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both in service and in life. And when times get challenging, AMU is here for you with 24-7 mental health supports. Always prepared. That's you. Learn more at amu.apus.edu. Hello, hello. Before we get on with our show, I want you to know that your Pushkin Plus subscription grants you early access to Medal of Honor episodes one week before they're released to the public.
That's one week of exclusive access. If you want to listen to more episodes a week before they're widely available, sign up for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts or by visiting pushkin.fm slash plus. Now, on to the episode. A dust storm rolled over the small city of Samarra in central Iraq.
The sky turned hazy red and then, as the sun set, a dark and moonless black. It was mid-October 2005, 31 months since the U.S. had invaded the country. American forces had captured Saddam Hussein almost two years earlier. And still, the war dragged on. A campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation as large as California could be longer and more difficult than some predict.
and helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable, and free country will require our sustained commitment. American soldiers were settled into dozens of forward operating bases around Iraq. Every day was a combination of monotony and dread. On that black October night, a convoy of two American Bradley fighting vehicles traveled through the dust storm up an unlit road.
A Bradley is an armored personnel carrier that rolls forward on tracks, not wheels. It has a troop compartment in the back and a gun turret at the front. Bradleys were mostly used for scouting missions, and this night was one of those. Routine. The army troops stationed nearby had done the same trip dozens, if not hundreds of times. In the balance between monotony and dread, this was monotony. Until it wasn't. Suddenly.
a deafening blast. A fiery explosion illuminated the night. The first of the two Bradleys had hit an IED, an improvised explosive device. If you've been watching from a distance that night, here's what you would have seen.
An armored vehicle engulfed in fire, a soldier climbing out of a hatch and pulling a burning man to safety. Then that soldier too catching fire. A column of flame against the dark night sky. Over the roar of the explosion, you'd hear the screams of soldiers trapped inside the vehicle. And then you'd see that first man turn back to the fire.
I'm Malcolm Gladwell, and this is Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States, awarded for gallantry and bravery in combat with the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must be approved all the way up the chain of command, from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House. This show is brought to you by the U.S. Department of Defense.
is about those heroes, what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage. Each Medal of Honor action is, by definition, heroic, but the story of Sergeant First Class Alwyn Cash is about a very specific element of heroism, sacrifice.
Not the sacrifice that comes with being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or a split-second decision that later turns out to have been courageous and fatal. A kind of sacrifice that's more intentional, more deliberate. We talk a lot about the acts of bravery for which people receive something, a medal, recognition. But there's always that flip side when someone loses something too, a sacrifice.
It can be surprisingly easy to gloss over what our heroes are giving up or the pain they're going through. But it's hard to miss in the story of Alwin Cash. If you want to get a good sense of who Alwin Cash was in Iraq, you need to talk to the people who served with him. General Gary Brito would be at the top of that list. We had some ordinary people that just do some extraordinary things when unexpected. And Cash was one of those.
Brito was Alwyn's battalion commander in 2005. Now he's a four-star general in charge of training and leadership development across the entire army, active duty, National Guard, and reserves. He guides and shapes the culture of the army. If anyone can tell you what makes a good soldier, it's Brito. He knew and liked Alwyn, not just as a sergeant, but as a person. Very unassuming,
Very professional, newest stuff, and I'll use the word, the gruffness that I respected and expected at a non-commissioned officer's. A non-commissioned officer is one who hasn't gone to college or through officer training. Cash had enlisted in the Army right out of high school. He'd grown up in a big family in a small town in Florida. He kept his dark hair in a buzz cut fade and wore a modest mustache.
He was a country guy at heart. Like to fish, like to hunt, and he would bend your ear on that if given an opportunity to do so. Albin worked his way up the ranks, a real soldier's soldier. For a time, he was a drill sergeant at Fort Benning, Georgia, training troops. He was all about the basics, making sure everyone had the foundations down. Then he pushed his guys beyond those foundations to excellence.
He was known for his brutally honest sense of humor. Nothing shook him. But the thing every person who served with Alwyn will tell you, he truly cared for the soldiers in his command. What I respected and I saw it shine in Sergeant Cash was the ability to connect to his soldiers. A platoon is about 35-ish people or so, but he knew them, knew them by their name, knew them by their nickname, knew what was going on at home, disconnected to his troops.
