Podcasts about global war on terror

***Adnan Husain invited me to join him and Rabab Abdulhadi for livestream conversation on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 WTC attacks. This is first hour! We continued for another hour plus! To listen to the entire episode subscribe on Patreon or watch the episode on the EIAP YouTube channel***   Friday is the 25th Anniversary of 9/11/2001 and all that followed from the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon: the launching of the "Global War on Terrorism", the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the drone campaigns across Africa and Asia, the securitization and surveillance regimes threatening political rights, the globalizing of paradigms of Islamophobia. What do imperial/imperialist commemorations "forget" as if history began on 9/11/2001 or 10/7/2023? Some talk about the GWOT as history, but has it ended? The anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect upon the last twenty five years and the contrasts and continuities with contemporary conditions. Join me, Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi (San Francisco State University) and Sina Rahmani (East is a Podcast). Bring your comments and questions! Follow Sina's channel The East is a Podcast: https://youtube.com/@theeastisapodcast This discussion will also air on the YouTube channels the Arab and Middle East Ethnicities and Diasporas (AMED) led by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi: https://youtube.com/amedsfsu2018 You can follow Teaching Palestine, AMED, and Dr. Abdulhadi on social media: Facebook: AMED STUDIES SFSU https://www.facebook.com/p/AMED-Studies-at-SFSU-100064100371121/ Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi: https://www.facebook.com/rabab.abdulhadi/ Instagram: @amedstudies https://www.instagram.com/amedstudies/ @teachingpalestine https://www.instagram.com/teachingpalestine/ @abdulhadirabab https://www.instagram.com/abdulhadirabab/?hl=en Twitter: @amedstudies https://twitter.com/amedstudies?s=21 @teachingpal https://twitter.com/teachingpal?s=11 @abdulhadirabab https://twitter.com/abdulhadirabab?s=11 Please support our fundraiser for students in Gaza taking my online course, Guerrilla History: Anticolonial Resistance History, Theory, Practice, for materials and supplies for their final history research projects and the costs to support an in-person version of the course starting in September for displaced students from Gaza on the campus of the American University in Cairo: https://chuffed.org/project/174168-support-a-third-round-of-spocs-for-gaza Support the show on Patreon or Substack, if you can (and get early access to episodes)! www.patreon.com/adnanhusain https://www.adnanahusain.substack.com Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share! Also available as audio podcast on all major platforms: https://adnanhusainshow.libsyn.com X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com www.adnanhusain.org

Speaking on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we talk to Jacobin Germany's Loren Balhorn about the recent election results in Saxony-Anhalt (and the rise of the AfD more broadly) and the increasing militarization of German society—as well as the linkages between the two. We also discuss Die Linke's response to the rise of the right, what's going on with BSW, Germany's shifting relations with the US, and the ongoing echoes of the Global War on Terror in German politics and culture.Read Loren's piece on Die Linke here: https://jacobin.com/2026/06/germany-die-linke-congress-strategyRead Jacobin's interview with Ines Schwerdtner here: https://jacobin.com/2026/03/die-linke-schwerdtner-class-afdSupport us on Patreon here: patreon.com/spassbremse

OTFC is gone. That was not a small supply hiccup. It punched a hole in the old TCCC pain plan.George Barbee, a PA and co-author of TCCC Guideline Change 25-03, walks Dennis through why the committee rebuilt battlefield analgesia instead of patching the old triple-option chart.They screened 56 analgesics. They built an objective matrix. They landed on suzetrigine: non-opioid, mentation-sparing, slow onset, long duration — a drug that can keep a still-fighting casualty in the fight and then carry them into prolonged care.The bigger shift is the fork in the road. Not “mild / moderate / severe” as four overlapping options. Can they stay in the fight, or not? Functioning casualties get a non-sedating pack. Non-functioning casualties get a shock-agnostic pathway so you are not stacking drugs blindly down the continuum.Ketamine is still the drug you reach for when you have almost no information. Nystagmus is not the goal. It is the “you gave too much, back off” line. Option 4 sedation is being pulled out of TCCC and written into PCC, where it belongs.If you still teach OTFC, still dose to shaking eyes, or still treat every casualty like they need a narcotic, this episode is the update.Read the change paper @ ⁠www.prolongedfieldcare.org⁠or ⁠https://jsomonline.org/⁠Follow @prolonged_field_careTop 5 takeawaysThe change was forced. OTFC disappeared, GWOT safety data said the old plan was too loose, and LSCO needs mission-capable pain control plus a safer path for people who cannot stay in the fight.Suzetrigine is the new stay-in-the-fight drug. Non-opioid. Cognition and blood pressure mostly spared. About a 2-hour onset, long duration. Pair it with meloxicam and acetaminophen for the functioning casualty. Muscle spasm in 1–10% is not a seizure and does not get benzos.Stop using four overlapping “options.” Define pain with the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale. Rough cut: 1–6 can often still function and self-declare. 9–10, polytrauma, multi-amp — they are out of the fight. Medics already know this on sight. The guideline finally says it.Ketamine stays, but the endpoint is not nystagmus. If you have almost no information, ketamine is still the safest narcotic start. Reduction of pain means the casualty and the medic can both manage the situation. Nystagmus means you crossed the line. Fixed-dose ketamine in a bleeding patient can get weird as volume drops — not usually lethal, still a problem.Option 4 is leaving TCCC. Heavy sedation and procedural endpoints are being moved into the PCC update. TCCC keeps the systematic, stack-aware, evidence-based path so the next provider is not surprised by what you already gave.Chapters00:00 — Disclaimer and open00:23 — Dennis and George: who wrote the change02:10 — If it ain't broke, why touch analgesia?02:56 — We lost OTFC03:11 — Safety, LSCO, and early pain vs PTSD04:27 — Mission-capable control and a shock-agnostic path05:48 — How suzetrigine beat 56 other drugs09:38 — Why this non-opioid survived the matrix11:33 — Spasm vs seizure: do not reach for benzos13:33 — Stay in the fight vs cannot14:20 — The old “triple option” was actually four15:06 — Defining pain with the DVPRS16:10 — The stay-in-the-fight pack: suzetrigine, meloxicam, Tylenol17:20 — What “reduction of pain” actually means18:15 — Esketamine: more analgesia, fewer side effects27:38 — If you only get one narcotic, start ketamine28:56 — Esketamine, IN 28 mg, and the 4PANE study30:15 — IV, IO, IM, IN: why they kept the nose33:07 — Pain control vs nystagmus35:26 — Option 4 is moving to PCC36:41 — Chest tubes, crics, and the sedation gap37:54 — Next: backing the PCC analgesia update38:48 — Read JSOM Change 25-03 and close

Speaking on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we talk to Jacobin Germany's Loren Balhorn about the recent election results in Saxony-Anhalt (and the rise of the AfD more broadly) and the increasing militarization of German society—as well as the linkages between the two. We also discuss Die Linke's response to the rise of the right, what's going on with BSW, Germany's shifting relations with the US, and the ongoing echoes of the Global War on Terror in German politics and culture.Read Loren's piece on Die Linke here: https://jacobin.com/2026/06/germany-die-linke-congress-strategyRead Jacobin's interview with Ines Schwerdtner here: https://jacobin.com/2026/03/die-linke-schwerdtner-class-afdSupport us on Patreon here: patreon.com/spassbremse

Subscribe today to skip ads and get all of our bonus content!Twenty-five years ago, on September 11, 2001, nineteen al-Qaeda hijackers working for Osama bin Laden killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington, and a Pennsylvania field. The U.S. responded by launching a poorly defined war across the Greater Middle East that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the displacement of millions more, and the destruction of U.S. credibility and prestige. The war would be defined by the failures that flowed from long-term occupations and a preemptive invasion, the use of torture, and official lies.Did the GWOT — the global war on terrorism — accomplish anything? Is it over? In this episode, Peter Bergen discusses his new book, All the Presidents' Wars, which covers the past quarter-century.Peter Bergen is a journalist, documentary producer, and vice president for global studies at New America, a D.C. think tank. He's a national security analyst for CNN and professor of practice at Arizona State University.Further listening:Who Was Osama bin Laden? (podcast w/ Peter Bergen) Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Bush Center commemorated the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with an Engage at the Bush Center program presented by NexPoint. The evening opened with a moderated conversation between General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Deputy National Security Advisor J.D. Crouch. Their discussion highlighted the courage and accomplishments of the United States military in the Global War on Terror.Following that moderated discussion, 43rd President of the United States, President George W. Bush, and 66th United States Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice shared their reflections on 9/11.The program also featured voices from the post-9/11 generation of veterans, including Jared Lyon and Melissa Stockwell, whose service and continued contributions embody the resilience, courage, and unity that emerged from the tragedy. Together, these conversations offered a thoughtful reflection on a defining moment in American history.

Send us Fan MailAaron and Peaches are back in the team room talking through the rumors around Pete Hegseth, the future of the Secretary of Defense/Secretary of War role, and what all this political turbulence actually means for people thinking about joining the military.This is not a “pick your team and scream online” episode. The point is bigger than one administration, one secretary, or one headline. If you serve long enough, administrations change. Secretaries change. Policies change. Generals get fired, retire, or quietly disappear into the defense-industrial mist. If your entire decision to serve is based on liking or disliking the current political lineup, you are thinking too small.Aaron lays out the Hegseth ledger: if you stripped the name off and only looked at the policies and outputs, there are real wins. But the job is not cable news. The job is not dunking on people online. The job is leading a massive organization, communicating clearly, and not turning every press moment into a viral clip.Peaches and Aaron also get into the tension between cleaning house and creating chaos. Maybe some fired leaders needed to go. Maybe some people speaking out have legitimate concerns. Maybe both can be true. That is the uncomfortable part nobody online wants to hold in their head at the same time.Then the episode detours into GWOT lessons, senior leaders finally pushing back, Afghanistan moral insanity, General Mattis, Dan Driscoll, Tom Tillis, midterm timing, and why big changes usually happen when the public is distracted by football, holidays, and food comas.Also included: Canada slander, Fox News habits, workout optics, fake-weight internet detectives, dog-and-pony shows, General Welsh in Djibouti, BG almost getting Aaron with shenanigans, and the eternal truth that if you want to join, stop waiting for perfect politics and go serve.Links:OnesReady.comOperatorTrainingSummit.comChapters:00:00 - Ones Ready Intro01:04 - ATACLETE and Partner Discounts02:10 - Modern Athlete Strength Systems03:15 - Aaron and Peaches in the Team Room03:42 - Why We're Talking About SecDef Rumors04:16 - Trump One, Biden, and Trump Two Context05:05 - Hegseth Rumors Start Flying06:30 - Looking at the Hegseth Ledger07:15 - Policy Wins vs. Optics Problems08:32 - Do Not Base Service on Politics09:15 - Dan Driscoll and Generational Damage Claims10:04 - Fired Generals and Competing Narratives11:31 - When Multiple Leaders Point at the Same Problem12:31 - Did GWOT Teach Senior Leaders to Push Back?13:57 - Iraq, Afghanistan, and Failed Culture Exporting15:05 - Afghanistan Moral Reality Check17:05 - Charles Martland and the Cost of Doing Right18:29 - Back to the Hegseth Question19:36 - Mattis, Letters, Books, and Public Exits20:25 - Why Driscoll's Opinion Carries Weight21:17 - Midterms and Political Timing22:24 - When Would a Replacement Actually Happen?22:48 - The Job Is Not Internet Sparring23:36 - Canada, Foreign Affairs, and Staying in Your Lane24:30 - Negative Transfer From Cable News25:35 - Funny Does Not Mean Useful26:25 - Can Hegseth Course Correct?26:45 - What Better Messaging Could Look Like27:38 - Workout Videos and Bad Optics28:03 - The Pull-Up Clip Context29:04 - How to Become a Legend With the Troops30:08 - Matt Lohmeier Gets It Right30:57 - Stop Making Dog-and-Pony Shows31:26 - General Welsh in Djibouti33:00 - BG Almost Got Aaron34:00 - What Happens After Midterms?34:34 - OTS and Ones Ready Wrap-Up35:06 - Special Warfare Selection OutroSupport the showJoin this channel to get access to perks: HEREBuzzsprout Subscription page:  HERERegister for our Operator Training Summit:  OperatorTrainingSummit.comFind an Air Force Recruiter: AirForce.comCollabs:Ones Ready - OnesReady.com 18A Fitness - Promo Code:  ONESREADY ATACLete - Follow the URL (no promo code):  ATACLeteDanger Close Apparel - Promo Code:  ONESREADYDFND Apparel...

