Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans

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  Cultural Support Teams - Women In The Shadows of Combat 14.09.2026 23min

  Some stories from Iraq and Afghanistan still get told like footnotes, even when they changed how missions worked on the ground. We sit down with Heidi Rippy, Vice President of Development for the Special Operations Association of America (SOAA), to talk about what it meant to serve as one of the small number of women selected for Cultural Support Team work alongside special operations and civil affairs. Heidi walks us through enlisting at 17, choosing the Army airborne path, and what selectio...
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  Raised Everywhere, From Nowhere: The Hidden World of Military Kids 07.09.2026 28min

  You can spot a military kid in a crowd, not because of a uniform, but because they learned to adapt before they learned to drive. Chef Larry welcomes Lisa and Rose, the sisters behind the Punk Brats YouTube channel, for a sharp, funny, and honest talk about what it’s really like growing up as military brats across continents. We trace their story from Seoul and Fort Hood to Camp Zama, and then Germany, where living off base brought a level of independence that still surprises people today. T...
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  Performance Over Pedigree: A Marine Officer's Path to Corporate Impact 31.08.2026 27min

  Leaving the military can feel like stepping out of a unit and into a world without a map. I talk with Marine Officer and Veteran Ryan Murray, Managing Director at Greencastle Consulting, about the moments that force a real pivot: choosing the infantry mindset, hitting the eight-to-ten-year decision window, managing injuries, and trying to make smart calls for your family while the transition clock is still running. We also get honest about VA disability ratings and why they often slide down t...
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  The Standards Myth: A West Point Pioneer Sets the Record Straight on Women in the Military 24.08.2026 30min

  The “standards were lowered” talking point spreads fast, but it falls apart the moment you look at how elite military training and real-world performance are actually measured. I sit down with Sue Fulton, a West Point graduate from the first class to include women and the founder of the Women in the Service Coalition (WISC), to get specific about what changed, what didn’t, and why the truth matters for force readiness. We dig into women in combat roles, Ranger School standards, and why the i...
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  Stability by Choice: Military Families and the Homeschool Solution 17.08.2026 32min

  Every two to three years, military orders can flip a family’s life upside down. New home, new friends, new routines, and too often, a school reset that leaves kids paying the price. We talk with Natalie Mack, founder and CEO of the Military Homeschoolers Association, about why so many military families choose homeschooling as the one lever they can control: stability, continuity, and a learning environment that survives PCS moves, deployments, and the long grind of workups. Natalie shares ho...
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  Flight 93, a Daughter's Legacy, and the Making of a Memorial 10.08.2026 21min

  A leadership lesson can come from a classroom, a coach, or a job. Sometimes it comes from a handwritten letter and a story that still hurts to tell. I’m Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, and I’m joined by Debbie Borza, a special advisor to The 9:57 Project Student Leadership Challenge, our summer leadership camp for high school students. Debbie brings a perspective shaped by United Flight 93. She shares the story of her daughter, Diora, who was ...
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  Beyond the Runway: An Air Force Veteran on the Front Lines of Humanitarian Aviation 27.07.2026 32min

  You can fly a perfect approach and still be miles from help if the “runway” is a strip carved out of jungle. That’s why I wanted to sit down with Fran DeRocher, an old friend from our Guam days, to talk about the kind of aviation most people never see: Mission Aviation Fellowship’s real-world humanitarian airlift across remote parts of Africa, where the airplane is the only road in or out. We start with the memories that shaped us, from brutal no-AC barracks to scuba dives on Guam’s st...
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  Wheels, Wings, and Will: How Volunteer Pilots and Donors Are Delivering Veterans to Life-Saving Care 20.07.2026 22min

  The hidden bill in healthcare is often the drive, the flight, or the miles you rack up while you are already exhausted. We sit down with Melissa Brian, lead transportation coordinator for Mercy Medical Angels, to talk about what happens when a patient or veteran can get an appointment but cannot get there and how a practical ride can be the difference between starting treatment and falling behind. We break down the full menu of medical transportation assistance Mercy Medical Angels coordinat...
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  From Service to Soil: Building a Successful Veteran Farm 13.07.2026 23min

  Farming can look like a simple escape plan until you run the numbers and realize the real enemy is the order of operations. Land is expensive, fences cost money, equipment breaks, and a “quick” farm dream can turn into years of stress if you start out of sequence. I sit down with Kate Bowen, program director of the American VetFarm Network (a program of At Ease Orchard), to talk about what it actually takes to help veterans become farmers and stay healthy in the process. We get into the pra...
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  Military Kids Deserve College Help Without Debt 06.07.2026 27min

  Scholarship hunting shouldn’t feel like a second job, especially for military families already juggling PCS moves, shifting school rules, and tight timelines. We sit down with Kristen Ferullo, founder of Partners in Purpose, to discuss a free, searchable scholarship database designed specifically for military children, dependents, spouses, veterans, and ROTC students. If you’ve ever clicked through endless lists only to learn you don’t qualify, this conversation gives you a smarter path. We ...
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  From High-OpSec to High-Visibility: How Veteran Entrepreneurs Win at Branding and PR 29.06.2026 26min

