Episode Title: The Late For Changeover Show 02 Apr 2024
Date: Apr 3, 2024
Special event alert. Get out of the food court and run! This is Late for Changeover, your weekly space news and variety show. I’m your host Marty Smith and I’m joined by Mr. History, Eric Peratt.
What’s going on fellas? It’s good to be here. Our man in the closet, Jake Wall. What’s going on? It’s good to see you guys.
Our favorite teapot, Kevin Falcom. Michigan national champions, go blue. I don’t know why I went up in flexion right there because we’re here to bring you the latest headlines and updates pertinent to all guardians and to the other earthbound services as well.
So take your seats. Get them formed in half a lap as we present Late for Changeover. Two beers in, baby.
Smooth as hell, smooth as hell. Gentlemen, because I’m looking and we got a guest. He threw me all off.
We got a buffet of bald and beautiful hair right now. It’s all a fucking glare off of that. A buffet of deliciousness.
Bald and beard in fucking sight. Holy shit. That’s awesome.
That’s awesome. Gentlemen, today we’re joined by former Air Force senior airman, Josh Respeccy. Gentlemen.
Josh, thanks for coming on the show, man. Thank you, Grant B. Gentlemen. Good seeing some friendly faces again.
And that doesn’t include you, Eric. I’ll be a friend, though. Yeah, that’s right.
You are a friend. I’m a friend. Not quite a general’s friend, but you’ll be a friend.
That’s true. I really liked him a little bit. Way back in the early days of Sibbers, Josh, Jake, and I all… Well, Teapot, too, right? Oh, yeah.
I can’t remember when you got there. I can never remember when you got there. 2002.
Oh, okay. So all of us worked together in the early days of the mission control station over at Buckley. So welcome, Josh.
We found each other on LinkedIn. I appreciate you listening all the way out there in Chicago, currently Chicago. Where’d you grow up at, Josh? Where’d you join the service at? Join the service out of the great state of Michigan outside of Detroit.
I had no idea. Yeah, use your hand. Come on, bro.
Give us a vector. There we go. See, now you understand why Kevin is his friend.
That’s not to do with him. God, all we need is Eric Baez on here. We could just have a go blue.
Just fucking splatter paint. It would be a porn hub of Michigan fans just gargling, having a good old time talking to each other. Marty, there’s your answer on why we never get funded.
Yeah, right. I know we just blew up. First three minutes, multiple customers, and then gargling references.
Yeah, don’t listen to the first part. Just listen to the parts I cut up for. You can edit that out.
That’s the truth. Yeah, that’s true. Pornhub is key.
Why’d you choose 13 Charlie? Josh? So I was at the University of Michigan, and money was short. September 11th hit, and recruiters swarmed the campus, and then kind of went, took the test, did my ASVAB, and had a really clear vision for years, paid for the rest of my school. Got my score back.
They gave me a list, and they said, you’re not going to shoot at people. You’re not going to get shot at, and you get to wear a cool blue flight suit. Oh, wow.
So now when I showed up, it was green, which was fine. But it kind of sold it for me. Yeah, but that’s one Charlie.
It was between them and the Navy. The Navy guy stepped out to the bathroom. The Air Force guy swooped me in, and the rest is history.
Heck, yeah. It happens, man. Those are critters.
I said 13 Charlie. I don’t know why I said 13 Charlie. I miss out on that.
We know what you’re saying. You said space bag wearer. I’m telling you, Eric, you would not knock it if you had, if you’d have been able to wear that.
That was the best thing in the world. Boots, zipper, hat. That was it.
Josh, when’d you go to Vandenberg, man? It was Vandenberg right in the start of 2002. So basic through Thanksgiving, Vandenberg Christmas of 21 into 22. When’d you get to Swiss? So that would have been out in Vandenberg for six months ish.
You know, so mid 20, mid 22. Okay. 2002.
So you got out after one hitch, right? Because of all the fantastic mentorship you got from the Air Force. Don’t forget medical care. Don’t forget medical care.
I mean, technically, technically my manager giving me all my ratings is on this call. So that ran me out. That’s right.
Jake. We explored that one time, right? He had like five troops in. I was five for five there for a minute.
They all got out. At least Josh was volunteering. Get out.
Josh was the honorable one. He was the honorable one. So I had a plan.
I stuck to it. Josh, I think you were at California when I, when we finished the ORI that you guys at Vandenberg didn’t do. So hot on.
Well, he was just a student. So I was just, yeah. That was the same year.
We did an ORI out there. Yeah, you are. You’re an IG spook.
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Okay, Josh, you got out.
Who’d you go to work for? No, no. So when I got out, went back, obviously finished school. Then I worked for Red Bull of North America.
Then from Red Bull North America, you know, cut my teeth with that sales job. And then got actually hired by British American tobacco company. So, and went and finished my graduate degree, my MBA, and now I’ve been working my way up through British American tobacco and keep on moving.
So yeah. What’s your job now? More school. Right now I am the senior director of the Chicago region.
So I run multiple states. I have about 120 folks right now. So multiple different key account managers, territory managers, division managers, senior division managers.
Is this all sales? Is this all sales? Yep. Sales, whether it be sales, sales support, new product launches. And we work a lot with like legislative issues when it comes to tobacco rights and tobacco laws being passed in different states.
So I head up my region. Jake should be proud of what you’ve become. And I’ve kept in touch with Jake over the years.
Going to school and getting more pieces of paper. And every time I move, so. I get about two drunken calls a year.
That’s it. Eugene, you must be snatched. What’s up, man? And still married to Crystal, which is awesome.
