Podcasts about humvees

What do you do with fear that isn't going away?Akshay Nanavati has walked ahead of Humvees looking for bombs in Iraq, dragged a 400-pound sled across Antarctica, and spent ten days in complete darkness—all in pursuit of one thing: a better relationship with fear. In this episode, heand Sanger talk about the difference between fear and danger, how most of us distract ourselves to avoid stillness, and why “good vibes only” is bad advice.They get into survivors' guilt, the psychology of endurance, and what to do with emotions that won't go away. KEY TOPICSHow survivor's guilt after war became fuel for Akshay's purpose.10 days in total darkness: What happens when you sit alone with your thoughts.Why the solitude of Antarctica was harder than the cold.What you learn about yourself when your body gives out before your mind. CHAPTERS00:00 – Intro: Defeating Bad Decisions in Life & Business00:51 – Letting Go to Move Forward03:13 – What to Do When You're Not the Expert04:49 – Introducing Akshay Nanavati05:18 – A Job No One Wants: Clearing Bombs in Iraq07:35 – The Danger of Getting Comfortable09:49 – Training to Be Brave: Skydiving, Climbing & Confronting Fear12:03 – The Price of Courage: How Fear Builds Virtue14:27 – Praying for Patience... and Getting It16:53 – Fear Propels Preparation 18:33 – How the Dalai Lama Ended Up Writing His Foreword21:33 – Fear Is the Gateway to Growth, Not the Enemy23:56 – Turning Survivor's Guilt Into Purpose26:20 – The Thought Isn't the Problem—It's What You Do With It28:41 – Addiction, Rock Bottom, and the Decision to Get Still31:02 – Why Most People Are Scared of Stillness33:23 – Learning to Sit With the Unanswered Questions35:49 – What a Darkness Retreat Actually Looks Like38:09 – Stillness vs. Doing Nothing 40:22 – 60 Days Alone in Antarctica 42:43 – When the Math No Longer Works, But You Keep Going45:08 – Cutting Weight, Cutting Tags, Cutting Toothbrushes47:21 – When the Body Breaks Before the Mind49:41 – Losing Fingers for the Sake of Purpose51:55 – The Price of Frostbite and the Power of Reframing54:12 – It's So Hot in Antarctica... in a Tent?56:34 – Fearing Failure—and Why That's a Good Thing58:57 – How to Know Which Fear Is Worth Facing01:01:21 – Decision Tip: Think in Versions, Not Pass/Fail01:01:55 – Where to Connect with Akshay Nanavati01:02:15 – Key Takeaways01:03:05 – Message from the Producer  FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER CONNECT WITH US⁠www.decidedlypodcast.com⁠Watch this episode on YouTubeSubscribe on ⁠YouTubeInstagram⁠: @decidedlypodcastFacebook⁠Shawn's ⁠Instagram⁠: @shawn_d_smithSanger's ⁠Instagram⁠: @sangersmith  Thank you to Shelby Peterson of Transcend Media for editingand post-production of the Decidedly podcast. SANGER'S BOOK: ⁠A Life Rich with Significance: Transforming Your Wealth to Meaningful Impact⁠  SHAWN'S BOOK: ⁠Plateau Jumping: What to Change When Change Is What You Want⁠ MAKING A FINANCIAL DECISION?At ⁠Decidedly Wealth Management⁠, we focus on decision-making as the foundational element of success, in our effort to empower families to purposefully apply their wealth to fulfill their values and build a thriving legacy. LEARN MORE: ⁠www.decidedlywealth.com⁠  CONNECT WITH AKSHAY NANAVATIBook: https://www.amazon.com/FEARVANA-Revolutionary-Science-Health-Happiness/dp/1630476056/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0Website: https://fearvana.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/fearvanaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/fearvana Akshay Nanavati is a Marine veteran who walked roads ahead of convoys looking for bombs, overcame PTSD and addiction, and now intentionally seeks out the toughest physical and mental challenges on earth—including dragging a 420-pound sled alone across Antarctica. 

Keywords: Jeep Talk Show, Round Table, Hot or Not Jeep mods, beadlocks vs all-terrains, lift vs lockers, soft top vs hard top, manual vs automatic, rock lights debate, Easter Jeep Safari 2025, Tyree Lights, YJL at EJS, Hot Springs Jeep event, Jeep community podcast Description: Join Tony and the Jeep Talk Show crew for a lively Round Table episode as we dive into a “Hot or Not” debate inspired by Chick Chat's Natalie and Janet!

Serving in Special Forces isn't supposed to be easy. In fact, becoming a Green Beret is rewarding because it's supposed to be hard. If it was easy, anyone could do it; but not everyone can, or should, be considered elite. Retired Sergeant Major John McPhee is one of America's most distinguished and experienced Special Operators. For decades he led America's most lethal units in the Army's elite Delta Force. The self proclaimed Sheriff of Baghdad, John tells it like it is and leaves nothing up to interpretation.The Jedburgh Podcast, the Jedburgh Media Channel and the Green Beret Foundation are proud to announce our partnership with the University of Health and Performance outside of Bentonville, Arkansas. UHP is dedicated to building the world's most elite fitness and nutrition entrepreneurs out of our Veterans. To kick off our partnership, John and Host Fran Racioppi climbed into the back of an armored Humvee to reminisce about the impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, what America did right, what we did wrong, and why the counter-terrorism battle is far from over. John also shares his thoughts on the Army today, how to fix recruiting, the Israeli pager war, and why we must never forget that a Special Operator's job is to close with and destroy the enemy.Watch, listen or read our conversation from a vehicle many of us spent too much time in. Don't miss our full Veterans Day coverage from UHP. 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.HIGHLIGHTS0:00 Introduction1:50 Welcome to UHP2:39 Rangers to Green Beret4:00 Special Forces in the 90s5:57 How 9/11 changed Special Forces10:16 Legacy of Afghanistan13:12 Sheriff of Baghdad15:35 Disbanding the Iraqi government18:20 The difference in Syria19:42 Israel-Iran Pager War25:30 Army Recruiting Challenges27:05 Is the Army woke?29:55 Next generation of NCOs32:35 The PTSD debate37:18 Wear yourself out everydayQUOTESWe had no bullets. No money to go train. The Army didn't have a budget. The 90s Special Forces sucked.”“This is where nations go to die. What did we think was going to happen?”“You can't do that. You can't just get rid of the whole army like that.”“We had enough money to buy where Saddam was without ever firing a shot.”“Syria can never be tamed and it will always be a problem for us.”“War is only a failure of politicians and politics.”“We didn't have an Army before WWII. We fielded 6 million men quick. When America gets pissed off, you're done.”“The Army needs to do two things only. Kill the bad guys and break their shit.” “I would tell anybody to try to be the smartest guy in the room because generally the smartest guy in the room is going to be the best Commando.”“I personally don't believe in PTSD. You get stuck in the same chapter of your book.”“Every human being should be taking an hour to two hours a day on themselves.”The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are an official program of The Green Beret Foundation.The opinions presented on the The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are the opinions of my guests and myself. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Beret Foundation and the Green Beret Foundation assumes no liability for their accuracy, nor does Green Beret Foundation endorse any political candidate or any political party.

The sparks before the ignition of war.By FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.Time is not your enemy any more than breathing and your heartbeat are inconvenient."Aya, Why don't you go help Saku," I rechanneled Aya's boundless energy. "Back in the day, every noble was attended to by squires who took care of their gear and served that noble as body servants. In turn, she taught them the art of war." Sakuniyas shot me a nasty look.Aya poked her head between Pamela and Miyako."That sounds like fun," she met Saku's glacial chill with a warm spring breeze."I don't want their help," she grumbled."It sounds like free labor," Pamela smirked."I said I don't want their help," Saku snarled."Okay," I rolled my eyes. "Aya, Fatal Squirts, attention!" They all looked at me. "I command you, as your Celestial Potentate Poohbah, to stare at Sakuniyas until she gives you a task of a personal, to her, nature to do. Get at it."Four sets of precocious, will-eroding cuteness assaulted the Assyrian Queen, victor of a hundred battles and skirmishes."You are despicable," was Saku's chosen acidic barb."I second that motion," Pamela patted me on the back. "I keep finding myself being prouder and prouder of you, every day. Stop it," she teased me.None of those words dampened my mood, or my plan."How much longer is this flight going to take?" Saku groused."Four hours," I lied. It was way closer to two.To my way of thinking, it wasn't like she could get much angrier with me after she discovered my ruse. (I was wrong. She could and did. I'm an idiot.) Saku shook her head, and the task-mastering began. An hour and forty-five minutes later, the pilot alerted us that we were ten minutes from our final approach. Bits and pieces of her armor were all over the front seats and the floor of the exit-way space.Diligent little fingers were still polishing and checking straps for signs of excessive wear or fabric fatigue. Their 'noble' hovered over them, pointing out the right way to do things and what they were doing wrong. Her congratulating them for doing a good job was rather non-Amazon of her, but the kids ate it up.With the ten minute warning still hanging in the air, my duplicity inspired Saku to finally flip out. I was pretty sure she didn't think through what she was doing. She simply drew her 22cm/9in blade and threw it at my face. Miyako caught it between her hands, an effortless clap, fuck."Four hours!" Saku howled at me. "You said we had four hours, I could have held them off for two!""Why do you think I lied to you?" I kept my amusement out of my tone because I was rather attached to the idea of my wagging tongue not being cut out of my mouth.It wasn't lost on us that every member of my SD team was alert and had blades drawn (firefights on planes in mid-flight is severely frowned upon) and were staring at her. I wanted to tell Rachel to 'stand down', except that would be unfair. I wasn't 100% sure Saku was done being furious with me.Telling Rachel to set aside her instincts was something I tried to keep a minimum, only to be used when it I was forced to take in the bigger picture."What is going on here?" Rachel asked with professional calm. So, I told her the truth, the real truth."Oh," Rachel grunted. She gave a motion for her team to rest easy then came my way."Knife," she held out a hand to Miyako who instantly gave it over, pommel first. Rachel deftly flipped it over so she was holding the razor sharp blade then smacked me on the top of my head, hard."Ow, " I whined. "That hurt.""It was supposed to," Rachel glared. She walked down the aisle to Saku, returning her blade."Did you just smack him in the head?" Saku was trying to make sense of what she'd seen."Yes," Rachel nodded."He screwed up and I impressed upon him to not do it again. As you might guess, this is a fairly regular occurrence with him. We all take wicked-fine pleasure in that part of his education.""But you are his bodyguards, is he really the Head of House Ishara, or was that a lie as well?" Saku was still confused by her prideful arrogance and how I was misplacing my own."Sakuniyas, Cáel was not raised in our culture. He has only been a member of the Host for a few weeks. This is not to belittle his impressive education," Pamela intervened. "Both he, and those of the House who know him, agree that the occasional physical chastisement works better than words alone.""You could reward me with sex," I muttered. "Positive reinforcement, ""Forty-six days, Bitch," Rachel growled."You are ferocious in battle, fearless and clever," Saku turned back to me. "Why do you put up with this constant degradation?""Degradation? I'm not insulted by what Rachel did or said," I retorted. "She is trying to teach me things I need to know if I'm going to survive. I respect her superior knowledge in her professional capacity," I continued. "I don't get upset when people tease, taunt, or challenge Cáel 'Wakko' Ishara, that's me, if you are confused.I save my indignation for those who scorn Dot Ishara, Yakko Ishara and all members of House Ishara, past and present. Quite frankly, being disrespectful to me is actually rather difficult because I only care about the sensibilities of a handful of people.""How can any warriors follow a leader into battle if that person has no pride and never shies away from shame?And besides, what is this Wakko/Dot/Yakko nonsense," Saku persisted. "Fatal Squirts, start assembling my armor." Her attention was split between me and her panoply."Hello," I snickered. "I'm a male Amazon. The fact that I haven't run for my life way before now is all the heroic background check anyone should require.Doubting my common sense actually makes sense. Doubting my courage, or loyalty is idiotic in too many ways to count. As for revealing the hallowed and revered enigmatic occult appellations of my House, " I started."Get him!" Tiger Lily showed some faux-outrage."Shit!" I cried out as Delilah, Tiger Lily and the rest of the SD swarmed me. Pamela and Miyako were of no help whatsoever. I could not express my joy more at the resulting physical abuse and humiliation aimed my way. I was tickled. Yes, my Kick-Ass, full-blood, natural born killers pinned me down and tickled me until I nearly peed on myself.In a very short period of time, we'd shared some really nerve-racking moments. Dad dying, my showdown with Hayden, being mugged by Carrig and the rest of the crap that rained down blow after blow once I came out of my coma. They had taken me numerous times to the hospital and had to sit back helplessly while I suffered. Yet, I refused to be repressed by circumstance.I fought for our people, OUR people now, both with the Earth  and  Sky in shared counsel and the Seven Pillars on the battlefield. Rachel hadn't given me word-one of a reprimand for leaving Charlotte to raise the alarm while I rushed into danger. I was an Amazon in her eyes. Charlotte could fix the phone. Miyako and I could not. The bridge had to be secured immediately.We couldn't wait on Charlotte. I didn't even act as if what I did was all that brave. Rachel knew me far better now; she wouldn't make that mistake. Had I been able to fix the phone, I would have stayed and sent Charlotte. Had the whole team been there and Rachel told me to stay, I would have stayed while they ran into the fight.No. The situation hadn't allowed that, so I had killed a number of men and been wounded. The backside of my right thigh had merely been grazed (which my normally mangled left side found to be grossly unfair.) That was another scar to add to my 'sexy'. I had fought in my own insane manner and was alive solely because Saku had decided to shoot another man instead of me.Even after I knew who she was, I had allied with her and charged the rear of the enemy troop convoy. In the after-battle analysis, they weren't sure how many Seven Pillar Special Forces I had killed, both in the gulch and when I annihilated the back section of the attack column, and took my impromptu flying lesson.Credit for destroying the bridge jacks, thus making the BBQ a carnal cookout featuring Chinese 'Long-Pig', was still hanging out there as well. Rachel and company were still pissed with me despite all that. Why? On a purely personal level, they realized they would miss me if I got myself killed. They were not supposed to feel that way about their protectee.I certainly wasn't their first protective detail, though they were starting to believe I'd be their last. No, I had done everything right, by going into harm's way, and they were furious with the universe for placing us in that situation. Since the universe wasn't offering itself up to be punished, it fell on me to soak up their pique.Delilah was simply picking on me because she could get away with it this time."You are all embarrassments," Saku remarked bitterly once my screams began breathless pleas for mercy. "The Host has fallen a great way since my day." What a killjoy. I finally got my breath back."And the Queen on the floor of the Royal chambers, pushing around toy chariots with her two eldest sons and a child-playmate, was the height of decorum."Well, if looks could kill, I would have never made my nineteenth birthday, so Saku's glare was just another walk in the park."That was a personal moment with my family. It was a very private moment," she sizzled."My Mother's line is, it is what it is. My Father was murdered. My Father's sister and I were never close. These people are my family and my choice of kin.""English," Pamela chided us."Having no family to call your own, you welcome so many that 'family' has no meaning," Saku angrily mocked my words.There was a hushed moment then everyone but the three other Squirts and Saku started laughing. The three kids didn't know me either."By what metric do you measure family by?" I snickered."On his third day on the job, Fehér mén (Aya's pet name for me, White Stallion in the Magyar tongue, it is complicated) threw his body over my sisters and me to protect us," Aya said."He spared my foster-sister when she gravely insulted him," Mona volunteered. "He didn't know me. The Amazon, Constanza, would have died by anyone else's hand, except his. You may look down your nose at his mercy. As you do so, consider that it is his mercy that allows you to feel that way about him, and us right now." Whoa,"I have never seen him fight out of pride, or take joy in any combat," Rachel stared down Saku. "My only fear is that Cáel will get himself killed saving my life, or the life of any member of my team. He knows it is wrong. He knows I will be absolutely furious with him, and he accepts that. He is like no other Amazon I have ever known.We have limits. We follow orders. At our best, we put the welfare of the Host over our own survival. Not Ishara, Wakko Ishara. He follows the dictates of his house and those are to seek mercy and peace where appropriate. He is like no Amazon I have ever known, and I have zero doubt that he is one of the best Amazons I will ever know," she finished with a chuckle."I'm speaking my mind, aren't I?" she asked me."Afraid so, sorry about that," I apologized for corrupting her social skills."Saku, your mistake is that you confuse his caring about you and caring about your opinion of him," Pamela finished things up."Sakuniyas, I will work to honor my pledge to you. I will try to keep you alive because you can be a powerful ally of the Host, but also because it is the right thing to do," I enlightened her. "That doesn't make you all that special though. Personally I think you are a horrible, bitter bitch and lousy company for any non-masochist.I'm going to help you in the same way I'm going to help everyone else here. This is despite me feeling confident that not a single Amazon on this planet has a living father. They've never had brothers because their mothers murdered them. Your crappy attitude doesn't influence me one way, or the other. You are a horrible fucking person born to a horrible fucking race, my race, the Amazon Host.""You kill your fathers and sons," Delilah mumbled as she looked from face to face, finding not a single bit of denial, or shame. "I thought that was so much Greek bull's buttocks.""Nope," Aya shrugged. "Before I left for camp, Momma told me they put Daddy, my other Daddy, down when I was two." Kind of like Old Yeller, or Benji. "His name was Paul Twelve."Delilah looked at me with downright worrisome eyes."Yeah, I figured that out on day two on-the- job," I relayed to her. "For the past 2500 years, every male child of the Host has been tossed off a cliff to his death, or left out in the wilds for predators to devour. Every male they have kidnapped has been under a death sentence from the moment of capture.They tried to genetically breed their captive male population with Amazon females, but something went wrong. The males began passing on genetic defects that poisoned the race. In response, they have begun recruiting men, such as myself, and exterminating their old male breeding populace.Initially, I didn't run because I was sure they would hunt me down and kill me. Later, later I came to like enough of the Host to decide that knowing what was going on meant I couldn't let it slide. I couldn't leave this issue for someone else to tackle. I know I'm facing long odds, yet I'll never succeed if I don't try," I wrapped up my little my 'Cáel's Amazon Primer' lecture."Okay, okay, Cáel you are blood nuts, and hellishly brave. The rest of you are just hellish, killing your own kin as infants or if they get too old," Delilah sputtered. "That's plain wrong.""I had sons," Saku stated. "They grew into fine, strong warriors. My daughters married into the nobility.""Delilah, we don't expect you to understand our culture. Twice in our people's history, men have tried to eliminate our society, stealing our homes and property, and enslaving our children and sisters. We let down our guard once, and that nearly destroyed us, except we now have Cáel and a better understanding of what happened that second time," Tiger Lily educated Delilah."It turned out that not all males betrayed us. No, when we needed them the most, they sacrificed themselves for the welfare of our people and we repaid that loyalty with anger and barbarism. That is a burden we have carried all these centuries without understanding it. Only within the past month has the real truth about the Second Betrayal become known.Many of us are now re-evaluating the dictates of our faith concerning men and sons. After all, Cael is the descendent of Amazons of a First House, dating back to the Trojan Wars. He has been welcomed by his ancestors and his goddess, Dot Ishara," she completed."What is it with the Dot, Wakko and, ""Everyone buckle up," the pilot announced over the intercom. "We are on our final approach." Saku and the Squirts had her armor in some kind of order, we buckled up and let the plane coast on down to earth."Delilah and Cáel, since our 'vacation' was cut short, we haven't been able to bring your personal effects back from Africa yet," Rachel told us."Also, there will be four of Javiera's people meeting us in the hangar," she added. "We have been told to view them as non-hostiles.""Oh joy," Pamela muttered then, "There is nothing to worry about folks.""What? Me worry?" I goofy grinned her way.(Governments, horrendous enemies and ruthlessly evil friends)Four SUVs waited for us in the wide-open hangar. No sooner had the pilot given us the 'green light', than Rachel released the door/stairs mechanism and Charlotte began her decent. We had the camp FN P-90's, not the older Havenstone UMP 40's, so that was the weapon whose sights she was looking down as her eyes scanned the room. Five people. Four SUVs.Rachel went next with me right behind her. My SD's precautions turned our guests from a rather annoyed-casual to alert-angry. Standing with our two standard Mercedes GL550's was Wiesława of House Živa. A sole guardian indicated to me that an ass-kicking was in the offing elsewhere. The Golden Mare, Saint Marie was gathering the Havenstone Security Detail for some purpose, which meant she could only spare one more warrior for me.I was fine with that. Not only did I feel bad about denying her the four ladies I had, I knew we were going into this global conflict outnumbered and out-financed. The Seven Pillars had gotten at least one blow in by striking at the Amazon summer camp. I had every reason to believe other unexpected attacks had occurred all across the globe.In the closest black Tahoe SUV (didn't anyone use sedans anymore?) were two men in modestly tailored, off-the-rack suits. One with buzz-cut gray-white hair, was closer to fifty than forty, was as tall as me (a bit over six feet) and close to my weight and build. That guy was pissed off.His partner was smaller (5ft 10in.) and lighter. He was also cocky with that 'I know more than you schmucks' air about him. Beside the farther SUV, a Range Rover (black, of course, I swore in that moment that if I ever got to have my own fleet of House Ishara SUV's, I was going with baby blue, just to fuck with people's heads), were two other men, one cultured and the other a bad-ass.

J 2/10 M 1/10 For daily horror movie content follow the podcast on Twitter / Instagram @darkroastcult Each week we choose a movie from one of the horror genre to discuss the following week. Follow along each week by keeping up with the movies we are watching to stay in the loop with the movie club! Check out other podcasts, coffee and pins at www.darkroastcult.com ! THANKS TO ANDREW FOR MAKING THE INTRO SONG. (soundcloud.com / andoryukesuta)@andoryukesuta In the year 3000, the salvage spaceship Mother III happens upon the derelict transport Demeter. Captain Van Helsing and his crew board the abandoned ship. They explore the bridge and find the corpse of the Demeter's Captain tied to a chair and clutching a crucifix. Despite the misgivings of the crew, particularly intern Mina Murry and vice-captain Aurora, the Captain claims salvage rights and decides to tow the ship back to Earth. As the crew prepares to return, Mother III suddenly uncouples from the Demeter, leaving them stranded with no means of communication. Later, cargo specialist "187" and deckhand "Humvee" discover a cargo bay full of coffins. 187 speculates that the coffins could contain smuggled goods and opens one, only to find sand. Humvee heads back to the bridge while 187 stays to open the other coffins; he's soon mysteriously attacked. The crew rushes to 187's aid, only to find that he's now a vampire. Under orders from his "master", 187 vows to kill the entire crew. Aurora, fleeing 187, runs into the "master", a vampire named Count Orlock. Aurora makes her way to a recreation room, where she reports her encounter with Orlock and reveals his intentions to return to Earth. Upon questioning, she's unable to explain how she escaped Orlock unharmed. Thinking that Aurora could be lying, the Captain ties her up, and Humvee guards her. Soon, 187 gains entrance and attacks Humvee, who manages to stake him in the heart with a pool cue. Aurora, still tied up, confesses that she's an undercover android cop investigating salvage activities. This is why Orlock didn't bite her, as he sensed that she had no actual blood flow. The Captain and Humvee feel betrayed but untie her, thinking that they can use her as a weapon against Orlock, due to her immunity against vampirism. Searching the ship's database, the Captain and the Professor, who uses a wheelchair, discover that the legendary vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing was one of the Captain's ancestors. The Professor believes that Orlock will seek revenge against the Captain. The Captain learns how vampires can be stopped and decides to steer the Demeter on a course towards a binary star system. Orlock soon confronts the Captain and Aurora. Aurora leaves to rally reinforcements, leaving the Captain to fight Orlock alone. Orlock eventually gains the upper hand and turns the Captain into a vampire. Aurora and Humvee return, only to be attacked by the Captain. Aurora stakes him with another cue stick, but Mina (now a vampire herself) attacks, allowing Orlock to escape. Humvee dispatches Mina. The Professor, despairing of his chances of survival, finds Orlock, who promises to free him from his disability in return for aiding Orlock's return to Earth. When Aurora and Humvee return to the bridge, they find the Professor passed out. Aurora stabs him with a cross, revealing that he was a vampire. A furious Orlock tries to enter the bridge, but Humvee and Aurora close the door on him, cutting off his arm in the process. As the Demeter draws closer towards one of the binary stars, Humvee and Aurora confess to each other that neither knows how to pilot the ship. Knowing they are about to die, they take comfort in the fact that Orlock's plan to return to Earth has been foiled. Aurora reveals that she was originally a sexbot before being upgraded to be a cop, meaning she can give Humvee some solace before the end. Humvee accepts the offer and they spend their remaining time having sex.

Click here to send a text to Christian and Doug with your contact infoThis episode takes listeners through the sentimental journey of personal car stories, exploring how each vehicle resonates with memories and milestones. From Conrad's cherished Mini Cooper to the practical reliability of a Toyota Camry and the unique experience of driving a Humvee, this episode captures the essence of cars serving more than just functional roles in our lives.#carsloved #toallthecarsivelovedbefore #minicooper #humvee #hummer #amgeneral #everycartellsastory #everyhasaculture #podcast #carcastRemember to Follow/Subscribe and visit https://linktr.ee/carsloved to find all of our episodes and latest content.

Click here to send a text to Christian and Doug with your contact infoHere's a clip from the full episode with Conrad that drops on Tuesday, January 22nd. Remember to Follow and Subscribe to be alerted our latest full podcast episodes.#carsloved #humvee #m998hummer #hummer #automobile #automotive #military #toallthecarsivelovedbefore #everycartellsastory #everycarhasacultureRemember to Follow/Subscribe and visit https://linktr.ee/carsloved to find all of our episodes and latest content.

J.R. Martinez is an army veteran, burn survivor, actor, and New York Times best-selling author who rose to national prominence as the winner of Dancing with the Stars after surviving severe burns from a roadside bomb in Iraq. Following 33 surgeries and a remarkable recovery, he now travels the world as a motivational speaker sharing his message of resilience and optimism, while advocating for veterans and burn survivors through his powerful story of adapting and overcoming. Today, J.R. Martinez shares his remarkable journey from Central American immigrant roots through a life-changing military incident in Karbala, where he survived being trapped in a burning Humvee. His powerful story reveals how this traumatic experience, coupled with a challenging childhood, shaped his path toward resilience and transformation. The conversation explores how J.R.'s solitary road to recovery led him to discover the healing power of service, ultimately becoming a motivational speaker and actor. Through candid reflections on presence, connection, and finding purpose in adversity, J.R. demonstrates how his darkest moments became stepping stones to inspiring others and building meaningful community connections. www.thedadedge.com/509 www.thedadedge.com/alliance Instagram | Facebook | X | LinkedIn www.jrmartinez.com  

This is an unlocked Patreon episode originally released 10/19/23.This episode of 'Bigfoot Society' features an electrifying conversation between host Jeremiah Byron and Chris, a Florida listener with a range of paranormal experiences. Chris dives into an unforgettable incident at Nellis Air Force Base, where a spine-chilling roar shook a Humvee and spooked military personnel, leading to whispers of 'shadow people'. Could it be the Catman cryptid or something else? Listen as Chris details this eerie event, alongside his own Bigfoot and werewolf sightings in Florida. Uncover the mysteries lurking in both the swamps and deserts in this must-hear episode!Resources: Chris's Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@C73Eternal

This week on the Urban Valor Podcast, we meet Cory Carranza, a Purple Heart recipient and Army and Marine Corps veteran. Cory's story begins in Banning, CA, where he endured heartbreaking childhood trauma. After witnessing a horrific event as a kid, Cory turned to the Army when college didn't work out, becoming a 91B Combat Medic.In this episode, Cory takes us through his combat deployment to Iraq, surviving a harrowing ambush where multiple RPGs struck his Humvee. Despite his injuries, Cory pushed forward and enlisted in the Marine Corps, attending boot camp as a decorated combat veteran.Cory reflects on how his past shaped him, the toll of his experiences, and the strategies he uses to stay mentally strong.

