SOFREP Radio

This week on SOFREP Radio we welcome former Air Force interrogator and prolific author James Rosone.Rosone served six years in the Wisconsin Army National Guard as a member of the 1/126th Field Artillery Battalion. He left the National Guard in 2002 to pursue a career in the Air Force. It was during his time in the Air Force that I deployed to Iraq for the first time. Rosone served nearly three and a half years in Iraq both as a military member and then as Department of Defense and Department of State armed contractor.During his ten years in the military and eight years as a Department of Defense and Department of State contractor, he fought and hunted down Islamic extremists throughout the Middle East, Eurasia, and Europe.James has served in the J2 and J3 commands for US Central Command, US European Command, and US Special Operations Command in Florida and Germany, advising commanders on a variety of identity intelligence and biometric issues. He holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Oxford as well as an MBA. He's written technical articles for European journals and advised numerous European leaders in the fields of identity intelligence and biometrics.But like so many veterans, Rosone came away from his service with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In this unique episode, we discuss Rosone's own battles with PTSD and hear about how writing has become a tool for healing. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

19 Mar 202154min

This week on SOFREP Radio, we are pleased to welcome Gary Powers Jr.Gary Powers is the son of Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Spy Plane pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 during a reconnaissance mission. Growing up, Gary never really knew the historical importance of the U-2 Incident or what his father really did. It wasn't until his death in 1977 that Gary started to untangle the myths from the truth and learn about his father's military history.In this scintillating episode, Gary Powers Jr. unpacks his father's legacy, the Cold War and his book Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy.More About Gary PowersBorn June 5, 1965, Gary holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy, a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, and a Master’s Degree in US History. Gary is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of The Cold War Museum located at Vint Hill, VA.He is the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Cold War Theme Study which assists the National Park Service to identify historic Cold War sites for preservation. In 2015, he consulted for a Steven Spielberg thriller, Bridge of Spies, about the 1962 spy exchange between KGB spy Rudolph Abel and CIA U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, Sr.Gary is the author of Letters from a Soviet Prison and Spy Pilot. He lectures internationally, appears regularly on news broadcasts, and is married with one son. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

12 Mar 202152min

This week, we are excited to welcome Jack Devine back to SOFREP Radio.With a career in the CIA that spanned more than three decades, Devine knows more about the American intelligence apparatus than most today. From the Iran-Contra affair and undermining the Russians in Afghanistan to serving as CIA’S acting director of operations and associate director of operations in the mid-1990s, Devine is a spy’s spy.Since his first appearance on SOFREP Radio in 2017, Devine has been hard at work. He brings to this week’s episode a deep dive into the history of U.S.-Russian espionage, which has shown remarkable strategic consistency on the part of the Russians even as the tools of spycraft (especially cyber) have evolved since the Cold War.With this issue very much on the minds of our national security and policy professionals, our media, and informed members of the public, Devine’s new book, Spymasters Prism: The Fight Against Russian Aggression is a timely and informative look at the ongoing spy-vs-spy struggle through the eyes of someone who was intimately involved.Read the full review of Spymasters Prism on SOFREP here.Based on personal experience and exhaustive research, Jack Devine builds a vivid and complex mosaic that illustrates how Russia’s intelligence activities have continued uninterrupted throughout modern history, using fundamentally identical policies and techniques to undermine our democracy as recently as the 2016 Presidential Elections.Don’t miss this important episode that will change how you think about espionage, our enemies and the future of America.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

5 Mar 20211h 25min

This week on SOFREP Radio we welcome former Special Forces Green Beret Sean "Buck" Rogers.Sean Rogers join the military at the age of twenty-one. After a serious injury during Ranger selection, he changed course and went on to Special Forces. As a Green Beret he served two combat deployments to Afghanistan. When his military service was complete, he returned to serve his community as a member of the Denver Police Department. Always challenging himself, Sean earned a master's degree and committed himself to running ultramarathons.Today, he uses his experience to help the next generation of Special Forces hopefuls through his podcast, The FNG Podcast, and his YouTube channel, FNG AcademyThis week, Sean also tells us about his new book, Rising Above: A Green Beret's Story of Childhood Trauma and Ultimate Healing, which was just released.About Rising Above:A simple car accident changed the path of six-year-old Sean Rogers’s life forever. His single mother checked into the hospital as a vibrant young woman and checked out as a full-blown opioid addict. From that day forward, Sean’s life became a silent nightmare of abuse, neglect, chronic hunger, and slow, helpless withdrawal from everything and everyone he loved.In Rising Above, Green Beret Sean Rogers chronicles the toughest battle of his life: the long, painful fight to confront his darkest fears and reclaim his life. After struggling as a young man to accept the raw trauma of his past, he eventually learned to understand and embrace it, ultimately using it to become an elite Special Forces operator.Through this profoundly honest and inspiring memoir, Rogers explores what it means to make the pain of your past work for you, showing you how to harness the truth of your own reality and take control of your destiny. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

26 Feb 20211h 3min

This week on SOFREP Radio we are thrilled to welcome Jessica Donati.Donati covers foreign affairs for The Wall Street Journal in Washington DC, and has reported from over a dozen countries in the role. She joined the paper as the bureau chief in Kabul in 2015, and lived in Afghanistan for over four years.Previously, she worked for Reuters in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, covering both the conflicts in Libya and Afghanistan. Her work on a series on the war in Libya was chosen as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2012.In this exclusive interview with Jessica Donati, we dive into her new book, Eagle Down: The Last Special Forces Fighting the Forever War, and hear first hand accounts from the Special Forces battlespace in Afghanistan.In her new book, Eagle Down: The Last Special Forces Fighting the Forever War, Jessica Donati takes readers into the lives of U.S. Special Forces on the front lines against the Taliban and Islamic State, where a new and covert war is keeping Afghanistan from collapse.In 2015, the White House claimed triumphantly that “the longest war in American history” was over. But for some, it was just the beginning of a new war, fought by Special Operations Forces, with limited resources, little governmental oversight, and contradictory orders.Through successive policy directives under the Obama and Trump administrations, America has come to rely almost entirely on US Special Forces, and without a long-term plan, is failing to stabilize Afghanistan, undermining US interests both at home and abroad.Eagle Down is a riveting account of the heroism, sacrifice, and tragedy experienced by those that continue to fight America’s longest war.Don't miss this poignant, timely episode of SOFREP Radio. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

