Borne The Battle

Vietnam War Navy Veteran Dave Hume suffered a major stroke while admitted to James Haley Veterans’ Hospital on Feb. 2, 2017. Nurses and doctors rushed to Hume’s side and managed to stabilize his condition. But when the doctors came the next morning to check his condition, Hume realized that he could not speak.After his stroke, Hume was diagnosed with Global Aphasia, a communication disorder which impairs a patient’s ability to process language. Unable to express any words or ideas, Hume thought his life was over. Yet, three days after his stroke, he met the person who would prove him wrong.On this week’s episode of Borne the Battle, Navy Veteran and stroke survivor Dave Hume shares the journey of how he went from only expressing three words after his stroke to writing his own blog and becoming a motivational speaker. Pathologist Karyn Pingel, who joins him on this episode, is at the center of his rehabilitative journey.Pingel works closely with Hume to help him relearn how to speak and read. Under her guidanc

US Army and Delta Force Veteran Tom Satterly and his spouse Jen Satterly are the co-founders and co-CEOs of All Secure Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on helping Special Operations soldiers, Veterans and their significant others who are struggling on the home front from the effects of war.Tom served in the Army for 25 years, including 20 years in Delta Force. He served in the Battle of Mogadishu – which was portrayed in the 2001 Oscar-winning film, Black Hawk Down – and Operation Red Dawn, which led to the capture of Saddam Hussein. December 13 marks the 17th anniversary of Operation Red Dawn.Jen is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker who spent three years embedded with an elite Special Operations training company as director of film and photography. She became a Certified Health Coach in the course of her research into Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).When Tom retired from military service, he felt like a burden to society. Early on in Tom and Jen's relationship, he w

Army Reservist and National Guard Veteran, Ja'net Bishop Ed.D, shares how the sudden loss of her husband compelled her to reflect on what the next transition in her life would be, and how she transformed her pain into purpose and became a volunteer with the American Red Cross. She breaks down the This is Freedom resiliency training workshop and how she helps Veteran inmates in Ridgeville, South Carolina. Bishop shares how these Veterans open up and trust her in order to accept help. She continues to work as a volunteer, to help guide incarcerated Veterans toward a successful and purposeful civilian life.The American Red Cross resiliency training program for inmate Veterans is unique. Bishop shares advice to individuals and volunteers interested in implementing the same program and how they can begin the process of helping inmate Veterans navigate their lives as civilians.Starting out as the oldest and only girl in her family, Bishop joined the military to blaze a trail for herself and develop leadership skill

Air Force Veteran Mark Harper found his niche as a content creator for combat camera. After leaving service, he leveraged his military experience for a career in the entertainment industry. He now leads a media company that publishes military stories.The son of a green beret, Harper earned his undergraduate degree and commission through Air Force ROTC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. The 9/11 attacks prompted his deployment to Iraq as part of a communication squadron. In 2004, his animations, cartoons and videos received recognition, and he was referred to and joined combat camera. For most of his Air Force career, Captain Harper was the video flight commander for the 1st Combat Camera Squadron.In combat camera, Harper led combat-ready documentary teams that showed the world a glimpse into military operations, contingencies, exercises, weapons tests, and humanitarian relief operations. He used his position and leadership to teach Air Force commanders how useful media is for missions and how it

While serving as an electrics technician aboard USS Davis during the Vietnam War, Blue Water Navy (BWN) Veteran John Burns said he never felt like his life was in danger. He appreciated the experience because he was able to visit parts of the world he had never seen before. The last thing he expected was to have been exposed to Agent Orange while off the coast of Vietnam.In this episode of Borne the Battle, two Veterans from two very different generations come to talk about the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019. Burns, a Vietnam War Veteran spoke about: His unanticipated participation in the Vietnam War The symptoms he had after Agent Orange exposure His experience filing a BWN claim How the BWN Act benefits improved his life David Eckert, an Iraq War Veteran and lead policy analyst for VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities, also joined this episode. Eckert leveraged his background working with the BWN Act to share: How Veterans can file a claim  The criteria VA uses to evaluate applicants What benef

