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Hugh Mills flew the OH-6 “Loach” as a low-level aeroscout in Vietnam — statistically the most dangerous flying job of the war. Shot down 16 times, three Silver Stars, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Purple Hearts. Author of the classic memoir Low Level Hell.

📖 Low Level Hell: https://a.co/d/0glrcnww

CHAPTERS

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At Tora Bora in December 2001, Gary Harrington sat on one of the closest American observation posts to Osama bin Laden — close enough, he says, to watch the bombs he was calling in streak past the ridge sideways. Then the war handed him to the CIA, and he spent the next decade hunting the same enemy from the inside.

Harrington is the rare operator who wore the uniform six different ways: Marine Corps infantry officer, Marine Recon, the second officer ever to graduate the Marine Scout Sniper Instructor course, Green Beret 18-Delta Special Forces medic, Delta Force operator (ODA 572 / Task Force Dagger, Bronze Star at Tora Bora), and CIA case officer. Over nearly eight hours, he walks through the entire arc — from a poor childhood in the North Carolina mountains, to the caves of Tora Bora, to the cables of Benghazi — and the night on Black Mountain he says set the course for all of it.

It's a story about war, tradecraft, and the long road home: what the job cost him, the forgiveness it took to come back, and the line he uses for both halves of his life — "I wore wolf's clothing so long, I became the wolf."

In this conversation:
• The 9/11 morning that turned him toward the war — and the climb to the OP above Tora Bora
• Calling in strikes near bin Laden's position, the daisy cutter he says "did nothing," and why he believes the body was hidden
• Nate Chapman, the first American killed in Afghanistan — and the helicopter Harrington was told not to get on
• Standing up firebase Coast: warlords, duffel bags of cash, and the plot to take out Pacha Khan
• Running smugglers in Iraq — and the hidden camera that confirmed Jessica Lynch
• Hugging the Taliban to feel for suicide vests, and a black Toyota he walked away from two minutes before it detonated
• The strike that answered the Camp Chapman bombing
• Reading the Benghazi cables in real time — why he says "that was fire for effect"
• Beirut, 1983: the barracks bombing, and the day he refused a U.S. ambassador's order
• Delta Force selection on a broken compass — forced out on an unjust evaluation, then clawing his way back
• The glowing light on Black Mountain at his lowest moment, and the words he says he heard: "Do not be afraid… I have a purpose for you"
• Faith, forgiveness, meeting his wife Kim, and the mission behind Power Prudence

⏱ CHAPTERS
0:00:00 Welcome & introducing Gary Harrington
0:04:55 The Inner Ring: the drive to belong to the elite
0:07:10 Appalachian poverty, moonshine & a kid written off
0:25:38 The glowing bubble on Black Mountain
0:34:23 "I get paid to work out": becoming a Marine
0:56:59 Into 2nd Recon Battalion
1:09:48 Beirut, 1983: surviving the barracks bombing
1:14:52 Scout sniper instructor & crossing to Army Special Forces
1:36:23 The road to Delta Force selection
1:46:17 Delta selection: the broken compass & "I trained less"
2:02:11 The negligent discharge — the press check he skipped
2:16:00 Kicked out of Delta — & the commander who swore to end him
2:25:21 Clawing his way back into 5th Special Forces Group
2:35:35 Yemen, Ambassador Bodine & the USS Cole report the embassy killed
2:54:43 9/11: the diner, the second plane & turning toward war
3:16:12 Tora Bora: the climb to the OP & bombs flying past sideways
3:28:11 Why Bin Laden's body was hidden — & briefing McChrystal
3:45:03 Coast & Nate Chapman: the first American killed in Afghanistan
4:01:35 Warlords, duffel bags of cash & the plot to kill Pacha Khan
4:24:39 Running smugglers in Iraq: the hidden camera & Jessica Lynch
5:07:56 Hugging the Taliban to feel for vests — disrupting a suicide-bomber cell
5:29:34 A black Toyota, two minutes from death
5:33:19 The strike that answered Camp Chapman: "Predator, party of one"
5:52:07 Reading the Benghazi cables, CIA infighting & betrayal
6:39:39 The reckoning: faith, PTSD & "I became the wolf"
7:18:39 Power Prudence, situational awareness & "we're stained glass"

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Senior Master Sergeant Aaron Love — Air Force Pararescueman, 22 years, five combat deployments — is the first PJ ever on The Vanguard Wall. Fewer than 500 people have earned the maroon beret. The pipeline carries a 91% attrition rate — the longest special operations selection pipeline in the DoD.

