How to declutter your life, improve mental wellness – EP289 Tango Alpha Lima

Army veteran Dan Kunze, who joined the National Guard after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, talks about his new role as co-host of the Warrior Money podcast on Yahoo Finance, mental health, time management and other topics. 

Kunze, who appeared in an earlier episode about his role as vice chairman of Task Force Movement, also discussed impostor syndrome for military veterans, national security, technology, and civic leadership.

Other topics in this Tango Alpha Lima episode include Halloween tricks and treats, the VA's new MOS (Military Skills) Translator tool and National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day.

Links

Halloween Safety Tips

2025 Army/Navy game

Task Force Movement

Council of College and Military Educators

Join the USA 250 challenge!

Bridge My Return

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome, Alphas. Thanks for joining us.
We have a return guest joining us today, Dan Koons.
After you finish today's episode, you can revisit episode
164. Dan is a leading voice in
developing enterprise strategy and policy, enterprise
technology, talent management and policy efforts to support
our future workforce and war fighting demands.

(00:20):
He currently works in support ofthe Department of Defense
involving enterprise software and digital transformation
driving enterprise modernization.
He also currently serves as an officer in the United States
Army Reserve, is married to his high school sweetheart Karen,
and has three kids under 5, so he.
Has got. His hands full.

(00:42):
And Speaking of hands full, we'll soon be trick or treating
and grabbing handfuls of our favorite sweet treats.
And Adam's already started early.
Well, he's got candy, candy pumpkins.
And I did just devour a bag recently.
Trick or treat, You know, we never really did trick or
treating. The whole trunk or treating
thing kind of emerged when we had kids, you know, because of

(01:03):
the whole safety thing of eatingpoisonous candy, you know, from
the uncertain. Like razor blades?
Razor blades, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So we kind of flushed all that out.
But like now we live in the country so you know, even if we
went trick or treating you couldget like 3 pieces of candy.
I think the thing now is like you drive to a neighborhood and
and you go and do it. Yeah.
I was going to ask. Like, I mean, I think most of

(01:25):
the rural kids get dropped into a suburb somewhere for about,
you know, an hour. Yeah, just drop them off.
What? What?
Dress them up at night time bunch.
Of and then you follow them around on your phone on Life
360. That's pretty much.
Joe Creeper. Joe, you were so.
I don't really do that, but my kids follow me.
I go to get pizza and stuff. They're like, we knew you'd be
home. I'm like how these kids will

(01:46):
stalk you. It's weird.
I mean, if you if you have kids,it's kind of seems to me like
trick or treating is probably the most dangerous thing that
they could possibly do. It's at night and there are
gaggles of people around, so just imagine how easy it is to
snatch one of those little minions off the road.
Dave like back in the 60s or 70s, but now, so I don't know

(02:07):
the kids are. Might literally be a minion
these days. People are still dressing up as
menus. I'm so glad, Joe, you were
paying attention and you got my reference.
But no, you know, it went right over Adam's head.
Did you trick or treat growing up?
Did I Yeah, of course I did. But I I had the costumes.
It was like the plastic sheet. It smelled like plastic and A

(02:28):
and a mask, you know, with the elastic that goes around the
back of the head plastic and. These costumes.
Yeah, it's, I mean, I'm sure I have some sort of plastic
poisoning from those, but thankfully my mom was also very
creative and made a lot of our costumes as well, so.
Yeah, we, I, I felt bad because I, I looked like an adult when I
was 12. So I pretty much stopped.

(02:49):
But I would go around with my friends and and mooch candy off
of Skittles. Don't want your Skittles?
You know, The thing is disturbing to me and I and I get
that parents want to celebrate their babies, especially if
they're like one and two. But don't come to my door
holding your baby who's not evenoff of soft foods yet and say
trick or treat like get them dressed up, take some really

(03:12):
cool Halloween photos, but don'tpretend that that that candy is
for your baby. It's for you.
Just saying. I don't know.
It's aggravates me. Feeding that candy to your kid
right out of the room. I don't want.
To leave without feeding the baby the candy, I'm like, no,
you put that candy in that baby's mouth right now or you're
not going anywhere. They're teething.

(03:32):
Here. Try this Jolly rancher.
Make sure they don't choke. Here's the full size Snickers.
Hey, hey guys, don't forget thatthe American Legion has a number
of references to like safe trickor treating points of view.
So go to americanlegion.org and you can look up safely trick or
treating with the kids or or check out if there's a, as you

(03:55):
said, a trunk or treating thing with your with your local Legion
Post. Or just cut up some fruit and
hand out fresh fruit. Be 1.
Be one of those weirdos. My mom used to do corn popcorn
balls. That shit wouldn't fly today.
Yeah. Here's a potato you'd get thrown
through your window, love. It like, oh, a popcorn ball and
they just like slam into it. This is the 80s though, you

(04:17):
know. Or there was always that one
house, like go to that one house, you're given the full
size this year. What?
You no way a full of king size. There's always those Ring
cameras, though, of people, likeemptying the things out.
And then there's always that onekid that, like, fills it back up
with his own candy. Like there's always there's, you
see, like the best and worst of humanity.

(04:38):
And in between the. Treating it's always see.
That walks up and sees there's nothing and walks away.
Yeah. All right, Alphas, enough of the
trick. Trick or cheat and please stick
around and we'll be back with Dan Coons right after the break.
What's up Legionnaires and sports fans, this is Adam Mar,
American Legion member and Army veteran.

(04:59):
I am beyond excited that the American Legion is continuing
their tradition of support for the Army Navy Game presented by
USAA, the first veteran service organization to sponsor
America's Game in its 126 year history.
That's right, the greatest rivalry in sports just got even

(05:20):
more meaningful for veterans like us.
We're honored to stand behind the incredible student athletes
who are not only competing on the field, but are also
committed to protecting the freedoms we hold dear.
And through this sponsorship, we're shining a spotlight on our
primary mission, Be the one, ourfight to end veteran suicide.

(05:40):
So mark your calendars. Tune into CBS on December 13th
at 3:00 PM Eastern to watch Armytake on Navy in this epic,
timeless showdown. To learn more about the American
Legions involvement in our mission, visit
legion.org/armynavy game. Let's cheer on our teams,
support our mission, and show the world what it means to be a

(06:04):
Legionnaire. Go Army.
Beat Navy Hua. All right, Alphas, today we are
joined by Dan Koontz, who is a leading voice in developing
enterprise strategy and policy, enterprise technology, talent
management, of which he sees none here.
Absolutely policy efforts to support talent and policy

(06:30):
efforts that support our future workforce and war fighting
demands. He currently works in support of
the Department of Defense involving enterprise software
and digital transformation driving enterprise
modernization. Dan, welcome to Tang AL.
I'm glad to be here. Thanks.
Thanks man. Dan, it's a real pleasure to
have you here. You got quite a robust
background, but 911 and then youraise your right hand and enlist

(06:54):
kind of a unique path, kind of take us back.
How did it kind of start and take us kind of on a a little
bit of the the journey of the early days, the hardest?
Part about my bio is actually reading it and thinking it's
like serious like what? Like what is enterprise blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah. I don't even know what that
means. So most of the.

(07:15):
Most of the time on your business card.
Let me let me ask that because if you put all that, you've got
2. Business cards, but to like,
thank you for the the start of that.
But 911 happens. I was in high school, I was 15
years old. I was in a history class, Mr.
Wilson's 10th grade history class.
And I just like that was like mydefine one of my defining early

(07:38):
memories is like, as I'm sure most of you all had like
remember because we're all rightaround the same time period.
And I, because I was 15, I just,I couldn't just join the
military. So then I went to college and
then I went to law school. When I was in law school, we
were still fighting wars in Iraqand Afghanistan and I hated law

(07:59):
school. I was like, this is not the path
for me. I was two years into it.
And so December 28th, 2020, ten,I decided to go enlist in the
Pennsylvania National Guard. I also didn't know what the
Pennsylvania National Guard was nor what the Army reserves were.
So I kind of didn't even know. Like I didn't realize what they

(08:19):
had become or what they were. I thought, and I didn't even
realize, like totally realize everything.
They, to be very brutally honestwith you, they I joined because
they had the student loan repayment program.
And so it helped me pay back my law school.
I didn't realize that it was going to become the best
decision I ever made for a wholelot of other reasons, but I
joined for a very practical reason.

