Speaker 1: Ah beaut Force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, Military
Speaker 1: news and straight talk with the guys and the community
Speaker 1: softwarep Radio on time on Target. Really excited this episode
Speaker 1: to have Paco hier RICHI on with us. And this
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Speaker 1: That's Create Club dot Us coupon code soft rep off
Speaker 1: any gearbox sign up. Now with that, there is no
Speaker 1: shortage of big news kind of like a big news dump,
Speaker 1: I would say, in these past few days, and the
Speaker 1: biggest of which as we're recording today is Julian Assange
Speaker 1: facing charges by the US government. Uh, there's a New
Speaker 1: York Times piece up that I printed out. Did you
Speaker 1: see that the picture where he looks like Santa Claus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did. I I think it was on this piece actually,
Speaker 1: but I you know, it wasn't on what I printed out.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the New York Times piece. Uh. The United
Speaker 1: States has charged Wiki Weeks founder Julian Assange of conspiring
Speaker 1: to hack a computer as part of the release of
Speaker 1: reams of secret American documents, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday,
Speaker 1: putting them just one flight away from being an American
Speaker 1: costody after years of seclusion in the Ecuadorian investady in
Speaker 1: London goes on obviously, and you can see that at
Speaker 1: the New York Times. But this is pretty serious ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm interested to read what the indictment said. And um also,
Speaker 1: I mean they're clearly must have been some sort of
Speaker 1: an agreement reached between the Ecuadorian, British and American governments.
Speaker 1: There is the actual indictment, is it in there? What
Speaker 1: does it say what he was trying to hack? They
Speaker 1: here they allege that he was trying to hack into here. Well,
Speaker 1: this is I was gonna say if this is a
Speaker 1: Chelsea Manning, but Chelsea man has mentioned because it does
Speaker 1: say United States of America versus Julia Sange uh. The
Speaker 1: grand jury charges that Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning,
Speaker 1: was an intelligence analyst in the U States Army, and
Speaker 1: that explains why Chelsea Manning is being held on on uh,
Speaker 1: not perjury on contempt of court because she wouldn't testify
Speaker 1: at the grand jury. Manning held top secret security clearance
Speaker 1: and signed a Classified Information on Disclosure agreement acknowledging that
Speaker 1: the unauthorized disclosure or attention or negligent handling of classified
Speaker 1: information could cause irreplaceable, irreparable injury to the United States
Speaker 1: or be used to the advantage of a foreign nation.
Speaker 1: Then it says Executive Order Number thirteen five six and
Speaker 1: its predecessor orders to find the classification levels into classified information.
Speaker 1: Some of this is obviously very legally's yeah, But I
Speaker 1: mean if he's being charged with conspiracy to hack into
Speaker 1: a government computer, then what computer? What system? I'd have
Speaker 1: to look through this entire thing, So where's the conspiracy.
Speaker 1: The single charge conspiracy to commit computer intrusion was filed
Speaker 1: a year earlier in March, and stems from what prosecutors
Speaker 1: said was his agreement to break a password to a
Speaker 1: classified United States government computer. It carries a penalty of
Speaker 1: up to five years in prison and is significant, and
Speaker 1: that it is not an espionage charge, a detail that
Speaker 1: will come as a relief to press freedom advocates. The
Speaker 1: United States government had considered, until at least last year,
Speaker 1: charging him with an SPI espionage related offense. Yeah. Interesting,
Speaker 1: It's going to be very interesting to see how all
Speaker 1: this plays out, you know, I think, uh, in the
Speaker 1: rear view mirror, I don't think it's gonna pan out
Speaker 1: that like Julian Osange is an fsb asset or anything
Speaker 1: like some people think. But I do think that it
Speaker 1: probably bear some similarity to like the KGB's relationship with
Speaker 1: a bud nadal Um people like this, we're making some
Speaker 1: curious visits to places like East Germany while also running
Speaker 1: terrorist operations internationally. UM and the KGV didn't run a
Speaker 1: bud nadal as a as an intelligence asset, but they
Speaker 1: did kinda push him a little this way, push him
Speaker 1: a little that way, just let him do things, you know.
Speaker 1: Just it's like one of those things like maybe we
Speaker 1: just give this guy some information and we let him
Speaker 1: do what he's gonna do with it, you know. And
Speaker 1: I can see a Sange being um utilized in that
Speaker 1: way that a foreign intelligence service would give him information
Speaker 1: or push him a little bit in this direction, say hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you go look over there, and then just
Speaker 1: let him do what he's gonna do. Um, I would
Speaker 1: not be surprised if that turned out to be the case.
Speaker 1: Next thing I wanted to cover, and this is a
Speaker 1: big one of course, and yeah, who has been re
Speaker 1: elected in Israel? I was wondering how long this means
Speaker 1: he's been in office because as many of you know,
Speaker 1: he was the prime minister short period in the nineties
Speaker 1: and then came back into power probably about a decade later.
Speaker 1: So now Mark's thirteen years total as the prime minister.
Speaker 1: It makes me feel like it's practically a dictatorship on
Speaker 1: some level. And who whoa then's fighting worth? And you're
Speaker 1: gonna get some nasty grams over that. Well, it did
Speaker 1: make me curious as to what the laws are in
Speaker 1: Israel with term limits. So Israel is not necessarily a
Speaker 1: stellar democracy. I mean, truth be told. I I look
Speaker 1: this up because I don't I don't know about the
Speaker 1: term limits. And basically here's what it is is that
Speaker 1: originally uh ninety eight to nineteen ninety six, there were
Speaker 1: no directly set terms. However, they must maintain the support
Speaker 1: of the Knesset, which is an undefined term not exceeding
Speaker 1: four years, but it's still pretty much no term limits.
Speaker 1: Then from nineties six to two thousand one, they change
Speaker 1: the rules to unlimited undefined terms. Should these terms exceed
Speaker 1: seven years, the prime Minister will not be eligible for
Speaker 1: immediate re election. They got rid of that, and obviously
Speaker 1: if that those were still the rules, then that now
Speaker 1: could not have been reelected again. Uh, and they went
Speaker 1: back to those original terms. I just stated, so there
Speaker 1: really are no clear defined term limits, which makes you
Speaker 1: think it's very likely Net and Yahoo will be there
Speaker 1: until he's dead. Yeah. And there's I actually think, rightfully
Speaker 1: so a lot of articles written by more left leaning
Speaker 1: publications saying that, like, a left leaning party is dead
Speaker 1: in Israel and that you have the right wing you
Speaker 1: could party. Yeah, Net and Yahoo and the people that
Speaker 1: he's up against that face a chance, or more right
Speaker 1: leaning moderists or centrists, moderates or centrists, but none of
Speaker 1: them are really what progressives would consider a left wing
Speaker 1: and I do think that's that's a problem on some level,
Speaker 1: regardless of my views it's very important, I think, to
Speaker 1: have opposing viewpoints and and the relationship between Donald Trump
Speaker 1: and Benjamin Net and Yahoo, I mean Net and Yah,
Speaker 1: who is a trained intelligence officer. He's playing Trump's ego
Speaker 1: like a violin um and I worry, my my concern
Speaker 1: is that at this point, between the two of them,
Speaker 1: they have essentially scuttled any possibility for a two state solution.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, in the past I've been kind
Speaker 1: of cautiously optimistic and said, you know, in our lifetimes
Speaker 1: that might happen. You know, it could very well happen
Speaker 1: in our lifetimes, that a historic compromise could take place.
Speaker 1: But with Trump moving the embassy over there, with him helping,
Speaker 1: with him helping Net and Yah, who recognized the goal
Speaker 1: on Heights as part of Israel, which we're taken from
Speaker 1: Syria UM decades ago, and then with Net and Yah
Speaker 1: who's saying like I'm gonna straight up just annex the
Speaker 1: Gaza strip, the very provocative actions obviously have essentially deep
Speaker 1: sixed any chance there could be of reconciliation at this point.
Speaker 1: I just cannot see it happening, even you know, several
Speaker 1: decades into the future. Now, I couldn't see it happening.
Speaker 1: I would agree, because the last leader who who I
Speaker 1: think did believe in a compromise in terms of land
Speaker 1: and peace was really yet soccer being and I don't
Speaker 1: think there's been anything remotely close to what Yet Soccer
Speaker 1: being President Clinton and Um Yasser are affected at that time.
Speaker 1: And for those who don't know, Net and Yah, who
Speaker 1: being elected was originally in the nineties, was kind of
Speaker 1: a reaction to what they saw yet Soccer being being
Speaker 1: this like left wing, like they're Jimmy Carter. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: and there was. It was very heated rhetoric at that time.
Speaker 1: If you research it, there were rallies of not blaming
Speaker 1: net and Yah who personally for this, but of net
Speaker 1: and Yaho's supporters having yet Soccer being dressed in like
Speaker 1: a s S uniform, calling him a Nazi even though
Speaker 1: he was Israeli war hero. Really and he did. He
Speaker 1: did say many times like this type of rhetoric is
Speaker 1: unacceptable and could lead to violence. And sure enough, I
Speaker 1: mean it wasn't extremist, not in Yahoo supporter who killed
Speaker 1: right right, he was a Israeli reactionary. I guess you
Speaker 1: could say, absolutely so, I I do consider that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who like far right politician. I don't. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's really that disputable in terms of his at least
Speaker 1: his feelings on on land as two state solution, I
Speaker 1: should say he is not a believer by any means.
Speaker 1: And and I agree with you. I don't see any progress, uh,
Speaker 1: in terms of peace in the region with him taking
Speaker 1: another term. I mean, I think he compromised any prospect
Speaker 1: of peace in order to advance his political career quite frankly, um.
Speaker 1: And and that's a shame. That's a shame. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: Last piece of news I wanted to get to here
Speaker 1: and this is another big one and pr article here.
Speaker 1: US labels Iran's Revolutionary Guard is a foreign terrorist organization.
