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Jake Halpern
Pushkin. Pushkin, heads up. This episode contains a reference to suicide and detailed descriptions of combat. Hey, it's Jake here. I hope you enjoyed the truth about Sarah this season. There were so many interviews Jess and I did that we just couldn't fit in. But that really stayed with us, kind of looping in our heads. Some of them are pretty haunting and we wanted to share a few of these with you. This first one involves that song that you heard about in the last episode of the series, the country ballad, the one that Sarah went to Nashville to help create. In this episode, we're going to show you how that song came to be and introduce you to one person in particular who helps veterans make these songs. His name is Seth Cole, and once upon a time, he was friends with Sarah Kavanaugh. Back in 2019, Sarah joined a songwriting program. It was run by Creative Vets, a non profit out of Nashville that helps veterans heal from trauma through music and art. You might remember the song that Sarah helped to create through that program. It was in our last episode. And I smell the soul, I feel.
Unknown Host
The warmth of blood and I'll never.
Jake Halpern
Forget how heavy the silence was.
Unknown Host
Let's go back before I lost you.
Jake Halpern
Sarah actually helped write two songs in Nashville. The second is a kind of soul searching love ballad called Still See Me. The lyrics, well, they're all about this woman who's lost her way in life. Here, have a listen.
Unknown Host
Everything I've seen oh, it don't make sense I'm not who I used to be but you still see me, you still see me.
Jake Halpern
I'm not who I used to be and I can't find the me I've known. Yeah, it's almost like she was giving us a peek behind the curtain, hinting at the double life that she was leading and all the confusion and heartache that it caused.
Unknown Host
We all listened to her song and thought, oh, this is great, you know, wonderful. You got some more healing. And then just to come find out, you know, it was all a lie. It was all just smoke and mirrors.
Jake Halpern
That's Seth Cole. He's the guy that I was telling you about. He works at Creative Vets. He's their veteran outreach coordinator. And Seth, he actually met Sarah back when she was living her double life as a wounded veteran. While Seth was happy for Sarah that she'd found some catharsis, he told me that when he heard her song Still See Me, something about it just didn't seem right.
Unknown Host
I. I couldn't put my finger on it. But I, I just didn't, I didn't believe the song. I, I did not believe the song. That was, that was the first thing that I had thought. But I was just like, oh, well, maybe, you know, there are a few things in there that didn't make sense to me because a lot of the songs you can listen to and you can like, oh yeah, yeah, I could see that happening. But hers, it just, it just had something to it. I didn't, it just wasn't connected.
Jake Halpern
When I interviewed Seth back in November, we talked for hours. I heard his whole story. And like so much of what you've heard this season, that story, it will once again change the way that you think about Sarah Kavanaugh. Welcome back to Deep Cover Season six, the Truth About Sarah. This is Seth's story.
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Justin Richmond
This is Justin Richmond from Broken Record. What's summer without new music? And what's the hottest new summer song without a refreshing iced coffee in hand? Especially the new Iced Horchata Oat Milk Shaken Espresso available now at Starbucks. A blonde espresso combined with rich horchata syrup that delivers a wonderful hint of cinnamon, vanilla and rice flavors. Topped with oat milk, it delivers a flavor inspired by the Mexican style horchata. For a refreshing and creamy pick me up. As an LA native, I've had my fair share of horchata and this blend is delicious. Not only does it taste like authentic horchata, but you still get a great coffee flavor. It's perfectly balanced, a little something for everyone. You can savor your coffee at the same time you kick out your summer jams this year thanks to Starbucks new summer menu featuring everything from creamy cold brews to to ice cold refreshers. Your iced horchata oat milk shaken espresso is ready at Starbucks. It is Ryan here and I have a question for you. What do you do when you win? Like, are you a fist pumper? A woo hooer? A hand clapper? A high fiver? If you want to hone in on those winning moves, check out Chumba Casino. Choose from hundreds of social casino style games for your chance to redeem serious cash prizes. There are new game releases weekly, plus free daily bonuses. So don't wait. Start having the most Fun ever@shambacasino.com no.