Medical logistics was an afterthought for a lot of us in GWOT. You submitted a request, something showed up, and everyone joked that the warehouse never read the order. That model does not survive large-scale combat operations.In this episode, Dennis sits down with Jesse Bashel, a medical logistician and acquisitionist, to walk through how SOF medical supply is supposed to work—pre-deployment, on deployment, and after the first 15 days. They cover NSNs versus product names, automatic in-lieu substitutions, Theater Lead Agents for Medical Materiel (T-LAM), the shift from OCO “easy button” money to MFP-2 vs MFP-11 rules, statements of requirement, and why most medical items are service-common (GCC problem) while a tiny slice of SOF-peculiar items stay on MFP-11.The conversation then turns practical: MedLog personnel usually have zero clinical training. How do you teach them why a 6.0 tube matters for a surgical airway instead of an 8.5 ET tube? How do you get logisticians into Ridge Healer, unit training, and field exercises so they stop treating the property book as the mission? And why, in LSCO, logistics itself starts looking like a combat MOS—because the side that can feed, fuel, and bandage longer usually wins.If you are an 18 Delta, flight medic, battalion PA, group surgeon, this one is for you.Key takeawaysOrder by NSN (or full product name + manufacturer), not the nickname you use in the aid bag. Vendors should put NSN placards on tables at SOMA.The system will auto-accept “in-lieu” substitutes unless the logistician blocks it. That is how you get Halo chest seals when you wanted HyFin.SOF units are required to deploy with 15 days of supply. After that, the Geographic Combatant Command (usually MFP-2 / service-common) is supposed to resource the rest; SOCOM MFP-11 covers only SOF-peculiar items (certain CASVAC sets, freeze-dried plasma in some cases, specific antivenoms, etc.).A Statement of Requirements (class I–IX) should be built jointly by the team and the TSOC 180–270 days out when possible, validated by surgeon + J4, then sent to the GCC for a service lead to resource.Most medical products are MFP-2. Do not default everything to “SOCOM will pay.”Close the gap: five-minute education sessions when medics hit the cage, bring logisticians forward on training events, and treat enablers like part of the team instead of a battle squire.In LSCO, supply lines will be targeted. Logistics personnel need to be trained and treated as if they will be on the battlefield—not just in an office.Visit prolongedfieldcare.org, follow @prolonged_field_care, and subscribe so you stay on the bleeding edge of combat medicine.Chapters02:02 – Pre-deployment ordering done right: NSNs vs product names and why you get the wrong chest seal04:24 – In-lieu / substitute items and how to stop the system from auto-accepting them05:24 – Theater Lead Agent for Medical Materiel (T-LAM) catalogs and how they get built07:09 – MFP-2 (service common / common user) vs MFP-11 (SOF peculiar)08:27 – Joint pub requirement: SOF deploys with 15 days of supply10:07 – Who pays for days 16–60? GCC vs US SOCOM headquarters12:10 – Statement of Requirements process: team + TSOC + GCC J4 validation15:58 – MedLog has no medical training—how to educate them before they send the wrong tube21:17 – Closing the operator–logistician distance; policy is not always law26:00 – Retaining SOF-enabler talent instead of rotating everyone back to conventional force28:22 – SUBACUS lessons and why enablers must not be a liability forward30:29 – Two LSCO paradigm shifts: SOF as supporting force + logistics as a combat MOS32:08 – Positional warfare, endurance, and targeting supply lines (bullets, batteries, bandages)32:50 – Where to do the work: put a logistician on the DTS for Ridge Healer and big exercises34:25 – Flip side: teach operators the fiscal and appropriation reality so they can advocate overseas

Twenty-five years after 9/11, the Pech Valley represents the war in miniature: outposts meant to shield Afghan villages that instead drew the fighting to their doorsteps, built for reasons nobody manning them could explain. Wesley Morgan spent a decade finding out why. Wesley Morgan is the author of The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley, winner of the 2022 Colby Award. He first embedded in the Pech as a college student in 2010 and later covered the Pentagon for Politico. We discuss… How a timber dispute became the Korengal — one Green Beret team refused the bait, the next took it, and Big Taliban followed The three tribes of the war in the east — conventional forces, Green Berets, and the JSOC task force, each fighting its own war in the same valleys Ten thousand beanie babies and record artillery expenditure — how measures of performance swallowed measures of effectiveness Black Hawk Down, Ghost Recon, and the making of multicam — how Crye sold the camouflage of the elite through video games because it couldn't advertise its Delta contract The death of the embed — Rumsfeld overruling Colin Powell, the 2013 shutdown, and why influencers in the briefing r4om beat reporters in the field Whether the Army learned anything at all — disbanding the Asymmetric Warfare Group, rebuilding short-range air defense from zero, and Ukraine as the excuse to never say "Afghanistan" again Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Antibiotics are not magic. In this episode of the PFC Podcast, Dennis sits down with Ryan to cut through the common myth that “I've given antibiotics, so the wound is protected.” They unpack why vigorous wound care—irrigation, debridement of dead tissue, clean dressings, and early surgical washout—remains the foundation of infection prevention in combat and prolonged field care, while antibiotics only shift the probabilities after the basics are done.Drawing on historical military medicine (pre-antibiotic eras through GWOT), observational data from the TIDOS study, sepsis timing principles, and real-world experience from Ukraine's prolonged timelines, Ryan explains why mortality is a limited endpoint, why more broad-spectrum antibiotics are not the answer in high-resistance environments, and how medics and corpsmen at the point of injury make the biggest difference.Key TakeawaysAntibiotics help only after good wound care; they never replace irrigation, debridement, and clean dressings.Dead or grossly contaminated tissue will not respond to antibiotics no matter how many doses you give.Mortality is a blunt and uncommon endpoint in modern combat trauma—look instead at reduced wound infections, osteomyelitis, reoperations, and amputations.Practical timing for prophylaxis: ideally within 1 hour, at least within 3 hours (extrapolated from sepsis data).Superficial wounds may need wound care alone; deeper or contaminated wounds benefit from antibiotics once cleaned.Shorter courses (roughly 3–5 days) are often sufficient in stable patients without established infection—stop when the benefit is exhausted.In prolonged or delayed-evacuation settings (Ukraine lessons), vigorous bedside wound care outperforms escalating antimicrobials amid rising resistance.Guidelines often assume basic wound care knowledge; that assumption may need to be made more explicit.The medic or corpsman at the point of injury is the decisive factor; higher-echelon care is supportive.Go to ⁠www.prolongedfieldcare.org⁠ for more austere and prolonged field care resources. Follow @prolonged_field_care on Instagram, subscribe on your preferred platform, and stay on the bleeding edge of combat medicine.Chapters00:00 – Intro & Disclaimer00:21 – Welcome and the Core Question: Do Antibiotics Actually Matter?01:18 – “Antibiotics Aren't Magic” – Historical Context and the Penicillin Era02:17 – What Antibiotics Actually Do (and Don't Do) in Infected Wounds03:14 – Wound Care Has the Bigger Impact04:00 – Pre-Antibiotic Military Medicine Lessons05:04 – Why Guidelines Don't Emphasize Wound Care Explicitly06:49 – Fungal Prophylaxis Debate and “Hot Lights and Cold Steel”09:02 – Combat Medicine as Its Own Specialty and the Loss of Institutional Memory13:17 – Why We Don't Have Clear Mortality Data on Prophylactic Antibiotics16:21 – What Antibiotics Actually Prevent (Complications, Not Early Death)18:48 – TIDOS Study, Observational Evidence, and Current Guidelines21:39 – Ukraine Lessons: Prolonged Care, Resistance, and Wound Care Priority24:31 – King for a Day: Would You Change Prehospital Teaching?27:42 – Timing of Antibiotics: 1-Hour Ideal, 3-Hour Reasonable Window30:03 – When Antibiotics Are (and Aren't) Needed – Superficial vs Deep Wounds32:29 – Withdrawing Antibiotics in the Field – Duration Principles34:16 – Final Thoughts: Wound Care First, Antibiotics Second

Abby and Patrick bring a psychoanalytic lens to bear on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As they explain, psychoanalysis offers tools for thinking both about specific political conditions and historical events and for reflecting more generally on the ways dramatic events can function politically and become “history” in the first place. Moreover, psychoanalytic concepts can bring together the perspectives of political economy, libidinal economy, and our own personal experiences to help us navigate overwhelming events and better track what's new, what isn't, what we need to remember, and what we're encouraged to forget. To that end, Abby and Patrick take up psychoanalyst Vamik Volkan's notion of the “chosen trauma,” a model for how episodes of mass trauma can become touchstones for defining group identity, and apply it to the events of 9/11, the “Global War on Terror” that ensued, and their ongoing legacy in our present. Toggling between artifacts of popular culture, military history, journalistic accounts, and more, Abby and Patrick reflect on how American society reacted to the trauma of 9/11; how political elites capitalized on the situation; how ideas of exceptionalism, innocence, vengeance, and even time and causality themselves were reconfigured; and how we're still contending with the cultural and institutional consequences of those processes in the present.Note: It has come to our attention that Dick Cheney is, in fact, currently dead, at least for now.Texts cited include:Patrick Blanchfield and Evan Simko-Bednarski, “Brave Moles and Hungry Ghosts” in The Revealer (September 2016) https://therevealer.org/brave-moles-and-hungry-ghosts-911-memento-mori/Evan Simko-Bednarski, “Memento Mori,” https://www.simkobednarskiphoto.com/memento-moriVamik Volkan, “Transgenerational Transmissions and Chosen Traumas: An Aspect of Large-Group Identity, in Group Analysis (March 2001) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/05333160122077730Andrew Bacevich, America's War for the Greater Middle East (2016)https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/241154/americas-war-for-the-greater-middle-east-by-andrew-j-bacevich/Andrew Bacevich, “What I Learned After the End of History” (2025) https://www.juancole.com/2025/01/learned-after-history.htmlSpencer Ackerman, Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Donald Trump (2022) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622555/reign-of-terror-by-spencer-ackerman/Spencer Ackerman (interviewed by Jordan Uhl) “"Terrorist": How ICE Weaponized 9/11's Scarlet Letter” in The Intercept Briefing https://theintercept.com/2026/02/06/spencer-ackerman-9-11-terrorists-ice/Susan Sontag (et al), “Tuesday and After” in The New Yorker (September 16, 2001) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/09/24/tuesday-and-after-talk-of-the-townJake Tapper and Bill Maher, “Bill Maher: The Salon Interview” (December 2002) https://www.salon.com/2002/12/11/maher_6/The Brown University Watson School of International and Public Affairs' Costs of War Projecthttps://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/Elizabeth Beavers, “Terrorizing Migrants: Five Ways Post 9/11 Legal Precedents Paved the Way for Anti-Immigrant Actions in the United States” https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/paper/terrorizingmigrantsHave you noticed that Freud is back? Got questions about psychoanalysis? Or maybe you've traversed the fantasy and lived to tell the tale? Leave us a voicemail! (646) 450-0847A podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. New episodes on Saturdays. Find us online:http://www.ordinaryunhappiness.comX: @UnhappinessPodInstagram: @OrdinaryUnhappinessPatreon: http://www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessTheme song:Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxOProvided by Fruits Music 

Retired Major Tony Mayne joins the podcast to walk through 12 years in U.S. Special Operations Command, including nine years in the 75th Ranger Regiment's 3rd Battalion, where he took part in the regiment's historic combat parachute assault into Afghanistan after 9/11 and later jumped into Iraq — completing eight combat deployments in support of the Global War on Terror and earning induction into the 2024 Ranger Hall of Fame. We go deep on the night of October 19, 2001, standing in the door of a C-17 as one of the first U.S. Rangers to parachute into Afghanistan, and the fight for Haditha Dam, where his vehicle broke down mid-assault and later got caught in an ambush on both sides of the road. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

08/18/26: Trygve Hammer is a retired Marine Corps officer and veteran of the Global War on Terror. He taught 7-12 grade science, worked on oil rigs in the Bakken as a freight rail conductor, and as a counselor for the Job Corps in Minot. (Joel Heitkamp is a talk show host on the Mighty 790 KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. His award-winning program, “News & Views,” can be heard weekdays from 8 – 11 a.m. Follow Joel on X/Twitter @JoelKFGO.)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Army told Paul Benfield he was colorblind. That left him two job options: mortician, or truck driver. So he enlisted as a human resources clerk instead. On purpose. Because the human resources clerk is the person who files the transfer paperwork. Retired US Army Major Paul Benfield served 21 years, from a broke peacetime Army in 1997 to the Pentagon in 2018. He enlisted, went to war, came back, commissioned as an officer, and did it all again. He was in a hangar in Hungary on September 11th, 2001, five days after his first daughter was born. He took an RPG to his truck in Fallujah. He raided the wrong house in Baghdad. And he is one of the few people who can tell you honestly what changed across the entire Global War on Terror, because he saw it from the bottom and from the top. Michael Schwartz has known him since high school. They were next door neighbors. Michael tried to talk him out of enlisting, and says so on the record. This is not a special operations highlight reel. It is a career, start to finish, told by a friend. Chapters: 0:00 Cold open 2:28 Why this interview, 25 years after 9/11 5:33 Meet retired US Army Major Paul Benfield 6:36 The peacetime Army: saying "bang bang" because there was no money for blanks 11:03 He went to Airborne School before he ever joined the Army 13:33 Colorblind: your choices are mortician or truck driver 16:11 The loophole: enlist as the clerk who files the paperwork 16:56 Korea, the 82nd, and the plan backfiring 18:20 The phone call from JSOC, February 2001 19:58 What JSOC was actually doing before 9/11 26:51 September 11th: a hangar in Hungary and a colonel who thought it was a drill 31:16 Tracking casualties, and six hours total in Afghanistan 35:41 "Done by Christmas," and the whack-a-mole that followed 38:02 Afghan small arms: AKs, PKMs, and a British Enfield 42:47 Becoming an officer, and curing his own colorblindness 48:15 What "human resources" means at a tier one unit 52:23 M16 to M4: the rail system that changed everything 55:22 Ranger, Green Beret, Delta: who is who 1:00:29 Why nobody can tell you how Delta picks 1:04:30 Hollywood and the broken veteran myth 1:09:22 Ranger School, and the vendetta that backfired 1:15:50 Sadr City during the surge 1:20:52 The RPG that hit his truck and did not go off 1:29:45 "We shot him on purpose. He was just the wrong guy." 1:38:19 Two definitions of corruption 1:41:15 Kabul falling 1:44:07 1997 to 2018: what actually changed 1:45:38 Twenty one years, four kids, and a marriage that survived it 1:49:33 "I told him it was the stupidest idea. I was wrong." 1:51:29 Is the war on terror even over? If you served, if you have a kid thinking about enlisting, or if you have only ever seen this war through a movie, this one is worth your time. New episodes premiere every Sunday at 5 PM PT. More at gunownersradio.com #GunOwnersRadio #Veterans #WarOnTerror #ArmyVeteran #MilitaryHistory

Uncle Jack is back with his long time friend Adam Schwarze to tell us all about his first Pepperbox feature documentary! It's available to watch RIGHT NOW! Let us know if you enjoy this style of content and if you'd like to see more Pepperbox documentaries! https://pepperbox.tv/joinunsubscribe WATCH THE AFTERSHOW & BTS ON PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/UnsubscribePodcast

