The Late For Changeover Show 20 Nov 2024
Date: Nov 19, 2024
I took a longer way to work to practice good? This is excuse number 26 for being late for changeover, your weekly space news and variety show. I’m your host Marty Smith and with me tonight is our man in the closet, Jake Wall. Marty, it’s good to see you, man.
Good to see you, buddy. We’re here to bring you the latest headlines and updates pertinent to all guardians and to the earthbound branches as well, so take your seats, get them formed and have a laugh as we present late for changeover. Back to you, man.
Jake, you’re always reliable. That’s what I always say. Oh, before I get going, I told him I was going to do this on the podcast.
Oh, nice. Have a friend and a coworker, Nick, who brewed his first stout and it was just handed him out and I was like, really? That’s okay. I’ll take it.
Worst case scenario, dysentery. Well, it could be. Botulism.
And he goes, if it sucks, let me know. And I was like, I don’t never suck. So that is very Guinness looking.
It’s very. Let me see it. Let me see it.
Well, okay. Let’s see. Oh, you put it in your cup.
I did. Yeah. Nice.
All right. Yeah. That’s a good, good little head on there and stuff.
I fucked the camera. Oh yeah. Sorry.
So you’re fixing that, right? I saw Eric this weekend and it was, it was a high seeing him and there was so many beaver fans at that Air Force Academy game. That’s right. The two and seven Air Force Academy against the four and five Oregon state beavers.
Yeah. Yep. Um, I’m, I’m sorry to say that I watched my beavers get slowly pounded all day long.
What was the final score of that game? I don’t know. I’ve watched. I don’t know.
It was, oh, in some shit. That’s what it was. Well, and speaking of that, look at that right there, all beaved out.
Yeah, man. There was so many beaver fans. I was really, yeah, there was a lot of beaver beaver.
Well, I mean, wasn’t Oregon the first to, uh, legalize marijuana? It was Washington, Colorado. Oh, was it? Quick, quick to Oregon. No, okay.
But Oregon now said, hold my beer and legalized everything for a while. Did they go like psychedelics and all that stuff too? Oh yeah. No, every, everything was legal and all.
Damn. Whatever. Grow seeds and pretty good.
Good job. All right. Good job, Nick.
Um, and then they had a bunch of deaths and they were like, okay, well, maybe not. Oh shit. Really? Yeah.
Yeah. Maybe we need to dial it back on the Fentanyl, but everything else is good. We’re good.
They were considering Fentanyl too. Holy shit. No, Marty.
They decriminalized everything. Jesus. Like everything was good to go.
Yeah. And then, and then after a bunch of deaths, they’re like, okay, not Fentanyl. Everything but Fentanyl.
Well, yeah. I mean, uh, I forgot what they turned Portland into. So, you know, Oh yeah.
Um, all right. So I can’t remember where, I can’t remember where Mr. History went. He’s on another trip with his wife.
I think. Come on. Uh, Ana’s day drinking and buying a new car for her daughter.
I don’t know. She’s day drinking. Day drinking in the new car for her daughter.
You’ve got to break it in sometime. And we might get our little mule. We might get a little present with the little.
Oh yeah. Yeah. The haircut and mule.
Nice. Um, but. To be fair, some of those pictures he posts.
Those haircuts, they look freaking sharp. Yeah. That fade is not easy to do.
And he’s got it. He’s got it down. I was like, that’s pretty good.
He’s doing the designs and stuff now. I’m like, okay. Yeah.
I know he told us he’s already been cutting hair. So it’s not like this is a whole new hobby for him. He’s just getting certified, I guess, or whatever it is.
Which I guess you need to be licensed. I suppose. I mean, I don’t know.
I think he’s using his GI Bill. Oh, that’s smart. Yeah, that’s smart.
Yeah. I should, I should have used that a little bit smarter than, uh, than what I did. So.
What’d you, what’d you do? Oh, I thought, Oh, I need something to get out of it in case I get fired from this country. How about a County County? Counting’s making money. Everywhere too.
Someone got a accounting degree. I hate it. I can’t stand it.
But I got it. But I got a degree. Yeah.
It’s, it’s horrible. Um, so I’m glad I never had to do that, but I pissed that away. So Jared Ellis did that.
Did he really? Yeah. Yeah. Jared quit.
And you’re right. He got out and then he went and was working at the ADF for a minute. And then it was like, no, I’m done with space.
Third life. Oh, really? Yeah, man. Yeah.
Look at that. And now I think, uh, he audits, he works for the city of Denver or the state and he does audits for the state. Well, that’s because we have a story about an audit.
So what we fail one again. Uh, no, of course not. Juanito.
