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Air Force AC-130 Avaitor Reveals Raw Truth | Moonchild Interview · Jeep Talk Show

0:00
(crowd cheering)
0:04
And yo boys and girls,
0:05
it's time for another
0:05
Jeep Talk Show interview.
0:07
We're gonna be
0:07
talking with Anthony Dreyer.
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And Anthony, all the viewers here know
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how bad I am at
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pronunsticating things, as I like to say.
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So you correct me on any of this.
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Actually, I was gonna ask you,
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is it Silva, North Carolina,
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that I see here in the intro?
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Silva.
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Correct, he has a born and raised
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and spent 18 years of my life
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before I joined the Air Force there, so.
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Okay, I just didn't wanna mess it up.
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It looks like Sylvia, but there's no I.
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Anthony Dreyer is a former US Air Force
0:36
special missions
0:37
aviator with over a decade
0:38
of experience in
0:39
special operations aviation.
0:41
He flew high risk
0:42
missions around the globe,
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earning multiple
0:45
accolades, including Air Force,
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the Air Force's Jolly
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Green Rescue mission
0:50
of the year in 2018.
0:52
Originally from Silva, North Carolina,
0:54
in the heart of the
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Appalachian Mountains,
0:58
Anthony brings the same
0:59
courage and gift and grit
1:01
that defined his
1:03
military career to his work
1:05
as an author and mental health advocate.
1:08
His book and memoir, "Moonchild" often,
1:12
or rather offers a
1:14
raw and compelling look
1:16
at war, trauma, addiction, and recovery.
1:19
Shedding light on the invisible battles
1:21
that many veterans and
1:23
service members have,
1:24
or that they face.
1:26
All right, so Anthony, as you can tell,
1:29
I wear reading glasses, and
1:31
that's why I chopped that up
1:32
so badly, because I don't have them on.
1:35
(laughs) I still read on a fifth grade level, man,
1:37
so somehow managed to put a book out.
1:39
I can't read.
1:41
(laughs)
1:41
I read books and
1:42
pictures in them, you know, so.
1:43
I can barely talk.
1:45
(beep) I gotta read, too.
1:47
All right, Anthony, so this is cool.
1:49
Is this your first
1:50
book that you've written?
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It is, yeah, it's just
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over a year old now, so.
1:55
Just a relatively quick read, too, is
1:57
about a two-hour read,
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but it'll take you through all the
2:00
emotions in two hours,
2:01
is what I like to tell people,
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so at least what I've heard from it, so.
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I got a dear friend
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that's written a few books,
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and a different subject
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from yours, of course,
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but it's funny, this learning the process
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that I've heard from
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her, it really almost is
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just something that you gotta get out,
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the story that you have to get out,
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because unless there's a movie deal,
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you ain't makin' no money off of books.
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No, yeah, yeah, that's what,
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there is this sort of, you know,
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people believe that
2:31
there's thousands and thousands
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of dollars, and unless
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you're big time, big time,
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that's not gonna, at least for me,
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that didn't happen like
2:38
that, but it does okay,
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and really, I tell people
2:41
that every sort of veteran
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and first responder in
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these uncommon type jobs, man,
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very just normal men
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and women doing these
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very uncommon, unnatural things,
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so it's good to get that stuff out,
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and if writing that
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down's a good way to do that,
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and somebody may benefit
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from your words, you know?
2:58
Oh, absolutely, and you never know,
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and I think a lot of people,
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and this is true for podcasting as well,
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a lot of people go, who am I to do
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something like this?
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Who am I that, you know,
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people that have known me
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for years barely listen to me,
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or are they gonna get a
3:13
book and read what I had to say
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or listen to me on a podcast?
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But you should do it, you know,
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because you don't know, if
3:19
you don't do it, you don't know.
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Let me ask you about
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the title of the book
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without giving it away too much,
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because we do want
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people to purchase the book
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and get it, I'm assuming
3:31
it's available on Amazon
3:32
and you can get it on Kindle and stuff?
3:35
Yes, sir, you can get it on Amazon,
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Barnes and Noble,
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basically anywhere they sell books
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and then trademarker media.
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So the name of the book is Moon Child,
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what's the reason for the name?
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Yeah, so I was born on a full moon there,
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in Appalachia, you know, in North
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Carolina in the mountains
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and then basically
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that was April 7th of 82
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and then, you know,
3:56
flying around in the gunship,
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you're doing this
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left hand turn all night,
4:00
mostly during the night, you know,
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there's parts in the orbit, you know,
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where you can sort of
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get lost in time and space.
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Oh, I bet.
4:08
You know, you'll
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remember where the moon's at,
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you know, sort of my get well point,
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like almost like a
4:13
lighthouse for me, you know,
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and it's always been symbolic, you know,
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about like, you know, during those
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darkest nights, man,
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that's when the moon
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needs to burn the bright ice
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and you find those
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moments of light, you know,
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to get you and your fellow
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airmen, brothers, sisters,
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through all that, you know,
4:25
so it's definitely like a,
4:27
almost like a lighthouse to me, you know,
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and it made flying air
4:29
for us with the terrain
4:30
and easier to pick up tracer fire on NVGs
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and stuff like that, you know.
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So would this be the
4:36
same, is it a C-130 gunship?
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Is that what it is or
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do they have others,
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the other gunships?
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Yeah, so it's only AC-130,
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the A would be attack
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and the C would be cargo
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and then a C-130 without the,
4:49
not being a gunship without guns
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would be just a C-130 for cargo.
4:53
But yeah, there's a, you know, back then,
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when I first started flying,
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we had the H model Spectre gunship,
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which, you know, it had
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tell numbers like 6-9 and 7-2,
5:00
like Vietnam, so you're
5:01
flying on the same skeletal
5:03
structure of the same ones that flew over
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the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
5:06
So there's always a lot
5:07
of pride in that, you know,
5:08
being a part of that unit
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and it really was sort of
5:10
built on giants, you know,
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and we have a saying in, you know,
5:13
special operations is,
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humans are more
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important in hardware, you know,
5:17
so it's really about the men and women
5:19
that provide that close air support
5:20
for those super ninjas on the ground,
5:22
as I like to call them.
5:23
Then you had the U model, the Spooky,
5:25
which was at Herbertville,
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which is, you know,
5:27
still at Herbertville,
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that squadron.
5:29
So I did hear right,
5:31
this is a gunship that you were on,
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so you were on the attack, okay.
5:35
Yeah. So, and I don't mean to
5:36
be offensive about this,
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but my only,
5:40
Molly, straight hand
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information from a gunship
5:44
that you have orbits and you shoot stuff,
5:46
is from a game, I
5:47
think it was Call of Duty.
5:49
And what a wonderful,
5:51
what a wonderful segment that was
5:53
to take on those guns
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and be at the gunship,
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shoot and shoot in the ground.
5:59
And what do you call it?
6:01
Not the nightlight,
6:02
where you can see the little glowing
6:05
people running around.
6:07
The iron broom and stuff like that.
6:09
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
6:09
Yeah, flare, yeah.
6:10
Flare, yeah.
6:11
So it's so horrible
6:12
to actually, you know,
6:13
be killing people, but
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these weren't real people,
6:15
but you were in a situation where,
6:17
I mean, they weren't
6:18
shooting at the gunship
6:19
that I was in in the game,
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but you guys could get shot at,
6:22
and you could lose your life doing that.
6:25
I mean, it's something that,
6:27
but people is, it's a funny thing,
6:29
people don't wanna die.
6:30
So they may shoot back.
6:33
Oh yeah, yeah, that's
6:34
actually one of the,
6:35
they'll tell you one of
6:35
the golden rules in gunship,
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being, you know, is when shooting,
6:38
expect to be fired upon, you know,
6:39
and there's, you know, there has been
6:41
some lessons learned,
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Desert Storm had the Spirit Zero 3,
6:44
you know, the gunship, they got shot down
6:45
with a surface air missile,
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which is reasoning, we
6:48
usually mostly fly at night.
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But yeah, I mean, your whole
6:51
reason for shooting would be,
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you know, basically there's these guys
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and gals on the ground, right?
6:56
Like our nation's very best, man.
