SGT Boone Cutler

A Paratrooper's Beginning

Boone Cutler began his Army career as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. After completing his initial enlistment, he moved to Southern California and began building a civilian life.

On September 11, 2001, he watched the attacks on the World Trade Center unfold on television. He immediately requested reactivation.

Sadr City

Boone was assigned to the 301st Tactical Psychological Operations Company and deployed to Sadr City, Iraq, in 2005. His mission: conducting psychological operations against Iranian-backed Mehdi Militia forces in one of the most dangerous sectors in Baghdad.

His team ran daily combat missions focused on non-lethal influence operations — teaching Iraqi residents about democratic rights, countering Sadrist propaganda, and working to turn the population against Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. A West Point instructor later wrote that the efforts of his team saved many American and Iraqi lives.

During deployment, Boone sustained a traumatic brain injury from a mortar blast, along with injuries to his knee, shoulder, and back. He was MedEvac'd to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2006, where he would spend two years in rehabilitation — a period that overlapped with the infamous 2007 Walter Reed Neglect Scandal.

The Zombie Cocktail

Watch Boone explain in his own words

At Walter Reed, Boone was prescribed what he and fellow veterans called the “Zombie Cocktail” — a combination of opioids, SSRIs, and benzodiazepines that was standard treatment for wounded post-9/11 veterans. He described himself as a “Chemical Prisoner” during this period.

“Our medical establishment is more effective at killing us than the Taliban.”

Boone recognized that these overprescribed medications were contributing to the disproportionately high suicide rate among post-9/11 service members. He refused to accept that fate.

Cold Turkey in Reno

Watch Boone explain in his own words

Boone checked himself into the VA hospital in Reno, Nevada, and made the difficult choice to go cold-turkey off all prescribed medications. He credited his eventual recovery to medical marijuana, CBD oil, and a rare stem cell therapy he discovered independently.

This personal experience made him a lifelong activist for alternative veteran treatments and the broader Warfighter Hemp movement. He spoke at events from the Southern Hemp Expo to the Rotary World Peace Conference, always carrying the same message: there are paths to recovery that the system isn't offering.

Parkinson's Disease

Watch Boone explain in his own words

In 2012, Boone was diagnosed with Early-Onset Parkinson's Disease, secondary to the blast injury he sustained in Iraq. He began campaigning for awareness of degenerative brain disease in the warfighter community — an issue that remains largely under-discussed relative to PTSD and TBI. The diagnosis didn't slow him down. It gave him another fight.

Voice of the Warfighter

Even as his body fought Parkinson's, Boone's voice only got louder. He holds the distinction of being the first nationally recognized radio talk show personality who was also a combat veteran from the post-9/11 wars. After the success of his first book, he approached Fox News affiliate 99.1 FM Talk with the concept of a show covering national, international, and social events from the warfighter's perspective.

“Tipping Point with Boone Cutler” launched in 2011 — just a year before his Parkinson's diagnosis — and quickly became a hit with both mainstream listeners and the veteran community. In June 2014, the show expanded to KNEWS 107.3 FM in Reno, airing three hours every Saturday. His style was described as “raw Paratrooper, no-holds-barred.”

Beyond radio, Boone was a music video director and appeared across veteran advocacy platforms including the Havok Journal, Connecting Vets (Audacy), and the Straight Outta Combat podcast. He spoke at events from the Southern Hemp Expo to the Rotary World Peace Conference, and was listed as a speaker through the Catholic Speakers Organization.

The Spartan Pledge

Watch Boone explain in his own words

The work that would define Boone's legacy began with a conversation. He and a fellow veteran he called “Nacho” were talking about a mutual friend who had taken his own life. Boone asked the question most people don't have the courage to ask: “Have you ever thought about it?” Nacho's answer came instantly: “Yeah, I think about it every day.”

Despite everything they'd been through together, Boone hadn't known. His response was instinctive — not therapy-speak, not a hotline number: “Just call. Just call me first. Don't punk out. Don't go without saying goodbye.”

That conversation became a mutual promise. Other veterans helped evolve it into something larger — a formal pledge grounded in warfighter psychology: the battle buddy system and finding a new mission. Around a thousand veterans initially took it. The movement grew through social media, veteran events, and word-of-mouth.

“I will not take my own life by my own hand until I talk to my battle buddy first. My mission is to find a mission to help my warfighter family.”

Boone never claimed the pledge as his own. He described himself as “simply the messenger.” He called it “a battle plan — what to do when you don't know what to do. It's a mission because a warfighter without a mission is a dead warfighter. But one with a mission is a deadly warfighter.”

Critically, he emphasized: “You don't have to be suicidal to take the pledge.” It is preventive, not reactive — built like unit cohesion before combat, not triage after.

The Spartan Sword

The pledge needed a physical symbol. Danny Prince, a retired FDNY firefighter and Navy veteran, carried a piece of steel from the World Trade Center wreckage. He connected with Boone and Steve “Luker” Danyluk, a retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel. Together, they found a veteran blacksmith in McKinney, Texas, who forged that 9/11 steel into a Greek-style Spartan sword.

“Every warfighter in this era is there because of what happened at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11. We come full circle now, by creating a sword out of that tragic event… that inspires people to live.”

SpartanSword.org, the nonprofit Boone chaired, now transports the Spartan Sword and a forged Spartan Axe to veteran and first-responder events across the country. Fully volunteer-run, no paid staff — success measured by lives saved, not dollars raised.

Published Works

Boone authored and co-authored nine books spanning combat memoir, veteran health, and information warfare. His first, Voodoo in Sadr City, was begun during his combat tour and completed during recovery at Walter Reed. A West Point instructor wrote that the efforts of Boone's team “saved many American and Iraqi lives.” He later revised and expanded the account as CallSign Voodoo.

LastRound: From War to Overdose portrayed the unspoken inner dialogue of suicidal ideation with unflinching honesty — perhaps his most directly mission-aligned work. FPL: Boone Cutler Protocols, co-created with Geoff Dardia, distilled the health and wellness framework he built during his own recovery into practical protocols for veterans taking their healing into their own hands.

The Citizen's Guide to Fifth Generation Warfare series paired an unusual combination: LTG (Ret.) Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor with the highest levels of intelligence community experience, alongside SGT (Ret.) Boone Cutler, a wartime PsyOp team sergeant who had run the ground game in Sadr City. Together they mapped the “war of narratives” being waged through Big Tech, social media, and AI manipulation.

Legacy

Boone Cutler passed away on September 18, 2025, from health complications connected to his military service. SpartanSword.org, the organization he chaired, announced the news. The veteran community responded with an outpouring of grief and remembrance.

His work was never solitary. Ranger Karl Monger's GallantFew.org became the Spartan Pledge's institutional home, hosting the pledge page and organizing VetXpo events where Boone spoke. Danny Prince and Steve Danyluk carried the Spartan Sword to events across America. The network Boone built was as much his legacy as the words he wrote.

The Boone Cutler Foundation carries forward his life's work: giving veterans a reason to stay, a battle buddy to call, and a new mission to pursue. Every page of this site, every video shared, every pledge taken exists because Boone believed that no warrior should fight alone.