Juanito. We haven’t seen you in a while. That’s great.
So, uh, but we just started, we just kicked it off. We were just complimenting you and the posts that you’re making about, uh, some of your artwork on the head. So it looks good, man.
It looks good. How are you doing? Are you going to be on a grad or how’s that going? There’s no, there’s no, uh, um, Emily Griffiths at technical school. So it’s actually part of the Denver public school system.
So it’s pretty cool. Like I’m there with, um, students are 16. Oh, and I’m the, that’s pretty cool.
So like, this is where I wish, and I’m not sure if, um, counselors do this. It’s like the information, right? Like that’s out there. Hey, if you want to, before you graduate high school, you get a welding degree or you get a father, uh, license or certification stuff.
That’s right. That’s so smart. It’s going back to the trades, you know, that’s like bringing back auto shop or something like that.
You know, I remember, I think I said it before, and I don’t quite remember what timeframe this was, but I know that part of like taps, they were, there was some company that was like, hey, come on and you’ll intern with us and we’ll teach you everything about construction. Yeah. And so after you spend, you can intern with us before you get out.
So when you get out, then you know how to lay drywall, you know how to frame, you know how to do all this other stuff. And I was like, that’s smart too. And there’s other companies.
So my buddy, he’s an industrial mechanic. So like anything that rotates. So for example, the conveyor belts at the airport, right? Like they, Oh yeah.
So he said they have a program in the union called hats to helmets. Oh, and now they provide you with $5,000 a year of that. You get into their internship of, of tools that you don’t even have to buy.
And then they start you off as a printer ship, but I think it’s right. Depending on your experience in the military, they pay you at a different pay scale too. So they, Oh wow.
So they rarely take care of the people. I’ll be honest with you. Like I thought about it.
It’s like, man, when I get out, I go do that, get my hands dirty, you know, learn a trade. Yeah, sure. After the year, Gary breaks over 200k because he travels a lot.
So he said like, man, he said you could, you could get close to 500k a year because of the demand of trade. Yeah, they need it. And they need like the intelligent guys to do it, you know, to know how to do some of that.
Yeah. I can do it all over again. I probably learn how to work.
Everything they said, they, they get to the micron level of just like making sure everything is aligned. So, but it’s, that’s cool. Yeah.
He, he was, he was convincing me cause like, man, like here’s a thought of not having the clearance. Something cool about that too. Right.
It’s just kinda, I mean, we’re free. We’re not in the military anymore, but we were still tied to some restrictions on what we do. I’m not saying I’m trying to get coked out or something like that, but I’m just saying.
No, but you still have to, my biggest thing is you have to report like six months in advance when you travel. And I’m like, yeah. Come on.
And then they’re like, well, this is dangerous or this is not a good, right? Like, okay. And they’ve got to fill out four forms. Government contractors not to go there.
Yeah. Imagine, imagine being a job where you could just divorce your wife and you wouldn’t have to tell your boss. That’s awesome.
That’s what you go through. It’s like, it’s some day. I hope your wife doesn’t listen to this talk.
She’s going to be like, so that. We’re, we’re past the five minute mark. She never listened to us.
Yeah. She said, oh, only if I force her, the only way she’ll listen is if I pick her up at the airport now, like, if you heard our podcast this weekend, she has to listen all the way back up. Just look what happens to be on the air on the phone.
It’s like, you know, every five years I have to report the same bullshit over, right? Like my mother-in-law’s a resident, right? Why do I have the same number? Things are took to get every five years. Like, it’s going to change. Like, I’ve been there.
I’ve been doing this. There’s going to be my sixth clearance going through. Like, really? Like, like you, you didn’t save it and you’re making me announce it.
Like it’s redone redundant. Like not. It is.
But didn’t they go to that, that CE, right? Yeah. I just did my SFA six. It was a lot expedited.
Yeah. I still have to repeat some of the stuff that I’m like, dude, I told you guys this stuff. Well, still with the mother-in-law.
Yeah. Brother still dead. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. My residences haven’t changed.
That was awesome. I haven’t moved the last 10 years. That is nice.
Oh yeah. Yeah. You don’t have to update anything.
I mean, you know, you and blah, blah, blah, but you know, it’s funny. So I did mine about over a month ago and everybody that I put down, I’ve asked them, like, have you guys heard from these guys yet? They’re like, no. And usually it was, it would take like two, three weeks.
So I wonder, they’re looking for any things like, well, he’s already reported all this. Right. Well, and they’re short.
They’re short. Those investigators too. Yeah.
They have been since for 20 years. But they don’t pay him like anything. They’re like 60, 70 grand, maybe to go travel all over the state.
