Eagle Ops: The Rally Point Podcast

After 22 years, four deployments, and duty stations from Fort Bragg to Korea to Italy, retired Army First Sergeant and Ranger Mike Pickens and his wife, Army veteran Amanda Pickens , thought coming home to Oklahoma would be the easy part. It wasn't. In this honest, deeply relatable conversation, Mike and Amanda open up about the side of military life that rarely gets talked about: the transition o...

Part two with Dr. Carter Check a former Army CAV scout, VA clinician, and founder of Hunt Therapy. In this episode, Dr. Check unpacks what moral injury actually is (and why it's not a weakness), why veterans who die by suicide often believe they're saving others, and how purpose becomes the most powerful weapon against shame. He shares the story behind Hunt Therapy and his book Healing in the Wild...

Williams CEO Chad Zamrin joins Shep on the Eagle Ops Rally Point Podcast to talk veteran workforce investment, mental health stigma in construction and the military, and why supporting organizations like Eagle Ops is one of the highest-ROI decisions a business leader can make. Chad opens up about his 10 months as CEO of Williams — an $8B company forecasting 10% annual growth — and what the company...

PART TWO with Ryan "Bacon" Nelson was a Marine Corps veteran, NBC specialist, combat deployment survivor, and by his own admission.... a guy who had no business walking into a veteran organization in his mid-30s. Then a fellow Marine dragged him to a backyard fire pit in Tulsa. He broke a chiminea within the first ten minutes. And he never really left. In this conversation with Eagle Ops founder S...

Ryan "Bacon" Nelson was a Marine Corps veteran, NBC specialist, combat deployment survivor, and by his own admission.... a guy who had no business walking into a veteran organization in his mid-30s. Then a fellow Marine dragged him to a backyard fire pit in Tulsa. He broke a chiminea within the first ten minutes. And he never really left. In this conversation with Eagle Ops founder Shep, Ryan walk...

What separates PTSD from moral injury? VA clinical chaplain and suicide prevention specialist Dr. Carter Check joins Shep on the Eagle Ops Rally Point Podcast to answer that question and a lot more. Drawing from his own military story, decades of work with veterans at the Eastern Oklahoma VA, and a doctoral dissertation from Vanderbilt, Carter breaks down why the deepest wounds veterans carry don'...

Were you ever denied by the VA and just stopped trying? This episode is for you. Rally Point welcomes Bryan Jeffries, Outreach Director for the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs and a retired Army veteran who has helped connect more than 5,000 veterans to the benefits they earned. He breaks down the myths that keep veterans from getting what they're owed: why deploying has nothing to do with...

In this episode of the Rally Point Podcast, Eagle Ops co-founder Jessica Shepherd shares the deeply personal story behind Eagle Ops and the realities many veterans and military families face after service. Jessica opens up about watching her husband transition out of the Marine Corps, the loss of military brotherhood, and the emotional impact of helping her Vietnam veteran father navigate the VA s...

In the first episode of the Eagle Ops Podcast, co-founder Jessica Shepherd sits down with her husband and Marine Corps veteran and Eagle Ops co-founder Johnathon "Shep" Shepherd to share the founder story behind one of Oklahoma's most active veteran nonprofits. Shep walks through his journey from a single-mom household in Catoosa, to enlisting in the Marine Corps after a recruiter challenged him w...

Welcome to EAGLE OPS: The Rally Point Podcast …a place where stories are told, connections are made, and the mission continues. As part of our Reach One More Operation, this podcast brings you face-to-face with veterans, the resources that support them, and the people working behind the scenes to make an impact. This is more than a podcast Meet us at the Rally Point!