When he deployed to Iraq for the second time in 2005, the men who served with him saw him the way that General Brito did, as someone who connected, who cared. He was more like that big, big brother. This is Gary Mills, who was in Alwyn's platoon. You know, he didn't tell me it was something that he wouldn't do. He was the type of leader that you can argue with him, but one minute later, you're going to have a beer.
Alvin was only 35, but he'd seen a lot during his years in the service. He knew how hard it was to live an Army life and have a family. He had a wife and three young kids back in the States. Here's Douglas Dodge, who was the second squad leader of his platoon. I was going through some marital problems, and Sergeant Cash actually...
called my wife from Iraq and talked to her at length and then came to my chew our little sleeping area and told me hey dodge go call your wife and I was like why what are you talking about and he said I just had a long conversation with her about stuff that's going on with you two I know you're having problems and it's I want you to have your head clear while we're out here doing stuff at the time I was kind of angry because I was tired I just wanted to sleep
But he had taken his time when he could have been sleeping, but he took his precious time to try to take care of me. So that's Alwyn, invested in his soldiers as whole people, willing to give up his personal time to help them. Unsolicited marital advice. It's not maybe the first thing you think of when you think of a hero, but it has everything to do with what will come next.
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Learn more about taking your business further by visiting T-Mobile.com slash now. This is Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History. Hey, have you heard the news? Sauron has returned in season two of Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power.
If you didn't see season one, you need to check it out. It's epic. And season two looks to build on that. If last season was all about the heroes, then this season is all about the villains. And I mean, who doesn't want to see the greatest villain of all time in action? So like I mentioned, Sauron is back. He's forging the rings of power. You get to see how powerful they really are. Nobody in Middle-earth is safe.
Okay, so I know a bunch of you have been counting down until this comes out, but really, this is a show anybody will love. If you love action, fantasy, or drama, you'll love Rings of Power. It's got it all, seriously. So don't miss any of the Elf, Wizard, or Harfoot fun. Season 2 of Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power, premieres on August 29th, only on Prime Video. One thing that really stuck out to me that evening was
was pitch, pitch black outside. Of all the nights I was out, that was probably the darkest one. Forward Operating Base McKenzie was in the middle of the desert north of Baghdad. You can picture it. Hot, sandy, relentlessly beige, concrete bunkers. The more than 400 men who were stationed there lived in contained housing units. Trailers, really. While some of the other American bases in the region had seen very little fighting, that wasn't the case here.
Anxiety had been high for a while. Jimmy Hathaway was a company commander at Fobb McKenzie. As he remembers it, things had been dicey in the area of operations, or as they referred to it, the AO, for months. We'd just come off Iraqi elections that year. It'd been a pretty rough time starting in September. There had been skirmishes around the base, with the American troops engaging with small arms fire, or IEDs, a few days out of the week.
The roads weren't safe, so the troops had to secure the routes for supplies coming in. We'd had a pretty big incident with a convoy that had been ambushed, and we knew that any time a resupply convoy came into our AO, that there was potential for loss of life. There was potential for damage to the vehicles if we didn't go out and secure it.
The night of October 17, 2005, a patrol of two Bradley fighting vehicles was going to do just that: drive the main supply route to make sure it was clear, then drive right back. Leo Mathias was Alwyn's team leader at the base.
I remember specifically the weather being really, really bad. So it was like a dust storm moving through the area and there was red air. So basically medevacs weren't supposed to fly during that time period. But I just remember it was a night patrol and we have to go out because of a logistical convoy was coming in the following day. Albon was in the first vehicle of the patrol. He wasn't supposed to be.
It was a classic example of cash going above and beyond for somebody else.
So he drives around me and I see him drive out. So I get back on my track and so I'm now behind him driving down the road. And we're going really, really slow just because of the visibility. There were nine men in the lead Bradley. Up front, there was Alwyn and a gunner in the turret, plus a driver. In the troop compartment in the back, there were six men, an Iraqi interpreter and five soldiers, including Douglas and Gary Mills.