Let us know what you think of the show and what we can do better! Thirteen service members died at Abbey Gate, and the country barely blinked before the headlines changed. That silence is what Navy veteran, entrepreneur, and wooden flag craftsman Joe Burdick could not accept, so he turned remembrance into something tangible, public, and permanent.We talk about the Abbey Gate bombing during the Kabul evacuation and why it still hits so hard for Global War on Terror veterans who understand the true cost of service. Joe walks me through his own Navy aviation story, the disorienting shift from military purpose to civilian uncertainty, and how building handmade wooden American flags became a bridge back to service. What began as craftsmanship and community support grew into something much bigger once he met Gold Star families, including the family of Max Soviak, the only one of the 13 from Ohio.From there, the conversation becomes a blueprint for civic action and veteran advocacy. Joe explains how he organized a local Abbey Gate Remembrance Day in Seven Hills, partnered with state lawmakers, testified, and helped pass Ohio Senate Bill 244 to honor all 13 fallen by name. We also dig into what this kind of remembrance can look like in schools and communities, why the national effort still matters, and the simple steps listeners can take to push similar legislation in their own states.If you believe “never forget” has to mean more than a post, listen, share this with someone who cares about military service and Gold Star families, and subscribe and leave a review so more people find these stories.Support the showVisit my website: https://thehello.llc/THERESACARPENTERRead my writings on my blog: https://www.theresatapestries.com/Listen to other episodes on my podcast: https://storiesofservice.buzzsprout.comWatch episodes of my podcast:https://www.youtube.com/c/TheresaCarpenter76

In this episode of the EvoSec Podcast, the Tactical Twins (Eric & Aaron) sit down with competitive shooter Sam Elam. Youtube: @ArmoredFlycatcher Sam shares his journey from a Kentucky tobacco farm and four years in the Marine Corps (early GWOT era) to becoming a multi-division IDPA Master and strong USPSA competitor in the competitive Oklahoma/Arkansas/Texas region. He discusses:Jumping into IDPA in March 2023 and rapidly shooting nearly 190 matchesThe high talent density in the Tulsa area and how local competition accelerates skillHis practical, sustainable training philosophy (short, consistent dry-fire, frequency over long sessions)Why he deliberately switched back to Glocks after running 2011s and Shadows—to expose and correct fundamental errors the heavier guns were maskingGear lessons, range culture, and balancing competition with family lifeA straightforward, no-BS conversation full of useful insights for anyone looking to improve at competition or practical pistol shooting.Support our sponsors: www.tenicor.comFor more info on EvoSec: www.evosec.org/ Youtube @evosec2840 instagram and facebook @evosecusa

Send us Fan MailDanny Murphy is a former United States Marine. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Danny enlisted from 2009-2013 as a mortarman and was assigned to the 81mm mortar platoon in 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. Danny deployed twice to Helmand Province - Musa Qala in 2010-2011 and later to Kajaki in 2012.  He is the author of  “The Hills by the Wadi”, a memoir detailing an enlistment during the GWOT.  Instagram: @helmand_gunfighters_unionPhotos from Danny's deployments are available at his website: www.thehillsbythewadi.comYou can order Danny's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Hills-Wadi-Danny-Murphy-ebook/dp/B0GWYTG19FSupport the show

David Grantham, author of Consequences: An Intelligence Officer's War, provides a memoir of his time as an Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) agent, detailing the high-stakes world of counter-intelligence during the Global War on Terror. His deployments took him from a five-star hotel in Kuwait to the tactical dangers of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and Camp Bucca in Iraq. Grantham emphasizes that intelligence work is inherently provocative, involving the "poking" into places where adversaries do not want scrutiny. A central focus of the book is the radicalization within Iraqi prisons, specifically Camp Bucca, which Grantham identifies as a "powder keg" and the eventual birthplace of ISIS. He describes the delicate balance required to collect intelligence on al-Qaeda and Iranian-backed Sadr networks without sparking a larger geopolitical conflict with Iran. Grantham reflects on the "flawed execution" of the Iraq war, noting that while it provided a hard-earned education on network-style threats, the human cost to the Iraqi people was immense. Applying these lessons to modern challenges, Grantham analyzes the Bolivarian threat network in Latin America, where states like Venezuela and Iran utilize cartels to target the United States. He warns that the US southern border is being systematically overwhelmed by cartels using "distraction" strategies—such as waves of migrants—to facilitate the movement of drugs, weapons, and money. He concludes that these networks are increasingly sophisticated, lucrative, and difficult to dismantle. (2)1910 Peshawar

Green Berets are trained to solve problems that don't come with instructions. Green Berets build trust where none exists. Green Berets lead small teams in uncertain environments. Green Berets adapt when the plan falls apart. Those same qualities that make exceptional Special Forces soldiers also make exceptional entrepreneurs. For Green Berets their next mission begins the day they leave the Regiment.In this episode, Fran Racioppi sat down with Retired U.S. Army Captain and Green Beret Ben Harrow during the 2nd Annual Stars and Stripes Classic to discuss transition from Special Forces to entrepreneurship and why so many members of the Regiment are uniquely equipped to build successful businesses after service.Drawing from his experiences leading in combat, recovering from catastrophic injuries, and building businesses after military service, Ben explains how the qualities that define a Green Beret - adaptability, resilience, disciplined execution, and solving complex problems with limited resources are the very same traits required to succeed in business. We discuss the realities of building scalable organizations, developing repeatable systems, hiring the right people, and learning when to lead from the front and when to empower others to take ownership.We also explore the changing landscape of the Special Forces Regiment as a new generation of leaders emerges without the combat experiences of the Global War on Terror. Ben shares why preserving the culture, brotherhood, and lessons learned from previous generations has never been more important, both inside the Regiment and long after service ends.Finally, we discuss the importance of the Stars and Stripes Classic and why events like this help preserve the team room. The uniforms may come off, but the relationships, shared experiences, and commitment to one another remain. For Green Berets, that brotherhood becomes the foundation for new missions, new businesses, and new opportunities.QUOTES“The leadership had never really experienced combat.”“That same sense of brotherhood that we felt playing college lacrosse, the only thing closest to that was being on an ODA.” “Your country has asked you to do some pretty amazing things in your career. Now have you ever thought about running a company?” “Part of the reason you're selected is to be that adaptive thinker and say to any problem you come up to “I'll figure it out.”“Never lead off with no.”“You have to bring people in that are willing to get after it.” “I don't want to lose to Navy.” “It's just background noise.”HIGHLIGHTS0:00 Introduction2:23 Welcome to the Stars & Stripes Classic4:49 The status of the Special Forces Regiment10:04 Special Forces Entrepreneurism20:35 Character MattersThe Jedburgh Podcast is brought to you by OneBrief; enabling military leaders to make innovative, informed and deliberate decisions faster than ever before. Superhuman command wins wars.Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge.

Episode 258 of the Transition Drill podcast explores military transition, veteran mental health, and finding purpose after service for active duty military members and first responders navigating life beyond the uniform. You'll hear Steve Bunting on the hidden cost of high performance, identity, and operational stress, and what it takes to build a meaningful life after service without losing yourself in the process.Steve Bunting's story begins far from the elite military world he eventually entered. After being born in Oceanside, California, his family relocated to rural Alabama, where he grew up with limited resources, struggled in school, fought regularly, and searched for direction. A mentor helped him believe his circumstances didn't have to define his future, but it was his younger brother's decision to join the military that ultimately pushed Steve to enlist. After an unexpected turn led him from the Marine Corps recruiting office into the Navy, he became a Corpsman and eventually earned his place as a Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman supporting Marine Reconnaissance and MARSOC. He shares the demanding selection pipeline, deployments during the Global War on Terror, combat medicine, leadership, family sacrifices, and the personal mistakes that nearly derailed his career.The conversation doesn't stop when the uniform comes off. Steve explains how leaving the military in 2017 without a transition plan forced him to confront financial uncertainty, family challenges, identity loss, and the emotional weight of losing teammates and his own brother to suicide. Rather than continuing toward medical school, those experiences redirected his mission. Today, as a mental health and performance coach with Sharp Performance, he helps veterans, first responders, and tactical professionals better understand stress, nervous system regulation, resilience, and sustainable performance. His journey shows that transition isn't about replacing a career. It's about rebuilding your identity, strengthening your relationships, and finding a new way to continue serving others.CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulpantani/WEBSITE: https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpantani/SIGN-UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER:https://transitiondrillpodcast.com/home#aboutQUESTIONS OR COMMENTS:paul@transitiondrillpodcast.comSPONSORS:GRND Collective: Premium, veteran-owned sportswear built for those who show up, outwork the excuses, and give 100%. Score 15% off your order at thegrndcollective.com using promo code TRANSITION15 at checkoutBlue Line Roasting: Premium, law-enforcement-owned coffee roasted to fuel the shift. A portion of every order directly supports law enforcement families facing line-of-duty injury or loss. Save 10% at bluelineroasting.com with promo code Transition10Frontline Optics: Premium eyewear founded by a firefighter and built to withstand the job. Every single purchase helps support the First Responders Children's Foundation, serving families who've paid the ultimate price. Save 10% off your pair at frontlineoptics.com using promo code Transition10

Drones have fundamentally changed the economics of warfare. For much of the Global War on Terror, the US enjoyed an overwhelming technological advantage, using drones for surveillance and targeted strikes with little fear that adversaries...

Welcome to Christian Rock Summer 2026! We're kicking it off this year with an album about spiritual warfare that takes the war metaphor a bit too literally. On today's episode, Josh and Josiah were joined by Tom O'Mahony and Gregk Foley from Blood Work to discuss The Heart of War by Christian "hard rock" band Jonah33. Follow Gregk on Bluesky @gregk.co.ukFollow Tom on Twitter @gotitatguineys or Bluesky @gotitatguineys.bsky.socialFollow Blood Work on Twitter @bloodworkshow or Bluesky @bloodwork.showListen to Blood Work: bloodwork.showListen to Lions Led By Donkeys and Beneath the SkinBecome a Fruitless Patron here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11922141Check out Fruitless on YouTubeFind more of Josiah's work: https://linktr.ee/josiahwsuttonFollow Josiah on Twitter @josiahwsuttonReferences"Jonah33 Goes to War," New Release Today, https://www.newreleasetoday.com/article/jonah33-goes-to-war"Jonah33," Jesusfreakhideout, https://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/cdreviews/Jonah33.asp"Jonah33," ChristianMusic.com, http://www.christianmusic.com/jonah33/jonah33.htm"Vince Lichlyter and Jonah33: An Arkansas-based rock veteran returns," Cross Rhythms, https://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Vince_Lichlyter_and_Jonah33_An_Arkansasbased_rock_veteran_returns/53343/p1/Audio creditsJesus Freak - DC TalkYesterday – bloom.Faith Like That - Jonah33Last One Standing - Jonah33Desensitized - Jonah33Bullets - Jonah33Fire At Will - Jonah33Scream - Jonah33Brand New Way to Live - Jonah33No Song Left to Sing - Jonah33Never Alone - Jonah33Sample of a D beat from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:D-beat_(candidate_2).oggWhite Flag - Jonah33Bass - NoCopyrightMusic ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dimitri and Khalid dive into Khaled Hroub's 2000 book “Hamas: Political Thought and Practice”, which charts the origins and evolution of the vanguard of the Palestinian Resistance. Also addressed: the nuanced relationship between Hamas and previously ascendant secular/Marxist Palestinian resistance groups, specious claims in the NY Times that Netanyahu “propped up” Hamas on purpose, the importance of the “mosque-building phase” in revolutionary movements, the Axis of Resistance's progress in transcending the “sectarian” Sunni-Shia divides of the GWOT era, and more… For access to full-length premium SJ episodes, upcoming installments of DEMON FORCES, and the Grotto of Truth Discord, subscribe at https://patreon.com/subliminaljihad.

Check us out at https://www.rfemedia.com/Imperialism is a primary contradiction, so let's talk about it because no one is addressing the veteran angle in a critical way . Platner's defenders have been using his self-celebrated service record and the combat PTSD excuse in order to explain away bad behavior, alcohol abuse, and a failure to come to terms with the true cost of the Global War on Terror. I think if some of us were more politically disciplined a bunch of people would not have been side-swiped by this recent credible allegations.It's just me today for this episode, everyone else is on summer break so I'm stuck having to talk about Platner, about what military service truly means in all its violence and why I currently do not trust a single veteran in office or a single one who is running, and why placing your faith in singular movement leaders to usher in the revolution and turn the electoral college and this whole franchise around is never going to cut it. We might talk about Cesar Chavez, since it's somewhat apropos.

