In this episode we are joined with Jordan Hillstrom who served in the 2nd Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment in the army. We talk about his deployments overseas including the incredible story of him and his brother both being deployed at the same time and the journey that Jordan went on to find his brother after being blown up by an IED. We also get into Jordan‘s near death experience with malaria, his transition from the military and where he is at now in life, and the various organizations that he supports in continuing to serve other fellow veterans. We are honored to sit down with Jordan and we hope you enjoy this weeks episode.

This episode is a bit of a sensitive one. It's a bit different than our usual shows but with the chaos that is going on right now in Afghanistan. We felt it was an important time to put everything down, take a break this week, and dive into it. We've always been about supporting other veterans and now is the time when we all need it the most. We have been on numerous news networks over the past week from CNN, MSNBC, FOX, Washington Post, News Nation, Newsmax, and many more, discussing our opinions and sharing more details about our upcoming book, The Twenty-Year War. This week has been hard on everyone but we hope you enjoy this positivity filled episode in hopes to ease peoples minds a bit and allow us all to come together. Next week we are back to our regular show with a guest and stay tuned for more exciting updates.

Welcome back to Never Left Behind the podcast. Today we are joined with Nikki Selby who served in the United States Navy with Search & Rescue (Land) and then eventually as a Critical Care and Trauma ER Nurse while being deployed to Afghanistan. We talk about her military career and where her life has taken her since, including supporting the HunterSeven Foundation, becoming skydiving certified, long range shooting, and still actively working as a nurse in her community. This is an incredible episode with Nikki filled with inspirational topics and the occasional raunchy moments that had us entertained throughout the entire show.

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In this episode we are joined by Tomy Parker, a Marine Corps veteran who deployed to his first and only time to Afghanistan with the 3rd Battalion 5th Marine Regiment. In December 2010 while on a foot patrol, Tomy stepped on an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) resulting in the amputation of his right leg above the knee, his left leg at the hip, and all of his fingers on his left hand saving his thumb. Over the next eighteen months, Tomy went through extensive rehabilitation to learn to live his life without his legs. He returned to Montana where his hometown community rallied to welcome him home. Soon after, he lost his purpose in life in replace of a drug addiction. This led him down the long dark road of substance abuse for the better part of a decade, ultimately resulting in spending eighteen months incarcerated. While incarcerated, Tomy turned his life around and found his purpose to push once again. Since then he has gone on to become an adaptive athlete. He has competed in multiple half marathons, one full marathon, and is currently training to race in his first Iron Man. Tomy continues to push himself every day with his training and has future goals of starting his own business with the help of Warrior Rising as well as competing in larger scale marathons such as the Boston Marathon. Tomy continues helping others by shattering perceived limitations and stereotypes that disabled people “can’t” and showing that disabled people “will.” Tony’s unique ability to find light in darkness and comedy in dim situations allows him to have a potentially greater impact on those to whom he speaks.

Welcome back to the show! Today we are very excited to be joined alongside Dr. Tony Brooks. After enlisting into the US Army in 2003 at the age of 21, Tony attended and graduated infantry and airborne school followed by the four week Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP) officially checking into the 2nd Ranger Battalion in Fort Lewis, Washington in September of 2004. He deployed to Eastern Afghanistan in April 2005 based on Bagram Airfield, his first mission was Operation Red Wings II. Tony subsequently deployed to the Ramadi region of Iraq from 2006 to 2007. He is now owner and operator of a chiropractic clinic and creator of Objective Healthy, a healthy lifestyle social venture to improve the health of veterans. He was featured on a Discovery science channel episode of Black Files Declassified in a Smithsonian air and space article as a subject matter expert on Operation Red Wings and is also featured in the Backbone Docuseries.

Check out Tony's book, Leave No Man Behind to find out more about the heroic rescue mission known as Operation Red Wings II. This mission was designed and focused on sending in teams of Army Ranger's to locate and rescue Marcus Luttrell and his fallen men which became a Hollywood movie known as "Lone Survivor."

In this episode we are joined by Steve Forti. Prior to founding Fit Fight - a global competition fitness app, Steve was a consultant for Johnson and Johnson’s orthopedic trauma division, utilizing eight years of critical care and trauma nurse experience. In the military he earned the rank of Master Sergeant after serving over 23 years in Army special forces. He is a level one sniper and attended John’s Hopkins applied physics lab as well as the special operations planners course in Norfolk, Virginia. Steve earned a BS in nursing from Quinnipiac University, completed a critical care residency at Yale New Haven Hospital systems and holds a BS from Southern Connecticut State University. In March of 2020 Steve was asked to join the amazing team at the Hospital for Special Surgery as a Chief of Staff for crisis management, the number one orthopedic surgical hospital in the world as they transformed the entire hospital into a Covid-19 treatment center to do their part in the fight to save lives during the height of the Covid-19 crisis. As the crises ebbed, he was asked to join the leadership team there as a chief wellness and resiliency officer.

In this episode we are joined alongside our co-founder of United Valor, Tom Amenta. We chat about the status of our upcoming book, The Twenty-Year War and the process each of us went through while creating it. We are happy to announce that this veteran coffee table book is now available for pre-order at twentyyearwar.com and will be set to release on September 11, 2021. If you are interested in listening to the audio episodes of Season 1, head over to Spotify to hear more from the Never Left Behind podcast. We hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more episodes that will launch each week with a different guest!

In our last episode for Season 1, we have the pleasure of speaking with Mike Davison, a former Marine who served for 21 years. Mike talks about his deployments in Lebanon and the Gulf War, his experiences as a Drill Sergeant, and starting up his own contracting business after transitioning. Lots of laughs followed by great stories from Mike as we wrap up Season 1.

In this episode we have the pleasure of speaking with Mike Hall, who retired from the Army after 34 years and was the Command Sergeant Major of the United States Army Special Operations Command. We talk about his deployments overseas during the initial invasions to Iraq and Afghanistan, starting up the Three Ranger Foundation, and continuing to serve and provide leadership for other veterans. We learn quite a bit about not only his military background but what he is doing within the Ranger community as veterans prepare to transition from military service into the civilian life again.

In this episode we are joined by Mike Schlitz, a combat veteran who has served in the U.S. Army for 14 years. This is a heavy and enlightening episode. In 2007, Mike was blown up in Iraq by an IED severely burning nearly 85% of his body and killing the other three passengers in his vehicle. He has accumulated a total of 99 surgeries to date including two prosthetics for his hands. Mike has had an incredible journey throughout his life including working with the Gary Sinise Foundation, sharing his words of wisdom and positivity in public speaking events, to continuing to serve and motivate other veterans. This is an episode we can all learn from.