We were just in the back, just having fun like usual, just getting our mind into, you know, what was going to happen. And then, boom, it kind of happened quick. The Bradley had run over an IED. We'd been hit by enough IEDs already that you knew when you heard it what it was. And I heard that slap. But then in the next instant, I was knocked unconscious. I was thrown into the ceiling of the Bradley. And I don't know how long I was unconscious for.
Bradleys are armored vehicles. They're built to run over things like IEDs and stay in the road. But something was different that night. But I woke up and we were all on fire. The fuel cell of the Bradley had ignited. Fire was surging upwards from the bottom of the vehicle. I'm watching this vehicle in flames. So it wasn't as if it was a slow burn. It was literally, you saw the explosion and the vehicle itself was in flames.
Alwyn wasn't injured in the blast, but as the fuel cell drained, he was drenched in gasoline. He knew what that meant. He also could go up in flames at any time. Alwyn got to the driver's hatch and opened it. He pulled the driver to safety, but the driver was on fire. So now Alwyn was on fire as well. He extinguished the flames and then turned to the back of the Bradley.
There were six men trapped back there. The compartment was in flames. It was an oven. The first thing I remember is the pain from being on fire. And I could hear everybody screaming. And I just climbed up onto the bench seat because the floor was all fire and flames.
You couldn't see anything. All I could see was an orange glow. Alwyn didn't hesitate. He went straight to the back of the vehicle. He'd already sustained second and third degree burns. Inside the compartment, Douglas reached for a tool and pried at the door. And I managed to get the troop door open and I just kind of spilled out of the Bradley onto the back road. And that's when I saw Sergeant Cash at the back of the Bradley vehicle.
Arwen's uniform had burned so badly that it had melted onto his body. It was very surreal because he had his helmet on, his body armor on, and his boots on, but he didn't have anything else on because it had been burned off of him. And the only thing he asked me was, where are the boys at? And I just kind of looked at him and looked at the Bradley, and he said, we've got to get the boys out. And then he just instantly started climbing in. Into the fire with no protection.
Leon frantically called back to base. Then he and the men in the second vehicle raced towards the burning Bradley. Sergeant Cash is kind of the one that's going back to and from the Bradley, pulling people out one by one. And he just goes back over and over again.
Alwyn wasn't going to stop until every one of his boys was accounted for. He went in once and helped soldiers escape the troop compartment. And then he noticed that two others were missing. So he went back into the inferno again to pull them out. But where was the interpreter? Alwyn went back into Bradley another time. The last person that got out was the interpreter. And his body was so lifeless, he just pretty much drug him out of that track.
Alwyn had been critically injured back when he'd saved the first man, the driver. But he made the decision to go back into the burning troop compartment five separate times. He knew exactly what kind of sacrifice he was making. Yet he did it willingly, methodically. By the time Gary Mills reached Alwyn, 72% of Alwyn's body was covered in second and third degree burns. I seen Sergeant Cash laying on the ground.
The forward operating base was only two miles away, but there was a dust storm, remember? Everything seemed to be moving more slowly than usual. Finally, the medevac helicopters arrived.
The interpreter had died at the scene. Several of the soldiers barely hung on to life, Alwyn included. Nevertheless, he was the last one to get on the medevac. He wanted to see everyone else get taken care of first. He waited until they all were safe. And even then, he wouldn't get on a stretcher. He was like, no, I'm walking to this helicopter, like as if he wanted to walk off the battlefield.
The medevacs lifted off to the highest level triage facility nearby. Douglas was with Alwyn. And there they began triaging and treating everybody. Sergeant Cash, the whole time there, I could hear him yelling, well, how are these, how are my guys? You know, what's going on with them? Are they okay? Where are they at?
The most badly burned men were flown to Germany and then to Texas for more specialized care. Alwyn was one of them, and Gary Mills was too. As soon as he was able, he insisted on seeing Alwyn. They told me, no, I'm not supposed to go and visit, you know, anybody. Like, no, I'm going to visit. I visited Sarn Cash, and it was funny because, like I said, we were both messed up.
and he still had jokes and just making sure I'm good. It hits you because it's like, man, even in our baddest moment, it doesn't matter about him. It matters about everybody else. There was hope that all of the soldiers might make it until there wasn't. That's when we started losing people and it just got harder and harder every day. Of the nine people in the Bradley, only three would survive. General Gary Brito remembers waiting to get news from the men in the hospital.
