Mission Oriented

Robert Garland grew up listening to his dad tell stories and knew he wanted to follow in his footsteps serving as a police officer and then detective. Robert spent 14 years in the NYPD retiring as a decorated detective. He started Fund the First in 2020 when he wanted to help a close friend with medical expenses from his daughter's rare illness. This experience showed him there were problems with...

Mike Cantwell is a United States Naval Academy graduate. After serving in the Navy, he has continued his career of service as a federal government employee at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. It was the presidential elections of 2016 that led Mike to dive into politics and ultimately begin his journey as a political reformist. He has even thrown his hat in the ring of candidates and ra...

Owen Waits has a long family history of military service. It was a natural choice to attend West Point. Upon graduating he was commissioned and served for more than eight years in the Army before joining J.P. Morgan. He is currently an Associate Banker in the Atlanta, Georgia office of J.P. Morgan Private Bank, where he serves high net worth individuals across their entire balance sheets and provi...

Joshua Hood grew up loving books. Some of his earliest memories were listening to his dad read, "The Hobbit". He remembers the pictures he would paint in his head as the words were read. Joshua graduated college with an English degree, but didn't immediately put that degree to use. He decided to serve in the 82nd Airborne Division. It was during a deployment that the ideas for a book were beginnin...

Carl and Lori met while Carl was serving in the U.S. Army. He enlisted at the age of 17 and retired in 2006 as a Lieutenant Colonel after serving 21 years. Not long after retirement, Lori was running a successful corporate massage therapy business and Carl was a partner in the tech world. They both already had an entrepreneurial spirit and they wanted to do something different. Carl was driven to...

  Ryan grew up watching his dad fly fighter jets. At the time he didn't know that he'd end up following in his footsteps, but the events of 9-11 solidified his desire to serve. Ryan flew the F-15E, but also spent a tour flying the Thunderbirds. He traveled the world to showcase the Air Force's "pride, precision and professionalism" through air shows and flyovers. Even during his active duty career...

Eric graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1997. He served eight years as a Naval Flight Officer. After service he built a successful real estate business. But, in early 2019 Eric served as board president for "Show Me Integrity", a political reform organization. This became the springboard to combine his interest in politics and military service to found the nonprofit, Veterans for Po...

Billy's earliest memory as a kid was tagging along with his dad while golfing. He really doesn't ever remember not loving the game. His dad taught him how to play and it became a passion growing up. He remembers getting his first par at the age of 11.   He doesn't remember what triggered the decision, but he decided to he wanted to attend the United States Naval Academy. In 2004 he graduated and c...

Nicole began her work in broadcasting and film almost 20 years ago, volunteering with the local National Public Radio. She has a passion for it and received her Master's Degree in Journalism and Public Relations in 2013. It was her experience as a military spouse that brought her the desire to highlight the struggles that the service members go through. Finishing up in 2018, she filmed, directed a...

Sean Lanier is a veteran Army helicopter pilot. About 8 years ago he realized there was a problem. ROTC scholarships were seeing just over half of their recipients graduate and commission.   How can the armed services find the right candidates, get them matched with a college that fits them and have their success rate improve?  Sean found building relationships with high school guidance and career...

Todd Connor, is a Navy Veteran, small business owner and cofounder of Veterans for Political Innovation. Todd has a passion for entrepreneurs, especially veterans. He founded Bunker Labs in 2014. Bunker Labs helps veteran entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Todd owns his own business, the Emerson House and recently set his sights on political office. Veterans for Political Innovation To...

Sports have been a major part of Will Huff's life. Growing up playing football and lacrosse, he was recruited to play for West Point Military Academy.   After graduation Will served for over 23 years as an Army Officer. He learned life long lessons from serving in the military but also from his coaches. After his Army career, Will returned to athletics working in the Towson University Athletic Dep...

