Podcasts

Battle Bars was inspired out of a family tragedy. Now this Veteran owned and operated company is making waves in the protein bar industry and giving back to their communities along the way. Company co-founder and Chief Operations Officer Ian Sparks (Army Combat Engineer) and CEO Alex Witt (Navy Master-At-Arms) join us for a Veteran Entrepreneur feature. Like many entrepreneurial efforts, Battle Bars initially capitalized the company by going the “standard” route of talking to family and friends about their idea and providing them product samples.  “We were very fortunate to be surrounded by people who DID serve and were [...]

Save the Brave Executive Director Scott Huesing was asked to give the eulogy at the memorial service for David White, a high school friend and Navy Veteran. David drank himself to death. Rather than fly cross country, Scott decided to undertake a 4,600 mile roundtrip motorcycle journey in order to honor David, raise awareness about the Post Traumatic Stress issues still bedeviling Veterans and raise funds for Save the Brave programs that help address this issue. Scott has never ridden that far before and admits to being nervous. Fellow Veteran Pete Turner offered to drive his truck as escort. Scott [...]

Richard Burt, like many of his generation, volunteered when our nation entered World War II.  The Army decided he should be trained as a “Latrine Technician”.  However, recognizing the positive morale building effects of music, the Army also was standing up nearly 500 bands and this proved Richard Burt’s ticket out of permanent latrine duty. Burt was a very talented trumpet player and volunteered to deploy to the Pacific with the 746th Far East Air Force Band so that the married soldiers on the list wouldn’t have to.  The 746th Band performed parades, ceremonies, concerts and USO shows – many [...]

Sarah Carlson was working an emergency management internship when the September 11th attacks occurred. Like many Americans she and her brothers decided to serve our nation. Her brothers joined the military but Sarah took a different route, choosing to join the Defense Intelligence Agency as an intelligence analyst and eventually moving to a role with the Central Intelligence Agency. Her entire career was focused upon counter-terrorism; groups plotting attacks against the homeland and Europe. Her personal experiences and involvement in the harrowing evacuation of a US Embassy in are detailed in her new book “In the Dark of War; A [...]

Matthew Marsden made a comment during an interview last year that just floored me. So much so that I invited the British born actor/director to join me for a special Independence Day show. Sometimes it is valuable to examine ourselves through the lens of an “outsider”. Marsden was raised by a single mother living in public housing. He was fascinated by US television and even comic books. While he established a respectable career as a singer and actor in the United Kingdom, he knew that because he came from the wrong social class, his career was likely limited. He also [...]

Soldier Strong was originally established by Christopher Meek as “Soldiers Socks” in 2009. Chris was in the World Trade Center towers on September 11th and was responsible for getting 29 persons out on that day.  Following those attacks Chris knew he had to do something to give back but didn’t know what form that would take. A few years later Chris learned from a Marine Corps mentor that some deployed troops were lacking essentials like socks and baby wipes. He formed “Soldiers Socks” in 2009 and the new organization shipped over 75,000 pounds of donated socks and wipes. As combat [...]