Jordan Simal

Jordan Simal is a 28-year-old Navy veteran and graduate from James Madison University’s School of Media Arts and Design.

From 2014-2018, Simal served as an Aviation Boatswains Mate (Handler) onboard the USS Nimitz stationed just outside Seattle, Washington, at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard where he was honorably discharged shortly after returning overseas from CVN-68’s 2017 deployment. From there, Simal moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he excelled in journalism at JMU and served as a reporter for three years at The Breeze and Breeze TV — the university’s historic newspaper and flagship weekly television broadcast. In his final year at the school, he served as Breeze TV’s lead sports anchor.

After college, Simal became a reporter for The News Virginian — a local newspaper based out of Waynesboro, Virginia — where he covered everything from local news to politics to features in the city and surrounding communities from May 2021 to early January 2022.

Simal has a loving family back home in the rural community of King William, Virginia, which is composed of his mother, Melissa, his father, Frank, and his five younger siblings. He’s a diehard Chicago sports fan, loves America, cornhole and college football on Saturdays, and is excited to be the newest addition to the WDEF-12 news team.