Category: Veteran Culture

How does a man who is not a Navy SEAL manage to tag along with a SEAL team for a week of submarine operations? Mostly dumb luck, is my sterling response. I was a combat diver assigned to a Green Beret A-Team when my boss caught me in his crosshairs with an invitation from West […]

“Big Mountain Heroes“, a documentary film that follows a team of U.S. Special Operations veterans in their attempt to conquer the French, Swiss, and Italian Alps as a way to fight PTSD, won the 2019 Mammoth Film Festival category of “Best Action Sports Film (Short)”. The team members were Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL; […]

The Marine Corps‘ search for a new squad automatic weapon (SAW) may have ended with Heckler and Koch, but that doesn’t mean the arms manufacturer was going to pull any punches when it came to ribbing the branch about some common Marine stereotypes. In a Facebook post published by H&K earlier this week, the company […]

President Trump’s surprising friendship with Kanye West may have been the subject of news headlines all over the world in past months, but now it looks like it may have found its way to a far more unusual spot: the packaging on new Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs. The image adorning some MRE packaging […]

Among other things, U.S. Navy SEALs are known for their imagination and intrepidity. Those characteristics are instilled in them from very early on in their careers. Indeed, the initiation begins during the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, where students are encouraged to think outside the box. The results of this thinking, however, can sometimes be […]

Officials at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are now blaming the agency’s lack of consistent leadership for a substantial drop off in suicide prevention efforts throughout 2017 and 2018, despite suicide rates climbing dramatically among some veteran demographics just one year prior. Between 2015 and 2016, the last years for which we have […]

Jordan Brown is a 19-year veteran serving in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He is assigned to the RAF Regiment, a unit that provides soldiering support to the RAF. Airmen serving in the RAF Regiment can perform a variety of roles to include airfield security, Joint Terminal Attack Control (JTAC) support to ground combat units, […]

On December 7, 2018, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case called Procopio v. Wilke. Although this case has quietly made its way through the courts, it has the potential to dramatically change the manner in which the US Department of Veterans Affairs addresses […]

If you are transitioning from active duty and want to pursue or finish your bachelor’s degree, San Diego State University is has a program that puts you at the head of the admissions line. I spoke with Holly Shaffner, who is the Military Liaison Officer at SDSU, and she went over the program with me. You […]

A few weeks ago, during a Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segment, comedian Pete Davidson made a joke about former Navy SEAL and current congressman-elect Dan Crenshaw’s eye patch, saying that he looked like “a hit man from a porno movie.” It may have made for a cheap laugh, but Davidson really got himself in […]

With the end of the midterm elections, the 116th Congress will have 92 veterans serving in the House and Senate. About half of these served in the military after the 9/11 attacks. While the total percentage of vets in office is nowhere as high as it was in the 1970s — when it was 75% […]

Sydney, Australia — Comradeship and defiance, these two traits describe what the Invictus games represent. The games began last week. During a wheelchair tennis match between the British-Dutch team and Team USA, a helicopter flew above the court. The pilot was lower than he should have been. UK team member Paul Guest froze.  The low-flying helicopter […]