Brian grew up in Butte, Montana, and is a retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel. A Recon Marine and Intelligence Officer, Brian commanded Marines at the platoon, company, battalion, and regimental level. He led Marines in combat during multiple tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan and is proud to have completed his active duty service as the Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) Chief of Staff. He holds a B.S. degree from Montana Tech and graduate degrees from the United States Naval War College and the United States Army War College. Brian left active duty to join the WQW Team and feels blessed for the opportunity to continue serving veterans and service members back home in Montana.
During his active duty service, Brian spent three years advocating for veterans and transitioning service members on behalf of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This experience nurtured Brian’s passion for enabling our nation’s transitioning service members and veterans to maximize their potential as the civic assets that they are.
Casey Woods is the founder and Executive Director of FORGE, the only national non-profit specifically focused on working from within the firearms community on transformative, non-political efforts to prevent gun suicide and gun homicide. FORGE has two major initiatives. The Firearms Security Alliance is focused on cutting off a key source of crime guns by preventing gun theft, through a partnership-based approach that provides new tools and resources for individuals, organizations, ranges, firearms instructors, law enforcement and other community leaders. The Overwatch Project www.overwatchproject.org empowers gun owners, starting with the veteran community, to. intervene with friends and loved ones to prevent suicide through protective firearm storage measures – following the successful peer-intervention model of the “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” campaign.
