Task & Purpose Radio: The Warzone

A lot has been going on this week from Zach getting his first tattoo, a Marine Major proposes micro-dosing LSD, and we interview Josh Tyler from Savage Gentlemen.    Use Code TP for 10% off at BenShot.com.

Rory Hamill lost his leg while serving in the Marines, but it's hardly defined him.  "Self-maintenance is continual. There’s no band-aid solution to what you’re going through. You must learn, evolve, and adapt to it. Use your circumstances to help others, and you’ll find that you’re actually helping yourself. No obstacle is impassable; By Endurance, We Conquer. "⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ -Rory Hamill

Ryan Manion serves as the President of the Travis Manion Foundation; An VSO formed in memory of her brother who was killed in Iraq. Ryan tells us the incredible journey in her life that went from running her own retail stores to becoming President of her families foundation. 

Jack Mandaville sits down to discuss the ever-growing suicide epidemic, getting shot at boot camp, and Drunken Debriefs. 

Sergeant First Class Michael “Rod” Rodriguez is a retired Special Forces Green Beret with nine deployments, from his first in Somalia with 10th Mountain Division to his last in Afghanistan with 7th Special Forces Group.  His last assignment was as a Sniper Instructor at Fort Bragg (Range 37) where he was medically retired after 21 years of continuous service for numerous injuries he received while in service to our great nation. Rod joins Task & Purpose to discuss the current issues facing the Special Forces Community. From the the murder of a Green Beret in Mali, to drug smuggling, and a second murder in Iraq; It's time to begin asking what is going wrong culturally and how we can address it.

Marty Skovlund Jr. joins the podcast to discuss everything from Gillette's latest commercial, to the Covington Catholic students, to dropping his trousers on a live stream.  Follow us on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/taskandpurposeradio/

Griff, CEO and Founder of Combat Flip Flops, joins us to talk about his newest project, Pete Davidson, and more. 

This month Canada passed historical legislation not only legalizing marijuana for the country, but also the Canadian military. Now, as Americans we need to ask if we'll ever follow suit.

For those of us that joined the ranks of the U.S. military during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, we expected to be deployed overseas. Regardless of our reasons, most were bonded through the common ground of deployment.  The current generation of war fighters are struggling to find their purpose as they train for a war that they will most likely never experience. 

A fear is slowly washing over the veteran space as we begin to notice and fear the bro-vet. But what is a bro-vet? Has anyone really defined it and is it that terrible? 

On a special episode of The Warzone, Patrick and Adam sit down with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson to talk about the Navy's new branding campaign, readiness, sky penis, and more.

On the eve of the Army-Navy Game, the Warzone crew breaks down the odds and places a high-stakes bet on the outcome. Anyone for sky-penis tats?

The gang is joined by Ukrainian-born writer and journalist (and possible spy) Natalia Antonova, who recently returned to New York after years living and reporting in Moscow. Seeing an opportunity to discuss real, relevant issues, Pat and Adam scrap their original plan (an entire episode devoted to farts) and delve into geopolitics. Is Vladimir Putin a friend or foe? Man or meme? Natalia has the answers.

2017 has been a crazy year with a lot of changes, firsts, and new beginnings. However, one lone Navy pilot takes the cake with his beautiful sky art. People said it couldn't be done and it brought tears of joy and relief to Patrick and Linehan. Of course, Weinstein had to ruin it. 

We sent our good friend Marty "The Party" Skovlund Jr. to Afghanistan to get us that journo scoop. Not letting us down at all, Marty partied with the new Afghan Commando's that are taking the fight to the Taliban.

Learning that Devin Kelley served in the Air Force was a blow to veterans everywhere but the military did its job kicking him out, but why did they fail to report him to the FBI?

Jack Mandaville and Adam Weinstein join The Warzone as permanent hosts and help discuss the complicated story of Bowe Bergdahl. We want to know, what three items would you take?

We're taking the podcast in a new direction as we talk about recruiting, the state of the military, and Adam's piece on the struggles that recruiters face.

Tom Cruise stars in this intense film telling the story of Ron Kovic, a Vietnam war amputee turned activist. Unlike most war films, this covers his time home dealing with PTSD, civilians, and questions about his service. 

