#150: Supporting Green Berets Of Every Generation - Green Beret Foundation President & CEO Charlie Iacono

Charlie Iacono https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesiacono/ is the President and CEO of Green Beret Foundation https://greenberetfoundation.org/. Almost two years into his tenure, Charlie is pushing the foundation, and its staff, to become the premier charitable organization supporting America’s most important asset; our US Army Green Berets. Charlie joined joined Fran Racioppi https://www.linkedin.com/in/francisracioppijr/ from what may be his biggest brain child yet; the Stars and Stripes Classic https://youtu.be/vdowjNzmicc?si=MKKb8XBzzEORTGBm. An epic battle between Green Berets and Navy SEALS from the home of greatness and the GOAT, Gillette Stadium. In his first long-form interview since taking charge, he shared his vision for the foundation, where it’s come from, the impact it’s made on Green Berets of every generation and how 2025 is set to become the most important year in its history as it increases investment in programs supporting the careers and health of transitioning operators. Leading non-profit organizations is hard. Leading one that lives up to the standard of the Green Beret is even harder. So Charlie explains what’s important to him, how he’s transforming the staff, why service is the foundation of the job, and how building relationships is critical to making an impact. Check out our conversation from the New England Patriots https://www.patriots.com/ Bubble prior to the Stars and Stripes Classic. Although our snake eating bearded bastards fell to the squids, the intensity of the game looked more like a classic from the 80’s. Plus, there’s always next year. Follow us on social media https://www.instagram.com/jedburghpodcast/, read the full episode on our website https://greenberetfoundation.org/the-jedburgh-podcast/, and head over to our YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@jedburghpodcast channel or your favorite podcast platform https://pod.link/1558608802 to catch all our coverage from the Stars and Stripes Classic. HIGHLIGHTS 0:00 Introduction2:06 Welcome to the Stars and Stripes Classic3:55 GBF progress 8:11 Creating the Jedburgh Media Channel11:49 Next Ridgeline 2.020:20 GBF Scholarships24:21 Processing VA Disability Claims30:58 Warrior Sportsmen Salmon Fishing37:42 Goals for 2025 QUOTES “There’s just so much cross pollination between the two sports. Between football and lacrosse. And then lacrosse and the SOF world.“I’m a big believer that there are no days off.”“We need to do it for the next conflict. We need to be ready to pick up that phone when that phone rings.”“The team wins as a team. The team loses as a team. The team struggles as a team. The team succeeds and excels as a team.”“They need to be coached up on it. What does your next job look like? What do you want your next to look like?” “The biggest piece to Next Ridgeline 2.0 program is it focuses on the promotion of strength of mind, body and spirit.” “It’s critically important that we as Green Berets talk about who we are, why we’re different, and why it matters..”“Anybody who serves should not have to pay a dime out of their own personal money to further themselves.” The 2025 goal is to “continue to make this organization into something that the entire regiment, all generations, as well as their families are proud of.” Special thanks to the Premier Lacrosse League https://premierlacrosseleague.com/, the New England Patriots, and all our sponsors who supported the game. 2025 is here and Green Beret Foundation continues to lead from the front no matter the challenge.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Fran Racioppi?

  Welcome to the Jedburgh Podcast. I'm the creator and host, Fran Ruchopi. Each episode, I speak with transformative leaders, visionaries, drivers of change, and those dedicated to winning no matter the challenge. The Jedburgh Podcast is founded in the lineage of the special operations Jedburgh teams of the past and is an official program of the Green Beret Foundation, supporting our nation's US Army Special Forces and their families. Leadership sets the tone in any organization. As Green Berets, we expect our leaders to be driven, demonstrate creativity and adaptability, seek solutions to complex problems, and to genuinely be a good dude. If our leaders set the example, it's easy to get on board and make greatness happen. Charlie Iacono is the President and CEO of Green Beret Foundation.

• 0:43Fran Racioppi?

  Almost two years into his tenure, Charlie's pushing the foundation and its staff to become the premier charitable organization supporting America's most important asset, our US Army Green Berets. Charlie joined me from what may be his biggest brainchild yet, the Stars and Stripes Classic, an epic battle between Green Berets and Navy SEALs from the home of greatness and the GOAT, Gillette Stadium. In our first long-form interview since taking charge, Charlie shared his vision for the foundation, where it's come from, the impact it's made on Green Berets of every generation, and how 2025 is set to become the most important year in its history as it increases investment and programs supporting the careers and health of transitioning operators. Leading nonprofit organizations is hard. Leading one that lives up to the standard of the Green Beret is even harder.

• 1:27Fran Racioppi?

  So Charlie explains what's important to him, how he's transforming the staff, why service is the foundation of the job, and how building relationships is critical to making an impact. Check out our conversation from the Patriots bubble prior to the Stars and Stripes Classic. Although our snake-eating, bearded bastards fell to the squids, the intensity of the game looked more like a classic from the 80s. Plus, there's always next year. Follow us on social media and head over to our YouTube channel or your favorite podcast platform to catch all of our coverage from the Stars and Stripes Classic. Special thanks to the premier lacrosse league, the New England Patriots, and all our sponsors who supported the game. 2025 is here, and Green Beret Foundation continues to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. Charlie, we're in the field house at Gillette Stadium. I mean, this is one of those bucket list items.

