Episode Title: The Late For Changeover Show 24 Jul 2024
Date: Jul 24, 2024
It’s time for a special event alert. Spin that turnstile and sprint that quarter mile or else you’ll be late for changeover. I’m your host, Marty Smith, and I’m joined by Mr. History.
We’re here tonight, I’m liking it. Good job. And our little mule, Juanita Lopez.
Buenos noches. We’re here to bring you the latest headlines and updates pertinent to all Guardians and to the other lower branches as well. So take a seat, get informed, and have a laugh as we present Late for Changeover.
Gentlemen, we have some class joining us tonight. That’s good. Good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Guess who’s going to bring a whole new perspective to our little podcast man show that we’ve been doing. Air Force retired major, Ana Mondragon.
Welcome to the show. See how we do that, but it’s so it’s so faint. I gotta see you can barely hear that.
Thanks for coming on. Thanks for trying out. We’ll see how it goes.
See if you enjoy it. I know you’re busy yet. You still got a couple kids in the house, right? They’re not out yet, right? No, the last one is 17.
Oh, you got one. He wants nothing to do with us at this point. Yeah, that’s fun, isn’t it? That’s interesting.
That’s the fun time. I’m like, hang out with me. Come on, bro.
Like that’s the worst. That’s the worst thing I could ever think of. So they’re gone and then they need to hang out with you because they have nothing.
Yeah. Give me something. Well, yeah, I mean, the test is how long you pay their insurance, right? You know, it’s like, oh, shit, you’re 26.
You should be paying your own by now. She’s the only girl. So she’ll be spoiled.
That’s what it is. That’s true. That’s true.
Is she a girl or a mommy’s girl? She is a pops girl and a daddy’s girl. Very nice. Yes.
For now. Yeah. For now.
Yeah. Hmm. Our man in the closet is up in the Pacific Northwest with his kids.
I think he’s going back to see his mom. So he’ll be back next week. We couldn’t fix his audio last week.
So we haven’t heard him for two weeks. Hopefully he’ll be raring to go when he comes back. You’re from San Angelo, right? So there was an earthquake there.
Seriously last night. Oh, San Angelo, Texas. Yeah.
And that weird in the middle of nowhere land earthquake. Really? Do you have anybody who’s still there? My brother. Yep.
Does that happen frequently? I don’t, I don’t remember that. I mean, there’s nothing down there. Must be all the fracking.
We’re just tearing the country apart. You know what? You’re probably right. Because there’s a lot of oil down there.
Yeah, but they’re just drilling. That’s, you know, that’s, uh, that’s shooting at the food, man. That’s, that’s just a couple inches below the surface.
They don’t need to really dig for that shit. Yeah. Crazy.
So, uh, Ana got in, you enlisted, you went, what was your, uh, FSC? What was that? Personnelist, right? Yeah. That doesn’t tell me what the FSC is. It just tells me the name of the job, but that’s okay.
it used to be a 702. Yeah. At the beginning, but then it became a three Sierra.
There you go. I like it. Eric’s spreading knowledge.
That’s how old I am. 702. Back in the CBPO days.
That’s right. That’s right. So she did that up to a master sergeant.
And then you went officer and got commissioned. What is that? A 13 Sierra? It is. Good job.
And then retired as a major. So she got smart in one space, Eric. She didn’t stay as a cop.
And I was liking you an awful lot until that just occurred. Eric really, I mean, like, like just admires. Feraciously hates space.
So I love that he’s on here. He’s a, he’s a closet space lover. No, it’s okay.
I’m just waiting for it to do something special. He hates on the outside, but on the inside, he’s really attracted to it. I’m on top.
I’m on board. It’s a good idea. We’re going to talk about astronauts.
We are. He loves every space story. I thought a security forces story in there.
He throws me a bone. Yeah. I thought you would be entertained to know that my new job, we’re bringing the capability down to Buckley.
But in the meantime, we’re bringing military up to work on the development piece up to Boulder. And they all came up and they all came up in civilian clothes. And there was an officer and I guess, I mean, really guys are motivated by women for the most part, right? They dress a certain way because they’ve been successful with women by addressing that way.
This guy walking down a very, very tight rope. No, not really. I mean, look at it.
Figure out what you mean by these dresses. In the seventies, we wore bell bottoms because chicks like bill bottoms. If they didn’t like bill, once they stopped liking them, we stopped wearing them.
They’re called boot cut. Boot cut. Boot cut.
Well, it’s boot cut now. I did wear bell bottoms for chicks. I wore bell bottoms because they were cool.
With strummers. Yeah. And that coolness led to what? Well, I was cool without the pants, too.
I mean, I was going. Yes. Catless dude.
Yeah, that’s true. It didn’t matter the pants I had on. So anyway, fast forward to this guy.
He’s built guy, big guy, right? But he came up and his jeans. Were tight. Right.
I mean, all the way down to the calf. And then they were, they were, they were around as tight around his calf, but he cuffed him up like one or two. No socks.
And then like, uh, like these white kind of loafers kind of thing. And I was like, Oh, I know exactly who you’re talking about. Do you? He’s not.
Is he a lieutenant? No, he’s enlisted red blonde guy. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Like a senior SEO. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. He’s a pretty big dude.
And he’s in the reserve. Oh, yes. Yeah.
So right now he was on orders. I know exactly because I used to supervise him and he was wearing some white. And he was probably wearing some white Chuck Taylors, right? Yeah.
Good. Low tops. Yeah.
Yeah. I know. You know him.
Okay. I’ll have to ask you afterwards. Yeah.
All right. All right. Yeah.
Yeah. He looks like he belongs in that group. And go to the gym and pump each other.
Probably. Yeah. No.
Every everywhere. Everywhere we’ve gone. Everywhere I’ve ever gone out with them.
Like he. It’s turned to look at him. All the women was like, they’re like, Oh.
Who’s this blonde tall dude. That’s all ripped up. Like, yeah.
That’s. And he’s got, he’s got super tight. I don’t know.
I don’t get it. I wouldn’t, I barely lasted. Hey, if I had caps like that, if I had caps, I can’t, I will be wearing type two.
So you might as well show them off. I think that’s why he does it. But anyway, I didn’t look that close.
