MCA Scuttlebutt

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome retired Master Sergeant Adam Walker back to the scuttlebutt. Adam is a friend of the show and has appeared in episodes 213 and 230. Please go check those out. But this week, rather than Adam doing our bidding, he’s come on to talk to us about his book, Laughing and Crying as a U.S. Marine. Laughing and Crying is a memoir, but it breaks the paradigm. Normally, in a memoir, especially a military memoir, the author is the centerpiece, and everything in th...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring you another installment of Semper Cinema with our review of Beach Red. Beach Red is a film adaptation of Peter Bowman’s novella by the same name, made in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War, and depicts Marines landing on an unnamed island during WWII. Written, directed, produced, and starring Cornell Wilde, it’s known for its gritty depictions of combat (at least for its time), and it was praised for the honesty of its war is hell message. One theme we d...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Chas Henry to the scuttlebutt. Chas is a retired Marine captain, renowned journalist, and author of the book Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy. Fuji Fire details the complex series of natural and man-made circumstances that led to the 1979 Camp Fuji fire. Having served at Camp Fuji a mere eighteen months before the tragedy, Chas knew and served with survivors of the fire; Chas’ interest in uncovering the events of 1979 went beyond the intellectual. Chas talks to...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we’re re-releasing our conversation with the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, SgtMaj Carlos Ruiz, and the Manpower and Reserve Affairs senior enlisted advisor, SgtMaj Jacob Reiff during the Modern Day Marine Expo this year. This interview was originally released on our YouTube channel, but the conversation continues to be so relevant and the topics of leadership are so insightful, we decided to get the audio version out to those who may have missed it. It’s always awesome to have SgtMaj Ruiz on t...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring another installment of our Literary Lethality series to the scuttlebutt. In this series, we dive deep into the Commandant’s Professional Reading List, exploring various titles and talking with authors about some of the books on the list. Today, we welcome Mac Caltrider back to the show. Mac talks to us about Orson Scott Card’s groundbreaking sci-fi novel, Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game is one of the longest-running titles on the CPRL, and it is a text used at Marine Corps of...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Maj Kyle King to the scuttlebutt. Kyle is an artillery officer, former collegiate athlete, and winner of not one, not two, but three Marine Corps Marathons in 2022, 2024, and 2025. His first run through the tape made him the first active-duty Marine to win the men’s division in 39 years. Along with these accomplishments, Kyle was named the Marine Corps 2025 Male Athlete of the Year. Kyle is currently stationed here at Quantico, so we talked him into crossing the tracks to have a little si...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Steven Weintraub to the scuttlebutt. Steven is a retired Marine colonel and the current Chief Strategy Officer at the Veteran Tickets Foundation, more commonly known as VetTix. If you’re like me, regardless of music, sports, movies, the arts, festivals, whatever, it’s always better live and in person. So when I heard about VetTix, I had to find out more. VetTix is a non-profit organization that helps service members and veterans get tickets to all kinds of events, oftentimes for free. And...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Rob Jones to the scuttlebutt. Rob is a retired Marine combat engineer who was wounded in an IED attack and lost both his legs. Rather than succumb to despair and depression, he asked, what’s next? What was next was him winning a bronze medal in the 2012 Paralympics, riding his bike across America in 2013, and running 31 marathons in 31 consecutive days in 31 different cities in 2017, all of which raised nearly half a million dollars for veteran charities. He wrote his memoir, Put Your Le...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring you a very special episode in remembrance of the attacks on 9/11. This is an episode that, frankly, I never thought we would get. To be even more frank, it seemed so unimaginable to me that I didn’t even think to try and track this guest down. Only through Nancy’s hard work and diligence (she’s a journalist, folks) were we able to track Jason Thomas down. For those who don’t know the name, Jason is one of the Marines who actu...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome Josh Chartier to the scuttlebutt. Josh is a retired Marine lieutenant colonel who is now the Director of Business Development for Echodyne, focusing on U.S. defense strategic partnerships. Josh and I served together in the UAE, so this is a bit of a reunion for me. One of the nice things about having a podcast is I get to hang out with my friends, but I understand that “hey, do you remember that one time” is not an awesome business model for a sh...