In 2002, Aaron quit on a pool deck at Indoc. He'd made it through Hell Night. He said three words to an instructor and walked out. What followed was five years in aerospace physiology, waiting for a cross-training window. At a poker game with PJs, his friend looked him dead in the eye: "What the hell are you doing at this table?" He went home. His wife was feeding their four-week-old daughter. She said: "Put the packet in. But don't come home unless you graduate." He graduated.

In 2019, Aaron was standing four feet from the open door of a C-130 over the Gulf of Mexico when Staff Sergeant Cole Condiff was ripped from the aircraft. He ran dive operations for two days. Side-scan sonar returned two shapes that looked like parachute canopies with a body mass behind them. Divers went down. They were two boulders. Cole Condiff has never been found.

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CHAPTERS:
(0:00) Cold Open: Aaron Love & The Cole Condiff Story
(6:04) Aaron Joins the Show
(8:34) What Is a Pararescueman? (91% Attrition Rate)
(9:51) Growing Up in Barberton, Ohio
(19:01) Ohio State, Factories & Hitting Rock Bottom
(27:57) 9/11: "This Is My Generation's Moment"
(29:05) Discovering Pararescue: The Air Force Recruiter
(35:04) Air Force Basic Training: Lackland AFB
(41:49) PJ Indoc 2002: Day One
(49:22) Hell Night — Extended Training Day
(53:32) "F*** You, I Quit." — The Decision That Cost Five Years
(1:00:43) Reclassified: Aerospace Physiology & HALO Support
(1:06:58) The Poker Game With PJs
(1:09:33) "Pass or Don't Come Home" — His Wife's Ultimatum
(1:13:00) Going Back: The Second Run at Indoc
(1:40:48) Dive School & Earning the Beret
(2:28:42) "The Only Spec Op You Need One Of" — PJ Identity
(3:19:24) Pedro 66: Knowing the Men Who Died
(3:32:45) "I Made the Decision to End My Own Life."
(3:53:30) Konduz: Mike Cathcart & Dignified Transfer
(4:09:00) "We Wrapped Him in the Flag Before His Brothers Walked In"
(4:20:48) Are You Gonna Kill Yourself? I'll Be Awkward.
(5:50:59) The Cole Condiff Stand-Down: Four Feet from the Door
(6:05:30) "Get Me the F*** Out of This Aircraft"
(6:21:42) Two Boulders. Cole Condiff Has Never Been Found.
(6:31:55) Calling the Air Force Out in Front of 200 People
(6:38:12) "I Was Hammered on the Plane Home. I Was Done."
(7:16:00) Sobriety, DMT & Becoming Someone New
(7:56:25) "The Black Pill Is a Lie. Have Hope."

CONNECT WITH AARON LOVE:
Ones Ready Podcast → onesreadypodcast.com

Instagram → @aaronlovesamerica or @onesready

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Marine vet Johnny Raushi joined the Corps at 17 for a free skateboard sticker. Four years later he came home broke, picked up change in a gas station parking lot, and sold his plasma twice a week to fund the first batches of a pomade he was perfecting on his stovetop. That pomade became Johnny Slicks — an 8-figure American manufacturing company employing 30+ people out of a North Carolina facility, fully U.S.-sourced.

Asher and Raushi cover boot camp, the in-unit suicide that happened seconds after he walked away from his armory window, the Accutane spiral that nearly killed him, the six-day phone call with Marine Raider Nick Koumalatsos that turned a kitchen-table pomade into a brand, and his first book "23 Virtues in 23 Days" (Aug 2025).