Speaker 1: The Trump Administration is designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Speaker 1: as a foreign tarist organization, taking an unprecedented step as
Speaker 1: it seems to increase pressure on Iran's regime. The move
Speaker 1: seems certain to bring a new level of tension between
Speaker 1: the two countries, as Iran's leaders have said they will
Speaker 1: retaliate UH in kind. Irani and lawmakers are prepared legislation
Speaker 1: that would label part of the U S military as
Speaker 1: a terrorist group according to Iran's state run i RNA
Speaker 1: News Agency. So a lot of times, well, these things
Speaker 1: are not happening in a vacuum. Uh, The relationship between
Speaker 1: Trump and net and Yahoo with John Bolton, the ejection
Speaker 1: of Secretary of Defense Maddest, the labeling of the I
Speaker 1: r g C as a foreign terrorist organization. These are
Speaker 1: all the chess pieces getting moved around the board for
Speaker 1: preparation of war with Iran? Are Are they not a
Speaker 1: tarist organization? Though it's a fair label, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's an unfair label. I mean I think that the
Speaker 1: I r g C and KOD's Forest, they launch assassinations internationally, bombings,
Speaker 1: all sorts of subterfuge and horrible things. Um. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it's necessarily a wrong decision in of itself. My
Speaker 1: point is that it's not happening in a vacuum. Sure
Speaker 1: that it's part of an incremental strategic gambit to move
Speaker 1: US closer to war with Iran. Yeah, well, we'll keep
Speaker 1: you updated on that. And then I have some emails
Speaker 1: sent to soft rep dot radio at soft rep dot com.
Speaker 1: A couple of good ones here, keep them coming. This
Speaker 1: one is from Colin Colin Pool, Hey JACKIEY and longtime listener.
Speaker 1: First time question here. I'm very curious if soft rep
Speaker 1: has thoughts on the significance of our fifteen billion dollar
Speaker 1: Patriot missile system sales to our NATO NATO allies that
Speaker 1: border Ukraine, Poland and Romania. Throughout the Russia Gates saga,
Speaker 1: I've almost never heard the multimillion dollar arms deals mentioned
Speaker 1: as indicative of an aggressive stance towards Russia. Shoulder fired
Speaker 1: missiles sent to Ukraine is often cited, and so is
Speaker 1: the ruthless annihilation of over a hundred Russian mercenaries in Syria,
Speaker 1: but never the Patriot missile sales. Were it not for
Speaker 1: soft REAP, I don't think I would have even known
Speaker 1: about it. How significant of a deterrent are these weapons
Speaker 1: to Russia's military? How much does Russia really care since
Speaker 1: they already have their port in Crimea. It would be
Speaker 1: great if you could bring on an expert guest who
Speaker 1: is longing to delineate what this means and what it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean. Keep up the great work, guys. It's a
Speaker 1: good question, and I think he's right. It would be
Speaker 1: great to have somebody who specializes in air defense, come
Speaker 1: on and talk about that. UM. I think that it
Speaker 1: just plays into the whole strategy of encircling Russia, UM,
Speaker 1: as well as serving as you know, both a tactical
Speaker 1: and strategic deterrent against Russian aggression. Uh. We were kind
Speaker 1: of freaked out by what happened in Crimea in Ukraine,
Speaker 1: and the Shans are kind of freaked out because we
Speaker 1: were offering Ukraine and Georgia membership in the NATO. You know,
Speaker 1: It's like, uh, if Russia wanted to forge, you know,
Speaker 1: some sort of Warsaw Pact type alliance with Canada and Mexico, Like,
Speaker 1: we would never accept that. Are you fucking serious? Like
Speaker 1: you know, justin Trudeau, We're coming for you boy. Like
Speaker 1: it wouldn't that wouldn't end well, we would have put
Speaker 1: up with it. So the Russians are freaked the funk out. UM.
Speaker 1: And I think you know, the the Bush administration was
Speaker 1: hitting pretty hard on that. They were all about creating
Speaker 1: a ballistic missile defense shield in Europe. We've kind of
Speaker 1: oscillated back and forth on some of that. Obama you know,
Speaker 1: took a little bit of a step back. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it all plays into that. Um. And then
Speaker 1: also it's part of you know, of course, the military
Speaker 1: industrial complex. We got to keep up our defense sales.
Speaker 1: I mean, we sold a shipload of these systems to
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia. Um, who else got patriots recently? Was it Turkey?
Speaker 1: We've we've been selling quite a few of them in
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. Yeah, great question, and I
Speaker 1: agree it would be great to bring on an expert
Speaker 1: on that subject. There's just there's so much to cover
Speaker 1: in the world. But that's that's a big one, this one.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling that I kind of know your
Speaker 1: answer already because we get a lot of these emails.
Speaker 1: But I figure it's actually been a while since we've
Speaker 1: gotten one. Jack, who's better force reconn seals? No, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, Um, you'll see what I mean. We get
Speaker 1: a lot of these. But this is from Zach Uh,
Speaker 1: Mr Scotto and Jack of course. Hello. My name is
Speaker 1: Zack and I'm a frequent listener of Software Radio. I
Speaker 1: truly enjoy the topics discussed guests form out of the show,
Speaker 1: and of course you and Mr Murphy especially listened to
Speaker 1: the show. During my time at u c l A,
Speaker 1: where I was a political science major. Not much science there.
Speaker 1: I would hear a very opinionated, silly, ridiculous side of
Speaker 1: a conflict or issue where the main thought was that
Speaker 1: it's America's fault or some whack woke theory. I then
Speaker 1: would listen to your show where there was logic, reason
Speaker 1: and actual thought process and insight into the issues. I
Speaker 1: thank you for keeping me and other listeners updated and
Speaker 1: exposed to multiple views on the subject. Thank you. UM
Speaker 1: I have a question for Mr Murphy if it could
Speaker 1: be relayed to him. Mr Murphy. Hello, my name is
Speaker 1: Zach and we already have that yet twenty seven year
Speaker 1: old college graduate. I currently work for a defense company
Speaker 1: as well as two other jobs. I've always had the
Speaker 1: urge to join the military, and I'm nearing a cross
Speaker 1: road of my life where I must choose a path.
Speaker 1: I feel like if I passed in the opportunity to join,
Speaker 1: I would have some form of regret or missing chapter
Speaker 1: in my life. Even though I'm twenty seven, I'm very fit,
Speaker 1: have a lot of life experience, so left in a
Speaker 1: car for a few years, worked over ten jobs, etcetera,
Speaker 1: and stay up to date on events to stay educated.
Speaker 1: My question for you is should I take the plunge.
Speaker 1: I know, ultimately it's my decision, but I would appreciate
Speaker 1: your two cents. Is it worth it in today's bureaucratic
Speaker 1: and divided government. I work at a Navy base as
Speaker 1: a lifeguard, and I'm constantly exposed to the bureaucracy that
Speaker 1: plagues the military. I've researched the Navy and Marines and
Speaker 1: have ultimately come down to these two. I've looked at intelligence,
Speaker 1: cryptologic fields, and even e O d Any insider advice
Speaker 1: is deeply appreciated. I truly enjoy the show and your
Speaker 1: views on the subjects discussed. Thank you for your time,
Speaker 1: and I look forward to hearing from you, sincerely, Zach.
Speaker 1: And then I like this PS because I kind of
Speaker 1: forgot about this, to be honest. PS, it would be
Speaker 1: great to get Major Fred Galvin back on and discussed China,
Speaker 1: and we did say we can do that, so we
Speaker 1: do have to do that, we should do that. UM. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a good question, A lot of the question that
Speaker 1: I think quite a few people have, as you mentioned
Speaker 1: the and UM, people kind of reached that point in
Speaker 1: their life and like what do I do? And it
Speaker 1: ultimately comes down to you, and you know your your dream, uh,
Speaker 1: and what it is you want out of life. Um.
Speaker 1: Some people and I know people, and I know of
Speaker 1: people who joined the military and went into special operations
Speaker 1: and they regretted it because they saw things that um
Speaker 1: their peers went on to do elsewhere in the civilian
Speaker 1: world or even in other units. Um. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like you're always chasing that dream. There's one guy who
Speaker 1: um went left Third Infantry Division, came to my unit
Speaker 1: when I was in range of battalion, and I think
Speaker 1: he always kind of had a chip on his shoulder
Speaker 1: because Third Infantry Division, uh, like was a big part
Speaker 1: of the invasion of Iraq. U went and saw tons
Speaker 1: of combat and they came home and we're like America's heroes.
Speaker 1: And the range of regiment did a lot during the invasion,
Speaker 1: but I mean they were not seen in the same light,
Speaker 1: maybe didn't have the same recognition. So by civilians, I mean,
Speaker 1: because do you really think civilians know exactly who's doing what?
Speaker 1: You know? No, not necessarily, but I mean this is
Speaker 1: by the veteran community. This is also I mean it's
Speaker 1: perception versus reality. You know, as you point out, it
Speaker 1: was his personal perception that I think he regretted coming
Speaker 1: over to Ranger Battalion. Maybe I'm wrong, but that was
Speaker 1: that was That was what I took away from that,
Speaker 1: And that happens all the time. Like you know, you
Speaker 1: could relieve Ranger Battalion and go to Dell the Force,
Speaker 1: and you know, then Ranger Battalion, you know, jumps in,
Speaker 1: gets a combat jump and invades a country and are
Speaker 1: the big heroes, and you know, you were sitting on
Speaker 1: a q RF somewhere, um doing nothing. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: always like the grass is always greener on the other side,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's also to some people
Speaker 1: would be weird regretting that you don't see all this
Speaker 1: action because seeing all this action could also result in
Speaker 1: you possibly dying, losing limbs. I mean, it's a weird
Speaker 1: thing to regret. And we've also covered i mean, the
Speaker 1: the human costs of war. I mean, we've talked to
Speaker 1: the gold Star families, We've talked to guys about dealing
Speaker 1: with PTSD. I mean, so it is I mean, I
Speaker 1: because I was a young man who was like gung
Speaker 1: ho for all that, Um I understand, but UM, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think ideally for somebody in that situation,
Speaker 1: You're twenty seven years old, you have a college degree. UM,
Speaker 1: I would look at if you really have your heart
Speaker 1: set on going into the military. First off, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be bureaucracy regardless, so you're just gonna have to accept that. UM,
Speaker 1: I would look into finding a position where you can
Speaker 1: utilize your college degree. I mean, maybe going in as
Speaker 1: an infantry grunt isn't the thing for you. UM. That
Speaker 1: way you get the most out of it, and the
Speaker 1: army gets the most out of you, um and hopefully
Speaker 1: sets you up for you know, whatever comes next in
Speaker 1: your life. Uh, perhaps you want to consider going in
Speaker 1: as an officer. UM. Again, it all depends on what
Speaker 1: you want out of life and what you want out
Speaker 1: of out of your career. UM. For someone like that,
Speaker 1: I mean, I would suggest, you know, maybe going into
Speaker 1: intelligence or counterintelligence or something like that. Yeah. For some people,
Speaker 1: they just want to experience something new and have something
Speaker 1: on the resume, even if it's not a long term thing.