• 2:11Fran Racioppi?

  I think you can't even put it on a bucket list item because you never actually think that you would end up in the field house for the New England Patriots adjacent to Gillette Stadium, but we're here because we're two days Days out from the Stars and Stripes classic Green Beret Foundation versus Navy SEAL Foundation. Our boys are behind us practicing, putting in the work. This was a brainchild of yours. What's it mean to be here?

• 2:32Speaker 01

  I mean, you touch upon it on the bucket list. New England boy through 20 years of just utter dominance that came out of this facility. True legends of the NFL game. And you know, a lot of people don't know, there's a lot of lacrosse interwoven into the New England Patriots history of those 20 years of dominance. And so to come up with this idea last year with Mike Rabel on the field of Gillette Stadium at the last quarterfinals and to have it here be now, one year later, putting it all together and our guys behind us doing the work, putting the work in. Jelling as a team is is kind of a dream come true, to be honest with you. It's lacrosse is just something that's really been a very large part of my life, played a fair amount as a young man, and it really shaped me into the leader that I am today. And then also to you to be a coach and a dad to two boys who

• 3:15Speaker 01

  love the sport and just, just the essence of the game. And you know, I have to be honest with you, it's, it was the brainchild of the concept of the indigenous tribes brought us this game. The forefathers of this game are the Native Americans, the creators game. It's meant to be a healing game. And I also say that the indigenous tribes were also the first unconventional warfighters. And it's really remarkable that you see how there's just so much cross pollination between the two sports, between football and lacrosse, and then lacrosse and the soft world. And there's a testament to those guys out there on that field today because they're obviously they're incredible operators, but they're also really damn good lacrosse players.

• 3:52Fran Racioppi?

  You've been now on the job about a year and a half or so, and you came into the organization and one of those primary responsibilities that you had was to really think about where are we going? What do we want this organization to be? What is it going to represent? And not only what is it going to represent in the nonprofit space, but what's it going to represent for the command itself? For the guys who like these who are active still? You have the veterans like me who are out. That's one subset of an audience, but we got the guys who are in, you got guys who are getting ready to get out. And then there's the vision that has to come along with, how does the

• 4:34Fran Racioppi?

  organization work with other organizations? So certainly not a simple task that was brought to bear when you took over. As you look back over the last year and a half and the progress that's been made, what are your thoughts?

• 4:49Speaker 01

  It is just such an incredible honor to lead this foundation and to be a part of this community that has been incredibly welcoming from both the active duty constituency, to the veteran constituency, to the families, to those who are in our community, who are Gold Star spouses. So it's an honor. And so much has been accomplished in the last year and a half. Get into that in a little bit, but there's still a tremendous amount of work to be done. I'm a big believer that there are no days off. And, you know, even when you're taking some time off, you still should be thinking about how you can be that force multiplier, how you can get that word, or the story of the foundation out there. How do we elevate the awareness to not only our own community that we're serving, but quite frankly, the American public?

• 5:32Speaker 01

  We have started the consolidation in the market, in the nonprofit space, at least in the SF space. Last year, we've merged four organizations, four incredibly storied organizations into the foundation's portfolio, programs and services. We have begun working on other consolidating efforts. And not in the premise that we believe that we do it better, or that we are the best. We're doing it under the premise and the reasoning rationale, because we need to do it for the next conflict. We need to be ready to pick up that phone when that phone rings, for the active duty community, for the veteran community, for the spousal family community. But we also have to be able to raise a substantial amount

• 6:15Speaker 01

  of money to be able to provide those programs and services, to be able to further enhance programs like Andy's Fund, or the Warrior Sportsman Fund, or the Special Forces Scholarship Fund, another great organization that we brought into the fold this year. And you can really only do that through consolidation because the corporate landscape, the philanthropic landscape, ultra-high net worth donor landscape has said to myself and has just said to others, "We want to support, but we can't support 15 or 20 of you at the same level. We want to support one." So I'm a big believer, very much like the ethos in the regiment, you know, you lead from the front. And so we're leading that effort and, you know, we're, we're really excited about just this past Thursday, the announcement of the Warrior Fund, Third Special Forces Group Warrior Fund, Matt Karras and that, that team have been doing incredible

• 6:59Speaker 01

  work for Third Special Forces Group. They're now a part of the GBF program and portfolio. So there's that piece. And then there's all the other stuff that we've been building on. Brand enhancement, awareness, understanding of who we are as a foundation, the programs and services that we offer to all of our constituencies. And then there's of course, the Jedburgh Media Channel, you know? I mean, we were sitting there and we kind of were talking at the tailgate and having beers and, you know, that story quickly evolved to an incredible partnership that has garnered incredible outcomes in a very short period of time. And somebody just recently said to me, "What you guys are doing takes years to happen with a media channel." And you guys saw that with the D-Day documentary, the, you know, the trip out to Alaska. A lot of the, the stuff that's coming out that