Jake Halpern
Purchase necessary VGW Group void where prohibited by law. 21/ Terms and Conditions apply. Let me start by telling you how Seth found his way to creative vets. He first joined as a participant, a veteran looking for something, anything that might help him find some solace. Then he volunteered and eventually he joined the staff. Now Seth's the guy you talk to when you reach out to creative vets. Veterans who call are sometimes shy and skeptical. But Seth, he's got a hell of an opening spiel.
Unknown Host
I just say, hey, I'll start out. My name is Seth Cole. I'm a veteran of the Iraq war. And I made it about six months into my deployment before I was hit with a Mark 19 grenade. And that completely ended my career. I ended up going back to Walter Reed, and I woke up in Ward 57 where they were talking about cutting my right arm off.
Jake Halpern
You're just dropping all this on them?
Unknown Host
I'm just dropping all of it on them because I want them to do the same thing with me. I want them to reciprocate exactly what I just did. If they went through something so totally dark that it put them in that space of mine that, you know, I can't go further, I need them to tell me that. And so I tell my whole story.
Jake Halpern
Seth's story. It has a rocky start. He grew up in Kansas in a small town called Stafford.
Unknown Host
I went all the way through life, you know, pretty much five years old. Didn't know a dad, didn't know anything about life. My mom said my dad ran off. She brought another guy into my life at 5. That was my stepdad. When I was 14, my mom and my stepdad got divorced and she decided that she wanted to marry a new guy and that guy didn't want any kids. So at 14, I was kicked out of the house.
Jake Halpern
You were 14 at the time?
Unknown Host
Yeah, I was. I was 14. I've been living on my own since I was 14 years old.
Jake Halpern
And were you.
Unknown Host
So were you.
Jake Halpern
Were you going to school?
Unknown Host
I did. I did up until about junior year. And then in junior year, I just couldn't keep up with it anymore. It was either work or go to school. And so I was just. I was tired of finding myself not being able to have water, not being able to have electricity or not being able to have gas or, you know, so I had to. I had to figure something out, and I had to go get a better job.
Jake Halpern
So seth gets a job painting grain elevators. You know, those big metal towers pointed at the top? You see them scattered throughout the midwest. Anyway, seth painted those, and he picked up other jobs wherever he could. He says he worked long hours, not much pay. He was stuck, and he knew he needed a way out, a way forward.
Unknown Host
I was just like, okay, what am I going to do with life? And how am I going to get out of the situation? So I went to the military. Then the national guard was like, yeah, we can get you in there. We'll ship you out in about may.
Jake Halpern
And that was that. Seth was now a member of the u. S. Military. After some training, he was sent overseas in 2007.
Unknown Host
So I got deployed to mamadiya, iraq. I saw a lot of things that I probably didn't want to, you know, that very first week. And then after that, it was just, like, downhill, you know, everything from dead camels to dead humans.
Jake Halpern
Seth says that from the start, it was chaos, Just one thing after another, and it didn't let up.
Unknown Host
Every day from that point on was either a mortar attack or a rocket attack or, you know, some sort of crazy thing that happened. We had mass casualty come in, and. And everybody was being run out by gurneys. And I'm probably 100 yards away looking at this. We were in one of the worst areas in iraq, and it showed.
Jake Halpern
One day, seth was given an assignment to set up a radar system in between two villages. Seth was with his buddy, another soldier. Someone took a shot at them from behind a tree line. The bullet hit the sandbag in front of him. His buddy, who was holding this Mark 19 grenade launcher, jerked it down into his lap. And it was an old piece of gear, no safety. The trigger depressed, it fired. The round hit a wall, ricocheted, and exploded three feet from seth's face.
Unknown Host
As I just, you know, thought about it for a second, I had dropped a piece of brain out of my head, which I thought was a clot. I picked it up just to, you know, just to make sure, and it was A piece of brain. And I was like, oh, my go. This is not good. At that point, I was just like, oh. Oh, crap, I'm dead. And so I passed out, and I was in and out of consciousness. They did, like, the triage in Baghdad. They did a surgery in Balad. And then I woke up in ICU and Walter Reed.