19 Feb 202148min

This week on SOFREP Radio, we're proud to host Mike Hayes, former Navy SEAL and commander of SEAL Team Two.Mike Hayes has lived a lifetime of once-in-a-lifetime experiences. He has been held at gunpoint and threatened with execution. He’s jumped out of a building rigged to explode, helped amputate a teammate’s leg, and made countless split-second life-and-death decisions. He’s written countless emails to his family, telling them how much he loves them, just in case those were the last words of his they’d ever read. Outside of the Navy SEALs, he’s run meetings in the White House Situation Room, negotiated international arms treaties, and developed high-impact corporate strategies.Over his many years of leadership, he has always strived to be better, to contribute more, and to put others first. That’s what makes him an effective leader, and it’s the quality that he’s identified in all of the great leaders he’s encountered. That continual striving to lift those around him has filled Mike’s life with meaning and purpose, has made him secure in the knowledge that he brings his best to everything he does, and has made him someone others can rely on.In his new book, Never Enough, Mike Hayes recounts dramatic stories and offers battle- and boardroom-tested advice that will motivate listeners to do work of value, live lives of purpose, and stretch themselves to reach their highest potential.You won't want to miss this straight talk with Hayes, exclusive glimpses into the book, and a handful of stories from his time in the Navy SEALs and beyond. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

12 Feb 202154min

This week on SOFREP Radio we're excited to welcome our guest, Col. Michael Leonard (ret.), US Air Force pilot and author of the new book An American Combat Bird Dog Pilot: From the Battlefield of Vietnam and Beyond.In this exclusive interview with Leonard, we get a first hand account of his adventures, from his days before the military right on through to his years as an executive working for companies like the Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation and Lockheed-Martin.Of note is Leonard's recounting of close calls as a O-1 Bird Dog pilot in Vietnam. As a Forward Air Control, or FAC, Leonard was often the only link between ground forces and friendly artillery fire. In his little fixed-wing plane, Leonard had to circle over hot battlezones, dodging enemy anti-air and small arms fire while calling in coordinates on enemy locations.Don't miss this glimpse into the world of the Bird Dog pilots of Vietnam; a job that consisted of “long hours of sheer boredom, interspersed by moments of stark terror.”About Col. Michael Leonard (Ret.)Leonard is a retired Air Force officer and highly experienced global business executive. He was a USAF Command Pilot with a military career spanning 20 years, including 2 combat tours to Vietnam in 1965-1966, and 1969-1970. Mike spent 4 years flying the VC-140B Special Air Mission aircraft during his time with the 89th Military Airlift Wing, the “Home of Air Force One”. His combat decorations include 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 9 Air Medals, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.  About the BookAn American Combat Bird Dog Pilot is a compelling look at the life and times of a member of the Silent Generation. In it, Michael Leonard recounts flying a small, unarmed USAF spotter plane — called an O-1 Bird dog — near ground level risking life and limb just feet above the jungle canopy. Leonard and his Bird dog were the turkey in the proverbial turkey shoot.The recollection of the life and death struggle on Thanksgiving Day in 1969 with North Vietnamese forces hell bent on capturing or killing the crew of a downed chopper near the Cambodian border is about as hairy as it gets. Then the final straw — and the catalyst for the book — which took place more than 40 years later; Leonard made contact with one of the crewmembers from that chopper.Surviving combat instilled a chameleon-like sense of innovation in Leonard and a kind of ‘challenge accepted’ attitude you might expect from someone used to taking risks and operating on a wing and a prayer.An American Combat Bird Dog Pilot is now available in ebook and paperback versions. Don't miss this thrilling tale of an untold side of the war in Vietnam and hair-raising stories from a life just feet above the treetops. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

5 Feb 20211h 1min

In this exclusive interview, Alec and Mark — alongside Michael Marks, who captured their story — pull back the cloak on the origins of the operation to build, test and field the first Predator drone and recall what it was like to view, for the first time, a live feed of a target area through the eyes of a UAV.Not only did the pair lead the clandestine mission, they actually put eyes on Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan — through the Predator — before the 9/11 attacks. After 39 months of back and forth with the CIA and DoD Publication Review Boards, their manuscript has finally been fully cleared for release.Their tale is chronicled in their new book, Never Mind, We'll Do it Ourselves.With commentary from Charlie Allen former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence, Lieutenant General John Campbell, USAF (Ret) and USAF Lieutenant Colonel Gabe Brown, survivor of the Battle of Robert’s Ridge, this book will introduce you to the unlikely team of patriots, innovators and rule-breakers who defied the odds to relentlessly prosecute America’s most pivotal mission. A testament to the accuracy of this book is that the CIA fought for almost four years to prevent it from ever being published.Don't miss this first hand account of the early days of the CIA's mission to track Usama bin Laden, the start of the War in Afghanistan and the legacy of the Predator Drone in modern warfare.Want to get SOFREP on your phone? Download our free mobile app for Apple and Android devices. Subscribe to get access to our podcast, SOFREP Radio, our library of veteran-authored books, and our exclusive Team Room Forum.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

29 Jan 20211h 8min