I didn’t look that close, but probably, probably. So anyway, I thought I was comfortable with this conversation. I don’t know.
I don’t know. You guys are looking at a dude too. I think Marty’s the one that was really checking him out.
He says the ones saying he’s going to see who’s going to jump in. He’s like, okay. I thought I was the only one.
No, I just think the guys fashions are, I couldn’t survive. I would, I would make it. You know, that’s all, that’s all I’m saying.
And that’s why we have to move out of the lane that the next generation take over. It’s the women’s fault for dressing the guys like that or for being attracted to the guys like that. I don’t think they’re attracted to his pants.
They’re probably. He wouldn’t wear them like that if they weren’t. I don’t think he could be.
Hey, but I mean, if you have, if you have, if you have legs like that, all I’m saying is if I had legs like that in the body like that, why not? All right. I brought up his clothes. One’s brought up his body three times and his calves twice.
The dude’s ripped. I thought I’d see this guy. I know.
You know, you know who he is. And he’s in the space force, Eric. Boom.
No. Air force reserve. Oh, well, he’s going to lose his job.
So. All right. Let’s get on that note.
Let’s get to the news. Shall we? This first story is not about the engineers at Boeing. All right.
It’s not about the big brains. It’s. It’s about space X working on interstellar travel.
This first story is about something much, much more cutting edge. So from space.com. Astronauts could ditch diapers on space walks. Thanks to a new device that lets them drink their pee.
That’s a great line. Yeah. Yeah.
It’s crazy. For years, astronauts on space walks around the ISS have relieved themselves using a disposable diaper inside their spacesuit. I thought maybe they would have a catheter or something like that, to be honest with you.
Or like a bleacher buddy. Remember the bleacher buddies? Yeah. Just a condom and, and, you know, and it goes into a little bag.
Women use that. I don’t know. Who cares? Let’s, let’s not go there right now.
These diapers were called maximum absorbency garments or mags. M-A-G’s. Yeah.
You’re advertising for a maxi pad right there. I can see the commercial. Yeah.
This mag has wings. These garments first designed in the early 1980s, collective store urine enabling astronauts to go on the go. Oh, a clever writer.
But given space walks, you can sometimes take up to eight hours. Mags can leave astronauts physically uncomfortable and at risk of skin irritation and infection. Yeah.
That would give you like a super rash. Yeah. It says that you can even get a UTI up there.
Yeah. You would think it will be the same thing as some of the pilots use, wouldn’t it? I guess. I mean, eight hours on a space walk.
It’s, I mean, the only ones who really go on eight hours are like the bombers and they can get up and walk to the back. Oh. Yeah.
I don’t know. True. Mags also don’t recycle the water and urine.
So while on the walk, astronauts must rely on a fixed supply of 0.2 gallons or 0.95 liters of water that they carry in an in-suit drink bag. That’s not very much for an eight hour walk. You’re right.
And that’s probably what’s causing the UTIs. Oh, great call. Perspective is paying off already.
Good call. But now scientists think they have a solution to this problem. A new lightweight system that can collect and purify around 16 fluid ounces of water from urine within a person’s space suit in just five minutes.
If implemented, the system would involve astronauts wearing an undergarment that’s made from a flexible compression material and lined with anti-microbial fabric. The system also includes a humidity sensor that senses urine. The sensor sits within a silicone cup beneath the wearer’s genitalia.
Is it so? I don’t know. Did you say it’s silicon? Says it’s silicon. Here’s the picture of it.
Right. Now. What if you have like really large junk? Do you get measured before you go? I’m just thinking.
It’s not one size fits all. Well, I mean, they’re not producing, they’re not mass producing these things like by the thousands. So, I mean, they get three astronauts go up every six months.
Maybe they could tailor them. Do you get sized before you go? Right. Imagine you’re going in there and you get, you get given the wrong ones like, hey, I don’t have three legs.
Oh no, that’s not for you. That’s for astronaut Johnson. Give it back.
It’s like, whoa, there’s a tripod on this flight. But look at that beast for 16 extra ounces of water. So, the first thought that came to my mind when I was reading this, I was like, who’s testing this? Are humans testing this? That’s a good point.
The dogs first. If one sits in or drinks it, then we’ll give it to you. That is true.
I mean, it’s like bottoms up. And you’re like, yeah, you sure? He’s testing this thing, right? And, you know, it may filter it and you can drink it, but is it still warm? But it’s filtered. We have to get into the space science after that.
You guys see Bear Grylls, right? He does that. But then he almost dukes every time he does that. He’s done it.
Yeah, he’s done it a lot. But he says that’s just in survival situations. Well, he was with the French Foreign Legion trying to go through their basic training the first time I seen him do it.
And I’m like, oh, no. He almost makes a point almost every show to do it or do something nasty like that. That is super nasty.
The detection of pee switches on a vacuum pump that then draws a urine up into a filtration device, carried on the astronauts back. Sophia Ettland, the lead study author and researcher at Wheel Cornell Medicine said, getting urine away from the body as quickly as possible should reduce some of the health complications that astronauts are currently experiencing, like rashes, digestive distress, and urinary tract infections. We’re going to make it worse.
Drink this. It’ll make you feel better. The other thing I thought of is that it has a backing system.
Like, what if astronaut Johnson gets stuck in the vacuum? And now you have pressurized tissues. Yeah, now he’s clogged the whole thing up. Can’t turn it off.
Now he’s got to get back inside. He’s going to need assistance to get out of that thing. Yeah, that’s a whole skit waiting to happen right there.
But going to your point about testing, they said spacesuits are limited in their size and battery capacity, so the bulk and energy requirements of the new system would need to be carefully considered. The team also needs to check that the device works under conditions realistically found in space, such as microgravity. If successful, in tests on Earth, the spacesuit would then be trialed during real spacewalks from the ISS.
So they’re like, hey, we got an experiment for you guys. But you see, is it that bulky though? It says 15 inches. That looks a little bit bigger than 15 inches.
You would think they would be able to compartmentalize this thing. I’m sure by that time they will. But those rubber snubbers, man, those things are pretty much, that’s sealing you in all over the place.
I bet you they’re really soft. How you think? Like a PVC thing? They kind of look like biking shorts. Well, yeah, I mean… Just patted the other side.