6:57
And, you know, there's
6:59
letters on that squadron
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where like my wife behind, I
7:02
guess the mission was like,
7:03
there was this ranger
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holding his baby girl,
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you know, and he's basically thinking
7:07
the squadron from the rounds,
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he's able to go home
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and see his baby girl.
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And to me, that was the why, you know,
7:11
people get caught up on the, you know,
7:13
the enemy killed in action,
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but really it's about
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making sure those guys
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get home to their family, you know?
7:17
I tell you what, I was
7:19
never in the military.
7:20
As I've said before, I'm
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pretty sure that had I joined,
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I would have been
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killed by friendly fire.
7:25
This stuff is too much of a smart ass
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(beep)
7:28
(laughing)
7:30
But I would, I have a lot
7:34
of respect for those men
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that get on the ground
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and their elbow to elbow
7:38
with people trying to kill them.
7:40
Now I think the military
7:42
does a really good job.
7:43
I mean, obviously air
7:44
support that you guys were doing,
7:46
but just the idea of them
7:48
running around the ground.
7:49
I mean, you have to be a
7:50
certain type of bad ass
7:52
and PTSD is completely understandable
7:54
when you're ready to
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be killed at any second.
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You never know when
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that bullet might be coming
8:00
from a direct one direction or another.
8:03
So, and I think you kind of
8:04
go over this in your book,
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don't you?
8:07
Yeah, definitely.
8:08
You know, when we were in Afghanistan,
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the surface to air threat
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wasn't like at that point
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that high, you know, but
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when the ISIS conflict started,
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that's when they really had
8:15
some stuff that could sort of
8:16
reach out and touch us, you know?
8:18
And I remember flying man and in the
8:19
night you'd be scanning
8:20
with your MBGs and
8:21
there's these like, you know,
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beach ball size air
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bursts that you're six o'clock.
8:26
So they could hear the, and
8:27
they knew about the gunship
8:28
and the props, what we
8:29
call the four fans of freedom,
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you know, and so they're
8:32
basically trying to get a lucky
8:33
shot on us, but once
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they did that, you know,
8:35
it was self defense at that
8:36
point and we would take care
8:37
of them and stuff, but yeah, it was a,
8:39
but the real, you know, I
8:41
guess people that are really
8:42
in harm's way, man, is
8:43
those guys breaching that door
8:44
and they're going in
8:45
there to get a heavy hitter,
8:47
if you will, you know what I mean?
8:49
And again, you know, it's,
8:51
you take a lot of basically
8:52
pride, man, in getting
8:53
that, those guys, you know,
8:54
the one and the one
8:55
Hunter Herakles talks about
8:56
home to their family, so.
8:58
Mm-hmm.
8:59
I think it's great that
9:00
here in this recent conflict
9:02
that we were involved in with Iran,
9:04
at least not publicized
9:06
any boots on the ground,
9:07
I suspect that we probably
9:09
had some boots on the ground,
9:11
if not ours, the Israelis
9:14
or from one of the others,
9:16
but I'm glad that we
9:18
didn't have US soldiers
9:21
put in harm's way more
9:23
so than what they were
9:24
flying over it, and
9:26
everybody did a stellar job.
9:28
Are you happy or sad that you weren't
9:31
involved in this one?
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I mean, you know, I'm
9:34
sad because like, you know,
9:36
in a way I have to get over
9:37
myself with stuff like this,
9:39
and realize this machine
9:40
keeps turning right, like,
9:41
you know, and you see
9:44
the air power, right,
9:45
and air superiority and stuff like that,
9:46
and then you had the, you
9:48
know, basically air superiority,
9:50
people talk about just the
9:51
presence of American air power
9:52
over a certain area,
9:53
right, and a lot of times
9:55
they forget about the
9:56
promise to that presence,
9:57
I tell people, and that's
9:58
when you saw on Easter Sunday,
10:00
you know, ironically,
10:01
that F-15, you know,
10:03
Wizzo went down and you
10:04
saw those mighty jolly greens
10:05
behind enemy lines, like,
10:07
putting it all out there, man,
10:08
and those guys really do
10:09
put it all out there to,
10:10
you know, to make
10:11
sure someone's worst day
10:13
is not their last, so,
10:14
yeah, I miss the camaraderie,
10:15
and I miss the brotherhood
10:17
and sisterhood part of that,
10:18
man, but yeah, you know,
10:19
anybody that's ever been in a war,
10:20
I'll tell you they don't
10:21
want to be in another one,
10:22
you know, so, you know, high inside,
10:24
I wish we could do
10:25
diplomacy 10 out of 10 times, right,
10:27
but it's not always
10:28
the case, and, you know,
10:29
people a lot smarter than
10:30
me make those decisions,
10:31
but yeah, I do miss being
10:34
actually in the aircraft
10:35
with my family, you know.
10:36
Right.
10:38
So, you mentioned ISIS and
10:40
the battle that you were in.
10:43
There was a president prior to this one
10:47
that left a few billion
10:48
dollars worth of equipment
10:51
for, you know, anybody to pick up.
10:53
I mean, I'm surprised it
10:55
hasn't been on eBay yet.
10:57
Can people that are not
11:00
trained using that equipment
11:02
figure it out if given enough time,
11:04
I guess enough people to throw at it
11:06
that get killed in the process?
11:09
Yeah, so I would say it
11:11
would take time, you know,
11:12
and a lot of time, I
11:14
guess, if you've never,
11:15
like, you look at a helicopter,
11:16
like, first time I saw one, I was like,
11:17
man, how does this thing
11:18
hover, how does this thing fly,
11:19
you know, and I mean, just, you know,
11:22
then there's checklists, we're
11:22
very much creatures of habit,
11:24
so we've been trained to--
11:25
There's a lot of
11:26
mainnets to keeping these things
11:28
in kiln or two. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
11:29
you know, mainnets and everything,
11:31
even though logistics
11:31
for the mainnet, right,
11:32
all that stuff, and yeah,
11:34
I think it would be a lot
11:35
of time and a lot of money
11:36
that they could eventually get it,
11:37
but nothing in the near
11:39
future where they could just,
11:40
you know, pick up
11:41
something and know how to use it,
11:42
you know? Mm-hmm.
11:42
Well, I think it
11:43
sounds bad whenever you hear
11:44
that you left seven
11:46
billion or whatever it was,
11:48
all that equipment over there,
11:50
I mean, you could at
11:51
least just blow it up.
11:53
I think it's better than
11:54
leaving it operational,
11:55
and I think that's what the standard is,
11:57
is to destroy the equipment
11:59
or it can't be used against you,
12:02
but I don't know that
12:04
it's, you think about it,
12:06
they're not easy machines
12:09
for the most part, you know?
12:11
I think a tank probably
12:12
would be the easiest thing,
12:15
but I don't know.
12:17
Anyway, I think it'd
12:18
be fun figuring it out,
12:19
but I could well imagine it could really,
12:22
several people could lose their lives,
12:23
especially whenever
12:24
you're trying to learn
12:25
how to drive the tank
12:26
and you run over your buddy
12:28
that's out there next to the tracks,
12:30
by spinning it.
12:32
Yeah, I think there's
12:33
some interesting videos
12:34
of those guys trying to fly a 60
12:36
after we left the stuff like that.
12:38
Oh, good Lord, that would be,
12:39
I mean, I would dearly
12:40
love to fly a helicopter,
12:41
but I've heard that flying helicopters,
12:43
hovering a helicopter is so difficult.
12:46
Oh yeah, yeah, you know, it's basically,
12:49
and there was a point in my career
12:50
where I went from fixed
12:51
wing to rotary wing, man,
12:53
and I really struggled, man,
12:54
like having to like forget
12:56
everything I thought I knew
12:56
about flying and aerogunnery
12:58
coming from this fixed
12:59
wing platform, right,
13:00
to a rotary wing platform,
13:02
and I think there's a
13:03
moment in the book, man,
13:04
we're doing these minigun patterns
13:06
and the racetrack type
13:07
patterns in the helicopter,
13:08
and it's August, July or August,
13:10
and Albuquerque, man,
13:10
and I didn't eat right,
13:12
I was sitting on the
13:12
left for the first side,
13:13
and I was getting
13:13
malfunctioned after malfunctioned
13:15
after malfunctioned.