Speaker 1: And I get that this might be a weird thing
Speaker 1: to bring up, but I've always said I want to
Speaker 1: get the rapper Cannabis on the show because I'm a
Speaker 1: huge fan. But he had this thriving rap career and
Speaker 1: then joined the military, joined the army and I think
Speaker 1: his late twenties, and people were really surprised by that.
Speaker 1: The guy who's really successful in the industry. It all, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really depends on you. Like I was reading this article.
Speaker 1: I was reading something I'm trying to remember where, and
Speaker 1: it was written by a guy who I knew when
Speaker 1: I went through Special Forces training when I was in
Speaker 1: the Q course. And this guy was like a huge
Speaker 1: like he was totally into UFC, loved UFC um and
Speaker 1: trained like every day UM. And then he went and
Speaker 1: joined the army and went and went into a Special
Speaker 1: Forces And I couldn't tell you exactly why his what
Speaker 1: his rationale was, You'd have to ask him. But I
Speaker 1: was reading anyway in this article, he was in Special Forces,
Speaker 1: came off a combat operation in Iraq, um sat down,
Speaker 1: you know, dumped this kid covered in sweat, and like
Speaker 1: the TV was on and he sees his best friend
Speaker 1: or one of a good friend is pure of his
Speaker 1: from UFC training, just like one some big UFC championship
Speaker 1: and he's like I, you know, he's like saying, like
Speaker 1: I felt like shit because here I am in Iraq
Speaker 1: and look at look at what I could have accomplished.
Speaker 1: Now for me personally, going on combat operations in Iraq
Speaker 1: was like the pinnacle that like, it doesn't get any
Speaker 1: better than that. But and I'm not trying to um
Speaker 1: take cheap shots at this guy, like his dream was
Speaker 1: to be a UFC champion and um and he felt
Speaker 1: I what I took away from the article is that
Speaker 1: he felt that he had missed that opportunity by joining
Speaker 1: the military. So that's what I mean when I say
Speaker 1: it really depends on the person and you know what
Speaker 1: you're looking for. Yeah, the reason I was bringing up
Speaker 1: the rapper Cannabis, I was going to paraphrase what he
Speaker 1: said because I remember reading this quote, but this was
Speaker 1: the actual quote. When people asked why he did it,
Speaker 1: he said, I enlisted because I wanted to get away
Speaker 1: from the music. I wanted to do something that gave
Speaker 1: me a separate definition from what I had done all
Speaker 1: throughout my teens and twenties. I was twenty eight when
Speaker 1: I enlisted. And then for those who don't know, ironically,
Speaker 1: I mean, his name is Cannabis and he got distructed
Speaker 1: for smoking weed. But I do think that's an interesting
Speaker 1: perspective where it's like he's defined by this one thing,
Speaker 1: and he's like, I don't want to be defined by
Speaker 1: just doing this one thing. And I would love to
Speaker 1: get him on the show because it's such an interesting
Speaker 1: guy and I'm like a huge fan. It's probably one
Speaker 1: of my favorite artists of all time. I get it
Speaker 1: because you know, here I am today, and it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be defined by just having been
Speaker 1: a soldier, you know. Yeah, yeah, I think people want
Speaker 1: to there's not just one thing to a lot of people.
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of a weird dynamic in America. How
Speaker 1: it's like you go to college or even the military
Speaker 1: for this one thing at eighteen, and how much do
Speaker 1: you really know about yourself sixteen seventeen when you're figuring
Speaker 1: this stuff out, graduate college with this degree, and for
Speaker 1: a lot of people that's exactly that's what you do
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life until the day you retire.
Speaker 1: And it's I don't know, if we're kind of kind
Speaker 1: of one dimensional and uninteresting from my from my point
Speaker 1: of view, um, yeah, I think it's good to use
Speaker 1: it as a as a building block, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a foundational part of your life and you use it
Speaker 1: to build on from there. Yeah, it's like this with everything.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge music fans. For another analogy I've I've
Speaker 1: always thought of and it was actually listening to a
Speaker 1: Eddie Trunk show where someone asked about this. The original
Speaker 1: guitarist for Queens Reich, Christ Christa Garmo, while the band
Speaker 1: was still really successful, went on to be a pilot
Speaker 1: and left the band completely. Then people were like, how
Speaker 1: could he leave the successful band? And he had he
Speaker 1: had more of a passion for being a pilot at
Speaker 1: that point. That was his dream. And sometimes you kind
Speaker 1: of got gotta go for these other dreams that you have,
Speaker 1: even if you've accomplished so much, and you could kind
Speaker 1: of rest on your laurels and tour with this band
Speaker 1: and possibly make more money. Right, Yeah, it's all about
Speaker 1: the job satisfaction, you know. Yeah, so I think it
Speaker 1: boils down to you as the bottom line. It would
Speaker 1: be kind of weird for you to say yes or
Speaker 1: no and without without knowing the guy. Yeah yeah, all right, Well,
Speaker 1: any other emails send them to uh soft rep dot
Speaker 1: radio at soft rep dot com. Looking forward to talk
Speaker 1: in to Paco. So let's get right to that. Paco
Speaker 1: Key or Reesey, author of Lines in the Sky, joining
Speaker 1: us for the first time on Software Up Radio. Paco
Speaker 1: kiar Ici, author of Lines of the Sky, which we're
Speaker 1: recording this day in advance, but for people listening, it's
Speaker 1: out today on Amazon. Paco is a former Navy pilot
Speaker 1: and current seven thirty seven captain. Also flies a YAK
Speaker 1: fifty recreationally great to have you on the show. Really
Speaker 1: excited to do this. Uh. The first thing I guess
Speaker 1: we'll get into, sort of what we get into with
Speaker 1: all guests, is I'd like to know what what drove
Speaker 1: you to join the Navy, but also where did your
Speaker 1: interest in aviation begin. Uh that's a great question. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't really know where my interest in
Speaker 1: aviation began. You know, I was like a standard kid.
Speaker 1: I built the models and hung them from the ceiling
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But um, I mean I didn't
Speaker 1: like work at airports when I was a kid, or
Speaker 1: you know, dream of flying. My interest in aviation really
Speaker 1: peaked when I joined the RFTC to go to college.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, aviation is one of the four
Speaker 1: options that you get when you're when you're in the
Speaker 1: Navy ARTC. You can either go in a ship, a submarine,
Speaker 1: you can join the Marines, or you can go flag yets.
Speaker 1: And I got to fly in the backseat when at fourteen,
Speaker 1: when I was a sophomore and I was, man, it
Speaker 1: was great. It was like an immediate infusion of drugs
Speaker 1: right into my vein. I was, I was ready to go,
Speaker 1: very cool and and uh so, what what drove you
Speaker 1: to actually join the Navy and take that step. It
Speaker 1: was very unglamorous. You know, I needed money to pay
Speaker 1: for college, and I got a Navy RTC scholarship. I
Speaker 1: didn't know much. I didn't come from a military family.
Speaker 1: My dad did a couple of years in the army.
Speaker 1: He was drafted in the fifties and you know, did
Speaker 1: his time and did the g I Bill, But the
Speaker 1: military and the Navy were definitely not a part of
Speaker 1: my family heritage. Um. I just I kind of fell
Speaker 1: into it. I mean, I like to tell people like,
Speaker 1: there's no such thing as an accidental fighter pilot. You know,
Speaker 1: you've got to really work your way through uh an
Speaker 1: amazing number of obstacles to make that happen. But I'm
Speaker 1: as close as you get, Like I just kind of
Speaker 1: stumbled into the Navy r OTC and then I got
Speaker 1: that backseat drive in the F fourteen, and and from
Speaker 1: that moment on, I was just unbelievably driven and focused
Speaker 1: on on making that happen. But prior to that, you know,
Speaker 1: anything could happen. You know, I could have I could
Speaker 1: have gone into business or who knows, sold shoes or something.
Speaker 1: I'm not totally familiar with the process for going to
Speaker 1: flight school and everything like that, but I mean, were
Speaker 1: you assigned a airframe like pretty early on, like you
Speaker 1: knew what you were walking onto. No, So, Um, there's
Speaker 1: a couple of things in the Navy that make it
Speaker 1: kind of exciting. Um, when you are a college student,
Speaker 1: whether you're in the RTC and you know there's a
Speaker 1: number of those scattered throughout the countries at universities or
Speaker 1: you're in the Naval Academy, at the end of that
Speaker 1: academic year, everybody gets ranked, you know, they assigned. They
Speaker 1: take all these different factors into account and your grades
Speaker 1: and you know how doing your physical fitness tests and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and they just kind of boil it
Speaker 1: down to one number and then everybody gets ranked. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you choose according to your rank. So thankfully,
Speaker 1: when I was graduating, you know, everybody in the country
Speaker 1: gets ranked at the same time, and I was high
Speaker 1: enough to go into flight school. And then flight school
Speaker 1: is separated into three distinct phases of flight training. You
Speaker 1: start off um in a primary and a turboprop, and
Speaker 1: depending on how you do in those first six months,
Speaker 1: and for me it was the first time I've ever
Speaker 1: flown an airplane. I've never uh, you know, never even
Speaker 1: been a passenger and something smaller than an airliner. UM.
