91Ӱ���ƽ��

Team RWB Executive Director Michael Sullivan and Olympian Sammy Sullivan share their takes on forging a legacy, finding grit and pursuing sports.

To celebrate Father’s Day, the Tango Alpha Lima podcast welcomed retired Army Col. Mike “Sully” Sullivan and his daughter, Army Capt. and Olympic bronze medalist Sammy Sullivan, for .

The father-daughter duo shared about their family’s military tradition, grit, the power of community, and more including what some might consider a surprising parenting philosophy from a Green Beret.

(Previously, Tango Alpha Lima interviewed both Sully and Sammy separately at Army-Navy Game Media Row. Sully talks about . Revisit .)

The Sullivans come from a lineage of five generations of military service, a legacy that is truly a calling for them.

Sully’s family story reads like American military history in miniature. It begins with a great-grandfather who enlisted as a medic in World War I after being turned away from a surgeon’s commission — only to receive a battlefield commission on the spot when an old professor spotted him in the trenches.

“They made him a captain and he finished his time in World War I as a surgeon,” Sully recalled with a grin. Subsequent generations added their own chapters: a B-24 pilot grandfather killed in World War II, another grandfather and a father who served in Vietnam.

Sully enrolled at Claremont McKenna College, following his older siblings. Then came a letter his sophomore year offering Army ROTC and a two-year scholarship. He didn’t even ask his parents.

“I just went for it,” he said. “I’ll do it for four years and then I’ll get out.” Or so he thought.

The fifth generation arrived when Sammy and her twin brother, Jackson, separately decided they wanted to attend West Point. The revelation came at a family dinner when their mother finally asked where they wanted to go to school.

“I first said West Point, and then Jackson said West Point,” Sammy laughed. “So I’ll forever have it that he copied me.”

A trailblazer

One of the episode’s most telling moments served as a testament to how the Sullivans raised their children without placing ceilings on their ambitions.

Sammy is, as far as she knows, the first woman to serve from either side of her family. She had genuinely never stopped to consider her role as a trailblazer.

“Because I grew up with two amazing parents that never really talked about, well, women do this and men do this,” she said. “I’ve never even had that thought that I’m the first woman. It’s just always been like continuing military service.”

After graduating from West Point in 2020, Sammy faced a fork in the road. She could pursue the Army’s World Class Athlete Program immediately, or follow the pull she’d always felt toward leading troops. She chose the latter, spending time as a route clearance platoon leader with the 4th Engineer Battalion at Fort Carson, Colo.

“I have had this first dream of being a platoon leader my whole time at West Point,” she said. “They’re in such high, intense adversarial situations, but you always find a way to laugh. And it’s because of the people you surround yourself with.”

That grounding in leadership, she believes, made her a better athlete — and the two roles have become inseparable in how she represents the Army on the world stage. When she finally earned her spot on the USA Rugby Sevens team and stood on the podium in Paris with a bronze medal around her neck, she carried all of that with her.

She pushes back against the notion that the World Class Athlete Program is a soft assignment.

“I think I’ve made way more of an impact in this job on the army and the military in general than I ever would have as a normal engineer officer,” she said. “I’ve touched the lives of millions of people at the Olympics. I get to tell my Army story all across the world and all across the nation — and that inspires not only young people, but specifically women.”

A Green Beret’s parenting philosophy

A memorable thread of this episode was how Sully handled Sammy’s famously intense stress response — which has, on occasion, manifested as pre-competition nausea in the middle of formation. (Her twin brother, standing nearby at Airborne School, was apparently the only witness.)

“People would expect me to be the one that’s like, hard Green Beret — suck it up, embrace the suck, Samantha,” Sully said. “But I always encourage Samantha that your emotions, the things that you think are driving you nuts — that’s your superpower. You just continue to lean into that. That’s you. But you have to then harness that to get to the next thing.”

Sammy credits that approach — along with her mother, Cindy, whom Sully described as “the rock that held the entire family together” through six combat deployments — with shaping her resilience. “My parents did a really, really good job of never coddling that,” she said. “If they had been like, ‘it’s OK, you don’t have to do it,’ I wouldn’t be sitting here talking with you guys as an Olympian in the Army.”

Her pregame rituals now reflect that hard-won self-knowledge: same meal, same music, left cleat before right. “You don’t rise to the occasion,” she said. “You fall to the level of your training.”

The mission of Team Red, White & Blue

Sully’s post-military chapter has been equally driven by purpose.

He was an early builder of Team Red, White & Blue (Team RWB), recruited by founding member Mike Irwin in 2011 with a pitch that cut straight to the point: “Eventually the service is going to be done with you, whether you’re done with it or not — and you’re going to want a thing like Team RWB to exist.”

Today, as the organization’s executive director, Sully is channeling that same energy into proving the model with data. A 2024 study tracked 60 new members over six months, measuring blood markers, wearable fitness data, and Team RWB’s proprietary Enriched Life Scale. The 19-question self-assessment scale covers purpose, relationships, physical fitness and mental health. The results were striking: ELS scores rose collectively by roughly 20 percent across all four categories, while body mass index, weight, and blood markers all improved.

“A 5K isn’t going to solve everything,” Sully acknowledged. “But we believe you can stay left of clinical and be proactive if you commit to doing this work and if you’re surrounded by a community that helps with accountability.” The goal, he explained, is to build resiliency reserves before a crisis hits, not just respond after.

Sammy, for her part, has her own memory of what that community looks like in practice: photos of herself at age 11, carrying a little American flag alongside her dad and his big one, wearing a Team RWB shirt at a mud run.

“Team Red, White & Blue has been a big part of our father-daughter bonding as well,” she said. “I love my dad so much. He is so awesome.”

Also, Tango Alpha Lima hosts Stacy Pearsall, Adam Marr and Joe Worley discuss:

• New research that calls team sports a “life-saving alternative to traditional therapy” for issues such as PTSD.

• 91Ӱ���ƽ��’s role in recreational and adaptative sports for veterans, such as the Be the One mission, Operation Comfort Warriors and more.

• A big cultural moment for VA healthcare and claims processing.

Don’t miss this inspiring conversation. Subscribe to the Tango Alpha Lima Podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Join a community that celebrates authentic veteran stories and proves that service is a lifelong commitment.

Your stories. Your service. Your community. This is Tango Alpha Lima.

Follow Sammy Sullivan on . To learn more about Team Red, White & Blue and find a chapter near you at the .