The Arizona 9/11 “Never Forgotten” Tower Challenge is believed to be the nation’s largest Sept. 11 memorial event using exclusively first responders, military members and their families.  Last year over 2,000 participants accepted the challenge to climb 2,071 steps, equal to the number of floors in the World Trade Center Towers. The event has raised nearly $200,000 for charities that support military and first responder families. Rob Brandt is a Tucson Police Dept. Sergeant and President of the 9/11 Tower Challenge Foundation. “We wanted to have a memorial but not a sorrowful type, somber memorial. We wanted to challenge everyone [...]

Undersea Rescue Command is one of the US Navy’s most specialized commands. Their mission is to be prepared to mobilize anytime to rescue any US or NATO submarine anywhere in the world. MCPO Patrick Bunker with BBG Master Chief Petty Officer Patrick Bunker is also a Captain in the Tucson Fire Department and was serving with Undersea Rescue Command when they were deployed to assist with search and rescue mission for the Argentinian submarine ARA San Juan in 2017. Pat shares the reason firefighters are perfect for the URC mission is that they are rescue operations rather than [...]

- (L-R) Jack Bewly, Dan Pederson, BBG, Scott Bader Top Gun founder Dan Pederson began his Navy career as a mechanic. Thanks to a great mentor, he would become a pilot and play a critical role in creating one of the most storied Fighter Weapons Schools in the world.  He wrote “Top Gun: An American Story” to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Despite dominating air to air combat in World War II and Korea, the Navy kill ratio early in the Vietnam War had dropped to as little as 2 to 1. In the fall of 1968 Dan’s Commander handed [...]

Life Flight personnel save lives. And they risk their own lives in doing so. Beth Anne Laos Beth Anne Laos served as a Life flight nurse for eight years during which she experienced both the highs and lows of being an “Angel with Rotors”. She was drawn to the field because she wanted to fly and started her career as an American Airlines flight nurse for long term medical transport overseas. However, after three extremely grueling and long flights decided that particular aspect of the career was not for her.  Instead, she began working as a flight nurse [...]

The National Museum of the United States Army will be the largest military museum on the planet when it opens in 2020. It will tell the entire history of our Army and the 30 million men & women who have worn the uniform since 1775.  Actor Joe Mantegna is the national spokesperson for the fundraising campaign and provides updates on the project. Joe has a very personal connection to this project; he had five uncles serve during the Second World War.  Like most Veterans, they did not share their stories very often, but began to open up to Joe after [...]

The Havok Journal seeks to serve as the voice of the Veteran community through a focus on current affairs and articles of interest to the public in general, and the Veteran community in particular. Editor Scott Faith joins us for a discussion about PTSD. Havok Journal authors come principally from the military and first responder community and their opinions on this topic are divergent.  Many consider PTSD as the “third rail” of the Veteran community.   In the article “Why I’ve Become Skeptical of PTSD Claims..and Why You Should be Too” Scott discusses how financial and cultural incentives and misdiagnosis [...]