13:16
Man, there's this
13:16
moment to where like, man,
13:18
I was like, I'm gonna be
13:18
sick for the first time
13:19
ever in there, right,
13:21
and so I was like, okay,
13:23
well, if I leave my
13:24
head this much out the door
13:26
when I puke, it won't
13:27
come back in the aircraft,
13:28
lo and behold, we had
13:29
both doors in my instructor,
13:31
my actually evaluator was in the back,
13:33
and so I was like, right, and it came
13:35
back and just, boom,
13:35
just fragged him in the
13:36
back, man, he gives me,
13:37
he gives me one of these numbers,
13:39
but yeah, we're really good friends,
13:41
we joke about it today, but yeah,
13:43
but there's definitely
13:44
no, with rotary wing,
13:45
faking it to make it, man, like I said,
13:46
those guys are really,
13:48
they put it out there, man,
13:49
for they are the
13:50
brothers keepers, you know?
13:51
So I know in civilian flying,
13:53
at least I think I know
13:54
it's been a while now,
13:55
but the pilot command in a
13:58
fixed wing is on the left,
14:01
and it's on the right in a
14:03
helicopter, a rotary blade,
14:05
and I don't know why that is,
14:09
but is it the same in the military
14:10
where you're pilot command
14:13
on the right or the left?
14:15
Yeah, exactly, so when
14:16
I went from gunships,
14:17
the aircraft commander's
14:18
on the front left, right,
14:20
you know, the left, and like you said,
14:22
then helicopters, he was on the right,
14:23
and what I could gather,
14:25
so if we're doing a hoist
14:26
like on the right side of the aircraft,
14:27
because the hoist is on
14:28
the 60, the right side,
14:30
so he can just poke his head out
14:31
and sort of see
14:32
what's going on, you know,
14:33
and we do practice to do cross cockpit,
14:36
what we call crew resource management,
14:37
and you know, you're doing
14:39
all these different comms,
14:40
and it's a very
14:41
back-end enlisted driven thing,
14:43
like a hoist or
14:43
something like that, you know?
14:45
Or like one little hovers, for example,
14:46
a lot of coordination, man, so.
14:49
So when you were learning
14:50
to be a helicopter pilot,
14:53
you had to do an auto rotator, right?
14:56
Yeah, and I was a, you know,
14:58
traditionally a gunner,
14:58
and what they did was
15:00
they combined the gunner
15:01
with the fighter
15:02
engineer and low master crew
15:03
for it on the gunship, and
15:04
then for the helicopters,
15:05
it was a gunner and fighter engineer,
15:07
but yeah, you would actually train,
15:08
they would decouple from the
15:09
freewheeling unit, you know,
15:11
and then you would auto rotate,
15:12
starting about 1,000 feet,
15:13
and the first time I did that, man,
15:14
my stick buddy was laughing,
15:15
because my eyes were like
15:17
huge, you know what I mean?
15:17
But it was, I was like,
15:19
man, what a pleasure an auto is
15:21
to get paid to do this, man.
15:22
Oh yeah, and the top
15:24
of the line equipment,
15:25
it's just, you know, you're
15:27
cutting edge on things there,
15:28
so from that aspect of it,
15:31
I think it would have
15:32
been very interesting to me
15:34
to be involved in the military,
15:36
but there's a lot of
15:36
boring downtime as well, right?
15:39
Oh yeah, there's a lot
15:41
of hurry up and wait,
15:41
as they call it, you know, it's,
15:45
the gunship mission was more like every,
15:47
almost every night
15:48
you're going out there,
15:49
and you're doing these missions,
15:51
and you may shoot once a week,
15:52
you may shoot once a month,
15:53
depending on the situation,
15:55
but you know, 60s on
15:56
the rescue side of things,
15:57
and I get it now, that's definitely a job
15:59
you never want to have to do, right?
16:01
Right.
16:02
You know, so, but it does happen,
16:04
and it's usually after a
16:05
long waiting period, you know,
16:07
and like I said, there's
16:09
things in the Air Force,
16:09
like one of the corps of veterans--
16:10
Well, they're waiting for you too, right?
16:12
I mean, if you're doing a rescue mission,
16:13
they may not know where the down pilot
16:15
or crew member is, but
16:18
they general vicinity,
16:19
and all they have to do
16:20
is follow the helicopter
16:22
to pinpoint the area, so
16:24
it's a very dangerous mission.
16:25
On the 130 stuff that you did,
16:30
did that ever get routine to you,
16:32
or you were like, "Oh,
16:33
another day, another 50 cents,
16:35
let's go out there and get it done,"
16:37
because it would be
16:38
really exciting to me at first,
16:40
and also too
16:40
terrifying, but after a while,
16:42
did you kind of, that's
16:44
kind of get used to it?
16:45
So I definitely like
16:47
always chase that feeling
16:49
that moment to where
16:50
it's a troops in contact,
16:52
and they call us in overhead,
16:53
and you see the enemy through the flare,
16:55
like you were talking about earlier,
16:56
to see them start running like bees.
16:57
Like I chased that
16:58
moment as, I don't know,
17:00
as vain or bad as that
17:00
sounds, you know what I mean?
17:02
But the bigger picture was
17:03
we're getting our guys home
17:04
because of our rounds, you know?
17:06
So yeah, I think it was a
17:07
sense of relevance thing,
17:08
and I never always
17:10
loved hearing those words,
17:12
clear to engage, and
17:13
definitely knew it was game time
17:14
at that point.
17:15
Well, you're out
17:15
there, you're doing a job,
17:16
and when you're clear to
17:17
engage, you're doing that job.
17:19
I mean, as distasteful as it may be,
17:22
you don't have to be in that situation
17:24
if countries got along.
17:27
So yeah, you gotta get the job done,
17:29
and you can't just say,
17:30
"Well, I've found religion,
17:32
"and I can't do this tonight."
17:35
Definitely, yeah.
17:35
It's definitely, like I said,
17:36
I loved being a close
17:38
air support platform
17:40
for those guys, you know?
17:42
Now, did you ever get to fire the weapons
17:45
from the gunship, or was
17:46
that something that you did?
17:48
Or I don't know, what was your job?
17:50
Or I guess maybe it was
17:51
different jobs inside the gunship.
17:53
Yeah, so on the AC-130 gunship,
17:55
the traditional gunner, or
17:57
smod as they call it now,
17:58
but you're basically, your meat potatoes,
18:00
where you really make your money is
18:01
malfunction analysis.
18:03
So you're loading,
18:04
basically you're clearing out
18:05
malfunctions, and a lot
18:06
of times you have seconds
18:07
to get this gun back online, right?
18:09
And you know, I know that sounds simple,
18:10
but you could imagine this is great.
18:12
Oh, it's a high pressure situation.
18:14
And you're not the
18:16
only one looking at it.
18:17
Everybody else is looking at you.
18:19
Oh yeah, yeah, and you can hear the comms
18:22
and the guys on the ground
18:22
when they're getting shot at,
18:23
and like, "Come on, get
18:24
that gun back online."
18:25
And so there's this, it's a very, like,
18:27
you find a lot about
18:28
yourself in those moments, man.
18:30
And definitely, they're
18:31
only like pulling the trigger,
18:33
as people like to say,
18:35
for the 105 millimeter,
18:36
which, you know, that
18:37
thing's basically like,
18:37
if you were to put a tank on the side
18:39
of this cargo aircraft, right,
18:41
there would be moments where the firing
18:42
cylinder would go out
18:43
and we would take
18:43
parachute cord, 550 cord,
18:45
and, you know, engine doing itself,
18:47
and basically tie it to the firing pawn,
18:49
almost turn into a flying artillery guy,
18:50
and you'd get the red-raided fire call,
18:52
and you would quote, unquote,
18:53
pull the trigger at that point.
18:54
But on 60s, you're
18:55
definitely employing weapons
18:57
as the smiler gunner, you know,
18:59
with a minigun and or the 50 cal, so.
19:01
Oh yeah, I was actually,
19:03
I just saw a thing about
19:04
the 130 attack aircraft
19:10
that we were talking about.
19:11
On TikTok earlier, and they were talking
19:13
about the various guns and the 105.
19:17
So this one also had the, what was it,
19:18
a 20 millimeter
19:19
minigun and a 30 millimeter?
19:22
I wouldn't say it was rapid fire,
19:24
because it's kind of a
19:25
boof, boof, boof, boof.