You know, they’re length-specific by astronaut one. I remember that. They look like caps.
I got my astronaut caps on. It’s wild. I just, I don’t know how long it would take.
You got to get used to so much else, right? And they’re like, hey, you got asteroids. You got a possible calm breakdown. Thrusters might be going out.
And oh, yeah, you got to drink your own pee. I don’t know how long you do that before you get used to it. Oh, yeah.
You got to drink your own pee. Yeah, you got to drink your own pee. So anyway, that’s some of the innovation that they’re working on.
I’m amazed. Yeah. We can’t bring Starliner home, but when they do come up, they’ll be able to drink their pee.
Them two astronauts are probably pretty pissed off about right now. Like Jake said, I think they’re not as pissed off as the other astronauts waiting for these fools to get out of here. They were only supposed to be up there for like a week.
Yeah. What long? Yeah. So, but good news on that Boeing thing.
They’ve at least completed the thruster testing. Now they’re doing the analysis. What happens if the analysis comes back? I don’t know.
I don’t know because it throws the whole launch schedule off because they got to get out of there. But you’re going to have to ask Elon to send up two more pea suits. Got to stay a little longer.
We need some more pea suits. Hey, he’s just going to send out. He’s just going to send a crew dragon up there.
Like just hop on. Get out of here. We’ll take care of you.
Okay. Let’s move on to some more kind of pay and family issues. That’s what the rest of the show is.
It’s like paying family issues. It’s becoming like that every week. Kind of.
Yeah. Yeah. But good news for the lower enlisted.
They’ll now going to get an economic hardship bonus. So he wants three fours. Good on you.
But bad news is it’s only going to be 20 bucks. So I’m trying to figure out what they think that $20 is going to do for anybody. I don’t know.
You can’t even go eat the lunch for 20 bucks. No. No.
From from military dot com troops will start getting economic hardship bonuses this month. Though only $20 on average. The Pentagon says that it’s finally ready to pay the troops economic hardship bonus that Congress authorized last year to help offset rising prices and higher costs of living across the country.
But the sums but the amounts troops will get seen unlikely to make a major impact putting renewed attention on lawmakers to do more. A senior defense official official told military dot com in an interview that troops and the most junior ranks he won two three will automatically see the bonus in their paycheck starting this month and going through December. But on average they will be only getting about 20 bucks a month.
The monthly bonus amounts on average will total approximately a hundred and twenty dollars over the next six months to the end of the year. And they’re based on the funding Congress has made available. So since they only get since they get paid twice a month they only get the check at the end of the month six months one twenty twenty bucks.
There you go. I want to see the official that you know submitted this dollar value. Well yeah twenty dollars will help those young airmen.
There is some thought behind. The defense official explained that broadly the Pentagon took that appropriated forty three million dollars and decided how many service members it could pay before the money ran out. The result is that the bonus will only go to those up to the grade of E3 not E6 as intended and will benefit around two hundred and sixty six thousand service members.
We chose to pay grades because of the amount of money that Congress appropriated and what we could pay and what would fit within that appropriation. So they had some staffers like. All right.
How much can we stretch forty three million dollars. Yeah. But even with that the term the benefit will only go to E1 three three.
The benefit better off with giving them a frickin meal card. It’s like you get the dining hall daily. They get Netflix for the rest of the year.
Right. Twenty bucks a month man. Come on.
Yeah. There you go. It’s terrible.
Okay. And not only that but here’s the other part that they’re arguing with this NDA a bipartisan panel of lawmakers recently found after months of studying military quality of life issues that military pay has not kept pace with inflation or civilian paychecks. Now there’s.
Yeah. In June the House moved forward with a version of the annual defense policy bill that would give a huge 15 percent pay raise for E1s to E4 on top of a four and a half percent increase for all troops. So just a question.
When did you all start having your kids. Like what. What rank were y’all.
I was a senior. You’re in E4. Yeah.
Yeah I would have been I probably would have been equivalent of like an E5. So I was just thinking like all of well the benefit is going to the younger enlisted. But they’re like they don’t have a family yet.
Yeah. That’s true. I can’t even bring myself to keep calling it a benefit.
It’s not a benefit. It’s. Yes I did that.
Yeah. Yeah. Right.
It’s it’s something so they can stand up there and go look what we’ve done for the troops. And the troops are going 20 bucks. I’ll give it back.
Are they making the notice? That’s one haircut. You know. I think I think a military haircut is 20.
20. I can’t go get that new Air Force tattoo. They want man.
True. If they fade it up they could. What a Christmas present.
Now I got enough to buy the tattoo. So the house says they want to raise E1 E3 pay 15 percent. But the Senate said we only want to raise it five point five percent for the E1 to E3.
So. And then that’s adding the four percent after that. So it’ll be what maybe nine percent.
Yeah. I think so. But they but they got to hash it out.
Yeah. Before they sign the NDAA. But we talked about that before.
If you bump the lower enlisted base pay up that throws that whole scale off. Now you got you got an E4 almost making what an E5 is or an E5 almost making an E6 is like what’s the motivation killer. Why should I promote to staff get all that NCO responsibility.
You can’t do it unless you increase the whole scale. Right. Appropriately.
They’re not going to do that because that’s millions and millions of dollars. But you could give. Well if we take the Senate 12 percent raises every year.
Right. Let’s reduce their raises from you know. Oh come on Eric.
That’s not realistic. You know that. I think Marty like what you’re doing that I think for the quality of life.
I agree with you. If you’re if you’re going to be being housed off base or even on base like I think I think when you start digging into this. Oh I can’t afford to live there or I can’t afford you know my living conditions then yeah maybe reassess the housing allowance.
Because like here’s the thing is like like I always felt maybe housing allowance should be a one cent for all rights right. Or like hey let’s average this out and it’s like what’s a good quality of life for everybody that serves. Well that would be nice to get to be an E3 and get something that the major’s getting housing alliance.
I’d be like holy shit that’s good money. No but just think about like the junior enlisted that have families and stuff like that. Right.
No I’m like it. Yeah. So even when I was a senior I mean I worked two other jobs when I was an airman.
Right. And then because my wife was staying like at home I was working two other jobs and stuff like that. You were bouncing at shotguns.
