Mike Drop

Every warrior has a different reason for going over the wire. For Chris Cappa, it was almost destiny; a chance encounter at a local gym turned into a series of relationships that were suddenly severed in a 2011 Afghanistan Boeing Chinook shootdown - otherwise known as Extortion 17. Soon after, Chris found himself headed to bootcamp, and before long, deploying at the Tip of the Spear with SEAL Team...

There's more to being a Marine Squad Infantry Leader than simply telling other Marines what to do. You're not only responsible for your squad's successes, but you also feel the weight of the most devastating of failures. But The Battle of Marjah isn't where Lions of Marjah author Ryan Rogers' story ends - a resurgence of vengeance, a Five-Day War, and getting out alive is all an integral part of t...

The Battle of Marjah. A knock-down, drag-out, world class brawl. Featuring over 15,000 soldiers from all over the world, it was the largest joint operation in Afghanistan up to that point. And Ryan Rogers knows it better than most - he was a Marine Infantry Squad Leader for the whole damn thing. He was on the ground for the first day, and the next, and the day after, making the sort of decisions m...

After 7 years of flying as an Apache Helicopter Pilot for the Army, Ryan Fugit knew it was time to settle down. So naturally, he moved back to the States, settled in with his family, and immediately joined the CIA as a Collection Management Officer. But working at The Agency isn't all office work - Ryan spent time in Europe and North Africa, rubbing elbows with some of the most unique individuals...

Ryan Fugit is pretty good at seeing the bigger picture. Nowadays, he's a podcast host - hosting 'Combat Stories,' a weekly interview series dedicated to sharing war stories from some truly incredible veteran warriors - but before podcasting, he was a veteran himself, having served over seven years as an Army AH-64 Apache Helicopter pilot in Afghanistan in the post-9/11 era. After that, he spent ei...

Wait a minute, TOPGUN only trains students to become instructors? Turns out, there's quite a few details the Tom Cruise movies missed when it comes to the most elite flying academy in the world - but when it comes to real world dogfighting, it's not all about academics. It's truly a mental game, where you mean to outwit the opposite pilot before they can get the jump on you. Just take it from Jack...

Why's my dog so aggressive? How can I start to train them more effectively? And what's the secret to getting any dog to truly obey your commands? There may be a million ways to skin a cat, but dog training doesn't have to be that complicated. Just ask Mike Ritland. When he's not hosting his podcast, he's hard at work over at Teamdog, training elite protection dogs and providing nutrition, supplies...

Jack Stewart always wanted to fly. Following in his pilot father's footsteps, he pursued a career in aviation at the U.S. Naval Academy before serving 23 years as a fighter pilot, flying combat missions from three different aircraft carriers and deploying to Afghanistan as a member of an Air Force Tactical Air Control Party. He's also a graduate of the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School, better know...

The French Foreign Legion - a unique corps of the French Army that, unlike nearly any other army in the world, allows foregin nationals to enlist at will. It's a diverse fighting force, deploying all over the world into any conditions necessary. They're also the home of Taylor Cavanaugh, a former U.S. Navy Vet that enlisted just a few years ago. But Taylor's not just any veteran - he's a former U....

Mike Ritland and Shane Hiatt have been friends for a long time. Which is a surprisingly rare thing in the veteran community - the odds that two SEAL Team guys would run into each other again and again aren't quite as high as you might think. But Shane's a nomad - a wandering traveler, that's been living out of his truck with just his dog and the natural beauty of the American countryside for over...

It takes all sorts to make the world, but only a select few are chosen to lead. Just ask Shane Hiatt - he's a former Point Man for SEAL Team 3, where he met and served together with our very own Mike Ritland. Since then they've been good friends for over 25 years, with Shane swinging by to visit whenever he's in town. He's a modern nomad, living out of his truck for over 15 years (a self-described...

Retired Navy SEAL Drago Dzieran has a complicated past. Before serving twenty years at the Tip of the Spear, he was a political prisoner in his home country of Poland after they assumed Communist rule. After immigrating to America, he became a citizen, joined the military, and not long after started serving with Jocko Willink over at SEAL Team 2, before eventually transitioning to SEAL Team 4. He'...

Drago Dzieran was born in Poland while under Communist rule. After spending time in a Communist prison (also known as a Gulag) as a political prisoner for his activism against against censorship, he immigrated to the United States in 1984, becoming a full U.S. Citizen in 1991. That same year he joined the Navy, where he'd go on to be assigned to SEAL Team 2, SEAL Team 4, and Naval Special Warfare...

