Tango Alpha Lima Podcast

Army veteran Cory Brown watched 17 people from his cavalry troop die by suicide after returning from Iraq. The loss of his closest battle buddy became a turning point.

His response was "Eat Your Feelings," a YouTube cooking and storytelling show that uses food to lower the walls around grief, identity, and veteran mental health — without ever calling it therapy. Cory joins co-host Sam Nathews, a  civilian and friend who brings his own experience with loss to every episode.

Together they join Tango Alpha Lima hosts Adam Marr and Joe Worley to talk about why connection beats intervention, what it really takes to get veterans to open up, and how a shared meal can do what a counselor's office sometimes can't.

Also in this episode: the landmark executive order accelerating psychedelic therapy research for veterans, and new science on blast injuries and cumulative TBI that is changing how the military thinks about invisible wounds.

National Commander praises executive order that expedites psychedelic treatments for mental health

Learn more about Executive Order 14401

To celebrate Father’s Day, retired Army Colonel Mike “Sully” Sullivan and his daughter, Olympic bronze medalist and Army Captain Sammy Sullivan, talk about five generations of military service, accidental trailblazing, a Green Beret’s surprisingly tender parenting philosophy, developing grit and more.

Sully, the executive director of Team Red, White & Blue, also discusses the organization’s mission to keep veterans “left of clinical.”

Plus: New research on team sports as therapy, and how The American Legion supports adaptive sports programs.

SHOW LINKS

Learn more about Solace Health and check your eligibility here

Learn more about Team RWB

Learn more about the Army World Class Athlete Program

Learn more about Capt. Sammy Sullivan and Team USA Rugby Women's Eagle Sevens

There is still time to be part of The American Legion Family USA 250 Challenge

Read more of the Journal of Veterans Studies report on how team sports help veterans with PTSD

Find out more about how The American Legion can help you get back in the game with Operation Comfort Warrior grants.

Follow the progress of the Veterans SPORT Act on and the National Veterans Strategy Act of 2026  Capitol Hill

Your stories. Your service. Your community. This is Tango Alpha Lima.

What does it take to reach tens of millions of people a month while still on active duty? For Army Sgt. First Class Johnny Vargas — better known as Viva La Vargas — it started with a car fire, a recruiting station and a promise to himself to show up every single day.

In this episode, Johnny chats about his journey from aspiring recording artist in Los Angeles to one of the military community's most trusted and entertaining voices online. He breaks down the three pillars that guide every piece of content he creates, explains why staying nonpartisan isn't just a strategy but a responsibility, and shares two powerful stories of how a single social media post changed real lives — including a family fighting a $800,000 insurance billing error while their toddler battled a terminal brain tumor.

Johnny also shares a closing message about mental health that every veteran and servicemember needs to hear, which is in line with The American Legion's Be the One mission to create mental health awareness.

Also in this episode, the hosts discuss a veteran-founded nonprofit turning vets into entrepreneurs, the growing world of remembrance tattoos, and Women Veterans Day on June 12.

Show Links

• Celebrate Women Veterans Day
• Learn more about VivaLaVargas
• Check out the Warrior Rising Activate Accelerator
• Check out the Task & Purpose article about TAPS gallery of military memorial tattoos

On Aug. 26, 2021, Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, age 20, was among 13 servicemembers killed at the Abbey Gate in Kabul during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He had wanted to be a Marine since he was 8.

In the weeks after Jared's death, condolence checks from strangers filled more than a foot of mail. His father, Mark, couldn't bring himself to spend a single dollar of it.

So he launched a nonprofit instead aimed at honoring the fallen and helping servicemembers with their mental health.

On this Memorial Day episode of Tango Alpha Lima, Gold Star father Mark Schmitz joins hosts Adam Marr and Joe Worley to share the story of The Freedom 13, a mission to build therapeutic retreat camps for veterans and law enforcement on 100-plus acres in all 50 states, free of charge, with the first camp already under construction in Missouri. He also discusses the coalition of Abbey Gate families fighting for GI Bill reform and increased death benefits for fallen servicemembers.

Also on this episode: Memorial Day events around the nation, the origin story of the Battle Buddy system, and Memorial Day fitness challenges honoring the fallen — including The Murph.

SHOW LINKS

Learn more about Armed Forces Vacation Club

Visit The Freedom 13 website

Learn more about the 2026 Angels of Abbey Gate Memorial Ride

We Are The Mighty: Battle Buddies originated in the trenches of WWI

Memorial Day Challenges: The Murph

In 2003, Marine infantryman Ryan Roberts helped recover the remains of 18 comrades killed in the battle of Nasiriyah, many by friendly fire. The next day, his fire team stopped a vehicle at a checkpoint. When he opened the back door, he found two children aged four and six.

He had joined the military to protect the innocent. In doing the right thing, he violated that core value. And no one — not in 17 years of VA care and private treatment — ever gave him the language for what that did to him.

On this episode of Tango Alpha Lima, Roberts and Dr. Lynette Averill, trauma scientist at Baylor College of Medicine, explain why moral injury is not a variant of PTSD. It's a categorically different wound, rooted not in fear but in the violation of values. And the healthcare system has largely been missing it.

Together they discuss what healing actually requires, the promise of emerging psychedelic-assisted therapies, and why peer support and community may be the most critical ingredients the clinical world keeps leaving out.

Also on this episode: the new DoD zero visible mold policy, a tribute to military caregivers for Military Caregiver Month, and resources for those supporting veterans at home.

Your stories. Your service. Your community. This is Tango Alpha Lima.

