Original Air Date - 9/25/2019 2019 marks the 40th Anniversary of  VA's Vet Centers. They started as outreach for Vietnam Veterans who did not utilize the VA as much as WWII Veterans. This week’s interview is Pennsylvania National Guard Veteran Michael Fisher who is the Senior Readjustment Counselor. He leads and has direct oversight of over 300 Vet Centers, 80  Mobile Vet Centers and the  Vet Center Call Center. We broke it all down - how vet centers started, their differences between them and VA Medical Centers, their services and who is eligible.  Borne the Battle Veteran ..read more

If there is anyone who knows what it means to be a warrior, it is Air Force Veteran D.J. Eagle Bear Vanas. D.J. Vanas travels around the country speaking at conventions packed with audience members, giving motivational presentations that teach people how to find their unique warrior spirit. You might be wondering, what exactly is the warrior spirit? Tribal nations, Fortune 500 companies, the military, and even the White House on two occasions have hired Vanas to answer that question. This episode of Borne the Battle offers the opportunity to hear him describe what exactly it means to embody th ..read more

This week's Borne the Battle – a benefits breakdown – features VA Mobile Mental Health Apps, which provides free tools and information to support and help Veterans manage PTSD-related symptoms and stress, learn mindfulness practices, aim to reduce suicide risk and strengthen parenting skills. The apps were designed to meet the needs of Veterans; they are free, easy to download, and are available via VA App Store, Google Play and Apple App Store. According to the 2021 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, some hopeful data shows that 399 fewer Veterans died from suicide in 2019 tha ..read more

If you know of Black Rifle Coffee Company or watch Mayans MC on FX, you may already know this week’s Borne the Battle guest – Army Veteran, entrepreneur, actor and overall entertainer Vincent Vargas. It was a windy road that led him to this point in his life. Too many wild parties got him kicked out of college and ended his childhood dream of playing professional baseball. At 20, as a young father who was no longer playing ball or attending school, Vargas felt like a disappointment to his family. In 2003, during the invasion of Baghdad at the outbreak of the Iraq War, Vargas watched a televise ..read more

With 44 years of service under his belt, Air Force Veteran, four-star general and former Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force Larry Spencer decided that he earned a well-deserved break and retired on a Friday in 2015. But that very following Monday, he went right back to work, promoting aerospace education in his new role as president of the Air Force Association. Did Spencer regret going straight back into work after retiring and does he recommend it to others? You might be surprised by his answer and what he recommends Veterans do instead. While Spencer commanded at all levels of the mi ..read more

This week’s Borne the Battle features Army Veteran Greg Williams, who has over 30 years of experience  training the skills and techniques used to identify specific human behavior patterns. Over that time, he's instructed every Tier One military force in the United States, as well as various international organizations. After serving six years in the Army, Williams transitioned to civilian life, working as an urban law enforcement professional. He discusses the specific skills and abilities he acquired while on the force and the limitations he faced while on duty. In the episode, Williams ..read more

Army Veteran James Stejskal spent nine years in West Berlin during the Cold War, serving in a clandestine and small special forces unit known as Detachment A. His mission bordered on the impossible, tasked with being ready to cross into East Germany and sabotage the Soviet army at a moment’s notice in case the Soviet Union ever decided to launch an invasion. He spent 23 years in service with special forces and 13 years operating under the CIA. Stejskal lived a life brimming with unique experiences. A few of the stories he shared on this episode of Borne the Battle include how he: Fought to ge ..read more

SSVF is a program administered by VA to rapidly rehouse Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. National director of the SSVF program, John Kuhn, joins this episode of Borne the Battle to speak on the following: How the SSVF operates and what resources eligible Veterans can receive from utilizing it (2:18) An overview of the requirements organizations must meet before becoming a SSVF provider (5:02) How a local nonprofit can become a SSVF partner (6:04)  Additional VA resources available for Veterans needing eviction protections, homelessness avoidance, and rapid rehousing ..read more

One day, while in his university dormitory in the late 1950s, Billy Mills opened a window and set a chair against it. He then got up on the chair and mentally prepared himself to jump. As he stood, he thought about his difficult upbringing as an orphan and the racism he faced, even as an NCAA All-American runner. He simply wanted to leave all his troubles behind. Suddenly, Mills felt a jolt of energy moving beneath his skin. That was when he heard “an unspoken word,” a sound that sounded like it was from his father’s voice. It was from that experience that Mills found his dream to heal his bro ..read more

Original Air Date -7/27/2021 This week's episode of Borne the Battle features one of its largest panels to date, as representatives from VA and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) break down the details of the Alaska Native Veterans Program of 2019.  This episode features: Program manager Paul Krabacher (BLM). Acting Chief, Adjudication Services Section, Native Allotment Lead Candy Grimes (BLM). Land Transfer Resolution Specialist and Acting Native Liasion Ralph Eluska (BLM). Deputy Communications Director and Marine Corps Veteran Eric Tausch (BLM). Tribal Government Relations Specialist ..read more