Ones Ready
A team of active duty Combat Control (CCT), Pararescue (PJ), and Special Reconnaissance (SR) leveraging our 69 years of special operations experience to make the next generation of operators smarter, faster and stronger than we ever were. We are the PREMIERE resource for all things Air Force Special Warfare. The Ones Ready Podcast is honest talk about what it is like to go from a know-nothing high school graduate to an elite Special Operator. We will cover important practices for success including physical training, nutrition, recovery, and mindset traits essential to any team. Join us in The Team Room to get all your questions answered!! With battle-tested operators from across USAF SPECWAR and far-reaching web of recruiters, subject matter experts, and friends, there are no questions we can’t answer- and if we can’t, we know exactly where to look. See you in The Team Room!Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the OnesReady team are those of the team and do not reflect the official policy or position of the DoD. Any content provided by our Podcast guests, bloggers, sponsors, or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign the DoD, any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone.
Ones Ready
Ep 571: Rejected, Resilient, Still Serving The Bros | TACP - RJ Hunter
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Aaron sits down with RJ Hunter, former Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) operator, to unpack a career that didn’t follow the clean, highlight-reel version you see online.
This is what it actually looks like when things don’t go your way—getting kicked out, fighting your way back in, deployments stacking up, injuries piling on, and still refusing to quit. RJ walks through getting denied by every branch, grinding through waivers, surviving multiple deployments, and navigating the reality of mental health, med boards, and a body that’s slowly breaking down.
No glamor here. Just persistence, frustration, and figuring it out anyway.
If you think your path has to be perfect to make it—you’re wrong. The only difference is whether you keep going or not.
⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 Not built to be average
01:10 Sponsor read and intro
03:20 Who is RJ Hunter
05:15 Getting kicked out and starting over
08:30 Denied by every military branch
10:40 Fighting for a second chance
12:45 Choosing TACP over everything else
15:30 Pipeline reality check
18:20 Deployments start stacking
21:30 Life downrange and tempo reality
25:10 Why timing never lined up
29:00 Instructor duty and hard lessons
33:10 Mental health and career impact
37:40 Waivers, med boards, and setbacks
42:00 Injuries start compounding
46:30 Arctic, Iraq, and NATO experiences
51:00 Transition out and identity shift
55:10 TACP Foundation mission
59:30 Why community still matters
01:02:00 Final advice no one wants to hear
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