A Veteran of the Marine Corps, Josh Emison is another Vet from a military family. With siblings in the armed forces and a Navy Veteran for a father, Josh grew up all over the world. Virginia in the US, England, Puerto Rico…well, you get the idea. Josh new early on he wanted to have a military career, and his father’s advice was, not surprisingly, go to the Naval Academy. Not really knowing what to expect, Josh applied and was accepted and met a bunch of terrific Marine officers. That directed him to the Marine Corps where he spent five years as an infantry officer. He had two non-combat deploy ..read more

Navy Veteran Sean Bonner started his military career a little later than most. At 28 years of age, he was the “old man” as he began. Growing up in the Philadelphia area, he was an athlete through high school and college. He had a friend who had joined the Marines and Sean had an interest in the military, but it was the 90s, nothing much going on and he had an opportunity to join a stock exchange, so he went to work with them. With the financial markets taking off, Sean did well and started his own business in the financial markets in 1997. During those times, trading was done person to person ..read more

Zachary Green is living the American dream. As a boy, he had three “sparks” as he calls them. First, to be a Marine. He had to wait until he was 18 to do that because his parents didn’t want him to join. Second, he wanted to be a firefighter. He did that. Third, to be an entrepreneur. He has done that one to the max, building a company that saves firefighters’ lives, and now inspiring others with speaking and his book. The military dream started early. Zachary was G.I. Joe every Halloween. While his friends were out riding their bikes, he was in the woods practicing his own maneuvers. When he ..read more

Charles E. Gaudett II started his entrepreneurship journey early – at age four to be exact. Never one to take on a traditional “job”, Charles was always fascinated by building and growing companies. After college he founded a company voted one of the most successful seed companies by Ernst and Young CPAs and he was just getting rolling. He continued his start-build routine until 2010 when someone offered to pay him to help them build their company and the consulting career began organically. He named the company Predictable Profits because in his mind, the basic building blocks for every busin ..read more

Retired Army Colonel Rob Campbell really preferred basketball over the military, but getting cut from the college team his freshman year – he says not having a “left hand” finally caught up with him – plus the fact he ran out of money nudged him toward the Massachusetts National Guard, which had some education financial packages. Rob’s father having been a Reservist was some familiarity, so Rob decided to give it a try. In 1987 he went off to boot camp and decided he really liked what he experienced. It was the challenge and the opportunity to lead that really got Rob’s interest and his excite ..read more

Olaseni Bello moved to the US from Nigeria at age 10. Calling his transition “challenging” to say the least, his assimilation into a radically different environment happened successfully over time. Enrolled in martial arts – Taekwondo specifically – by his mother, learning self-defense is evidence to the challenges Olaseni faced, but that which does no kill us… He went on to be a gold medal-winning Junior Olympian and found his second family with his martial arts community but it happened because he just missed a gold the year before. He was most unhappy, but his sensei (teacher) told him to j ..read more

Navy Veteran Chelsea Mandello actually came from an Air Force family, of course making her the black sheep of the family. There were two main reasons for her “defection”. First, Navy bases were on the coast and Air Force bases tended to be in the middle of nowhere. Second, she was a photo journalist and got sent to the pretty places to shoot pictures that made the Navy look good. Solid reasons for her choice. Her first station was Navy Public Affairs where she would be deployed on a ship but only for a couple of months, then jump to a new ship. So she got to take photos of all the cool stuff ..read more

Growing up a self-proclaimed “old school knucklehead” who loved the spectrum from cowboy John Wayne to the see-the-world “Stripes” movie, Keith Pape went into the military not really knowing what to expect. But he know all along he was not ready for more school after high school and wanted the military badly. He convinced his parents it would save them college tuition and whether they believed him or not, they signed the papers. He joined the Army delayed entry and served through the end of the cold war and one tour in Iraq during Desert Storm. Keith was a 19 Delta Cavalry Scout, a combination ..read more

Armed with a master’s degree in engineering and a desire to be an astronaut, Elana Duffy’s first job was sitting in front of a ton of blueprints figuring out the cost of renovating a large building. A far cry from the space program, Elana went into her boss’ office and said she was going to call a military recruiter and possibly join the Reserves. After a huge laugh from her boss, that sealed it for Elana and she was ready to enlist. Since the Army was the only branch that allows you to choose your field if you enlist, it was Army all the way. Her boot camp experience was actually pretty fun c ..read more

Mike Madrid and Donny Brazeal were shipmates on a Navy destroyer. Both of them were coffee aficionados and so were many of their friends on board. So they pooled their money, bought really good coffee from the top roasters of the world, and then shared each batch so everyone got to sample the best coffees and decide which ones they wanted to brew on a daily basis. Mike went to the Academy then served on destroyers and was statopned in Spain when he and Donny met. Following his move to the states he took a job at the Pentagon which allowed him to do some nonprofit work including Operation Code ..read more