Crystal and I, you know, it was, I mean, that, that was, that was also just like, uh, uh, Jake running out almost all of his troops that were under his command. Uh, that was, that was the thing of Buckley is, uh, getting married and Crystal and I were, she was 20. I just was 21.
And so we’ve been married 21 years now. Damn. Well done.
Well done. Crystal on her full ride kick. Well, uh, don’t say it too loud.
She’s out there. Good. But you told me that right before we started.
How many times, where did you start, uh, with the company you’re with now? Where did you get on with? So got hired in Michigan through Michigan. We went over to move to New Hampshire, Vermont area, uh, worked in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts. Uh, then from there, went down to Richmond, Virginia, did some stuff in Virginia beach, uh, went back to Detroit for a little while from there, moved to Maryland right by the Naval Academy.
Wow. Mayor went to Winston Salem, North Carolina, did some stuff in our home office. Uh, from there, went out to San Jose, California, stood up an office and was running the Western, uh, sales area.
Wow. And then from there over now here to the Western suburbs of Chicago in the new role. So that’s crazy.
It’s almost like you’re in the military with as many. And it was funny because Crystal and I talk about it all the time, moved a couple of times the military, which wasn’t that much, but then out of the military back again, and then have pretty much moved every couple of years since we’ve been married. Wow, man.
Good on you. That’s awesome, man. Can you get, can you get access to like anything you want to smoke anyway, anytime you want? Yeah.
It’s, it’s it, and honestly it used to be, you go to the home office and they had gratis product, but now a lot of that’s locked down these days. So that’s, you buy your own if you’re going to use, but yeah. What’s the, what’s the company’s name again? British American tobacco.
So, so it was like Reynolds. Yeah. Do you guys own Reynolds? Yeah.
So Reynolds American or RJ Reynolds tobacco. That’s the American group of British Americans back up. Oh, okay.
Yeah. So technically I’m a Reynolds employee under the BAT umbrella. Jesus.
That’s pretty awesome. I didn’t realize that cigarette. No, no offense here or disrespect.
I just didn’t realize that tobacco companies were that big of a deal anymore. This sounds huge. He is big tobacco, baby.
Yeah. I guess he is, man. Yeah.
I didn’t realize. Still, still big business, you know, still fortune 200 company in the U S. So I mean, I think that’s, that’s one of the problems with America is that they shut smoking down like everywhere because people just too on edge, man. I can give them a pack of cigarettes and they’re like, okay, I’m all right now.
It’s always good at family events when all my poll locks are down in booze and giving me a hard time about selling cigarettes. And then I’m like, okay, well, you know, then my uncle shooting off guns in the backyard. So let’s get right in.
But they test, you for the tobacco. You’re talking shit about vaping grandpa. Exactly.
That’s awesome. Well, thanks, Josh. I help us cut up on some of these stories.
I hope for sure. Vast knowledge of space and tobacco. So, all right.
Let’s get out of the news. Now these first couple of stories, I’ve got three of them, right? I only sent you two, but it doesn’t really matter because it doesn’t sound like you guys read them anyway. So, but there’s a third one.
I can’t remember if we did it or not, or if I had it in the queue to do, but we never did. Anyway, these three are all related and they’re all from space news.com. And they’re going to illustrate the future of space travel. So, but first I want to lay the groundwork.
So now think back to when we invented the automobile. Right. So I invented the car and it drove from here to there.
And they were like, great. And then they’re like, Hey, we want this car to go further. So what they invent, they invented the gas station.
Right. And then they’re like, Hey, this car needs some maintenance. So what they invent, they invented the mechanic.
They’re like, Hey, this car’s a piece of shit. Doesn’t run anymore. So then they invented the junkyard.
Well, all that’s coming to space baby. That’s all coming to space. So the first story, uh, it came out back in January.
So I can’t remember if we did it. So, uh, but Northrop Grumman’s orbital refueling port is now selected for us military satellites. So they’re going to put what they call a passive refueling module on all future satellites.
So it’s like a gas nozzle with nothing to go to it yet, but they’re going to, it’s like an EV plugin. Yes. Like an EV plugin.
A satellite refueling nozzle developed by Northrop Grumman is the first to be selected as a preferred standard for us military satellites. The company announced back in January and a move that could shape the on orbit or in orbit satellite servicing market. The us space forces space system command designated Northrop Grumman’s passive refueling module or the PRM as a favorite interface to enable future in space refueling of military satellites.
The PRM has a docking mechanism to allow refueling vehicle orbit to transfer propellant to another satellite to extend its useful life. So, uh, oh, sorry. I was going to show you something, but that’s not yet.
Marty, I think when we talked about this, they hadn’t narrowed it down. They had been talking about multiple different directions. That’s right.
They had, but I think they’ve chosen them now and they’re just like, okay, here’s all your money Northrop. Go develop this. Uh, we should, we should really start investing in these things when we read the article.
Right. Because we’ve literally missed out on big bumps on some money, big bumps from L3. Yeah.
That’s a good point. Well, Boeing, maybe not so much prior. Hey, but James Larson is up like 20 bucks a share since I like in the last two years.
It’s crazy. There’s a company coming that you might want to invest in. So Northrop Grumman also has secured a space force contract of undisclosed value to develop a dedicated tanker satellite for geo-sync orbit missions that would carry up to a thousand kilograms of hydrazine and deliver fuel in space.
The flying gas station named geo sent out. Did they come up with the acronym first or the name first? You guys decide. It’s named geo synchronous auxiliary support tanker or gas tea.
Gas tea. It’ll be built on a Northrop Grumman. Yes.
PA star D ring shaped bus, a relatively large platform of nearly 2000 kilograms. So here is the gas tea. So there’s your future buckets right there.
Nice. I need a hat. Hey, I went to a gas tea and all I got with this stupid hat.
