Operation Encore: Soldiers, Stories, and Songs Operation Encore

In this episode of “Soldiers, Stories & Songs”, Guy (Jaquier) and Adam (Rossi) spend time with Army combat engineer Mike “Doc Straw” Swart. Mike served from 2004-2013 and deployed twice to the Middle East, first near Fallujah in Iraq and later to Asadabad in the Kunar Province in Afghanistan, conducting road clearance for IEDs and other explosives. Following Mike’s separation from the Army, he went back to school and became a doctor of physical therapy focusing on how the body and b...

In this episode of “Soldiers, Stories & Songs”, Guy (Jaquier) and Adam (Rossi) spend time with retired Army helicopter pilot Kate Anderson and military spouse Secily Anderson. Together, they blend compelling lyrics, smooth harmonies and tasty guitar leads as a duet called “Winter Grain”. Learn about how Kate grew up around the Reno Rodeo, almost became a nun, then pivoted to 22 years of service in the Army, and how Secily grew up with music since she was 8 years old and has pl...

In this episode of “Soldiers, Stories and Songs”, Guy (Jaquier) and Adam (Rossi) spend time with retired Army veteran and Green Beret Derek Stoner. After spending a childhood hunting, fishing and working as a farm laborer in small town Craig, Missouri (population 200), Derek joined the National Guard while still in High School and served in the Army after September 11th. Derek spent 20 years serving his country as an elite Green Beret, with over 16 deployments to the Middle East, ...

In this episode of “Soldiers, Stories and Songs”, Guy (Jaquier) and Adam (Rossi) spend some time with Stephen Wayne talking about his humble roots in rural Arkansas and his year long “adventure” at age 14, sneaking on Greyhound buses, living on the streets and playing his old Fender Squire guitar. Yes-Age 14! Of course, he later met an Army recruiter and signed up as a mechanic a few months before 9/11. He retired 21 years later, after a total of 5 years of deployments to Ir...

In this episode of "Soldiers, Stories, and Songs", Guy [Jaquier] and Adam [Rossi] catch up with Operation Encore artist Mike Ponder, a veteran of both the Navy and Marine Corps. Mike was introduced to music at an early age: He started touring at age three and was playing drums at age 6 on stage with his parents and their band "JL and the Country Squires". Mike deployed in support of the Gulf War in 1991, Kosovo in 1999, and Iraq in 2002. He was medically retired from the Navy in 2008 due to c...

In this episode of “Stories, Soldiers and Songs”, Guy [Jaquier] and Adam [Rossi] catch up with Operation Encore artist and Army veteran Schaefer Mueller after his recent OE recording session at AR Audio in San Francisco. During the podcast, they discuss Schaefer’s early music influences including his grandfather who played bass guitar for Funk and Jazz bands, and his parents who drove him to Jimmy Buffett concerts in a minivan decorated with shark fins. Following a period sleeping in hi...