Right. Yeah. I was doing that.
So I was doing actually I worked at Home Depot and I did security escort at Buckley. That’s what I was doing. We talked about this one time about what’s all the little like side jobs that you could do.
Remember Amway was one of them. Amway. She brought up Pampered Chef.
I didn’t know Pampered Chef was the thing. Mary Kay. Mary Kay was a big one.
Yeah. I worked at Walgreens, JCPenney’s and Zurich Insurance. And this is when you were probably an airman.
All of you were enlisted? Yeah. No shit. Yeah.
So like and that’s the thing is all my peer groups at the dorms and even when I was out of the dorms when you would talk to my peer groups we all had a second job. Yeah. A lot of us had a second job or like even three jobs.
Right. So like I don’t think like sometimes people say oh yeah like how can you afford to do this and then when I would tell them I had a second job or even a third job. Right.
Oh how do you manage to do this like you just fucking make it happen because like you have to make it happen. But I mean I don’t know I guess we figured out a way to like. No but that’s that’s that’s another thing why the leadership could never understand is like why is it all pissed off about working an extra ship because you just cost them you know four hours of these other jobs where it was making a lot of money.
My checks doing security export were more than my senior airman checks. Yeah that was twenty five to thirty dollars an hour to an escort was money in the bank when all you had to do was just sit there and watch these knuckleheads do whatever they’re going to do and you were getting twenty bucks a month or twenty bucks an hour doing it or whatever. Yeah I got to twenty five to thirty bucks and that you’re talking about holy cow just for escorting.
Wow. That’s good money. I’m surprised you stayed in.
I’d have been like I’m out of here. Yeah but I had a goal of like retirement and everything else. I was like you know it’s and now it’s paying off didn’t it.
It is now. Yeah. You questioned it back then though didn’t you.
Yeah there was a lot of times where I questioned is like hey why am I doing this. Ditto. But but then again I would do these calculations is like okay I don’t have to pay my healthcare insurance.
You know I do get housing allowance and stuff and then by the time I would calculate the how much will I have to make on the outside. So when I was when I was first thinking about it as a staff starting to make what I was making after taxes and then contributions and everything else I would have to make about seventy grand to break even. Okay.
Right. So but you’re talking about fifteen years ago and by then yeah I was working towards my bachelor’s degree and then stuff like that. So I didn’t have those like other things on my resume.
So for me it didn’t make sense to even get out because like I knew like you know what even though I’m a staff I still get paid pretty good money for what I’m doing. And then for me to go look for another job and stuff like that because you know some of these airmen that you talk to now or guardians they want to get out as E4s and then they get offered a job for eighty ninety grand but then taxes come in and reality trips like man I’m getting the same check I was getting as a senior airman or E4 in the military is like yeah because you never calculated all the other centers. Car registration alone.
Yeah. I’m nervous about that this year because I used to claim the state of Texas and I didn’t have to pay the car. Yeah.
Oh that’s right. Yeah you guys were exempt right. And there is there is a lot of benefits that we do get when you’re serving active duty.
Yeah. And then I think we take for granted. You want to know how crappy of a job I was before I came into the reserves.
I was working a second ship production supervisor at Syntas uniform company. Syntas. Eight Swiss said do you want to come on full time.
And I looked at the full time pay for E5 based on my manager pay at on at Syntas. And it was the same. I was like fuck yeah.
Well and then how many teachers like reserve enlisted like come and one account orders because they’re teachers and they want to get treated like shit from from the students the parents you have all this. And then you talk to them like how much more money do you make just being E4. And this is like they say it’s a dramatic difference.
Right. Enough to where they want to go back teaching. But they have to do something with pay because you can’t have somebody in the military as an E2 E3 and the guy working at Robin Hood over at the BX is making more than him.
You know there’s a problem with that. Yeah. There’s a problem with the retention there’s a problem with the recruiting and that’s probably what they’re seeing.
So yeah. I have a question for Anna. Anna what when you switched from enlisted to officer what rank in the officer ranks did you go oh now I am seeing a significant increase in my financial security was that right at first lieutenant second captain captain captain you went oh look at what I’m I’m finally captain’s a big jump.
It’s one of the bigger jumps actually. You still get oh three. So it’s like a major scale.
That’s nice. Yeah. But I think lieutenant to captain is bigger than captain the major.
I mean just the amount of increase I think it’s bigger. But I can’t but I can’t remember. So I think you’re right.
Yeah. OK. So we should we talk about more trouble for military families.
I thought we just covered that. Well given twenty dollars what else. Well that was just that was just a military.
So let’s talk about now this article didn’t really cover it but I’d like to talk about. So from and this one’s like a month old but shit I don’t remember who this from. I screwed up my numbers.
It’s military dot com. I think it was military dot com. Thank you very much.
New girl. Do military families really need to move so much. What’d you say I walked all over you.
Sorry about that. No it’s OK. OK so this talks about moving.
All right. And it raises the question but it doesn’t address the question but we’ll we’ll get to that. Moving to a new base every few years is the most action requirements military families have to face a new report from a leading advocacy group argues it’s time to give the pace of those moves known as permanent changes of station or BCS a fresh look.
Now they didn’t really go into it. They just go into the costs of moving. So the group’s twenty twenty three military family support programming survey MFSPS released Wednesday explored some of the perennial challenges that burden military families the hundred and nine page report question whether changing the frequent shuffle between bases which military officials argue is necessary to meet operational requirements fill empty jobs and enable them to be promoted could affect recurring issues related to financial stability such as military spouse unemployment and other concerns such as children’s education so but it does make you wonder it’s like why are we on a rotation of three to four years I couldn’t find it.
