Contagion Effect

This week we had National Guard and Marine Corp Veteran Barbara Sim. Barbara opened up about how much her family moved in her earlier years of growing up, even with some time living in Scotland. Once her family settled in more during her teenage years, and once out of High School. Barbara followed in her sisters' footsteps and joined the National Guard and after two years there made the move t...

Major General (Retired) Gregg F. Martin joined us this week and what a story. Gregg, jumped right out the gates sharing his life growing up in Holbrook, Ma. This is where is desire to really be the best at everything he did started. Something that will later be diagnosed as being bipolar. You will read and hear multiple times how he is a bipolar survivor. This is where his story really began. We l...

This week on the Contagion Effect, we had Jenn Ford. Jenn is a US Army veteran turned Singer/Songwriter. It was such a pleasure to have Jenn come share her stories of her service, her life and her music career. We learned about her time growing up in East Texas, to her time as an MP in the ARMY and her times in bands for the Army traveling the world. Jenn shared that her transition between militar...

Ken Sallee joined us this week. This show has been a long time in the making and we were happy it finally happened. Ken is an Army Veteran, that was kind enough to share his story growing up and why he joined the US Army. We learned of his journey in the Army, including a deployment to Kosovo. After an injury that he sustained, Ken was medically discharged from the Army. At that point he continued...

Wow, what a show. Marine Corp Veteran Jason Steiner took over our show this week. Jason, who is running Herostock 2023 (website below) was trying to update us on all his preparations and the itinerary for Herostock 2023 when he lost control of the show and invited more guests. All, who will be part of Herostock. Website: https://www.herostock.org/ Herostock 2023 is an amazing event put on to show...

What great stories George Retana had to share with us this week. George, a Marine Corp Veteran, husband, father of 4(girl dad), survivor (listen to learn more), college student, and President/Chaplain of Veterans in Action Inc. We learned of his life growing up where he had to overcome some major hurdles, to his two tours in Iraq where his life was on the line multiple times. George was very trans...

Sometimes doing a Live Show can be a blessing, and sometimes it can hurt. We try to make sure it is always a blessing. So when we have a guest no show us, we adapt and overcome. This week you got us. It has been a rocky week leading up to this show, so this is what we most likely needed. We started out with some big losses of some true heroes at the beginning of the week. First Alan Taylor a WWII...

US Navy Veteran Jenna Carlton joined us this week. Jenna walked us through her time growing up in Wisconsin to why she decided to join the Navy. We learned about how she went from a very small town to being deployed on to an aircraft carrier. Jenna shared a little about life on an aircraft carrier and some of the ports they visited while deployed. Spoke about her decision to leave the Navy and now...

Some of the pain of doing a Live Show is that life happens, unfortunately our scheduled guest couldn't make it. We adapted and overcame. We started with Mike's Grandson joining while his son and wife were at the park. We moved over to Todd Hawks a Marine Corp Veteran who tried to join us, unfortunately the internet was not working great. We will get Todd back to share his story. We did sha...

Come watch/listen to Eddie Andersen a Marine Corp Veteran who started a great organization, Tackle 22 Fishing. We had the opportunity to learn what made him join the Marine Corp, along with his not so normal journey through Boot Camp. Eddie shared how he was deployed and found a love for being in the middle of everything. Deployment became what he wanted, so when he was looking to re enlist and th...

We had the opportunity to speak with Mark E. Petersen and Andrea Eichmann from The People's Patriot Project this week. Both Mark and Andrea shared a bit about their lives growing up which both culminated in them becoming Teachers and meeting at a Teachers Conference. We were able to learn how The People's Patriot Project came to be. an organization that helps both Veterans and First Respon...

Amanda Huffman, a, Air Force veteran turned Mom and Author joined us this week. We learned about her journey to joining the Air Force. One not like the many we have heard. Not a lot of family members had previously been in the military. She gained her knowledge through what happened during 9/11. While in College she made the decision that she wanted to join. Due to a conversation with a friend too...

This week we had to change things up a bit. Eric took the controls and and had some of our previous guests/new family on. Eric spoke with Bryan Roof from the Every Day is Saturday Podcast and Gun Room Radio, Derek Thompson with the Shadow Mark Podcast and even our good friend Tonto who we met through Warriors and Rodeo. Check all their links below. The guys spoke about mental health and music alon...