19:27
Oh yeah. But 30 millimeters,
19:28
I mean, how many of those
19:29
do you have to fire quickly?
19:31
Yeah, so, and that's a
19:33
very good question, man.
19:34
So the H model guns
19:35
here, right, the traditional,
19:37
like the one I was talking about, 69, 72,
19:39
when I flew on them, we had
19:40
the 40 mil boforged cannon,
19:41
which actually Chrysler Corporation,
19:43
if you look at the back of it,
19:44
if you look at the back of it,
19:45
it's like CC for Chrysler Corporation,
19:47
they'd ask you that
19:47
sometimes as a gunner.
19:48
And then the 105 millimeter was,
19:50
you know, like I'm
19:50
saying, like this tank that,
19:52
It's a World War II, a
19:54
Hollitzer, what is it?
19:55
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and
19:56
it reco's up to 49 inches
19:57
before we have to shut it down.
19:59
But at one point, you know,
20:00
they had the 220 mils up front,
20:02
and then the U model back then,
20:04
the gunship was the 40 mil 105
20:06
and the 25 millimeter Gatlin gun,
20:08
sort of what I think he's talking about.
20:09
And then nowadays,
20:11
yeah, that's when you
20:11
got the 30 mil Bushmaster,
20:13
basically it's a
20:14
literally driven air-cooled tank.
20:16
Yeah, and it's 200
20:18
rounds per minute, man,
20:19
and I got a pretty gnarly video of that,
20:20
but yeah, I mean, I
20:21
think heats up quick too.
20:22
So it's definitely turned into sort of
20:24
like a bomb truck now
20:25
with SDBs and the wings
20:27
and griffins on the back.
20:28
And, you know, so not a
20:29
traditional like gunship,
20:31
like I started out on,
20:32
but I was biased at
20:33
first, to be honest with you.
20:34
And I was like, man, I don't
20:35
want to be on a bomb truck,
20:36
I want to be on a gunship,
20:37
I want to be on a gunner, right?
20:38
But the first time you see what those
20:39
weapons could do, man,
20:40
to our enemies, you're
20:40
like, all right, man,
20:41
this is where it's at, right?
20:43
You know, I often talk about,
20:45
if you don't want to get
20:46
anything done, have a meeting,
20:47
you know, where you have a big meeting
20:48
and everybody's sitting around the table,
20:50
but I can see, I can kind of
20:51
go for this kind of meeting,
20:52
like, well, we've got a big plane,
20:55
what kind of can we put on it
20:56
that just beat the hell
20:58
out of people on the ground?
20:59
Well, we got these 105s that we're not
21:01
doing anything with,
21:02
can we fit one in there?
21:04
So I could just imagine, you know,
21:05
because there was some sick
21:07
(beep)
21:07
coming up with what,
21:09
and not just one gun,
21:11
there's like the three big
21:13
hawking guns on this thing.
21:15
Do you guys have any kind of air support
21:18
whenever you're flying your mission,
21:19
do the A-10s or F-16s come
21:22
and go, F-18s come and go?
21:24
So in Afghanistan and,
21:28
you know, the ISIS conflict,
21:29
we didn't have like a,
21:30
what we call like, you know,
21:32
someone like a Sandy
21:33
fighter or something like that,
21:34
like supporting us, like the
21:35
air to air type stuff, right?
21:36
But sort of on your own
21:37
at that point, you know,
21:39
this new day and age,
21:40
I don't know how they're
21:40
doing things now over there,
21:42
or if they're even
21:42
over there, but you know,
21:44
it's definitely, we'd had nobody but us
21:46
besides getting a tank
21:47
or getting gas, you know?
21:48
Oh yeah, of course,
21:49
you're there all night.
21:50
So how many times
21:52
would you have to fill up
21:54
during the night?
21:55
And I would think that
21:55
you're not doing any evasive,
21:58
really any evasive,
21:59
you're just flying in a circle.
22:00
So I would imagine the fuel consumption
22:03
is pretty much the same.
22:05
I guess it all depends on
22:07
the weather and the wind, but.
22:09
Yeah, and that's
22:10
another thing as a smother,
22:11
especially as David, you're calculating,
22:13
okay, about this point in the flight,
22:14
what is my fuel gonna be at, you know,
22:16
5,000 pounds per hour with fuel?
22:18
So does the pilot do anything else?
22:20
Does some of these
22:20
pilots become NASCAR drivers?
22:22
Because they're always driving in a turn.
22:25
Man, you get it, actually, the other day,
22:27
I compared it to a NASCAR with guns, man,
22:29
if you're two guns on a NASCAR, but yeah.
22:31
But yeah, the pilot does a lot,
22:32
the aircraft commander, man, he's got,
22:35
in the end, he has the
22:36
overall responsibility
22:37
for around leaving the aircraft,
22:39
but we always like to say
22:39
there's no rank on the aircraft,
22:41
from the aircraft commander down to the--
22:43
What's a team?
22:44
And the team has to be successful, yeah.
22:47
Oh yeah, and they definitely,
22:49
the 16th Special Operations Coordinator,
22:51
they're real good about
22:53
crew resource management,
22:54
everybody has an opinion,
22:55
everybody has a vote for this,
22:56
right, so a lot of times
22:58
there's no black and white,
22:59
right and wrong, it's
23:00
either safe or unsafe, you know,
23:02
as cliche as that sounds,
23:03
and you're making those
23:04
split-segues decisions,
23:05
collectively as a crew, you know.
23:08
Very, very good.
23:10
All right, so I'm
23:10
having fun talking to you
23:12
about military stuff, and
23:13
especially about aviation,
23:14
aviation is so much fun to
23:16
me, civilian side of things.
23:18
But I haven't flown in years,
23:20
I don't wanna give the
23:20
illusion that I'm a regular flyer,
23:22
I mean, it's been a very long time,
23:24
but it's still a lot of fun.
23:26
So do you have this
23:29
type of stuff in the book
23:30
that we've been discussing,
23:31
or does the book go in another direction?
23:34
Yeah, it has definitely some aviation,
23:37
some operations I was on from the gunship
23:39
and the rescue helicopter,
23:41
and then it also has
23:42
growing up in Appalachia,
23:43
and sort of the roots part being that,
23:46
sort of the morals and
23:47
friendships and family
23:48
that molded me when I was younger,
23:50
then it's good to
23:51
know where you come from,
23:52
but to me it's always more
23:52
important to know where you're
23:53
going, and that's where the
23:54
wings part in the Air Force
23:56
definitely gave me that
23:56
opportunity to see the world
23:59
to leave somewhat of a footprint on it.
24:02
So did you get PTSD
24:05
from your military service?
24:07
I did, yes, especially on
24:09
the rescue side of things.
24:11
Oh yes, of course.
24:12
Yeah, sometimes man, you
24:13
can see the worst thing
24:14
that could happen to somebody,
24:15
and I don't wish that on anybody,
24:16
knowing it was a mission
24:17
June 8th, 2018 in East Africa,
24:19
and we saw the best side
24:21
of combat search and rescue
24:22
that day, right?
24:23
You've been saving five guys,
24:24
and one guy when he died,
24:26
he got back on the
24:26
operating table, he died,
24:27
so we saw the worst
24:28
side, and I tell people,
24:29
man, another reason why I wrote it is
24:31
because this is what goes
24:32
on when you're sleeping,
24:33
and I want to tell America that,
24:34
and these stories die in the sand,
24:36
and that's someone's
24:36
brother, someone's son,
24:37
someone's friend that made that sacrifice
24:39
for our freedoms, you know?
24:42
So I find it interesting,
24:43
you said that you miss it
24:45
and you'd like to still be doing it.
24:46
Even after you've gone through all this
24:48
stuff with the PTSD,
24:50
you wouldn't choose to not go and do it.
24:53
I mean, I'm sure it's changed your life.
24:59
To me, it was everything.
25:01
Actually, I'm gonna
25:02
sum this up with a quote
25:03
I heard the other day, and it goes
25:04
something like this.
25:05
The very definition of hell is,
25:07
you're the last day on
25:07
earth, the person you became
25:09
meets the person you could have become.
25:11
And my grandfather asked me one time,
25:13
he was like, man, do you remember your
25:15
great, great, great,
25:16
great, great grandparents?