Forget that. Forget that job. No.
Anyway. Well, good. I’m glad you’re on one.
We haven’t seen you in a while. So that’s great. And my.
I don’t know if I told you, I’m growing out my hair until I graduate school. So December 2025. So it’s, it’s going to start.
Yeah. What’s it going to do? What is your hair going to do? It’s going to get curly. Yeah.
It gets curly. And just. It’s going so wavy and hot.
Oh, dude. So I’m thinking, you know how mullets are in now or like what they call the burst fade. So maybe I just do the burst fade and I let the Mexi mullet come out.
Nice. Oh, that’s it. That’d be nice, man.
Yeah. Are you going to put some product there? Something like oil? So. So this is me not washing my hair for a couple of days.
And this house. It’s just filthy. Okay.
Look at that. Look how dark your hair is. You have no salt.
I know. Marty’s jealous. Marty’s all peppered out.
He’s like, I have been for a long time. You should see my brother. He’s almost completely all white.
And I was like, yeah, well, at least I got it. I mean, you’re not supposed to. Oh, but it’s once you age, you age.
So you probably look young for a while. And then I want you to go over the cliff. It’s like, whoa, just go pick it up speed.
Momentum got me. Oh, before, before we go to the news, you guys watch the Tyson fight. Okay.
I don’t have time. Yes, though. So I was, I was horrible.
It was terrible, man. The best part, dude, I heard it was better. That, that female fight was awesome.
Yeah, that was pretty good. That was a good fight. And the fight before that one, too, that, uh, those two Mexican.
The first fight was a freaking joke. That guy. Spun him around and dry, humped him.
I was like, he’s like, gets him in the corner. Well, one of them was like, he was like a YouTuber, right? Yeah. And then the other guy was, uh, what was he fighting out of? He was fighting out of India.
But he was like 48 and five and he had like 20 knockouts. I know. Yeah.
You can see him. No, he, he was pulling punches like, Oh, you think so? He was just tapping like, he was tagging him at will. Oh yeah.
But, uh, then then Tyson’s like full double ham action. I, you know, the first, the first round I was like, Oh, maybe. And then the second round you could see, he wobbles.
He was wobbling. And I was like, Oh yeah. It’s funny.
Cause when you look at his practice videos, like, if you see the videos that they were putting out there. Yeah. The 30 seconds worth of his flurry.
And you’re like, Ooh. But yeah, like the way I was like, Ooh, man. Like he still has like, I still don’t want to get a punch for Mike Tyson.
No, no, no, I agree. But, uh, I mean, he stumbled a couple of times just on his own. You know, the highlight though, was the jock strap.
The total. Yeah. Full bare ass.
And the cameraman’s like, I heard that’s when the servers like, I heard that’s when the servers paused. So I was at a concert. I read Brock’s back.
Did you see, dude, I saw the whole thing. I was like, you Netflix is screw it up, man. Yeah.
yeah. This first bite’s a joke. You got some dry humping.
You got double ham, butt hanging out. And that announced it was terrible. actually Rosie or Rosie Perez was actually pretty good.
They could never get Evander Holyfield. Evander Holyfield sitting on the corner. He’s like, well, they’re like, hey, Lennox Lewis, tell Evander this.
What’s Evander say? Lennox is like, well, I think this, they’re like, no, no, get Evander. And he’s like, that’s true. It was so bad.
It was so bad. They just had a conversation between each other. And he’s like, next question.
I thought maybe Holyfield was drunk or something. I don’t know. He’s like a punch drunk.
He’s one of the longest careers of anybody. Yeah. He fought for you.
He went a long, long time. He had the hologram of Muhammad Ali right there. Should have been a better interview.
It’s true. All right. Let’s do some news here real quick here.
I’ve got a couple of robot stories for you. Bookends, right? First one and the last one. So this first one comes to us.
Let me turn this up. This first one comes to us from space news.com. So we are back to the maintenance satellite. All right.
North of Grumman is a 2026 launch of robot arms satellite servicer. It’s a horrible title, but North of Grumman space logistics subsidiaries. I get 2026 launch for its next generation satellite servicing vehicle.
The mission robotic vehicle or the MRV equipped with robotic arms developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory. The MRV aims to extend the lifespan of satellites and geostationary orbit more than 22,500 miles above the earth. So here’s the MRV.
Oh shit. Oh well. It’s sideways, but that’s okay.
Well, you know, it’s in space. We’ll imagine it’s in space and it’s just. Yeah, there you go.
There you go. So these are right. The gold is the Naval robot arms that it’s all happy about.
