The story of the slave who survived the Alamo
Mandatory Fun
Our guest, attorney-turned-author Lewis Cook discovered that the Alamo was more than a bunch of white male landowners fighting for Texas. The fort was full of women, minorities, and followers of many religions. So he set out to tell the story of the Alamo, a story that he believes belongs to all of us through the diversity of its defenders.
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Why Navy SEALs will storm the beaches of Normandy in 2018
Mandatory Fun
Jumping into freezing water is just part of the legacy of being a Navy SEAL. During World War II, the U.S. Navy Combat Demolition Units were just a handful of guys equipped only with a pair of shorts, a knife, and maybe some explosives. But the roots of being amphibious is still close to the Navy special warfare community – that's why they still call themselves "Frogmen."
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How going to war brings out the best and worst in people
Mandatory Fun
Our guest Sebastian Junger is not a military veteran. He makes that clear, but he sure sounds like one. Maybe it's because he's seen more conflict than many in the United States military. If there's an expert on modern warfare and the long-term effects of those who live it, that person is Sebastian Junger.
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It will make you angry to learn how a veteran lost $100k in benefits
Mandatory Fun
For almost a decade Moses Maddox has built a career helping veterans with personal, academic, and financial counseling. But he didn't become the veterans champion he is today without first overcoming his own transition struggles. Here's how he used his transition experience and knowledge in navigating the VA system to lobby for veterans in DC and take his message to the national level.
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PTSD is temporary, here are the first steps to defeating it
Mandatory Fun
Our guest, the Director of Innovation and Collaboration for the VA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Dr. Wendy Tenhula joins us for a discussion on identifying and treating mental health issues.
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How to 'Conquer Anything,' according to a Green Beret
Mandatory Fun
War has a way of shooting holes in your best-laid plans. Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Stube (Ret.) suffered life-changing wounds during the battle of Operation Medusa in Afghanistan in 2006, but using the Green Beret methods he learned in the Special Forces, Stube knew he could conquer anything.
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Combat poetry reveals what life is like on the Afghan front lines
Mandatory Fun
Marine Corps veteran turned poet, and author Justin Eggen brings modern warfare, poetry, and short stories into a beautiful storm that reveals the inner workings of life on the front lines of Southern Afghanistan.
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4 survival skills that will help you thrive in a disaster or zombie apocalypse
Mandatory Fun
The Mandatory Fun crew got their hands on "100 Deadly Skills: Survival Edition" by national bestselling author and Navy SEAL Clint Emerson. Emerson's book is the SEAL operative's guide to surviving in the wild and being prepared for any disaster, but the crew decides that it's the perfect guide against a zombie apocalypse.
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That time Senator Mitch McConnell was fooled by 'Duffel Blog'
Mandatory Fun
Our guest founder and editor-in-chief of our favorite military satire publication Duffel Blog Paul Szoldra joins us for a hilarious discussion about his adventures in military satire. We discuss Szoldra's first book, the funny times Duffel Blog was mistaken for real news, and his new party game "WTF, Over."
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5 insane stories from the life of Britain's most successful double agent
Mandatory Fun
The real James Bond is finally revealed: A few years ago our guest Larry Loftis decided to stop publishing legal articles and work full-time on researching and writing the story of Dusko Popov, the daring World War II double agent who worked tirelessly to keep the Nazis off guard about the upcoming D-Day invasions.
info_outline"It was like walking onto the surface of the moon," Graham Elwood says of his first experience walking off of a C-17 in Afghanistan.
His experience was not unlike many of our own first times deploying to a far-off edge of the world. We take a long, long C-17 (or god help you, C-130) ride for seemingly endless hours. There are no windows. The plane is packed. Forget about an in-flight movie or looking out the window. And when you walk off, it's invariably the middle of the night and you and the hundred or so people you're with walk off the flightline in a single file.
From there, who knows? There's a good chance the "hurry up and wait" has just begun. For civilians visiting war zones for the first time, it's no different – except they have no idea how to speak the acronym language.
"They said 'When your bird hits the LZ, find your POC, they'll take you to the MWR tent then you can go to the DFAC,'" he jokes. "It's like... what are you saying to me right now, man?"
Elwood is a Los Angeles-based comedian with appearances in comedy clubs across America, on college campuses, and even CBS' Late Late Show. He's also a veteran podcaster with shows like Comedy Film Nerds, and The Political Vigilante, and he's a co-creator of the Los Angeles Podcast Festival.
None of that prepared him for performing for U.S. troops deployed in combat zones. His first documentary, Laffghanistan: Comedy Down Range, is about his first time volunteering to go do just that. It's amazing how fast you can go from playing the Hollywood Improv to playing Bagram Air Base.
For someone who admits he's pretty far removed from the Global War on Terror, it all came home to him when went around the small firebases of Afghanistan. It was his first time in helicopters, driving in unarmored vehicles on the ground in Afghanistan, and seeing minefields. It got real for him for him real fast.
"What was said to me and what I've said to other comedians," he says. "Well don't go over there if you don't want to be changed. It will change you. You have no idea. This is no joke."
Now that Elwood has done a number of these shows and tours around deployed military bases, he looks back at his first experience in this episode of Mandatory Fun.
Nothing could adequately prepare him for performing a comedy act in Afghanistan. All the dive bars and sh*t holes he played as a young comedian is the best thing he could do to prepare. He was still freaking out but couldn't help but put himself in the shoes of young troops.
"I'm here for two weeks," Elwood says. "and MY family is freaking out. Imagine them and their families and how much they're freaking out."
But they quickly realized that they need to be the comics. They were there for a reason: to give American troops fighting overseas a few laughs, a taste of a normal night, and a show to help ease their tension, even if it was only for a short time.
Mandatory Fun is hosted By:
Blake Stilwell: Air Force veteran and Managing Editor
Tim Kirkpatrick: Navy veteran and Editorial Coordinator
Orvelin Valle (aka O.V.): Navy veteran and Podcast Producer
Catch the show on Twitter at: @MandoFun and on our Facebook group.