All right. So now we got the gas station. All right.
So what’s next? We need the mechanics. So on another story on orbit servicing mission plan for military satellite in 2025. In a mission targeted for 2025, a robot satellite in geo stationary orbit will rendezvous rendezvous with the military satellite and attempt to affix a new imaging sensor payload on the spacecraft.
Nice. The servicing vehicle equipped with a robot arm here. This is what it looks like.
And I think that’s the artist depiction. I assume the one with the arms is the one they’re talking about, but it doesn’t really tell you much more than that. So that’s how far along they are in the concept.
The servicing vehicle equipped with a robot are developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Naval Research Laboratory. So DARPA and the Naval Research Laboratory will seek to connect the payload to the satellite’s launch adapter ring. This ring, which originally connected the satellite to the rocket during launch will provide the attach point for an electro optical imaging sensor payload developed by the startup Catalyst Space Technologies.
The mission robotics vehicle MRV, which is the one on top, I believe that will perform this mission is being built by Northrop Grumman subsidiary Space Logistics. The MRV is a commercial vehicle that Space Logistics will use to service client satellites. The company in 2020 signed a cooperative agreement with DARPA that allows the MRV to deploy the robotic arm.
Once launching MRV is designed to stay on orbit for 10 years. Wow. Scooting around in space from one repair job to the next.
That’s not for me. That’s going to create an international incident. So it’s going to do that.
And then it’s going to go, hey, I need some gas. Then we’re going to go, oh, go hook up to the gas tea. Right.
And then come back and fix Flight 21. Yeah. Well, from all the space.
You look at it from our adversary perspective though. And as soon as you put pinchy hands on something, that’s right. It’s got a purple nurple something in space, you know, how hard they’re not going to be happy.
No, they’re not. But this is all up front, right? This is all up front because the automobile, when it was first invented, it was just a way to get from here to there. Yeah, but it’s developed by DARPA.
But who would have thought we would put a gun on the automobile? Same thing here, right? That’s exactly it. This is just a gas tank. I don’t think you got too much worry.
Based on two weeks ago when we did the story of space junk, it ain’t going to be able to frickin’ move. I can’t move anywhere. I’m going to show you something with their artists display of space junk.
So we got the gas station. We got the mechanic, right? So what do we need now? We need the junkyard. So this last story is making light work of space junk removal.
Sky perfect JSAT, Japan’s. And now here’s our investment opportunity. Japan’s flagship geostationary satellite operator announced the creation of a startup in January that we use in orbit lasers to stabilize tumbling space junk and put it on a course to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Where are we joking about that a couple weeks ago? The venture orbital lasers is developing spacecraft that would fire a laser at a defunct object, ablating the material on the surface to generate thrust for changing its orientation and location. The startup, orbital lasers, there’s our investment opportunity, does not expect to perform active debris removal services for commercial constellation operators and governments any sooner than 2029. However, it plans to have a laser payload as early as March 2025 that it could sell to astro scale, clear space, rogue space systems or another robotic debris cleaning venture just getting started to use for stabilizing a tumbling object, making a capture and deorbit mission easier.
So those who scoffed at, should I invest in waste management? They’re fucking trash man. Here’s your waste management investment opportunity. And here’s the video from the company to explain how this is going to work.
Sky Perfect JSAT has been addressing the issue of space debris as part of our efforts… Look at all that debris. Holy shit. We have launched a new company, Orbital Lasers, to expand space businesses that utilize a laser specifically designed for space debris removal.
Whoo! And it’s just as simple as this. Space debris removal business. Orbital Lasers will engage in space debris removal, aiming to improve the space environment.
Using a laser at a… What could go wrong if you miss? It can control the orientation of rotating space debris that would otherwise be uncontrollable. Look at that. Just like that.
Slowly moving it into the atmosphere for removal. Burn up. It’s just space junk that we’re shooting a laser at.
I don’t know if we all agree that that shit… Pinchy hands or a laser shooting you right in the ass? I mean, I remember the Sibbers floor, that GSO side. There wasn’t always everyone with perfect… Some had wonky eyes, you know, you’d hit the button. Ooh.
Wonky eyes. I like that. I remember Vandenberg having protesters out front saying, no lasers in space, no nukes in space.
Well, that was a normal occurrence. Yeah. That right after space cowboys came out or what? Oh, that was… Great movie, by the way.
My fans. It was good to watch the actors interact. Oh, man.
The premise was a bit Armageddon. The actors made the movie. Yeah, absolutely.
So there you go. You got your space gas attendant, right? All three of them are much needed. And a space waste management engineer.
And you know what’s going to happen, right? Neither of them, all three of them, they’re not going to be able to communicate with each other, so they’re just going to be fucking running around looking for each other the whole time. They won’t be able to talk to each other. You know what I mean? That’s what’s going to happen.
That’s what space force is for, Eric. Damn. He’s so short-sighted on this, man.
I like it, but what’s the range? What’s the effectiveness? You know, I remember taking a… Oh, what the hell was that course? You know, the advanced course way back when about space offenses. Space 200? No, no, no. It was the other one.
Shit, I can’t remember what it was called. I don’t even know if they had any more. But they were talking about space lasers and all that other shit.
And they’re like, yeah, this is our concept. We’re nowhere ever fucking close to getting enough power to power. Yeah, power.
That was always a problem. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, the airborne laser that was supposed to just fly around a big C-47 or 747, just waiting to blast an enemy’s missile. Yeah. And then it was like the amount of time that the laser, at its power, had to stay on the same spot on that missile.
It was like, yeah, I think hypersonic just blew that all out of the water, right? So… Plus, they didn’t have enough power to make it work. Yeah, exactly. And those chemicals, dude.