Officers are even two years or even senior NCOs they’re on the two year rotation. Well a couple of years ago they bumped it up to four didn’t they say okay you’re they were saying if you really want to homestead they’ll give you that option. So but I think it all depends I really feel that you have enough volunteers that are willing to PCS well I thought a lot of it was on job related to job requirements you know pushing to areas that were low man I always thought it’s because you have shitty assignments that nobody wants to stay out so you got to rotate people up to those in order to come back right yeah and there’s a lot of remotes there’s a lot of one year remotes so you got turned there but I guess the question is do we really need to put that burden on families yeah and I really think the answer I would say depending on the job I say you don’t have to you don’t have to put that burden but then keeping people in the same assignment and stagnating them starts building a it could be a bad culture too it could be a good thing it could be a bad thing you’re right the bad thing yeah and if somebody wants to get out of there it’s like fuck yeah so how long how long did you go through training when you went to Missouri was it eight weeks six weeks well you mean outside of like the basic U.S.T. O.U.S.T. the yes the one that you got when you got to Buckley I think when I went to Michigan I think Michigan was eight weeks I think it was eight weeks so my thought is why would you not make their PCS cycle I don’t know six to seven years because I’m thinking of return on investment right so we put you through training for eight weeks I want you to be a SME I want you to be smart especially in missile warning you’re talking about multi-million dollar satellite that you can’t replace like GPS all of the other ones that are at Shriever right what’s return on investment when you’re PCSing them every four you know whatever for a period of time there Vandenberg was saying hey you’re going from Buckley to Shriever all right you got to go out to the course six eight weeks whatever and then you go to Buckley and then your PCS and down to Shriever go back out to Vandenberg get that training go back out to Shriever and then say you have a space of small so you’re coming back up to Shriever but you’re not going to do mission you’re going to do system back out to Vandenberg again I mean you’re right for a commander he’s like I’m wasting two or three months of this guy’s time with security clearances and training yeah you’re right why can’t he stay five six years but take the way they’re safe with the lessening PCS is and replacing the cost of their furniture because it always gets broken give that to the pay raise like let’s be smart about this well I mean on top of that though let’s take away the space operator like you you know the defenders and CSS right we have a representative right now they train the cops once and that’s it for the case okay but that’s what I’m saying but was there a necessity to PCS them all the all the time and if there was I want I want from your career field on your experience why was there a benefit or why was there not a benefit right right I mean it’s upheaval when it doesn’t really need to be I mean if you go to if you go back to the war they were in one unit that was it you know World War II they didn’t they didn’t change units that was it you’re there for four years so why we have this rhythm I don’t know it’s interesting it’s an interesting question and I tried to search it there was no satisfying answer yeah I mean I understand it for like change of commands and commanders just because you don’t want to stagnate the same leadership you want change but yeah but for everything else though yeah I don’t see why I mean yeah and you go in addition to that you go on a PCS move when you first get there it takes you months to like get your claim get your shit ready hopefully they have a house for you if they don’t then you got to go find something off base you know that takes several months to do that and then on the tail end of that if you did buy a house or rent a house you got to get out of that house you got to get into temporary lodging and all that stuff so your upheaval could be three months on the front side three months on the back side you got four years now you’re you’re down to three and a half years you take another couple months out of that for training so you know now you’re pissed off that it took so long and I’m definitely getting out and then people get out so you know this might also be a solution to retention because if like you just guarantee people that you’re going to stay here because most of the people I see get out it’s either from the first or second term and I see a larger percentage get out of the second term because now they have kids they have family now they’re thinking like hey I don’t want a PCS I don’t want to move around so I mean I think it’s a good retention tool it’s like hey we are going to reassess this that’s what the reserve AGR program was right I mean everybody loved that you’re like hey I get to do what I love that’s why I never have to move I may not get promoted because I never have to move but that guy above me is not moving but I get to do the job I like in the place and I don’t have to move my family and I still count towards retirement and it was so good that the space force is going to get rid of it yeah but but here’s the other thing is and I might use I like the I like the way the structure worked in the reserve because we were able to like if we wanted to move we could apply for the job move around whatever but then we’re also we were also lucky and fortunate enough to be in space where if you lived in Castle Rock you could drive to Buckley or your grocery bird Peterson sure you could move I like that so my other example family yeah my other example though is the National Guard so I when I was in Alaska I worked with the Alaska Air National Guard and I was I’m telling you there was people that were there as airmen to Lieutenant Colonel’s I’ve been there for a long time and it’s just it creates this smart they’re they know that you but but I will tell you though I would tell you yes they’re smart they know the system but they play favorites and they play this whole different political game that I never agreed with but that’s never but that’s cause you’re a latina latino up in Alaska latina they don’t want you up there come on no no no it wasn’t that though it was just never gonna go away they would they would play that Air Force game hey we got through this and that but they ever had their mindsets on exactly what they yeah you’re right I mean and a lot of units are like that’s why guard and reserve and I didn’t like that’s a portion that I didn’t like about if you’re a good old boy and you’re part of the group you write your own ticket but if you just try to do it on merit there is some toxicity into having stagnated leadership I still gonna change that’s never changed and Eric you’re probably right I joined in 1981 it was the same thing change it you’re either part of the good old boys or like I say I’m just throwing the dart at like the reason why sure sure well I don’t want an expert security forces person especially at Buckley yeah well and and the dumb thing that they’re doing I want them to be very smart on what they do and how they do it actually that’s a good point though right you needed me on the assignment you want a certain type of experience coming in yeah Anna all Eric knew was football no that’s what his specialty was he did not he did not do security forces he volunteered to do all the fun and game stuff and since he was a poster child and looked like a sports athlete I had a he’s been for everything look at this picture I was a boy watching this unit oh I can’t I can’t move it close enough good but right here is Eric’s only fans page and I’ll send you that picture so you have to send that to me oh no uh Anna it’s gonna cost you fifty bucks a month well maybe not he has specials you just gotta wait wait for him they’re like forty eight hour specials so you can get in cheap oh my goodness uh let me read some uh some of the findings that they got out of this survey uh the survey is conducted from October 2nd to December 10th 2023 so a while ago um and yet they’re not doing anything about it uh well