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The Half Percent Podcast is a show that delves into the lives of the men and women who choose a career in the armed forces. Each show is an interview with a member of the military, whether active duty, reserve or veteran. We dig into the background, motivation, personality, and job (and some crazy stories along the way) of an individual who has chosen to serve in one of the branches of the armed forces.
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Will Jones spent 4 years (2004-2008) in the US Army-1st Cav, with 2 deployments to Iraq. Will's second deployment was a 15 month hitch to Sadr City, Baghdad, where he and his fellow soldiers faced the Madhi Militia. After completing his service, Will came back home to Los Angeles, entered UCLA film school, and later took trips to Afghanistan and an…
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James Karp was a US Marine (1st Battalion, 3rd Marines) and fought at the 2nd Battle of Fallujah. After leaving the Corps, James joined the French Foreign Legion and went on to be an archaeological technician, working throughout North and Central America. Most recently, James volunteered for the Ukraine Foreign Legion and was in country for 6 month…
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Rodger Carlyle was part of the US Navy-AVROC (Aviation Reserve Officer Candidate) program and on track to become a Naval Aviator when a medical issue caused his Naval career to be cut short. Rodger then embarked on a civilian career that took him around the globe, including extensive time in Russia just as the Soviet empire was crumbling. Rodger's …
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DeAnna Charett served 10 years in the US Air Force and 10 years in the US Army Reserve. She is the founder of Bad Habitz Productions https://www.badhabitzproductions.com, a Louisiana-based production company that provides quality filmmaking with a specialization in working with military veterans.By Nick Plosser/DeAnna Charett
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Nick Allen served 8 years in the US Army, earning his Green Beret. Nick's career in special operations was cut short in his first training mission where he sustained multiple concussions. Nick continued to provide value to his team for the remainder of his Army career but like so many in the military, separation and civilian life proved difficult a…
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Col. Mike Bennett (US Army-Retired) spent 30 years in the US Army and is a graduate of Ranger School and the Special Operations Qualification Course. Mike deployed 7 times around the globe during his career and is the author of the Warlock Series, including the latest in the series, Moths to the Flame-Origin of Warlock. Mike describes his career an…
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Mario Morales spent 7 years in the US Marine Corps (2005-2012) with deployments to Africa and Afghanistan. Mario is a board member for Ruck For Veterans, a veteran service organization that organizes bi-annual rucks every Veterans Day and Memorial Day to bring awareness to veterans' issues and aims to bridge the gap between the community and the mi…
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Nick Aicardi served 5 years in the US Marine Corps with a deployment to Afghanistan as an advisor to the Afghan army and police that saw him on way outside the wire on daily patrols on the most dangerous roads in the country. Nick is the host of the excellent Hard To Kill Podcast. Check out their Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5A…
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Steve Stratton spent 20 years in the U.S. Army in a career that was anything but typical. Starting at the White House Communications Agency supporting the needs of Presidents Ford and Carter, Vice Presidents Rockefeller and Mondale and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. His work took him around the world introducing him to new cultures, ways of th…
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Thom Shea spent 23 years as a US Navy SEAL with multiple combat deployments across the globe, and later as an instructor/officer in charge of the SEAL sniper course. Thom's incredible story is one of perseverance, honoring his word and exhibiting the will to keep coming back again and again, no matter what was thrown at him. Thom is the author of "…
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Jose Belen spent 4 years in the US Army and saw combat in the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As a Field Artilleryman (13B), Jose was with Old Ironsides (1st Armored Division) as they pushed into Iraq in spring of 2003 and he speaks in stark and bracing terms of the mindset of preparing for war and the atmosphere of combat that he and his …
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Joe Hayes served four years in the US Marine Corps and deployed twice to Iraq in the early stages of the GWOT. Joe was part of 2nd Battalion/4th Marines (Magnificent Bastards) and his first deployment took him into the heart of the Sunni Triangle and Ramadi, where he and his fire team engaged in an intense gunfight that would forever change Joe and…