Jack Bauer gives Nina Myers more than expected.Based on a post by Talking Bowl. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Nina Myers stared at Jack Bauer, a mixture of fear and vulnerability in her eyes. Just moments before, Ed, who had been sent along with Jack to help guard her on the truck ride to the airport, had slumped over unconscious into Jack's lap, the victim of a ‘mickey', which the rogue CTU agent had slipped into his bottled water. It had taken her tired mind, already rattled by Jack's previous violent interrogations back at HQ, a few minutes to process the full implication of the look on his face. To see the faintest trace of a smirk that played across his lips, and realize that he had been in the process of outwitting her, even as she had thought she was doing the same to him. Her previous taunts faded from her lips, and she stared at him in fear, dry-mouthed, her heart thumping in anticipation.For what seemed like an eternity, they did not speak. The only noise came from the dull roar of the engine, the rattle of the truck as it jostled down the road, the almost imperceptible sound of their breathing, and Nina's heartbeat, which, although only she could hear it, was almost deafening to her ears. Finally, she licked her lips, swallowed hard, and screwing up her bravado, said:"You got me, Jack." The words came out in a husky croak. He did not speak or move. Clearing her throat and holding her head a little higher, she tried again."What are you going to do to me now, Jack? Kill me?""I would never give you the satisfaction," he hissed. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he started to move towards her, bracing himself against the pitch and roll of the vehicle."What, then?" Bolder still. "Beat the shit out of me? Leave me unconscious for the guards to find, and then say I slipped and fell?"Or is it a mind-fuck;" (she caressed the word fuck, trying to make him savor it) "you want? Interrogate me a little more, try to make me piss myself, and hope I'll end up blubbering everything to you? Even you can't be that naïve," Nina sneered. "Don't forget, Jack, I'm as good at this as you are."Jack smirked. "Not quite." He was halfway towards her now. "Don't forget who's in chains here.""And why is that, Jack? Because I got away with something you never thought I could? Because I did it right under your nose and you never had a goddamn clue?" Fire glinted in her eyes. "Because you had the chance to kill me, but you just didn't have the balls to; "Nina's words turned into a yelp as Jack's hand shot out from his arm, grabbing her by the throat. The momentum of his grasp was so great that it lifted Nina out of her seat, until she was standing tilted back against the honeycombed metal walls of the truck. He rammed his torso against hers, pinning her in place, and put his face so close to hers that she could practically taste his hot breath with her tongue. The musky scent of his skin filled her nostrils, bringing back lewd memories despite the pain at her throat. Voiceless, she croaked out;"Jack; let go; ""Beg me," he snarled."What?""Beg me, Nina.""; please; ""Please what?"She stared at him blankly."Please what!" He tightened his grip, making her choke anew. "You may not work for me anymore, Nina, but you are still under my command! And as long as you are under my command! You will do! As I fucking say!" His face was flushed red, his breast heaving with exertion. "Now Please, fucking what?""Please; Sir; ""What?" His voice suddenly dropped in volume to a husky purr, and he put his ear up to her mouth. "What was that? Speak up, I can't hear you."Nina tried to speak, but could only make choking noises. Realizing he had made it impossible for her to carry out his orders, Jack loosened his grip on her throat, ever so slightly. Trying again, Nina gasped out:"Please; sir; will you let go of my throat?"Without a word, Jack let go of Nina's throat, but kept his body pinned against hers. Nina gasped as the air rushed back into her lungs. Her breathing was still slightly constricted from the pressure of Jack's weight against her ribs and diaphragm, but at least she no longer felt as if she were drowning for lack of air.Silence again, more charged than before. Jack's mouth by her ear, hers by his. Breathing in tandem, as much out of force of habit as out of comfort in their close quarters. Nina became aware of the fact that Jack's pelvis was pressed up against hers. Was it intentional? You never could tell, with Jack."So you're not going to kill me, Jack."He said nothing."And you're not going to beat me up, either."No response. She thought she could read agreement on his face, but wasn't sure."Then what are you going to do to me?" A slight note of fear in her voice, more than she would have liked, which she tried immediately to push away.He turned his face and looked her dead in the eye. His left hand crept around the back of her head, cupping it for support. He leaned in closer and, a trace of the arrogant smirk still on his lips, hissed at her:"Anything. I. Want."Nina knew it was true. He could do anything at all to her, and would most likely get away with it. Even if he were found out, who at CTU would defend her at this point? It took all her inner steel to avoid breaking down in tears at the thought.Jack's face drew even closer to Nina's. His breath felt warm on her face, yet his eyes still glittered with hatred. For a second, she thought he might strike her. Bite her. Spit in her face.Instead, to her surprise, she felt Jack's lips burning on hers. His tongue battered its way into her mouth as he kissed her violently. This time, there was lust mixed in with his anger, and the mixture sent a shiver through Nina in spite of herself. Almost instantaneously, she was furious both at him for taking advantage of her like this, and at herself for – she had to admit it – liking it.There was no doubt Jack was enjoying it too, in his own perverse way – the steadily fattening bulge in his jeans, burning against Nina's thigh, was proof enough of that. Not much blood going to his head right now, thought Nina. Seeing a chance to regain her edge in the situation, she kissed him back with gusto, trying to turn him on as much as possible. Just give him a nice big hard-on, and pretty soon he'd be weak enough to ease up on her. Ask her if the shackles were hurting her. Reach for the key and undo her, and just when he thought she wouldn't try to get away –All of a sudden, Nina felt Jack simultaneously disengage from her mouth and crotch. The hand that had been resting at the base of her skull only moments before yanked her head back by the roots of her hair, so far that she could barely breathe. Jack stood up, by now gasping for breath. His face was red; his erection strained the seams of the well-worn denim clinging to his lower body. Yet he seemed completely in control, both of himself and of her. Nina's mouth and pelvis burned at the withdrawal of his venomous lust, at the same time as her mind cried out in fury at being foiled by his ever-calculating mind."You thought you'd get off that easy, you piece of shit?" Jack shook his head in mock amazement. He leaned his face back in to hers and hissed:"I fucking own you. Do you understand me, you little cunt?"“Yes.""Yes what, ass rag?""Sir! Yes sir!" Nina shouted. Her humiliation fueled her arousal.Jack let go of her hair, shoving her head forward so hard that Nina was sure her neck was broken. She saw him kneel on the floor and go through Ed's pockets, searching for the key to the cuffs that bound her wrists and ankles together. She willed her facial muscles to remain neutral, but permitted herself an inward smile of triumph. Santa Barbara all over again. She had him by the balls.Jack found the keys, tried several of them before finding the right one, and undid the cuff attached to her broad leather belt and the one that connected her ankles to her wrists via a narrow metal chain. He disengaged those bonds completely and tossed them on the floor. She shifted slightly, anticipating the release of her hands and feet, but to her surprise, he left those cuffs on, throwing the keys over his shoulder, where they bounced off of Ed's inert body and skidded across the floor.Gingerly bracing his body against the truck's motion, Jack walked back towards Nina, the small smirk back on his lips. His left hand grabbed the chains binding her wrists and shoved them behind her neck, so that her hands were practically behind her head. Quick as a flash, she saw his right hand reach for something, heard the well-oiled flick of a blade popping out of its sheath, and before she knew it, Jack had a knife at her throat. MicroTek Halo, she registered."Now," he said, all business despite his barely concealed rage. "If you try to pull any more shit on me, or disobey me in any way, I will hurt you in ways you could only imagine. You'll fucking pray for death before I'm through with you. Understood?""Yes, sir.""Good," he said. He gently caressed her cheek with the butt of the knife, a twisted mockery of a tender lover's gesture. "Now lean back so that your head is touching the wall. Slowly."Trembling, she complied. As she did so, she noticed that her lower body tilted out over the seating bank, pelvis forward, legs splayed, as though she were presenting herself to him. Jack had planned it that way, no doubt. How like him, she thought bitterly.His left hand released her wrists, then traveled down to the front of her drab prison uniform. The hand holding the knife never left her throat. One by one, he undid the buttons, his thumb and forefinger working to pop each button gently yet firmly out of its hole. When he reached the buckle on her belt, he paused, as though contemplating his next move. Still acting one-handed, he loosened the tooth of the buckle from its leather hole so that the belt hung slack around her waist, then pulled it slowly down her thighs, almost to her knees."Put your knees together."She did so, wordlessly. He cinched the belt tightly around her legs, so that her loins touched each other. He chuckled softly to himself."Just think. If you'd kept your knees together before, none of this would have happened.""Jack; " she began to protest, forgetting herself."Shut up." He barely raised his voice, but she knew he meant it. She obeyed, but her eyes glittered with anger and frustration.Jack continued his slow, methodical unbuttoning of her uniform top, until he had undone the very last button. Then, in one supple motion, he yanked down her uniform bottom around the belt, exposing her plain white cotton panties. He then stood back up, replaced the point of the blade where it had been before, and pushed the fabric of the top far enough off her shoulders to expose the straps of the cheap standard-issue bra they had permitted her in prison. He smirked again, reading her mind – he knew how much she liked nice underwear, and how much it humiliated her to have to wear cheap, unflattering crap. Before she could even gasp in shock, he had cut both the straps with the knife, so that the bra hung loosely around her tits. He pulled down the fabric on each cup, one at a time, so that each nipple was just barely exposed. Nina's nipples had been fully soft in the steamy heat of the truck, but as Jack knowingly circled his thumb around her right one, they both watched it harden at his touch."Is this what you're going to do to me, Jack?" Nina spat in a low voice. "Tear my clothes off and fuck me in the back of this truck?"Jack said nothing. The hand with the knife slipped around behind her neck until his hand rested between her neck and shoulder, as though embracing her, but with the blade still pointed where it could hurt her if need be. His other thumb left her right nipple and started massaging her left one. He gazed directly at it, both pleased and fascinated by the effect he was having on her body in spite of itself. Nina's face flushed, but she continued:"How do you think you're going to explain yourself when we get to the airport and the guards find me like this? Do you think they're going to just hand you your Get Out of Jail Free card and say, 'Okay, Jack, just don't let it happen again?' Even you can't be that crazy."At this, Jack pinched her nipple – hard – between his thumb and forefinger. Nina yelped involuntarily, then held back another gasp as he continued to roll it around in his grasp, firmly yet – could it be? – gently. He continued to switch off, from left tit to right and back again, until he was sure both nipples were painfully hard, and then smiled again ever so slightly in satisfaction. Nina was almost wincing at the effects of her own arousal, but she somehow managed to hold herself in check.He had another command for her:"Hold still."Nina's throat was too dry to respond. She could only gaze dumbly as she watched the arm holding the Halo slip back from around her neck, slip up under her bra with the blade facing outward, and position itself right at the junction of the bra's two soft cups. With a sudden burst of force, Jack grabbed the bra with his other hand, braced against her for support, and cut Nina's bra open. A small, animal sound escaped from the captive woman's throat as the bra's support lapsed and her breasts fell to their sides. Even before, when she and Jack had been lovers and she had shown herself naked in front of him for the first time, she had never felt this exposed. Or this turned on.And then Jack's head was bent, he was kneeling, his firm hot mouth burning on her nipple, the knifeless palm grabbing her other tit and kneading it for all it was worth. Nina closed her eyes and felt her heart hammer against her ribcage. Rage in her mind, fear in her heart, heat in her cunt."Santa Barbara was business, Jack." She tried to sound cold and calculating, but her rising libido betrayed her. "I needed you to trust me. I needed you on my side. If you think you're reawakening an old flame or something, you're a bigger fool than I though. I saw my chance and I took it. End of story."Jack pulled his face away from her nipple and nuzzled between her breasts. He worked his way down slowly, tortuously, towards her stomach, his lips and teeth moving in stinging, sucking bites that Nina was sure would leave readily visible marks. Marks the guards would see, that would make them ask questions, that would – oh, GOD, his tongue was in her navel, he was working it around, hot DAMN that man was good with his mouth; shit, oh, shit, oh, shit, he was moving lower, lower still, but how the hell would he get her panties off with this fucking belt around her thighs, what was he, crazy?Again, the knife made an appearance. Again, Jack was grasping some piece of clothing on her body, trying to rip it off of her. First one side, then the other, along both seams of those hideous fucking granny panties that made her look like a friggin' hippo."I'll just rid you of those," he said, knowingly. The bastard was actually grinning. Then, as though performing a parlor trick, he whipped out her shredded panties from under her uniform, and Nina again yelped as the fabric stung her swollen clit and aching lips. He was enjoying this. Cocksucker."I don't hate you, you know, Jack." Trying to retain at least a shred of composure. "I didn't love you, either. None of this was ever personal."His mouth continued its searing path down her stomach, pausing as he lowered himself further still to give the tip of his turned-up nose a chance to nuzzle her dark pubic thatch."Oh, sure, I liked you all right. You were a decent guy. A good agent. An above-average fuck, when you got the chance. But no fuck is worth jeopardizing – AH!"Jack had nipped the sensitive skin just above her clitoral hood. He hadn't bit very hard, but the area was so engorged with the blood of Nina's hotly stoked lust that her eyes watered with pain. And then she could feel his hot breath on her, his mouth so close, but still not touching. Waiting. Teasing. Bastard. His tongue flicking, ever so lightly, over the painfully erect surface area of her sex, teasing her some more. Come on, motherfucker, get it over with.And then he was done teasing her, his mouth, his glorious mouth was on her, encircling her, inside her, licking and sucking her lips, her hood, her clit, fucking her with his tongue, tasting her wet hot slippery salty arousal. The man gave dynamite head, and he knew it, and she remembered it now more than ever. And as he got more and more into it, he yanked the belt down around her ankles and grabbed her by the hips and slammed her ass down on the seat – Nina was moaning steadily by now, no longer able to control herself – and spread her legs as far apart as they would go and oh my GOD he just kept eating her and eating her and eating her and –What? Why did he just -Jack stopped. He pulled his face away from her and squatted back on his heels, his hands still braced against her inner thighs. He had a wicked glint in his eyes and Nina's slick, clear juices all over his mouth and chin. She could feel his fingertips tickling the soft, sensitive skin of her inner thighs, just barely touching, but enough to let her know he was doing it deliberately. His tongue darted out lasciviously and licked some of it off his face, savoring the taste when he put his tongue back in his mouth."Want some?" He grinned, arose slightly, and leaned in for another kiss.Nina reared back reflexively, again banging her head on the wall, but Jack was too quick for her, and his tongue darted between her lips before she could muster the strength to force him out. It really didn't taste that bad, she thought. A slight marine tang, but nothing to gag over. It was more the way Jack was forcing it upon her, violating her mouth with his, that made her want to bite him, force him out, tell him to fuck himself.Then, as suddenly as he had begun, he stopped. He reached behind her for her mangled bra, which had fallen on the seat behind her. Then he had a command:"Stand up."Nina obeyed as best she could, bracing herself against the Humvee's momentum and willing strength into her quivering knees. Jack bound the bra around her eyes, whipping her around to tie it in the back so that it could serve as a makeshift blindfold. Then he turned her back around, this time more slowly but still firmly. Another command:"On your knees."Nina had a pretty good idea of what was coming next. Despite her fear, she allowed herself a mental roll of the eyes at Jack's stupidity. I'm supposed to give him a blowjob sight unseen with no hands? What is he, high?Jack must have sensed her insubordination, because she felt the knife press against her throat again. "Nina, this morning I cut a man's head off with a hacksaw. My wife is dead, my daughter isn't talking to me, and the people I work for would like nothing better than for me to fuck off and die. I have absolutely nothing left to lose."Now you're going to open your mouth – wide – and pull your lips over your teeth, and you're going to take what I give you the way I tell you to, and if you so much as think of pulling any shit with me, I swear to Christ I will cut you from ear to ear. Are we clear?""Y; yes sir; ""Good," said Jack, "Good." He was breathing heavily again. She heard a zipper, the rustle of fabric, the motion of skin against skin. She felt a hand, the one holding the knife, slip behind her head. The other hand, she knew, was where Jack intended her mouth to be shortly; he was busily making himself as hard as possible. Then he moved closer, and she felt the burning blunt head of his massive cock brush against her face. She had to restrain herself from gasping at the incredible heat he was giving off, as though his lust were being stoked by some huge internal furnace."Now open your mouth like I told you. Nice and slow." Again Nina could not help but obey, sliding her lips over her teeth as he had requested and opening her mouth as wide as she could.And then that massive head – which, she remembered, must be a deep purple color by now – found its way into her mouth, guided there by its master's hand. Although Nina remembered all too well how huge Jack was, her mouth still had trouble adjusting to his girth at first, and when he pushed it deeper into her mouth she had to restrain herself from gagging."Suck it," he commanded.Finally, Nina managed to get her reflexes under control, and began to work her tongue around the sensitive head, just the way she remembered Jack liked it. She burrowed her tongue into the tip and felt him stiffen and gasp involuntarily, then swirled it around the corona and heard a low moan resonate in his chest cavity. Flattening her tongue against the frenulum – Jack was practically growling in pleasure now – she took as much of him into her mouth as she could, then pulled back slightly and began sucking him in earnest. She could feel his fingers stroking her hair – a surprisingly tender gesture, she thought, for a man getting his cock sucked by the woman who killed his wife. She thought, again, of how relieved he would be after he came. How relaxed. How vulnerable and open to suggestion. Surely, Nina said to herself, he would have mercy on her. The stupid shit. She took a deep breath through her nose and sucked him even harder.Before long, Jack lost patience with being acted upon and decided to take matters into his own hands. Nina felt his legs move apart and bend slightly, so that he was straddling her head. His hand pushed her head even further down onto his cock as he began to fuck her mouth in earnest. She could feel him banging against the back of her throat, each pitch and roll of the Humvee deepening his thrusts."You like that, don't you, bitch?" Jack growled. "You wish you could see it right now, don't you? That you could touch it? Stroke it?" His thrusting grew harder and faster, and she could tell he was on the verge of coming. "That you could suck it dry? Swallow; every; drop?"And then all of a sudden, right before she thought he would shoot his load, Jack withdrew roughly from Nina's mouth and pushed her head away. Both of them were breathing raggedly. Nina felt disoriented from the blindfold, and her throat ached from the impact of the mouth-fucking she had just sustained. She had no idea what Jack would do to her next, and at this point it no longer mattered to her. Whatever it was, she was sure nothing could be more humiliating than –OUCH!Daylight. Nina squinted at the light, the blindfold abruptly removed from her eyes. The bridge of her nose stung where the bra hooks had chafed against her skin. She could not see or feel Jack, but sensed his presence behind her. Heard his breathing, calmer than before, but still elevated."You've been very good, Nina," Jack said, somehow more gently than before. "You've done as I said. You've given me exactly what I want. And now I'm going to give you exactly what you want.""What's that, sir?" Nina said, although she had a pretty good idea."Get on your hands and knees."Nina did so, unable to prevent a small moan of anticipation from escaping her lips. She knew what was coming now.During their weekend in Santa Barbara, Nina had begged Jack repeatedly to fuck her in the ass. He had done everything else – fucked her mouth, fingered her g-spot until she gushed all over him, fucked her cunt from every angle and position the two of them could think up, gone down on her until she lost her voice for screaming in ecstasy – but when she asked him to do that, he demurred, saying they could do it "some time later." And by the time it was later, he had already decided to go back to Teri, and there was nothing she could do about it. What had changed his mind now, she wondered?Jack unfastened the belt from Nina's ankles and tossed it aside. She heard cloth brush against skin as he took off his jacket and shirt, laying them carefully on the seat. She tried to turn her head around, the better to get a look at his glorious chest and arms, but he yanked her head back to its original position. That was the worst part of all this, Nina thought to herself – being denied the sight of this beautiful man even as he brought her to new heights in the midst of her degradation. It was like being in a state of permanent solar eclipse.Nina felt Jack kneel behind her, felt his hand move against her skin, stroking her ass, the cold metal of the knife contrasting with the warmth of his hand. The gesture was gentle but possessive, as though he were claiming her as his property. She felt the chain that she had noticed around his neck dangling against her back, a small, thick metal circle attached to the end. She wondered what it was, but dared not ask him."Do you want this, Nina?""Yes.""What did you say?""Yes, sir.""Louder, bitch.""Sir! Yes sir! Sir, this bitch would like you to fuck her in the ass! With your big hard cock! Sir!” She saw his other hand come in front of her field of vision, the palm at her mouth. "Spit."She spat. He rubbed the saliva all in and around her asshole, making sure it got in there. She then heard him spit on his own hand and heard the wet sound against his own flesh, making sure he was well-lubed. Then she heard him remove the chain from his neck and dangled it in front of her face. It was a ring. A simple, metal band."Do you know what this is, Nina?""A ring.""What ring.""Your wedding ring, Jack. Sir.""Do you know what I'm going to do with it?""No, sir.""I'm going to make you taste it, you worthless piece of ass," Jack spat. "I want you to taste it while I'm screwing you in your filthy asshole, so that you can feel exactly what I've lost. Do you want that, Nina?"What could she possibly lose by being frank now? "No, sir."Jack chuckled bitterly. "Good." He slipped the loop of the chain around her neck. "Now open up."Nina opened her mouth to receive the ring, then gasped in pain as he twisted the chain, yanking it tightly so that it cut into her mouth and her head was lifted back into an upright position. Then, with his other hand, he slowly, carefully spread her legs and guided his massive throbbing cock into her ass.Nina gasped again and moaned, pain mixed in with pleasure as she felt his hugeness sink deeper and deeper within her. He began to move in and out, slowly at first, with long, deep strokes; he was so long that there was absolutely no slippage. He was down on one knee, the other one propped up for leverage. The hand not holding the chain grabbed her by the hip, pulling her back towards him for maximum penetration. The knife, she noticed, was no longer in his hand. When had he put it down?Jack's strokes got steadily faster. She felt his hand tremble as he held the chain, making her own head bobble slightly. Her tits rocked in motion with the truck; the sensation only enhanced the ones she was feeling below the waist. She tried to move her head down so that she could breathe more easily, but the force in Jack's hand never wavered. The metal tasted cold and sweet in Nina's mouth, a slight salty tinge the only evidence it had been nestled against Jack's skin in this heat.Jack was beyond words. He let out an animal noise that sounded like something between a moan and a growl. He began to drill her ass in earnest, pumping into her unmercifully. She could feel the metal chain starting to cut into the corners of her mouth, and almost gagged on the ring nestled like a horse's bit in her mouth. The hand holding her hip slipped between her legs and started dithering her clit, rubbing it so expertly that an involuntary shudder went through her body, drawing her back against Jack's pelvis.God, the pumping. The pain. The hugeness. The pleasure. The stroking. Jack finally giving her exactly what she wanted, the taste of his defeat, his lowest hour, sitting like a curse between her teeth. And then he yanked her head almost all the way back, at the same time as his hand worked her clit even harder than before, and she screamed and shook and came, over and over, and the roar in her head was so loud that it almost drowned out the sound of Jack's roar as he reached his own climax, pumping load after load of hot, steaming come deep inside her, until he finally collapsed on top of her, almost flattening her on the ground. His hands dropped to the side, his head to the space between her neck and shoulder. She felt his chest hair, wet with sweat, pressing against her back, felt his heart beating madly – and then, all of a sudden, felt his chest erupt with uncontrollable shaking and realized he was sobbing, intoning his wife's name under his breath: "Teri, Teri, Teri, oh my God, Teri, I'm so sorry, sweetheart, Teri, I'm so sorry, Teri, Teri, Teri; "Nina had no idea what to say. She wasn't sorry she had killed Teri – that had been strictly business – but she had no idea how to react to seeing a tough, hard man like Jack Bauer breaking down in tears, weeping like an infant. She felt the hot salt water in little streams down her shoulder, running down her torso until the tears dropped off her nipples onto the floor of the Humvee. He remained like that, crying helplessly, repeating Teri, Teri, Teri, as though saying her name would bring her back like Eurydice from the gates of Hades.The truck lurched to a halt. Jack, pulling himself together almost as instantaneously as he had broken down, put the ring's chain back around his neck, then pulled on his shirt and jacket, as well as a pair of sunglasses from his jacket pocket. Instantly the tough, unreachable CTU agent again. He wiped roughly under his eyes and nose, picked up his things, and went to the exit.Gazing at Nina, he saw a disheveled wreck of a woman, shirt open, undergarments in shreds, pants down. She could feel a stream of semen leaking out of her asshole and down her thigh. She returned Jack's gaze, an unreadable look in her eyes. He squatted for a second, picked up a half-empty bottle of water, screwed on the top, and threw it at her, bouncing it off her chest. He opened the door to exit the truck. Turning back to look at her one last time, he said, without an ounce of emotion in his voice:"Clean yourself up."And then he was gone.By Talking Bowl for Literotica.

Redefining Mindsets and Building Community In this week's Team Never Quit Podcast, Marcus and Melanie's guest is Earl Granville, a true testament to resilience, leadership, and the power of positive mindset. Earl shares his transformative journey from trauma to triumph, offering listeners insights into how to redefine their own mindset to create the space for positive shifts in life. He discusses stepping out of your comfort zone, becoming the leader you are meant to be, and the critical importance of building and maintaining a healthy community. Earl's story is nothing short of inspiring. Just two weeks into basic training at Fort Benning, GA, with his twin brother Joe, the tragic events of 9/11 unfolded, marking a pivotal moment in his life. Earl went on to serve nine years as an Infantryman in the Army National Guard, with multiple deployments to Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. During his final tour, Earl lost his left leg below the knee due to a roadside bomb, and tragically, he also lost two of his teammates, Major Scott Hagerty and Specialist Derek Holland, on that same day. After the loss of his limb in combat and the passing of his brother Joe, who took his own life while serving on active duty, Earl discovered the power of a positive mindset and became a passionate advocate for mental health, physical fitness, and resilience. He continues his journey as a public speaker, traveling the country to share his story and motivate others to overcome challenges. In addition to speaking, Earl works with several non-profits like Operation Enduring Warrior, the Oscar Mike Foundation, and WarriorStrong, all of which help wounded veterans and law enforcement officers stay physically active post-injury. Earl's efforts have earned him numerous awards, including the 2018 Attorney General Heart So Big Award, the Junior Chamber International (JCI USA) TOYA Award, and the 2018 Daughters of the American Revolution Veterans Volunteer Award. He retired as a Staff Sergeant with multiple honors, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Combat Infantryman Badge. Tune in to hear how Earl Granville's story of overcoming adversity and his commitment to positive change can inspire you to face your own challenges with resilience, build stronger connections, and lead a life of purpose. In This Episode You Will Hear: • One good thing about these conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is that we've had a lot of people in their 20s and 30s that were losing limbs that causes technology to be boosted. (3:48) • The amputee's best friend is your Allen wrench. (7:03) • [At] NYPD, the culture today is like the modern day Vietnam veteran. (21:09) • Joining the military made it about me. What can I get out of this? Sure – free college. But going to Iraq, I became an NCO, put in charge of people. I realized this isn't about me, it's about us. (37:27) • There's pride that people take when tragedy happens. It's what the community does to honor those who aren't here anymore. (42:52) • I remember going over the headset talking to my guys like “Damn, it's beautiful here, look at this green grass. Who's water the grass in Afghanistan?” The next thing I remember, I saw nothing but black. (65:52) • I was ejected out of my Humvee and I wasn't wearing mu gunner's harness which probably saved my life, because the roof peeled back like a tuna can. (70:04) • Everything happened right in my situation. I really do feel that way. What do I have to complain about? (70:20) • Afghans don't have the will to fight. (76:26) • Have you ever met an Afghan or an Iraqi with an Iraqi flag or an Afghan flag tattoo? (76:43) • I went under for surgery on my hip, and I woke up in Germany, with a nurse pulling a breathing tube out of my throat. (79:02) • Joe [my twin brother] seeing me in this state, says to me: “I shoulda just gone with you. (84:23) • It's not forever. I'm gonna get my independence back. I'm gonna be walking again, cause it's not forever. (96:08) • While on active duty, my twin brother, Staff Sergeant Joe Granville, takes his own life. (97:57) • How do I get this second chance at life, and Joe [my twin brother] take his away? (98:08) • Not every mental health situation with an armed forces service member is PTSD related. (109:00) • The big thing people need is purpose – military or not. (110:29) • I found this passion of physical fitness once again thanks to being introduced to Crossfit. (120:41) • People you surround yourself with, I truly believe, makes who you are. (125:15) Socials: - Website: earlgranville.org - IG: Earlgranville - Enduringwarrior.org - Oscar mike foundation Oscarmike.org - warriorstrongink - IG: team_neverquit , marcusluttrell , melanieluttrell , huntero13 -  https://www.patreon.com/teamneverquit Sponsors:    - Navyfederal.org           - GoodRX.com/TNQ   -  kalshi.com/TNQ    - PXG.com/TNQ   -  joinbilt.com/TNQ    - Tonal.com [TNQ]   - greenlight.com/TNQ   - PDSDebt.com/TNQ   - drinkAG1.com/TNQ    - ghostbed.com/TNQ [TNQ]   - Shadyrays.com [TNQ]   - qualialife.com/TNQ [TNQ]   - Hims.com/TNQ   - Shopify.com/TNQ   - Aura.com/TNQ   - Moink.com/TNQ   - Policygenius.com   - TAKELEAN.com [TNQ]   - usejoymode.com [TNQ]   - Shhtape.com [TNQ]