(08:39):
I hated law school. I need to figure a way out.
And they paid back to school by school.
That seems reasonable to me, Dan.
When you're 24 and drowning in student loan debt skills,
Really. Yeah, I mean, I told both my
husband's kids I'm like, hey, you got student debt, Just do
some. Do four or six years.
You'll be good. Plus, you'll be doing, you know,
a thing. No, I tell my I, I tell my kids

(09:00):
I'm not really like I'm not super eager to pay, save for
your college because like, firstof all, if you're smart, you can
figure out how to pay for yourself, which is what I did.
And two, RC sees a beautiful opportunity for you to get out
of bed in the morning, go work out.
I know you're not going to do a lot of work at school like
you're going to party or you're like, it is what it is so.
I would like to clarify that Stacy has one husband not 2

(09:21):
because it sounded like she saidboth my husbands kids.
I might have. I actually might have very well
said that, but now you just out of me as what?
What do they call it? Polygamist.
So there we go girl. My secret's out.
Damn. Now we know.
Yeah. Typical horse girl.
That's why I joined them. That's why I joined the Army.
I can go a lot deeper, but I'm going to keep this out of

(09:43):
casual. Like, that's why I did a
conversation, but practically, that's why I joined, and that's
why I joined the National Guard.What, what, what were those
early experiences that kind of shaped you like once you got in
and I, and I was kind of similarto you, right?
Because September 11th was my senior year of high school and
I, I ended up getting an ROTC scholarship because it was like

(10:04):
the nation was moving in that direction.
But my mom was also like, you have to get a college degree.
You know, it's like that was the.
Measure your mom. And my mom must have been
comparing notes because one of the reasons why I kept going to
college and law school was because, like, my mom's like,
yeah, if you don't do it now, you're never going to do it.
So like, I just kept on going. I actually ended up graduating
from law school. But yeah, I I hear you.

(10:28):
So as you're in kind of finishing your school and then
what was your kind of military career like the the rest of your
time in? I was so privileged.
I was so unbelievably privileged.
Like it was just an awesome, an awesome experience because I, so
when I graduated from, when I finished basic, so I went to

(10:50):
actual basic training at Fort Sill.
I didn't know that there was officer versions of it where you
didn't have to necessarily do the everything the same as
everybody else did. So I, I went to Fort Sill, OK
basic training with a bunch of 17/18/1920 year olds.
I was a little bit older and I hated them all very much.
So it's like, I can't believe you people are making me do push
ups again. And it was really hot in

(11:12):
Oklahoma in July. But I, I think for the first
time, I started understanding and trusting a little bit of the
bureaucratic process. Like why did, why do we do the
things that we do? Like this seems ridiculous to
me. Why am I doing push ups because
somebody else got in trouble or somebody else was being a
knucklehead or whatever. And then I also started to get

(11:34):
to know the kids that I was, thepeople I was a basic training
with. And I wrote, I wrote an article
about this a little while ago. Like I went to, I went to basic
training with Ellington from South Carolina and Perks from
Illinois, Vasquez from Louisiana.
And they came from all these different backgrounds and all
these different places. Wait, was there was Oh, this

(11:54):
feels like Forrest Gump where he's labeling off all of his
Knights and like texts from. You want me to like roster the
L52? Oh my God, through it right now
with you, there's 52. She doesn't believe you.
Prove it 50. 2 Rodriguez's No, we it was it was it was just a
great experience. I came home and then I came home

(12:16):
and I started going to officer school in Pennsylvania Guard.
At the same time I had a corporate job doing enterprise
software and enterprise technology work.
So I did 218 months of Pennsylvania Officer Candidate
School that then got federal recognition.
I don't know. I didn't know that these were
all opportunities to serve or get a Commission.
And then I went from there to Fort Benning for Armor School

(12:40):
when they moved. Thus I was the second class
after the 3rd class after they moved it from Knox down to
Benning. So each of those, each of those
places has been awesome for me. I, I do have a bit of imposter
syndrome because I was never deployed like I was like I do, I
suffer from that issue. Like it's a thing that I like,
feel like I didn't do enough, but I can't at at this point,

(13:03):
the older version of me can't, Ican't do anything about the fact
that they changed my orders or they stopped doing things.
I can't, I can't do anything about it.
But I I did volunteer to serve, so there you go.
Well, I appreciate your service and I get what you're saying.
I think a lot of veterans tend to do that to themselves, as you
know, Oh, my service is is lesson and that's not true at
all. So every bit counts whether you

(13:26):
deploy it or not. I appreciate.
It I did 12 I did 12 years between all three kind of all
three components in the Army andI got to do some really cool
stuff like I feel really grateful for what I got to do
like we there was a Pope missionin Pennsylvania.
So when the. Did you say Pope as in POP?
POP Pope, the Pope, the Pope wasin, the Pope was in

(13:47):
Philadelphia. So we provided Pope protection
like this, cool stuff like that.Like we, I, I got to go hang out
and watch the Pope mobile for a couple hours like it was, it was
pretty cool. That's pretty tight.
Yeah. And that that was when you were
an, an officer as an, an armor officer.
Yeah, yeah. That's when I was an armor
officer. And then I did stuff at Fort
Drum and I did stuff at Fort Campbell, at Fort Dick's for

(14:09):
Downtown Gap. We went down to North Carolina.
So I, I got to do a bunch of work and at the same time my
civilian career, because I got to do both, overlapped in DoD.
So I got to do all this DoD Enterprise work and all this
Army soldier work, and I kind ofmarry them up, which is really
cool. What, what was the enterprise
work? Can you dive into that for a
minute? Yeah.
So there's funny, funny comment.Once you see how the enterprise

(14:33):
works, it's really hard to go back to the operations.
OK. So most of the time when you
serve, you only kind of operate somebody else's machine,
somebody else's machinery. You don't actually get to see
how the machinery or the sausageis made.
When you start to see how the machinery works, right, how you
start to see the palm cycle and you start to see the way we

(14:54):
budget, the way we budget over time, the way we think about
manpower and like and readiness and all the other components to
it. That's when I started getting
really involved. Like if I'm going to fix the
problems that I saw when I was operating the Army, let's go get
to the enterprise, actually fix how the enterprise operates.
And so I transitioned as my career evolved in more senior

(15:15):
roles to like, I want to do the enterprise level work.
And the biggest enterprise in the DoD is the Army and the
largest 2 enterprises in the world are the Army and DLA from
a logistics perspective. So if you can create some level
of efficiency or some level of like this stuff actually works
there, which it very rarely does.

(15:35):
Like that's how you actually impact the enterprise.
And so I, it was funny. It was funny.
I would hear on a weekend or outhere during one of my 80s or I'd
hear some of my other friends bitching about like, hey, we
can't get this level of equipment or we can't get this,
whatever. I'm like, I know the depot DLA
that you can't get that from. So like next week I'm going to

(15:56):
go on my civilian side and like go fix that.
So it's kind of cool. To be able to do both, that's
interesting. Yeah, Stacey, like that, my
favorite thing to say is like it's really hard to know the
problems in the motor pool if you're not in the motor pool.
It's really hard. Like you can't like it's really
hard. And I really don't like leaders

(16:16):
that just like fly drones from 20,000 feet above a motor pool.
Like you got to get into the motor pool to actually know
what's happening there. And so like the the ability to
have served in uniform and to work at the Enterprise, I feel
really comfortable in a motor pool and I feel really
comfortable at a budget meeting because I've done kind of both
of them at this point. So I think that's the cool part
of it. And we need people like that I.