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Mike Nelson spent 23 years in the US Army, first in the 82nd Airborne and then the majority of his career in the special operations community as a Green Beret. Mike grew up in an Army family and attended Virginia Military Institute. He served at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels including as the Deputy Director of the US Central Comma…
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Fran Racioppi spent 13 years in the US Army, much of that time in Special Operations as a Green Beret. Fran's Army career saw him deploy 3 times to Iraq as well as to multiple countries throughout Africa. His service there included coordinating Special Operations response to Al-Shabab throughout East Africa. In 2014, he planned and coordinated the …
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Kyle Cassel spent 4 years in the US Marine Corps and another 3 years as a private contractor assigned to the US Army. In that capacity, Kyle was deployed to multiple forward operating bases (FOBs) in southern and eastern Afghanistan, where he spent his days in small workshops and even smaller living quarters. In this wide ranging conversation, Kyle…
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Joe Winslow served in the US Marine Corps for 21 years. Enlisting in the late 1980s, Joe's career took him to Germany as the Berlin Wall fell, to reserve status and then back to active duty and Officer Candidate School through multiple deployments, to the last years where he was Combat Historian in Iraq for the Corps as they battled al Qaeda and ot…
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Kenneth Earl is a retired Navy Master Chief Cryptologist who spent 21 years in the Navy. Deploying around the globe multiple times throughout his career, Earl dealt with America's most sensitive secrets and classified information, helping to keep America's warfighters at the cutting edge of the battle space. After retiring from the Navy, Earl went …
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Matthew Charette spent 5 years in the US Marine Corps. From a family of Marines and military service stretching back generations, Matthew knew early on he was going into the military, taking the ASVAB in 9th grade! Initially assigned to Fleet Anti-Terrorism/Security Forces, Matthew deployed to multiple locations in Europe. Later assigned to 3rd Bat…
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Christopher Strom spent four years in the US Marine Corps, twenty years as a police officer in the NYPD, retiring a sergeant with the NYPD Intelligence Division. In October 2007, Chris was recruited by the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), a government agency that devised top-secret strategies for combating IEDs in Ira…
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Ryan Rogers served over a decade in the US Marine Corps. Inspired to join the Corps by the 9/11 attacks, Ryan's service saw him deployed five times, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan. Ryan also had a ten month stint on the All-Marine Boxing Team, earning a 5-1 record. It was his deployment to Afghanistan as a Squad Leader in 3rd Bat…
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Shaniqua Cousins spent 8 years in the US Navy. Originally from South Carolina, Shaniqua's Naval service took her to frozen Maine, tropical Puerto Rico, Arctic Iceland, sunny Mediterranean Sicily and finally back to the US for a stint at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Shaniqua talks movingly about the Sailors and Marines who she serve…
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JB Spisso spent 26 years in the US Army, including a decade in special operations with the 75 Ranger Regiment. In a career that began with being among the first on the ground jumping into Panama and ended with a deployment to Afghanistan, Spisso has seen the Army go from the end of the Cold War to the height of the Global War on Terror. Spisso held…
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Maury Abreu spent 4 years in the US Marine Corps, including a year-long deployment in Iceland and being selected as a Close Combat Instructor. Maury then took a job as a corrections officer with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Shortly after 9/11, he began working for a government agency training individuals who operate globally and independently wit…
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Toby Harnden spent a decade in the British Royal Navy, deploying Internationally multiple times, retiring from naval service in 1994. A graduate of Oxford, Harnden embarked on a career in journalism that has spanned three decades and sent him to 33 countries while working for The Daily Telegraph and Times of London. While posted in Belfast, Harnden…
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Rydelle Nelson spent 6 years in the U.S. Air Force, with deployments across the globe. Rydelle's service ran the gamut, from 15 months in the desert in support of the GWOT, to Korea (where he had to navigate a frozen hill in the middle of the night to the chow hall-not always successfully) to Key West working on drug and human trafficking interdict…