So here’s how it’s going to work. Space logistics is using the robotic arms for the MRV under a partnership with DARPA. Company has already secured three customers for its MRV services.
Two satellites from Intel set and one from Optus. These clients will receive mission extension pods or MEPs. Propulsion jet packs that can add approximately six years of operational life to aging satellites.
That’s pretty good. Six years. That’s that’s pretty good, right? The so here’s how they’re going to do it.
They’re going to launch these mission extension pods up and they’re just going to orbit up there, right? Or they’re not going to orbit. The MRV is going to stay in geosync orbit. They’re going to launch these mission extension pods up and then the satellite will grab these and then go towards the satellite to attach it.
And then the MRV just kind of goes off on its own and these new satellites got a new fuel service for six years. That sounds weirdly complicated. I love going to the space symposiums and they talk like some people present things that they’re trying to do.
The other thing, though, is when is the space community going to agree on standardized measurements, That way, because imagine that would be worth it. It’s like, hey, standardized everything. Everybody uses the same tools, same nuts, same everything.
Because those service vehicles will make more sense. I mean, everything could just plug and play, right? Because I’m curious in the background when Dr. Grumman said, hey, we need some customers. Do they have to make adjustments to their satellite and their payload to only work on three satellites? Well, and this MRV is already up there.
So I don’t think it’s doing anything more than attaching these pods. If they’re shipping the pods up, they’re designing it for that specific satellite. So they already know the layout of the blueprints.
It’s just got the armors. One arm holds a satellite. The other one’s like, there you go.
Refueling. See you later. Prison rules.
Here you go. Welcome to County. Welcome to GEO.
I knew you guys could turn that boring story into something more entertaining. But you know what’s maddening is all the credit card readers, wherever you go, they’re all different. Almost all of them are different.
Swipe up here. Tap up here. This one, you got to put your if we can’t get that straight.
Yeah. I mean, fuck. I don’t have to go to do a USB-C fucking portal.
Well, yeah, it wasn’t until the EU was like, okay, Apple, screw yourselves. We’re all going to USB-C. Right.
Right. That’s true. They force it.
Well, they force everybody to buy the. God damn. What’s that thing? When they when they finally went, they took the port out for headphones.
Anybody had to buy the dongle, you know, the dongle for a while. I mean, remember why we why was it DVD or one versus back in the days of VHS? Yeah, you drove that. Right.
Right. Or I don’t know the point is they could drive. Well, what’s his name has that whole that whole soliloquy in Tropic Thunder, where he’s talking about how VHS won the porn war because it was easier to do.
So you’re right. So it’ll take something like that. Maybe they’ll standardize Velcro first.
You know what, though? How much? How is life easier? Life is easier with Velcro, like shoes, pants, everything. He’s 70 years old. You missed the pants part.
On the shoes. And then you’re like pants. Like one of you couldn’t remember anything else that would benefit from being Velcro pants.
He gets home from work and outside the bedroom. My wife will be like the fan. That’s good.
That was good. The sound of Velcro. She locks up.
Not again. Well, maybe this isn’t a great transition to go into this next story, but there it is. This is a female celebratory story.
And that’s too bad. Our day drinker is not here because she would enjoy this story. However, this is from where to from a task and purpose.
So an Air Force captain becomes the first woman in service history to receive a silver star. Now, I saw a lot of comments on this story afterwards, but I’m going to will save that. OK, here’s why they got it.
Now they gave out a whole bunch of awards. So on November 12, 30 fighter pilots and airmen were recognized for missions during the largest air to air enemy engagement in over 50 years, according to the Air Force. The crew of one F-15E pilot Major Benjamin Coffey and weapon systems officer Captain Lacey Hester were awarded the nation’s third highest valor award, the Silver Star.
With that award, Hester is the first woman in the Air Force to receive the Silver Star and the 10th woman in the Department of Defense’s history. Together, the Air Force said Coffey and Hester Squadron shot down 70 drones and three ballistic missiles. Holy crap.
Yeah, the missiles part is I didn’t know that part. So this is Captain Hester. Nice, David.
So she won and she was a backseater. So weapons of wizard, I guess they call him backseater weapons officer. The missions came during massive aerial attack of missiles and unmanned drones fired from Iran from the morning or during the morning of April 13th into the early hours of April 14th.
In total, 66 airmen for the 494th fighter squadron and 494th fighter generation squadron worked together to repel the massive attack, massive aerial attack on Israel. OK, so this is kind of cool. During a fight, Coffey and Hester depleted their air-to-air missiles and rockets.