Every single night. Did not want to get that phone call that somebody passed, and we did. Hey, how's he doing? Well, Staff Sergeant George Alexander, this first one. Second call, Doc Robinson. Third call, Specialist Darren Hough. Just kept you up at night. Just didn't want to get it, but you did. So we were really, really just hoping. Fingers crossed, will he survive? Just holding on for hope. Okay, don't die, don't die, don't die.
In the hospital, Albin kept his sense of humor and his sense of duty intact. Everyone who loved him knew how strong he was. As the weeks passed, they kept up hope, but he hit the worst of the burns. And on November 8th, 2005, Albin Cash died in the hospital in San Antonio. He was the last man to have gotten on the medevac and the last man to succumb to his injuries. He held out for as long as he could.
He would say, it's going to be hard coming home without the guys you came here with. And who would have known that he would have been one of those people? Almost immediately, Brito put in for Alwyn to get the Silver Star, one of the Army's top awards for bravery. It's a couple notches below the Medal of Honor. Brito was still in Iraq, trying to keep his troops together, boost morale, just survive the deployment. Everyone was exhausted. At that moment, the Silver Star for Alwyn felt like the right idea.
There was a sense of numbness, just combat fatigue. And I didn't see it then. I see it now. Let me take a second to explain what differentiates the Silver Star from a Medal of Honor. A Silver Star is the Army's third highest decoration, given for distinguished gallantry in action. The next step up is a distinguished service cross, given for extraordinary heroism in combat. And then, sitting at the top of the heap, is the Medal of Honor.
Each one carries a huge amount of prestige, but the Medal of Honor has a stringent set of criteria. The action comes at the risk of life and limb, and above and beyond the call of duty. In other words, not something that your commanding officer could order you to do. Those requirements might sound general, but in reality they're punishingly specific. There aren't a huge variety of things that perfectly tick all of those boxes.
The iconic Medal of Honor-worthy action is throwing yourself on a grenade. It's an act of pure selflessness and courage done at a moment when the enemy is in full attack. In fact, 147 of the men who have been awarded the medal received it for putting themselves in the way of a grenade. And we've only had grenades since World War I.
What Alwyn did sounds very much like throwing himself on a grenade, doesn't it? An act of supreme self-sacrifice on behalf of others at a time of peril. You can't walk into a fire thinking you're going to survive. Alwyn's skin was charred, his lungs were failing, and yet he kept returning to the inferno knowing what that meant.
When Brito and Alwyn's family and friends thought about how best to honor Alwyn, they began to think that maybe he deserved something more than a silver star. Maybe he deserved the highest of all military honors. It was on my mind. It just kind of just weighed on me, on my mind. So I started to think about it, think about it. I said, I got to do this. I said, not for me, not for the unit, but for Cash and his troops. This is earned. But there was a catch, a crucial one.
There's a third essential requirement for Medal of Honor eligibility. The act of bravery has to take place in the field of combat. That's why throwing yourself on a grenade fits. The enemy threw a grenade at you, but Owens Bradley ran over an IED, an explosive device that could have been put there hours or even days before. That's not combat.
If Brito wanted to put his hero up for the greatest of military honors, he needed to know more about what happened on that black October night. Alvin Cash had fought to the death for his men. And now Brito was going to fight for him. I just did not know the process. Thought I did, but did not know the process. He had no idea what a feat of endurance it was going to be. We'll be right back.
These powerful stories of those who helped protect our country are brought to you by LifeLock, the pioneer and leader in identity theft protection.
Now you may think, I'm smart, I'm careful with my data, I don't need to worry. But the truth is, a lot of your personal information is in the control of others, like your doctor's office, your bank, your insurance provider. All it takes is one breach of any organization that has your info and you could become a victim of identity theft.
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So start protecting your identity today. Save up to 40% off your first year of LifeLock identity theft protection. Go to LifeLock.com slash metal to save 40% off. Terms apply. The most innovative companies are going further with T-Mobile for Business.