Jake Halpern
Seth suffered a traumatic brain injury. He spent three and a half months recovering at Walter Reed, then another year and a half at a hospital in Fort Riley, Kansas. Once he was stable, he moved to Washington State and tried to start over. He enrolled in college in a clinical psychology program. But then the seizures started, bad ones. He had to drop out. He couldn't drive. He couldn't work. He told me he felt completely cut off, alone. And things got dark. So dark. He thought about ending his Life. Then, in 2016, almost a decade after his time in Iraq, he got a lifeline.
Unknown Host
The Wounded Warrior Project. They reached out to me and they said, hey, we want to put you into this program called the Independence Program. And it's a lifelong deal where we follow you throughout life and we, you know, help you with services, help you get a css, which is Community Support Specialist, more or less just a caregiver to help you clean your house, take you to appointments. Do you know? Because at one point, with all those seizures, I couldn't drive.
Jake Halpern
All of a sudden, Seth had the support that he desperately needed. He got all kinds of help from Wounded Warrior, including retreats where he could connect with other veterans.
Unknown Host
One of the things that they had, though, for this thing was a financial summit to kind of teach you how to balance the budget, keep savings, do, you know, play with the stock market, if that's what you want to do. And that's where Sarah, Russell, Travis, and I all met.
Jake Halpern
Sarah, as in Sarah Kavanaugh. At the time, Sarah was also enrolled in the Wounded Warrior Independence Program. She even had someone helping her at home with daily tasks. At that retreat, Seth formed deep connections with the people that he met. There was Russ, the salt of the earth, former Green Beret. There was Travis from Detroit, who was a double amputee. And then, of course, there was Sarah. Seth told us that he heard stories from Sarah about her service, stories you may recognize by now.
Unknown Host
She said she went to Afghanistan. She ended up having a IED go off pretty much right beside her, and it broke. It shattered her hips.
Jake Halpern
Seth remembers the first time that he saw Sarah standing in the hotel lobby mingling with the other vets.
Unknown Host
She was. She was outgoing. That was the biggest thing like, she was talking to everybody, and she was outgoing. She definitely struck an interest, because I wanted. I wanted that bug that she had. If she was able to go through all the crap that she said she was and be able to be that bubbly, I. I wanted that bug because I wanted to be able to get back to being a social butterfly. And so I just kind of gravitated towards that. And I guess that, you know, Travis and Russ both saw the same thing. It organically kicked off. We hung out with each other the whole time.
Jake Halpern
This is something that we've seen before. Sarah shows up at these events surrounded by real vets, many of them struggling, and somehow she just fits right in. She finds community. She blends, she bonds. She knows how to connect in these small group settings where people can often be guarded, but also quietly yearning for connection. And she doesn't overplay it. A sore hip here, a bad back there. Nothing wild, at least not at first. Nothing that sets off alarms, just enough to pass as one of them.
Unknown Host
Every once in a while, she'd be like, oh, my hips are tired. And so Russ had picked her up and give her a piggyback ride. She was blaming that on, oh, my hips are killing me and my back's hurting. I've got so many metal rods in my body, you know, and so, I mean, it was just like the normal stuff that if somebody been through an IED or somebody been through a traumatic incident, you know, that, you know, really hurt their body. That. That was the kind of stuff that she was portraying. You know, it was just like, okay, yeah, you're pretty messed up just like the rest of us, you know, we got Travis, who's a double amputee, wheeling beside us.
Jake Halpern
After the retreat, this new group of friends continued to swap advice, shared what they learned about how to navigate the system and make the most of the resources available to veterans. And get this. It was actually Sarah who first told them about Creative Vets, the program that helps veterans make songs about their life. And there was another program that Creative Vets ran also, where veterans could create artwork like paintings. Sarah, she passed this info along. Seth eventually signed up, kind of half convinced, and he got accepted into one of Creative Vet's art programs. At the time, he didn't know what impact it would have. He just knew he was in a dark place. Really dark.