It's News Day Tuesday! Sam and Emma speak with Richard Beck, senior writer at n + 1 Magazine, to discuss his recent book Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Trump's tariffs, Trump's cabinet drama, Trump's legal woes, Biden's gift to Trump, deaths under Texas' abortion ban, Missouri's ban on trans care for minors, Charlotte's airport workers' strike, bird flu, and Mississippi's runoff election, before diving a little deeper into Biden's plan to expand Medicare and Medicaid to include weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Trump's tariff plan, and problems in the Trump cabinet. Richard Beck then joins, jumping right into his particular perspective for the war on terror as a teenager at the time of 9/11, unpacking the bipartisan normalization of the shift to a domestic surveillance state backing a globalized project of enforced American hegemony, and looking at how the Democratic Party (under Obama), in particular, worked to simultaneously present the Bush administration as an aberration, while bureaucratizing, rationalizing, and, ultimately, reinforcing the exact project that was supposedly so absurd. After briefly touching on the window Occupy provided to the Obama administration's blatant rejection of a progressive movement outside of the political establishment, Beck steps back, diving into the overwhelming media backlash to any sort of critical lens on US hegemony, with a direct line between the “owning the libs” politics of today and the Limbaughian obsession with making fun of the progressive identifiers of the nineties and aughts, alongside a direct tie-in to the bipartisan militarization of American society, be it tanks in police departments, an influx of Humvees on the street, or the catapulting of “SpecOps”-esque comic movies to the forefront of US culture, and how those elements worked to further legitimize the amoral (and often actively immoral) maintenance of US hegemony across the globe. Wrapping up, Richard, Sam, and Emma briefly touch on the particular role of oil in the War on Terror, and why it fails to actually explain the quest for American hegemony in an age of dwindling capitalist expansion, tackling the major role of the US plays well outside of petroleum reserves in an effort, more than anything else, to simply protect its impunity at the top of the global liberal order. And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma touch on future coverage of the Longshoremen's strike, before diving into the continuing death and devastation coming from Texas' abortion ban, and reflecting on Tim Pool's desire to make every victim of rape a subject of public criticism if they want an abortion. They also tackle some backlash to Trump naming a pro-vaccination doctor to the position of Surgeon General, plus, you IMs! Follow Richard on Twitter: https://x.com/richard__beck Check out Richard's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/677393/homeland-by-richard-beck/ Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Follow us on TikTok here!: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here!: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here!: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here!: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Join Sam on the Nation Magazine Cruise! 7 days in December 2024!!: https://nationcruise.com/mr/ Check out StrikeAid here!; https://strikeaid.com/ Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 20% off your purchase! Check out today's sponsors: Delete Me: Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners. Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan by texting MAJORITY to 64000. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Col. (Ret.) Nicole Malachowski '96 shares her insights on leadership, resilience, resurgence, perseverance, advocacy, and how she continues to serve her country, even after her military career. ----more---- A SHOW NOTE:  There are two ways to learn from Col. Malachowski's leadership journey. If you're short on time, the audio version delivers the highlights of her stories in 40 minutes. Her leadership bites, takeaways, keys to leadership and transcript are below. The video version is 1:46:00 and is well worth the investment of your time. This version includes stories and details about the Colonel's journey she hasn't shared before. Click the "Play" button in the video above and settle in for a most enlightening conversation.    SUMMARY Col. (Ret.) Nicole Malachowski '96 is a trailblazer who has broken barriers in both military aviation and advocacy. She was one of the first women to fly combat fighter aircraft, accruing more than 2,300 flight hours in six different aircraft and serving in multiple high-stakes missions, including Operations Deliberate Forge and Iraqi Freedom. But her story doesn't end there. As the first woman to fly with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, a White House Fellow, and a key advisor on military and veterans' issues, Nicole's career has been defined by leadership at the highest levels. After being medically retired due to a Tick-Borne Illness, she turned her focus to advocacy, leading efforts to improve care for the wounded, ill, and injured service members through the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program. Now a passionate advocate for Tick-Borne Disease research, Nicole serves on several national committees and advisory boards, including the Department of Defense's Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.   NICOLE'S LEADERHIP BITES "Leadership is a journey." "The runway behind you is always unusable." "Don't think you have to be perfect to be a leader." "Believe those who believe in you." "Nobody wants to lead a scripted life." "Courage, compassion, and curiosity drive me today." "It's okay to admit when you make mistakes."   SHARE THIS EPISODE LINKEDIN  |  TWITTER  |  FACEBOOK   TAKEAWAYS Leadership is personal - It's about understanding what motivates and drives each individual on your team, and tailoring your approach accordingly. Believe in those who believe in you - Mentors like Mick Jaggers who supported and encouraged Nicole were pivotal in her development as a leader. Don't write yourself or others out of the script - As General Matthews told Nicole, "Nobody wants to lead a scripted life." Embrace opportunities to dream big and take risks. Radical acceptance is key - When Nicole's military career ended unexpectedly, learning to accept the situation allowed her to move forward and find new purpose. Personal values guide your path - Nicole's core values of courage, compassion and curiosity have been instrumental in navigating life's challenges and reinventing herself.   CHAPTERS 00:00  The Journey of Leadership 02:01  Colonel Malachowski's Early Life and Aspirations 06:01  Navigating the Air Force Academy 09:46  Leadership Lessons from Soaring 14:07  Overcoming Challenges in Pilot Training 17:50  Key Leadership Experiences in the Air Force 21:59  Becoming a Thunderbird Pilot 25:47  Transitioning to Civilian Life 30:02  Advocacy and New Beginnings 34:09  Personal Values and Resilience 37:54  Final Thoughts on Leadership   NICOLE'S KEYS TO LEADERSHIP SUCCESS Leadership is a journey that requires growth and learning. It's okay to admit mistakes and seek help. Resilience is key to overcoming challenges. Personal values guide decision-making and actions. Mentorship plays a crucial role in personal and professional development. Failure is often the price of entry for success. Authentic leadership is about understanding and connecting with people. The importance of representation in leadership roles. Transitioning to civilian life can be a new beginning. Embrace opportunities and seize the moment.   ABOUT NICOLE BIO Colonel Nicole Malachowski (USAF, Ret.) is a pioneering leader whose distinguished career spans combat aviation, military advocacy, and public service. As one of the first women to fly fighter jets, Nicole's journey included over 188 combat hours and multiple leadership roles, including F-15E Flight Commander, Instructor Pilot, and Flight Lead. She also made history as the first woman to fly with the USAF Thunderbirds. Throughout her career, Nicole demonstrated exceptional leadership, serving in high-level roles such as a White House Fellow and Executive Director of the ‘Joining Forces' program, where she advised the First Lady and Dr. Jill Biden on veterans' issues. After being medically retired due to a neurological Tick-Borne Illness, Nicole transitioned to a new mission: advocating for service members, veterans, and others impacted by chronic illnesses. She's a leader in the national Tick-Borne Disease community, serving on key advisory boards and government committees, and actively mentoring wounded veterans through the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program. Nicole is also a sought-after speaker, author, and consultant, sharing her experiences of overcoming adversity and breaking barriers to inspire the next generation of leaders. Her accomplishments include two master's degrees, induction into the Women in Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame, and founding her own speaking and consulting firm. Today, Nicole continues to serve and lead, using her story to drive change and impact communities across the country.  - Adapted from Col. Malachowski's bio at nicholemalachowski.com   READ NICOLE'S FULL STORY HERE     CONNECT WITH NICOLE LINKEDIN  |  FACEBOOK  |  INSTAGRAM  |  NICOLE'S LINKTREE     ABOUT LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP Long Blue Leadership drops every two weeks on Tuesdays and is available on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn + Alexa, Spotify and all your favorite podcast platforms. Search @AirForceGrads on your favorite social channels for Long Blue Leadership news and updates!          ABRIDGED AUDIO TRANSCRIPT DOWNLOAD THE UNABRIDGED VIDEO TRANSCRIPT HERE  SPEAKERS GUEST:  Col. (Ret.) Nicole Malachowski '96  |  HOST:  Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99   SPEAKERS Naviere Walkewicz, Nicole Malachowski   Nicole Malachowski  00:11 You know, leadership is a journey. We're always put into positions that we're supposed to grow into. Don't think you have to be perfect to be a leader. It's okay to admit when you make mistakes, it's okay to ask for help, and it's okay to have failures, as long as you overcome them. And I like to remind folks at all levels of leadership, you know that the runway behind you is always unusable. All you ever have is the runway that's in front of you.   Naviere Walkewicz  00:34 My guest today is Colonel Retired Nicole Malachowski, USAFA class of '96. Her career has been nothing short of extraordinary. Colonel Malachowski is perhaps best known as the first woman to fly as a pilot with the Thunderbirds, a singular distinction that set her path to reaching even greater heights. However, what you might not know is that her journey took an unexpected turn when she faced a sudden life altering loss of her place in the Air Force. The challenges that followed were extreme and personal, but through them, Colonel malikowski demonstrated a resilience and strength that not only transformed her own life, but also empowered her to help others with their own struggles. In today's conversation, we'll dive deep into the personal and professional journey that led her to transition to civilian life, the lessons she learned from the hardships she faced along the way, and how she now advocates for others, sharing the wisdom she's gained from the tough battles she's fought and won. We'll also take a look back at her time at the academy, her experiences as a pilot and the leadership principles that have guided Colonel malikowski, she has become a powerful voice for resilience, perseverance and leadership, and I'm excited to hear her insights on all of these topics. Colonel Malachowski, may I call you Nicole?   Nicole Malachowski  02:34 Yes, please.   Naviere Walkewicz  02:34 Welcome to Long Blue Leadership, and thank you for being here.   Nicole Malachowski  02:37 Thank you for having me.   Naviere Walkewicz  02:38 It's a pleasure. It truly is. I think one of the things that's so exciting for our listeners is really getting to know you. And you know, I think there's no question about who you are in the media, I mean, all the things you've accomplished, but some things that are most special is when we just sit down and kind of get to know you behind the scenes.   Nicole Malachowski  02:53 Indeed, let's do it.   Naviere Walkewicz  02:54 So let's go back to even before the Academy. Where did you grow up? Where are you from? And what were you like as a little girl?   Nicole Malachowski  03:00 Sure, yeah. So I was actually born in central California, in a town called Santa Maria, and I was born, I consider very lucky, because I was born a woman in America, so there was a lot of opportunities, you know, afforded to me. Also very lucky to be born into a solid, you know, middle class family, you know, I was a kid who always had a roof over my head and food on the table, which makes it a lot easier, right, for you to seize opportunities and to be your best. And think it's important that we acknowledge that not everybody is born into that position. And so I was very, very lucky, I will tell you, I was definitely the loner, definitely an introvert. Always have been. A lot of people would be surprised by that, but I am a solid INFJ on the Myers Briggs, but as a young kid, just very quiet, kept to myself. I was very much a dreamer, very curious about things, so I loved to dive into books. I loved school. I was the kid that would take my lunch box, you know, out into the middle of the football field by myself and just stare up at the sky and the clouds moving by, and dream about things. I remember being in the Girl Scouts during junior high we moved down towards Southern California, where I learned about Civil Air Patrol, and then from there, in high school, we actually made a big move to Las Vegas, Nevada. I continued my time in Civil Air Patrol as a cadet, but also joined the Air Force Junior ROTC at my high school.   Naviere Walkewicz  04:16 I'm just drawn to this visual of you with your lunch box in the middle of the football field looking up at this guy. So were you dreaming about flying?   Nicole Malachowski  04:24 I was, you know, I went to an air show when I was five years old, and I remember seeing an f4 phantom fly by, and it flew by so low, and it was so loud, I had to cover my ears. And I remember, like, my chest rumbling, you know, the smell of jet fuel. And I remember thinking, man, like there's a person in there, like, I want to be, you know, that person. And I had come from a family that, you know, honored and respected military service. So both of my grandfathers were career military my father had been drafted into the army during Vietnam. So I knew that, like, you know, military service was honorable and noble and good. And when I discovered that that was a military plane. I remember as a kid putting one plus one is two. I'm like, wait, you can fly jets and serve in the military. That's what I'm going to be. And wow, that was around 1979 and that's right, there are no boundaries on things. So looking up at the sky, watching planes, and of course, in high school in particular, moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, because Nellis Air Force bases there. So, I mean, I would watch the red flag launches and watch how those jets fly. And of course, I would see the six ship of Thunderbirds flying by as a kid, thinking that was pretty cool. So to be honest, I set my sights on the Air Force Academy in elementary school.   Naviere Walkewicz  05:34 Oh, my goodness.   Nicole Malachowski  05:35 Yeah. So when I was five and decided to be a fighter pilot, you had decided, I mean, I was maniacally, maniacally focused. I did not have a backup plan. I am so lucky that things worked out because I have no idea what else I would have done, you know, with my career, but I remember in sixth grade, I wrote a letter to the Air Force Academy. They responded. The admissions office responded with a personalized letter letting me know I'm kind of young to apply now, but here's the application process. They sent me a whole bunch of Air Force Academy swag, and that was it sixth grade. I was going to the Air Force Academy, goodness, when you were actually old enough to apply. Now to the academy.   Naviere Walkewicz  06:13 Let's talk about that process. What was it like for you? Well, I mean, I think it was more exciting than anything else. I told you. I had stayed maniacally focused. I was very particular and organized about prioritizing how my application would look. So of course, I strove to have the good grades, and obviously stayed involved with the activities like Civil Air Patrol or participating in sports like running cross country and track, as well as doing, you know, community service type activities. So I was indeed focused on making sure that application looked good. I remember the thing I was probably the most nervous about were those interviews with your, you know, senators and your representatives, and wondering if I was going to be able to interview well. So I was, you know, putting my best foot forward. And I remember my senior year, it was approximately October, maybe coming up on November about this time, right? And I went to the mailbox to get the mail, and I had the application had already been in, right? Because everything was done before the fall, and I saw this giant envelope from the Air Force Academy. And I thought, No way, because it's only like October or November. And I started shaking, and I opened it right there at the mailbox. I had to go up the street. I opened it, and I feel bad because I think I littered like the envelope all over the street, but I remember opening it up, and the first line was, congratulations. You know, you've been accepted to the class of 1996 and I instantaneously just started crying and running as fast as I could back to my house.   Naviere Walkewicz  07:38 Had you been to the Academy prior to the acceptance?   Nicole Malachowski  07:41 No, never stood a foot on at all. And I remember when my parents came to drop me off for for Jacks Valley and everything basic training, when we came up over that hill, over Monument Hill, and you can see the chapel and the kind of imposing, you know, white buildings on a hill, I was like, Oh, wow, that's extraordinary. And I was really just excited. People ask, were you nervous that day? I was not, because I was just so happy that this, to me, was like the first step of the rest of my life. It was that first real step towards this goal of serving my country, you know, like people my family had, and getting to fly jets while I do it, how cool is that? I don't remember any highs or lows. I do remember I got my enjoyment becoming a cadet, you know, soaring instructor pilot.   Naviere Walkewicz  08:28 So let's talk about that. That is a, kind of a key leadership role as well.   Nicole Malachowski  08:32 Yes, that was my leadership role. So my senior year, I was the cadet soaring squadron commander. Oh, let's talk about Yes, yes. So obviously, between freshman, sophomore year, I signed up as soon as I could, you know, to take soaring, and when I discovered that you could actually apply to be a soaring instructor, and I remember that was a really like growth experience, because it's one thing to be able to fly a glider, it's another thing to be able to try to teach somebody how to do that. And I really, I I give a lot of credit to this, you know, sorry, instructor upgrade program teaching me the skills of, how do you communicate something technical? How do you communicate something hard, this idea that you need to be able to communicate it not just in one way, but two or three different ways, because each of your students is going to come at it with a different skill set or a different perspective or a different personality that responds to different type of teaching. So learning how to tailor your instruction and your care and your leadership to each individual was something I learned here, you know, as a sophomore, this idea that I would carry that on into my career as a leader and, you know, ultimately into being, you know, a fighter squadron commander. This tailored leadership actually started here, but soaring is what was my respite. Soaring is where I refilled that tank. It's one thing to be successful yourself. It's a whole different level to teach somebody else to be successful.   Naviere Walkewicz  09:55 So you knew you enjoyed Well, obviously you enjoyed the flying? And soaring, the leadership aspect, I think, was something that was new to you then. Or had you done that in Civil Air Patrol? Did you also have leadership there?   Nicole Malachowski  10:06 Yeah, I had leadership experience in Civil Air Patrol, but I think this was a different level. You know, my senior year becoming the cadet soaring squadron commander, it was really cool, because not only were you trying to take inputs from your peers and your colleagues on things we could improve or do differently, you know, valuing the other cadets opinions. But how do I translate that to leadership? How do I go now and talk to the real officers, the active duty officers in charge, and go, these are maybe resources we need, or things culturally, you know, that we need to change, and that was hard for me, you know, because I had never done that before. How do you advocate for your peers in a way that's understood, you know, by the active duty leadership. So that was really something that, again, would become important in my military career, because when you're put in a leadership role, you know, it's about, I think, advocating for the people who you are, you know, accountable for and responsible to, yes, and so how can you do that and do it in a way that it's received? Well, yes, you know, by the leadership above you,   Naviere Walkewicz  11:07 After you graduated from the Academy, you went on to pilot training.   Nicole Malachowski  11:11 I was slated to go early right after graduation, and I was a casual status Lieutenant flying gliders. Of course, went out for a jog and broke my ankle. So this would be my first kind of little, little detour. And I ended up, they offered me to go, to go to shepherd a lot later, or as soon as my ankle was healed, I could go to Columbus Air Force Base Mississippi right away. And I said, I gotta go, like, I cannot sit around and wait. I want to go to Columbus Air Force Base Mississippi. And everyone's like, what you're going to turn down, like, the chance of going to fighters to like, have to fight for it at Columbus. I like, I can't be stagnant. I need to go. So showed up at Columbus Air Force Base Mississippi, and again, really grateful for all of the flying experience that I had. I think that just those foundational procedures, you know, foundational knowledge, was vital to being a little more comfortable than other people that didn't have that experience. It was easy to be slightly ahead of the curve early on, but as I like to tell people, I fell flat on my face across the starting line my second check ride in pilot training, I failed. Now, pilot training at that time was about a year long. There were about 10 check rides, and at that time, failing one check ride, statistically, traditionally, would take you out of the running for graduating high enough to be a fighter pilot. This was devastating to me, and I remember even having fleeting moments that night of like, maybe I should just quit. Now this is, of course, the youth in me, right? I'm a 21 year old kid, and I'm just getting a little bit emotional about it, but if I can't be a fighter pilot and I just knock myself out of the running, I should quit. And I didn't call my parents because I didn't want to tell them I was too, like, embarrassed maybe, to say, like, hey, my dream that you all have supported is about to come to an end, because I messed up, and I made a really junior varsity mistake. And so I called my mentor, Sue Ross, and then she just let me talk, and she's like, are you done? And I'm done. And she goes, Well, are you going to do that again tomorrow? And I said, Sue, how am I supposed to get back in the jet tomorrow? How do I face my peers? I've been telling them I'm going to fly strike Eagles this whole time. Like this is so embarrassing. What if I fail again? What if I fail again tomorrow? And I remember, she talked me off the ledge, man, you know, and I came away. I came away with that conversation, realizing that indeed, I think I rarely believe failure is the price of entry for achieving something great, because if you have the right mindset, you come away with failures, I think a lot more committed, a lot more dedicated, a lot more focused, and I think a lot more humble, and all of those characteristics and traits are good things. You know, it worked out for me, and I did finish fourth in my class, and I had an extraordinary class. It was a time of great cultural change in the Air Force, because we were the first group of women to come through pilot training with the option of flying fighter aircraft.   Naviere Walkewicz  14:04 So talk about your time while you're in uniform. You had some key leadership positions. You were squadron commander. Can you share some of your stories with that and maybe even some high points and some lessons learned, where you as a leader felt that maybe, maybe it was a low point or a failure, but you grew from it?   Nicole Malachowski 14:20 Sure, sure. Yes. I mean, I had so many, you know, different fun assignments. You know, obviously when you're in your first fighter squadron, I got out at RAF Lake and Heath out there in England. I mean, what a rage right to be a lieutenant flying strike Eagles at 500 feet, 500 miles an hour, up Loch Ness, to live in the dream, you know, becoming in my second squadron, which was at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, becoming a, you know, flight lead and upgrading to instructor pilot. Very nervous to go into the instructor pilot upgrade. I went in very young. In fact, when I got to that squadron, the weapons officer said, hey, I want to put you in the instructor upgrade. And I was like, no. Away like I am not ready for that. I am not good enough for that. And I was new to the squadron. There were people technically older and more experienced than me. They were in the queue, and he wanted me to jump the queue, a guy by the name of Michael Jaggers, call sign, Mick, I'm still friends with him to this day, and I remember I avoided him. I avoided him like the plague because I did not want to upgrade to instructor. And I remember saying, Mick, I just am not sure I can do this. And he looked at me, and he said, it's not your job to get through it. It's not your job to get through it alone. It's my job. It's my job to ensure you have what it takes and what you need. It's my job to teach you to be a good instructor. So your success is going to be my success. I will not let you fail. What a glorious man, what a wonderful instructor. And the lesson learned here to people is this, believe those who believe in you. Believe those who believe in you.   Naviere Walkewicz  15:52 It's true, though it really is. And those people, I think sometimes your trajectory can change or just like, accelerate, because someone gave you a little bit of courage that you just needed that little piece.   Nicole Malachowski 16:03 And to learn as I gained experience and credibility how to replicate that and how to be that person for other people, right? Because it's about turning around. It really is about lifting up other people. Your success isn't your own. It's how can you help other people achieve the best of themselves? And that's what you know Mikey and Mick did for me. And of course, the rest, you know, being history, because then I had the credentials I needed to apply to be a Thunderbird. And then from the Thunderbirds, I could become a commander, yada yada, you know, but being an instructor pilot, again, in the F 15 e how extraordinary to teach a brand new pilot or WSO, not only to fly the aircraft, to how to employ it as a weapon system and then to turn around and go to war with them. There's no bigger honor. There's nothing, I think, more humbling than that.   Naviere Walkewicz  16:49 Can you share something that maybe you learned from the perspective of how to lead better?   Nicole Malachowski 16:55 So let's be honest, when you go into a fighter squadron, things are a little bit one note, right? I mean, we all are cut from a similar cloth. We all kind of have similar personality traits. You know, you don't want your fighter pilots any other way, putting the effort into understanding what drives and motivates individuals. So learning at that age how to put your arms around everybody that you're responsible for, not just the ones that maybe are easiest to lead, or maybe the ones you're the most comfortable, you know, interacting with as a leader is, how do I figure it out? You know, there were some guys that, if I were to call them on up to the front of the room, in front of the whole squadron, to compliment them on something they did, maybe a check right they had. Or this goes for my fighter squadron command as well. You know, they would love it, right? Because it it was how they were extrinsically motivated, and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. If that's what they need, and that's what you need to do to get the best of their strengths and best of their commitment go for it. And then were others that low? If I were to bring them in front of their peers to compliment them, they would shut down and never talk to me for the rest of the you know, their assignment. And so that's where I would take the time to write a handwritten note, maybe put it on the seat of their Humvee, or put it in their helmet, you know, in the fighter squadron. And then when they'd see me walking down the hallway, we give the knowing nod that they were acknowledged for their awesome, whatever it was, and we would move on.   Naviere Walkewicz  18:13 Yes. And so what I'm hearing, in a really, kind of summarizing way, is leadership is personal.   Nicole Malachowski 18:19 Very. it's all about people and it's about authenticity and connections.   Naviere Walkewicz  18:25 So speaking about personal and authenticity, I'd be remiss if we didn't talk about your journey to the Thunderbirds.   Nicole Malachowski  18:31 I knew this was gonna come.   Naviere Walkewicz  18:32 It's here, and so you know it is. It's a different time. There was no woman Thunderbird pilot before you.   Nicole Malachowski 18:40 I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, so the Thunderbirds were part of the backdrop. I knew that the Thunderbirds, you know, as a kid, were special and were considered, you know, elite. And kind of going back to my personality, I love being told that, you know, you can't do things. And the truth is, people laugh at this, but the truth is, when I applied to be a Thunderbird, I did it because the way my career was going, I wasn't ready to, I wasn't on timeline to go to ide yet or to go to ACSC, but I had, like, a weird year kind of gap, and I didn't they didn't really know what to do with me. I didn't know what to do with them, and my husband was going to be PCs in the Nellis. This is, like, a true story. Wow. I know people want me to say, well, I had this big, long dream when I was Thunderbird. Also thought about it was always in the background. Is something that, you know, wasn't, was an option. And I, you know, because of a lot of people who put a lot of effort into me, I was indeed qualified, you know, to get in there and to give it a try. But it wasn't something that was like an ultimate goal. I did not know they had not had a woman Thunderbird pilot when I applied, did not even occur to me. Remember, I had never known an Air Force without women fighter pilots in it. That's right, that's and we had all achieved the age where we had acquired the hours needed, and it just lined up with the timing. And I'm like, Well, that would be kind of fun and different to do. And. So I always tell people, you know, when you get those butterflies in your stomach that says, This could be something cool, something different, that is your cue to go do it. Don't worry about what anybody else is saying. And so, you know, I was able to put that application in. And in fact, I was I put that application in, and when I went and told everyone I was going to apply, generally speaking, people were really tickled and happy and happy and supportive. But as the days went by, people started to think about it. I heard, you know, it's too hard to be a Thunderbird, you probably won't get picked. I mean, statistically, no one gets picked to do that. They've never had a woman before. Are you sure you want to do that and this and that? And I remember the day I turned my application in. This was back when you still had hard copies, and you still had to mail them, okay, 2005 took it over to the group commander's Chief of Staff, slid it across the desk. I was super nervous, because the voice in my head was like, Nicole, other people become Thunderbird pilots, not you. That was the other people become Thunderbird pilots, not you. What are you doing? Why are you risking this? But I kept thinking, what's the worst that's going to happen? I don't get picked, like most people don't get picked, and I go back to flying strike Eagles with my community, which I love, like life is good, right? Either way, it's a win, win. So as I slid that application across the desk, said, I'm applying to be a Thunderbird. Here's my application. I remember the staff looked up to me and said, you know Nicole, It's hard to be a Thunderbird. You know Nicole, you probably won't get picked. And the exact words were, you know Nicole, they've never had a woman before, and the colonel can only stratify one person in that moment. Let's, I think there's leadership lessons here, because this person was not trying to be mean, right? What was coming out was, I think the unconscious bias all of us have to check ourselves on every day at all ages. I think what was coming out were the cultural paradigms of the Air Force at that time. And I think what was coming out, you know, were other people's expectations about what I should or shouldn't be doing. And in that moment, the truth is, I grabbed my application and I took it back, I went across to the officers club and grabbed a beer like any good fighter pilot would, and I remember thinking, thank God I didn't put myself out there. Thank God Nicole, you know, now I'm a 30 year old captain, so I'm still a young person, you know. Thank God you didn't risk failure. Who are you to think you could be a Thunderbird, silly girl, right? And in that moment, the weirdest thing happened. And I tell this story on stage, sometimes the door opened to the officers club, and in walk the Wing Commander, Brigadier General Mark Matthews, for whatever reason, comes over and starts talking to me. Now, this is weird, right? I'm a captain. He's a brigadier general. I don't know why he was talking to me, you know, like walking amongst the people that day, or, you know, just making small talk. And so I'm trying to hold my own talking to him a little bit nervous. It's a little you're probably still feeling a little bit down from totally down. And in that moment, over walks my squadron commander, a wonderful man by the name of Dan Debree. His call sign was, trash. Get it? Trash, debris. Trash. Walks over, super excited, very supportive of my application. And he's like, Hey, General, did you know Nicole's applying to be a Thunderbird now? Man, I mean, you could have slowed down time. I was like, ixnay on the underbird Fae like, this is terrible. Neither of these guys knew that I had removed my application. And Dan's standing there all proud. He's my squadron commander supporting me. A great man again. And Mark Matthews looks down at me, general Matthews, and he goes, that's great. How's your application going? And I'm like, I looked at him, and here's what happened. I said, you know, sir, it's hard to be thunder, but I probably won't get picked. They haven't had a woman, so I don't want to waste anybody's time.   Naviere Walkewicz  23:11 Oh, you said, I said it.   Nicole Malachowski  23:13 I said all of it. And this is kind of an embarrassing story to tell, but I'm just this is the truth, right? This is the vulnerable truth of how this happened. And and he looked down at me, and I will never forget this. And I hope folks listening who have big dreams and gnarly goals remember this. He looked down at me and he said, Nicole, actually. He said, Fifi. My call sign, Fifi. Nobody wants to lead a scripted life. And he walked away and left me in extraordinarily uncomfortable silence. And those words nobody wants to lead a scripted life have become my life's mantra. Every time I get the knot in my stomach that says that dreams too big or that idea is too innovative, don't rock the boat, I remember what he said, because those words, like they lifted the weight of the world off my shoulders, told me it was okay to dream big. It was okay to buck the status quo. It was okay to be different. He was telling me, it's okay to risk failure in pursuit of personal professional growth, and it's not so much. I think he's telling you and me to write ourselves into the script. What he was saying was, don't ever write yourself out of the script. And as leaders and teammates, don't you ever write anybody else or their wild ideas out of the script, either. And so nobody wants to lead a scripted life. And I, I hope what you're hearing in these stories, and maybe what I'm realizing just chatting with you, is these little turning points, these pivot moments where these really important people, the mark Matthews, you know, the Mikey whiteheads, the Mick Jaggers, the Sue Rosses, the Kim Jamesons, they all come at that right moment. You got to be open to that you know, and and how important your actions and your words are to making or breaking somebody else's journals.   Naviere Walkewicz  24:48 Yes, yeah, so you took that application back.   Nicole Malachowski 24:52 Sure did. Sure did. I did not get the number one stratification from the colonel, but I did from the general. And. So that worked out for me. When I really started thinking about, I think I was putting myself back in the kid in high school with her brown bag lunch out on the football field watching the Thunderbirds fly over that can tend to see that those six jets smoked behind in red, white and blue, screaming over your high school. You know, you wanted to be a fighter pilot. Since you're a kid, I'm staring up at them, thinking, there's people up there. You know, I want to be one of those people. This idea that there would be a little kid watching me as a Thunderbird pilot, and maybe someday go, maybe I could fulfill whatever my dream is. Maybe I could join the Air Force too, a little girl going, maybe I could be a fighter pilot someday. And I think the gravity and the weight of the mission of the Thunderbirds started to really impact me, because it had indeed impacted me as a kid, and the idea that I could be a part of that. And I think the other thing was, and maybe this sounds cheesy or trite, but it's not, you know, sitting at Al UD, drinking my one beer at three in the morning after I land from my night combat mission, sitting with all these great Americans from all over the country, from every different background, and thinking, I could go tell their story, and that's what Thunderbirds get to do. You get to represent the world's greatest Air Force and tell the stories of these airmen who are out there getting the job done, those tech piece those crew chiefs, you know, the folks that are working at the tower, the folks in the food hall, our medical professionals, the cyber the whole thing, right? And all of a sudden it got really exciting to me, like I could go out there with this team, with this mission, and we could represent our friends with the honor and the dignity and the respect that they deserve. And I think those two things kind of collided together, and I started getting really excited about excited about this Thunderbird thing. Ended up back at Lake and Heath painfully excruciating waiting for the vinyls. And when we got back from Iraq, they give you the kind of three weeks of downtime. My husband was a gracious man and took me on a Cruise of the Baltic Sea. We're sitting in our cabin in Oslo Norway, and the phone in the cabin rings. The phone in your cabin, phone in my cabin rings. It's about 10 o'clock at night, but full sun outside, because it's summertime in Norway. And immediately we looked at each other, and both of our heart we've talked about this, both our hearts sank, because why does a phone call come to military people on vacation? It's not never it's never good. Yeah, and I was a flight commander at the time. So was he we immediately thought something disastrous had happened, an aircraft accident, a death, you know, a car accident. And we let it ring another time, and he's like, You need to pick it up. And I picked it up. And I said, Hello. And they go, is this Captain malikowski? I said, Yes. And they go standby for the commander of Air Combat Command. Oh my gosh. And I looked at my husband, and I was like, What is going on? Well, I knew this was the consolation call. There was, I think, I think there was five or six of us who had made it to finals. Three people were getting good position. The other were not. And it is tradition that the commander of Air Combat Command calls all six, coach is very gracious and professionally courteous. And so I thought this was my consolation call. So I'm waiting, and it feels like an eternity, and all of a sudden I hear Stevie there, and I said, Yes. He goes, Ron keys which was General. Ron Keyes, Commander, Air Combat Command. I'm a young captain. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And I go, sir, how are you? He goes. We have a pretty amazing Air Force that we can find you in the middle of the Oslo Norway fjord, don't we? I said, Yes, sir, we do. He goes. Well, I know you're on vacation, so I want to keep it simple. I want to offer you a job. And I said, Yes, sir. He goes. How would you like to be Thunderbird number three? And I said, I stayed as professional as I could in my voice, but I was looking at my husband gesticulating, jumping up and down like you're not gonna believe I said, Sir, I would absolutely love that. He goes, Okay, great. You're the next Thunderbird number three. Look forward to watching you fly and get back to your vacation. And he hung up the phone. You know, the Thunderbirds are, at that time, 125 people from 25 different career fields who came together to make that mission happen. Wow, never been in a squadron with that many high performing, highly motivated people in my life. I am still dear friends with my crew chief, still friends with people on the team. It is such a crucible experience. It's a one off, you know. Well, fast forward. Finish up the Thunderbirds. I get a phone call. He goes, it's Viking blurling. I'm like, How the heck did this guy that I met once get my phone he goes, Hey, when I was an Air Force officer, a young fighter pilot, I did acse as a White House fellow, and I think you should be a White House fellow. I said, Well, what's the White House Fellowship? So he explains it to me, and I'm like, there is no way I will get picked as one of 12 to 15 people across the United States, across all career fields, including civilians, to be a White House fellow. Colin Powell was a White House fellow. I am not a White House fellow. This is ridiculous. So I entertained his conversation. He says, I want you to think about I'm gonna call you back tomorrow, same time. Boom. Phone rings. Viking borling, you're applying to be a White House fellow, no, sir. I'm not. Third day ping. Phone calls. You're applying to be a White House fellow. Anyways, I applied to be a White House fellow. Went through that whole process, semi finals, regional panel interviews, and then the finals, and was selected to be a White House fellow. I got assigned outside of the White House to the US, General Services, Administration, yes, like, it was exciting. And I was like, this is where the nuts and bolts happen? Well, the GSA also runs what's called the office of the president elect. Between election and inauguration, the incoming president and their team needs to have a place to get ready, like our current incoming administration is doing. It's a physical office building where they make decisions about cabinet secretaries, or they get their intelligence briefings and all of that. Guess who got put on the presidential transition support team to be up close and personal for the peaceful transition of power between George Bush and Barack Obama? Wow. The extraordinary part about the White House Fellowship was most of the fellows were civilian, and I had been nothing but military since I was 17 years old and showed up at the Air Force Academy. So to be able to look at leadership and teamwork and professionalism from a completely different lens, to see how people from the education field or from healthcare would solve a problem was fascinating. You know, we in the military can look to solve problems a very specific way, and a lot of us are a little bit very specific in how we do it. And so to learn how to look at problems and solve things in different ways was extraordinary.   Naviere Walkewicz  31:23 So your career trajectory is just really incredible. Because you've kind of talked about how you've been put in these places based off of circumstance, but then when you get there, it's all about, how do you make the most of it, seize the opportunity and see what's available.   Nicole Malachowski  31:38 A lot of times, you know, as human beings, we go, Well, I don't have this, or I can't do this right now, or not resource this way, man, find a way. Yeah, ask yourself the right question. What is it I can do right now with what I have?   Naviere Walkewicz  31:49 Well, that makes me feel like that's a really good lead into kind of what circumstantially happened to you, unexpectedly. Yes, so you're medically retired from the Air Force. Do you want to talk about how that happened?   Nicole Malachowski  32:00 And sure, sure, you know, the the greatest honor of my career was serving as the commander of the 3/33 fighter squadron. I enjoyed that, and I remember also during that time being physically fit, mentally fit, spiritually fit. And I remember feeling ill in the summer of 2012 like I had the flu, but within three months, I started having severe neurological problems, so things like word finding, slurring my words, inability to read write, inability to type, dropping things with my right hand, dragging my right leg, getting lost, driving home, and I remember going into a grocery store and having a complete panic attack because I didn't know what a grocery store was or why I was in there so very Alzheimer's dementia like symptoms. So in fact, what was happening was my brain was becoming inflamed with an infection. So over the next four years, my symptoms would wax and wane. They would come and go, they would change in severity. Obviously, I could no longer fly. I was grounded, but they said, Hey, you can stay in the Air Force. You just can't fly. And I said, that's great, because honestly, I just want to lead airmen. Lead airmen and be a part of a team. So, you know, there's a lot of details, you know, to this story, but my symptom list was like 63 symptoms long, covering every system in my body. And so they cast the net wide, and that's where tick borne illness came into it. And at that time, I was in a wheelchair. I couldn't talk. My husband was wheeling me around, and I remember when the doctor said, we come on in. We have the diagnosis. We know what's wrong with her. The doctor says she'll never fly again. And my husband said, Well, how long until she's better? And she goes, Well, treatment is going to take at least two years. And it was in that moment, it wasn't that I wasn't going to fly again, that hurt. But when they said two years, I knew that the military was going to medically retire me, I knew it was over, and I couldn't speak or say anything, and I was just devastated. I remember my goal was to be the commandant of the Air Force Academy. That was my dream. And all that just came crashing, you know, crashing down. And in that moment, so for nine months I couldn't walk, talk, read or write. I spent another year and a half in rehab, and during that time, obviously went through my medical evaluation board, but I was medically retired, I fought to stay in and then I realized my body wasn't gonna let me and once I accepted that it was over, you know, I was able to move forward so radical acceptance was a hard thing to come by. But the day of my retirement, December 29 2017 came, I was home alone because I was bedridden and house bound for two years. Um, was very hurtful. Remains hurtful. How my Air Force career ended. I love the Air Force based on all the stories that I told, but this moment is very painful for me. It still is. And, you know, I thought, well, what are you going to do about it? You know, you can't. Change that you were bit by tick, can't change that you have a brain injury. What are you going to do? Girl, you know, the fighter pilot in you is not going to quit. And that's when I decided, well, I'm going to, you know, I got to do something. And the phone rang, and the phone rang, and it was during this time, a gal by the name of Buff Bucha, retired colonel, had been in a helicopter accident broke her neck in Afghanistan. She said, Hey, how you doing? I said, I'm not good. She goes talk to me, and I remember for two hours just vomiting everything out to this person I didn't really know very well. Well, she was calling from the Air Force Wounded Warrior program, wow, and the Wounded Warrior program swooped in to save me, and I ended up becoming a trained ambassador and a trained mentor, which I still am to this day. I'm able to help other airmen who are being discharged, but I just want to give a shout out to the Air Force wind Warrior Program, psychologically and mental health wise, I don't know that I would have recovered, and that I would have recovered to the place that I am today without them. And so I want for the active duty, listening for people in the reserve and the guard. It is for you, yeah, it is for everyone, and it is literally a life saving program.   Naviere Walkewicz  32:45 Maybe talk about what you've been doing then since.   Nicole Malachowski  36:16 Yeah, I do leadership consulting and professional speaking, but predominantly, that helps pay the bills, and I enjoy it. Predominantly, I do patient advocacy work at the national level, so I'm on several government boards. I'm on several nonprofit panels. We've tripled them, and IH funding through the state and like TicK Act and things like that. I'm currently on a National Academies of Science Committee. Can't talk about that because our report will come out in the spring. I hope everyone will read it. But Lyme disease, I went from being a fighter pilot to being an expert on ticks and Lyme disease. Who knew the path to success is always going to be non linear.   Naviere Walkewicz  36:49 Yes, you also mentioned you have children. You have twins. Do so how is it talk about, like family life in this new kind of in the way that you're working now, right? You're not in uniform anymore. You're still pushing amazing things forward. You're consulting what's it like being a mom?   Naviere Walkewicz  37:06 Man, it's harder, it is harder to raise 14 year old twins than it is to get shot at  in combat, I will tell you that. So you know, the person that's been missing in this whole time we've been talking is the most important person in my life, which is my husband, Paul. So we will be married. We just, yeah, just had our anniversary. 23 years. I met him in my first fighter squadron in the late 90s. He's an F-15E WSO. So we met flying together. And my biggest cheerleader, my biggest supporter, the greatest human being on Earth, is my husband, Paul.   Naviere Walkewicz  37:38 I want to talk about this resurgence, because I feel like that is really important for some of our listeners. When they're, you know, they're thinking about you said you got to know who you are and what's important to you. And how did you get to that clarity?   Nicole Malachowski 37:52 You really need to be able to answer the question, what is it I value and why? And I'm talking about your personal values, the ones that you're going to wake up with every day and go, these are my values. And so I'll tell you what mine are. Mine are courage and compassion and curiosity, and I developed those as I went through this deep thinking and deep reinvention, when I lost my career and compassion, courage and curiosity are what drive me today.   Naviere Walkewicz  38:18 We'll ask for Nicole's thoughts on reinvention, resilience and leadership. But before we do that, I'd like to take a moment and thank all of you for listening to long blue leadership. The podcast publishes on Tuesdays in both video and audio, and is available on all your favorite podcast platforms. Watch or listen to all episodes of Long blue leadership and subscribe at longblue leadership.org so we have had an incredible journey together, and really where we'd like to go. One final thought on leadership, if you might, leave your listeners with something about leadership, and I can say just from being in this short amount of time with you, your your 3 Cs are coming out in spades, your compassion, your curiosity and your courage. So thank you.   Nicole Malachowski  39:01 Thank you. You know leadership is a journey. We're always put into positions that we're supposed to grow into. Don't think you have to be perfect to be a leader. It's okay to admit when you make mistakes, it's okay to ask for help, and it's okay to have failures, as long as you overcome them. And I like to remind folks at all levels of leadership, you know that the runway behind you is always unusable. All you ever have is the runway that's in front of you.   Naviere Walkewicz  39:25 Well said, well said, Thank you so much for being on long blue leadership.   Nicole Malachowski  39:29 Thank you for having me. And here's a shout out to the current cadets that are working hard up on the hill, yeah, wishing them best and hoping they take it one day at a time.   Naviere Walkewicz  39:36 Absolutely. And for our listeners, I mean, I think that it's, it's it's certainly one thing to say, you know, you get to meet these incredible leaders, but my ask of you is to share this with your networks, because it's great if you felt something and you've had an impact in your life, but imagine the magnitude you can have by sharing some of the stories of our leaders like Nicole today with your networks and the change we can make together. So until next time, thanks for being on. Long blue leadership, thank you for joining us for this edition of long blue leadership. The podcast drops every two weeks on Tuesdays and is available on all your favorite podcast apps. Send your comments and guest ideas to us at social media@usafa.org, and listen to past episodes at longblueleadership.org.   KEYWORDS leadership, resilience, resurgence, Air Force Academy, mentorship, aviation, women in military, pilot training, overcoming adversity, personal growth, fighter pilot, mentorship, leadership, Thunderbirds, women in military, self-doubt, White House Fellowship, WASP, Air Force, personal growth, diversity, WASP, Air Force, medical retirement, resilience, leadership, Lyme Disease, tick-borne illness, self-discovery, personal values, reinvention, advocacy         The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation    

