By: Hell Cats, Produced by Valor Media Network in Partnership with Meidas Defense
Most Americans don’t picture women like Maura Sullivan and Rebecca Bennett when they picture a military veteran. Hell Cats exists to change that. In this premiere, two women veterans whose lives have run on strikingly parallel tracks — a Marine and a Navy helicopter pilot, both ROTC, both deployed, both moms — start telling the stories of women who served, led, and kept serving long after they left the uniform.
The two go back further in spirit than in time: “We’ve had parallel lives, basically,” Rebecca says — same ROTC start, same path into the military, same MBAs, same young kids at home. The first time they really compared notes, Maura’s reaction said it all: “How did we not meet earlier?” This first conversation digs into Maura’s journey — from a public-school kid who’d never seen a woman in the military, to a Marine officer who volunteered to deploy to Fallujah, to a presidential appointee fighting to fix veterans’ health care, and beyond — with Rebecca pulling the thread as someone who’s walked the same road.
Key Takeaways & Critical Insights
You can’t be what you can’t see. Rebecca’s line is the show’s whole reason for being: most people still don’t picture women when they picture a veteran. And with women’s role in the military under fresh attack, both hosts feel the obligation sharply — as Rebecca puts it, it’s on them to stand up and tell their stories. Hell Cats sets out to change the picture, not with statistics, but with story.
Parallel lives. Maura and Rebecca didn’t serve together, but they may as well have. Same ROTC start, same leap into the military, same MBAs, same juggle of service and young kids. It’s the friendship at the center of the show — two women who finally found someone who doesn’t need anything translated.
Loyalty to the unit comes first. The clearest window into Maura’s character: when her unit got orders for Iraq, she voluntarily extended her contract to go with them. There was no way, she says, that she wasn’t going.
Service was the family inheritance. Maura grew up the oldest of four in a big Irish Catholic family in the Midwest, raised on the Jesuit value of being “men and women for others.” Both grandfathers fought in World War II. All four siblings went into service professions — two Marines, an ER nurse, and a former teacher’s aide for kids with disabilities.
The leap started with one adult who saw it. A three-sport varsity athlete who couldn’t afford the schools she wanted, Maura was pointed toward an ROTC scholarship by her public high school counselor — over her own objection that she wasn’t “the military type.” That one nudge changed everything.
She earned her way in. Maura took an ROTC scholarship to Northwestern, waited tables and worked multiple jobs to cover the rest, started in the Navy, and switched to the Marines after her sophomore year.
Why she left the uniform. In Fallujah, Maura saw up close how decisions made far from the fight determined who came home. She concluded she might do more for the people she served with from outside the uniform than inside it.
The transition is one of the hardest parts. Both hosts are blunt that translating military experience to civilian life is genuinely tough — explaining what you did, finding your footing, rebuilding the camaraderie. Maura leaned on a campus military club to bridge it; Rebecca calls that kind of space a “ready room.”
From the private sector to VA reform. After a joint degree at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Business School, Maura ran businesses in the food-and-beverage industry across New England, served on the American Battle Monuments Commission, and — after the 2014 VA wait-time crisis — was appointed Assistant Secretary of the VA for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, helping improve access to care for some nine million veterans.
From a Public-School Classroom to the Pentagon
The classroom. Maura nearly opted out before she began. What flipped it was a willingness to try — to stay open long enough to find out if it was for her.
The Marines. After ROTC summer training across every Navy and Marine community, she was hooked within an hour of “Marine Week.” She’d go on to serve across the Indo-Pacific, supporting joint exercises with allied forces, then as an aide to a general — learning the command from the strategic level down.
Iraq. Fallujah crystallized everything: leadership, accountability, and the human cost of decisions made by people who never have to carry them.
The VA. When veterans died awaiting care in the 2014 wait-time scandal, Maura moved to Washington, slept on a friend’s floor, and worked her way onto the VA’s leadership team — helping pass and implement the bipartisan 2014 Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act.
“I’d never seen a woman in the military before. I just didn’t see myself that way.” — Maura Sullivan
A Show Built on Shared Service
What sets Hell Cats apart is the dynamic between two women who don’t have to translate for each other. They can drop a piece of jargon and just know — and Rebecca’s point about a squadron’s “ready room” is exactly the feeling the show is after: a place where women veterans talk honestly about the highs, the lows, and the lessons learned. It’s the camaraderie that runs through the whole series — two women who’ve done hard things, telling the truth about what service asked of them, what it cost, and why they’re still serving the communities and country they love.
Coming Up Next
Episode 1 centers Maura’s story. Next, the hosts turn to Rebecca Bennett’s path — how she earned an ROTC scholarship to Cornell, why she chose to fly, what it took to reach the top of her flight school class and Naval Test Pilot School, and the reality of landing a helicopter on a carrier (in training, everybody crashes the simulator first).
Hell Cats is a six-part limited series. New episodes drop every Friday for six weeks — subscribe so you don’t miss one.
Actionable Takeaways for Listeners
Widen the picture. Next time you picture “a veteran,” widen the frame. Representation starts with what we expect to see.
Be the adult who sees it. If there’s a young woman in your life with something to give, tell her. Maura’s whole trajectory turned on one counselor saying “you’re exactly what they’re looking for.”
Know the resources. If you or a veteran you love is navigating VA care or the PACT Act, get familiar with what you’re owed — the process is hard, and knowing the system matters.
Pass the stories on. The simplest way to change the picture is to share these conversations.
Mentioned in This Episode
Northwestern University (NROTC scholarship)
Harvard Kennedy School & Harvard Business School (joint degree)
American Battle Monuments Commission (presidential appointment)
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — the 2014 Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act
The PACT Act (veterans’ toxic-exposure care)
Cornell University & The Wharton School (Rebecca’s path, featured next episode)
Where to Follow the Hosts
Watch Hell Cats here and on Meidas Defense YouTube, where you’ll also find shorter clips and highlights from each episode, and listen to full episodes on Substack. Follow the hosts on their own Substacks — Maura Sullivan and Rebecca Bennett. Hell Cats is produced by Valor Media Network.
Editorial Note
Hell Cats is an independent production of VALOR Media Network created for journalistic, educational, and public-interest purposes.
VALOR Media Network exercises sole editorial control over the program’s content, production, and distribution. While some hosts and guests may be candidates for public office, Hell Cats is not produced by, authorized by, requested by, or coordinated with any political campaign or candidate committee. Participation in the program does not constitute an endorsement by VALOR Media Network.