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Col Nicholas Reynolds (USMC Ret.) and Katie Sanders to the scuttlebutt. Col Reynolds …

Continue reading "#257: Ortiz’s War with Col Nicholas Reynolds (Ret.) and Katie Sanders"

The post #257: Ortiz’s War with Col Nicholas Reynolds (Ret.) and Katie Sanders first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we bring you another installment of Semper Cinema with our review of the Marine Corps classic, …

Continue reading "#256: Semper Cinema – The Wind and the Lion with Josh Bates"

The post #256: Semper Cinema – The Wind and the Lion with Josh Bates first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome 2ndLt Steven Ramirez to the scuttlebutt. Steven is a prior-enlisted officer currently a …

Continue reading "#255: Semper Read with 2ndLt Steven Ramirez"

The post #255: Semper Read with 2ndLt Steven Ramirez first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Stephen Camelio to the scuttlebutt. Stephen is a screenwriter, storyteller, and content creator whose most recent project, Mending the Line – a story about …

Continue reading "#254: Characters, Storytelling, and Col John Ripley with Stephen Camelio"

The post #254: Characters, Storytelling, and Col John Ripley with Stephen Camelio first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Robert Newman to the scuttlebutt. Robert is a retired Marine and author of the book, Guerillas in the Mist. As you will …

Continue reading "#253: Guerillas in the Mist with Robert Newman"

The post #253: Guerillas in the Mist with Robert Newman first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring you another installment of World of Wargaming with Alex Buck. Alex is a major in the Canadian Armed Forces and …

Continue reading "#252: World of Wargaming with Maj Alex Buck, Canadian Armed Forces"

The post #252: World of Wargaming with Maj Alex Buck, Canadian Armed Forces first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Timothy Gick to the scuttlebutt. Tim is the founder of the company Not A Very Good Teacher and …

Continue reading "#251: Timothy Gick is Not A Very Good Teacher"

The post #251: Timothy Gick is Not A Very Good Teacher first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. As you probably have deduced from the episode title, this is Episode 250. We said it when we hit 100, and then again when …

Continue reading "#250: A Trip on the Way Back Machine – Some Highlights of 250 episodes of Scuttlebutt"

The post #250: A Trip on the Way Back Machine – Some Highlights of 250 episodes of Scuttlebutt first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome Jonathan Hackett to the scuttlebutt. Jonathan is a retired MARSOC operator, intelligence specialist and interrogator, the author of …

Continue reading "#249: Interrogator, Author, Lawyer with MSgt Jonathan Hackett (Ret.)"

The post #249: Interrogator, Author, Lawyer with MSgt Jonathan Hackett (Ret.) first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome the Vice President of the Marine Corps Association Foundation, retired Col Tim Mundy, to the scuttlebutt. With Father’s Day …

Continue reading "#248: Son, Father, Marine with Col Tim Mundy (Ret.)"

The post #248: Son, Father, Marine with Col Tim Mundy (Ret.) first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we bring you another installment of World of Wargaming with two gamers who need little introduction: Aidan and Noah Ruble. These two …

Continue reading "#247: World of Wargaming review of Mission Match"

The post #247: World of Wargaming review of Mission Match first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome 1stSgt Chase McGrorty-Hunter back to the scuttlebutt. Chase is a first sergeant with 11th Marines, the first winner of the Modern Day Marine …

Continue reading "#246: The MCA’s TDG Competition with 1stSgt Chase McGrorty-Hunter"

The post #246: The MCA’s TDG Competition with 1stSgt Chase McGrorty-Hunter first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome Josh Bates to the scuttlebutt. Josh is a retired Marine infantry officer, podcaster, and author of the book, Baghdad Shuffle, a noir …

Continue reading "#245: Doing the Baghdad Shuffle with LtCol Josh Bates (Ret.)"