no but uh they surveyed ten thousand plus participants well you know why because the people that were doing study had the PCS right oh good one no good finish what happened to oh no oh that guy left he did a second job oh yeah they lost interest cause they had to get a second job they’re like forget it could afford it gotta go he’s doing Amway uh thirty nine percent set of the people surveyed said were active duty spouses nineteen percent were veterans eleven percent were active duty troops seventy six percent of respondents identified themselves or their spouse has enlisted uh active duty retiree or veteran so here’s some of their highlights most respondents reported spending between five hundred to a thousand dollars out of pocket on moving expenses that aren’t reimbursed by the military that seems low to me it does seems like it was a lot more right yeah forty three percent said the reimbursement process took one to two months after they moved or not at all I mean I filed claims I was like I guess I’m not getting that yeah twenty nine percent reported staying in temporary lodging between eleven to thirty nights during their PCS move that doesn’t sound very bad actually uh if it’s available sure that’s the problem right it’s available right put you in fam camp uh another twenty one percent reported staying in temporary lodging between thirty one to sixty nights that’s more like it yeah fifty six percent of respondents said their household goods were lost or damaged during their most recent move seventy percent filed a claim uh respondents who filed a claim most commonly experienced a financial loss between five hundred and a thousand dollars above the reimbursement for their claim okay yeah probably that makes sense forty six percent of respondents said moving has the greatest impact on children their education social life and adjustment to a new location oh I thought that I thought that would be higher yeah you would think it would be higher something that the other fifty four percent were like I couldn’t wait to get out of that place I was a tool here I was like fuck I’m getting out of here so that makes me think of like a family that like say they have like a handicapped child and they have you know they’re that’s a great job doctor and then they’re required to move I mean finding that again like if you’re if you’re a station now I don’t know what the AFSC is but let’s say you’re stationed at Andrews you probably got great services for something like that but then you go to Nellis you probably ain’t got great services or something like that you know but yeah that’s a great point if you have any kind of special ed needs where you go is going to really be impacted and say because I I’ve talked to some parents who have special ed needs and they’re like oh we get to know the system we get to know the doctors and we get to know kind of the way paperwork flows and then you got to go and start all over again was that classified as a hardship though did that you could have planned for hardship but that’s to like get out though isn’t it it was how to stay in place I guess it gets approved yeah that’s true I’m sure the just special needs and all that and then there’s also the other program if let’s say my I’m at my four year mark but then my daughter is going to be a junior and senior in high school you could apply for that too but then again it has to get approved and mission dictating it could be disproved and then I mean how many people leave their families behind and then they take a PCS and they’re doing this double thing I know a lot of people well the old days you could trade a remoter orders for a choice to come back right I knew guys that did in the army they were like down in like Fort Hood and they’re set there they’ll go to Korea for a year in order to come back to Fort Hood yeah and I mean there’s people that did Greenland for a year so they come back to Buffalo oh yeah you bounced a tule Cavalier wasn’t a remote was it? was it called the CONUS remote and they would honor you okay come back yeah as long as that assignment guy is still there if that assignment guys go hey I was talking well the thing about those assignments though you usually end up a lot of the times you ever had your follow on after that yeah so you think your orders and then you’ll have your follow on orders after that I think the one where I had my foot in my mouth because for the longest time I was like I was worried about spouse employment what the fuck why did they keep bringing that up there in our communities well I what is that? is that you typing one? I felt like we were getting RPD no no no what is going on? I’m looking at the different programs for PCS for PCS’s personal family well stop guerilla typing man you’re like boom boom boom we all felt like we were in the bedroom with you man you’re getting there with PTSD that’s right but somebody explained it to me and they’re like hey if she is say with a firm or something like that and you have to leave and then she has to reapply to something that’s not open she has to start all over again and I was like oh shit I did I guess I didn’t realize that I was thinking well why can’t she go to BX and get a job but I was really being an ass about that but yeah if she’s a professional and you pull her out or get him out all right and you’re like hey what if they’re in real estate or a teacher or a teacher right they practice law and under that they may not be able to get another job well then you need that twenty dollar bonus rose that a lot better better hang on to it it’s so outdated those years yes yeah right right right yep okay so here’s a capper nearly fifty eight percent of those surveyed in twenty twenty three would recommend the military career which is a five percentage point drop since two thousand twenty one those who recommend military life to others has fallen steadily since two thousand nineteen when it stood at seventy five percent now it’s fifty eight we talked about that on a number of occasions where we said I’m not sure I would do it again what was the worst PCS you ever had my worst assignment no your worst PCS move like did you have household goods damage did you did you not get paid did you do a ditty move you know you know what I really I think probably the Philippines to Peterson would have probably been the worst because at the time that was an evac well that’s what I mean because my stuff earlier I still stayed in place so I got to Peterson and had to find where they had my sittin storage oh this is a good one Ana Eric was over in the Philippines when they had Mount Pinatubo went up oh I see and one of the things one of the things he had to do he had to stay behind and because they evac people so quick and so fast he said the neighborhoods had all these dogs that turned feral because nobody was feeding him and everything else so he got an assignment to go shoot the dogs we had sharks well because they were they were attacking our patrols that were protecting base housing and some of the perimeters the dogs were running free and wild and they were biting that’s a that’s just because they were hungry right give me your calf so there’s like hey what is that thing you’re holding is that is that a a liver treat they’re like no it’s a bullet it was not a good job but we had to protect our own so yeah it’s a sad job well on that note Eric yes let’s go to our last story good call so uh from airforce times dot com military families overseas because Eric’s gonna shoot him well you will when they leave them there are you gonna get me activated uh I would shoot Kujo I would shoot Kujo well sure well some of these dogs were actually acting like Kujo I had two security force guys get actual bitten so that’s why our commander said hey we’re gonna do something about it we gotta put these dogs down so well speaking of that the CDC just changed the rules effective one August uh a number of military family stations overseas are scrambling to find other arraignments for transporting their dogs back to the United States because of new regulations taken effect one August families are posting on Facebook about departure dates happening as soon as the first few weeks of August but now transportation is uncertain for their dogs due to new US regulations and some airlines refusing to allow dogs to travel back to the States the issue stands