[quote=@Wayward]
I mean we're not supposed to have much in terms of memories to start off with anyways. 

I've kinda of leaned into memories of his time in the service being the key memories to his power. It'd take some doing to re-imagine him another way. 
[/quote]

Will having a few ideas help make this process easier? The closest ones I can think of that might offer the same link to some kind of traumatic event are: A survivor of a natural disaster (survival skills), a former gang member who joined it to survive on the streets (not military but has some experience defending himself/herself to a small degree), a former paramedic (faced a lot of death,similar to your previous character's time in the service), victim of some kind of crime. Those are what I can come up with. I hope it helps a little, that way you don't have to get rid of all your ideas :)!