Unknown Host
So before that, I had been planning on just going and saying goodbye to Russ and, you know, even Sarah at that time, and just kind of coming back and eating a bullet. I had been thinking about it For a very long time. I had a spot picked out, you know, so that was. That was what it was going to be.
Jake Halpern
But fortunately, something got in between him and that bullet. That date he'd made on the calendar to attend the Creative Vet's retreat. It was an art program held on the campus of USC in Los Angeles. He spent two weeks there. Russ and Sarah went with him. The three of them hung out and explored the city. Venice Beach, Malibu, the Santa Monica Pier. In class, Seth did his artwork and he made a piece called Dinner Before Disaster. It was his way of telling the story of what had happened to him in Iraq. The title comes from that moment just before the grenade exploded. When he'd been eating a meal. He welded a metal brain and he set it next to a ceramic bowl. Then he cut a chunk out of that brain to show the part that was lost, and he scattered sand all around it. For Seth, making this was so cathartic. And it brought him a realization about the power of creating art.
Unknown Host
I went out there and in the. In the time that I was out there doing all that stuff, a light bulb hit and I was like, man, I could share this with everybody and this could actually help them to get through some of these traumas. And so when I got done with the program, instead of going and eating that bullet, I went back and threw myself into the VA in the volunteer side. And so you know, that that was my life changing moment. It just put a new sense of purpose into.
Jake Halpern
We'll be right back.
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Justin Richmond
This is Justin Richmond from Broken Record. What's summer without new music? And what's the hottest new summer song without a refreshing iced coffee in hand? Especially the new Iced Horchata Oat Milk Shaken Espresso available now at Starbucks. A blonde espresso combined with rich horchata syrup that delivers a wonderful hint of cinnamon, vanilla and rice flavors. Topped with oat milk, it delivers a flavor inspired by the Mexican style horchata. For a refreshing and creamy, pick me up. As an LA native, I've had my fair share of horchata and this blend is delicious. Not only does it taste like authentic horchata, but you still get a great coffee flavor. It's perfectly balanced, a little something for everyone. You can savor your coffee at the same time you kick out your summer jams this year thanks to Starbucks new summer menu featuring everything from creamy cold brews to ice cold refreshers. Your iced Horchata Oat Milk Shaken espresso is ready at Starbucks.
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Jake Halpern
After his time in Los Angeles at the art retreat, Seth did okay for a while. Then Covid hit and Seth, like so many of us, struggled with the shutdowns and the isolation. Then he got a call from the executive director of Creative Vets asking him if he wanted to participate in a songwriting program. Over Zoom.
Unknown Host
Everybody was, you know, sitting in their house and I was getting back to that spot again, you know, but I was like, okay, there's something that's gonna happen. And Richard called and he was like, hey, we're going to do a virtual songwrite since we can't bring everybody out to Nashville. Would you be up for that? I said, yeah, why not?
Jake Halpern
Seth was not a musician, but because the whole art retreat in Los Angeles had Gone so well, he. He figured, let me give this a try. Seth was assigned a mentor and a songwriter who listened carefully to his story.
Unknown Host
They asked me, you know, what do you have on your mind? And I was like, look, I'm interested in being able to take pretty much my whole life and put it into here. And then that way that I can just put all the trauma behind me. And they were like, okay, yeah, let's do that. And so I started pretty much from the beginning where I did with you, and I went all the way through everything. This took, like, six hours or more just to be able to get everything done and on. On, you know, that piece of paper. And by the time we were all said and done, they had the melody, the song, the lyrics, all that stuff put together. And we took it over the studio the next day and put it down on track.
Jake Halpern
For years, Seth carried the weight of his story without a place to set it down. But here, through this songwriting program, he found the space and the courage to lay it all out. Trauma, memory, truth. All transformed into melody. What had once felt unspeakable was now a song.
