Donut Shop Podcast

Joining me are Edward “Hammer” Ford and Alan “Chase” Chiasson, authors of Postcards Through Hell.

Ed is a retired United States Marine who served in the infantry and Force Reconnaissance before continuing his career as a security contractor, with experience spanning the Gulf War, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Chase served in the United States Navy as a Hospital Corpsman and later worked overseas providing high-risk medical support for protective security details, convoy operations, and force-protection missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Together, they became part of a group known as the Pony Express—private security contractors tasked with moving U.S. mail and other critical supplies across Afghanistan.

And when I say delivering the mail, forget the mail truck driving through your neighborhood. These guys were moving across some of the most dangerous roads in the world, facing IEDs, ambushes, the Taliban, criminal groups, and all of the unpredictability that came with operating outside the wire.

But tonight I don't want to only talk about gun trucks, firefights, and IEDs.

I want to talk about Afghanistan itself.

The people they met. The friendships they formed. The ridiculous things that made them laugh. The families waiting thousands of miles away. Why they kept going back. What those years took from them—and maybe even what Afghanistan gave them in return.

Because Postcards Through Hell isn't only a story about surviving a war zone. It's also a story about brotherhood, sacrifice, purpose, and a group of men trying to bring a little piece of home to people serving very far away from it.

Postcards Through Hell

#PostcardsThroughHell #Afghanistan #MilitaryVeterans #WarStories #VeteranStories #MilitaryContractors #Brotherhood #MilitaryPodcast #DonutShopPodcast

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I’ll be joined by Brenin DeOliveria the Founder of BJJCops. We’re going to discuss what his company offers as well as his favorite donuts.

#BJJ #BjjCops #coffeeanddonuts #policetactics
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Today’s guest is Officer Matt Jenatscheck, an Iowa police officer with nearly three decades on the job who currently serves with the Cedar Rapids Police Department’s Police Community Action Team, or PCA; a unit focused on reducing gun violence and gang activity in some of the city’s most challenging areas.

Over the course of his career, Matt has served in a wide variety of roles, including as a DEA Task Force Officer, Homeland Security Investigations Task Force Officer, detective, Field Training Officer, patrol sergeant, and much more.

But today’s conversation isn’t really about assignments, titles, or arrests.

It’s about what almost 30 years of this profession can do to the person wearing the uniform.

Matt describes accumulated trauma as a Rolodex filled with index cards. Every difficult call adds another card. For years, those cards keep flipping around until eventually they become tangled on the spool.

And like many of us who came up around an older generation of cops, Matt learned to deal with those experiences by pushing them down, moving on to the next call, and, as he puts it, rubbing some dirt on it and getting back to work.

Eventually, that stopped working.

Today, Matt is willing to speak openly about his own struggles, his resistance to getting help, substance use, suicide, finally admitting that something wasn’t right, and what happened when he allowed people to help him.

This isn’t a conversation about weakness. It’s a conversation about what can happen when years of exposure to trauma accumulate, and why sometimes the hardest words for a first responder to say are simply, “I need help.”

If you want to reach out to Matt, you can find him at: Code4mindsetllc@gmail.com

Matt requested that his friend’s Instagram also get a tag.

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Justin
@jyjellyfish77
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Partner links:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Blackout Coffee Co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

"DSP10"

The Energy Drink
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They are a huge supporter of First Responders

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We’re on vacation but can’t miss an episode of Coffee and Donuts. Grab your coffee and we’ll share some of the trip if you haven’t been watching the vlogs.

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Today's guest is making his third appearance on the show, and if you've been with us for a while, you'll remember retired detective and author Freddy Ponce. Throughout his distinguished law enforcement career, Freddy investigated some of South Florida's most complex and high-profile cases, earning a reputation as a relentless investigator with an eye for the details that others often missed. Since retiring, he's become an accomplished author, sharing the true stories behind many of the investigations that shaped his career.

When Freddy joined us last time, he introduced one of the most fascinating cases he'd ever worked, a story that was still unfolding and had yet to reach its conclusion. We ended that conversation knowing there was much more to uncover.

Now, Freddy is back with his newest book, which finally tells the rest of that story. Today, we're picking up where we left off, talking about how the investigation evolved, the twists that no one saw coming, and the lessons learned after the case was finally brought to its conclusion.

If you haven't had a chance to watch Freddy's first two appearances on the Donut Shop Podcast, I encourage you to go back and check them out after today's episode. They provide the foundation for what promises to be an incredible continuation of this story.

Freddy's Training Group

Get a copy of the book

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Justin
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Partner links:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Blackout Coffee Co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

"DSP10"

The Energy Drink
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They are a huge supporter of First Responders

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