• 7:41Speaker 01

  we're producing, I mean, we're growing at an unprecedented rate. And there is a positive message in that. And it's, we can share our story and we can lead with that mindset of positivity wins the day and like, say like, we want to work with people and tell those stories. But furthermore, we're helping future generations of Green Berets. So when you and I are long gone, the work that we're doing right now, the seeds that we're laying will have grown into a, a forest of really strong success and mechanisms to support the community that's, that's in need of support. And it doesn't always mean supporting a guy that's injured or a family member that needs help. You know, support comes in lots of different shapes and sizes and, you know, we're always open to new innovative ways

• 8:23Speaker 01

  to work with people. So the last year and a half, to sum it up, it's been an awesome adventure. Really great success. Have met tons of incredible people. Have been met with some challenges. We serve all generations of Green Berets and their families. And I say to my team all the time, positivity wins the day. And that's a, it's kind of like an ethos that people laugh at when they first hear it. And I had some sweatshirts made of that, but it is really that. Like the work we're doing is positive and we're just excited to tell the story.

• 8:50Fran Racioppi?

  But we have had the opportunity to tell some really impactful stories and there's so many more on the docket right now. I mean, we're sitting here recording, we're going to do a few episodes where we got content right now. That's sitting out till December, if we did nothing else.

• 9:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:01Fran Racioppi?

  And so the biggest challenge honestly often becomes like, how are we even going to push all this out?

• 9:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:05Fran Racioppi?

  But that's a good problem to have. And that's a byproduct of the relationship that we've built and that not only internally in the organization, but with our external partners, with the support that we've gotten from USASOC, the support we've gotten from First Special Forces Command, from the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center. And you know, all of those organizations critically instrumental in putting together the D-Day documentary, Unknown Heroes, Behind Enemy Lines at D-Day, where we told the story of Operation Jedburgh. And then we went for, we went to D-Day and we sat down with all those leaders again. And then we started putting those things out. We have the support of the Sergeant Major of the Army. We're talking to the Secretary of the Army about going in and having to sit down with her. We've got five episodes in Congress, not because we reached out to Congress,

• 9:48Fran Racioppi?

  but because the Congressional Caucus that the veteran House members are a part of, reached out to us and said, we, we would like to sit down with you. And those are things that three and a half years ago, that was a dream.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:02Fran Racioppi?

  That I had, and I often sit back and I was standing here a few minutes ago with Phil Badafico, who's the Executive Vice President for Gillette Stadium for special events. And I said, in tomorrow, we're going to bring our Dodge WC 51 out on the field of Gillette Stadium.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:19Fran Racioppi?

  The stadium that I grew up with, the Patriot helmet sits behind me.

• 10:23Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 10:24Fran Racioppi?

  Okay, I've got a lot of, as a fan, a lot of tears and of joy and of happiness and possibly some blood somewhere. Okay, at times, watching these guys and I'm going to look up around the stadium and do the thing that I love.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:39Fran Racioppi?

  And that's because of what the foundation has done. And I tell people a lot of times, you know, I'm proud and honored to have the opportunity to be part of the foundation. But in many ways, I'm also a client. Because what's the goal of the foundation? It's to help and support Green Berets of all generations to do great things and achieve their dreams. And for me, this partnership has done that. And it's allowed me to take what I wanted to do. And what got me there wasn't going to get me to where I needed to go. And this has allowed for that to happen and has built that foundation. And I say that because I don't want to take the opportunity to thank you.

• 11:22Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 11:22Fran Racioppi?

  For that, because this is, I couldn't be more excited about where we are, where we've come from and where we're going. And that's because of the support that the organization brings. And that's one, one program.

• 11:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:37Fran Racioppi?

  And there's so many others in here. You talked a lot about the different programs that are within the foundation and kind of where they were going. And I want to highlight some of those because a lot of the things we talked about in December have now come to fruition. And I want to start with the Next Ridge Line 2.0. So talk about Next Ridge Line 2.0 and the success that that program's had since its launch.

