Joining me for this week's podcast is Marc Polymeropoulos. Marc retired from the Senior Intelligence Service ranks in 2019 after serving for 26 years. He is a highly decorated field officer serving in various leadership roles. His book "Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA" was published in 2021. He received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the Intelligence Commendation Medal, and the Intelligence Medal of Merit. We discussed his time working counter-terrorism in the middle ea...
Jul 13, 2022•1 hr 56 min
For this week's podcast, joining me is the Senior United States Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio. Senator Rubio came on to discuss veterans who have been exposed to toxic burn pits while serving overseas. Many of these veterans are diagnosed with cancer and other rare illnesses at an alarming rate. An issue Senator Rubio is passionate about tackling is human trafficking. We discussed how to protect schools in the wake of a deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Tune in. Main Takeaways Veterans expos...
Jun 02, 2022•1 hr 2 min
We are currently working on setting up a secure payment system through an American Special Forces veteran ran organization to get donations directly to Mikko’s unit. They will be buying medical supplies, fuel, and other necessities. Joining me for this week's podcast is Mikko. Mikko is an active-duty Ukrainian Special Forces Soldier who has been fighting the Russians since the 2022 invasion began. Mikko saw combat in 2016 as a breacher in Eastern Ukraine, working for a Law Enforcement unit in th...
May 03, 2022•1 hr 56 min
GRP 161-Don't Rush To Your Death: A Conversation with An American Tier 1 Operator Joining me for this week's podcast is retired Special Missions Operator Fred Fusco. I did a podcast with Fred five years ago. Fred spent most of his career in Special Operations, serving as a Green Beret Medic before joining the Army Special Missions Unit, where he served as an Assaulter and a Sniper. We talked about some of Fred's experiences in combat, including dealing with suicide bombers on target, conducting ...
Apr 09, 2022•1 hr 57 min
Joining me for this week's podcast is the Gold Star Wife of Staff Sergeant Bryan Black Michelle Black. SSG Black was killed alongside SFC Jeremiah Johnson, SSG Dustin Wright, and SGT LaDavid Johnson after their Special Forces team was ambushed on October 4th, 2017, in Niger, Africa. After investigating the incident, the military sat down with the Black family to discuss their findings. Michelle felt the Army wasn't telling the entire truth about what happened. They blamed the soldiers on the gro...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 26 min
GRP 159-Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change: A CIA Officers fight to bring American Allies home. My guest for this week's podcast is a former CIA Officer, U.S. Army veteran, and author of "Watches Without Time: An American Soldier in Afghanistan." Matt Zeller. Matt is the Co-Founder of No One Left Behind, which works to get American allies out of harm's way in combat zones. Matt has spent months sounding the alarm and warning high-level government officials that there will be severe c...
Sep 29, 2021•1 hr 20 min
Episode Summary I have two guests on for this week's podcast. They are the primary instructors at Archon Ready Group, and both served at the Army Special Missions Unit for nearly two decades. Billy Delaporte and Dan Ibach are back on with me. We talked about police shootings, police firearms training, and much more. Enjoy Main Episode Takeaways Weapons manipulation Police involved shootings Grip Matters Stance Matters Archon Ready Group This Episode is Brought to you by: Wondery-Nine Twelve Conn...
Sep 08, 2021•1 hr 13 min
Episode Summary My guest for this week's podcast is retired Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher. Chief Gallagher completed 20 years in the U.S. Navy, with most of that time spent in the SEAL Teams. He served as a Corpsman and a Sniper. During his final deployment in 2017 to Mosul, Iraq, Gallagher was the Platoon Chief. The objective during this deployment was to work side by side with the Iraqi military to retake the city of Mosul from ISIS. It was after this deployment where a few members of his pl...
Mar 31, 2021•1 hr 50 min
Episode Summary My guest for this week's podcast is Command Master Chief Bill Clark. CMC Clark served for four years in the Marine Corps and twenty years with the Navy. He enlisted in the Navy after the September 11th attacks as a Master At Arms to become a Dog Handler. The Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) recruited him. He was among the first group of trainers at the command. Over the next 20 years, CMC Clark would deploy 11 times into combat as a Dog Handler. DEVGRU is the Navy...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 26 min
Episode Summary My guest for this week's podcast is retired U.S. Army Special Missions Sergeant Major Dan Ibach. SGM Ibach served for 21 years, seven of those at the 75th Ranger Regiment and fourteen at the Tier 1 Unit. During a deployment to Iraq, Dan was severely wounded when his vehicle drove over an Improvised Explosive Device, killing half of his team. A month later, he would wake up from a coma, rejoin the Unit, and continue to deploy into combat. Ibach was assigned to the United Kingdom's...
