Episode Title: The Late For Changeover Show 8 May 2024
Date: May 8, 2024
I’m Marty Smith, your host, and I’m joined by Mr. History, Eric Prud, the animals have been released. Our man in the lilac closet, Jake Wall, spoils of a wonderful walk, and Juan Juanita Lopez. We’re here to bring you the latest headlines and updates pertinent to all guardians and to the other branches below us.
So take your seats, get informed, and have a laugh as we present Late for Changeover. I thought maybe you would hit some kind of Spanish thing, but nope. Well, we got Olaf from you last week.
I am reminded of the old Michael Douglas movie, Romancing the Stone. Remember Romancing the Stone? When they went down south and they were in trouble and they went to the drug dealer’s house, right? That guy had his little mule, his little mule Pepe. I wanted to show you the other field.
And I thought, and I asked Juan this week, I was like, hey, you got a nickname I can introduce you with or something like that. He was like Juanito, and I was like, uh, okay. Juanito’s cool.
I was hoping to be Pepe, because I’d be our little, our little mule Pepe, right? Maybe be a little mule Juanito. Juanito! All right, Eric and Jake and Juanito. I had, I have a security forces story for you.
So I had to go into debrief, right, to get out of the SCI. So I went into, I go into Buckley, I show my ID card and they’re like, hey, this is deactivated. And I was like, I just got it in January.
What are you talking about? And this was the civilian guy, right? And so here comes the E4 over, female E4. She’s like, she scans it. First thing I noticed is that little scanner has about a mile of duct tape on it, right? Because red tape.
That’s because they’re practicing with it as a taser, right? Throwing it at the guy or what? They’re playing Johnny fuck around trying to find each other. So she’s absent. She’s like, yeah, this is your idea shown as deactivate.
She goes, come out here and pull her out. And so I pull for her and I loop around and she gives me my ID back. She goes, you got to go to the VCC.
I was trying to make it to the debrief that I had 10 minutes to get to. And so she hands it back. This is your retiree card or your contractor card? This was my retiree card.
Oh, wow. And so she gives it back and she goes, you’re going to have to go VCC to get back in here. And I was like, fuck.
And this is what she does. She’s walking away and she goes, what was that? And I was like, oh, come on. I’m, I’m pissed.
I’m not pissed at you. I’m just pissed because I got a meeting in 10 minutes in general. I am about to slap it on.
And she gave me that and she goes, what? And I said, I said fuck because I’m mad. And then she kind of faltered and she was like, okay. And she watched me as she walked away.
What are you doing? Security forces. You’re going to arrest me for that? You better watch your attitude, Marty. Power hungry branch, man.
Crazy. Yeah. You’ll call me sir.
And she’s acting all tough right next to the plexiglass that the cops let melt because of the space heater was too close to it in the winter. And I’m like, yeah, you guys are wired tight with your red tape. Perfect.
And all that imperfection you take out on the customer. I’m surprised you didn’t go. Oh, I also need to see your registration and your license, please.
Right. Right. I’m surprised you didn’t say whether her, her scanner was deactivated.
How am I going to dispute it? Right? She’s, uh, she’s just going to turn me away anyway. And what did the VCC do? Just give you a pass? This was a weird thing. This is the first time I’ve been in a VCC in a decade.
Right. So I go in there, I got my insurance, I get my registration, my both all my cards and I’m like, fuck, this is going to take forever. And I’m like, okay, I need a vehicle pass.
She goes, we don’t do vehicle passes. And I was like, what are you talking about? She goes, we just write you a pass. I was like, why? And she goes, and she takes my ID card and she scans it.
And she goes, okay, here’s all your information. I was like, did my card just scan on yours? She goes, yeah, it shows everything. I was like, they just told me.
She goes, our systems aren’t connected. And I was like, oh my goodness. We want to go to the moon.
Well, I don’t know. I don’t know who works in the VCC. Yeah, there are more cops, but they also, but they’re the broken ones, right? Seriously, I’m not saying anything.
There’s like two poor NCOs that are charged. All this shit. You’re pregnant.
You get VCC duty for the next. Are there VCC? Oh, you guys are killing me here, man. No.
Eric, what would you do with your pregnant? Put her ass to work. She’s humping, baby. Literally, she was.
That’s what got her in trouble. Post humping. That’s what we’re asking.
Post the fornication. You walk up to week. It’s a month 8.5. I have a feeling that Sergeant Rock up here is probably a big softy at heart though, you know.
No. So, yeah, yeah. You would buy them their first pair of profile shoes.
I will. Here’s your new balances. I will admit the young lady with the tattoo of the shield on her back.
I’d make her stand the other direction. Now, speaking of tattoos, Jake, you had an interesting thought, right? Yeah. What was that thought you had about tattoos? I was saying, we saw that reel where that cop groupie got the sheer tattoo.
Was she a groupie or was she in? I don’t know. Which one is worse? Which one is worse? I don’t know which one. Groupie is worse, I think, actually.
Groupie. Well, a groupie, you have more justification that if you’re in and you get branded that way, you’re like, you love security force. You’re going to retrain out of this thing in three years.
What are you talking about? No, man. Come on. It’s 22 right here.
Well, that’s true. I mean, to retrain out of the cops, are you going to retrain up? That is like, what else? We got a lot of work. You’re going to put your space force at some point.
But that’s the thing, right? No, nobody has a space force tattoo every Marine. Like, you’re not a Marine unless you got the Eagle Gloom and anchor or the USMC tattoo somewhere. Semper Fi.
Yeah, Semper Fi. Army is just sleeved up nowadays. Yeah, they’re just fucking, you know, they’re sleeved up.
But what specific career fields like, oh, you got that tattoo? I’m not surprised. Yeah. Well, yeah.
Like, if you were, I don’t know, services. I’m not seeing services out in a big community of… Well, they got cross spoons. Exactly.
But, but… Cross buffers. Ammo and IIS tattoos. Yeah, sure.
Maintenance, probably has one. Maintenance, cops, obviously. Yeah, right, right.
What other career fields are big on that, though? In the Air Force or space force? Yeah, or military. Well, that’s true. Well, wait a minute.
Would you want to put Space Ranger on your fucking arm? Come on, man. Sure you. It sounds so funny.
Like Space Ghost or something, right out of the cartoon. Here’s my supposition. I bet there are more women in the space force tattoo than men in the space force.
So much. I have no way to prove that. But I bet there are more women with tattoos, like behind the ear, on the ankle, in a lower back.
I was referring to like space force, like career field specific. No, you’re right. Yeah, you’re right.
Sorry to mean it. I don’t see a lot. No, the one thing I do see is not tattoos, but it’s like the car stickers.
I see people with their rank on like, either their retire or whatever. Yeah, I would see a lot of people that flash that rank everywhere, especially more on the listed side. I tell you, when I came back from jump school in 87, I was proud of myself.
I got through fucking jump school. So I got one of those decals for the window, right? I put it in my window in the car. I was like, fucking hey.
And as soon as I pulled in, these guys who, you know, two, three years, senior to me, they’re like, are you fucking serious with that goddamn jump? I was like, oh, and that night I was like, scrape, scrape, scrape. They shamed me so bad. I was like, oh, forget it.
I’m not proud anymore. You’re right. You should have done it when you retired.
After you retired, then it’s cool. Well, sure. So people know your background.
Yeah, it’s cool. I mean, I see. Might be the only time it’s moderately acceptable in my mind.
I have seen the rear window stickers on trucks that have like the decorations. Have you seen those? Oh, yeah. Oh, my God.
Or better yet, their plate is representative of a decoration, a bronze star, or a silver star. I mean, you earned that shit. I know, but it’s still not something that I would think of putting on a license plate.
I really wouldn’t. Right, right. I mean, that’s not me.
You’d put the double bicep on it. Now that, a picture of me. If they had the Arnold, Mr. Olympia.
That’s right. Hell, yeah. Well, I think that.
Go ahead, Juan. Oh, no. Go ahead.
Oh, I was going to say that I think we should revisit or if we can get anybody to comment on what Jake’s idea was about which. Which is it? Oh, yeah. Which AFSC would happen.
I mean, you see the AFSC for Space Force. Yeah. Yeah.
Combat Infantry. That one’s probably a. Oh, like your infantry. Yeah, right.
That’s probably a real popular one. Oh, CIBs. Yeah, that’s.
And if it’s got the wreath representing they’ve been in actual combat, right? Well, that’s the, that’s a CIB. If it doesn’t have the wreath, that’s an expert infantry badge without the wreath. I did not know that.
So there’s a course. I thought they were all CIBs. Yeah, there’s a course to go through to earn your infantry badge.
Your expert infantry badge. So if you go through that course and you’re not in combat, you get the blue rifle or the rifle on the background, the blue. If you are, if you do the course and you’ve done a combat, then you get the wreaths.
I thought they were all CIBs. Just one was. No, one’s a CIB.
It’s an expert infantry badge or a CIB combat infantry badge. Oh, it’s funny that you’re talking about these devices. Because I think also like like they were talking about medals in the Space Force, right? And like, are you going to justify these other medals out there? You know, there’s a combat designation and stuff like that.
Like I could see why other military services get pissed off. They’re like, okay, what’d you really do for this? Well, especially when you’re bleeding into one of these given bronze stars. And that’s and that bleeds into one of those stories.
So table that because I want to hit that exact point when we come back. But good to see you guys could drink and do stories with you. So now for the news, the news, right? The big news was yesterday, right? I was even tuned into NASA.
So Boeing’s Starliner was supposed to launch yesterday at 630 or so Mountain Time. So I turned the live feed on well, it’s supposed to launch 20 years ago and a and a long time employee unfortunately committed suicide. So when I turned on that live feed about 615, right? And you know, and they’re doing they’re just killing time thing.
And I look at the launch time and I was like, this thing is supposed to go in like 15 minutes. Why is it two hours and 30 minutes up there counting down? I was like, they must have found some fucking problem, right? And so I was like, OK, good. I don’t have to sit and watch this for research for the pod.
And then 10 minutes later, I saw it come up on the feed. It was like, oh, Starliner scrubbed. So it was supposed to launch.
Yeah, it was supposed to be their big first manned launch for Boeing, Boeing Starliner. And you know, I’m not impressed with the way Starliner looks. Have you seen it? It just looks like an oversized capsule.
Yeah, it doesn’t look like the X boys. Right, so they. Yes, that’s so it waved off its first launch attempt on Monday due to a problem with an oxygen relief out on the Centaur stage on the Atlas five.
So NASA posted that out on X. However, there’s a little bit of article here. Too much. Well, you’ll never get an insider from Boeing to tell you.
What’s going on? Boeing’s Starliner capsule when it does launch with astronauts will join a very exclusive club. United Launch Alliance Atlas five rocket is supposed was supposed to launch Starliner and his two passengers, NASA astronauts SUNY Williams and Butch Wilmore from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today or Monday, sorry. It was going their mission when they do launch will kick out or will start a 10 day shakeout cruise to the ISS International Space Station.
That will be Starliner’s first ever astronaut mission. So such crew debuts to Earth orbit have happened just five times in American history. Which is more than so, but just five new vehicles is what they’re talking about.
Now, before you continue, I saw four astronauts being interviewed on the Today Show. And I thought those were the four that were going on Starliner. No, they’re only sending two.
I think they got two and two backups. Okay, then I must be thinking it must be the X guys SpaceX because those guys were actually going up to test. Oh, those guys are going up on Starship.
That’s what I’m saying. We can’t get any more creative names than Starliner. Yeah, they’re creating a new astronaut suit and they’re evaluating it.
I saw I was going. I was all excited. I was going to bring that to the podcast because they had this whole video of look at the new NASA suit.
Yeah, I was like, it wasn’t much. It’s rubber boots like the one. Yeah, it wasn’t much already.
Velcro goes this way, not this. 1.4 million justified. I wonder that there must have been what they pay for that video because it was it was classy.
It was lighted and music in the background. I was like, wait for it. Wait for it.
Oh, it’s over. I was like, that was boring. That was boring.
Zipper goes both ways. You can zip it up or you can zip it up down. NASA chief Bill Nelson noted during a press briefing that quote the first time NASA astronauts have flown on a new spacecraft started with Mercury, then with Gemini, then with Apollo, then space shuttle, then Dragon, and now Starliner still waiting on the Starliner part, which I think they rescheduled that launch for the 17th.
Now here’s here’s where all the guys from SpaceX are just sitting back like, huh, I’m looking for these. Dragon is the capsule built by SpaceX, which like Boeing won a contract from NASA’s commercial crew program back in 2014 to carry agency astronauts to him from the ISS. The goal was to get at least one American crewed vehicle up and running as soon as safely as soon as safely possible in the wake of the space shuttle’s 2011 retirement, which left NASA completely dependent on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for crewed transportation.
That’s crazy. For six, seven years, we would be like, hey, can we go up on you? Can we get a ride? We’re behind the power curve for sure. Can your mom give us a ride to the moon? It was a good thing we were friends at that time.
Not so much now. But SpaceX launched its version of CFT called Demo-2 back in May 2020. Elon Musk company has since completed seven operational astronaut missions to the station and it’s in the middle of its eighth while Boeing is like, oh, scrub it.
Doug, so as that record shows SpaceX has proven to be a reliable and prolific partner for NASA, but the agency is still excited to get a second American astronaut taxi online. And you know, the government NASA probably wants to do that so they can barter price against each other. Well, honestly, would you truly fly on Starliner after Boeing’s attempted airplanes? Jesus Christ.
Tires, tails, wings, doors. Come on, man. I feel like those astronauts are going to be holding on to that door.
All right. Hold on to this. Bunchies, man.
They got bungees. It’s going to launch like the Martian. All the shit’s going to fly over to like, holy shit.
Look at this. She’s a skeleton. I couldn’t do it, man.
I wouldn’t get no Boeing craft. Well, ideally, this this video will show you what it was kind of supposed to do. So it’s a slick video by ULA.
They got their little logo out there, didn’t they? Yeah, they did. You’re right. Ascent begins at T minus zero with the end of the countdown and the graphics are outstanding.
So what we ask the words at two plus twelve seconds, the rocket rolls. I mean, it looks like metal gear solid five. Oh, good.
Oh, gee. Around two plus forty seconds. Max two stars.
That’s all. This is a critical time. I think my favorite of all these terms now is Mika next at about plus one minute and five seconds.
Mika rocket boosters run out of fuel and burn out and about a minute. Oh, no more thrust. Oh, as you watch this video, I want you to think space junk.
OK, I forget to I forgot to remind you this. So because Boeing doesn’t know how to bring their stuff down. But watch.
OK, so because as you watch this, I’m thinking space junk because we’ve done so many stories on it, right? About a minute later, they separate from the booster. The Atlas booster engine. OK, maybe those are recovering like the shuttle.
And at approximately plus four thirty booster engine cut off for Biko. That’s not my favorite. Easter separates and so does the ascent cover on top of Starliner.
At around four minutes. See, there’s more trash. Centaur upper stage ignites and the push for orbital speeds.
In a little after five minutes, Starliner is more junk. After a long six plus minute push from Centaur main engine cut off or Miko happens around me. Miko, then when Centaur successfully separates almost 15 minutes more junk.
A lot of junk. Now that’s cool. They get the little.
That’s 31 minutes. The astronauts fly out of the capsule. Well, not now, right? There’s no forces on it now.
Thirty one minutes. The surprise event. The astronauts become more junk.
Oh, my God. Oh, that was a good one. So that’s what that’s what it was supposed to do.
And like I said, they’re still working on the Centaur valve trying to figure that one out. So I think the earliest they can look at is the 17th. I can’t imagine Boeing stock prices worth the ship right now.
They’re fighting a lot of stuff. How can you have not that we do these kind of stories, but how can you have two whistleblowers? Oh, yeah, I mean, this is hardcore. This is like Clinton work.
Boy, they both suicide themselves. How do you how does that happen? Anyway, yeah, I feel uncomfortable. We’re going to pay was a coincidence or not or even if it was all hundred percent above board.
That’s very odd. Yeah, yeah. For both of those guys.
What they write movies on. This is yeah. So it comes out of the basement.
We’ll be following that and we’ll bring it to you live. If it happens. Eight fifteen and nine fifteen on Tuesday.
Are we gonna have a live show while it launches? Actually, we did. Actually, we did on a totally spur of the moment. Remember that one? I remember.
Yeah, yeah. My Mike Jones brought it up. He’s like, hey, they’re launching now.
I was like, fuck, let’s watch it. So that was pretty cool. That was pretty cool.
But most of our stuff is taped. So anyway. Okay, I’ve got a this is good.
This is good on these guys and I don’t want to take anything away from them, but I have issues. However. Historically, being.
Army and then Air Force. No. I’m giving the audience perspective.
You know, I’m just remembering something. One is first. I remember.
I remember I’m through. You looked at Captain Beaumont at the time because he had jump links. I remember you hitting him up and saying like, oh, would you get that? The academy is like, no, I was in the army.
And then you totally shut up. That doesn’t sound like me. Because you’re about to start digging in them.
No, I don’t. That’s when you found out he was prior enlisted. Because because the guys at academy get wings for.
It’s not even it’s not even the same. But anyway, I don’t think that’s accurate. One, I don’t think.
But what if what if you would have said, yeah, Academy. Guaranteed you would have said. I would have said, oh, got a couple.
I noted noted noted. He was. People hate when I was.
I don’t know why I’m remembering that now that we’re getting on the subject. Like, I remember you. I was jumping one.
You were young back then. I’m sure he was too good. So even though NASA’s launch was delayed, we have more significant space for snooze from military.com. Meet the first space cowboys.
They call them. Three guardians complete an arduous army cavalry spur ride. Three space force guardians travel to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas to complete an army cavalry spur ride.
A series of arduous combat tests and physical training exercises in which service members often ruck march in between challenges. That’s a horrible description of what it is, but the calf. Right all the different versions of the calf they all have what’s called a spur ride and it’s it’s like a two day thing.
It’s pretty intense. It’s pretty challenging, but they make it so you can win. You earn the Spurs and the Stetson.
Yeah, pretty cool, right? What about the belt buckle, right? I don’t know. You’re right. There is a belt buckle.
I’m not sure if that’s part of the whole package or if that’s the officer thing or whatever, but when I was at when I was in the Army in Fort Hood, Texas, they had an officer pub. The club was called a pub. It was awesome.
This was back when and Fridays was all off base. Everybody was there and there were two divisions there. There were two divisions.
There was a 2nd armor division, which I was and then there was the 1st Cav division, which was way higher on priority list of Army divisions. So it was like the poor high school and the rich high school and they were both on the same base and you would go to the old club and you’re like, Oh man, it’s hopping here today and income. These guys with cavalry hats and spurs.
You’re like we’re toast. You can beat with that. How do you compete with these guys? So the hat and the spurs is that like you earn it, but you only wear it for like morale events or like, yeah, it’s certain where it’s like dining out or dining in and then certain other events that they mandate and apparently the officers club.
So you can wear it. It’s only in a certain uniform, right? Yeah, yeah. And the commander will deem it.
They don’t just strut around with it all the time. So it’s a dress thing. It’s badass.
Like I said, it’s very hard to compete with the first time. I saw it, man. It’s so good.
I thought that was like an alternate uniform. The first time I saw it on an army guy, I was like, what the hell is this? Because he had his freaking his service or whatever the army version service dresses. Did he have the belt on the outside of it? Yeah, he had the belt on the outside of the coat.
And I was like, damn, good looking. I see a couple guys get married. Get married in them.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s a. Yeah. So that was pretty well.
Well, that’s probably a popular tattoo. Spurs and hat. Yeah, the spurs and hat or the first calf shield.
Yeah, that’s a good looking patch, man. Captain Bradley Evans, an engineer at White Sands Missile Range, First Lieutenant Jordan Savage, an acquisitions officer at Space Systems Command in Los Angeles, and First Lieutenant Jackson Jennings, a Space Force developmental engineer where the three Space Force officers who became the first guardians to earn their spurs and Stetsons and the nickname Space Cowboys. And you’re never going to wear that.
I absolutely like I might have been on their side until the Space Cowboys bullshit. I know. I hear you.
So that’s first Lieutenant George Savage. Part of the going through part of this spur ride. So with his Star Trek emblem on his arm, beam me up, Scotty.
That’s beam me up. Actually, that’s not even official. And that looks like a some.
That’s a one of the specialty ones or something like that. But what is a spur ride? Right? Well, the cab does it. And it’s different.
There’s no mandatory set thing. This isn’t like range of school or jump school or any of those schools. It’s a it’s we’ll make it 36 hours.
We’ll make it really tough. You won’t sleep. You do a lot of road marching and just a lot of hazing, right? Remember, you’re just getting a hat and spurs.
So I found a video that’s like only a minute and a half long. I think it was in Korea of this cab unit doing their spur ride. If you try to do this by yourself, this was like in 2019.
You should take the the flare off it. That’s what camouflage there, baby. And this is this is in Korea.
Eric, I think they did it with some rock troops. That hurts my knees just watching that going down. See the cherry blossoms? Yeah.
That soundtrack gets me jazzed up. You gotta get out of the plane. Watch this goes.
This has nothing to do with horses. Nothing, nothing at all. It was a lot of ones.
You know, put the gas. Well, I don’t know why I cut off there, but basically he yells, you ain’t calvin. They yell, you ain’t shit.
So I like that though. The cap hats are cool. Yeah, they’re very cool.
So they they completed it and good on them. Yeah, I don’t notice them any ill will. What’s the watch out rate? Not much.
It’s kind of like a you’re going to get it after a couple of years, but we want to make it sort of earn it. I like it. I like it.
Honestly, it’s just a fun good bit. It’s kind of like a fraternity. You’re in the fraternity.
You’re really not intending to kick you out. Yeah, I like. I’m just curious how it’s going to look with that Space Force uniform and they allow them to wear it.
Well, you know, these guys will push, right? They’ll be like, hey, I earned this. Yeah. Hey, like you’ll be the only one at the Space Ball with the fucking cavalry.
You’re like, I will put him with a last belt. Oh, my God. Come on.
That’s can you imagine the belt on that Space Force Bellhop? Oh, yeah. Meanwhile, back at Space Force buttons there, you guys are lacking and not doing their fucking job. Well, that’s that’s where I have a little bit of an issue.
But let me finish this story out. So earning your spurs is a long standing tradition that dates back to the early days of the Army CAV when new soldiers had to prove their skills in swordmanship and horseback riding. Even though the U.S. military is changing, including an addition of the Space Force and its Guardians, those traditions are still upheld through rigorous physical challenges and training.
Participating in and completing the Army CAV spur ride marks the latest frontier. This is where I start to have the issue. Marks the latest frontier that the Space Forces men and women have conquered.
Last month, two Space Force Guardians became the first in the service to graduate from the Army’s Drill Instructor Academy at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. How how were they doing it before? What were they doing before? They were. Space Force has Air Force.
Air Force Drill Instructors. So why did they send these two guys to the Army Drill Instructor? Why couldn’t they go to Air Force Instructor School? Right. Wait, wait.
So alternately, does the Marine do any of this crap? The Marine Corps? They send their guys to friggin Hey, these are the first Marines to graduate from the Army’s drill site and they’re like, What? Why? That is an excellent point, Jake. Excellent point. The only the only time I see in your service with the Marines is like senior in CLA or something like that.
Well, yeah, that’s professional development. Yeah. I went to Artillery School of Fort Sill and both Army and Marines go to the same Artillery School.
Well, and the Marine Corps MPs Oh, they did back in my day. They did that. I don’t know if they have a separate school now, but the MPs went to the SP frickin Tech School.
And that’s probably expedience. I mean, we’re all doing the same tasks, you know, like Marines don’t have any money anyway. So it’s like we can.
But then they go, why do we do? Why do we get these Space Force guys at our drill school? Yeah, that’s the thing. Is there a reason for the Marines to go to those schools? No, because they’re using it in their real world job. Marines are reason for the Space Nerds to go to those schools.
That’s my question. No, I bet. I bet the argument was let’s see how other services do it and see what we can take from them.
That’s that sounds like a Kevin Balcom believes the best in people. That sounds like a Kevin Balcom argument. Yeah, very good one.
You’re doing what your supervisor told you to. But well, before I get to that. Marty’s going to shit on your story.
And last year, Space Force Guardian Captain Dan Reynolds graduated from Ranger School. Now, I all that stuff, badass. You know what I mean? You’re physically gifted to do that.
Operational missions. Never. I get attacked.
Never. I know, but now. Now, in all fairness, it’s establishing heritage.
See, we’re a real see us. We’re a real service branch. We’re real.
That’s all it is. So we got a friggin calve. We got friggin a range.
Problem I have with all this and you guys have all hit on it. Is that there’s this propaganda that’s being like forcefully pushed. Like you’ve got to accept the Space Force.
Look, we’re graduating from Army Drill School. We’re getting we’re getting our spurs. We’re going to Ranger School.
But what? But you know, who’s not, you know, who’s not doing any of that shit? The guy who’s sitting crew. You know, it’s like, look, who went to Ranger School? Captain Dan Reynolds, right? Now he was with. For socks or for space control squadron, I think, or Delta for one of those two.
He’s down in Springs. The other three guys, one from LA acquisitions to other engineers. He’s like, OK.
So it’s it’s like we got to celebrate any Space Force achievement. Which is back to write me an award on these guys. I was like, they didn’t do anything.
I need to give them an award. It’s like, what? Even the first year the Space Force is established, they were celebrating first ever everything. It wasn’t really first ever.
No, it wasn’t first ever because the Army did it first. Then the Air Force did it on all of a sudden. It’s first ever because now we establish a new branch.
No, this is it’s OK. Yes, technically Space Force doing it for the first time. Maybe that’s the way they should write.
Oh, for the first time, the Space Force is doing this. But you know, first ever, you know, Juanito, they need to do one of those Modelo commercials for the space. Oh, these guys don’t quit.
This is the spirit of Modelo, the spirit of the Space Force, right? Which of those guys, which Modelo ran out of topics very fucking fast on those commercials? Well, they had that. They had the astronaut on one of the Modelo. Yeah, they had him.
They had Tony Munoz, the offensive lineman. They had a couple of fighters, one of the female fighters. And now they’re like, oh, that’s it.
That’s it. That’s all we had. I thought we had hundreds of these.
They’re like, no, we had seven. You know, back in my day, we did the guy who airbrushed cars and they’re like, this guy? Yeah, that’s all we got. And the barber.
We did do inner service requests for schools. Right. Yeah, sure.
But that was going to enhance your mission. We were learning from someone who knew it better than us so we could improve our processes. Was that around the time when you were doing that stinger stuff? Yep.
And they were just ground offense. And that makes sense. And that makes sense.
That was a special duty. For MTIs, if you put Army MTIs to go train Space Force guys, oh, man, they would just, why would I want to join the Space Force there? Because they would they would scare them all away. It’s like, no, it’s like, I joined the Space Force.
I didn’t join the Army. But it’s not separated, right? It’s still all Air Force BMT, right? I mean, no, they do have separate flights. So it is separated.
Oh, so if you’re Space, yeah, the only people that were going with the Air Force flights were the reservists and the guardsmen because technically they were Air Force. Okay. So they actually separated those guys.
Like you’re in 1 Charlie 6 and you’re not 5 Sierra. Do they all go to Lackland for basic training though? Is it still one location? Yes. Yeah, okay.
Yeah, okay. Yeah. I’m looking for Space Force to have its own base for basic training now.
Patrick, talk about, yeah, Patrick and Vandenberg there’s like two locations. No, they’re moving the RS. They’re moving 100.
And I’m sorry, they’re moving at least 200 and 300 down there. And their space 200 and 300 level are going down there. And they’re talking about basic training.
So I’m listed now at Vandenberg too. Oh, no kidding. That’d be great.
And our listed training is going to be Vandenberg and our train is going to be IP. So anyway, not to take away from Captain Evans, Lieutenant Savage and Lieutenant Jennings. Good job, guys.
Good job. Yeah, okay. Doing your job when you weren’t doing it.
Okay. We had it. So good.
Oh, I don’t know. I’m not pointing fingers. I’m not saying three other people had to pull off holiday just so you could go dick around a range of school.
I’m not saying that. Now, Captain Evans. Captain Evans did have a quote at the end of that article saying, hey, one of the things about going through a course like this is you find out how far you can push yourself.
And so I can take that back to my job. And when I just don’t, you know, when I think I can’t go anymore, I use this training when I’m on a 12-hour shift. And I’m like, it’s infinity and beyond.
It’s so tough sitting here. That’s what I had to say. Tough, tough day, man.
12-hour shift as an engineer. Could someone give me a cup of coffee for Christ’s eggs? Come on. Change this.
I’m sick of watching this stupid TNT movie. This AC has been set to 72. Right here.
Right here. That’s why I’m wearing a blanket. Right down my neck.
I got to wear a cardigan. I have a work cardigan, guys. It’s a good thing I went to this school so I could suck it up.
Who poured the coffee grounds down the urinal? God damn it. So, Jay, you were part of a deployable mission. So was Marty in space.
So, would you… On the serious talk, the Space Ranger training or any of this type of training when you had forward and deployed, was there any value? Were you ever put in a situation where there is value to this journey? We weren’t forward deployed. Or not forward deployed. No, we weren’t that far deployed, right? No, we were the… I mean, we were in theater.
Just put that way. We were in theater. It was a fucking R&R base for all the other branches.
Yeah, they all come to there. It’s a two-year accompanied tour now. But I got your medal, Jake, for going forward.
You got him into the VFW? No, my Kuwait time got me into the VFW. Oh, that’s right. Oh, okay.
All right. But that would have qualified me for that too. What did I do, really? No, good question.
Did you get some combat pay? I received some tax-free pay. Yeah, that’s true, yeah. Tax-free and… Hazardous duty pay.
I did feel bad about that, but what am I going to do? Give it back? I did not feel bad about that. Muck all those army bastards. I only had two pools.
At my base, it was horrible. I had a three-drink minimum at eight o’clock in the morning. That’s sick.
Three-drink minimum. Tough. Only an indoor and an outdoor pool.
No, that’s why it’s really… And the internet sucked, by the way. Oh, man, that’s horrible. My internet sucks now.
So, no, I was always curious about that. The missions that you guys did. So, it’s like chilling.
No, fair, but we just had to be… We just had to be in a footprint. That was it. If they could have pushed us up to Spain, that would have been great.
You know, we would have stayed up there. But no, that’s a relevant question. But it’s almost like… All right, here.
The first time I deployed with the Marty’s unit, it was so dangerous, we had to share a gun. That’s how. We literally had a nine-millimeter that was the crew’s nine-millimeter.
And I would get in there early, and I would switch it out because we had a fat belt and a skinny belt. I would switch the skinny belt out because it made my legs sweaty to wear the gun. That’s how hard my deployment was.
Yeah, that’s a good point. Oh, my God. That’s killing me.
All right, I won’t go off on my weapons officer rant, but believe you, me, I have a weapons officer rant loaded up, so… All right, let’s blow through these. This is another intraservice story, too. So the annual best warrior competition… Oh, shoot, sorry.
This was from dividshub.net. Have you ever gone there dividshub? That’s like the department of… That’s like the D.O.D.’s media department. Propaganda machine. Yeah, propaganda machine.
Navy beats Army and annual best warrior competition. So I guess they have this at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center. They have a best warrior competition held every year, and it’s different ranks, right? Lower middle, senior, enlisted, and officer.
But this year, hospital corpsman first class Michael O’Connell took first place in the noncommissioned officer category at this year’s U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center. These names are ridiculous. U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and school’s best warrior competition held at Camp McCall, North Carolina, in April.
For Brad. Sorry. You’re such a dinosaur here.
You’re such a dinosaur. So the best part of this whole story, right, is this… Now, remember, he’s a medic. I don’t know how much you guys have run into medics.
Medics… All right, here’s for Jake and one. Medics are like ISAs. They’re super smart, and they’re super funny, and they’re just one step away from being crazy.
That’s how medics are. This hospital corpsman falls into that category, thus the mustache. Look at that mustache.
It’s so good. And the guy’s such a badass, and he’s like, check me out, man. Dude, the picture doesn’t even look real.
Almost, yeah. It almost looks like… I were ovulating right now. I might get pregnant from that picture.
That’s Stash right there. He’s got his sleeves rolled up, man. He’s just… Well, and a lot of they do that through the course, right? They’re allowed to do that.
Mustache must have it’s own call signs. Yeah, right. That mustache will make magnum.
In advance, respect. So O’Connell, who’s a special operations independent duty corpsman and instructor with the Navy Special Operations Medical Institute at the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center, said he was honored to be competing and showing his fellow Army service members that a guy from the Navy can hang with them. I was trained in Marine Corps reconnaissance and Marine Special Operations Command skill sets.
So the tasks required of me during this competition were of a familiar and basic nature, O’Connell said. The competition is an Army event designed to test competitors tactical and technical skills and marksmanship, combat casualty care, and land navigation, as well as challenge their physical fitness and endurance. So this guy, hospital corpsman, first class, they train medics to go out with all the special arms, including Marsoc, including their berets, everywhere.
So he’s in that John F. Kennedy Center. So he’s he’s fit. He knows what he’s doing.
Part of the competition was combat casualty, which I’m sure he did much better than anybody else. So, dude, the mustache looks like a centipede stuck to his mouth. I got mustache envy right now.
He’s not only a medic, which a combat medic, which is impressive, right? But he’s in combat medic that goes out with Marsoc. Right. Right.
The Marines, the Marines Special Forces. So yeah, that’s Marines Special Forces. They don’t ever have their own medical people.
So he may have chuckled at the Army’s course. Hi, baby. I mean, I mean, there is a what is it? There’s a there’s a medical badge.
Oh, I think it’s expert medical badge, like an EMB or something like that. That the medics can go through. And it’s it’s pretty rigorous course to earn that badge.
So I just can’t remember when you get tattooed. Maybe the guy with a mustache like that doesn’t need a tattoo at all. I want to see a tattoo of that helmet.
Just the helmet and the stash. And his stash. That’s right.
That would be an awesome sticker. Yeah, just an outline. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. At the awards ceremony following the competition, Command Sergeant Major Strong.
This is at U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center Senior Enlisted Leader awarded O’Connell with an Army Commendation Medal for his first place win. So you got to come out of that. But yeah, that that picture is awesome.
I mean, it like it said, it almost looks like an actor. Playing a smart ass military. Yeah.
But the one thing is, though, it’s it’s not the Navy. It’s not it’s the Army’s combat support. So I don’t know that any other branch should be competing in that.
Well, that that’s a good point. Yeah, that’s a good point. I don’t know how he got involved.
Maybe they did it as a joke or something. I don’t know. Maybe maybe he’s the only one who wanted to do it.
Yeah. Maybe they come and ask every year and they’re like, fuck, I don’t want to do this shit. This guy’s like, I’ll do it.
And he smoked all right. Maybe that maybe that’s it. OK, let’s get to our last story, which seems like you guys have been in the drones.
Played with the golf course. Yeah, I bought a drone and I was like, oh, this is kind of fun. But I seen some of the videos of the first person drones.
Have you seen those? Those are the fifteen hundred dollar and up ones, right? Because they wear the glasses and they can see what the drone sees. So they go they go apeshit with it. Red Bull’s got their own drone team.
Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Follow like all the freaking mountain bikers and the race cars.
Very, very cool. Yeah, it’s very technical. And those pilots are great, man.
This is from Task and Purpose. The army now has a small drone obstacle course, which sounds kind of frivolous until you hear the rest of the art. So it’s all spare with soldiers at Fort Moore are competing in the army’s first small drone competition with a wild obstacle course modeled off tactics and terrain of the war in Ukraine and threat and threats.
American troops now may face in the Middle East. A new video posted to X by the army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence or MCOE at Fort Moore is shot from the drone’s perspective. First person view or a drone person.
As it flies through an obstacle course, which is built as part of the army’s inaugural competition for drone flying skills and tactics dubbed the Beehive Classic. So this video is great. This sounds like genuinely fun.
Yeah. But they use the Beehive music. I hate the music.
But here we go. This was on X. Now that’s cool as shit. And it seems frivolous.
That’s what I thought. I was like, oh, okay. You guys are a couple lucky soldiers who get to go do this.
No, but there’s a tactical and realistic way that they’re these skills will apply. Underneath, over, above. That’s wild.
And these things aren’t bigger, I think, than like eight inches, maybe across diameter. So I wish they hadn’t have stuck that music because that’s that’s annoying. That’s I think that’s pretty cool.
And yeah, it’s really get a drone and get eyes behind enemy troops. Well, that’s this is what you may or may not have to do some crazy stuff. You’re right.
And move quickly. So the the tournament is called the Beehive Classic. It’ll pit nine two soldiers teams in real world scenarios using tactical drones like drone operations, attaching a payload harness, flying reconnaissance, flying reconnaissance tactics, identifying the threats and reporting them up to leadership.
Two soldier teams from each brigade will have two Skydio drones. I think that’s how you pronounce it. S-K-Y-D-I-O drones to use for the competition.
Skydio’s drone is a ruggedized portable quadcopter based on an open and modular architecture. A scalable model and open architecture approach allows for continuous technology refreshes for requirements that include integration of a gimbaled thermal camera, secure data link and government controller. The drone comes with a FLIR thermal sensor, strobe lighting night flight capabilities and has an endurance of 35 minutes.
So you got forward looking infrared. You got a thermal on there. You got secure comms all in this thing, you know, about this big.
Okay, here’s how the here’s how the tournament goes. On day one, soldiers will complete a physical event with pushups and a sprint drag carry to simulate combat conditions and increase heart rates prior to using the equipment. Then they’ll fly their drones through the obstacle course and maneuver into a building through open windows and doors to identify threats and gather intelligence.
So these little things are like zipping in hovering and then like zipping out. And they got they got Intel on you. All right.
That’s awesome. But on the other hand, I know of some technology that is now in existence. That is using I can’t go too far.
Locating satellites, locating drivers of said drones and killing. So it’s like space like some crops. Counter drone counter drone activities.
They’re getting all right. You can find them and kill them. And yeah, so oh, shit.
Put my helmet on. It’s all fun and games until the bad guys get our toys. That’s right.
Well, yeah, artillery was great until they came out with counter battery radar. And they’re like, Oh, you know, exactly what we’re shooting for the ship. That sucks.
That’s got to be mobile mobile. So that day about Stinger launch and run. Right.
Yeah, there’s there’s nothing tethering you. No, there’s nothing. So that day one pairs it down on day two.
The top five teams will run through the airborne and ranger training brigades obstacle course. The same course used in the annual best ranger competition. And then soldiers will configure their drones to conduct short range reconnaissance, attach payloads and attach payloads to the drones and drop them into a vehicle hatch.
Yeah, cool. Wait a minute. I love how that is.
Attached payloads. Yeah. Payload.
You know, like like an MRE or something on it. Yeah, an MRE. That’s right, Marty.
That’s what it is. A little post-it note. A hand grenade.
That’s exactly it. I mean, yeah, well, it’s a fucking C4. All right.
I mean, these guys are out there like, fuck, it’s out of here. Hey, pop a hatch, man. You’re like, what is that buzzing noise? Goodbye.
That’s crazy to think that we’ll get there. That’s crazy. That’s pretty cool, though.
During the competition, soldiers will face various obstacles like a sniper on a tower, a downed helicopter in a scenario where they will drop a munition onto a vehicle. They’ll also have a scenario in a small village where the teams will use the drones to identify threats in a room, like enemy personnel with weapons, booby trap doors, trap trip wires with grenades, unexploded ordinances, or find intel sources such as maps and documents. Hmm.
How long does that thing have to loiter to get a good picture? Is it like, zzzzzz? Well, that’s it. That’s enough. Think about the cameras in our vehicles now that are so crystal clear.
Yeah. So I can only imagine that that thing’s got to be immediate. You can take it.
I mean, imagine it’s night and these terrorists are sacked out. This guy comes in with fucking thermals and infrared. They’re like, oh, there’s five guys over here.
There’s two guys over here. One guy jacking off over in the corner. I’m out of here.
I am. That’s exactly it. Excuse me.
And they can see it all. And they’re like, what is that buzzing noise? Shut that off. Major Douglas A. Dietrich, Deputy G3 for MCOE and Project Manager for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems said, quote, they’ll identify those before a clearing team will go into those rooms.
So they’ll send the drone in before you send breaches in, right? They’ll help the leadership determine the best way to enter the buildings and how to avoid the threats and eliminate the threats. That’s pretty. And that’s all that competition is designed for what they plan to do out in the battlefield.
Sure. That’s amazing. Pretty cool.
Yeah, that’s pretty cool. I like it. Saving the life of the soldiers.
Good shit, man. Yeah, with a kid’s toy. You know, I mean, I mean, but but all you got to do is what we talk about the other week, right? The one way drone.
I mean, why go in and get intel? They’re just like, you know, there you go. Here’s a hundred pound bomb on this thing. He has to go in now.
All right, Eric. What do you got for history today? It’s a good one. Hello.
Eric does is like he’s talking himself up. Ladies and gentlemen, we have an amazing history event tonight. Welcome to history class, boys.
So charts. So as you all know, we had such great relations in the 1960s with Russia. Right.
No Cold War. It was just true friends. So we were never collecting intelligence on them.
That’s sarcasm, folks. That’s sarcasm. Yes, I’m sorry.
In the USSR captured American YouTube pilot Francis Gary Powers. Oh, wow. In years imprisonment for his.
Oh, this was a sensing today. espionage. No, not not complete.
I’m just giving you some some pre-going here on May 1st. I’m jumping your horses. May 1st.
He got me all psyched up. May 1st 1960 powers took off from Pakistan at the controls of an ultra sophisticated Lockheed U2 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft. A CIA employed pilot, no less.
He was to fly over some 2,000 miles of Soviet territory to a military airfield in Norway, collecting intelligence information in routes. Roughly halfway through his journey, he was shot down by the Soviets over Srdofilas. I can’t pronounce this S-V-E-R-D-L-O-S-B-K in the year old mouth.
Now listen to this. I didn’t know this part. Forced to bail out at 15,000 feet.
Right? He survived the parachute jump, but was promptly arrested by Soviet authorities. On May 5th, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that the American spy aircraft had been shot down and two days later revealed that powers was alive and well and had confessed to being on an intelligence mission for the CIA. So on today, May 7th 1960, the United States acknowledged that the U2 had probably flown over Soviet territory, but denied it had been authorized as a mission.
On 16 May, leaders of the United States, the USSR, Britain, and France met in Paris, bite me Jake, met me in Paris for a long awaited summit meeting. The four powers were to discuss tensions in the two Germany’s and negotiate new disarmament treaties. However, at the first session, the summit collapsed as President Eisenhower refused to apologize to Khrushchev for the U2 incident.
Khrushchev then also canceled an invitation for Eisenhower to visit the USSR. May 7th, 1966, boys. That was awesome.
I was laughing about that denied that they were affiliated with it. Right. You know, they actually brought- It’s a U.S. contractor.
Maybe, okay, maybe he was going rogue. He was going crazy. It’s almost like they were going to cut him loose, right? They were like, that wasn’t- But in a fucking U2.
Well, you know what they did? They actually brought out another U2 and put all kinds of NASA stickers on it and said that it was gathering intelligence on other things. And here’s the stickers on this U2 to show that it wasn’t CIA operated. So, and by the way, he pled guilty to espionage charges in Moscow and went sinners to 10 years in prison.
He was getting purple nurpled for 48 hours straight. I would say two. Of course.
I would have given him anything to do. Yeah, you have it, dude. Yeah, CIA’s going to leave me here.
The odd thing I remember about that story is that one of the reasons that he did it, because we didn’t think the Soviets could shoot down that high. How high was he? Yeah, exactly. I can’t remember.
What’d you say the altitude was? Oh, because he was- Well, he survived a parachute jump of 15,000. Right, but he was flying so high that they didn’t think the Soviets could shoot him down. And all I remember is, I don’t remember the name of the munition or whatever, but they were like, it’s the size of a telephone pole.
Do you remember that description of the SAM that they used to shoot down? I was like, telephone pole. That’s all I got. The U2 is right there on the edge of the atmosphere, right? The U2 flies.
It’s pretty high. They have to wear those special helmets and everything. So, when’s our detected or satellite detected? I don’t know.
Well, they could detect him, but they didn’t think they could shoot him down. But the Soviets were like, hey, check this SS out. And they were like, we got them.
So, it was a bad intelligence failure, actually, by us. And power suffered for it, that’s for sure. Nice.
Very good. You continue to impress me with surprises. You really do.
Are we going to end up, fellas? Are we going to end up? I mean, Jacob, I don’t want to push his time here. Obviously, T about failed on us. He was like, I can’t be on for an hour and a half.
I got people coming over and I got to take a shift. So, it doesn’t cover about six of his last time. That’s about it.
You know, I’m sitting here in my closet, just a final note, right? Well, this was a souvenir. I don’t know if it’s appropriate right now. That looks like it’s from Delha.
You’re protesting. No, protesting. Oh, you’re seriously protesting.
It’s a good thing you can’t read anything on those things. Oh, yeah. I got the green one.
How many did you get? These are souvenirs. I just got that as, but the green one was issued. I was like, oh, okay.
Oh, the green. Yeah, that’s exactly it. That one’s okay though, right? The green one is okay.
Yeah, sure. I don’t know. It’s just about the white and red.
Well, it depends on who you’re fitting in with. Some Israeli Jewish guys outside low crawling right now. Cold mornings on the motorcycle.
That’s what I’m doing, honestly. That shit is invaluable. Yeah.
Yeah, these scarves are amazing. Maybe if we did that type of podcast, it is unreal going on in the country. Next day, I’m rapping.
Actually, I’ll be down to your house and I’ll get one of these so I can blend in. You want red? Have you done the hodge yet? That’s red. No hodge? That’s white.
Oh my goodness. Who’s the leader growing up who always seemed to wear the tablecloth? What was that guy’s name? Oh, he was a Palestinian. Was that an air fan? Yes.
Was it an air fan? A little short guy. Yeah, like an AFI. That’s an Italian pizza place tablecloth.
Is it a movie? Yes, sir. Is it a Yasser air fan? Was it? Well, I don’t know. That’s what I mean.
I thought it was Qaddafi. Qaddafi was dark black hair. What? No, no, no.
I’m talking about the the the the headdress. I knew it was. It’s Yasser air fat guys.
I got his picture right here. Nice. He died in 2004 at 75 by the way.
Look at you. You’re just spitting facts. Today is his fire history.
No, he’s just spitting facts, man. I have to keep my term history guy. History guy.
I know. Like, look, he can’t answer like a bear scrub of the last day. I feel like history.
You’re like, what altitude do they ask him that? Yasser air fat’s birthday. 14 weeks from now, he would have been 86 died in 2004, though. Yep.
And he was a Pisces. 75. He woke up in 95.
Tearing with his headdress on. Oh, my God. What up? This is the YouTube.
Party. Come on, now. I love this group.
On behalf of all of us here, I’d like to thank you for listening today. Please like, share, subscribe, and let us know how we get in the comments. Please be gentle with the comments.
I got some comments. Don’t be gentle. Make sure next week that you are not late for changeover.
Man, thanks for the week. And I’ll see you next week. Ruddle, ruddle.