Speaker 1: If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Software up Radio, Special Operations, military news, and
Speaker 1: straight talk with the guys in the community. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to soft Rep Radio. I'm your host this afternoon,
Speaker 1: Steve Blastrai. Joining me is our managing editor Sean Spots.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you guys are getting a double dose of
Speaker 1: software on your podcast today. Sean and I are gonna
Speaker 1: be talking about a lot of stuff, but we're uh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about our Independence Day activities that
Speaker 1: we're doing again with Fox Nation. As a lot of
Speaker 1: you are well aware, Fox Nation, the you know, is
Speaker 1: entertainment streaming service with unmatched access to exclusive shows featuring
Speaker 1: your favorite Fox News hosts and special programs that celebrate America,
Speaker 1: including new seasons of What Made America Great with Brian Kilmead,
Speaker 1: Untold Patriots which was my favorite reveal with Pete Hexit,
Speaker 1: and Parked with Abbey horn Check. Military members and veterans
Speaker 1: get a whole year free. Go to Fox Nation dot
Speaker 1: com and look for the military offer to start streaming now.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna tease this just a little bit because
Speaker 1: in a little while Sean and I are gonna tell
Speaker 1: you about a sweep steaks that's soft rep is also
Speaker 1: offering to our members. But before we do that, uh,
Speaker 1: and I bring on Sean on the podcast. On a
Speaker 1: personal note, UM, I wanted to thank all of our
Speaker 1: fellow members of soft Repp and Brandon Webb. Are you
Speaker 1: know our owner and you know the he's the what
Speaker 1: I call the right hand corner, the guy who signs
Speaker 1: the checks. We had a death in my family last week.
Speaker 1: My brother passed away, and I got a lot of
Speaker 1: very nice messages and we got some flowers at the
Speaker 1: funeral and from all of my family, and I also
Speaker 1: got some from some of our readers out there that
Speaker 1: found out about it through the grapevine. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to thank everyone for that. But that being said, let's
Speaker 1: get to the show. Sean, welcome back to the podcast.
Speaker 1: A man, Thank you? Yeah? So are we? Uh? Are
Speaker 1: we ready to jump into this? I am. I am
Speaker 1: so hugging up with Fox Nation from the and this
Speaker 1: day is it was a lot of fun. I The
Speaker 1: promotion they're offering for current and prior service military was
Speaker 1: a year free of Flux. Nation is something that a
Speaker 1: lot of our listeners and members took advantage of and
Speaker 1: I hope you guys will take advantage of it. That
Speaker 1: extended this offer. And the programming is something that Steve
Speaker 1: and I and the other writers really enjoy watching. It's
Speaker 1: it's Independence Day every day and Fox Nations. So if
Speaker 1: you always get a little nostalgic around Independence Paper for
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, I find myself gravitating towards those
Speaker 1: kinds of you know, programs um and Fox Nation has
Speaker 1: got some really great stuff. I've been I've been watching
Speaker 1: a bunch of it in the lead up to h
Speaker 1: to the fourth of July weekend that's coming up. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. When we were talking the other
Speaker 1: day about doing the podcast together, we were talking about
Speaker 1: Independence Day, and I remind you of a speech I
Speaker 1: heard from Ronald Reagan U many moons ago. Uh. I
Speaker 1: was a young youngster in the military, and Ronald Reagan said,
Speaker 1: to a Democrat, every day is April fifteenth, which is
Speaker 1: a tax day. Into a Republican, every day is Independence Day.
Speaker 1: So I think I think that was a really apt description.
Speaker 1: So Ronald Reagan had a great talent for for making
Speaker 1: gigs of people that were hilariously funny and that's a funny. Well,
Speaker 1: I do remember Independence date on the military um back
Speaker 1: in the eighties. It was always a lot of fun. Um.
Speaker 1: I was in Mayport, Florida for several years, and Independence
Speaker 1: Day weekend to the jets flying up the beach from
Speaker 1: everywhere you see Georgian Air National Guard coming down the beach.
Speaker 1: It was everything that could get in the sky. If
Speaker 1: you were on if you had to do to you
Speaker 1: are up flying um, you know, zooming around. For all
Speaker 1: the civilians on the ground, it was a lot of fun,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: remember one Independence Day I was down in Colombia and
Speaker 1: you know, we had a bunch of high level people
Speaker 1: visiting from d C. And then the ambassador was going
Speaker 1: to have this big sware at his house and and
Speaker 1: you know, of course all the Colombian dignitaries and military
Speaker 1: guys were going over there, and you know it was
Speaker 1: mandatory fund for all the military guys who were signed there.
Speaker 1: So you know, we're all at the ambassador's residents and
Speaker 1: because we had all these dignitaries excuse me coming in,
Speaker 1: I include I believe the Colombian president was actually coming
Speaker 1: as well. But I can't remember for sure, but anyway,
Speaker 1: they would bring through the dogs, you know, the bomb
Speaker 1: sniffing dogs to make sure everything was co prosthetic. Before
Speaker 1: you know, our mandatory fund day there at the Ambassador's
Speaker 1: residents and the dogs off slotted going, you know, they
Speaker 1: started alerting on everything. So you know, panic was hitting
Speaker 1: the streets, and um, the ops sergeant for the Milk Group,
Speaker 1: you know as the SF guy, and he was sitting
Speaker 1: in a chair well laughing and everyone's like what are
Speaker 1: you laughing at? You know, because there was like absolute panic.
Speaker 1: And next thing you know, it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the Ambassador's staff had put sparklers all through
Speaker 1: the garden that they were gonna light as soon as
Speaker 1: it got dark, and you know, kind of set things off.
Speaker 1: And the sparklers have a little bit of gunpowder in there,
Speaker 1: and and the dogs being you know, doing what they're
Speaker 1: they alerted on all of them. So oh nuts. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: you you spent a lot of time overseas today. Um,
Speaker 1: did you guys try to keep Independence Day as a
Speaker 1: as a celebration? Um? You were sort of obviously you
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time in South and Central Mantha, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we tried to. But I mean, um, you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't like we were friends with the Brits, so
Speaker 1: it wasn't a big date for the British embassy to
Speaker 1: um celebrate with us. That's one good taking a toast
Speaker 1: to the rebels. But you know, I did see, I
Speaker 1: did I did see something, which was the house that
Speaker 1: Ben Franklin stayed in when he was over there in London.
Speaker 1: I think he was ambassador there for a while. Um,
Speaker 1: and they're celebrating the Independence Day at that house, a
Speaker 1: reading of the decoration Independence and have a dinner party.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I'll be done. How about that?
Speaker 1: You know, I just I wonder who shows up with that?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. I still get some emails
Speaker 1: every Fourth of July from some of my British friends
Speaker 1: who you know, served with him one fashion or another,
Speaker 1: and they all wished me happy Trader's Day. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: On my uh my honeymoon, we took a cruise and
Speaker 1: it was over the fourth of over that fourth of
Speaker 1: July Independence Day weekend, and so the cruise ship did
Speaker 1: this whole thing. We're on a Royal Caribbean ship and
Speaker 1: they did this whole very nice thing for the fourth July,
Speaker 1: redecorated the dining room and all this stuff. And then um,
Speaker 1: after they were done, they brought like champagne out for
Speaker 1: everybody and asked everybody to drink a toast to the
Speaker 1: United States. And then they started singing, Um, God bless America.