Speaker 1: But depending on how you do in those first few
Speaker 1: months of turbo prop training again get ranked and then
Speaker 1: you again put your choices in and if you you know,
Speaker 1: if you make the cut, then you get to go
Speaker 1: on to go fly jets UM. And then even then
Speaker 1: at that time, we had intermediate jets and which were
Speaker 1: in the T two, and then advanced jets which were
Speaker 1: in the A four and you had to you know,
Speaker 1: pass certain wickets before you could move on to the
Speaker 1: next stage. And the T two the big thing was
Speaker 1: you know, going to the boat for the first time,
Speaker 1: and we went UM solo UM. And then in the
Speaker 1: A four was advanced jets and you know, everything you
Speaker 1: do in the T two and the T thirty four
Speaker 1: you did in the A four, but it was much
Speaker 1: faster and more complex. And of course at the end
Speaker 1: of that six months we got to go see the
Speaker 1: the aircraft carry again and carry qualify. And then assuming
Speaker 1: that you passed all of those wickets, um, and you
Speaker 1: got your wings, then you could put in your choice
Speaker 1: for whatever airframe you were going to go fly. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, needs of the Navy as always dictate. But
Speaker 1: for me, I out of the training command, I got
Speaker 1: to go fly the A six first, and then when
Speaker 1: that was decommissioned, I flew the F fourteen, and then
Speaker 1: after I got active duty, off active duty, I flew
Speaker 1: the F five and the reserves for other ten years
Speaker 1: as an adversary pilot. So I mean just that there
Speaker 1: was a super long answer to here. No, that's great,
Speaker 1: but um, the answer is like at every stage of
Speaker 1: the game, there's a weed out process or a decision
Speaker 1: making process. Um. And I didn't realize it till I
Speaker 1: was done. But man, I got so lucky. My time
Speaker 1: was great. I didn't screw anything up badly, I didn't
Speaker 1: piss anybody off, and I just kind of you know,
Speaker 1: stumbled my way through all these obstacles and managed to
Speaker 1: get winged and fly these amazing jets. And and I
Speaker 1: consider myself to be super lucky. Well, I mean you
Speaker 1: got to fly Tomcats off of carriers, right, I mean
Speaker 1: that's like being you know, the Special Forces of Aviation,
Speaker 1: isn't it. I think so? And I was telling the
Speaker 1: end this yesterday. I mean, like, there's nobody more egotistical
Speaker 1: than fighter pilots, and I think think the most cool
Speaker 1: people on the on the face of the earth. We
Speaker 1: didn't even we weren't even pressed by rock stars. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't feel that one. I don't know. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say. I don't know if you know Dan Hampton,
Speaker 1: but you do. I like when I met him, I
Speaker 1: got that vibe like it is very rock star vibe
Speaker 1: and not in a bad way, you know, No, And
Speaker 1: it was it was great. I mean it was like
Speaker 1: a self supporting, mutual admiration society. You know, we all
Speaker 1: thought we were the most people on Earth, which is awesome. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know, we we knew what we had gone through,
Speaker 1: and we legitimately thought like I would not want to
Speaker 1: trade places with anybody down earth, even like you know,
Speaker 1: Mick Jagger or whatever, the hottest rock star. I mean,
Speaker 1: except for the Special Forces dudes. Man, we always like,
Speaker 1: you know, we always step back for that. We're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you guys way more badass than we are. We're not
Speaker 1: even play this game. Well, you know, to be you know,
Speaker 1: a Green Beret or a Navy seal or a fighter pilot,
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to have a little bit of ego,
Speaker 1: don't You don't land a fighter jet on the deck
Speaker 1: of an aircraft carrier at night. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: You certainly have to have um a sense of confidence
Speaker 1: and almost detachment. And I think you know, as a
Speaker 1: Special Forces guy, you'll you'll understand that, like, you know,
Speaker 1: even even though somebody has died doing this. And there
Speaker 1: are a number of times where you know, you'd be
Speaker 1: flying on the ship and a plane would crash or
Speaker 1: somebody you know, you'd lose a plane out to see
Speaker 1: or or you'd see a plane hit that hit the
Speaker 1: deck of the boat, and you know, in a in
Speaker 1: a sort of a heartless way, they'd kind of hose
Speaker 1: the deck down and and get back to operations, you know,
Speaker 1: And and that's just the way it had to be. Right.
Speaker 1: And again when you look at that in hindsight, it
Speaker 1: seems incredible. Most of the world doesn't do that. You
Speaker 1: would take some time off and mourn people and examine
Speaker 1: what had happened. But literally, I mean, we would crash
Speaker 1: a plane or lose a plane, and a few hours later,
Speaker 1: maybe that day later, you'd be right back at it. Um.
Speaker 1: So you developed a sense of detachment and a belief
Speaker 1: that you know, it wasn't you, it wasn't gonna be
Speaker 1: your day. It's it was impossible. Otherwise you know, you
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't do it. Um. I mean, like for me,
Speaker 1: the greatest story to that example is um as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: when you're going through training in the Tree and the
Speaker 1: T two and the A four, you go to the
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier and you go solo. But it's during the day.
Speaker 1: When you land on a ship at night, it's a
Speaker 1: completely different animal. It's it's um. The day landings on
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier are the most exhilarating thing I've ever done,
Speaker 1: and the night landings on aircraft carrier are the most
Speaker 1: terrifying thing I've ever done. Uh. And it's you know,
Speaker 1: in some ways it's exactly the same thing. It's the
Speaker 1: same plan, the same ship, same ocean. But you know,
Speaker 1: you take the light away, and you take you know,
Speaker 1: all sense of external perception away, and it just changes
Speaker 1: it degrees. Well, before my first night landing UM qualifications
Speaker 1: in the A six, I was supposed to hot switch
Speaker 1: into a plane that was landing on the ranger, and
Speaker 1: that means that that that plane would land and then
Speaker 1: they would tie it down while the engines were still running,
Speaker 1: and then I would jump into the cockpit after the
Speaker 1: other pilot jumped out, they'd fuel it up and I'd
Speaker 1: keep going UM. And so I tracked this thing as
Speaker 1: it was going around doing its six night landings, and
Speaker 1: during the last one, I went up to the flight
Speaker 1: deck like to control, and I'm sitting there watching it
Speaker 1: on the TV camera and I'm tightening my chest strap
Speaker 1: as it's coming down to land, you know, and I'm
Speaker 1: about to jump into this jet and go fly for
Speaker 1: the first time at night. Uh. And I mean my
Speaker 1: adrenaline level is spiking through the roof. Uh. And the
Speaker 1: jet touches down and I can see now the jet
Speaker 1: as it's in the landing area through the big window
Speaker 1: and fled to control and as I'm watching it holding
Speaker 1: my chest trap the hook breaks, both the pilot and
Speaker 1: the navigator reject. The plane angles into three hornets that
Speaker 1: were parked on the deck, smashes into one of them,
Speaker 1: flips over into the water, and drags a hornet in
Speaker 1: the water with it. And I'm literally just standing there
Speaker 1: with my job and holding on my chest. Holy fuck.
Speaker 1: Welcome to naval aviation. Um. And you know I flew
Speaker 1: the next day. Did they have to launch the helicopter
Speaker 1: to go pull the pilot and the co pilot out
Speaker 1: of the water. One guy landed on the deck and
Speaker 1: broke his ankle and the other guy landed in the water.
Speaker 1: And yeah, there's always a helicopter. Whenever there's flat ups
Speaker 1: going on on aircraft cary, there's a helicopter orbiting. Uh,
Speaker 1: just in case something like that happens, I can pluck
Speaker 1: the person out of the water. I had this similar
Speaker 1: experience to what you're describing in Iraq when I was
Speaker 1: in a range of battalion and uh, we would switch out,
Speaker 1: you know, one platoon during this day and the next
Speaker 1: platoon takes the next day doing missions. Because we were
Speaker 1: doing so many the other platoon got blown up. Um,
Speaker 1: they came in and we uh took like mops and
Speaker 1: bleach and washed all the blood and the skin and everything,
Speaker 1: all this nasty stuff out of the back of the vehicles,
Speaker 1: and uh, they're kind of like, all right, your ship
Speaker 1: on your going out. It's like the war goes on
Speaker 1: and the same man. That's way way more intense than
Speaker 1: my story. The war goes on though, you know, I know,
Speaker 1: and but I I understand what you're saying. Like the
Speaker 1: mentality is, I don't care what just happened. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna happen to me. Um. And I mean you can
Speaker 1: call that ego. I don't. I don't know that we
Speaker 1: called it ego. I think it was just sort of
Speaker 1: a a a sense of denial. Yeah, yeah, there is
Speaker 1: an aspect of sense, you know, like it's not gonna
Speaker 1: happen to me. I'm good, I'm good to give. So
Speaker 1: is there any any other particularly hairy stories you can
Speaker 1: share about, you know, either carry or landings or anything
Speaker 1: else that happened, uh during your time in naval aviation. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean probably the harriest thing that ever happened to
Speaker 1: me was flying f fives and UM it started off,
Speaker 1: you know, as most of these stories do in a
Speaker 1: in a boring way. I was flying across country, uh
Speaker 1: in the F five and going back to Navy fallon,
Speaker 1: and our squadron CEO really encouraged us to do some
Speaker 1: practice landings at different airfields just so we could you know,
Speaker 1: you know, the government is you want to justify anything
Speaker 1: you do on paper. So I was flying into Reno
Speaker 1: and it was a beautiful day, but there was like
Speaker 1: thirty mile cross ones and UH, as I was coming
Speaker 1: into land, uh, they asked me to move from the
Speaker 1: long runway to the shorter runway because there was a
Speaker 1: bunch of airliners taken off and the shorter runway is
Speaker 1: still nine thousand feet long. So it's not it's not.
Speaker 1: It didn't seem at the time like a big issue.
Speaker 1: And the F five lands deliciously fast for an air planet,
Speaker 1: you know. They approached speed is about hundred eighty knots,
Speaker 1: which is almost two miles an hour um. And since
Speaker 1: there were those nasty cross ones, actually jacked up the
Speaker 1: approached me just a little bit. And then right as
Speaker 1: I was about to land, one of the airliners took
Speaker 1: off in his wake turbulence, which is kind of like
Speaker 1: the wake of a boat. If you could imagine sort
Speaker 1: of the wash of a boat, but it's air rolled
Speaker 1: right across the threshold, and I started to fall out
Speaker 1: of the sky a little bit, so I goosed the
Speaker 1: power and um I floated a few thousand feet down
Speaker 1: the runway. And then as soon as I touched down,
Speaker 1: my left tire, which was the the up wind tire blue,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know it because the wind from that
Speaker 1: side was kept, you know, the lift on that wing.