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Will Jones spent 4 years (2004-2008) in the US Army, with 2 deployments to Iraq. Will's second deployment was a 15 month hitch to Sadr City, Baghdad, where he and his fellow soldiers faced the Madhi Militia. After completing his service, Will came back home to Los Angeles, entered UCLA film school, and later took trips to Afghanistan and another fi…
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D.M. Scott spent 12 years in the Marine Corps, with deployments to Iraq twice (Ramadi, Fallujah) and Afghanistan. While in Iraq, he earned the nickname 'Mutant', for surviving multiple mortar and IED blasts, apparently unharmed. But time would reveal deeper wounds in the form of TBI, and D.M.'s road to recovery was a bumpy one that took him to some…
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William Branum spent 26 years in the U.S. Navy, 23 of those as a SEAL. He deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan in the GWOT, and spent the last three years of his active duty service helping the SEAL teams acquire the funds and gear they needed to stay at the cutting edge. William takes us through the grueling process of what it takes to …
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Brad Thomas spent 20 years in the U.S. Army, first as a Ranger and later as an operator in Delta Force, the Army's Tier 1 special missions unit. Brad was deployed to Somalia and was on the ground in Mogadishu for the incident which became known as 'Black Hawk Down'. Brad would later earn his way into 'The Unit'-Delta Force, and go on to participate…
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Brian Andrews and Jeffery Wilson join the show. Both veterans of the U.S. Navy, Andrews was a nuclear submarine officer and Wilson a combat surgeon who deployed multiple times over his fourteen year career with an East-coast based SEAL team. Together they form the writing duo of Andrews and Wilson, best selling authors of the Tier One Series, Sons …
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Colonel Dean Rondeau (Ret.-U.S. Army) joins the show. Rondeau's Army career spanned 38 years (17 active duty, 21 Reserve/National guard), and included multiple international deployments to Panama, the Balkans and 2 deployments to Iraq (OIF). Rondeau's unique career saw him enter the Army as it was transitioning from the Vietnam era, and retire well…
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Adam Martin joins the show. Adam spent 6 years in the US Army as an MP, including a 15 month deployment to Iraq. Adam's unit was responsible for escorting and guarding convoys on the road from Kuwait to Baghdad was under constant attack from IEDs, RPGs and small arms fire. Adam gives a riveting account of his deployment, including a split-second de…
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LT. Arabia Shanklin (active duty-US Navy), joins the show. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, Arabia's first tour was as a Surface Warfare Officer on the USS Simpson, where she deployed twice to the Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf. After the Simpson was decommissioned, Arabia was assigned to the USS Whidbey Island, where she served as the Command T…
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We diverge a bit on this show from the military to the intelligence world. J.T. Patten has spent a career working for various government intelligence agencies. He was a counterterrorism intelligence advisor and worked with the military special operations community in support of national defense and policy. J.T.'s areas of expertise include Iran and…
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Retired Lieutenant Colonel Oakland "Oak" McCulloch spent 23 years in the US Army, holding numerous leadership positions in the Infantry and Armor branches. McCulloch's service took him around the globe, including Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and Iraq as a General's Aide-de-Camp, support operations in Bosnia as a Congressiona…
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Dave Rogers spent 22 years in the US Navy. From a small town in Massachusetts, Dave's decision to join the Navy would take him around the globe, from the Balkans to the Middle East, to Israel and even a trip to the Vatican to shake hands with Pope John Paul II. Along the way, Dave was lucky enough to gain pearls of wisdom from his superior officers…
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Eddie Molina joins the podcast. Eddie spent a decade in the New Jersey National Guard and was deployed to Iraq, where he was stationed at Camp Cropper, the holding facility near Baghdad International Airport where high-value detainees were kept. Among those detainees were Chemical Ali, Tariq Aziz, and many other prominent Baath Party members. Eddie…