• 11:58Speaker 01

  You know, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't say Fran, thank you to you and, and your team and everything that happens behind this, behind these mics and these chairs that people can't see. There's a whole team that makes this come together and, and you know, we're indebted to your team as well and the Jedburgh Media Channel. And also to honestly, the community, because nothing that I do or my team is able to do is not made possible if it's not for the generosity of the American public. The commands, anybody who touches the Green Beret Foundation or supports the Green Beret Foundation, I say all the time, is also equally responsible for the success of our foundation. So it's not just one person. And we really, you know, try to emulate that, that mindset of it. The team wins as a team, the team loses as a team, and the team struggles as a team, and the team succeeds and excels as a team.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  And, and so the Next Ridge Line 2.0 program is in that same light, bringing the team back together. When I was kind of auditing and overview, doing the overview of all of our programs and services, I saw some gaps in some of our programs. As you know, somebody had been in the nonprofit space for 25 years and I thought to myself, yeah, we've got a really great opportunity. We've got a good foundation with. The next ridge line, but now we need to up that game and up that chance or that opportunity. So we reinvented it through a collaborative effort of internal stakeholders on the GBF team, some outside board members weighed in on it, some individuals like yourself and others weighed in on it, got some thoughts together and we started to put the architectural plans as it would relate to

• 13:24Speaker 01

  that next version of that program. And the success that we have had very early on is absolutely exciting. We have launched the program, it touches upon all the major factors of somebody's transition, talks about how to communicate with your spouse better, what is life going to look like in retirement or separation and what does it look like for the Green Beret, what does it look like for the middle spouse, what does it look like for the whole family unit, to financial readiness and preparedness, to a whole host of other questions that quite frankly, guys don't really need to think about. And I would probably argue to say the American public doesn't want them worrying about that stuff when they're actively serving at the various groups, but they need to be coached up on it once they're getting ready to get out. And what does your next job look like?

• 14:08Speaker 01

  And what do you want your next job to look like? Do you want to be an accountant? Nobody says yes to that. Do you want to be, go be a lawyer? All right, you want to go to law school, let's start to evaluate what that pathway could look like. Our partnership with your alma mater, NYU, is a perfect example of that. Guys want to go into cybersecurity? Perfect. We've got a program with NYU that can put you into a master's degree of cybersecurity. You get credits for your time in service and it can be done with that program in almost under a year at almost no cost to the Green Beret. The biggest piece to this next ridge line 2.0 program is it focuses on the promotion of strength in mind, body and spirit. So we want to work with the guys to get their mind ready for that transition process because it's different from when you're doing team room stuff to when you're doing boardroom stuff. And then from a spiritual perspective, we want them to focus in on like,

• 14:53Speaker 01

  what does family life look like for you in retirement? What does it look like for your family as you guys grow, possibly with more children? Or just as you get to go be a dad on the sidelines or coach lacrosse hopefully because we love the game? And then from a spiritual perspective, this is a program that we've done, it's called Stress Less Fridays. And Stress Less Fridays is an opportunity and it's a discussion that's led By a former Green Beret, Michael Wise, who's also a member of our board of directors at GBF. And it's where guys just get together and they talk, they open up, share their thoughts on, you know, retirement, share their thoughts on what life might look like, kind of throw some things out there like, hey, I'm dealing with this, what do you guys think? And that Stressless Friday allows them to start that dialogue because we want that to pollinate into

• 15:35Speaker 01

  further discussions and start to grow for themselves as an individual and their families to learn how to communicate and be vulnerable. Doesn't mean that you're not, you know, an alpha anymore because you're vulnerable, right? It's you're reflective, you're thinking about how you can become a better person yourself, how you can be a better couple with your spouse, how you can be a better father. And it's done, the whole Next Resign 2.0 program is to prepare them as they're transitioning, while simultaneously our VSOs are working their disability claims. And so it's not like they're just hurrying up and waiting. And then it ends with access to a private, secure career services hub, which is a really fancy way, we don't have an acronym for it yet, but. We're gonna need one. Yeah, really fancy way of saying a job board.

• 16:20Speaker 01

  And it is career opportunities that are with some of the best companies that we have, mostly myself and Travis Wilson, our Director of Mission and Program Services, have personally vetted to ensure that, one, they understand what the Green Beret has done in service, two, what they're looking for in their career path, three, understanding that hiring a veteran is not just like hiring any regular old civilian. And sometimes accommodations are going to need to be made for that veteran. So we have those conversations with those companies upfront. And if they aren't willing to do that, or if they don't have a program to support veterans, we don't ask them to support the foundation and ask them to put their jobs on the board, because what we want is guys to get jobs from that career services hub

• 17:03Speaker 01

  and know confidently that they're going to be supported in that next chapter of their life. They have over, I think, 100 plus jobs now on that job board. It's personally curated to, you know, be applicable to all the MLSs in the 18 series. So we feel really good about it. And I can say the testimonials that are coming out of that is what is the proof in our hypothesis that this was going to work. Green Berets, this will be, you'll find humor in this. The quiet professionals finally, maybe not writing a book about it. But talking and letting us use quotes from them on what they're getting out of the program and talking about how it's changed, their outlook, their readiness for retirement, their excitement for retirement, and that's what we want. That's what we know is going to stick. And hopefully those guys will eventually become supporters of the foundation.

• 17:46Speaker 01

  The force multiplies, so future generations can also experience what they're experiencing.

• 17:49Fran Racioppi?

  I've got a few jobs that need to go up on that job board for FR6.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  Oh, love it.

• 17:54Fran Racioppi?