DISCLAIMER: THIS EPISODE WAS RECORDED BEFORE THE ELECTION ! On this episode of Boolin, Frank & Skylar discuss the World Series, Zach Bryan, the 2024 election, and Frank's doomsday apocalyptic predictions. Enjoy!

Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (Romans 13:7 NIV) I had an opportunity to speak at an event called Heal Our Patriots, which was sponsored by Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse. The experience was unforgettable. More than seventeen hundred couples attended. These were people who served our country. Many of them had been wounded in battle, some severely. Some were struggling with PTSD. But they made the effort to attend this couple's conference. They were looking for hope and encouragement from God's Word. It was an amazing honor to speak to them. The best part for me came when I gave an invitation for people to come to Christ. Many of the attendees walked forward and gave their lives to the Lord. The memories of it still bring me joy. It was an honor to serve those who have served our country. I had the privilege of honoring our service members then, and I have the privilege of honoring them today. The members of our military are special people. They have the courage and dedication to put their lives on the line for us. I think of Private First Class Ross McGinnis, who was perched in the gunner's hatch of a Humvee when a grenade whizzed past him into the truck that was carrying him and four of his fellow soldiers. In a split second, McGinnis did the unthinkable. He shouted a warning to the other soldiers and threw himself on the grenade. He absorbed its full impact and died. But the four other soldiers in that truck survived, thanks to the young man's amazing courage. That's the character of a soldier. That's the character of a veteran. And that's who we honor today. We can celebrate the veterans in our community by showing up to a parade or a gathering held in their honor and cheering as loudly as we would for our favorite team. We can honor them with a handshake and a sincere “Thank you for your sacrifice and service.” We can pay our respect to those who have died by walking through a cemetery and stopping at the graves marked with flags. We can read the names on the markers and think about what those men and women did so that we may have our freedom. We can commemorate Veterans Day by praying for military families. For the Gold Star families who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. For the countless others who live in uncertainty while their loved ones are deployed. We can ask God to make His presence known in their lives in unmistakable ways. And we can praise Jesus, who makes our spiritual freedom possible. “But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:22 NLT). Ephesians 1:7 says that God “is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins” (NLT). Jesus paid the ultimate price—His death on the cross—so we can be eternally free. — Listen to the Greg Laurie Podcast Become a Harvest PartnerSupport the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Ferrari Friday's, William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace will be discussing all things Ferrari and interviewing people that live and breathe the Ferrari brand. Topics range from road cars to racing; drivers to owners, as well as auctions, private sales and trends in the collector market. This week William crosses over with Crew Chief Eric from Break/Fix Podcast to talk about the Netflix Series, Car Masters: Rust to Riches, Sixth Season, and the conclusion of their journey into high-end exotics and the Ferrari saga. Copyright William Ross, Exotic Car Marketplace a division of Sixty5 Motorsports. This episode is part of our Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. ===== (Oo---x---oO) ===== The Motoring Podcast Network : Years of racing, wrenching and Motorsports experience brings together a top notch collection of knowledge, stories and information. #everyonehasastory #gtmbreakfix - motoringpodcast.net More Information: https://www.motoringpodcast.net/ Become a VIP at: https://www.patreon.com/ Online Magazine: https://www.gtmotorsports.org/ 00:00 Introduction to Ferrari Fridays 00:37 Reviewing Car Masters on Netflix 02:04 The Mystery of the Bargain Ferraris 06:12 The Gotham Garage Dilemma 15:52 The McLaren Controversy 21:16 Nostalgia Cars and DeLorean Drama 27:03 Unexpected Dealings and Frustrations 27:37 The Humvee and Jaguar Trade Fiasco 28:16 Ferrari and Semi Truck Trade 28:54 Ferrari 308 GTS Market Analysis 30:19 Shop Reactions and Internal Tensions 33:04 Modding the Ferrari 308: Hits and Misses 47:49 The Future of Car Masters 53:09 Final Thoughts and Viewer Engagement

Alyshia and Eme Ikwuakor explore his remarkable journey from a seven-month dry spell in acting, during which he feared his reps might drop him, to booking MOONFALL and THE GRAY MAN within just two days. Eme reflects on how a childhood poster of Will Smith in Independence Day inspired him to manifest his dreams of working with industry icons like Roland Emmerich and Halle Berry. He also shares how he nearly turned down an audition for On My Block and how Joe Dispenza's book Becoming Supernatural transformed his perspective on the industry. Eme recounts unforgettable on-set moments, including an incident where he fell out of a Humvee moving at 30 mph. Additionally, he reveals how he kept his cool during a Zoom callback for Matlock, conducted from an airplane—an experience Alyshia ranks among her top five favorite audition stories. These are the unforgettable stories that landed Eme Ikwuakor right here. GUEST LINKS: IMDB: Eme Ikwuakor: Actor, Producer, Writer Credits:  Matlock The Gray Man Marvel's Inhumans On My Block Moonfall Counterpart Extant THAT ONE AUDITION'S LINKS: For exclusive content surrounding this and all podcast episodes, sign up for our amazing newsletter at AlyshiaOchse.com. And don't forget to snap and post a photo while listening to the show and tag me: @alyshiaochse & @thatoneaudition MAGIC MIND: Get 48% off with promo code ONEAUDITION20 SLAYTEMBER: Starting September 15, 2024! THE BRIDGE FOR ACTORS: Become a WORKING ACTOR THE PRACTICE TRACK: Membership to Practice Weekly PATREON: @thatoneaudition CONSULTING: Get 1-on-1 advice for your acting career from Alyshia Ochse COACHING: Get personalized coaching from Alyshia on your next audition or role INSTAGRAM: @alyshiaochse INSTAGRAM: @thatoneaudition WEBSITE: AlyshiaOchse.com ITUNES: Subscribe to That One Audition on iTunes SPOTIFY: Subscribe to That One Audition on Spotify STITCHER: Subscribe to That One Audition on Stitcher EPISODE CREDITS: WRITER: Erin McCluskey WEBSITE & GRAPHICS: Chase Jennings ASSISTANT: Elle Powell SOCIAL OUTREACH: Alara Ceri

This episode contains graphic details of combat. If you or someone you know that is listening has PTSD from service or combat you may not want to listen to entire episode.  Joe Pawlowski, Joins Todd & Craig in studio to discuss his service in The U.S. Marine Corps where he was wounded along side other heros in Iraq. Joe describes in detail the mission and what he and fellow marines encountered that lead to himself being shot and wounded and others whom lost their lives. This episode is meant to honor those who fought bravely along side Joe and all the service members who have sacrificed along with their familes everything so that we have the freedoms we have.  Joe, a Marine Corps Purple Heart Veteran, served in Fallujah, Iraq in 2006. On Dec. 28th he was shot twice by a sniper fire and severly wounded. After a long recovery, joe started to draw and paint as therapy for his, arm, hand, and mind. He uses art as a way to help himself and others. Through art like tattooing, Devildog Ink & Paint llc. provides Pain Therapy for both Joe and his fellow veteran brothers and sisters.  Most recently Joe launched a new Youtube show called Inside The Humvee Podcast. Joe purchased a Humvee and will be interviewing other veterans from inside the vehicle. The show provides a means of therapy for both Joe and those that take part in the Podcast. Please follow and share all episodes that are soon to be released. Search and subscribe on Youtube Inside The Humvee Podcast as well as Devildog Ink and Paint llc  www.devildoginkandpaint.com Instagram devildog_inkandpaintllc  On behalf of the show we thank Joe his family and all those whom have served and are serving that allow us to have the freedoms we enjoy.  Joe will be back next month to update the listeners on Inside The Humvee and more

Jack Bauer gives Nina Myers more than expected.Based on a post by Talking Bowl. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Nina Myers stared at Jack Bauer, a mixture of fear and vulnerability in her eyes. Just moments before, Ed, who had been sent along with Jack to help guard her on the truck ride to the airport, had slumped over unconscious into Jack’s lap, the victim of a ‘mickey', which the rogue CTU agent had slipped into his bottled water. It had taken her tired mind, already rattled by Jack’s previous violent interrogations back at HQ, a few minutes to process the full implication of the look on his face. To see the faintest trace of a smirk that played across his lips, and realize that he had been in the process of outwitting her, even as she had thought she was doing the same to him. Her previous taunts faded from her lips, and she stared at him in fear, dry-mouthed, her heart thumping in anticipation.For what seemed like an eternity, they did not speak. The only noise came from the dull roar of the engine, the rattle of the truck as it jostled down the road, the almost imperceptible sound of their breathing, and Nina’s heartbeat, which, although only she could hear it, was almost deafening to her ears. Finally, she licked her lips, swallowed hard, and screwing up her bravado, said:“You got me, Jack.” The words came out in a husky croak. He did not speak or move. Clearing her throat and holding her head a little higher, she tried again.“What are you going to do to me now, Jack? Kill me?”“I would never give you the satisfaction,” he hissed. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he started to move towards her, bracing himself against the pitch and roll of the vehicle.“What, then?” Bolder still. “Beat the shit out of me? Leave me unconscious for the guards to find, and then say I slipped and fell?"Or is it a mind-fuck;” (she caressed the word fuck, trying to make him savor it) “you want? Interrogate me a little more, try to make me piss myself, and hope I’ll end up blubbering everything to you? Even you can’t be that naïve,” Nina sneered. “Don’t forget, Jack, I’m as good at this as you are.”Jack smirked. “Not quite.” He was halfway towards her now. “Don’t forget who’s in chains here.”“And why is that, Jack? Because I got away with something you never thought I could? Because I did it right under your nose and you never had a goddamn clue?” Fire glinted in her eyes. “Because you had the chance to kill me, but you just didn’t have the balls to; ”Nina’s words turned into a yelp as Jack’s hand shot out from his arm, grabbing her by the throat. The momentum of his grasp was so great that it lifted Nina out of her seat, until she was standing tilted back against the honeycombed metal walls of the truck. He rammed his torso against hers, pinning her in place, and put his face so close to hers that she could practically taste his hot breath with her tongue. The musky scent of his skin filled her nostrils, bringing back lewd memories despite the pain at her throat. Voiceless, she croaked out;“Jack; let go; ”“Beg me,” he snarled.“What?”“Beg me, Nina.”“; please; ”“Please what?”She stared at him blankly.“Please what!” He tightened his grip, making her choke anew. “You may not work for me anymore, Nina, but you are still under my command! And as long as you are under my command! You will do! As I fucking say!” His face was flushed red, his breast heaving with exertion. “Now Please, fucking what?”“Please; Sir; ”“What?” His voice suddenly dropped in volume to a husky purr, and he put his ear up to her mouth. “What was that? Speak up, I can’t hear you.”Nina tried to speak, but could only make choking noises. Realizing he had made it impossible for her to carry out his orders, Jack loosened his grip on her throat, ever so slightly. Trying again, Nina gasped out:“Please; sir; will you let go of my throat?”Without a word, Jack let go of Nina’s throat, but kept his body pinned against hers. Nina gasped as the air rushed back into her lungs. Her breathing was still slightly constricted from the pressure of Jack’s weight against her ribs and diaphragm, but at least she no longer felt as if she were drowning for lack of air.Silence again, more charged than before. Jack’s mouth by her ear, hers by his. Breathing in tandem, as much out of force of habit as out of comfort in their close quarters. Nina became aware of the fact that Jack’s pelvis was pressed up against hers. Was it intentional? You never could tell, with Jack.“So you’re not going to kill me, Jack.”He said nothing.“And you’re not going to beat me up, either.”No response. She thought she could read agreement on his face, but wasn’t sure.“Then what are you going to do to me?” A slight note of fear in her voice, more than she would have liked, which she tried immediately to push away.He turned his face and looked her dead in the eye. His left hand crept around the back of her head, cupping it for support. He leaned in closer and, a trace of the arrogant smirk still on his lips, hissed at her:“Anything. I. Want.”Nina knew it was true. He could do anything at all to her, and would most likely get away with it. Even if he were found out, who at CTU would defend her at this point? It took all her inner steel to avoid breaking down in tears at the thought.Jack’s face drew even closer to Nina’s. His breath felt warm on her face, yet his eyes still glittered with hatred. For a second, she thought he might strike her. Bite her. Spit in her face.Instead, to her surprise, she felt Jack’s lips burning on hers. His tongue battered its way into her mouth as he kissed her violently. This time, there was lust mixed in with his anger, and the mixture sent a shiver through Nina in spite of herself. Almost instantaneously, she was furious both at him for taking advantage of her like this, and at herself for – she had to admit it – liking it.There was no doubt Jack was enjoying it too, in his own perverse way – the steadily fattening bulge in his jeans, burning against Nina’s thigh, was proof enough of that. Not much blood going to his head right now, thought Nina. Seeing a chance to regain her edge in the situation, she kissed him back with gusto, trying to turn him on as much as possible. Just give him a nice big hard-on, and pretty soon he’d be weak enough to ease up on her. Ask her if the shackles were hurting her. Reach for the key and undo her, and just when he thought she wouldn’t try to get away –All of a sudden, Nina felt Jack simultaneously disengage from her mouth and crotch. The hand that had been resting at the base of her skull only moments before yanked her head back by the roots of her hair, so far that she could barely breathe. Jack stood up, by now gasping for breath. His face was red; his erection strained the seams of the well-worn denim clinging to his lower body. Yet he seemed completely in control, both of himself and of her. Nina’s mouth and pelvis burned at the withdrawal of his venomous lust, at the same time as her mind cried out in fury at being foiled by his ever-calculating mind.“You thought you’d get off that easy, you piece of shit?” Jack shook his head in mock amazement. He leaned his face back in to hers and hissed:“I fucking own you. Do you understand me, you little cunt?”“Yes.“"Yes what, ass rag?”“Sir! Yes sir!” Nina shouted. Her humiliation fueled her arousal.Jack let go of her hair, shoving her head forward so hard that Nina was sure her neck was broken. She saw him kneel on the floor and go through Ed’s pockets, searching for the key to the cuffs that bound her wrists and ankles together. She willed her facial muscles to remain neutral, but permitted herself an inward smile of triumph. Santa Barbara all over again. She had him by the balls.Jack found the keys, tried several of them before finding the right one, and undid the cuff attached to her broad leather belt and the one that connected her ankles to her wrists via a narrow metal chain. He disengaged those bonds completely and tossed them on the floor. She shifted slightly, anticipating the release of her hands and feet, but to her surprise, he left those cuffs on, throwing the keys over his shoulder, where they bounced off of Ed’s inert body and skidded across the floor.Gingerly bracing his body against the truck’s motion, Jack walked back towards Nina, the small smirk back on his lips. His left hand grabbed the chains binding her wrists and shoved them behind her neck, so that her hands were practically behind her head. Quick as a flash, she saw his right hand reach for something, heard the well-oiled flick of a blade popping out of its sheath, and before she knew it, Jack had a knife at her throat. MicroTek Halo, she registered.“Now,” he said, all business despite his barely concealed rage. “If you try to pull any more shit on me, or disobey me in any way, I will hurt you in ways you could only imagine. You’ll fucking pray for death before I’m through with you. Understood?”“Yes, sir.”“Good,” he said. He gently caressed her cheek with the butt of the knife, a twisted mockery of a tender lover’s gesture. “Now lean back so that your head is touching the wall. Slowly.”Trembling, she complied. As she did so, she noticed that her lower body tilted out over the seating bank, pelvis forward, legs splayed, as though she were presenting herself to him. Jack had planned it that way, no doubt. How like him, she thought bitterly.His left hand released her wrists, then traveled down to the front of her drab prison uniform. The hand holding the knife never left her throat. One by one, he undid the buttons, his thumb and forefinger working to pop each button gently yet firmly out of its hole. When he reached the buckle on her belt, he paused, as though contemplating his next move. Still acting one-handed, he loosened the tooth of the buckle from its leather hole so that the belt hung slack around her waist, then pulled it slowly down her thighs, almost to her knees.“Put your knees together.”She did so, wordlessly. He cinched the belt tightly around her legs, so that her loins touched each other. He chuckled softly to himself.“Just think. If you’d kept your knees together before, none of this would have happened.”“Jack; ” she began to protest, forgetting herself.“Shut up.” He barely raised his voice, but she knew he meant it. She obeyed, but her eyes glittered with anger and frustration.Jack continued his slow, methodical unbuttoning of her uniform top, until he had undone the very last button. Then, in one supple motion, he yanked down her uniform bottom around the belt, exposing her plain white cotton panties. He then stood back up, replaced the point of the blade where it had been before, and pushed the fabric of the top far enough off her shoulders to expose the straps of the cheap standard-issue bra they had permitted her in prison. He smirked again, reading her mind – he knew how much she liked nice underwear, and how much it humiliated her to have to wear cheap, unflattering crap. Before she could even gasp in shock, he had cut both the straps with the knife, so that the bra hung loosely around her tits. He pulled down the fabric on each cup, one at a time, so that each nipple was just barely exposed. Nina’s nipples had been fully soft in the steamy heat of the truck, but as Jack knowingly circled his thumb around her right one, they both watched it harden at his touch.“Is this what you’re going to do to me, Jack?” Nina spat in a low voice. “Tear my clothes off and fuck me in the back of this truck?”Jack said nothing. The hand with the knife slipped around behind her neck until his hand rested between her neck and shoulder, as though embracing her, but with the blade still pointed where it could hurt her if need be. His other thumb left her right nipple and started massaging her left one. He gazed directly at it, both pleased and fascinated by the effect he was having on her body in spite of itself. Nina’s face flushed, but she continued:“How do you think you’re going to explain yourself when we get to the airport and the guards find me like this? Do you think they’re going to just hand you your Get Out of Jail Free card and say, ‘Okay, Jack, just don’t let it happen again?’ Even you can’t be that crazy.”At this, Jack pinched her nipple – hard – between his thumb and forefinger. Nina yelped involuntarily, then held back another gasp as he continued to roll it around in his grasp, firmly yet – could it be? – gently. He continued to switch off, from left tit to right and back again, until he was sure both nipples were painfully hard, and then smiled again ever so slightly in satisfaction. Nina was almost wincing at the effects of her own arousal, but she somehow managed to hold herself in check.He had another command for her:“Hold still.”Nina’s throat was too dry to respond. She could only gaze dumbly as she watched the arm holding the Halo slip back from around her neck, slip up under her bra with the blade facing outward, and position itself right at the junction of the bra’s two soft cups. With a sudden burst of force, Jack grabbed the bra with his other hand, braced against her for support, and cut Nina’s bra open. A small, animal sound escaped from the captive woman’s throat as the bra’s support lapsed and her breasts fell to their sides. Even before, when she and Jack had been lovers and she had shown herself naked in front of him for the first time, she had never felt this exposed. Or this turned on.And then Jack’s head was bent, he was kneeling, his firm hot mouth burning on her nipple, the knifeless palm grabbing her other tit and kneading it for all it was worth. Nina closed her eyes and felt her heart hammer against her ribcage. Rage in her mind, fear in her heart, heat in her cunt.“Santa Barbara was business, Jack.” She tried to sound cold and calculating, but her rising libido betrayed her. “I needed you to trust me. I needed you on my side. If you think you’re reawakening an old flame or something, you’re a bigger fool than I though. I saw my chance and I took it. End of story.”Jack pulled his face away from her nipple and nuzzled between her breasts. He worked his way down slowly, tortuously, towards her stomach, his lips and teeth moving in stinging, sucking bites that Nina was sure would leave readily visible marks. Marks the guards would see, that would make them ask questions, that would – oh, GOD, his tongue was in her navel, he was working it around, hot DAMN that man was good with his mouth; shit, oh, shit, oh, shit, he was moving lower, lower still, but how the hell would he get her panties off with this fucking belt around her thighs, what was he, crazy?Again, the knife made an appearance. Again, Jack was grasping some piece of clothing on her body, trying to rip it off of her. First one side, then the other, along both seams of those hideous fucking granny panties that made her look like a friggin’ hippo.“I’ll just rid you of those,” he said, knowingly. The bastard was actually grinning. Then, as though performing a parlor trick, he whipped out her shredded panties from under her uniform, and Nina again yelped as the fabric stung her swollen clit and aching lips. He was enjoying this. Cocksucker.“I don’t hate you, you know, Jack.” Trying to retain at least a shred of composure. “I didn’t love you, either. None of this was ever personal.”His mouth continued its searing path down her stomach, pausing as he lowered himself further still to give the tip of his turned-up nose a chance to nuzzle her dark pubic thatch.“Oh, sure, I liked you all right. You were a decent guy. A good agent. An above-average fuck, when you got the chance. But no fuck is worth jeopardizing – AH!”Jack had nipped the sensitive skin just above her clitoral hood. He hadn’t bit very hard, but the area was so engorged with the blood of Nina’s hotly stoked lust that her eyes watered with pain. And then she could feel his hot breath on her, his mouth so close, but still not touching. Waiting. Teasing. Bastard. His tongue flicking, ever so lightly, over the painfully erect surface area of her sex, teasing her some more. Come on, motherfucker, get it over with.And then he was done teasing her, his mouth, his glorious mouth was on her, encircling her, inside her, licking and sucking her lips, her hood, her clit, fucking her with his tongue, tasting her wet hot slippery salty arousal. The man gave dynamite head, and he knew it, and she remembered it now more than ever. And as he got more and more into it, he yanked the belt down around her ankles and grabbed her by the hips and slammed her ass down on the seat – Nina was moaning steadily by now, no longer able to control herself – and spread her legs as far apart as they would go and oh my GOD he just kept eating her and eating her and eating her and –What? Why did he just -Jack stopped. He pulled his face away from her and squatted back on his heels, his hands still braced against her inner thighs. He had a wicked glint in his eyes and Nina’s slick, clear juices all over his mouth and chin. She could feel his fingertips tickling the soft, sensitive skin of her inner thighs, just barely touching, but enough to let her know he was doing it deliberately. His tongue darted out lasciviously and licked some of it off his face, savoring the taste when he put his tongue back in his mouth.“Want some?” He grinned, arose slightly, and leaned in for another kiss.Nina reared back reflexively, again banging her head on the wall, but Jack was too quick for her, and his tongue darted between her lips before she could muster the strength to force him out. It really didn’t taste that bad, she thought. A slight marine tang, but nothing to gag over. It was more the way Jack was forcing it upon her, violating her mouth with his, that made her want to bite him, force him out, tell him to fuck himself.Then, as suddenly as he had begun, he stopped. He reached behind her for her mangled bra, which had fallen on the seat behind her. Then he had a command:“Stand up.”Nina obeyed as best she could, bracing herself against the Humvee's momentum and willing strength into her quivering knees. Jack bound the bra around her eyes, whipping her around to tie it in the back so that it could serve as a makeshift blindfold. Then he turned her back around, this time more slowly but still firmly. Another command:“On your knees.”Nina had a pretty good idea of what

