He served two combat tours in Iraq and Mali as a Green Beret, before television discovered him. It was something he initially refused - saying that he wanted to earn it - but when his father told him to make the jump, he did. 'What I wanted to do was go join the war effort and put the hurt on some bad guys.' So, that's what he did - and the higher-ups saw such potential in him that they fast-tracked him right into Special Forces. 'My heart wasn't in it,' he said about school.

Sitting on the sidelines even as the headlines reported on the Global War on Terror didn't sit well with him, though, so he changed his plans. His father had been deployed during Vietnam and served with the Green Beret 5th group.įast forward a few years, and Powell found himself at the University of Missouri on a full scholarship. It wasn't just a regular old hat, it was a Green Beret. Powell says that he was in high school when they were learning about the Vietnam War, and it was only then that he was able to connect the dots and understand just what it was that he had seen in his father's closet when he was a child. That said, what is it that makes them so dedicated to the craft? Viewers know that they're experts in their chosen fields, but what don't we know? There's none of the back-stabbing and the sometimes relentless emotional abuse that unfolds in many other reality and competition shows, and honest? The world needs more kindness. Across three grueling rounds, competitors forge deadly edged-weapons of war. The cast of 'Forged in Fire' is what makes the show, as clearly, they're incredibly invested in what's unfolding in front of them. In this explosive new series, four bladesmiths will compete for 10,000 and the title of Forged in Fire champion. Judge David Baker even joked that on the rare occasion that a contestant's weapon breaks, he needs to step away for a while to collect himself.Īnd there's something refreshing about that. And, as Vice discovered when they went behind the scenes of the show, the judges actually want each of the contestants to go through the flames and come out the other side with something brilliant. Here, it's all about the craftsmanship, and the incredibly satisfying process of seeing something completely handmade come together from a hunk of metal or some random scraps.

Forged in fire