Speaker 1: And as I rolled out, I had no idea that
Speaker 1: I was missing one of the tires. So I put
Speaker 1: my nose down and put my feet on the brakes,
Speaker 1: and the brakes in an airplane or the rudder pedal
Speaker 1: the tops of the rudder pedals, and I put my
Speaker 1: feet on the brakes, and my left rudder pedals just
Speaker 1: went all the way to the floor. There was no
Speaker 1: not only no break, but no tire. And at that
Speaker 1: point I was absolutely stuck. I was too slow to
Speaker 1: take off. I was too fast to stop on the
Speaker 1: remaining runway. I couldn't pull a parachute in the airplane
Speaker 1: because of the cross wind. It would a weather vane
Speaker 1: the airplane and I would end up rolling down the
Speaker 1: runway sideways, and there was no long field gear for
Speaker 1: me to drop my hook to to catch, so it
Speaker 1: was kind of skinning down the runway on one tire
Speaker 1: until that overhea didn't blue, and then I was just
Speaker 1: skidding down the runway on on the metal hubs of
Speaker 1: the airplane. And uh, fortunately I slowed down enough that
Speaker 1: when I hit the end of the runway, UM, I
Speaker 1: shut the engines off so I wouldn't suck up any
Speaker 1: rocks into the engine. And then I thought I was
Speaker 1: just gonna go straight, but there was just anough side
Speaker 1: slip where the plane heaved up on its side, paused
Speaker 1: for a second, and then flipped over and the canopy
Speaker 1: glass smashed. And I didn't know this until the moment,
Speaker 1: but it's like a three quarter inch thick PLEXI glass
Speaker 1: and when it breaks it it breaks into like this
Speaker 1: razor sharp kind of Indiana Jones, you know, pointed daggers,
Speaker 1: and the canopy bow bent back, and one of those
Speaker 1: daggers punctured my my threat right here. I know you
Speaker 1: can see it. I don't know if your podcast listeners
Speaker 1: can imagine it, but just to the left of my
Speaker 1: atoms apple, I got a nice little scar here and
Speaker 1: I just hung their upside down for about ten minutes
Speaker 1: with this thing jabbed me in the throat until the
Speaker 1: fires gas could come cut me out. So it was
Speaker 1: pretty hairy. They don't come much closer than that now.
Speaker 1: I figure, you know, if I had been going maybe
Speaker 1: a couple knots faster, that thing would have pierced my
Speaker 1: jugular and I would have led out before anybody got there.
Speaker 1: So jeez, man, that's a crazy story. So so what years,
Speaker 1: uh did your naval career of Spain. I graduated college
Speaker 1: in eighty seven, so I started flying then and I
Speaker 1: flew for twenty years till those seven So very stereotypical year.
Speaker 1: But that's around the time of the popularity of Top Gun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well what did you What did you think of Top
Speaker 1: Gun when it came out? Um? Yeah, I mean, I've
Speaker 1: got a funny story about Top Gun. So that F
Speaker 1: fourteen ride that I told you about was the summer
Speaker 1: before Top Gun came out. Um, so, I and I
Speaker 1: had no clue that the movie was coming out. It
Speaker 1: was just a college student. Uh. So the movie comes
Speaker 1: out and I of course go to see it and
Speaker 1: I'm just freaking Yeah, it's like the coolest thing I've
Speaker 1: ever seen in my life. Um, and for the only
Speaker 1: time in my life, I literally stay and watch every
Speaker 1: last word of the credits. Right nobody watches the credits.
Speaker 1: I'm the only person in the movie theater credits. And
Speaker 1: the dude that flew me in the F fourteen when
Speaker 1: I was a student nine months prior turned out to
Speaker 1: have been the coordinator for the F fourteen scenes. He's
Speaker 1: the guy that did that fly by of the tower
Speaker 1: that made the guy spill his coffee. He was the guy.
Speaker 1: And I literally stood up in the middle of movie
Speaker 1: theater like that was my guy, that was me and
Speaker 1: there was nobody there. But it was hilarious and um yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Top Gun definitely affected at least the first
Speaker 1: ten years of my Navy career. Um, Miramar. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys heard the stories of Merrimar,
Speaker 1: but it was like freaking Studio fifty four in the seventies,
Speaker 1: but at an officers club on a base, there was
Speaker 1: a line an hour long for people that were not
Speaker 1: military to get in and go party on a Wednesday night. Um,
Speaker 1: it was. It was intense and you know it it
Speaker 1: uh that movie and that sort of celebrity status definitely permanated,
Speaker 1: permeated the F fourteen community until they went away. I
Speaker 1: mean it's the top the The F fourteen is still
Speaker 1: regarded as like the celebrity fighter fighter plane. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean the movie is no doubt a great use of it,
Speaker 1: and in a good way. I know people associate the
Speaker 1: word propaganda negatively, but like a good use of military
Speaker 1: propaganda to get people to join too, in which to
Speaker 1: make the military look cool. And we're big fans of
Speaker 1: Top Gun here, I mean the theme of this show.
Speaker 1: Originally I've mentioned on the show before, I think, but
Speaker 1: I was using the actual Top Gun theme to end
Speaker 1: the show and I started to think someone on that
Speaker 1: movie could possibly be a listener and it could result
Speaker 1: in us getting all of our episodes taken down or something.
Speaker 1: So I stopped using it for that reason. And people
Speaker 1: always listening to the theme of the show now and
Speaker 1: they're like, I think of Top Gun when I hear
Speaker 1: that theme. And basically, my friend John Burns, who's an
Speaker 1: excellent guitar player, if you check out, I'll give a
Speaker 1: shameless pug John. I think it's John Burns band dot
Speaker 1: com b y r n S. But I basically said
Speaker 1: to John, can you give us something that is pretty
Speaker 1: much the Top Gun theme? But it's not the top
Speaker 1: totally not the Top Gun. And that's the people here
Speaker 1: at the opening and the closing of this show. So
Speaker 1: every now and again, like I put up the video
Speaker 1: with Rob O'Neill, and people were like, I get the
Speaker 1: urged watch Top Gun every time I hear the theme
Speaker 1: of the show. Uh right, And we'll get into the book.
Speaker 1: But actually, what do you think of the fact that
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a follow up? I believe like a
Speaker 1: year from now. Yeah. No, I have a couple of
Speaker 1: friends working on it. It sounds like they're gonna do
Speaker 1: a great job, that they're committed to it. Literally. The
Speaker 1: only thing that bumps me out about um the film,
Speaker 1: that the second film is that there's gonna be an
Speaker 1: F fourteen in it. And uh my my sequel has
Speaker 1: in a fourteen as well. So I've got to I've
Speaker 1: got to jam my book and get it out before
Speaker 1: the movie because I don't get scooped by those guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah well, I mean, come on, you you were saying
Speaker 1: that the F four teens are like, you know, the
Speaker 1: celebrity aircraft. I mean you're not gonna make top gun
Speaker 1: about the fucking f thirty five, Like, come on you
Speaker 1: I agree, I totally agree. But and you know, the
Speaker 1: the issue is there's only one country that flies in
Speaker 1: fourteens anymore, right, it's the Iranians. So it's a natural
Speaker 1: storyline for anybody that's interested in fourteens, But it's it
Speaker 1: all leads to the same thing. Is that going to
Speaker 1: be the plot of your book or is it the
Speaker 1: plot of the film? Um? I think so. I don't
Speaker 1: know what the plot of the movie is. I know
Speaker 1: that they have inserted and A fourteen into that storyline somehow,
Speaker 1: And like I said, I mean, there's only one place
Speaker 1: where they could find one that's flying, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: in in uh in a fictional world. Um. And then
Speaker 1: in my book as well, you know, it's the same thing.
Speaker 1: And you know, my my guys flying missions over the
Speaker 1: golf he gets shot down somehow managed to steal in
Speaker 1: A fourteen and hilarity ensues. But um, you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, there's only there's country anymore, the FLA fourteen.
Speaker 1: So anybody that's interested is going to actually be drawn
Speaker 1: to that part of the world. We'll have to get
Speaker 1: into your novel a bit and as a guy who
Speaker 1: is you know, a ground guy, I didn't think I'd
Speaker 1: have that much interest, but when I read, uh, I
Speaker 1: read Dan Hampton's novel The Mercenary, and I actually really
Speaker 1: liked it. Um. I thought it was really interesting to
Speaker 1: see like and I'm sure you do the same thing,
Speaker 1: bring that kind of aviators background into telling telling a
Speaker 1: thriller novel and telling that kind of story. So sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about you know, your book and
Speaker 1: uh and kind of what you brought to the table
Speaker 1: in it. Yeah, I left to talk about it, so
Speaker 1: let's get into it. Then. The book is a list
Speaker 1: of the sky it it comes out, as I said
Speaker 1: today for people listening as this comes out. Uh. And
Speaker 1: and it's your first thriller. It is my first thriller. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: I like to tell people. Look, I've I flew in
Speaker 1: the Navy for twenty years, but I've been a writer
Speaker 1: my whole life. Um. I've written a bunch of articles,
Speaker 1: and I tried my innit screenplays and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But really what I've always want to do is write,
Speaker 1: uh fiction, write novels. And this is my first for
Speaker 1: into that field. Um. Lines of the Sky is essentially
Speaker 1: a distillation of like all the crazy stuff that happened
Speaker 1: to me when I was flying uh in the Navy,
Speaker 1: all the crazy uh you know, characters and personalities and
Speaker 1: and really every dramatic and outlandish scene that happens in
Speaker 1: the book is is something that actually happened. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: down to the the climactic battle scene, which again is
Speaker 1: a fictionalized version of of something that really happened. There
Speaker 1: was really a Chinese submarine that was getting accidentally being
Speaker 1: hunted by a Navy S three and it you know,
Speaker 1: it caused uh, the Chinese to launch a bunch of
Speaker 1: fighter planes, no ship, I mean it really happened, that's
Speaker 1: how close. And they didn't realize they were hunting a
Speaker 1: Chinese submarine. They didn't they were supposed to be hunting
Speaker 1: an American submarine. Chinese submarine that just happened to be there.
