Episode Title: Late For Changeover 26 Mar 2025
Date: March 25, 2025
I’m literally back in front of the dude who’s walking me the other traffic go because the light wouldn’t turn green for me on my motorcycle. Which is excuse number 78 for being lit for changeover. Your weekly space news and variety show.
I’m your host Marty Smith and I’m joined by our man in the closet, Jake Wall. Good to see you guys. Good to see you guys.
Mr. History Eric Perot. Ladies and gentlemen Spring has sprung his berserk. It is sprung in full bloom right? Sprung baby.
All right. And our puzzle princess Anna Mondragon. Hello.
We’re here to bring you latest headlines and updates pertinent to all guardians and to the other lower branches as well. So take your seats get informed and have a laugh as we present Late for Changeover. For all our audience we do have merch.
Yeah we got we’ve got the man in the closet mug, puzzle princess mug, we’ve got Mr. History songs all in the all in the link below. Oh boy. We’ll put late for change over in the crotch.
Nothing’s late here baby. Now with the size of Eric. Only periods of late.
That song has a lot of advertising space. Sponsors the whole nine yards baby. It looks like a NASCAR with that much sponsors.
Anna’s fuel shirt is the same as Eric’s fuel phone. It’s that size logo. That will give you some kind of impression.
That’s one of those. We just ripped off the bottom. One fifth for two people.
That’s all. A uni-thon. That almost sounds like a torture device.
No pulling out tonight. We’ve gone down the hashtag environment. We’re coming back up.
Hashtag. What are we talking about tonight? Oh honestly an all prim and proper. Both of us at all.
You can always take somebody serious when they do the international time mocking you. They’re really slow. I love people that wink and have to hold their mouth in a certain way.
And it’s so over exaggerated. It’s like three second waking up. You are thinking about this way too hard.
That was loaded up. That was loaded up. All right.
Well then let’s get to the news shall we? So Butch and Sunny are back on earth. Welcome back. They should have been released from the hospital.
I don’t know. Trump was talking about whenever they get out, you know, they can come on back. You know, I was reading an article about them too.
Can come over for Mickey D. Come on over. I was reading an article about them. One of the things of long space travel is they get taller like they stretch out.
But then that goes away when gravity comes back and they go right. It’s not like a accordion. They get shorter than they were before.
What is that called that doll that you stretch arms strong? Yeah, they’re up in space and I’m like, oh, I get a couple of inches. All that back pain comes back. Forget about that.
So But they are back on earth. And you know what? One of the things we often joke about was their TUI and their pay and their tax-free stuff, right? We did. Well, coincidentally, here’s a story from foxbusiness.com that will answer all our questions.
So for the rescued astronauts, how much will they get paid for their ordeal? NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams arrived back on earth on last Tuesday after living in space for two hundred and eighty six days. With crew nine back on earth and new astronauts manning the ISS questions about how much money NASA astronauts earn while on board the orbiting research station have arisen. We raise those questions right here about two hundred and eighty days ago.
So and Wilmore and Williams could have any extra pay coming their way. It better be tax-free. Given their extent in space.
A NASA spokesman told Fox Business when NASA astronauts are aboard the ISS, they receive regular 40 hour work week salaries. They do not receive overtime or holiday weekend pay. So it’s just a straight 40 hour week.
That’s it. That’s it. Well, it’s like you’re deployed.
Is there any like per diem or like tax-free or anything? Let me preface that. And did they get hostile fire pay? Like they’re in a hostile environment. Well, you got Russians right over there with their stinky capsule.
And if the Boner Ferry visits in the morning, headaches. That’s hostile. You got no you got no sleeping bag to crawl down into.
I think NASA astronauts salaries were over one hundred and fifty two thousand last year. A NASA Web page indicated the NASA spokesman said transportation, lodging and meals are provided for NASA astronauts as they are, quote, official travel orders as federal employees. OK, transportation, no shit, right? I’m going to take my Honda CRV.
I’m going to go buzz around the ISS for a little while. The spokesperson also said they are also on long term TDY and receive the incidentals amounts for each day they are in space. Eric, don’t ask because you read the article.
How much do you think incidentals are for being in space? Fifty grand. You would think, right? Sixteen fifty a day. That’s not bad.
That’ll get you a meal a day. Five dollars per day. It’s like per diem in the desert.
Yeah, yeah. You’ve got to think about it. What are the incidentals? It’s there are there are none.
So why would we pay you it more than they have a drink card up there at the ISS? Dude, like punch. What is the booze situation up there? I don’t know. I don’t know.
They can make moonshine. I mean, it’s not like lightweight at that altitude. Well, you know, we all know being being from Colorado and you go down a sea level, you can drink like a fish all day long.
But would it be different? It was like half a beer. And you’re like, oh, oh, just probably there’s no gravity. Right.
You know, just Velcro. I’m good. I’m good.
The only way you’re drinking is really five bucks. Yeah. Well, that’s true.
Right. I got a drink. Maybe you got to have maybe you got to get the Russian vodka because it’s probably to what I’m saying up there.
No way the Russians aren’t drinking. Oh, yeah. They put it in the rations, man.
Those guys take those guys take a little snort every lunchtime. Incidental expenses for travel to any location is currently $5 per day. That incidentals rate would presumably equate to $1,430 for Wilmore and Williams.
Is that lump sum? They’re like, hey, let me stroke you this $1,400 check, huh? Not bad. I think there would be some type of incentive though to go there to take those risks. But you know, I don’t think there’s like astronauts hanging out and they’re like, hey, anybody want to go up for five bucks a day? Oh, I get that.
But I’m talking about it’s not like flying to the desert easier at any moment. Right. True.
You could run into an emergency and, you know, die in space. So a more hostile environment for some. Expect to get paid for that.
Especially if you’re over 40 hours or like, you fight the war on your own time, buddy. Oh, man. So can they claim disability like through the VA? I mean, they would have to get a lot.
There’s some that are active duty. Yeah, like this. Oh, okay.