Speaker 1: And you know, you're sitting at dinner with a bunch
Speaker 1: of people. It's not just you know, the two of you.
Speaker 1: We were there with people who from Germany and from
Speaker 1: England and from Italy. They were at our table, and
Speaker 1: I was surprised at how many foreign uni worst of
Speaker 1: gods America. And I looked over and and the Italian
Speaker 1: couple that were there were newly LEDs were standing there
Speaker 1: just blubber and tears streaming down their face. They were
Speaker 1: gods America. And I was like, what in the world.
Speaker 1: I was like, very surprised at every action. And because
Speaker 1: it was America, we're all kind of like, you know,
Speaker 1: happy and charing, and these people were deeply moved and
Speaker 1: like I said, tears streaming down both their faces. They
Speaker 1: were complete rack. And I think they forget sometimes what
Speaker 1: America means to other people in other countries, where we're
Speaker 1: sort of um the place of less resort in the
Speaker 1: sense and their hopes and aspirations for freedom. It's like,
Speaker 1: there's hope for the rest of the world as long
Speaker 1: as America is a free country, you know. And that's
Speaker 1: what independence says all about. It was very hard for
Speaker 1: the colonists to declare independence. And originally if you look
Speaker 1: at what the founders were doing, and we'll lead up
Speaker 1: to independency as they called it, they just wanted to
Speaker 1: get their their grievances redressed before the crown. They were
Speaker 1: subjects of the king. They wanted representation, um, they didn't
Speaker 1: want to be taxed and had no saying how the
Speaker 1: money was spent. And they wanted their legislatures in the
Speaker 1: colonies to have some force of law. And I had
Speaker 1: their walls just overturned by the Parliament, and they got
Speaker 1: a very bad reception on that. They were sort of
Speaker 1: branded as rebels just for asking. And it was kind
Speaker 1: of like this evolution of hey, we'd like to get
Speaker 1: our a grievances redressed and the state, you know, under
Speaker 1: the kind of king George had no interest in it
Speaker 1: was on my way of the highway. And it had
Speaker 1: hardened them to the point where they's like, Okay, we
Speaker 1: don't have any choice now except to seek independence because
Speaker 1: we have a government that doesn't listen to us. And
Speaker 1: but they didn't, they wouldn't jump right to that. You know,
Speaker 1: our revolution was a very unique one in history because
Speaker 1: it turned the entire political order on its head. Prior
Speaker 1: to that, almost every country in the world was ruled
Speaker 1: by a king, and that king had a divine right
Speaker 1: to rule that came from the Church, whether it be
Speaker 1: the Anglican or Catholic Church. They were supposedly put in
Speaker 1: that on that throne by God, and if you disagreed
Speaker 1: with that, you were basically going up against God. And
Speaker 1: under that system, all the rights, all political rights, were
Speaker 1: resident in the king. He owned everything and everyone, and
Speaker 1: he loaned some of his power and his rights to
Speaker 1: the people to exercise on his behalf and for him.
Speaker 1: And in our revolution we turned that whole thing upside
Speaker 1: down and said that all power was resident in the individual,
Speaker 1: and that he loaned part of that power to the
Speaker 1: government to protect his rights and his property and his country.
Speaker 1: And that was a truly revolutionary statement at the time
Speaker 1: and even today, Um and I think as Americans we
Speaker 1: should study our revolution philosophically know why it why it happened.
Speaker 1: You know, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are
Speaker 1: tied together. The Declaration of Independence was a statement of causes,
Speaker 1: and it was a statement of political philosophy about what
Speaker 1: the rights of man are. And then the Constitution was
Speaker 1: the attempt to take those ideas about the nature of
Speaker 1: man and government and they as they relate to one another,
Speaker 1: and turned that into a into a government. And the
Speaker 1: results has been the longest lived democracy in the world.
Speaker 1: We're we've been around longer than anybody else with an
Speaker 1: unchanged government. And it's a testament I think too, how
Speaker 1: smart those guys were in creating the government that they created,
Speaker 1: and they basically we're doing it from scratch um. And
Speaker 1: you know, certainly it's had its missteps and the take
Speaker 1: up because you know, as they said, if men were
Speaker 1: an angels, there would be no need of government. But
Speaker 1: but the the great thing about the Constitution is the
Speaker 1: way that it diffuses power and that most um charter
Speaker 1: is of government in the world are written with an
Speaker 1: eye towards limiting what the population is allowed to do.
Speaker 1: You know, there's this idea of negative freedom where it
Speaker 1: says here's what you're here's what you're allowed to do,
Speaker 1: and if it isn't in here, it's forbidden. And our
Speaker 1: constitution is a limited on government. It says, here's what
Speaker 1: the government has allowed to do, and if we don't
Speaker 1: specifically give it that permission, then it's not allowed to
Speaker 1: do it. Our our revolution doesn't get studied enough, but
Speaker 1: it's truly the unique revolution in the last four hundred
Speaker 1: years of human history. Um, the revolutions that came out
Speaker 1: of the Marxist movement are not revolutionary at all. They're
Speaker 1: basically retreads of feudalism, where you have a fewel lord
Speaker 1: who has all the power and lows it to the
Speaker 1: people to use on their behalf. There's no difference in that.
Speaker 1: And then in a supreme soviet or a politual that
Speaker 1: does the same thing, holds all the power and lets
Speaker 1: the people have some little piece of it for them
Speaker 1: to sustain themselves on. But our revolution was was truly
Speaker 1: unique and different. And I I hope as this whole
Speaker 1: thing that we're dealing with right now about wrokeeness and
Speaker 1: critical race, heary and all these things come about, that
Speaker 1: we returned to studying that revolution and those times because
Speaker 1: you and I did. We studied that in school. We're
Speaker 1: that age group where our American Civics class, American history
Speaker 1: class taught us that story about the American Revolution and
Speaker 1: how it came about. And I really think we should
Speaker 1: go back to teaching that the kids, because if we don't,
Speaker 1: we lose that. If we lose the story of how
Speaker 1: we came about, we lose our history and and we
Speaker 1: and we lose our origins, which can then be replaced
Speaker 1: with something else, which is I think the thing everybody
Speaker 1: is so concerned about right now. If we if we
Speaker 1: destroy and eliminate the story of how we came to be,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna replace it with? And that's that's
Speaker 1: the question that is. And I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: think we have to replacetion, but I don't think we
Speaker 1: have perplacetions. I think we apologize. So anyway, it's the
Speaker 1: most uh perfect imperfect union in history. We're not perfect
Speaker 1: any stretch of the imagination, but we're the best example
Speaker 1: of an imperfect union so well. And that's the thing,
Speaker 1: you know, the perfect does not have to be the
Speaker 1: enemy of the good. You know this notion that if
Speaker 1: it isn't perfect, then it's no good is just wrong headed,
Speaker 1: especially since the accusations are being made by people who
Speaker 1: call far shorter perfection themselves. So our country, our government,
Speaker 1: only has to be as good as it can be.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be perfect to still be a
Speaker 1: very good country. So and it still is. So let's
Speaker 1: talk about some of these Uh, you know, we're we're
Speaker 1: obviously working with Fox again, We're talking about some of
Speaker 1: these shows on there. Um, there was a couple, you know,
Speaker 1: there's so many, but there was a couple I was
Speaker 1: watching in the past week or so. And uh, as
Speaker 1: you know, as we mentioned, you can get a streaming
Speaker 1: and it's great stuff. And I really was intrigued with
Speaker 1: the story about the Greenbrier. Um, you know what made
Speaker 1: America great? Brian killed me And uh, you know what
Speaker 1: was your take on that show? Well, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of defending. I had no idea about. Um. I
Speaker 1: visited the Greenbrier once was a kid in high school
Speaker 1: and it seemed like just a just a really beautiful
Speaker 1: resort in the mountains and hills of West Virginia. And
Speaker 1: as it turns out, the Eisenhower administration from like till
Speaker 1: like sixty two built this hundred and like twenty thousand
Speaker 1: square foot underground bunker facility to house the house in
Speaker 1: the Senate in case of the nuclear attacked by the Soviets.