Speaker 1: And and you know the soft off the coast of
Speaker 1: Chinese between Taiwan, Taiwan and China. Yeah, that'll cause some
Speaker 1: heartburn right there. Yeah. So they thought they were doing
Speaker 1: such a great job. They're like, I'm gonna never we
Speaker 1: never find these American subs and uh, it's s dropping
Speaker 1: stone of movies and you know, flying over this thing,
Speaker 1: this the Chinese sub captain and again this is a
Speaker 1: true story. He panics and he sends a message back
Speaker 1: to you know, the mainland, and they scramble a bunch
Speaker 1: of fighters and you know, in the world, in the
Speaker 1: real world, they diffuse the situation pretty quickly. And in
Speaker 1: my book, that is the dramatic, uh, the battle scene
Speaker 1: that is like the ultimate fear in a way. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's one thing to go to war with another country deliberately,
Speaker 1: but to have have it happened accidentally is kind of terrifying. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I think you know, so I mean to answer to
Speaker 1: get back to the question about what you know talking
Speaker 1: about the book a little bit. Um. It's a thriller,
Speaker 1: so you know, I've got a very standard uh, start
Speaker 1: off with standard lead character. He's a fighter pilot. He's
Speaker 1: a hard build. He's a hero because he shot down
Speaker 1: a couple of MiGs prior to the story starting, but
Speaker 1: it cost him one of his best friend's lives. So
Speaker 1: he it's a it's a mantle that he wears heavily.
Speaker 1: He doesn't like talking about it at all, and he's
Speaker 1: ready to go back to the fleet. He's been in
Speaker 1: Destructor Pilot for a couple of years and he's kind
Speaker 1: of sick of deal with these kids, and he's ready
Speaker 1: to get back into the action. UM. And on top
Speaker 1: of that, he's got some issues with with women in
Speaker 1: the cockpit, women in combat UM. And his last class,
Speaker 1: the class he's got to deal with before he goes back,
Speaker 1: of course, has not one but two women UH. And
Speaker 1: you know they're they're great characters. UM. The female lead
Speaker 1: character is based on one of my squad mates, Carol Green,
Speaker 1: who unfortunately passed away flying the fourteen UM. But she
Speaker 1: was somebody who you know, I always really admired for
Speaker 1: her courage and her perseverance and hurt. The character in
Speaker 1: this book is essentially answering the question, you know, what
Speaker 1: would Kara's career and life have had looked like had
Speaker 1: she had she not perished UM. And then, as I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, set against UH, the action and the drama
Speaker 1: of going through training and all the challenges that we
Speaker 1: discussed earlier about going through training UH and failure points.
Speaker 1: UM is the steady drum beat of rising tensions in
Speaker 1: the South China Sea. And to your point, you know
Speaker 1: it's it's uh, it's a flash point. They call it
Speaker 1: a flashpoint for a reason. Like you put uh people
Speaker 1: with weapons and training into a small area, uh and
Speaker 1: high tensions, and the chances are, uh, that's something could happen.
Speaker 1: And you know, like I said, in real life, the story, uh,
Speaker 1: the MiGs were called back. But in my book on
Speaker 1: my characters, after having survived each other and survived training,
Speaker 1: now are thrown immediately into a confrontation in the South China.
Speaker 1: See was that interesting for you as a as a
Speaker 1: former fighter pilot to kind of like war game it
Speaker 1: in your mind's eye, like what that might look like?
Speaker 1: You know. I mean I shamelessly took all the stories
Speaker 1: from when I was flying and just sort of put
Speaker 1: them in a in a locker or for future fictionalization,
Speaker 1: you know. And my buddy who was actually in the
Speaker 1: squad and that was prosecuting that Chinese sub, when he
Speaker 1: told me that story, I'd literally like filed it away.
Speaker 1: This is an amazing story. Nobody will ever believe it,
Speaker 1: but it's a it's a great story. It's fantastic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and like no one's ever really heard of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: at least I know I haven't. Yeah, well, nothing happened, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, but this kind of stuff happens all the time.
Speaker 1: And I think now with with the enhanced video capabilities
Speaker 1: that everybody has, with all these HD cameras floating around,
Speaker 1: even in just fighter jets, UM, we see a little
Speaker 1: bit more of it. I mean we over the past
Speaker 1: few years, we've seen the Russian planes that are making
Speaker 1: close passes on American UM observation planes by planes and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But that's been going on since the
Speaker 1: beginning of the Cold War. You know, that's never not happened.
Speaker 1: We just have evidence of it now and you know
Speaker 1: people share, you know, on social media with you know,
Speaker 1: fake outrage like oh my god. You know, it's been
Speaker 1: going on for forty years. So we have a lot
Speaker 1: of younger listeners who kind of listened to the show
Speaker 1: is inspiration. They'll say, we actually just read an email
Speaker 1: on the show during the intro of someone thinking of
Speaker 1: joining the army at older age and at seven. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's plenty of younger kids listening right now who
Speaker 1: want to do what you did. What what advice would
Speaker 1: you give them? Um? I think the biggest piece of
Speaker 1: advice is what I mentioned earlier. There's no such thing
Speaker 1: as an accidental fighter pilot. If you are interested in
Speaker 1: becoming a Navy fighter pilot, you better really want it.
Speaker 1: And it's the same with special forces. I mean there's
Speaker 1: so many, uh natural obstacles. You know, you have to
Speaker 1: be physically fit, you have to have a certain degree
Speaker 1: of intelligence to pass the academics and the training, um.
Speaker 1: But there are also a bunch of artificial obstacles, like
Speaker 1: there are way more people that want to do it
Speaker 1: then can do it, So there's a funnel there, um.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's literally every flight you go on
Speaker 1: is a final exam. I mean, if you fail it,
Speaker 1: you only get three strikes. If you fail three times
Speaker 1: in training, you're out by the way, which is kind
Speaker 1: of an interesting shift from what you did Jack, as
Speaker 1: you talk about in your book, that you can kind
Speaker 1: of keep, you know, if eventually you can get through
Speaker 1: the qualifications. Yeah, well they'll allow you opportunities to recycle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's not like as Paco saying, like three chances
Speaker 1: and you're done, done deal. Yeah, I mean I've always
Speaker 1: so I don't know, and Jack your arranger, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: arrangers and then SF after that, right, So I don't
Speaker 1: know much about the Army. I know a little bit
Speaker 1: about the Navy Seals and their training. And you know
Speaker 1: that bell has always fascinated me. You know the fact
Speaker 1: that they don't they don't kick you out you gotta quit,
Speaker 1: that just blows my mind. It's such a mind funk.
Speaker 1: It's it's great. Um. It's not like that in in aviation.
Speaker 1: I mean there are certain you know that when you
Speaker 1: go on a flight, Like I said, there's about fifteen
Speaker 1: different things you're graded on and it's changes slightly on
Speaker 1: on every flight. But you know, if you get enough
Speaker 1: below averages or fails year out, you know, they just
Speaker 1: don't want to waste their time. It's so expensive to
Speaker 1: fly those planes around and so it can be dangerous,
Speaker 1: life threatening. Um. You know, it's not just yourself that
Speaker 1: you're gonna kill, it's potentially other people as well. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's always that pressure, um to to perform and
Speaker 1: it and so you know, you go through your high
Speaker 1: school and your college days, uh, and you study for
Speaker 1: your tests and you you know, you hope you pass.
Speaker 1: That stress happens on a daily basis. When you're in
Speaker 1: flight school. Every single flight is a final exam. Um so,
Speaker 1: I mean my advice to a young person is, it's
Speaker 1: an amazing world. It's fantastic. There's nothing like it. I
Speaker 1: mean I only flew for twenty years, and it feels
Speaker 1: like it. You know, I have experiences for five lifetimes
Speaker 1: and twenty books. You know, there there's tons of stuff.
Speaker 1: Uh and and I'm reminded of many of the details
Speaker 1: you know now doing pr for the book. It's like,
Speaker 1: holy crap, that was you know, all that stuff happened
Speaker 1: in just a six month deployment. It's insane. Um. So,
Speaker 1: there's nothing like it. It's it's incredible, it's great, but
Speaker 1: you have to really want to do it. And um
Speaker 1: you know, I made this documentary called Speed and Angels.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys are familiar with that,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was a documentary about two of
Speaker 1: the last kids to go through A fourteen training and they,
Speaker 1: unlike myself, they had been enamored with the F fourteen
Speaker 1: and passionate about flying the F fourteen from when they
Speaker 1: were ten years old, and they from the age of ten,
Speaker 1: they dedicated everything they did in life like sports academics.
Speaker 1: They both went to the Naval Academy. They they really
Speaker 1: focused hard on becoming a fourteen pilots and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: while I didn't quite have that level of commitment, they
Speaker 1: they are probably more exemplary of, you know, the type
Speaker 1: of passion it takes to get through. As I said
Speaker 1: when I was introducing you, you still also fly the
Speaker 1: Yact fifty recreationally. On the podcast, we've had on Captain
Speaker 1: Jarry Yell and before he died, of course, who flew
Speaker 1: the last combat mixing over Japan for the US at
Speaker 1: what it was called the time Army Air Forces, And
Speaker 1: just about up until his death, this guy was still flying,
Speaker 1: which was remarkable. Do you see flying recreationally being something
Speaker 1: that you're gonna do pretty much forever? I mean, I
Speaker 1: think so. I I did not get into aviation um
Speaker 1: until I went to Navy Flight School, and then after
Speaker 1: that I went you know, I became a commercial pilot,
Speaker 1: and then I didn't get introduced to you know, civilian aviation,
Speaker 1: piston airplane flying until I got out of the reserves
Speaker 1: just about ten years ago. Uh. And I was kind
Speaker 1: of a snob, you know, I had flown the coolest
Speaker 1: in the fastest jets on the planet, and I just
Speaker 1: didn't think there was anything that was going to hold
Speaker 1: my attention. And a friend of mine took me flying
Speaker 1: in in his two seat yak and I hadn't flown,
Speaker 1: I had pulled g's in a few months, you know,
Speaker 1: and you started getting the shakes and missing it a
Speaker 1: little bit, getting the hankard for it. UM. And I
Speaker 1: went out and flew with these guys and it was fantastic,
Speaker 1: you know. It was just like it wasn't quite the
Speaker 1: level of you know, flying supersonic or pulling six seven
Speaker 1: g s and a dog fight in a jet, but
Speaker 1: it was it was close enough. And so I got
Speaker 1: dragged into that world. Uh, and finally bought my own plane.
Speaker 1: And it's it's a great aviation challenge, you know. It's
Speaker 1: it's a tail wheeler plane, which I had no experience
Speaker 1: obviously flying before. It's a radial engine, which is very unique. UM.