  I remember this week. Yeah, I think you brought up this concept of the quiet professional. We talked about that with Nick Livery previously. The quiet professional is not the silent professional. And one of the things that we've been vocal about over the last year plus has been this need to get out there and tell these stories. It's critically important that we as Green Berets talk about who we are, why we're different, and why it matters, most importantly. Why does it matter? Why does it matter to our national defense strategy? Why does it matter to us as individuals, but also society? Because there are a tremendous amount of Green Berets

• 18:38Fran Racioppi?

  who transition from service who do great things in the private sector in additional careers. And programs like the Next Ridge Line are doing that and setting those folks up to go be successful post-service. And when we talk about transition difficulty, it's that identity, it's that sense of purpose, it's what can I do now? Because I had so much impact, and now I'm getting out, how do I replicate that impact? It's going to be different. It's going to be different. Don't get me wrong. There's a lot of days where I wake up and I'm like, would I like to hop in a helicopter today and go to a range? Yeah, absolutely. Do I get to? Well, unfortunately, no, I don't. But I got to find a different way to make an impact. Yeah.

• 19:21Fran Racioppi?

  When faced with a challenge, Green Berets adapt, overcome, and keep moving forward. Now's your chance to stand with them. Join the 1952 Society with a monthly gift of just $19.52 to provide critical medical devices for wounded, ill, and injured Green Berets. Your support fuels their recovery, helping them return to duty or continue serving their communities. A Green Beret's mission never stops. Neither should our support. Join the 1952 Society today and stand with those who stand for us.

• 19:52Fran Racioppi?

  And so being able to transition your mind, as you said, to still achieve an effect and get that stimulus that you want is really, really important. But that starts with talking about it because what we tend to do is not talk about it and say that, you know, it's not really a thing. Well, it is a thing.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:13Fran Racioppi?

  You know, we, you joked that people don't want to be an accountant. Well, I certainly don't want to be an accountant.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  Neither did I.

• 20:18Fran Racioppi?

  I studied accounting at NYU because it was important because I didn't have that skill. So I didn't take classes on leadership or organizational design. I took classes on accounting and finance because I knew those were skills that I needed. But what happens is we don't talk about what does transition look like? And, and this is okay if the feeling is different. But what do we want to actually achieve and what does that effect look like?

• 20:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:45Fran Racioppi?

  We brought up schooling. There's a lot of scholarships now under the foundation. I mean, just to name a few of them, the Benny Adkins Scholarship, the, the SF Scholarship Fund, the Athena Scholarship, the Major Darren Baldwin Scholarship. Why are those scholarships so important?

• 21:00Speaker 01

  Scholarships, I come from a family of educators. I was very fortunate as the, as a, growing up and as a kid, both of my parents were in education, understood very early on how important education was, not for success, but for the, the development of the human mind and to make you a better person, to be more open and receptive to conversations and listening with the intent to learn and not with the intent to respond. All of those pieces were critical in the development as, as myself, as a young man and eventual leader. And, you know, now my wife, Katie, is, is in education and, you know, we, you talk about this at great length, that, that education can in fact solve a lot of society's problems. I'm also a big believer that education is a human right.

• 21:42Speaker 01

  And so when we started to consolidate the marketplace, we wanted to build up our portfolio of scholarship programs because first and foremost, anybody who has served should not have to take a dime out of their own personal money to further themselves, to your point, right, to hone those skills that you maybe did not get in a career in the military. But you know, you, you need to hone. Own those skills to go be a successful businessman. Same thing with with children. We want kids to not have to worry about saddling themselves with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt. Cause they want to go pursue higher ed or vocational training. And the same thing with spouses. Hats off to our military spouses that are here. You see a lot of kids running around like this operation on the field does not happen if it's not for the mill spouses too.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  And so when the next virgin line 2.0 is finally approached by both the green beret and the spouse. If she wants to go back to school, she shouldn't have to worry about taking out loans. So the scholarships are really important because we believe that it's a human right. It's certainly a right within our community. And we want people to embrace, again, that mindset of promoting strength in mind, body and spirit without the financial worrisome of how am I going to pay for it? This year alone, we will have given out more than $550,000 in scholarships to children of SF operators. The Benny Atkins Scholarship Fund is a is a fund that is available for active duty guys and guys that are beginning to transition that want to pursue higher education. And it is a rolling application period. So you could come to me and say, Charlie, I want to go pursue this and this is why I need to do it.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  And we're going to give you a scholarship up to $5,000. And the Athena Scholarship is really exciting because it's when those mill spouses are looking to further themselves. And it doesn't have to be just traditional education. It can be other kinds of pursuits. And that happens once a year, but we always tell our mill spouse steel mags community that if you have interest, you should file that letter of intent with us. Tell us that you're looking forward to applying when once it comes together. But in the long run, at the end, we want people to be able to access education. It's, you know, and in the end, in my opinion, with scholarships is, and I know that Benny Atkins felt this way as his son Keith Atkins told me. You can look back on your life and realize what you've accomplished professionally.