(16:38):
Don't think so. It's about saying with with
anything anyone does is you can't talk about something
unless you're down in in the weeks.
The problem with the the problemwith the MBA is like the problem
with the formal education is they think they can get all that
information out of spreadsheets,right.
I think they think they can likeanalytics that like information.
I think sometimes we forget thatit's a human, we're solving

(17:01):
human problems. Humans are solving human
problems. And I'm just kind of ranting
about my personal opinion about this at this point.
But like, we lived that way for a while.
But I think I think Elon Musk and some of these other people
are really starting to change the way we think about
leadership. Like that man is technically
superior to almost everybody. That or he hires people that are

(17:23):
technically superior and he knows how each of his systems
work and he gets down real low into the details of that, right?
And then he's able to extract back up again.
But if you don't know how your thing works, I don't know how
you fix it. Like I if you're running a
business or running a military, I don't know how you fix it if
you don't know how it works in the first place.
That's interesting. So are are you still working
with the enterprise level? Your you said your military

(17:46):
career is pretty much wrapped up, but you're still with the
enterprise part? I've been trying to figure out a
way to finish my last eight years, like I've been trying to
figure out a way to do that. And then every time that
somebody in the military asked me for my last three Oers and
some other nonsense that I have to send over just to finish out
how to get my 20 years on, I'm like, This is why I left in the
first place because like this isjust a waste of my time.

(18:09):
But I always will stay in my civilian side, somehow aligned a
public private partnership. And like, because not only that,
but like I believe in the national security, the national
security mission. And I think like the way my
brain works in big systems like I, the biggest system in the
world is how we secure, how do we secure and protect our

(18:31):
country? Like that's the, it's the
biggest system in the world. And so I I really like working
on that scale too. Well, when did you find time to
do a podcast? Can you talk to me a little bit
about what led you down that path?
And yeah. So we're we're your money on
Yahoo Finance. It's my, it's the podcast that
Patrick Murphy and I have. Patrick is a it's a forever name

(18:53):
in the veterans space. I'm sure he's, I know he's been
on here a few times. He's been at the Legion
conference for as long as I've known him.
So like I know, and actually I was on a test this organization
called Task Force movement, which is when I spoke to Ashley
last, when I was on this podcasta couple years ago.
And I think it was like last year sometime he got a call from

(19:16):
somebody being like, hey, Yahoo Finance wants to start these
series, content creator series. They wanted to focus it on
veterans. And so Patrick called, called
me, and we started this thing and there was no real topic.
There was no real subject. It was just like, hey, we're
going to start to talk about this on Yahoo Finance.
We start talking about personal finance, then we start talking

(19:39):
about mental health, then we start talking about community,
and we start talking about all the things that comprise what
financial health looks like. And so that's what, yeah, that's
what this warrior money has become.
That's pretty cool. And how long you Oh, you asked.
Me how? I don't find time to do it.
It's every. It's every Tuesday for one hour
in New York City. So I keep every other Tuesday

(20:01):
for one hour and I leave for my house at 10:30 in the morning
and I'm home by 6:00 and I do one hour of taping every other
Tuesday. That's interesting.
So you got a lot of frequent Flyers is what you said, Flyer?
Miles. Lot of Amtrak Miles.
Lot of Amtrak miles. Got it.
But you can get work done on theAmtrak.
You can get a lot done on the Amtrak.
Amount of music, amount of musicand ChatGPT and I've been doing

(20:24):
on the Amtrak is pretty unbelievable.
Are you having fun with it? Are you enjoying it?
What's this? Are you having fun with it?
Are you enjoying it? Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Where do you
find time to write? On the Amtrak.
Do you want to know? Honestly, because I'm writing a
podcast, I'm writing my sub stack on Thursday.
I do what every Thursday releases at 10 AM.

(20:46):
I've got multiple years worth ofideas that are kind of lined up
for the next three years at least.
I publish every Thursday at 10 AM.
That Thursday or Friday, I writea bunch of ideas down on a
notepad. Nice.
And then I notepad that and I put it in a ChatGPT.

(21:08):
And because I've given ChatGPT every speech I've ever made,
every paper I've ever written, everything, everything I've ever
done, I've already fed into ChatGPT.
And so I can, I can get a piece in my own language with my own
voice done pretty quickly. And so that's what gives me the
time and space to do it. But I also Joe, like, I think

(21:29):
very much so that in the world that we live in where it's all
about like likes and clicks and all that distraction nonsense,
like if you can figure out a wayto ground yourself to actually
do some writing, whether you useAI or not, you can figure out
some time to do it and you prioritize, prioritize it.
What I found for myself is I'm just much more calm.

(21:50):
I'm much calmer because of yes, it's really, really good for me.
So. I, I write military sci-fi
fiction, fantasy, so, you know, just doing that sort of stuff.
It's good for me to force myselfinto an organization mindset.
You know, it seems like what youwrite, you know, it, it's, it's
emphasizing patience and, and itseems like a lot of what you're

(22:12):
doing is thinking long term. And that's something that I
think is hard for a lot of people to to deal with and to
focus on. And in this instant
gratification culture that we'rewe're in right now, where even
getting my kids to listen to something that I know they find
interesting for more than than aminute is very difficult.
What do you say to leaders or citizens are, are really people

(22:35):
to start building a mindset of thinking long term?
You know, we've got all this noise going on, I guess, for
lack of a better term, and it's so many distractions.
And I, I legitimately, I think this is the first generation
where we can look back and go. These kids got it worse than us.
And in a lot of ways. Now, I'm not talking about
safety and, and you know, of course they've got food on the

(22:56):
table and everyone's I'm talkingabout just as far as developing
and becoming a coherent, workable adult.
It's, it's, they've gotten more against them than I think.
Then, then, then we've ever had,you know, we read the books that
we had and they've got access toliterally anything.
I've seen them enjoy a game and cut it off to find something

(23:16):
better. It's just, it blows my mind.
How, how do we, how do we fight this?
How do we start thinking long term again?
How do you do it? That's a great question.
It's probably my favorite question I've actually ever been
asked because nobody really has ever asked me that question
before directly. I talk about it a lot I've
created. So I'm going to give you, I'm

(23:37):
going to give you a respectfullylong answer because I think it's
worth a long answer. And so you can cut this or
whatever you need to do. But I couldn't figure out why I
was getting panic attacks. Like why was I getting, why was
I getting like I'm like I'm likedude, like why am I getting
anxiety and panic attacks? I got like 3 or 4 of them over

(23:58):
the last, oh, a decade. Like it was like started in my
20s and then it kind of led intomy 30s.
And I was a history major. So my, my brain has always been
oriented to like, if you want tounderstand why something's
happening, you got to look back at the history of you got to
look back at the history. Like, if I can tell you, I can,
I can do recalls, analysis on pretty much anything and come to

(24:20):
like, there's a reason why this is happening.
It's probably logical. Like it may not seem logical,
but there's a logic behind it, right?
And so why am I, why am I getting panic attacks?
What's the root cause of that? And it's the lack of control and
it's too much noise, chaos. That was what, that was the
reason why I was getting my, my panic attacks right.
And that that stemmed from fear.And so like I'm like, and then I

(24:40):
looked at the events like, what did I get panic attacks about?
Well, I got a panic attack literally the day that Russia
invaded or Ukraine. That freaked me out.
I got one when my wife was pregnant with our third.
And there was a, we, we witnessed A robbery at a
Starbucks and there was a gun involved.
And I was freaking out because Iwas like, I watched my pregnant

(25:00):
wife, like, right. Like I was like, Oh my God, this
is scaring me. And I had another two or three
that were just completely kind of random.
So what I decided to do at that point in time was turn off the
television because I think the, I think TV is, I think TV is
literally the worst. I I I think people that go on TV

(25:21):
are not respectful to their audience because they're just
spinning a story. I think that the the charade
that we saw yesterday in Quantico, Virginia, between the
president and the Secretary of Defense, like that was all that
was was made for TV. That's just what that was.
You could have done that as a memo.
Like you didn't have to do that.What's that?

(25:43):
It's performative. Performative.
And I don't do I agree with the substance of it?
Probably, yeah, some of it. But like, it was performance
theater. And So what I've started to do
instead to Joe, to your, your, your core question for me to
reduce the noise, my own internal noise, I had to start
turning things off. As I started deleting more

(26:03):
things, I started deleting the television.
I started deleting the things that were on my phone.
I started deleting people out ofmy life that were creating too
much noise and chaos. I started deleting, I started
deleting a lot of things, just pressing delete right and
control alt delete task manager,get rid of it like, and I
started doing that pretty, pretty ruthlessly about a year

(26:27):
and a half ago. And now literally if it's not on
my top 3 or 4 priorities to do everyday, I don't do it.
And if it's not written as part of my long term plan, I don't do
it either. And if it doesn't help Dan
Kuhn's Enterprise, I really don't do it either.
And Dankins Enterprise has five different areas.
And one of those areas is doing well and giving back to people.