Speaker 1: And it's it's a great UM. I guess it's a
Speaker 1: pastime or a hobby. I mean, it's almost shameful to
Speaker 1: say that it's diminishes the inted city of it. But
Speaker 1: you know, it's a great way to go spend a
Speaker 1: weekend day, go out and flight twice with your buddies.
Speaker 1: And pull six seven g s for an hour and
Speaker 1: a half each and um, I I can't see letting
Speaker 1: that go, certainly not in the near future. And just
Speaker 1: to get back to your book. Today is the actual
Speaker 1: release day, the day that this comes out. Yeah, oh
Speaker 1: so tomorrow tomorrow will be the release date. Tomorrow's So
Speaker 1: you had in the back of your mind writing fiction
Speaker 1: for quite a while, it sounds like, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I had to work up the courage to do it.
Speaker 1: I knew it was gonna be, um a long process
Speaker 1: because writing fiction is, as you know, unlike other types
Speaker 1: of writing. Um. And I knew that, you know, the
Speaker 1: like my first draft was gonna suck all the way
Speaker 1: through my twentie draft. Uh. And it was going to
Speaker 1: take way longer than I thought. It was going to
Speaker 1: be more difficult, um than I hoped, And it exceeded
Speaker 1: all of those expectations in terms of pain and effort them.
Speaker 1: But you know, I I'm extremely proud of the book.
Speaker 1: I I got a top notch um editor to help
Speaker 1: me sort of take the words and arrange them in
Speaker 1: the proper manner to you know, so logically flow in
Speaker 1: a novelized form. Uh. And I got a great agent,
Speaker 1: and you know it's all played out really well, so, uh,
Speaker 1: the effort was definitely worth it. I'm super proud of
Speaker 1: the book. It's fun, it's it's exciting, and it's genuine.
Speaker 1: So that's all the things. Yeah, I can't wait to
Speaker 1: read it. I'm gonna definitely add it to my list.
Speaker 1: I gotta. I have a book about World War One
Speaker 1: that a friend wrote I have to read first, but
Speaker 1: I we'll get I will get to yours next. And congratulations.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a it's a big commitment, as you
Speaker 1: found out, to write a book, even a novel. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean I don't know about your experience, but my
Speaker 1: I feel like I could write nonfiction fairly quickly. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, taking taking real world events and fictionalizing them
Speaker 1: and creating uh likable incredible characters and then fashioning an
Speaker 1: interesting story. Uh was a challenge, I thought. Um, I
Speaker 1: find writing fiction to be you know, more enjoyable and
Speaker 1: funner um because I don't have to get the facts right,
Speaker 1: like if I fudge it a little bit, it's okay.
Speaker 1: Writing writing nonfiction is uh. Nonfiction is more meaningful, of course,
Speaker 1: because it's actual events, actual people. But I really feel
Speaker 1: the pressure like you gotta get it right, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know I feel that same pressure with with writing military,
Speaker 1: you know, naval aviation fiction, because there's there's a fair
Speaker 1: amount of hardware, right, and you've got to get the
Speaker 1: weights and the speeds and all these things that I
Speaker 1: kind of forgot, you know, because it was about ten
Speaker 1: years ago when I was shooting missiles. Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: I actually had a buddy of mine at top gun
Speaker 1: graduate read the book, uh and thank god, because it
Speaker 1: was a couple of like really minor but significant uh
Speaker 1: errors in there that that would have been incredibly embarrassing.
Speaker 1: You know, something as as small as you know, an
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier, one of the new aircraft carriers that I
Speaker 1: never went to, only as three arresting gear wires. And
Speaker 1: in my book, in one scene, the character barely catches
Speaker 1: the four wire and he's like, hey, dude, you know
Speaker 1: this it's got three wires funk man. And I'll never know,
Speaker 1: but your bros Will definitely point it out to you
Speaker 1: at their next time. But you know, I love so
Speaker 1: I mean, what drives me to write the stories is
Speaker 1: the love of story, right, I mean the love of
Speaker 1: the great characters and and being able to put them
Speaker 1: in these dramatic and exciting situations, you know, And for
Speaker 1: the first book, UM having students going through F e
Speaker 1: teen training I thought was just such a great way
Speaker 1: to tell the story of that environment. And I was
Speaker 1: always fascinated by the fact that, you know, we go
Speaker 1: through training in the airplane and you become qualified to
Speaker 1: fly whatever it is, the fourteen or the F eighteen,
Speaker 1: and the day you finish, you're essentially a qualified fighter
Speaker 1: pilot in the tin and you could go to war,
Speaker 1: but in reality, you barely know how to function, right.
Speaker 1: You're just the training wheels barely come off, and you
Speaker 1: you kind of know where all the switches are and
Speaker 1: and have a very light sense of the tactics, and
Speaker 1: you could very well, and it's happened many times before.
Speaker 1: You you know, a week later you could be in
Speaker 1: the ship in combat with people shooting at you and
Speaker 1: hoping you're not screwing it up, and you know, that's
Speaker 1: that was kind of the sense I wanted to to
Speaker 1: portray in this book, is like the excitement of going
Speaker 1: through training and the challenges and then no ship. A
Speaker 1: week later, you're in the South China Sea and the
Speaker 1: Chinese are flying around with missiles and they're not happy
Speaker 1: that you're there. And uh, in my novels, I mean,
Speaker 1: you're right. I mean I put a lot of research
Speaker 1: into them because they're military fiction also, and uh, you'll
Speaker 1: never forgive me the There are a couple uh significant
Speaker 1: errors in the books that I found. One involved the
Speaker 1: recoilst rifle. My second novel, though, I mentioned an F
Speaker 1: sixteen flying off of a carrier. Yeah, and someone pointed
Speaker 1: that out to me and I was like that that
Speaker 1: that's yeah. I felt shot through the heart too, because
Speaker 1: it's like, that's something even I should have known. I
Speaker 1: should have known better than that. Um, but that's that's
Speaker 1: in there. That's in the second book. So if you
Speaker 1: get to that, if you read the book, if you
Speaker 1: read Target Deck and you get to that sentence, just
Speaker 1: in your mind, erase that. Yeah, I will definitely do that.
Speaker 1: That's funny. And you're I mean, you're a guy who
Speaker 1: has experienced in both as you mentioned, Um, you've written
Speaker 1: for a load out room for example, shameless plug there,
Speaker 1: but you've you've written some nonfiction stuff as well as this,
Speaker 1: so you you have experienced in both worlds. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: was actually the editor of Fighter Sweep for for a while.
Speaker 1: You know what, I'm screwing things up here. I meant
Speaker 1: say Fighter Sweep. I'm getting up with all our sites.
Speaker 1: Yeah you were the editor and have written for Fighter Sweep. Yep, yeah,
Speaker 1: so yep. Like you said, I've got a fair amount
Speaker 1: of nonfixtion ever written a bunch of articles for right
Speaker 1: of magazines. Um, but this was this was the big elephant. Man.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to write fiction. Awesome, we'll
Speaker 1: pick it up once again. The website is Lines of
Speaker 1: the Sky dot com. I figured i'd give that out
Speaker 1: because it has links to everything. You wondered where you
Speaker 1: could buy the book. It is your Instagram, your Facebook, Twitter.
Speaker 1: What's the name of the novel? Again? Lines of this
Speaker 1: it's the same as website. Got yeah, okay, yes exactly
Speaker 1: so yeah, Lines of the Sky dot Com. Anything else
Speaker 1: before we wrap this up. It's been a great conversation.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Now, it's been a real pleasure
Speaker 1: to be here. Great appearance. There be sure, of course
Speaker 1: to check out Create Club. It's a club fore men
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Speaker 1: coupon code soft rep for off any gearbox sign up today.
Speaker 1: And I should mention that we have the Great Club
Speaker 1: Academy taking place September to nine at Virginia International Race Way.
Speaker 1: If you're in the area. Uh, it's gonna be training
Speaker 1: by guys that you've heard on here, Brandon Webb, Scott Whittner,
Speaker 1: Nick Betts. So yeah, check that out. Great Club dot
Speaker 1: Us Slash Academy, RK Davis as well. I think there's
Speaker 1: gonna be other guys, so Great Club dot Us Slash Academy. Also,
Speaker 1: as a reminder for those who are listening, now is
Speaker 1: the time to sign up for the spec Ops Channel,
Speaker 1: our channel that offers the most exclusive shows, documentaries, and
Speaker 1: interviews covering the most exciting military content today. The spec
Speaker 1: Ops Channel premier show Training self follows former Special Operations
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Speaker 1: in the know, we have our own software, prey To app,
Speaker 1: where you can download for free on iPhone or Android
Speaker 1: uh and we have every episode in its entirety up
Speaker 1: on there, because some of these are not up on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts anymore, um when they were behind the paywall
Speaker 1: and just added some confusion. So all those are up
Speaker 1: at software radio dot com as always keep up with
Speaker 1: us as well at software Radio on Instagram and Twitter.
Speaker 1: And I know you're looking at your book here because
Speaker 1: it's out in the next couple of weeks. Right, I'm
Speaker 1: sorry you, And I was okay attention to what you
Speaker 1: were saying because I was sitting here in this book
Speaker 1: that was sitting on our desk called Murphy's Law. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or how how Brad Thorpe called it. Powerful, gritty, real
Speaker 1: and absolutely captivating account of bravery and adventure. And that's
Speaker 1: written by Jack Murphy, my journey from army rangering green
Speaker 1: beret to investigative journalist. Out astores everywhere. Pick it up,
Speaker 1: pick it up. It's it's pretty good so far. I
Speaker 1: mean I'm always I'm only up to, you know, page twenty,
Speaker 1: but I enjoy it so far. Yeah, I actually am
Speaker 1: enjoying it so far. So yeah, pick it up, guys.
Speaker 1: UM great appearance as a pre orders count pre orders
Speaker 1: get your pre orders in Audiobook, UM Audio Books Caudio
Speaker 1: Book read by you too, so narrated by the author.
Speaker 1: Yeah coming soon a um but yeah no, As I said,
Speaker 1: great appearance from Paco for the first time on the show. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know what I wanted to mention really quickly
Speaker 1: is that friend of the show, Phil Lavanti, all that
Speaker 1: remains is going back on tour with Unearthed and support.
