The War Locker Show

The enemy gets a vote. And sometimes the hardest lessons in leadership come when you realize you've made the wrong call. In Episode 342 of The War Locker Show, Tom and Chuck welcome two combat-tested military leaders and accomplished authors: retired Marine Major Scott A. Huesing, author of Echo in Ramadi, and retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Clay Novak, author of the Terry Davis military thriller...

What happens when a guy looks at conventional K9 training methods and decides there's a better way to teach a dog to follow its nose? You get Mike Herstik. And eventually, you get a wall. In Episode 341 of The War Locker Show, Tom and Chuck welcome internationally experienced K9 trainer Mike Herstik, along with special guest Clay Novak, for a conversation about the Herstik Wall, the innovative tra...

There's a fine line between police leadership and organized confusion. Sometimes that line comes with a badge, a pension, and a corner office. Retired Wichita Police Department commander Christian Cory returns to The War Locker Show to join Wolfman and Caveman for an unapologetic tour through the strange, dangerous, and occasionally spectacularly stupid realities of police work. What begins as a c...

The Constitution was written with quill pens. Today, the government has artificial intelligence, facial recognition, automated surveillance networks, and access to more information about your daily movements than the Founding Fathers could have imagined. So where the hell does that leave the Fourth Amendment? Former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins returns to The War Locker Show for Part 2, joining Tom a...

What does leadership look like when the people following you have to live with the consequences of your decisions? This week, Tom and Chuck sit down with retired Marine Major Scott Huesing, bestselling author of Echo in Ramadi: The Firsthand Story of U.S. Marines in Iraq's Deadliest City. Scott spent 24 years in the Marine Corps, rising from enlisted Marine to infantry officer before commanding Ec...

Some decisions give you time to think. Others give you seconds, and you may spend years living with what happened next. In Episode 337 of The War Locker Show, Tom and Chuck sit down with retired Scottsdale Police Officer James Peters, whose law-enforcement career placed him in an extraordinary number of deadly-force encounters. Peters talks candidly about those shootings, the decisions that surrou...

When most people think of criminal investigations, they picture interrogation rooms, dramatic confessions, and TV detectives breaking suspects under pressure. The reality is far different. In Episode 336 of The War Locker Show, Tom and Chuck sit down with recently retired Captain Christian Cory of the Wichita Police Department to explore how modern investigative interviewing has evolved from intui...

Every story has the power to change someone else's life...if we're willing to tell it. This week, Tom and Chuck welcome Matt and Monica, hosts of The Matt & Monica Podcast, for an honest conversation about resilience, loss, faith, marriage, and the responsibility that comes with sharing your story. Matt opens up about the unimaginable tragedy that claimed the lives of his former wife and 16-ye...

Choosing the hard road doesn't end when military service does. In Part 2 of our conversation with Matthew Perry, Chuck and Clay continue exploring the mindset that has guided Matthew from the U.S. Army into leadership roles in fraud investigations, operations analysis, and the private sector. The discussion moves beyond military experience to examine how discipline, accountability, and mission-foc...

Every day, child predators exploit the anonymity of the internet. Every day, investigators work to stop them. In Episode 333 of The War Locker Show, Chuck sits down with Zach Neefe, a Department of Homeland Security Special Agent, Task Force Investigator, and instructor with the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC). Zach shares what it's really like to investigate online child exploit...

What happens when the people closest to the fight are empowered to solve the problems themselves? In Episode 332, Tom, Chuck, and special guest host Lt. Col. Clay Novak sit down with retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant and Green Beret Rob Leach to explore how innovation is changing the battlefield from the ground up. After 21 years with the legendary 5th Special Forces Group and multiple combat depl...

What happens when the people closest to the fight are empowered to solve the problems themselves? In Episode 332, Tom, Chuck, and special guest host Lt. Col. Clay Novak sit down with retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant and Green Beret Rob Leach to explore how innovation is changing the battlefield from the ground up. After 21 years with the legendary 5th Special Forces Group and multiple combat depl...

