Hazard Ground – Mark Zinno

The Hazard Ground podcast was created by Mark Zinno to allow members of our military to share their stories of combat & survival and deliver inspirational stories about resilience. Mark was studying communications at Loyola University and joined the ROTC to help pay for his tuition. His original intent was to simply complete his four year commitment to Army and then 9/11 happened. He now has twenty five years of service in both the active duty and the National Guard, and currently holds the rank of Colonel in the Army Reserve. He had two deployments to Iraq. Mark also has over twenty years of experience as both a radio and television sports broadcaster. While on drill at the local center, Mark noticed paintings that highlighted famous battles. One commemorated the battle of Takur Ghar.  He researched it and immediately wondered why more people didn’t know about this epic battle. He connected with a longtime friend who was familiar with the “backend” aspects of podcasting and the Hazard Ground podcast was born. We discuss that advantage of being a Veteran interviewing other Veterans.  Often the conversation can be more in depth because he has “been there, there done that”. He feels HIS job is to “translate” these stories for the civilian population. We also briefly discuss the risks of “stolen valor” guests. As both a Veteran and a professional in the sports broadcasting industry, Mark has some pretty strong feelings about how sports team sometimes “use” Veterans to make money. “If you walked up to your friend and said I just put five dollars in the Salvation Army bucket, what do you think of me? You would look ridiculous and sound ridiculous.” Mark is also involved in the Merging Vets and Players organization. MVP is a wonderful organization that connects Veterans and Professional athletes to help each other dealing with the transition “when the uniform comes off.” TAKEAWAY: Mark is proud that his podcast is chronicling history from a first person perspective. “When the child of one of our guests asks their parent what they did in the war, they can direct them to their Hazard Ground podcast.”