Unknown Host
You know, just such an amazing experience coming out of there, even being virtual. When I got off the computer, I was so happy and elated and just ready to go.
Jake Halpern
And the song, it was something that he could share.
Unknown Host
You've been able to put this out and get things on paper that you don't ever have to talk about again. Now you can pass this song over to somebody, and that'll explain your story for you.
Jake Halpern
What was it like the first time you heard this song? Like, as an actual song with music and someone singing it?
Unknown Host
Oh, my gosh, it was like goosebumps everywhere. That was my story coming to life. And it actually made an impact on not only me, but the people around me, because every time that I shared that song, every time that I sang that song, every time that I played was just someone came up with something new to. To say about it.
Jake Halpern
Well, do you sing? Can you sing a lyric, a line for me? Are you not a singer?
Unknown Host
Oh, I do sing.
Jake Halpern
Give us a line, then.
Unknown Host
All right. You don't get to choose your flesh and blood. Hell, you raised her where you're from. Sometimes the cause you dealt ain't fair so you fold your hands to the man upstairs? When the weight he's putting on you is just too much you can choose to let it break you down fight to keep your love round find way s to rise above man. Yeah, that song gets me every time. Anyway, so sorry. For the non warm up singing no, you're good debuted at the Opry. I've had a couple of times. We've been on the field the Titans game. We've been. Gosh, where else?
Jake Halpern
They played on the field at the Titans game.
Justin Richmond
Ladies and gentlemen, here to perform Seth's song rise above, please put your hands together for Craig Campbell. Some people have a picture perfect childhood with a house of home.
Jake Halpern
Seth told me about this moment standing in the Titans stadium before tens of thousands of fans. And these musicians are performing his song, belting out the words to his story like an anthem of hardship and resilience. People are cheering. And then in a scene that could probably only happen in America, they offer Seth one final tribute.
Justin Richmond
Seth, thank you so much. You've given so much to your country. Now as a single father of five, you're giving so much to these kids. And how about a 2024 Nissan Pathfinder.
Unknown Host
Platinum edition so you can get these kids to school?
Justin Richmond
We love you, brother. One more time for Seth. Go. Ladies and gentlemen.
Unknown Host
My kids and I were all standing out there and it was just one of the most emotional moments of my life. It was really one of those experiences I can't put into words. It was just all emotion.
Jake Halpern
Even though Seth has found some healing and community again, creative vets, it still hasn't been an easy path for him. His friend Travis, the one from Detroit, who was a double amputee, he passed away in 2021. His memory stays with Seth and it still kind of tears him up that he couldn't have done more to help this friend and fellow veteran.
Unknown Host
I had just talked to him the month before and he was doing good. He was learning language, he was, you know, he had a plan for life. And, you know, something happened that, that week that, you know, just completely threw him back into that spiral. And so he, he went back to go find pain relief and found death instead.
Jake Halpern
Seth told us that Travis never applied to a program with creative vets, but he really wishes that he had. Whether or not it would have helped, it's impossible to say. But Seth, he can't help but wonder what it might have done for Travis.
Unknown Host
He was trying to find those tools. Every time that we talked, it was, you know, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, you know, and he was trying to find the one thing that's going to help him to be able to, to get out of that hole and he didn't find it. So knowing that really leaves a burden.
Jake Halpern
On my heart for him. This lost opportunity Underscores what Sarah stole. A spot that somebody else could have taken.
Unknown Host
We're a very small organization, so being able to do large groups is not something that we're tailored for. We're for that small, intimate session. And we can only help so many veterans a year. And to have one that comes through the program multiple times that happens to not be a veteran really takes away from those that could have been able to get in here and do something with their life and turn it around.
