MCA Scuttlebutt

<p>Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners.&nbsp;Thank you for joining us and your continued support.&nbsp;This week,&nbsp;we&nbsp;welcome Michael Jerome Plunkett to the show.&nbsp;Michael is a former&nbsp;machinegunner, EMT,&nbsp;co-founder and&nbsp;executive&nbsp;director of the Literature of War Foundation&nbsp;(with&nbsp;friend&nbsp;of the show, LtCol Tom Schuemann) and host of&nbsp;The&nbsp;LitWar&nbsp;Podcast. He was also a&nbsp;Virginia Center for the Creative Arts&nbsp;Fellow in 2021,&nbsp;was a scholar in the 2024 Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program at the George W. Bush Presidential&nbsp;Center and&nbsp;was a 2025 resident in the Edith Wharton Writing Residency.&nbsp;He also led the&nbsp;PB Abbate Book Club&nbsp;for veterans. And if that&nbsp;wasn’t&nbsp;enough, he is the author of the amazing book, Zone Rouge, which was published in September of this year and has received high praise for his beautiful prose. Michael talks to us about his journey from a teenager in New York during 9/11, to stepping on the yellow footprints, to becoming an author. This was such a fun conversation and we totally nerd out on the beauty of&nbsp;good writing&nbsp;and the value veterans bring to the art. We&nbsp;have to&nbsp;get him back on, but we&nbsp;hope you enjoy this episode as much as we do.&nbsp;</p> <p>Enjoy!&nbsp;</p> <p>michaeljeromeplunkett.com&nbsp;</p> <p>instagram.com/michaeljeromeplunkett&nbsp;</p> <p>&lt;p&gt;The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org/podcast/scuttlebutt/222-zone-rouge-with-michael-jerome-plunkett/">#222: Zone Rouge with Michael Jerome Plunkett</a> first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org">Marine Corps Association</a>.&lt;/p&gt;</p>

<p>Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners.&nbsp;Thank you for hanging out with us.&nbsp;We’re&nbsp;excited to have&nbsp;Gunnar Spafford from Toys for Tots back on the show&nbsp;this week.&nbsp;Gunnar first came on the show with John Haehn this spring during Modern Day Marine,&nbsp;and it was great that we had a chance to catch up&nbsp;with him.&nbsp;As we jump into the holiday season with both feet,&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;really easy&nbsp;for our focus to turn inward and, whether intentionally or unintentionally, ignore the struggles of those to the left and right of us.&nbsp;Toys for Tots is the balm for our holiday season tunnel vision.&nbsp;&nbsp;One of Toys for&nbsp;Tots’&nbsp;slogans is, “It’s more than just a toy,” and having personal experience supporting Toys for Tots, I can say that is&nbsp;totally true.&nbsp;Gunnar&nbsp;talks to us about the ways that a toy is so much more than just a toy, Toys for Tots year-round and disaster-relief initiatives, and ways&nbsp;for both individuals and corporations&nbsp;to give. I&nbsp;can’t&nbsp;emphasize enough what an amazing charity organization Toys for Tots&nbsp;is&nbsp;and&nbsp;I’m&nbsp;happy that Gunnar was able to carve out some time during this busy season to come hang out with us to get the word out about Toys for Tots.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;<br>Also, we at the MCA know how stressful and challenging the holiday season can be. Mental health challenges and suicide&nbsp;continue to take far too many of our active-duty service members and veterans.&nbsp;We want you to know that you are not alone. If you need help, please ask for it. And if you think of someone you&nbsp;haven’t&nbsp;heard from in a while, please reach out to them. You cannot dismiss the power of contacting someone, even in a text, asking how they are doing. Do your comm checks, and if you need help, please reach out. We all want to see you in 2026 and beyond.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Semper Fidelis.&nbsp;</p> <p>Enjoy!&nbsp;</p> <p>toysfortots.org&nbsp;</p> <p></p> <p>&lt;p&gt;The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org/podcast/scuttlebutt/221-toys-for-tots-with-gunnar-spafford/">#221: Toys for Tots with Gunnar Spafford</a> first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org">Marine Corps Association</a>.&lt;/p&gt;</p>