Yeah, you’re right. And to come back and they’re like, hey, I got stretched while I was up in space and I came back and I compressed and now I really hurt. Well, you’d be like 10 percent.
You ever heard of the Van Allen radiation belt? And I like prove it. You know, maybe if you’d have gotten some flight doc notes up there, maybe you got examined while you’re up at the ISS, we could honor that. But since you don’t have any appointments, you don’t have any proof of having problems.
Sorry. Work related issues. But there is an update from Fox Business, which came out a couple of days ago.
So Trump suggests he’ll pay overtime for formally stranded astronauts out of his own pocket. I don’t know how they calculate that. He didn’t talk about that.
I’m sure you could afford it. But he is his $4 per diem. We go back for $4.
President Donald Trump on Friday said he would pay me overtime for astronauts. Butch and SUNY are in sunny who returned to Earth this week after spending nine months in space. Trump was asked about the calculated overtime while speaking with reporters in the Oval Office.
And Trump said, quote, nobody’s ever mentioned this to me. If I have to, I’ll pay it out of my own pocket. Trump said in response to Fox News is Peter Ducey’s question.
And when he told when he was told the amount, Trump said, is that all? That’s not a lot for what they had to go through. No, it’s not. No figure.
I love the way he talks. He’s sort of like, yeah, it’s not a lot for what they had to go through. They get paid that much.
Five bucks. That’s it? I could do that. Dang it.
So you figure. I have that in my show. 150 grand, right, for a year.
Or is that strictly the amount of time they were. I think that’s their yearly salary. 150.
So 150. You’re 280 days in space and you make $1,400. Incidental.
It’s almost like, just keep the check. I can’t even buy more Velcro with that shit. How do you do that with a straight face to go? Here’s your per diem.
Just think they spent nothing and they got magically 1400 bucks. Here’s what’s funny for your service. Is I bet you they had to file an interim travel voucher.
If I was sitting behind the desk of America, GTC. Exactly. With Anna behind the desk running arrows.
These guys are delinquent. They’re overdue. Get them out of here.
Have anything until I get an interim. No pay. So I thought that was a little entertaining.
And, you know, as ridiculous as that sounds. They’re there. I read three different articles now.
A lot of them were the same, but there’s nobody disputing that NASA is just another arm of the military paying cheap. To some of the highest skilled people we’ve got. Now here’s the question.
What does Elon Musk pay his astronauts? Not associated with NASA. I bet you it’s it’s the same. Like it’s probably got to be the same.
Well, that’s true. But if they are, if they are astronauts, that’s one thing. But if they’re astronauts sponsored by NASA.
That’s exactly it. And they all have to be blessed. Yeah, right.
I mean, there’s got to be that room of waiting astronauts. So like NASA, they’re like SpaceX, you know, they’ve got to separate, right? And they’re like, those guys get paid. We get five bucks a day.
I quit about a year. We’re getting five bucks a day and we might get stuck up there for nine months. What a deal.
Do you think that was actually in their minds when they’re like, nine days? I bet when they’re like, okay, you are an astronaut, right? And they’re like, you can take this door for NASA or you can take this door for SpaceX. I think I’m going. What a huge resume.
Or this door, but it’s already opened. It’s for Boeing. That I don’t like.
Oh, there’s nobody in there. And they’re like, you’re right. What’d you say, Anna? I said, what a huge resume builder.
Maybe all the X NASA guys are going over to SpaceX. It wouldn’t surprise me. I’m sure some of the minds from NASA said, screw this.
I’m going to go work for someone who cares about what I do. I mean, every astronaut now I see is wearing the SpaceX suit. I don’t see a whole lot of do.
We don’t have any other options. There’s no other people taking us up there. They fired all our suit makers as necessary.
Boeing was the only other alternative. Yeah, right. That’s it.
That alternative. Yep. So interesting.
So enjoy that $1,400. Don’t go. Don’t go put a down payment on anything.
Butch is buying his wife a new fucking ring for that. Like, nine days my ass, Butch. Like, she was the only one I had to look at.
I didn’t want to look at her, but I had to look at her every day. You know what she said? You’ve got $1,400. I want something for $1,400.
You’re casting that check straight to me. That’s right. That’s my per diem for you being gone.
And I don’t want to see some Costco value bullshit. Maybe he goes, look, for Mel and the Yar, I try five bucks a day. Here you go.
Thank you, honey. All right. Let’s I know we don’t do a lot of technical stuff because we’re just scratching the surface, guys.
Wait, are we going technical here? But we’re going technical on this story, because this was really crazy interesting to me. So from space.com, the star catcher. All right.
Star catcher sends electricity across an NFL football field in key space power beaming test. I don’t even know what the hell that is. I know I didn’t either.
But you will after this. All right. You will after this segment.
Star catcher has completed a successful ground demonstration of its wireless energy beaming technology. It’s a major milestone in the development of orbital systems capable of collecting energy from the sun and wirelessly transferring it to ground or space base free seekers as usable electricity. It’s like, whoa, that’s pretty cool.
Star catcher, co-founder and CEO, Andrew Rush, said in a statement on Friday, this demonstration marks the first end to end test of our space power beaming technology, proven we can collect and wirelessly transmit energy with the precision needed for space applications. How is that even possible? I don’t know, but it’s really cool. In fact, here I will show you what the you can’t really quite tell what part of this is, but that’s start catcher.
All right. And they were they were in the Jacksonville Jacksonville Jaguars stadium down in Florida. And this thing was beaming energy 100 yards away to these catchers.
So they were catching that energy and somehow turning it into electricity. All right. So we’re going to beam up for to beam up.
Yeah, kind of. We’re inching towards that. Yeah, man.
So we’re sending energy. Just to give you a perspective of what you’re talking about. Star catcher’s test took place last Friday at Everbank Stadium, home of the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars.
There the company uses proprietary system to collect and transmit solar power across the full 300 foot length of the American football field. The electricity was beamed a multiple solar arrays built using already available components to ensure backward compatibility with existing satellite power system. Star catcher aims to eventually operate a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit that are capable of providing a continuous supply of power to ground receivers, satellites, spacecraft, and even space stations.
