Speaker 1: M hm ah, beaute force. If it doesn't work, you're
Speaker 1: just not using enough. You're listening to software radio, special operations,
Speaker 1: military news and straight talk with the guys and the community,
Speaker 1: Army Ranger and Green Beret Jack Murphy. Good riddance, Asta Lasagna,
Speaker 1: don't get any on you. And now here's your civilian
Speaker 1: co host and producer of this operation, Ian Scott la
Speaker 1: and we are live. I was I was telling General
Speaker 1: Tata that, um, you know, with the live stream stuff,
Speaker 1: I've been making sure that we shared on all these platforms.
Speaker 1: So that's why it takes a while with it, get
Speaker 1: all this stuff done, and then I gotta turn that off,
Speaker 1: all right with that soft rap dot com on time
Speaker 1: on target, General Tony A. J. Tata in studio with me,
Speaker 1: And the cool thing I was gonna say is that
Speaker 1: you were one of our first guests in the in
Speaker 1: the newer studio, and you're one of the first signatures
Speaker 1: on there, as you can see behind here. And now
Speaker 1: these have been signed by all these different people from
Speaker 1: bred Thor to Chris barronto um Rob O'Neil. So it's cool,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's great to have you back on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great to be back, and I was proud to
Speaker 1: be one of the first signers and proud to be
Speaker 1: up there with all those great names and greater Arikins
Speaker 1: and patriots that have come in here. You guys have
Speaker 1: really expanded and grown your media empire here and I
Speaker 1: think it's fantastic. Thank you. I I appreciate. So the
Speaker 1: main reason that General Tata is here, you know, first
Speaker 1: of all, you were pumping out books and like everything
Speaker 1: every six months. I'll tell you what, Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: been hectic pace, but I love it and I always
Speaker 1: wanted to be a fiction novelist. And here I'm This
Speaker 1: is my eighth book coming out direct Fire, and it's
Speaker 1: the fourth in the Jake Mohegan series from Kinsington Books,
Speaker 1: and it's a it's a great story about the really
Speaker 1: cyber warfare. And you know, Jake Mohegan are former Delta
Speaker 1: Force operative who is the protagonist in the in the
Speaker 1: story um and all the Mohegan novels in their standalone novels,
Speaker 1: he has to go find his captured JASK commander who
Speaker 1: has been kidnapped and uh being held somewhere in the
Speaker 1: western North Carolina and there's some cyber war going on
Speaker 1: with some hackers from Bulgary that were involved in uh
Speaker 1: Syrian part of the war, and and they were victims
Speaker 1: of arrant bombing run approved by Mohegan's old boss. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of play here, and it's uh, it's
Speaker 1: getting getting great reviews from all the Publishers Weekly Booklist,
Speaker 1: all the standard review houses. So I look forward to,
Speaker 1: you know, reader feedback on it and Besieged the book
Speaker 1: appreciate was looking back the Besieged, I was like, did
Speaker 1: it come out late? Coming out so quick? And and uh,
Speaker 1: Publishers Weekly picked Besiege as a top ten thriller of
Speaker 1: mystry of so uh that that book did very well
Speaker 1: and and direct fires right on his heels. And I
Speaker 1: just turned in The Fire and the Fury, which will
Speaker 1: be in October release, So uh, staying busy with all
Speaker 1: of those. Yeah. The interesting thing I was gonna say is, um,
Speaker 1: Kensington has has few really cool military thrillers that come out.
Speaker 1: What I didn't realize until you know, I started to
Speaker 1: become more familiar with Kensington Publishing and we were at
Speaker 1: the party that they had here in New York earlier
Speaker 1: in the year. Great party is that you and Anderson
Speaker 1: Harp are kind of like on your own because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of romance you know, novels and that type
Speaker 1: of thing. And then you and Anderson and a few
Speaker 1: other guys Cameron Camera, the Tom Clancy's, and then you've
Speaker 1: got John Gilstrap that the rights the great uh um
Speaker 1: books that he writes, and and so you've got you've
Speaker 1: got a few really um you know, mainstream thriller authors
Speaker 1: that are have huge followings that Kensington is a great publisher,
Speaker 1: and and they they they put these books out and
Speaker 1: put a lot of support behind their authors. It is funny, though,
Speaker 1: just because I go to their Instagram and it's like
Speaker 1: a lot of these novels that appeal to like a
Speaker 1: female romance, you know, novel audience. But then you and
Speaker 1: Anderson and these other guys are putting out these really
Speaker 1: badass thriller books that appeal to the people who want
Speaker 1: to read Bradford stuff. I'll tell you my my demographic
Speaker 1: is about female because they love um Jaden Mohegan the
Speaker 1: six and off a tall Native American and they're all
Speaker 1: picturing the Rock or you know someone like that, as
Speaker 1: as Jake and and uh you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: you know Lee Child's following is that he's got the
Speaker 1: at least fifty female following because they all love Jack Reacher.
Speaker 1: I see some of that with what's happening with Jake
Speaker 1: Mohegan as well. Do you think that might be a
Speaker 1: response to We've talked about it in the podcast, this
Speaker 1: whole cracking down on masculinity and you know, toxic masculine
Speaker 1: energy and there are women who want to read about
Speaker 1: these badass guys who are heroes. Yeah, I think there's
Speaker 1: some of that. And also with Jake, if you get
Speaker 1: into his background and and his backstory, really the number
Speaker 1: one thing that sets him off is that when someone
Speaker 1: treats women badly, and so Jake, you know, he he
Speaker 1: has a hair trigger temper. Uh sometimes he'll just let
Speaker 1: loose on if he finds out that someone has treated
Speaker 1: someone he cares about badly. And is part of his
Speaker 1: backstory about how his mother was treated when by by
Speaker 1: a road crew when he was fourteen years old and
Speaker 1: comes home and finds his mom and this is I
Speaker 1: don't want to give away any part of any of
Speaker 1: the stories, but uh, he's uh, that's that's Jake's background,
Speaker 1: and so he has a duty one of his vigilante
Speaker 1: duty says to make sure women are okay and and
Speaker 1: protect them, not that they can't protect themselves, but if
Speaker 1: there's somebody that is uh, you know, doing something wrong
Speaker 1: to a to a woman, then then Jake, Jake tries
Speaker 1: to take care of the problem. Since since we're live streaming,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people will be listening later
Speaker 1: on the podcast. Um, but since we're why've streaming this
Speaker 1: right now? You could follow General Tata at aj Tata
Speaker 1: dot com. You could follow on Twitter at aj Tata,
Speaker 1: on Instagram at aj Tata Underscore Author And to give
Speaker 1: you some background on General Tata, General Tata is a
Speaker 1: former Army brigadier general. And then you turn to becoming
Speaker 1: a military fiction writer, which I think is interesting because
Speaker 1: you're seeing so many of these guys putting out memoirs
Speaker 1: in that typew thing and you transition to doing the
Speaker 1: fiction thing. Was it inspired by guys like Brad thor
Speaker 1: Brad Meltzer. Well, you know, I've always wanted to be
Speaker 1: a fiction author as one of those dreams and I
Speaker 1: had as a kid. I'd come home from book fair
Speaker 1: day and have an armload of books and uh always
Speaker 1: get lost in the stories. And I got to wondering,
Speaker 1: and when I was a teenager, how how is this
Speaker 1: author capturing my attention and and writing the story and
Speaker 1: keeping me guessing and keeping me turning the pages? And
Speaker 1: so I started studying how to write. And I always
Speaker 1: wanted to write, and so well, I could certainly write
Speaker 1: a memoir and all of that, and it would be
Speaker 1: very interesting, I think. Right now, I'm I'm focused on fiction.
Speaker 1: I've got a couple more books to write, and you know,
Speaker 1: three or four more coming out, four more coming out
Speaker 1: from both Kensington and Saint Martin's Press that I co
Speaker 1: author with Nick Irving. So wish we will get into recently.
Speaker 1: And Nick is a friend of mine, friend of the shows.
Speaker 1: I've known him for years. At this point, you're still
Speaker 1: all around great guy and doing very positive things right now.
Speaker 1: He opened up on the podcast about you know, kind
Speaker 1: of turning his wife around in some ways, and uh,
Speaker 1: we'll get into that. But I was wondering, do you
Speaker 1: intend to keep the Jake Mohegan series going for several
Speaker 1: years as long as Kensington will keep signing me to
Speaker 1: contracts and the books books keep selling, well, I want
Speaker 1: to keep Jake Mohegan alive. You know, we've got as
Speaker 1: I mentioned, we've got Fire and Fury coming out in
Speaker 1: October November time frame of eighteen. And then uh, there's
Speaker 1: a book six beyond that, so that would be book five,
Speaker 1: Fire and Fury and book six seventy two hours as
Speaker 1: uh scheduled beyond that, So that would be six Mohegan
Speaker 1: books and that I'm under contract for. And then we'll
Speaker 1: see what happens after that. How do you get these
Speaker 1: out so quickly? Like how do you manage to first
Speaker 1: of all come up with the idea for the next book,
Speaker 1: you know, and and make it a good idea that
Speaker 1: you know people are gonna want to read, that's not
Speaker 1: going to be repetitive of the previous books. And then
Speaker 1: you know, writing a book like this, it's a hard job.
Speaker 1: Takes a long time. Well, you gotta produce. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: nobody's uh, A ferry is not going to come down
Speaker 1: and write the book for you. And so you've got
Speaker 1: for some guys, that's right, that's right. Uh they call
Speaker 1: it button seat time, right, So you got to write. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, for me, I got I need to be
Speaker 1: doing a thousand words a day. So if you think
Speaker 1: of the average fiction thriller about nine hundred thousand words,
Speaker 1: that's three ish four months where you've you've got a
Speaker 1: rough draft and then you take a couple of months
Speaker 1: to polish it and then you turn it in. That's
Speaker 1: that's kind of the grind that you're on. And and
Speaker 1: for me, the creative aspect when when I know, uh,
Speaker 1: when when it starts to jel For me, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: driving to act the Act one finish, Act two finish
Speaker 1: and then the finale and in transitioning between those acts
Speaker 1: and and trying to have good, exciting conflict intention in
Speaker 1: the book. And and to me, that's the fun part
Speaker 1: is is surprising myself even because you get inside the
Speaker 1: character's head Jake Mohegan or the antagonist or the love interest,
Speaker 1: and you try to get inside their head and they
Speaker 1: actually do things they tell you to do, things that
Speaker 1: you might not have thought of. And I know that
Speaker 1: sounds a little strange, but you're it's like acting. You're
Speaker 1: inside that person's head and you're saying, well, actually, Jake
Speaker 1: Mohegan would do this and he just drives the story.
Speaker 1: Or actually the bad guy in Besiege, Darius Mears would
Speaker 1: do this and and uh, you know there's some some
Speaker 1: great uh characters and direct fire as well. So for
Speaker 1: for me, it's a thousand words a day, and I've
Speaker 1: got a rough draft and where I get the ideas from.
Speaker 1: I spent a lifetime e and uh thinking about what's
Speaker 1: the worst thing the enemy can do to my soldiers?
