Thad Forester, Author at

Episode 060 – SPECIAL: MAJ Wes Wilson – The Aftermath of Mark’s death in Shah Mashad

September 29, 2018 By Thad Forester

Today is 8 years since Mark was killed in Afghanistan. Although we were notified in person by his teammates and leadership, there were still many unanswered questions–details no one who wasn’t there could personally share.

Major Wes Wilson was the ODA Detachment Commander when Mark was killed. Their team had split up and Wes was about 200 meters away with the mounted element, which included George, who’s been on the podcast two times before.

Hear Wes give us more details of that intense short period on Sept 29, 2010 in Uruzgan Province, where two Americans and others were killed.

You can read more specifics of Mark’s final stand from his Silver Star citation here.

Purchase his book in paperback, hardback or Kindle here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Ep 059 – Inside the Thai Soccer Team Rescue w/ Maj Charles Hodges

August 20, 2018 By Thad Forester

“If we don’t try to rescue the boys, we’ll be giving them a death sentence.”

On June 23, 2018, a team of 12 boys — who were all between the ages of 11 and 16 — had just finished a weekly soccer practice and went to explore a cave with their coach.

But after they’d entered the cave, heavy rain started falling and the rising water trapped them inside.

1 day later their belongings were found. Then, on July 2 a rescue diver discovered them when he ran out of line and popped up out of the water inside the cave.

While most of the world was captivated by this story, my guest today was in the thick of the action. Major Charles Hodges was the US Mission Commander. He and his team from the 353rd Special Operations Group along with a team from the 31st Rescue Squadron, were brought in to advise and assist the Royal Thai government.

He gives us great detail on their initial thought processes, how he and his team assisted the multinational effort and why they were willing to take risks and be bold b/c they had no choice but to get the Wild Boars out of there, accepting that 3-5 of the boys could die in the process.

Maj Hodges, an Air Force Special Tactics Officer, concluded with: “This is what we train for – going into a crisis and solving problems.”

Rock Tune by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

1000 YouTube Subscribers

July 25, 2018 By Thad Forester

Thank you for all the subscribes on my YouTube Channel. Most of the videos of from my podcasts interviews, which are also easily found on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play and most all other platforms (links located on right side of page). But, for some reason, people use the YouTube channel as well.

Hitting 1000 subscribers is nothing for many people, but for me and my limited content, I’m pretty pleased.

If you want to follow the crowd, check out my YouTube channel here.

1000 youtube subscribers

Ep 058 – Mark Lauren | Bodyweight Master

July 9, 2018 By Thad Forester

Mark Lauren-starfish twist

Back on the show is former Air Force combat controller (CCT) Mark Lauren. In episode 40, we discussed his early life, time in military and how he implemented his workouts in the CCT pipeline. Now, we’re talking a little more about how he observed that the fitness industry at large was backward, ineffective, and unsustainable in it’s approach. So, he created fitness programming that improves performance outside of the gym.

His mantra is “you only get good at what you do”, which guides the development of his programs. Lauren’s understanding of athletic fundamentals allows him to create exercise programs for all ability groups that improve performance and physical condition in record time, injury free, by mastering the fundamentals.

Bodyweight training is Mark’s calling in life. I’ve been following his programs since January 2018 and feel great. I’m a big believer in his philosophy and movements.

Today we talk about those programs and the success of his app at MarkLauren.com.

Follow Mark on Instagram

Rock Tune by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Ep 057 – “I’ve Got a Man Down!” | Memorial Day 2018

May 27, 2018 By Thad Forester

“As a senior AH-64D Longbow Apache aviator rated as Pilot in Command and qualified as Air Mission Commander, I have never witnessed such an act of heroism in my three years of fighting in combat…. My only regret is that I was unable to prevent Jag 28’s death. I will carry that burden indefinitely. Jag 28 continued to advance on the enemy while taking intense enemy fire, and continuously fired his weapon in an attempt to get to his fallen teammate and destroy the enemy. I can only hope to live up to such an example.”

In today’s Memorial Day episode, I describe some of my brother Mark’s final moments on 29 Sept 2010 as he and his team fought terrorists in a remote village in Afghanistan. The particulars I cover are from the book “My Brother in Arms” and testimony provided by one of the Apache pilots who watched it all go down with his naked eye.

I also report on last weekend’s “Jag 28 Birthday Walk” in Haleyville. Man, it was a great time.

To learn more about Mark Forester, here are a few links:

National Geographic Eyewitness War on Mark Forester or official site here

Lifetime Channel Coming Home

Podcast: Play in new window | Download