With the Everbank test deemed a success, the company has began preparing a much larger scale demonstration for this summer. This summer’s demonstration, they will use the launch and landing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to beam hundreds of lots of electricity over nearly a mile. The test will simultaneously power several mock satellites.
So after they do that test, if it’s successful, star catcher hopes to begin launching its star catcher network of energy beaming satellites to Leo as early as the end of this year. So I put a star catcher in my front yard and have it beam all the energy in so I can get rid of frickin’ my electric bill. Yeah, you can do that and then you can use Starlink and you’ll be all self-sufficient.
Yeah, come on. But can’t you see, as cool as this technology is, once they get it successful, they’re like, oh, we could just take that energy beam and just like go through Tehran. Yeah, lightning bolt the piss out of somebody.
Yeah, four is on scene. Exactly. Now, do you guys want to get real technical instruction on this? I have a video if you guys see how they’re doing this.
Okay, so this is the concept that they’re going for. It’s kind of like you’re in class, but it makes sense. The fundamental concept of wireless power transfer relies on a physical phenomenon, which is known as interference.
Don’t worry, it’s only a couple minutes. If you go sit next to a pond and put both of your hands down into the water and make waves at the same time, what you’ll probably notice is that there are areas where the waves are much stronger and there are some areas where there are little waves. Those areas where you have stronger waves, those waves are adding in phase, that they’re going together.
And in those areas where there are very little waves, you have out of phase addition, which basically means that they’re canceling each other. The red and blue are basically crests and the valleys of the wave. They see the middle, for example.
They see where the wave is strong. You see these little troughs where it’s like blue? I do. Basically, they’re canceling each other.
Oh, we do. Each one of these sources would be transferring energy in all directions. But when they are all working together, you don’t lose any energy.
All of that energy gets concentrated in that direction and nowhere else. Now what? Now, this concept can be generalized if you have multiple sources that are operating in constant. Oh, I’m out of the cock.
If they all work at the same time, in other words, in the same phase, you can actually direct energy in one direction. So all of them will only add in one direction and will cancel each other out in all other directions. I’ll be there.
The beauty of this concept is that if you have each source going slightly earlier or later than the other ones, you can control the direction this energy goes. Steerable. You can go beyond that the same way that a magnifying glass can focus light into a small point.
You can actually control the timing of these in such a way that you can focus all of that energy in a smaller area than the area that you started with. If you have a large number of sources that are coherent, they are all going at the same frequency, you can create these focal points and move where the constructive interference happens, which is that focal point, by controlling timing. This ability to control directions by controlling timing is very critical because it means that there’s no mechanically moving parts.
And hence, it can be done on a time scale of electronics on the nanosecond scale. This allows you to control the direction of the energy very rapidly and even allocated in different locations. Wow, the possibilities of this is amazing.
Think about what we could do with the ability to spend energy. I mean, to turn it into electricity, right? Yes, yes. And then of course, if you weaponize the thing, who knows what else? That’s what we’re waiting on.
Yeah, man, that’s amazing. That’s pretty damn amazing. That’s really cool.
So I thought you guys would enjoy that. I enjoyed that. And it was simple enough that I was like, hey, I understand that.
But to be able to direct it, any direction? No, it really should be. If they are successful as summer, that really should be like a number one story, man. These guys would be right to the top of the energy market.
That’s big. You know, so yeah, but it could change the way we do things. I imagine his network of satellites up there.
And it’s like what? Well, we need a little boost. So let’s fly over, get a little charge up and then off we go. That’s amazing, man.
I’m telling you, that’s going to beam it to the ground. That’s that’s the intriguing part. So that’s the weaponization part.
Bouncing it off a satellite somewhere and hitting it. Oh, yeah. Just like a spider spies like us.
They missed. There you go. Maybe we should watch that for our next movie.
You ever see spiders like us, Anna? I think so. It’s a 1980s movie or a 90s movie, isn’t it? With Dan Acker. Does that have Dan Acker? OK, so way to hang in there for a technical story.
Jake, we can’t hear you, buddy. That testing scene is by far like the funniest thing the whole montage. Yeah, that whole thing where he’s like he’s got an eye patch in a fake arm.
Oh, not the montage. The one where they’re taking the test where he’s taking the test. He’s like.
It’s like heart attack. He’s grabbing everybody else’s. He’s like circle and shit.
Oh, yeah. That was damn funny. Maybe that should be our next movie that we want.
Oh, yeah, that would be a blast. That would be for sure. Plus, Aykroyd’s wife is in it.
And as I recall, Donna Dixon, quite the looker man. She was a lot. Yeah, she was not Dr. Detroit baby.
OK, now that we have been bagging on Boeing for Starliner. Right. Yeah, not just Starliner.
The federal government for the F-35 for having an inability to freaking build any plane with a door that stays on or wheel or a wheel. And there’s a spacecraft that can’t fucking produce. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, they were like. Not only that Air Force One. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that’s right. Good one on. I forgot.
Well, we did that one story where they were considering getting out of the space business. And maybe the next story is why they’re getting out of the space business. So from stripes.com, Boeing is awarded $20 billion to build the next American fighter jet, the F-47.
It’s going to be called the Jake story. It’s gonna be called Jake’s rap. In what respect, because we invested all that into the F-22 and the F-35.
Yeah. And got gouged on both of them. Billion dollar airplanes, man.
I think the F-22. My from what I’ve read is that if they hadn’t stopped it, it would have been fine. But now that they’ve stopped production on the F-22 in pursuit of the crazily overpriced F-35, which the maintenance tail on that plane is just whoever bring that is like, well, I guess we’re down this road.
We got to approve the maintenance tail and our maintenance train. And that is skyrockets. So but you know, it’s almost like the Apache because when the Apache boys you’ve got to take a whole squadron of guys to take care of that plane.
