The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. In this episode, Kyle Buckett offers a powerful, unfiltered look at the journey from high school dropout to Navy SEAL, and ultimately to successful entrepreneur and author. From enlisting in the military on his 18th birthday to becoming a SEAL leader and stepping on an IED in Afghanistan, Buckett’s story is a study in resilience, grit, and unwavering purpose. He recounts the physical and mental trials of SEAL training, the challenges of leadership under pressure, and the life-changing moment that could have ended it all but instead deepened his commitment to serve beyond the uniform. His transition out of the Navy in 2018 at the rank of E8 was not without friction—he speaks openly about the difficulties military veterans face adjusting to a civilian workforce that often misunderstands their skill sets. Yet Buckett turned those obstacles into opportunity, from his role with Core Scientific to becoming the CEO and co-founder of a renewable energy tech startup, and co-authoring Leadership Is Overrated, a book that redefines what real leadership looks like. He continues to mentor young service members, champion veteran transition awareness, and lead by example in life after service. Throughout the podcast, Buckett’s humility and humor shine through as he emphasizes the power of mindset, the importance of mental fitness, and the need for veterans and first responders alike to recognize their own value.

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The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. In Round 65 - Week 1 of a 9 week Transiton Blueprint Series - of the Tactical Transition Tips series on the Transition Drill Podcast, advice is tailored to police officers, first responders, and military veterans at various stages of their career transition. Whether you're on the cusp of change, planning a few years down the line, or envisioning a decade ahead, this episode has you covered.

In this episode, the three transition tips addressed are:

Close Range - Get Clear On Your Next Mission

Medium Range - Clarify Life and Career Goals

Long Range - Identify Your Core Values and Long-Term Vision

Your host, Paul Pantani, leveraging personal experience, offers actionable strategies. This tips series provides invaluable insights and practical tips to help you successfully navigate the complexities of changing careers. These vital topics offer guidance and support for navigating the complexities of transition planning for life after service.

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The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. In this episode, In this episode of the Transition Drill Podcast, Kelly Enos—a retired Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff shares his compelling career journey from law enforcement to the lecture halls of higher education. Offering a roadmap for anyone contemplating life after service. Kelly shares riveting, honest reflections from his years in law enforcement, including the tense realities of patrolling high-crime areas and surviving an officer-involved shooting that profoundly shaped him and his career. He walks listeners through the aftermath of that traumatic event—not just the tactical details, but the emotional weight, legal scrutiny, and internal recalibration that many officers endure but rarely speak about. Kelly discusses how leadership, policy shifts, and personal evolution eventually influenced his decision to hang up the badge. Rather than simply retire, he chose to transition with intention—pursuing graduate education and ultimately finding purpose in guiding others, This episode is a resource for anyone navigating an unplanned transition and finding a new mission after the uniform. Kelly’s story reveals that life after service isn’t about leaving behind who you were; it’s about repurposing those strengths in a new mission.

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The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. In Round 64 of the Tactical Transition Tips series on the Transition Drill Podcast, advice is tailored to police officers, first responders, and military veterans at various stages of their career transition. Whether you're on the cusp of change, planning a few years down the line, or envisioning a decade ahead, this episode has you covered.

In this episode, the three transition tips addressed are:

Close Range - Record Your Transition Talk

Medium Range - Do More Public Speaking

Long Range - Teach What You Know

Your host, Paul Pantani, leveraging personal experience, offers actionable strategies. This tips series provides invaluable insights and practical tips to help you successfully navigate the complexities of changing careers. These vital topics offer guidance and support for navigating the complexities of transition planning for life after service.

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Johnny Collins, a former Navy SEAL, Episode 188 of the Transition Drill Podcast. Johnny grew up in rural Maryland outside Baltimore, raised around service, structure, and the kind of discipline that doesn’t need to be announced. As a kid, he locked onto one goal early: become a Navy SEAL. What follows in this episode isn’t a highlight reel. It’s the full arc, including the parts most people skip.

Johnny walks into a recruiter’s office asking for a SEAL contract and immediately runs into the reality of narrow margins. He fails the ASVAB on the first attempt. He fails the PST on the first attempt. Swimming becomes the early problem he has to solve. He makes it into the Navy in October 2006, hits BUD/S in 2007, gets rolled before Hell Week, finishes Hell Week in the next class, then suffers a neck injury that forces a medical roll. Second phase pool competency becomes the breaking point, and he’s dropped from BUD/S on August 31, 2007.

The story doesn’t end there. The Navy still owns your time when the pipeline closes. Johnny is sent to Guantanamo Bay in January 2008, expecting a short detour that turns into 19 months. He describes detention operations, hunger strikes, forced extractions, constant cameras, and the unique pressure of doing a job that’s political, documented, and watched from above. He also describes the friction that followed him as a former BUD/S candidate, including leadership resistance and the practical steps he had to take to keep any path forward alive.

Then he gets back in. He finishes the SEAL qualification pipeline, earns the Trident, and reports to SEAL Team 7. From there, Johnny gets into the real work, and later into specialized roles, including becoming a K9 handler. He breaks down what that job actually requires, what the dog relationship demands, and how a tense K9 situation on deployment became one of the factors that pushed him toward leaving the Teams.

The final stretch is about transition. Johnny talks about the loss of structure, the slow rebuild, and what he does today, including his current work as a Safety Director in the ironworkers world and what he’s building toward next.

