Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans

Suicide doesn’t just take one life. It can leave an entire family, unit, and friend group trying to function while carrying grief, trauma, and a thousand urgent decisions they never asked for. We sit down with Dr. Carla Stomf Patton, Director of Suicide Postvention at TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors), to talk about what actually helps after a suicide death and why the right response can reduce risk for everyone...

Some stories from Iraq and Afghanistan still get told like footnotes, even when they changed how missions worked on the ground. We sit down with Heidi Rippy, Vice President of Development for the Special Operations Association of America (SOAA), to talk about what it meant to serve as one of the small number of women selected for Cultural Support Team work alongside special operations and civil affairs. Heidi walks us through enlis...

You can spot a military kid in a crowd, not because of a uniform, but because they learned to adapt before they learned to drive. Chef Larry welcomes Lisa and Rose, the sisters behind the Punk Brats YouTube channel, for a sharp, funny, and honest talk about what it’s really like growing up as military brats across continents.

We trace their story from Seoul and Fort Hood to Camp Zama, and then Germany, where living off...

Leaving the military can feel like stepping out of a unit and into a world without a map. I talk with Marine Officer and Veteran Ryan Murray, Managing Director at Greencastle Consulting, about the moments that force a real pivot: choosing the infantry mindset, hitting the eight-to-ten-year decision window, managing injuries, and trying to make smart calls for your family while the transition clock is still running. We also get hone...

The “standards were lowered” talking point spreads fast, but it falls apart the moment you look at how elite military training and real-world performance are actually measured. I sit down with Sue Fulton, a West Point graduate from the first class to include women and the founder of the Women in the Service Coalition (WISC), to get specific about what changed, what didn’t, and why the truth matters for force readi...

Every two to three years, military orders can flip a family’s life upside down. New home, new friends, new routines, and too often, a school reset that leaves kids paying the price. We talk with Natalie Mack, founder and CEO of the Military Homeschoolers Association, about why so many military families choose homeschooling as the one lever they can control: stability, continuity, and a learning environment that survives PCS m...

A leadership lesson can come from a classroom, a coach, or a job. Sometimes it comes from a handwritten letter and a story that still hurts to tell. I’m Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, and I’m joined by Debbie Borza, a special advisor to The 9:57 Project Student Leadership Challenge, our summer leadership camp for high school students.

Debbie brings a perspective s...

You can fly a perfect approach and still be miles from help if the “runway” is a strip carved out of jungle. That’s why I wanted to sit down with Fran DeRocher, an old friend from our Guam days, to talk about the kind of aviation most people never see: Mission Aviation Fellowship’s real-world humanitarian airlift across remote parts of Africa, where the airplane is the only road in or out. 

We st...

The hidden bill in healthcare is often the drive, the flight, or the miles you rack up while you are already exhausted. We sit down with Melissa Brian, lead transportation coordinator for Mercy Medical Angels, to talk about what happens when a patient or veteran can get an appointment but cannot get there and how a practical ride can be the difference between starting treatment and falling behind.

We break down the full menu...

Farming can look like a simple escape plan until you run the numbers and realize the real enemy is the order of operations. Land is expensive, fences cost money, equipment breaks, and a “quick” farm dream can turn into years of stress if you start out of sequence. I sit down with Kate Bowen, program director of the American VetFarm Network (a program of At Ease Orchard), to talk about what it actually takes to help vete...

Scholarship hunting shouldn’t feel like a second job, especially for military families already juggling PCS moves, shifting school rules, and tight timelines. We sit down with Kristen Ferullo, founder of Partners in Purpose, to discuss a free, searchable scholarship database designed specifically for military children, dependents, spouses, veterans, and ROTC students. If you’ve ever clicked through endless lists only to...

You can have the best product in the world and still lose if nobody knows you exist. That’s the tension we dig into with Austin Holmes, a Navy EOD veteran who now leads the Nashville-based PR firm Publicity for Good. We talk candidly about the mindset shift veteran entrepreneurs have to make when they leave a high-opsec culture and step into a marketplace that rewards clear, consistent communication. If you’ve ever buil...

Fewer people personally know someone who served, and that quiet shift changes how communities understand sacrifice, leadership, and even citizenship. We sit down with Scott English, president of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to discuss how a modern military history museum can close that gap by telling authentic, relatable stories about the citizen soldier and the families who serve alongside them.<...

One customer, noticing an early arrival and a military haircut, kicked off a brand that’s now helping veterans become business owners. We sit down with Tracy Flanagan, co-founder of JDog Brands, to unpack how a junk removal and hauling side hustle grew into a veteran-owned franchise network with roughly 91 locations across 25-plus states and about 90% veteran ownership. Along the way, we get specific about what makes a franch...

Paying retail for prescription eyeglasses is frustrating enough. Finding out you may have qualified for VA glasses the whole time is worse. We sit down with Sean Loosen, CEO of PDS Optical and a West Point graduate with an infantry background, to explain how VA vision benefits actually work and why awareness remains the biggest barrier to better eye care for veterans.

We break down the real-world basics: VA health care enro...

A former Navy SEAL with 10 trips to Afghanistan should have had an easy off-ramp into high-paying contractor work, but Todd Peters chose a different mission. After years of watching suicides stack up across his community, he founded Stronghold Alliance, a faith-based restoration nonprofit built to tackle veteran suicide prevention with urgency, humility, and real-world tools that veterans and first responders will actually use.
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A triple agent looks a young soldier in the eye and says the North Gate is about to be hit. Minutes later, the blast proves it. That moment is one of the turning points Sean Martin shares with us, and it’s also part of the story behind why his band, The Quarantined, doesn’t exist just to entertain.

Sean is a prior-service Army airborne infantry veteran who deployed to Iraq and ran hundreds of combat missions. He ...

Many veteran-owned businesses don’t struggle because their founders lack discipline. They struggle because growth demands a new kind of support system: peers who’ve been there, mentors who tell the truth, and a clearer plan for capital, technology, and scale. That’s exactly where our conversation with Alex McKindra goes, drawing a straight line from military service to building stronger outcomes for veterans and m...

Your spouse raises a right hand, and suddenly, your whole life has a new rulebook. Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, sits down with Kayla LaFond, military spouse liaison for the Virginia Department of Veterans Services (DVS), for an honest talk about what the transition into military spouse life really looks like, from the first duty station shock to the long stretches where you feel l...