On this weeks Episode of The Contagion Effect, we were joined by Chris "Preach" Kniss with Doose Outfitters Ministry. Chris is an Air Force Veteran who grew up in Nebraska and ended up back there to settle his roots. Chris shared his time in Law Enforcement and working on different ranches after being medically retired from the Air Force. Preach told us how him and Ms J(his wife) came to...

Jason Rhodes was our guest this week. Come watch/listen to this US Navy Veteran share his story. Jason didn't have the normal path to joining the military, but it is a great story. We learned about his time in the Gulf outside of Iraq, and also that he worked to different Destroyers. Both of which he also helped de commission. His transition in to civilian life was not necessarily easy, but he...

France Mahabub joined us this week on the Contagion Effect. France served 18 years in the US Marine Corp where he was medically retired due to a previous injury from an IED attack. France shared his early life where his mom moved the family from Trinidad to New York, to his multiple deployments while in the Marines. He eventually moved to recruiting within the Marines where he found his niche. Aft...

Have you heard of Freedom Ringz?  If not, come and enjoy this show with US Army Veteran James Ski (we may have shortened the last name).  James shares his story of his military service and his deployment to Iraq.  We learn how Freedom Ringz comes to life in 2019.  James and his wife nicknamed Bosslady have created an amazing brand taking sentimental items and putting them in beautifully created ri...

We had Jeff Frazier on the show, a Retired US Army Veteran.  Learned about his over 20 years of service.  How he came to create Apex Predator Outfitters.  Shared how he met his wife, who is still active duty Navy at this time.  Such a great story, that has made the whole family part of their journey to continue helping veterans in any way he can.  Please go support and follow all their Social Medi...

We spoke to US Army Veteran Carlos Gomez who shared some of his trials and tribulations through life and the service.  From his time fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan to fighting Veteran Homelessness in Stockton.  Carlos has a great story to share and continues to serve his brothers and sisters through CVMA 33-2 Stockton, Ca.  Watch and listen to learn more.  Please follow CVMA 33-2 below. CVMA...

This week we spoke with Bourbon Battle Buddies.  A streaming show doing big things for Veterans.   We spoke with Jonathan Crochet an US ARMY veteran and Audry McHugh an US NAVY veteran. We opened up with learning about their early lives and where the decision came to join the military.  Both Jonathan and Audry had family that were in the service which helped guide them that direction.  Also, learn...

In this episode we had the opportunity to speak to Rob Young a Retired SUSD Officer and survivor of the January 17, 1989 Cleveland Elementary School shooting in Stockton, Ca.  Rob shared the details of that horrific day as a 1st grader on the playground, not fully understanding what was happening.  Shared how both him and his friend showed each other their bullet wounds in the middle of all the cr...

What a night, one of our longest Episodes, but so worth it.  Eric has done a great job tracking down guests for our shows and this just shows it.  Having some amazing singer songwriters on.  Let' start with Shannon Book, a Navy Corpsmen who has rocked out on some big stages and is getting ready to launch a music video for his song Dear Mom. Taylor Ullom, an Air Force Veteran who is also now g...

On the evening of Wednesday 4/19, a Facebook post was shared by Jason Steiner and Herostock.  This post was written by a Veteran who started it with ... Today I am part of the 22.  He went on to say how much he loved his wife, family, and friends.  Yet, he couldn't escape the darkness.  Sadly, he took his life after this post. We NEEDED to talk about this and invited Jason Steiner, Tom Etting...

What a great story teller, "THE" Dadbod Veteran joined us this week.  We had the opportunity to learn more about the man that tells stories on TikTok, YouTube and other Social Media platforms. He shared his early life, and the decision to join the Navy right out of High School. We learned about his career in the Navy, including how he was on the water when 9/11 happened and how they prot...

If you want to hear about a Marine who went through some life changing experiences, you need to listen to Steven Stewart's story.  Steven shared some stories around his two tours in Iraq and how they ultimately led to these changes.  We don't want to share too much, you have to hear it from Steven.  What's great though, is to hear the attitude and belief system that he has now and h...