Jake Halpern
For Seth, these CreativeT retreats, they're not just a perk, not just a nod to the hardship veterans have endured. They're a chance to make sense of that hardship, to embrace it, to find meaning in it, to take something jagged and raw and through the alchemy of music, shape it into something that speaks not just to others, but also to oneself. That's what the process of collaborating on his song did for Seth. That's what he's seen it do for others. And by staying on at Creative Vets, he's hoping that he can carry that gift to people like Travis before the silence swallows them whole. When Seth came home from Iraq, he was trying to make sense of what he'd been through. The help that was offered came in the form of questions, structured, clinical, well intentioned. But for Seth, this didn't help him find peace. Not really.
Unknown Host
Most of us have to go through the VA and the VA wants to sit there and ask us questions, you know, and then we give them the answer and then they're like, how do you feel about that? It's like, I don't even know how I feel about, you know, life in general. So asking me how I feel about this, I really can't give you an answer on that.
Jake Halpern
But at Creative Vets, Seth found a place to talk. And now anytime he meets someone new, he doesn't have to answer questions or even say a word. He'll just play them his song.
Justin Richmond
You don't get to choose your flesh and blood, how you were raised or where you're from.
Unknown Host
Sometimes the cards you dealt ain't fair.
Justin Richmond
So you fold your hands to the man upstairs when the weight he's putting on you's just too much you can choose to let it break you down Fight to turn your life around Find the strength inside to rise above.
Jake Halpern
Next time on Deep Cover, we dive into one of our biggest unresolved questions from the series. Did Sarah Kavanagh have an accomplice?
Unknown Advertiser
So there had to be other people involved? There absolutely had to be, because I clearly remember at least two times when Ivy was on the phone, there had to be another person.
Jake Halpern
This episode was produced by Amy Gaines McQuaid, Tali Emlen and Sonja Gerwitt. It was edited by Karen Shakurji. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Original music from Luis Guerra. Mastering by Sarah Bruguer. Special thanks to Jess McHugh, Jake Flanagan, Sarah Nix and Greta Coad. Additional thanks to Creative Vets. I'm Jake Halpern.
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Deep Cover: Seth’s Story
Episode Release Date: June 16, 2025
Season: 6 | Episode: Seth’s Story
Introduction
In the gripping episode titled "Seth’s Story," Deep Cover delves deep into the life of Seth Cole, a decorated veteran whose journey intertwines with Sarah Kavanaugh’s enigmatic narrative. Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Halpern and investigative journalist Jess McHugh, this episode unveils the layers of deception surrounding Sarah, revealing how her double life impacted numerous lives, including Seth’s.
Seth Cole’s Background
Seth Cole’s story begins in the small town of Stafford, Kansas. Abandoned by his father at a young age, Seth faced instability early on:
“I went all the way through life, you know, pretty much five years old. Didn't know a dad, didn't know anything about life. My mom said my dad ran off.” [11:40]
At fourteen, Seth’s life took a drastic turn when his mother remarried and subsequently kicked him out of the house, forcing him to fend for himself:
“So at 14, I was kicked out of the house.” [12:06]
Military Service and Injury
Desperate to escape his dire circumstances, Seth enlisted in the National Guard and was deployed to Mamadiya, Iraq, in 2007. His military service was marked by relentless chaos and trauma:
“Every day from that point on was either a mortar attack or a rocket attack or, you know, some sort of crazy thing that happened.” [13:43]
A life-altering incident occurred when Seth was accidentally injured by a colleague's mishandled grenade launcher:
“The round hit a wall, ricocheted, and exploded three feet from seth's face.” [14:03]
This traumatic brain injury left him hospitalized at Walter Reed and later at Fort Riley, Kansas, where he struggled with severe seizures and isolation, leading him to contemplate ending his life:
“I was just like, oh. Oh, crap, I'm dead. And so I passed out, and I was in and out of consciousness.” [14:38]
Recovery and Continued Struggles
After enduring three and a half months at Walter Reed and another year and a half in Kansas, Seth relocated to Washington State, attempting to rebuild his life. He enrolled in a clinical psychology program but had to drop out due to debilitating seizures:
“I couldn't keep up with it anymore. It was either work or go to school.” [12:37]
Feeling disconnected and alone, Seth faced profound despair, eventually reaching a point where he seriously considered suicide.
