Transition Drill

Jim Clemente is a retired FBI profiler internationally recognized as an expert in Child Sexual Victimization, Sexual Homicide, and Child Abduction. He’s the basis of Jason Gideon’s character on the TV show Criminal Minds, played by Mandy Patinkin. Jim grew up in New York City and initially entered college, studying chemistry. He changed his major, went to law school, and eventually became a prosec...

Jason Goyanko came to the military later in life. Several friends had joined the Navy and were SEALs. Jason was invited to Lt. Michael Murphy’s MOH ceremony in 2007, then in 2008, at 31 and needing an age waver, he enlisted in the Navy on a SEAL contract. Jason ultimately rang the bell, but went on to serve 11 years, eventually working in the Special Operations Community in their drone program. Af...

Cristina Coria was born and raised in Santa Monica, California. She comes from a family in law enforcement. Both her uncle and father were Santa Monica Police Officers. Her father was murdered after he retired from the job. He was shot and killed after helping escort two drunk men out of a bar. This is what made Cristina want to become a police officer. She was determined to follow her father’s le...

Thom Tran enlisted in the Army after graduating high school and spent 6 years as a Communications Sergeant as well as a Civil Affairs Sergeant within the Special Operations Community. In 2003, Thom was wounded during a firefight when a sniper’s bullet found its way to the back of his skull. He bandaged himself up and finished his 12-month tour in Iraq. His wounds eventually brought an end to his m...

Jeff Takeda served in the Marine Corps as a member of Security Force Regiment. After ending his enlistment, he was hired as a police officer in California in 1998. His assignments have included patrol officer, field training officer, SWAT team member, major crimes detective, and task force officer with a federal counter terrorism task force. While assigned to JTTF, Jeff’s Commander encouraged him...

Matthew Tarutis served 4 years in the Navy. He enlisted with a special forces contract but suffered a collapsed lung during Hell Week and was dropped from the training. Matthew served the remainder of his enlistment onboard the John C. Stennis as an Aviation Boatswain's Mate - Fuels, which included two deployments to the Persian Gulf. Upon getting out of the military, Matthew, who has been writing...

Marc Hildebrand has been a police officer with LAPD for 19 years and is currently a Sergeant.  He is a husband, father, and international best-selling author of the book Mastering Your Life Through Self Coaching. Marc struggled through self-sabotage for decades, but after discovering what was truly holding him back, he was able to take his life back by navigating a 100-pound weight loss journey, c...

Philip McGinty served in the Marine Corps as a Force Reconnaissance Marine. He had deployments to Afghanistan and Southeast Asia. After discharging from active duty in 2017, Phil received his degree in Economics from UC Davis and took a job with a Consulting firm focusing on the Public Safety industry. However, his post-military path was full of ups and downs. He experienced many of the challenges...

Rick Massa was a police officer with LAPD for 35 years, 25 of those were as a member of SWAT, in addition to a short stint in their mounted unit. As a member of SWAT a noteworthy incident Rick responded to was the North Hollywood bank robbery shootout in 1997. Rick was one of the 3 SWAT members who rolled up and engaged one of the suspects in a car-to-car gun battle. Also, he regularly provided se...

Matt Pech served in the Army for 15 years, 12 of which were on a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA). His specialties were advanced demolitions, breaching, sniper, and technical intelligence specialist. He had 4 combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and 9 rotations in total. Because of the strain these rotations put on Matt, he chose to leave the military early to be home for hi...

Fred Heim is a Navy veteran, having served 5 years as an aircrew member aboard an SH60 helicopter conducting anti-submarine warfare (AW) and search and rescue (SAR). As a SAR rescue swimmer Fred was part of the special operations community. Fred deployed to the middle east during Operation Desert Storm. Fred discharged from the military in 1994 and today is the co-founder of VERT Fitness Product A...

Rob Blanton’s journey from high school underachiever to decorated Force Recon Marine is raw, real, and unforgettable. In this episode of the Transition Drill Podcast, Rob opens up about his 21-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps, surviving a suicide bomber attack, grappling with PTSD and TBI, and his near-suicide after retiring in 2014. Rob doesn’t hold back. He shares: How he joined the Marine C...