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CHAPTERS:
(00:00) Welcome
(03:30) Growing Up in NJ and the Poconos
(11:00) Faith, Questions, and the Church
(22:30) The Recruiter and a Sticker
(27:00) Bootcamp and Brotherhood
(37:00) Marrying Rebecca and Camp Lejeune
(41:00) The M9 Pistol Eureka Moment
(51:30) Deploying With BSRF-14 to Romania
(1:02:00) Losing His MOS and Earning It Back
(1:17:00) Suicide in the Ranks
(1:22:30) Knee Injury and Leaving the Corps
(1:41:00) Hair Loss and the First Pomade
(2:00:00) Selling Plasma and Picking Up Change
(2:14:00) Six Days With Nick Koumalatsos
(2:35:00) Hurricane Florence and Moving In With Nick
(2:55:00) Scaling Johnny Slicks
(3:15:00) The Accutane Spiral
(4:00:00) Building an 8-Figure Business
(4:30:00) Leadership and EOS
(5:00:00) Plant Medicine and Healing
(5:45:00) Marriage and Trust
(6:15:00) 23 Virtues in 23 Days
(6:30:00) Closing Thoughts

CONNECT WITH JOHNNY: johnnyslicks.com | IG: @johnnyslicks | @johnnyraushi

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The last C-17 lifted off Kabul's runway at 11:59 PM on August 30, 2021. The man who gave the order — and made the radio call "Math Safe" that officially ended America's longest war — tells the full story for the first time.

Colonel Alex Pelbath (USAF, Ret.) commanded SOUL-2, the only C-17 Special Operations unit in the world, and served as Air Mission Commander for the final flight out of Afghanistan. In this episode, he reveals the moment the Abbey Gate bomb went off, the suspected suicide bomber on his own aircraft, the Taliban press conference that Biden then agreed to, General Milley's coin he handed right back, and the bureaucratic fight that nearly grounded the last flight before it ever left the ground.

Born to a first-generation American family — his grandparents fled communist Hungary through a minefield in 1956, survived a Russian soldier's mercy, and spent a year in an Austrian refugee camp before an airlift brought them to America — Pelbath's story is a 65-year generational arc that ends with him commanding the largest airlift evacuation in modern history.

Over nearly 7 hours, he covers his entire career: growing up with a blind mother on a construction worker's wages, earning a last-minute wrestling scholarship to the Air Force Academy, flying 22 years of C-17 combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, a near-fatal black hole effect landing on NVGs that almost killed his crew, being hand-selected to brief the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, shaping two national defense budgets inside the Pentagon — and the full firsthand account of Kabul: the chaos, the failures of leadership, and the men and women who held it together when the generals couldn't.

Now running for Congress in South Carolina's 1st District, Pelbath explains why the same broken thinking that produced Kabul is still inside the building — and what he intends to do about it.

Follow Alex Pelbath

📸 Instagram: www.Instagram.com/ap_alexpelbath
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pelbathforsc/
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🌐 Website: https://pelbathforcongress.com
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If this episode brought you value, drop a comment below — we'd love to know what you're implementing.

What does it take to fuel the most elite light infantry unit in the U.S. Army — and earn their respect doing it? Dr. Nick Barringer didn't just study performance nutrition, he built the standard for it inside the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Dr. Nick Barringer is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, Bronze Star and Legion of Merit recipient, Ranger-tabbed, airborne-qualified combat veteran, and one of the foremost authorities on tactical performance nutrition in the United States. He holds a PhD in Kinesiology from Texas A&M, co-authored the International Society of Sports Nutrition's position stand on Tactical Athlete Nutrition, and spent years embedded with the 75th Ranger Regiment as part of the Ranger Athlete Warrior (RAW) Program — one of the first human performance programs in all of Special Operations. He later served as Program Director for the Army Baylor Graduate Program in Nutrition and as an Assistant Professor at West Point. Most recently, he founded Salvo Gum, a precision-dosed performance caffeinated gum engineered for controlled alertness under pressure.
In this conversation, you'll hear:

Whether you're a tactical athlete, a serious lifter, a first responder, or someone who simply wants to perform at a higher level — this episode will change how you think about fueling your body and protecting your mind.