Speaker 1: Lots of operational deployments, combat time, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And then I had to as a commander think creatively,
Speaker 1: how do I stop that from happening? How do I
Speaker 1: get on the offensive against the enemy, how do I
Speaker 1: protect my soldiers? And so now I do a lot
Speaker 1: of reading different you know, from Wired magazine, different you know,
Speaker 1: technology stuff. You know, people magot everything, and I think, I,
Speaker 1: you know, stumble across something and I'll say, autonomous cars,
Speaker 1: what's the worst thing that the enemy could do to
Speaker 1: us with autonomous cars? And that's kind of the Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot and and that's part you know, a
Speaker 1: central plot of besiege for direct fire. You know, what's
Speaker 1: the worst thing that someone could do with uh, the
Speaker 1: technology and the hacking and the cyber capability. And did
Speaker 1: did you know that we we move of nuclear weapons
Speaker 1: around and mac trucks, Uh, and we so in those
Speaker 1: schedules are published somewhere on secure internet. But how secure
Speaker 1: is the internet nowadays? And so that's that's kind of
Speaker 1: a central theme of of direct fire. You of course
Speaker 1: have the army background, but do you ever meet with
Speaker 1: hackers to see how they you know, the language they
Speaker 1: use or anything like that, you know when you talk
Speaker 1: about that type of thing. Yeah, I've met with people
Speaker 1: who are very good at uh, moving around the Internet.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure they would appreciate being called hackers, but
Speaker 1: people that software who would you know, call themselves. Okay,
Speaker 1: we have hackers at the government, you know we need
Speaker 1: to Um, yes, I've met with them. Because what I
Speaker 1: was wondering is, you know, we had Brad Thorne here.
Speaker 1: Brad Thor is amazing at his craft, of course, not
Speaker 1: her friend, and does not have a military background, much
Speaker 1: like myself. Um. So he talked about he'll meet with
Speaker 1: Marcus Lattrelle and his brother and say like, hey, what
Speaker 1: a navy seal really say? This is his dialogue? Seem right? Um,
Speaker 1: just to make sure that what he's putting out is authentic.
Speaker 1: For you, I feel like it might be a little
Speaker 1: quicker because you have the Army background. But I was
Speaker 1: guessing there's probably some people you need to meet with
Speaker 1: to say, like, is Mohegan going to come off his
Speaker 1: authentic right? There's that And so I have lots of
Speaker 1: friends from the Jaysack community and and so I bounced
Speaker 1: ideas off of them, plus uh the you know, for example,
Speaker 1: and besieged uh. I there's one of the main characters
Speaker 1: points of view of the story as a love year
Speaker 1: old autistic girl who is a code writer hacker UM
Speaker 1: and her dad is the Internet um technology guy, information
Speaker 1: technology guy for the autonomous car company. And she sits
Speaker 1: in the basement. She can't really speak that well, but
Speaker 1: she's got this genius brain. And so I created the
Speaker 1: eleven year old hacker autistic girl. And I gave the
Speaker 1: draft copy of the book to the North Carolina Autism
Speaker 1: Society president and the Wake County which is basically Raleigh
Speaker 1: and eleven other cities and where I had been superintendent before,
Speaker 1: and they read the book and they said, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got her about right. I would do this, I
Speaker 1: would do this. So I always sort of factor particularly
Speaker 1: it was a leap for me. I did so much
Speaker 1: research on autism and that kind of thing, and I
Speaker 1: thought I got her about right, and and turns out
Speaker 1: I did, and in direct fire with the cyber warfare.
Speaker 1: You know, I talked to different cyber geniuses and and
Speaker 1: hackers and and uh, turns out, you know, you can
Speaker 1: do a lot. You know, you've heard stories about over
Speaker 1: the air, uh, all the Cherokees being doors unlocked, the
Speaker 1: and the the you know what happens there. Somebody can
Speaker 1: unlock the door of a hundred thousand Cherokee jeep vehicles
Speaker 1: and you know, your purses in there, your wallets in there,
Speaker 1: you know your credit cards are in there or whatever.
Speaker 1: And I was reading an article on this, and I said, well,
Speaker 1: what if they could actually plan a trojan remote access
Speaker 1: trojan in there and just make the car stop at
Speaker 1: a certain time. We we have a writer for the site,
Speaker 1: Corey Alanis, who probably would be able to get into
Speaker 1: some of that with you, because what I thought was interesting.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize until he was on that there's an annual.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a there's a conference for everything in Vegas.
Speaker 1: You know, there's shot show coming up. There's like I
Speaker 1: didn't realize there was a hacking convention. There's a black
Speaker 1: hat and another one, and I remember as reading the
Speaker 1: articles on it, and they hacked a voting machine. That
Speaker 1: was like the big thing that he did at the
Speaker 1: hacking conference this year, which is pretty scary stuff to think,
Speaker 1: you know. So I'm sure there's so much that could
Speaker 1: be done with cars that you're researching in that right well.
Speaker 1: And and so that it's not only that, but the
Speaker 1: you know financial you know Bank of America, you know
Speaker 1: all the phishing scheme, not just Bank of Americas, several
Speaker 1: different banks generically, uh, and the the I call it
Speaker 1: United Bank of America. That's my fictional bank indirect fire.
Speaker 1: But you know, there's a hacking scheme going on there
Speaker 1: and and it's sort of this decapitation effort uh through
Speaker 1: the vehicles, through bank accounts, and just trying to basically
Speaker 1: impact the economy and create confusion. Because Mohegan has a
Speaker 1: saying and he figures it out. This is part of
Speaker 1: the mystery among many one and that's an old Crowton saying.
Speaker 1: And so if you want to create confusion and and
Speaker 1: do one thing, do a million things, and then do
Speaker 1: that one thing in the middle of the million things
Speaker 1: that you're doing, And that's that's exactly what's happening and
Speaker 1: direct fires that there's so much going on, but there's
Speaker 1: only one thing that the antagonists really want to happen,
Speaker 1: and and they're they're trying to make that happen, and
Speaker 1: they do. They're successful and making it happen. So this
Speaker 1: audience watching the live stream right now listening to the
Speaker 1: podcast loves Nick Irving. He's definitely one of the most
Speaker 1: popular guests on the show. Um and just an all
Speaker 1: around great guy. So Reaper Ghost Target, which you're co
Speaker 1: writing with him, comes out in May. Eighth. Protagonist of
Speaker 1: the book is Vic the Reaper Harwood, which Nick kind
Speaker 1: of hinted at that it might be loosely based off
Speaker 1: same nickname. And uh so this is the first time
Speaker 1: Nick is working on a fiction novel and he's working
Speaker 1: with you. Um. I heard a little bit from him
Speaker 1: his perspective on this, but I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: How did you hook up with Nick and how did
Speaker 1: the idea come about? Well, we have the same agent,
Speaker 1: and so the agent said, why don't the General the
Speaker 1: sergeant write a book together, and why don't we do
Speaker 1: a fiction series spinoff? Because his autobiography was so well done,
Speaker 1: And uh, so popular. Yeah, yeah, right, his first autobiography
Speaker 1: and then The Way of the Reaper after that, and
Speaker 1: the first book, you know, spent four or five six
Speaker 1: weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. And and
Speaker 1: you know, people love Nick because he's got this great
Speaker 1: story and and he you know, fought for our country
Speaker 1: and he's he's an in the dirt sniper and he's
Speaker 1: a very humble man. And so the our agent connected
Speaker 1: us and Nick and I riffed for about two hours
Speaker 1: on ideas, and then we got to work and it
Speaker 1: was a very quick uh me listen to him, him
Speaker 1: listening to me, and a great teamwork. We jelled, we
Speaker 1: clicked right away. Just two guys that really love created creation.
Speaker 1: You know, he's an actor now and so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's doing a lot, Yeah he is, and uh, he's uh,
Speaker 1: he's a he's a creative though. He's he's got a
Speaker 1: creative mind. And yeah, and so Nick and and you know,
Speaker 1: I love Nick. He's such a good guy. And and
Speaker 1: we worked so closely on this book together and we
Speaker 1: came up with the you know this idea that uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the and the very opening scene of the
Speaker 1: of the book, he's in a sniper hide in Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: trying to get his nemesis, the real life in nemesis
Speaker 1: from his autobiography, the Chechen, And so I carried that over.
Speaker 1: We carried that over as as we were writing the book,
Speaker 1: and and we said, look, let's let's make the Chechen
Speaker 1: the antagonists in the first book. And that way people
Speaker 1: who have read the autobiography, well then well then see
Speaker 1: potentially also something could have played out, and and and
Speaker 1: we thought it was a great segue from the autobiography
Speaker 1: to to the fiction novel. And so there's there's a
Speaker 1: two book contract right now with St. Martin's and hopefully
Speaker 1: well we'll have you know, many many more. That's cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was hinting at it before. Um, you know, if
Speaker 1: you guys haven't listened back to the latest episode with
Speaker 1: Nick Irving, very open guy, and and he was very
Speaker 1: candid about, you know, all these guys he's seen who
Speaker 1: are army rangers with soldiers, suicide and all this terrible
Speaker 1: stuff going on. And he said on the podcast the
Speaker 1: common thread between all of them was alcohol abuse. And
Speaker 1: he's like, I realized I had to get my wife
Speaker 1: in order. And I can tell you he's just at
Speaker 1: a really great place now. Has always been a great guy,
Speaker 1: but I think now he's like ready to take things
Speaker 1: to the next level, do new creative things. Um. And
Speaker 1: I think the fact that he's written to autobiographies he
Speaker 1: actually wrote more but two major published autobiographies, he wants
Speaker 1: to move on to something different and be creative, as
Speaker 1: you said, Yeah, and I think I think this is
Speaker 1: it for him and us, and I think we're a
Speaker 1: great team. And and uh, you know, hopefully there there's
Speaker 1: some Hollywood interest we know in this uh fiction series,
Speaker 1: so you never know what what can spin off out
Speaker 1: of that very first book that that he did, his autobiograph. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there's Hollywood interested in that. He talked about
Speaker 1: that on the show. Originally was going to be a
Speaker 1: TV series on NBC UM, which was going to be
Speaker 1: produced by Jay Z. That's pretty damn cool. And now
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a major motion picture and I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see that. And you know, there's no one
Speaker 1: who deserves it more than him, right. Yeah, he's just
Speaker 1: a solid earth graade guy. And and you know, he's
Speaker 1: like so many of our soldiers. He he is just
Speaker 1: a humble public servant that wanted to defend our country
Speaker 1: and do his part. And and that's what Nick Irving
Speaker 1: is and and always will be. And and I'm proud
Speaker 1: to call him a friend and a and a co author.
Speaker 1: So what do you think is the difference for someone
Speaker 1: like Nick who is an experienced author at this point
Speaker 1: but now has to write fiction, even if it is
Speaker 1: based on him, it's a it's a different ballgame. I
Speaker 1: would assume, yeah, you know, you you wanna. The basic
Speaker 1: job now is to entertain, as opposed to with autobiography.
Speaker 1: What you're really doing is telling your personal story. And
Speaker 1: it may be entertaining, but it has to adhere to
Speaker 1: what this personal story is, and people will be the
Speaker 1: judge whether or not that's entertaining. It turns out that
Speaker 1: Nick's Nick's combat adventures were very, very entertaining for for
Speaker 1: people who enjoy reading that kind of um, you know, nonfiction.
