The Half Percent Podcast

On this episode, Mark Anderson takes us through two decades in the US Army.  After spending a decade on the national rodeo circuit, Mark decided to join the Army at 31 years old. In a fascinating career that took him to Kentucky, Texas, North Carolina, Alaska, Egypt, Panama, Thailand (by way of a parachute!), the Balkans and Iraq, Mark shares his story (and how he became known as 'Uncle Andy') with humility, wit and a whole lot of wisdom. 

"Garrett" joins the podcast to reflect on a twenty-plus year career in the military, which started in the Army and ended in the Navy. Along the way, Garrett completed boot camp in the bitter cold of Missouri, got his jump wings at Ft. Benning, spent a year in the Gulf during the first Persian Gulf War, and held multiple classified positions along the way. 

Army Major Peter Doyle joins the show. Peter is a Physical Therapist and Director of Human Performance for the 101st Airborne at Ft. Campbell, KY. From a big family in Oregon, Peter joined the Army, became a physical therapist and along the way met his wife, lived everywhere from Italy to the Middle East. 

Brian Anderson, a newly retired Army Officer, joins the show. Anderson talks about being a restless kid in Sacramento who wanted to get out and experience the world. The Army provided that chance. Brian shares stories of getting to boot camp during the coldest Midwest winter in decades and being thrown together with three white dudes, four black dudes and a Cuban, and making it all work. Brian details his career as first a medical tech and then later in logistics. His career saw him in Korea three times over twenty years with stops in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Washington, South Carolina, Kansas and Texas along the way. 

For the first episode of Half Percent Podcast, we interview 'Jay', a Green Beret. In a fascinating, wide ranging discussion, Jay takes us from West Point to Afghanistan, Iraq to Kyrgyzstan. Along the way, Jay digs into the mindset and psychology of what it takes to become a Green Beret, dealing with the stress of combat while carrying orders effectively and accomplishing the task at hand.