Nobody understands the border crisis quite like Vince 'Rocco' Vargas. Though most know him now as the actor behind Gilly Lopez on FX's 'Mayans M.C.', Vince is also a retired specialized law enforcement BORSTAR agent, where he operated for years on both sides of the border. He's also a veteran, having been deployed as an Army Ranger, and the author of 'Borderline: Defending the Homefront', where he...

'Going Hollywood'. It's a phrase that's all too familiar to Vince 'Rocco' Vargas - a veteran turned actor, Vinny's appeared in FX's Mayans M.C. along with a handful of features that have had a surprisingly large impact online. He's also a former Army Ranger, prison guard, drill sergeant, and BORSTAR agent, and nowadays he's an author, podcast host, father, and husband. From afar, it might seem lik...

Jason Hanson knows how to keep a secret. It's part of his job, actually - he's a former officer of the CIA, or 'The Agency' as insiders call it - along with an instructor in escape and evasion via his his tactical spy school, a frequent media guest on television programs around the world, and even a New York Times bestselling author with his book 'Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life.' And with a r...

Retired Recon Marine Rudy Reyes has got quite the resumé. He's a wildly popular Call of Duty character, he played himself on HBO's Generation Kill, he hosts Special Forces: The World's Toughest Test on FOX - and that's just the popular stuff. He even founded a veteran nonprofit, Force Blue, that's dedicated to changing the world through ocean conservation, all while helping veterans along the way....

Call of Duty. Generation Kill. Special Forces: The World's Toughest Test. For Rudy Reyes, it's all in a days work, but Hollywood's far from his only priority. It's change that matters most to Rudy - you can see it at Force Blue, his veteran nonprofit dedicated to ocean conservation, and in Special Forces on Fox, where he teaches stars to test their limits every week.  How does a recon marine go on...

Every year, CrossFit's toughest athletes enroll to compete in The CrossFit Games, a three-week global competition designed to find the Fittest Man and Fittest Woman on Earth. It's a grueling endeavor, filled with agonizing events and creative challenges that are guaranteed to weed out the weak and crown the victors in glory. Just take it from Dave Castro - he's a retired Navy SEAL that's been orga...

Chronic pain. Adrenal Fatigue. Veteran Care. When it comes to meeting the needs of the average American, western medicine has a lot to answer for. Doctors today are quick to prescribe an all-in-one solution, but does that really help? Rachel Scheer doesn't always think so. She's the Founder and CEO of Rachel Scheer Nutrition, host of the Scheer Madness podcast, and actually a returning guest on Mi...

As a senior non-commissioned officer of Delta Force, the most elite and secretive special operations unit in the U.S. military, Command Sergeant Major Tom Satterly fought some of this country's most fearsome enemies. Over the course of twenty years and thousands of missions, he's fought desperately for his life, rescued hostages, killed and captured terrorist leaders, and seen his friends maimed a...

MARSOC. Intelligence Hacking. Dagger Ops. For Staff Sergeant Michael Bloch, doing rad stuff is all in a days work. And after 12 years of service to our country as a Marine Corps. Raider, Bloch's been busy - he's served as a combat instructor, deployed as a contractor, and even founded his own company, EBS Defense Consulting, along with Project Vetworx, a veteran nonprofit. It's a lot for any one p...

After only 18 months at Savannah PD, Officer Jon Lindsey made the jump to SWAT - partly due to his Army experiencing serving on The 75th Ranger Regiment, but mostly due to his outstanding work ethic and a natural knack for the job. Paired with K-9 Jas, the two got into their own fair share of scrapes and close calls, but nothing too serious. That is, until a race to a scene went all too wrong in J...

Officer Jon Lindsey is what you'd call a 'dog guy'. He's also a husband, a father, and a veteran - he served as a Multi-Purpose Canine Handler while a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment. After the Army, he took up at the Savannah Police Academy in Georgia, where he trained police K9 prospects, until he officially joined the department in 2019. Since then, it's been a wild ride serving the good peo...

Jason Sweet's darkest days seem to be behind him now, but last we heard he still had a ways to go. In his most dangerous engagement yet, Jason digs into Mission #0427 Alpha and his closest call in pararescue before stumbling into playing Division 1 Football at the University of Arizona (yes, really) and getting his start in training the next generation with SOCOM Athlete, an elite training group f...