Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. Today I have a special episode, for me anyway. This episode is episode 100. I started this podcast in June of 2019, and I’ve released at least one new episode every week since. I thought that 100 episodes was a pretty significant milestone, so I wanted to take some time in this episode to take a little look back at where the podcast has been and where I see it going in the future.

If you are a new listener of the podcast, maybe it makes sense for me to talk a little about why this podcast exists at all. 

First, I guess I’ll introduce myself to new listeners, or reintroduce myself to anyone who already knows me or has been listening to the podcast for a while. I was an infantryman in the Connecticut Army National Guard for about six years. I enlisted in 2005 and got out in 2011. During that time I was called to active duty for a deployment to Afghanistan between November 2009 through August 2010. My deployment was supposed to last through November, but I was sent home early after my brother, SGT Steven DeLuzio, was killed in action. The day he was killed was probably the worst day of my life. Since returning home I struggled with PTSD, depression, drinking too much and sleeping too little. I had anger issues, and I just wasn’t myself anymore. I found that I had forgotten how to be the person I once was. I later learned that my struggle wasn’t all that uncommon.

I started this podcast after hearing about all the problems veterans were having after getting out of the military. I’ve personally known several veterans who I served with who either took their own lives, or struggled with addiction, homelessness, or a number of other issues and I thought something needed to be done. We give the VA a lot of crap, but they do their best with the resources they have available. And honestly, you can’t even blame the VA if a vet never reaches out to begin with. Regardless, I thought that there had to be a better way to reach out to veterans across the country to give them hope and let them know that they’re not alone dealing with whatever they’re going through. I thought that if there was a way to offer hope to these veterans without making them schedule an appointment they might not be ready for, it could help them either find their own path through whatever they’re dealing with or, get them ready to pick up the phone and make an appointment. I also wanted to let other veterans know that someone is always there for them, and that there are options that don’t involve permanent solutions to temporary problems.

Anyway, that’s where this podcast started. I remember recording the first couple episodes and I had no clue what I was doing. At one point I think I joked with my wife that I had a face for radio and a voice for print. Eventually, I sort of figured it all out along the way. I was so embarrassed that I sounded awful in the beginning that besides my wife, I don’t think anyone else even knew I was doing a podcast for the first few weeks. I figured I probably sounded like a schmuck so if no one heard it I was OK with that. It wasn’t until I recorded the first 5 or 6, maybe more, episodes that I started getting a little more comfortable with it and I started posting them to social media, and telling family and friends about it. By the way, if you’re thinking of starting a podcast, this is definitely not the best way to do it. You’re starting at a significant disadvantage if you don’t get a bunch of people listening to your first few episodes. The way the algorithms work with Apple Podcasts, and other podcasting services, new podcasts with a bunch of listeners will get promoted to other l...