Hazard Ground

She initially wanted to be an astronaut, jumping headfirst into the Civil Air Patrol program at a young age. But Annie Kleiman would end up taking a completely different path - one very unconventional within the ranks of the Air Force. She would ultimately try out for and be selected to deploy as part of a Cultural Support Team (CST) in 2012 in Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regiment, as an Air Force Officer. The CSTs would place her and other women like her on direct combat missions, performing a vital function of Special Operations - interfacing with the local populace to enable and help form enduring relationships with the locals, specifically with village women, in support of counterinsurgency operations. Following her time with the CSTs, Annie would go on to become a Pat Tillman Scholar with the goal of contributing to future CST work on a larger scale as a civilian. Hear about her groundbreaking journey on this latest edition of HAZARD GROUND!

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. THE BEST PART IS we'll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

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An absolutely powerful episode this week with the Executive Director of The Headstrong Project, Joe Quinn, on the heels of launching a new chapter in Atlanta. Joe was in his senior at West Point when his brother died in the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Joe believed he was in the best spot to enact revenge on the perpetrators of the attacks, and maybe have a chance to feel somewhat whole again, as he was soon to be commissioned in the Army, and would soon fight his enemies on foreign soil. Unfortunately, war opened his eyes to a new reality - one that couldn't extinguish the mental anguish of losing his brother, but also one where he witnessed his fellow soldiers struggling with the same mental distress. All of this led him to the work he's doing today to help other veterans in the most vital way, with The Headstrong Project. Hear about his journey on this very moving episode of HAZARD GROUND!

www.getheadstrong.org

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. THE BEST PART IS we'll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors at www.hazardground.com/sponsors!

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Following in the footsteps of immediate family, Duane France joined the Army prior to September 11, 2001. When the World Trade Center towers fell, France was stationed in Germany, away from the immediacy of GWOT planning, but ready to serve, wherever, and whenever. It would be a few years before he'd be "in the fight," but as with most people who served post-9/11, his time would come, with deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan during some of the bloodiest times of both campaigns. His experiences during those deployments, along with witnessing the effects of war on his fellow soldiers, would eventually lead him to the mental health profession. Today, Duane France is retired from the Army, and serves as a mental health counselor for veterans in Colorado. Hear about his journey as NCO, teacher, and now provider for better soldier care on this latest edition of HAZARD GROUND!

www.veteranmentalhealth.com | "Combat Vet Don't Mean Crazy"

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. THE BEST PART IS we'll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors at www.hazardground.com/sponsors!

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He's now living his life not just for himself, but for those he served with on the battlefield who never made it home. One of those soldiers, in particular, died in an instant right next to him. On December 8, 2005, Adam Mattis was seriously injured when his vehicle was struck by an IED containing several explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) near Sadr City in Baghdad. The attack occurred just 28 days before Adam's tour in Iraq was scheduled to end. The officer riding next him was a good friend and someone he highly respected. Following his medical retirement from the Army, Adam lived through the highs and extremely low, low's of surviving such a traumatic experience in combat. Fortunately he found purpose again and has transformed himself into the successful entrepreneur, business and management leader he once was in the private sector before joining the Army. Hear this powerful and moving story on this latest edition of HAZARD GROUND!

www.adammattis.com

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. THE BEST PART IS we'll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors at www.hazardground.com/sponsors!

Help grow the show! Spread the word, tell a friend!! Subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes!

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She went from performing in front of thousands of cheering fans in NFL stadiums, to executing one of the most vital missions in the Global War on Terror. Rachel Washburn was a Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader before commissioning as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army. Her first assignment in the Army was to a Cultural Support Team (CST) in Afghanistan - a groundbreaking concept where women were embedded with Special Operations units in order to enable and help form enduring relationships with the local populace, specifically with village women, in support of counterinsurgency operations. Rachel shares with us her rewarding, and often dangerous, experience working as an integral part of a CST in combat, and the challenges she and her team faced breaking new ground for the military and working against a virtually invisible enemy. Check it out on this latest episode of HAZARD GROUND!

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. THE BEST PART IS we'll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors at www.hazardground.com/sponsors!

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Mike Frazier has one of the most interesting military backgrounds of any of our guests. He served in Iraq in 2003 as part of a Coast Guard tactical law enforcement team, in support of combat operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following a short stint in the Coast Guard, Frazier enlisted in the Army to become a crew chief. He would eventually earn a billet in the elite and highly specialized 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, more commonly known as the “Night Stalkers.” But, a back injury would bring his military career, and his time with the Night Stalkers, to a screeching halt. Mike loved serving in the 160th. The injury, compounded with the dark experiences of combat would lead Mike down a precarious path where suicide was the only form of relief. Fortunately, after hitting rock bottom, Mike found a reason to live, and just recently began opening up about his experiences. Hear about this moving journey on this week’s episode of HAZARD GROUND!

www.shotatdawnproject.org

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. THE BEST PART IS we’ll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors at www.hazardground.com/sponsors!