The post #245: Doing the Baghdad Shuffle with LtCol Josh Bates (Ret.) first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring another installment of our new series, Literary Lethality, to the scuttlebutt. In this …

Continue reading "#244: Literary Lethality with Kacy Tellessen"

The post #244: Literary Lethality with Kacy Tellessen first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome David Kneiss and Dennis Mannion to the scuttlebutt. David is the director of the films The Gift and The Siege at …

Continue reading "#243: The Siege at Khe Sanh with David Kniess and Dennis Mannion"

The post #243: The Siege at Khe Sanh with David Kniess and Dennis Mannion first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring another installment of our new series, Literary Lethality, to the scuttlebutt. In this series, we dive deep into …

Continue reading "#242: Literary Lethality with Max Uriarte"

The post #242: Literary Lethality with Max Uriarte first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring you another installment of Semper Cinema with our review of the 1970 made-for-TV movie, Tribes. Full disclosure, we chose this …

Continue reading "#241: Semper Cinema – Tribes"

The post #241: Semper Cinema – Tribes first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we’re super excited to be welcoming retired MajGen James Lukeman to the scuttlebutt. MajGen Lukeman is President and CEO of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. …

Continue reading " #240: Marine Corps Heritage Foundation with MajGen James Lukeman (Ret)"

The post  #240: Marine Corps Heritage Foundation with MajGen James Lukeman (Ret) first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we’re talking Modern Day Marine 2026, so we brought the MCA’s Director of National Military Association Engagement and …

Continue reading "#239: Modern Day Marine 2026"

The post #239: Modern Day Marine 2026 first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome August Cole back to the scuttlebutt. August joined us last year at Modern Day Marine in Episode 193 and was …

Continue reading "#238: The Power of Narrative with August Cole"

The post #238: The Power of Narrative with August Cole first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring another installment of our new series, Literary Lethality, to the scuttlebutt. In this series, we …

Continue reading "#237: Literary Lethality with Ian Brown"

The post #237: Literary Lethality with Ian Brown first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us at the scuttlebutt. This week, the team comes together to form Voltron to recognize this month as the 110th anniversary of the Marine Corps Gazette being in continuous publication. It’s no small …

Continue reading "#236: Celebrating the Gazette’s 110th Anniversary"

The post #236: Celebrating the Gazette’s 110th Anniversary first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome Josh Cannon to the scuttlebutt. Josh is a veteran Marine of OIF and the Director of Research for the Frederick Honors …

Continue reading "#235: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad with Josh Cannon"

The post #235: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad with Josh Cannon first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring another installment of our new series, Literary Lethality, to the scuttlebutt. In this …

Continue reading "#234: Literary Lethality – Matterhorn with Michael Jerome Plunkett"

The post #234: Literary Lethality – Matterhorn with Michael Jerome Plunkett first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Editor-in-Chief of Leatherneck and Gazette magazines, Col Chris Woodbridge, to the scuttlebutt to talk about the US’s military operation …

Continue reading "#233: Observation Post – Iran Conflict"

The post #233: Observation Post – Iran Conflict first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This is an episode that we wanted to do when we first thought up the idea of hosting a …

Continue reading "#232: A Conversation with the Commandant and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps"

The post #232: A Conversation with the Commandant and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we welcome Mike LeBlanc to the scuttlebutt. Mike is a veteran Marine ground intelligence officer who is now the …

Continue reading "#231: What If Anger is the Answer with Mike LeBlanc"

The post #231: What If Anger is the Answer with Mike LeBlanc first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us at the scuttlebutt. This week, we welcome retired Master Gunnery Sergeant Adam Walker back to the show. Adam is on deck to talk with us about …

Continue reading "#230: Thoughts on the E-8 Redesignation Board Pilot Program with MGySgt Adam Walker (Ret)"

The post #230: Thoughts on the E-8 Redesignation Board Pilot Program with MGySgt Adam Walker (Ret) first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for tuning in and your continued support. This week, we bring you another installment of Semper Cinema in reviewing the documentary, The Last 600 Meters, detailing the battles of Fallujah …

Continue reading "#229: Semper Cinema – The Last 600 Meters"

The post #229: Semper Cinema – The Last 600 Meters first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for tuning in and for your continued support. In Dec of 2025, the Commandant’s office released Gen Smith’s update to the Commandant’s Professional Reading List. In our pursuit …

Continue reading "#228: Introduction to our Commandant’s Professional Reading List Series"

The post #228: Introduction to our Commandant’s Professional Reading List Series first appeared on Marine Corps Association.