This week’s Marine Corps Birthday episode of Borne the Battle features Marine Corps Veteran, former police officer, MMA champion, bestselling author and founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation, Chad Robichaux. He turned his passion and greatest struggles into a foundation that helps his fellow Veterans who suffer from PTSD.Robichaux grew up in a dysfunctional home and turned to the Marine Corps to escape it. By 15, he was living alone. He entered the Corps without graduating high school and earned his GED while he served. As a Force Recon Marine, he served eight deployments in Afghanistan as part of a Joint Special Operations Command Task Force. Now, he is a board-certified pastoral counselor with an MBA.When PTSD ended his military career, Robichaux fell back on his skills as a martial artist. He fought in Strikeforce and Bellator, won HDNet’s Legacy FC belt and became a world champion MMA fighter. However, his fighting career consumed him, worsening his PTSD and delivering a reckoning to face his serious issu

Army Veteran David Muir is the Senior Vice President of the Veterans Staffing Network, a social enterprise project of Easterseals DC, MD and VA.Muir was sold on joining the Army National Guard the moment his friend’s sergeant showed him a video of soldiers rappelling out of helicopters. He was just 17-years old when he joined the Virginia Army National Guard through the Split Training Option program in 1989. He served as an infantryman and M-60 gunner while studying to be a teacher.Following his service, Muir worked in staffing and went to a Department of Labor Transition Assistance Program (TAP) Employment Workshop in 2009, where he discovered that the program needed updating. In 2011, he won the bid to revamp the TAP curriculum.After he finished the TAP redesign, Muir joined a nonprofit organization named Easterseals. The organization was looking for someone to start a new program called the Veterans Staffing Network.The Veterans Staffing Network was created to catch the people who fell through the cracks o

This is not your typical episode of Borne the Battle. It’s a Halloween Special with returning guest and Navy Veteran, Jennifer Marshall. Marshall is an actress and a trained private investigator. In “Mysteries Decoded,” an ongoing paranormal series on the CW television network, she gets to put those skills to work on paranormal activity, like vampires, Bigfoot, Area 51, The Mothman and many others.In the podcast, Marshall shares some of her theories on Bigfoot, based on her interviews with academics and observations while spending time in British Columbia.CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MYSTERIES DECODEDMarshall switches to talking about temporarily shutting the show down, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and how being flexible in switching to Zoom interviews allowed her team to be creative in making episode updates.Later, she shares her personal investigations into Area 51, as well as other alien evidence that marries up to new revelations from the government, in reference to recently confirmed naval UAP

Doctors Molly Klote and Chad Kessler join this bonus episode of Borne the Battle to discuss the various ways VA is helping with the national effort to combat COVID-19. The two doctors are fighting it in very different, but equally important ways.Dr. Klote, VA’s director of Office Research Protections, Policy, and Education, oversees all the research VA conducts, including many of the vaccine trials for COVID-19. She goes into specifics on the following topics: In what ways VA is helping with developing a vaccine Types of treatments the public might expect to be used to treat COVID-19 What happens when a vaccine is approved by the FDA Dr. Klote also calls for anyone able to participate in a COVID-19 clinical trial to think about signing up. She particularly encourages Black and Hispanic populations to volunteer. A strong minority turnout to vaccine trials ensures the vaccine gets the broadest exposure possible, increasing the likelihood that a finalized product can be successfully used among all groups of peop

This week's Borne the Battle features Air Force Veteran David Tenenbaum, the creator of Honor Media and Heroes Linked.From a young age, Tenenbaum wanted to help others in need. Inspired by his father, a Holocaust survivor liberated by US forces, he grew up with the stories of seeing good people standing against great injustice. Like the men who freed his father, he wanted to follow in their footsteps, to do good for others.His journey began in 2001, at Officer Candidate School a month before 9/11.Tenenbaum served in the Air Force for six years as an Aircraft Instructor Navigator, leading stateside and overseas operations for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft. He left the service during a downsizing period to begin a new journey, but the Great Recession made it a rough transition.Moving to Los Angeles, Tenenbaum pursued a new profession direction: media production. He created Honor Media, a nonprofit that supports other Veteran nonprofits with media production, distribution, photography a