Speaker 1: And so now fiction is purely in the entertainment business.
Speaker 1: And so people have a limited amount of entertainment dollars
Speaker 1: that they spend on movies or books or you know,
Speaker 1: whatever their choice of entertainment is. And so you've got
Speaker 1: to be their first choice for entertainment as a fiction author.
Speaker 1: And that's that's really what I've learned after eight books,
Speaker 1: is that you know, you've just got to continue to
Speaker 1: press ahead and provide the most entertainment, the most interesting,
Speaker 1: the most thrilling, the most action. If you're in this genre,
Speaker 1: That's what people want is action. They want attention, they
Speaker 1: want suspense, they want mystery, and they want to they
Speaker 1: want to be sweating as they're reading, and and they
Speaker 1: just you know, want to be up all night. You know,
Speaker 1: they don't want to be up all night, but they
Speaker 1: wind up all night, you know, because they don't want
Speaker 1: to put the book down. And that's that's the job
Speaker 1: of a fiction author. And Nick's learned that really well
Speaker 1: because the real book spy, who's uh the uh one
Speaker 1: of the leading authorities on thrillers and mysteries now has
Speaker 1: got an advanced reyar copy of Raper Ghost Target and
Speaker 1: really is uh saying it's one of the best books
Speaker 1: he's read for ever plus so so we're looking forward
Speaker 1: to that. And he gave rave reviews to direct Fire
Speaker 1: as well, so um, the you know, the reviews on
Speaker 1: direct Fire have been out of this world. And I'm
Speaker 1: excited about this and I'm excited about working with Nick. Also,
Speaker 1: our audience is gonna dig it. We're gonna get into
Speaker 1: some current affair stuff. But you know, as I said,
Speaker 1: I want to look at what you guys are asking.
Speaker 1: We're broadcasting on not just Facebook live stream, we are
Speaker 1: all we're also doing YouTube through the restream thing, and
Speaker 1: now we're doing Twitch, which I'm still learning about. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm trying to get a following on Twitch.
Speaker 1: So if you're on Twitch, get on there. I know
Speaker 1: it's mainly gamers, but we're trying to do something new
Speaker 1: and get a new audience. So I'm looking at the
Speaker 1: questions here. Grants here tends to be in our live
Speaker 1: streams a lot, which we appreciate. Good question from Grant
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube. Um, have you ever written content that
Speaker 1: featured experimental or wishful technology tactics or viewpoints that you
Speaker 1: threw at the wall to see what sticks or maybe
Speaker 1: for direct indirect feedback. Yeah, that's a great question. Way
Speaker 1: back in the previous series, I was writing the threat
Speaker 1: series road Threat, I was reading about nanotechnology swarming as
Speaker 1: through the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and and and
Speaker 1: there was no such thing at the time. It was
Speaker 1: just this concept and it turns out that you know,
Speaker 1: besieged and even direct fire apply some of that because
Speaker 1: it's real, live technology today, and you know, some of
Speaker 1: some of the cyber warfare concepts and direct fire right
Speaker 1: now push the limits. But you know, all the quote
Speaker 1: unquote hackers that I talked to said this is entirely possible,
Speaker 1: and this could be done. And so as you think
Speaker 1: of it and you think, well, there's no way that
Speaker 1: that could possibly happen, then then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: you talk to an expert and they say, well, actually
Speaker 1: that's happening or that's about to happen. And and so
Speaker 1: it's you're the mind. If your mind is thinking of it,
Speaker 1: somebody somebody's thought of it, right, And no matter how
Speaker 1: creative you are, you know, there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: out there, a lot of smart people out there that
Speaker 1: are thinking their way through some of these things and
Speaker 1: and trying to figure out, you know, solutions to problems
Speaker 1: and trying to figure out how to exploit systems. And
Speaker 1: and that's why when we think we'll look at cyber
Speaker 1: warfare and direct fire and that kind of thing with
Speaker 1: China and even Iran, you know, who would have thought
Speaker 1: Iran was a leading cyber warfare expert and North Korea
Speaker 1: stealing you know, about fifty gigs of a war plan
Speaker 1: from South Korea. They did that, and so now that
Speaker 1: that's you know, about six months ago there was an
Speaker 1: assassination plan and all that that North Korea allegedly took
Speaker 1: from the South Korean servers, How are they getting into
Speaker 1: the some of these most secure servers and and so
Speaker 1: that's one of the areas that I push on in
Speaker 1: direct fire with cyber warfare and everything that is supposed
Speaker 1: to be secure. These you know, you know this and
Speaker 1: the hackers say, there's really nothing that you can't get into,
Speaker 1: and what's learning that every day? Which is pretty scary, right, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: And you know that's actually a nice segue into a
Speaker 1: few different things. Um. Wiki weeks we heard about Juliana
Speaker 1: Sange being banned on Twitter. We'll get into that. Keep
Speaker 1: the questions coming, whether you're on Facebook or YouTube. We'll
Speaker 1: get to what we can. We have a lot of
Speaker 1: great feedback, but uh, there's many questions. So if you
Speaker 1: have any questions, just throw them out there. If they're good,
Speaker 1: we'll get to it. Um getting into some some current
Speaker 1: events though you were mentioning the North Korea stuff. What
Speaker 1: needs to be done with North Korea from your perspective,
Speaker 1: because some people are saying, we can no longer have diplomacy,
Speaker 1: but you know, we don't want to be thrown into
Speaker 1: a whole another war over this end um kind of
Speaker 1: a follow up, do you think North Korea is truly
Speaker 1: a threat to the United States or just a threat
Speaker 1: to our allies like Japan. I think they're a threat
Speaker 1: to the United States into our allies. That you have
Speaker 1: to look at both intent and capability. And let's take
Speaker 1: Pakistan for example. They have the capability of nuclear weapons,
Speaker 1: but they don't have a leader saying I'm gonna now
Speaker 1: the United States, Uh, India, same thing. And and to
Speaker 1: an extent, China and Russia they they have the weapons.
Speaker 1: Now you know, different scenario there because they have more
Speaker 1: and there's mutual shared destruction and and all that, which
Speaker 1: is what Korea wants. They want mutual shared destruction. They
Speaker 1: wanted that status and and so uh for for me,
Speaker 1: when I look at the situation with North Korea, I
Speaker 1: see the current administration effectively applying the elements of national
Speaker 1: power to address the issue that has been kicked down
Speaker 1: the road, and I think that we can no longer
Speaker 1: kick this down the road because President Obama's national security
Speaker 1: strategy said we wanted a rules based international order, which
Speaker 1: and also a UH, they wanted to stop nuclear proliferation,
Speaker 1: so that both pillars of that national security strategy. It's
Speaker 1: against the international law to create nuclear weapons if you're
Speaker 1: not a nuclear state. And so North Korea is violating
Speaker 1: international law, and they're also violating our precept of a
Speaker 1: UH stopping proliferation of weapons mass destruction. We didn't do
Speaker 1: anything out it. Then we didn't do anything about it
Speaker 1: on the Bush administration, and and then the Clinton Perry
Speaker 1: deal back in UH is just like the Iran deal
Speaker 1: that was done by the Obama administration. So we see
Speaker 1: where that got us with North Korea. So we can
Speaker 1: look twenty years down the road and see where we
Speaker 1: might be with Iran now haven't said all of that.
Speaker 1: There's diplomatic power, information power, military power, economic power. And
Speaker 1: so we just had a third fifteen OH vote for
Speaker 1: increased sanctions, and I think we're leaving ourselves with each
Speaker 1: set of sanctions, a little bit of runway to do
Speaker 1: a little bit more to keep the negotiations going. And
Speaker 1: I think that's a smart move. We're applying military power
Speaker 1: through shows of force what we call flexible response or
Speaker 1: deterrent options, where we fly some B one bombers, we
Speaker 1: do military exercise on the Korean peninsula. I've been involved
Speaker 1: in those exercises. I've been in the d m Z.
Speaker 1: I know how tense to sit suation is up there.
Speaker 1: I was in the DMC as a general, I was
Speaker 1: in the DMZ as a lieutenant and everything in between.
Speaker 1: And so uh and which is, by the way, I
Speaker 1: should for the audience that might not know it's demilitarized zone.
Speaker 1: We've talked about four because uh, our editor in chief,
Speaker 1: Jack Murphy has been there just as a journalist. But
Speaker 1: back to what you're saying, Yeah, so so there's that.
Speaker 1: But you've got Nicki Haley leading the diplomatic effort, and
Speaker 1: she's fifteen o three votes. When Russian China typically agree
Speaker 1: with us, they'll typically they don't typically agree with us,
Speaker 1: but when they when they do, they'll typically abstain, they
Speaker 1: won't vote yes. Here they voted yes three times. And
Speaker 1: and that's herculean work by this administration to get that
Speaker 1: kind of vote. Uh. And and so to me, that's
Speaker 1: that's a huge diplomatic coup. And when now, what is
Speaker 1: what are Russia and China doing on the ground. That's
Speaker 1: a whole different issue. A year ago January through March,
Speaker 1: first quarter of seventeen, China was a net had a
Speaker 1: net increase in trade with North Korea. Now, you know,
Speaker 1: supposedly they've torked that back, but Russia has been making
Speaker 1: up for a little bit. Now. These new sanctions go
Speaker 1: after oil ship to ship, oil transfers and and things
Speaker 1: that you know, we're sort of working around the coal
Speaker 1: transfers and all that, and and they crank down on
Speaker 1: that and so and and they make within two year
Speaker 1: period of time. So nothing's gonna happen right away. All
Speaker 1: the foreign workers must be out of North Korea, so
Speaker 1: that gives them in their families time to make other
Speaker 1: plans and get out. But that's you know, a tough
Speaker 1: set of sanctions. And they're even in Kim Jong un
Speaker 1: said it's an active war. Well, of course, it's an
Speaker 1: active war. We've been at at war, just not a
Speaker 1: hot war, not a shooting war. Really, I'm for several years.
Speaker 1: When they've got intent and capability, they say we are
Speaker 1: gonna nuke the United States. We're at war with the
Speaker 1: United States. I mean, I take them at their word.
Speaker 1: Why not, you know, never underestimate an enemy. And and
Speaker 1: so the diplomatic and the information elements of power. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Kim Jong un saying something and getting big,
Speaker 1: big splash in the press, then President Trump Trump tweeting,
Speaker 1: get something in the in the press. Uh. And and
Speaker 1: that's the information warfare, going back and forth, back and
Speaker 1: forth and and um. Then economic you know, taining down
Speaker 1: those sanctions. So that that's the four elements of power.
Speaker 1: And you know, the sun Sue and the clause Wits
Speaker 1: and all of them talk about the golden bridge. Never
Speaker 1: never corner the the opponent. It just always leave some
Speaker 1: golden bridge out and and so that they don't have
Speaker 1: to fight. And if we can build this thing such
Speaker 1: that we can uh crank down on the sanctions, we
Speaker 1: can keep them isolated. We can build that golden bridge,
Speaker 1: whatever that looks like for Kim Jong and maybe he
Speaker 1: stays in power but gives up nukes. Uh, but there's
Speaker 1: something's got to give. Because the new national security strategy
Speaker 1: with President Trump makes it very clear, as did President
Speaker 1: Obama's actually that we are not gonna tolerate uh A
Speaker 1: nuclear North Korea. We mentioned, um, the new UH I
Speaker 1: shouldn't say foreign policy strategy, national security, just in general
Speaker 1: strategy that they've laid out. We talked about it in
Speaker 1: the last show. Um, we actually talked about Army Ranger.