Mar 15, 2021•1 hr 49 min
Episode Summary Joining me for this week's podcast is author and Army Special Forces combat veteran, John Stryker Meyer. Meyer, served two tours of duty in Vietnam as a Green Beret and member of the highly secretive unit MACV-SOG. SOG fought the secret war in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. SOG operations often ended with a ten-man team going up against hundreds or thousands of North Vietnamese troops. Main Episode Takeaways Running Recon Across the Fence 10,000 vs 10 Recon Team Idaho Green B...
Feb 24, 2021•2 hr 3 min
Episode Summary Joining me for this week's podcast is an author and former CIA Targeting Analyst, Sarah Carlson. Sarah's book "In The Dark of War" is her account of the U.S. mission's evacuation in Tripoli, Libya, in 2014, where she served as a CIA officer. The evacuation took 26 hours, with 150 Americans driving out of Libya during a civil war. Accompanied by U.S Marines, they successfully made it into Tunisia with American F-16 fighter jets shadowing them in the skies. Main Episode Takeaways C...
Nov 19, 2020•59 min
GRP 152- Joining me for this week's podcast is Marine Corps veteran Yousef Badou. Yousef runs Emergence Disrupt, a training company specializing in Situational Awareness & Behavior Analysis Training. Badou deployed multiple times to Iraq as a U.S. Marine. His father is from Kuwait, where he spent his early years living in Kuwait during the invasion by Saddam Hussein helped shape his path moving forward. He would be recalled into the Marine Corps to teach for the Combat Hunter program. The FB...
Nov 12, 2020•2 hr 11 min
Joining me for this podcast is retired Army Sergeant Major Bill Delaporte. Delaporte is part owner of Archon Ready Group, which teaches marksmanship. Delaporte served in the Army's Special Missions Unit for 17 years, where he became an assault team leader deploying as an operator 13 times. We talked about Bill's army career, the second amendment, and more. Enjoy. Check out Archon Ready Group here: https://www.archonreadygroup.com www.instagram.com/archonreadygroup John Hendricks: www.globalrecon...
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 53 min
My guest for this podcast is Nathan Edmondson, the co-founder and President of EDGE. Eco Defense Group (EDGE) plays a pivotal role in the counter-poaching Rhino war in Africa. Utilizing the skill sets of American Tier 1 Operators, they train and develop counter-poacher and Ranger units combatting poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking in coordination with the office of defense cooperation through the consulate general and other official channels in Africa. The market for rhino horns in Southe...
Aug 14, 2020•1 hr 17 min
GRP 149-My guest for this podcast is Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sergeant Ronald Shurer. Ron passed away due to complications from Lung Cancer on May 14th, 2020. He was 41 years old. I want to extend my condolences to his wife, Miranda, his two boys, my buddy Ryan, his teammates, and co-workers from the Secret Service. Ron deployed twice to Afghanistan as a Medic in the 3rd Special Forces Group with ODA 3336. During his second deployment, while conducting an operation in the Shok Valley, Ron ...
Aug 09, 2020•1 hr 50 min
Joining me for this week’s podcast is a retired Marine Special Operations Task Force Commander Fred Galvin, and Army veteran, gold star wife, and current spouse to a MARSOC Raider Destiny Draher. On January 1st, 2019 Gunnery Sgt. Joshua Negron, Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Draher and Chief Petty Officer Eric Gilmet were assaulted by a drunk former Green Beret working as a civilian contractor in Erbil, Iraq during a night out. One of the Marines threw a punch back knocking the contractor out. The entire i...
May 07, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Joining me for this week’s podcast is Author and Navy SEAL Will Chesney. Chesney served for 3 years at SEAL Team 4 before screening and being selected to serve as a Tier 1 Operator. He has deployed multiple times as a Dog Handler and Operator until he was medically retired after getting blown up in Afghanistan. The book is the story of Will and his SEAL dog Cairo. Cairo served with Will for multiple rotations including after getting shot by an enemy fighter wielding an AK-47. Cairo was with Will...
Apr 30, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Joining me for this week’s podcast is author and veteran of the war in Syria Ed Nash. Ed, is a civilian from the United Kingdom who spent his early 20’s traveling the world. He would eventually go on to work with the Free Burma Rangers(FBR). The FBR is a volunteer organization led by a former American Special Forces Officer which provides aid to civilians in war zones around the globe. After a few stints with the FBR as an information officer Ed went on to join up with the Kurds in the fight aga...
Apr 24, 2020•1 hr 1 min
GRP 145-Defender That Shall Not be Seen My guest for this week's podcast is Tomer Israeli. Tomer is A veteran captain of the Israeli Defense Forces with over 20 years of both combat and instructional experience. He began his army career in the Sayeret Matkal - '92 Yuval which is Israel's Tier 1 counter-terrorism unit. He later served as a team member in a special recon team (Sayeret Golani - Orev '92 Dotan). As a reserve officer, Tomer led his team at a special forces recon unit deep behind enem...