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men experience intimate partner violence (IPV) during their lifetime. Veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries are at an even greater risk for IPV. Yet, both victims and perpetrators of IPV oftentimes don't seek help. They are instead motivated by feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment, or fear to keep quiet and accept the violence around them.Dr. LeAnn Bruce, National Program Manager for the Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Program (IPVAP), joins this week’s episode of Borne the Battle to share why no one should ever feel ashamed to seek IPV support and describes what services VA offers to help Veterans in need. Among the issues Dr. Bruce discussed include: What IPV means The many forms IPV can take Where to get immediate IPV help With COVID-19 and natural disasters disrupting lives across the country, promoting IPV awareness will be more crucial than ever during this

This week’s Borne the Battle features Marine Veteran Stephen Kupryk, also known as the WWE Smackdown superstar and Forgotten Sons member, Steve Cutler. In this episode, Kupryk talks about how his participation in high school athletics and the influence of 9/11 took him down a road which would ultimately land him in the country’s premier wrestling promotion.As a Marine infantryman, Kupryk was assigned to the Second Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment and deployed twice to Helmand province in Afghanistan. He talks about finding inspiration and thanking those who mentored him while serving from 2007 through 2011.Kupryk spoke of using VA's GI Bill benefits to attend Rowan University, where a chance encounter with a WWE contact at a local bar would set him upon a career of WWE superstardom, including the early days when he trained at the Monster Factory Wrestling School before being called up in 2013 to the WWE’s NXT division. He also talks about forming the The Forgotten Sons, which Stephen takes a nuanced approach

This week's Borne the Battle features Army Veteran Erika Land, who shares the story of how she changed her suicide letter into “War Song.”Before 9/11, Erika joined the Army as a pharmacy technician. Her job was to dispense medications in the emergency department. At work, she experienced pain, sorrow, anger, anxiety, depression and helplessness. After leaving service, she believed the only way out from feeling those emotions was to take her life – until she found poetry.VA’s Art Therapy Program allowed Land to express herself. She wrote about the trials and tribulations she experienced while being deployed to Iraq. But in Poetry, Land felt she could speak from the soul, to express to others on the same path that they, too, could find healing. "Poetry is the window into the soul and a reflection of life," she says, in the podcast.After service is when Land realized she wasn't alone. As she found poetry, she found passion for life and began touring and making arrangements for theaters and venues to market her s

For many Veterans, readjusting to civilian life after leaving the military can be difficult. That's what Aaron Quinonez found when he left the Marine Corps, as he soon faced divorce, homelessness and the inability to secure a long-term job. Over time, his mental health steadily deteriorated as PTSD ravaged his mind. For Quinonez, life seemed to always get worse, and on one July 4th afternoon, he parked in an empty lot, pulled out his SIG Sauer and prepared to end his life.In this week’s episode of Borne the Battle, Quinonez shares his journey from being on the brink of committing suicide to becoming an entrepreneur, sharing how he developed new programs and technologies to help Veterans suffering from PTSD and suicidal thoughts.Quinonez credits his faith as the reason for much of his climbing back up, out of despair. He talks about attending church and being surrounded by supportive people who embraced him. He felt called to help, and was encouraged by church-mates, to build housing for a family in Mexico. Qu

