111732ZNOV25

Retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Justin Sapp may be the highest-speed of all the high-speed Operators I know (hopefully I didn’t bruise too many egos out there). Justin is pictured here alongside Northern Alliance fighters wearing his OG Timex Ironman back when he was Captain Sapp. See, Justin and I are close friends. So close, in fact, that he spoke at my wedding! Here’s the deal. All Operators are uniquely trained and prepared to do all the things in all the places. At the same time, each of their stories are uniquely specific to the individual, yet broadly applicable across the SOF community. Quite the enigma, right? On the morning of September 11th, Justin was in the middle of a training dive in the U.S. Army’s Special Forces Combat Diver Course down in Key West. When he surfaced from that training dive the U.S. view of the world had drastically changed. About a week after 9/11 he was detailed to the CIA’s Ground Branch. A month after 9/11 he was in Afghanistan partnering with General Dostum of the Northern Alliance to procure horses for the Special Forces team depicted in the movie 12 Strong and detailed in the book First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11 written by @tobyharnden. To the best of our collective knowledge, Justin was the first U.S. Service Member on the ground behind enemy lines in Afghanistan immediately following 9/11. He quite literally got the horses for the Horse Soldiers. How cool is that? And he’s told me some stories over the years about how his kids will play Call of Duty, but still can’t imagine their dad as the Call of Duty type. I’m tellin’ y’all, every time I think of that I laugh and shake my head. Bless their hearts. Anyways, given Justin is my old workout buddy and compadre, and I let him crash in our extra bedroom from time-to-time when he’s passing through town, he did me a solid and answered some questions for us this Veterans Day! - PRESENT & READY 🇺🇸#veteransday

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