Per request of the listeners, the team sat down and watched the Netflix original Sand Castle. There wasn't too much punch to the story to make it stand out in anyone's mind however, they did have awesome technical advisors on set.

Aaron Gell joins the group while Adam is out doing journo things and finds it difficult to apply his usual movie hate as he did to Dunkirk. Everyone really just wants to know, how is for Hans Lander in Nantucket? 

Clint Eastwood knows how to make a war film and American Sniper is a testament to that. However, there are issues with the story line that have caused people to look deeper into Chris Kyle and maybe it's time to start making war movies about fictional characters.

Requested by one of our listeners in the review section on iTunes, Stop Loss was promised to be the worst war movie of our time. Adam and Pat jump into the deep end of suck along with Matt as they dissect this beautifully terrible film.  

Beasts of No Nation is a powerful story about child soldiers fighting in Africa. Following Agu, a young boy who was forced to flee his village, you can get a sense of the absolute madness drawing children into these barbaric fights. 

We decided to mix it up and finally bring the class Nick Cage into the mix. Released in 2005 the film is loosely based off of Viktor Bout who said that he didn't like the movie. Well, the guys disagree and put together a fresh new rating system.  Next week: Beasts of No Nation.

Joined by Jack Mandaville, the team sits down to talk about the stolen valor comedy Tropic Thunder. Jack has experience working in Hollywood on the set of Range 15 and provides a lot of valuable insight. As he describes what it takes to make a film, everyone can feel the weight of their packs, the sweat dripping off their brow, and the tension of a military deployment. Also, he breaks down how to make it in Hollywood these days and it’s pretty much what you expect.

For the first time, everyone decides to see a movie in theaters since the reactions to Dunkirk have been so strong. WARNING: There are spoilers in this episode. 

Directed by David Russel, Three Kings is a star packed 1999 film starring Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg, and George Clooney. Met with high critical acclaim, Adam and the team seem to agree. 

The Warzone is joined by guest host Jack Mandaville as they discuss the 1981 film, TAPs. Jack and Patrick talk about military high schools, Tom Cruise's teenage buttox, and a simpler time. 

This week on Task & Purpose Radio The Warzone, the team sits down to talk about the 1981 hit, Stripes. Starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and John Candy follow loser John Winger as he drags his best friend (Ramis) along with him into the Army. Both Adam and Patrick feel that Bill Murray is the most handsome man while Lauren has other thoughts on the movie.

This week on Task & Purpose Radio’s The Warzone, Patrick, Adam, and Matt ask coworkers to consider the impact of the beloved action-camp blockbuster Starship Troopers. The film, which debuted to poor reviews in 1997 and is now widely considered a cult masterpiece, chronicles the human race’s galactic struggle against a belligerent civilization of alien bugs. Directed by Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Showgirls) and based on Robert A. Heinlein’s beloved 1959 book, the film utilizes dark comedy and fascist imagery to highlight the dangers of the military-industrial complex. However, as our intrepid hosts discover, that’s not why Starship Troopers holds a special place in the hearts of so many Americans who came of age in the 1990s.

This week on Task & Purpose Radio: The Warzone, Patrick, Adam, and Matt review the 1987 Stanley Kubrick classic Full Metal Jacket. The film is widely considered one of the most iconic war movies depicting the conflict in Vietnam. However, some people feel that the story line is too chopped up, confusing the story lines. 

This week on Task & Purpose Radio: The Warzone, Patrick, Adam, and Lauren review the 2015 Canadian war film Hyena Road. While Canada does a lot of things right ― health care, maple syrup, coffee shops ― war films does not appear to be one of them. The movie, set in Kandahar, Afghanistan, exhibits every war stereotype imaginable and then some. However, it's still worth watching just for the epic firefight at the end and some of the goriest battle scenes to hit the big screen.

This week, Patrick and Adam are joined by Lauren Katzenberg to review War Machine, a 2017 satirical war film directed and written by David Michod and based on the nonfiction book The Operators by Michael Hastings. The film is a fictionalized re-telling of the events that led to the firing of General Stanley McChrystal.