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Imagine being shot through the chest by a sniper in Ramadi, Iraq in 2004, and surviving. Imagine completing a 4-year enlistment as an infantry Marine, surviving combat, and then going on to become one of the Army’s elite Green Berets. Now imagine finding out several years after surviving the sniper’s round, that you have terminal lung cancer that was misdiagnosed by the military, and there’s virtually nothing you can do about it. That’s the story of Rich Stayskal. Because the alleged misdiagnosis occurred while Stayskal was in the military, he cannot sue the federal government for malpractice, all due to an obscure 60-something-year-old law known as the Feres Doctrine. But, you can’t be a Marine and a Green Beret without being a fighter. And that’s exactly what Rich Stayskal is doing – fighting back, against cancer and the misdiagnosis. Hear how, on this latest episode of HAZARD GROUND!

www.feresdoctrine.com

We also want to thank Rich’s attorney, Natalie Khawam, for joining us on this episode to provide the background on Rich’s legal case and the Feres Doctrine.

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. THE BEST PART IS we’ll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors at www.hazardground.com/sponsors!

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Author, journalist, and Marine Officer Philip Caputo served 16 months in Vietnam, landing in 1965 with the first ground combat unit deployed there. Caputo spent much of his time in Vietnam commanding an infantry platoon in fierce combat operations synonymous with the war. A few years later he would leave the Marine Corps and begin writing about his experiences in Vietnam. His memoir on the subject, “A Rumor of War” is a classic, and it wholeheartedly describes the savagery that war can so easily expose in normal, everyday human beings. The similarities between Caputo’s own experiences in war and those of today’s servicemembers who have survived combat are so apparent, yet so often forgotten. Philip Caputo is one of those rare individuals who has bridged the gap from warrior to writer, and eloquently shares with us the excessively important lessons of a war so many people have wanted to forget. And he does it here again on this very special episode of HAZARD GROUND!

www.philipcaputo.com | “A Rumor of War” 

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. THE BEST PART IS we’ll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors at www.hazardground.com/sponsors!

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Our guest this week is one we like to call a special veteran guest. It isn’t necessarily a story of combat and survival in the traditional sense. But it is the story of a man who served his country in the Army, during the Cold War, and then went on to inspire millions through his career as a wrestler, and then as an Ultimate Fighting Champion and mixed martial artist. He is a six-time World Champion and Hall of Famer in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Outside the octagon, he’s also a successful businessman, bestselling author, and actor on the rise. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s a founding member of MVP (Merging Vets and Players), an organization dedicated to helping veterans and pro athletes find purpose together, when they’ve taken off the uniform. He is Randy Couture on HAZARD GROUND!

www.vetsandplayers.org | “Becoming the Natural: My Life In and Out of the Cage”

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. IT COSTS YOU NOTHING, and it helps the show out tremendously! THE BEST PART IS we’ll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors at www.hazardground.com/sponsors!

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Marissa Strock joined the Army seeking a sense of direction in life. She knew the military and going to war would present challenges, but what she experienced on Thanksgiving Day 2005, was furthest from her mind when she signed on the dotted line with her recruiter a relatively short period before. On that day in 2005, Marissa, an MP, was the gunner in a Humvee as part of a convoy that was hit with a massive IED in “The Triangle of Death” near Baghdad. The explosion occurred nearly under her feet while standing in the gun turret. Marissa would eventually lose both legs as a result of the blast, and face immense challenges that have nearly taken her to the brink of death. And she has faced those challenges with an attitude and grace that are nothing short of inspiring! Hear her complete story on this very powerful episode of HAZARD GROUND!

Do your Amazon shopping with us, and give back to veterans organizations at the same time! Go to www.hazardground.com, click on the Amazon banner on the home page, and do your Amazon shopping from there. IT COSTS YOU NOTHING, and it helps the show out tremendously! THE BEST PART IS we’ll be donating proceeds from this partnership to the vet organizations featured on this podcast. So help us out, help out these great organizations, and head over to hazardground.com and click on the Amazon banner today, and shop away!

Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors at www.hazardground.com/sponsors!

Help grow the show! Spread the word, tell a friend!! Subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes!

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