Instead of returning to their base, they engaged targets with the F-15’s Gatling gun, shooting down several one-way attack drones at extremely low altitudes. Now that would be, I mean, because they’re propeller drones, so they’re not going that fast. I mean, they’re quick, but they’re not that fast.
And I don’t know, how do you how do you get that F-15 slow enough? Or is it just pass after pass? I mean, one one one bullet is going to take it down, so he’s just spraying ahead of you flying into the swarm, I guess, crazy. Coffey and Hester also overcame a serious malfunction of one of their missiles while engaging a drone. The crew launched an air-to-air missile, but the missile failed to detach from the wing of their F-15, so a hung missile, they call it.
Yeah, that forced the team to land with a potentially armed missile attached to their wing. Have you ever, have you ever seen that, or heard of that, Jake? We used to have hung flares a lot. Oh, yeah.
Big ground support flares. And we’d have, we had one jammed gun. I never saw a hung, but A-10s don’t have a lot of missiles.
Yeah. Issues. Yeah, that’s true.
That’s true. Right. But that’s crazy.
The Air Force estimates that Iran’s attack included over 300 one-way attack drones and missiles between Allied aircraft and base defenses. 99% of the attack was prevented from reaching Israel. So, hats off to you, Captain Hester.
Well done. And to the 494th Fighter Squad. So, we don’t have any boots on the ground, right? Of course not.
Just any units. We just, we just had it. I almost saw the comments, but was there haters on this? Oh, yeah.
Air Force and they were, they just, they weren’t getting shot at. You know, where’s the air to air combat? Air Force just wants to recognize. But you just, still you shot down 99%.
And you can definitely say she saved a life or two, right? Shut her. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Corrections. The picture though on that news article had the Distinguished Flying Cross. Oh, no.
Yeah. Yes, it did. Yeah, that’s right.
Yeah. Oh, bad job. Six Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor.
Right. Right. Four with combat device, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, two bronze stars, and seven air and space combination missiles.
Yeah, I love that. That was a lot. I mean, they just, I mean, they were given that and, and good, you know, get on them.
They prevented it all, but not everybody shows how, how it’s evolving, right? Like Jones, it’s like, that’s what we should be expecting now. It’s like, gonna, I mean, why are you gonna, you’re not gonna see the, the, the fights that you used to see before. No, that’s true.
Yeah, that’s true. And, you know, who has an air force, right? Well, what was that stat that, um, I don’t think we’ve had ground troops attacked from the air since like the fifties. No.
It was just like, holy shit. That’s true. Well, because we’ve had air dominance since then.
Yeah. You know. Yeah.
We establish air superiority pretty quick. And there’s very few countries that can maintain an air force that’s at any kind of level, you know? amazing. Yeah.
All right, fellas, like you had a little quiz for you for the, before this next, uh, story. Um, let’s see. Where, where’s the beginning of it? All right.
Do you know what cycling’s Lance Armstrong, gymnastics, Simone Biles, and NBA basketball player Robert Ory have in common? Fantastic glutes. Well, that’s true. Yeah.
Very, very much so. I don’t know. Yeah.
They all. Simone. They all won seven championships.
Yeah. Right. So this story from task and purpose shows that the Pentagon has also achieved a number seven.
Oh, nice. They failed their seventh audit in a row. Hey, what’s the joint effort? As long as it’s team seven in a row.
Great. Uh, but listen to the spin that these guys put on it. So it gets a little complicated.
I’ll try to skip over that part, but the department of defense is still struggling to account for his finances. The department once again failed its annual audit into it. It’s expenditures and assets.
This marks the seventh straight year of failures. The department of defense has not passed one of the mandatory audits since they were implemented in 2018. Nice.
Or since 2018, Michael McCord, the undersecretary of defense and chief financial officer announced the latest failure on Friday, November 15th, saying the result was expected. Hey, you know what? In that case, Michael McCord, your results of your employment are going to be expected. Like get the f out.
He’s, he’s, he’s got a positive spin on it. You’ll hear. According to McCord, the overall audit earned a disclaimer of opinion.
You know, it goes on into all these ratings, which is kind of hard to understand, but it means that the department of defense failed to provide enough information for auditors to reach, reach a precise and accurate verdict on the finances. In fact, of the 28 separate entities audited, 15 of them all received disclaimers, or they didn’t pass. Hundreds of people worked to get an understanding of where the military is financially.
The process involved approximately 1700 independent auditors, and it cost 178 million to audit them. This year’s process examined 4.1 trillion in assets and 4.3 trillion in liabilities. Of the 28 entities audited, nine received unqualified opinions, meaning they had clean audits.
So they were good. Only nine of them. The good news is that one more entity earned a claim, a clean audit than last year.