Tractor Supply trusts 5G solutions from T-Mobile. Together, we're connecting over 2,200 stores with 5G business internet, powering AI so team members can match shoppers with the products they need faster. Together with Delta, T-Mobile for Business is putting 5G into the hands of ground staff so they can better assist on-the-go travelers with real-time information.
By leveraging the nation's largest 5G network, Delta aims to improve operations across nearly every part of the journey, from check-in and boarding to departure, arrival, baggage handling, and beyond. Tractor Supply, Delta, and T-Mobile for Business are all passionate about connecting people and places while delivering exceptional customer experiences along the way. These partnerships are paving the way for unprecedented innovation.
Learn more about taking your business further by visiting T-Mobile.com slash now. This is Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History. Hey, have you heard the news? Sauron has returned in season two of Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power.
If you didn't see season one, you need to check it out. It's epic. And season two looks to build on that. If last season was all about the heroes, then this season is all about the villains. And I mean, who doesn't want to see the greatest villain of all time in action? So like I mentioned, Sauron is back. He's forging the rings of power. You get to see how powerful they really are. Nobody in Middle-earth is safe.
Okay, so I know a bunch of you have been counting down until this comes out, but really, this is a show anybody will love. If you love action, fantasy, or drama, you'll love Rings of Power. It's got it all, seriously. So don't miss any of the elf, wizard, or Harfoot fun. Season 2 of Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power, premieres on August 29th, only on Prime Video.
The success of a Medal of Honor recommendation hinges on the nomination package, which takes an enormous amount of research, paperwork, witness statements, hundreds if not thousands of pages. Alone among military medals, the Medal of Honor requires, quote, "...incontestable proof of the performance of the meritorious conduct."
That's one thing if you're a professional historian. It's another if you're employed full-time by the United States Army, moving up the ranks, protecting your country. Brito was learning on the job, an Army officer with a side gig as a detective. So I was honored to be part of it, a little angry that it was taking long, partly because of my actions, I own that, and not understanding what had to be done.
I remember one time even asking myself, gee, why don't you just talk to the right people the first time? They could tell you. And I met these folks as I went up the ranks. I said, who's doing my job, doing our job? What Brito needed was for someone to give him evidence that there had been a battle at the crash site. Proof that the soldiers were engaging the enemy.
That meant painstakingly interviewing every survivor he could find, prodding their memories. But that meant forcing people to relive a night that they may not have wanted to relive, where many had been badly wounded. To revisit chaos, confusion, explosions, all under the shadow of darkness.
General Brito submitted Alwyn's packet once. It was rejected. A second time, it was rejected, sacrificing hours that turned into days, and then days that stretched to years. Brito searched for every last bit of testimony for over a decade, and then came a stroke of luck.
A non-commissioned officer that I've been trying to reach for many, many, many years who had firsthand witness knowledge of what happened. I found him. I should be embarrassed to say this, but in Oktoberfest, we were attending in Fort Penn, Georgia. And I approached him and said, hey, would you be willing to provide your account?
Brito had run out of options. This was his last chance. He had tried to get testimony from the veteran before to no avail. The man hadn't replied. He was battling PTSD. To go back was just too painful. But there he was, face to face with Brito by sheer chance. Brito said, just tell me what you saw that night. He said, you write it. I don't care if you write it in a pen or a napkin. We'll get it done. And he did. And what did the soldier confirm?
that in all of the confusion of that October night, he had heard guns firing, bullets pinging off the burning Bradley. It had been an ambush. It was combat. And that account, coupled with everything else, I got it to the point of where the true requirements of witness statements, concept sketches, you name it, was all there. Then I just had to wait. Sixteen years after that red night sky in Iraq,
On December 16th, 2021, President Joe Biden awarded Alwyn Cash the Medal of Honor. His wife, Tamara, was there to receive it on his behalf. Sergeant Cash and his family gave everything for our country. The devotion to his memory, and their years working to make sure that his courage and selflessness were properly documented and honored, is a testament to the love he inspired and the legacy he left behind.