Some conversations become more meaningful with time. Originally released in September 2021, this episode features Chuck's dad, a veteran law enforcement officer who spent more than three decades serving on the road, from the State Police to the Highway Patrol. His stories aren't just about traffic stops, pursuits, and life behind the wheel. They're about duty, professionalism, humility, and what i...

****DISCLAIMER: Tom & Chuck Do Not Agree with or Endorse Anything This Guest Says.******* A former police officer and discredited law enforcement trainer surprises Tom and Chuck by making it through the screening process but Tom and Chuck hear him out until they can't help but push back. Join us for the only interview Tom said he almost walked out on. Remember to like, subscribe, and leave a r...

Most people finish college looking for the easiest path. Matthew Perry chose the opposite. After earning his degree from the University of Cincinnati, he joined the U.S. Army because he wanted to serve. That decision would shape every chapter that followed, from combat deployments to investigations, leadership, fraud prevention, and senior operations management. In Episode 331 of The War Locker Sh...

Former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins joins The War Locker Show for one of the most candid conversations we've ever had about justice, government power, prosecutorial discretion, and institutional trust. Bud discusses how information regarding Burisma first came to his attention, why he became involved in communicating information between foreign prosecutors and U.S. authorities, and the surprising eve...

Tom and guest co-host, Ret. Lt. Col. and Author of the Terry Davis books, Clay Novak sit down with Army combat veteran Matthew Perry to discuss military service, leadership, decision-making under pressure, and the difficult transition from military life back into the civilian world. Matthew shares his journey from the financial sector into the Army, his experience entering the Special Forces pipel...

In Part 2 of this two-part conversation, Chuck, Tom and author Clay Novak sit down with former Washington State police officer and current San Diego School District internal investigator Carlos Rodriguez for a difficult but important discussion about juvenile sex trafficking, exploitation, and the realities investigators face behind the scenes.  We talk about Carlos' experiences as a street cop an...

In Part I of this two-part conversation, Marco and Chuck sit down with former Washington State police officer and current San Diego School District internal investigator Carlos Rodriguez for a difficult but important discussion about juvenile sex trafficking, exploitation, and the realities investigators face behind the scenes. Drawing from years of investigative work, Carlos explains how predator...

Dont miss part one of Adam and Dan. Two hard-charging Gang Officers who found themselves in a bad spot... more than once. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-war-locker-show--6767179/support . Join us for War Locker LIVE — formerly Locker Room Live! Stream (almost) every Thursday at 7:30 PM PST on YouTube , where we dive deep into current events, culture, and t...

Marco and Chuck sit down with former FBI bomb technician and author Barry Black for a conversation about operating in environments where there is no margin for error. Barry pulls back the curtain on what it’s like to approach explosive threats for a living, where every decision carries weight and hesitation can cost more than action. The discussion goes beyond the mechanics of bomb disposal and in...

In Episode 324, Tom is joined by guest co-host Clay Novak and Garrett, a deputy sheriff from Major County, for a conversation about what law enforcement looks like when distance is part of the threat matrix. With roughly 1,000 square miles to cover, a population density of just over eight people per square mile, and only an elected sheriff plus six deputies protecting the county around the clock,...

Episode 323 brings in a man who’s lived in the places most people only hear about after the fact. Special Forces veteran and author Wretched Descent, Rob Leach, sits down with Chuck and the crew to talk about what deployment actually looks like when the noise fades and reality sets in. From stories on the ground to the mindset required to operate in unstable environments, Rob breaks down the gap b...

What really happened when 4 cops tried to help the CHP arrest a man named Rodney King? Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-war-locker-show--6767179/support . Join us for War Locker LIVE — formerly Locker Room Live! Stream (almost) every Thursday at 7:30 PM PST on YouTube , where we dive deep into current events, culture, and the real conversations shaping moder...

A 25-year career in law enforcement means stacking calls most people never see—shootings, wrecks, partners going down, and moments that don’t leave when the shift ends. Like a lot of cops, he kept moving… until one call finally brought everything to the surface—years of buried trauma, depression, and the kind of thoughts nobody says out loud. Chuck steps in as more than a host on this one—breaking...