And the F-35 and the F-22s are the same way. So you’re fricking not just cost for the bird, but for the people supporting the bird. When you go back to the A-10, you needed like, Jake in a toolbox and he could fix the shit that was going on there.
Yeah, but we ran out of parts. That’s the problem. Hey, you can modify some of that Humvee over there.
Those guys could. Well, Boeing will build the next generation US fighter jet. President Donald Trump announced Friday, last Friday from the Oval Office.
The aerospace giant was awarded an estimated $20 billion initial contract to build the Pentagon’s sixth generation fighter jet. A replacement for the short-lived F-22 Raptor stealth fighter program, which was built by Boeing competitor Lockheed. Don’t get it.
Like I said, from what I understand, it’s because they shut down the production of the F-22 and it would be too expensive to restart, or there’s enough lobbyists like, you know, F-22 is Lockheed. We could do better, right? So you’re going to go with Boeing? You’re going to go with Boeing? Come on. What day did he announce this last week? I think last Friday.
Yeah. Yeah. You want to know what their stock prices went from? $160 to one.
They jumped $10 or $11 in one day. In one day after the announcement. And then now it’s at $183.
So it’s gone. Yeah, it’s gone up $22. God damn.
That’s a lot of profit for somebody. I wonder which politicians have invested in that two weeks ago. Well, that’s why I wonder who makes the F-35? Is it Lockheed too? So Lockheed had the F-22 and the F-35.
Okay. Well, well, inadvertently trash talked Boeing. So for that, you can’t say the F-35, the F-22 wasn’t a successful bird.
Both of them have show you just the cost that are outrageous. They’ve earned their name. But who knows what the cost is going to be with this thing? No, you’re right there.
So Trump announced a new aircraft will be called the F-47. Now I did search. Why did they try to call this the F-47? F-22, F-35, F- Why’d you freeze? Oh, that’s a horrible freeze.
It’s so angry freezing. This is the only time we can get it worded. That’s a great face.
Sorry, my network sucks. So it just went out. I guess you all saw that.
You had quite the face going on. Oh, we can’t see it at all. Oh, send me that.
Send me that picture. I’ll put it up. I know.
Shit. Okay. So 40, 47, why? Why is it called the F-47? Could it be anything? Why they called it the F-47? The 47th president? Yep.
Guaranteed. If that’s it, is that it? No. Well, I don’t know what you said.
My network went out again. Sorry. I said the 47th president.
That’s what I think it is. It’s the 47th president. He’s like fucking F-47.
Why not? I don’t know where F-42 came from. I mean, there wasn’t an F-21. It wasn’t an F-20.
You know, I don’t know why they went from 22 to 35. Why’d he get 35? I don’t know. One of those were the ditched prototypes.
That’s pretty badass. I mean, if you’re going to like, here’s my new fighter plane, the F-47. So the aircraft has been in development since 2018 under the Air Force’s next generation air dominance program.
The manned jet is expected to feature advanced stealth and artificial intelligence capabilities and work together with paired drones capable of penetrating air defense systems undetected. Now, this is fast. Trump said prototypes of future aircraft have been secretly flying in recent years.
The United States hopes the F-47 will be the sixth generation fighter aircraft to enter military fleets, as China has reportedly been flying prototype versions of its next-gen stealth fighters. Do you have to send that to that news reporter via signal? Well, he probably got the specs on it. Yeah, he just didn’t say anything about that.
I’ll talk about it a little bit. Trump and the other officials decline to say precisely how much the F-47 program was expected to cost American taxpayers or when the first F-47s might arrive to the fleet. Do you want to see a quick little Diddy on the F-47? The truck fighter.
The truck is. Is that a face on the side of it? I’m sure it does. Not yet.
Just his comb over. Not yet. The cockpit looks like it’s comb over.
Is it painted on? The part on the side of his face, on the side of it, is his face and his hair just flows to the tail. All right, now let’s take a look at the F-47 itself. The F-47 is just another fighter jet.
It’s actually the centerpiece of a revolution in aerial combat. Remember, the whole point of the NGAD is to be a system of systems. They pulled that shit off.
The F-47 is just the center point of that whole war fighting ecosystem. Designed from the ground up to replace the legendary F-22 Raptor, the F-47 is built specifically to meet the challenges of today’s battlefield. While the Raptor was envisioned during the Cold War and was tailored for relatively short-range combat over Europe, the F-47 is basically designed with one mission in mind.
Dominating the vast expanses of the Pacific theater, where distances can be measured in thousands of miles, not hundreds. One of the most game-changing aspects of the F-47 is its perhaps unique ability to fly both manned and unmanned missions. Just like its stealthy cousin, the B-21 Raider, the F-47 can seamlessly shift between having a pilot in the cockpit or operating autonomously.
This built-in flexibility will dramatically lower the risks that pilots can face in dangerous combat situations. While still enabling the option to have human pilots fly or take the controls when the mission demands it. Now getting back to that system of systems, the F-47 doesn’t fight alone.
Instead, it serves as the central hub, the quarterback, of an entire fleet of collaborative combat aircraft or CCAs. These advanced drone wingmen significantly expand the fighter’s reach and capabilities. These large drones can carry out high-risk tasks like electronic warfare, recon, and even precision attacks, all while the F-47 oversees operations from a safer distance.
This isn’t just about technology, it’s about rewriting the rules of aerial warfare. Now let’s face it, over the past few years, we’ve seen what drones can do. And for the most part, those were small off-the-shelf drones adapted to fight.
Imagine what fighter-sized drones designed for combat can do. Then imagine dozens of them being controlled by a single F-47. Dude, it’s stealth fighter all over again.
A single F-47 in a drone swarm could ruin an enemy Air Force’s day. Wow, they could come up with something better than that. Like, oh, I just ruined your day.
Oh, you got me so good. But if you can imagine, even with like two wingmen, you know, an enemy is like, oh, and you send those drones out and you fire at one of them, well, now I got you. Well, we’ve done those articles where the AI in the F-16 and in the F-15 was beating all the regular Air Force pilots and dogfights.