Jack Bauer gives Nina Myers more than expected.Based on a post by Talking Bowl. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Nina Myers stared at Jack Bauer, a mixture of fear and vulnerability in her eyes. Just moments before, Ed, who had been sent along with Jack to help guard her on the truck ride to the airport, had slumped over unconscious into Jack’s lap, the victim of a ‘mickey', which the rogue CTU agent had slipped into his bottled water. It had taken her tired mind, already rattled by Jack’s previous violent interrogations back at HQ, a few minutes to process the full implication of the look on his face. To see the faintest trace of a smirk that played across his lips, and realize that he had been in the process of outwitting her, even as she had thought she was doing the same to him. Her previous taunts faded from her lips, and she stared at him in fear, dry-mouthed, her heart thumping in anticipation.For what seemed like an eternity, they did not speak. The only noise came from the dull roar of the engine, the rattle of the truck as it jostled down the road, the almost imperceptible sound of their breathing, and Nina’s heartbeat, which, although only she could hear it, was almost deafening to her ears. Finally, she licked her lips, swallowed hard, and screwing up her bravado, said:“You got me, Jack.” The words came out in a husky croak. He did not speak or move. Clearing her throat and holding her head a little higher, she tried again.“What are you going to do to me now, Jack? Kill me?”“I would never give you the satisfaction,” he hissed. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he started to move towards her, bracing himself against the pitch and roll of the vehicle.“What, then?” Bolder still. “Beat the shit out of me? Leave me unconscious for the guards to find, and then say I slipped and fell?"Or is it a mind-fuck;” (she caressed the word fuck, trying to make him savor it) “you want? Interrogate me a little more, try to make me piss myself, and hope I’ll end up blubbering everything to you? Even you can’t be that naïve,” Nina sneered. “Don’t forget, Jack, I’m as good at this as you are.”Jack smirked. “Not quite.” He was halfway towards her now. “Don’t forget who’s in chains here.”“And why is that, Jack? Because I got away with something you never thought I could? Because I did it right under your nose and you never had a goddamn clue?” Fire glinted in her eyes. “Because you had the chance to kill me, but you just didn’t have the balls to; ”Nina’s words turned into a yelp as Jack’s hand shot out from his arm, grabbing her by the throat. The momentum of his grasp was so great that it lifted Nina out of her seat, until she was standing tilted back against the honeycombed metal walls of the truck. He rammed his torso against hers, pinning her in place, and put his face so close to hers that she could practically taste his hot breath with her tongue. The musky scent of his skin filled her nostrils, bringing back lewd memories despite the pain at her throat. Voiceless, she croaked out;“Jack; let go; ”“Beg me,” he snarled.“What?”“Beg me, Nina.”“; please; ”“Please what?”She stared at him blankly.“Please what!” He tightened his grip, making her choke anew. “You may not work for me anymore, Nina, but you are still under my command! And as long as you are under my command! You will do! As I fucking say!” His face was flushed red, his breast heaving with exertion. “Now Please, fucking what?”“Please; Sir; ”“What?” His voice suddenly dropped in volume to a husky purr, and he put his ear up to her mouth. “What was that? Speak up, I can’t hear you.”Nina tried to speak, but could only make choking noises. Realizing he had made it impossible for her to carry out his orders, Jack loosened his grip on her throat, ever so slightly. Trying again, Nina gasped out:“Please; sir; will you let go of my throat?”Without a word, Jack let go of Nina’s throat, but kept his body pinned against hers. Nina gasped as the air rushed back into her lungs. Her breathing was still slightly constricted from the pressure of Jack’s weight against her ribs and diaphragm, but at least she no longer felt as if she were drowning for lack of air.Silence again, more charged than before. Jack’s mouth by her ear, hers by his. Breathing in tandem, as much out of force of habit as out of comfort in their close quarters. Nina became aware of the fact that Jack’s pelvis was pressed up against hers. Was it intentional? You never could tell, with Jack.“So you’re not going to kill me, Jack.”He said nothing.“And you’re not going to beat me up, either.”No response. She thought she could read agreement on his face, but wasn’t sure.“Then what are you going to do to me?” A slight note of fear in her voice, more than she would have liked, which she tried immediately to push away.He turned his face and looked her dead in the eye. His left hand crept around the back of her head, cupping it for support. He leaned in closer and, a trace of the arrogant smirk still on his lips, hissed at her:“Anything. I. Want.”Nina knew it was true. He could do anything at all to her, and would most likely get away with it. Even if he were found out, who at CTU would defend her at this point? It took all her inner steel to avoid breaking down in tears at the thought.Jack’s face drew even closer to Nina’s. His breath felt warm on her face, yet his eyes still glittered with hatred. For a second, she thought he might strike her. Bite her. Spit in her face.Instead, to her surprise, she felt Jack’s lips burning on hers. His tongue battered its way into her mouth as he kissed her violently. This time, there was lust mixed in with his anger, and the mixture sent a shiver through Nina in spite of herself. Almost instantaneously, she was furious both at him for taking advantage of her like this, and at herself for – she had to admit it – liking it.There was no doubt Jack was enjoying it too, in his own perverse way – the steadily fattening bulge in his jeans, burning against Nina’s thigh, was proof enough of that. Not much blood going to his head right now, thought Nina. Seeing a chance to regain her edge in the situation, she kissed him back with gusto, trying to turn him on as much as possible. Just give him a nice big hard-on, and pretty soon he’d be weak enough to ease up on her. Ask her if the shackles were hurting her. Reach for the key and undo her, and just when he thought she wouldn’t try to get away –All of a sudden, Nina felt Jack simultaneously disengage from her mouth and crotch. The hand that had been resting at the base of her skull only moments before yanked her head back by the roots of her hair, so far that she could barely breathe. Jack stood up, by now gasping for breath. His face was red; his erection strained the seams of the well-worn denim clinging to his lower body. Yet he seemed completely in control, both of himself and of her. Nina’s mouth and pelvis burned at the withdrawal of his venomous lust, at the same time as her mind cried out in fury at being foiled by his ever-calculating mind.“You thought you’d get off that easy, you piece of shit?” Jack shook his head in mock amazement. He leaned his face back in to hers and hissed:“I fucking own you. Do you understand me, you little cunt?”“Yes.“"Yes what, ass rag?”“Sir! Yes sir!” Nina shouted. Her humiliation fueled her arousal.Jack let go of her hair, shoving her head forward so hard that Nina was sure her neck was broken. She saw him kneel on the floor and go through Ed’s pockets, searching for the key to the cuffs that bound her wrists and ankles together. She willed her facial muscles to remain neutral, but permitted herself an inward smile of triumph. Santa Barbara all over again. She had him by the balls.Jack found the keys, tried several of them before finding the right one, and undid the cuff attached to her broad leather belt and the one that connected her ankles to her wrists via a narrow metal chain. He disengaged those bonds completely and tossed them on the floor. She shifted slightly, anticipating the release of her hands and feet, but to her surprise, he left those cuffs on, throwing the keys over his shoulder, where they bounced off of Ed’s inert body and skidded across the floor.Gingerly bracing his body against the truck’s motion, Jack walked back towards Nina, the small smirk back on his lips. His left hand grabbed the chains binding her wrists and shoved them behind her neck, so that her hands were practically behind her head. Quick as a flash, she saw his right hand reach for something, heard the well-oiled flick of a blade popping out of its sheath, and before she knew it, Jack had a knife at her throat. MicroTek Halo, she registered.“Now,” he said, all business despite his barely concealed rage. “If you try to pull any more shit on me, or disobey me in any way, I will hurt you in ways you could only imagine. You’ll fucking pray for death before I’m through with you. Understood?”“Yes, sir.”“Good,” he said. He gently caressed her cheek with the butt of the knife, a twisted mockery of a tender lover’s gesture. “Now lean back so that your head is touching the wall. Slowly.”Trembling, she complied. As she did so, she noticed that her lower body tilted out over the seating bank, pelvis forward, legs splayed, as though she were presenting herself to him. Jack had planned it that way, no doubt. How like him, she thought bitterly.His left hand released her wrists, then traveled down to the front of her drab prison uniform. The hand holding the knife never left her throat. One by one, he undid the buttons, his thumb and forefinger working to pop each button gently yet firmly out of its hole. When he reached the buckle on her belt, he paused, as though contemplating his next move. Still acting one-handed, he loosened the tooth of the buckle from its leather hole so that the belt hung slack around her waist, then pulled it slowly down her thighs, almost to her knees.“Put your knees together.”She did so, wordlessly. He cinched the belt tightly around her legs, so that her loins touched each other. He chuckled softly to himself.“Just think. If you’d kept your knees together before, none of this would have happened.”“Jack; ” she began to protest, forgetting herself.“Shut up.” He barely raised his voice, but she knew he meant it. She obeyed, but her eyes glittered with anger and frustration.Jack continued his slow, methodical unbuttoning of her uniform top, until he had undone the very last button. Then, in one supple motion, he yanked down her uniform bottom around the belt, exposing her plain white cotton panties. He then stood back up, replaced the point of the blade where it had been before, and pushed the fabric of the top far enough off her shoulders to expose the straps of the cheap standard-issue bra they had permitted her in prison. He smirked again, reading her mind – he knew how much she liked nice underwear, and how much it humiliated her to have to wear cheap, unflattering crap. Before she could even gasp in shock, he had cut both the straps with the knife, so that the bra hung loosely around her tits. He pulled down the fabric on each cup, one at a time, so that each nipple was just barely exposed. Nina’s nipples had been fully soft in the steamy heat of the truck, but as Jack knowingly circled his thumb around her right one, they both watched it harden at his touch.“Is this what you’re going to do to me, Jack?” Nina spat in a low voice. “Tear my clothes off and fuck me in the back of this truck?”Jack said nothing. The hand with the knife slipped around behind her neck until his hand rested between her neck and shoulder, as though embracing her, but with the blade still pointed where it could hurt her if need be. His other thumb left her right nipple and started massaging her left one. He gazed directly at it, both pleased and fascinated by the effect he was having on her body in spite of itself. Nina’s face flushed, but she continued:“How do you think you’re going to explain yourself when we get to the airport and the guards find me like this? Do you think they’re going to just hand you your Get Out of Jail Free card and say, ‘Okay, Jack, just don’t let it happen again?’ Even you can’t be that crazy.”At this, Jack pinched her nipple – hard – between his thumb and forefinger. Nina yelped involuntarily, then held back another gasp as he continued to roll it around in his grasp, firmly yet – could it be? – gently. He continued to switch off, from left tit to right and back again, until he was sure both nipples were painfully hard, and then smiled again ever so slightly in satisfaction. Nina was almost wincing at the effects of her own arousal, but she somehow managed to hold herself in check.He had another command for her:“Hold still.”Nina’s throat was too dry to respond. She could only gaze dumbly as she watched the arm holding the Halo slip back from around her neck, slip up under her bra with the blade facing outward, and position itself right at the junction of the bra’s two soft cups. With a sudden burst of force, Jack grabbed the bra with his other hand, braced against her for support, and cut Nina’s bra open. A small, animal sound escaped from the captive woman’s throat as the bra’s support lapsed and her breasts fell to their sides. Even before, when she and Jack had been lovers and she had shown herself naked in front of him for the first time, she had never felt this exposed. Or this turned on.And then Jack’s head was bent, he was kneeling, his firm hot mouth burning on her nipple, the knifeless palm grabbing her other tit and kneading it for all it was worth. Nina closed her eyes and felt her heart hammer against her ribcage. Rage in her mind, fear in her heart, heat in her cunt.“Santa Barbara was business, Jack.” She tried to sound cold and calculating, but her rising libido betrayed her. “I needed you to trust me. I needed you on my side. If you think you’re reawakening an old flame or something, you’re a bigger fool than I though. I saw my chance and I took it. End of story.”Jack pulled his face away from her nipple and nuzzled between her breasts. He worked his way down slowly, tortuously, towards her stomach, his lips and teeth moving in stinging, sucking bites that Nina was sure would leave readily visible marks. Marks the guards would see, that would make them ask questions, that would – oh, GOD, his tongue was in her navel, he was working it around, hot DAMN that man was good with his mouth; shit, oh, shit, oh, shit, he was moving lower, lower still, but how the hell would he get her panties off with this fucking belt around her thighs, what was he, crazy?Again, the knife made an appearance. Again, Jack was grasping some piece of clothing on her body, trying to rip it off of her. First one side, then the other, along both seams of those hideous fucking granny panties that made her look like a friggin’ hippo.“I’ll just rid you of those,” he said, knowingly. The bastard was actually grinning. Then, as though performing a parlor trick, he whipped out her shredded panties from under her uniform, and Nina again yelped as the fabric stung her swollen clit and aching lips. He was enjoying this. Cocksucker.“I don’t hate you, you know, Jack.” Trying to retain at least a shred of composure. “I didn’t love you, either. None of this was ever personal.”His mouth continued its searing path down her stomach, pausing as he lowered himself further still to give the tip of his turned-up nose a chance to nuzzle her dark pubic thatch.“Oh, sure, I liked you all right. You were a decent guy. A good agent. An above-average fuck, when you got the chance. But no fuck is worth jeopardizing – AH!”Jack had nipped the sensitive skin just above her clitoral hood. He hadn’t bit very hard, but the area was so engorged with the blood of Nina’s hotly stoked lust that her eyes watered with pain. And then she could feel his hot breath on her, his mouth so close, but still not touching. Waiting. Teasing. Bastard. His tongue flicking, ever so lightly, over the painfully erect surface area of her sex, teasing her some more. Come on, motherfucker, get it over with.And then he was done teasing her, his mouth, his glorious mouth was on her, encircling her, inside her, licking and sucking her lips, her hood, her clit, fucking her with his tongue, tasting her wet hot slippery salty arousal. The man gave dynamite head, and he knew it, and she remembered it now more than ever. And as he got more and more into it, he yanked the belt down around her ankles and grabbed her by the hips and slammed her ass down on the seat – Nina was moaning steadily by now, no longer able to control herself – and spread her legs as far apart as they would go and oh my GOD he just kept eating her and eating her and eating her and –What? Why did he just -Jack stopped. He pulled his face away from her and squatted back on his heels, his hands still braced against her inner thighs. He had a wicked glint in his eyes and Nina’s slick, clear juices all over his mouth and chin. She could feel his fingertips tickling the soft, sensitive skin of her inner thighs, just barely touching, but enough to let her know he was doing it deliberately. His tongue darted out lasciviously and licked some of it off his face, savoring the taste when he put his tongue back in his mouth.“Want some?” He grinned, arose slightly, and leaned in for another kiss.Nina reared back reflexively, again banging her head on the wall, but Jack was too quick for her, and his tongue darted between her lips before she could muster the strength to force him out. It really didn’t taste that bad, she thought. A slight marine tang, but nothing to gag over. It was more the way Jack was forcing it upon her, violating her mouth with his, that made her want to bite him, force him out, tell him to fuck himself.Then, as suddenly as he had begun, he stopped. He reached behind her for her mangled bra, which had fallen on the seat behind her. Then he had a command:“Stand up.”Nina obeyed as best she could, bracing herself against the Humvee's momentum and willing strength into her quivering knees. Jack bound the bra around her eyes, whipping her around to tie it in the back so that it could serve as a makeshift blindfold. Then he turned her back around, this time more slowly but still firmly. Another command:“On your knees.”Nina had a pretty good idea of what

I spoke last night with our frequent guest, former IDF spokesperson, Lt. Col. (Res.) Jonathan Conricus, to focus on what many outside Israel find to be a very confusing state of chaos. There is a government that has made clear that a red line – an inviolable boundary in its negotiations for a hostage deal with Hamas – is that it will not abandon the Philadelphi Corridor. Shortly after this position was made public in a leaked recording from an Israeli security cabinet meeting, the bodies of six hostages were found in the Gaza tunnels. They had been murdered by Hamas a short time before. And their deaths enraged the nation. Were their murders avoidable? Was PM Benjamin Netanyahu being callous to their plight in sticking to this position? Or was he steeling and doing what is necessary for the future of Israel? Listen to our discussion in which we explore this horrible dilemma.Below, just received before publishing this podcast episode, is the transcript of PM Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks to the international press at 8pm (Israel time) today, Wednesday, Sept. 4. His very full statement stands as a robust response to many parts of our podcast. I suggest reading the statement in full.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Remarks at his Press Conference for the Foreign MediaFollowing are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks, this evening (Wednesday, 4 September 2024), at the GPO in Jerusalem:"Israel is experiencing days of horror, sorrow and rage. A week ago, we experienced such horror.Yesterday, I visited in Ashkelon the family of one of the hostages murdered in cold blood. A day earlier, I spoke to several of the families of these murdered hostages. It tears your heart out. I said to them that I'm sorry. I apologized that we, we didn't get them out. We worked so hard to get them. We were close. But we didn't. And they changed the torment of families worried about their loved ones to families grieving for their fallen beloved. That sentiment I know because I belong to that family. But it's a horror.We also lost brave policemen and brave soldiers who were fighting in the Gaza front and I embraced their families as well. All our people do.On October 7th, we experienced the worst savagery in this century. On October 7th, we experienced the worst savagery meted on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. These savages massacred our people. 1,200 civilians. They beheaded our men. They raped our women and then murdered them. They burnt babies alive. They took 255 of our people hostages to their underground dungeons. That's a horror that the world saw and responded to initially.It's important that we remember it. But we were given a reminder. A terrible reminder. Last week, when these savages murdered six of our hostages in cold blood. They riddled them with bullets. Then they shot each of them in the head. Some of them several times.And these are the savages, these are the terrorists that Iran implanted next to our border as elsewhere. And we're committed to defeating them, to extirpating this evil from our midst. I want to talk to you today about some of the things that we must do to achieve that goal, including the questions of the Philadelphi Corridor.But before I do that, I want to give your readers and viewers some context because often you see maps of Israel. You think it's a Goliath.Well, I'd like to give you first an overview of where Israel is. (Click here for a PDF file.)This is the Middle East, and this is the entire Arab world, and this is Israel. It's one of the world's tiniest countries. I give it the, you know, the thumb test. This is a big one, so you need a bigger thumb. But it's a tiny country. It's one of the tiniest countries on the planet. It's, I think one tenth of one percent of the territory of the Arab world, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's two tenths of one percent.It goes from the river. The river is right here. That's the Jordan River. To the sea, the Mediterranean Sea. So, when Hamas is talking about liberating Palestine from the river to the sea, basically, what they're saying is destroying Israel.And the entire width of this, it's probably around the width of the Washington Beltway, it's all together in its widest point is about 50 miles. Right here. Tiny.And here's Gaza there. This is the red thing that you see here. That's Gaza. Now I want to zoom in. When I zoom in, remember how tiny this is. Remember the distances here.Now, take a look. Here it is enlarged. This is Israel. This is the Mediterranean Sea. The Jordan River is right here.This is Egypt and the Sinai desert. Now, look at Gaza. Where is Gaza? Gaza is implanted in this tiny country 30 miles from Tel Aviv, 40 miles from our capital Jerusalem, 30 miles from Beer-Sheva. These are three of Israel's largest cities. Gaza is within spitting distance to them.Israel, up to the disengagement agreement of 2005, Israel controlled this border under an agreement with Egypt after the Camp David Peace Accords. We controlled this part, which is called the Philadelphi Corridor, I'll talk about that in a minute, right down to Eilat in the Red Sea. This was our border. And while there was, I would say a minimal amount of terrorism, that wasn't, we didn't really face a big problem.Let's zoom in on that a bit more. Here's Gaza Strip enlarged. Again, this is the situation in Gaza before the disengagement of 2005. And the Gaza Strip is firmly under Israeli control. We control the maritime border. You can't smuggle in weapons. They tried but we stopped it. You control the land border. And you control this border between the Sinai desert, Egypt and Gaza. The Gaza Strip, it's controlled. This is the Philadelphi Corridor. This is the Rafah Crossing. Controlled by the IDF.Now look at the distances from Gaza. It's four miles to another city in Israel called Ashkelon, where I visited that bereaved family yesterday. It's a population of 170,000 people. They are four miles away. But some of our communities like kibbutz Be'eri, which was one of the hardest hit, is one mile away from Gaza. Kfar Aza is less than one mile away. It's literally walking distance. Okay.And so, as long as we controlled this, these communities, sometimes they were harassed by this rocket or that rocket but it was marginal. We controlled the security situation. But something happened in 2005. Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza. It just went out. It took out everything. It took out the army. It stripped, uprooted communities, took out 10,000 people.The army left the Philadelphi Corridor. Here's what happened.This is Gaza after the disengagement. And Hamas now has a weapon smuggling operation nurtured by Iran, financed by Iran, supplied by Iran, delivered by Iran.And here's what happened. That Philadelphi Corridor became completely porous. The other borders controlled by us. But once this was perforated, even though the policy of Egypt was to prevent it, you know, it didn't necessarily work, it didn't, it didn't succeed. And this border once we left our side of the Philadelphi Corridor, rockets went in, missiles went in, drones went in, ammo went in, weapons manufacturing equipment came in, tunnel drilling equipment came in.Once we got out, once we left the Philadelphi Corridor, Iran could carry out its plan to turn Gaza into a base, a terrorist enclave that would endanger not only the communities around it but would endanger Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beer-Sheva, the entire country of Israel. It became a huge terrorist base because we left that Corridor.So, we vowed, or I would say, all this, you have to understand that the centrality, the centrality of the Philadelphi Corridor to the arming of Gaza, to the arming of Hamas and this all led to the October 7th massacre, which Hamas has vowed, proudly vowed to do again and again and again.We vowed that they won't be able to do it. So we said, as far as Gaza is concerned, three war goals: The first war goal was to destroy Hamas's military and governing capabilities. The second was to free our hostages. And the third was to ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.And all three of those goals, all three of them go through Israel's control of the Philadelphi Corridor. And it's obvious why. You want to destroy Hamas's military and governing capabilities – You can't let Hamas rearm. It's obvious. So you have to control the corridor. You can't let them have…by the way, it's not only to prevent them from terrorizing us, attacking us, it's also to prevent Hamas or any other terrorist organization from terrorizing the people of Gaza.Gaza cannot have a future if Gaza remains porous and you can enable rearmament of terrorists through the Philadelphi Corridor.The second thing is to release the hostages. First of all, you can't prevent, if you leave this Corridor, you can't prevent Hamas from, not only, not smuggling weapons in, you can't prevent them from not smuggling terrorists, hostages out. It's walking distance, nothing. They can easily smuggle hostages out here to the Sinai desert in Egypt, they disappear. It's crossing distance. The distance is nothing, it's meters, meters away.They cross the, the barrier above ground. They don't even have to go underground. They disappear in the Sinai and then they end up in Iran or in Yemen. They're gone forever.And you need something to squeeze them, to prevent them, to put pressure on them to release the remaining hostages. So if you want to release the hostages, you've got to control the Philadelphi Corridor. And the third reason, the third goal of ensuring that we prevent Gaza from being again a threat to Israel. It's clear. Gaza must be demilitarized. And it can only be demilitarized if the Philadelphi Corridor remains under firm control and is not a supply line for armaments and for terror equipment.I think that's clear to most Israelis, to all Israelis. But a question has arisen: that may be the case, but why don't you leave Gaza for 42 days, you could come back. Well, aside from what I said that they could smuggle the terrorists out. I want to show you what they've got under Gaza. I didn't show you that. So I want to show you that.This is what they have under the Philadelphi Corridor. Just so you understand the supply lines we're talking about. This is one of the tunnels there. Look at the engineering, look at the investment here, look at what they've got. We've got dozens of such tunnels, dozens of such tunnels, underneath the Philadelphi Corridor. To give you an impression of the size of these things: This is a soldier. This is a tunnel. You could drive a truck through this. Indeed, you could. Here's a truck, or it's a Humvee. This is a huge, huge problem.Now, you're just going to walk away? It's obvious we have to control it, right? I think, once you see this, you understand that? But then the next question is, okay, you leave and you come back. That's what they tell us. Okay. We'll have complete international legitimacy to come back. Sorry, we've gone down that route. We were down that route when we left Lebanon, and people said you can leave Lebanon and you can come back. The first time they fire a rocket you can come back, the world will support you. It didn't. And we've been out of Lebanon for 24 years.They said the same thing when we left Gaza in the disengagement. They said, you can leave, and the first rocket. I remember, Prime Minister Sharon said this to me. The first rocket above ground or below ground, we'll be able to go back in. It's been 20 years and we haven't gone back in. Because you all know and understand that the international community, including friendly countries, under enormous domestic pressure because of the propaganda that's leveled against Israel and against them, there'll be enormous, international pressure not to come back. What is their message? End the war. End the war. And so, when we want to come back and resume, we'll pay an exorbitant price in many fields, including in the lives of our men.To come back? It's not a just a military question. It's a military, political, strategic question. And we make that decision. We're not going to leave. 42 days? We're there. I don't want to leave in order to come back in, when I know that we didn't come back in. And it's not going to take another 24 years to come back in. And God knows what price we'll have? How many more massacres? How many more kidnappings? How many more hostages? How many more rapes? It's not going to happen.So, people said, yeah, but if you stay, this will kill the deal. And I say, such a deal will kill us. And there won't be a deal that way. This is a false narrative. I'm willing to make a deal. I made one already, one that brought back 150 hostages, 117 alive. And I'm committed to return the remaining 101. I'll do everything I can to get them in.But leaving Philadelphi does not advance the release of the hostages, because the deal cannot be advanced. They'll give you a minor part if they give anything, and keep the rest. Go and argue. You know when they started giving us hostages? When we went into Philadelphi. When we went into Rafah. When we controlled the Rafah Crossing. That's when they felt the pressure. As long as they didn't feel the pressure, they wouldn't do it. The first batch, the first deal that we got, was a result of our invasion, the military pressure we put in. They gave us the hostages. After that, they thought, well, you know, we'll have the international pressure turn on Israel so we won't have to do, we won't have to make any concessions. But after Rafah, their tune changed, and they began to change. If we leave Rafah, if we leave the Philadelphi Corridor, there won't be any pressure. We won't get the hostages.I said I'm willing to make a deal. The real obstacle to making a deal is not Israel and it's not me. It Hamas. It's Sinwar. On April 27th, I put forward a proposal by Israel, which Secretary Blinken called extremely generous. On May 31st, having met Blinken again, I said, we agreed to the US-backed proposal, and Hamas refused. On August 16th, the US brought forth what they called the final bridging proposal. Again, we accepted, Hamas refused. On August 19th, Secretary Blinken said, Israel accepted the US proposal, now Hamas has to do the same. On August 28th—that's a week ago—the deputy CIA director said Israel showed seriousness in the negotiations, now Hamas must make the deal. This was last week. So, I ask you, what has changed. What has changed in this week? What's changed is that they murdered six of our hostages in cold blood.Now, the world will seriously demand that Israel make concessions after this massacre? What message does this send to Hamas? I'll tell you what the message is. Murder more hostages, you'll get more concessions. That's not only illogical, it's not only immoral, it's downright insane. So, it's not going to happen. We have red lines before the murder. They haven't changed. We'll hold to them. But we also had flexibility. And I'll tell you one thing, Hamas will pay for this. That you can be assured. We'll make sure that we extract that price from them. But we are firm on our red lines, including the Philadelphi Corridor, for the reasons I described here. I'm flexible where I can be. I'm firm when I have to be.I think there is a possibility of getting this deal if we stick to this strategy. I said before, we got 150 hostages out because we combined a firm stance with military pressure. And I said that Hamas after that relied on international pressure, but it had weakened. And then we went into Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor, so it got strengthened, and they were beginning to balk. A condition that they said they'd never accept, a red line, is that we must commit to getting out of Gaza and enabling Hamas basically to take over Gaza again. End the war, get out, let them retake Gaza. That's obviously something we couldn't do.They said there'll never be a deal. Well, they started caving in there after we took the Philadelphi Corridor. And then they started backing off. You know why they waited? Why they started backing off? Because they waited for Iran to start a general war with Israel. That didn't happen. So then they waited for Hezbollah to start a general war with Israel. That didn't happen either. So now they resort to the final tactic. They're going to sow discord and create international pressure, again using the hostages, even after the murder. And this is something that's not new because they started this a year ago.You should see this. I mean, this is their tactic. This is Hamas orders for psychological warfare, found in Hamas underground command post on January 29th, that's right after the beginning of the war, 2024. And this is the original document in Arabic. Our soldiers found it.And here's what it says: Push photos and videos of hostages. Put it out in the media, because that creates enormous psychological pressure. Who's not affected by it? Any human being seeing these souls, these girls, these people, young people from those dungeons, you're affected by. Second: Increase psychological pressure on defense minister. Third: Continue blaming Netanyahu. And fourth: Claim ground operation will not release hostages.That's Hamas', it's not only their talking points, it's their strategy. And their idea is this will sow internal discord and increase international pressure on Israel. That's what they hope to achieve. And they hope, they think this will happen. Well, it won't happen. I can tell you why it won't happen. I'll tell you why they'll fail. Because overwhelmingly the people of Israel are united. They understand everything that I said here. Overwhelmingly. You should know that. It's important. And the second thing is, we're committed to achieving our goals—all three goals: Destroying Hamas' military and governing capabilities, releasing all our hostages, and ensuring that Gaza does not become a threat to Israel anymore. And all these require standing firm on the things that will ensure the achievement of these goals. And with G-d's help, and with our people's will, and with the courage of our soldiers, we will achieve all goals."State of Tel Aviv is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stateoftelaviv.com/subscribe

Scott's back with their next installment of "The Games That Made Us". They are already breaking the rules as they talk about the classic tabletop role playing game Dungeons & Dragons.   This is dedicated to Staff Sgt. Marvin Lee Trost, who passed away on December 5th, 2004 when an I.E.D. detonated near his Humvee. "Thank you Marvin, for always seeing me, even as I was learning about who I was"     Trigger Warning: Scott was very emotional while talking about the loss of his friend. While no concrete details are discussed, war is an ugly subject and the loss of a life is still a loss of a life.    You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com. We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time.  If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6 We'd like to thank our sponsors as well: Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com  We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