25:17
And I don't, I should have, but I didn't.
25:20
The point that he was making is like,
25:21
you can leave this earth,
25:24
people can remember you,
25:25
or they won't, for something good,
25:27
or for something nothing at all.
25:29
So definitely I wanted
25:30
to be part of that fight
25:32
and serve the highest capacity I could.
25:35
I haven't said it, but I always do.
25:38
Thank you for your
25:38
service, I really appreciate it.
25:40
I grew up, I was very young at the time,
25:44
but I did grow up around the Vietnam War.
25:47
And it was horrible, horrible.
25:49
I didn't have any kind
25:50
of, I mean, I was young,
25:53
so much of it, I didn't care more so
25:55
than just Americans being killed and
25:57
seeing it on the news.
25:58
They actually took film
25:59
cameras out there here in Vietnam,
26:01
and they were reported on the news
26:04
using the film that they had recovered,
26:06
gosh, like 14 hours earlier.
26:08
It's amazing where we are
26:09
now with our technology.
26:11
But whenever the
26:14
soldiers came back from Vietnam,
26:16
it was insane, I don't
26:17
know why in the world
26:18
anybody that's
26:20
protecting your way of life,
26:22
I mean, you can disagree
26:23
with a war that's fine,
26:24
but the people that went out there
26:25
to put their lives on
26:26
the line to protect us,
26:28
or to project our power,
26:30
to maybe even help a people,
26:32
kind of like what just happened in Iran.
26:34
I mean, they
26:35
supposedly, the Iranian government
26:38
killed 35 to 40,000 of their people
26:42
because they were protesting.
26:44
I don't like the idea of us being police,
26:47
but
26:47
(beep)
26:48
it, letting stuff like
26:50
this go on in the world.
26:52
And when you have the
26:53
ability to do something about it,
26:54
I don't think it's right.
26:55
I think you need to tell them,
26:58
ziplomatically first, stop that,
27:01
and then if they don't stop that,
27:03
go and encourage them
27:05
vigorously to stop that.
27:07
Yeah, and there's also
27:09
another quote that goes,
27:10
the only thing that's
27:10
there for the triumph of evil
27:12
is for good men to do nothing.
27:14
Exactly.
27:14
I definitely wanted to, again,
27:17
in the start of the country,
27:18
the highest capacity I could,
27:20
just made my family proud
27:22
and try to do it with
27:23
as much honor as I could.
27:25
And I did go through some
27:26
dark times while I was in,
27:27
and I got a lot of help for that,
27:29
and prolonged exposure on meds now.
27:31
And I'm not ashamed to say that,
27:33
but I think I'm a
27:33
constant work in progress,
27:35
but at least I could say I lived,
27:37
and I got to aviate,
27:38
navigate, and communicate, man,
27:40
in the best squad in the world.
27:42
Do you keep up with
27:43
any of the old people,
27:45
the teams that you were a part of?
27:47
Oh yeah, actually, I
27:49
do the flight simulators
27:50
here on Cannon Air
27:51
Force Base in New Mexico,
27:52
so it's rare, but I still
27:53
see some of the men and women
27:55
I used to fly with
27:56
anywhere from pilots to gunners,
27:58
and stuff like that.
27:59
And man, it's just
28:01
such an awesome life, man,
28:03
and just flying, man,
28:04
there's something about it.
28:04
Once you do it, you're hooked, man.
28:06
Once you do that first mission,
28:08
I won't do that for the
28:08
rest of my life in that moment.
28:10
Do you ever get to
28:11
get any simulator time?
28:12
Don't tell me yes if
28:13
you're not supposed to.
28:15
Yeah, I mean, we definitely get in there
28:17
and see if I can put it
28:19
on the ground as a gunner,
28:20
and stuff like that,
28:21
and see what the pilots
28:22
are actually going through.
28:22
And my whole job now
28:24
is to basically create
28:25
these scenarios for the
28:26
AC-130s, the MC, and the U-28.
28:28
And basically, the
28:29
idea is that it could be
28:30
emergency procedure, could be a threat,
28:32
dodging the threat or
28:33
something like that,
28:33
and we're in the gunship
28:34
shooting actual targets,
28:36
and it actually moves
28:37
when we shoot the simulator,
28:38
so it's pretty crazy.
28:39
Oh, that's neat.
28:40
Yeah, man, and it's, I tell people,
28:42
I've never been a video game guy, man,
28:44
but I get to literally go
28:45
play an $80 million video game
28:47
every day, you know?
28:49
But the beauty of the
28:50
fruit in that labor would be,
28:51
you know, as you get
28:52
those guys, these scenarios
28:54
that maybe you've had
28:55
or someone else has had,
28:55
and like, when they get
28:56
down range and it happens,
28:57
they take a second, like,
28:59
okay, I've been here before,
29:00
I've been here 100 times in
29:01
training, this is what it is.
29:02
You know, so you see that sort of,
29:04
you know, that fruit's
29:05
from that labor, you know?
29:06
Yeah, I can well
29:07
imagine that there are some
29:09
virtual 3D stuff going
29:11
on, not in that simulator,
29:13
but some virtual stuff
29:13
where you put the headset on,
29:15
and especially for the round soldiers,
29:17
to go into an area and
29:18
study and learn that,
29:21
especially with our satellites and stuff,
29:22
I imagine the detail is very, very rich.
29:25
I recently got a VR
29:26
headset, and I was telling my wife,
29:27
I bet you the military has something
29:29
that's so beyond this,
29:31
because if you can go
29:32
and train in the area
29:34
that you're going in, it's so much
29:37
better, I mean, it's--
29:38
It's 100% right, 100%
29:39
right on that, yeah.
29:40
And the same thing with the simulators,
29:41
you can go and do these scenarios
29:44
that you probably will never have the,
29:47
I don't want to say the
29:48
ability or to enjoy it,
29:49
but it is, it's a challenge,
29:51
and then whenever you
29:51
go through the challenge,
29:52
you've learned it.
29:53
World War II, that
29:54
wasn't the case, I mean,
29:55
you had hours that you flew,
29:57
combat missions that you flew,
29:58
and that was your simulation.
30:02
But these simulators, I
30:04
have this vision in my head
30:05
of the simulators that you run,
30:06
some like the ones that I've seen
30:08
in the Intercontinental
30:10
Airport here in Houston.
30:11
They're huge, absolutely huge,
30:14
and I can well imagine that
30:16
that would just be a blast.
30:18
You guys ever mess with the pilots?
30:20
Let's see what he can do with this one,
30:22
let's throw this one in there.
30:24
Yeah, can't get far
30:25
more than I, but you know.
30:26
Yeah, exactly, good, good.
30:29
There's no fun in the
30:30
military unless you can
30:31
(beep)
30:31
with somebody. 100%.
30:33
(laughing)
30:35
All right, well let's
30:36
get back to the book here.
30:37
So tell me more about the book.
30:39
What are the
30:40
highlights that you think people
30:41
should look for in the book,
30:43
and why they should buy it, frankly?
30:45
Yeah, definitely a kid, you know,
30:47
grew up in a small town, and basically,
30:50
decided to leave that
30:51
and serve my country,
30:52
and it's got anything from some
30:55
(beep)
30:55
good fart jokes, there's
30:56
some funny moments in there,
30:57
there's some very, the
30:58
darkest moments of my life in there,
30:59
man, where I decided to
31:01
choose better over bitter.
31:04
And basically, it's a
31:05
guy who wanted to live
31:06
a house money life, is the chapter,
31:08
I call that in the book, you know,
31:09
with life, how much more
31:11
aggressively would we get
31:12
before we were playing
31:12
on the house's money, man?
31:14
And basically, a kid
31:15
decided that, you know,
31:17
probably still a
31:18
reasonable fifth year level
31:18
just to go get it, man, and
31:20
then to try to write it down
31:21
and paint a picture for one,
31:23
if one person gets
31:24
help reading this book,
31:25
we talk about the 22 a
31:26
day and stuff like that,
31:27
with mental health and veterans,
31:28
then that's a blessing, that's a win.
31:30
And again, the second point
31:31
to show the rest of America,
31:32
hey, this is what really
31:33
goes on when you're sleeping,
31:34
and freedom's definitely not free, so.