Speaker 1: Marty Scoveland went on our friend Andrew will Cow show
Speaker 1: and talked about it. Um. But I'm still a little
Speaker 1: in the dark of what what particular particulars are different
Speaker 1: about this current UM national defense strategy than what we've
Speaker 1: had in place. Yeah. I think the big difference in
Speaker 1: is that somebody actually didn't do a big cut and
Speaker 1: pace job from the ten previous national security strategies, because
Speaker 1: not much has change, um for this one. It's wholly different.
Speaker 1: And I actually UM sent hr McMaster of email saying
Speaker 1: this fantastic job, you know, um, because you know I
Speaker 1: thought they did. Yeah, oh yeah, I mean he's a
Speaker 1: great guy, great American. Couldn't have a better guy in there,
Speaker 1: and and uh, you know, the as I read through it,
Speaker 1: it not only you know, it talks about protecting the
Speaker 1: American people, and then it's got a whole um you
Speaker 1: know section on that, and it talks about the prosperity
Speaker 1: of the American people. So it wraps security in the
Speaker 1: economy together, um, and then it talks about peace through strength,
Speaker 1: and then it talks about pursuing adversaries to the source
Speaker 1: and whether or not that's you know, the transnational actor
Speaker 1: threat is a big threat. And in all of these areas,
Speaker 1: there are actually action items inside this National Secure any
Speaker 1: document that says, okay, action item number one must do X,
Speaker 1: Y and Z. Action item number two must do A,
Speaker 1: B and C. And it's their way, you know. And
Speaker 1: and knowing that we've got three army generals kind of
Speaker 1: you know, the General Kelly, General Maddis and General McMaster.
Speaker 1: You know, their action oriented and they're and if they're
Speaker 1: holding themselves accountable is a big deal. And if I
Speaker 1: could jump in here, I was just gonna say that
Speaker 1: there's there's widespart opinion throughout the military of and and
Speaker 1: our writers, I think our audience of if they think
Speaker 1: Trump is doing a good job, if they think the
Speaker 1: administration is doing a good job, there's always going to
Speaker 1: be debate on that type of thing. I've always said
Speaker 1: the military is not a model. If that's certainly something
Speaker 1: I've learned working on this podcast. However, General maddis, I
Speaker 1: have not heard a negative thing about the guy. And
Speaker 1: I think even if people are critical of Trump, they
Speaker 1: can say I like this guy and I trust his
Speaker 1: judgment that well, that's right. And and you know, you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta give a nod to President Trump for
Speaker 1: picking a guy like Madison, a guy like Kelly, and
Speaker 1: a guy like McMaster to be in there and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, working hard and doing the nation's bidding, and
Speaker 1: what you have with with them is not only a
Speaker 1: combined about twenty years of service and uniform, but a
Speaker 1: lot of combat time. And so they really know the
Speaker 1: cost of combat. They know that if we go to
Speaker 1: war in North Korea there there will be massive loss
Speaker 1: of life American, South Korean, North Korean, and who knows
Speaker 1: what else, depending upon the options that we employ. These
Speaker 1: are men who have been on the battlefield, have put soldiers, sailors,
Speaker 1: airmend marines and caskets and shipped them home, have knelt
Speaker 1: at memorial services and cried over lost men and women
Speaker 1: that they loved as soldier, sailors, airmen, and renes. And
Speaker 1: so nobody's taken this lightly at all. And I have
Speaker 1: the utmost respect for what this administration is trying to
Speaker 1: do because we can't also we cannot say it's too
Speaker 1: much of a problem and and you know, leave it
Speaker 1: for somebody else for eight years down the road. We've
Speaker 1: got to take care of this problem somehow, some way. Absolutely. Um,
Speaker 1: we were talking about Wiki weeks pretty briefly. I saw that,
Speaker 1: I think on Christmas Twitter band Juliana Sange would just
Speaker 1: like to hear your take on that. Yeah, you know Twitter.
Speaker 1: Twitter I think is you know, an arm of of uh,
Speaker 1: the the mainstream media almost where uh they'll they'll they'll
Speaker 1: give the tigers to the liberal and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: not that Asans is liberal or conservative, but he's certainly
Speaker 1: done a lot of damage to liberal causes of late,
Speaker 1: and so that probably played a big factor into that.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you saw the you know,
Speaker 1: Rosie O'Donnell um going nuts thing, offering what like two
Speaker 1: million dollars. Yeah, but she she said something obscene and
Speaker 1: then someone called her out on it, and it was
Speaker 1: like Ben Shapiro, Yeah, exactly, it was Shapiro, I think,
Speaker 1: but she think she offered two million dollars to senators
Speaker 1: to vote on what was it the healthcare bell she
Speaker 1: was Briban senators don't think that's gonna work on Twitter.
Speaker 1: On Twitter, um, it is interesting what they will go
Speaker 1: after and what they won't go after. Yeah, and there
Speaker 1: definitely is a bias there. I often said, you know,
Speaker 1: because Twitter is almost like a Drudge report in that
Speaker 1: it's a news aggregate. But as Drudges is definitely center
Speaker 1: right leaning, Twitter is definitely center left leaning. And when
Speaker 1: I say this to a lot of people, they say, well,
Speaker 1: just matters who you're following. I'm talking about when you
Speaker 1: go on Twitter and you go into that news feed part,
Speaker 1: it's always there's always stories with a major left wing bias,
Speaker 1: for sure. Noticed and um, they're covering people with more
Speaker 1: of a left wing bias. And I do think there
Speaker 1: has to be some um bias in banning Julian Sang
Speaker 1: because yes, he has been more favorable towards the right
Speaker 1: with with some of the stuff that he's putting out.
Speaker 1: He was more focused on what Hillary Clinton was doing
Speaker 1: than than other things. But this is well and it
Speaker 1: may be that there just wasn't as much that he
Speaker 1: could dig out on on the other campaign, and and
Speaker 1: so that's why he released all those Clinton documents. Who knows,
Speaker 1: I mean that the Clinton team, you know, when when
Speaker 1: you look at what was exposed, it's massive corruption that
Speaker 1: was exposed on the left, and it was just unbelievable
Speaker 1: some of the things that came out. And and to
Speaker 1: this day we're seeing with the FBI and and how
Speaker 1: you know, the lead investigator on the Clinton email scandal
Speaker 1: was a huge Clinton s order go figure and actually
Speaker 1: using his actual FBI email address to uh send supportive
Speaker 1: emails for Hillary Clinton, which is against the law. So um,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at at our live stream right now, a
Speaker 1: lot of great feedback coming in. Robert Burt Burt how
Speaker 1: hopefully pronouncing that right, says he pre ordered the book
Speaker 1: must be here tomorrow. Um, I was even seeing before
Speaker 1: I get to a question I saw here, Converge Sheaf
Speaker 1: on YouTube says this guy was my brigade commander. Nice guy.
Speaker 1: I'm happy he's doing well. Or it might be converged
Speaker 1: chef chef sheath a sheath. Converged Sheath means his artillery
Speaker 1: term where where uh um, converged chef would be, you know,
Speaker 1: cooking two eggs at once, But converge Sheath is is
Speaker 1: an artillery term for getting all the all the rounds
Speaker 1: right on one. I'm just wondering if you know who
Speaker 1: it is who says that he worked with you. But well,
Speaker 1: you know, I had four thousand troops and I'm glad
Speaker 1: there's a nar assault trooper from Strike Brigade. Um. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I hope he's doing well. And thanks for the comment.
Speaker 1: So the questions are coming in once again. Pick up
Speaker 1: direct fire today. UM, our favorite seller who he says, Uh,
Speaker 1: good morning, shipmates. I can't do Gene Fourns boys, but
Speaker 1: he always he sends us invoicte memos regularly. Great guy, um.
Speaker 1: He asks, please share your favorite duty station tour and
Speaker 1: why it was your favorite? Oh, you know, undoubtedly, um,
Speaker 1: eighty second Airborne Division, Fort Bragg. Uh. You know. And
Speaker 1: it's hard to do because hundred first tenth amount in
Speaker 1: all great units. And but I would say that when
Speaker 1: I first arrived at the eighty second Airborne Division, the
Speaker 1: the elon there, the acceptance, the culture, the jump master duties,
Speaker 1: the jumping out of an airplane, the history. Uh. And
Speaker 1: it was a part of it was the timing. I
Speaker 1: was there in the early nineties and we had all
Speaker 1: these World War two veterans every year coming back now
Speaker 1: an All American week and and meeting just really famous
Speaker 1: for jump uh you know the Sicily Salerno, Uh Saint
Speaker 1: Mary Guisee, uh France D Day and and uh Holland jumps.
Speaker 1: And you know these are legends in our time that
Speaker 1: we're still alive then that and now you know, twenty
Speaker 1: some years later there uh most of them have passed,
Speaker 1: but being able to talk to them and and just
Speaker 1: really live that. And I and I had a lot
Speaker 1: of this in the hundred first Airborne as well, and
Speaker 1: so it's really hard to distinguish between the two. But
Speaker 1: as a young officer, I came into the eighty second
Speaker 1: Airborne Division and it was just such a great experience
Speaker 1: that this was the real army. This was where I
Speaker 1: wanted to be. This is why I signed up. And
Speaker 1: and you have sergeants in charge of hundred paratroopers in
Speaker 1: the bat lack of an aircraft and and putting them
Speaker 1: out the door and the back door of an aircraft
Speaker 1: doesn't care if you're a private or a general. You
Speaker 1: better get out out of that door, right, you know,
Speaker 1: up six out thirty six and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: get get into the slip stream and hold tight and
Speaker 1: count to four thousand and then you know, execute a
Speaker 1: proper parasite landing fall and and and and curse on
Speaker 1: here it sounds pretty awesome. Yeah, it is awesome. It
Speaker 1: is awesome, and and uh, you know, the the great
Speaker 1: thing about it was a non commissioned officer Corps was
Speaker 1: so is so strong and powerful because they're in charge
Speaker 1: every day of para troopers and the safety of para
Speaker 1: troopers and it's real life and death every day in
Speaker 1: the eighty second Airborne Division and and so that that
Speaker 1: was sort of my indoctrination into real special elite units
Speaker 1: with Elon and hundred first was great as well, you know,
Speaker 1: all the air assault power. You've got their tenth Mountain
Speaker 1: grade as well. And and what you saw was there
Speaker 1: was this rotation between those three units, so you kind
Speaker 1: of got to know everybody as you kept serving in
Speaker 1: one or the other. In the eighteenth Airborne Core and
Speaker 1: so I would say the eighteenth Airborne Corps because it's
Speaker 1: really one degree different between eightst tenth Mountain and and
Speaker 1: you were in the Rapid Reaction Corps and you were
Speaker 1: you were you know, at on two hour recall and
Speaker 1: you were ready to go, and and there was that
Speaker 1: sense of urgency and and that's why you know, I
Speaker 1: can I can talk about this all day because yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess me excited. Yeah, it sounds like it was
Speaker 1: just a huge rush to be a part of that. Yes, yes, um, alright,
Speaker 1: getting into other things. I thought this was interesting here,
Speaker 1: George talent Um. And this is a good question back
Speaker 1: to what we were just talking about before. Have sanctions
Speaker 1: ever really worked on these type of regimes like North Korea?