This week's episode of Borne the Battle is a Benefits Breakdown on the VA Debt Management Center (DMC). It features DMC's National Finance Director Joe Schimitt and DMC Director of Operations Jason Hoge. Schmitt and Hoge explain how the DMC helps Veterans with financial relief, how the debt repayment process works, and how the DMC actually assists Veterans by helping to improve their financial planning.Schmitt and Hoge explain the DMC mission, how it guides Veterans' debt repayments, and some recent changes. Those changes include: Technology updates. An oath for employees must take to serve the Veterans in their care. Required 13.5 week debt counselors training. Schimitt, a former Marine, advocates for “compassionate service.” That mission not only comes from his military service, but also from a personal history of having to repay medical debt. His son was diagnosed with Craniosynostosis. The needed surgery, cranial vault remodeling, corrected his son's head shape, enabling the brain, skull, and head to grow

This week's episode of Borne the Battle features Army Veteran Tony Temerario, who was also a 9/11 responder and a current AT&T executive.Temerario's parents were both WWII Navy combat Veterans. They served in the Pacific and in Operation Neptune during the Normandy D-Day Invasion in 1944. Temerario grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and was so influenced by service that he joined the military, too. In the podcast, he talks candidly about his experiences in the military and on scene at the Pentagon after 9/11, including re-establishing communication networks for first responders and, later that night, the emotions of seeing the flag draped over the side of the Pentagon walls.CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY OF GETTING THE 2ND FLAG DELIVERED TO THE PENTAGONIt wasn't long after the attacks that Temerario deployed with his Army National Guard Special Forces Unit. His actions at the Pentagon and overseas earned him several Army and civilian honors, including an Army Meritorious Service Medal and three State of

This week, Army Veteran Blake Hall, who shared how and why he joined the Army, what life was like after transitioning, and how he founded ID.me.Hall's decision to join the Army after September 11th felt to him like a right of passage. He wanted to be the one to lead the fight. He talks about that event as a shift for service members, and what it meant for the community, before discussing a 15-month deployment as a platoon leader and fighting the Iraqi insurgency. Blake received the Bronze Star with Valor for actions in leading his men during a fight against insurgents.Hall also talks transitioning out of the military, and how he came to found and lead ID.me to make ID verification and logging a more efficient process. He mentions the hassles that Veterans without ID cards face when applying for various benefits. With ID.me, Veterans can be verified through a secure process without meeting in-person or providing physical identification.Later, Hall discusses entrepreneurship within the public and government are

Army Veteran Florent Groberg received the Medal of Honor in 2015 for his selfless actions during the War in Afghanistan, where he rushed a suicide bomber to protect 28 coalition and Afghan National Army personnel.Groberg knew he wanted to join the military when his uncle joined the Algerian army to fight the Armed Islamic Group, a terrorist organization that was eventually responsible for his uncle's grisly death. Groberg’s family moved to the United States when he was 12, and Groberg’s resolve to join the military was strengthened after the September 11 attacks. However, in order to join the Army, he had to renounce his French citizenship.On August 8, 2012, Groberg was responsible for protecting a group of personnel including two brigade commanders, three battalion commanders, an Afghan general, two GS-15 State Department individuals, and two majors with his element of six other soldiers. During the advance to a provincial governor’s compound, the patrol was attacked, and Groberg tackled a suicide bomber to

This week we go back in time and revisit, Duke and USA Basketball legend, Coach K's interview on Borne the Battle. 

This week's episode of Borne the Battle features Marine Corps Veteran Alex Calfree, the co-founder of OpLign, a website that uses personal profiles of job seekers to connect them to employers and open up new career paths. Unlike most job-hunting websites which use keyword searches to connect job-seekers to employers, OpLign attributes its success to artificial intelligence that matches users’ complete profile to the employment opportunities that will allow them to succeed.After a few years of college, Calfree enlisted in the Marine Corps as an infantryman. He traveled between many different units before becoming a reconnaissance Marine, a job he described as “very cerebral” due to the demanding and required navigation and communication skills.After transitioning out of the military, Calfree earned an undergraduate degree and Master of Business Administration from Ohio State University with assistance from other Veterans and military members on campus.In 2017, Calfree co-founded OpLign, an artificial intellige