So I can’t imagine something as special built like that. To intentionally do this? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I don’t know if like one plane means three.
So if you get a squadron of 20, you get, you know, you actually got 63 motherfuckers. You got to take down. So do you believe we’ll see that airplane in our lifetime? Do you really believe that? Oh, yeah, I think so.
Really? Yeah, I think so. Man, I don’t know, man. They’re already, they’re already floating.
I think they’re already pushing for it. Now, whether or not- Just the capabilities, though, is what I’m thinking. Right, right.
Whether they’ll have its drone companion. Will it be full capable? I mean, they started- And the maintenance cost of that. Keep that thing running.
Don’t rain on the parade, Eric. We know it’s going to be through the roof. Bring up fiscal responsibility.
We’re going to take the 100 million we saved in West Africa. Good point. There you go, Boeing.
You crease. Yeah. Well, that too.
It’s just going to Boeing. And Boeing’s like, hey, we were getting, we were already getting our money from your Ukraine stuff. So thanks for this.
I appreciate it. So when they’re getting laughed down at the soda shop and they’re like, aha, Boeing. You screwed up Starliner.
And they’re like, don’t worry about it. We got you. Don’t you worry about this.
We got you. Easter’s coming early, baby. Easter’s.
Easter’s coming early. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is.
OK, last story, Eric. This is all for you because I want to get your take on it. I like it.
So from task and purpose, the Army wants to make it easier to call lift an Uber while you’re on base. That’s fantastic. That’s a great idea.
Now let me hate that. Why would you want a ride somewhere? He’ll tell us in a second. But I do remember the day of getting a being on base and the tax is like, I can’t get on base.
And he drops you at the front gate. You’re like, yeah, I got to walk clear across to my to my billet. And I’m like, yeah, that sucks.
So cold. It’s raining. Yeah, you’re drunk.
You know, you’re just like, oh, it’s a long walk, man. You people do know what your choices are, right? You do know what a choice is. Yeah, but you’re talking.
What happens to that floozy you picked up at the local. Good point. He’s not going to walk two miles.
I go to her place. Oh, no. Everybody’s going to be dehydrated.
All right. Officer Perot. Stand by.
Okay. The Army is launching a pilot program to standardize procedures and requirements for using ride sharing companies like Lyft and Uber. On six major bases, an Army news release says Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said in a news release on Monday, this program demonstrates our commitment to addressing the challenges faced by our military communities through collaboration with the ride share industry were able to provide our soldiers and their families with safe, reliable and convenient transportation and their families that support their unique needs and enhance their overall quality of life.
Not to mention all our E3s and below who are getting drunk off base and need to get back home. With their drunk floozies. This is where this came from, according to an Army spokesman Colonel Dave Butler.
After Secretary Daniel Driscoll, the guy we were just talking about, after he took an Uber to Fort Myer, Virginia this winter, and he had to be dropped off at the front gate, that led to his idea of making ride share services more accessible on base. Aww. I bet you some Airman has been complaining about this.
I bet you he was. Daniel Driscoll. He was bitching up a storm because he got dropped at the front gate.
He was like, this is bullshit. As he’s walking to his. Let me remind you.
VIP BOQ, you know. Back in the day, when you have a transportation squadron who have a fleet of vans that can run a shuttle from the gate to the dorm to the cha-ha to the flight line, wherever the hell you want. What’s the big freaking deal? Because a shuttle left 15 minutes ago and I’m like, god damn it.
No, no, no, no, no. Those base shuttles don’t exist anymore. I know.
That’s my point. Bring that shit back. Keep the numbers and stuff because what’s going to happen on a personal level.
I don’t really give a shit whether they come in or not on a personal. On a cop level, what’s going to happen is you’re going to start having every gate guard looking at these guys as criminals and it’s going to cause a problem because they’re going to want to search vehicles. They’re going to want to find things with these guys.
Yeah, it’s. Let’s pretend like a duper picks you up downtown and takes you to Fort Carson. Weed’s legal here in Colorado.
All in the vehicle, all in the vehicle. I’m not smoking and driving, but maybe I just was out driving and I was like, oh, I’ll pick up my shipment or my supply for today. Or maybe the passenger who just left and now it’s all on me.
I need you to step out of the car, please. Yeah, that’s that’s that’s that’s Sergeant Perot right there. He’s like, I don’t care if we get an agreement or not get out.
Oh, by the way, call your fare. Tell his ass to walk because he ain’t coming. But just in the last three years, they’ve been just news articles.
There’s five people that have died from DUIs just on Fort Carson. Oh, really? Yeah, something’s got to be done. Yeah, I would.
I’m with you. Right. I mean, I still don’t understand what we would.
You know what would be better than the the shuttle? Bring back the e-club because I don’t need to go off. Thanks. I just go right there.
Right. Yeah, that’s never coming back. You know that neither have you gone on base lately.
Like even the commissary in the BX. It just feels like it’s on the verge of shutting down. Yeah.
Yeah, it does. Like at any moment. Yeah, there’s not a lot of effort there.
There’s nothing by the employees. No. Yeah.
All right. It’s sad because we’ve all seen the good side of it. Well, that used to be the benefits.
You got a you got a discount of prices at the commissary. You got discounted gas prices. You had everything you needed to do as a 1920 21 year old right on base, you know.
And if you, you know, somebody give me a ride to the gate because my cab is picking me up. That’s cool. Yeah.
From there. Or we could just go to bowling alley and for about 10 bucks. I love the bowling alley.
I mean, Cheeseburgers. For pictures, you know, fucking those days are going to. Yeah, that was awesome.
Pictures of beer, like pictures and pictures of beer. And burgers were cheap. And you could live a life for five bucks a day.
No doubt about it. Yeah. You walk back.
You walk right back. And no cops would hassle you. All set.
I’m glad you’re not driving as you’re in Charleston. The bowling alley was right across the frickin’ street from the day. A cop squadron.
So after every frickin’ shift, bowling alley, breakfast, beer, whatever. Yeah, perfect. Yep.