RIT, anyone had to mess with them because I heard they were awful. I actually worked with an engineer that worked on that for years. Really? Yeah.
Well, I’m sure he’ll have cancer. You know, that he won’t get compensated for it. He was the engineer.
I don’t think he messed with any of the chemicals. I don’t know. Didn’t sugar come through? His left nipple fell off.
Well, everything else causes cancer. I mean, the fire foam, the missile guys are getting it, the tankers are getting it. The pilots from the F-14s.
The F-14s that were sitting right on top of the FLIR getting cancer. Jesus. Damn.
So, Josh, you did actually… The military that generally treated you pretty poorly, probably did you the biggest favor by getting you out of there. Yeah. It was… It was… Yeah, they tried to talk me into ringing up.
And I was very… I was like, no, thank you. And they were like, oh, but think about it. And I’m like, nope.
So it was… I said no! I was tempted. And then I told everyone to kick rocks. You are legendary for that speech.
You’re cool. Thank you. I went from them running me to them saying, hey, you can go out a couple weeks early.
In fact, I retired in 2013 and we are still telling that story in different squadrons. Oh, yeah. That was very famous story.
Yeah. I guess… I don’t remember it as funny as, I guess, others. You just got to let some time go by and… Of course, you were a little too invested in it, but those who weren’t… Yeah, exactly.
…really enjoyed the show. Thank you for that. Thank you.
I’m going to have to hear this story one night. Oh, it’s all right now. Tell me.
Come here. It’s time. From your perspectives, because… Well, I only know it secondhand, so I wasn’t actually there.
And I only know it secondhand, but… Sounds like a Jake story. I wasn’t there. I already had moved to Vandenberg.
And I had handed off all my troops. Were you there, Teapot, or no? See? We’re going to get all the lies first. The short version of the story was, I may or may not have been making fun of a certain eight Swiss master sergeant and got caught mid-impression looking like Chris Farley.
And I may have been saying some unflattering things in my youth that were listened to and then basically was ripped down the hallway all the way through the back of the sock over to where Colonel Burton was and got chewed my ass for a while. And from that point on, I kept my cool and then as soon as I knew the papers were ready for me the next morning, I went on a door-to-door trick-or-treat of, fuck you, fuck you, you fucking suck, fuck you. Your mother makes poor life choices and fuck you.
I like in that you did throw in, you’re cool. I liked it. There was plenty of people.
I was like, hey, I appreciate you. Let’s nux it up next to you, fuck you, fuck off. And I still remember because Colonel Burton was like, what’s the biggest thing you’re looking forward to doing now that you’re going to go sign your paperwork? And I said, I’m going to grow a beard and I’m going to tell people to fuck off when I come.
Because it was, Crystal and I were just talking about this the other day, just the, you know, it’s the military. You respect the rank, this. And I think I had it for a while where I got it.
And I thought I did a pretty damn good job at my job. I thought you had a good job. As soon as I started tasting the sweet nectar of freedom coming, the fuck field was barren.
And every time someone got me just to that point, I’d be like, ah, I don’t fucking care, fuck you. And it didn’t go over well. In fact, I told that story so many times, I started doubting it.
I was like, is that really how it went down? I don’t know. And it was the two Swiss, it was really the eight Swiss. There was, I mean, I think the night that I impersonated Captain Zezius on the floor and had all the two Swiss guys laughing, I think that’s when the eight Swiss guys started being like, okay, this guy’s bad news.
You nailed that, though. I loved those, man. You nailed that.
Yeah, that’s… Oh, come on. But yeah, eight Swiss, they had it out for me at the end. So it was, it was my own doing, but I went out in a blaze of glory, which I enjoyed.
Eric, to be fair, we had active duty was two Swiss, reservist was eight Swiss. And looking back at it, eight Swiss was treated and acted 100% like active duty. They were not an AGR reserve.
They had a certain portion of AGRs, so they were there. Yeah, but they did not. Those AGRs, from a reservist standpoint, were way, way, way embedded in the active duty.
They worked their ass off. At one point, those AGRs held like five or six of the freaking 10 key roles in the active duty’s chain of command, honestly. We’ve seen that a lot of places, a lot of different parts.
It was very, very integrated. So, and there was a new Swiss mafia. Doug is whole.
He literally dug his own. Well, some of those guys were not as humorous or… They were prone to humor as others. They got offended pretty quick.
That was fine. And they’d have a wet fart and get another stripe. So I was about done with it.
But I mean, you got to look at it and you’re like, well, that’s kind of valid. Back in that day, there were so few active, like there were so few positions that, or so many positions and so few people that they were instantly playing that game of if I moved to this position a year before I’m even eligible to be in this position, as soon as I put that on, I get promoted. Promoted.
Like boom, boom. They were jumping quick. And there were definitely some who maybe got promoted because they knew more people than they knew more stuff.
You know what I mean? I already know who you’re talking about. And yes, yes. I mean, the root of the problem… The root of the problem was if Jake would stop running off all of the active duty members under him, we’d actually have people to fill some spots, but fortunately they’d come in and give him, he’s the goddamn Grim Reaper.
I inherited all those, all those, except for you. I think you and Tyler Grant, you were the only two brand new people I got. The other ones, I already inherited them and they were like, hey… Well, you got… We’re giving you this guy for a reason.
You got Josh to an honorable discharge, right? Dude, I told Josh straight up. You got Tyler Grant to Leavenworth for prison time. And I called that.
I fucking saw that coming. Dude, I got a guy that was already on his fifth fucking financial problem and had still retained his clearance. And I’m like, how is this possible? Was that the guy who blew out his flight suit? That was a fun one.