(26:49):
Like charity is part of that. But like, if it doesn't fit
within my lanes, I'm going to ask myself really clearly, why
am I doing that? Because like, I have a strategy.
I got a plan. I need to adjust for things that
come up last minute. So I can't load my day with 15
things because if I do, I have no bandwidth.
And my wife calls me, she's like, hey, our kids home from

(27:10):
school sick. I can't.
That just creates anxiety for multiple days, right?
So I, I just pressed delete on everything, Joe, to be honest
with you. But I think it started with me
figuring out I had too much noise in my life.
I had to slow things down. OK, I I love your answer.
It's very similar to what I did,but I didn't I wasn't as

(27:31):
structured as you. I'm very much a a throw things
at the wall, but I immediately pick up when something sticks.
That's just the kind of person Iam.
And so for me, what I did was a lot like what you did, but it
was a simplification. I started looking at the things
that take from me and looking atthe things that I give.
And I was like, if these things don't balance out, they're
hurting me. And, and similar to what you

(27:55):
did, I started sort of backing off of things that didn't give
me joy or didn't fulfill me or didn't move me forward with
towards my goals. And so, yeah, I, I love what you
just said, man. I mean, honestly.
And I'm really happy. So let me ask you this one
follow up question. Did simplification and taking

(28:15):
back some measure of control andnot in the kind of control that
causes the stress I'm talking about the kind of control where
you realize that I can only control me.
Did that help? Oh my gosh, you have no idea.
Like my, my so I, I had a, I, I can't tell you the reasons why I
had my final breakdown in February, panic attack in

(28:37):
February. That's a, that's a personal
thing, man. But February was like a bad
period of time for me. And so after February, this past
February, I've been getting, gradually getting better, but I
didn't make the decision to cut people off as quickly as I
should have. I'd made all these different
changes, but then I realized that I was keeping a few things

(28:58):
lingering that I just didn't want to break, cut, cut off.
And so once, once you make the ultimate decision to cut things
off, things, people, people, opportunities, jobs, things that
are no longer aligned to your best, to my baskets or my
pillars or whatever you want to term for your structure.

(29:19):
My life has been phenomenal. My marriage is better.
My relationship with my kids is better.
I work out every I walk, I go for a walk every morning between
6:00 and 6:30. I walk for about an hour.
I sometimes don't wear shoes just because I want to feel the
ground. Like I go work out in my shed

(29:39):
and I do my workout. And unlike when I was 25, I'm
not trying to deadlift £600 anymore.
I'm just trying. I'm just trying to live until
I'm 95 years old and haunt my kids and their kids.
Like that's what I want to do. I want to live.
I want to live longer. So my workouts have been like,
how do I lose weight? How do I reduce stress?

(29:59):
How do I keep myself present foras long as I can?
And so all of these different changes have done one thing
that's created a structure. That structure has grounded me
just the same way I loved in basic training like we, I, I, I
like. There's so much to be benefited
from having that regiment that there's so much to be benefited

(30:22):
from it that I almost forgot howmuch I enjoyed the structure and
the rigor of basic things like basic training where you had to
wake up at a certain time, you had to get your workout done
because so much else is unpredictable.
If you can just do the things that are required structurally,
you have so much more time for life and and so much more time

(30:44):
for everything else. So that's, that's how I found
it. And like, dude, honestly, I
haven't felt quite as good as I've felt ever in my life, maybe
since I was a. Little I was a little kid.
I'm so happy for you. Thanks, man.
Yeah, it's really good. It's really good.
But it's really hard because so many people complain about their

(31:05):
relationships or their jobs or the situations that they find
themselves in. And most of it, I think is
inertia. Like I just don't want to have
that difficult conversation or Ijust don't want to make that
difficult decision. And I I totally appreciate that.
I totally value that. But once you do and you're freer
because of it, it, it only hurtsfor the moment that you're in.

(31:28):
Like it's, it just hurts for themoment you're in.
Yeah, I mean, I get I ended up having to give up watching
television for health reasons, which seems really strange.
And I was, I, I didn't realize like how much time I was
spending watching television. And listen, that was not a lot.

(31:49):
But in my life, which is very hectic, it, you know, it turned
out to be quite a bit. But it, you know, in so having
to give it up, I opened up so much more to other
opportunities. Once you start seeing too, that
all the things that you're seeing in media, whether it's X
or LinkedIn or Instagram is all derived from a 32nd sound bite.

(32:15):
It's all, it's all it is. It's derived from a reel on
Instagram or whatever is derivedfrom a very short snippet of a
broader conversation. And all they do is
cross-platform things, right? They want engagement here.
They want engagement here. They want engagement here,
right? Well, like that's BS in my mind.
Like I, what I have to say is going to take longer than 30
seconds. And what I would hope you tell

(32:35):
me is longer than 30 seconds. Like I want to hear, I want to
hear who you are, Stacy. I want to hear.
I'd love to know why you couldn't watch TV anymore for
health reasons. Like, that'd be really the
conversation. Like my grandpa used to not be
able to eat broccoli. And that was like the thing that
didn't make sense to me at all because I was like, broccoli.
It's like the helliest food in the world, isn't it?
Like. I wish I liked.

(32:56):
Broccoli gas, man. It's the gas.
That's the whole reason his wifeprobably cut him off from the
broccoli. That's also why she had to stop
watching TV. Gas.
Yeah, pretty much the gas. No, I'm, I'm, my vision is
going. And so it's just one of those
things that really it, it stresses out my eyes and I try
to save my, my vision for moments like this when I do the

(33:16):
podcast. So my screen time is limited to
things that are meaningful. And that's how I've kind of, as
you said, I've detoxed my life to, you know, cutting out things
that I felt were overcomplicating or stressing me
out because I, I like you, Dan, was just like having so much
anxiety about making sure these people are cared for, making

(33:37):
sure that I said yes to these people and I was a yes person,
like to the detriment of my own health and my, my family and
everything. So I love that you said that.
I think there's absolute validity to everything that
you're saying. And plus, I feel like there's so
much negativity out there. I was just being like, when I
did take the time to do a death scroll on social media, I was
like, negative, negative, angry,angry, negative, negative.

(33:59):
I'm like, oh gosh, why do I evenbother?
So anyway I don't anymore. I think to be honest with you
and Joe, I think this hints to your question. 3 little kids all
under the age of 10. I'm they're going to get flip
phones like we're we're going, we're get, we're going to get to
a place where like when I was 15, I had a little Nokia that

(34:20):
played snake like these kids don't need all the compute power
in the world in their pocket at at 12 years old, like.
I, I have, I'm, I'm so sorry to jump in.
I just want to back up your question right here and just say
you, I, I'm encouraging you to stick to that because what
happened with us is my kids wereleft out of everything because

(34:40):
they didn't have access to texting and stuff like that.
Figure out what the problem is. That's going to isolate your
children from other kids and solve that problem while still
maintaining the flip phone thing.
Because I'm telling you it's brute.
It's, it hurts them at this age.It's we, we're, we no longer
have control. It's at a point now where if the
kids don't have a phone by the time they're 13 or 14, they

(35:01):
don't have friends. I'm not joking.
That's how bad it got. Yeah, I'm not.
I'm not going to pretend. I'm not going to pretend like I
can fix all those human problems, but human problems are
also human solutions. Like there's got to be a way for
us to have a family iPad where we can get text, like where we
can get people. There's got to be ways for us to
do this. I don't know what those things

(35:22):
are yet, but like there has to be a way that it goes into one
iPad or one Apple account. I, I don't know yet.
But like there has to be a way to do it where they don't have
to have, there's got to be a wayto do it.
There's got to be a way to do it.
And I, I don't know what it is yet, but I also believe Joe,
like strongly believe kids have to get dirty and they've got to

(35:44):
play real sports with real people.
And like, I love video games. I, I don't actually love video
games. I lied.
My, my son, my son likes playinglike video games and I don't
mind playing Madden with him or MLB with him.
Like that's cool. Like he's got to go play with
football with his buddies. Like we, like, we've got to go

(36:06):
out in the world and do that. I agree.
I agree there's something missing.
I always feel like, and I I, especially with my husband's
kids, my step kids, that social media is the antisocial network
for our kids. It breaks my soul when I see
12/13/14 year old kids at the bus stop staring at their

(36:27):
phones. Well, they, yes, they're sitting
right next to each other, texting each other that that
always like was. As they idolize the 90s, that's
what's blowing my mind. They're idolizing the 90s right
now, but they refuse to and. I think it's, I think it's all,
it's like there was like our parents, the ones that allowed
us to have cell phones when we were 14 or 15, right?
Because I was, I remember Adam, you told me you're probably 2

(36:48):
years older than I am in school.Like I remember when they had
used to cart in the class Apple on this like, like big old
metal. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And now I'm like, my kid has an iPad in the second grade.
You gave every kid a in kindergarten a freaking iPad.
Like, what are you? What were you?
Why would you do that? Like stop giving them iPads.

