SGT Daulton Leonard

Every anniversary of Penn Tactical Solutions carries two things at once - the pride of what we have built, and the weight of who we lost before we could build it together.

Daulton G. Leonard was born in Upland, PA on March 3, 1994. He grew up to become a Pennsylvania National Guardsman, EMT, and ER Technician at Pennsylvania Hospital - a man who chose service in every direction his life took. Before Penn Tactical Solutions, he was already teaching, already pouring that same energy and passion into preparing others. We saw it firsthand and we wanted it in our corner.

Penn Tactical Solutions was born in a bar over a few drinks with Daulton. It is not quite the Tun Tavern, but it is Philadelphia, and that feels right. He was there at the very beginning - not just present, but foundational. He helped build what PTS is from the ground up, before there was a curriculum, before there was a first class, before there was anything to show for it except a vision and a team willing to see it through.

Sadly, Daulton would never teach that first class. He passed before PTS ran its first course. That absence has never left us. On every range day, in every classroom, in every student who walks out more prepared than they walked in, there is a version of what Daulton would have brought to that room. The knowledge, the humor, the passion, the unguarded joy he put into everything - our students never got to experience it directly, and that is one of our deepest regrets.

On the outside, Daulton was a beacon. He was the kind of person who made a room better by being in it. His smile, his jokes, his spirit - they were not a performance. That was just who he was.

On February 5, 2020, we lost a brother, a teammate, a husband, and a father. He was 25 years old. His absence is still felt every day. The space he filled can never truly be replaced.

You are missed. You are remembered. You are part of Penn Tactical Solutions forever.