31:37
So correct me if I'm wrong on this,
31:39
this is for the people that
31:40
don't know about the 22 a day,
31:41
the 22 a day is a mission
31:44
to keep 22 military people,
31:49
current or former,
31:51
from committing suicide.
31:53
Yeah, and that was the 22 at the time
31:55
when they got that average, that number,
31:56
that was the amount of the veterans,
31:58
believe it or not, that
31:59
was taking their lives
32:01
within America, so even one is too many,
32:04
I look at it like that,
32:05
but if I look at it this way,
32:08
I can either talk about it, man,
32:10
or I can actually try to help someone,
32:12
and I tell people when you're
32:14
checking on your battle buddy,
32:15
wing man, even your four
32:17
quarters you call friends
32:18
and not your hundred pennies, right,
32:19
you know them and they know you,
32:21
so there's a difference between saying,
32:23
how's it going, brother, or like,
32:24
hey man, how you doing
32:25
really, bro, what's going on?
32:26
You know what I mean?
32:27
Yeah, it's not just the standard greeting
32:29
that you like,
32:29
everybody, how you doing, fine.
32:31
Do you just want the fine response,
32:34
or do you really want to
32:34
know, that type of thing?
32:36
Yeah, and every now
32:37
and then they'll tell you
32:38
what's really going on, man, and that's,
32:41
sometimes you could save someone's life,
32:42
you never know, bro.
32:44
Well, just talking about it,
32:46
it's amazing how much
32:47
you can get off your,
32:49
out of your brain and off your shoulders,
32:50
the weight by talking
32:52
to somebody about it.
32:53
Do you cover therapy in the book at all?
32:56
Because I think you
32:58
can't mandate therapy,
33:00
it should make it really
33:02
easy for people to get therapy,
33:04
to get through this stuff.
33:06
Yeah, Hunter Merci, so I
33:07
did the prolonged exposure
33:08
through, USOCOM has this thing called
33:10
the preservation of the force of family.
33:12
So each of these type
33:13
of squadrons, right,
33:14
whether it's Air Force, Army, et cetera,
33:16
you have a psychiatrist,
33:17
you have a physical trainer,
33:19
and a physical therapist,
33:20
and these type of things.
33:21
And she was a civilian lady,
33:23
and what had happened, man,
33:24
was, especially after the castaway,
33:26
especially after this
33:27
loss of identity happens,
33:28
where I realized the
33:29
engineer at the past 20 years
33:31
at that point, and what was
33:32
the weekend drinking habit
33:34
became at least upon a
33:35
night with pills, man,
33:36
he named it to go to sleep, really
33:38
tearing up myself, man.
33:39
And my wife was a game of the ultimate,
33:41
and hey, it's either the
33:42
bottle or me and your daughter.
33:43
And I tell people, I've
33:44
been called many call signs,
33:45
arrow gunner, smile, Uncle Tito,
33:47
which is about drinking in itself.
33:50
And the best call someone
33:52
ever has when my daughter
33:53
called me dad, man, and that's when I
33:54
decided to get help,
33:55
and I did the prolonged exposure therapy.
33:57
I tell people, man, remove that stigma.
33:59
If you're in a leadership type spot,
34:01
no matter where you are,
34:02
when your troops see you,
34:03
get help, like I saw
34:05
other people get help,
34:06
it's contagious, and you'll
34:07
realize it is okay to get help.
34:10
Again, it's okay not to be okay,
34:12
but it's not okay to
34:12
do nothing about that
34:13
as a way to look at it.
34:14
Well, it's such a relief.
34:16
I went through a divorce
34:17
when I was in my early 30s,
34:19
and my now ex-wife and I
34:23
went at her request to therapy,
34:26
and she didn't wanna,
34:29
she just stopped going
34:29
because she didn't,
34:30
it wasn't all my fault.
34:31
She didn't like that,
34:32
so she stopped going.
34:34
But I kept going
34:35
because I didn't wanna make
34:36
the same mistake that
34:37
I had made that time.
34:38
And after that, I now look at it like
34:42
it's not a weakness.
34:44
It's a huge help because
34:46
even though we were raised
34:48
by great people and lived a great life
34:50
up to the point that we lived, there's
34:53
things that you miss.
34:54
There's things that you don't understand,
34:56
and especially in your
34:57
situation, you were doing things
34:59
that a lot of us don't have never done.
35:01
And so who's gonna teach you how to
35:04
handle these things?
35:05
So I think, I'm gonna
35:09
do a Star Trek reference.
35:10
So when Star Trek The
35:10
Next Generation came out,
35:12
they had a spot on the
35:13
bridge for a therapist,
35:16
and she was right there on the bridge,
35:18
and she would talk to
35:19
people about their feelings
35:20
and all that stuff.
35:21
I think everybody
35:22
should go through therapy,
35:24
whether you're having a problem or not,
35:25
so you can have some questions answered
35:28
about the right and
35:29
wrong, and this is my belief,
35:31
and I know it's right, but
35:33
I don't have that validation
35:35
as to me being right.
35:37
And I can well imagine
35:38
that some of the thoughts
35:39
and feelings that you had
35:40
in your military service,
35:41
you were confused about.
35:43
It just helps somebody guide you.
35:46
I mean, they don't tell
35:47
you if you're right or wrong,
35:48
but they guide you
35:48
through that reassurance
35:50
that you did the right
35:51
thing or so on and so forth.
35:53
So I think the therapy side
35:54
of things is very important.
35:56
Yeah, and I think
35:57
just like with your Jeep,
35:59
you know when the
36:00
scheduled maintenance is,
36:01
but some of those
36:03
other bumps that may have
36:03
threw something off course in the way,
36:05
that's the ones that you should,
36:08
there's nothing wrong
36:08
with taking it into mechanic
36:09
just to see, right?
36:10
So I look at it as almost
36:11
like a checkup type thing
36:12
with a vehicle, and I
36:15
definitely tell people,
36:16
it's not if it's when in that life
36:18
where all this stuff bowls over,
36:20
you hit that pulling point and it's okay
36:22
to take that tactical knee, man.
36:24
And in the end, these type professions,
36:26
we have to be able to trust you
36:28
with our best friend's life.
36:29
And someone explained that to me once.
36:31
And that really hit home to seek help
36:34
and see that it's okay to get help.
36:36
And I did give the psychiatrist
36:38
with a very big chip on my
36:39
shoulder, the cliche of like,
36:41
she's like, "Well, you know,"
36:42
I was like, "Well, you
36:43
wouldn't call your dentist
36:44
to fix your car or something like that."
36:46
She said, and I was like,
36:48
"Well, you know, what
36:48
if he's a mechanic?"
36:49
You know, and I may be an idiot,
36:50
but realizing like, this lady knows so
36:52
much about my psyche
36:53
that I never knew, you know?
36:55
So I said, "Give it a chance
36:56
and you'll be
36:56
surprised what happens, man."
36:58
Mm-hmm.
36:59
(laughs)
37:00
So I would imagine therapists
37:03
have some very interesting things.
37:05
I wonder who therapists talk to
37:07
about what they go through every day.
37:10
That's a good question, man.
37:12
I saw this thing and it
37:13
was a very real moment.
37:14
I didn't put this in the book.
37:16
I don't know if I should say this,
37:17
but you know, when
37:17
they're writing something down,
37:18
it was like a meme I saw the day.
37:20
I did something like this.
37:21
Can I see, you know,
37:22
and this laughing
37:23
moment with the therapist,
37:25
but you definitely, man,
37:26
that prolonged exposure therapy,
37:27
you're definitely getting uncomfortable
37:29
being uncomfortable,
37:30
man, and it definitely
37:31
made me a better father,
37:32
better husband, better airman, you know?
37:35
I think that we are put here
37:38
to learn how to deal with fear,
37:40
because fear will stop
37:42
you from thinking correctly
37:43
and you'll make wrong decisions.
37:46
So I think that is our reason,
37:48
dealing with fear and just
37:50
knowing it's gonna be okay.
37:52
It's a problem, it sucks.
37:54
I don't like being in this,
37:55
but you know, I'll just step
37:57
through it like I always do,
37:58
and I'll be a success,
37:59
having that confidence
38:00
to complete what you need to do.
38:03
So yeah, and I think that your book
38:05
probably helps people with that.
