Podcast Archives - American Warrior Radio

Sun 3/15/2026

DiveHeart Foundation – Jim Elliott and Tinamarie Hernandez

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-03-15T13:26:37-07:00March 15th, 2026|

DiveHeart Foundation Founder and President Jim Elliott, along with Executive Director Tinamarie Hernandez join American Warrior Radio to tell us more about this great organization.DiveHeart assists Veterans with severe injuries through adaptive scuba training. Jim has been very comfortable working around disabled persons his entire life. His father was a disabled Army Vet at the local Veterans hospital, and his daughter was born blind. He got his daughter involved in downhill skiing and personally witnessed how it made a positive [...]

Mon 3/2/2026

Doug Hegdahl – The Unlikely Hero

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-03-10T11:55:23-07:00March 2nd, 2026|

Doug Hegdahl said he “probably had the most embarrassing capture of the Vietnam War”. Despite the odd circumstances that led him to become a Prisoner of War, he would turn out to be a rather unusual hero. Author Marc Leepson shares Hegdahl’s amazing story in his latest book “The Unlikely War Hero; A Vietnam War POW’s Story of Courage and Resistance in the Hanoi Hilton.” Hegdahl grew up in a small South Dakota town and was described as very bright [...]

Mon 2/23/2026

Bob Breault – Wild Weasel in Vietnam

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-03-03T19:12:10-07:00February 23rd, 2026|

Bob Breault was one of the first Air Force Pilots tasked with undertaking the very dangerous “Wild Weasel” missions in Vietnam. The way he describes it, they would go up and do a “dance in the sky” daring the enemy to shoot at them, thus allowing other pilots to attack the SAM missile sites. Breault flew 9 combat missions over North Vietnam and 280 over South Vietnam, earning the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross and multiple Air Medals. He was [...]

Mon 2/16/2026

Warrior Poet Ryan McDermott

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-02-17T06:29:50-07:00February 16th, 2026|

The concept of a Warrior Poet is not new. The Spartans, Knights Templar and Japanese Samurai all honored writing as much as fighting. Ryan McDermott is a West Point graduate who earned his Ranger tab and served in the Army from 2000-2006. Ryan led an infantry platoon during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and his platoon was the first unit to cross the Euphrates River and reach the tarmac of Saddam International Airport in April of 2003. Ryan shares a poem inspired [...]

Tue 2/10/2026

Base Camp for Veterans – Deborah Plum & Theo Windish

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-02-10T10:45:08-07:00February 10th, 2026|

Base Camp for Veterans was founded by friends Theo Windish and Deborah Plum. Neither one served in the military, and they share their motivations for establishing a program that supports Veterans. Base Camp for Veterans operates at a guest ranch outside of Tucson, AZ and offers their programs free of charge. They use equine assisted psychotherapy to help Veteran families safely develop skills to deal with issues of transition. One of the things I love about the program is that [...]

Mon 2/2/2026

“Black Hawk Down” Pilot Michael Durant

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-02-02T13:17:46-07:00February 2nd, 2026|

“Black Hawk Down” was a 2001 movie dramatizing the epic battle that took place on October 3-4, 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia. The original mission involved an assault to capture several high value targets. In addition to a ground component, the plan called for Special Operations forces to be inserted by air. They would be ferried by pilots of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, a unit comprised of some of the best pilots in our military. “Super 61” piloted by [...]

Sun 2/1/2026

Larry Cripps – “The Hope of War”

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-02-01T13:08:57-07:00February 1st, 2026|

Larry Cripps was drafted into the Army in the summer of 1969. He would see combat with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in both Vietnam and Cambodia. His experiences in combat profoundly influenced his understanding of faith during times of conflict. Following his discharge from active duty in 1971, Larry pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical Education and History and attended Seminary School. He returned to the military and served as a Navy Chaplain for three decades. He says he [...]

Mon 1/19/2026

Battle of Fremifontaine – Michael Reyka

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-01-19T18:07:17-07:00January 19th, 2026|

The Thunderbird was the insignia used by the 180th Infantry Regiment during WWII. They engaged in some of the heaviest fighting during the War, from North Africa to Sicily. The 180th then fought their way north through the Vosges Mountains of France, where 50 percent of the allied casualties in October of 1944 were sustained. Among them was Steve C. Reyka who served as an H Company heavy machine gun crewmember and joined the battalion in Italy. In the first [...]

Tue 1/13/2026

Pacific Atrocities in WWII – Jennifer Chan

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-01-13T11:26:01-07:00January 13th, 2026|

Pacific Atrocities Education was founded by Jennifer Chan. She has authored books on the occupation of Hong Kong, Japan’s Unit 731, and Chinese “comfort women”. As part of her research, she has scanned over one million pages from the national archives. I was unaware of Unit 731 until Jennifer showed up on my radar. This notorious group conducted “research” with a level of inhumanity comparable or exceeding the Nazis. Live vivisections, amputations, tying prisoners in the cold to study frostbite [...]

Sun 1/11/2026

Havok Journal Year End Wrap Up – Charles Faint

Ben Buehler-Garcia2026-01-11T15:24:03-07:00January 11th, 2026|

Havok Journal owner Charles Faint joins us to help wrap up 2025 and guide us into 2026. I have always been fascinated by issues that can translate from the military to the civilian world. Our overarching theme for this discussion is leadership. We begin with J.C. Glick’s article “Beyond Compliance: The Shift from Obedience to Discipline in Leadership and Life”. Glick served as an army officer with 11 combat tours. Glick served with the Rangers and was always impressed with [...]