<p>Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome Douglas K. Daniel to the show. Douglas is a journalist who served for nearly three decades as a reporter and editor for the Associated Press and teaches journalism at Kansas State University and Ohio University. He is also the author of Kill – Do Not Release: Censored Marine Corps Stories from WWII, which explores the use of censorship in the Marine Corps during WWII. He uncovers a trove of previously classified material withheld from the public because of government and public relations concerns at the time. Douglas talks to us about his background in journalism, how he stumbled on this topic and the existence of combat correspondents, and how he came into this topic by researching various journalists who served as Marine combat correspondents during the war. The book is so interesting, and it is great to hear about the experiences of the Marine combat correspondents and the previously unpublished stories from WWII.&nbsp;</p> <p>Enjoy!&nbsp;</p> <p>fordhampress.com/kill-do-not-release-hb-9781531510398.html&nbsp;</p> <p></p> <p>&lt;p&gt;The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org/podcast/scuttlebutt/220-marine-corps-censorship-and-combat-correspondents-with-douglas-k-daniel/">#220: Marine Corps Censorship and Combat Correspondents with Douglas K. Daniel</a> first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org">Marine Corps Association</a>.&lt;/p&gt;</p>

<p>Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for tuning in and your continued support. This week, we welcome Ben Connable back to the show. Ben recently co-authored (with Colin P. Clarke) an issue brief for The Soufan Center titled, “War Against the Cartels,” and we are fortunate that he was willing to go low-brow and come on the show to discuss it. As a former Marine intelligence officer who served during the Long War, he is a true subject-matter expert and has personal experience in the perils of engaging in conflicts thought to be easy wins. Ben talks us through his threat analysis, intelligence preparation of the battlefield, second- and third-order effects of a potential conflict, the significance of labelling transnational criminal organizations as terrorist organizations, and recommendations for dealing with the threat of drugs, trafficking, and the fact that most of these organizations have deep roots in every major US city.&nbsp;</p> <p>Enjoy!&nbsp;</p> <p>thesoufancenter.org/research/war-against-the-cartels-prospects-and-perils-for-the-trump-administrations-military-led-campaign&nbsp;</p> <p>battleresearchgroup.org&nbsp;</p> <p>&lt;p&gt;The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org/podcast/scuttlebutt/219-war-against-the-cartels-with-ben-connable/">#219: War Against the Cartels with Ben Connable</a> first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org">Marine Corps Association</a>.&lt;/p&gt;</p>

<p>Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners.&nbsp;Thank you for tuning in&nbsp;and&nbsp;your continued support. This week, we want to start&nbsp;of&nbsp;by saying, Happy 250^th&nbsp;Birthday, Marines! As our final, concluding episode of our Road to 250 series, we have Col Chris Woodbridge, Nancy, William, and me in studio to talk about the Marine Corps’ 250^th&nbsp;Birthday video. In standard Semper Cinema format, we give our reviews, detail some of the messaging and imagery, and give our opinions on what message we think this video is trying to communicate, and what audience&nbsp;is the video&nbsp;targeting.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>We also&nbsp;look&nbsp;back at the history of the Marine Corps birthdays by exploring the very first Marine Corps birthday a hundred years ago. You can check out this event in more detail in the pages of the November edition of Leatherneck Magazine. It turns out, the first birthday celebration entailed more than just getting your uniform ready, going to the Birthday Ball, and praying your regrets&nbsp;aren’t&nbsp;unforgivable in the morning.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>We are so proud that we were able to bring you various aspects of Marine Corps history throughout this series and hope you all have a wonderful, safe, and fun 250^th&nbsp;birthday celebration. You deserve it. And keep your wits as sharp as your steel. The nation will be calling you to&nbsp;write&nbsp;the stories of the Marine Corps for the next 250 years.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Happy Birthday and Semper Fidelis.&nbsp;</p> <p>See the 250^th&nbsp;Marine Corps Birthday Message here:&nbsp;</p> <p>www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vw0jTk4rqQ&nbsp;</p> <p>&lt;p&gt;The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org/podcast/scuttlebutt/218-happy-250th-birthday-marines/">#218: Happy 250th Birthday, Marines!</a> first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.mca-marines.org">Marine Corps Association</a>.&lt;/p&gt;</p>