(37:09):
Give them paper and pencil and make them learn how to write.
Like, stop. And I think we're all going
through this kind of like I think more and more of us that
are of our generation are like, I'm totally fluent in Moat.
Let's say I've already told you I use Chat GPTA lot.
Like I'm cool with it, but I'm not cool with it replacing my
real life. Dan, I wanted to shift gears a

(37:32):
little bit and get your opinion on something else that you said
before. And it's something that I happen
to agree with. So I wanted to get your take on
it. But it's veterans are uniquely
positioned to help rebuild institutional trust in America.
So there's, I mean, there's a lot that you could even unpack
there and, and tee it up for youthat lends to believe that
there's not trust in the institutions within America.

(37:55):
Then you could ask the question,how, how did those leaders are
they trying to gain our trust right now?
Why is it failing? And you know, obviously I work
in the veteran mental health space, you know, kind of told
you on the before the show started.
So my, my focus, you know, if I were going to say Adam Mart
Enterprises, which, you know, I don't, I don't have that
moniker, but hey, maybe that's agood idea.

(38:16):
It's focusing on going to the root cause of the problem of our
community and our society and thinking that if we can help
people unlock and awaken to the process that you so eloquently,
you know, kind of walked us through on your own journey and
make that more palatable to be able to understand from the time
you're in service, you know, to out of service, then maybe your

(38:37):
cup might be a little bit more full and you'll be able to take
advantage of more of these programs that exists within
organizations like the Legion orthe veteran nonprofits that are
coming up or in your local community.
Right? I have a full cup.
Therefore I can pour out for others.
And I think that when veterans are able to do that because of

(38:57):
who we are, where we come from, and how we lead with honor and
distinction, that those characteristic traits will
permeate through those leadership opportunities, those
institutions that are what it what it, what do you, what do
you think? Why?
Why is it veterans are the answer for that from your
perspective or a contributing factor?

(39:19):
I would, I'm going to broaden the answer to that question and
say not just say veteran, I'm going to say anybody that serves
the public or have served in a public organization before.
So let me just like, I believe veterans, yeah, I'll go down
that path in a second. But teachers, firefighters,
police officers, people that like serve in public sort of

(39:40):
roles, I think they're though quiet folks that we should be
listening to more and more now. And I think that I'm, I'm
creating this expression like I,I believe, I fully believe that
at some point in time it's goingto sway back to people that
actually build things as opposedto consume them.

(40:01):
And we've been a consumption economy for so long.
We just consume more stuff, takemore stuff, more debt, more
blah, blah, blah. We've got to start creating
things. We've got to start producing.
And so I think the people that create, produce, do those are
the people we're going to start to listen to.
We should listen to more and more.

(40:21):
So that's my first comment. My second comment is when I was
at basic training, I went into awas the gas chamber, right?
The chamber where we where I like went in there, I didn't
have my mask on. I couldn't breathe.
It hurt. I put my mask on, I could
breathe. It worked like that is a trust

(40:42):
movement to Start learning that you can trust your gear that you
can Start learning to trust the thing that that that provided to
you. And then my comment earlier
about like going to the motor pool and actually seeing how a
motor pool works like that, I think is if you get to the
lowest level and you start to see your community for what it
is and you start to see your motor pull for what it is and

(41:04):
you start to see your equipment for what it is.
That I think is how we actually regain trust.
And when I say regain trust in institutions, I mean, like,
let's be honest, like 20 plus years of fighting in Iraq and
Afghanistan for some unclear, some sometimes unclear strategic
mission set starts to erode a little bit of trust even for the

(41:26):
most patriotic people in America.
Because we like for who, for what, what, what was, what was,
what was that 20 years for really?
And I think, Adam, I think that starts to erode trust over time.
And then also like, I can't see,I can't see people making so
much more money yet like like just taking money, like just

(41:47):
doing things are completely weird and making cash out of
that and not feel like some, some somehow in here, we got to
reshift that a little bit too. So I think veterans are uniquely
situated to do this because we've been in public
institutions before. We've had to work with people
that we don't know and we've hada trust equipment and we've had
to trust our government to a certain extent.
So because of those reasons, we should be kind of leading our

(42:10):
communities as well. Well, I think I think it's such
a great kind of walkthrough thatyou did there.
And I and I love the part where,you know, kind of like getting
down into the motor pool, out ofthe ivory tower, so to speak,
down into the front lines. And then, you know, we need more
doers, you know, out front, you know, kind of leading.
I think one of the challenges isunfortunately, the doers are out

(42:31):
there doing, they're so busy andengaged.
So it's like somehow activating them and giving them permission,
right? And I think like you're Elon
Musk's example, like great example, I can do it all.
I don't ever sleep. I solve every problem and I help
the president win the election. He's also he's.
Also kind of unhealthy in a lot of regards he's.
He's uniquely, unbelievably, uniquely wired for what he's

(42:54):
what he does. Like I they get, I don't know if
he's probably autistic, but he'sdefinitely wired differently
than I am. And so like, I just think
anyway, I, I just think like, that's not the model I want to
talk about was always the hustleculture, but it's certainly the
model I care about when we talk about like, dude knows how a

(43:17):
rocket works. Like that's real.
And so I got to know how a rocket works if I want to start
talking about rockets. Well, I mean, we're stuck in
this, this world where people expect smart people to be
perfect people. And and I think that that part
of the problem also is that you've got brilliant people who
have access to social media and,and used to when you had a dumb

(43:39):
thought, I, you know, you call Adam or I'll call you and you're
like, all right, that's cool, bro.
And I, I agree with you, but youcan't say this out loud, but I,
I, I love talking to you, man. And we could do this forever.
But I, I, you know, I do want, well, we're, we're, we're, we're
getting close, man. We're getting close.

(44:00):
I, but I, I don't want to cut you off, man.
And so let me ask you this, is there anything at all that we
didn't bring up because we kind of danced all over the place and
then we got kind of familiar andwe got into personal stuff,
which is my very favorite way totalk.
I, I like being sincere. I like when you talk to me when
I talk to you. I like, I like the opportunity
that I could bust out crying if I really needed to.

(44:21):
And, and that's my favorite way to talk.
So I, I do want to give you an opportunity to, to bring
anything up that we didn't touchon that you did want to touch
on. I mean, and, and, and then of
course, plug the, the things that you're doing right now,
because they're all important toyou.
Now you've cut out the trash andnow everything you're doing now
is now is the good. Stuff.
I do 5 things. I do 5 bucket with five things.

(44:44):
I have a job because I have to have a job.
I make investments. I have a media.
I have a media entity that's like that does all my, I do all
my writing, all that stuff in there.
So I, I have a job, I make investments.
I have a media entity. I do the Yahoo finance thing and
I coach Little League and I playbase men's men's baseball.

(45:08):
And like that is the 5th bucket is my civic bucket.
I'm also running for borough council, my local politics
because like that fifth bucket, Adam, I think it's how we get
back to trusting America again with where we have the right
sorts of people that are leadingSo that that fifth bucket's my
civic bucket. And I think it starts like by

(45:28):
coaching baseball again. And like, not like it, it's for,
for Christ's sake. It starts with mowing your own
damn grass. Like for so many years we talked
about like, was it outsourced the lawnmower, the landscape or
like, what sort of life are you living if you can't cut your own
grass? Like why?
Why like like 20 kids? Right.
You're going to approach one of your kids teams, right?
Especially with like, you're going to coach, you're going to
fire or whatever. But I coached my 8 year old's

(45:51):
baseball team. So think, so think about that.
You're going, you're going you like we're, we're talking the
breadth and the depth of your 5 buckets and your experiences and
your military service. And now you're going to have the
opportunity to go, not just be there for your son, which by the
way, is like top you're, you're going to get to also pour into
those kids in some way, shape orform a little bit of discipline,

(46:12):
a little bit of rigor. That is the next generation of
these trusted servant leaders. And so I, I think I think that's
probably the coolest thing that you're doing because I think
sometimes we lose track of that Elon Musk, right?
Like being there for those type of things can just be as
impactful on a longer generational run.
I, I, I, I literally could not agree with you more.