In this episode I'm giving you more detailed information about me and my law enforcement career, the factors that pushed me to start this podcast and what I hope to give each of you through this podcast. PODCAST - LISTEN, WATCH, AND SUBSCRIBE https://linktr.ee/TransitionDrillPodcast  

Derek Stephens served almost 26 years between the Air Force and law enforcement, before a medical retirement in 2019. While he was still an active police officer he started Rally Point Training & Consulting in 2012. Through his company he trains his OODA Loop based officer survival seminars in addition to emergency casualty care. Derek’s teaching philosophy is officer survival through preparation,...

Benjie Manibog served 15 years in the Marine Corps as a Raider and a member of MARSOC. He had deployments to the Middle East, Africa, and SouthEast Asia. Benjie’s road to the military was not an easy one. Growing up, Benjie came from a broken home and was addicted to alcohol and methamphetamine at an early age. Benjie chose to end his military career early because his wife was diagnosed with stage...

James Espinoz served 6 years in the Army and has been a police officer for the last 18 years. In 2018 James lost his brother, a retired Army Lt. Colonel, who took his own life after a several year struggle with transitioning to the civilian world. Through the loss of his older brother, who James calls his hero, James was inspired to the start The Veteran Mentor Project Inc., a nonprofit organizati...

Rob Garnett served 23 years as a Navy SEAL. He deployed 10 times; 6 were to Iraq and Afghanistan. While active duty he developed TBI from a ship boarding fall and blast concussions. He went through treatment at NICoE and was able to retire non-medically in 2015. Following his retirement, Rob did consulting work for some government contracting firms, but realized that was not what he wanted for him...

Jose Gasca served in the Marine Corps with 2 nd FAST Co and deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today he’s a police officer with LAPD. Jose has also trained and competed in Jiu Jitsu since 2008. Through his own loss of brother Marines, he started the nonprofit Fighting Hole Jiu Jitsu and gives back to the veteran and first responder communities by offering free jiu jitsu classes. Jose...

Eddie Hernandez served 12 years in the Army, first with the 1 st Cavalry Division and then 10 th Special Forces Group. Struggling with inuries and PTS, he was medically retired in 2014. After leaving the military he went to culinary school, graduating in 2016 from Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School. In 2020 he started his own BBQ catering company – Stars & Stripes BBQ. He is also involved with three n...

Fred Reynolds spent 6 years in the Marine Corps. After the Marines he spent 32 years in law enforcement. Starting with the Compton Police Department in the 1980s and transitioning to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department when the City of Compton relinquished their police department in 2000. Fred worked gangs and homicide investigations and retired as a sergeant. Always interested in writing,...

Tom Byrnes served 13 years in the Army. Today he is the owner and CEO of ThreatStop. His business model is the use of network threat intelligence at maximum effectiveness, providing cybersecurity solutions to small companies on the same scale of Fortune 1000 companies. Early investors in his company were also initial investors of Google. Tom holds three (3) patents in network security. ThreatStop’...

Nick Wilson spent 13 years in law enforcement before medically retiring due to work related injuries. Additionally, due to the exposure to trauma Nick had to address his own Post Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI) and mental health, initially trying to deal with it through self-medication. This eventually led to his own DUI and a stay in rehab. From this experience Nick founded the Resiliency Project...

A transition from the military to fitness challeges and media content creation. Austen Alexander served 7 years in the Navy as a Master-at-Arms (MA) with Naval Security Forces, the police force of the Navy. He began creating videos chronicling life aboard a ship and his life as a sailor. The numbers of videos grew as did his popularity on YouTube, to the point that he began encountering opposition...

Leon Tackitt served 27 years in the Navy. During his first 5 years, he was an anti-submarine warfare specialist, search and rescue crewman, radar and sonar operator in H2 Helicopters. He transitioned to Explosive Ordinance Disposal and completed his career, retiring as a Lieutenant in 2007. As a retirement career change, he and his wife, Cindy, started Tackitt Family Vineyards in Paso Robles, CA....

Clint Wansa was a cop for 12.5 years with San Diego PD. While he was a police officer, he and a friend designed a computer app to aid police officers. A job offer from the company that purchased the app prompted a career change to the corporate world in computer program development. FOLLOW, SUBSCRIBE, LISTEN, AND WATCH THE PODCAST: https://linktr.ee/TransitionDrillPodcast CONNECT WITH CLINT: Linke...