Sorry, Eric. You don’t mean to go down a bunch of these inside jokes. Then you got Precious Todd.
Oh, Precious Todd. Precious Todd was a tasty treat. Look at Team Todd’s reaction.
You forgot about that. Oh, I had… Tyler Grant, Precious Todd, Josh. Oh, fucking Cedric and… You had Cedric? No shit.
No, the kid… Eric, Tyler Grant… Cedric, you’re thinking of them. Oh, okay. Tyler Grant went to jail for swapping price tags over at the BX.
Oh, nice. No. And five other stores downtown were coming to get him, too, at the same time that the BX was like, all right, this is enough.
Right. Wow. I didn’t know that.
So he was a professional top lifter. And we had set him up for success. He fleeced the top three for five hundred bucks before he left.
Ooh. Yeah, nice. And then the other one, Precious Todd, brought a cellphone into the skiff.
Great name, by the way, Precious Todd. Great name. Oh, and Eric, I’m going to sound really heartless when it comes to this.
But he was precious because he was delicate. Every time he would get a bonus shift, every time he would get in trouble, every time something he’s like, well, better go just take a bunch of pills because I’m worthless. Oh, he would threaten that shit nonstop.
We didn’t check on it. We didn’t check on it. We didn’t check on it multiple times.
Exactly. Oh, did you really? I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that.
We had one guy mentioned one thing drunk after his mother had died. He’s like, man, I don’t want to think I want to go on living without my mom. He was fucking locked up in a padded room for a week.
Yeah, that’s right. And then Todd’s like, Precious Todd’s like, actually grows a pair and finally cuts his wrist across. So not really.
Yeah. Finally grows a pair and cuts his wrist. And I take him, I have to talk the commander into referring him to mental health, forcing him to go to mental health because they released him to his, his apartment.
Wow. And I go to mental health and I’m sitting in the, in the lobby and less than half an airman’s magazine article. He’s back out.
Oh, really? And, and I’m like, we evaluate what the fuck he goes. They said I’m okay. I’m like, fuck you sit down.
I went in the back and I talked like, which room? I go, I lit into that fricking doctor. Really? I was like, he’s a piece of shit. I was like, he finally goes and cuts himself and you’re going to go release him to his roommate.
That death is on you. If he fucking does this, it’s not on his roommate. It’s not on him.
It’s on you for fucking not being professional. That’s okay. You need to lock him up for a week.
Cause he needed, he needed the help. He needed it. He needed to call the fricking.
Okay. Hey, we are legitimately concerned about you. Right.
Right. And now you’re going to tell me that he got promoted and went on to become like, you know, so. He did not Eric because I was a supervisor.
Okay. He did not get any of that. I thought he voted.
He got on the ops floor with me. And one night my fellow mission crew chief was like, Hey, I think your boy’s got a cell phone in his pocket. And I’m like, no, come on.
Oops. I stand up and I look over there and he’s like a little kid. He’s like, look.
Looking busy. Right. Like typing, lots of typing.
Because of flights who conveniently had the calf pocket. So when you’re, I go, you could just, I go over there and I open that pocket. A big reach.
Right. That pocket open. He knew that.
I’m like, yeah. He was texting his Mexican citizen girlfriend because he was having an argument. Yeah.
He’s like a non who’s dad wanted to kill him. He should have lost his clearance period. He did.
But his, the commander would not remove him from anything. So I got the commander to loot to cut his clearance. And then they put him over into the door management position.
Bejo basically for a year, almost. And I’m like, you gotta go. You gotta get rid of him.
Talking to the commander. I’m like, you gotta get rid of him. You’ve got to separate him.
I’m doing, I’ll do all the paperwork. We already got referral EPRs. We’re good to go.
You know, he’s like, no, he can be cross trained. He can be cross trained. I’m like, boss.
He cannot. He doesn’t have the eligibility of even holding a clearance. You have to have that at as a minimum.
I’m sure he said make him a cop. I removed his CJR. Yeah, exactly.
I removed his CJR. I received his freaking career field reserve spot. And I denied that.
And by denying that, they were going to force him to cross train, but they couldn’t cross train him into anything. And so he got kicked out. He just got separated at the end of his career.
Yeah. That is four years. Very high level troops there, Jake.
Very, very high level. Well, you know, one thing I give to Jake for as many people as he’s put out of the military, nobody’s ever come after him. So, you know, he has a way about it.
Tom’s got a fucking lipstick on right in my name on the wall right now. He’s watching these old episodes like, I got this. He’s still there.
I finally found him. But so, you know, he tells you to go to hell, but he’s nice about it. Check in every closet in Denver.
Yeah. He’s trying to get through LinkedIn. He’s like, damn, motherfucker.
The only thing I remember about Precious Todd is when we stamped the top secret mission log book, Steve, on his head. That was him that you did in the break room. I stamped his head and we went the whole 12 hour shift with this.
And then when he got home, he just added you to the list. For sure. Josh’s name is right there under mine.
One hundred. One hundred percent. I was.
Yeah, that was not nice. All right. Let’s get the Chicago boy to bed here.
So these next couple of stories are kind of related. They’re sort of related. In fact, the fact that they’re not related is odd because they should be.
So first off, have anybody lived in an RV for an extended amount of time, like more than 30 days? I mean, I’ve lived in one for a week and it was like a real trip. We rented and shit like that. And by the end of that week, you’re just like, fuck, I am tired of this closet bathroom.
You know, I, oh, shit. Let me out of this, right? Well, for task and purpose comes this families at Edwards Air Force Base living in RVs for housing relief. Anybody been out to Edwards? Yeah, there’s nothing out there.
