Former CEO ARMA Global & ARCTOS | Ranger | Armor Officer | James Fugit

Apr 22, 2023

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This episode is brought to you by 4Patriots Survival Food Kits.The kits are compact, sturdy, water-resistant, and stack easily. They have different delicious breakfasts, lunches, dinners. You can make these meals in less than 20 minutes. Just add boiling water, simmer, and serve. Go to 4Patriots.com and use code COMBAT to get 10% off.

Join our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan for people who love and support our veterans, service members, and their families. It has info on a significant event in military and/or intel history, a funny military joke, an update on a current event I'm following, something I'm doing that week in my life, a book I'm reading, a look at an upcoming interview, a reflection on a past episode and more! ======== Today we get a slightly different Combat Story where we still hear from a veteran, but this time in terms of overcoming challenges to succeed in business, in addition to their military experience.

For this first Combat Story: Business Edition of, we hear from James Fugit, my brother and a very successful businessman who sold two companies in the defense space providing aviation, intelligence, IT, training, and equipment (in many cases delivering Soviet era helicopter parts and ammunition to various countries while supporting our efforts in Afghanistan). This took him all over the world with many meetings and partners in Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and more. It’s like a real life and legitimate Dogs of War if you’ve seen the movie.

James co-founded ARMA Global Corporation, which provided information technology, engineering, and technical support to defense and government customers, and helped build it from a handful of employees in 2008 to over 800 employees in 2014 when it was sold to General Dynamics Information Technology. He also co-founded and served as CEO of ARMA Aviation Corporation, which provided logistics, supply chain management, maintenance-repair- overhaul (MRO), and training and mentoring to the US government and its allies, which merged with another company called ARCTOS in 2019.

In the military, James was an Army Armor officer and we delve into how his time in the Army helped shape his business acumen and leadership skills, including going through Ranger school at the same time eight trainees died of hypothermia.

As you can imagine, this was a special interview for me given that James is my older brother and someone I’ve looked up to my whole life so getting to dig into some of the bigger decisions and challenges he overcame meant a lot to me personally and I hope you enjoy this first ever business edition of Combat Story as much as I did.

Find Ryan Online: - Ryan’s Linktree https://linktr.ee/combatstory - Merch https://www.bonfire.com/store/combats... - Instagram @combatstory https://www.instagram.com/combatstory - Facebook @combatstoryofficial https://fb.me/combatstoryofficial - Send us messages at https://m.me/combatstoryofficial - Learn more about Ryan www.combatstory.com/aboutus - Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle Find James Online: - ARMA LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/arma-aviation

Show Notes: 0:00 - Intro 0:59 - Guest Introduction (James Fugit) 02:35 - Interview begins 04:16 - The biggest success 06:22 - ARMA Global history 11:07 - Childhood 13:15 - Boarding school and path to being successful 18:52 - Want to join the Military 19:59 - 4Patriots 21:18 - JMU and the Military 28:25 - Hypothermia at Ranger school incident and impact 30:38 - Time in the Army 39:18 - from the Army to ARMA 47:01 - Meeting Todd and taking risks 51:53 - Building the team 01:01:18 - Milestones of success 01:07:12 - Working with Russia 01:10:57 - Key players 01:12:55 - Surreal moments 01:15:29 - Military training to business success 01:19:58 - What's next 01:20:30 - Listener comments and shout outs