So last year, they only had eight this year. They had nine guys should be promoted. So all the other guys should be.
That’s right. What was the deputy’s name? McCord. Cause I remember when Catherine Hicks was the deputy and I remember watching John Stewart grilling her about the failure audit that they had.
And it seems like, and like honestly is like, Hey, work through this money. Cause at that time, the biggest thing was like, all these billions of dollars went to these contractors. And what did they deliver? Yeah.
There. Now here’s McCord spin. Momentum is on our side because we increased by one over the last year.
There’s a strong commitment and belief in our ability to achieve an unmodified opinion on behalf of the department’s senior management. I assess that the department of defense continues to make progress towards a congressional mandate for achieving an unmodified audit opinion or pass. Right.
So we had nine past nine sections, nine out of 28. There we go. Okay.
Last year, they only had 28. So they’re on the move. So it’s only going to take us what 11, 12 more years.
That’s that’s it. Yeah. Cause you know, you have that point or whatever you need to do.
Or Elon gets in there and he’s like, I’ll fix this. Both those right. The department of something efficient.
Government efficiency. Yeah. So it’s, it’s one of those things, but you know, it’s funny like, okay.
They’re, they’re going to that like, cause there’s wasted money, stuff like that. But you know, so you know, even when I was in, it’s like, do we really need to buy a new chair? It’s like, we almost need to reassess that money. Cause like, you know, I always had the use it or lose it.
So that’s your fun. Yeah. And the year needed that.
So, so you didn’t spend that money. Then the way I see it’s okay. You allocated 3 million in this made up world.
You still had a million to spend. So keep that 1 million. I’m going to give you 2 million.
Instead of like you spending freight or fraud, waste and abuse. So you get another fresh 3 million is bullshit. But what was the fear? The fear or at least what they told us was, you don’t spend that 3 million.
They’re not going to give you the 3 million next year. But it’s like, we get to where we get, right? Yeah. But you should be patting me on the back for saving that million.
They’re like, Oh no. Oh no. Go buy a bunch of frivolous shit.
So we expand. The most annoying one was, throughout the year, you wouldn’t have paper. You wouldn’t have TDY phones.
You wouldn’t have. Like the first. What? If it hit in October, it wasn’t until March.
February, March when you would get funds then. Right. And you’re like, Hey, you get people out the door to these TDYs to these schools.
Yeah. Maybe in the spring. And then you have.
August, September. We’re like, we’ve got 8 million to spend quick. We did not spend enough.
And I was like, what? Every year has happened when I was in the Army, happened when I was in the Air Force. It was ridiculous. So this is the last quote by this McCord.
He said the major issue overall is accounting for the department’s physical assets and property. Wouldn’t that be the easiest thing? It’s right there. Okay.
That makes sense. No, no, no, no, no. I think it makes sense.
So, so I don’t know what to deal with this time, but with Kathleen Hicks, when she was in, it was the inventory of deliveries that these contractors owe them. So they spend all this money. So I’m curious, like what was supposed to be delivered this year? Yeah.
That’s not within their inventory. Yeah. Yeah.
How much payola under the table was it? And how much did we actually get? Right. You remember the calm guys going around, doing inventory every quarter and looking for a fucking printer. They’re like, we’re going to have a squadron level, like we’re lost five computers, 14 monitors and three printers.
How the hell did we lose it? I don’t know. Go look, go look in that room where we pushed all the dead chairs and shit. It might be in there.
I have no idea. We didn’t move the printer. Who moved the printer? Like you’re looking from, I had no idea printers were migratory until I joined the military.
It’s the fall, right? Oh yeah. They went on their all season travel. You’re right.
The other building. But that’s, that’s peanuts compared to, you know, the other stuff. Can you imagine doing that on a big, I’m not justifying their incompetence.
I’m just saying. Yeah. Right.
Right. On a big picture level, if a dozen printers here and there in every. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. A million or four.
Sure. Sure. I’m talking about printers.
It’s supposed to be a paperless air force. I remember that when I came in. Oh yeah.
That was a fun one. Speaking of, speaking of paperless along the same lines, have you seen, I’ve got a couple of guys with our company who just got adjudicated. There are RA badges, but they have no plastic badges to print.
Yep. And it’s across the air force. Yeah.
I was like, what happened? Were we getting these from China or something? What happened? And they, there’s no, they can’t remember. They’re out. They’re out.
There’s no plastic available to print the badge on. So they’re carrying around like a 25 86 or something like that. It’s done.
Good. Yeah. Right.
It’s so stupid. Okay. Let’s, let’s get to our last robot story here.