38:07
And also too, it gives
38:08
people that have no idea,
38:10
has never experienced
38:11
what you experienced,
38:12
just a taste of that.
38:15
Oh yeah, and that
38:16
definitely takes you through
38:17
to all the emotions
38:18
within a couple of hours,
38:19
is the most common feedback I get on it.
38:21
And it's got some of the, again,
38:23
the funniest moments of my life,
38:24
the happiest and then the darkest, man.
38:27
And there's a saying in the book
38:28
that I quoted Henry Ford, right?
38:30
When you're going through something,
38:31
you're going through the
38:32
worst moments of your life, man,
38:33
that he says that aircraft
38:34
takes off against someone,
38:35
not with it, right?
38:36
So we can't have lift without some drag,
38:38
that's very, very bad, right?
38:39
So I think that's part of life, man,
38:41
that's part of being human,
38:43
and as part of getting on the other side
38:45
of that dark tunnel,
38:45
man, to that light, man.
38:46
So it's a, get help if you need it,
38:48
and you'll be glad you did, so.
38:50
You know, you mentioned the Jeep
38:52
and getting, taking it to
38:54
somebody to be repaired.
38:55
I don't mind taking it to be repaired
38:57
on some things that I'm
38:58
questionable about doing,
39:00
but I'm standing there watching them,
39:02
and that it dawned on me.
39:04
You're getting in a plane every night
39:06
that somebody else has worked on.
39:09
Did you, are you ever
39:10
nervous about the mechanics
39:12
that were maintaining that plane?
39:13
I mean, after a while,
39:14
you kind of get used to it,
39:15
but they could have a bad
39:16
day, they could have a bad night,
39:17
and they could dismiss something.
39:19
I mean, I guess the worst case is,
39:21
as long as the plane
39:22
doesn't fall out of the air,
39:24
you can always fly back and tell them
39:27
to get it right this time.
39:29
Yeah, I will say,
39:30
from what I experienced,
39:31
our maintainers are the best in the world
39:32
at what they do in Air Force
39:34
Special Operations Command.
39:35
They're, man, they burn
39:37
them in that oil, you name it,
39:38
whatever they gotta do to
39:38
get that bird ready, you know,
39:40
I trust them with my life,
39:42
I'm sure they trust us
39:43
with theirs, you know,
39:44
so definitely it's, you see
39:45
the big picture, you know,
39:47
between the mechanics, you know,
39:49
and between the logistics people,
39:51
between the intel people,
39:53
and this big, beautiful
39:53
thing called air power
39:55
comes together, man, so
39:56
it's an awesome thing to see.
39:57
So would you say your
39:58
book is for military people
40:00
or civilians, or yes?
40:04
Yeah, I would say both, yeah,
40:05
and definitely for
40:07
people in uncommon, you know,
40:08
type jobs, I would say.
40:11
Any plans for an audio book?
40:14
Yeah, man, I've heard that a few times,
40:16
I wouldn't know how to do that,
40:18
I might've told my publisher about that,
40:19
but, you know, it
40:21
would sound very, you know,
40:22
Appalachian if I did
40:23
it, man, like I said,
40:24
telling you earlier,
40:24
man, I probably still read
40:25
the fifth grade level,
40:26
that twang that came out.
40:27
I would get Vin Diesel, personally, I
40:29
would get Vin Diesel,
40:30
and instead of him
40:31
actually speaking every word,
40:32
he just says Groot, so
40:34
over and over and over again.
40:38
The Groot, the Groot special edition.
40:43
What was that rock from
40:44
Guardians of the Galaxy,
40:45
the rock sort of
40:46
structure guy, was that not Groot,
40:48
what was his name?
40:49
I know there was one that
40:51
had the Australian accent
40:52
that was from Marvel that was with the--
40:55
Was it Quakers or?
40:57
Yeah, the right guy, I
40:58
mean, somebody called me
40:59
that guy one time and said, I was like,
41:00
"That sounds nothing like that guy."
41:01
He was funny, he was really funny.
41:03
Yeah.
41:05
So, all right, so the books for everyone,
41:08
you can get it at
41:10
Amazon, what did you say,
41:12
Environments of
41:12
Noble, pretty much anyplace
41:13
you can get a regular book, right?
41:15
Yeah, exactly, yeah.
41:16
Oh, congratulations on getting somebody
41:18
to help you publish your book,
41:20
because that's an
41:21
ordeal as well, isn't it?
41:23
Oh yeah, because what had happened,
41:25
I had at least what I
41:26
thought was enough for a book,
41:27
and on the extent of
41:29
all things I received--
41:29
Then they corrected you.
41:30
(laughing)
41:32
I reached out to a war
41:34
journalist on LinkedIn,
41:35
and I think I searched something like,
41:38
Editors for Military
41:39
Storage or something like that,
41:40
and she responded with him,
41:42
and it's Holly McKay, the war journalist,
41:44
man, she did a really good job, man,
41:45
because about like,
41:47
there's a Word document
41:48
going back and forth, man, she's like,
41:50
hey, what are you
41:50
really trying to say here?
41:52
What does acting mean here?
41:53
Like, getting everything out of me, man,
41:56
that I didn't think I had in me,
41:57
you know what I mean,
41:58
and give them my word,
41:59
it was then she recommended a publisher,
42:01
which is the hardware of your book,
42:02
you know, the cover
42:04
page and stuff like that.
42:06
Oh, I know you have a copy of the book,
42:08
show that for the folks
42:08
that are here watching us
42:09
on YouTube and Spotify.
42:11
Yeah, so it's Moonchild,
42:13
it's me and the H Model Gunshot,
42:14
and you see the cheeks on it right there,
42:15
that's how you recognize it,
42:16
and then it's got me
42:17
and my mask in the back,
42:19
was sort of mixed in with the moon.
42:21
I probably have many
42:22
craters on my face real,
42:23
but, you know, so,
42:24
it's an awesome experience to get to
42:26
write a book, you know?
42:27
Yeah, oh, I imagine,
42:28
and that's kind of a
42:29
therapy thing as well, right?
42:30
Because it's like talking it out,
42:32
but you're putting it on paper,
42:34
and then you have the
42:34
wonderful position to be in
42:36
where everybody's correcting you.
42:38
So, what the hell does this mean?
42:40
Do more of this, do less of this, yeah.
42:43
Yeah, it was an awesome experience,
42:44
but I will say what I found out,
42:47
what writing works for me,
42:48
and I'm not this huge famous author,
42:49
probably never will be,
42:50
probably never be a
42:51
man from writing books,
42:52
but what I will say,
42:53
what has worked a little bit for me is,
42:55
the thing you're
42:56
afraid to say the most, man,
42:57
throw that on paper,
42:58
and to see how far
42:59
your words travel, bro.
43:00
Exactly, so, "Moonchild"
43:02
is the name of the book,
43:03
and I gotta ask you before we wrap up,
43:06
tell us about all the UFOs and UAPs,
43:08
especially that one that you flew.
43:10
Yeah, I wish I'd have the opportunity,
43:12
somebody like, you know, Bob was hard.
43:13
That'd be a different book, right?
43:15
You wouldn't even talk about it,
43:16
you'd say, "Well, I'll tell
43:17
you about it in my next book."
43:18
That's a good teaser.
43:20
Yeah, I mean, I wish, you know,
43:22
I mean, I think that it is the,
43:24
what is it called, the age
43:25
of disclosure now, right?
43:26
And you're seeing this
43:27
stuff starting to come out,
43:29
and, you know, since
43:30
the beginning of time,
43:31
we've always wondered if
43:31
we're alone in the universe,
43:33
and, you know, I think it's
43:35
very probable and possible
43:37
for us not to be the only
43:38
intelligent life in this--
43:39
Oh my God, there's so
43:41
much too at the universe
43:42
that we're learning
43:43
about, how in the hell,
43:44
what kind of mathematical idiot would be
43:48
that there would be one
43:49
intelligent life form?
43:50
It just doesn't make any sense.
43:52
Yeah, because I couldn't even,
43:52
I thought about the idea, I was like,
43:53
I can't even, in my mind,
43:55
process how big this universe is.
43:57
It's still growing, right?
43:58
Or how old this universe really is, man.
44:00
And, you know, and I think
44:02
that, yeah, like, you know,
44:03
there's a very good likelihood,
44:04
especially with all
44:05
this smoke now, right?