Nothing. Middle of no. So due to Edwards Air Force Base facing a quote decades long, chronic end quote housing shortage and sky high rents around the remote desert bases in Southern California.
Some military families are cramming into RVs to make ends meet. This task and purpose does this a lot where they tell a story using an example. So this woman, Karen Petrie, whose husband is a senior chief in the Navy assigned to an F-35 test program at Edwards, spent nearly all of her first year at the base living in a camping style.
This is not even an RV, a camping style trailer whose walls were so thin that they eventually had to buy three air conditioning air conditioners because of the 115 degree heat out there, right? What a wonderful recruitment. I know. That’s perfect.
Makes me want to join again. They were in Texas and right before they were, they headed out to Edwards, the bases housing told them their wait time would be, would not be two weeks. Instead, it could be up to 12 months from when you arrive for housing.
Wow. In early 2021, they purchased a large fifth wheel RV trailer with a $70,000 loan for the next 11 months. The family of four lived in the RV parked at the basis campground known as fam camp included while, including while Karen was pregnant with the couple’s third child in April, 2022, their name.
So that was early 2021 in April, 2022 their name finally reached the top of the wait list and a home on base came open almost immediately. They got messages from other families saying, can we rent your RV? Three years later, they’re still renting the RV out to families that are months away from getting their own on base housing. All right.
So this is why. Wait, Marty, you’re in the RV with two and then three kids, four and then five kids. And then the Mojave desert, like you’re in the fucking California desert.
You, you would think the base commander would look at this and go, Hey, we got a problem. And you might need to expand base housing. Maybe.
And this was a senior chief in the Navy. This is like some E 45. So according to base officials, Edwards has 741 homes on base along with the 57 site fam camp, the 20 22 air force housing requirements and market analysis for the base found a shortfall of 119 single family homes and 307 unaccompanied accommodations based on the total number of active booty members aside.
Wow. It just came out of the blue. I’ve lost words.
It’s a hundred and ninety single. Three hundred and seven. I mean, you can eat accommodations.
You could do what? Two dorms. Yeah. Would fix that.
Yeah. Two dorm buildings would fix that three oh seven. Probably.
Right. That says better yet. Let’s not overpopulate Edwards with people and taskings that require that many fricking houses.
Move people to other locations. That’s way too strategic thinking there. Wow.
And you can’t good. Finding all face stuff. Because you have skunk works there.
Exactly right. You have engineers galore all over there. Look at the article.
What other places do. They went into all the surrounding towns. I’m not going to read that part, but they went into all the surrounding towns and they’re like, hey, this town 30 minutes away is building more accommodations in this town.
40 minutes away is building this. But just like you said, you’ve got an E 45 who’s competing with engineers at their salary level. Six figures.
What the hell are they going to get into housing? Yeah. Says the real threat to most service members at Edwards is California’s housing market rental prices in the area. Average 3000 a month.
Wow. Uh, which this realtor set is in due parts of the limited options BAH at Edwards, like all military bases varies by rank. Junior enlisted members with families are paid a little over 2300 a month to find off base housing while senior enlisted troops and young officers get closer, closer to 3000.
More experienced officers top out just about three 3500. But the average is 3000. To live in off base.
At one point, the price for a spot at fam camp was lowered to 750 a month during the pandemic. Now the price has shot up to 950 per month for a pad. That’s what that’s just the pan.
Well, I don’t know if hookups are included in that, but I think it’s just the bad. Right. They can’t, they, they wouldn’t do a base price for all, all hookups included.
I get it. But you’re on base on base is not supposed to be making money. It’s not a profitable plate.
Remember, we talked about providing support for the troops. Remember when a fees was a good deal, like shopping at the commissary with really saved you money. Like, oh yeah.
Yeah. Same thing with these, with these pads, man. That’s, I just, this is not a new problem, right? How did they get this bad? Like this has had to be decade, probably decades in the making 10, 10, 20 years.
It has to be. As soon as they up the man, right? Yup. And they don’t address the housing.
Well, there you go. That’s why it’s time to remove the military out of the state of California. Put them somewhere.
Just pull them. Good money. Put the base somewhere else.
I’m just saying. Well, I’m sure other places are the same. Yeah.
Not all places. You know, not all places. You’re right.
You’re right. All right. Edwards does grow.
Yeah. You know, more so than any other base problem. So when I was teaching, we would have to check on our, all of our students and make sure they, Hey, you got transportation, you got housing, you got all this.
One of my students was straight cross train over from air force honor guard. And him and his wife had been living in fam camp at bowling green in DC because they couldn’t afford DC prices. Yeah.
That was literally. Oh, six. 20 years ago.
Yeah. And they, they had driven their RV all the way out to Vandenberg and we’re living in fan camp because they weren’t one. They didn’t know where they were going to be officially.
It’s smart. It’s smart. He’s like, it’s, it’s a smart deal.
It’s cheaper, significantly cheaper than apartments in DC, but it’s been going on that long teapot. Like you’ve mentioned, it’s not a new problem. It’s been going on that long.
Right. Plus there’s wondering why we have a recruiting problem. Those recruiting problems are hidden.
So people don’t know that until they get in there. if your recruiter came in and said, oh, by the way, we’re going to bring our base. We’re going to put you in this little RV about this big.
You’ll love it. You’re not going to put you in that RV. You have to fucking take a loan for that damn RV.
You have to have a truck to pull that RV. You have to pay a thousand dollars for water electric hookup pad. Yeah.
And we’re only going to give you $2,000 total for everything. That’s nuts. However, like, you wouldn’t have to have a pop-up by any chance, would you? Yeah.
Can you imagine a pop-up trailer in that weather? No. Right. That’s just crazy.