All right. This is from, again, task and purpose. Why the space force has a nuclear material sniffing robot.
So troop station at Buckley space, four space in Aurora, Colorado might notice an odd four legged robot loping around the base. That is called chappy. Did you ever see that movie? I didn’t see it.
It had a, uh, what’s his name? Wolverine was in it. Um, but it was, it was the same kind of robot went rogue and wants to be a person story. And so they want to kill it.
But that robot was called chappy. So they called this robot chappy. Um, space forces chappy has been on in use on the base since July.
The robot, according to space force is one of only two quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles in the entire department of defense to be dedicated to chemical biological, radiological and nuclear detection. Huh? That was a lot. So that’s chappy.
All right, little tappy toes that it is a tappy toe. It’s the same kind of design. So the idea for chappy dates back to years earlier in the Middle East, US Air Force Master Sergeant Dominic Garcia was in stationed at dice Air Force Base, Texas, having previously deployed to Syria as part of the anti ISIS fight.
Uh, Massart and Garcia said, I thought there had to be a safer and faster way. Uh, in 2022 while stationed at Minot, I applied for a small business innovation research grant through the Department of the Air Force technical grant program. Ath works.
Nice. He received 1.24 million to develop a remote Seaburn sensing capability using our current inventory of detectors. They gave him a million bucks.
His first prototype was that only with M9 paper all around it. He did. He did all by the end of the fiscal year.
That’s what I want to know. Hey, but wouldn’t you be scared to death that they’re like, okay, here’s your grant. I’ll be like, Oh, I got to account for this thing.
Nah, you don’t, you make more money with the DOD. Yeah, that’s right. You know, the fact that it’s at Buckley, I wonder if like 10 years from now that people that are retiring this year’s like, were you at Buckley space for station? Were you exposed to nuclear toxins? Oh yeah.
Why isn’t it Buckley of all basis? Yeah. He’s stationed there. Well, it just makes you I’m still concerned with like, why is he sniffing around every day, everywhere in like his life.
Yeah. You’re working out. Does he have to get some tech, like test nuclear materials or, you know, I don’t know.
I don’t know. I mean, but who’s going to disagree with them? He could be over the fitness center and women are getting changed in the dressing room. Here comes the tappy tap dog.
It was like, Oh, we have a suspicion there might be there might be some nuclear material in here. And this thing with its little goofy eyes, they’re recording everything. It’s like, Oh, some eyelashes like those Volkswagen bug eyelashes.
So his design is the robot dog. They’re heavily outfitted with sensors and detectors that are already in use. So he got basically the robot and didn’t like you said, just kind of stuck the sensors on.
Hey, just riveted. And then, you know, he probably did it for like 49 99. And it was like, Oh, here’s a, what do I do with the rest of this grant? How much that robot? Cause I’m curious, like how do you account? So was it a grant to him personally, or advanced unit? I don’t know how F works works, but they’re throwing grants around.
I guess. And I would’ve been like, shit, I could take half of this and go on all these amazing TD wise. Well, but it’d be TD wise to go study possibilities.
Go out to MIT. Yeah. Yeah.
The Lincoln labs. Kick some robots around. Oh yeah.
As if that was a Boston, Boston, whatever Boston dynamics dynamics. Yeah. I mean, I heard Brazil has some great policing robots down there during the fall.
I better go down there and check those out too. you know, it’s crazy like, like all these sensors and stuff. So the other day I’m not going to throw out any names, but there’s a owner of a Tesla.
Who the cameras on their cop airman at the going to the MCS park, just barely touched that Tesla. All the cameras turned on, zoomed into his face and stuff. Oh damn.
I’m like from works. I hate. Do you know this guy? We believe we looked them up and dude, you could see his name clearly on his uniform.
And it recorded everything. The license plates on the car. Everything I was like, it’s fucking scary.
It’s like there’s no privacy around a Tesla. I guess not. I never realized that.
Yeah. So they were showing me the video footage. Like here’s the evidence.
I was like, Oh shit. Do you know? I was like, no, I was like, I mean, I could go around to Swiss side. Well, we want to keep at the lowest level.
So just let him know that the owner wants to talk to him. I was like, all right, cool. Whatever.
It’s like, Jesus, just a scratch. And like, seriously, it’s just, I don’t think into the defense of the driver. Yeah.
It’s the way it’s just. It just doesn’t right. It just pops on.
Right. Oh man, that’s good to know. Okay.
You could really screw with some people. So no shenanigans around. Just tap them.
You know, well, well has a Tesla. I think I’m a one day. Nice.
That’d be good. That’d be funny. That’s a, now I want to try it.