Sergeant First Class Cash is now the seventh individual to receive a Medal of Honor for his actions in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the first African-American to receive it since the Vietnam War. General Gary Brito was there too, of course. I think it's safe to say that nobody in the audience was as thrilled as he was. And I, truth and lending, told my wife at that moment, you know, if I retire tomorrow, I'm happy because of this.
There are lots of tributes to Alwyn Cash out in the world. The post office in his little hometown of Oviedo, Florida, is named after him. The Army Reserve Training Center in Sanford, Florida, is named in his honor, too. So is the Memorial Garden at Fort Stewart in Georgia. And just this May, General Brito went to the ceremony that named the entry gate to the training grounds at Fort Moore, formerly Fort Benning, for Alwyn.
Those monuments will last long after the final man from Alwyn's platoon is gone. But I'd argue that the memorials that truly matter are the ones you've been listening to. The voices of the men whose lives he changed. The ones that paint a portrait of the soldier he was and the extraordinary sacrifice he made.
His burden that he carried continually was you bring everyone home, like as if most are in an organization and you have your teammates to your left and right. But he literally felt as if he had been entrusted with the service members that he was with in this platoon. And that was the constant vein through everything that he said and did. Saying that you'll walk through fire for someone is a cliche. We've all heard it. Almond Cash actually did it.
Not once, but five times. Sacrifice may not be the element of heroism that's most valued by the Medal of Honor, but unlike gallantry in battle, it's the thing that the rest of us can actually relate to. We sacrifice in little ways all the time, or at least we should.
When we give up a comfortable seat on the bus for someone who needs it more. When we take a few precious hours to help a struggling neighbor or a stranger. Those small acts of sacrifice are testament to our shared humanity. So I want you to picture that night in October 2005. A column of flame on the horizon. A man returning again and again and again and again to a burning vehicle to save the people inside.
And not in the silence of an empty desert, but in the middle of an ambush, under attack from a hidden enemy, one last crucial detail that made all the difference in the world. That is heroism by any definition.
And that sacrifice had a ripple effect. We've seen this over and over again in stories about the Medal of Honor. Someone commits an extraordinary act of courage and people become tied to it in a powerful way. It changes them. Remember Doug Monroe, the Coast Guard hero, and his best friend Mike Cooley, who raised and lowered the flag at his grave every day for 40 years? What Gary Brito did for Alwyn echoes that theme.
He sacrificed his time over more than a decade to honor his fallen comrade. If you sacrifice yourself for those you serve, those who serve will sacrifice for you.
Original music by Eric Phillips.
If you want to learn more about our Medal of Honor recipients, follow us on Instagram and Twitter. We'll be sharing photos and videos of the heroes featured on this show. We'd also love to hear from you. DM us with a story about a courageous veteran in your life. If you don't know a veteran, we would love to hear a story of how courage was contagious in your own life. You can find us at PushkinBots.com.
I'm your host, Malcolm Glavo.
I'm Malcolm Gladwell, and I'd like to take a moment to talk about an amazing new podcast I'm hosting called Medal of Honor. It's a moving podcast series celebrating the untold stories of those who protect our country. And it's brought to you by LifeLock, the leader in identity theft protection. Your personal info is in a lot of places that can accidentally expose you to identity theft.
and not everyone who handles your personal info is as careful as you. LifeLock makes it easy to take control of your identity and will work to fix identity theft if it happens. Join the millions of Americans who trust LifeLock. Visit LifeLock.com slash metal today to save up to 40% off your first year.
This is Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History. Hey there, you've got to check out season two of Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power. It's going to be epic.
To catch you up, Sauron has returned and nobody in Middle-earth is safe. Season two is all about the greatest villain of all time. And if you're like, I'm not into that stuff, think again. If you love action, fantasy, or drama, you'll love Rings of Power. Season two of The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power, premieres on August 29th, only on Prime Video.
At the heart of every mission, there's an unshakable force that stands ready day and night. That's you, the one who rises before dawn to meet every challenge head on. At American Military University, we understand the demands of military life and the challenges you face. Our programs provide the flexibility you need to succeed.
both in service and in life. And when times get challenging, AMU is here for you with 24-7 mental health support. Always prepared. That's you. Learn more at amu.apus.edu.