Speaker 1: They're actually playing right by me, so I'll probably coach
Speaker 1: that I love on Earth. They're great live band, and
Speaker 1: this is I think like probably the first one of
Speaker 1: the first tours they're doing without their original guitarist, Ali,
Speaker 1: who passed away. And I've been kind of keeping up
Speaker 1: with all the heavy metal media out there that basically
Speaker 1: this this I think it's such a bullshit man. So uh,
Speaker 1: I've talked about it on the show, kind of the
Speaker 1: feud between Phil, who has been on the show and
Speaker 1: the wife of their guitarist, Ali, who he thinks there
Speaker 1: might have been some foul play with his death kind
Speaker 1: of hiss insinuated it without saying it. Um. So Phil
Speaker 1: and the band have released like the last recordings ever
Speaker 1: of Ali, their guitarist, So I'm sure the fans want
Speaker 1: to hear. They've been following this band for you know,
Speaker 1: twenty years and she has come out and said, I
Speaker 1: didn't give them permission to like release that stuff, and
Speaker 1: why do they need your permission? Honestly, it's it's their band.
Speaker 1: He he was in the band until he died. I'm
Speaker 1: sure he would want the fans to hear that. So
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's some legal issue with the
Speaker 1: estate or not. Yeah, it just mean it doesn't sound right.
Speaker 1: But was he I mean, if he was under contract
Speaker 1: for that an album or something with the band at
Speaker 1: the time. You I mean, I don't know what the
Speaker 1: and I think it's just it's just doing the right
Speaker 1: thing in terms of the fans wanting to hear from
Speaker 1: this guy that they love, right. I mean that's if
Speaker 1: let's be honest, if you dropped that tomorrow, I am
Speaker 1: releasing this episode. I'm not. I'm not calling up any
Speaker 1: and your permission to put this up. If I could killed,
Speaker 1: if I get hit by like a city bus, I
Speaker 1: expect you guys to start running off T shirts like
Speaker 1: never Forget Jack Murphy, you know, hashtag something like that, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, is kind of messed up. Man. I've
Speaker 1: I've mentioned it, I think a while back, but there's
Speaker 1: so many um of these like and I don't really
Speaker 1: care if they're veteran on like veteran own T shirt
Speaker 1: companies that still are selling shirts about ben Ghazi with
Speaker 1: like Gwen Doherty's name on it, in Tywood's name on
Speaker 1: it without permission to the families. The money doesn't go
Speaker 1: to the families. It kind of fucked up in the monetization. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think if you're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: if you want to print a ben Ghazi shirt, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's sort of in port taste. But if
Speaker 1: you're gonna write Glen Doherty's name on it and the
Speaker 1: money doesn't go to Glen Doughty Memorial Foundation, it's it's
Speaker 1: really shot. It's also like you're using their their deaths
Speaker 1: and their names to advance an agenda. Yeah you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not sufficed to say I would not
Speaker 1: be wearing that shirt. Yeah you know so, yeah, but
Speaker 1: but it is kind of funny if they with Jack
Speaker 1: Murphy shirts but it just get my face on it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: god forbid if that you know, it does happen, of course,
Speaker 1: but I'm just you but remember me and with and rebuild.
Speaker 1: Uh but yeah, I will probably be at that show
Speaker 1: and the first show in Amityville, and I would uh,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear more, you know, as as stuff
Speaker 1: advances with that. It really is a shame what happened.
Speaker 1: I saw and other music news since he's the guy
Speaker 1: that I am, you know, have become friendly with that
Speaker 1: Stained is reuniting for some some rock festival and they'll
Speaker 1: probably do a tour after that. But I've I've hung
Speaker 1: out with Aaron Lewis because of you know, my association
Speaker 1: with Andrew Wilcow and like, couldn't be a cooler guy
Speaker 1: despite all of the negative media that surrounds him at times,
Speaker 1: Well what's what's he got? There's a lot of really
Speaker 1: weird ship that's happened the lead singer, Yeah, he's the
Speaker 1: lead singer Stained, and you know, he seems like a
Speaker 1: super nice guy and he's a lot of people I
Speaker 1: think gave him shipped for one for when he decided
Speaker 1: to do a solo country career and they were like yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean and very successful and I think people like
Speaker 1: something the national anthem and uh, you know World Series
Speaker 1: game once he did that, and but I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people thought it was like disingenuous to go
Speaker 1: from this band that was you know on Limp Biscuits,
Speaker 1: l able to do in country. But I actually really
Speaker 1: think that's who Aaron is. Like that's you want to
Speaker 1: try something different? Yeah, and uh I remember Actually Joe
Speaker 1: Rogan on the podcast was making fun of like in
Speaker 1: the video for um uh Country Boys, that what it's good.
Speaker 1: I haven't heard this song in a while. But he's
Speaker 1: holding it's a picture of him is like a four
Speaker 1: year old holding like his granddad's gun. And he was like,
Speaker 1: this is that stereotypical as it gets, but like that's
Speaker 1: that's really him. He grew up in like rural Massachusetts
Speaker 1: shooting guns and ship and and it's not him like
Speaker 1: portraying a false image. It's him. This is his country boy.
Speaker 1: This is the same guy who uh at one of
Speaker 1: the concerts, the one where it was like I know
Speaker 1: you've seen the video where he's yelling at the guy
Speaker 1: who won't stand up. Yes, that's what I'm saying. He's
Speaker 1: gotten controversy for that, like this one motherfucker won't stay
Speaker 1: It turns out he's in a wheelchair. That all it
Speaker 1: was it for the anthem with that, because that's no, no, no,
Speaker 1: was that a concert? Know? What was he doing? The
Speaker 1: anthem was that? I don't no, no, it's just like,
Speaker 1: I don't think it was that. I think it was
Speaker 1: just a concert. Not everyone was standing up getting into it.
Speaker 1: And there's a one guy who wouldn't stand up, and
Speaker 1: he called him out from the stage and it turned
Speaker 1: out he was in a wheelchair. He wasn't a dick.
Speaker 1: He was like, oh, I'm sorry, you know, I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I've heard that story before from a few bands, but
Speaker 1: I don't know if um, Yeah, he's gotten because they
Speaker 1: do the anthem, you know, at his country shows. I
Speaker 1: think he has with stained too. I mean, he's super
Speaker 1: patriotic guy. He's got don't tread of Me tattooed on
Speaker 1: his neck. You know, I have a guitar pick he
Speaker 1: gave me that has the US, uh like Constitution written
Speaker 1: on the front. Or you know, he's just but he's
Speaker 1: he's gotten crap for a lot of other things. I mean,
Speaker 1: like the most recent one I remember was I think
Speaker 1: he was playing somewhere in America that was near the border.
Speaker 1: I could be wrong in this, but the town predominantly
Speaker 1: spoke Spanish that he was at he was telling people
Speaker 1: to shut up. Someone came up to him and said, like,
Speaker 1: say it in Spanish to the crowd. He was like,
Speaker 1: this is America. I was speaking English and he got
Speaker 1: he got crap for that, and that's just I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: it's him kind of being him, and uh, he's the
Speaker 1: times I've hung out with him, he couldn't have been cool.
Speaker 1: And I would actually love to see a stay in
Speaker 1: reunion because the time I saw them at um what
Speaker 1: is now PlayStation Theater, it's been renamed many times in
Speaker 1: Times Square. Uh, it was super awesome show. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's got an amazing voice, So I wanted to bring
Speaker 1: that up because I'd love to get him on the
Speaker 1: show at some point. And I think that's that's really it.
Speaker 1: We've covered a lot here, pick up the lines of
Speaker 1: the Sky. Yeah, no, it sounds like a cool book.
Speaker 1: Like I was saying before, I didn't think I'd ever
Speaker 1: really be into like aviation fiction, like not really my thing,
Speaker 1: but um, the last One, the last you know book
Speaker 1: in that genre I read I really enjoyed, So you know,
Speaker 1: I'll definitely of this one a shot. Yeah, And and
Speaker 1: from what he was saying, it almost sounds like it
Speaker 1: would be impossible to write a aviation thriller and not
Speaker 1: be in that world. I think that's probably right because
Speaker 1: it's so technical, you know that, Like he was saying
Speaker 1: like he had to bring that kind of background into it,
Speaker 1: Like I couldn't see my I could see myself and
Speaker 1: I have in my novels writing like a scene about
Speaker 1: a fighter pilot in the cockpit and he's flying. I
Speaker 1: can't imagine writing a book. I just don't have the
Speaker 1: background to be able to like make that seem real. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I know, right at or you just mentioned, for example,
Speaker 1: talked about I think the first time he was on
Speaker 1: the show he talked about this, which was with Brandon,
Speaker 1: but he said that, um, after he's done with the book,
Speaker 1: he's good friends with Marcus Marcus and Morgan Latrelle, he'll
Speaker 1: send it over to them, asking as this all accurate,
Speaker 1: And he said, like they'll give him crap for stuff
Speaker 1: and be like you got just totally wrong, and then
Speaker 1: and then I'll change it. I think aviation thriller, it
Speaker 1: sounds like it wouldn't be as easy as that. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I think that's probably true. Um Mark Greeney is another
Speaker 1: guy who writes like espionage thriller novels and um, and
Speaker 1: they're very good. Um, but he was he was also
Speaker 1: never in the military, so like he had to you know.
Speaker 1: I think he went out to the flat range and
Speaker 1: like learned how to shoot and everything else and just
Speaker 1: did a ton of research. I guess that that stuff
Speaker 1: kind of works when like you go with what you
Speaker 1: know and you kind of avoid what you don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it works in the in the author's favor
Speaker 1: for forgive me audience on this one. For not known.
Speaker 1: Was Tom Clancy a better No? Okay, yeah, so interesting. Um,
Speaker 1: but pick it up the lines of this guy, and
Speaker 1: I think that's really it. Pick up mur Murphy's Law
Speaker 1: as well. Ap April pre order. Now, all right, have
Speaker 1: a have a great weekend, guys at soft Rep Radio
Speaker 1: on Twitter, on Instagram at Jack Murphy RDDR, on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Ian Scotto, and we're at You've been listening to
Speaker 1: Silk Rep Lydia. New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday.
Speaker 1: Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at self red Radio.