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Captain Tammie Jo Shults (US Navy, Ret.) joins the podcast. Tammie Jo was a Naval Aviator from 1985-1993 (active duty) and until 2001 in the reserves. During her naval career, Tammie Jo earned her wings in the T-34, then as a flight instructor for the T-2 Buckeye, later qualifying in A-7 Corsair II and EA-6B Prowler and eventually becoming one of t…
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James Karp is a former US Marine, French Foreign Legionnaire and current archaeologist. James deployed to Iraq during the early stages of the war and participated in the 2nd battle of Fallujah. After the Marines, James enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. After retiring from military life, James started SV Chasing Horizon, a group of veterans who…
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Linda Maloney spent 20 years in the US Navy, first as an enlisted air traffic controller and then as a Naval Flight Officer, flying both the A-6 “Intruder” and EA-6B “Prowler.” In 1993, Linda became one of the first women in US history to join a combat military flying squadron. Linda received a distinguished air medal for combat, awarded for flight…
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Kini Cole spent 6 years in the US Marine Corps as a Recon Marine, 4 1/2 years with the NYPD and has been in federal law enforcement for 25 years. In addition, Kini is also a 3-time IBJJF World Champion, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Professor and an instructor at South Florida Tactical Athletes, a company that prepares candidates for Special Operations Sel…
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Nick Rahn spent six years in the US Air Force as a member of the Security Forces, which included four deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Nick is also a mixed martial artist who has fought in multiple tournaments and competitions. This is a raw, intensely personal conversation in which Nick opens up about a lifetime of highs and lows, from family …
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KR Paul joins the show. Kay is active duty US Air Force, having initially joined the reserves in August of 2001. Kay's Air Force career has taken her on multiple deployments throughout the world and taught her invaluable lessons along the way...such as how to play Crud, hunting zombies with JTACs on Guam, the elastic definition of 'acquiring more f…
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Mike Camarillo joins the podcast. Mike spent 12 years in the US Navy as a K-9 Handler. Upon leaving the Navy, Mike began a 21-year career in law enforcement across multiple agencies, including serving in the executive protection unit assigned to the president of the Navajo Nation. Since 2003, Mike has been riding with the Navajo-Hopi Honor Riders, …
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Ryan Casperson joins the show. Ryan spent 4 years active duty in the US Army and is currently in his 7th year in the California National Guard. He is the Commander of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Associate Chapter 33-2, based in Stockton, CA. While on active duty, Ryan was a wrecker, or what he describes as a 'tow-service for the Army'. While on …
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Daniel Charles Ross spent seven years on active U.S. Army duty, mostly as a long-duration undercover Military Police Investigator, serving five years in Germany in two trips. Dan has been a senior enlisted Navy Journalist since October 1986, with deployments to places such as Manila, the Philippines; Germany; and New Orleans covering Mardi Gras. Da…
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Naval aviator, author and film producer Paco Chierici joins the show. Paco spent twenty years in the Navy, flying the A-6E Intruder, F-14A Tomcat and the F-5 Tiger II. Paco deployed to combat zones from Somalia to Iraq and was stationed aboard carriers including the USS Ranger, Nimitz and Kitty Hawk. In his career, Paco has accumulated over 3,000 t…
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Jason Piccolo joins the show. Jason spent over a decade in various capacities with the US Army, in active duty and reserve. His service included a deployment to Iraq in 2006 as the Anti-Terrorism Officer for the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula. Jason has also been in law enforcement for over twenty years, including …
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Retired Navy Corpsman Nick Nelsen joins the podcast. Nick spent 20 years in the Navy and had as varied a career as one can have. Nick did two separate tours at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, "best deployment ever!", multiple deployments to Iraq, Japan, the Philippines, the Balkans and finally Afghanistan (where Nick shares his encounter with the Afghan…
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Retired U.S. Army CW4 Greg Coker joins the podcast. Coker flew the AH-6 'Little Bird' attack helicopter with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the 'Nightstalkers'. The most gifted and deadly helicopter pilots in the world, the Nightstalkers are the dedicated wing of Army Special Operations and fly in and out of the most dangerous area…
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