Speaker 1: Historically looking at Cuba, Iran, etcetera, sanctions do not appear
Speaker 1: to work. Are you optimistic with these new chefs sanctions
Speaker 1: against North Korea? You know, I'm I'm not optimistic that
Speaker 1: the sanctions will produce any kind of immediate effect. What
Speaker 1: I am optimistic about is that the sanctions mean that
Speaker 1: we are continuing to negotiate and and that that there
Speaker 1: must be something happening behind the scenes that is creating
Speaker 1: the need for more sanctions and not immediate military action.
Speaker 1: And so what what the sanctions mean to me? And
Speaker 1: that we haven't gone all the way because there there's
Speaker 1: more that we could do uh in a in a
Speaker 1: more meaningful way, and not that these aren't meaningful. They are,
Speaker 1: they're they're very harmful to North Korea, but there is
Speaker 1: more that we could do. And and so what that
Speaker 1: tells me is we're just you know, narrowing that zone
Speaker 1: of possible agreement, you know, and negotiations. You have what's
Speaker 1: called the Zone of possible agreement and the ZOPA, and
Speaker 1: and we're narrowing that down each time, you know, we're
Speaker 1: we're moving down toward you know, look, it's either gonna
Speaker 1: be you get out of here or you give up
Speaker 1: your nuclear weapons or both. And we'll give you an option.
Speaker 1: But uh, and and what what North Korea believes it has?
Speaker 1: Um and and rightfully? So, I mean they've got they've
Speaker 1: got an ace up their sleeve here with eight thousand
Speaker 1: artillery tubes you know near or on the d m
Speaker 1: Z in four thousand rocket launchers. So that's twelve thousand
Speaker 1: systems that can basically range about fifteen to twenty million
Speaker 1: people in Seul. Plus it's a one minute MiG flight
Speaker 1: from the demilitarized Zone to Soul. So that's even if
Speaker 1: we put a nuke down the smoke stack of pyeong
Speaker 1: Yang and you know, try to call it a day
Speaker 1: that's one poll of twelve thousand systems. Uh. And and
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have a lot of rocket fire and
Speaker 1: and artillery fire converged sheath on on uh saul. And
Speaker 1: there's about a quarter million Americans living in South Korea. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's a long history of uh, you know, American servicemen
Speaker 1: and women being there, and there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: marriages and families and that kind of thing, so that
Speaker 1: you know, Korea is very much a a ally and
Speaker 1: a friend and someone we that we have a huge
Speaker 1: interest in, a vital interest in, and and it's part
Speaker 1: of that first protection piece of the new set national
Speaker 1: security strategy. So am I confident that the sanctions of work. No, Am,
Speaker 1: I confident that this means that we're we're we've got
Speaker 1: some more runway to do some more talking before we
Speaker 1: go to war. Yes, good answer. Um. By the way,
Speaker 1: converge chief says he was in eighty one mm mortar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: anyone millimeter mortar, k Roger Yeah. Carry on, asks what
Speaker 1: is the level of Iranian support to North Korea? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think that's a good question that works both ways.
Speaker 1: You could ask it, what's North Korea prime to proride
Speaker 1: and to Iran as well as far as transfer and trade.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you when I was in the Balkans way
Speaker 1: back in the mid nineteen nineties, I was involved in
Speaker 1: Bosnia and Coastvo Mastonian, all of the Croatia, all of that.
Speaker 1: We traced a lot of support for that to Iran,
Speaker 1: and then that lit up networks that went to North Korea.
Speaker 1: And I, you know, I need to be careful what
Speaker 1: I say here, but there there is Irani and support
Speaker 1: to North Korea, and there's a North Korean support to Iran,
Speaker 1: and that is on everybody's radar because those are the
Speaker 1: two countries that, if you remember, President Bush had the
Speaker 1: access of evil, right Iraq, Iran and North Korea. And
Speaker 1: so Iraq is is sort of okay right now, and
Speaker 1: but Iran and North Korea, surprise surprise, continue to be
Speaker 1: orange in our side. And and uh the trade and
Speaker 1: uh they're they're closed society, so that they're very problematic.
Speaker 1: They are closed societies. And they have a lot of
Speaker 1: ungoverned space, particularly in Iran, not not so much in
Speaker 1: North Korea. But the ungoverned space is an area particularly
Speaker 1: along the west eastern border with Afghanistan and Iran. That's
Speaker 1: where a lot of this poppy and and guns and
Speaker 1: and uh. You know, back when I was deputy commander
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan, we saw a lot of the explosively formed
Speaker 1: penetrators starting to come in that way, a lot of
Speaker 1: the the roadside bomb materials coming in from Iran because
Speaker 1: you know, the the Shia, we're totally interested in doing
Speaker 1: whatever they could to kill Mame her Americans. And so
Speaker 1: that has not changed. And there is support between North
Speaker 1: Korea and Iran, and it works both ways. Well said um,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking we have more questions coming in all uh,
Speaker 1: Adam case is Ian rocking the beard? Thank you? I
Speaker 1: uh the last time you see me, I didn't have
Speaker 1: the beard. You know. It's like it's a seasonal thing.
Speaker 1: I feel like, because in the winter it's good to have, right, Um,
Speaker 1: I will. I'll probably shave it off as it gets warm.
Speaker 1: But thank you Adam U Tara Gavin, I love your books.
Speaker 1: How much of your experience plays into Jake's journey. Writing
Speaker 1: is a very courageous profession and very personal. How do
Speaker 1: you deal with the global and the personal parts of
Speaker 1: your career? Um? And then she also added, I want
Speaker 1: to hear more about you as a writer. You're an
Speaker 1: amazing writing talent. So she's a big fan about Tara.
Speaker 1: Tara is an awesome lady and she's a you know, great,
Speaker 1: great book editor. And um so you know, for me, uh,
Speaker 1: the creative process. I think that's what Tera is getting
Speaker 1: out its creative process. It is a very personal thing
Speaker 1: and it does take courage. And I get a lot
Speaker 1: of people who um asked me about writing and they
Speaker 1: want to be writers. You know, so many people want
Speaker 1: to be writers, and so many people feel creative and
Speaker 1: want to be able to articulate that into a book.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot harder than Yeah, it is hard.
Speaker 1: And you know, Stephen King Tom Clancy both had sort
Speaker 1: of paraphrase advice that if you want to write them,
Speaker 1: be a writer. And so I've been a writer. I
Speaker 1: can remember even at West Point after lights out with
Speaker 1: my flashlight on and spiral bound notebook that I still
Speaker 1: have that some of the characters from my very first
Speaker 1: couple of novels. You know, I just started right out
Speaker 1: after reading about how to how to do writing and
Speaker 1: that kind of and you know, how to write a
Speaker 1: mystery or how to write a thriller, and and it
Speaker 1: was just intriguing to me because this has always been
Speaker 1: a goal of mine, to to be a fiction author.
Speaker 1: And but you know, it takes some courage to put
Speaker 1: your stuff out there and then people review it on Amazon,
Speaker 1: and you know, thankfully most of the people give my books,
Speaker 1: you know, good reviews, but I think all seen a
Speaker 1: five stars. Yeah right, right, And but there are a
Speaker 1: few people that you know, take a job, yeah right,
Speaker 1: There's always to be that. But that's you know, you
Speaker 1: take that personal. Like I put you know, so much blood,
Speaker 1: sweat and tears into this book and and now I
Speaker 1: put it out there. And that's I think that's what
Speaker 1: ter is talking about. It takes courage to sort of
Speaker 1: reveal yourself in a book and in my in my stories.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of people say, how much of
Speaker 1: you is Jake Mohegan, And I'm like, well, Jake Mhegan's
Speaker 1: a six and f a tall Native American. That's not me.
Speaker 1: But you know his thought process. So when I talked
Speaker 1: about me thinking through the the problem set as a commander,
Speaker 1: and what's the worst thing the enemy could do to
Speaker 1: my troops? And then how do I develop a course
Speaker 1: of action A B and C. There's probably some of
Speaker 1: that thought process. And Jake and I get a lot
Speaker 1: of good feedback in the form of emails and conversations
Speaker 1: that they love getting inside Jake's mind and seeing, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I do option A, this is potential. If I
Speaker 1: do Option B, this potential. If I do option see,
Speaker 1: this is a potential result. And and so there's some
Speaker 1: of the in Jake's thought process that I think, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I take the reader into and show them, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's a here's a guy sort of using deductive reasoning
Speaker 1: and choosing the best action and he and he does
Speaker 1: it miraculously fast because he's a combat season veteran and
Speaker 1: and so he's able to look at one to three
Speaker 1: and then make a decision and in a second or two.
Speaker 1: And and so for for me, that's that's where the
Speaker 1: part that comes out from inside of me. And of
Speaker 1: course everything comes out for me as I sit down
Speaker 1: and write these books and and and I just really
Speaker 1: get into the head of the protagonist, the antagonists, the
Speaker 1: the you know, the love interest, all of that. They
Speaker 1: can put your kind of mind and said, what would
Speaker 1: this person think? I'm like an actor or an actress.
Speaker 1: I'm inside that person's mind, and I'm thinking, well, what
Speaker 1: what would the response be or what what would you
Speaker 1: know he or she say or do? And and then
Speaker 1: pretty soon as you as as you've written, as you're
Speaker 1: writing the book, they do become sort of live characters
Speaker 1: that take you in different directions. And it's a really fun,
Speaker 1: interesting process because you know, I'll have, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't do a whole lot of outlining. I do
Speaker 1: a little bit. I know where I want to go from,
Speaker 1: you know, start opening scene to act one, which is
Speaker 1: you know, about thirty thousand words, and Act one to
Speaker 1: Act two, and other thirty thousand words in act to
Speaker 1: the finale, which is about another thirty thousand words, you know,
Speaker 1: eighty two hundred thousand words as you're ever throw and
Speaker 1: but so I'll have those guide posts, but not a
Speaker 1: whole lot of content in between there. And then these
Speaker 1: characters actually provide that content for me as I as
Speaker 1: I'm writing. And that may sound strange, but it's just
Speaker 1: how I write. And I got it. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: mean the way I could relate. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've got a chance to see it. Um that documentary
Speaker 1: on Netflix Jim and Andy about Jim candy a Jim
Speaker 1: carry playing Andy Kaufman. I don't know if you saw it.