Speaker 1: And I've never seen stuff that went under there. So
Speaker 1: Brian killed me, who was like just a He's like
Speaker 1: the busiest guy on Fox News. I mean, he does
Speaker 1: like three hour radio show, means on this, and he
Speaker 1: does the other thing. I don't think the guy ever sleeps.
Speaker 1: He does. He's a really really great job of telling
Speaker 1: that whole story about how the whole thing came about
Speaker 1: and that it was probably West Virginia's biggest secret, and
Speaker 1: it stayed that way until I don't know, the early
Speaker 1: nineties when there was a press report about the whole thing.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like one of these quiet things.
Speaker 1: My favorite player of the whole story is about the
Speaker 1: guys that were the TV repairman had this little shop
Speaker 1: that to TV repairs in the hotel, and it turns
Speaker 1: out that the guy that was doing this candy man's
Speaker 1: job was in fact also on the CIA payroll, and
Speaker 1: he's like the superintendent of this entire complex under around
Speaker 1: that he was a judge of the attaining that whole
Speaker 1: place and it was basically maintained like a hotel, I
Speaker 1: mean like ready to receive at that time, like five
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty three people the entire House and Senate,
Speaker 1: and it was ready to go right down to what
Speaker 1: kind of medicines these guys were taken these Connis smending
Speaker 1: centers that supplies of whatever their prescription drugs they were
Speaker 1: on were available, and they were ready to feed in
Speaker 1: the house and and take care of these people like
Speaker 1: a moment's notice of the whole thing. N it, I'm assuming,
Speaker 1: but some of those people would have been taken off
Speaker 1: the staff, and I'm wondering just how many of the
Speaker 1: people on the staff, like cooks and things like that.
Speaker 1: We're also on the governing payoff for all those years.
Speaker 1: But you have a story about the Green buy I
Speaker 1: want to hear yourself. I didn't get you know, where
Speaker 1: the Greenbrier is located. Not far from there is like
Speaker 1: a secondary site and I don't know who they were
Speaker 1: planning on putting it might have been Pentagon people, but
Speaker 1: they had an actual site up on top. And then
Speaker 1: there was this massive tunnel like they just showed with
Speaker 1: these big blast doors that went down into the mountain
Speaker 1: and it was quite quite close to the Green Bribe,
Speaker 1: and so we used to do an exercise there back
Speaker 1: in the early eighties with the Secret Service, and we
Speaker 1: would use the miles gear that you know we used
Speaker 1: to use back then for you know, shooting blanks at
Speaker 1: one another, but you could tell if somebody was hit
Speaker 1: or whatnot. And they would take a group of us,
Speaker 1: like eight or ten of us, and we were to
Speaker 1: act it's like the bad guy terrorists and if there
Speaker 1: was you know, uh, nuclear fallout, something was gonna happen.
Speaker 1: We were the guys that were supposed to try to
Speaker 1: get the president before they could get them under ground,
Speaker 1: and we'd go against the the guys from the Secret Service,
Speaker 1: and we would stay. They had like it was like
Speaker 1: a typical military barracks up on top on this side
Speaker 1: of this mountain that was like in the middle of nowhere,
Speaker 1: hidden in in West Virginia, and so, uh, we would
Speaker 1: stay in the building. Then they'd give us all morning
Speaker 1: to wander around it plus the night before and try
Speaker 1: to figure out because we knew where the helicopters were
Speaker 1: coming in, so we had to come up with a plan.
Speaker 1: And obviously we knew where the blast doors were so
Speaker 1: that was where the motorcade was going underground, so we
Speaker 1: had to work up a plan to to do that.
Speaker 1: We did a couple of times, and it was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun um because we were allowed to basically
Speaker 1: do whatever we wanted, as they said, you can work
Speaker 1: up anything. You can actually try to you know, take
Speaker 1: them out and then try to escape out through the mountains,
Speaker 1: or it could be a suicide mission, as many terrorists
Speaker 1: are um as we all know today. So it was
Speaker 1: it was a blast. And this one time we had
Speaker 1: gone up there a couple of times. In this one
Speaker 1: particular time, we noticed that when they brought the helicopters in,
Speaker 1: you know, as frequently happens, they would bring the fire
Speaker 1: department up on the edge of the uh of the
Speaker 1: strip up there, you know, in case of an emergency.
Speaker 1: So we come up with a bright idea and I
Speaker 1: was the guinea pig, and so they said, so, Steve,
Speaker 1: you're going to take hostages at the fire department. So
Speaker 1: that morning, once everything started to fall into place and
Speaker 1: they said okay, yeah we're starting, I went walking in
Speaker 1: with my you know, weapon under my jacket. I was
Speaker 1: in surveying close and the fire chief goes hey, what's
Speaker 1: going on? And so I said, yeah, we got the
Speaker 1: thing going today. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: the head bad guy. He's like, what's that And I said,
Speaker 1: I'm the bad guy. I just took your hostage. And
Speaker 1: he started laughing and he was like, what are you
Speaker 1: gonna shoot me? And I was like, nope, I want
Speaker 1: a fire jacket though, so they put me. They gave
Speaker 1: me a fire jacket, and then the chief was laughing.
Speaker 1: He goes, you know, you're never gonna get away. So
Speaker 1: I get in the truck with all the firemen and
Speaker 1: there's another guy in the back, you know, and we're
Speaker 1: the bad guys that are actually dressed like firemen. So
Speaker 1: we go up and half hour before the you know,
Speaker 1: the aircraft are coming in and it's not really the president.
Speaker 1: They just had a secret Service guy that was wearing
Speaker 1: the miles of gear, so and they had pictures of
Speaker 1: all of us. So we're sitting there and I'm sitting
Speaker 1: in the in the fire truck and all the secret
Speaker 1: Service guys started, you know, we know the choppers are
Speaker 1: coming in because they're getting active and they were all
Speaker 1: doing what they're supposed to do and they're facing out
Speaker 1: and then one of them walked by the fire truck
Speaker 1: and just having to look in, and he looked at
Speaker 1: me and then he kept walking. He stopped, he turned around,
Speaker 1: and as soon as I've seen him turn around, I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, he knows who I am. He started
Speaker 1: raising his weapon and we both shot at the same time.
Speaker 1: So they captured me, and uh, they took me in
Speaker 1: for interrogation. And turns out the guy that took me
Speaker 1: in for an interrogation was the same guy. If you
Speaker 1: remember when President Reagan was shot by Hankley, there was
Speaker 1: that one secret Service guy that came up with the
Speaker 1: oosium was kind of waving it around and he was
Speaker 1: getting every way away from the president and that was him,
Speaker 1: so and me being the you know, why this guy
Speaker 1: from Boston that I am? You know, I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, he was starting to get a little agitated
Speaker 1: because I wouldn't answer his questions, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I know who you are. You're the guy that freaked
Speaker 1: out when Reagan got shot, waving that oozy all around.
