Meet our Trainers

Jason Sparks Owner & Lead Instructor

Jason is the owner and co-founder of Kentucky Sustainable Living. He has owned and operated his own contracting business since 2002, spending more than two decades building things that have to hold up in the real world. 

That same mindset guides the way he teaches: practical, tested, and focused on skills and plans that work outside of a classroom or on paper.For the past 17 years, Jason has been actively involved in preparedness and has built a lifestyle centered around self-reliance. He is a General Class amateur radio license holder with knowledge of radio communications, long-term food storage, water collection methods, and a broad range of prepper-related skills.

He is also an avid hunter and homesteader who built his own homestead from scratch. The skills he teaches aren’t just ideas from a manual. They are skills he uses himself, from preparedness and homesteading to navigating the outdoors and responding when something goes wrong.

Jason is certified as a CPR/AED Instructor and is TECC certified in Tactical Emergency Casualty Care. What he enjoys most is passing practical knowledge on to others, whether that means helping a family take its first steps toward preparedness, teaching homesteading skills, or leading a group through a hands-on outdoor training experience.

Greg New

Greg New is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces veteran, experienced instructor, Certified Master Beekeeper, homesteader, and preparedness educator with decades of experience in military operations, medical response, navigation, farming, and self-reliance.

More about Greg

Faith, Family & Community

Greg is a Christian husband and father. He and his wife, Dessirea, have two children and three grandchildren.They are active members of Yellow Creek Baptist Church, where Greg serves as a Sunday school teacher, lead trainer for the church security team, and van ministry driver.Faith, family, and service to others are central to the way Greg approaches preparedness and self-reliance.

25 Years of U.S. Army & Special Forces Experience

Greg joined the U.S. Army at age 21 and served for 25 years, with the final 17 years of his career spent with the 3rd and 5th Special Forces Groups.

He served seven years as an 18D Special Forces Medic, responsible for the health and medical treatment of his team and the military and partner forces they trained. His responsibilities included treating combat injuries during deployments.

Greg later became an 180A Special Forces Warrant Officer, working in mission and operational planning, future operations, escape and evasion planning, and other specialized assignments.

During his military career, Greg deployed to more than 15 countries and completed 11 combat deployments.

After retiring from the Army in 2012, he continued working as an instructor and consultant. He taught Human Behavior Pattern Recognition Analysis to conventional military units, Navy SEALs, and Army Special Forces.

Greg also continued serving the Special Forces community as an independent contractor, providing Advanced Special Operations Techniques training to the 5th and 10th Special Forces Groups through 2023.

Farming, Homesteading & Beekeeping

Greg has worked on and around farms since the seventh grade and has studied small-scale farming and sustainable agriculture for most of his adult life.

Greg and Dessirea settled in Tennessee in 2007 and have continued developing their homestead and practical self-reliance skills.

For four years, they raised and marketed Silvopasture Heritage hogs, including Hereford and Hereford/Berkshire crosses.

Their homestead currently produces a variety of foods and products for personal use and barter, including blueberries, blackberries, elderberries, mulberries, apples, plums, pears, shiitake mushrooms, and other seasonal products.

They also raise and process their own meat birds using chicken tractors.

Greg and Dessirea have been keeping bees since 2013 and are both Certified Master Beekeepers in Tennessee. They currently operate two apiaries with approximately 10 hives each.

Practical Preparedness Skills

Greg and Dessirea have developed a broad range of hands-on homesteading and preparedness skills

Including:

  • Pressure and water-bath canning
  • Food dehydration
  • Foraging for edible and medicinal plants
  • Herbal medicine
  • Elderberry and maple syrup production
  • Homemade wines
  • Handcrafted skincare products
  • Herbal salves
  • Poultry raising and processing
  • Beekeeping
  • Small-scale agriculture
  • Food production and preservation
  • Bartering
  • Community building

They continue to develop an informal barter and retail network for their products while strengthening relationships and mutual support within their local community.

Training Greg Teaches

Greg teaches preparedness skills at events, churches, private groups, and organizations including Kentucky Sustainable Living and Prepper Camp.

Medical & Emergency Response

  • Trauma Management Level 1 & 2
  • HSI Certified CPR/AED
  • Choking Intervention

Navigation & Movement

  • Lost-Proofing
  • Long-Range Route Planning
  • Bug-Out Planning
  • Get-Home Planning
  • Cache Planning & Placement
  • Single- and Multi-Night Off-Trail Exercises

His teaching philosophy centers around developing practical skills people can actually use rather than simply collecting equipment.

Community & Mutual Assistance

For Greg, preparedness goes beyond individual survival.

He believes strong communities are built through relationships, useful skills, shared resources, and mutual assistance.

Greg and Dessirea continue working to strengthen their local community, expand their network, and develop their Mutual Assistance Group (MAG). Their informal barter network is another part of that effort, creating opportunities for people to exchange useful products, skills, and resources.

Charlie Mike Adkins

Charlie Mike Adkins, a native West Virginian, retired from the U.S. Army Special Forces in 2013 after 23 years of service. He served as an infantry paratrooper before being selected for Special Forces and
assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group. 

His higher education includes both the United States Military Academy at West Point and Campbell University in Fort Bragg, NC. His military service includes numerous overseas deployments, including extensive work in Central and South America and three combat tours in Afghanistan.

After retirement, he worked as a security contractor inside the U.S. and overseas. Additionally, he spent nine years teaching various tasks to elements of the US Army conventional forces, US Army Sniper School, Colombian Special Forces, and the United States Secret Service and U.S. Marshal Service, but primarily units from United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), including the U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEALs. Charlie Mike also ran a training company for eight years, teaching land navigation, primitive survival & bushcraft, kidnapping awareness & escape, children’s survival, and a trauma management course. 

Finally, Charlie Mike worked as an instructor/mentor of Unconventional Warfare (UW) for the US Army Special Forces, the US Marine Corps Special Operations Command, and the Canadian Special Forces.

Brian & Susan

S&B Homestead Radios promotes communication, preparedness, and practical radio skills for the family homestead. Founders Susan and Brian are both licensed Amateur Extra operators who enjoy helping families and individuals discover the benefits of amateur radio, reliable family communications, and preparedness.

Susan is a retired Special Education teacher and currently serves as a Transition Coach for The Shine Foundation Tupelo while also working as an educational consultant. Her experience in education and working with families brings a people-focused perspective to their mission of making amateur radio and preparedness accessible to everyone.

Brian owns a specialty construction business in North Mississippi and enjoys building, experimenting with, and improving antennas for amateur radio. His hands-on approach to problem-solving and technical interests are a natural fit for the practical side of homestead communications.

Susan and Brian are founding members of the Area 51 Radio Group Mississippi amateur radio club. They are also licensed Volunteer Examiners with both ARRL VEC and Laurel VEC, helping others take the steps toward earning their amateur radio licenses.

Together, Susan and Brian are active in Parks on the Air (POTA) and enjoy sharing their experiences, knowledge, and enthusiasm for amateur radio with others.

Through S&B Homestead Radios, they hope to encourage families and individuals to become more self-reliant, better prepared, and confidently connected through amateur radio.