Speaker 1: It's uh, it's out there now though. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: Jim Carrey did not break character the entire man in
Speaker 1: the Moon movie. It's almost like what you're saying, you're
Speaker 1: getting in the head of these people. I could relate
Speaker 1: to what you're saying, though, with people saying I want
Speaker 1: to write a book, how do because I get the
Speaker 1: same thing with I want to do a podcast, I
Speaker 1: want to be a radio host. And it is it
Speaker 1: is not as easy as as people think, because a
Speaker 1: lot of people will say, you know, I'm funny, I'm this,
Speaker 1: I'm that, But that's not everything to it. Um. You
Speaker 1: know the beauty of of Howard Stern or even an
Speaker 1: Oprah Winfrey, they asked questions that allow these people to
Speaker 1: be candid. So I'm doing the same thing in some way.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, what question could I ask General Tata that
Speaker 1: he's gonna have a lot of knowledge on. It's the
Speaker 1: same thing from what you're saying. They are all these
Speaker 1: different creative processes for different things. You're thinking, what position
Speaker 1: could I put Jake Mohegan in where he's really gonna
Speaker 1: shine and that people are gonna be excited to read it?
Speaker 1: Or what position could I put Jake Mohegan in where
Speaker 1: he hasn't no chance of survival and and was gonna
Speaker 1: get and how's he going to get out of it?
Speaker 1: And and that's that, that's that whole tension piece where
Speaker 1: you just want the reader needs how's he gonna how's
Speaker 1: how's he going to figure this out? That makes me
Speaker 1: wonder though, is there is there almost um, you know,
Speaker 1: people reading these books know that they're in the end,
Speaker 1: there is gonna be another Jake Mohegan novel? Is that
Speaker 1: almost a giveaway to the reader that he is going
Speaker 1: to survive somehow? They're always gonna say, you've said you
Speaker 1: plan on keeping these books gone, So Jake Mohegan dies
Speaker 1: no more Jake Mehegan novels. Yeah, well, um, you know,
Speaker 1: Kinson and will all ultimately determine whether or not Jake
Speaker 1: Mohegan lives or dies. But you know they're a great
Speaker 1: publisher and and um, the Jake Mohegan, uh, you know
Speaker 1: like Jack Reacher. You know, people there's what twenty two
Speaker 1: or so Jack Reacher books that leech Old has written
Speaker 1: in and yeah, you know the key for me is
Speaker 1: to get Mohegan in these situations. And it's not so
Speaker 1: much as he gonna live or die, but is the
Speaker 1: problem going to be solved? Is the conflict going to
Speaker 1: be resolved in a positive way? And for Jake, his
Speaker 1: his real conflict, his inner conflict, that sort of is
Speaker 1: his arc through every book, is he just wants to
Speaker 1: settle down and and find a good woman and have
Speaker 1: a family because he had that sort of taken away
Speaker 1: from him. And and so when he when he's in combat,
Speaker 1: and the and the very first Mohegan book, forn In Domestic,
Speaker 1: the very first chapter. So I'm not giveing anything away, uh,
Speaker 1: he he accidentally kills an enemy prisoner of war when
Speaker 1: that enemy prison war uses a serie voice command on
Speaker 1: his iPhone to detonate a bomb under his best friend's vehicle.
Speaker 1: The guy tries to escape, and he's trying to butt
Speaker 1: stroke him, just to knock him down. But he he
Speaker 1: we think in the book he accidentally kills him. But
Speaker 1: you know, he's got this fury and rage and and
Speaker 1: so forth, and and so just took some time off,
Speaker 1: and I've written a biography on Jake, so I read
Speaker 1: that before I start every book that's a you know,
Speaker 1: tip out to all the all the writers out there,
Speaker 1: so that I'm grounded in who Jake Mohegan is. And
Speaker 1: his real conflict is you know, he was trying to
Speaker 1: you know, he's lost his family of Delta Force and
Speaker 1: the Army and and he lost his family prior to
Speaker 1: that and and now um his his true family and
Speaker 1: and now he's he's looking for and he and you know,
Speaker 1: he meets a love interests, you know, every now and then,
Speaker 1: and and yeah, he's he's a good looking guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a good looking guy that protects women and and
Speaker 1: uh so he's uh but you know, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, um, you know, duty calls or this
Speaker 1: this uh you know, desire to have a piece full life.
Speaker 1: And and he's he's got this code that he lives by,
Speaker 1: right and he's got to he's got a um, you know,
Speaker 1: return the call to duty, so to speak. And and
Speaker 1: that's that's really his conflict, and that he's torn between.
Speaker 1: And in the In Foreign and Domestic, the very first book,
Speaker 1: um in the series, I described it as sort of
Speaker 1: he's sitting there, haven't tried to escape from being involved
Speaker 1: in any kind of combat, warfare's in the outer banks
Speaker 1: of North Carolina. And and he finds himself sitting there
Speaker 1: with a pistol of rifle rope. He's had to knock
Speaker 1: a guy out because he's suddenly found out that the
Speaker 1: technology that was in the bomb uh that killed his
Speaker 1: best friend was actually American made and it was made
Speaker 1: in the outer banks of North Carolina. And um, he's
Speaker 1: there right where um it was being made. And he
Speaker 1: makes his discovery, and he's got these tools of war.
Speaker 1: And I'd say it's kind of like a boomerang that
Speaker 1: has come back down and in his lap. And and
Speaker 1: so that's that's Jake's inner conflict, and that's I think
Speaker 1: getting back to a little bit of what Terror was
Speaker 1: asking about. Absolutely, Um, we'll get to some more questions.
Speaker 1: I also know you want to sign some books, and
Speaker 1: we'll get to the meaning behind that. Um. But I
Speaker 1: do before we do all that, we want to get
Speaker 1: into this China story because I felt like this was
Speaker 1: just really interesting. Came out today. I mean, you're laughing,
Speaker 1: but for this guy, this is not exactly a laughing matter. Um.
Speaker 1: So this is from Reuter's China, hands down harshest sentence
Speaker 1: yet and crackdown on activists. Uh this is from Beijing.
Speaker 1: China sentenced a prominent rights activist to eight years in
Speaker 1: jail for subversion on Tuesday. His lawyer said the harshest
Speaker 1: sentence passed and a government crackdown on activism that began
Speaker 1: more than two years ago. In a separate case, a
Speaker 1: rights lawyer avoided criminal punishment despite being found guilty of
Speaker 1: its inciting subversion because admitted to his crimes. The Chinese
Speaker 1: court trying him, said Wugan, a blogger better known by
Speaker 1: his online name which I know you loved, super vulgar Butcher,
Speaker 1: plans to appeal against the eight years sentence handed down
Speaker 1: by the Tian t Engine and my saying that right, Tiana,
Speaker 1: all right? What's uh t A T I A n
Speaker 1: j I N so okay yeah, Municipalities number two Intermediate
Speaker 1: People's Court. His lawyer, Jan Zen told Reuters the harshness
Speaker 1: of the sentence prompted the German embassy in Beijing to
Speaker 1: issue a statement expressing disappointment. Will regularly champions sensitive cases
Speaker 1: of government abuse of power, both online and in street protests.
Speaker 1: He was detained in May of in charge with subversion.
Speaker 1: The activists criticized China's political system online and used performance
Speaker 1: art to create disturbances, as well as insulting people and
Speaker 1: spreading false information. According to a statement from the court
Speaker 1: posted on its website, he carried out a string of
Speaker 1: criminal actions to subvert state power and overthrow the socialist
Speaker 1: system and seriously harmed state security and social stability, the
Speaker 1: court said. Before his arrest, who used his platform to
Speaker 1: cast doubt on the official version of events in an
Speaker 1: incident in early May in which a police officer shot
Speaker 1: a petitioner and a train station UH in northern high
Speaker 1: How my pronunciation is gonna be wrong in this one
Speaker 1: high Long Jung province. Who has refused a little bit
Speaker 1: to bow to pressure or admit guilt likely explains his
Speaker 1: harsh sentence, said Kitchen Hong Kong based director of China
Speaker 1: Human Rights, the lawyer's concerned Group. There's more to this story,
Speaker 1: but you know, I'll end it there and you can
Speaker 1: check this out by Christian Shepherd on Reuter's But the
Speaker 1: main thing I got out of it, uh is that
Speaker 1: in these countries like China, you often hear a lot
Speaker 1: of criticism in America about speaking out against government. Um.
Speaker 1: But luckily we do have constitutional rights and these type
Speaker 1: of things. And when when terrible things happen, whether it
Speaker 1: is isolated incident of a police shooting gone wrong or something,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be protests. There's gonna be some type of action.
Speaker 1: And in China, I mean, just to put up bluntly,
Speaker 1: they really don't funk around if you if you have
Speaker 1: any criticism of their system of government. And I mean
Speaker 1: I would say this guy is a hero because it
Speaker 1: you know, yes, it takes rights to it takes guts.
Speaker 1: I should say to be a journalist in America and
Speaker 1: to write about things that are going on that you
Speaker 1: want to speak out against. But when you do that
Speaker 1: in China, the risks are huge. I mean, eight years
Speaker 1: in prison for basically just getting out information and doing
Speaker 1: performance art. As they said, it's crazy when you hear this,
Speaker 1: but it's not a surprise with what China does. The
Speaker 1: biggest thing I get out of that is um nip tera.
Speaker 1: Kevin is still listening, or if if Gary Goldstein, my
Speaker 1: editor from Kinsington, is listening, then super Vulgar Butcher needs
Speaker 1: to be the title of my next book, because I
Speaker 1: think Gary would love that. So um, super Vulgar butcher
Speaker 1: and and um, you know that Gary, Gary loves styling books,
Speaker 1: and and uh that's he always picks out a great
Speaker 1: title in conjunction with me. So let's let's put super
Speaker 1: Vulgar butcher On on the list. End Um. You know
Speaker 1: you're right. And the I hope that by now no
Speaker 1: one in the United States takes for granted there um liberties,
Speaker 1: uh First Amendment rights and and the Constitution in general,
Speaker 1: and the fact that we do have a free press.
Speaker 1: And and even if there's tension today between you know,
Speaker 1: the you know, quote unquote mainstream media and you know,
Speaker 1: the fake New US and and all that, I mean
Speaker 1: that that tension I think is healthy for democracy because
Speaker 1: you've got varying, different, varying viewpoints. Madison called it the
Speaker 1: violence of factions, and so you have different factions that
Speaker 1: come up with these, you know, different ideas and different interpretations,
Speaker 1: and you know, somebody somebody can look at, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the same thing and and have a one a D viewpoint.
Speaker 1: And that's okay where America we can deal with that,
Speaker 1: and we have the institutions to deal with that. What's
Speaker 1: happening in China is not okay. And and you know,
Speaker 1: it's their government and they're so they're gonna do what
Speaker 1: they do. And this is why, in many respects, while
Speaker 1: China is to be feared, they have a massive army,
Speaker 1: they have a nuclear arsenal. Uh. Sometimes they have a
Speaker 1: hard time getting out of their way because they just
Speaker 1: they're more worried about internal control than they are about
Speaker 1: power projection and all that. They see themselves as the
Speaker 1: Middle Kingdom, and and they're they're there, you know, perfectly
Speaker 1: happy with where they are. They're doing great economic trade
Speaker 1: with the most of the world, to include the United
Speaker 1: States mostly, and and so they they try to have
Speaker 1: it and frankly do in many ways have it both ways.
Speaker 1: They have a terrible human rights record, but they have
Speaker 1: this very significant trade with US uh in in other countries.
