The Vanguard Wall Podcast
The Vanguard Wall is a long-form interview podcast rooted in the world of combat veterans, special operators, and first responders — the people who did the hard things and carry them home. The host — himself an Army and law-enforcement veteran — sits down with them to talk about what they did, what it cost, and what they carry. The show goes deep on the moments most podcasts skip — the call you made under fire, the teammate you lost, the door you walked through that you can't walk back out of, and the long quiet work of putting it back together. Past guests include Green Berets and Rangers, MACV-SOG veterans, Marines from the Battle of Fallujah, Delta Force operators, Air Force pilots, CIA case officers and Ground Branch, and the law enforcement and emergency responders who do the work most never see. It doesn't stop at the uniform. The Vanguard Wall also brings on the builders, storytellers, and experts whose lives speak to the same audience — entrepreneurs and founders, filmmakers and actors, and voices in health, human performance, and resilience — because hard-won wisdom and a story worth telling are worth hearing wherever they come from. Topics: combat operations, special operations, training and selection (Q Course, Ranger School, BUDS), leadership under stress, PTSD and trauma recovery, health and human performance, entrepreneurship, storytelling, family, faith, and the transition to civilian life. For warriors. For the families who love them. For anyone who wants to understand what service — and grit — actually demand. New episodes every other week. Long-form video on YouTube. Audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere podcasts are heard. — CONTACT / OWNER EMAIL — admin@thevanguardwall.com
Episodes
Director William Kaufman brings Man of War to The Vanguard Wall — a grounded military action thriller set on the opening morning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, starring LaMonica Garrett and out now on digital via Well Go USA.
LaMonica Garrett (1883, The Lioness, The Terminal List) plays Connor, a burned-out ex-operator at the lowest point of his life when a girl he's spent years protecting calls from a Kh...
Seb Lavoie is the most decorated operator most people have never heard of. Over 20 years he went from a French-Canadian kid with no childhood memories to a soldier, a covert air marshal, an ERT tactical operator and team leader, a court-recognized tactical expert, and the Divisional Sergeant Major over 8,200 people — then pride cost him his leg, and faith rebuilt him.
Hostage rescues, the Surrey Six gang murder...
Hugh Mills flew the OH-6 “Loach” as a low-level aeroscout in Vietnam — statistically the most dangerous flying job of the war. Shot down 16 times, three Silver Stars, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Purple Hearts. Author of the classic memoir Low Level Hell.
📖 Low Level Hell: https://a.co/d/0glrcnww
CHAPTERS
00:00:00 Introduction — how Greg Coker connected them + “Low Le...
At Tora Bora in December 2001, Gary Harrington sat on one of the closest American observation posts to Osama bin Laden — close enough, he says, to watch the bombs he was calling in streak past the ridge sideways. Then the war handed him to the CIA, and he spent the next decade hunting the same enemy from the inside.
Harrington is the rare operator who wore the uniform six different ways: Marine Corps infantry o...
Senior Master Sergeant Aaron Love — Air Force Pararescueman, 22 years, five combat deployments — is the first PJ ever on The Vanguard Wall. Fewer than 500 people have earned the maroon beret. The pipeline carries a 91% attrition rate — the longest special operations selection pipeline in the DoD.
In 2002, Aaron quit on a pool deck at Indoc. He'd made it through Hell Night. He said three word...
Marine vet Johnny Raushi joined the Corps at 17 for a free skateboard sticker. Four years later he came home broke, picked up change in a gas station parking lot, and sold his plasma twice a week to fund the first batches of a pomade he was perfecting on his stovetop. That pomade became Johnny Slicks — an 8-figure American manufacturing company employing 30+ people out of a North Carolina facility, fully U.S.-...
The last C-17 lifted off Kabul's runway at 11:59 PM on August 30, 2021. The man who gave the order — and made the radio call "Math Safe" that officially ended America's longest war — tells the full story for the first time.
Colonel Alex Pelbath (USAF, Ret.) commanded SOUL-2, the only C-17 Special Operations unit in the world, and served as Air Mission Commander for the final flight out of Afghanis...
Thinking about buying a home or refinancing? Nuwave built a dedicated page specifically for Vanguard Wall listeners so you can connect directly with the team assigned to our audience: https://nuwaveanchor.com/i/thevanguardwall
If this episode brought you value, drop a comment below — we'd love to know what you're implementing.
What does it take to fuel the most elite light infantry unit in the U....