Mar 27, 2020•1 hr 4 min
GRP 144-Wherever you go, go with all your heart: A MACV-SOG Team Leader at war Co-hosting for this podcast is retired Chief Warrant Officer and 20 year Navy SEAL veteran Ron Mahrs. Our guest is Dr. Henry Thompson. Thompson served for 21 years in the United States Army in various leadership roles. He began his career as a Green Beret joining MACV-SOG running recon operations during the Vietnam war. Dr. Thompson became the 1-0 or team leader of Recon Team Michigan taking over the team from a good ...
Mar 06, 2020•2 hr 30 min
GRP 143-Mosul: A film by a CIA counter-terrorism officer Joining me for this week’s podcast is former CIA counterterrorism officer Dan Gabriel. He served at the Agency for a decade until the killing of Osama Bin Laden when he decided it was time to pursue another passion of his: Film making. The film “Mosul” is entirely in Arabic. Written and directed by Gabriel, it shows the journey of a journalist from Bagdad as he documents the retaking of Mosul from ISIS. Ali Mula embeds with the Iraqi Speci...
Feb 28, 2020•1 hr 12 min
GRP 142-The Operator Foundation: The story of Ron Mahrs A Counter-Terrorism Operator Joining me for this episode is Ron Mahrs. He served in the Navy for 27 years with over 20 as a SEAL and 15 as an operator at the counter-terrorism organization. Ron founded the Gethin Group and The Operator Foundation both providing unique services to veterans with Gethin, and gold star families with the Foundation. Mahrs, deployed into combat 14 times in a tier 1 capacity where he served at various levels of le...
Feb 06, 2020•1 hr 58 min
GRP 141-Easy Day: A conversation with Navy SEAL Jason Higgins On for this week’s podcast is former Navy SEAL and owner of Easy Day Hemp Jason Higgins. Jason served as a SEAL for nine years before rotating into a government security job. It wasn’t until his transitioning out of combat where he started to experience difficulty. During this process, he hit personal lows and realized he needed to make a change. Using natural remedies including Yoga, Cannabis, and hemp he was able to overcome his iss...
Jan 31, 2020•59 min
Joining me for this week’s podcast is Hussain Abdul-Hussain. Hussain is the bureau chief for the Kuwaiti Daily and has been a journalist covering the middle east for over 20 years. His childhood was spent between Iraq and Lebanon. I first took notice of Hussain when he countered the narrative of the mainstream media in the immediate aftermath of the Soleimani killing by translating the Arabic news reports coming out of Iraq. We discussed the killing of Soleimani, the Iranian nuclear deal, the mi...
Jan 17, 2020•51 min
Joining me for this week's podcast is Andrew Coussens. Andrew is an author and has written two books. His first is "A failed State," and his second is "Relapse." Andrew served in the U.S. government security services for 21 years. He began his career working with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, where he worked his way up to an Aerial Interdiction Unit Leader. He later spent time working with the agency's BORSTAR unit, conducting search and rescue operations all along the border. The 2002 winter ...
Jan 13, 2020•1 hr 24 min
GRP 138-For this week's podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Fred Burton. Mr. Burton is one of the world's foremost authorities on security and terrorism. He oversees Stratfor's analysis of global security developments. Before joining Stratfor, Mr. Burton served as a counterterrorism agent with the U.S. State Department from 1985 to 1999. Mr. Burton was deputy chief of counterterrorism at the Diplomatic Security Service, where he was in charge of preventing and investigating attacks ...
Jan 05, 2020•1 hr 20 min
GRP 137-Deeds not Words: A discussion with a Canadian Tier 1 Sniper Joining me for this week's podcast is Jeff Depatie. Jeff served in the Canadian Army before going to selection for their Tier 1 Special Forces unit JTF2. Serving for over a decade as an Assaulter, and Sniper Jeff saw combat across the globe. During the emergence of ISIS, the JTF2 were some of the first western forces on the ground, engaging ISIS on the battlefield. We discussed the common ancestor of American and Canadian Specia...
Dec 12, 2019•57 min
Joining me for this week’s podcast is Nims Dai. Nims grew up in Nepal before joining the famed Gurkha's. The Gurkha Brigades recently celebrated 200 years of service in the British Army. Upon returning from a combat deployment to Afghanistan Nims, decided to go on selection for British Special Forces. Upon passing selection he would continue to serve as an operator in the SBS for another 10 years. In 2016 on pre-deployment leave Nims took out a loan from the bank and went to Nepal to climb Mount...
Aug 29, 2019•42 min
GRP 135-Wherever you go, go with all your heart: A Special Missions Operator at war - We have a very special guest on for this week’s podcast. Joining me on today's episode is retired, Sergeant Major Jamey Caldwell. SGM Caldwell began his career as an Army Ranger before he went to selection to join the Army’s Special Missions Unit. On September 11th, 2001 he was forward deployed overseas. Within the coming weeks and months, his unit would be amongst the very first Americans to enter into Afghani...
Aug 22, 2019•1 hr 22 min