And you were in a danger. You weren’t driving. Like you said.
And now the channel even just on Pete is the only example I know. The channel is barely open. As far as hours wise.
And then there used to be two sides, a main course and then the burgers and all that. Yeah. There’s only one side now.
Yep. Only one side. Really? No salad bar.
There’s none of that going on anymore. The McDonald’s even shut down. Like they can’t barely.
Yeah, they can’t. Wow, I didn’t know that. And they can’t keep anybody, hardly anybody, in the food court on the BX even.
I did notice. There’s almost always an empty spot in there. Even in the Buckley food court.
There’s no more Robin Hood. I was like, I thought I was a big performer. I loved Robin Hood.
But Robin Hood was around for so damn long. I forgot I loved Robin Hood. That’s the only place it was, is on base.
Was on base. It’s Anthony’s Pizza. Robin Hood and Anthony’s Pizza.
Right, right. Okay, the two month pilot program will take place at Fort Bliss, Texas, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Joint Base, Lewis McCord, Washington, Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter, and Tripler in Hawaii. Currently, ride sharing drivers need to get a visitor’s pass to get access to all posts, according to the Army.
That means every time they want to pick up a soldier or family member on base, it must go through a lengthy process at the Base Visitor Center. What happens when the VCC is closed? I guess they. But I’m in the truck.
It’s just not going to work very well, fellas. They still got to get on base, is my point. Follow your logic there, but they still got to get on base.
Never mind. That’s the floozy in the back of the day talking, remember? Like, how many floozies did we smuggle in the trunk of a car? Because they didn’t have visitor pass. No, Johnny, that’s it.
Just us. Nobody else. Why is that Uber riding like this? You’re not going to be able to vet those guys.
It’s going to be a problem, man. Well, they say you will, right? They say you will. The pilot program will attempt to streamline the process from the six bases taken part, ride sharing drivers will undergo identity proofing and vetting through the FBI’s National Crime Information Center and terrorist screening database, the Army said.
Oh, but that’s not going to take long at all. No, right. You can’t even get guys who are going to shoot up a bar or something and buy a freaking AK-47.
Is there a way to flag them as like, okay, this guy’s been screened to go on base? Sure, right. On the Uber app, you’re on base access. You’re like, no, it’ll go back to the old 2220.
They’ll put a sticker on their windshield. Oh, shit. All these are all the guys here.
We could make a killing for Uber and on Uber cars. Oh, yeah. That’s yeah, that’s true.
Those guys are desperate for it. They’re desperate for it. Over time, when soldiers and family members on the six bases call for an Uber, their requests will be sent to drivers who have been cleared to get on base.
So Uber said, okay, you got to have some tick next to your name. Otherwise, we’re not going to send this out to you. All right, makes sense.
So is there going to be an EAL, an entry authority list? Yeah, there’s a lot of clipboards those guys are going to have to carry around, man. I do love a good clipboard. Yeah, a 19-year-old at 9 o’clock at night checking his list.
Fort Carson, which is not part of the pilot program, has already taken steps to make it easier for soldiers and their families to use ride sharing companies. Since June 2023, Fort Carson has partnered with local ride sharing companies to provide transportation services. Two from and around posts, as well as food delivery services for soldiers and their families.
Over 800 ride share drivers have been vetted through the program. Upon verification, authorized drivers receive ride share and delivery passes that remain valid for up to one calendar year, enabling access to Fort Carson access control points. So Fort Carson has already been doing it for a couple of years, but it does seem fraught with a big risk, right, and a lot more work.
For already-undermanned security forces, that’s why every time I go through, it’s augmented. Yeah, I went through the gate at Buckley just yesterday, and I finally got my ID checked by a beret wearer. Oh, very nice.
Everybody else is like augmentation or reticulum, right? Think about this for a minute. Playing devil’s advocate, you’ve got a sleeper cell here in Colorado that says- That’s huge. Oh, sleeper cell.
How can I get an individual on the base? Wow. Oh, I could become an Uber driver as long as I’m getting you cleared. Next thing you know, I’ve got an explosive vehicle cruising down towards whatever target.
Okay, I’m going to counter you. Let’s do this. I’m going to counter you.
Not that I believe my counter, but I’m going to counter you. He’ll say all day long, we got delivery drivers coming in here. That’s true.
And they’re getting- All day every day. All day. Yeah, those guys have to stop still to get a pass, right? They still have to- No, no.
You got on base contractors after the first time they come right back on. They get the pass and now they’re waved through, right? Yeah. I could literally be working in HVAC replacing all the filters.
I’m an on base contractor that’s a construction. Day one, I get screened. You’re telling me day five after seeing the same guy or day six after seeing the same guy.
Be like, hey, man, what’s up? How you doing? He’s like, hey, what’s going on? All right. So let’s all agree that we just created a vulnerability. Oh, absolutely.
I agree with that. Nobody else seems to be a word about. I’m not worried about it at all.
I agree. Who cares? Eric, back in the day, you guys went like this. You guys weren’t even at the gate.
Sticker, come on in. Before 9-11, you guys weren’t at most gates. And honestly, Bravo’s never meant to be a permanent fucking solution.
Right, right, right. We’re supposed to be going back down. But I mean, really, because you can’t maintain that level of.
Yeah, I remember in the 90s arriving onto a base or post. Nobody was there. Nobody was checking anything.
Right. And now they switch to even this one. There’s there’s signs in front of every base that says DoD holders only.
So I can’t. Oh, yeah. Like have a passenger that just have a driver’s license.
And they have to have a DoD ID card. You’re right. And the other thing is all high value targets to the most part are going to be in restricted areas that have tighter security anyway.
So the access to the base, that’s a good point. High value targets are going to be taken care of. So yeah, you’d like to think.
But Eric is is reverting back to Sergeant Perot. He’s like, oh, the fucking paperwork on this thing’s going to drive me insane. Everybody’s dying.
Who the hell came up with this idea? There is everywhere. And it’s not going to impact anybody but the cops. I’m telling you.