from new requirements from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that take effect August 1st aimed at preventing the introduction of and this seems silly right but it aims at preventing the introduction of dog rabies into the United States so don’t we have that right and don’t we like give them shots yeah we give them shots right so while while dog rabies was eliminated in the United States in 2007 there are over a hundred countries where dog rabies isn’t controlled according to the CDC so why are we suffering for that well you know what I have I have a solution for that so it’s not a bullet no no last week for those of you who didn’t know I was in the western slope we were staying out in Yurei yeah out in Yurei they were staying at a bed and breakfast and it was a German couple who owned there on an investment visa to stay in and bought this place oh wow so they had a dog and there were no special considerations bring the dog over so what they did was they went to a doctor made the dog and the US said bring him on in so they were able to bring this small cocker spaniel that has now got a title of the service dog which the US allowed them in which is kind of what’s the circumvented all this stuff everything yeah but that’s what those military families need to do to say it’s my service dog yeah we’re all service dogs I mean I heard that there’s there’s is there a lesser status like a companion dog or something like that or emotional support dog or something like that which is less than like the fully qualified service dog right but you can get that and you know what it sounds like it sounds like back when before pot was legal but you could go get like a doctor to go oh yeah you need this further medical thing and like oh here we go sounds like it’s that easy for a service dog too or a dog of emotional support dog yeah emotional support dog the most immediate problem is that eight airlines will stop allowing dogs to travel back to the states with their families either in the cabin or as excess baggage in the cargo hold German airline Lufthansa is the most recent airline to make the announcement due to new restrictions posed by the US authorities it is no longer possible to import dogs into the USA after 1 August 2024 until further notice that’s scary yeah imagine if you’re like a couple months out from PCS and you’re like what are we gonna do yeah you end up with the feral dogs again yeah uh and yeah I mean but you know if the dog is close you know how are you gonna tell your 12-year-old there’s like yeah he’s got to stay you’re leaving Bobo oh man that would suck lawmakers have stepped into urge the CDC director to allow an 18-month delay in implementation of the blanket requirements because the rules affect low-risk dogs personally owned by various types of individuals a July 8th letter from Representative Nick Langworthy from a Republican from New York has been signed by six additional members of Congress among other things the dog import form there’s a form okay so there you go former personnel there’s a form that you have to fill out but that form hasn’t been translated into the foreign languages for overseas so I got one artist around the corner and the countries are like I don’t know what you’re talking about give me a form that I can read yeah well part of that is the dog import form has caused concerns because of its delayed public availability and potential concern among dog owners according to the CDC website if the rules aren’t followed the dog won’t be allowed to enter the U.S. if denied entry quote if denied entry your dog will be sent back to the last country of departure at your expense country of departure is where the last trip originated not where the dog was born and then what do you do with the dog it just gets thrown over there for baggage claims let it run into the street I bet there’s I don’t know I mean the airlines are still getting busy are they really going to assign an extra person like hey go take care of these unclaimed dogs euthanize it send it to the dog oh man that’s dirty poor yeah Liz Hensel CEO of leave no pause behind USA said many military families will not be forced to use pet shippers which can continue to ship on the airlines but the cost will be a great hardship for many families what has been costing around 400 bucks will now be over 2 grand she noted saying that the cost of to ship a dog overseas or a pet shipper could be anywhere from 2,500 to over $4,000 depending on the dog location and other factors so is that a PCS entitlement now can you claim that I don’t know there’s no legislation for it I don’t think I think they were trying to get it but I mean you can I couldn’t claim the desk that had water damage from the leaky truck it was in and they’re like we’ll give you a hundred bucks for it and you’re like that desk was a $1,000 desk yes save your $20 bonus save your $20 bonus you’ll add up it’ll get there now here’s the sad thing I remember and I think I talked to these guys before but when you go into Scofield if you have a pet immediately 120 day quarantine right and that quarantine is down by the shipping dock way down by the crappy part of Oahu so it is 45 minutes from Scofield Barracks you know snake your way through Waikiki Honolulu traffic you get down there and I talked to some friends and they’re like we got our dog back and our dog was never the same yeah because they keep them in a cage for like 120 days that’s crazy they’re like in a dog pound yeah and they’re like well you can come down you can pay us to feed it there’s the here’s the scam you can pay us to feed it or you can come down in every day and feed it knowing goddamn well that they can’t get back in their cage for four months it’s so sad the whole process that we just spoke about is broke that makes no sense it’s broke but it’s not it’s not high enough of a level that they’re going to fix no you know it seems funny they’re like hey we can’t have dogs coming into USA with dog rabies can’t you give them a shot in Germany and they’ll be fine coming over here don’t they have cat rabies are we rabies yes we’ve kind of solved that problem haven’t we we’re only looking at dogs I don’t know that doesn’t make any sense that’s your CDC so who kicks people out of the military for coronavirus and now we’re like oh sorry about that would you like to come back in it’s a twenty dollar bonus we’re returning a retention problem oh my goodness twenty dollar bonus well let’s raise your spirits a little bit all right I don’t know if you guys have seen this but um Scarlett Johansson has a movie coming out hey now it’s uh something about going to the moon and it was during the Apollo program and they needed to get public sentiment so she’s like a publicist who comes in and helps the Apollo program pitch it to the pitch it to the American people so because she has that movie coming out here I don’t know a week or something like that she made a video for Space Force have you seen that? have you seen the video? no well you will be delighted is she wearing the pea suit? and does it have a third leg option? it’s a test function or is she like Cher on the riding a cannon somewhere? well she is a little busty so there it is happy fifth birthday Space Force Guardians I’m Scarlett Johansson from Fly Me to the Moon and I want to congratulate you on this incredible milestone your dedication to secure our nation’s interest in, from and to space is truly inspiring here’s to five amazing years and many more to come happy fifth birthday United States Space Force and Semper Supra she is not wearing the pea suit no she is not wearing a pea suit that’s really cool though but I had to look it up do you know when the Space Force was created? December why is she saying happy fifth birthday? because we’re going towards the oh yeah that’s true because because somebody wrote it for her maybe maybe supposed to be released in December of 2019 well they released way way early no that movie was supposed to come out like in a couple weeks so I mean we are headed towards our fifth year but or not we yeah I have a feeling maybe her publicist wrote it wrong and she was less like effing I’m doing it right and everybody and every Space Force based reposted that video Buckley Pete Shriever Vanneberg that’s a great video yeah it’s pretty cool when she did it yeah maybe she was wearing a pea suit