Follow Nick Barringer:

📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/nickbarringer.PhD.rdn
📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/SALVOgum  use code VANGUARD15 for 15% off

Websites: 
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0:00 Introduction & Welcome
0:03 Salvo Gum First Impression
0:05 Wrestling, Football & His First Nutrition Hack
0:07 The Clemson Strength Coach Who Changed Everything
0:09 9/11 and the Decision to Join the Military
0:19 The Army Dietician Pipeline & Getting Branched Wrong
0:21 The Paperwork Error That Changed His Life
0:28 First Deployment: Baghdad — Managing Media & Interpreters
0:30 How Rangers Recruited Him From a Combat Hospital
0:33 Airborne School to RASP in One Weekend
0:35 The Sergeant Major's Challenge: "We've Been Fine Without You"
0:36 First Days at Ranger Regiment — No Computer, No Desk
0:47 How He Earned Trust Inside the Regiment
0:49 Ranger School — The Graduation Reality Check
0:50 The RAW Program — Origin Story & Vision
1:03 What Supplements He Actually Pushed to Rangers
1:09 First Deployment With the Rangers — Baghdad Round Two
1:28 Texas A&M PhD — How the Creatine Obsession Started
1:32 Omega-3, DHA, and the Suicide Prevention Research
1:37 Vitamin D, Depression, and the Study He Built at A&M
1:53 Afghanistan Food Study — What He Discovered Shocked Him
1:59 Creatine & Sleep Deprivation — The Cognitive Research
2:06 Creatine Timing, Dosing & the Monohydrate vs HCL Debate
2:07 Creatine Myths — Kidneys, Cramping & What Science Says
2:13 Why He Put His 77-Year-Old Mom on Creatine
2:14 His Personal Supplement

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In August of 1968, Travis W. Mills was shot five times in a single engagement at FOB 4 — the deadliest night in the history of U.S. Army Special Forces. He survived. And then he went back to Vietnam.
A Green Beret who served with one of the most classified units in American military history, Travis Mills sat down with The Vanguard Wall Podcast to document a story that couldn't be told for nearly three decades.
Assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group and then to Military Assistance Command, Vietnam — Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG), Travis led small recon teams deep into denied territory along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, conducting cross-border operations into Laos and Cambodia during the most dangerous years of the Vietnam War. After surviving the FOB 4 sapper attack that left 16 Special Forces soldiers dead and over 30 wounded in a single night, he recovered aboard the USS Sanctuary — then returned to Vietnam, not as a patient, but as a leader. He was tasked with building the next generation of warriors, founding and commanding the MACV-SOG Recon Leader School, known as the One-Zero School.
MACV-SOG's existence stayed classified for nearly 29 years. Travis carried that history quietly until 2001, when the unit was finally awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
In this conversation, viewers will hear:

What it was like to serve in a unit whose missions "officially weren't happening"
A first-person account of the FOB 4 sapper attack — 16 SF killed in one night
Why Travis chose to return to Vietnam after being wounded rather than rotate home
The operational structure of MACV-SOG recon teams and the Hatchet Force
What Travis witnessed in Vietnam that still shapes how he thinks about service today
How he and his wife Bobby have stayed married for 62 years
His message to the next generation considering military service

Watch the full episode and subscribe to The Vanguard Wall Podcast to hear more conversations that preserve the history of those who served.

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#MACVSOG #VietnamWar #SpecialForces #GreenBeret #VanguardWallPodcast #VietnamVeteran #MilitaryHistory

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CW2 Kyle Steiner — 173rd Airborne, Korengal Valley combat veteran, and 7th Special Forces Group operator — joins The Vanguard Wall for a full-length documentary-style interview covering combat, resilience, and legacy.