An interview with a veteran of the Global War on Terror who experienced close encounters overseas, and the possibility that he witnessed part of a program recently disclosed to Congress.   Colin's Book: “Ministration of, and Communion with Angels “ HERE Discount Code is CULTISH10 “Ministration of, and Communion with Angels presents a robust doctrine of angels and explores their ministry in the lives of God's people. With sobriety and spiritual seriousness, Ambrose calls believers to recover a full-orbed supernatural worldview—one in which God's holy angels guard, guide, and minister according to His sovereign will.” SHOP OUR MERCH: HERE Please consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel: CultishTV.com Cultish is a 100% crowdfunded ministry.  Be Part of the Mission to Change Lives: HERE SHOP OUR MERCH: HERE

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome Jonathan Hackett to the scuttlebutt. Jonathan is a retired MARSOC operator, intelligence specialist and interrogator, the author of the books, Theory of Irregular War and Iran's Shadow Weapons, and is now a student at Yale Law School. He has been the expert guest on multiple news outlets, such as Al Jazeera and CBS News, so I have no idea how we were able to get him on our show, but we are so honored to have him. Jonathan talks to us about his path to the yellow footprints, his journey in the special forces world and experiences as a key interrogator during the Global War on Terror, and what he is up to now. He's got some great advice for transitioning veterans and how to balance being goal-oriented and ambitious, while simultaneously slowing down and appreciating where you are. For someone so accomplished, he is remarkably humble and level-headed, which makes his insight and perspective so much more appealing. Also, we'll be taking a break for the 4th of July holiday but will be back the following week with our 250th episode. We said this back in episode 100, and then again in 200, but I'll say it again…we had no idea when we started that we would be going 250 episodes strong. We are so lucky and have all you listeners and our wonderful guest to thank. And the empty sound studio here at the MCA. But mostly you listeners and our guests. A most sincere thank you and appreciation for all your support. This is Episode 249. linkedin.com/in/thejonathanhackett jonathanwhackett.com The post #249: Interrogator, Author, Lawyer with MSgt Jonathan Hackett (Ret.) first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome Jonathan Hackett to the scuttlebutt. Jonathan is a retired MARSOC operator, intelligence specialist and interrogator, the author of the books, Theory of Irregular War and Iran's Shadow Weapons, and is now a student at Yale Law School. He has been the expert guest on multiple news outlets, such as Al Jazeera and CBS News, so I have no idea how we were able to get him on our show, but we are so honored to have him. Jonathan talks to us about his path to the yellow footprints, his journey in the special forces world and experiences as a key interrogator during the Global War on Terror, and what he is up to now. He's got some great advice for transitioning veterans and how to balance being goal-oriented and ambitious, while simultaneously slowing down and appreciating where you are. For someone so accomplished, he is remarkably humble and level-headed, which makes his insight and perspective so much more appealing. Also, we'll be taking a break for the 4th of July holiday but will be back the following week with our 250th episode. We said this back in episode 100, and then again in 200, but I'll say it again…we had no idea when we started that we would be going 250 episodes strong. We are so lucky and have all you listeners and our wonderful guest to thank. And the empty sound studio here at the MCA. But mostly you listeners and our guests. A most sincere thank you and appreciation for all your support. This is Episode 249. linkedin.com/in/thejonathanhackett jonathanwhackett.com The post #249: Interrogator, Author, Lawyer with MSgt Jonathan Hackett (Ret.) first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