Adam Linehan and Patrick Baker sit down to discuss the Hurt Locker. Receiving multiple awards, the Hurt Locker is considered to be one of the most iconic films depicting the Iraq War. Both Patrick and Adam served in the military, had never seen the film prior to the episode, and express their thoughts.

Once a week we sit down and choose a new war movie to talk about.

This week on Task & Purpose Radio, the crew is joined by Kristofer Goldsmith, Army vet and assistant director of policy and government relations for Vietnam Veterans of America, to discuss how service members get pushed out of the military with less than honorable discharges due to PTSD or traumatic brain injury.

The crew discusses what officers and enlisted drink at every stage of their careers. Everyone shares some of their best drinking in the military stories. Also, Weirick has an update on the Bowe Bergdahl trial.

Lauren, Weirick, and Nate examine military regulations, race, and double standards following a controversy over a photo taken by 16 black female cadets from West Point. Also, Lauren interviews John Lee Dumas about how veterans make natural entrepreneurs. And Weirick reads more comments from Task & Purpose readers.

Task & Purpose Radio talks Donald Trump and how he favors with the military and veterans community. Weirick is out this week after he was injured falling off a horse (no, really, that happened), so Task & Purpose’s Editor-in-Chief Brian Adam Jones joins the podcast.

The crew discusses the increase in troop numbers in Iraq and Syria and why the White House keeps denying, or at least refusing to say outright, that we have boots on the ground in combat. Nate and Weirick take Task & Purpose’s quiz, “Quiz: Which Of These 7 Infantry Guys Are You?” Lauren interviews the podcast’s producer Army vet Karl Morand. And Weirick reads comments from our loyal fan base.

Nate, Weirick, and Lauren discuss the final episode of Serial and rate its overall ability to tell the story of Bergdahl and the war in Afghanistan. They each try to answer the question: What should we actually blame Bowe Bergdahl for?

Lauren, Weirick, and Nate discuss the revelation by Serial that the Army never officially investigated whether any service members were killed in the search efforts to recover Bergdahl after he walked off base. Also, Weirick talks about his in-person encounter with the women of Serial.

Producer Karl Morand discusses stolen valor with Weirick and Nate and whether the rise of stolen valor videos is helpful or hurtful to the veterans community.

Lauren, Nate, and Weirick discuss the latest episode of Serial, which covered the Bergdahl prisoner swap, Taliban reconciliation talks, the question of which would take the lead in conflict: the military or diplomacy.

Lauren, Weirick, and Nate discuss whether Bergdahl should have been let into the Army in the first place after washing out of Coast Guard basic training. They also debate Sarah Koenig’s “Come to Jesus” moment in the latest episode of Serial. Also, Weirick explains the latest on Bowe Bergdahl’s court-martial, which has come to a full stop.

This week on Task & Purpose Radio, Lauren Katzenberg interviews former Army Spc. Cody Full, who was members of the same three-man fire team before Bergdahl disappeared. Lauren, Nate Bethea, and James Weirick discuss a new report released by the Government Accountability Office on hazing in the military. Weirick reads some real messages that Task & Purpose has received to its Facebook page

Nate and Weirick rip into statements made by Bergdahl on the most recent episode of Serial about what it means to be a soldier in Afghanistan in 2009.

Following the latest episode of Serial — which examines hostage recovery efforts at the Pentagon in the years following Bowe Bergdahl’s disappearance — Lauren Katzenberg, Nate Bethea, and James Weirick discuss their personal experiences with government dysfunction and bureaucracy.

Nate Bethea reached out and spoke with Mike Waltz, a former Special Forces commander who led seven Green Beret teams and one Navy SEAL team during recovery operations in Afghanistan looking for Bergdahl. Previously Waltz worked as a policy advisor in the White House and Pentagon and is the author of the book, “Warrior Diplomat: A Green Beret's Battles from Washington to Afghanistan.

In a recent interview on The New Yorker Radio Hour, Sarah refused to discuss the terms under which Bowe Bergdahl’s agreed to talk with Mark Boal. Does the audience deserve more transparency? Also, the show discusses the latest episode of Serial and how Bergdahl’s ability to survive five years of captivity under the Taliban will impact his court-martial.