SUNRISE, Fla. — For everyone old enough to remember Sept. 11, there is a moment frozen in time — where they were, what they were doing and the instant they learned the World Trade Center had been struck.

Mercy Ameyaw Aston was 17 years old when she had that moment.

And she immediately knew what she wanted to do next.

Serve.

Aston enlisted in the U.S. Army, beginning a military career that would span 17 years, take her into combat in Afghanistan and NATO missions across Europe and eventually place her in leadership roles supporting some of the military’s most demanding operations.

Nearly a quarter-century after the moment that first called her to service, Aston is still answering it.

Only now, she does it without the uniform.

At PBR Teams in Sunrise, Florida, Aston was recognized with the Horse Soldier Bourbon Be Cowboy Award, honoring an Army veteran whose commitment to serving others did not end when her military career did.

The Be Cowboy Award recognizes everyday heroes who embody the values long associated with the cowboy way of life — courage, integrity, resilience and a willingness to put others before themselves.

Aston has spent most of her life doing exactly that.

She rose through the Army to become a highly decorated senior non-commissioned officer, specializing in Special Operations Forces intelligence targeting and signal network operations.

Her service included multiple combat deployments to Afghanistan along with NATO missions in Germany and Bosnia.

In her final military assignment, Aston served as an Acting First Sergeant and Platoon Sergeant in a selectively manned joint airborne unit capable of deploying worldwide within 18 hours in support of contingencies ranging from major combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The unit directly supported Special Operations and geographic combatant commands.

Aston earned numerous honors during her career, including two Bronze Star Medals and a Meritorious Service Medal.

But service came at a cost.

Combat-related injuries ultimately forced Aston to retire from the Army in 2019.

The uniform came off.

The mission did not retire with it.

Aston transitioned into financial services, beginning her civilian career at JPMorgan Chase in Global Financial Crimes before joining Raymond James.

She went on to hold leadership positions across the firm’s Anti-Money Laundering, Internal Audit and Fixed Income Capital Markets organizations and today serves as Director of Institutional Trading, working between Raymond James’ RIA Partnership Group, Municipal Trading Desk and broker-dealers around the country.

But some of her most meaningful work at Raymond James has little to do with financial markets.

Aston is a founding leader and National Co-Chair of Valor, the company’s Veterans Inclusion Network.

Through Valor, she has helped create connections among veterans, military families, corporations, nonprofit organizations and communities while playing a key role in raising more than $1.2 million for organizations supporting veterans and first responders.

For Aston, the mission is personal.

She knows what it means to prepare yourself mentally for combat.

She also knows what it means to come home afterward.

“As a combat veteran, I am very familiar with the mindset it takes to get through deployments, become the person you need to be to survive while you are over there, and make it back home,” Aston has said.

But returning home does not always mean leaving the war behind.

“When you finally make it home, things are no longer the same and no longer make sense,” she said. “The world has moved on while we stood still in the foreign lands we were sent to.”

That understanding has fueled Aston’s continued work with organizations supporting veterans and first responders, including Next18, which uses recreational therapy, peer support and clinical resources to help individuals working through trauma.

Her service extends far beyond one organization.

Aston currently serves as President of the Board of the Florida Municipal Bond Club and Chief of Operations for Fox Force Foundation while also holding advisory or board positions supporting Ronald McDonald House Charities, Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital Philanthropy Council and Next18.

In 2025, that lifetime of leadership and service earned Aston the Patriot Fund’s American Patriot of the Year Award for the Greater Tampa area, recognizing individuals whose careers reflect exceptional leadership and dedication to military veterans and their families.

Still, Aston has never viewed the work as belonging to her alone.

That was part of what made her recognition inside the PBR arena so meaningful.

The award was presented by Horse Soldier Bourbon co-founder Will Summers, a retired Green Beret who participated in the historic horseback mission in Northern Afghanistan as part of America’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Horse Soldier Bourbon was founded by members of the U.S. Army Special Forces team whose response to the Sept. 11 attacks became one of the most celebrated missions of the early war in Afghanistan.

A little more than a month after the attacks that inspired Aston to enlist, members of Operational Detachment Alpha 595 entered Afghanistan and fought alongside Northern Alliance forces, famously conducting portions of the mission on horseback.

More than two decades later, those paths met inside a PBR arena.

A soldier inspired to serve because of Sept. 11 stood alongside men who had been among the first sent to answer it.

For Aston, the moment represented something larger than another award.

“The Be Cowboy Award isn’t handed out for a title, a uniform, or a résumé,” she wrote following the presentation. “It recognizes people who live an authentic American code every day: courage, integrity, and an unwavering dedication to others — on and off the clock.”

She has worn plenty of titles.

Soldier. Acting First Sergeant. Platoon Sergeant. Veteran. Director. Advocate. Wife.

But Aston said there is one description that has always mattered more.

Someone who shows up for others.

That is what she did at 17 when she chose to serve her country.

It is what she continued doing through 17 years in the Army.

And it is what she has continued doing for veterans and first responders long after her final deployment ended.

You do not have to wear the hat, the buckle or the boots to live by the cowboy code.

Mercy Aston spent nearly two decades wearing a different uniform.

But make no mistake.

She is a cowboy.

From all of us at PBR and Horse Soldier Bourbon, thank you, Mercy Aston, for reminding us what it truly means to Be Cowboy.

Stay tuned after each PBR Teams event of the 2026 season as we continue to spotlight the local heroes and changemakers who inspire us.

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media