Then there’s this other story. They’re not related, but they should be right. This is a story from stripes.com. Sailors can now live in RV parks full time.
Thanks to a Navy policy change. So air force is screwed, but the sailors can do it. All you got to do is buy an RV.
I suppose. Active duty sailors and their families may now spend their entire tours at some Navy bases living in RV parts. Navy families enjoy Navy RV parks for recreation leisure, but may also choose that option for up to a year, waiting for base housing to become available during a change of duty station.
The new policy, which took effect March 8th, also permits active duty members and their RVs and their families to stay in an RV park for the duration of their tours of duty based on the request and extension. Previously. Navy MWR RV parks required visitors to renew the reservations every 30 days.
The new policy permits them to extend another 180 days. His space is available. After that patrons may extend their existing reservation up to a year from their arrival date.
So I guess if you’re if you’re in, you’re in, you could say, but if you’re and they’re like, Oh, we have no housing and we have no spots at the RV park. I mean, this is a small thing, but all those retirees that are traveling around me like, Oh, let’s, let’s stay at the Academy. Let’s stay at this Naval base.
Good. They’re all full with permanent party. Yeah, that’s right.
We were talking about going to Wyoming to Cheyenne, Cheyenne frontier days. Fe Warren’s full. Of course.
Probably. Couldn’t get in the bunkhouse or whatever it’s called now. The round house or yeah.
No, no room. So I say, well, we’re not going to do that. Well, and not to mention the fact that you got to get used to living in an RV.
God forbid you have a family, right? But that article about the Edwards one also, I guess she was pregnant and they had to call the ambulance. Ambulance came out there. Roads were bad.
But then the ambulance came out and they’re like, we can’t find you because there’s no real numbering system. All these paths. So they went out and put like reflective tape.
And the next time they had the call, they’re like, hey, where are the reflective tape ones? So the ambulance could find unbelievable. Well, the article was talking about like the wind knocking out the power. Right.
Right. Yeah. It’s just like he had a solar panel, which I don’t think God or else his refrigerator would have gone out.
Zero pros to this thing, man. What’s good about it? It’s good that they write the article, I suppose, obviously Congress and nobody reacts to anything until they see it in print. They’re like, oh, shit.
Let’s get on that right away. That can’t be good. Oh, by the way, now there’s cancer in their RV somehow.
Right. So there’s a medical issue living in an RV for longer than 100 live by a septic tank. Too long.
Unbelievable. I was waiting for our resident like cheer pot over there to throw out something good. He’s not even positive tonight.
I mean, this was awful because it affects the east and the west coast, man. Like it’s it’s a problem. Yeah.
Maybe these guys are like, okay, RV parks full. Let’s go down to the beach and they’re like, nope. Snowy Plover.
Oh, hey. On that road trip, I just tried to stay at Vandenberg fan camp. It was full.
It makes sense. Yeah. Oh, kidding.
No way. We didn’t even give you a chance to talk about your road. It was a great road trip.
All right. So let’s go in our last story to pump you up on the military some more. Okay.
Here’s another oversight by the VA. No, it never happens from the air force times. It’s actually from all the times.
It was, it was in all those air force army needed hip replacements and other orthopedic devices are not properly tracked by the VA. If a veteran’s artificial hip or shoulder reconstruction gets recalled because of manual damage, they’re not able to notify the people that they went into. According to a warning from a government watchdog released last week or this week.
Our last week. Actually investigators from the GAO said, despite widespread use of non-biological implants, medical implantable medical devices among VA patients, the department lacks an effective tracking system for many of the items leading to health and safety concerns. Did you, did you guys have to fill out like a hand receipt for these or something? No, no.
They’re just like, Oh, you lost it. Check the data base. Who’s got that? Hey, he signed a hand receipt.
That’s right. They’re just like, Hey, this is free for you. I like buck it in.
He signed it with piece of V, man. Come on. There was zero fine print about, oh, if this knee goes out, come back.
We’ll give you another one. Yeah. So it was nothing like that.
So, uh, if we continue down this road, I’m going to become a conspiracist like the rest of you. Oh, thank you. I’m going to join the dark side.
I’m telling you. Well, you know, when Ukraine wins that war, investigators noted that the problem does not extend to cardiac devices like pacemakers or implantable defibrillators where such recalls and problems demand immediate attention. Those items are monitored and tracked meticulously by VA staffers.
Good. Good. As they should.
That’s awesome. But other medical devices are not accounted for in the same way. While the department tracks total numbers of items in use, the specific equipment is not stored in a database with the veteran using it, leaving a gap in information of problems arise.
How many did you give up? A couple hundred thousand. Who’d you give them to? I don’t know. This is my mechanical armbat.
One of the guys was called Glenn. I remember that. I’m pretty sure there was a Glenn.
VA officials said they implemented more than one million such devices in veteran patients from 2019 to 2023. The GAO said there have been four major recalls to hip replacements and other implantable orthopedic medical equipment in the last three years. Although the action is covered over fewer than 30,000 items.
So the chance that your hip or my knee is among them fairly low. I didn’t get mine from the VA. I went through a civilian because the VA wanted me to do physical therapy.
They laughed at me when I first went in. They’re like, I can’t do anything for you. Then they wanted to do injections.
I’m like, Oh, you got to go through the lowest cost possible. And I’m like, no, like there’s literally nothing left here. So I ended up going try care select baby.
I went in x-rayed. He walked in young guys like when you want to do it. I’m like, let’s go.
Is it your hip? Yeah. I left it. It was cool, man.
Like all that. Like first of all, like you go in and it looks like an OBGYN table, which is hilarious. They thought that sometimes people aren’t intimidated.
I’m laughing. I’m like, I’ve been here before. Yeah.