she was wearing a sperm suit yes friend of the round it’s out of the pee pee oh that’s a Facebook reel right there you’re you’re in you just made your you just made your bona fides right there you’re in Eric let’s close it out with some U.S. American history right on U.S. American military history I should say all right so before I go into the history I’m going to give you just a real quick spiel General Grant Ulysses S passed away on this day that’s right from July 23rd 1885 yeah so what was the cancer you had I can’t remember throat throat cancer because they woke up smoking cigars yeah and the rolled ones man your tobacco right all right guys so tonight this is always this is always an adventure this is a great one man so I brought it into the the more of the future so you guys are more aware this occurred in Vietnam oh this was very modern for you right oh when he came in wasn’t quite that far back yeah so this was the battle of fire sport based ripcord anybody hear of this ripcord no ripcord yeah so little background President Nixon began the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam in 1969 as the only full strength division remaining in Vietnam in early 1970 the 101st Airborne Division was ordered to conduct the planned offensive Operation Texas Star near the Aishaw Valley so in March of 1970 they were positioned to rebuild operation fire support based ripcord to support Operation Texas Star okay so 101st in there doing their thing on July 1st elements of the Italian 506 Infantry Regiment received 8 82 millimeter more rounds an unknown number of 60 millimeter more rounds and 10 75 millimeter recoilless rounds fired by elements of the Pavin 803rd the Vietnam the Avian was the you know Army Vietnam so for a full month up to January 23rd they’re battling and receiving rockets and it’s a it’s a almost like a case on kind of siege yeah and the numbers just continue to go so on 21 July D company received an attack by fire consisting of 80 rounds of 80 meter more and it just consistently went all the way through damn it just mortared the hell out of these oh man it was terrible and this is one of those battles you’d say you know you never hear about like case on or tons of new so the losses were big losses of U.S. forces were so great that officers began asking for volunteers from other units to go to ripcord and reinforce the fire base damn finally the U.S. command realized that the position was not defensible now remember everything is already being withdrawn so these were the last guys you know performing operational missions so you don’t want to die when everybody else is being pulled out that’s crazy nor do you want to die any time well of course you know what I mean not defensible and the decision was made to withdraw on 23 July at 6 30 the pad then again attacked the remaining elements who were evacuating the base the second battalion returned the fire and the aerial rocket artillery gunships and airstrikes reinforced when contact terminated U.S. casualties were three killed including the commanding officer of Lieutenant Colonel Andre Lucas and the S-3 Ripcord was evacuated and abandoned on 23 July so I want to tell you one other thing one of the other persons that died was one of the only football professional NFL football players to be killed in Vietnam really? yep and I’ll give you his name here during the 23 day 23 day siege 75 U.S. soldiers were killed at Ripcord first Lieutenant Bob Calso was the only contemporaneously active pro-athlete to be killed during the war that name sounds familiar yeah Colonel Andre Lucas was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor Ben Harrison claimed that the Pavin losses at Ripcord crippled their offensive capability for two years so the story here is the guys defended the base to a point where they thought they were going to be overwhelmed overrun never occurred these guys stand tall also they retained it retained it it was never overrun and they and they implemented so many casualties on the Pavin that it really hurt their offensives see I thought you were going to give us a bad news story again you know you gave us Custer a while ago you know it was all these defeats defeats defeats this was a good one and I it caught my eye with the NFL player yeah Calso yeah who’d he play with you didn’t look that up it didn’t it didn’t give his team so that’s too much you find out right now it’s one more search Bob Calso get it get on one hold on all right I’m gonna give you the answer I don’t want it now well you’re gonna get it I do want it now actually play for the University of Oklahoma and play for the bills there you go bills look how fast he was he was a big fat too I did it I did it to the phone this time look at that he was a big guy he was a big guy you on your keyboard because what was the guy’s name that played for Pittsburgh that was wounded the full Rocky Blaire Rocky Blaire Rocky Blaire was right that’s a cool name yeah you know it’s a like a man’s name right you know Rocky Rocky Blaire well and then you had to offset it with Lynn Swan which so you got Rocky Blaire which was the most manly name on the Pittsburgh Steelers then he had Lynn Swan the receiver which was the least manly name on the Pittsburgh Steelers hell of a football player though but they’re both Hall of Famers so yes anyway uh Anna I think you’re gonna fit in very well I like the sperm suit comment I thought that was well done right you know and as you get more comfortable you can you can start shiting these guys Juan needs sometimes a little bit I mean he’s we talked about Eric’s OnlyFans page but Juan looks like he’s about to film a video for OnlyFans in a hotel room oh goodness does he look like he’s in a hotel room like with his pants off oh that was him on the keyboard trying to access my OnlyFans that’s what that was very quickly I’ll just do this dirty there what credit card god damn it they say free Juan it ain’t free baby I don’t remember my CDC code well we do a thing called endep do you know what endep is? no do you know what endex is? an index card and exercise oh I knew it was gonna go that way eventually I knew it was gonna go that way excuse me endex is end of the exercise endep is end of the episode so we are at endep not an endep card our code could be an endep card endep now one of these days since you you almost we’re all late for changes we almost all had to make donuts I know I would have been sad but we got it one of these days we’re gonna figure this out how to go donut to Eric and then Eric takes it from me Eric the other way other side look at your screen now you take it from me now you can go down to Ana and you would have to take it like this and then you have to pick it up you gotta pick it up it’s like the pretty much thing right? and then I will go one yeah so it’s like the opposite of wherever she’s not playing I don’t know what’s going on there we go so you go down and then you take it the other way one I can’t get this right it’s backwards I know it’s confusing isn’t it? it’s very difficult but we’re bringing the donuts because somebody’s late for changeover and then I’m just gonna pass donuts that’s gonna be cool that’s usually one one is almost consistently late every time but we’re glad he’s here every time you get right right on how’d your son do? how’d your son’s team do? so he did not get to play his last game yeah because he went to Mexico right but they it was just that one game that they lost the whole season so oh there wasn’t a tournament or anything like that that you kept him out of that’s a good decision after that there was a weekend tournament that he didn’t go to so I’m not sure what the results are about oh well good job he was in Mexico Ana thanks for coming out 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 did in the comments make sure and let us know what do you think of our new female uh audition I think I think she was I think she was a refreshing change of pace from oh there’s toxic maleness on this toxic man that’s the role the role the role let us know how we did in the comments and make sure next week that you are not late for changeover I can’t even say men anymore I gotta change my whole ending winning uh uh uh woman France thanks for the week there you go for everyone listening and watching thanks for watching and listening and we’ll see you next week alright