• 23:51Speaker 01

  And this is why I think the profession of education is so incredible. And, you know, hats off to my parents and my wife and so many others that have served as educators. The generational impact you have when you either provide the opportunity for education or you are an educator is transformative. And that's the kind of work. We're trying to accomplish sure the foundation. Generations of people lifting themselves up and feeling better and feeling more secure and their, you know, their entire being to allow them to go and chase those dreams. And as we see it with the guys on the field behind us, the guys that are down range or in country, the mil spouses across the country or across the world that are supporting our community, they have dreams and this may be an element of that, you know, but like you said, like, you know,

• 24:36Speaker 01

  you do wake up one morning, you want to go get hop in a helicopter and go to, you know, hit a range, but that's not their only dreams. And so we want to be able to provide them a conduit to those dreams when it's all said and done too.

• 24:46Fran Racioppi?

  The organization remains one of the only accredited organizations by the VA to process disability claims, often something that transitioning, some guys don't think about and often don't want to deal with.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:59Fran Racioppi?

  And it can be a very challenging process. I know for myself, I tried to do it myself. You get to 40% and then you bring in an advocate and they can get you to 90%. And then I finally, you came to the foundation and got to the 100%. And the reason I believe that that program has been so important is because you've got to know how the process works.

• 25:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:25Fran Racioppi?

  And the Green Beret Foundation has established these coordinators who are embedded with each of the special forces groups and are working diligently each day on behalf of the transitioning operators to get the benefits process going. How has that program evolved and where's it going to better support the folks who are getting out?

• 25:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're right. And I love every opportunity I get to say this is to remove the myth of you've got, for, for whatever reason, some guys, and it's not just within our community, like the, the special forces community, this is across all branches of the military. You saw a lot of this in the Vietnam era. Guys did not pursue their disability rating because they thought it meant more for their brothers that were really in need. And that is not the case. Like, you know, like, is that how the federal government works? You know, it's not like, hey friend, we're not going to give you your money. We're going to give more to this guy. That's just, this doesn't happen, right? And so I always say when I have the opportunity to pursue that because You may feel good right now because like these guys out here, right? They're, they're running around, they're, they're working out, they're in the weight room, they're, they're exercising, they're on active duty teams.

• 26:30Speaker 01

  They're in shape and you may feel good the first couple of years of retirement, you know, because they're still doing that. But 30 years from now, you are not going to feel like you feel at 40 or 35. And so how do you fix that problem? To your point, there are lots of different ways you can pursue it. The most effective and efficient way, which was very much in the Green Beret ethos, is you work with an accredited VSO to advocate for you. What makes our program so special and how it's evolved is most of our, our teammates on that team are Green Berets themselves. You know, so they, they've served with most of the community. Or they're our spouses of Green Berets. Or there are individuals who are highly specialized in training because this is what they had chosen as their career. They know the operator, they served in some sort of a capacity.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  But they understand the trials and tribulations and the weight that you guys have carried on your shoulders, literally and figuratively. The evolution of the program and hats off to John Armanzani and, and the early beginnings of this program. And he started it with the vision and then the board's vision to expand it. Make sure we had guys at every group or gals at every group. And then in this next iteration, what we've started to do is, is we've, we've started to take this foundation, which is in fact the global foundation truly across the seas. So Danny Roscoe, absolute legend in the first special forces group, was in Okinawa a couple of weeks ago, working with those guys on their stuff. Brian out of the 10th group headed to Germany in a couple of weeks. We are literally going to start going where guys are. So they do not have to wait until they get back stateside. So we are going to get ahead of the curve. We're going to get proactive on that approach.

• 28:00Speaker 01

  So it's a little bit easier. It takes a long time. There is nothing special about our program in the sense of it's going to cut your weight in half. It's not like that, right? We know there's no special red phone that we can pick up to call the VA and get it processed faster. But the more we are proactive on that approach, the better it is for the Green Beret, the better it is for their family. And quite frankly, the better it is for us. It is a program that is offered at no cost to the Green Beret. And I always like to demonstrate that commitment to our community because there are people, there are companies, entities out there that Take a percentage of the first year is worth a disability from you. And I always say, as somebody who's just flabbergasted by that as a civilian, what right does that person have to any of that money? Nothing, right?

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Like, you go into this work because it is mission-driven work, not to make wealth or accumulate wealth for yourself on guys' disabilities claims. And, you know, I always like to point out too, that those guys that charge money, don't cut the wait time in half either. It's all going through at the same pace. And so, come work with us. Like, we know how to advocate for you. And in the future, really, the VSO program, in my opinion, and through our partner networks with the Wounded Warrior Project and some of the others that have, you know, really highly respectable VSO programs, we want to demonstrate to the community at large, not just the Special Forces community, that there's a way to do this, and we can do it, and we can do it well, and we can get it set up for guys.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  So they're not looking for an appeal 20 years into retirement. So it's probably one of the largest areas of our mission that has a significant impact to the community, to the community's wellbeing. And that's for every, I would want to draw attention to this. That's for every Green Beret. That's not just for the guys that are getting out. So if you're, if you're a Green Beret and you got out 30 years ago, and you think you should have 100% disability rating, drop us a line at [email protected]. Reach out to us. We will look at your, your rating. We will look at your service record, and we will advocate for you if you believe that you deserve more. And we will fight for that back pay, and we have been incredibly successful in that, in that fight.