Mike Morgan launched Flags of the Fallen on Veterans Day this past year. After the tragic losses of 13 military members in the Afghan withdrawal of August 2021, Mike had an idea. Mike made a connection with 13 service members lost and the 13 stripes on the American flag that these brave men and women were defending. He thought, "How can I show my gratitude?" Not being a veteran himself, Mike consu...

Drew Everett and Nick Wyatt have known each other since grade school. As they got older they knew they wanted to go into business as a team. Nick headed to the Marine Corps and Drew went to the Army. After both serving in their respective branches it was time to take the next step toward entrepreneurship. Nick's dad was about to retire and had a shoe insole business. It seemed like a natural hando...

Jay Jackson spent 15 year serving in the Air Force. He started out in security forces and ended up in air traffic control. His transition out was not what he planned, but took the challenge head on harnessing his entrepreneurial spirit. He first started, Serve, Impact and Prosper, a consulting agency and later was introduced to buying businesses. This led to the launch of Galaxy Group. He would te...

Marjorie K. Eastman, Army Veteran, Running for U.S. Senate in North Carolina Marjorie, compelled by the events of 9-11 enlisted in the Army Reserves. After just two years she received a direct commission and continued her service as an intelligence officer and commander. She had two combat tours. Her 10 years of military service laid the ground work for her desire to serve this country. It was rec...

T.C. Beckett, a retired Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, met a homeless veteran. It was this encounter that wouldn't let T.C. rest knowing there were others like this gentleman out there. Estimates of anywhere from 40-80 thousand veterans are homeless not knowing where their next meal is coming from. T.C. had to do something. He didn't just want to feed homeless veterans, he wanted to empower them...

Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson are a coauthor team of multiple action-adventure thriller series.   They met up the year they both debuted as authors and found the common ground of being veterans in an organization called International Thriller Writers. Both Navy veterans, but coming from very different career paths. Brian was a submarine officer with a psychology degree. Jeffrey on the other han...

When Aaron decided to enlist in the Navy he knew he wanted to become a chef. After just a few years he had found success and enjoyed a four year stint in Italy, cooking for many senior leaders. It was during this time he wanted to do more to fight the war that was waging in the Middle East. He soon realized the EOD techs had the coolest gear and were often the first to the fight. He transferred to...

Zach and Tricia were high school sweethearts. Little did they know when they started dating where life would take them.   Zach joined the Air Force and that dictated their lives for 20 years before retiring, just this past year. The military not only let them experience the world, but taught them perseverance. About 5 years before retirement they decided they wanted to start a business. Already ha...

Raised by two Navy veterans, Cutler was destined for the Navy. Their influence led him to the Naval Academy. He thought that he'd go to make his parents happy but could get out if he didn't like it.   Thirty eight years later and he finally retired as a Vice Admiral. Immediately after retirement he worked as the president for Navy Federal Credit Union. Fourteen years he spent transforming Navy Fed...

Dana Spain describes herself as a serial entrepreneur. She gets bored easily and every five years or so is looking for a new endeavor, but the past 10 years she's loved what she's been doing.   Volumetric Building Companies was started over 10 years ago, focused on the construction of residential modular construction. Dana and her family originally started with retail chains before progressing int...

Phil Capron, served as a Naval Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewman. Upon getting out of the military, Phil found his passion for real estate. It was during this venture he noticed that he couldn't include his veteran and military brothers and sisters due to regulations surrounding net worth or income. He decided he was going to level the playing field and fix that. Mission First Capital was bo...

Julie Waters - Voice Actor & JAG Officer in the Army Reserves Julie Waters started her time serving as a military police officer in the Army.   An opportunity to go to law school came and she couldn't pass it up. She continues serving in the Army Reserves now as a JAG officer. Julie will tell you that her time in the Army taught her the attributes needed to be a small business owner. She took her...

Mark Delaney- Founder of The Veteran Professional, Helping You Crush it After the Military Mark joined the Army in 2011. He spent 8 years serving and then decided to get out. It was this transition into the civilian world that laid the groundwork for founding The Veteran Professional . There were an overabundance of resources, all resources focused on just getting a job, and little information abo...