Thinking about buying a home or refinancing? Nuwave built a dedicated page specifically for Vanguard Wall listeners so you can connect directly with the team assigned to our audience: https://nuwaveanchor.com/i/thevanguardwall
In August of 1968, Travis W. Mills was shot five times in a single engagement at FOB 4 — the deadliest night in the history of U.S. Army Special Forces. He survived. And then he w...
Thinking about buying a home or refinancing? Nuwave built a dedicated page specifically for Vanguard Wall listeners so you can connect directly with the team assigned to our audience: https://nuwaveanchor.com/i/thevanguardwall
CW2 Kyle Steiner — 173rd Airborne, Korengal Valley combat veteran, and 7th Special Forces Group operator — joins The Vanguard Wall for a full-length documentary-style interv...
He fought in Fallujah at 21. He carried a diplomatic passport in Moscow. He investigated explosives for the ATF. And then he walked away from all of it — sold his house, pulled his kids out of school, flew to Panama, and bought a sailboat.
In Part 2 of this conversation, Eric Shlevy picks up where the war ended and takes us through every chapter most people never get to hear: embassy life, the State Dep...
On November 22nd, 2004, a photograph appeared on the cover of Time Magazine — a young Marine, 21 years old, face locked in a primal scream in the middle of the push on Fallujah, Iraq. That Marine was Eric Shelvy. And if you think you know where his story goes from there, you're wrong.
Eric grew up in St. Louis — Catholic schools, divorced parents, weekends riding in his father's police cruiser. He...
Chane Jackson was told he'd never make it past eighth grade. A teacher gave him an "H" on a paper because an F wasn't low enough. He never made honor roll once.Fast forward: West Point graduate. 75th Ranger Regiment. Green Beret commander. Five combat deployments. Over 100 direct action missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Three Bronze Stars. Fluent in Arabic. And he never lost a soldier under his command—never f...
What does it take to go from a self-described "nerdy drama club kid" to leading Green Beret teams in Iraq? And what kind of man walks away from a 20-year Special Forces career to pursue seminary? This is the story of Major Evan Perperis.Evan spent two decades in the US Army — Ranger School, SEER, Pathfinder, Special Forces Qualification Course, and four combat deployments to Iraq and the Middle East. As a Gree...
🔥 This is the story Hollywood doesn't want you to hear.
Cody Bobay went from being an alcoholic 13-year-old in a broken home to encountering God in a Navy barracks—and his entire life changed in ONE SECOND. Now he's fighting to take back Hollywood one film at a time.
From nuclear warfare missions to battling depression, from marriage crisis to standing up against church criticism, from devastating r...
What do you do when you've lost everything—your family, your future, your will to live? For Matt Kuiper, founder of Desert Plunge, the answer came in the form of 38-degree water. This is the story of a man who went from two DUIs and jail time to building one of the fastest-growing cold plunge companies in America—and how he discovered that our darkest moments can become our greatest purpose.
Chapt...
Bob Porras served 20 years in Delta Force before joining the CIA's Global Response Staff, where he spent another decade protecting intelligence operations in the world's most dangerous places. In this conversation, Bob shares the reality behind the headlines—from the Benghazi aftermath to evacuating the Tripoli embassy in 2014, earning the CIA's highest medal in the process.
This interview covers the sa...
Few operators earn the right to walk away from Delta Force on their own terms. Bob "Ninja" Porras did exactly that—after building a legendary career from nothing.
This episode covers Bob's journey from Los Angeles to becoming one of Delta Force's most respected operators. Starting as an Army engineer, he battled bureaucracy, survived Panama combat operations, earned his Green Beret, and fought his way i...
From a 12-year-old kid in Montana wearing hand-me-downs to Command Sergeant Major—this is the story of what happens when you almost lose everything, and the fallen hero who saved you one last time.
Command Sergeant Major Michael Burke (Ret.) served 14 deployments, completed 1,000+ combat operations, and rose from struggling private to the top enlisted ranks. But on October 22, 2015, when he learned his mentor M...
A 16-year-old mom. No father. A troubled Montana kid who didn't fit anywhere. Three days after graduation, he shipped out to become an Army Ranger—and almost quit before the war even started.
Retired Command Sergeant Major Mike Burke takes us inside the pre-9/11 Ranger Regiment—when money was tight, morale was low, and the mission wasn't clear. He shares the brutal truth about toxic leadership, ne...
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