Wounded Warrior Project and Meeting Sarah
In 2016, almost a decade after his deployment, the Wounded Warrior Project introduced Seth to the Independence Program—a comprehensive support system providing services like community support specialists (CSS) who assist with daily tasks:
“The Wounded Warrior Project... they're putting your life changing moment.” [16:24]
At a financial summit organized by the program, Seth met Sarah Kavanaugh along with other veterans like Russ and Travis. Sarah’s vibrant and outgoing demeanor was immediately noticeable:
“She was outgoing. That was the biggest thing... I wanted that bug because I wanted to be able to get back to being a social butterfly.” [17:27]
Creative Vets and Artistic Healing
Sarah introduced Seth to Creative Vets, a Nashville-based nonprofit that aids veterans in healing through music and art. Initially skeptical, Seth joined the program and found solace in creative expression:
“So I went to the military. Then the national guard was like, yeah, we can get you in there.” [13:10]
During a retreat at USC in Los Angeles, Seth created a poignant piece titled "Dinner Before Disaster," symbolizing his near-death experience. This artistic endeavor was a turning point, helping him process his trauma:
“When I got done with the program, instead of going and eating that bullet, I went back and threw myself into the VA in the volunteer side.” [20:21]
Creation and Performance of "Rise Above"
Embracing his healing journey, Seth participated in a virtual songwriting program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collaborating with a mentor and a songwriter, he crafted a song that encapsulated his life’s struggles and triumphs:
“Trauma, memory, truth. All transformed into melody.” [27:17]
The culmination of this process was the song "Rise Above," which Seth witnessed being performed live at a Tennessee Titans game. The emotional rendition of his story before thousands was a testament to his resilience:
“My kids and I were all standing out there and it was just one of the most emotional moments of my life.” [31:09]
The Impact of Sarah’s Deception
Despite Seth’s progress, the episode uncovers the dark truth about Sarah Kavanaugh. It emerges that Sarah was not a genuine veteran but had been deceiving those around her to secure spots in Creative Vets programs meant for true veterans. This revelation had profound consequences:
“We are a very small organization... to have one that comes through the program multiple times that happens to not be a veteran really takes away from those that could have been able to get in here and do something with their life and turn it around.” [33:10]
Seth reflects on the loss of his friend Travis, a double amputee, who never had the chance to benefit from Creative Vets due to Sarah’s fraudulent actions:
“He was trying to find those tools... something happened that week that just completely threw him back into that spiral.” [32:18]
Reflections and Conclusion
Seth’s journey is one of profound healing intertwined with the heartbreak of Sarah’s betrayal. Through Creative Vets, he found a voice and a community, but Sarah’s deceit cast a long shadow, highlighting the fragility of trust and the far-reaching impacts of leading a double life.
“At Creative Vets, Seth found a place to talk. And now anytime he meets someone new, he doesn't have to answer questions or even say a word. He'll just play them his song.” [35:06]
Notable Quotes
Seth Cole [11:40]:
“I went all the way through life, you know, pretty much five years old. Didn't know a dad, didn't know anything about life. My mom said my dad ran off.”
Seth Cole [17:27]:
“She was outgoing. That was the biggest thing like, she was talking to everybody... I wanted to be able to get back to being a social butterfly.”
Seth Cole [20:43]:
“I had been planning on just going and saying goodbye to Russ and, you know, even Sarah at that time, and just kind of coming back and eating a bullet.”
Seth Cole [35:20]:
“Sometimes the cards you dealt ain't fair... you can choose to let it break you down fight to turn your life around Find the strength inside to rise above.”
Conclusion
"Seth’s Story" serves as a powerful narrative of resilience, community, and the devastating effects of deception. Through Seth Cole’s experiences, Deep Cover not only highlights the personal struggles of veterans but also exposes the vulnerabilities within support systems designed to aid them. This episode is a compelling addition to the ongoing investigation into Sarah Kavanaugh’s true identity and the broader implications of her actions.