  You can have the best product in the world and still lose if nobody knows you exist. That’s the tension we dig into with Austin Holmes, a Navy EOD veteran who now leads the Nashville-based PR firm Publicity for Good. We talk candidly about the mindset shift veteran entrepreneurs have to make when they leave a high-opsec culture and step into a marketplace that rewards clear, consistent communication. If you’ve ever built the LLC, opened the bank account, and then wondered why growth feels slo...
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  Why A WWII Propaganda Poster Is Basically Old-School TikTok 22.06.2026 32min

  Fewer people personally know someone who served, and that quiet shift changes how communities understand sacrifice, leadership, and even citizenship. We sit down with Scott English, president of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to discuss how a modern military history museum can close that gap by telling authentic, relatable stories about the citizen soldier and the families who serve alongside them. Scott shares how the museum evolved from a book collector’s l...
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  Mission: Entrepreneur — How JDog Brands Is Turning Military Service Into Business Ownership 15.06.2026 27min

  One customer, noticing an early arrival and a military haircut, kicked off a brand that’s now helping veterans become business owners. We sit down with Tracy Flanagan, co-founder of JDog Brands, to unpack how a junk removal and hauling side hustle grew into a veteran-owned franchise network with roughly 91 locations across 25-plus states and about 90% veteran ownership. Along the way, we get specific about what makes a franchise model work for military transition: structure, accountability, a...
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  What Good Is A Benefit If No One Uses It; Free Eye Glasses for Veterans 08.06.2026 27min

  Paying retail for prescription eyeglasses is frustrating enough. Finding out you may have qualified for VA glasses the whole time is worse. We sit down with Sean Loosen, CEO of PDS Optical and a West Point graduate with an infantry background, to explain how VA vision benefits actually work and why awareness remains the biggest barrier to better eye care for veterans. We break down the real-world basics: VA health care enrollment, what “service-connected disability” can mean for eligibility...
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  Stronghold: Where Veteran Healing Meets Purpose 01.06.2026 26min

  A former Navy SEAL with 10 trips to Afghanistan should have had an easy off-ramp into high-paying contractor work, but Todd Peters chose a different mission. After years of watching suicides stack up across his community, he founded Stronghold Alliance, a faith-based restoration nonprofit built to tackle veteran suicide prevention with urgency, humility, and real-world tools that veterans and first responders will actually use. We talk through what many people miss about PTS and traumatic br...
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  How An Iraq War Veteran Turned PTS Into A Band With A Message 25.05.2026 26min

  A triple agent looks a young soldier in the eye and says the North Gate is about to be hit. Minutes later, the blast proves it. That moment is one of the turning points Sean Martin shares with us, and it’s also part of the story behind why his band, The Quarantined, doesn’t exist just to entertain. Sean is a prior-service Army airborne infantry veteran who deployed to Iraq and ran hundreds of combat missions. He opens up about what pulled him toward the most “consequential” path, how a requi...
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  How JPMorgan Chase Helps Veteran-Owned Businesses Succeed Through CEOcircle 18.05.2026 17min

  Many veteran-owned businesses don’t struggle because their founders lack discipline. They struggle because growth demands a new kind of support system: peers who’ve been there, mentors who tell the truth, and a clearer plan for capital, technology, and scale. That’s exactly where our conversation with Alex McKindra goes, drawing a straight line from military service to building stronger outcomes for veterans and military spouses in business and beyond. Alex is a Managing Director in Global C...
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  Military Spouse Survival Kit 11.05.2026 21min

  Your spouse raises a right hand, and suddenly, your whole life has a new rulebook. Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, sits down with Kayla LaFond, military spouse liaison for the Virginia Department of Veterans Services (DVS), for an honest talk about what the transition into military spouse life really looks like, from the first duty station shock to the long stretches where you feel like you are rebuilding from scratch. Kayla shares her own pat...
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  A Community Car Show That Funds Healing at the Warrior Retreat 04.05.2026 21min

  A great car can stop you in your tracks, but a great car show can do more than that. We’re joined by Chuck Berge, board member at Willing Warriors and the team lead behind Vettes For Willing Warriors, to lay out exactly what happens when hundreds of vehicles roll onto the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run and the community shows up in force. We talk real numbers and real details: 240 cars and about 865 visitors last year, with expectations of 1,000+ spectators this time. You’ll hear how judging ac...
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  From Service to Survival: The Fight for Veteran Healing 27.04.2026 25min

  The fastest way to lose your footing after the military is to lose your people and then pretend you’re fine. Host Larry Zilliox sits down with Navy Veteran Jordyn Jureczki, CEO of Frontline Healing Foundation, to talk about what happens when transition feels isolating, anger lingers, and the path to care is blocked by money, red tape, or geography. Jordyn shares how her own post-service road led her into law enforcement, a personal struggle with alcohol, and an unexpected turning point...