Kyle Steiner was 20 years old when he deployed to Outpost Restrepo in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, one of the most dangerous places on earth, with Battle Company, 2nd of the 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade. During Operation Rock Avalanche, he was called KIA over the radio after being struck in the head during an enemy ambush — and walked away. He later failed Special Forces selection, rebuilt, and crushed it the second time, spending 15 years with 7th Special Forces Group.

Today, weeks from retirement after 20 years of service, Kyle's mission has shifted — to raising sons who will become better men than him, a daughter who will never settle for less than she deserves, and answering the question that drives him: how do you pass on the values forged in combat without the trauma that came with them?

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction & Welcome
00:01:00 Kyle Steiner: The Full Story Read
00:04:27 Kyle Reacts to Hearing His Own Story
00:05:51 Military Brat to Small-Town Wisconsin
00:07:02 The SF Pamphlet That Launched His Dream
00:07:25 His Father's Hard Standards (And Why He's Grateful)
00:09:43 Oldest of Five: Family Dynamics & His Parents' Divorce
00:27:51 The 18X-Ray Program Explained
00:30:00 Basic Training: How He Became the Honor Graduate
00:37:50 Airborne School & the Band of Brothers Moment
00:39:55 SFAS First Attempt: Not Selected, Not Ready
00:54:55 Three Dark Months at Bragg Watching Others Leave
01:06:20 Italy: Assigned to the 173rd Airborne at Vicenza
01:07:39 Scout Platoon Struggles & a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
01:12:20 The Command Team "Punishment" That Built Him
01:30:05 Joining Battle Company & the Road to the Korengal
01:45:00 Flying Into the Korengal Valley
01:51:00 Life at Outpost Restrepo: SAW Gunner, 1,600 Rounds, Daily Firefights
01:57:50 111 Firefights in One Month: September in the Korengal
02:19:20 R&R Leave: Going Home & Choosing to Walk Back Into It
02:21:31 "Combat Is Like Crack": The Adrenaline of War
02:31:30 Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington & the Restrepo Documentary
02:58:40 Sal Giunta: Before He Won the Medal of Honor
03:08:30 Operation Rock Avalanche & the First Major Casualties
03:22:27 The Headshot: Called KIA Over the Radio, Woke Up, and Ran
03:43:05 Coming Home to Italy, Meeting Julia & Choosing SFAS Again
04:05:00 SFAS Second Attempt: This Time He Was Ready
04:13:51 The Q Course, Earning the Green Beret & 7th Special Forces Group
05:13:18 Combat Dive School, HALO & the Hardest Schools in the Military
06:07:16 The Harder Fight: Fatherhood, Retirement & the Operator Mindset


Follow Kyle Steiner
📸 Instagram: www.Instagram.com/realkylesteiner
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He fought in Fallujah at 21. He carried a diplomatic passport in Moscow. He investigated explosives for the ATF. And then he walked away from all of it — sold his house, pulled his kids out of school, flew to Panama, and bought a sailboat.

In Part 2 of this conversation, Eric Shlevy picks up where the war ended and takes us through every chapter most people never get to hear: embassy life, the State Department, the ATF fugitive task force, and ultimately the decision to sail the world with his wife and two kids for nearly three and a half years.
This episode goes deep into what it actually looks like to rebuild your identity after combat — not through therapy buzzwords, but through action. Through new missions. Through showing your kids that the world is bigger than anyone told them it was.

Eric talks about sailing logistics, homeschooling at sea, marriage on a boat with nowhere to escape, and the moment his daughter started talking about a life in the foreign service — at 16.

He also reflects on the Time Magazine cover, legacy, and what it means to secure your place in history without letting it own you.
This is a rare story. And Eric is a rare man.

If this conversation moved you — share it with someone who needs it. That's the only way this reaches the people it's meant for.