Speaker 1: So it's, um, it's just one of those things that
Speaker 1: we're China, uh, you know, cracking down on somebody for
Speaker 1: criticizing the government. Think about that, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: think about how many people would need to be cleaned
Speaker 1: up off of Twitter or you know, you know whatever,
Speaker 1: regardless twa if they're going to Facebook or you know whatever.
Speaker 1: I mean. There was criticism over the President blocking citizens
Speaker 1: in America on Twitter, which you know, we like regardless
Speaker 1: of who's president, whether it's President Trump, president Obama. You
Speaker 1: had people criticizing President Obama. You have people presic it's
Speaker 1: just President Trump. Think into perspective, right, I mean, think
Speaker 1: about it, and and so, you know, be like half
Speaker 1: the country because it's we're a very divided country right now.
Speaker 1: But we have these outlets where people can voice their
Speaker 1: opinions and and and can have these discussions. Sometimes. You know,
Speaker 1: I kind of cringe at the abuse of nature of
Speaker 1: the discussion because I'm a solutions oriented guy and and
Speaker 1: the the ideology always comes second to me, where the
Speaker 1: solution should come first. And and and I think that's
Speaker 1: that's the beauty of this website. We're the same way.
Speaker 1: We're not a right wing or a left wing website. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree. I think that's why you have
Speaker 1: such great followership and and so many people just you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people like the noise, but most people
Speaker 1: don't like the noise. People want to hear about solutions.
Speaker 1: They want to hear real answers to real questions and
Speaker 1: from experts like yourself to think there. I mean, because
Speaker 1: we just had Jack Divine on the podcast former CIA
Speaker 1: was there since the sixties, and it's like to hear
Speaker 1: him give his take for an hour the same way
Speaker 1: you are. You don't get to hear that in the
Speaker 1: mainstream media. I mean, I know you're on CNN and
Speaker 1: Fox today, but you'll be on there for a quick
Speaker 1: five minute hit. It's like, we don't get to hear
Speaker 1: you can to giving your take on all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately on all these new stations, I'm not singling
Speaker 1: out any of them. Sometimes the people who are giving
Speaker 1: their perspective on foreign policy, you know, are lawyers or
Speaker 1: just random commentators with no experience. I want to hear
Speaker 1: from a guy who was a brigadier general about what
Speaker 1: should be done with North Korea, and we don't hear
Speaker 1: enough of that. And I actually do think that's why
Speaker 1: people are going to alternative media to hear this type
Speaker 1: of thing. I agree with you, because you know, even
Speaker 1: as as great as Fox and CNN are, you know,
Speaker 1: they you know, you've got basically four to six minutes
Speaker 1: too maybe well or to get your viewpoint out there.
Speaker 1: Not you know, because I do a lot of that,
Speaker 1: and it's not you know, ninety percent of the time,
Speaker 1: it's not about the book, it's about it, about the
Speaker 1: topic and and so uh to try to explain things
Speaker 1: in a very three to five minute period of time
Speaker 1: where it's cut in half because you know, the anchor's
Speaker 1: getting her his point of view in there, which is
Speaker 1: great for the discourse, but I mean that's you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're basically talking about sound bites. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've mentioned this a few times on the podcast, so
Speaker 1: part me if you've heard me tell this story before,
Speaker 1: but you know, I will relate it to you because
Speaker 1: you're working with the guy. I remember Hannity did one
Speaker 1: of these panel shows where they've got all these different
Speaker 1: people on almost bleachers answering all different stuff, and our
Speaker 1: friend Nick Irving was on there. They're asking all different
Speaker 1: types of stuff and then they go into topics about
Speaker 1: isis and some lawyer is running his mouth for like
Speaker 1: five minutes, and I'm you know, I don't you rarely
Speaker 1: get excited with this about this type of thing. But
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the TV, like, go to Nick Irving.
Speaker 1: You know he's actually been there, he knows what goes
Speaker 1: on with that. I don't care what some lawyer has
Speaker 1: to say. And it frustrated me because I think the
Speaker 1: only time Nick talked was Sean said something the effect of, uh,
Speaker 1: I'd love to go shooting with you sometimes. You know
Speaker 1: Nick Irving Rangers Sniper, and he was like, any time,
Speaker 1: but I would have loved to have heard his take
Speaker 1: on all the ices stuff. So it's just that that's
Speaker 1: the thing with the podcast. I think that people lobous
Speaker 1: that we get to go so in depth, and uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great. Um. Antonio Montana was asking will this book
Speaker 1: be in Barnes and Noble. Of course it will everywhere
Speaker 1: books are sold, and and and I'm signing yes everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's everywhere books are sold. And I'm I'm actually going
Speaker 1: to sign the stock at the Barnes and Noble on
Speaker 1: the fifth Avenue here at one pm. And one of
Speaker 1: the things we're doing you can go to my website
Speaker 1: aj tata dot com and these books I got stacked
Speaker 1: up here are just symbolic of we're we're sending books
Speaker 1: over the troops and Bogerman. I've got the pet Tillman
Speaker 1: Center USO UM address on on on my website A
Speaker 1: J tata dot com And uh, what you can do
Speaker 1: is you can go to that and go I a
Speaker 1: copy of direct fire and just send it to the
Speaker 1: USO and and and the pet Tilman Center and Bagram
Speaker 1: and and the addresses on my website, which is a
Speaker 1: J tata dot com And and so I'm I'm sending
Speaker 1: a bunch of books over there that I'm going to
Speaker 1: sign and box him up. Today's boxing day, so we
Speaker 1: figured we'd do boxing day, uh signing for the troops
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. My good friend, General mc nicholson is uh,
Speaker 1: General John nicholson. Somebody correct, I was on CNN talking
Speaker 1: to somebody tweeted, hey, you know act like you know,
Speaker 1: you need to correct yourself. He goes by Mick, all right,
Speaker 1: and they thought I was calling him mc nicholson. And
Speaker 1: but Mick is, uh the commander over there, the fourth
Speaker 1: star commander, and uh he's a great guy. And you know,
Speaker 1: we got about twelve thousand troops over there. And I'll
Speaker 1: tell you, I started a lot of my authors that
Speaker 1: I like to read, just from picking up a free
Speaker 1: book that's somewhere in in uh you know, the headquarters
Speaker 1: is at Bagram or in Kanadahart or Kastvo or you
Speaker 1: know wherever I've served and been in combat. And so
Speaker 1: we're gonna ship a bunch of these over and I
Speaker 1: welcome all your listeners to go to my website and
Speaker 1: uh donate a book to the troops. And and uh
Speaker 1: certainly um, I know that it's appreciated during the holidays
Speaker 1: to receive you know anything, you know, if you don't
Speaker 1: feel like donating a book, right a too any soldier letter,
Speaker 1: I can tell you I took those out to the
Speaker 1: to the border um Forward operating bases along the Pakistan border.
Speaker 1: And and they just make a difference that troops will
Speaker 1: smell them, they'll they'll read them, and they'll be written
Speaker 1: by you know, just everybody from you know, adults to children,
Speaker 1: and and they'll pin them up in their hooch and
Speaker 1: and and it's just it makes a difference. So whether
Speaker 1: it's a book or or a card during this time
Speaker 1: uh and and uh, you know there are people leaders
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan or Syria or Iraq wherever our troops are
Speaker 1: niger UM that will get these things to the troops
Speaker 1: and and they'll they'll bag them up and they'll they'll
Speaker 1: fly him in a helicopter out and do it dump
Speaker 1: and and you know, I'm sending a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: direct fires over there. That's awesome. Yeah, I'll break the
Speaker 1: fourth wall, as they say. And and you know, we
Speaker 1: plan this interview like months ahead of time. And I
Speaker 1: remember originally we're gonna have some man of your boxing
Speaker 1: up books to send over to troops. And it's awesome
Speaker 1: to hear you're giving back. I was just like, this
Speaker 1: place is pretty small, as you can kind of see
Speaker 1: the ups guys right outside. Yeah, I was, I don't
Speaker 1: know what we can pull this off. But yeah, these books,
Speaker 1: as you said, will be signed going out, hundreds more
Speaker 1: going out. I know that you're someone who's all about
Speaker 1: giving back. Um, if you want to sign the yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sign them right now while we're live on air,
Speaker 1: go for it. And UM and go to go to
Speaker 1: a j tata dot com. As you said, if you so,
Speaker 1: people could send them to to um guys that they
Speaker 1: know men and women stationed over Yeah, so it's they could.
Speaker 1: But you know, if it goes to the USO, the
Speaker 1: us O will just distribute them, uh and and get
Speaker 1: them out to the troops everywhere. And and the pet
Speaker 1: Tillman Center is the the address and it's on my
Speaker 1: ajata dot com website. So if you want to give back,
Speaker 1: that's the way to do it. A J dot com. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and these guys will really appreciate it. And
Speaker 1: you should say these men and women of course, right,
Speaker 1: the men and women. And and if you just go there,
Speaker 1: you get that address and you go to Barnes and
Speaker 1: Noble dot com or you know any of the other retailers,
Speaker 1: or you go to bookstore, go to your local bookstore
Speaker 1: and and ship a book. Uh. But you know, the
Speaker 1: shipping if you're Barnes and Noble dot com member, the
Speaker 1: shipping is free to an ap oh address, which is
Speaker 1: the USO center. Is so Amazon Prime problem Amazon Prime
Speaker 1: with ship you can send them to any other address
Speaker 1: if you're a Prime that that's right, that's right. And
Speaker 1: so you can just gift a book and um, you
Speaker 1: know the troops. I get a lot of email from
Speaker 1: downrange overseas. The troops love these books and and I
Speaker 1: love sending them over there. And and we do every
Speaker 1: every book that comes out. I choose something a little
Speaker 1: bit different. Last last book, Besiege, back in March, we
Speaker 1: sent a bunch of books the v A hospitals. I
Speaker 1: signed them and we sent them to VA hospitals around
Speaker 1: the country and and so I just try to do
Speaker 1: something different. It's part of my social mission to do that.
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah. Um, one last question. As I said that,
Speaker 1: we're on Twitch, so we actually do have questions coming
Speaker 1: in on Twitch, which, like I said, is a little newer.
Speaker 1: But we're trying to you know, go into every avenue
Speaker 1: where people do these live streams, and we're getting great feedback. Um,
Speaker 1: and I know you gotta go. You got other stuff
Speaker 1: going on, so we'll get to this one last one.
Speaker 1: Uh the donut Goon, which I do love the name.
Speaker 1: As a commander of troops in combat, what was one
Speaker 1: of your proudest moments while we eating troops? Great questions? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: so so many of those. Um, I I would have
Speaker 1: to say, um that Uh, a young captain I I
Speaker 1: had been uh telling so this segways perfectly. I had
Speaker 1: been telling him that. There was two thousand six December Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: I was in bog Room. I was the deputy command
Speaker 1: in general there and we had the Corn and Goall outpost.
Speaker 1: Many of you probably watched the movie Corn Goall and
Speaker 1: that was the unit that followed the Tenth Mountain. I
Speaker 1: was in the tenth Mountain Division at the time, and
Speaker 1: and you know we had about troops in Afghanistan and
Speaker 1: the the I've been telling this captain, Jimmy McKnight, that
Speaker 1: I would come out to his corn and Goll outpost.
