On the last episode of Siesta Key we got a sneak peek into Jared Kelderman’s experiences in the Navy and the emotional toll it took on him. We also saw how his quickie marriage (and then divorce) from his ex-wife Jessica came into play during that time in his life.
Jared started his career in the Navy in October of 2011 as a Naval Aircrewman, which is officially defined as an “aviation warfare systems operator.” In this role, he acted as an airborne communicator who maintained and operated aircraft systems.
In August of 2014, he continued his career in the Navy as an MQ8 Drone Operator. An MQ8 is an unmanned autonomous helicopter that is designed to provide recon, precision targeting, and situational awareness to support air, ground and sea forces. It sounds like a pretty important job.
A Navy-related photo first appears on Jared’s Instagram in March 2012, where he is posing with a bunch of his fellow naval recruits in a bathroom. No caption.
About a year later, in August of 2013, Jared posted a photo captioned, “Bestfriends leaving for deployment! Miss yall see you in 9 months!”
In March 2015, he posted a cool photo, jokingly captioning it, “Just mowing the grass.”
He seemed to be in pretty good spirits on this particular day.
September 11, 2016, is the last time Jared posts a military-related photo on his Instagram before coming home from deployment, which he captioned: “Our enemies have made the mistake that Americas enemies always make. They saw liberty and thought they saw weakness. And now, they see defeat – G.W.B.”
More recently, in October of 2018, Jared posts a few throwback photos where he seems less than thrilled, captioned: “#TBT can you see the excitement I have!!!” Sarcastic much?”
As we know, before serving in the military, Jared went to the same high school as most of his Siesta Key cast members, and briefly dated Madisson.
This week, we got to see a completely different side of Jared. We learned a bit about his PTSD diagnosis after returning from deployment, and more about his failed marriage to Jessica – which both seemed to have a major impact on him emotionally.
When Madisson asks him what the transition back to civilian life was like, he said:
“I get, like, terrible nightmares, I can never sleep. I’m okay with being depressed all the time. It became normal that I just feel like s**t every day. I don’t like people thinking I’m crazy. I don’t like the fact that someone looks at me and that’s what they think — that guy’s going to lose his mind every second now. I feel broken.”
Later in the episode, Jared goes fishing with Canvas where he tells her he plans to go see a therapist and about how he wants to make an effort to start doing more healthy activities (besides drinking and partying).
We hope Jared gets help and gains the strength he needs to navigate his post-military life.
Siesta Keys airs Tuesdays 8/7c on MTV.
Where was he deployed??? They constantly say he was deployed, but never where. I dont see that any of these pics are from a combat zone. What does he have PTSD from, sitting in the Atlantic and doing an occasional training run??