Cause that I’ll be hilarious. Oh, give it a try. Yeah.
Well, get it on video, please and bring it in. And then definitely. And say, Henry made me.
Or do the words, like the whole note. Henry says you suck. What did they use to call each other to screw with each other? They would, they would just yell.
Him and him and Raul, Henry and Raul would just yell at someone else. That was like a fat Mexican person. Henry would be like, Raul, Raul.
Here’s the thing. I know you hear me. Don’t pretend.
Like this poor guy is just walking. Down the sidewalk in Denver. And he’s like, don’t pretend.
I know you love me. I understood how people get them confused. Why? I never understood this.
Why? They will call him one or they’ll call me Raul or Henry when we’re all together in the same units. Yeah. and I feel this is what happened.
Like one time there, this one Raul was in Stan Ivo. Hey, uh, sorry, Lopez. Somebody came and told me to talk to you.
We had some Stan Ivo. It’s like, dude, I’m the wrong Mexican. I’m still on crew.
I wanted to talk to Raul. Oh, you have a training question. That’s De La Garza.
That’s the other Mexican. That’s the other one. It was just like, I’m not as short as one.
I’m not even taught like those fools. They were two of the tallest Latinos I’ve ever come to. Like, even if I go to a Mexican club, I’m at five 10.
I’m told, oh shit, I feel tall here. Yeah. I’m like, I’m sure.
I think Henry’s taller than me. Oh, is it? Yeah. Holy shit.
Really? I don’t know. He’s got to be at least six too. Yeah, man.
Yeah. All right. So we close it out with a quick history.
All right. All right. It’s a quick one.
So on this date, November 19th, 1863, president Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address at the dedication of the soldier’s national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, using just two hundred and seventy-two words. Lincoln brilliantly and movingly articulated the meaning of the conflict for a war weary public. For some time, Lincoln had been planning to make a public statement on the significance of the war and the struggle against slavery.
In early November, he received an invitation to speak at the dedication of, of the part of the Gettysburg battlefield, which was being transformed into a cemetery for the soldiers who had died in battle there from July 1st to the 3rd, 1863. This is a good part. At the dedication, the crowd listened for two hours to Edward Everett, who was at the time was widely renowned as the finest orator in the country.
And then Lincoln got up there and his address lasted just two minutes. I didn’t know it was that quick. And men in the audience were still making themselves comfortable when he finished.
And that’s what happened on the 19th of November, 1863. Two hundred and seventy-two words? Two hundred and seventy-two words. And I remember in elementary school, we had a teacher who had like three electric train sets.
And they said, if you could memorize a Gettysburg address and do it without notes, you win one. And I was like, oh, it was furiously trying to memorize, memorize, memorize. The first train set goes and I was like, oh, I’m trying to, you know, you come back in the next couple of days, next train set goes.
I was like, son of a gun. I did. I got the third one just, but it was the first thing I’d ever memorized.
And I was forcing myself to memorize, not because of the beauty of the speech, because I wanted that damn train set. But that shows like, less is more, right? Especially like speeches and stuff. Yeah.
Yeah. The point and like drive it. And I think people are more like, they’ll remember it more.
I was like, because the only thing I remember from long ass speech is like, damn, Jake, remember that long ass speech? Like, yeah, that shit sucks. Yeah, that guy went on forever. It’s true.
So he did like two, two and a half minutes. He was done. Sat back down.
We had a dining out at Vandenberg once. Yeah. And the guy came up and he was, I can’t remember.
He was a pilot, obviously. But then, but he comes over and he talks and he gives us like play by play. Oh, no.
And it was like 45 minutes to an hour. Like, oh, so I was approaching at this altitude and we were doing a standard. Oh, man.
We were at this airspeed. I was like, okay. And then we’re all like mildly soft stuff.
Right. And then this guy comes up and it’s like the whole mood of the whole thing is like, God, it’s tough, man. That’s a tough one.
I’m sure what he had to say was great. But not that night. We were all there having a good old time.
And then that special guest speaker got us. They can do that. Well, shit, I think that’s end up.
Nice. Nice. Nice, tight 40, 50 minutes there.
Just like Lincoln. There you go. On behalf of all of us here, I’d like to thank you for listening today.
Please like, share, subscribe. Let us know how we get in the comments. And make sure the next week that you are not late for changeover.
Oh, that was a good timing. That was a good timing. That was a good one.
Yeah, that was. Gentlemen, it’s good to see you. Thanks for showing up.
And to those who didn’t show up, shame on you. Hopefully we see you next week. And thanks for being here.
I appreciate you guys. Thanks for listening and watching. That was fun.
And we’ll see you next week.