(46:35):
If you saw my Instagram, it's mostly me playing baseball or
coaching baseball. Last night, Mike Schmidt, Hall
of Fame baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies, umpired
an intermeal men's league game that I played last night.
Yeah, between I played on the sequel, the Malvern Kings.
We, I live in Malvern, PA, and we had 30 dudes, Mike Schmidt

(46:56):
umpiring. We had 150 people watching.
All of our kids were there. It was a Tuesday night at 4:30.
It was awesome. But let me, I'm going to give
you a quick, I'm going to give you a quick example because your
first question was about my first question was when I got
out of the military and I'd be at the common obese training.
Monday nights are when my son has his baseball practice, 8
years old, his nervous system's not ready yet.

(47:16):
He is what he's just, he's a little kid, right?
And I run them through high volume ground balls because
like, I don't, I don't care about an error.
It doesn't matter to me. Like just get through the reps
and do as many reps as you can. I, I don't, I didn't see the
play, but he made an error. And when he made the error, he
threw his glove in the ground. And I got drill Sergeant Stern

(47:40):
with him from across the field. And I, I raised my voice the way
that my drill Sergeant raised his voice.
And I told him that he has to gosit on the bench because that we
will not tolerate glove thrown around here in front of the
whole team. That's right.
And I didn't humiliate him, I didn't make him feel bad.
I just said you got to go sit onthe bench.
You got to call yourself and letme know when you're ready to
rejoin the team and the entire team, all these 678 year old

(48:05):
boy, I didn't even think. I literally didn't think about
it. I just channeled Ray Collazo
from Bronx when I was like saying these things for Sergeant
Collazo and my voice just got uphere and all these boys just
kept on practicing. The practice got so crisp.
If I'm willing to correct my sonfor I don't care about an error
to your point on perfection or somebody's point error does not

(48:27):
bother me. The fact that you threw the
glove that I paid for that bothers me.
And so we're going to make you sit for the glove throwing and
then when you're ready to rejointhe team, we're going to go do
it. So I don't I couldn't agree with
you more. But I also I'll also tell you 10
or 11 other little boys saw somebody corrected their son not
playing daddy ball, not some other nonsense like hardly hard.

(48:50):
I want to say hard or harsh, butfirmly correcting a boy.
I think we need, I think we needto do a lot more of that, but I
don't. And I wasn't mean or mean
spirit. It was just very matter of fact.
Yeah, I I can appreciate that. And it's, it's progress, not
perfection. I thought that's always been my
my mantra because you can get aid up, you know, but I think

(49:12):
you're absolutely right. And Adam is absolutely right as
well, that Dan, one of the best things that you're doing in your
life is mentoring young men who are going to grow up and run
this country one day. So.
I agree, I agree, and that that actually like that could get me
emotional because I like you know, to your point, like I like
like I really believe that. And like again, what's the point

(49:34):
of living your life if you're sodamn busy you can't coach your
kids baseball team, Sure, or your name, name the thing,
right. If name, name, whatever gives
you joy. If you can't do that, I don't
understand what you're doing. I almost ended up having to
coach my sons soccer team. I can't run.
I have one leg and my ankles fused.
And like I was like listen, I I was willing to do it except for

(49:57):
the fact that we would have beenthe laughingstock.
It also would have been like we're if we were a good team,
that would be one thing. But we were all so awful and
they were like, well of course they've got A1 legged guy
teaching them soccer who never played.
Would you be a handicap? I would argue, Joe, you could
come up with a million fun stories, like how you watch your
leg playing soccer. But.

(50:17):
You know, Oh my God, that'd be hilarious.
That's actually, that's actuallyhilarious.
The Peg leg soccer team. Dude, well, my look, my whole
thing with this was that nobody would step up.
And as a military person, that really cracks my damn egg.
Somebody step up. I am not fit for this, but I'm
not going to let these kids suffer and not have a team
because we don't have a coach. So if if they're going to have

(50:40):
what what's bad is like probablywould have done a, I'll shut up.
No, it's awkward, man. I just, I just, I just don't, I
truly don't understand. I truly don't understand.
Maybe I'm a little privileged, maybe I like, maybe I, I got a
good job or whatever. And but and you're not, I'm
exhausted. But like if you're so busy

(51:01):
between all your kids sports andall the shit you have on your
plate to be able to not be able to coach or enjoy a stuff like
that, something about that feelsoff to me.
And that is what I violently made sure that I was able to cut
things away so that I could havethe bandwidth to do the things I

(51:21):
think really matter. Yeah, Alphas, that's some really
great feedback from our friend Dan.
So check out your lives and see what you can cut from your lives
to make more time for the thingsthat matter most.
In the meantime, make sure to tune into Warrior Money wherever
you listen to your podcast because you don't want to miss
out any more of what Dan has to say.
And I'd like to ask Dan to come back on the show because I

(51:44):
really, really loved chatting with you today, Dan.
And we didn't get enough and, and I am serious, I really would
like to have you come back. I want more of this.
Love it and I'm just going to say, and I am trying to get me
off here. I'm, I am not a perfect person
by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm not trying to project being perfect at all.
I just know that if you don't have the time to do what you

(52:06):
actually what actually matters to you, you got to figure out
how to create. You're not going to, you can't
get more time. So you got to figure out how to
create the time you already have.
And like, that just means you have to be pretty ruthless on
what you get rid of. Wonderful words of wisdom,
Alphas. Stick around for some
scuttlebutt after the break. Hi, my name is Bill Clancy.

(52:26):
I'm the National Commander of the Sons of the American Legion.
I'm thrilled that the American Legion family has created the
USA 250 Challenge. During my year as National
Commander of the Sons of the American Legion, I've made a
personal goal to complete the challenge.
Not one category, not 2, all three categories.
But today I want to talk to you about physical activity

(52:49):
challenge. You don't have to run or ride a
bike or do anything strenuous, Ken, if you want to, of course.
But the beauty of the USA 250 Challenge is that anything
fitness related counts. You can play pickleball, you can
walk the door, you can do cherryyoga.
Whatever you choose to do, be sure to join the challenge.

(53:09):
Visit legion.org/USA 2:50 to getstarted.
OK alphas, we hope that you had a great break, and now it's time
for my favorite scuttle booty. We love that scuttle butts.

(53:30):
I do love butts. OK, so are you or a veteran, you
know, struggling to find meaningful employment?
Perhaps you've just transitionedout of the service and aren't
sure where to proceed for properemployment.
Or not proper employment, but any employment.
Or maybe you're a VSO who's helping veterans try to find
their way. This, my little scuttlebutt

(53:52):
segment, should be of interest to all of you who are who are
saying yes, yes, that's me anyway.
Recent veteran employment news from September 2025 highlights
that the Department of Labor's recent grant awards the V as new
MOS military skills translator tool and the ongoing need for
better private, public and private partnerships translate

(54:14):
to military skills into civilianopportunities have enhanced
veteran employment. And so the V as new MOS
translator and for all you non army folks, the MOS is basically
your military occupation. They have a new translator and
they've dubbed it bridge my return BMR and it captures your

(54:35):
military skills and the softwarebasically translates those
skills into civilian skills using AI and proprietary
algorithm algorithms and and then it matches those veterans
to jobs. So it's bringing veterans who
have basically a resume full of military jargon, translates
that, and then it matches them to civilian jobs out in the

(54:57):
workforce. And from what I've read, the
process takes about 20 minutes. The application also
automatically produces a professional resume from the
completed profile, so that's very advantageous as well.
That's massive. Yeah, and candidates can apply
to be matched with jobs that interest them with a single
click. So all at that, no cost military

(55:21):
members in the community, including spouses and
caregivers, they can all get started today.
If you visit bridgemyreturn.com,we'll have that in the show Nuts
Again, bridgemyreturn.com. And you can find new or better
work from employers at no cost. And again, PS employers who are
interested in hiring military veteran talent.