What builds trust when you don't have a title or position of authority? SUMMARY According to Lt. Col. Joe Bledsoe '11, it's honesty, integrity, humility presence and action. Tune in as he shares practical leadership lessons learned from the Academy, combat aviation and years of mentoring others.   SHARE THIS EPISODE FACEBOOK  |  LINKEDIN   COL. BLEDSOE'S TOP 10 LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS 1. Leadership starts before the title. People follow your example, ideas, and presence long before you get formal authority. 2. Informal leadership is as real as formal leadership. Class president, wingman, or peer—your influence, credibility, and support role matter even without rank. 3. Be “clay to be molded.” Show eagerness, humility, and effort; people notice fresh attitude and willingness to embrace hard things. 4. You can't lead alone—build a trusted team. Time management and heavy responsibility force you to delegate to people you trust and empower them. 5. Trust has two layers: inherent and earned. Start with inherent trust (shared values, shared background) and deliberately grow earned trust through behavior. 6. Five traits that build credibility fast: Honesty, integrity, humility, presence (actually being there, engaged), and decisive action. 7. Debrief like a fighter pilot: brutally honest, never personal. Separate the person from the performance, do root‑cause analysis, fix errors, and then move on—no re‑litigating. 8. Own your mistakes out loud. Saying “I'm sorry,” “I was wrong,” or “I don't know, but I'll find out” accelerates trust and models humility. 9. Mentors and mentees are non‑negotiable. Continuously seek guidance from those ahead of you and invest in those behind you to sharpen your own thinking. 10. Prioritize relationships and pride in the mission. Treat family and friends well, cultivate the Long Blue Line, and remember you're on the A‑team—act like it.   CHAPTERS 00:00:00 — Opening & Guest Intro Show open, Naviere introduces Lt Col Joe “Paveway” Bledsoe and his career highlights. 00:01:13 — Voluntold to Lead: Becoming Class President Basic cadet training, being “voluntold,” interview gauntlet, and getting elected class president. 00:04:09 — What a Class President Actually Does Informal vs formal leadership, picking the class exemplar (Robin Olds), dining‑ins, spirit missions, and accountability. 00:08:38 — From Future Doctor to Fighter Pilot Arriving at USAFA wanting to be a physician, loving biology and medicine, and the first seeds of doubt. 00:10:03 — Ops Air Force, Powered Flight, and the Pivot Deployed Ops Air Force in CENTCOM, exposure to flying in theater, powered flight, and choosing pilot training over med school. 00:12:22 — Mentors, Family, and Making a Hard Call Mentorship from family, upperclassmen, and permanent party; emotional weight of changing paths and family's reaction. 00:14:08 — Leading Without Rank: Credibility and Trust Informal leadership as a young wingman, lessons from time management and delegation as class president, inherent vs earned trust, and key traits (honesty, integrity, humility, presence, action). 00:22:06 — Fighter Pilot Debriefs & Radical Feedback Culture Brutally honest debriefs, owning mistakes, root‑cause analysis, safety and mission focus, and how that mindset translates beyond the cockpit. 00:27:48 — Leadership at Home: Marriage, Parenting, and ‘Knock It Off' High‑school‑sweetheart marriage, parenting, using accountability and humility with kids, and balancing “fighter pilot” mode with being a husband and dad. 00:30:30 — Future Conflict, Growth, and Pride in the Long Blue Line Risk and future fight, Institute for Future Conflict, exposure to other AFSCs and logistics, daily growth habits (mentors, mentees, reading, writing, running), advice to younger self, and closing message on being proud of USAFA and the A‑team.   ABOUT COL. BLEDSOE BIO Lt. Col. Joseph “Paveway” Bledsoe '11 is a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and recognized leader whose career has spanned combat operations, advanced airpower development and service to the Long Blue Line. A native of rural Pennsylvania, Bledsoe graduated from the Academy in 2011 with a degree in biology before earning a Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland.  He is Currently assigned to the Institute for Future Conflict at the U.S. Air Force Academy where he studies the future of airpower, emerging technologies and the challenges of great-power competition. Prior to joining the Institute, he helped lead training and operational planning efforts at the 366th Fighter Wing, contributing to major exercises and the wing's first deployment to the Indo-Pacific region. His work bridges the gap between today's operational realities and tomorrow's strategic challenges. A recipient of the Association & Foundation's Young Alumni Excellence Award, Bledsoe is widely respected for his emphasis on faith, family and service. Throughout his career, he has remained deeply connected to the Academy community through mentorship, alumni leadership and a commitment to developing the next generation of leaders. On this episode of Long Blue Leadership, he shares lessons learned from leading peers, building influence before authority and navigating high-stakes decisions in both the cockpit and the profession of arms.   CONNECT WITH JOE LINKEDIN   CONNECT WITH THE LONG BLUE LINE PODCAST NETWORK TEAM Ted Robertson | Producer and Editor:  Ted.Robertson@USAFA.org Send your feedback or nominate a guest: socialmedia@usafa.org Please note: we are only considering USAFA graduates as guests at this time. Ryan Hall | Director:  Ryan.Hall@USAFA.org  Bryan Grossman | Copy Editor:  Bryan.Grossman@USAFA.org Wyatt Hornsby | Executive Producer:  Wyatt.Hornsby@USAFA.org     ALL PAST LBL EPISODES  |  ALL LBLPN PRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE AT USAFA.ORG/LONGBLUELEADERSHIP AND ON ALL MAJOR PODCAST PLATFORMS     FULL TRANSCRIPT Guest, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Joe "Paveway" Bledsoe" '11  |  Host, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99    Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz 0:01 Sometimes leadership begins long before you've ever been put in charge. It starts when people trust you enough to follow your example, your ideas or your vision. I'm Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99; Long Blue Leadership starts now. Well, Lt. Col. Joe “Paveway” Bledsoe the Third. Welcome to Long Blue Leadership. Lt. Col. Joe Bledsoe 0:20 Naviere, it's great to see you. Thank you for having me here today. I'm looking forward to the conversation. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:24 So, Joe, your career has been exciting so far, and you're still in it. You know, you have been operational leader, obviously an F-15E Strike Eagle pilot. You've been deployed, you have been a researcher, you're a Young Alumni Excellence Award winner for our Association & Foundation, you've been an AOG board director and a fellow for the Institute for Future Conflict. And that, that's just, you know, a short little list, because you're a student heading back into, over to, is it North Carolina, right? Seymour Johnson.   Col. Joe Bledsoe 0:53 That's correct. Seymour Johnson, yep.   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:54 In the cockpit, yeah. Col. Joe Bledsoe 0:56 Yeah, we're super excited. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 0:59 Yes. Well, we're going to touch on probably many of those places, but I want to dial it back to something that only one graduate in every class experiences, and for you it happened shortly after Basic Cadet Training. Your class selected you as your class president. How did that come about? Col. Joe Bledsoe 1:14 How did that all go down? That's a great question. So there we were, right after basic training. I was in Cadet Squadron 19 for my freshman year, and I got the opportunity — this is one of those voluntold moments, right — where the upperclassmen and BCT cadre said, “Joe,” or “Cadet Bledsoe, report to H-1 during transition week.” That's when everybody's coming back, and you're like, “Sure, yep, yes, sir, yes, ma'am. Here we go.” So I show up with 40, 50 other fourth-class cadets, and we come to find out it was for us, and we were going to go through who was going to be the class officers. So first off, as I look back on that experience, a lot of respect and no humility being asked to go like represent Squadron 19, right? Like, I didn't volunteer, they just kind of pointed me in that direction, so we show up and got to interview with the upperclassmen, class officers, and there's funny interview questions, real serious interview questions. You know, I was just honest, right? Like, I'm here. This is what I think about what being a leader looks like, and how I could help serve the class, not thinking I would ever be selected, right? And as the night is going on, and ACQ is right around the corner, they kind of whittle it down to four or five of us, and we get up in front of the rest of the cadets and classmates that were there, and it was an open forum, like you know, back in Rome times, like you're standing in the gauntlet, Yeah, like it was like Roman voting, right? And asked a bunch of questions, and I remember standing up there with, you know, preppies, prior enlisted, and then me, just like straight off the street, and there's a couple other of us up there, and just answer the questions honestly, and at the end of that, there was a vote, and you know, they read the results, and I was like, "Holy smokes, I'm class president. How did this, how did this happen,” right? And I think there's a lot that — it was daunting at first, right? And then also, like, “This is awesome, I don't know what I'm getting into,” right? I just found out about it. I remember walking back on the Tizo. This was the first time I can say this now, because you know, grad, and I didn't run the strips because the upperclassmen and class officers walked me back, and I distinctly remember to — back to my squadron to — Jordan Kraft and Forrest Underwood walked back and were given some mentorship to me, like here's how to succeed, here's things we would recommend, and it was just an awesome opportunity to like kind of learn what pure leadership looks like, what it means to be in this not org chart that is unique to the Academy, and that's where the, that's where the adventure started for class president. I'm still, I haven't been fired yet, and I still proudly serve the Class of 2011 — Robin Olds' class — as their class president, and it's one of the best jobs that I have the privilege of doing. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 4:10 My goodness. I mean, just to unpack that a little bit, obviously, in basic cadet training, you did enough to impress your cadre, I'm sure that there was probably some sort of cadre selection to bring however many of them forth first. Would you say that you would you agree with that, or is that — am I way off? Col. Joe Bledsoe 4:28 Yeah, I would say —I think when I look back my time at basic training, like I wanted to come to the Academy since I was in your school, right? So, like, I thrived — I'm not saying it was easy by any means, right? We all know that, but I thrived in like this new adventure, right? And I took everything, I embraced everything. I think that may have been something they saw, right? Like I was clay to be molded, right? And I had some prior opportunities in basic to show that to my BCT cadre, and they picked up on it. It wasn't that I was trying, but I think looking back on that experience, there was moments of like my freshness, my eagerness, my like pride in that I made it to basic training, that I wanted to just try as hard as I could, and I think some of that probably shown through, and ultimately may have been why I was selected to go try that interview process, right? Col. Naviere Walkewicz 5:20 So that interview process, at the end of the day, you were elected by your peers, and you know it — to your point — you said in that unusual, the not normal org chart, right, the one that doesn't exist, but yet you have leadership of your class. What did that look like? How did that translate? Because not many of us are class president, I'm certainly not my class president, and so I'm not sure what that leadership role looks like. Can you share a little bit more about some examples? Col. Joe Bledsoe 5:46 Yeah, I think that that leadership role was very different each year, right? As a freshman and a sophomore, as a four-degree and a three-degree, before any official academy leadership position starts to present themselves, that they do for two-degrees and firsties, it was a lot of helping the class stay as a collective whole, right? So one of the first big things as freshmen was selecting our class exemplar, right? And running like — how do, who do we select? How do we come together and figure that process out? How do we then, once we have a name, once we selected Robin Olds, how do we have a formal dining in? Things that I had never even heard of, right? As well as on the other side, the shenanigans, right? So, the spirit missions, right? There was many times I've had to go to the commandant's office and say, I don't know where the class crest is, like, out of pure honesty, right? But, like, that is, that was like a way, as an underclassman, that we kind of got that informal leadership, but also you're the leader by default here, so we're gonna, we're gonna make you accountable for your class. So I got to see both sides, that transitioning a little bit more to two-degree and first a year was now taking a little bit step back in writing in the informal leadership position, so I looked as myself as like a supporting agent, supporting member to our cadet leadership, and I always presented that like, “Hey, if you need our class to do something, I will do that, but if militarily you own that, like, I'm not ever going to step on your toes or push back,” right? The other thing we got, I was able to do is also help provide, like, morale inputs, right? Like you kind of had the pulse of morale, I think, more as the class president sometimes than in the official leadership, so could help provide some inputs along those ways, and there are some, say more shenanigans or morale events that we get to help put forth and present those to the cadet leadership for official approval later on as we firsties. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 8:04 Gosh, well, that was, I mean, it's really insightful for us to understand some of the roles that a class president and class cabinet plays, and so understanding that it's — I like how you put it as a supporting agent to the formal leadership. And we're gonna touch on this a lot more, because I think there's going to be times when you'll share how you build that trust and credibility throughout, both when you're a cadet and as an officer. But before we jump there, I happen to find out, Joe, that you weren't coming to the Air Force Academy to become a fighter pilot, but to become a physician. Can we talk about that for a moment? Col. Joe Bledsoe 8:37 Absolutely, that's absolutely a — I came to the Air Force Academy, wanted to be a doctor. I knew I wanted to be a biology major. I declared, I think, the first day I could declare and went through the gauntlet of getting ready for med school applications, and I loved every second of it. It was awesome. Even my fellow classmates would say he was a huge nerd and studying all the time, because that was my goal, right? I came into the Academy, and I wanted to be a doctor, and I knew the gauntlet that is, that that is required to do such a thing. And I still love medicine, right? I still love — I think medicine is fascinating. Every time my probably get there someday, or in the conversation, but anytime my kids have to go to the ER, like I'm like, “Can I scrub in,” right? All that kind of stuff. Yeah, put me in. I love medicine, and it wasn't till the summer between my two-degree and firstie year did I have that midlife crisis at the age of 21 and then firstie year is when that crisis kind of came to a head, and new doors opened, and here we are today, right? So that, yes, you're absolutely right. Always wanted to be a doctor. I was still fascinated by medicine, but now I'm just a pilot. So, there we go. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 9:57 So, can we, can you expand a bit more on it? So, was it a decision you wanted to make or a decision you had to make? Col. Joe Bledsoe 10:03 Yeah, yeah, that's great. It was a decision I had to make, ultimately, myself. Right? No one, no one said, “Joe, you can't be a doctor.” So, the summer — there's two key things that really happened that helped influence that decision. The first one was the summer between two-degree in firstie year, I had the opportunity to deploy to the Middle East, and we've heard of Ops Air Force. You know Ops Air Force. Well, at that time we had a deployed Ops Air Force, so they sent cadets overseas to deployed locations to see what was, you know, to get the full experience in a deployed location. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 10:40 Wow. Col. Joe Bledsoe 10:40 So I had the opportunity to do that. Spent the summer in CENTCOM and kind of opened my eyes to… Col. Naviere Walkewicz 10:47 Oh, Central Command. Col. Joe Bledsoe 10:47 Yeah, sorry, Central Command, and got to experience — I got attached to a C-130 unit, right, and I got to see what flying looked like in a deployed environment, and I kind of opened my eyes, where I've been hyper focused on medicine, right? Like, you know, so focused on this is what it takes to be a doctor. I kind of like put my blinders on to what the rest of the Air Force did, right? So I was like, “This is pretty, this is, these guys and gals are doing awesome stuff, like this is this is the pointy end of what was going on.” And that planted a seed, that planted a seed. So it came back, firstie year was doing the med school applications, going through, I had some free time in my academic calendar, and I got to go down to the airfield and do the powered flight program. So, I got to see flying over the summer, and then I was blessed enough to have the opportunity to go fly an airplane, and I was like, “OK, the seed was planted, let's see if I get air sick, like, let's see if there's anything else here that might make me not want to do this.” And I loved it. Right, I fell in love with flying down at the airfield. I came back, and I was like, I'm gonna pause the med school applications and put my name in the hat for pilot training, and the rest was history, right? So, doors open, doors close, right? But that was my story, and I loved getting to talk to cadets about that, because so many can be — so many times we see some that are hyper focused, and like there's always other options out there, and it's OK to have a crisis we can talk you through. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 12:23 I think that's a fantastic lesson that you actually learned early, because you know it's interesting — had you not been sent to Ops Air Force at a deployed location, you might not have taken Alex flight, and so you know when you think about leadership opportunities and lessons, this is one of those moments where it actually steered you in a new direction. So, as we think about that, I'm curious, how your family responded to that, because, you know, you had come to the Air Force Academy to be a doctor. Were they happy for you? Were they surprised, a little nervous? Col. Joe Bledsoe 12:57 Yeah, there was a ton of mentorship there, right? Not just from my family, but from upperclassmen peers, permanent party, like, “What are you doing? Like, you came here telling us this was your goal. Where did this new goal come from?” So, there was a lot of time talking that through, and I needed that myself. It wasn't, as you know, in any decision, like, it wasn't a snap decision. So, a lot of time walking through that decision process and leaning on mentors and kind of asking the questions, like I knew what four years of med school, and then residency, but I knew what that like, what does pilot training look like? How long does that take, right? So, a lot of questions to help answer, or to find answers through, and ultimately, my family was super supportive, super supportive, and they still joke, like, “Hey, how come you're not doctor.” Well, because I fly F-15s now, right? But all supportive all throughout the process, right? And that's where you lean on others, right? Lean on others, because it very much felt like a crisis, like I still have scar tissue over it. But looking back on it, it wasn't just me making — I ultimately made the decision, but they helped me through it. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 14:08 That's fantastic. You know, I think about you as an officer, as a fighter pilot, and obviously there's a lot of steps you took to get there on the road was certainly not easy. Often, though, I think that there can be some misconceptions, or maybe this is accurate, that earlier in your pilot life or your aviator life, there's probably not a lot of leadership lessons where you're leading others. Maybe, maybe that's a misperception, and we'd love to talk about that. You know, how do you find the leadership opportunities then when you are, you know, you're party of one, right? You don't necessarily have any direct reports. What does leadership look like there? Col. Joe Bledsoe 14:43 Yeah, can we take that back to like some lessons I learned at the Academy?   Col. Naviere Walkewicz 14:46 Oh, absolutely.   Col. Joe Bledsoe 14:47 Right, I think, I think that's where I've leaned most heavily in, like, not in there's this difference between formal leadership and informal, positional versus informal, and I was blessed enough at a pretty young age to learn the plus — the how to succeed and how to fail in informal leadership. I've tried to carry that throughout my career. So when you say like the younger days of being a wingman in the F-15 community, it's a lot about credibility. It's a lot about that peer leadership. How do you build the credibility? How do you build the trust to be someone that others look up to in that informal system, right, in that informal system. When they look down their phone, like, “Who do I call? Who do I have to call? Who do I want to call?” Right? and I think that's where you have to balance some of that stuff, and I spent time thinking about that, and trying to lean on lessons that I learned from the Academy, and while formal leadership positions were never handed to me, that doesn't mean you're not a leader, right? Like, you can't beat it, doesn't mean you don't just get to sit back and not lead. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 16:02 Can you share an example of a time when you learned that about yourself, or what that looked like?   Col. Joe Bledsoe 16:09 In the flying world? Col. Naviere Walkewicz 16:11 Or as a cadet?   Col. Joe Bledsoe 16:12 Yeah, as a cadet, I think the biggest one was — I'll take it back to, like, freshman, sophomore year, where I learned one of the key pillars that I'm convinced the Air Force Academy teaches all us grads about is time management, right? And I thought I was pretty good at time management, and then when you're now the president of 1,000 other cadets, your inbox fills up very quickly, right? Or you're like, “I thought I was good at time management.” And I learned very quickly that you can't do it alone, right? You can't do it alone, and I had to learn to surround myself with people that I trusted and that I could delegate or hand tasks off to, and just say, “I need this accomplished,” and I did that to my friends that I knew would get the mission done, right? And I had to have that level of trust, and I think that is translated throughout my career, where I inherently trust people with a project, right? I think there's two versions of trust, inherent trust and earned trust. When I look at the graduate network, whether that's the Air Force Academy, Navy, West Point, and I see a class ring, I'm like, “I inherently trust you,” and I can, I believe, or I see some other veterans have on — like, “I inherently trust you,” and then in other cases where I've had to learn and work with people, it's now, “I'm earning your trust, and I hope you're earning mine as well,” and that is this unique balance of I inherently trust you, I learned that at the Academy. Now let's build on that as a foundation and get this earned trust to as high as we can. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 17:54 What does some of that earned trust or becoming more credible look like when young leaders don't have the benefit of time? Right, so I, the more time I work with you, the more I learn about you. You build that credibility, etc. How does one accomplish that, maybe either shorten the gap or do that a little quicker or impactfully earlier? Col. Joe Bledsoe 18:18 Yeah, time is always — like we always need more time, right? How often do you say, like, “I only have 24 hours, but I need more time,” right? So, if we're always fighting time, like, and everybody's fighting time, then, like, that's a constant. So, let's not worry about time. So, I look at it as, like, what traits do people bring to the table, or what traits can we can we sharpen? Honesty, right? Honesty is huge. You have to be honest, and that's a pillar of trust. Integrity, right? Integrity first and showing people that you display integrity is really important. Humility, I think, is also really important. Humility is really important. I was listening to a podcast the other day, and it really struck home to me, a sense of humility is — if a leader is able to say three things, they're gonna — I know I could, I can build that trust, no matter what that time gap is. “I'm sorry,” “I was wrong,” or one of the seven basic responses: “I don't know, but I'll find out,” right? I think that's really important with humility. The other one is presence, not with a T, like we're not giving presents, but presence. Being present is really important character trait in my mind, and the fifth one that I try to reflect on a lot is action. Right? I think defaulting to not doing something is not what we want. That doesn't help build trust. Taking action with what knowledge you have and making a decision is really important, and I think those are the traits that help build that credibility, help build that trust in that time gap, whatever that looks like. If you can hit those, the five that I try to hit home. If you can do that, hopefully you're building that relationship that is going to foster — have great fruition out of it. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 20:06 That's outstanding, and that's really helpful, I think. I love how you took out the constant of time being an excuse, right? Like, we don't always have the benefit of time, whether it's time and getting more experience or just time in general, I think those are outstanding examples of how you can build credibility. So, thank you for sharing that. You know, one of the things that I also would love to kind of dig into a little bit of your experiences, Joe — because they've been really vast, right? So, I don't believe that everyone has the same kind of path. How have you grown as a leader in these different experiences that really, again, aren't positional leadership roles? I'm just curious, how your growth has been in that space. Col. Joe Bledsoe 20:47 Think a lot of it's been through failure. I think a lot of it's been through failure. These might not be huge, like we lost a million dollars, or like, not through those kind of failures, but relationship failures, or conversation failure at the micro level, and how I've tried to handle that is surround myself with people that will tell me that the emperor — I'm gonna go back to the, I'm gonna go back to the old fairy tale, or fable, right? If you surround yourself with people that are able to come up to you, and you trust them, and you trust their feedback, that is something I've tried, that was Cadet Bledsoe, advice given to me is Cadet Bledsoe. Surround yourself with people that you will listen to and take their feedback honestly. And sometimes that means if I don't have that person in the room and I know I fumbled a conversation or I made a poor decision, it's going to that individual and saying, “I messed up, I'm sorry, I was wrong,” or “I don't know,” right. And that's how I try to use that to present humility, I think, and that's important, because we're all fallible, we all make mistakes, and if I can't admit that, then, like, we're off to the wrong foot right away. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 22:06 Do you think some of that that skill that you've developed over time has been something that you've learned in, and forgive me, I don't know if it's a fighter pilot community, specifically, or you know, I think about when you do your sorties and you have some sort of debrief, right? I feel what I've heard, I've not actually sat in one, but they're very real. Like, there's no, it's not about making you feel good about it, like it's about the safety and the mission, and so I'm curious, if that skill of humility, and you know, calling a spade a spade, and calling it I'm wrong and I'm wrong, did that come from some of that experience, and maybe you can talk through what that's like, because not everyone, I think, practices at that level of transparency. Col. Joe Bledsoe 22:46 Yeah, the fighter pilot debrief. I learned some of the importance of that through mentorship as a cadet, and then that was sharpened as a fighter pilot. And I learned the importance of that through the form, my formal job, right, the mission, the lives at stake, aircraft, that kind of stuff. And I think I've tried, I've only honed that skill through Air Force training, right? The Air Force has trained me to think like that, and I've tried to translate that into my personal life and leadership positions, because I think there's tons of value to that. There is tons of value in being willing to find a mistake, own up to that mistake with the knowledge and hope that it doesn't happen again, right? And if that is like, if you, if that's your north star, we don't do this again, like, why wouldn't you want to be on that team? Why wouldn't, why don't you want to be? That's how we get better, right? And I think that seed again was planted as a cadet. Like, let's, I tell cadets all the time, like, you're joining the A-team, so put in A effort, right? Like, if you're going to join the A-team, I don't want B-players, and this is what we got to get, like, let's go, right? It's a motivating factor in my mind. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 24:08 What are some of the ways to approach that in a leadership conversation for someone who would be interested in taking on some of those, those learned lessons? Col. Joe Bledsoe 24:18 Yeah, I think the first thing is transparency and honesty right up front. Like this, Naviere, if we were flying together, right and you were my instructor, your job is not to degrade me as a human, but to prove to me that I made a mistake with the ultimate goal of making me better, right? Your job is to always, like — and the relationship you and I have as an instructor and a student is my — I'm gonna sit here in the debrief and go, and Naviere is here to make me better, right? Like, that's your, that's your job, right? Right. So, once you start that as the foundation, like, it can only get better if I know your job is to make me better, and your job is I'm supposed to make this guy better, right. And often we can, when feedback is provided, you're like, this could be a personal attack, or, like, that's all left out, that's all left outside the debrief room, right? Like, we're here to make everybody better, and I think that's where it starts: with that transparency and honesty up front of the expectation. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 25:15 So you'll actually say that. You would actually… Col. Joe Bledsoe 25:17 No, I think that's just a common, that's a common theme, right? That's the expectation in the community. And not just in the fighter community. I think it's throughout the Air Force, right? I think that's what makes us really, really unique. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 25:32 Because feedback is something that we, we do — although maybe some can do it better than others — I think that's a really fantastic way — before you're giving someone feedback, you're really clear on this is what we're hoping to accomplish by having this time together. And so, I think what you just said can make feedback so much more impactful, because it's not about the person, it's about what are we trying to accomplish and helping you, I guess. It is about you, but ultimately helping you. Col. Joe Bledsoe 25:59 Absolutely, right? Like the where every debrief starts is we had a mission objective and we had tactical objectives. Did we do them? If we didn't, let's figure out why, right? So translating to the business world or private sector, it's a root cause analysis, right? It's a root cause analysis, and we will get down to the nitty gritty of like, what type of error — did you make a decision error? Did you perceive the environment wrong? Did your actions cause the error, right? And we get down to that level, so that when the student, student Paveway walks away, Naviere, knows, Naviere, you gave me the exact, like, you decided wrong, because X, Y and Z; don't do that again. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 26:43 Right. Col. Joe Bledsoe 26:44 Here's your fix. You know, that debrief can take hours, and that's the beauty of it, right? “We're gonna sit there, and we're not gonna let anything not be uncovered, because we're gonna go do this again tomorrow, and we can't make the same mistake tomorrow,” right? “We can't make the same mistake.” Col. Naviere Walkewicz 27:01 No, that's, that's fantastic. I mean, to have it that clear, and to know it, like, OK, we're not gonna, we don't stay in that space. We've addressed it, we know we've identified a fix, and we move forward. Is that what you said? Col. Joe Bledsoe 27:12 Absolutely. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 27:13 There's no like, continue to revisit, like… Col. Joe Bledsoe 27:15 Yep, that's the point, right? Like, “I've learned something, I know, I've acknowledged my mistake. Let's move on. This wasn't personal, this was you making me better.” Iron sharpens iron, right? So, here we go, and then move on. And now that translates, as you asked kind of a couple minutes ago, right, that can translate to so many things in your life, right? And I try to do that sometimes, like my wife will tell me, I go too fighter pilot, but there's versions of that that translate as we are not in a fight or pilot debrief. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 27:50 You literally got in my head because I was gonna say, now I want to put you on the spot, because Joe, you are married to your high school sweetheart, you make a 2% club, right? Like, you actually started the Academy with a sweetheart and ended with the same sweetheart. And now you have three amazing, beautiful children. How do you translate that to, you know, feedback to your family or your personal life? And I love how your wife said too fighter pilot, but how about to your kids? Col. Joe Bledsoe 28:15 Yeah, married my high school sweetheart, Alicia. We started dating our sophomore year, and we've been together ever since. So she is not a grad, but she has a lot of Air Force in her blood, so that's great, and the kids, I would say there's a couple things when it comes to taking some things I've learned or been trained in the Air Force, translating on the home front. The first one goes to accountability, right? I think accountability is really important because in an aircraft, you have to be accountable for your actions, and I think that translates to being a parent, as well as trying to teach the kids some humility. Right, where to be humble, when to own up to your mistakes, and sometimes that works in the fighter pilot way, sometimes it doesn't, and I think that's leadership, right? You can have leadership skills and be consistent in some, in some ways, but other times adaptability is really important, especially with the kids, and each one of my kids is very unique, and we have to cater to each one of them and their unique skills. I will say about my wife, I love her with all my heart, but she knows the words “knock it off” as well, right, because that's a sacred word, not just in the military, but on our, in our homefront, and that usually means stop being a full fighter pilot, like go back to being Dad, right? So she knows, she knows the words and how to make that all go down. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 29:47 I love that it's another language, right? You have your, your fighter pilot language, and you have a home front language. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. You know, I'd like to switch gears a little bit to your time operationally, and maybe this translates into now your work at the Institute, or your most recent work at the Institute for Future Conflict and preparing cadets for the future fight. I'm curious, how all of these skills that you've learned, and these leadership traits that you've continued to develop in yourself, have translated in moments of, you know, like, real conflict, real distress, like when the stakes are high, and how you prepare cadets to think that way, even though maybe they've not experienced that. I'm just curious, what that looks like. Col. Joe Bledsoe 30:31 Yeah, it is hard to translate — like cadets love war stories, right? Like, “So there I was…” but it's hard to translate some of, like, the putting, having the cadets put themselves in the shoes of someone that has 15 years of flying under their belt, right? Like, that's hard for them to grasp, and I understand that, and that's not what I'm asking of them to do, but there are certain skills that I think are really important, and that I've got to experience and talk to cadets and research and spend time thinking about at the Institute for Future Conflict at the IFC. One is risk, right? How do we, how do we think about risk, right? Are we risk prone? We risk adverse? How do we think about risk, not just in this moment, but how does our decision today affect five days from now, a month, right? And, as you remember, because I know it happened to you as a cadet, like you're just in the, like, “What's my next problem,” right? What's my next — OK, how does, like, fixing this problem affect next week? Right. And I think that's what I've got had the opportunity to think a lot about the IFC, as well as try one thing I've learned being back here at the Academy was my experience as a cadet is not the same experience as the cadets now. And what do I mean by that is when I graduated, GWOT, Global War on Terror was the thing we knew what we were getting into. I very much knew flying, going to the Middle East. Now the cadets looked to me and other permanent party, and like, what's our fight going to look like? And right, the question mark is, I don't know, but let me tell you, think about this, and I could be wrong, and I think that is where I've had a lot of time to think about future conflict and what's problems, maybe not nations or adversaries, but like big meta level things they'll have to think about, information access, information sharing, trust, right? How do you, how do you help develop some of these skills in the cadets? And that's where I've spent a lot of time the last two years trying to think and spend, spend some brain bytes, like what does air power look like in this unknown environment? Col. Naviere Walkewicz 32:52 And as you're about to step back into it, I'm thoughtful of that, and so now you're taking what you've helped cadets start to hone in and think about. How are you different now as a leader going back into the cockpit than you were when you came to the Academy? Col. Joe Bledsoe 33:09 Yeah, let me get back to the cockpit, and everyone can tell me what, how I'm different. We'll use that as the test. But here's one thing I think — I've reflected on this recently, going back to the Strike Eagle community. One has been my exposure here in Colorado Springs and at the Air Force Academy, meaning I've learned a lot about what others do that I wasn't — I knew other jobs existed, I knew other AFSCs did things, but not being in a flying day-to-day ops tempo, I've had the opportunity to sit down and, like, “What do you say you do?” “Oh, that has some effects here, here, and here,” and I use a specific vignette would be, I've got to spend a lot of time in the management department and helped teach in the global logistics minor, and like, I knew there was logisticians in the Air Force, and like, that's yeah, right? That's how stuff got here, but like, understanding the importance of, like, that's how my bombs got here, this is how the b…, right, like, truly understanding their frustrations, I think will make me get less frustrated in my day to day, right, and I think that has been one thing that the Academy has given back to me the second time I've been here, is a little bit more exposure to the Air Force, as well as the Space Force, being here in Colorado Springs, like seeing what each team member, like each cog in the machine brings to the fight, right? And I think that's been a blessing here. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 34:42 So those that you will begin to get back working with — your men and women in your community — they won't have had that exposure, and so I'm now going back to our where we started with the sense of informal leadership. How do you help others gain that experience and thought, and maybe thought process informally, since they haven't really been exposed to that? How would you help them navigate it? Col. Joe Bledsoe 35:09 Naviere, I think the best way to do stuff like that is, like, you raised your hand when you said logistics officers, like Naviere, we're doing a podcast with my next squadron, you're coming to talk, right? Col. Naviere Walkewicz 35:19 Right, it's like that was like a long time ago, we need someone more recent. Col. Joe Bledsoe 35:24 But, OK, Naviere, it's not you, but you know people, that's how stuff gets done, right, that's how stuff gets done. And while I by no means want to stand up in front of everybody and say I'm the expert on logistics, but I, I'm not that person, but I trust Naviere, Naviere's contact here, and that's how, like, you create this network of knowledge and this network of trust and credibility. And to my, to the fighter pilots that I'll be flying with, it's somewhat like throwing mud at the wall sometimes, like we're gonna keep throwing mud and see what sticks, but at least they know it's there, right? Like, we're gonna, your job is still to go kill things and blow things up, but at the same time, you know there's this other network out there that you can lean into. But let me be a conduit to make that happen. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 36:15 That is awesome. That's fantastic. So I want to go into this period now, where we talk about you and your continued growth as a leader. What is something, Joe, that you're doing every day to be a better leader? Col. Joe Bledsoe 36:30 I have mentors, and I've tried to find mentees. I think that is where growth can happen, leaning on others for mentorship and mentees to try to talk through some things you've thought through and give experience and exposure to others, right? And that's that network we were just talking about, right? Other things I think are really important is reading and writing. Read a lot, write a lot, nobody writes good anymore, right? Thanks, ChatGPT. But being able to communicate in the written form is really important. So, writing and reading. And the other thing, too, is as a leader, just find an outlet, find something, find a hobby, find something that's fun to do, right. So, I got into running here at the Academy, because we're at high elevation, and I'm, why not, right? But find something that, like, rounds you out, right? It's fine, find an outlet that helps give you some relief from all the stresses that can happen in leadership. That's where I would say I spend a lot of time, or what I think about trying to sharpen my skills. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 37:34 Daily. So, what are you reading right now? Col. Joe Bledsoe 37:37 Oh, that's a great question. I have a couple books that are on the table. Mask of Command is one that I'm reading as I get ready to go back and potentially be in a leadership role. There's a couple other books that come to mind. I'm reading a baseball coaching book, because I coach my baseball, it's a basketball book by Coach K from Duke, as I go back to North Carolina, but it's a book, how to coach kids, right, Leadership on the Court, and it's fun to just think about training and coaching kids and how to keep them inspired. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 38:18 Oh, that's awesome. So, speaking of kids, if you were to go back in time, and talk to younger Joe Bledsoe, the third, what advice would you give him? Col. Joe Bledsoe 38:30 Yeah, if I had to go back, I would say it's worth it. Every second, work hard at the Academy, right? The doors that it opens, that's where my mind went when you asked the question, like, younger me at the Academy. Be good to Alicia, my wife, right? Be good, because she's going to be with you for a long time. So be good to her, as well as foster your, foster your friendships. They're going to mean a lot to you in the future, right? The relationships you build on that hill are going to come back in ways you have no idea years to come. So take time and prioritize the people that you meet. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 39:10 Those are really great reflections. Joe, is there anything that we haven't covered in our conversation that you would love to share with our Long Blue Leadership listeners and viewers? Col. Joe Bledsoe 39:24 Absolutely, be proud of this institution. I'm proud of it. I know you are too, Naviere. Proud of this Academy. Be proud of the cadets, be proud of the permanent party that work here. There's an A-team out there, and this is this is where it starts, right? And it's not just if you're serving in blue or in the Space Force, right? If you're out there doing awesome things for our country on the private, in the private sector, thank you. Keep doing what you're doing. There's no shade of blue in the Long Blue Line, that's my, my phrase for that one. There's no shade of blue. Serve your country, be proud. And that's — just be proud to be an Academy grad. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 40:07 That's fantastic. So, you know, in our time together, I have loved this, this, this leadership conversation, because we really span an area that I don't think a lot of people talk about, and it's, how do you demonstrate leadership in an informal way, you know, without titles and without necessarily key positions or in the hierarchical structure, and so some of the things that really stood with me, Joe, that you've covered, have been being credible, being present, and humble. I really like that, and you didn't say this in these words, but what I took from that was, you know, being honest and truthful is almost one of the most kind ways you can be right, because you're actually helping someone be better, and that really stuck with me, you know. I don't, we have an A-team, we don't need B-players, that I think you exactly said that, so definitely stuck with me. But watching the way that you have led, not with your class, not just the cadets, and, you know, certainly not the squadron that you will have here shortly as a director of operations, but I think you've continued to just be who you've always been, which is someone who leads with integrity through those pillars and certainly by example. So this has been an incredible conversation, and for anyone that is watching us and listening to this, for others that are in their leadership journeys, this is another one you're going to want to share, because it's not just about, you know, Lt. Col. Bledsoe's journey right now, it's been all of these moments and experiences and memories and they really do connect with anyone on a leadership journey. So, be sure to join in on longblueleadership.org or wherever you get your podcasts, not just to see this one, but all of our other conversations. So, Joe, thank you so much for joining us today. Col. Joe Bledsoe 41:46 Thank you Naviere. Go Air Force! Col. Naviere Walkewicz 41:48 Go Air Force!   Col. Joe Bledsoe 41:49 There we go. Col. Naviere Walkewicz 41:50 Absolutely, until next time, we'll see you on Long Blue Leadership. KEYWORDS informal leadership, peer leadership, Air Force Academy leadership, USAFA class president, fighter pilot debrief culture, building trust and credibility, leadership humility, future conflict and airpower, Long Blue Leadership podcast, military leadership lessons.     The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association & Foundation          