From the battlefield to the boardroom, with retired Navy SEAL, Lieutenant Commander JJ Parma. In this week's episode of The Team Never Quit Podcast, we're honored to have retired Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander JJ Parma. With a distinguished military career spanning numerous positions, including SEAL Platoon Commander and multiple operations officer roles, JJ Parma's leadership has been instrumental in shaping the future of military operations. He was responsible for the manning, training, and equipping of personnel while managing day-to-day operations and budgeting for units across the globe. Beyond his military achievements, JJ has transitioned into civilian life as a motivational speaker and operations professional. With expertise in intercultural communication, intelligence analysis, government, and crisis response, JJ has a demonstrated history of leading in both military and civilian sectors. A Master of Business Administration with a focus on financial management, JJ is now a leader in the financial services industry, driving the strategic intent of investment platforms worldwide. His passion for leadership and culture is further backed by a specialized program in Professional Leadership Development from Harvard Business School, where he honed skills in business leadership, culture, and strategy. Alongside his Swim Buddy Kristel, JJ delves into how the lessons from his military career continue to influence his approach to business and life, providing practical insights that listeners can apply in their own lives. This episode is packed with valuable insights from a true leader who has mastered the art of navigating complex environments both in and out of the military. Whether you're a military professional, business leader, or someone looking to elevate your personal and professional life, JJ Parma's story will inspire and motivate you to strive for excellence. In This Episode You Will Hear: • I grew up 2 streets over from Marvelous Marvin Hagler. (4:28) • Everything about my childhood today is about perspective. (6:48) • [I grew] up in the inner city, a very diverse multicultural place. You name it, we had it. Portuguese, Greek, Black, Spanish, and Spanish populations – we had it all. (6:52) • My mother was the true definition of a hero – selfless. (9:20) • I would spend my time as a child alone, in a pool, teaching myself to swim. I was so comfortable, I would stay there all day, all night, all summer. (17:00) • I had every book on the Vietnam War that you could possibly imagine. (32:24) • I was the kid who tied my friends to a tree. (32:28) • This fascination with the military never really went way. It built and built. Every Halloween, guess what I was? Some kind of Army guy with face paint. Some commando, running around. (33:00) • [Navy SEALS] They're like Green Berets - but the water… it was the water – peace. Nobody does that. That's what I want.  Maritime. (39:04) • Rick Kyser was my mentor. He was phenomenal. He told us the story about Black Hawn down from his perspective. That was it for me. Hook, line, and sinker. This is the job for me. (48:19) • In Serbia, the Muslims were being eradicated by the Serbs. Genocide Level 1. And we went there defending the Muslim population. The peacekeeping mission was that we were protecting them. When it gets political, people want to hone in on the politics. They don't know the stories on the ground.  The stories on the ground never get told. (61:52) • We spent 3 months ship-chasing Bin Laden's family. There was a container ship in the northern Arabian Sea which had one of Bin Laden's sons on it, transporting arms. You know what we found? 55 containers of rice. (70:27) • Next thing you know, I hear it. A 2.75 rocket. Hits about 1-15 yards from the back Humvee. The Humvee comes off the ground, lands, I'm in the 3rd Humvee looking back, and I'm like “We just lost a couple of guys right there.” (82:58) • I got a letter from Bush with Team 10's original coin which said “Victory through Violence”, which they stopped making. Now it's “Victory through Valor.” (92:19) • We have so many skills, and our skill set so vast, it's all lexicon. That the trick that the civilians play on you. (100:26) • Find a good swim buddy. (101:15) • Moments are fleeting. One thing that's finite is death. They're told by society that this how it has to go. You have to live this phase, this phase, and this phase, and then you're gone. And they live that way. We're gonna try to reset that. (110:46) • When you find your swim buddy – if they find you at your lowest point – that's a keeper. (111:52) • People need to fail, because from failure, launches a whole new life lesson. (113:10)  Socials: - IG:  thefourthphasepodcast -  IG: team_neverquit , marcusluttrell , melanieluttrell , huntero13 - https://www.patreon.com/teamneverquit Sponsors:    - Navyfederal.org          - Tonal.com [TNQ]   - qualialife.com/TNQ [TNQ]   - greenlight.com/TNQ   - PDSDebt.com/TNQ   - drinkAG1.com/TNQ    - GoodRX.com/TNQ    - ghostbed.com/TNQ [TNQ]    - Shadyrays.com [TNQ]   - Hims.com/TNQ    - Shopify.com/TNQ   - PXG.com/TNQ   - Aura.com/TNQ   - Moink.com/TNQ    - Policygenius.com   - TAKELEAN.com [TNQ]   - usejoymode.com [TNQ]   - Shhtape.com [TNQ]   - mackweldon.com/utm_source=streaming&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=podcastlaunch&utm_content=TNQutm_term=TNQ

Send us a Text Message.The crew talk about the future of the podcast, they ramble on about the military, rides, and parties.  Support the Show.

El enorme Hummer se convirtió en un icono gracias a tres cosas: La Guerra del Golfo, el cine y el “cachas” Arnold Scharzenegger, que pidió una versión civil porque le parecía “muy práctico” … vivir para ver. Este mastodonte terminó fracasando. Pero unos gallegos de Santiago de Compostela decidieron hacer algo parecido, pero bien hecho… y triunfaron. Te contamos los detalles. Valen la pena. Vamos a centrar en la historia del verdadero Hummer, que luego se denominó H1 para diferenciarlo de las versiones civiles posteriores, H2 y H3…. que no estaban bien resueltas, la verdad. Volvemos nuestra mirada a finales del S.XX y al ejército norteamericano. Hasta esos años los coches que prestaban servicio en el ejército más poderoso del Mundo eran prácticamente los mismos Jeep de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, actualizados y puesto al día. Pero las cosas estaban cambiando y los norteamericanos buscaban un nuevo vehículo más capaz, para poder transportar más y mejor armamento, que pudiera blindarse por arriba y por abajo. Así que en 1983 los USA lanzaron un concurso dotado con 1,2 millones de dólares para fabricar 55.000 unidades de un vehículo denominado HMMWV, las siglas de High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. Es de donde viene el nombre de “Humvee” que algunos consideran sinónimo de Hummer. Este concurso se incrementó a 1.6 millones de dólares y 70.000 unidades…. O sea, que era muy apetecible. Y se lo adjudicó AM General, creadora del original Hummer que saltó a la fama a finales de los 80 en la Guerra del Golfo. Gracias a sus participaciones en diversos conflictos el coche se hace popular y aparece en distintas películas como “La Roca”, alguna de 007, “Transformers” … y, por supuesto, en series como la popularísima “CSI Miami” en la que el infalible Horatio Caine tiene uno. También apareció en películas bélicas. Fracaso por varios motivos. El primero, la versión “civil” nace en 1992, justo cuando sufrimos una crisis económica a nivel mundial. Por otro lado, alcanza la presidencia de los USA Bill Clinton quien quizás no sea un “pacificador” pero comparado con su antecesor George W. Bush… pues, por comparación, sí. Se reduce de forma apreciable tanto la presencia de los USA en diversos conflictos como el presupuesto de defensa, que es algo más ajustado. ¡Ya estaba harto de acrónimos con palabras inglesas! VAMTAC es el acrónimo de “Vehículo de Alta Movilidad Táctico” y es un producto de la UROVESA, que a su vez deriva de URO Vehículos Especiales S.A. Esta empresa nacida en Santiago de Compostela, provincia de La Coruña, Galicia, España fue fundada en 1981 y se ha dedicado a fabricar, como bien indica su nombre, vehículos especiales, muy particularmente, aquellos destinados en la lucha contra el fuego. En 1984 aparece el primer TT, de hasta 18 toneladas, que inicialmente tiene dos versiones, una destinada a los bomberos y otra a usos militares. Sucesor de este primer TT es el actual VAMTAC. UROVESA ha sabido encontrar suministradores de calidad y recurre a motores IVECO o Steyr y cajas de cambio y transfer de estas dos marcas y también de Allison. En la actualidad hay versiones militares capaces de albergar todo tipo de armamento y para diversos usos especiales como bomberos de intervención rápida, policía, ambulancias, cisterna, entre otros. Equipan motores de 6 cilindros en línea de entre 187 y 245 CV cuentan con una eficaz tracción total permanente y encontrarás versiones que van desde los 5.300 kg a los 11.000 kg de MMA, es decir, el propio peso del coche más la carga máxima. Aproximadamente 3.000 unidades prestan servicio en el ejército español, pero no es el único, pues el URO se exporta a Arabia Saudita, Bélgica, Irak y casi otros 10 países distintos. ¿Cuál es mejor? Si alguno me dice que esta comparativa es injusta porque el VAMTAC es más moderno… pues le diré que depende. Porque el Hummer nace a mediados de los 80, más o menos al mismo tiempo que el primer TT de URO. Si es cierta una cosa: Los diversos TT de URO no ha dejado de evolucionar mientras que el Hummer a lo largo de su existencia no cambio demasiado. Por diseño y por la integración, sensata, de la electrónica en el coche, para mí el URO es un coche mejor. No es que sea enormemente amplio por dentro, pero lo es más que el Hummer. Y desde luego, tampoco es un tiro, pero es claramente más dinámico que el Hummer. Los Hummer dieron problemas de todo tipo, sobre todo debido a su elevado peso que castigaba la dirección y las suspensiones. Los motores aguantaban bien. Respecto a los URO he oído criticas acerca de los problemas de fugas de las suspensiones neumáticas y poco más. Honestamente no veo que sea nada serio viendo el éxito que tienen.

On this episode, Derek sits with Rich Ingram.  Rich is a former US Army Infantryman turned Officer who was severely wounded in Iraq.  After an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) hit his Humvee, his arm was damaged to the point of amputation and Rich, not letting this obstacle stop him, became the first amputee to become commissioned as an active duty officer in the US Army.  Rich will be discussing the life events that led him to join the Army, that fateful day, his rehabilitation and his time working to become an Officer, his multiple deployments and what led him to leave the armed forces.  Rich is also an accomplished athlete and motivational speaker and we will be discussing how he became a celebrated Triathlete and the platforms that he speaks on.Website: https://www.richingram.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richtingram/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richtingramSPONSOR - Go to https://betterhelp.com/derekduvallshow for 10% off your first month of therapy with @betterhelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help #sponsored

Get a 7-day Free Trial with our onX offroad link: https://webmap.onxmaps.com/purchase/offroad/membership/?promo=ghp20 We are getting ready to take the Hayabusa swapped Solo car and the Monster Chopper to Sturgis! Should we 2JZ swap the corvette?