• 30:03Fran Racioppi?

  Went to Alaska a couple of weeks ago. Came back with 50 pounds of fresh salmon.

• 30:09Speaker 01

  Still waiting on my dry freeze.

• 30:11Fran Racioppi?

  I should have brought you some. And I've got my Warrior Sportsman mug here. Important acquisition.

• 30:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:18Fran Racioppi?

  I think by the foundation, Travis, who you mentioned, Travis Wilson, 10th Group alumni, founder of Alpha Elite Performance and AEP Outdoors.

• 30:27Speaker 01

  Very supportive of the Green Beret Foundation right here.

• 30:29Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, I rally and recover very often. Should have used one of those this morning. But he's really taken that on, under his purview, to build these experiences that we can get folks out on, to bring the community together. So we had an opportunity to go out there to fish the noosh, really in the bush of Alaska. Three plane rides and a bush plane. And we got out there with the bears and spent five days salmon fishing.

• 31:01Fran Racioppi?

  The fishing was great, don't get me wrong, but the conversation was better.

• 31:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:06Fran Racioppi?

  You know, not only in the boats, but also when you came back and you really had the majority of the day because there's so many goddamn fish out there that you don't even, you don't have to know how to fish.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:15Fran Racioppi?

  I don't know anything about fishing and I just threw a line in the water and fish are biting it. And actually to top off our culminate, I would say to culminate the last three fish that we caught for the week, I was in a boat with two others. They had fish on their lines together. And one of the guys said, what the hell are you doing? Get your line in the water. We gotta get three. I threw my line there. Sure enough, we're reeling in three fish simultaneously to cap off the week. And so it was an incredible experience, but we're bringing, we're bringing folks together who I hadn't seen in 10 years.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:49Fran Racioppi?

  Served with them, knew them when we were in group and then had the chance to reconnect. But there were also two generations before us.

• 31:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:59Fran Racioppi?

  Of Green Berets there and had a chance to listen to their stories and listen to a lot of the same challenges they faced when they got out back in the eighties or the nineties. And we were able to hear about their, the businesses that they built. The opportunities that they created for themselves. So it was really an amazing opportunity to bring folks together and share those stories. When you looked at different opportunities to create acquisitions, as you talked about before, why was Warrior Sportsman so important?

• 32:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, well, the outdoors has, goes back to my earlier point, right? With the forefathers of unconventional warfare, the outdoors, nature, everything this country has to offer. There is an element of healing and grounding that anyone can find in the outdoors. Mental health, resiliency, suicide awareness and prevention is obviously a major focus of ours. The work that we do with the Marquinhos family and Andy Marquinhos' memory and honoring his legacy is critically important to the, to the foundation. One of the challenges is you can attack it from an academic perspective. You can attack it from a therapeutic perspective and I'm a big believer in, you know, I love to. Fish. You love, love to be in the outdoors. Sometimes you just need to breathe the fresh air and the freedom that a whole of you guys have fought for.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  And that was the premise of the Warrior Sportsman acquisition. Doug Frank and I and, and the incredible board that they had there. We talked about that. Just get these guys outside more. You know, let's scale this. You guys have done incredible work. We've got fishing excursions for South, in South Carolina, North Carolina, on the dock in 2025. We've got hunting excursions in, uh, in the Dakotas and Montana for 2025. We've got some exciting stuff that we're going to talk about hopefully with Travis later on this weekend, but we want to create those opportunities for conversation and we want them to be created around the campfire. We want them to be created on a boat. We want them to be created in a deer stand and it's not necessarily about the fish you're catching. Hopefully you're catching fish.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  You know, it's not about necessarily about the prize game that you're trying to hunt all the time. That's a part of it. Particularly in the competitive nature of, of, of the Green Beret community, but really it's to create that opportunity for connectivity in nature. And I have long said that this country has so much to offer its citizenry, particularly those that have served from an outdoors perspective. The Warrior Sportsman program was probably one of the fastest ones that we did. Because they saw the, what the foundation was doing. They loved our leadership, you know, at the board level that, I mean, we had a proven track record of success in this space already. And it was really just built around the conversation of you guys are already doing this. I don't

• 34:42Speaker 01

  need to, my team doesn't need to recreate the wheel. In fact, let's take what you're doing and just make it 10 times bigger and better. I have to say that that is a program that I am probably going to look back on after I leave the foundation, hopefully in a long, many, many years. Or when I'm old and gray and just see how that's evolved and just be so incredibly excited about it. And eventually it's going to evolve where guys are going to be able to bring their kids and their spouses. And, you know, I mean, some of my favorite memories as a kid growing up was sitting there fishing with my dad and we didn't even catch a lot of fish all the time. Like, you know, sitting there with my grandfather before he passed, a World War II veteran, you know. It's just fishing and talking. So dialogue is the biggest thing.