Eric Schwalm is a retired Green Beret with over 34 years in the US Army Special Forces. He is a living history book on some of the most pivotal moments in our military history having served at the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, saw time in the first Gulf War, and was one of the first into Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks on America. Throughout everything he lived and experienced, a light came on like it has for so many veterans of the GWOT. Eric has a very unique experience to share and is someone worth hearing out on everything from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the intelligence used to justify them. 

NASA chief defends all-male Artemis 3 astronaut crew amid backlash: 'I don't think anyone should be reading into this' (17:08)  First look at the Global War on Terrorism Memorial design in Washington (31:48) As tick threat grows, Navy lab investigates ‘gummy bear' bug repellent (44:16) Unheralded History: The Harlem Hellfighters 1917 (56:39) https://lateforchangeover.com/ #lateforchangeover #veteranvoices #militaryeverything #militarypodcast #spaceforce #airforce #army #navy #marines #coastguard #militaryhistory #militaryhumor

Dr. Mike Simpson is a former U.S. Army Ranger, Special Forces Green Beret, emergency medicine physician, and combat veteran. After serving with the 1st Battalion, 75th Infantry (Ranger), he went on to become a Special Forces Engineer and Medical Sergeant with the 7th Special Forces Group, deploying throughout Central and South America. Following his military service, he earned his medical degree and later served as an Army physician assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), deploying in support of the Global War on Terror. Dr. Simpson was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with "V" device for valor and the Combat Medical Badge. Today, he is a board-certified emergency medicine physician, a recognized expert in tactical trauma and combat sports medicine, an MMA fight physician, podcast host, and speaker. He is also known for his work as a member of the investigative team on two seasons of the History Channel series Hunting Hitler.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"That was the first time I saw anti-aircraft artillery getting shot up at us."With a legendary military family history going back to the Revolution, it's almost as if Air Force veteran, nurse, and writer, Ms. Mary Howe, was genetically predisposed to service. She tells us about choosing enlistment over college, the extensive training pipeline to become an AC-130 gunner, her multiple deployments, and the one mission that convinced her to leave the Air Force.We also discuss some of the difficulties she faced once back in the civilian sector, finding her nursing niche, reconnecting with her faith, and why her writing is an important outlet for her in moving forward. Plus, getting dropped in the Gulf of America from 500 feet, staring out of a window for 12 hours straight, the invincibility of youth, and more! An episode so fun we had to record it twice! In the Free Fire Area, we discuss how our senses can be so powerful in triggering past experiences.Theme song by The Mountain via Pixabay.Support the showhttps://tracerburnout.com/

Green Berets are built over time. Special Operations Truth #3: SOF cannot be mass produced. America's most elite warriors are developed through experience, through leadership, and through the responsibility of developing others. This is the job of the Special Forces Noncommissioned Officer.In this episode, Fran Racioppi sat down with retired Command Sergeant Major Rob Abernethy to dissect the evolution of the Green Beret NCO, and their officer counterparts, to show how that development shapes the effectiveness of Army Special Operations and national strategy.CSM Abernethy served nearly four decades in the Army and across special operations from a junior 18E communications sergeant, to the Command Sergeant Major of US Army Special Operations Command and United States European Command. Rob breaks down the role of the NCO as the backbone of the Regiment, the importance of regional alignment in building partner forces, and where Special Forces fits into military strategy from the pre-9/11 period, through the Global War on Terror and into today's Large Scale Combat Operations.We also explore the rapid evolution of technology and the challenge of integrating new tools without losing the fundamentals of leadership and warfighting. From artificial intelligence to modern battlefield systems, Rob emphasizes that technology must support the force, not replace the mindset that defines it.Finally, after retiring as one of the longest serving Green Berets in the Army, CSM Abernethy shares his perspective on transition after service and his current role continuing to develop soldiers through his work at AUSA.This is a conversation about leadership, evolution, and the responsibility to prepare the next generation of Green Berets for the fight ahead.HIGHLIGHTS0:00 Introduction2:00 Welcome to the Jedburgh Podcast5:20 From junior to senior NCO on an ODA15:31 Role of the Team Sergeant18:52 The culture of a Special Forces team25:02 Importance of Regional Alignment32:08 Bridging the generation gap43:14 American Military Technological Advantage49:00 Biggest Threat to America52:18 Remembering ServiceQUOTES“The average age on the teams was much older.”“Nobody says, ‘Hey, I'm going to join the Army and my goal is to be a sucky soldier.'”“The Team Sergeant is one of the most critical parts of the team.”“Over time, what you do is build confidence with the team.”“The Officer's success is really the Team's success and the Team's success is based on the Officer.”“Our confidence as a Team Sergeant needs to be projected through the team leader.”“You have to have a lot of confidence in the team you're selecting.”“The administrative stuff makes a difference.”“The little things absolutely matter.”“The more astute you are to the environment in which you're going to operate, the better you're going to be.”“In the next 10 years, it's going to be phenomenal what we actually bring to the battlefield because AI is going to make us that much better.”“The Department of War is crushing the acquisition process now.”“Our relationship with our NATO allies has been strong and needed, and still will be needed.”“One thing that stayed consistent was my desire to be good, to be an expert, and lead by example.”The Jedburgh Podcast is brought to you by OneBrief; enabling military leaders to make innovative, informed and deliberate decisions faster than ever before. Superhuman command wins wars.Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge.

Amatangelo "AJ" Pasciuti, a former Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and host of the Combat Story podcast, will release his debut book, Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, with HarperCollins Leadership on May 19, 2026, just in time for Memorial Day and ahead of the United States Semiquincentennial in July.In Darkhorse, AJ delivers an entirely new war narrative: an intense exploration of authentic leadership, sacrifice, and the resilience of the human spirit. By challenging established notions of masculinity and authority, Pasciuti shows that true strength lies in our hidden potential. Compelled to serve by the events of 9/11, AJ enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 17, embarking on a 21-year odyssey through some of the most harrowing battles of the Global War on Terror. Serving as an Infantry Marine, Scout Sniper, and Force Reconnaissance Marine, while completing seven deployments across the globe and leading elite teams in high-stakes special operations missions, taught him that courage is useless without compassion.A pivotal moment came during his legendary sniper vs sniper duel with the infamous enemy sniper, Juba-the first sniper battle since the Vietnam War. His actions saved countless lives and recovered a stolen Marine sniper rifle, highlighting how intellect, strategy, and an ability to look at problems differently can transform the nature of warfare.Driven by a strong commitment to advocate for the voiceless and a desire to push the limits of possibility, AJ set out to reform the Marine Corps Infantry education system and redefine Marine infantry training to make the finest fighting force the world has ever known even better. This challenge proved to be one of AJ's toughest battles, confronting the very institution that shaped him. But what kind of person would AJ be if he settled for anything less?"AJ Pasciuti fully embodies what it means to lead out of a quiet strength. Like all marines, he was naturally reluctant to simply tell his story. He agreed to write this remarkable book only if he could highlight the team around him every step of the way. His achievements, and theirs, are astounding. But they didn't come without cost, and they didn't happen without deep pain and perseverance," said Matt Baugher, SVP at HarperCollins and Publisher of Harper Horizon. "AJ's story offers a message for our military's future and an example for us all.""Darkhorse is my tribute to the men and women who shaped my life, the Marines I served alongside, and the friends I lost along the way," said AJ. "It's drawn from harrowing, brutally honest accounts of combat, quiet moments of reflection in the face of failure, and a call to action for what comes next. Within these pages, you'll find pain, resilience, leadership, and the kind of hard-earned lessons only war can teach; lessons that ultimately point to something deeper: hope. Darkhorse is about people. About trust built through vulnerability. About the brotherhood that endures beyond the battlefield. And about one question that still keeps me up at night: How do we leave it better than we found it? Join me on this journey and harness the hidden potential of becoming a Darkhorse."Darkhorse serves as both an impactful memoir and a call to action. It's a must-read for warriors, leaders, and anyone eager to grasp the strength found in serving others and the boundless potential that resides within us all.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

Army Combat Medic Daniel Jimenez served from 2003 to 2023, deploying with the 82nd Airborne into Afghanistan as an 18-year-old medic during the height of the Global War on Terror. In today's Urban Valor's podcast, Daniel shares what it was like to survive Taliban ambushes, treat casualties under fire, face grenades, RPG attacks, firefights, trauma, and the reality of becoming an Army medic in war.This is the real story of a young soldier thrown into Afghanistan, learning fast, carrying an aid bag, and being forced to make life-or-death decisions before most people his age had even figured out who they were.Daniel talks about joining after 9/11, choosing the Army over the Marines, becoming a combat medic, going through Fort Benning, Airborne School, and eventually arriving at the 82nd Airborne — where the real world hit hard and fast.From a nighttime ambush where an RPG hit above his Humvee…To rolling over an enemy body and realizing he was lying on a grenade…To treating wounded soldiers and civilians with limited resources…

Wanna hear the FULL Episode? Sign up for the Grad Program today! How does human vision actually work and should the sights on our guns work with or against the natural tendencies of our eyes? Once more we are joined by our friend Louis Caras for a deep discussion about pistol sights. During our Tech Talk from EOTech Inc. Professor Paul considers the recent history of GWoT and how it affected and changed the firearms industry. Also, how did things change after GWoT? For this week's Coffee Corner Paul and Louis will consider the book, Guns of the Cold War. How did we move from the steel and hardwood firearms of WWII to the aluminum and polymer firearms that we have today?  Three Dot sights suck and here is why. Paul recently ruffled the feathers of soy-fed mangina taking up space in the gun community. It's not enough to understand that 3 Dot sights are pointless and stupid, we need to consider the actual science behind why they are such. TOPICS COVERED THIS EPISODE Huge thanks to our Partners: EOTech | Blackout Coffee EOTech Talk - EOTechInc.com TOPIC: VUDU 3.5-18x50mm rifle scope www.shootingnewsweekly.com Coffee Corner - studentofthegun.com/blackout [Use Code: STUDT20] TOPIC: Guns of the Cold War www.ShopSOTG.com SOTG Homeroom - SOTG University TOPIC: Human Vision and 3 Dot Sights www.shootingnewsweekly.com

Wanna hear the FULL Episode? Sign up for the Grad Program today! How does human vision actually work and should the sights on our guns work with or against the natural tendencies of our eyes? Once more we are joined by our friend Louis Caras for a deep discussion about pistol sights. During our Tech Talk from EOTech Inc. Professor Paul considers the recent history of GWoT and how it affected and changed the firearms industry. Also, how did things change after GWoT? For this week's Coffee Corner Paul and Louis will consider the book, Guns of the Cold War. How did we move from the steel and hardwood firearms of WWII to the aluminum and polymer firearms that we have today?  Three Dot sights suck and here is why. Paul recently ruffled the feathers of soy-fed mangina taking up space in the gun community. It's not enough to understand that 3 Dot sights are pointless and stupid, we need to consider the actual science behind why they are such.

SPONSORS: 1) HOLLOW SOCKS: For a limited time, Hollow Socks is having a Buy 2, Get 2 Free Sale—visit https://hollowsocks.com to check it out. #HollowSockspod JOIN PATREON FOR EARLY UNCENSORED EPISODE RELEASES: https://www.patreon.com/JulianDorey CLIPPERS DISCORD: https://discord.gg/8QmWEKJ3BT (***TIMESTAMPS in description below) ~ Clint Russell is a political commentator and host of the Liberty Lockdown Podcast. CLINT's LINKS: YT: https://www.youtube.com/c/LibertyLockdown X: https://x.com/LibertyLockPod FOLLOW JULIAN DOREY IG: https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey/ X: https://x.com/juliandorey JULIAN YT CHANNELS - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Clips YT: https://www.youtube.com/@juliandoreyclips - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Daily YT: https://www.youtube.com/@JulianDoreyDaily - SUBSCRIBE to Best of JDP: https://www.youtube.com/@bestofJDP ****TIMESTAMPS**** 0:00 - Erika Kirk Fashion, Charlie Kirk Assassination 9:52 - Is fear the whole point?, Fauci, Global Financial Crisis 21:13 - Markets divorced from reality, Middle Class DEATH, Ron Paul 32:38 - Things Worse, Austrian Economics, Psychological Financial-fare & Population Control 41:04 - Technocratic Elites & WEF, Elon Musk, Ai Apocalypse 51:32 - Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey Theory, Ben Shapiro & Dave Smith 1:01:04 - Israel funding vs. US funding, Charlie Kirk off record convo w/ Dave Smith, 1:08:39 - FDR, Gold Standard & Financial Disaster 1:13:56 - Israel, $8 Trillion, INSANE Military Funding, Netanyahu & Iran, 1:23:52 - Tim Pool & Netanyahu, Israel Sides, Why Clint is Anti-War, American Revolution 1:34:30 - Pandemic Adaptation, Tier 1 Guys regretting GWOT, Joe Kent, Scott Horton 1:44:49 - “Tough” Republicans, Pete Hegseth, Tucker Carlson, Massie, Khanna & AIPAC 1:53:56 - Fixing System, Propaganda, Epstein Files 2:02:07 - MET Gala REACTION, Joe Rogan, Conflicts of Interest 2:12:07 - Taking Good vs. Bad, Finding Optimism & the middle ground 2:23:01 - Opposite day, Clint on his vote for Trump, American Exceptionalism 2:33:16 - US Dollar Collapse, Straight of Hormuz, Petrodollar Threat 2:41:09 - Clint's Work CREDITS: - Host, Editor & Producer: Julian Dorey - COO, Producer & Editor: Alessi Allaman - https://www.youtube.com/@UCyLKzv5fKxGmVQg3cMJJzyQ - In-Studio Producer: Joey Deef - https://www.instagram.com/joeydeef/ Julian Dorey Podcast Episode 419 - Clint Russell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spoke to the witness and he has agreed to come on the show. A listener writes "I recently attended a meeting of my local Purple Heart chapter for combat wounded veterans. There were six of us in total three from the Global War on Terror and three Vietnam veterans. What stood out was that every Vietnam veteran who had been wounded shared that they had seen what they called a "rock ape." As they told their stories, the rest of us those from GWOT, myself included remained quiet.  After the meeting, I spoke privately with another GWOT veteran, who admitted he had also witnessed unusual things while serving as an Army instructor on a base. My own experience happened on the eastern shore of Cougar Reservoir in Oregon. I was camping with my family when, close to midnight, something began approaching our campsite. I first heard heavy footsteps about 100 meters away. As it drew closer, I realized I had to stand my ground. It was moving toward us steadily not sprinting, but deliberately giving my ex-wife time to turn on the SUV's lights and get our two toddlers out of the tent and into the vehicle, about 40 feet away. I positioned myself between the approaching figure and my family. It came down from a hill toward our campsite by the water, a distance I later confirmed to be about 100 meters. When it got within roughly 40 meters, I fired a couple of warning shots with my 9mm, though it felt completely inadequate. My plan, if it came closer, was to aim for the eye shine to buy my family more time. At around 20 30 meters, I could feel the vibration of its footsteps through the ground beneath my bare feet. Strangely, it kept its eyes covered as it approached. The SUV's headlights were shining directly at it on high beams, yet I couldn't see any eye reflection. I've never been able to shake the feeling that it understood what I was trying to do. It stopped about 12 feet in front of me and remained there while we finished loading the car. Once everyone was inside, I slowly backed away, got into the SUV, and drove us out along the narrow road leading from the campsite. For most of the encounter, I actually thought I was dealing with an elephant something large that could move quietly despite its size. I heard no brush breaking, despite the dense vegetation only the sound of its footsteps. I didn't smell anything, even when it was close. When I finally saw it clearly, my first thought was that it looked almost artificial, like something constructed. It took a while to come to terms with what I saw. I have no doubt that these creatures exist as living, physical beings. What unsettles me most is the pattern described by the Vietnam veterans each of them had seen one shortly before being wounded in separate incidents. My own encounter came much later, as did the other GWOT veteran's. Over the years, I've spoken with hundreds of veterans, often asking those with extensive time in the wilderness if they've ever experienced anything unusual. Most say no, or mention only distant, unexplained sounds. But in that room of Purple Heart recipients, only one of the six had not directly described seeing something. The rest of us had encountered what appeared to be a large, upright walking ape. Half of those sightings reportedly occurred just days before being wounded. To be fair, the one individual who didn't share may simply have chosen to remain silent."