Well, sure. It’s going to be impacted 90% augmentees that are manning the fucking gate because you guys don’t have the manning to do it. Well, that’s what it’s going to do because our missions change so much now with security forces.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why is it when I when I went through the gate the other day and I finally got carded by a defender, right? Why does security forces always need to be augmented? How can they not predict how many people they need per base? Oh, and they’re not deploying in force anymore. No, the missions are a lot different.
Well, but we’ve all been augmentees at one time or another, right? Yeah, you know, I charge the shit out of that gun every time. And I do wonder about the idea. Maybe you would be surprised at what they’re wearing as they’re out there checking.
I mean, they got a sidearm on their hip. They got body or whatever. This is like really, you got two guns and this one’s right here.
That seems like I could just grab that one. Well, I could grab your taser right out of that. Yeah, well, you can say that.
Grabbing your gun. Any law enforcement guy is going to have one on his belt and a lot of them have both of them on their belts. So all that stuff left side, right side.
That seems excessive. You know, put it on my head. Pit pull.
They were saying this to Eric who was carrying a wheel gun 38 back then. That’s right. Six rounds.
18 total 18. What was the actual gun that you carried? Smith and Wesson 38. No, wheel.
Orange barrel wasn’t a snub, right? It was for it wasn’t a snub. It was for it. Yeah.
Do you have speed loaders for that thing? No, we’re not authorized. Hold on. That’s right.
They weren’t authorized. You had a pouch. So it was really cool when we went to the frickin.
Beretta. Don’t yeah. I know that’d be like, oh, how long have you had these? How many police about it? I didn’t even get to see an M203 and grenade launcher.
My first grenade launch was an M79. Breach loaded single. That’s what I found it underneath.
That was Vietnam era, man. So you had a side arm and you frickin grenade launched. We had corks on all of our bayonets.
Just in case. I thought you were describing a flare. Sort of the same thing.
It’s breach loaded. You pop it open, stick it in. Yeah.
The grenade launcher was the little frickin middle piece where you push it up and down. Depending on your range. What are those fireworks where you shoot the frickin? The rock rolling candles.
Do we have three of those in our ammo pouches? So you know. Well, think about it. Those guys are making body armor.
With plates, right? Metal plates protect them. I had a Vietnam flak test. No way.
Wouldn’t stop shit. That was my gear. Carried into my jacket.
It just weighed a lot. Flak bested a frickin Vietnam era helmet. Wasn’t even a frickin.
Steel pie? That’s like some prison shit where you’re taping phone books to yourself. Didn’t even have Kevlar, man. Didn’t have a helmet.
No, right. Yeah, the whole steel pie. We had my own book.
Yep. But we know, Eric, what he was actually in the parade uniform with his boots, blouse and his ass. Got a couple of times.
Just like we saw an iron eagle. He was stopping people just with force of voice at the white laces. Now, Eric was the guy on iron.
He was like, I cannot wait. Let me load my gun. I’m going to shoot that dude.
Those were the guys. That was funny. Man, I didn’t go back to that part.
And there’s a part where he runs by the security guard in to go see the Colonel in charge. And Eric is like, I just shot that guy with my 38. Hold on.
He ran over. Right up the bullet. Oh, my God.
Do you have a picture? If you can dig up a picture of you with the ascot, that would be fantastic. You could do the only one I have was when we did a stinger. What they used to call them the parties, not parties, but it was a military ceremony.
Stinger party. No, what they call those that has a whole different connotation nowadays. Wasn’t it called like 30 years? That’s a dining in.
It was a dining in. So I had the red ascot with a stinger emblem right there. That’s the only one I got.
Army wore the color socks of your branch. So pineapple right here. Hey, would not have been a nice.
All right, Aloha. Eric, take us home with the military is hell. Yeah, the fruit collection, baby.
So I want to. I would like to highlight one day today, which is really not my history. So today is for all of you who didn’t know.
March 25 was established as by Congress as National Medal of Honor Day. Just when you bring back, bring that to highlight. Yeah, very good.
So history. This is pretty cool. We like this one.
So there’s an island in the Pacific, only eight square miles an area. It was considered crucial to the strategy of the Pacific campaign because capturing it would put heavy bombers within a close 750 mile strike range of mainland Japan using the islands three airfields. Anybody got an idea? Well, it’s got to be you.
All right. It’s a whoa. Yep.
So the task for doing this fell to the third, fourth and fifth marine divisions, the Army’s 147th Infantry Regiment and the Navy’s fifth fleet. The invasion fleet consisted of about 70,000 Marines, 450 naval ships of various types, as well as several thousand Navy CBs. The CBs were naval engineers who were experts at building roads and would be needed to reopen the island’s three airfields.
Did they have to fight? Or did they just so long for the ride? No, they were fighting. They fought. Yep.
So over the course of the battle, the Marines suffered more than 25,000 casualties, including nearly 7,000 deaths. The casualty rate was so high that the regiment landed a month later to help with mopping up operations. Wow, man.
The island was declared safe on March 25th. That’s why I want to bring that to your attention. Wow, wow, wow, wow.
So, yeah, amazing. If you ever get a chance to take a look at some of the photographs of this place. Sure.
Amazing. So that’s my history tonight. He would give me the battle of, that’s by the way, 80 years ago.
Wow. This occurred. It’s been that long.
And there’s still nothing on the island. There and then. With the exception of an airfield in a small, very small museum that you can go to.
It’s still there. Yep. It’s you have to have a scheduled flight to get in.
You can’t just visit the island. It’s got to be spent. Oh, really? Who owns it? Japan? Good question.
I don’t know. Yeah. Scratch.
Don’t you scratch. Oh, you’re scratching the surface on it. You’re not supposed to do that.
Marty, we’re going to need a sponsored trip to this. Well, yeah, sure, sure. That’d be so cool.
And by the way, did you guys know that Lincoln was the first Medal of Honor recipient? Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was the first Medal of Honor recipient. Yeah.
