.
“We were selected out of basic training in San Antonio,” he said. “Those who passed moved on to specialty training. Over 90% of the team washed out.”
It took him three years to earn his badge as a pararescueman. Training was only part of the life-changing experience.
“I did get married while I was in training, and that was a really bad decision,” Barta said. “I was young and foolish. I mean, I learned a lot from it, and it definitely changed my life for the good.”
Being married, even in a failed marriage, helped him settle down and realize what he wanted out of a life partner. And the Air Force kept him growing more every day, he said.
He deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, conducting rescues in various locations.
“My last deployment was the start of the Russian-Ukrainian War,” Barta said. “We were tasked with supporting the embassy evacuation out of Kyiv.”
He was deployed 12 times before that one. While transitioning after 21 years in pararescue, Barta joined the SkillBridge Program, a military option to help soldiers transition into civilian life. Even though still on the military payroll, Barta was working for a civilian sector business.
He discovered his military service in trauma medicine would transition to nursing in civilian health care. It wasn’t a direct road. He found he was drawn toward surgical support and plans to be a certified registered nursing anesthetist.
“As I was getting into the nursing program and training, deployments put me where the dirtiest, nastiest, most horrible things are,” Barta said. “I got to the point where I was no longer doing medicine, and I was leading a team and managing about 25 special operators. We were planning things like airfield seizures, contingency operations that could happen around Europe, so I was stationed in Europe.”
In August 2024, he rotated to Boston for continuing training. It’s a week in a classroom followed by rote training. This latter training puts the paramedic in a hospital or ambulance to practice their skills under supervision.
“My plan is to study up and take the test for a flight paramedic and critical care paramedic,” he said. “I was able to go to South Shore Hospital in Boston. (My mentor and friend) paired me up in the intensive care unit. I was linked with a bunch of anesthesiologists. I wanted to be able to do intubations and anesthesiology work.”
By the end of the training, Barta was running cases under supervision. Back in San Antonio, he searched for a university where he could earn his bachelor of science in nursing online, which led him to GCU.
Barta, who received a scholarship, dove into the classes necessary for the next milestone on his journey to becoming a CRNA.
“I can do those things because I’m a nationally registered paramedic,” he said. “This is such a cool job and so much fun. I want to do this now.”
Barta exited the Air Force and the SkillBridge program in January.
“From the age of 18, I’ve lived with a certain amount of pressure in my life,” Barta said. “I actually battled pretty well with some depression in the transition of leaving the military.”
The struggle with depression seemed to be all around him. Between February and April this year, four of his brother soldiers committed suicide. During his deployments, he lost 18 brothers in combat. Through it all, his faith was there in less than direct ways.
“I was raised Christian. I grew up in a very devout Mormon household. When I was in my teenage years, I kind of fell away from the church in that aspect,” Barta said. “Then in the military, I got to go see the world and do things that, unfortunately, show what people are capable of doing to each other.”
That exposure made for a struggle with the thought of organized religion.
“The thing is, I always go back to the first things that I was taught,” he said. “In Christianity, it’s, you know, like, love your neighbor. Treat others as you would want to be treated. At the end of the day, the way I travel through the world is, if I can do good, I’m going to try my best to do it.”
He sums up his faith as avoiding judgment and doing the right thing.
“Even though I know that the world around me is not that way, I will do the morally correct thing,” Barta said. “I never understood why I had to go to church on Sunday to have a relationship with (God). I believe in my relationship with God.”
GCU News senior writer Eric Jay Toll can be reached at [email protected].