44:06
There has to be somewhat of a fire.
44:07
Yeah, absolutely.
44:08
I mean, you got some decorated aviators
44:11
and Senate hearings, man,
44:12
like, seeing some stuff.
44:14
I personally never seen anything I can't,
44:15
couldn't explain,
44:16
always wanted to, right?
44:17
But, yeah, man, I think we're not alone
44:19
if I would have to put money on it.
44:21
So this is so funny.
44:22
I've got a good friend, a fellow jeeper,
44:25
came out to one of the
44:26
Jeep talk show events
44:27
that is a naval aviator, used to be.
44:29
He's a pilot, commercial
44:31
pilot now for many years.
44:33
But he actually flew with and trained
44:36
with Captain Farber,
44:40
the guy that actually
44:41
had the TikTok video
44:42
and was in front of Congress and stuff.
44:45
Oh, yeah, yeah.
44:45
And you'll love this,
44:47
because you're military.
44:49
He told me, you know
44:49
how they put the call sign
44:51
or the name on the pilot's canopy, F-18,
44:54
side of the canopy?
44:56
He was sexual Farber.
44:58
So they were doing a little twist,
45:00
but they never talked about that.
45:01
They never talked about that
45:02
in front of the Congressman and stuff.
45:04
Oh, yeah, yeah, you know
45:06
what's funny about the guns?
45:07
I actually got a
45:07
picture, I may send it to you,
45:09
but it's aircraft number 73.
45:11
And you know the Tyree scene in
45:13
"Transformers," right?
45:14
Where he's like
45:14
bringing the rain, you know?
45:16
And they actually put a Decepticon
45:18
on the side of the gunship,
45:19
because sometimes the guys for tradition,
45:23
they would put a stick man
45:24
on the side of the gunship
45:25
and a certain one meant so
45:27
many enemy killed in action.
45:28
But yeah, somebody went ahead
45:30
and threw a Decepticon on there, man.
45:31
I always get a kick out of that picture.
45:33
Oh, yeah, that's really cool.
45:34
So, and I'll just wrap up with this.
45:37
We laugh and enjoy the idea
45:40
that we're taking care of the enemy.
45:42
Of course, they're people.
45:43
I don't think anybody
45:44
really wants to kill people,
45:45
but like I said earlier,
45:46
if countries got together
45:48
and did what was best for
45:49
them and the rest of the world,
45:50
then we wouldn't have the situation.
45:52
I'm not saying the US is always right,
45:55
but we don't have to be,
45:56
because we got the firepower.
45:58
Yeah, I mean, we got,
46:00
what was it, the richest, most powerful,
46:03
probably most feared
46:03
country in the world, man.
46:05
And I think it took a lot of, you know,
46:08
a lot of spilled blood
46:09
for that freedom, you know,
46:09
for that flag, so.
46:10
And I really appreciate
46:12
everybody putting together
46:12
all these amazing machines
46:15
and training the
46:17
amazing people, our soldiers.
46:20
I just don't know.
46:21
I just don't know if I was
46:23
in charge in another country
46:24
that I'd want to do anything
46:25
to
46:25
(beep)
46:25
the United States off.
46:27
I mean, I think we're slow to act,
46:28
but when we act, we
46:30
do it and get it done.
46:32
At least that's the way I
46:33
like seeing it as an American.
46:35
Oh, yeah, you know, and if I could,
46:37
to tie it to some Jeep stuff here, man,
46:40
you know, and talk about ingenuity,
46:41
there's something about Americans, man,
46:43
where when we have to
46:44
do something, we do it.
46:45
You ever notice, like
46:46
our greatest generation,
46:47
like World War II, right?
46:49
So Eisenhower himself said that the Jeep
46:51
and the C-47 aircraft was
46:55
two of the primary things
46:56
that want us that war, you know?
46:57
Absolutely. You know what I mean?
46:59
And I think that level of
47:00
awesomeness in the country
47:01
and togetherness and the
47:03
ingenuity and just, again,
47:04
just living bold, you know?
47:06
And it's still there.
47:07
It hasn't changed.
47:08
That ingenuity and the
47:10
honor of being American
47:12
is still there, just
47:13
like it was in World War II.
47:15
Like I said, where's that
47:16
spirit, there's freedom, and so.
47:18
Very, very good.
47:19
Anthony, I certainly
47:20
appreciate you being here with us today.
47:21
Good luck with the book.
47:23
I'll have to go over to
47:24
Amazon and check it out,
47:25
especially look for the Kindle version.
47:28
Kindle's so nice.
47:29
I mean, if you get the
47:31
physical book, that's cool too,
47:32
but really all it winds
47:34
up doing is, you know,
47:35
it goes in the shelf in the background.
47:37
You got all these books.
47:40
(both laughing)
47:41
Kindle's sold is
47:42
instantly available and it's a--
47:44
It's with you.
47:44
It's on your phone, it's in a tablet,
47:47
it's on your computer.
47:47
So yeah, I think I really like that.
47:49
Actually get both, get a
47:50
Kindle and a regular book.
47:51
Are you doing, are you having any plans
47:53
on doing autographs on the book?
47:56
Yeah, every now and then
47:57
I'll send a signed one.
47:58
Some of my emails, me and
48:00
anthonyp.directgmo.com,
48:01
I do my best to try to, you know,
48:02
within my financial
48:04
means, get them a copy
48:05
that's signed and everything like that.
48:06
And yeah, and also I did
48:08
one book signing back home
48:09
last July in my City Lights bookstore
48:12
in Silver, North Carolina.
48:13
And that was an awesome experience, man.
48:15
So are you on the social media?
48:18
Yeah, so Instagram would be all lowercase
48:21
Marco_Brollo21 and then Facebook,
48:26
this is Moonchild and it's
48:27
me looking out the window
48:28
with some NPGs on in the moon, so.
48:31
So just, I think it would be fun to do.
48:35
It's not good PR.
48:36
I think it's just funny.
48:37
Self-deprecating
48:38
humor, I think it's funny.
48:39
You go to a book signing and you set up
48:42
to sign the books 30
48:43
minutes prior to the event time
48:46
and you just sit there
48:47
waiting to sign books.
48:48
(laughing)
48:50
Somebody, somebody.
48:51
There's been a few people here.
48:52
Come here, help me.
48:54
I'm all alone.
48:55
I just, I think people
48:56
would find that funny.
48:58
Yeah, I was so
49:00
nervous for that team, man,
49:01
because it was people
49:03
I hadn't seen in like,
49:04
I don't know, 30 years
49:05
or so, man, you know,
49:06
and it was just very
49:07
emotional, very overwhelming, man.
49:09
But they showed up, man, and I, you know,
49:11
went to trade my little small town there
49:13
and nestled an
49:14
Appalachian for nothing, man, so.
49:16
Oh, why do you not whistle
49:18
in the woods, an Appalachian?
49:20
Because it invites, basically,
49:22
when you're along the
49:23
woods and you whistle,
49:23
it invites whatever entity that is.
49:25
There's mountain hanks, there's the
49:28
Appalachian skinwalkers,
49:29
and basically you're
49:29
inviting that spirit in
49:31
is the tale behind it, you know?
49:34
So people still have
49:35
stills and drink a lot of booze
49:37
that is questionable in that area, right?
49:39
So that's probably the
49:39
reason for the whistling.
49:41
Yeah, probably, probably let them know
49:42
the feds are coming, you know?
49:44
Oh, yeah.
49:45
Like, that's really where
49:46
NASCAR started, you know, was--
49:48
Oh, yeah, driving the booze.
49:50
Yeah, that's really cool.
49:52
All right, I certainly appreciate it.
49:54
Thank you so much, and I'm
49:55
glad that you go by Anthony
49:56
and not Tony, because
49:57
having another Tony on here
49:58
would just be rough.
50:00
Yeah, I was actually
50:01
thinking about that, too, man.
50:03
But yeah, it was
50:04
honestly a pleasure and honor
50:05
to be here, Tony, and
50:06
I appreciate, you know,
50:07
your platform and letting me get on here
50:08
and speak to some of
50:09
these things, so thank you.
50:11
Sure, absolutely.
50:12
You have a great day.
50:13
Thank you, brother, thank you.
50:15
You're my friend, you're my new friend.