Speaker 1: And I was bringing bags of too many soldier letters
Speaker 1: and boxes and everything, and so I told my aid
Speaker 1: just bag everything up. And so I said, I'll come
Speaker 1: spend the night with you, um Christmas eve. Uh And
Speaker 1: that's what every captain wants, right as a general, to
Speaker 1: spend the night in their in their base camp. And
Speaker 1: you know usually they like a fifteen minute visit and
Speaker 1: get get out of there. But uh so snowy, foggy,
Speaker 1: everything can't fly. And it's about a two hour helicopter flight.
Speaker 1: Is right along the Pakstan border, about a few miles
Speaker 1: in and right on that rat line that that this is.
Speaker 1: This is the area where Lone Survivor happened. And everybody's
Speaker 1: watching the Loan Survivor movie or read that book. This
Speaker 1: is the exact same area where all that happened. And
Speaker 1: we did a big air asault when we first got
Speaker 1: there and took command of that area and killed or
Speaker 1: captured about two hundred taliban um and and al Qaeda
Speaker 1: that we're operating that area. And we came in about
Speaker 1: six months after the lone survivor incident had had occurred,
Speaker 1: so uh that that was important to us to sort of, um,
Speaker 1: you know, stand up for the men that had fallen there.
Speaker 1: And and so we did that. And and so about
Speaker 1: a year later, December of oh six, Um, I'm coming
Speaker 1: in on my helicopter and it's up pretty well. Uh
Speaker 1: so Christmas Eve didn't happen. I said, all right, New
Speaker 1: Year's even, well, the same thing. And so I told
Speaker 1: my first fliable day and uh we we um are
Speaker 1: January five, two thousand seven, Um, so ten years ago
Speaker 1: on my eleven years ago. Now, uh, come flying in
Speaker 1: and there's one of those things where you you just
Speaker 1: know something's wrong you're and it was there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of combat that morning in that general area we're
Speaker 1: flying in. You see holes appearing in the side of
Speaker 1: the helicopter and you know you're not popping rivets, and
Speaker 1: and the left engine catches on fire and we do
Speaker 1: what the pilots call a hard landing, and the base
Speaker 1: camp there um because it's less paperwork and uh than
Speaker 1: calling it a crash and and Jimmy McKnight comes up
Speaker 1: to me and we're piling out of the helicopter and
Speaker 1: he grabs me by I love this. He grabs me
Speaker 1: by the body armor and he's a sort of last
Speaker 1: thing I need is a dead general in my base camp.
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, Jimmy, I'll try to make
Speaker 1: you a happy man today. And you know, there's uh
Speaker 1: wearing a three sided ambush. There's machine gun fire RPGs
Speaker 1: flying everywhere. The crew chief got out of the helicopter
Speaker 1: to you know, open the door and the left engines
Speaker 1: on fire in the in the pilots power up and
Speaker 1: they ripped the I C. S cord, you know, like
Speaker 1: like this thing out of his helmet and he's left
Speaker 1: standing there. As you know, they shut down the left
Speaker 1: engine and power up with the right engine and bail
Speaker 1: and we have an apache gunship there. Jimmy McKnight stood
Speaker 1: there and and right next to us a sergeant vile
Speaker 1: gets shot and and he gets shot in the arm.
Speaker 1: And we're moving to the to the headquarters the the
Speaker 1: you know, he had a dugout down there and the
Speaker 1: little command post bunker and this sergeant was bleeding hard.
Speaker 1: He tied off his own turn turn a kit and
Speaker 1: uh he's working on the mortar ballistic computer. So the
Speaker 1: you know, converge sheaf the eighty one millimeter mortar. Guy,
Speaker 1: we had a we had a mortar out there, four
Speaker 1: deuce mortar and uh the are they they did? I
Speaker 1: was part of that team by that time. We were
Speaker 1: in combat return fire and all that, and uh the
Speaker 1: the uh he's he's got his arm held like this,
Speaker 1: he's dripping blood on the floor and and he's absolutely
Speaker 1: going into shock. And I turned to the medic and
Speaker 1: I say, you might want to look at this guy
Speaker 1: me while I'm calling Bogram to get air of support,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, Jimmy is commanding and controlling his troops,
Speaker 1: and Sergeant vile Um pushes, uh, the medic away and says,
Speaker 1: I'll let you know when you can work on me.
Speaker 1: And he keeps working on his mortar ballistic computer. He
Speaker 1: keeps shaking because he's going into shock, and he's still
Speaker 1: bleeding on the floor, and I'm like, where do we
Speaker 1: get these guys? You know? And and he has taken
Speaker 1: calls from the forward observer and uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: medic comes over there on his own accord uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a few minutes later and he says, get away from me.
Speaker 1: That's not exactly what he said, but you can well,
Speaker 1: you know, and he said get away from me. And
Speaker 1: then shortly thereafter you hear the mortar go off and
Speaker 1: it's a first round hit. He had done his job
Speaker 1: so well that he had inputted the data so well.
Speaker 1: He'd in and he calculated the machine gun, the main
Speaker 1: machine gun that was putting bullets through the roof of
Speaker 1: the command post stopped and I and then he put
Speaker 1: he takes the mortar ballistic computer, pushes it. This is
Speaker 1: a sergeant, pushes it to a private who's his assistant.
Speaker 1: He turns the medic he says, you can work on me. Now.
Speaker 1: That's my proudest moment, probably in all of my career,
Speaker 1: is to think about this young man is wounded. So
Speaker 1: we met a vat him out there. They sent another
Speaker 1: helicopter that night and you know, we you know, we
Speaker 1: left about ten hours later, and you know, it's about
Speaker 1: a ninety minute to our firefight. And uh we I
Speaker 1: pin his purple heart on the next morning and and
Speaker 1: then they fly him to launch Stool and in Germany,
Speaker 1: the hospital there. Then they spend two months in Walter
Speaker 1: read two months having his arm reconstructed. And that's that's
Speaker 1: how severe that was. You know, he was hit with
Speaker 1: a diska machine gun round and which you know, tore
Speaker 1: bone and flesh apart. This kid, this soldier, this man
Speaker 1: did his mission before he let the medic work on him.
Speaker 1: And I get emotional about it. So of course, I mean,
Speaker 1: these guys are we've talked about on the show before.
Speaker 1: They're they're not truly these superhumans. They fear like everybody else,
Speaker 1: but in those moments they just go. Yeah, his adrenaline
Speaker 1: kept going. His adrenaline sort of you know, made it
Speaker 1: so that he could focus on in his task versus
Speaker 1: that you know, I have no idea what was going
Speaker 1: on in his mind. All I know is he did
Speaker 1: exactly what he was supposed to do as a mortibility
Speaker 1: computer UM fire direction officer, and he did that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's truly heroic. Guys. Where else are you gonna hear
Speaker 1: these stories besides softwarep Radio from General A J Ted
Speaker 1: wrapping things up here as a reminder for all those
Speaker 1: who are listening, For a limited time, you can receive
Speaker 1: a fifty percent discounted membership to Soft rep TV, our
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Speaker 1: All of the gear is handpicked and tested by former
Speaker 1: Special Ops guys, so you know you're gonna get quality
Speaker 1: gear that's gonna work when you needed to. Creates we've
Speaker 1: set in the past have included gear like custom knives,
Speaker 1: multi tools, fire starters, a d C medkits. I'm always
Speaker 1: carrying stuff like from Create Club. Like, I even have
Speaker 1: the in my wallet. The old multi tool that we have.
Speaker 1: This was like the earliest crate club. To have this
Speaker 1: in your wallet at all times is pretty damn cool.
Speaker 1: I guess they should put it up to the screen
Speaker 1: and others that away on Facebook and if you're listening
Speaker 1: to the podcast, the visual isn't really working. But uh,
Speaker 1: this thing is amazing to have. Um. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like a bottle openers as a um, you know, like
Speaker 1: a saw if you needed to, and then as as
Speaker 1: a weapon on the fly. They're just always putting out
Speaker 1: awesome stuff. And I don't have it on today, but
Speaker 1: the Survival belt. We have a belt that has an
Speaker 1: L E ed white. It's got a pocket knife in there.
Speaker 1: And the thing that I've said is that no one
Speaker 1: is It's like very discreet. Look. No one would know
Speaker 1: that you're bringing that into anywhere. So it's just so
Speaker 1: cool to have that. We have all this great stuff. Um.
Speaker 1: So to subscribe and start getting your gear, visit great
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Speaker 1: Club dot us. Of course, you can check out a
Speaker 1: j Tata on Facebook, uh and also a ja dot
Speaker 1: com at a J Tata on Twitter. That's you're right there,
Speaker 1: this happened less? Is this the tradition that every time
Speaker 1: you're in here you do still cover? You want some
Speaker 1: of my water here and go for it? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you can take whatever you what. You're welcome. I did
Speaker 1: three TV shows and now I've talked for an hour.
Speaker 1: I just think it's funny that this has happened, and
Speaker 1: it happened at the end both times you've been on,
Speaker 1: so you you have to do it a third time.
Speaker 1: It's you're cue that like, I gotta get out of here.
Speaker 1: So yeah, at And it's a J A T A
Speaker 1: t A on Twitter A j Ta to underscore author
Speaker 1: on Instagram direct Fire. The fourth and the Jim Jake
Speaker 1: Mohegan series is out today. Pick it up everywhere books
Speaker 1: are sold. And then of course we're looking forward to
Speaker 1: May eight or Reaper Ghost Target, the first of another series,
Speaker 1: the Bick Harwood series is going to come out with
Speaker 1: our friend Nick the Reaper Irving. Um, if you could
Speaker 1: talk any last words, Hey, thanks to everybody. Thanks Ian,
Speaker 1: you're you're great, and uh, I think your listeners are great.
Speaker 1: And and I am completely talked out because I did
Speaker 1: three TV shows one in an hour here, so over
Speaker 1: an hour here, I think we went. I think we went.
Speaker 1: Let's see, um we went over we went just about
Speaker 1: an hour and a half. So this is excellent. UM
Speaker 1: covered a real wide array of subjects, everything from North
Speaker 1: Korea to Iran to the book. Yeah. Good session, and
Speaker 1: I'm headed over to Barnes and Noble. If you can talk, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing a rading, thank you, thank god. So
Speaker 1: but I'll be signing books on the fifth Avenue Barns
Speaker 1: and awesome. Thanks so much for tuning in, guys. We've
Speaker 1: got some great feedback on this one, UM, and we'll
Speaker 1: have another episode up for you guys on Friday. Jack
Speaker 1: Murphy is going to be back next month, which our
Speaker 1: editor in chief just shot a show on Discovery Channel
Speaker 1: about the mysterious death of Nicola Tesla, so that should
Speaker 1: be pretty interesting. Um As always leave a review on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, follow us on Twitter and Instagram at SOFTWAREP Radio,
Speaker 1: and we're out. Thanks so much, everybody's guys, you've been
Speaker 1: listening to soff rep Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday
Speaker 1: and Friday for all of the great content from our
Speaker 1: best and journalists. Join us and become a team Room
Speaker 1: member today at soft rep dot com, follow the show
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Speaker 1: sure to also check out the Power of Thought podcast,
Speaker 1: hosted by Hurricane Group CEO and Navy Seal Sniper instructor
Speaker 1: Brandon Webb, m