Speaker 1: So they gagged me really hard. I mean to where
Speaker 1: I thought it was gonna split my lip. Um, So
Speaker 1: they gagged me really hard. On that and they made
Speaker 1: sure those flex cups got really tight and they put
Speaker 1: me in the back after that, and so but yeah,
Speaker 1: that was my story of the Greenbrier. It and it
Speaker 1: is a absolutely beautiful place, and the fact that they
Speaker 1: were able to build that, you know, without anyone ever knowing.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the Russians ever really had an
Speaker 1: inkling of what was up there or not, but it's
Speaker 1: it's an amazing story. In fact, a couple of years ago, um,
Speaker 1: you know, because it's it's up in the mountains up
Speaker 1: there in West Virginia, so you know, for the people
Speaker 1: who live in the south, it's a little cooler up
Speaker 1: there than it would be in the south. The New
Speaker 1: Orleans Saints and the New England Patriots had joint practices
Speaker 1: during football training camp up there. Right, Oh, I'll be
Speaker 1: doing how did you do this thing? Have this exercise?
Speaker 1: Because it is a resort with golf course and everything,
Speaker 1: crawling with civilians. How did you well see that we
Speaker 1: were on that back side. We weren't in the actual hotel. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it was a little bit a little distance from hotels.
Speaker 1: That Yeah, that's some isolation, social isolation, but it was
Speaker 1: it was a big face, I mean, because they told
Speaker 1: us the only thing you can't do is go down
Speaker 1: into the tunnel. And they had guard towers like you
Speaker 1: know before you the blast doors, and he said, and
Speaker 1: if you try to run in there, somebody will actually
Speaker 1: shoot you, so don't do that. So you guys are
Speaker 1: not in on the exercise. Yeah, well they're they're part
Speaker 1: of the exercise, but you are not allowed to go
Speaker 1: past that point. So well, I don't want to give
Speaker 1: any spoilers to the show, but they do talk about
Speaker 1: how they built it. Um, Yeah, it was awesome. In
Speaker 1: eight they didn't really have spice satellites up in the sky,
Speaker 1: so the only way they would have known it was there,
Speaker 1: and they could have put a spy plane over the
Speaker 1: top of the site and in you know, the Green
Speaker 1: Buyer was kind of like all by itself out there,
Speaker 1: so it was right and they covered they and they
Speaker 1: covered it up with the with the you know, the
Speaker 1: background story that hey, we're we're expanding the Green Bride.
Speaker 1: They made that. You know, they put it under a
Speaker 1: big extension of the hotel and resort itself that they built,
Speaker 1: which was absolutely brilliant. Yeah, there's some of those stuff
Speaker 1: I don't want to tell the audience about, you know,
Speaker 1: because the show is good, but like why they built
Speaker 1: it at the Green Buyer in the beginning and not
Speaker 1: on a military base. It's kind of there's an interesting
Speaker 1: backstory to that I wasn't aware of, and you know,
Speaker 1: having been there and and taking the tour, I I
Speaker 1: don't recall that, So that was something I missed or
Speaker 1: wasn't paying attention at the time. And then and then
Speaker 1: also about um, how they tried to maintain secrecy and
Speaker 1: find out if anybody knew what was going on, which
Speaker 1: is apparently the CIA was active in the area. Yes,
Speaker 1: I don't want to tell how they did that, but
Speaker 1: that was so. But but some of the stats in
Speaker 1: that place were and it was hidden in plain sight
Speaker 1: because some of the facilities were dual used. They were
Speaker 1: used by guests at the hotel. Who did it had
Speaker 1: no idea part of this underground bunker complex. They had
Speaker 1: no idea. It's some people who had like conventions or conferences.
Speaker 1: There had no idea that that was you know, the
Speaker 1: meeting rooms, and it would be the offices of the
Speaker 1: you know, the the government. Even the balloon went up, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it would be it would literally be where Congress would
Speaker 1: be holding sessions, and uh that was that was there
Speaker 1: was some really fascinating things. If I ever get back
Speaker 1: up there, that's definitely gonna be on my list. I
Speaker 1: want to take that tour at that place, because first
Speaker 1: of all, it's a huge resort. Yes, but I want
Speaker 1: some of the I've want some of the other stuff
Speaker 1: that killed meets done. And I think what's really great
Speaker 1: about these stories is that how granular are how they
Speaker 1: are able to drill down on the on the details
Speaker 1: of these things, not just this big, you know, bird's
Speaker 1: eye view of things, but really get down into the
Speaker 1: in the human side of of what it took to
Speaker 1: make the stuff that probably meant that story. I mean
Speaker 1: even they get down to like a construction worker going
Speaker 1: to his boss and going, hey, what are we building here?
Speaker 1: Because the guy that suspicion and the guy goes, hey, look,
Speaker 1: we're paying you really well and off the looks and
Speaker 1: one of the things were paying you to do is
Speaker 1: not ask questions like donay, okay, sure, okay, boss, I
Speaker 1: just get back. He probably thought it was some mob
Speaker 1: activity where you know, on the hotel where they're going
Speaker 1: to have gambling or something you know, so, yeah, like
Speaker 1: a speak easy or something out of the place in
Speaker 1: the fifth where they built what are we why are
Speaker 1: we building a single the ground field and don't ask Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: take your paycheck, go home down. So but it's but
Speaker 1: it's interesting is that sometimes the best way to keep
Speaker 1: a sequence is to sort of hide it in plain sight.
Speaker 1: Exactly it was. It was really really a fascinating program.
Speaker 1: But all the stuff that killed me didn't let me
Speaker 1: in America. Great. Those are all really interesting programs. They're
Speaker 1: not they're not dull at all. You just like you
Speaker 1: just did watch them, you want to see the next one.
Speaker 1: So there's a whole new season of that coming out,
Speaker 1: and if you're if you're Fox Nation member, definitely uh
Speaker 1: definitely watching to give us your feedback on the site.
Speaker 1: So I'd like to hear what you're thinking them too,
Speaker 1: that they're really really fun, fun shows. There's also a
Speaker 1: new season coming out of part of Abbey Hornsett when
Speaker 1: she's taking everybody through the National parks and I think
Speaker 1: you've got to run down on which ones they're covering
Speaker 1: this time. But they're really great and really something the
Speaker 1: National Park system is. If you've been to them. They're
Speaker 1: really so amazing stuff. Why don't you give them the
Speaker 1: list of the stuff that there that they're going to
Speaker 1: be going through this season? Yeah, let me pull that up,
Speaker 1: because that is uh, that part is I've watched a
Speaker 1: few of those in they're pretty interesting. And having been
Speaker 1: to so many of our national parks, um, it's it's
Speaker 1: pretty uh you know, I haven't been to all of
Speaker 1: them obviously, but I've been to a lot of them,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's definitely worth checking out. Now now I'm
Speaker 1: I had it right here on my computer, the list
Speaker 1: of the ones. Here we go, and so let me see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: these things are better than the brou shorts, you know,
Speaker 1: as far as getting an overview of what to see
Speaker 1: and how they came about. Also because I mean I've
Speaker 1: been the National parks two are so immense and you
Speaker 1: could spend you could spend weeks, um and some of
Speaker 1: these parks going through and not see everything that's there.