If you’re a veteran or first responder thinking about identity, service, and life after the job, this episode stays honest about the cost and the decisions that come with it.

The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. Follow the show and share it with another veteran or first responder who would enjoy this.

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EPISODE BLOG PAGE AND CONNECT WITH JOHNNY COLLINS:https://www.transitiondrillpodcast.com/post/188-never-give-up-6-bud-s-classes-to-be-a-navy-seal-k9-handler-today-safety-director-john-collins

The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. In this episode, Navy SEAL veteran John Collins shares an unfiltered, gritty look into what it takes to navigate the unforgiving landscape of military life—and rebuild purpose after devastating setbacks. If you're a veteran or first responder seeking inspiration, identity, and lessons in mental fortitude, this episode is a must-listen. John opens up about his upbringing in small-town Maryland, early brushes with trouble, and the dream that kept calling—becoming a Navy SEAL. With candid vulnerability, he recounts multiple grueling attempts at SEAL training, the mental resilience following the obstacles put in his way, but this story doesn’t end in defeat. Shipped off to Guantanamo Bay as a "BUD/S dud," John found himself face-to-face with high-level detainees, performing duties he never imagined—balancing human dignity with the reality of national security. For veterans and law enforcement professionals, his prison operations experience reveals rare crossover insights into correctional environments, chain-of-command politics, and professional identity in uniform. What makes this story powerful is John’s relentless pursuit of redemption. Amidst command resistance and peer resentment, he trained in silence, kept his nose clean, and fought his way back into BUD/S and eventually earned his Trident – after being part of 6 different classes. It’s a story of raw perseverance and the kind of internal discipline only military and first responder communities truly understand. He eventually chose to exit the Navy after 12 years due to ineffective leadership and the desire to pursue a family. Today he is a Safety Director. Listeners will relate to John’s personal reflections on loss, leadership, and the battle between self-doubt and grit. Whether you’re a transitioning service member, aspiring operator, or someone looking for motivation after failure, this episode delivers a profound message: the fight for purpose is never over, and resilience is forged in the fire of rejection.

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The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. In Round 63 of the Tactical Transition Tips series on the Transition Drill Podcast, advice is tailored to police officers, first responders, and military veterans at various stages of their career transition. Whether you're on the cusp of change, planning a few years down the line, or envisioning a decade ahead, this episode has you covered.

In this episode, the three transition tips addressed are:

Close Range - Master Active Listening

Medium Range - Become the Resource Person

Long Range - Give More Than You Take

Your host, Paul Pantani, leveraging personal experience, offers actionable strategies. This tips series provides invaluable insights and practical tips to help you successfully navigate the complexities of changing careers. These vital topics offer guidance and support for navigating the complexities of transition planning for life after service.

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The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. In this episode, Rob Poynter, a former law enforcement officer, fitness professional shares his experiences and challenges of life after service. Rob takes us on a journey through his early life, growing up as the son of a homicide detective and witnessing firsthand the burdens carried by those in law enforcement. He opens up about the pull between his love for fitness and health, and the calling to serve—eventually leading him into a career as a deputy sheriff and motor officer. But everything changed after a devastating motorcycle accident left Rob with career-ending injuries. What followed was a personal battle with mental health, identity loss, and transition out of the only life he had known. Rob reflects on how quickly a law enforcement or military career can end and the deep sense of being "cut adrift" that follows. Rob shares how psychedelic therapy became a transformative part of his healing process—helping him confront childhood trauma, the cumulative weight of his first responder experiences, and the mental health struggles that many veterans and police officers silently endure.Rob’s story is one of service, loss, rediscovery, and giving back. Today, he’s focused on supporting others through volunteering and sharing lessons learned about resilience, career change, and post-service purpose. Whether you're a veteran, military member, law enforcement officer, or first responder facing your own transition, this conversation is a must-listen—a candid exploration of trauma, healing, and what it takes to build a meaningful life after service.

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The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. In Round 62 of the Tactical Transition Tips series on the Transition Drill Podcast, advice is tailored to police officers, first responders, and military veterans at various stages of their career transition. Whether you're on the cusp of change, planning a few years down the line, or envisioning a decade ahead, this episode has you covered.

In this episode, the three transition tips addressed are:

Close Range - Replace Motivation with Momentum

Medium Range - The 5-Minute Rule

Long Range - Develop a Legacy Project

Your host, Paul Pantani, leveraging personal experience, offers actionable strategies. This tips series provides invaluable insights and practical tips to help you successfully navigate the complexities of changing careers. These vital topics offer guidance and support for navigating the complexities of transition planning for life after service.

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The best podcast for military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and first responders preparing for veteran transition and life after service. Helping you plan and implement strategies to prepare for your transition into civilian life. In this episode, Ken Davenport, entrepreneur, author, and advocate for military veterans transitioning to civilian life delves into the unique challenges faced by military veterans transitioning to civilian life. Drawing from his experience working with veterans at the Armed Services YMCA at Camp Pendleton and leading the nonprofit Mission Edge, Davenport discusses the importance of planning and preparation for a successful transition. He highlights his inspiration from Stoic philosophy, which he integrates into his book, “The Stoic Transition: A Guide: How Veterans Can Thrive in Their Next Adventure,” Ken shares valuable insights on emotional regulation, the pitfalls of transitioning, and the significance of personal fulfillment, offering practical advice for veterans to navigate their post-military careers. Additionally, he discusses the evolving mindset of younger service members and the impact of societal changes on their career decisions.

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