(55:41):
You can also contact BMR and getyour company listed with your
openings. OK, now let's talk about veteran
unemployment. As of August 2025, veteran
unemployment rates were about 3.1%.
But challenges remain, particularly for post 911
veterans like Adam, Joe and myself, and for those who are
service connected with disabilities.

(56:03):
And some excerpts are calling for urgent reforms to include
mandatory TAPS training changes.Yeah, I've attended TAPS and it
was bull. It was malarkey.
It was PowerPoint. It didn't help me at all.
But here's some key statistics that I think are really
important. So.
So listen up. Alphas.
If women unemployment, women veterans, 4.4%, male veterans

(56:29):
2.9. Veterans with no disabilities,
about 3.0. That's three.
VA is always got to put a zero at the end.
Veterans with its disabilities 5.7, White veterans 3.2, Black
veterans 3.9, and Hispanic 2.9. So you can see that some
demographics vary a little bit more.

(56:50):
And of course women veterans is an interest to me because I fall
into that category as well as disabled.
So imagine if you're a minority woman, disabled veteran, that's
going to be even more complicated, which is why these
tools are really, really important for everyone,
regardless of what demographic you fall into.
So some light in the unemployment darkness. the US

(57:13):
Department of Labor today announced the award of more than
$37,000,000 in grants to organizations that help veterans
experiencing actress homelessness and help them find
meaningful employment and assistthem in overcoming barriers to
transition back successfully into the workforce.
You can actually find information about how to tap

(57:34):
into these organizations that have been granted this money by
visiting the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program.
We're going to have that link inthe show notes as well.
If you're interested, 98 organizations in their second or
third years in the program have been awarded the money.
So you can find probably somewhere that's a nationally
based organization or maybe evensomebody that that's in your

(57:56):
region. These organizations provide
participating veterans with occupational skills.
They connect them with registered apprenticeships or
other on the job training. They deliver job search and
placement services and through program services.
Veterans experiencing at risk, who are at risk of homelessness
can learn occupational skills toparticipate in these

(58:17):
apprenticeships as well and theycan receive job placement and
assistance. They've included an application.
We'll have the application link in our show notes.
In addition, the American Legionhas been on the forefront and
the front lines of the veteran unemployment within our
community by advocating for employment focused legislation,

(58:39):
hosting job fairs, providing workshops, and connecting
veterans with job resources and retaining programs like vet tech
and VRRAP to help them transition to civilian jobs.
So be sure to check out your local American Legion for
support. Get in touch with your VSO or go
to legion.org For more information.

(59:01):
Just real quick on this. I got so much to say, but I'll
be brief It it was already a challenge to transition in, in
our timelines. You know, we got out 10/15/20
years ago. The world is transforming so
fast. The job climate is transforming
so fast. The conversations about
repetitive tasks, you know, it'slike what what happened with

(59:22):
manufacturing in the industrial revolution a hundred, 150 years
ago. Now we're on the precipice of
the of the AI and there's going to be a huge, massive shift and
it's already, you know, happening.
So this is so important. It couldn't be more important.
I think what you're seeing is like systems everywhere are just
desperate for innovation and updating to be able to apply to

(59:47):
just the current state that we're in.
And so opportunities to not justseek a job, not just some of
these tools that are coming on to be able to do a direct
assessment and try and translatethat into the market.
Really cool to see these innovations.
I think it's also more personal than.
That into, you know, what are your likes and interests and,

(01:00:08):
and how do you go from this, youknow, military mission and MOS
and to transforming and, and whoyou're going to become.
And part of that is just permission to grow as you enter
into that. And so it's great to see some of
these innovations coming in. I think there's a lot more work
to do. There's a lot more innovation
that can happen, but it's going to be an interesting time in the

(01:00:29):
next 10 years or so. But I don't think anybody's more
ready to adapt to those changes and to be an agent of change
than somebody who's been in the military.
So yeah, Thanks, Stacey. And I think I'm sorry God finish
my here. Oh, how's it I?
Was just going to make fun of you?
No, not really. I wanted to interrupt you to, to

(01:00:50):
say some really mean things about you.
I just want to say, no matter whether you are you, you think
you're happy in your job or whether you're not even looking
to work, I think it's a really good idea to do something like
go to bridgemyreturn.com and just see what's out there.
I mean, I unfortunately, we're in, we're, this is no longer a

(01:01:11):
world where working for the samecompany for 20 years is going to
make you the most money. Well, sometimes it's not even
about the money either. It's about fulfillment.
And if if you were making six figures and miserable and not
having enough time with your family, and if it's time to make
a change, then as you said, Joe,what what?
What's the worst that can happen?
You go throw your name out thereand your skills and scramble it

(01:01:35):
up. And you never know what might
pop out. It might be something exciting.
Yeah, it could be something really fulfilling because as
somebody who works with veterans, all three of us,
there's no fulfillment quite like it.
Well, Speaking of. Fulfillment.
It's also National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day.
Heck. Yes, now if that's not
fulfilling, I don't know what is.

(01:01:55):
So it's a perfect excuse to indulge in the rich, creamy
flavors that define the season. I know you've already probably
had about 20 pumpkin spice lattes so far, Joe.
I I may have, but I I drink it in protein.
Sorry, go ahead. I'm basic, what can I say?
I'll have you know, are genuinely American, so one might

(01:02:17):
say we're also celebrating our history by eating and drinking
these tasty treats that that's right, pumpkins originated in
North America. Take that, Europe with it.
So if people don't like them, does that mean that they are?
Corn. Corn did too.
Corn's a very American thing. It originated here.
I think it's called Mesa. It's.
Corn. Oh, I'm sorry.

(01:02:37):
With the earliest evidence of domestication dating back to
between 7000 and 5500 BCE, Theseearly squash, which are
technically a fruit by the way, were vital to Native American
culture, serving as food staple and for other uses.
Every year the US produces 1.5 Billy, that's £1.5 billion of

(01:03:00):
pumpkin. 80% of this crop, around 800 million pumpkins are
ripe for picking in one single month of the year, October.
In addition to pumpkins historical role in fall
celebrations, they have a multi faceted history with the US
military featuring as both a food source for starving
soldiers during the Revolutionary War and the

(01:03:21):
namesake for the Pumpkin Palm, anon nuclear munition used in
World War 2 testing in combat. During the harsh winter at
Valley Forge, soldiers like Joseph Plum Martin consume
pumpkins for sustenance, even cooking half a small pumpkin on
a hot rock when rations were scarce.
Plus, with the barely malt scarce with barley malt scarce

(01:03:46):
during the colonial period, some, including George
Washington, experimented with brewing beer using pumpkins,
which have fermentable sugars. And while pumpkins were a food
source, the tradition of carvingJack O lanterns for Halloween
had not yet been fully established.
During the Revolution. The practice was brought over by

(01:04:06):
Irish immigrants who traditionally carved them from
turnips. I think carving A turnip would
be difficult. I mean, that's like people who
chisel sculptures out of toothpicks, you know what I
mean? Like like a toothpick littler.
The center would have to be at least three times this size.
During the Civil War, pumpkins became political symbols, with

(01:04:29):
Northern abolitionists using pumpkin pie to represent
Northern values and Yankee culture.
After the war, many Southern states which did not
traditionally eat pumpkin pie resisted it and Thanksgiving as
an unwelcome imposition of Northern culture.
Damn Yankees. I'm still resisting pumpkin pie.

(01:04:50):
It's not my thing. I like pumpkin spice.
I prefer pecan pie over pumpkin pie.
The pumpkin did eventually spread across the country.
During World War One, bakers andcooks were recruited who used
the Army manual for cooking, including a recipe that made 15
pumpkin pies. During World War 2, dehydrated

(01:05:11):
pumpkins were also produced for military rations.
However, it was not always well received.
One U.S. Navy account from the Pacific
mentions A dehydrated orange item, alternately billed as
pumpkin or sweet potato. Not.
Sure. This is mystery orange.
Thing orange it's. Not a Tangerine.