Speaker 1: So these these shows are given a great, great background
Speaker 1: on these parks and the things that are must size,
Speaker 1: and I mean they're really good if you're planning on
Speaker 1: going into the National parks. This is this is like
Speaker 1: a These are great climbers to show your kids or
Speaker 1: show yourself if you haven't seen. Let's see, I just
Speaker 1: had it right here on my computer and pull it up.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Yeah, these these shows that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: you definitely got to check these out on Fox Nation
Speaker 1: because they they were a ton of fun. They were
Speaker 1: really um interesting and you you were talking about the
Speaker 1: human element and that that's what makes them. You know,
Speaker 1: we were talking about what made America great. I think
Speaker 1: Brian killed me and you mentioned that you know what
Speaker 1: he did, and that was he kept bringing the human
Speaker 1: element into that and our national parks are so awesome.
Speaker 1: And let me see, I just had it right here.
Speaker 1: I keep looking out of it somehow, But anyway, we'll
Speaker 1: we'll get back to that. Um. And just as I
Speaker 1: got it, she's going to the she's going to the
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon, UM and you're gonna get to see the
Speaker 1: Grand Kenya basically from she's doing it from a helicopter too,
Speaker 1: so that should be cool. Four seasons were twenty episodes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now she's going to um Biscayne, which is my home,
Speaker 1: my hometown there, and my people don't realize that there's
Speaker 1: a national park in this t bay. So it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's really cool. I sailed across this team Bay one
Speaker 1: time when I was a kid in a small twelve
Speaker 1: club pram Yeah I did, I did. Yeah. We lived
Speaker 1: at Coca and Grove and I said, I stipped school
Speaker 1: and got in my little boat and sailed from basically
Speaker 1: west to west to east when all the boat traffic
Speaker 1: is north to south. It's a very busy bay. So
Speaker 1: I got big trouble for doing that because I got caught.
Speaker 1: So I was. I was twelve years old, I think
Speaker 1: at the time, so I didn't realize just how dangerous
Speaker 1: that was. But this came bay. Um, she's going to
Speaker 1: Great Smokey Mountains, which I've been to, and that's an
Speaker 1: amazing that's an amazing national park. Those are That's a
Speaker 1: place you could know. I'm glad they turned that into
Speaker 1: a national park. It's absolutely, absolutely gorgeous. She's going to
Speaker 1: Guadalup Mountains, which I've never been to. Um that So
Speaker 1: have you been out that far west? I've been out west,
Speaker 1: but I haven't been the Guadalupe. So this thing, apparently
Speaker 1: is is wrepped up in the history of the Muscalero
Speaker 1: patchies and the ranches who are out there who are
Speaker 1: basically both living there at the same time. So here
Speaker 1: you are a cattle rancher with apache Indians. That must
Speaker 1: have been a very delicate balancing act. And I'd like
Speaker 1: to see what that homeowners Association meeting was home. And
Speaker 1: and then New River Gorge in West Virginia. So I
Speaker 1: think I've been to New River Gorge, but I was
Speaker 1: too young, i think, to actually appreciate it. But and
Speaker 1: that is a gorgeous place, yeah, Mason Verdi m hm.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well, West Virginia's gorgeous. A beautiful place that
Speaker 1: West Virginia is. And you know, uh, one of the
Speaker 1: neatest places I've been to was Harper's Ferry, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, big in our Civil War type history. Just
Speaker 1: before the Civil War, the the abolitionist John Brown rated
Speaker 1: the you know Arsenal. Yeah, at Harper's Ferry, and it's
Speaker 1: such a beautiful town. And a quick story about that
Speaker 1: is yeah, I mean you're talking about West Virginia because
Speaker 1: we were just mentioned in The Greenbrier. And then the
Speaker 1: guy that the army sent in to put down there,
Speaker 1: you know, John Brown was led by Robert E. Lee,
Speaker 1: who was a colonel in the United States Army at
Speaker 1: the time, right, and the troops were Marines. The troops
Speaker 1: from Marines, yes, all the way to West Virginia. That
Speaker 1: must have been my limited. What's is the army busy
Speaker 1: this weekend? Why don't we gotta go all the way
Speaker 1: to nobody because nobody else you can send? Um, I
Speaker 1: guess they were. And the funny thing it was another
Speaker 1: bit of history there there was a lieutenant who came
Speaker 1: from the cavalry out in Texas that was trying to
Speaker 1: get Roberty Lee at that time, who was the U. S. Armies.
Speaker 1: He was kind of like the purchasing officer for the army.
Speaker 1: Um they were trying to get a new saddle for
Speaker 1: the for the cavalry and he went into, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to sell this the Colonel Lee, and Lee took
Speaker 1: him with him to Harper's Ferry and he was kind
Speaker 1: of like the liaison to actually went in to try
Speaker 1: to talk to John Brown. And that was Jeb Stewart
Speaker 1: who later fought with Yeah in the Oh wow, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that's you know, there was the he was so
Speaker 1: small back then relatively speaking, that these guys that were
Speaker 1: each other, Yeah, they all knew each other. They went
Speaker 1: to West Point together. They all served together. Most of
Speaker 1: those guys were in the Mexican American War together and
Speaker 1: knew each other from that conflict. Um. It was a
Speaker 1: very interesting thing. I mean, we think of the Civil
Speaker 1: Wars being the sort of war again brother against brother,
Speaker 1: but it was true in the military too. These were
Speaker 1: guys that quite often knew each other, um, you know,
Speaker 1: very well before the war even started. But yeah, being
Speaker 1: like a kind of a military historian, the first time
Speaker 1: I saw Harpers Ferry, I was like, yeah, I can
Speaker 1: see why they built a federal facility because it's you've
Speaker 1: got those two rivers. You've got the the Potomac and
Speaker 1: the the chest Pea, the chest no um, oh no,
Speaker 1: I'm going to draw another I don't know, I know,
Speaker 1: I know. But anyway, the confluence, so those twoever is
Speaker 1: coming together made that a very important sort of strategic
Speaker 1: choke point and beautiful. It's like if you go if
Speaker 1: you go to West Point, it sits up on it
Speaker 1: sits up on that bluff overlooking overlooking that river. So
Speaker 1: it was like, yeah, it was west Point. Was it
Speaker 1: was a fortress, you know, it was a purcast so Nadelis. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Shennon Doolah at the stomach where they come together, and
Speaker 1: it's beautiful. There's a beautiful rail tunnel runs there. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that is a beautiful West Virginia. It's just like
Speaker 1: a gorgeous place. Um. But we should we should move
Speaker 1: on to uh piece access new new season. You've got
Speaker 1: a whole drop on July two, Untold Patriots Throvial the
Speaker 1: second season. The first season was great, this great stuff
Speaker 1: in that first season. So he's going into his second
Speaker 1: season now. And this is that same thing that Fox
Speaker 1: does where they tell these very human stories. Um, it's
Speaker 1: of just these big pot orgies. They bring you down
Speaker 1: to the individuals who shape the American revolution. And there's uh,
Speaker 1: I think there's four or five and five new episodes
Speaker 1: coming out on this so it should be it should
