The Veteran's Veteran Podcast

Host Drew Jones welcomes his former Starkville Police Department chief to The Veteran’s Veteran Podcast to discuss a career spanning US Navy service, Mississippi Army National Guard deployments, and law enforcement leadership. The guest grew up in Starkville, joined the Navy at 17, worked as an aircraft handler on a carrier, and later transitioned into policing after serving as a Navy master-at-ar...

Host Drew Jones interviews Navy corpsman veteran, mother of six, former nonprofit founder, and veterans advocate Julie Pereira about her family’s nearly six-year ordeal with their “House from Hell” in Lakeland, Tennessee. After relocating in 2020 for her firefighter husband’s job, they built a semi-custom home but faced long delays, unexplained fill dirt, denied requests for plans and inspections,...

Host Drew Jones welcomes Andrew Hurst to the Veteran's Veteran Podcast and thanks Code4 for sponsoring the episode. Andrew shares how growing up around his father’s Memphis Police Department community inspired him to join law enforcement, where he worked eight years across West Tennessee and North Mississippi as a patrolman, K9 handler, negotiator, and shift sergeant. He discusses the value of...

Host Drew Jones interviews William “Big Sarge” Hansen, a Desert Storm veteran who served a combined 22 years in the Marine Corps and Army with five Middle East tours, including Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. Hansen recounts growing up in a multigenerational military family, joining the Marines after high school, later serving in the National Guard, and building a civilian life a...

Host Drew Jones welcomes Orion “Bad Karma” Mata, a U.S. Army military police veteran and 31-year law enforcement professional who served as a patrolman, detective, SRT operator, police sniper, and federal task force officer on organized crime cases. Orion describes joining the Army at 17, working corrections at Fort Leavenworth, the post-9/11 environment and stop-loss, and transitioning into munic...

From Firefighter to Future Paramedic: Maria Chu’s 405-Day Sobriety Journey Host Drew Jones reconnects with childhood friend Maria Chu on the Veteran’s Veterans podcast as she shares her path from aspiring doctor to volunteer firefighter and advanced EMT, detailing fire academy training, early EMS experiences, and her goal to become a pediatric flight paramedic at Le Bonheur. Maria describes strugg...

Host Drew Jones interviews Stacy Dodd, a certified intervention professional and leader at Woodland Recovery Center who shares his journey from early drinking and drug use to heavy meth addiction, homelessness at 33, and a rock-bottom turning point when his mother stopped enabling him. After entering a long-term program, he became a Christian, stayed clean for 26 years, worked for years to rebuild...

Host Drew Jones welcomes Brooke Defore to the Veteran's Veteran Podcast to discuss continuing the mission after service through a purpose-driven K9 program. Brooke shares how she enlisted at 17 as an Army military police soldier in the Mississippi Army National Guard, earned a criminal justice degree, and worked in local law enforcement, becoming her department’s first female K9 handler and fi...

Host Drew Jones introduces episode 002 of the Veterans Veteran Podcast, focused on continuing the mission after military service by educating and connecting veterans to helpful resources. First guest Rachel Wooten shares her background in nursing, pain management, medical device sales, work with the Pink Berets, and her current role with Sweet Life Canna Company. They discuss how chronic pain ofte...

In the first episode of the Veteran's Veteran podcast, host Drew Jones—founder of Veteran's Veteran LLC—introduces his mission to help veterans navigate the VA disability process after his own four-year journey to a 100% Permanent & Total rating following a 2018–2019 Syria deployment. He shares how helping his Vietnam-veteran father and others led to steady growth, launching his LLC on...