(01:05:35):
That was unpopular and difficultto prepare.
Meanwhile, back in the US, Americans grew victory gardens
to supplement their grocery rations.
Pennsylvania's The Victory Garden Handbook from 1944
recommended growing and eating pumpkins for their nutritional
value. In 1966, Seabees with the Mobile

(01:05:57):
Construction Battalion 7 stationat Fubai constructed a large,
elaborate Great Pumpkin out of asalvage orange parachute and
rebar. Inspired by popular television
special It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, the structure was
created to boost morale and for American PO WS In North Vietnam,

(01:06:19):
food was often inadequate and monotonous.
Diets were typically limited to thin cabbage or pumpkin soup,
along with rice, bread and poor quality of meat.
Well, let's add the pumpkin sounds delightful.
During the Gulf War, Canadian sailors flew a massive carved
pumpkin in a helicopter over Allied ships to boost morale

(01:06:40):
around Halloween. And in Afghanistan, troops
created a machine to throw pumpkins as morale activity
during down. I like the progression of like
what's going on with the pumpkins.
What we're going to do? Let's make the Charlie Brown
pumpkin. Let's throw those suckers and
watch them explode. Let's let's instead of a potato
gun, we need to make a a pumpkinlauncher, you know?

(01:07:02):
What, we make it explode on a high def, slow motion camera?
All right, alphas, if you're planning a Halloween party or a
fall brunch, try dishing up somepumpkin cheesecake along with a
healthy serving of fun military pumpkin history.
Thanks, Adam. That was fun.

(01:07:23):
What you got, Joe I? Hey.
Joe was muted like it's 2020 andI'm just learning how to do this
stuff. I I do have a question though,
as somebody who doesn't drink isthere has to be a reason why why
pumpkin beer is not a thing, ButI am interested in what?

(01:07:43):
That tastes not true. Pumpkin beer is a thing, yeah.
Well, I I know it is a thing. I'm saying why it's not like way
more of a thing. I'm wondering what the taste is
that makes it where where you don't just go into a restaurant.
You're like, hey, do you have any pumpkin beer?
It's seasonal, I guess it's like.
Like a pumpkin latte, it's an acquired taste.
You either like it or you don't.I think they just do it around
in the fall. You get the pumpkin.

(01:08:03):
Yeah, you're right. Yeah, Seasonal.
Fest kind of vibes. We should bring pumpkins to the
Army Navy game and throw them ateach other anyway.
Make. Sure they're rotten though.
Well, yeah, maybe bring them sweet potatoes.
Sweet. Potatoes but dehydrate some more
and do a taste test. What do you think it is?

(01:08:24):
Blindfold taste test on. It is it apricot or pumpkin?
Rotten pumpkin or we should rotten apricot.
Stick we do with every gas and we'll figure it out.
What you got, Joe? Well, as Halloween creeps closer
Stacey, I thought I would share some regionally fun season
seasonal activity opportunities for you, my most favorite

(01:08:44):
listeners, Listeners, my Arafes for all the Alphas in Milford,
American Legion Post 2216 and Post 484 in Hickory Corners and
everyone in between. Grab up your kids grandkids
besties because here's some local fun for you.
The Long Family Orchard and farmin Commerce Township, MI has A5

(01:09:06):
acre corn maze. There's still people missing
from last year depicting DetroitLions wide receiver Amon RA St.
Brown performing his viral headstand touchdown celebration.
I was at the game actually in Green Bay, so I got to see that
first hand. I saw the whole thing go viral.

(01:09:27):
Bobby Long, 23, of Long Family Orchard and Farm Long said he
and his brother, Will came up with the idea of immortalizing
the headstand in a corn maze form in January and began work
on it in July. That's a lot of work, July and
it's it's October. To me, work a corn maze.
Yeah, this is a lot of. Work.
You get the vision. You got to build it.

(01:09:50):
That's true. Build it and they will come.
How can we capture as many children as possible?
Capture the most elaborate corn maze.
Could you imagine like the the the articles like Detroit Lions
wide receiver has dozens of children lost like due to.
They got lost somewhere in the pads.

(01:10:12):
In the vicinity. Of.
I'm in Raw St. Brown, so we do a special corn
maze every year and with the Lions being so awesome, like
they're not biased, and with everything Mon RA has done for
the city, our state and the fans, we wanted to give
something back to him to enjoy. Too long said fans are now being

(01:10:33):
invited to attempt to find theirway through the corn maze, with
vicious consequences otherwise. It doesn't say that.
I mean I. Being hyperbolic alphas, there's
nothing to be scared of. On Saturdays and Sundays while
there, you can take advantage ofthe hayride, paintball zone,
giant hill, slide, pedal cart, racetrack, straw maze, petting

(01:10:53):
farm, picnic area and more like an apple cannon.
We're. Going to convince him to make
pumpkin cannons after. After we're going to talk to him
about this. We're going to reach out an
apple cannon, though they've gota pick your own pumpkin patch
too. So here are other Halloween
extravaganzas hosted by the American Legion Post across the
country. So Long Islanders, Huntington

(01:11:17):
Post 360 is hosting a costume dance party on the 17th of
October. The good folks at Marne Post 13
in Plainfield, IL are asking youto dust off your favorite
costume, bring your spookiest spirit and make it a night to
remember with them on the 25th. Post 410 in Lake Hills, Texas is

(01:11:37):
hosting a family friendly Halloween party on Thursday,
October 31st with a costume contest.
Monster dance Party. Side note, did you know Elmo was
a monster? Pumpkin painting and trunk or
treat. All ages welcome except for
babies. Don't bring your babies and try
and get candy from me. Bring it.
That's the worst. There's a spectacular Halloween

(01:12:01):
Ball taking place at Post 290 inCambridge, MN on Friday, October
31st, 2025. It'll be an evening of fun and
fundraising at the Armed Services Reserve Community
Center where You Can Dance the night away, enjoy delicious
treats, and participate in theircostume contest.
And not to be outdone, Kreisel Jacobson Post 560 in Zimmerman,

(01:12:24):
Minnesota, is also hosting a Halloween costume bash with a
live band providing groovy tunes.
Sounds groovy. TBH post 187 in Elmhurst, IL is
or Illinois for for locals. Illinois.
Oh I like that one. I'm gonna start saying that one.
Elmhurst, IL is hosting classic rock cover band Flash Baxter.

(01:12:47):
The band will play tunes from the 1950s through the 80s during
their Halloween party on Friday,October 31st for all you Alphas
in the London, KY area. My mom's out that way.
Merry Gentry Post 16 is hosting a 2025 Halloween Glow Party
Killer music costume competitionwith a $200 cash prize.
You don't tell vets there's $200on the line.

(01:13:09):
You're going to get people from all over the US.
They'll spend $500 to win 200. We would we're we're very
competitive and glow gear dance floor fun.
Cedarburg Post 288 in Wisconsin is hosting a boogie with a ghost
and ghoulies on Halloween night.They'll have music by Jerry and

(01:13:30):
the Fog. And do not forget your costume
Alphas. We got links to all that stuff.
It's a lot of fun. It's too much fun for some.
Well, and if you're not, if if Joe didn't mention any of the
legions that are in your area, just do a simple Google search
for your local Legion Post. I'm sure they've probably got
some Halloween extravaganza going on.

(01:13:51):
Yeah, look at the Googler. It's always fun when Holland
falls on a Friday. Yeah, that's good for the kids
cuz all. Right alphas, get your get your
trick or treaters by the hands. Do some trunk or treating with
Adam and we'll see you. Thanks for listening.
Hey, don't forget I forgot to mention this.

(01:14:11):
We're on Spotify now, yes, whichmeans you can find our audio and
our video versions of this podcast.
You can subscribe to us. You can leave your comments.
And most importantly, you need to rate US because we need like
the maximum number of stars. Yeah, I need all the which.
Is like 14 I think. Is it the 14?
If you don't use Spotify, I don't care, get on Spotify and

(01:14:32):
rate US anyway. But you can also find us on
Apple, Amazon, iHeartRadio, YouTube, wherever you get your
podcasts. Subscribe to our newsletter, or
you can send us mail and guest recommendations at legion.org.
Back slash tango Alva Lima. Happy Halloween.
We'll see you next time. Bye.