Overcoming incredibly challenging obstacles is already a massive feat worthy of praise. Yet some people feel defeating the beast is only the beginning of their journey; they feel compelled to share their stories and inspire others. Meet JR Martinez, US Army Veteran turned Best-selling Author, Motivational Speaker, and Dancing With The Stars Winner.In this episode, we learn the true meaning of resilience and optimism from JR Martinez. Only one month after his deployment to Iraq, JR's Humvee got hit by an improvised explosive device, causing him several injuries, burning 30% of his body, and sending him into a long recovery of three years. After over 30 surgeries, JR started the second part of his story and, relying on his inner strength, an acute sense of humor, and incomparable love of life, became an inspiring figure and a beacon of hope and optimism.Throughout this episode, you'll hear about JR's inspiring story, his relentless capacity to adapt and overcome challenges, and the thought process behind the decision to face the toughest struggles as opportunities for growth and self-discovery. JR also talks about his defying upbringing, shares his thoughts on the importance of taking a moment to appreciate how far we've come, and reveals details of his participation in Dancing With The Stars.Tune in to Episode 439, learn more about this exceptional man who travels the world spreading his message of resilience, humor, and optimism, and discover why he sees scars as tattoos with better stories.Some Questions I Ask:Tell us about your background, including any turning points in your life that have had a significant impact on you (4:30)Could you tell us more about your experience in Dancing With The Stars? (21:30)In This Episode, You Will Learn:JR talks about his recovery and why he decided to use his story to inspire others (6:30)How to transform how we see the world through active listening (8:40)JR talks about the mentor who changed his life through empathy and love (10:10)The importance of looking back and praising our progress and achievements (18:20)JR talks about his experiences at Dancing With The Stars (22:30)From scarred, disabled veteran to burn survivor, complete human, and inspiring figure (26:20)Connect with JR Martinez:WebsiteInstagramFacebookTwitterBook: JR Martinez - Full of Heart: My Story of Survival, Strength, and SpiritBecoming Your Best Resources:Becoming Your Best WebsiteBecoming Your Best University WebsiteBecoming Your Best LibraryEmail: support@becomingyourbest.comFacebook Group – Conquer Anxiety Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Being a life-long blind person I have never served in the military and thus only understand the military way of life vicariously. There is reading about it, of course and there is talking to military people about their lifestyle. Today you get to hear a conversation not only about military life, specifically the army world, as it were, from a 20-year career soldier, Chase Spears who recently retired from the military as a major in the army. Chase grew up always interested in the news and what was going on in the world around him. He attended college, both undergraduate studies and later graduate work at universities in Tennessee. Along the way an army recruiting officer persuaded him to join the army. By that time, he was well married to a woman who, surprising to him, supported his decision to leave college and join the army. Chase's telling of this story is wonderful to hear. As you will see, he is quite the storyteller.   He and I talk a great deal about the world of a soldier, and he puts a lot of things into perspective. For those of you who have served in the military much of what you hear may not be totally new. However, since Chase served in public affairs/relations duties throughout most of his army career, you may find his observations interest. Chase and I had a good free-flowing and informative conversation. I personally came away fascinated and look forward to talking with Chase again in the future. A few months ago, Mr. Spears retired and entered into a doctoral program at Kansas State University where he is conducting research concerning how military life impacts the citizenship of those who serve. You will get to hear a bit about what he is finding.   About the Guest:   U.S. Army Major (Ret.) Chase Spears is first and foremost a Christian, Husband, and Father to five children who help to keep him and his wife young at heart. Having grown up with a passion for news and policy, Chase spent 20 years in the Army as a public affairs officer, trying to be part of a bridge between the military and the public. He merged that work with a passion for writing to become one of the Army's most published public affairs officers, often to resistance from inside the military. Chase continues that journey now as a doctoral candidate at Kansas State University, where his dissertation research explores how military life impacts the citizenship of those who serve. His other writings focus on topics including civil-military dynamics, communication ethics, and the political realities of military operations.   Ways to connect with Chase:   LinkedIn/X/Substack/Youtube: @drchasespears www.chasespears.com   About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Hi there and welcome once again to unstoppable mindset. And we have a I think really interesting show today are interesting episode we get to chat with major retired Chase Spears. I've been saying ret all morning because he's got Rhett in parentheses. And I didn't even think about it being not a name but retired. But anyway, that's me. Anyway, he has been involved in a lot of writing in and out of the military. He was a major military person for 20 years. He's now in a doctoral candidate program, Kennedy C candidacy program. And my gosh, there's a lot there, but we'll get to it also. Major Rhett major Chase spears. Welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here.   Chase Spears ** 02:13 just thrilled to be with you, Michael. Thanks for having me. Now   Michael Hingson ** 02:17 that now that we've abused you with Rhett, but that's okay.   Chase Spears ** 02:20 I think God worse. Well, there   Michael Hingson ** 02:22 you are. And by your friends, I bet. So that's what really makes them more fun. But we're but I really am grateful that you were willing to come on and spend some time with us. Why don't we start I love to, to start this way to give people a chance to get to know you. Why don't you tell us some about the early Chase spheres and growing up and all that stuff?   Chase Spears ** 02:44 Well, it's yeah, it's been quite a journey. I grew up in the southeast us My family was out of Florida. And when I was a teenager, we ended up moving we went out to Texas, which was really just kind of a an entire change of culture for us. If you can imagine going from the kind of urban parts of Florida that are really highly populated a lot of traffic, a lot of tourism, a lot of industry. And we went up to North Central Texas in my teen years. And if you can imagine going from from that, you know, Florida to a town of about 9000 people it was a an oil and agricultural cattle town, and Graham, Texas and it was really kind of a culture shock at first, but turned into some of the best and most formative years of my life where I I really learned the value of hard work working on the fields with my dad really got to kind of connect with nature and just taking some gorgeous sunsets in the evenings out working in the fields enjoying the views of the wildlife Hall. I was out working. But one thing that I did learn from hard manual labor, was it made sure that I kept on track for college. And so I ended up going to Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee in 1998. Right after I graduated from high school, I was homeschooled and met my Hi my sweetie there, Laurie. We were married by senior year we decided neither one of us we wanted to graduate and leave the other one behind. So we got married start a family pretty young afterwards. Went on to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville afterwards because I thought, hey, I want to work in journalism. And it'd be great to have a master's degree in journalism to prove my commitment to the field make people take me seriously. And it was during that time that I ran into an army recruiter while I was working my part time job at a law firm. I was working at the courthouse one day filing paperwork. And this gentleman and I just struck up a conversation in an elevator he was there in his full dress uniform was very impressive to me as a civilian at the time. And so I started asking him questions about what he did. In what army life was like just trying to be friendly, conversational, I was genuinely curious, though I was not looking for a military career. Well, as a good recruiter does, he managed to coax a phone number out of me. And seven months later there I am raising my right hand, swearing into the army in Knoxville, Tennessee. And so we were in the army for 20 years, we moved to several different parts of the nation, we've landed in northeastern Kansas, just on the outskirts of the Greater Kansas City, Missouri area. And now we're kind of starting a new phase of life after the army enjoying being kind of planted Gayndah. Watch our kids grow in a smaller community. And we're excited about what's next. So   Michael Hingson ** 05:42 what is the postdoc? Where are the doctoral degree in, that you're seeking.   Chase Spears ** 05:47 So I am in a program entitled leadership communication. But I'm kind of a misplaced public policy scholars what I've learned, but the faculty there have been so wonderfully gracious to me, and I've been very supportive of my research agenda. So I'm a career communicator. In the army, I was a public affairs officer. So everything I did was about stuff like this. I didn't community engagement, I did interviews, I was did social media strategy, I was part of the bridge that the military tries to build between it and the public, which is incredibly important in our form of governance. And so I love all things communication. And I also love team leadership, small organizational leadership, I had the chance to, to lead teams, I had the chance to lead a company while I was in the army, so fell in love with that. So when I saw a degree program that merged both of those, you know, they had me at hello, I was a sucker from the get go when I saw the marketing. So I applied and they very kindly accepted me. So I've been studying leadership communication, but my research agenda is actually more in the policy realm. My dissertation work is studying how did we come to this concept that the military isn't a political and air quotes institution, when it is funded by the government when it is commanded by elected leadership? When when we exert our national will, on other nations with it there absolutely political connotations to all of that. And And yet, we kind of say the opposite. So I was curious, I was like, this would be something fun to explore, how did we How did we get to where we believe this in spite of what we do? And so that's what my research Jind agenda is all about. And I'm having a lot of fun writing.   Michael Hingson ** 07:37 Well, and I guess we could go right to why well, so why do you think the reason is that we are not a political but we say we are? Oh, are you still researching it to the point where you're not ready to answer that yet? Well, I   Chase Spears ** 07:57 have, I have some theories and what I believe are pretty educated guesses. I'm trying to make sure that I don't bore your audience going too deep in the weeds on this. It's really kind of comes out of the Second World War. When you look at the history of the United States. Traditionally, we are a nation, our ancestors were part of a nation that were really cautious about the idea of having large standing military forces during peacetime. Because there had been this historical observance over hundreds of years, particularly in Europe, that large forces during peacetime ended up causing problems for society and the nations that bred large armies inevitably found ways to use them, that might not always be to the benefit of the populace. So we come out of the Second World War, and the nation has decided we're going to become the global military superpower, we didn't want to be caught off guard again, like we were for what Germany had done in the years after the First World War. And we also have a rising Russia, we need to counter that. So we decided as a nation, yeah, we will become a global, permanent, large, highly industrialized, highly institutionalized force. Well, how do you gain public support for that when the public has traditionally for hundreds of years been very, very suspect of that and very much against it? Well, Samuel, in walk Samuel Huntington, a brilliant political scientist who writes the book, the soldier in the state, and in it he proposed a theory of military supervision in which officers would abstained from voting and then over time that grew legs into Okay, well, now we're just not involved in politics and then in time that grew legs into where a political, but if you go around the force and ask most people what that means, if you ask them to define that word, few would actually be able to define it. It's one of those kind of discursive terms that we've come up with kind of like for the public good. Well, what is for the public good? Can you actually define that, and it's largely often in the eyes of the beholder. So that that's where I believe it came from, I'm still doing quite a bit of work and reading in that. But historically, it's very fascinating to see where we've come and just 70 years on that topic. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 10:25 And also, we're in a phase of all of that, where it seems to be at least that it's changing and morphing again, I mean, with what's happened in the last seven years in this country, and the, the lack of desire for discourse, the the desire on some people's parts to really involve the military and a lot of things. It seems like we're possibly changing again, or perhaps even strengthening the military in some way. And I'm not sure what that is.   Chase Spears ** 11:04 We there's really kind of been somewhat of a public backlash, the last, I'd say, five to 10 years, we saw an increasing comfort with military members publicly advocating for political policy for political parties, which is absolutely within their constitutional right to do, George Washington himself said, we did not lay aside the citizen to assume the soldier. But again, that that discourse coming out of the Second World War, really kind of conditions the American public to think that when you're in the military, you do give up your rights to expression that you do give up your rights to citizen agency, and, and, and meaningful involvement in civic processes. And while we do rightly give up some expressive rights, and that is captured and codified in military regulations, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, there's some legitimacy to that argument. But I would say, you know, if you're, if you're holding a ruler in your hand, the regulations kind of restrict us somewhere between the two and three inch mark on the ruler, whereas the perception that's just kind of come out of the repetition of these terms and ideas is more that we're up around the nine or 10 inch mark on the ruler, if that makes any sense for you. So we we've seen in the last few years, more military people being willing to get involved politically, and there has been somewhat of a backlash to it. And therein is the problem. You if you're going to hold to a belief to a doctrine to a discursive claim, then you have to match it. And the military is really kind of at a point right now they have a decision to make, are we going to hold on to this discourse to this idea? Or are we going to acknowledge that? Well, the regulations are much less restrictive than what people have been led to believe? It's it's a tough spot to be there's not a perfect answer, to help the institution requires cracking down on constitutional freedoms. And well, what is the institution there to serve? So it's a very sticky issue?   Michael Hingson ** 13:11 Well, it does seem to me that in no way, because the person becomes a soldier. And even in their oaths, do they give up the right to be a citizen of the country? So I'm with George Washington?   Chase Spears ** 13:26 Oh, absolutely. No, I am with with George Washington himself, you know, the greatest American? And I think we would, it's a, it's a good reminder of the importance of knowing our history and knowing where we came from. It's in my interviews with military members on this topic. In my research, I'm finding that that like me, most of them were just kind of told these things verbally. They were never pointed to the actual rules. They were never actually pointed to the actual laws. I only know the regulations because I have a personal fascination on the topic. And I went and looked them up. But no one ever told me where to find them. That was research on my own team and figure out where do I look for this. So it's, we really need to do better, nationally, to know our history and know where we came from.   Michael Hingson ** 14:14 We do have a really interesting paradox in the world, because we've gotten in the last two government administrations, to different views of not only how to govern, but to a degree how the military needs to be a part of it, and that's gonna not be very helpful to things either.   Chase Spears ** 14:34 Absolutely. The the military at the end of the day is controlled by the Civilian governance. Now. I'll acknowledge that General Mark Milley didn't really seem to think so and there have been other figures in military history who MacArthur being one of them who who seemed to challenge who was actually in charge of the military. But at the end of the day, constitutionally, we We are governed by by civilians. And that that is right, that is proper any anything else would be a coup and you don't want that. So we, it comes down to how does the military try to hold a consistent line? When you have governments that change every two to four to eight years and have drastically different perspectives on policy? How do you as a military hold an even keel and another wise stormy sea. And in previous generations, we had senior general officers who were pretty good at that they were pretty good at saying, regardless of what the ship of state is doing, the ship of military is going to remain on a heading to serve everyone. And there's been somewhat of a lack a breakdown of discipline at the senior ranks in the last probably 10 years, that's really kind of shuttered the ship of the military. And I think the current some of the recently promoted, general officers understand that I think General GA is the new Chief of Staff of the Army, I think he understands that and he's trying to do some things to reintroduce some stability, but it's a hard thing.   Michael Hingson ** 16:16 Yeah. And the other part about it is that the military, in some ways is a part of society. So we've had things like the whole Don't Ask, Don't Tell dealing with LGBTQ types of issues. And, and of course, even women in the military, and there's been a lot of things that haven't necessarily been as visible as they have become, and are issues that we are starting to face and deal with more. But it seems to me that the military, like it or not, is part of society. And we do need to recognize that collectively, as well.   Chase Spears ** 17:02 We were absolutely drawn from society. We serve society, we exist, you know, for the protection of society. But I will say there's one thing that's all always kind of set Western militaries apart a little bit, and the US military hails from that Western tradition of understanding that just because society chooses to take a move in one direction, doesn't necessarily mean that it's in the national security interest of the United States for the military, to follow suit. And then there's kind of a reason that the military has always tried to, in some way, set itself apart, of acknowledging that there's some things that society will do or want to that are affected by the times as Shakespeare himself noted, there's always a tide in the affairs and man, the tide comes in the time tide goes out the the, the winds shift. And but one thing that was said at the military part was this idea of, at the end of the day, if it's a societal change that enables us to better defend the nation, then that's the direction we'll move. If it's a societal change that could potentially be a friction point or cause additional challenges in securing the nation, we might, we might think on that one a little bit harder, we might be a little more a little slower to adopt that. And we've seen that has kind of broken down the military is very much going out of its way to be reflective of society. And in some ways that can be good in some ways that's caused additional unnecessary frictions to the force and is rightly being having questions asked about it.   Michael Hingson ** 18:45 And that's where having good solid leadership in the military at the highest echelons, has to be an important part of it, because that's where ultimately, the direction that the military goes, is at least in part, going to be authored. Yes, there is a civilian government that and civilian commander in chief, but still the military leaders have to really be the ones mostly to figure out where the military should go in terms of policies and how it deals with different issues or not, I would think.   Chase Spears ** 19:27 And the key word that you hit on there, Michael is leadership. Back a few months ago, I wrote a piece that was published by real clear defense called seven new things the new Sergeant Major of the Army could do to restore trust in the force. And the argument that I made his predecessor was one who was very kind of reactive to the, to the whims you might say, of a the younger generation of soldiers. He was very much all over Twitter about telling me your issues. Let me get involved in your issues. And he was, in some ways a very divisive, senior official in the military. And I equated it to you, you want to look at kind of the British constitutionalist position, the British Crown, if you're looking overseas, it has traditionally been something that it's kind of the rock, unmovable, unshakable, the parliament will do what parliament will do that the Tories and Labour will do what they will do, but the crown is unmovable the crown serves all. And that's kind of something that the military reflected, and I call out to the new rising generation military leaders to remember that, to remember that we don't own this, we owe nothing in the institution, we all leave it one day, as I left it a matter of weeks ago. All I have are my memories and and hopes that I was able to leave some things better than I found them and that the people I served that I hope I served them well. But at the end of the day, we hand it off to someone else. And it's so important for to have good leaders who recognize that we we steward the profession, that we we want to do the best we can with it in our time, and recognize the decisions that we make, will impact those who serve long after our time and do our best to hand it off in the best possible condition that we can for them. Because then to the to society, we returned. And then we depend on this who came after us for our national defense. And so it's the steward mindset to me as key.   Michael Hingson ** 21:41 Yeah. Well, and going back a little bit. So you're in graduate school you got recruited in and accepted and went into the military. What did you do? What was it like when you first went and that certainly again, had to be quite a culture shock from things that you would experience before? Ah,   Chase Spears ** 22:02 yeah, I figured absolutely was you'll never forget your first shark attack at basic training for for anyone who's unfamiliar with that, it's when you once you've done your initial and processing there, whatever base you get your basic training at, for me, it was Fort Jackson in South Carolina. And then they eventually buss you off to your your training companies, which is where you will actually conduct your combat training. This is after you've received your uniforms and done all your finances, paperwork, and life insurance and all that. And then the buses stop and the drill sergeants, they're just there waiting for you. And it's a moment you never forget. And of course, you jump off the bus and they're giving you all these commands that they know it's impossible for you to, to execute to any level of satisfaction. And then when you fail, as you inevitably will, you know, the entire group just gets smoked over and over and over again. And I remember that moment just having that realization of I have not in Kansas anymore, like the next next few months of my life are about to be very different than anything I've ever experienced. And it was it absolutely was. I got through that. And I think the first thing that was really kind of shocking to me be on to the training environment was the use of last names. So yeah, I go by chase my friends call me chase people who know me call me chase. I'm I'm not hung up on titles. I'm a simple guy. In the military, you are your rank and last name. I was specialist Spears sergeants First Lieutenant spears or LT Captain spears, major spears. And I remember at my first unit, there were other other people who in my unit there were the same rank as me. And so I thought were peers I'd call them by their first name. And they never gave me problems about it. But our higher ups would you know, people have rank spears, we don't go by first names spears. And I never I never 20 years and I still never really adjusted well to that I learned how to how to keep myself from getting as many talking to us about it over the years is I had in previous times. But that was a culture shock. And, and just the the constant what we call the military, the battle rhythm, you know, civil society would call it your work schedule, while in the military. It never really ends your day start very early. You have physical training that you're doing with your unit at 630. Depending on what unit you're in, you may be off at a reasonable time in the late afternoon, early evening, or you may be there. I've remember staying at work one night till 4am Just because the boss gave us a job to do. Frankly, it was an unreasonable job. But he gave us a job to do and an extraordinarily tight deadline and it took us till 4am to get the job done and And I was at work by 630, the next morning. So you never, ever really do get used to that in some ways, because you kind of come to accept it. But it's been really eye opening to me in the last nearly three months now that I've been now, looking back and having some control over my schedule now for the first time in 20 years, and realizing, wow, that was such a foreign existence I lived. But when you're when you're swimming in a fishbowl, you don't know you're wet. So every time you do adapt to it, but it's been neat being on the other side and realizing, you know, can kind of breathe in and start to have some say over what a schedule looks like, because I'd forgotten what that was, what that'd be like.   Michael Hingson ** 25:44 But as you rose in the ranks, and I assume took on more responsibility, did that give you any more flexibility in terms of how you operate it on a day to day basis.   Chase Spears ** 25:56 It all depended on the position, there were there were some jobs I had, where were, regardless of the rank, I had flexibility. And then there were other jobs, where I absolutely did not even as a major want, there was a job that I had, where the boss was very adamant. This is the time you will be here and you will be sitting at this desk between these hours and you are authorized authorized is a big term in the military culture, you are authorized a 30 minute lunch break period. And you will be here until this time every day. And this was when I had you know, I think I was at my 1718 year mark. And I remember thinking to myself, golly, do I need to ask permission to go to the bathroom to see, it seemed I didn't. So it really kind of depended on your job. There's a perception a lot of times that the higher you go in rank, the more control you have over your life. And I observed that the opposite is actually true. The higher you go, typically, the more the more demands are placed on you. The more people are depending on the things that you're doing. And and the bigger the jobs are. And the longer the days are was my experience, but it had been flooded depending on what position I was in at the given time.   Michael Hingson ** 27:17 Now, when you first enlisted and all that, what was Laurie's reaction to all of that.   Chase Spears ** 27:23 I was shocked. She was so supportive. She actually grew up in an Air Force household. And so she knew military life pretty well. Her dad had been been in, he spent a lot more time in the air force than I did the army. And then even after he retired from the Air Force, he went on and taught at the Naval Academy as a civilian. So she is just always had a level of familiarity with the military as long as she can remember. She joked with me that when she got married to me and then had to give up her dependent military ID card that it was kind of a moment of mourning for she didn't want to give that thing up. So one day, there we are Knoxville, Tennessee, and I approached her. And I'm trying to be very careful, very diplomatic, very suave, and how I bring it up to her and let her know I've been thinking about the army. And I'm kind of curious what she might think about that. Because it'd be such a drastic lifestyle change from everything we've been talking about. And I was bracing for her to look at me and be like, are you insane? And instead, she was like, Oh, you won't get in the military. And I get an ID card again. Yes. She was she was supportive from from Jump Street. And so you talk about a wife who just was there, every minute of it, and loved and supported and gave grace and rolled with the punches. milori Did she was absolutely phenomenal. Though, I will admit when it got to the point that I was starting to think maybe 20. I'll go ahead and wrap this up, because my original plan had been to do 30. But when I started talking with her about that she was she was also ready, she was ready to actually start having me home regularly for us to be able to start making family plans and be able to follow through with them. Because we had the last three years we had not been able to follow through with family plans, because of the different positions that I was in. So she was very, very supportive of me joining and then she was equally very supportive of me going ahead and and calling it calling it a day here or the last just at the end of this year. But what a what a partner could not have done it   Michael Hingson ** 29:41 without her. So where did she live when you were going through basic training and all that.   Chase Spears ** 29:46 So she stayed in Knoxville for nonGSA. Yeah. And then from there, she actually ended up moving up to her dad's and his wife's place up in Maryland because my follow on school after base See training was the Defense Information School. That's where all the Public Affairs courses are taught. And it's so happens that that is located at Fort Meade, Maryland, which is just about a 45 minute drive traffic dependent from where her dad lived. So while I was in basic training, she went ahead and moved up there to Maryland so that while I was in school up there, we could see each other on the weekends. And then from there, we didn't have to go back to Tennessee and pack up a house or stuff was already packed up so we could get on the road together there to wherever our next duty station was. And it turned out funny enough to be Colorado Springs, Fort Carson. And here's why that's funny. When, when I approached Laurie, about joining the army, one of the things that she was really excited about was seeing the world if you're in the military, you get to see the world, right. And my first duty assignment was the town that she had grown up in, because her dad had spent the last few years of his career teaching at the Air Force Academy there on the northern end of Colorado Springs. So so her her dreams of seeing the world with me, turned out that our first tour was going to write back home for her.   Michael Hingson ** 31:14 Oh, that has its pluses and it's minuses.   Chase Spears ** 31:17 Yep. So it was neat for me to get to see where she had grown up and learn the town little bit.   Michael Hingson ** 31:23 I've been to Fort Meade, and actually a few times I used to sell technology to folks there. And then several years ago, I was invited to come in after the World Trade Center and do a speech there. And so it was it was fun spending some time around Fort Meade heard some wonderful stories. My favorite story still is that one day somebody from the city of Baltimore called the fort because they wanted to do traffic studies or get information to be able to do traffic studies to help justify widening roads to better help traffic going into the fort. So they call it the fort. And they said, Can you give us an idea of how many people come through each day? And the person at the other end said, Well, I'm really not sure what you're talking about. We're just a little shack out here in the middle of nowhere. And so they ended up having to hire their own people to count cars for a week, going in and out of the fort was kind of cute.   Chase Spears ** 32:23 Well, there's quite a bit of traffic there. Now that basis when   Michael Hingson ** 32:26 I was then to there wasn't just a little shack, of course, it was a whole big forest.   Chase Spears ** 32:32 Yeah, yeah, it's I was back there. Golly, I want to say it wasn't that long ago. But it was about five years ago now is back there. And I almost didn't recognize the place. There's been so much new built there. But oh, I know, as far as army assignments go, it's a it's a pretty nice place.   Michael Hingson ** 32:50 Yeah, it is. And as I said, I've had the opportunity to speak there and spend some time dealing with folks when we sold products and so on. So got to got to know, people, they're pretty well and enjoyed dealing with people there. They knew what they were doing. Yeah,   Chase Spears ** 33:07 yeah, that's a it's a smart group of people in that base.   Michael Hingson ** 33:10 So you went through basic training and all that and what got you into the whole idea of public relations and what you eventually went into?   Chase Spears ** 33:20 Well, I had studied in college, my undergraduate degree was in television and radio broadcasting. My master's was in journalism, I'd grown up kind of in the cable news age, and the at the age of the emergence of am Talk Radio is a big, big tool of outreach. And I grew up thinking, this is what I want to do. I love communication. I actually thought it'd be really neat to be an investigative reporter on if, if you remember, back in the 90s, it was this big thing of, you know, Channel Nine on your side, yeah, had this investigative reporter who tell you the real deal about the restaurant or the automotive garage. And I always thought that would be amazing, like what a great public service like helping people to avoid being ripped off. And so I wanted to be a news. I'm sure you're familiar with the Telecom Act of 1996. That That caused a tremendous consolidation of media for your audience who might not be familiar with it. It used to be that really, if you had the wherewithal to buy a media station or a television station or radio station, you were unlimited in what you could you there were limits, I should say on what you could buy, so that you couldn't control too much, too much media environment, the Telecom Act of 1996, completely deregulated that and so large media companies were just swallowing up the nation. And that meant there's a tremendous consolidation of jobs and the my junior year in college. I was in the southeast us at the time at Lee University. Atlanta. Nearby was our biggest hiring media market, my June Your year CNN laid off 400 people. So I could tell really quick, this is going to be a chat and even more challenging field to break into than I thought. And that's why I ended up working part time in a law firm was in, in Journalism School. Afterwards, because I was looking great. I was looking for a backup plan. I thought if journalism doesn't work out, I also love the law. It'd be nice to get some experience working in a firm to see if I want to go to law school. So it was a natural fit for me when the army recruiter started talking to me. And he was asking me what I was interested in. And I told him, Well, here's what my degree is in, here's what my career plan had been, here's who I really want to do with my life. And he said, we have public affairs, I said, What's that? It turns out, the military has radio stations, and they have television networks and you PR, I had no idea. I was a civilian. And I was like, Well, that sounds good. And so I thought, yeah, sure, I'll I will enlist for that come in, do one four year contract, I'll build a portfolio and and then I'll be able to take that portfolio out into the civilian realm. And hopefully that will make me more competitive for a job in the news market. And of course, a couple of years into that. I was in Kuwait deployed to camp Arif John. And my brigade commander sat me down to lunch one day, and made it very clear that he expected me to apply for Officer Candidate School, which was nowhere on what I was interested in doing was nowhere on my radar, I applied, I really didn't have a lot of confidence. I thought, I looked at officers and I thought they were people who are way, way more intelligent than me, way more suave than me. And I really didn't know if I'd get in, well, I got in. And after I commissioned officer candidate school is about like basic training all over again. So that was fun. And I ended up being assigned to a combat camera unit. And then afterwards, I was able to put my paperwork in to branch transfer right back into public affairs, it was a perfect mess was everything I wanted to do. I didn't get to work in news directly. I wasn't a reporter. But I got to work with reporters, I got to be an institutional insider and help facilitate them and help to tell the stories of what some great American patriots were doing, and wanting to serve their countries. And so it was, for the most part, more often than not, it was a really, really fun way to earn a living living.   Michael Hingson ** 37:34 I collect as a hobby old radio shows I'm very familiar with but back in the 40s was the Armed Forces Radio Service, then it became Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. And so I'm aware a little bit of, of the whole broadcast structure in the military, not a lot, but but some and know that that it's there. And it does, I'm suspect, a really good job of helping to keep people informed as much as it can as they can with the things that they have to do in the world. It's   Chase Spears ** 38:04 definitely it's a comfort over the years, if you're spending a lot of time overseas to have kind of that that taste of home and our forces network does a really good job of that letting I think we're starting to see some debates inside the military. Now. What do we want to continue of it? Because now information is so ubiquitous, if you will, you can pull it down, you can stream whatever you want, wherever you are in the globe. So I kind of wonder in the next 1020 years, will it still be a thing, but during my early career during my early deployment before he could stream stuff, it was really cool to have an AFN radio station to tune into is really cool to have an AFN television network to tune into to be able to get a taste of home. That was much a comfort,   Michael Hingson ** 38:52 right? Yeah, it is. It is something that helps. So you can't necessarily stream everything. I spent a week in Israel this summer. And there were broadcasts I could get and pick up through the internet and so on. And there were stuff from here in the US that I couldn't get I suspect it has to do with copyright laws and the way things were set up but there was only so much stuff that you could actually do.   Chase Spears ** 39:20 And what a time to be in Israel you will I bet that trip is even more memorable for you now than it would have been otherwise.   Michael Hingson ** 39:27 Fortunately, it wasn't August. So we we didn't have to put up with the things that are going on now. But still Yeah, it was very memorable. I enjoyed doing it. spending a week with excessively over there and got into getting to meet with with all the folks so it was definitely well worth it and something that that I will always cherish having had the opportunity to do get   Chase Spears ** 39:51 for you. If it's on my bucket list. I've always wanted to spend some time over there.   Michael Hingson ** 39:56 Hot and humid in the summer, but that's okay. Let's say but they love breakfast. Oh, really? So yeah, definitely something to think about. Well, so you, you joined you got you got the public relations, jobs and so on. So how did all that work for you over? Well, close to 20 years? What all did you do and what, what stories can you tell us about some of that?   Chase Spears ** 40:25 It was it was fascinating. It was fascinating because everything that I got to touch was, in some way a story. And so my first job was in radio and television production. I did quite a bit of that in Kuwait. And it was actually there that I got my first taste of crisis communication, and I was immediately addicted. Do you remember back in? It was December 2004. Donald Rumsfeld said you go to war with the Army you have not the army want or might wish to have it another time? Yeah. I was there. That that was uttered in camp you're in Kuwait. And that was such an interesting moment. For me in terms of a story to tell. I was with the 14 Public Affairs Detachment we were deployed to camp Arif John to provide public affairs support for for Third Army's Ford headquarters. This was back during the height of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so there's a lot of military going over there. We were part of that. And I remember hearing this tasking that had come down that the Secretary of Defense is going to come out here is going to do this town hall meeting with the troops. There's going to be no question that you can't ask. You're going to be allowed to say anything you want to say to the Secretary of Defense, nothing's going to be scripted, nothing's going to be put through for review. And by the way, 14 pad you guys are going to make sure that it can be televised live back to the United States. And so here I am thinking what can possibly go wrong. And so we helped we all the event, Secretary Rumsfeld hindered and handled it really, really well. They set up this big, you know, fighting machinery display, they're in a in a big aircraft hangar epic camp bearing which is in northern Kuwait, just not too far south from the Iraqi border. And he gets up he gives the speech. He's well received by the troops. And it goes to the q&a part. And soldiers were asking him all sorts of questions. Most of them are jovial, you know, hey, when when do we get to go to Disney World, stuff like that. They were kind of big jocular with them.   Michael Hingson ** 42:42 Seems a fair question.   Chase Spears ** 42:44 Yeah, you know, I felt them right. And so finally, this one guy, I'll never forget his name, especially as Thomas Wilson from the 2/78 Regimental Combat Team. Tennessee National Guard asks him a question about when are they going to get the body armor that's needed? And in true Rumsfeld style, he's he says, Well, I'm not quite sure I understood the question. Can you ask it again, which is a great technique. He used to buy him some time to think the answer. And then it came back after the second question. And the whole hangar about 1000 of us in there. It was hast. I'll bet you could have heard a plastic cup hit the floor at the back back of the room. I mean, everyone was like, what? Oh, no, what just happened? What's about to happen? And Rumsfeld makes that remark, you go to war with the army have not the one you want or need. Yeah. And and then the questions went on. And there was not be after that. There was no awkward moment for the rest of the time. And I and I thought, wow, that could have gone south. But it didn't cool. It was just it was neat to watch. I was running the television camera that caught the moment. I was in the room. And so we me and my sergeant had to stay up there the rest of the day because there were some other television network interviews with other officials that we were running the satellite transponder for. And it was a long day our commander was kind of being a jerk to us. So by the end of the day, we were tired we'd been up there sleeping on cots for a couple of days, we were kind of just ready to get back to data camp Arif, John to our beds and put the whole mission behind us. And then we drive to three hours through this pouring pouring rainstorm in Kuwait, and a Canvas side Humvee that's leaking. All you know, water just pouring into this thing on us. So we're done. We're done. We're done. We're like, we just want to get a bed. We get back to our base. We're offloading all the equipment, putting everything away. And at this point in time, I forgotten about the moment earlier in the day when that question was asked, and I walk in and there we had this wall of televisions you know, tracking all the different news networks back in the US and on all of them Their Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, you go to war with the army have not the army won or wish to have another time. And at that moment, I was like, it's about to be an interesting few weeks around here. And it turned out, it turned out indeed to be an interesting few weeks, an interesting few months. And I got to be on the front end of what the public affairs response to that looks like. And I can tell you, I've never seen armored vehicles flow into a place as quickly as they did in the following month. So the power of a message transmitted is a real thing. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 45:39 so whatever happened to specialist Wilson?   Chase Spears ** 45:44 I don't I don't know. I know that news coverage. When that news reporters were asking that very question and coverage that I saw said, Oh, his unit, his assured that nothing bad will happen to him. He was a national guardsmen, so he kind of fall under a different, different command structure than us. From time to time, I have wondered that and I've tried to look him up online, and just try to find out what happened to the sky and what was life like for him? I'd love to talk to him and ask alright, what was it like, man, what is your unit do? But I, I have no idea. I can't find him. I presume he's gone about his life and doesn't want to be famous about it. But it also goes back to National Guard culture versus active duty culture. We talked earlier about the citizenship aspect. And the National Guard gets that way more than the active component. At the end of the day, they demobilize. And they go home. Right, you're running into the same people you serve, with the church, at the grocery store, at the grocery store, at the PTA, places like this, some of them might be your neighbors. And so they have an entirely different outlook. This is what they do to serve the country when needed. And then they go on about their lives. I don't think you would have seen an active duty soldier ask that question. I really don't because the culture is so so markedly different. And there's a level of kind of freedom of thought and expression, present that guard that that is much more lacking in the active component.   Michael Hingson ** 47:19 Should there be more freedom, in that sense in the active component? Or do you think that it's really appropriate for there to be the dichotomy that you're describing?   Chase Spears ** 47:32 And the act of force you need discipline? You need a discipline force, who, when they're given a lawful order, will carry it out hastily, because lives could hang in the balance. That's absolutely important, and we can never lose that. But sometimes we can use discipline I say sometimes, often, more is the more appropriate term often we confuse discipline with silence. We confuse discipline with a lack of willingness to ask tough questions. We confuse discipline with just saying Yes, sir. When you know, in the back of your mind, there might be something you need to dig into more. We we need, unfortunately, since the end of the Second World War, going back to my comments earlier about this large, industrialized, institutionalized force we have it breeds careerists. It breeds a mindset that's fearful to ask tough questions, even if you know they need to be asked. Because you want to be promoted. Right? You want to get assignments, right. And it breeds a culture where you really are much more timid. Or you're much more likely to be timid than someone who's maybe a reservist or National Guard member. We need people who will ask tough questions. We don't need indiscipline, we don't rush showmanship, we don't need people who are being performative just to be seen. But there are valid questions to be asked is, you know, is US defense policy? Better set for a 400? Ship navy or a 300? Ship? Navy? That's a valid question. Is it better for us to use this route of attack versus that route of attack? Given the Give Me Everything we know, those are valid questions. We need people in the military who who are willing to be critical thinkers, and there are a lot of extraordinarily brilliant people in today's armed forces, as there always has been. But there is on the active duty side a culture that works against original thought and that's really to our detriment. And I think the manner in which the evacuation of Afghanistan ended is one more blatant indicator of that.   Michael Hingson ** 49:48 It was not handled nearly as well as it could have been as we have seen history tell us and teach us now   Chase Spears ** 49:56 Absolutely. i It broke my heart. I'm A veteran of that conflict I'm not one who cries easily, Michael but I can tell you that morning when I saw the some of the images coming out of cobbles especially there's a video of a C 17 cargo jet taking off and people literally hanging to and falling to their deaths. Just i i fell off, I fell off my on my run into a sobbing human being on this on the ground for a little bit it is there's a lot to process and it has continued to be a lot to process. And there again, there's a great example of why you gotta be willing to ask tough questions. There was no no reason at all. We should have abandoned Bagram and tried to evacuate out of downtown Cabo. But that's a whole nother conversation. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 50:52 Well, speaking of you, I understand that you weren't a great fan of jumping out of airplanes, but you got used to doing them? I   Chase Spears ** 51:01 sure did. Oh, yeah. I always thought that would just be something that no, I don't want to say no sane person would do. I mean, I enjoy watching skydivers, I think it's really cool. And obviously, they're saying, I never thought I'd be among them. I thought, Nah, that's just something, I don't think I'm gonna do that. And when I was an officer candidate school, I was roommates with a guy who had been to Airborne School earlier in his career. And he was like, man, don't do it. Don't let him talk you into going to Airborne School, though, you'll be stuck at Fort Bragg, you'll just you'll be broke all the time, you'll be hurting all the time, the army takes the fun out of everything. And he's right. To an extent the army does take the fun out of most things that touches. But I got to my first unit as an officer. So I'd done enlisted time for three years, then I went to Officer Candidate School. And then my first job as an officer was at the 55th combat camera company, which is not a full airborne unit, but it's a partial airborne unit. And they had a hard time keeping enough active duty paratroopers on hand. And so I remember day one, when I was in processing the unit, there are all these different places you go, when you're in process, you gotta go see the training room, and you got to go see the administrative room, and you got to go see the Transportation Office and all these places, and they're just checking your paperwork. And so I see the training room, and there's the sergeant in there. And he's looking through my list. And he's asking me all these questions, you know, when was your last PT test? Where's the last physical, you know, making notes on me for the unit record? And then he says, Do you want to go to Airborne School? And without thinking, I said, Absolutely not. I have no interest in going to Airborne School. And his reply to me was go ahead and get an airborne physical. And I thought, There's no way I'm ever getting an airborne physical because I'm not going to Airborne School. So a few weeks later, I'm in the unit, I'm more comfortable. And I'm across. I'm in a different office across the hall from where this guy worked. And I'm joking around with this other sergeant. And I'm like, sir, and you're just such a cool guy. Like you've got all together, you're, you're like everything I want to be when I grow up. What how do you do it? He said, Well, sir, you got to go to Airborne School. That's step one. The other guy across the hall ever hears that, you know, mouse ears, I don't know how. But he darts out of his office across the hall into this opposite we're in, looks me straight in the face and said, Did you say you want to go to Airborne School? Like no, is not what I said, I absolutely have no interest. I'm not going to Airborne School. And he again replies with schedule your physical. And I thought, I'm not going to disappoint me scheduling a fiscal. So I get back to my office that later that day. And I thought this guy is not going to give up. So I came up with this brilliant plan. It was smart, smartest plan you'll ever hear of, I'm going to pretend I'm going to get my airborne physical and then he'll forget about me, leave me alone. So I called him and said, Hey, Sergeant, what's the phone number I have to call them schedule an airborne physical and it gives me the phone number and the the name of the person to talk to and I said, Great. I'll talk to him. There were two or three other lieutenants set to show up to the unit next in the next month. So I thought he will assume I'm getting a physical which I'm not getting and there's other guys will show up and he will convince them to go and I will fall off his radar. I was incorrect. That was a bad bad miscalculation on my part, you might say a flawed operation   Michael Hingson ** 54:39 with your the and you were the one who was talking about brilliant people in the army Anyway, go ahead.   Chase Spears ** 54:43 I know I know. Right? Yeah, I am a paradox. And so that within an hour I get an email from him with my he's already put me in for school. I already have orders generated to go to jump school. And then he calls me he's like Hey, by the way, your report in like three weeks, I need your physical as soon as you can get it. And I thought this guy, I told him I'm not going to Airborne School. Well, at the same time, our unit commander was a paratrooper, and he loves jumping out of airplanes. And I had two or three paratroopers in my platoon who were underneath me. And I thought, There's no way I can go now. Because if I, if I get the commander to release me, one, I'll lose face with the old man. And I'll lose face with the troops that I lead because the soldiers have to compete for this. They're just giving it to me. And so I went, protesting, kicking, screaming the whole way. I hated ground week. I hated tower week. And then they put took me up to the 250 foot tower and dropped me off the side of it under a parachute. And I loved it. I was like, Oh, this is fun. I actually asked if I can do it again. And they said, they don't get what's right. So the next week, we go into jump week in there I am in the back of an airplane, and it comes to my turn to get up and exit it. And I do, and I get to the ground and I survive. And I literally just sat there and laughed uncontrollably because I couldn't believe I just jumped out of a plane. And it was my first of 40 jobs. So I was I was absolutely hooked from that moment on.   Michael Hingson ** 56:20 And what did Lori think of that?   Chase Spears ** 56:23 She was a little bit surprised. She She again, was supportive. But she was surprised she never thought it's something that I would take to and it ended up being a great thing for us. Because having been on jumped status, it opened the door for me to request the unit and Alaska that we ended up going to for six years, you had to be on airborne status to be able to go to that job. And so had I not going to jump school, I would not have qualified to go into Alaska for that particular job. And so it ended up being a wonderful, wonderful thing. But I would have never guessed it, it just it's another one of those poignant reminders to me that every time that I think I've got a plan, it's God's way of reminding me that he has a sense of humor, because what's going to work out is always going to be very different from what I think.   Michael Hingson ** 57:10 And you help Laurie see the world. So well worked out. Absolutely.   Chase Spears ** 57:15 Yeah, she we never, we never got to spend time together overseas. But Alaska was an amazing adventure. And, gosh, if if no one in your listeners haven't been there yet to go see a Sunday?   Michael Hingson ** 57:29 Yeah, I went there on a cruise I didn't see as much as I would have loved to but still, I got to see some of them. It was great.   Chase Spears ** 57:38 It's nothing like it. No. Now you   Michael Hingson ** 57:42 as you advance in the ranks, and so on you, you started being in public relations, being a communicator, and so on. But clearly, as you advanced, you became more and I'm sure were viewed as more of a leader that was kind of a transition from from not being a leader. And just being a communicator and doing what you were told to be more of a leader, what was that transition like?   Chase Spears ** 58:07 That was another one of those things that I would have never seen coming. After I did my three years as the spokesman for the Airborne Brigade. In Alaska, I ended up becoming the deputy communication director for US Army, Alaska, which was the highest army command there in the state responsible for 11,000 troops and their families in multiple locations. And I remember one day, my boss came to me and saying, hey, the general is going to give a speech to the hockey team at the University of Alaska, about leadership. And so I need you to write it. And I looked at him and I said, boss, all right, whatever he told me to write, but the general has forgotten more about leadership than I know, like, how do where do I start with this? And I don't remember the exact words, I think it was something to the effect of, you're smart, you'll figure it out. And so I put together a speech, it was by no means anything glorious, but it was the best I had to give that moment in time and what leadership was fully convinced that I was not one. And then over time, I there are people who spoken to me at their headquarters who called out leadership that I didn't see they were pointing out influence that I had there pointing out people who I was able to help steer towards decisions that I didn't realize that I didn't know and it made me start looking back in other parts of my career and realizing, Oh, my goodness, I actually led that team. This man actually looks to me for decisions. I actually I am a leader, I had no idea. There's something I always thought if if you were in the military and you're a leader, you were some grand master, you know, like, like Patton or Eisenhower and I didn't think think myself anything like that. And so finally, in 2015, I was offered A chance to take command of a company which in civilian terms, that's kind of like being the executive director, if you will, of an organization of 300 people. And I was so excited for it. Because by that point in time, I finally made the mental transition of saying, I'm not, I'm not merely a communicator, communicating is what I've done. But occasionally it's I've worked on delivering us on passionate about, by came to realize, I love that so much because communicating is a part of leading and, and I, I am a leader, it's just something. Looking back. Of course, my life has always been there, I just never knew it. I never saw it, I never believed in it. And so by the time I was offered the chance to command, I was very excited for it, I was very eager for it, because I realized this is going to be an a wonderful adventure getting to lead a team at this level of this size. And it was the hardest job I ever did in the army, and the most rewarding. I don't know if you've ever watched any of the Lord, Lord of the Rings movie. But there's this moment where Aragon is being chided, is set aside the Ranger Be who you were meant to be to be the king. And that meant that came back to my mind several times I had to challenge myself that just because I only see myself as a communicator all these years doesn't mean that I can't do other things. And so it was a joy to actually walk into that. Believing is not easy. There's there are a lot of hard days or a lot of hard decisions. Especially when I was a commander, I agonized every decision. So I made because I knew this will have an impact on a person, this will have an impact on a family this, this will change the directions and plans that people had. And so it's a heavy weight to bear. And I think it's good that those kind of decisions come with weight. And I would question someone who who can make those kinds of calls without having to wrestle with them.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:01 When you look at all the things that you've done, and the work that you do, and the work that you did, at the end of every day, or at some time during the day, I know you were pretty busy. But did you ever have the time to just kind of sit back and reflect on how did this go today? How did that go? What could have been better? Did you do any kind of introspection? Or did you feel you had time to do that?   Chase Spears ** 1:02:24 I didn't really feel I had time. And it would be easy for me to blame the unit, it'd be easy for me to blame people. But that responsibility rests with me. It's a discipline that I didn't develop until way too late in my career. And I eventually did develop it, I eventually came to realize the importance of reflection of introspection of taking a mental inventory of what I've accomplished I didn't accomplish and what I can learn from it. But it was sadly something that I didn't do as much as I should have. And I didn't do it as early, I was really, really bad at assuming well, because the unit needs this right now. I can't take care of this thing that I need to take care of that will that will allow me to be the leader that I need to be you know, I get in a car, someone slams on my car, and I need to get them to take care of it. Why don't have time unit Scott has to have me We gotta move on. Well, I've got six screws in my left hand and my left shoulder right now because I was always too busy to listen to the physical therapist and take care of myself, you know, the unit needs me the unit needs me the men need me. And so it, it was a hard, hard learned lesson. The importance of sitting back and reflecting is something I wish I would have learned much sooner. But once I did, it served me well. And it's a discipline that I still practice now.   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:46 Yeah, yeah, it's, I think a very important thing. And a lot of things can can stem from that. What's the best position your favorite position in the army and why?   Chase Spears ** 1:03:59 The best thing I ever got to do is company command. And it's hard to say that because it's really it's really closely tied with being a brigade director of communication. And t

Ryan "Koup" Kuperus spent 17+ years in the Infantry, Reconnaissance, and Force Reconnaissance Communities before being Medically Retired in 2017. He has always had a passion for the outdoors and hunting, and that passion has only grown over the years. Koup is a highly decorated combat veteran including a Navy Commendation Medal with Valor and a Purple Heart Medal. In 2007 he was in Humvee rollover breaking his femur, his back, and as he sat at home he realized he was broken physically and mentally. He needed to do something to avoid spiraling out of control. So he picked up a bow, starting hobbling around in the woods with a back brace. What he found was healing not physically, but mentally and spiritually. Being in the woods was better therapy than he received from any doctors office or any prescription medication. The Reason Outdoors was founded by GWOT veterans to take veterans, first responders, and their children on hunting trips, fishing trips, and other outdoor adventures for the sole purpose of sharing all the healthy and positive reasons we hunt and fish.

DAV's 2023 Disabled American Veteran of the Year Kim Hubers sits down with fellow Iraq War Army veteran Melissa Stockwell. Just three weeks into Stockwell's deployment to Iraq in 2004, a roadside bomb struck her Humvee, causing the loss of her left leg above the knee. Now, she's a Paralympian, triathlete, author, motivational speaker and mother.