This last time too. And you know what? The doctor ain’t half bad looking. So, you know what? I’m okay with it.
Let’s go. The point of view is a little different, but I am familiar with this equipment. You know, like, like there’s an x-ray up there and they had like, like these computer to kind of figure out what device to use.
Right. So they, they cut you open, do all that. And then they put like a practice one in and they put everything together to make sure it’s right.
And then they put the real one. It’s super cool. Oh, wow.
You get to keep the old one. He cut my femoral head out and he said, I saw him a couple of hours out of surgery. He’s like, you had so many bone spurs.
I’m like, yeah, I know. My white one’s probably just as bad. I’m like, do you still have it? He’s like, I can’t give it to you.
I’m like, damn it. Oh yes. Come on now.
Put in a specimen case on the shelf. Like, yeah. Yeah.
that’s my hip. Never fear though, because you know what the VA is planning to do about it. Spreadsheet.
In a statement, VA officials. Unclassified network. That’s not.
VA officials. Your statement was funnier than the joke I was trying to say. But this isn’t a joke.
It’s from the article. In a statement, VA officials promised to review the issue and address needed changes by March 2025. So we’re good.
He’s been good to me, but there are definitely some more proficient ways. VA has been good to me too, but the things that happen in the VA and it’s at mid-management and up level. Yeah.
It’s just like, how did you not think of this? Write them down. Write their names down. You know, it’s okay.
Isn’t the database that said I got a knee replacement? Doesn’t that feed anything else? Serial number 04432. That’s it? That’s right there. Or the number of bases or the VA hospitals that are doing actively doing knee replacements or hip replacements.
They’re not infinite. Yeah. You know, less than a hundred.
I’m assuming. Right. You know, I mean, I would imagine even the tobacco company has lots that they know where they went to.
Right. Yeah. We track all sorts of it.
Just hilarious that they got a problem with the pacemakers. So there’s a process in place. That’s right.
Good point. Then you got your precious Todd’s taking care of the knees that they’re just like, okay, you know, boop, boop, boop. So we got racks and sticks over here.
And you know, 2003 Excel spreadsheet. Which all they got to do is keep you working. Yeah.
The same way working. If you live with the data. Right.
We need it. We need it. To the Edwards Air Force Base School of Management.
And that’s kind of where we’re at. We need an AI man. We need one of them.
But at the same time, I remember working at two Swiss when they were like, hey, we’ve lost all our senior NCOs. I was like, you knew this a year ago. You saw this coming.
Why didn’t you do anything about it? They’re like, oh, get back to work. It’s like, that’s an answer. So anyway.
So we got no praise going out today. No praise. It’s all bad.
No good on anybody. We got a shout out to our guests, man. Well, no.
From the stories, you know, from the stories we had, we had no praise. We’re about to go into Mr. History. And what can you regale us for today? Oh, you’re going to be just him.
So impressed. We’re going to have to bring the Brigadier General back. He’d like this one.
Well, he might have liked the North Carolina. You’re doing this. He’s not even here.
He may be listening. He may be listening. All right.
So OK, guys. Here we go. I think we may have lost him within the first five minutes.
Yeah. After the 14th. Yeah, he may not have hanged.
These foul-mouthed bastards. I’m not going back. All right.
Michigan fans in that closeted guy. OK. Mr. History.
Sorry. Take it away. So in February and March 1917, 1917, fellas, Germany embroiled in war with Britain, France and Russia, increased its attacks on neutral shipping in the Atlantic and offered in the form of the so-called Zimmerman Telegram to help Mexico regain Texas, New Mexico and Arizona if it would join Germany in the war against the United States.
The public outcry against Germany ballooned in President Wilson and asking Congress to abandon America’s neutrality and making the world safe for democracy. So on April 2nd, today, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to send U.S. troops into battle against Germany and World War One. In his address to Congress that day, Wilson Lamb aged, it is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people in the war.
Four days later, Congress obliged to declare more on Germany. That is your history for the night. I like the succinctness of it.
Yeah. Well, it was it was great enough. If you think strategic, that’s big enough, right? 1917, World War One.
That’s true. Yeah. That’s pretty cool.
Germany about egging on Mexico, huh? Oh, yeah, that’s crazy. Why not, right? That’s I mean, that makes sense. Make them an ally and they’re sitting on our border.
Oh, yeah, man. Oh, yes. It’s a good thing they were lazy back there.
They’re like, yeah. They’re pretty energetic today. Climbing over.
That’s a lot. Oh, nice. We have to go and get up and go back up north.
Well, I got slapped by a Pancho Villa tribe. And then. Yeah, that’s right.
Blackjack person, baby. Send them back. Oh, I think where it ended up then.
Josh, you got any final words of wisdom for us? No, no. I appreciate you guys bringing me in. It’s always good to see some friendly faces.
We wrote some stories with you. So I guess keep on doing what you guys are doing because I love it. Love catching in and appreciate being able to tell a couple of jokes and get a couple laughs out of you guys.
A couple. You would have been great on the Sivers Reunion show. That got an ankle within the first 45 seconds.
That’s right. There might have been a couple of fuck yous given on that show. I hate you.
I hate you. Unbelievable. He pulls out the punch card.
He’s like, yeah, got it. Oh, good to see you after 20 years. Some things I never got to finish before.
You’ve got to fuck a kid yourself. I missed you the first time you saw that. I did.
Josh, give Crystal her best. And I’ll be on behalf of all of us here. I’d like to say thanks 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 changeover. Nice. Man, thanks for the week.
Josh, thanks for coming on, man. And to everyone listening and watching, we’ll see you next week. Nice to meet you, Josh.
Yes, me too.