Speaker 1: be really pretty cool stuff. You were telling me about
Speaker 1: one the other day when we were talking on the phone. Yes, Um,
Speaker 1: but before we do that, I just wanted to before
Speaker 1: I forget, I wanted to read about that. We tease
Speaker 1: this earlier about softwarep sweep Steaks and then we'll get
Speaker 1: right back into the show with pete Um. Software will
Speaker 1: be giving away a brand new top of the line
Speaker 1: smartphone is part of its third quarter sweep steaks, running
Speaker 1: from July one September. If you're a member of Software,
Speaker 1: all you need to do is to use your special
Speaker 1: referral link to tell your friends, family, whoever else about
Speaker 1: Software dot Com. You take in points for every referral
Speaker 1: to the person that becomes a member, and the winner
Speaker 1: will be receiving his choice of either a brand new
Speaker 1: iPhone twelve Pro which is a hundred and twenty eight gigabytes,
Speaker 1: or Samsung Galaxy s T one Altar of five g
Speaker 1: gig If you're not a member of soft Rep and
Speaker 1: you sign up a membership during the third quarter, you
Speaker 1: can simply sign up and start using your referral link
Speaker 1: to participate. Plus, if you sign up during the third quarter,
Speaker 1: you automatically get into it into our new member sweep
Speaker 1: stakes for a chance to win an Emerson Commander knife
Speaker 1: and a Surefire Led flashlight. So there's no better time
Speaker 1: to join soft Rep than right now. With that being said,
Speaker 1: let's get back to the show. And uh you you
Speaker 1: mentioned Pete show. Um you know, growing up in Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: I was enthralled with the story he did about Peter Salem,
Speaker 1: who was. Depending on the accounts, he was either a
Speaker 1: free black man or he was still a slave. But
Speaker 1: he fought at the Battle of Conquered and then the
Speaker 1: Battle of Bunker Hill where he actually killed the probably
Speaker 1: the most famous soldier in the British Army at that time,
Speaker 1: Major Pitt Karen. Yeah, he was at the Karen was
Speaker 1: the guy that was in charge of the regiment, was
Speaker 1: trying to come up. It was Breed's Hill. You know
Speaker 1: about the Bunker Hell, but it was yet Breeds Hill,
Speaker 1: and yeah, he shot the guy. He shot the Karen
Speaker 1: as he was stepping over the over the breastworks. I
Speaker 1: mean they were like on top of him. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of a sad note, but Pit Karen fell back
Speaker 1: into the arms of his own son, who was a
Speaker 1: lieutenant in the regiment. Um I kind of fall on
Speaker 1: the side of of the guy being a freed a
Speaker 1: freedman because he had been discharged and then he re
Speaker 1: enlisted again. So I'm I'm thinking that that would be
Speaker 1: the sort of thing that probably only get to do
Speaker 1: as a freedman. I mean, once you got your first
Speaker 1: initial and listen out of the way, there wasn't any
Speaker 1: compulsory second term that you had to sign up for.
Speaker 1: It was almost like a volunteer because guy's in revolution
Speaker 1: signed up for one year terms as well. Washington's most
Speaker 1: vaccine problems was that his whole army was recycling every year,
Speaker 1: and trying to get guys to stay could be could
Speaker 1: be a little tough. They were like, hey, I did
Speaker 1: my part by somebody else, and this guy signed up.
Speaker 1: This guy signed up twice, and he was everywhere. If
Speaker 1: I recall he was at he was Saratoga, Um, I
Speaker 1: think he was at Trenton, I Meanston. Yeah, and he
Speaker 1: was like four major battles and the fact that he
Speaker 1: lived through them was was pretty impressive. Um And and
Speaker 1: then you know, basically lived a long, unhappy left after
Speaker 1: the war. But yeah, that was a That's what I
Speaker 1: mean about these shows. When you get down to these
Speaker 1: a vidual stories of these guys, it's really really, really good.
Speaker 1: He's gonna do the one on Molly Pitcher. Yes, that
Speaker 1: was a great one as well. But yeah, before we
Speaker 1: move on, you know, I was telling you offline yesterday
Speaker 1: that you know, the little town that we lived in
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts, they try to lay claim to the first
Speaker 1: African American soldier because he was part of the militia
Speaker 1: and at that time the time of Milbury was uh at.
Speaker 1: Sutton and Millbury were one one time, so he was
Speaker 1: part of the local Militia's name was Peter Willard. He
Speaker 1: was a free black man and he joined the militia.
Speaker 1: They raced to Lexington. He fought at Lexington, then had
Speaker 1: conquered and then joined the Continental Army and fought the
Speaker 1: entire war coming back, you know, after the war was over.
Speaker 1: He was a revered member of the small town of Milbury,
Speaker 1: mass which had one of the federal um armories. At
Speaker 1: the time they used to make muskets for the h
Speaker 1: It was one of the six um places that made
Speaker 1: weapons for the military. He was a revered member of
Speaker 1: the town of Melbury and his portrait hung in Milbury's
Speaker 1: town hall until it burned down in a fire in
Speaker 1: so and his grave is marked as a soldier of
Speaker 1: the Revolution and he's buried in the uh you know
Speaker 1: graveyard there in the old part of town. You know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting when you look at portrait artwork
Speaker 1: from that period of time. You know, artists skills were
Speaker 1: actually fairly aware. People had really lousy taste because so
Speaker 1: much of the illustration were back then looks like like
Speaker 1: middle school cartoon work, you know, by my kids. And
Speaker 1: sometimes it's really hard to entify these guys, um because
Speaker 1: the the representations of them in art were so rudimentary
Speaker 1: and simple, you know. Um, there's a lot of the
Speaker 1: images that these guys didn't survive, you know, like Washington
Speaker 1: and Adams and the Jefferson. These guys they could afford
Speaker 1: to bring in painters that could really you know, could
Speaker 1: really do the job. Um. But looking at some of
Speaker 1: the stuff and some of the some of the artwork
Speaker 1: that they sound some they shows, You're like, Costa looks
Speaker 1: like like a kid's cartoon. Some of the stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: can you draw? Yes, sort of you know, Okay, you're high,
Speaker 1: you know, and let's have these guys out there, you
Speaker 1: know drawing this stuff. But yeah, the stuff they did
Speaker 1: on the Revolution has been really cool. I really like
Speaker 1: the the show they did about Washington crossing the Delaware
Speaker 1: and marble Head, the marble Head Regiment, which you and
Speaker 1: I were kind of chatting about when when we were
Speaker 1: talking about that episode about we think of Washington's army
Speaker 1: as just being in this bunch of militia farmers and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But these guys from Marblehead were like
Speaker 1: a specialized riverine regiment. You don't even think about how
Speaker 1: many rivers there are in Massachusetts that they had to cross,
Speaker 1: and how many how often Washington like it was a
Speaker 1: Delaware At the Battle of Trenton. They did that in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night in a snowstorm on a
Speaker 1: frozen river, which for most armies would have been unthinkable
Speaker 1: to do. And then when he when he were treated
Speaker 1: over to Manhattan across the Hudson River, did that at
Speaker 1: night too, so so he had a capability to move
Speaker 1: his army across rivers, which was actually a very hard
Speaker 1: thing to do. That's why they fought over bridges so much. Um.