If I read that correctly. It was. Well, did you read that correctly? Let’s see.
I think I did. I think Ivo was like. But so Band of Brothers is amazing.
And you got attached to that group. But the Pacific was so hard to watch just because I heard the attrition was crazy. I agree.
But that scene, there’s one scene where the guys come back and they’re just like covered in just mud. And they’re like zombies coming. Every.
Yeah. And then there’s those CBs sitting on the shoreline building the roads. And they’re like, hey, man, you got any you got any, like, bayonets or anything? Any swag, basically.
You guys are like, fuck you. Go get it. Like, it’s crazy.
I agree with you. I wanted to like the Pacific more. And it just so it was hard to it.
There was no continuity like there was with Band of Brothers. Well, they all died, unfortunately. But yeah, right.
You’re right. Yeah, I was wrong. It wasn’t Abraham Lincoln.
Oh, it was private. Jacob Perot, believe it or not. His name’s really close to mine.
Yeah. So Brooklyn 99. B-A-R-R-O-T-T.
Jacob. So that is correct. Yeah.
For his part in the great locomotive chase that ended just outside of Chad and Newga. So he was your first Medal of Honor. Where did Abraham Lincoln come from? I read it.
And when I was looking up to him, maybe that was it. Oh, good man. Well, I didn’t say we did it correctly.
Like you’re scratching your own surface. We need to do a day in history on the great battle of the railroad attack or whatever that was. The locomotive chick.
And outside of Chad and Newga. Well, good one, Eric. You should not be forgotten.
No, we don’t. It was how long was the op? It was February 23 weeks. Something like that.
It went from February 19th, 1945 to March 27th. Damn, a month long. It wasn’t supposed to last that long.
They thought they were going to get clear. We talked about this. We talked about this a month ago.
Like, for real. Stop, Anna. Stop it.
But not as far as our history goes. Did we talk about something else? No, you didn’t. You did do a history on the start of the story.
Oh, I’m sorry. Did you? Yeah, I was thinking he was rolling. I didn’t want to.
I didn’t want to interrupt me. It started on February. I think they did March 26.
He did bring up National Medal of Honor Day. That kind of stuff. That was cool.
Yeah, that’s that’s good. Wouldn’t bring. That’s good.
By the way, New Medal of Honor Museum, for those of you don’t know it. That’s right. They just made it.
Arlington, Texas. Yeah, yeah, really. They did a big show on it where there’s a guy sitting in a chair and it’s virtual.
And you can ask it a question. And the actual recipient of the Medal of Honor will talk back to you and answer your questions. I mean, the question has to be like, what year did you receive the Medal of Honor? It has to be what’s written already.
Correct. But it’s still very cool. To talk to the actual recipient of the Medal of Honor.
It’s just, let me see a picture of the floozy you carried with you. That’s pretty cool. It’s like you should have seen what we did off base.
I don’t know. It seems more appropriate. Did you learn it today? Skate or North.
Skate. That’s true. Go on, Eric.
As always, now we’ll move on to something non-Iwo Jima next time. I got you. That’s funny.
Call on the bus. This ran me over. See the track mark across my chair.
And for all the listeners who have made it this long, this is why we don’t submit our own articles. You’ve done that one. As funny as that would have been to stop him cold.
If he had another one loaded, it would have been great. I didn’t stop him cold. No, no, no.
Honestly, I had great restraint. Which was better? February 19th or March 26th? No, actually both were really good. I like them both equally as well.
So well done. Well done, Eric. No, February is bullshit today.
I don’t play favorite. I’ll totally acknowledge which was my favorite. I like it.
If we had some recurring listeners and they would be like, hey, this guy, he did this one already. No, I mean, none of them are gonna get this long. Now, they never make it the history.
Just for the record, we should do an Arlington road trip then. It’s only 700 miles. That’s it.
I would love to see that place, man. I think that’d be cool. Wow.
Marty’s terrible. You motherfuckers ride your bikes. I’m driving my truck.
You could chase it. Marty, Mike and I are about it. That would be a trip.
Yeah, we could smoke in a band. Are you coming, Ana? Hell yeah. You can bring Johnny.
Bring your shoe in. I don’t know how to… I don’t know how to… Why don’t you drive? We could drive. That’s what I’m here.
I’m not riding. I’m driving. All right.
We could see the need of passing your princess. We look at all the historical places we could stop at on the way there. See, Johnny and I, Johnny and I, we ride.
You guys lost. You guys ride your bikes. Kapulin Monument.
It’s a volcano outside of Raton. Oh yeah, that’s a good one. Yeah, Kapulin.
Hey, we just… We literally just discussed… The location of that Japanese internment camp. Southeastern Colorado. Hey, yeah, man.
You know, speaking of that, we could actually… Life exchange over us on a tour. There are a new historical places. On the road.
We go to Sand Creek, right? Hell yeah, man. There’s a little massacre. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There’s a lot of historical places here, just in Colorado. I’m in, let’s go. massacring workers on strike down for Ludlow, so maybe not that.
Oh, well, maybe not that. All right, let’s call it an episode, shall we? On behalf of all of us here, I’d like to thank you for listening today. Please like, share, and subscribe, and let us know how we get in the comments and make sure next week that you are not… Saves for Saves of World.
That’s awesome. Oh, that was fun. That’s so horrible.
Let me hear that again. Saves for Saves of World. It’s so good to tell it.
He’s embarrassed before he finishes. You gotta put your… Eh, that’s not good. You gotta put your… She’s in here.
Oh man. Well, as always, thanks for showing up. Good to see y’all and everyone watching and listening.
Thanks for listening and watching, and we’ll see you next week. Eric, are those matching bottoms? You have matching bottoms today? No. Oh, he’s bottomless.
Bottomless? No, he didn’t jump. No fun slacks for business men. I got my golf shorts on, baby.
If you could have took that late for change over at hat, and you were like, ah, ow, we’re done. Just cover it. Oh, no.
Thanks, you guys. We’ll see you guys next week. God.
That was a good one.