Profiles in Havok

Poet, musician and former USMC combat veteran Benjamin Fortier has finally published his latest book PHANTOMS, covering his deployment to Iraq in '06-'07.

About the book, Sebastian Junger said, "Fortier’s poetry – can I even call it that? - seems to do the impossible: transfer the experience of combat directly into our psyches. PHANTOMS is stunning. If you have never been in combat, you will understand something new and important. And if you have – well, you don’t need to hear it from me. Just take a deep breath and open up the book."

Follow Ben here.

This week, due to several last-minute guest cancellations, sees me talk with myself about the newly released CDC numbers regarding suicide in 2022 and the way they intersect with the veteran population. While rejecting monocausal explanations, I do speculate and pontificate about some lesser-covered root causes ranging from foreign influence and self-loathing in the veteran community.

Mike Schropp is a visual artist, specializing in abstract painting and sculpture. Mike is a combat veteran, having deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan with the US Army. Our wide-ranging conversation touches on his artistic process, the unique circumstances of his marriage, his most eventful day in Afghanistan, his adjustment to civilian life, and the rugged independence he has claimed on his artistic journey. Mike was one of the first veteran artists I followed on IG. Yet it still took this long to get him on the show. His work is phenomenal and his personal story of wrong turns, false starts and dead ends culminates in absolutely magnificent artwork. My two cents, but seriously - buy his work before it goes out of your price range.

Follow Mike here.

Scott Cottrell is a retired US Army Colonel. His debut novel, When Chaos Reigns, is available now on pre-order and will be released on Kindle on August 8, 2023.

China, Russia, a powerful drug cartel, and a radical Islamic terrorist group form a secret cabal bent on shocking America and her global influence to its core while taking what they want across the globe. With the U.S. President facing impeachment on multiple counts and focused on securing a trade agreement with China without Senate approval, his actions put the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll at risk and ignite the tinderbox of the South China Sea.  

Can the web of corruption and deceit created by enemies, foreign and domestic, be uncovered and destroyed in time to save the United States and Western civilization? So well documented in present-day fact,When Chaos Reigns seems too close to reality to be called fiction.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Scott served for 29+ years in the U.S. Army in locations worldwide, including as Commander of the US Army Kwajalein Atoll/Kwajalein Missile Range, now the Reagan Test site. Scott has three master’s degrees, including a Master’s in Military Art and Science from the Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies; and a Master’s in National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College. Scott’s other military assignments included the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii; the Near East Project Office in Ovda, Israel, with the US Army Corps of Engineers; US Southern Command’s Engineer Directorate in Panama; XVIII Airborne Corps G3 Plans section in Fort Bragg, NC; US Space Command J5 Plans Section; and the US Central Command’s Engineer, which involved many trips to the Middle East. He is married to Peggy, with two children and eight grandchildren.

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Gina Herrera is a mixed-media artist residing in California. A 25-year veteran of the Navy, Army and Air Force, she received her BFA in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During her studies, she was deployed overseas in support of several war contingencies with the Armed Forces. Once her final tour was complete, she obtained her MFA in Studio Arts from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Herrera has exhibited extensively throughout California and nationally. She has been privileged to receive recognition for her work through various grants and has been published in various media including Peacock TV and Hulu. 

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Fred Burton is a former police officer, special agent and New York Times best-selling author. He's served on the front lines of high-profile investigations like the hunt for and arrest of Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the first World Trade Center bombing; the 1988 plane crash of PAK-1 that killed U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel and Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq; and the search for Americans kidnapped by Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon.

His best-selling books include his personal memoir GHOST: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice, Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi and his fourth book, Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah’s War Against America.

Burton also consults with Fortune 500 companies on security developments and how to keep their personnel and business safe as the Executive Director of the Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence. Burton was selected by Security Magazine as one of the Most Influential People in Security in 2021 and his books have been featured in thrillers by Brad Thor, Jack Carr and Tom Clancy’s Target Acquired by Don Bentley.

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Jason Kasper is the USA Today bestselling author of the Spider Heist, American Mercenary, and Shadow Strike thriller series. Before his writing career he served in the US Army, beginning as a Ranger private and ending as a Green Beret captain. Jason is a West Point graduate and a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and was an avid ultramarathon runner, skydiver, and BASE jumper, all of which inspire his fiction.

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Ryan Stovall is a former adventurer, world traveler, and Green Beret, twice decorated for valor and awarded two Purple Hearts. His poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction can be found in numerous anthologies and journals, and on his blog at ryanstovall.com. Having completed one Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree through Fairfield University in 2021, in 2022 he began taking classes towards a second MFA through Lesley University’s low-residency writing program. He recently finished a first draft of a fiction novel, and hopes to have it placed for publication within the next two years. Ryan, a University of Maine alumnus (class of 2018), lives in Phillips, Maine, with his wife and three kids. Black Snowflakes Smothering A Torch is his first book.

Hollie McKay is a writer, war crimes investigator, and the author of “Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield.” (Jocko Publishing/Di Angelo Publications 2021). She was an investigative and international affairs/war correspondent for Fox News Digital for over fourteen years, where she focused on war, terrorism, and crimes against humanity.

Hollie has worked on the frontlines of several major war zones and covered humanitarian and diplomatic crises in Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Burma, Russia, Africa, Latin America, and other areas.

Hollie was in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, where she became one of the few western journalists to stay in the country during and after the government fell to the Taliban. She was then the only American journalist to stay behind for the long haul, witnessing the first four months of the new regime. Hollie was then based in Ukraine to cover the leadup and subsequent invasion by Russian forces. Hollie continued to write and report on Afghanistan for numerous publications, including the New York Post, Empire Media Group, National Review, Liberty Dispatches, National Interest, Deadline Hollywood, The Independent, Dallas Morning News, Skillset Magazine, Recoil Magazine and SmartHer News.

Her globally-spanned coverage, in the form of thousands of print articles and essays, has included exclusive and detailed interviews with numerous captured terrorists, as well as high-ranking government, military, and intelligence officials and leaders from all sides.

Hollie also provided television and radio coverage for dozens of major outlets, including BBC World Service, NPR, ABC News Australia, Fox News, Sky News, The Ben Shapiro Show and KTLA.

Her coffee table book collaboration with combat photographer Jake Simkin is “Afghanistan: The End of the U.S. Footprint and Rise of the Taliban Rule” (DiAngelo Publications).

Hollie is also a 40 Under 40 Honoree with the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) and a 2022 Media Fellow for the Foundation of Defense of Democracies (FDD) honorary board member for EMERGENCY USA, a non-governmental organization that assists victims of conflict worldwide. She was the 2021 recipient of the EMERGENCY honors award for “her commitment and dedication to providing surgical and medical care to people affected by war and poverty.”

Hollie serves as the Outreach Director for Burnt Children Relief Foundation (BCRF) to bring severely bomb-burned Syrian children to the U.S. for life-saving treatment.

Hollie is based in Washington, D.C.

Follow her here.

Subscribe to her Substack here.

Elliot Ackerman is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Halcyon, 2034, Red Dress In Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing, and Green on Blue, as well as the memoir The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan, and Places and Names: On War, Revolution and Returning. His books have been nominated for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in both fiction and nonfiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize among others. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and Marine veteran who served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He divides his time between New York City and Washington, D.C.

Follow him here.