Army veteran Sam Brown has been tapped by President Donald Trump to be the next undersecretary of memorial affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs. After his nomination in January, Brown said he would work to ensure “all who have served are honored with the dignity they have earned.” (Sam Brown )

WASHINGTON — Army veteran Sam Brown nearly gave his life for his country in 2008, when a roadside bomb detonated under the fuel tank of his military vehicle in Afghanistan.

As President Donald Trump’s nominee in January to be the undersecretary for memorial affairs for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown pledged to “ensure all who have served are honored with the dignity they have earned.”

Brown, 41, of Nevada is a West Point graduate and former small business owner who has described how his injuries from the roadside attack and recovery from third-degree burns transformed his life and perspective in unexpected ways.

“I should not have survived the explosion in Afghanistan. The fact that I am alive is a testament to the purpose I still have — to serve others,” Brown recalled in a first-person account published in the Cavalry Chapel Magazine.

Brown will have the opportunity as undersecretary of memorial affairs to serve thousands of veterans and their loved ones.

The undersecretary for memorial affairs oversees the National Cemetery Administration, which operates and maintains 150 national cemeteries, including Arlington National Cemetery. Brown’s Senate confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.

About 4 million veterans are interred at national cemeteries dating to the Revolutionary War, according to the VA. The cemetery administration provides burial services for more than 100,000 military veterans and eligible family members each year.

The role includes overseeing cemetery development, running memorial programs and administering federal grants to states and territories.

“Sam understands our nation’s duty to take care of veterans, their families and survivors,” said a VA spokesperson who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Sam’s wounds taught him that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. His experience shaped his mindset and drove him to live a life with more meaning and purpose.”

Brown declined to speak about his nomination before his confirmation hearing, the spokesperson said Monday.

After his nomination, Brown said on social media that he looked forward to “ensure all who have served are honored with the dignity they have earned.”

Brown would replace Matthew Quinn, who was undersecretary for memorial affairs from 2021 to 2024. Ronald Walters has served as acting undersecretary after Quinn’s departure. The undersecretary also provides oversight of the Veterans Legacy Memorial Project that enables veterans to document and record their memories of military service.

When Trump announced Brown’s nomination, the president wrote on social media that “Sam will now continue his service to our great nation at the VA, where he will work tirelessly to ensure we put America’s veterans first, and remember all who served.”

Brown is a recipient of a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star who admits he held out hope to return to the military even after suffering severe burns and losing part of his hand in the attack in Kandahar.

“On Sept. 4, 2008, a bomb set by the Taliban detonated under my armored vehicle. I found myself burning alive for nearly a minute. It should have been the end of my life. Instead, it was the beginning,” Brown wrote in Cavalry Chapel Magazine.

His unit was responding to another Army unit that had been ambushed.

“Just as we entered the engagement area, everything went silent. I felt my body sink into my seat. I saw a bright, brilliant flash of orange. It filled the vehicle, and I knew that we had hit a roadside bomb,” he wrote.

Thirty percent of his body was burned in the attack. Brown had a long recovery that required more than 30 surgeries. He was medically retired from the military in 2011 after five years of service.

Army Capt. Sam Brown stands with his wife, Capt. Amy (Larsen) Brown, inside Camp Victory’s Al Faw Palace in 2010. Brown suffered severe burns after being struck by an improvised explosive device in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2008. Brown is President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next undersecretary for memorial affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs. ( Staff Sgt. Lindsey Kibler )

In 2009, he married Amy Larsen, an Army first lieutenant he met during treatment for his injuries. She was a dietitian who worked in the burn center at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

Brown served in the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Cavazos, Texas.

He said it took some time for him to accept that his injuries would keep him from returning to military service after the bandages were taken off. “I felt like a leader without anyone to lead, and a servant without anyone to serve,” he recalled in the magazine story.

As a civilian, he sought other ways to give back and to help other combat-wounded veterans.

Brown founded a company that provides medication to veterans whose government benefits do not cover the treatments they need.

In 2022 and 2024, Brown made unsuccessful bids as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nevada.

“There’s nobody who gave up so much for his country,” Trump said when he endorsed the candidate in 2024.

In 2022, Brown was named chairman of the Nevada Faith and Freedom Coalition, a state chapter of the national nonprofit political organization, which supports criminal justice reform and combatting human trafficking, among other issues. Created by Christian Coalition founder Jack Reed, the Faith and Freedom Coalition engages 32 million evangelical Christians and Catholics, according to the organization’s website.