Speaker 1: But that destroyer of those guys from from Marblehead and
Speaker 1: the kernel that led them was really really interesting and
Speaker 1: it was a part of that river history. I did
Speaker 1: not know about it that if it hadn't been for
Speaker 1: those sailors and fishermen from Marblehead, he might not have
Speaker 1: been able to pull off that attack on trent because
Speaker 1: swimming was not something people did back then, let alone
Speaker 1: at night on a frozen river. The idea of going
Speaker 1: in a boat across that when you're a landlubber, would
Speaker 1: have been like facing a tiger in terms of fear.
Speaker 1: And it would have only been possible if he had
Speaker 1: guys who knew what they were doing on boats, and
Speaker 1: knew how to load boats, and knew how to navigate
Speaker 1: boats and get them across the river with a bunch
Speaker 1: of soldiers that were scared to death that they were
Speaker 1: going to drown in all their heavy wool clothes in
Speaker 1: the middle of a snowstorm. And I don't think he
Speaker 1: lost a man crossing that river, which is amazing that
Speaker 1: they crossed enough thousands for nine hours without losing a boat,
Speaker 1: which is really quite a thing, quite a feat. Those
Speaker 1: those guys the day deserve an awful lot of the credit.
Speaker 1: It's it's like it's like Washington his own marine contingent
Speaker 1: that was a part of his army um. And you
Speaker 1: just you think of guys being artillery guys and calvary guys,
Speaker 1: and and guys that were specialists and supply and quartermasters,
Speaker 1: but you don't really think about the riverine specialty, which
Speaker 1: is one of the most difficult military operations to pull off,
Speaker 1: is to cross the river. So it's a it's a
Speaker 1: very difficult operation, and and Washington was pulling this off
Speaker 1: more than thirty years ago. It's it's really amazing stuff.
Speaker 1: So that's what you get out of these shows. And
Speaker 1: the other thing that I really liked was that, uh,
Speaker 1: it doesn't rely on the on the sort of dry
Speaker 1: restortation and a lot of illustration. They go to these
Speaker 1: places and talk to people are experts on it and
Speaker 1: do some reenactments and stuff like that. Watching those guys
Speaker 1: fire those muskets, you see the flash off of that thing,
Speaker 1: and it's sparks plant off, and it's like, this is
Speaker 1: six inches from your face when you pull the trigger
Speaker 1: on that rifle, on that flint block, and you have
Speaker 1: this flash and spark that's six inches away from your pace.
Speaker 1: I imagine these guys caught a lot of stuff in
Speaker 1: their eyes. They kept their eyes closed when they when
Speaker 1: they pulled the trigger, which probably we don't do that
Speaker 1: now with firearms and spoils your aim, but back then
Speaker 1: they were they must have had to. And if you
Speaker 1: were I can't imagine you wouldn't be just a little
Speaker 1: blind after those flashes in your face for several hours
Speaker 1: of fire in that rifle. It must have been you
Speaker 1: would have some effect on your eyesight sore. And a
Speaker 1: lot of those guys at the end of the battle,
Speaker 1: their face was blackened from the powder, you know, being
Speaker 1: so yeah yeah, And you know misfires too, you know
Speaker 1: those those those were you pour the powder into this
Speaker 1: bowl and they holped your flint strikes it properly. I
Speaker 1: don't know how they kept their powder dry. You know,
Speaker 1: we say that keep your powder dry. Um. But they
Speaker 1: were in the middle of winter and us at the
Speaker 1: Battle of Trenton, and they had crossed the river in
Speaker 1: a snow stone that was turning into sleet and rain
Speaker 1: and and I don't know what they're thick heavy wool uniforms. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and they got eight they took eight teen cannons.
Speaker 1: So the cool thing about that episode that one in particularly,
Speaker 1: they showed the boats that they crossed over with and
Speaker 1: they took horses and cannons across. And how did they
Speaker 1: do that in those boats? So I'm thinking they must
Speaker 1: have lashed tour them together, put a platform, wanted to
Speaker 1: move the horses across. But you would definitely have to
Speaker 1: have guys who knew how to handle boats in order
Speaker 1: to pull that off. Not a bunch of landsmen just
Speaker 1: trying to like, you know, they wouldn't understand weight distribution
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But they these were you know, armpowered
Speaker 1: boats and it row these things with oars that we're
Speaker 1: tlled fourteen ft long, So they had rowing crews to
Speaker 1: get these things across. But it would have been fascinating
Speaker 1: just there watch how they did. And Washington had enough
Speaker 1: confidence to say, Okay, we can do it. I can
Speaker 1: I can trust the fate of my army. And indeed
Speaker 1: the entire American American round lusition two um, these guys
Speaker 1: from Marble had and that that was That was quite
Speaker 1: a thing. That was quite a thing. That Battle of
Speaker 1: Trenton was a big deal. I've been to that battle
Speaker 1: field and you know, uh, a lot of it is missing,
Speaker 1: but there's still a lot of it there. And taking
Speaker 1: a tour there one time, one of the guys giving
Speaker 1: the tour told us that several of Washington's men now pictures.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's wintertime, it's snowing, sleet, freezing rain.
Speaker 1: Some of his men had no shoes. Yeah, they were
Speaker 1: in rags. Yeah, there was some sturdy stuff. Those guys
Speaker 1: are made us some sturdy sturdy stuff. I mean they
Speaker 1: were They were amazing guys. And I've always hear we
Speaker 1: talked about like the greatest generation, which we always tend
Speaker 1: to associate with the guys that fought in World War two. Um,
Speaker 1: But in my opinion, the greatest generation were the men
Speaker 1: who fought in the American Revolution because they were willing
Speaker 1: to die for freedoms and liberties and a country they
Speaker 1: would never know that they would die before they ever
Speaker 1: had the freedom that they were fighting for, and I
Speaker 1: think that made them really great men. There was a
Speaker 1: tremendous self sacrifice on that that I think is unmatched.
Speaker 1: You know, it's one thing to go to war to
Speaker 1: defend everything that America is. There was another thing to
Speaker 1: fight and die with the hope of what America could be.
Speaker 1: Good point. Yeah. The other untold patriots revealed with Pete
Speaker 1: HEGs that I really liked was Molly picture Um. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, there there were so many conflicting reports of
Speaker 1: who Molly Pitcher wasn't actually a real name. It was
Speaker 1: what they called the women who brought water to the
Speaker 1: troops out on the battlefield. They called them all Molly Pitchers.
Speaker 1: But the story that Pete did was. They actually tried
Speaker 1: to track down who was the actual Molly Pitcher and
Speaker 1: you know, took her husband's place on the cannon. A
Speaker 1: lot of it, you know, grew with time, but she
Speaker 1: the story that they tell and that one is definitely
Speaker 1: worth checking out, and we don't want to give too
Speaker 1: much of it away, but yeah, we hope all of
Speaker 1: our listeners out there definitely checked that out. One of
Speaker 1: the things I really like about the whole series that
Speaker 1: he's doing is that it um it tells you that
Speaker 1: that is the American Revolution wasn't just in the hands
Speaker 1: of of these of a certain type of American. It
Speaker 1: was the hands of all these guys. It was in
Speaker 1: the hands of free blacks, and the hands of women,
Speaker 1: and the hands of fishermen and farmers. I mean, it
Speaker 1: really was a very much an organic um revolution in
Speaker 1: a sense that that everybody felt like they had a
Speaker 1: part to play. Yeah, there wasn't a political elite that
Speaker 1: was yeah yeah, and they weren't being and these people
Speaker 1: weren't being flogged to the front. You know. One of
Speaker 1: the things that we don't um one of the reasons
Speaker 1: that we won the revolution was because our guys were
Speaker 1: very committed. You know the Hessians that that George Washington
Speaker 1: defeated Trent and were mercenaries. Literally mercenaries were soldiers Germans
Speaker 1: that had been hired to King George by this German lord,
Speaker 1: I can't think of his name now, basically gave him
Speaker 1: this regiment of troops for payment and then sent them
Speaker 1: over to the United States. And it was because the
Speaker 1: British soldiers are having a hard time shooting at the colonists.