• 35:25Speaker 01

  I constantly talk about that from our programs and services perspective, from supporting the community. We have to open up the dialogue. And once we get the conversations going, then we'll be able to bring in more donors. We'll be able to help more guys. Next year, I could see, you know, the Fish the Nush type experience being in other parts of also Alaska, not because we don't want to go to Fish the Nush. We want to still be there, but because there is such a demand for more opportunities like that. I mean, also Alaska, I've never been there, but I mean, come on, it's Alaska. Like, you know, you can't get any better than that.

• 35:54Fran Racioppi?

  That was unbelievable.

• 35:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. And that's what we want. We want to create opportunities for experiences too. I have long said, it's when I first was interviewing with the foundation's board of directors and General Tovo and I were having a conversation. I said, look, we got to focus on the guys that really need our help, that are really struggling, but we also have to focus on all those other guys that maybe just need new opportunities, new experiences to connect with guys that they served with 10 years ago, 15, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, and haven't had that opportunity. Cause you get out of the service and you go in different directions, people move away.

• 36:24Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  But you guys have shared foxholes together. You guys have been in buildings, cleared buildings, you've, you know, gotten out of helicopters, you've jumped out of airplanes. Like, like let's, let's get that opportunity for camaraderie back. And in turn, hopefully they, they in turn become supporters of the foundation too. And if not, that's okay. We work this mission and it's, it's a line that I've said for a long time. It's your life's work, our mission. And that's what we want to present, you know, through the Warrior Sportsman program, opportunities for guys just to connect and get better and get excited about what's to come.

• 36:52Fran Racioppi?

  As you look forward to 25, where's your focus going?

• 36:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's a great question. 2025 is going to be kind of like with a three-pronged approach for myself. We now need to really scale our fundraising opportunities. We need support and it's not because we just want to give more money away. We, we want to build a foundation that's so strong that programs that we're doing are growing at an exponential rate. Jedward W D channel, for example. Right? We want to scale that. We want to scale our Warrior Sportsman program. We want to scale our scholarships program, all of our programs. So we need, we need to focus on fundraising. Fundraising is a, is the Imminent focus in 2025, we've fixed a lot of the internal mechanisms. We've built out new infrastructure. We've rolled out new programs and policies and processes. But now we got to scale that revenue.

• 37:41Speaker 01

  The second piece will be the continued consolidation of the marketplace. And the continuation and consolidation of the marketplace will not only ready us for that next conflict, but it will make us stronger. I use the hashtag all the time in my posts, whether it's LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. It's GBF stronger together. We were the first SOF, SF charity. You know, you have to lead from the front, so we're going to continue to do that. And the third is to get more connected with our community. And that's on the micro and macro levels. That's going to be a little bit harder because we are 100% remote organization. I made that decision because I wanted to put that money that we were spending on overhead for offices and stuff like that back into the community. So we're remote.

• 38:23Speaker 01

  So we're going to work to get more connected with our community, other great organizations that are doing great work, and spend some time on figuring out how we can improve our position, our community's position within the greater complex of the nonprofit marketplace. And, and you know, I would say the other piece to that would be just to continue to make this organization into something that the entire regiment, all generations, as well as their families are proud of. And that's, that's a heavy lift.

• 38:50Fran Racioppi?

  It's a bold vision.

• 38:51Speaker 01

  It's a bold vision, yeah.

• 38:52Fran Racioppi?

  Well, Charlie, we've come a long way over the last year and a half. I appreciate everything that you've done for the organization. I've been involved with the organization at some level over the past several years since I got out. But the trajectory that it's on is unlike anything I've seen, at least in the last several years. I'm excited to be a part of it. I value you very much, your friendship, the partnership that we put together, the creation of the Jedburgh Media Channel and all the programs of GBF are rapidly rising. And most importantly, they're achieving effect. And that's what we're here to do. Achieve effect and support generations of Green Berets and their families. Thanks for all you're doing.

• 39:27Speaker 01

  Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. Great. Go Army, be Navy.

• 39:30Fran Racioppi?

  Absolutely.

• 39:37Fran Racioppi?

  American Jedbergs went on to form the foundation of the United States Special Forces and the Special Activities Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thanks for listening to the Jedburgh Podcast, an official program of the Green Beret Foundation. I'm your creator and host, Fran Ruchel. Join us next week for a new episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check us out on YouTube for full episodes, highlights, and other long and short form content. If you like what you heard, give us a like and leave a review. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X for Threads. Send your comments and inquiries to [email protected]. As former members of Special Operations Forces, the Jedburgh Media Channel, and the Green Beret Foundation remain committed to supporting all generations of US Army Special Forces and their families.

• 40:21Fran Racioppi?

  Thanks for joining us on this episode. How you prepare today determines success tomorrow.