Learn more about

VA Caregiver support resources

Find an American Legion Service Officer

Task & Purpose: Pentagon issues standards for barracks

Shannon Book grew up in the Kentucky hills, joined the Navy in the mid-1990s and spent 17 years as a Fleet Marine Force corpsman, including two tours in Iraq. He survived Fallujah running on coffee grounds and sheer grit. What nearly broke him came after. 

When he was medically retired in 2010, the brothers he counted on had moved on, his marriage dissolved, and a years-long battle with alcohol and drugs nearly cost him everything. What kept him going — then and now — is music.

On this episode of Tango Alpha Lima, Book opens up about founding the veteran band Vetted, the dark night he pressed a handgun to his own forehead, the DUI that became his turning point, and the Veterans Court system that helped him walk out of that dark alley one step at a time. He's now sober, back in the studio, and sharing the message he once gave others from a stage — this time from a place of hard-earned experience.

Also on this episode: why traditional field screenings miss TBIs in combat zones — and the surprising food that became a secret weapon for fighter pilots.

Your stories. Your service. Your community. This is Tango Alpha Lima.

Show links

• Learn more about American Legion Family Day and share how your post is celebrating.
• Learn more about our guest, Shannon Book.
• Task & Purpose: TBI field screenings can miss key symptoms
• Learn more about the Millenium Protocol at TBI Help Now
• Watch Quiet Explosions documentary
• Read "Tales from the Blast Factory"
• Smithsonian: How a WWII propaganda campaign started the myth about carrots and night vision.

Before she was War Hamster — the Air Force veteran and military influencer known for irreverent humor, insider satire and candid commentary on service life — she was picking up loose change to buy gas for her car. Two years of military rejections. Craigslist living. Multiple jobs. Finally the Air Force finally said yes.

War Hamster shares her honest, funny and deeply relatable life story and what it really means to serve, create and build something meaningful after the uniform comes off.

She talks about joining as a medic at the start of COVID, building a medical program, losing four loved ones in a year, surviving a mini stroke — and using all of it as fuel for a content career.

"Suffering is a currency in the military," she says. "It builds a kind of resilience that's missing in people who haven't served." Now, she’s building a military community on Twitch, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.

Also in this episode: a veteran whose therapy chickens are in a legal battle, new legislation authorizing psychedelic-assisted therapy research for veterans, and why soldiers are being warned about "honeypots."

Episode Links

Where to find War Hamster on social media

From the War Horse: Finding solace in chickens

Utah could soon study psychedelic-assisted therapy for PTSD

Strange, but Service-Connected: Beware the Honeypot

Watch War Hamster's take on the danger of Honeypots

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Tammy Smith shares the compelling story of her 35-year military career, including 25 years serving under Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) while hiding her identity. As one of the first openly gay generals in U.S. military history, Smith discusses the psychological toll of living authentically in secret, the 2011 repeal of DADT, military-to-civilian transition, and moral injury.

Learn about LGBTQ+ veterans' unique challenges, discharge upgrade opportunities for those separated under discriminatory policies, and resources available through American Legion service officers. Smith provides insight intoLGBTQ+ military families, finding acceptance in veteran communities, and healing from service-related trauma.

Critical listening for LGBTQ+ veterans, military families, those interested in military history and policy, discharge upgrade information, and veteran advocacy.

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about PFLAG

Learn more about Modern Military Association of America

Three-time national wrestling champion and Army Special Operations veteran Sally Roberts shares her powerful journey from delinquent youth to elite athlete and military leader.

Roberts, founder of Wrestle Like a Girl, discusses how wrestling saved her life, built her winning mindset, and prepared her for success in Special Operations and deployment to Afghanistan.

Learn about overcoming adversity, developing mental toughness, the power of suffering and endurance, and breaking barriers for women in combat sports.

Roberts addresses military transition challenges, building resilience, leadership development through athletics, and empowering girls and women through wrestling. Essential listening for veterans navigating transition, athletes seeking motivation, parents of daughters in sports, anyone overcoming difficult backgrounds, and those interested in women's wrestling, mental resilience training, and veteran success stories.

SHOW LINKS

Learn more about Wrestle Like a Girl

Navy veteran Lonnie Bedwell lost his sight in a hunting accident in 1997. He was 30 years old, blind, and raising three daughters alone. What he did next is the kind of story that makes you rethink every excuse you've ever made.

In episode 303 of Tango Alpha Lima, Bedwell shares his extraordinary journey — from talking his way onto a construction crew as a blind man, to kayaking 226 miles through the Grand Canyon (earning National Geographic's Adventurer of the Year), to summiting Mount Everest with a failed oxygen mask 750 feet from the top.

Now Bedwell is one expedition away from making history. He has summited six of the Seven Summits and skied to the South Pole. When he reaches the North Pole, he will become the first blind American to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam — an achievement fewer than 75 people in history have accomplished.

His journey is the subject of a feature documentary called Beyond Vision. "I lost my eyesight," he says. "I gained vision."

Also in this episode: the VA's new Artificial Intelligence tool and what it means for your appointments, plus three new laws signed into law that expand housing access, improve VA accountability, and strengthen job training for veterans.

SHOW NOTES

• Download the VA Health and Benefits mobile app
• Join The American Legion
• Learn more about Lonnie Bedwell
• Learn more about the film "Beyond Vision"
• Join The American Legion Family USA 250 Challenge
• New VA Database causes concern among lawmakers
• AI tool helps VA doctors minimize administrative tasks and focus on patients
• View American Legion Legislative Agenda
• Check out The American Legion Grassroots Action Center
• Learn more about American Legion Advocacy