This week, Nole sits down with Barry Nisbet, a retired Canadian Army Sniper with 15 years of service and multiple deployments to the Balkans and Afghanistan, and Mir Bahmanyar, an author, historian, and former member of the US Army's 2nd Ranger Battalion.Together with Gordon Cullen, Barry and Mir co-authored the book Send It: Canada's Snipers at War in Afghanistan. In this episode, we strip away the romanticized Hollywood myth of the lone-wolf sniper to discuss the brutal reality of sniper selection, the agonizing physical toll of stalking exercises, and the heavy weight of operating downrange. Barry shares incredible firsthand stories, including a wild reunion with a US Green Beret he met at Ranger School, the terrifying aftermath of an IED blast, and the absolute relief of having an AC-130 Gunship overhead. Mir also drops some invaluable knowledge on the harsh realities of the publishing world for anyone looking to write a book of their own.Whether you're interested in military history, the tactical mindset, or just hearing incredible stories of brotherhood from the Global War on Terror, you won't want to miss this one.Grab a copy of the book: Send It: Canada's Snipers at War in Afghanistan by Gordon Cullen, Barry Nisbet, and Mir Bahmanyar – available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indigo.Big thank you to My Epic and Facedown Records for the use of their song "Hail" in our podcast!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz2RZThURTU&ab_channel=FacedownRecordsGet signed up for the next trip with Hold the Line!https://www.fireupprogram.org/hold-the-lineThe Fire You Carry on YouTube.Sign up for a class at The Fire Up Program!https://www.fireupprogram.com/programsThe Fire Up Progam video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I__ErPW46Ec&t=12s&ab_channel=FireUpProgramThe Fire You Carry Instagram.https://www.instagram.com/thefireyoucarry/Donate to The Fire Up Program.https://www.fireupprogram.com/donateThe Fire Up Program Instagram.https://www.instagram.com/fireup_program/Kevin's Instagram.https://www.instagram.com/kevinpwelsh/?hl=en

//The Wire//1900Z March 25, 2026// //ROUTINE// //BLUF: WAR ESCALATES AGAIN IN THE MIDDLE EAST AS ISRAEL AND IRAN BEGIN MORE ROUTINE TARGETING OF EACH OTHERS NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS. MULTIPLE FPV DRONE ATTACKS REPORTED IN BAGHDAD. US ARMY RAISES ENLISTMENT AGE TO 42 FOR NEW RECRUITS.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----  -International Events-Middle East: Multiple escalations of the conflict took place overnight. Following Israeli/American bombing yesterday, Iranian forces retaliated by striking multiple US bases/positions in Kuwait. In Israel, strikes were also reported at the Orot Rabin Power Plant in Hadera, however the munition appears to have missed the generation facilities by a narrow margin. Another Iranian strike targeted fuel tanks at Kuwait International Airport overnight, and similar strikes were reported in Tel Aviv which resulted in unknown damage.Iraq: Multiple significant events occurred overnight as the PMF begins more deliberate offensive operations. Yesterday morning, the United States conducted airstrikes at the personal residences of PMF leadership in Al Habbaniya. This strike killed Saad Al Baiji (an operations chief), and subsequently resulted in an intensification of targeting efforts on American positions throughout Baghdad. As a result of this targeting of PMF leadership, Iraqi Prime ​Minister ‌Mohammed ⁠Shia Al Sudani has authorized PMF militia groups to retaliate against American forces.Analyst Comment: This is a major escalation that could effectively open up another front in the war. The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) are a semi-autonomous, highly-organized militia group that serves as one of Iran's major proxy groups outside their own borders. Technically, they are linked to the Iraqi government, but in practice they mostly just do what they want while being supplied by the Iranians. The official Iraqi government stating that they will let them off leash (while not entirely surprising) is in effect a return to GWOT era, but this time the Iraqi government is openly endorsing their attacks on Americans. So in effect, battle lines are being drawn and the Iraqis are now taking the side of Iran. Depending on how kinetic PMF operations become, American forces may face more contested airspace over not just Iran, but Iraq as well.Otherwise, this week has witnessed an escalation of the war as FPV drone attacks have become more commonly carried out at Camp Victory by insurgents targeting American forces. In a video released yesterday evening, one HH-60M helicopter was targeted, along with a Sentinel radar array.Analyst Comment: The success of these attacks is not known, but the Iraqi militias conducting these attacks have significantly improved their targeting efforts with lessons learned from Ukraine, or probably more accurately...Russia. One of the FPV drones recorded the other drone attacking the radar site, before flying off to find another target. However, while searching for other targets of opportunity, the idiots accidentally targeted a MEDEVAC helicopter, which is evidenced by the video being edited to blur out the giant Red Cross painted on the side of the aircraft. After reviewing the tape, the militia group probably realized that makes them look bad, so they blurred the footage themselves.Kuwait: Civil Defense authorities have begun producing informational videos for the general public, regarding what to do in the event of a nuclear incident at a power plant in a neighboring country, such as if Israeli/American forces were to target the active reactor building at Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.Analyst Comment: All eyes are on Bushehr. The Israelis dropped munitions in the parking lot a few days ago, probably as a warning, but in retaliation the Iranians hit the residential buildings housing scientists at Dimona yesterday, and this morning they hit an unknown target immediately adjacent to the Hadera plant.

On this special, crossover episode of our members-only armed services podcasts, some of our hosts sat down to discuss their experiences with indirect fire and bombardment. With the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, they rehash some of their own personal stories, provide context on today's threat environment, and share some advice for troops both downrange and at home.

Kyle Steiner is a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran and combat leader who served in the Global War on Terror. He enlisted in the Army in 2005 and deployed to Afghanistan with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, serving in the Korengal Valley during some of the most intense fighting of the war. His experiences there were later captured in the acclaimed documentaries Restrepo and Korengal. During combat operations, Steiner was wounded in action and awarded two Purple Hearts after surviving multiple enemy attacks, including an RPG blast and a machine-gun round that struck and deflected off his helmet. He later went on to serve in U.S. Army Special Forces, conducting missions across the Middle East, Central America, and South America. Over the course of his career he became Ranger-qualified, Combat Diver-qualified, HALO-certified, and a graduate of the Special Forces Sniper Course. His assignments included service with SOCOM’s Crisis Response Force. Steiner’s military decorations include two Purple Hearts, three Bronze Stars, and the Army Commendation Medal with “V” device for valor. Today, he is the founder of Operator Mindset, a leadership and performance coaching platform focused on discipline, resilience, and purpose. He is also a husband, father, and speaker who shares lessons from combat, leadership, and personal transformation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we welcome Terry Wilson to the studio. He is a retired Green Beret who served for over 20 years with multiple deployments during the Global War on Terror. In this interview, we discuss why he chose to go to the Army, the moment he decided he wanted to screen for Special Forces, his desire to get into firefights, how he compartmentalized trauma and fear while on deployment, the first time he lost a fellow Green Beret, how he viewed his role as a Christian in combat, how losing his son in a motorcycle accident affected his faith, his message to men that think they can't be a tough guy and a Christ-follower, and much more. Let's get into it… Episode notes and links HERE. Donate to support our mission of equipping men to push back darkness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when a sitting U.S. Senator, who's also a former Navy SEAL, walks in and breaks down the Iran conflict with the kind of clarity you only get from someone who's lived the GWOT? Everybody's got a take on Iran. Almost nobody can explain it like this. The fellas — Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook — listen to Senator Tim Sheehy to lay it out: why this moment feels like the culmination of a fight that's been running for decades, why the “we're starting a war” framing doesn't match reality, and why the potential domestic ripple effects are concerning. In this episode… Sheehy's Iran breakdown: proxies, deterrence, “finish the job” logic. PLUS, DHS funding fight and what's at stake when the basics get politicized.Variety chaos: the kind of headline that makes you rewind to make sure you heard it right. The show swings to Ohio: the fellas sit down with Senator Jon Husted — a legit football guy with a national championship story — to talk the Ohio Senate race, how he pitches “grow the pie” economics, and why career and technical education is the part of the jobs debate that actually touches real families. Then we hit the rest of the mix: quick hits, clips, and the kind of cultural weirdness that only lands in this feed. Subscribe so you don't miss the next drop, follow us on social for the clipped moments, and hit the comments hard — we're stealing the funniest and the sharpest for the next round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Send a textThis one isn't hype. It isn't fun. It matters.Aaron goes solo to talk about something we've hit since day one: veteran suicide. Since 2001, more veterans have died by suicide than were killed in combat during GWOT. Let that sink in.He breaks down the rising numbers, the mental toll of Air Force Special Warfare and special operations, and why “mental armor” has to be built before you ever step into the fight. You train your body for the pipeline. You better train your mind for what comes after.Aaron shares his own story as a suicide survivor, talks about sobriety, therapy, and why being intrusive with your friends might save their life. This is about insulating, not isolating. It's about asking the uncomfortable question. It's about realizing the job doesn't end when you hang up the uniform.If you're chasing the pipeline, this is required listening. If you've already worn the beret, this one's for you too.⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 Tasty Gains and why this episode matters 02:00 Veteran suicide statistics that hit hard 04:30 26x more lost to suicide than combat 07:00 Mental armor and preparing before the fight 10:30 The hidden toll of special operations 13:30 Aaron's story and surviving the darkness 16:00 Alcohol, coping, and raising your floor 18:30 Be intrusive — ask the hard question 21:00 Insulate vs isolate your teammates 24:00 Building tribes and real accountability

>Join Jocko Underground< Throughout his 17-year career, Andy executed hundreds of combat operations throughout the world in support of the Global War on Terror. He was medically retired in June of 2013. His awards and decorations include 5 Bronze Star Medals (Four with Valor), the Purple Heart, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, The Navy and Marine Corp Commendation Medal with Valor, Three Navy and Marine Corp Achievement Medals, Two Combat Action Ribbons, and the presidential Unit Citation.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

America has debated immigration for decades — but what if the real issue at the border isn't immigration at all? In this episode, I explain why the U.S. border should be treated as a national defense perimeter, not a law-enforcement problem. We need soldiers, not cops, at the border. We need a buffer zone on the Mexican side, not on our side. The discussion explores cartel control, strategic deterrence, judicial interference, and what policies could fundamentally change security outcomes. In light of the CJNG takeover of Mexican cities, we need to ensure that we do not make the same mistakes as we did with the Global War on Terror. I also break down major themes that could reshape a State of the Union address if Trump were willing to change his economic message. Finally, I delve into how a new party built on fighting for landowners, farmers, and the forgotten consumer and worker against the transhumanist technocracy and surveillance state would crush both parties.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode focuses heavily on the massive risk facing children on many of the most popular games targeted and marketed towards their age group, and parents. Specifically, Roblox, Minecraft, and the communication platform Discord. Nic McKinley is a former military special operator and ex-CIA operative who founded and led two multimillion-dollar tech companies. A pioneer in building technical solutions to protect society from predators, Nic is passionate about solving society's most pressing issues through cost-effective technical solutions. Nic grew up in Montana but left to join US military special operations as a US Air Force Pararescueman. After more than a decade in Pararescue, Nic worked in private intelligence start-ups before being recruited into a specialized unit at the Central Intelligence Agency that provided unique capabilities and expertise in response to the critical operational needs of the Intelligence Community. With 30 combat deployments under his belt in both Special Operations and the CIA, Nic experienced the power of technology during the Global War on Terror and set out to use his skills and training with that experience to combat modern slavery. In 2014, Nic founded DeliverFund, the only donor-funded solution to human trafficking that delivers proprietary data and technology to law enforcement, allowing them to take down human traffickers effectively. Along with DeliverFund, Nic founded a venture capital-backed software company and has a technology leadership consulting practice. Despite being dubbed "The Real Jack Ryan" by VICE Media, Nic's most important role is as a husband and father leading his family in a life of service and adventure in Montana. When he is not in his office, Nic can be found on a lake, on the ski slopes, camping, climbing vertical rock or ice in the mountains, with his nose in a book learning something new, or spending downtime with his extraordinary wife. Deliverfund: https://deliverfund.org/   Today's Sponsors:  Montana Knife Company: https://www.montanaknifecompany.com Shopify: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial and start selling today at https://www.shopify.com/clearedhot