by The American Warrior Association
This Veterans Day, the American Warrior Association proudly launches Post-Op Reflections, a new video podcast that gives service members, veterans, first responders, and their families the microphone to share raw, real stories of moral injury, healing, and unbreakable purpose. Full episode drops 11.11.25. Subscribe now. Share with a hero who needs to know they’re not alone.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
11/7/2025
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August 7, 2026
<p>Daylon Swearingen rode a bull to the whistle at the PBR World Finals — and the ride counted. The next day he was on an operating table with a fractured T10 vertebra. Ten weeks later, he sat down with hosts Will Spencer and Neil Noakes for one of the most honest conversations Post-Op Reflections has ever recorded.</p><p>The 2022 PBR World Champion — the first New York native ever to win it — grew up a rodeo kid in Piffard, New York, wearing his grandpa's chaps and carrying his mother's Bible verses in his gear bag. His mother's own story anchors this episode: shot twice by Daylon's biological father after she filed a restraining order, she survived, became a nurse, and raised two boys on faith and perseverance. When the hosts name what Daylon and his brother carried out of that childhood — moral injury — he says it's the first time he's ever heard the term.</p><p>Along the way, Daylon takes us inside the sport: why bull riders compete against the bull and not each other, the bullfighters who lay their bodies over fallen riders, the concussion battles he hid when he was young, the helmet that saved his life — now in the Cowboy Hall of Fame — and the mentality he leans on before every ride: he rides with his left hand down and pictures God riding with His right, balancing him out. His rule for the broken seasons of life is the same one he gives young riders and struggling warriors alike: don't limit God.</p><p>Post-Op Reflections is a production of the American Warrior Association, confronting moral injury to restore hope and renew purpose for service members, veterans, first responders, and their families. Learn more at www.awa-usa.org.</p><p>Whatever arena you fight in, you are not alone — and healing is still within reach.</p>
July 4, 2026
<p>Chris Cassidy has done what almost no American has ever done. He served ten years as a U.S. Navy SEAL — deploying to Afghanistan in the earliest weeks after 9/11 as a Ground Assault Force Commander, earning two Bronze Stars, one with "V" for valor, and a Presidential Unit Citation. Then NASA selected him. He flew three missions to the International Space Station, spent 378 days in space, completed 10 spacewalks, and served as Chief of the Astronaut Office. He is one of only three Americans ever to wear both the SEAL Trident and the astronaut pin.</p><p>In this raw, honest conversation with hosts Will Spencer and Neil Noakes, released this Fourth of July, Chris reflects on the road that took him from a small town in Maine to combat in Kandahar, from BUD/S Class 192 to the vacuum of space, and now to Arlington, Texas, where he serves as President & CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation.</p><p>Along the way he shares the story of Captain Melillo — the Marine officer who gave a young Chris the gift of an opportunity that changed everything — and the surprise reunion his wife Peggy pulled off thirty years later. He tells the story of a 2013 spacewalk that nearly ended in tragedy when his crewmate began drowning inside his own helmet. He talks about JDAM, the puppy his SEAL team rescued from Afghanistan and brought home to America. And he shares why the bravest word any warrior can say is help.</p><p>Post-Op Reflections is a production of the American Warrior Association, confronting moral injury to restore hope and renew purpose for service members, veterans, first responders, and their families. Learn more at <a href="http://www.awa-usa.org">www.awa-usa.org</a>.</p><p>This Independence Day, we honor every American who raises their hand and says, "Here am I. Send me." If you or someone you know is struggling, you are not alone.</p>
June 20, 2026
<p>Sheriff Bill Waybourn has given more than 40 years to public safety — from his start as an 18-year-old in the U.S. Air Force, to becoming Texas's youngest police chief at age 26, to serving 31 years in that chair, to now leading the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, which serves more than 2.1 million Texans.</p><p>In this raw, honest conversation with host Neil Noakes and guest co-host Dr. Heather Twedell, Sheriff Waybourn talks about the weight his deputies and correctional officers carry every day — the realities of a county jail that has quietly become one of the region's largest mental health facilities, the fight against fentanyl and human trafficking, and the children and veterans the system too often forgets.</p><p>He also opens up about the foundation that has held it all together: his wife Laura, the ten children they've raised — eight of them adopted out of trauma — and a faith that frames every decision. He shares the late Chris Kyle's continued legacy through the Chris and Taya Kyle Foundation, why he believes "strong marriages make good countries," and the conviction that has carried him through four decades of service: that he is simply a vessel.</p><p>Post-Op Reflections is a production of the American Warrior Association, confronting moral injury to restore hope and renew purpose for service members, veterans, first responders, and their families. Learn more at <a href="http://www.awa-usa.org">www.awa-usa.org</a>.</p><p>If you or someone you know is struggling, you are not alone.</p>
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This Veterans Day, the American Warrior Association proudly launches Post-Op Reflections, a new video podcast that gives service members, veterans, first responders, and their families the microphone to share raw, real stories of moral injury, healing, and unbreakable purpose. Full episode drops 11.11.25.
Subscribe now. Share with a hero who needs to know they’re not alone.
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