🎙️ Subscribe for new episodes | Support us on Patreon | Merch available now

Follow Eric Shelvy
📸 Instagram: www.Instagram.com/sailing.altair
🎥 YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UC3B0cJaRDBXbEMYwppOlAjQ

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On November 22nd, 2004, a photograph appeared on the cover of Time Magazine — a young Marine, 21 years old, face locked in a primal scream in the middle of the push on Fallujah, Iraq. That Marine was Eric Shelvy. And if you think you know where his story goes from there, you're wrong.

Eric grew up in St. Louis — Catholic schools, divorced parents, weekends riding in his father's police cruiser. He was the one kid in his elite Jesuit high school who didn't go to college. He enlisted in the Marines instead, deployed to Iraq twice, and on his second tour led men through house-to-house combat in Fallujah — the heaviest urban fighting since Vietnam.

What happened after is just as remarkable. Embassy duty in Moscow straight out of Fallujah. A posting to The Hague. A reassignment to Kuala Lumpur he didn't want — where he met a Ukrainian ballerina in an expat bar, barely speaking each other's language, and fell in love anyway. He fought embassy bureaucracy to get her a visa, married her, left the Marine Corps, joined the Diplomatic Security Service, became an ATF explosives specialist — and then walked away from all of it. Sold the house, bought a sailboat in Panama, and spent nearly three years crossing the Pacific with his family.

This is Part 1. It's not a war story. It's not a love story. It's a story about a man who has spent his entire life refusing to be put in a box.

Content note: Frank discussion of combat and loss of fellow service members. Documentary and historical context throughout.

Subscribe for Part 2 and follow The Vanguard Wall for more stories from people who have lived it.

Follow Eric Shelvy
📸 Instagram: www.Instagram.com/sailing.altair
🎥 YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UC3B0cJaRDBXbEMYwppOlAjQ

00:00:00 Intro:
00:06:57 St. Louis upbringing: Jesuit school + ride-alongs with a cop dad
00:18:23 Cop father in the streets: learning calm under chaos
00:25:32 The recruiter pitch: choosing infantry over the “normal” path
00:42:56 ASVAB & DEP: signing the papers and committing
00:47:20 Pre-boot jitters: cigarettes, nerves, “what did I do?”
00:49:36 Boot camp reality: receiving platoon + breaking you down
01:01:15 Becoming a Marine: discipline, suffering, brotherhood
01:07:56 To the infantry: Pendleton, forming the team
01:24:39 Landing in Kuwait: first taste of war & the unknown
01:29:30 Rolling north: vehicles, armor, and the invasion machine
01:30:16 Infantry squad anatomy: weapons, roles, how you actually fight
01:51:30 First real contact: RPGs and chaos on the move
01:57:59 First casualty: the moment war becomes real
02:03:30 Coming home changed: leadership and lessons carried forward
02:34:06 Combat mindset & fear: what guys admit after the fact
02:52:19 Promotion & pressure: stepping up as a squad leader
03:03:00 Leadership before the storm: LtCol Malay & “bad dudes in that house”
03:13:42 Quick break: resetting before the Fallujah story
03:14:10 Back to Iraq (Fall 2004): Camp Fallujah, Route Michigan, contractors bridge
03:55:07 Media spotlight: the build-up before entering the city
04:02:19 Photographer Max: living inside the platoon’s fight
04:34:52 Hardest decision in Fallujah: what command really means
04:56:44 The Time cover photo: what the frame didn’t show
04:58:47 When you realized it was on the cover: aftermath of the image

🔗 Connect with The Vanguard Wall Podcast 

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🎯 The Vanguard Wall is powered by Hoplite Nutrition — built for those who run toward. No fillers, no fluff, just fuel built for the mission. Shop hoplitenutrition.com — code VANGUARD15 for 15% off + Subscribe & Save.

📩 The Weekly SSE (free intel brief): https://intel.thevanguardwall.com

🔗 Connect with The Vanguard Wall Podcast
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  💪 Hoplite Nutrition — veteran-built supplements made in the U.S. Code VANGUARD15 for 15% off
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