Happiness Solved with Sandee Sgarlata. In this episode, Sandee interviews J.R. Martinez. From the battlefields of Iraq to the dance floor of ABC's “Dancing with the Stars”, J.R. Martinez has woven a remarkable tale of resilience and triumph. The Louisiana-born Army Iraq war veteran, and multifaceted talent has defied expectations at every turn, leaving an indelible mark on the worlds of entertainment, literature, and motivational speaking. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Martinez comes from a multicultural background – his mom, a resilient single parent originally from El Salvador, and his dad, of Mexican descent. In 2002, a young and idealistic Martinez embarked on military training in Fort Benning, Georgia, honing his skills as an 11-B Infantryman. In January of 2003, he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division and in March of that year, he was deployed to Iraq. Tragedy struck on April 5th, 2003, less than a month into his deployment. While driving in the outsides of Karbala, a roadside bomb engulfed his Humvee, trapping Martinez within, inflicting severe burns to more than 34% of his body and smoke inhalation. Evacuated to Germany and then San Antonio, he spent 34 months undergoing 33 surgeries, including skin grafts and cosmetic procedures. This harrowing ordeal, however, proved to be a crucible, forging his inner strength and igniting a new purpose. Amidst recovery, Martinez discovered his calling as a motivational speaker. Sharing his story with fellow burn survivors, he embarked on a global journey of inspiration, captivating audiences at military bases and speaking for esteemed organizations like Delta and Wells Fargo. He embraced the philosophy of "Adapt & OvercomeSM," a personal mantra that resonated with audiences worldwide. His commitment to giving back extended beyond speaking engagements. Organizations like Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors and Glasswing International found a passionate advocate in Martinez, reflecting his deep belief in community and gratitude. His dedication was recognized through numerous awards, including the Ivy Award for his work with veterans and the National Red Cross Spirit Award. In true Hollywood fashion, encouraged by a friend, he auditioned for "All My Children," landing a three-month role that blossomed into a three-year career, igniting his passion for acting. In 2011, he further captivated audiences on “Dancing with the Stars”, clinching the coveted mirror ball trophy alongside Karina Smirnoff. This triumph opened doors, expanding his platform and solidifying his connection with a loyal fan base. Never one to rest on his laurels, Martinez ventured into writing. His memoir, "Full of Heart: My Story of Survival, Strength, and Spirit," became a New York Times bestseller, proving the power of vulnerability and resonating with readers alike. His thirst for knowledge led him to pursue higher education, a milestone that marked him as the first in his family to attend college. Today, Martinez remains a sought-after motivational speaker, balancing his time between travel, veteran non-profits, acting engagements, fitness pursuits, and cherished moments with his wife, Diana, and their children. He continues to spread his message of resilience and optimism, inspiring audiences both on and off stage. Martinez's journey, though remarkable, is still in its early chapters, and the world eagerly awaits what this multifaceted hero will achieve next.   Sign up for the Happiness Solved Plus Exclusive Membership Site: http://HappinessSolved.Supercast.com   Connect with J.R.:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamjrmartinez  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjrmartinez  Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamjrmartinez   Website: https://jrmartinez.com/    Connect with Sandee www.sandeesgarlata.com Podcast: www.happinesssolved.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/coachsandeesgarlata Twitter: www.twitter.com/sandeesgarlata Instagram: www.instagram.com/coachsandeesgarlata    

JP Dinnell talks with former Navy SEAL Ryan Parrott. Birds Eye View Project: https://birdseyeviewproject.org/ Sons of the Flag: https://sonsoftheflag.org/ Birdman: http://instagram.com/BirdmanActual More from JP Dinnell: https://www.jpdinnell.com/ Join the conversation on instagram JP Dinnell: http://instagram.com/jpdinnell/ Lucas Pinckard: https://www.instagram.com/lucaspinckard Bruiser Arms: https://www.instagram.com/bruiserarms Echelon Front: https://echelonfront.com/ Little Cattle Co: http://littlecattle.co On The Path Printing: https://www.instagram.com/onthepathprinting Former Navy SEAL and Founder of two nonprofit organizations benefitting Veterans and First Responders, is originally from Detroit, Michigan. Birdman enlisted in the Navy after watching the Twin Towers collapse on 9/11 and served eight years as a U.S. Navy SEAL attached to SEAL Team SEVEN, completing three combat tours to Iraq before being assigned to Advanced Training Command as an Instructor. In 2005, while serving in Iraq, Birdman was riding atop a Humvee manning the gun turret in enemy territory, when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED), causing a detonation and throwing him from the Humvee. Birdman regained composure with his face and hands burned and witnessed his fellow team members suffer devastating burn and blast injuries. His entire team survived their injuries and went back to operating. In 2012, Birdman established Sons of the Flag to help Veteran and First Responder burn survivors and their families find the help and medical attention they truly deserve. He recognized that burn care treatments and advancements had not been evolving as other forms of injuries, so he made it his mission to do something about it! He is also the founder of the Birds Eye View Project, addressing the extreme needs of Veterans and First Responders through extreme sports. In the midst of running two nonprofit organization, Birdman also authored “Sons of the Flag: Real Accounts from the last 100 years of American Service”, a book dedicated to relaying a selection of real stories of American Heroes. Then, Birdman had a special calling because of a teammate and dear friend that he lost too soon. Now a sponsored athlete in the extreme sports arena, he has founded The Human Performance Project. This Human Performance Project will encompass taking a deeper dive into health and wellness giving our next generation a better understanding and roadmap on taking proper care of their bodies through physical, mental, emotional and spiritual guidance from world renowned experts in their fields. JP Dinnell is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and now a Leadership Instructor, Speaker and Strategic Advisor with Echelon Front, where he serves as Director of Experiential Leadership Training Programs. J.P. is also a pro team athlete and spokesperson for Origin Maine and Jocko Fuel, an American clothing and supplement company. J.P. has a signature Energy Drink flavor “Sour Apple Sniper” with Jocko Fuel. Jeremiah spent nearly a decade in the SEAL Teams with three combat deployments. Sent to the violent terrorist stronghold of Ar Ramadi, Iraq in 2006 with SEAL Team Three's Task Unit Bruiser, J.P. served as point man, machine gunner, and lead sniper for Delta Platoon opposite the American Sniper, Chris Kyle, who was in Charlie Platoon. For his leadership and courage under fire, JP was awarded a Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars with Valor and the Army Commendation Medal with Valor helping Task Unit Bruiser to become the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War. He worked closely with SEAL Officers Jocko Willink, his Task Unit Commander, and Leif Babin, and was the driving force on many of the daring combat operations Jocko and Leif wrote about in Extreme Ownership. Upon his return, J.P. again worked directly for Jocko as a training instructor at Naval Special Warfare Group One Training Detachment, where he orchestrated realistic and challenging training scenarios for Special Operations Urban Combat training and Close Quarters Combat training to better prepare SEAL units for the real-world battlefield. He also served as a Combatives Instructor, Marksmanship Instructor and earned his Master Trainer Specialist qualification while helping Jocko rebuild and enhance these training programs into the highly effective platforms they are today. J.P. brings exceptional experience and frontline leadership perspective from the winning mindset and culture of Task Unit Bruiser. 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:45 NCC Mafia 00:03:43 Ryan Parrott 00:07:28 Detroit Hockey to Skateboarding 00:11:27 X-Games 00:12:55 Ryan's Cover Story (Navy SEAL Dancer) 00:18:59 Why the Navy SEALS? 00:25:37 BUD/s 00:28:25 Taking Your Life to the Next Level 00:34:18 First Platoon 00:39:40 Birdman 00:49:00 Sons of the Flag 01:00:08 Birds Eye View Project 01:06:23 7X Project 01:15:16 Truly Finding God 01:21:27 Jeremiah 29:11-14 01:23:15 Meeting Mrs Birdman 01:31:30 Starting a Family 01:34:20 Frogman Fridays 01:40:58 What Can We Do To Help Vets Returning Home? 01:44:00 Closing Thoughts

[This blog will always be free to read, but it's also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And if this is too big of a commitment, I'm always thankful for a simple cup of coffee.]Yesterday, Republican Congressman Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma stood on the floor of the U.S. House in support of his amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which you probably know best as the legislation that funds our Defense Department.Mr. Brecheen's amendment, which passed the GOP-majority House in a voice vote, would ban any funding in the final version from being used on drag events, in what is clearly a painfully obvious attempt at pandering to anti-LGBTQ hatred.That, alone, I find hilarious given the very long history of drag performance in the U.S. military, notably among the young men of the Greatest Generation — for that, check out this fantastic write-up from none other than the National War War II Museum (!!!).Anyway, Mr. Brecheen, in his floor speech, stated this:"Young men who make up the bulk of our fighting forces are inspired by G.I. Joe. They're not inspired by a Barbie girl in a Barbie world."The anti-drag nonsense is easy enough for me to laugh off given how patently absurd it is, but this is not. It's profoundly disrespectful to women service members and veterans, and I find it more than a little hypocritical coming from this particular guy.Mr. Brecheen was 22 years old on 9/11 and a healthy, able-bodied young man.He could have enlisted that day or in the many years afterward, but he did not. He declined to serve his country in uniform during a time of war.But more than 300,000 women have enlisted since 9/11.More than 9,000 women have been honored for their actions in direct combat.166 women service members have been killed in combat since 9/11 and more than 1,000 have been wounded.Women like Lt. Emily Perez (1983 - 2006), the first female graduate of West Point to die in Iraq when she was killed in a makeshift bomb that exploded near her Humvee during a combat mission.Women like Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who lost most of both her legs when the Black Hawk she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade from Iraqi insurgents. Women like Cpl. Jessica Ellis (1983-2008), a combat medic who volunteered a second time for a dangerous mission clearing a route and was killed in a roadside bomb. She was 24.What was Josh Brecheen doing during that whole time?He worked as a political staffer and owned a motivational speaking business called Brecheen Keynotes and Seminars, and then, he ran for office.I kid you not.And now Mr. Brecheen stands there, insulting the memory of women who have died in combat while he was a coward who stayed home and, ironically, sold motivation.Perhaps it's an appropriate moment for the Congressman to reflect on why he so oddly claims to identify as a patriot when he lacked the courage to serve where the women of this country have so faithfully stood in the breach.Sit down, Sir.And by the way, I'd trust Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig with my life long before I'd ever consider the resignation of settling for your third-rate informercial ass.Charlotte's Web Thoughts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Charlotte's Web Thoughts at charlotteclymer.substack.com/subscribe

Come Meet Randy Nantz he enlisted in the Army after 9/11/01, upon completing basic training in March of 2002, at Fort Benning, GA, he reported to 3rd Infantry Division located at Fort Stewart, GA. In January of 2003, he deployed to Kuwait to prepare for the initial invasion of Iraq. After the completion of that tour, he redeployed back home August 25, 2003.He then volunteered for and attended SFAS, Special Forces Assessment and Selection course in January of 2004, after getting selected, he continued to graduate successfully, Airborne, and the Special Forces Qualification Course, as a Communications Sergeant in March of 2006. At that time, SGT Nantz then reported to 5th Special Forces Group Airborne and deployed back to Iraq, in August 2006. On Dec. 22nd of 2006, while taking part in a small recon mission, in Baghdad Jadida, Baghdad, Iraq, an Explosively Formed Projectile (EFP), a devastating roadside bomb and shaped charge, struck his Humvee. Randy's body sustained 22% total body surface, 3rd-degree burns, considerable muscle tissue loss, and severe nerve damage. The nerve damage was severe enough, it ultimately led to a below the knee, left leg amputation. To date, he has undergone four amputations on the same leg because of multiple infections and difficulties. Late OCT 2017, he underwent surgery, to place a full thickness graft over a problem area, and so far it has been successful, and its prognosis is promising.

Send us a Text Message.Master Sargent and American hero Israel Del Toro (DT) Jr.'s life and spiritual journey is one of resilience, hope, encouragement, and the enduring strength of family bonds. It all began at a young age and a promise he made to his father. That promise was echoed in another Israel made to his son, which then guided him through many hardships and tribulations.On December 5, 2005, DT's life changed completely. While he was on a mission in the Air Force, the Humvee he was in ran over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED.) The resulting explosion burned over 80% of DT's body and he was given a 15% chance of survival. His determination to live and the healing process were just the beginning.Listen to DT share with Nichole and listeners all about his life experiences, his recovery against enormous odds, and how his story of resilience transforms into one of unwavering determination and the power of self-discovery.DT now finds purpose in sharing his wisdom with people around the country in hopes of helping others find the light in the darkness. He tells the full story in his inspiring memoir, A Patriot's Promise: Protecting My Brothers, Fighting for My Life, and Keeping my Word. You can also learn more about his journey through his website, send him an email at shades427@aol.com, or connect with him on Instagram, Facebook, or X.A Psychic's Story wouldn't be possible without your support so THANK YOU for listening. If you'd like to support the podcast, please:SUBSCRIBE in your favorite podcast player. FOLLOW @apsychicsstory on Instagram. BOOK a session with Nichole.SIGN-UP to receive emails, news, alerts and more from A Psychic's Story.BECOME a Psychic Club member on Patreon to access additional content.WRITE A REVIEW on Amazon, Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Castbox, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Podurama or Spotify.This podcast is intended to inspire you on your personal journey toward inner peace. The podcast host, co-hosts or guests are not psychologists or medical doctors and do not offer any professional health or medical advice. If you are suffering from any psychological or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified health professional.Support the Show.

The most wild story told on the Grind Hard Plumbing Co podcast to date! Also a recap after the Humvee trip, Edwin's last encounter on the electric dirt bike and more! Follow Padric  @ElevatedOverland  Follow Nicholas  @redlineranch.  Follow Edwin  @EdwinOlding 

This Week In Wrestling History hosted by Don Tony aired back in 2018-2019 and spanned two seasons. These retro episodes return remastered and are filled with hundreds of hours of original wrestling clips & stories. Enjoy this deep dive into pro wrestling's awesome history. SYNOPSIS: Episode 22 (5/27 – 6/2)RUNNING TIME: 3 Hours 8 Minutes Harley Race def Dory Funk Jr for NWA World Heavyweight Title and ends Funk's 1,563 reign as Champion. Ric Flair def Kerry Von Erich 2 falls to 1 to regain NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The story behind Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) being hired then immediately fired by WWF. Honky Tonk Man def Ricky Steamboat to win WWF IC Championship. Audio: Honky Tonk Man (and Iron Shiek) speak on Ricky Steamboat throwing shade at IC Title match against HTM. Brother Love makes his WWF TV debut. No Holds Barred movie released in movie theatres. After being fired a year earlier, The Rockers return and make their WWF TV debut. 'Common Man' Dusty Rhodes makes his 1991 WWF debut. Celebrity Sleuth Magazine features photos of Madusa, Sherri Martel, Missy Hyatt, and several other women wrestlers. Cactus Jack 'Lost In Cleveland' vignettes begin to air on WCW TV. Ranger Ross sues WCW for Racial Discrimination. Matt Hardy makes WWF debut. Audio: The Rock (as Flex Kavana) makes his pro wrestling and promo debut. WWF sends a Cease and Desist letter to Scott Hall after his controversial WCW Monday Nitro debut. Audio: Brian Pillman's controversial ECW return promo after serious Humvee accident. Looking back at World Wrestling Peace Festival (1996). Audio: ECW vs USWA war begins. Booker T appears in 1-800-Collect Commercial as a boxer. Looking back at WWF In Your House 22: Over The Edge (1998). Darren Drosdov debuts LOD 'Puke' character. NBC airs the awful documentary on Jessie 'The Body' Ventura. The trial of Jerome Young (New Jack) for assault against 17 year old Erich Kulas beings and ends with not guilty verdict. Audio: Original news reports of 'Mass Transit' incident. Audio: New Jack speaks on the assault trial and its outcome. One of the first cases of massive fake news and 'being first over being right' reporting by wrestling sites: Tammy Sytch removed from WCW TV after Kimberly Page finding drug paraphernalia allegedly belonging to Sytch. Audio: DT's favorite WCW Hardcore Match of all time: Terry Funk (c) defends against Chris Candido on a barn and the infamous 'horse kick' incident. Audio: Nothing is finer than having a sixty niner with Scott Steiner. Brian Lawler fired after drug arrest at Canadian Border prior to WWF Raw event. Brian Ong dies while training with Dalip Singh (Great Khali) at a California wrestling school. WWE sends Eddie Guerrero home and into drug rehab after showing up for Raw event in no condition to perform. Audio: Steve Blackman and Trish Stratus' 'Three's Company' skit. Audio: The WCW/ECW invasion angle official begins with Lance Storm interfering during 'WWF' match on Raw. Identity of The Stalker's 'voice' is revealed. Audio: Undertaker vs Tommy Dreamer and a bucket of 'vomit'. Audio: Kevin Nash announces a new member of NWO (WWE version). NWA TNA hires Don West for their announcing team. WWE promotes 2003 Divas Search by featuring pics of fans and 'girls next door', two who were later revealed to be XXX Porn Stars. Audio: Mr America and Vince McMahon take lie detector tests on Smackdown. Audio: Highlights of Vince McMahon's 2004 appearance on TSN 'Off The Record' and some memorable discussions that are very relevant today. Audio: Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, and Paul Heyman exchange barbs on Raw to hype ECW One Night Stand (2005). Looking back at WWE One Night Stand PPV (2007, 2008). WWE signs Curtis Axel and Kalisto. 'LA Lakers' vs 'Denver Nuggets' main event WWE Raw. Kia Stevens (Kharma) leaves WWE due to pregnancy. Brock Lesnar's autobiography 'Death Clutch' hits stores. TNA announces the creation of their own Hall of Fame and the first recipient, Jeff Jarrett. Looking back at the time Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston were WWE ratings killers in 2012. Matt Hardy 'Anti-Bullying' Ring Of Honor promo debuts. Looking back at TNA Slammiversary XI event (2013). Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson signs with TNA and Bellator. Charlotte def Nattie to win vacant NXT Womens Title (2014). Looking back at WWE Payback PPV (2014). Audio: Batista quits WWE again on Raw. Audio: Seth Rollins breaks up The Shield. Sami Zayn undergoes Shoulder Surgery. Destination America adds Ring Of Honor to their programming and announces ROH/TNA airing back to back. Looking back at WWE Elimination Chamber PPV (2015). 'Broken' Matt Hardy takes his feud with Jeff Hardy to a whole new level. Audio: 'Bailey: This Is Your Life!'. And so much more! RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE to download the AUDIO episode of THIS WEEK IN WRESTLING HISTORY S1 E22 (5/27 – 6/2) ====  Join The DTKC Family! Become a member of Don Tony and Kevin Castle Show Patreon and access right now: Ad-Free episodes of all of weekly shows Weekly live Patreon podcasts hosted by Don Tony and Kevin Castle Thousands of hours of Patreon exclusive shows never released publicly! (Over 7 Years of Patreon Exclusive Content!) Retro episodes of The Don Tony And Kevin Castle Show going back as early as 2004 (Retro Episodes added each week!) Predictions Contests, Giveaways and more! 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J.R. Martinez is an Army veteran, burn survivor, actor, New York Times best-selling author, and Dancing with the Stars champion, spreading a message of hope, resilience and optimism. Today, J.R. shares a story of pain, triumph, and the beauty of pushing forward. Hear the pivotal experiences that shaped his desire to become a cycle-breaker, what he learned while trapped inside a burning Humvee in Iraq, the process he went through to become grateful for his scars and how he rediscovered how to fulfill his purpose of serving others. My friends, this conversation reminds us that though our paths may differ and the challenges we face may be unique, each of us holds the incredible power to adapt and overcome. And reinforces that each scar, each struggle, and each victory is a steppingstone toward a fuller, more meaningful life.

After the ApocalypseA pandemic survival storySeason four, Episode twenty – “Future Shock” …Normal pace even tone to start.Brent stopped the Humvee at the barrier. Not that he had a choice.He wasn't going to get through unless the defenders let him through. Janet was driving the second Humvee. She came to a stop with two or three vehicle lengths space between them. Habits die hard in the apocalypse, and she had learned to always leave enough room for escape. Don't' get boxed in.... Website -> http://www.oldmanapocalypse.com Buy me Coffee -> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/cyktrussellSubscribe page on Acast -> https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypsePodcast on Acast -> https://shows.acast.com/after-the-apocalypseFacebook group -> https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldmanapocalypsePatreon to support the show -> https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypseKindle Vella Story -> https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09LTRC8RHMerch Store -> https://www.teepublic.com/stores/after-the-apocalypse Twitter -> cyktrussell@twitter.com Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ANDY CROWE ● BILL YATES ● NICK WALKER ● DAVID GIBSON NICK WALKER: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. It's a chance for us to get together every couple of weeks and have a conversation about what matters to you as a professional project manager. We'll cover subjects such as project management certification, doing the job of project management, and get inside the brains of some of the leaders in the industry and hear their stories. I'm your host, Nick Walker. And with me are our resident experts, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. They are project managers who mentor other project managers and those working toward that title. Andy and Bill, a lot to look forward to today. Andy, we've had some amazing guests lately. ANDY CROWE: We really have. And I think today's going to continue that trend, Nick. We're excited to have Dave Gibson in the studio. NICK WALKER: Well, let's get right to our guest. I know we've got a lot to cover. David Gibson is the Vice President and Division Manager of McKean Defense Group in Washington, D.C. He guides, mentors, coaches, and develops program managers. His experience includes strategic planning, customer engagement, and business development, and much more. Among other projects, he was the program manager for the Pentagon's MRAP, M-R-A-P, the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected military vehicle. David, welcome to Manage This. DAVID GIBSON: Thank you. I'm glad to be here. NICK WALKER: We really are anxious to talk with you about this program that you were involved in. And even though it's been a while, it's such an involved program. It was a major part of your life; wasn't it. DAVID GIBSON: It was. It was a wonderful seven years. It was a hard seven years. But it was very rewarding, probably the highlight of a career. NICK WALKER: It's nice to see that you've come out on the other side intact. DAVID GIBSON: Thank you, thank you. NICK WALKER: So David, what was your role in this project, your specific portion? DAVID GIBSON: Yeah, so on a program like this, you know, obviously the government has the lead role; right? And the government, it's an inherently governmental contract. They're managing it. But I was on a team that was sort of a staff augmentation. There's areas we can help; there's areas where we can't help. You know, we can't commit the government to dollars. You know, so while I'm talking about the program today from an overall perspective, my role was on the contractor side, in support of the government's efforts. And when I started initially on the program, I was a project officer. I came up through the ranks. I became the deputy program manager and then eventually the program manager. I sat in the program manager, on the contractor side, seat for about five years of the seven. Or actually it was a little bit less than that. It was probably closer to four. And then on the government side, you know, the first government program manager was a gentleman named Paul Mann. Second one was Dave Hansen. And Dave and I came into the program manager, respective program manager positions about the same time. He was a couple months after I was. Such a rewarding experience to work with Dave. Dave was a huge inspiration to me. And, you know, we've continued to keep in touch. We're off doing our own things now. He's managing another Marine Corps program. I'm back working with the Navy at McKean Defense. And it's – but, you know, it's mutually supportive. NICK WALKER: Tell us a little bit about how this all started. Give us a little background. DAVID GIBSON: Okay. So if you remember back in 2006, that timeframe, U.S. forces were in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we would see on the nightly news the Humvees that were being destroyed by IEDs, and the service members that were dying or being disfigured because of it. BILL YATES: And, Dave, what's an IED? Just explain that. DAVID GIBSON: An IED is an improvised explosive device. ...

JP Dinnell talks about being the new guys in the SEAL teams, what Humvee tactical and racing school was like, and how SEALS resolve conflicts amongst themselves.  More from JP Dinnell: https://www.jpdinnell.com/ Join the conversation on instagram JP Dinnell: http://instagram.com/jpdinnell/ Lucas Pinckard: https://www.instagram.com/lucaspinckard Echelon Front: https://echelonfront.com/ Bruiser Arms: https://www.instagram.com/bruiserarms Little Cattle Co: http://littlecattle.co On The Path Printing: https://www.instagram.com/onthepathprinting JP Dinnell is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and now a Leadership Instructor, Speaker and Strategic Advisor with Echelon Front, where he serves as Director of Experiential Leadership Training Programs. J.P. is also a pro team athlete and spokesperson for Origin Maine and Jocko Fuel, an American clothing and supplement company. J.P. has a signature Energy Drink flavor “Sour Apple Sniper” with Jocko Fuel. Jeremiah spent nearly a decade in the SEAL Teams with three combat deployments. Sent to the violent terrorist stronghold of Ar Ramadi, Iraq in 2006 with SEAL Team Three's Task Unit Bruiser, J.P. served as point man, machine gunner, and lead sniper for Delta Platoon opposite the American Sniper, Chris Kyle, who was in Charlie Platoon. For his leadership and courage under fire, JP was awarded a Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars with Valor and the Army Commendation Medal with Valor helping Task Unit Bruiser to become the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War. He worked closely with SEAL Officers Jocko Willink, his Task Unit Commander, and Leif Babin, and was the driving force on many of the daring combat operations Jocko and Leif wrote about in Extreme Ownership. Upon his return, J.P. again worked directly for Jocko as a training instructor at Naval Special Warfare Group One Training Detachment, where he orchestrated realistic and challenging training scenarios for Special Operations Urban Combat training and Close Quarters Combat training to better prepare SEAL units for the real-world battlefield. He also served as a Combatives Instructor, Marksmanship Instructor and earned his Master Trainer Specialist qualification while helping Jocko rebuild and enhance these training programs into the highly effective platforms they are today. J.P. brings exceptional experience and frontline leadership perspective from the winning mindset and culture of Task Unit Bruiser.

After watching the Twin Towers collapse on 9/11, Noah Galloway immediately enlisted in the military at just 21 years old. Three months into his second deployment, an IED exploded, ripping apart the Humvee he was driving and nearly ending his life. He awoke five days later to find both his left arm and left leg amputated. After he finally returned home, he was overcome by a deep depression. When his marriage dissolved and he spent 10 days in county jail for a DUI, he knew he had to turn his life around. Determined to be a good role model for his children, he slowly clawed his way out of depression and into the gym to begin his mental and physical rebirth. His grit and determination began to attract media attention, landing him on the cover of Men's Health Magazine and multiple TV appearances on Ellen, The Today Show, and the military-inspired competition series American Grit. He also earned third place on Dancing With the Stars. Get inspired to live with no excuses by this author, retired Army Sergeant and real American hero in this episode of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu. FOLLOW NOAH: TWITTER: http://bit.ly/2uylPdj INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/2wmDyGW FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/2vHBdt1 WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/2vENQEg SPONSORS: If you purchase an item using these affiliate links, Impact Theory may receive a commission.  Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://shopify.com/impact now to grow your business – no matter what stage you're in. Get 5 free AG1 Travel Packs and a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D with your first purchase at https://drinkag1.com/impact. Right now get 55% off your Babbel subscription - but only for our listeners - at https://babbel.com/IMPACTTHEORY. Right now, download NetSuite's popular KPI Checklist, designed to give you consistently excellent performance - absolutely free, at https://netsuite.com/theory. Head to https://squarespace.com/impact for a free 14 day trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Get an extended thirty-day free trial when you go to https://monarchmoney.com/IMPACT. Sign up and download Grammarly for FREE at https://grammarly.com/tom. Secure your digital life with proactive protection for your assets, identity, family, and tech – Go to https://aura.com/IMPACT to start your free two-week trial. Take control of your gut health by going to https://tryviome.com/impact and use code IMPACT to get 20% off your first 3 months and free shipping. ***Are You Ready for EXTRA Impact?*** If you're ready to find true fulfillment, strengthen your focus, and ignite your true potential, the Impact Theory subscription was created just for you.  *New episodes delivered ad-free, EXCLUSIVE access to hundreds of archived Impact Theory episodes, Tom AMAs, and so much more!* This is not for the faint of heart. This is for those who dare to learn obsessively, every day, day after day. *****Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3PCvJaz***** Subscribe on all other platforms (Google Podcasts, Spotify, Castro, Downcast, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Podcast Republic, Podkicker, and more) : https://impacttheorynetwork.supercast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bobby Henline is a retired Army Staff Sergeant, last serving with the 82nd Airborne Division. He spent 13 years in the Army, completing four tours. While on his fourth tour in Iraq, three weeks after his arrival, an IED exploded under his Humvee – April 7, 2007, is a day he will never forget. The four soldiers with him did not survive. As Henline stumbled out of the wreck, a human torch, he was extinguished by the soldier he had replaced in the Humvee. With burns covering 40% of medically induced coma for two weeks and flown back to the States. Bobby uses comedy now as a way to deal with his past and to save a future generation. Check out his website - The Well Done Comedian - and visit his non-profit foundation - Forging Forward - dedicated to helping active duty, military veterans, first responders, and Gold Star Families. Join us at Patreon.com/gameofcrimes for great content you won't hear anywhere else Donate at paypal.me/gameofcrimes or go to paypal.com and use our email: gameofcrimespodcast@gmail.com Go to GameOfCrimesPodcast.com for more info and merch Follow us on... Twitter Facebook Instagram

Bobby Henline was on his fourth tour in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division when an IED exploded under his Humvee and burned over 40% of his body.

Fred Fleitz, former Chief of Staff to Trump‘s National Security Council, says the reports of the resurgence of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan was “predictable” after Biden's botched Afghanistan exit in 2021. Fleitz comments, “there's a close relationship between Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But let's review what happened in 2021, [the U.S.] left behind 358,000 assault rifles, 126,000 pistols, 64,000 machine guns, 16,000 night vision goggles, and thousands of trucks, Humvees and aircrafts.” “The Taliban, first of all, they've become arms dealers, and we have to assume a lot of these weapons are probably showing up in Ukraine and being used by the Russians, and who knows what else. But this really are weapons that could be arming several large, aggressive terrorist groups. And I think that's what's going on now. I believe that the Taliban is probably selling larger equipment that it can easily use, and weapons like machine guns and assault rifles, they are all being used in these Taliban training camps,” said Fleitz. Additional interviews with Robert Greenway, Director of the Center for National Defense at The Heritage Foundation, on Southern border crisis has opened Americans' eyes to Biden's poor foreign policy, and AMAC Spokesman Bobby Charles. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today's show with GunBroker.com, we're at SHOT Show joined by John Snodgrass from Leupold and Kyle Lamb with Viking Tactics. We start out with Logan asking about how the tactical and hunting world are tied together now? John dives into the fact that the Leupold Mark 4 is designed to be able to jump out of a plane with or grab out of a Humvee and still be dialed in, so naturally that transitioned into hunters being interested in some of the same technology. We discuss the difference in Mil dot from the Army and Marines, the biggest difference? The Marine's version had to be crayon friendly! The good thing is everything now is completely the same, that way everything is user friendly across the board. Listen in to this episode Presented by GunBroker.com to hear all about Leupold's involvement in the Mil dot system and the military throughout the years. Next up, we dive into long range shooting and how it's changed over the years. While the firearms themselves have not changed that much over the years, optics absolutely have. Nowadays long range shots in the 600-yard range that used to be highly celebrated and among the more elite few is really a standard shot for a lot of people who practice long range now. A huge improvement now is locking zero dials on scopes. A huge problem throughout history would be trying to dial back after dialing for a further range shot. Logan discusses with Kyle the optics and weapons from the Battle of Mogadishu and his history with different optics during his time serving in the armed forces. Kyle gives us a history on the optics he used throughout his lifetime and some of the pros and cons of the different optics he used during those time periods. Closing out, John gives us an in depth background of Leupold's history. All the way back to the very beginning with creating surveying equipment, the founder of Leupold ended up getting into the scope business during 1947 after he himself fell victim of a fogged scope during a hunt, which led to him saying he could create a better scope himself! Make sure to tune into this episode to hear all about Leupold. The show launches every Thursday morning. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glenn asks all the questions that nobody has asked regarding Hunter Biden's ex-business partner Devon Archer's suspicious testimony and recent media interviews. After a crowd chanted "retire" during Sen. Mitch McConnell's speech, Glenn and Pat discuss America's elderly leadership issue and its negative societal effect. Former capo for New York's Colombo crime family and host of “Sit Down with Michael Franzese” Michael Franzese joins to discuss President Biden, the "Biden Crime Family," and how their actions are strikingly similar to how the mob operates. Is the heat wave happening across the country the reason for higher gas prices? Glenn and Pat discuss President Biden's unpopularity and his administration doing everything possible to boost his approval rating. Hummer has created a massive Humvee that doubles as an apartment.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices