Episode Title: The Late For Changeover Show 17 Apr 2024
Date: Apr 17, 2024
Get out of the air raid shelter and run, cause you are late for changeover, your weekly space news and variety show. I am joined, I am Marty Smith, your host. I’m joined by our man in the closet, Jake Wall.
It’s good to see you. My favorite teapot, Kevin Balcom. Missed y’all last week and Mr. History, Eric Perot.
The animals are in tonight. Take your seats, get informed and have a laugh as we present late for changeover. What did you have something scripted? Well, not really.
I was thinking about it all week where you’re like, hey, you’re off your game. And I was like, what can I say? What can I say? So I have to say it the next week. How are you guys doing? We’re good.
Teapot, welcome back. We put you on assignment last week. So, uh, we missed big blue 51 hours.
You guys have sent me any updates from your trips. You know that I actually sent you pictures from the red, a lot of good pictures, Jake, you had a lot of good pictures. I come and already said, I said, send a video.
I said, send a video. That’s what I wanted. And then I told Eric, I said, dial in, send a video, something like that we can play.
No, I’m not that’s Tuesday. I’m there. And so the only one I’m happy with tonight is teapot because I never know when he’s going to be here.
So when he is, it’s a gift. We need to give him the participation medal. Yeah.
Where is that? I want to know. This one’s for you or this one, whatever that one is. We haven’t awarded a good conduct medal in a long time.
That should tell you about our team. It should tell you about our St. GS leader. We might support more if he put out more.
I feel like a revolutionary Colonel is just like, we’re going to pay you eventually, right? When we get a country of our own, we’ll pay you. I had a couple of interviews last week that I put out. First was army starting first class retired.
Keith Francis, who was in, who was an air defender. Uh, I went down to Jake’s VFW post one on one down in Colorado Springs. And, uh, we talked and I, I cut almost as much, uh, length out of that interview as the interview ended up being, because we just sat and bullshitted for a long time.
That was the problem, right? Cause the bartender left and said, Jake, you got keys. And I was like, heck yeah, the bars, that’s what it was towards the end of that interview. There were some parts that I cut out.
I actually, I literally slurred my question to Keith and I was like, holy shit, when you listen to it sober, you’re like, Oh my God. And then Keith and I both are like, you just, you literally just asked that Mark, good, man. I asked him about his retirement ceremony.
He told me how he didn’t go to his retirement ceremony. We talked, I talked and drank and drank. And then I was like, all right.
All right. Tell me about your retirement ceremony. Tell me about, what was your favorite NCO? I’m like, what are you doing? That was a good time, man.
That was fun. Uh, good questions in that interview. The other one was army sergeant first-class retired Kendra Harrelson, who was a, she was a medic.
Um, and she is currently Mrs. Texas 2024. So she goes up against, or she competes for Mrs. USA in August now, what they do, this is a little bit different than like the miss America. So they, they get to choose a nonprofit.
So I told her I would advertise her nonprofit, which is, uh, love without boundaries. So if you go to love without boundaries.com and they do, uh, healing education and refuge to vulnerable children worldwide. So, uh, healthcare for like cleft pallets for abandoned children, just all that kind of stuff.
If you give to that, I think in this window from now until August, the more they tally up the donations for all these nonprofits and who sponsors them. And then they push them up. They, she can make like instant top 10 if she makes enough in donations.
So, and I’ll put that in the show notes, love without boundaries.com. So that she was a, she was a trip and she was from, uh, she was Tacoma, Washington, I think she grew up. So, uh, and she came, she went JLTC and she joined the Washington national guard her junior year. So then she signed a contract, uh, parents had to sign off.
She joined the 17. She went to basic training between her junior and senior year in high school. No, right.
Like that was nowhere near my mind to do that. So, uh, I got to listen to it. And then she was a guardsman that for her whole senior year.
So she would go and drill on the weekend one week in a month. Yeah. I was like, Holy, she transitioned.
I listened to the first part of it. She transitioned active duty though. Uh, yeah, her first, that first, uh, enlistment contract, she led laps and then she enlisted in the active duty and she went to V spot and, uh, you know, on and on from there.
So she went to, she was a medic, got assigned to the engineers, right? They deployed to Iraq to Tajie and then like a couple months into that, they’re like, okay, you’re going to Afghanistan. So they shipped them from Tajie to Afghanistan. Some garden spots.
So she got both, both, uh, war zones in one deployment. I think they may have been the only unit that did that or one of the few units. That’s impressive.
Yeah, it’s pretty cool. So go out to love without boundaries.com and help senior first or starting first class Kendra Harrelson. Uh, so good luck to you.
And so she’s gonna, I’m going to call her back up and maybe she’ll show up on the show and give us a little update how it’s going. That’d be cool. Uh, okay.
Ready for the news? Bring on the news. All right. This first one, I got a video for this first one and I don’t, I don’t really have, well, I could rip it apart, but it’s a, it’s a really cool video.
So, um, last week we talked about space and cars. You missed that one. Teapot.
We were talking about cars. Did you see some of the comment? Uh, this guy made a comment on the YouTube thing. Did you see that comment? He’s like, Oh, we’re going to go up there to the, we’re going to go up to the moon, just like we did in the, you know, in front of the green screen during the Apollo days.
And I was like, Oh God, right. And I told him Capricorn one, man, that’s what movie. I remember about the fake moon land.
It could be a conspiracy. That’s what he was saying. I was like, Oh good.
Thanks for watching. I appreciate it. Um, at least we’re attracting a crowd.
Oh yeah, that’s right. Teapot. Do you see any of the clips that I put on like Instagram or? I’m not on Instagram much, man.
How about YouTube? Do you see any of those YouTube ones? Do you do anything useful, Teapot? Teapot’s so nice because he’s like, if you had asked that question to me and I had that answer, I would have been like, fuck no, get out of here. There’s only one person in this party. I’m not really on video that has young kids and I’m with them till after eight.
And then what you’re on Pornhub. What you can’t jump over to the later changeover show and watch a little bit of that in the morning. You got to get that done before work.
Right? So full support. I think he’s been on my only fans. He’s been on my own.
Oh yeah. Maybe, maybe we should, maybe we should post a video out on your only fans there. It’s an addiction.
I’ll probably know the 100% for that. So whatever. Well, that’s what it would you develop the carpal tunnel? Then they’ll, they’ll give you another 25.
Yeah. So like, why is this? Who was in the boxing club? Honestly, what were you doing? And you’re like, boxing, amateur boxing. I promise.
It’s crooked. Why do you write like a lefty with your right hand? Yeah, no, why? But, but wait, you did, I mean, you’re almost like your own skill bridge because you can type like a motherfucker with one hand. All right.
I mean, jeez. Oh yeah. Let it go.
All right. This week, we’re going to talk about space and inflatable. All right.
How appropriate. Solid spec went in. It was dissolving, it was dissolving so quickly.
So this company has designed something to be really compact. And then when they want, they pump it up to be even bigger. So, oh yeah, it’s inflatables.
All right. This is from space news.com. Max space, the company announces plans for an inflatable space station modules. So a startup has unveiled plans to develop inflatable modules that the company believes can be made larger and less expensive than alternatives supporting commercial space stations and other applications.
Max space is developing a series of expandable modules, the first of which is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX right share mission in 2025. The max space 20 module compacted into a volume of two cubic meters for launch will expand to 20 cubic meters after deployment, making it the largest expandable module flown to date. The company has built a version of the max space 20 module for testing recently, exhibiting it at the invitation only Mars conference hosted by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The company is now working on a flight version with enhancements like debris shielding. First of all, Jeff, we didn’t get our invitation and we would like to fix next time. I’ve heard of the company.
They’re in Colorado Springs. Are you Max space? No, no, I don’t think so. Why maybe I didn’t run across that though.
But this this video is really pretty cool. So it’s very slickly produced. Because I didn’t know really shit about this until I watched this video.
The International Space Station took 60 launches in $100 billion to make unless we make usable space in space a lot less expensive and much much larger humanity’s future in space will remain limited. My first company made in space pioneered the first in space manufacturing, but I quickly realized if we were ever going to bring real commercialization to space, we needed a lot more volume. Spandables are the only comprehensive this next guy’s name is Max and no one in the world knows basic spandables better than maximum.
I built the first two inflatable deployable spacecraft Genesis one and two and they’re still circling the globe to this day as space junk success. We need it still in much bigger size. We developed a proprietary expandable architecture decomposes the pressure shell into discrete uncoupled structural elements.
It means that we can double triple quadruple the size of our architecture with full predictability. Our expandables at Mac space are safer and stronger than standard metallic architecture. We’ve tested our modules to the limit.
We exploded them launched projectiles at them five tested vacuum tests to expose them to space’s harshest conditions. Our Mac space models are bigger, easier to manufacture and more scalable than other systems. We just finished our full fidelity ground unit and are now building our flight unit, which will be the largest expandable habitat to ever go to space.
The cost of launching the space is dropping dramatically, but without access to more volume, the potential of space remains out of our grasp. Our mission is to unlock a new frontier for humanity. This will enable new drugs to be created in space revolutionary space bar.
It’s Marsha. I don’t know what the entertainment is. You know what the entertainment is.
From one goal more volume less cost we get orders of magnitude more volume per rocket. That means one ISS at less than one percent of the cost. Max space was created to maximize space in space in a way that’s never been possible before.
For all your orders of magnitude inflatable needs, please go to Mr. History’s OnlyFans page. If you want to see Mac space, I have a link. So I thought that was a pretty good video.
I mean, yeah, a really cool niche market that they’re going through the ballistic component, like right off the bat, my brain was like, oh, it’s going to get hit with some shit. But imagine if it was a like his and his component is inflatable and flexible versus frickin right solid piece, right, right, right. That that might solve some issues with space junk.
And how long does it? Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. Yeah, yeah.
All right. What did what did Maximus say? What was his? Maxim. What is Maximus? What was his satellite? Genesis one and two.
So yeah, but yeah, I mean, that’s I mean, if somebody can solve that and the and the company’s article said, you know, we’re not we’re just bringing this product to whoever wants to buy it. I was like, oh, that’s smart. We’re not making it strictly for NASA.
We’re making it for whoever wants to build something. It’s pretty creative, man. I that’s yeah, I got to give them that.
And an article went into a lot of the issues that they had with the expanding material on how there is a big problem is that when it expands, they they’re stressors, but they can’t predict where those stressors are going to be with that expanding material and they’re perfecting that and that’s one of the problems that they’re solving with some of their technology. So I thought it was pretty cool. So once it inflates, then you move all the stuff into it.
Like, yeah, how does like a keyboard or electronic piece of equipment? I think it’s just like a pop-up trailer, man, plug it in like you park it and pop it up and you’re like, okay, but whatever you want in that damn thing, I I don’t know how you clean. I wonder if it’s all underneath, right? There’s like a module underneath it expands and then you open a door and then yeah, but I mean if you had, you know, two cubic feet and you had 10 of those damn things and they go to 20 cubic feet, you know, all of a sudden you got 200 to whatever the math is, right? And you pop all those together and you’re like, look at this. That’s saying mountain all over again.
Hey, you know, maybe we could buy those and solve the housing crisis out at Edwards. So people have to live in RV solid inflatable module. Well inflate it when you arrive.
He says like my inflatable, maybe he’s saying like durability and they’re running into a like ability to survive the Genesis one and two were launched at oh six and oh seven. Okay, that’s not that long ago. It’s not that long ago.
Yeah, it almost I almost said I thought they were up there since like the 60s or 70s, right? Yeah. But what are they doing? Are they just floating around like a face? Do they just space junk? I mean the earliest thing that we still have up there is 1958 Vanguard. I’m telling you we need to check that.
The actual it’s right here on the Celeste track. We need to check that periodically through throughout the year and say okay, is it still it’s gone? Too bad we couldn’t predict the D orbit. That would be some money on that one.
Yeah, I mean it would be interesting for him to say my stuff is still there. What’s it fucking doing? Well, yeah, but is it is it full of holes or what you know, is it a Russian toilet run into it and it’s like oh, it’s still up there, but it’s it is exciting bullshit. It is pretty I do kind of like it.
Yeah, it’s the idea. I give those guys credit for thinking of something outside the box because they perfect it man. That’s they’re done.
They’re they’re set right? Yeah, and they’re the first ones to do a Successfully, so but it launches only 2025. So it would look really cool if the space station was just like a bundle of grapes. Basically, yeah, right, right, right.
Yeah, and it’s just all it’s all modular. You just oh, we need some more room. Let’s attach some more of these modules, you know, send some more and it and if they could get like the exterior to be solar panels.
Well, the end of that was I had a tagline that said imagine launching being able to launch a stadium a stadium size object in one launch something like this. I can’t remember. Yeah, so if they can if they can put enough of those on there, yeah, all you got to do is assemble what should inflated with it’s like estrogen nitrogen.
I meant to say nitrogen. You know where my mind’s at now, but nitrogen the green cap. So as soon as you enter that module, like who I feel really feminine.
Let me turn the heat on in here. What’s going on? Nitrogen is what I meant to say. That’s all right.
I’m telling you right now. Would you lower your tone in here? Please getting a little aggressive with me. That would be a great bit of comedy writers.
We could write a great bit to that. No, I think it’s it’s like spines or tines or you know, like like mechanical pieces that come together. I’ll stand out some way like that, but I don’t know could be estrogen.
You never know. Teapot is not amused. Why did I come here? She is listening right now and I am in trouble.
You sons of bitches. I need the Staff Sergeant Teapot that I met way back when in 2002 because I just finished the edit of Juan Lopez’s interview. I didn’t even know you did it where he told me a story where you guys were TDY and you wish they all died in Arizona or something like that.
I can’t I can’t get it. I was drunk singing tool lyrics. Okay, like that’s it.
He couldn’t remember that. He couldn’t remember. It happens.
We made one drive. Happens in the best of it. All right.
Oh my god. That’s one story down. Hey, did you ever track or just idea mentally track who had the most experienced drunk driving? So they had to drive in it in an emergency case.
Oh, I yeah, I put up there every every every day. Oh, there was multiple times. Yeah, the drunken he got the more sober.
He seemed it was crazy. Yeah, it was amazing. Yeah, there was multiple times as a weapons loader.
It was like you were all smashed. Yeah, you got the most drunk driving hours. You got to get us on base.
You got to get us home, but way back then it was well back then for maybe Eric and I it was just like just get us to the front gate. We’ll walk from there. Yeah, it wasn’t good.
I’m not condoning it at all. It was ridiculous. When that was back then when you could kind of just kind of tip your hat to the you know, MPs and security forces like I know you did go to your door.
They’d be like I made my shift go by quick. Yes, you boys been drinking a little alcohol now. It’s that booze hag right there.
It’s not me. That’s the sober one. 10 or 2 baby.
I was legitimately sober one time and I got pulled over. The cop followed us from the bar and I got pulled over. Oh man, that sucks.
I pulled over because my backseat guy was like you got to pull you got to get out getting it over. I’m like we’re going to get pulled over if we actually do this. He’s like I don’t care.
I don’t care. I’m like, okay, fine. Boom.
As soon as that happened, the lights go on. Yep. Perfect timing is the cop walks up and he goes, why’d you pull over? I go from the DD tonight.
These guys have been drinking and I he said I had to pull over. He goes. Have you been drinking and right at that time Jim in the backseat was like like out the window.
I was like, yeah, yeah, and my freaking passenger was was Bill and he’s like, hey man, you pulled me over last week. You remember I drive the gold Camaro. I didn’t drive tonight and I’m like shut the fuck up Bill.
I didn’t drive tonight. Watch out for my Camaro. It’s at the refinery.
It was like that cop is just like what the fuck? I was like, you see that’s why I’m driving off. One of these times we should do a we should do a story about all the clever techniques and everybody had to you know, get out of the guys, you know, cinnamon oil, you know, I remember all those fucking things pennies. I can’t smell that stuff.
Don’t worry about it. Yeah, pennies. Yeah, that was a good one.
Yeah, it’s seeds. Just put some seeds in there. All right.
Let’s let’s go revisit a story. We did almost a year ago. Can you believe that long ago that we did this story? So this is from the Associated Press the return of horse drawn caissons to Arlington National Cemetery is delayed.
I didn’t realize it was that difficult. It is apparently right? So this is a lot of words, but it’s basically going to rehash what we covered a year ago return of horse drawn caissons at Arlington National Cemetery is being delayed for months and maybe longer. The Army said Friday as it struggles struggles to approve the care of the horses after two died in 2022 as a result of poor feed and living conditions.
So obviously nobody’s paying attention to this problem. Nearly a year. What can you hear that? Are you diddling? No, that’s my dog who I’ve locked out of the basement.
So she won’t come down here. Nearly a year after the Army suspended the use of the Grand Black Horses for funerals official said they are making progress buying new horses. Getting better equipment and proving the training facilities and turn out areas, but Major General Trevor bread and camp commander of the Military District of Washington said it’s been far more time consuming and difficult than initially expected to get the program going again and it will take an extended period of time to get enough horses to meet the funeral needs.
So Teapot this story we did was about all these horses dying and we’re getting really sick who are pulling the the caissons at Arlington and then they figured out. Oh, yeah. This pasture that you got is good for about two horses and you got 50 of them and a couple horses died because they were they had they grazed everything.
They were they were grazing gravel eating everything then they died from colon impaction. So two of the old garbage and horses here. It is Mickey and Tony had to be euthanized within days of each other in February 2022 both died from colon impaction.
The Army found that the horses had very little grass in their turn out fields and they consumed sand and gravel from the ground while eating the low-quality hay. They were fed the fields were littered with construction debris and manure and were only lower large enough to support to support six or seven horses nowhere near the 64 that were using the fields when Mickey and Tony died. What happened to the old guard? The diet off man at the time official said the conditions were for mismanagement lack of resources and a poor understanding of the horses needs.
They also said soldiers need a better training on how to care for them. So that’s the kind of you know for all this. Yeah, that’s the kind of position needs to have GS’s.
Yeah, yeah, right like give me a GS something and you’re the stable manager. That’s it and right and then he’s key can have a couple of low-lying Army guys. Now in the Philippines.
We had a stable and we had a horse right? You said that yeah, and those guys did a great job of taking care of but I don’t believe grass was ever an issue because you know, the Philippines is just full. Well here here’s how I can I can picture this happening trying to get into like a soldiers mine. I can or the basically the commands mine.
Let’s say it that way. So they have a certain amount of horses, right? And they’re like wow, we’re getting a lot of funerals. We need more horses.
And so they’re like well, let’s get a couple more here. Let’s get a couple more there and they’re like, okay, we’re meeting the funeral schedule. Which is given more hay and that we’re good and then all of a sudden six months go by and you got 64 horses in a field that only needs that only can only support 10 right and but they’re like, oh we got to get another horse here.
You know, I mean they’re saying they got 27 to 30 funerals a day at Arlington with with six to eight of those a day to qualify for the escort. So let’s say let’s say it’s let’s say it’s eight eight a day. You need the horses walking out there.
It’s not a stressful walk, right? But I guess if you walk one, you’re like, oh, we don’t want to walk them on the next one. So we need another one for the next one. So we need eight horses at least.
Well, let’s get 16 then we won’t stress them out and then boom, boom, boom, and they’re like, oh, why are these two dying? I don’t understand. Boom, boom, boom, boom, impacted colon. Yeah, yeah, boom.
And so this general came out and said they need six squads of horses to to handle the funerals and currently they have 42 horses that are being cared for by a professional facility in Virginia. It’s like, why don’t you just pay them money and let them do it, right? So, but they said they don’t know when it’s going to come back, but it’s not coming back anytime soon. So anyway, that’s enough.
They’re like, hmm, I’m not going to be ready for a while. And how hard to pay tables with horses? I mean, what changes? Every day, every, there’s not like you can’t find a resource to go figure out how to take care of a horse and how to feed it or, you know. What are those update meetings like? You know, the guy who’s out there trying to get it back is like, okay, how high is the grass today? Are you guys going to build like two more acres and like, oh, no, okay.
Well then, uh, same as last week, no progress. I mean, uh, what are they waiting on? Because that’s an honor for our dead that should be in place. Sure.
Because of mismanagement. That’s a damn shame. I mean, there’s, it’s not like they, oh, we mismanaged this in the eighties and we mismanaged this in the fifties.
It’s like, no, first time you guys have had horses dying on you. What has happened over the last 200 years? It’s a damn shame. I know it’s too bad.
You know, who doesn’t suffer from mismanagement through impacted colon? Mr. History. I’m good. I got plenty of fiber.
If he did have an impact at colon, that might be a special for that month. That’d be heavy. That colon is spic and span.
Ask me if I’m 285 with an impact at colon. You may be. Yeah, but that’s an angry 285.
But you have no endurance because you’re impacted. So it’s like, okay, I’ll run around the block. I can’t keep up.
Thank God. Okay, let’s talk about some more bad news with money. Oh, look at this.
So, you know, I don’t know what’s happened over the last couple months, but we had the story on the VA not accounting for all the things that they’re not accounting for. And we didn’t do the story on the ADHD drugs. But this is a another one.
So they must have had some big audit. Right? And all these reports are slowly coming out. And this is one of them.
This is from stripes dot com. Costa sustaining Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jet now forecast to exceed 1.5. Trillion dollars, man. It’s good God.
Yet, they have the A-10 that you could keep running with effing duct tape and baling wire and they’re like, nope, let’s get rid of it. It’s like, well, it’s pretty easy to maintain. They’re like, no, we got to put all our money into the sector.
This you’re looking at the nation’s deficit right there with one of us. Does this hasten the need for drone drone technology? It’s probably going to push it there, right? That’s right. At some point you got to like fit drones could do the work of a F-35 and cost.
Look at look at that one story about the Air Force being to rewrite software out in the field and make drones do what they want out in the field. And including not kamikaze drones, but like what they I think they call them one way drones. So I know there was a term that was like, oh, this is a one-way drone.
It was like, that’s legit. Sorry, man. That’s who knows whoever.
That’s the best description. Okay, this is a drone that’s not coming back because it’s attached to a bomb. So, you know, as drones get bigger and they can drop the same bomb that Locky can, I mean, not Locky, but the F-35 can.
Hard to justify one and a half trillion dollars over the next 10 years. So the F-35 is legit though. That’s man.
That is a, you know, one of the cool things I saw and that is ridiculous. I looked at a video one time on YouTube and they’re like, oh, you want F-35 videos all the time, right? And I saw one that and I don’t know if it’s true or not. I assume it’s true, but one of their countermeasures.
Have you seen this one of the countermeasures? They trail a electronic piece out on a cable. And I don’t know how far, you know, half a mile, whatever it is. So if they’re that they get some shot at it now, they’re trailing this thing.
That’s actually emitting signals to either confuse it if it doesn’t confuse it, then it’ll mimic the F-35 going after this trail drone that the F-35 is launched out. I was like, wow, what a countermeasure. That’s really cool, right? How much actual combat service has the F-35 seen? Do we know? Oh, about as much as the B-36.
I would like to know. I don’t know. I have no idea.
I mean, it’s nowhere near obviously the F-16, F-15. Sure, no. Even the F-22, right, has one.
It goes back to like, do we want to show our hand kind of thing? Yeah. Capable bike. Right, we’ll go into Nevada to see exercises.
That’s like an air show, right? Kind of. And you see every, yeah, like sitting in the parking lot at Nellis during Red Flag. You’re seeing everything take off.
Like you’re seeing C-130s. You’re seeing freaking growlers. Like everything, literally everything.
Even 22s on occasion, taking off. You never see a 35. Oh, no kidding.
Really? I’ve never seen a 35. How many hours they got, I wonder, flying? I have actually. I’ve seen a 35 take off.
You mean like the vertical take off? At Pete or like a regular? They’re Marines though. They came here. They like to stop here and hang out.
And one of the guys was a photographer and he brought me, my wife, and my daughter out of the flight line, hung out with them with the pictures. And yeah, no way. That would be cool.
I don’t pretend to know all the capabilities, but man, something’s got to be there for them to pump this money into them. And I think they’re legit, man. I don’t think anyone’s close.
I really don’t. I don’t know, man. I mean, they bet that F-22 and the Eurofighter could be F-22’s as there is, you know, initially, right? Initially, thank you, Jake.
But have they dog-fied? Have they, have they dogs? There’s no such thing as dog fighting anymore, Marty. Not when the 35 is going to take you out before you got to put up. I mean, I’m sure they’ve done an F-22 against an F-35, right? Yes, and I think Marty, imagine in my mind, imagine like a growler times 10 in the same body as a 22.
F-35 doesn’t have, well, okay, it’s close. It’s close, right? Is it better, is it better aerodynamically than the F-16? Yeah. Or is it just loaded with more stealth and electronics? I don’t know.
All of the above. All of the above. The answer’s D, Marty.
All right, we’re going to research this and we’re going to come back next week and find out. I’m very curious, too. They’re talking about retrofitting the 22 with more modern technology.
The 22 seems also incredibly bad-ass. They’ve already cancelled it. That’s it, right? They made the last of them.
A facelift. I know. He’s got a facelift.
What is that thing going to do? Why are we retrofitting the B-52 and the F-16 over and over and over for decades? They’re like, hey, here’s the new air superiority fighter. We’re going to get rid of it. And we’re going to pour all the money into this F-35.
I gave you a few stats in the chat area, guys. Just F-35. Just saying.
Don’t get her. What are the stats? Unhelpful. Well, the F-35, as of May 4, 2021, so it’s a little outdated, has accumulated 385,000 flight hours and that includes both training and operational missions.
So it’s flown some operational sorties. I don’t know what that is. Yeah, the China is just curious.
So I’m sure that that time, the hours have probably doubled by then. I would say it’s pretty good. Yeah, it’s pretty close.
And that’s true. It’s flown by everybody. Yeah, and it’s our biggest export right now, too.
So that’s another piece. It’s like, oh, yeah, we promised all these countries. So all right.
Well, let’s do some research there on modern jets. Maybe we’ll have an old military team of modern jets and we got a dependent. Yeah, we haven’t done that in a while.
The world’s costliest weapons program, Stripes.com, says Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet is getting even more expensive, according to a government watchdog. Whoever this government watchdog is, it’s just, I mean, they’re exposing all this stuff, but they’re just like, okay, thank you. Yeah, we know we lost money last year.
Nine years after. I also wonder what we’re hiding in the F-35 program. Sure.
Yeah, that’s a good point. We’ve got it. That’s a good point.
Good point. Just historically speaking, we’ve hit whole fucking stealth skunk work projects, right, within the canopy of maybe the F-15, F-16 kind of, oh, this F-15 is so cool. Fucking expensive.
Okay, but you might get this whole new stealth plane out of it. Yeah, the stealth fighters, the 172. It’s got technology.
It’s still freaking taking care of business. And I mean, the F-15 is still pretty reliable, you know, I mean, but anyway, nine years after the Marine Corps declared his first F-35 operational, the Pentagon now projects at the cost of operating and maintaining a jet through 2088. So, geez, 88.
That’s like 64 years. We’ll be 1.58 trillion dollars, 44% higher than originally forecast in 2018. When did the A-10 come out? Like it hasn’t been 88 years.
Yeah, 70 years. I don’t know. Forecast in way in the future.
Way in the future. So now, it’s going to be 1.4 trillion. Yeah, and now it’s a little, that’s a crazy date to throw out there.
The GAO report paints a troubling picture of the plane’s readiness saying that inadequate training, lack of spare parts and support equipment and a heavy reliance on contractors mean all three services that deploy the jet, Air Force Marines and Navy project, they will be able to fly the F-35. Now, here’s the troubling part. Last often than originally hoped.
So, they’re doing fewer hours to save money. That’s bad. Yeah, I mean, what could it? The A-10 came into service in 72, by the way.
72 against the Red Horde. According to the assessment, the F-35 fleet’s overall availability has trended downward considerably over the past five years, and none of the variants are meeting availability goals. The percentage of time the aircraft can perform one of its task missions.
The F-35 fleet is not meeting most of its performance goals, according to the assessment. As of December, so here’s our readiness, right? As of December, all three services that use the jet were falling well short of their performance goals. Just 52% of the Air Force’s F-35As were considered partially mission capable.
Wow, partially mission capable. It sounds like to me, they’re donating resources different things. That’s what that tells me.
I don’t… Or they’re cannibalizing like a feed. Yeah, they’re prioritizing other things. Right? They’re prioritizing other things.
The Air Force’s… And they don’t want to pay contractors. It could be. And they did save one of the big cost overruns.
Was letting Lockheed so like figure out their cost stuff without the government’s intervention. So that’s one of the things they’re going to change or that’s one of the things that Congress is going to talk about. Which maybe changes by before 2088.
I don’t know. You know Marty, you remember the story we did two years ago. I think it was two years.
The F-35’s ejection seat. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because they were grounded because of it.
Yeah, it was Chinese made. That’s right. God, it’s crazy.
That was two years. That was when we first started this. Started it.
Yeah, that’s right. That long? Yeah. That was one of the first stories we did.
Yeah, Eric did it. Okay, so 52% of the Air Force’s F-35’s were considered partially mission capable short of a goal of 80%. For the Navy, that number was 62% compared to a goal of 75%.
Wow. Pentagon officials told auditors that significant F-35 program cost reductions will only come from flying the aircraft less or reducing the number of aircraft in the fleet. That’s what the Pentagon comes up to go.
Hey, we’re going to lower the cost. We’re just just flying them less. We’ll just have less of them.
Who the hell is that guy they put up there? You know, it would cut the cost of manning. Less manning. That right, right.
That was somebody’s Monday morning excuse. This is all we have is fly less and don’t produce enough plane is like that’s all I could come up with over the weekend. Don’t use as much fuel.
Don’t. Yeah, no super. Yeah, no.
Kevin’s really on to something here. Put estrogen in their tires. From now.
The Pentagon’s progress to improve readiness will be probed this week. It’s supposed to be today. I think by a house armed services committee.
The Pentagon’s program office of March 2023 when confronted with an overall readiness rate of 54%. That was an overall readiness rate of the F-35. That’s crazy.
They convened a war on readiness to increase the overall rate by 10% by last month. Well a year later. They’re like, can you get it to 10% and they’re like, no, we got it to 58.
That was it. Not without declaring a war on it. So a lot more money.
We export 35, right? Like, yeah, I was just like, what the fuck is wrong with these guys? Well, listen, let me read this and we’ll go the Pentagon last month declared the F-35 ready for full rate production, a largely symbolic decision because Lucky’s already making it, which is eight or nine years after the projected date. So remember all the criticism that Sibbers got because Eric Sibbers used to have this tagline of online in 99 and it actually came online in 2001. Well, the F-35 is like eight years late.
It’s like, it’s not so bad. Sibbers pretty good. It’s my bud.
The US now has on contract 881 of its plan 2456 planes. Wow. So it’s still got 1600 more planes to build at a cost of 1.5 trillion.
Not to mention all the exports we have, right? What you were saying, Teapot, I didn’t get really exporting those. Oh, yeah. There’s a bunch of countries signed up with these things.
Really? Because it’s supposed to, I think they build it as the F-16 replacement. And you know, we ship the F-16 everywhere. I mean, everywhere, right? And they want the F-35.
That’s the AK-47 of the year. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
That’s a good analogy. Yeah, it really is. I mean, because they were exporting MiGs a lot early on in the 80s, but they don’t export them anymore, right? So it’s a great A-frame though.
Airframes. Yeah, yeah. F-16 is pretty solid.
I mean, there’s no talk about getting rid of the F-16. Flying Eagle, baby. Just rock, throw your music in.
Fighting Falcon. It’s okay. It’s no, but the name of the movie Iron Eagle.
That’s true. You’re right. But that’s the whole thing.
It was that. That’s what we joked about is that it’s the F-15 Eagle as the F-16 Fighting Falcon. I’m a stinger guy.
I know. Hey, Director. Do you think we should get some big military guys in on this movie? They’re like, fuck them.
Calling it Iron Eagle. Like, yeah, but that’s a fighting fact. I’m an Iron Eagle.
They’re like, okay, you want some more coffee? The main character’s name is Chappy. And me and I say R.I.P. for Louis Gossett Jr. or passing away the other week, right? No better role. Which I didn’t realize he won a supporting actor Oscar for Officer and a Gentleman.
For Officer and a Gentleman. Not I can do it. He was the only redeeming thing in Iron Eagle.
That’s for sure. I mean, that’s for sure. So anyway, that player was pretty cool.
Thank you, Eric. I was just thinking of that. I was like, I’m pretty sure I had a silver sony cassette player for that reason.
Yes, he did on the Panasonic. On the Lake board, right? Oh, man. Break it off.
Alright, let’s get into something fun here or angering. I’m not sure because here’s the thing. I try not to be.
The old guy you seen, you know, got one. I went in in what, 80, 86? Krusty AF. But it wasn’t Krusty.
It was in fact, it was getting easier compared to what guys were like when Eric started, right? Krusty. So his basic was a lot different than the basic that I went through and we were what you win 83. You win 83.
81. So I can’t even say that I can compare to that. But the one thing I mean, but but you’re alive in 81.
I was well. Yeah, but the one thing that one thing that was consistent and even consistent for you guys were standards generation and maintaining standards and holding to standards, right? You guys are still of the generation where you had to sign shine boots. They don’t have to shine shit anymore.
Right? So amazing that this next here’s here’s another report, right? Every time they do a report on the military, something’s found, you know, it’s not like hey, the only ones who come out. Well, are the Coast Guard and they’re like, hey Coast Guard is 98% ready and they’re they’re getting 10 tons of drugs. Everyone, right? Although they just had a story where they had a cheating scandal at the Academy, the Coast Guard Academy, but all right.
So here’s another report that came out. So I cut that off don’t don’t be concerned that I cut that up because it’s the actual story because I cut it off for for space, right? But the actual story for military.com is medical beard waivers nearly double in Air Force and Space Force in just three years. So Jake when you said to me last week that I need to step up my game putting down the other services these next couple stories are just like, yeah, okay.
Maybe we shouldn’t be that bold. Maybe not that. Yeah.
So according to service data provided to military.com shaving waivers for medical conditions have what happened now teapot. No, no, oh, we lost teapot. What he can’t handle here than me.
He suffered from beard envy. What happened? Well, he wasn’t saying much. Maybe you just got tired of it.
Mama called me. That’s because that’s because his internet went out. There you go.
What happened? No, he had to go to the bathroom. That’s why he just texted me. Text from teapot quote.
I have to poop so bad. Hasn’t he said that on like every podcast that we had? I don’t know if you read it out loud, but that’s been the sentiment. Oh, that’s it.
He deserves it. He deserves it. Yeah, it’s like that commercial with little kids.
You know, the poop is coming. Yep. It’s either the time that we do this podcast or I don’t I still can’t come up with another idea because this isn’t a first time that he signed up just a little bit early because he has to go to the bathroom.
So I don’t understand my priorities. That’s all right. Well, you know, it’s it’s like you should be grateful for the time that you have with him because at least he’s not he’s a he’s a fleeting dream.
He’s not impacted. He’s good show. He’s not an Arlington horse.
Yeah, he’s crazy. Well, yeah, that’s good. That’s right.
Maybe a little too much. So I mean, all right. So yeah, he’s going to miss it.
Yeah, he’s going to miss his video. According to the service data provided military.com shaving waivers from medical conditions have skyrocketed for Air Force Airmen and Space Force Guardians over the past three years allowing more service members to grow beards between 2021 and 2023. The number of active-duty Airmen with shaving waivers doo-doo pseudo folliculitis Barbae Barbae a skin condition causing it frequent and painful razor burn that disproportionately affects black men has grown from 10,000 965 to 18,000 991.
So it’s a 8,000 more people and you know, most of those like, hey, how’d you do that? It was like, just tell them, okay, I got this really shitty razor, right? Just go four times over. Yeah, so an emphasis on this article. This is just a medical waivers is that they didn’t include religious waiver numbers in this at all.
So waivers in the Air Force Reserve rose 700 in the from the two years prior the Air National Guard rose 1100 over the last couple years. Even the Space Force is relatively small number of medical shaving waivers for Guardians nearly double just between 2022 and 2023 going from 151 to 288. So beards are one of the most requested changes in the Department of the Air Force as well as the military at large black service members reportedly reported as recently as three years ago that obtaining a shaver waiver shaving waiver harmed their careers.
Really? I thought that I thought that part was interesting and I can understand it because you know, they just allowed this over the last couple years. So now you walk in maybe a promotion board or something like that. What is your first reaction to a guy with a beard to guy with a beard? You got sure it’s lazy motherfucker, right? He’s funny because it goes back to what Jake said.
Jesus in my year in 1981 very few guys had shaving waivers, but there were a few you would think with the advancement of I don’t know razor blades from two to five and all this stuff that has advanced the ability to shave you without that problem. How is this getting worse? I don’t get it. Here’s the piece that because I’m with you all the way right.
What was you know Jake’s got to go to the bathroom now. He’s completely screwing up this whole segment, which was going to be great. He’s got a shaving waiver, but what you’re saying is here’s the thing is that the guys I ever knew that has shaving waiver and I understand I’ve seen the medical data about it in grounds.
I get that but every guy has not it would be different if I saw you with the shaving waiver, but you still tried to shave it down as much as you could and make it uniform and make it look good. Sure. Every guy I’ve ever seen with a shaving waiver looks like he’s been out camping for a week.
You know, it’s like I know you got a shaving waiver, but why does it look all unkempt? Yeah, I got shaving waiver. I was like, I know that but trim it up. Oh, it hurts.
It hurts when I trim it up. And it’s like yeah, I’m not you are taking advantage of this thing. That’s that’s the first thing I think of.
So I thought it was interesting that they say that there’s a survey of them and they’re like, oh, yeah, this harms my career. Right. Well, you have no hard proof of that.
Yeah, at the same time. Are you really trying to keep it as close to skin as you can? Yeah, because it’s only supposed to be a quarter inch. That’s not right.
No, but you’re right. Yes, yes. Curly thick black much more much more than a quarter inch.
But I think you’re right. Well, you were saying about first impressions of walking into a board. You’re meeting a board or something.
Sure, sure. You have a shaving waiver and well, they a survey conducted in a 2021 study. Detailed that 21.4% of service members were shaving waivers said it had a negative impact on their career.
An alarming 63% of those service members who said it had harmed a career or created negative bias within their unit were black. I honestly agree with Eric and you in that I could fully see how I’d harm their career. Sure.
The first impression is just like, yeah, but now and there’s also the flip side. Like you were saying, I don’t you said mangy. Basically, I always got frustrated with the guys that would come in on Friday with everything like perfectly trimmed into a goatee or Monday and I’m like, okay, that’s not a shaving.
Right. That you trim up once a week. Okay, fine.
Do it on Monday. Yeah, don’t trim it up. So you can go out on the town.
Yeah, they’re all edge. Right. Everything’s perfect.
And like, oh, no, no, look, you lightest right here. Yeah, that’s all good. It’s all cool.
That’s all smart. And but I you’re right. It would instantly be like it.
Okay, maybe in 10 years and unfortunately right now. That’s the thing. It would be like, yeah, okay.
Well, if the military accepts full beards as a normal, it’s going to go away. I guarantee you brother won’t even hear that much. Well, part of the article that a whatever.
Yeah, it’ll go back. Part of the article that I that I didn’t cover is a commander admits that oh, we need to kind of do some reeducation on there or some new education on this and not have that instant reaction when somebody comes into a board with a beard, right? However, however, in late 2022, I’m going to show you some in late 2022 military comm also reported that the Air Force Honor Guard can start where it can start having shaving waivers. Did you know that the Honor Guard can now start having shaving waivers? So let me show you an example picture of an Air Force Honor Guard.
There is with a shaving wager, right? And it’s just like that’s the Honor Guard. Aren’t they supposed to be all spic and span and like and it’s going to be it’s going to take 10 15 20 years for all the old guard to get out of the military, right? And then you’re going to have new leaders who have grown up with this and then it won’t be a big deal. But right now it’s so unsettling to see and to look at it.
It doesn’t look professional. It doesn’t to me know based on my my what I think is perfect what we were raised on which is very hard to deprogram. Yeah, it’s it every time I see a guy in uniform with the beard.
I’m like seek that’s the first thing that comes to my mind, right? Yeah, that’s all that comes to my mind. It’s like, oh, okay. You must be religious was like, nope.
I just itch which which which is funny because seek we’re like, yeah, cool fun. Yeah, right. Fine, right, right.
Hey, grown hairs. All right, so let me go back to shaving school. Let’s get you out of this game.
No, I mean, well, this is a conflicting one. No, what’s your thoughts on it? What’s your thoughts on it? Because I can fully see it like I can see those. I’ve seen those ingrown hairs.
I’m a savage and it is horrible to see it is horrible. Guys really suffer from that. I say they’re gonna do it get freaking Clippers like electric Clippers like for your head and go over the whole thing at the same level.
Well, and that’s all it. Yeah, that’s the whole thing. Yeah.
Yeah. Don’t make it a fashion statement even but you can still that’s what you can still not blade shave and still keep yourself all same length and make it look decent, right? Dude, give me a five o’clock shadow any day. Fine.
The picture. This was long. It wasn’t neatly.
That’s what I was saying to Eric is that every guy I’ve ever seen with the shaving waiver is longer than a quarter inch and it’s unkempt, you know, it just looks like no, I think that’s the that’s not bad. That’s not bad. You know, I mean considering that’s that’s not too bad.
Eric just wishes in the Navy. That’s fine. Alright, let me let me let me get your reaction to this, right? So this led me.
Sorry, this led me to a video. I saw about a month ago. Okay, and it was some I think it’s Air Force recruiting attempt to try to appeal to 18 through 20 year olds and it’s this thing called passing the phone, right? And I get it.
It’s like, oh hey, we’re here at AIT or you know, or tech school, whatever it is and we’re having fun together. Look military is fun. I get that part of it.
But as you watch this, just tell me all the things that pop out at you, right? This should be good crusty. We need. We need to look.
We’re making a TikTok video Stanley and I’m passing the phone off to someone who’s doing this. Yeah, go team because he thought he could become an astronaut big morning. My name is my goodness.
And I’m passing the phone to somebody who’s too cheap to buy new B&T boots. Okay. Good morning.
My name is Specialist Bailey and I’m passing the phone to someone who is always talking to Reddit forums. Hi, my name is Specialist CV and I’m passing the phone to someone who thought we were going to Mars. I’m Specialist Orozco and I’m passing the phone to somebody who has the AFI on his phone.
Dippin’ head gear now, right? My name is Specialist Mims and I’m passing the phone to someone who has the AFI on his phone. Look at her glasses. I know, it’s so fashionable.
I like them. What the hell? So, you know, and I don’t, I want to stress that I don’t fault any of those guardians, right? Any of those young Airmen because they’re only doing what, they’re doing what they’re taught, right? They’re doing what they’re taught. So it’s not their fault.
But they’re wearing different hats, beards. Where’s the one part? Let me see if I can find the one part. Oh, here it is.
Okay. One, that big white guy, watch, he really doesn’t want to do this. But this next guy, look in the background.
Look in the background to someone who thought we were going to Mars. Everyone with their hands in their pockets. Oh, my goodness.
Walk it around. Now listen to this guy. Specialist not that I’m passing the phone someone to the defense.
So, you know, someone who eats at the defect, right? He was like, I don’t want to do this. And I’m like, just say something. Come on.
Just say something. You know, but yes, stocking cap, maintainer cap, soft cap, Gore-Tex, hands in pockets, beards. And maybe it works.
Maybe it appeals to those who are trying to come in and go, hey, you know, I want to join the military, but I don’t want to be that military. You know what? Those people don’t even know what the military used to be. But that’s what I mean.
It’s not your fault. You’re right. And I’m not disrespecting them at all because it’s whoever the NCOs are, the chain of command, that allows all that stuff.
I truly believe though, from our time to their time, the prestige of being in the military, the honor of being in the military and representing something bigger than yourself, is getting lost. Don’t look at me like that, Jake. I saw it.
Don’t look at me. No, I believe it’s getting lost. I think, well, not last week, but the week, maybe week before Marty and I had that discussion of we’re constantly adjusting the levels, the standards.
Geez, man, we’re constantly adjusting the standards and the majority of the time that we’ve done, that Marty’s done interviews or I’ve talked to other people and they’ve said, oh, this guy, he was, he was a freaking memorable leader and he was always fair or strict, but fair. Strict always comes from strict, but fair. And you know, every one of them that had mentioned that had gotten chewed out by that person.
And then, hey, this is everybody’s the same. Don’t be ridiculous. Here’s the standard.
And I think being held to a minimum of standard that’s the problem with the morale. That’s the problem that is a contributing factor to morale. That is a great factor to retention.
If there’s no standards, there’s no reason to excel. There’s no reason to I don’t think anybody signs up to come in with like lack standards. I think they want to leave standards.
You know, like I’m looking for this discipline. I’m looking for this and this guy’s like, yeah, wear whatever hat you want. You’ve got an idea that I’m going to be in the military.
Yeah, I’m going to I want that experience. I want that. I want that military.
I will agree with that, but I think it certainly is a big failure on the strategic look at what the military is. Yeah, because we’re fully agreeing. Yeah, Eric.
I think the lack of that standard right and the lack of the ability for the NCOs and the leadership to maintain that standard is a consistent contributing factor to the lack of morale and the lack of retention. When I came in from the Army to the Air Force, the biggest difference, the most noticeable difference that I saw was the unwillingness of the officers to like maintain a set standard, right? And they’re calling people by their first names and there was conversations I had with some officers like, you know, coming by the rank in their last name and like, you know, we’re not we’re not the Marines. We can be friendly here.
And I was like, yeah, but you’re missing the point of the what people want and need in the military, right, calling them friends and trying to be calling their first name and trying to be friends as not making their burden less. Yeah, it’s just diminishing you and more than anything else. So and guaranteed all those people that said, oh, they were strict but fair.
Yeah, they were pissed at those people at that time. Nobody likes to be corrected. Yeah, nobody likes.
I mean, yeah, that’s a maturity thing. I was in the wrong 90% of us, you know, yeah, because you need somebody to tell it. Hey, you’re fucking up.
Yeah. And that doesn’t mean so you hurt my feelings and that doesn’t mean I should bow down to your feelings. It’s like, no, you adjust to me.
There’s a military you adjust to us. It’s not me. It’s the standard.
You adjust to the standard. Yeah, you’re just I’m enforcing the standard. You got to be this tall.
You got to be this freaking whatever physically capable, smart, right, whatever proficient to be on this ride and you have to maintain it. And well, but what also goes along with that is that if you maintain that standard, then you will be respected by others who have also maintained that step. That’s exactly and that’s how the whole thing works.
Anyway, I knew that would piss you out because it pissed me out. So now you share my pain. I do.
All right. Let’s have fun on this last one. All right, so I think last month there were some Marines pictured at Mar-a-Lago.
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Well, yes, so there were some people like, hey, hey, hey, they can’t, you know, military is not supposed to be political. Like, what are they doing in this candidates? Okay, so they had a spokesman come out and explain why they’re at Mar-a-Lago and why they didn’t violate any political thing for the military from taskofpurpose.com title.
This is why the Marines were at Mar-a-Lago. So a lead spokesman for the Marine Corps said in a statement that a Marine Corps color guard. It was just a color guard.
That was it. That was recently photographed at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida was attending a non-political event that was meant to raise awareness about veteran suicides. Okay, right.
So those are the Marines at Mar-a-Lago, right? Wait, no facial hair? No beard, snow. What a stash. That was surprising.
But in addition to this, there was a whole bunch of banter about, well, they’re not wearing the chin straps on their helmet. They’re not in proper uniform to be a color guard. And the guy had to come out and go, look, they weren’t in the color guard formation.
He had to detail out why they were okay, right? But they were invited, essentially, by a guy called Kerry Reichbach, who is the founder and president of a company called Grey Team, a veterans group that requested the Marine color guard. Grey Team is a nonpartisan, non-profit group that focuses on preventing suicides that has no connection to Trump, his re-election campaign, or any other political cause. They just used Mar-a-Lago.
That was it, right? So they showed the request, the Marine Corps reviewed the request, and they’re like, okay, that’s fine. This had no fundraising for Trump. This had no nothing, right? So they’ve debunked everything’s okay.
These guys can be there. Where were these guys from? Let me see. I think they’re from a fourth-air naval gunfire liaison company.
They’re a marine reservists. So they provided the color guard and static display at this event for a company called Grey Team. That was it, right? But I thought it was entertaining that those four guys took this picture.
Oh, look at the legs on that. I thought you cropped that picture, right? I was like, I did crop it. Yeah, you liked it.
Okay, because that’s a lot of legs, right? And I was like, oh, look at those guys. And those guys are going, this is going on my wall when I’m 70 years old. Look at this, man.
They’re marine guards. They’re just like, first of all, they’re like, oh, we got to go out, and it’s not a funeral. And it’s not going to be freaking crazy.
What we got to do is mark in with this. Yeah, you got that much. I show you know, you know, those women were like, let us take a picture with you.
And they’re like, okay, I think that I would have been keeping my hand. They were okay. They were like, all their hands are visible.
They’re all like, okay, I touch your meal body. Look at the ladies. I love it.
I know good on appreciated for it. So the Marines came out. The Marines came out back to him and said now there’s nothing political here.
They were doing this as a request. We approved the request. So everything’s good.
The Mustache and the black dude do not look like they’re impressed. I got to tell you. Look at him.
They do not look like they’re impressed. Dude, I know because they’re like, they’re nervous. The other two are smiling.
Mustache and black guy are like, don’t tell me they’re not. Don’t even look at them. They’re not nervous about like, are we going to get fried for this big? Look at these women.
Look at these women. Look at we’re going to get torn down for this. But now they got a picture that’d be like, look at this picture son.
When I was a 25 year old reserve. Look at that. So it’s too much.
Anyway, I only did that story because I wanted to show that picture because good on those four. I love it. I mean, maybe this is a horribly like sexist, but that kind of situation and that kind of thing is exactly where the pinup paintings came from.
Oh, it’s exactly like that. There’s that one moment with a beautiful woman and you’re like, that’s why we fight. All right.
Right. That’s why we fight. It’s yeah, I mean, that’s a better reason than like like to keep my shaving waiver.
It’s like, no, not me. I fight for them. Heck yeah.
See through top and a freaking what a blast and you know the rest of the night. They’re like, hey, let’s get it. Get you a drink.
We can set you up. You know, you can hang out with us. Can you can you dance with us? Can you dance with us? That’s excellent.
And these guys are like, oh god, even if they didn’t this moment right here is worth it. Absolutely. Absolutely.
They were dressed up. They were looking sharp. They did their job.
We got this as cool. I mean, I mean, are they the big dicks on campus? But when they go back to the reserve unit, they’re like, check this out dudes. You’ve never taken a picture this good.
They’re bragging, right? There’s a bragging rights there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, those are heroes.
So good on your Marines. Anyway, Eric, what do you got for US military history? All right, guys, since we’ve been going a while, I’ll cut this thing pretty short, but it’s a good one. So this idea that occurred back on 18 April 1942 was conceived in January of 1942 in the wake of the devastating Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Joint Army Navy bombing project was to bomb the Japanese industrial centers to inflict both material and psychological damage upon the enemy. So originally the concept called for the US to use US Army Air Force bombers to be launched from and recovered by an aircraft carrier. Well, now this was before you go into that, that was this was the retaliation against Japan for Pearl Harbor, right? Right.
We were going to try to hit them. That’s correct. But it also wanted us to include some damage which we both we all know didn’t really occur.
The damage was minimal, but it was more psychological than it was going in. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I found a little more information.
What was interesting was the Martin B-26 Marauder was to be used initially, but it was unsuitable for handling characteristics. And the other one that was looked at was the Douglas B-23 Dragon and the wingspan was too long to sit comfortably on it. Yeah, the B-23 Dragon.
So, of course, they came down with the B-25 Mitchell. So, that was a two-engine plane, right? I’m trying to remember. Two.
Okay, two up front. So this, it was conceived in January. Crews went to the carrier on 31 March and one April.
And then on 18 April, 24 planes drawn from the US Army 17th bombardment group were prepared for the mission with additional fuel tanks installed and certain unnecessary equipment removed. Intensive training began in early March of 42 with the crews who had volunteered for mission. That would be extremely hazardous.
Yeah, crews practiced extensive cross-country flying, night flying and navigation as well as low altitude approaches. And on 18 April, they launched from the Enterprise and struck Japan for the first time. Wow.
Yeah, well done. That was Jimmy Doolittle, right? Yep, Jimmy Doolittle’s raid. Who was the one without asking too many questions? I know our rules.
But who was the one who thought it up? Who conceived it? Was it Doolittle or was it like LeMay or? You know, I understand Billy Mitchell had a piece in it too. Yeah, Mitchell had a piece in it too. And I know they met with… That was my boy and you shot it down.
I know Franklin and a couple others actually said, hey, we need to strike back. So Mitchell had a piece in it along with Doolittle. Yeah, they were Doolittle’s guys.
He flew on it, right? He had so many people like people were trying to sneak on that mission. Oh, no kidding. I didn’t realize that.
Yeah, yeah. Well, if the movie Pearl Harbor did one thing right, at least they covered that piece. So that was actually the best part of the movie, really.
Yeah, I’m still impressed with those guys because they knew for a fact when they had to take off. Right, right. The best case scenario, they crash in China.
Well, and they had to take off early, right? Yeah, that was the thing. Because they had to take off early, it was a roll of the dice whether they would crash or crash in Japan or in the sea between China. They were like, there was a lot of what-ifs.
We’re definitely not making it to our landing zone, that’s for sure. If they had stayed on the boats until they’re actually take-off time, were they detected? Were they going to be hit before that? So, man, it was a decisions made on the run. Let’s get it done.
Those guys, knowing that, yeah, they probably weren’t going to make it back. The guys hitting Normandy, they were like, yeah, I’m probably not going to make it out of this. And they did it anyway.
That’s why that generation is like, oh, shit. Huge. But not great for the decision makers because they’re like, hey, we really want you to do this.
And I’m like, all right, we’ll do it. But, well, and it was an all-volunteer. Such a good, all-volunteer.
There was such a good message and cause that we were in the right and it was, we were all on the same board. And everybody behind us back in the States was suffering and, you know, one extender or the other. And we had the support of everybody back in the States.
You were going, right? Well, the market, it wasn’t a question that might hasn’t hadn’t kicked in yet. We were still up, you know, product production of tanks and airplanes and everything was still low. Sure.
We were giving a lot of defeats and this thing propelled this, but I also think the leaders were, you know, I don’t know how much they shared. I mean, I’m not going to say that I was there, but I think they had a clear vision of like, hey, we need to do this. Yeah, I hate to send you, but we have to get this done and they explain why they have to get done.
And that makes it a lot more palatable. Like, okay. All right.
I get it. I understand it. It’s not just some frivolous thing.
My life is useless and expendable. Being a political tool. We actually need to go do this military operation.
So, good one. By the way, peace more. Just one more piece of information because of the attack from Doolittle’s raid, Japanese were, they pulled back two whole flying squadrons of planes to protect the homeland that stayed out of the battles.
Yeah, and they really weren’t as aggressive anymore. And they’re like, oh, wait a second. Wait a minute.
We can be touched. Yeah, we can be touched here, man. So, yeah, it didn’t change the, you know, it didn’t, it wasn’t a decisive thing, but it did influence like a mofo, the way they were going to conduct the Pacific theater.
So, well done, Mr. History, impacted in all. I appreciate that. Teapot, I hope you are not impacted.
Teapot is definitely in depth. He is definitely in depth. So, on behalf of all of us here in jail.
She said, oh, try again. Take two, Marty in depth. That’s what happens when I don’t edit my script because I was like, on behalf of all of us here and General Chris Petty, I’d like to thank you for listening today.
So, 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 did in the comments and make sure next week that you are not late for change. I know you want to do it now.
Just do it. And for all your love with very little boundaries, needs, please check out Mr. History. His boundaries have shrunk over time.
Hey, I created an inflatable though. I’m creating an inflatable, so we’re good. Oh, yeah.
That inflatable story was awesome. I like that one. Only five percent off this month for the estrogen inflatables that Mr. History is going to do some videos on.
That’s awesome. Get your membership now. Oh, you like stuff.
Man, thanks for the week and I’ll see you next week. All right, guys. Take care.
Oh, yep.