Desert Storm and Forward

A-10 fighter pilot Kim Campbell picked up many leadership lessons over the course of a 24 year Air Force career. Some came in a “crucible moment” over Baghdad on April 7, 2003. While providing close air support for troops in contact, her aircraft was struck by a surface to air missile, knocking out all of the plane’s hydraulics. Ejecting over Baghdad was not a preferred option. In a matter of seconds she was able to analyze the situation and switch [...]

Greg Drobny started writing in the early days of “blogging” as a full time contributor to The Rhino Den, an element of the Ranger Up company. Today he is one of the most prolific contributors to The Havok Journal.  His piece “The Sheepdog Analogy Is Deeply Flawed” is the focus of our discussion. The Sheepdog concept was first formed by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman in his book “On Killing”. His theory is that everyone falls into one of three categories; [...]

Pike Logan is the main character in a series of sixteen bestselling thrillers by Army Veteran Brad Taylor. The 17th novel in the series, “The Devil’s Ransom” was just released. The series features asymmetric warfare missions practiced by Pike Logan and the extra-legal “Task Force”. Brad served 21 years in the US Army, 8 years as a member of Delta Force. He serves as a security consultant on asymmetric threats for various agencies when he is not writing. He never [...]

Traumatic Brain Injuries have been diagnosed in more than 450,000 service members between the years 2000 and 2021.  These “invisible wounds” can cause physical, mental and emotional damage. A recent short film titled “Brainstorms” shows the impacts that these wounds can have upon the victims and their families. Two medical professionals join us to discuss this issue. Dr. Chrisanne Gordon is founder of the Resurrecting Lives Foundation and Dr. Josh Appel is Chief of Emergency Medicine at the Southern Arizona [...]

“The Shot: The Harrowing Journey of a Marine in the War on Terror” tells the story of Sgt. Bill Bee’s narrow brush with death and the challenges he faced post- service. It is co-authored by Sgt. Bee and Daily Mail editor Wills Robinson. Bill was deployed with his unit in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan when Goran Tomsevic, a Serbian embedded reporter from Reuters joined them.  Bill did not have much respect for “embeds” after his first reporter requested to [...]

Coffee or Die Executive Editor Marty Skovlund, Jr. had two aspirations in High School; play for the NBA and become an Army Ranger. The Los Angeles Lakers never called but he did earn a Ranger tab. The idea that someday he would be doing “classic Ernie Pyle” journalism never crossed his mind. Marty founded The Havok Journal to give a voice to the Veteran community.  Later, he approached Evan Hafer (a fellow soldier and Founder/CEO of Black Rifle Coffee Company) [...]

Don Bentley read his first Tom Clancy novel when he was 13 years old. This Army Veteran is now writing for the “Tom Clancy universe” with his first novel achieving best seller status. Both Don’s grandfather and father served in the military. He was awarded an Army ROTC scholarship to Ohio State University and went on to fly Apache gunships. Don flew as part of the Quick Reaction Force on Operation Red Wings. Following his Army career, Don briefly tried [...]

“Eagle Down; The Last Special Forces Fighting the Forever War” is a powerful book by Jessica Donati that is receiving high praise from many including Sebastian Junger.  Jessica currently covers foreign affairs for the Wall Street Journal. She was the bureau chief in Kabul in 2015 and lived four years in Afghanistan. Eagle Down tells the personal stories of several Green Berets posted to Afghanistan conducting “training operations” following the official declaration that the “longest war in American history was [...]