Dec 2, 2025
In this week's episode, I am joined by Nick O'Kelly!
Nick is a retired Chief Warrant Officer 3 with 13 years of service in the U.S. Army, including 9 years in Special Operations.
He is one of the rare individuals to have served both as a U.S. Army Green Beret and as an MH-60M Black Hawk pilot with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
Over the course of seven overseas deployments—including three combat tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Philippines—he provided direct support to Tier 1 Special Mission Units in some of the world’s most dangerous and complex environments.
Nick is now the author of Stigma, a powerful and unflinching exploration of mental health in the military and other high-performance communities.
The book breaks the
long-standing code of silence around psychological struggle,
revealing that strength and struggle can coexist—and that battle is
not weakness.
Key Points