Speaker 1: They were having a hard time shooting them, so I
Speaker 1: thought it'd be easier and more terrorizing if he used
Speaker 1: these foreign mercenaries, which is one of the gripes and
Speaker 1: the Declaration of Independence about sending foreign mercenaries, foreigners to
Speaker 1: fight the American colonists. They were very insulted by that idea.
Speaker 1: And in the British Army had, you know, a very
Speaker 1: brutal system of conscription where guys were just sort of
Speaker 1: snatched up and taken and forced to serve in the
Speaker 1: army um and our guys were pretty much all volunteers.
Speaker 1: They were all guys that stepped up and said no,
Speaker 1: I want to serve and whatever. They lacked in military proficiency,
Speaker 1: and they certainly did lack in military proficiency in many cases,
Speaker 1: they certainly made up for in sheer desire and and
Speaker 1: will to win. M made all the difference in the
Speaker 1: world because there were two armies. You know, there was
Speaker 1: Washington's regular troops and then you had militia's that the
Speaker 1: augmented them. And Washington himself wasn't very pleased with the
Speaker 1: quality of the militia that was being said to augment
Speaker 1: his army. But those guys had a different style of fighting.
Speaker 1: They were Indian fighters to a large extent, which was
Speaker 1: you know, skirmishing and sniping, and the set piece battles
Speaker 1: that were fought in that era were very much about
Speaker 1: lining up and blasting away to each other with muskets
Speaker 1: from a hundred paces away from each other, and that
Speaker 1: was that was a terrifying way to find a war.
Speaker 1: So those guys trying to push them into the line
Speaker 1: and enforce upon the kind of disciplinement those set piece
Speaker 1: battle armies like the British and Washington's regular spot was
Speaker 1: something completely alien and foreign to them. But if he
Speaker 1: used them the right way, they were very effective. I mean,
Speaker 1: they can be very effective at harassing and interdicting British
Speaker 1: supply lines are doing all kinds and things like that.
Speaker 1: But in set piece battles, hey and do so good,
Speaker 1: and that was that was a very difficult way to
Speaker 1: fight a war from those guys, But the the guys
Speaker 1: who did fight were absolutely committed to the guys that
Speaker 1: stayed with him. Ballet forward, We're we're true patriots. Um,
Speaker 1: I went through that horrible winter living outdoors in dugouts basically,
Speaker 1: and oh there's a story about that. You know, Washington
Speaker 1: would get all these communications from the Continental Congress that
Speaker 1: would say to him, Look, we're trying to get blankets
Speaker 1: for you, and and we're trying to get uniforms, and
Speaker 1: we're trying to get you know, um salt peter to
Speaker 1: make gunpowder, and we're trying to get all these supplies
Speaker 1: for you. In Washington like cut him off and goes, look,
Speaker 1: just send me tobacco. I can get anything I need
Speaker 1: if you send me tobacco. Can I can barter tobacco
Speaker 1: for everything else. Just give me a break. Just send
Speaker 1: me tobacco. I can get anything else I need with that.
Speaker 1: Which is kind of interesting how currency worked back then.
Speaker 1: It was very much a barn A Barterer economy, and
Speaker 1: we were issuing commental script all stuff that really wasn't
Speaker 1: worth anything, and Congress didn't really have the ability to
Speaker 1: levy money. They were asking for donations basically from the
Speaker 1: colonies to fight and washing. Just give me tobacco, I
Speaker 1: get anything else I need with that. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting. This is very interesting fun. Yeah. And one
Speaker 1: of the things that that came out in the shows
Speaker 1: about the American Revolution on Fox Nation was that, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of the rank and file of the British
Speaker 1: military look down upon the colonists at the time, and
Speaker 1: now we look at him as American soldiers, but some
Speaker 1: of the British officers that had served with them during
Speaker 1: the French and Indian War had a very very different, um,
Speaker 1: you know, perspective on how good of soldiers these guys were,
Speaker 1: because they had fought the French and Indians and they
Speaker 1: used their tactics and then it was something that they
Speaker 1: were not used to and it took a toll on them,
Speaker 1: especially early in the war. Yeah. Yeah, Well, one of
Speaker 1: the features of that French and Indians war was, you know,
Speaker 1: it was a war between Indian tribes and there was
Speaker 1: also a war between the French and the English, and
Speaker 1: it was. It was a very weird kind of proxy war.
Speaker 1: I don't I can't think of anything in that time
Speaker 1: period that sort of equaled it in terms of the
Speaker 1: the politics of it um. But it very much was
Speaker 1: officially as dense wood. It was very, very hard to
Speaker 1: fight those big set piece battles where you just line
Speaker 1: up in the field and shoot one another until one
Speaker 1: side loses too many guys. There was an awful lot
Speaker 1: of sniping and small skirmishing actions that were fought between
Speaker 1: those armies, and they the Indians, were very good fighters.
Speaker 1: They really knew how to they really knew how to
Speaker 1: use the train and well most of them weren't musket
Speaker 1: on They were using bows and arrows and hatchets. So
Speaker 1: everything was kind of close order of battle, you know,
Speaker 1: close quarters um battle, so the same thing, take a
Speaker 1: take a rifle out in the woods and how far
Speaker 1: can you should it? Not very far? A tree will
Speaker 1: catch you around. So a lot of that fighting was brutal,
Speaker 1: very very close ranging ranges, you know, a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty feet away when you finally saw the guy you
Speaker 1: were trying to fight with, and if you were coming
Speaker 1: over as a European army in the French of the
Speaker 1: British and trying to fight in the woods of New
Speaker 1: York or Pennsylvania or Michigan under his own places. You
Speaker 1: found yourself in some pretty dense stuff. I mean, they
Speaker 1: were very hard to move an army. They had to
Speaker 1: pretty much build roads while they were traveling to move
Speaker 1: things around. So it was it was one of those
Speaker 1: wars drag on. There's not a lot of battles in them.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you think, what gosh, because it took so long
Speaker 1: to you know, get yourself set up the fight. You know,
Speaker 1: you were destinally trying to find the right conditions to
Speaker 1: fight a European style of war, while around you you
Speaker 1: have all these Indian tribes in these militias, both the
Speaker 1: French and the British fighting it out in the woods
Speaker 1: in these small skirmish actions were very very very very
Speaker 1: tough fight, very and a brutal one. I mean, they
Speaker 1: weren't they weren't nice to each other out there. There
Speaker 1: was no quarter given in any of those no, and
Speaker 1: civilians were targets and you know, homesteads were villages get
Speaker 1: burned down. I mean, it was it was an exercise
Speaker 1: in pot of war, very different than the kind of
Speaker 1: sort of you know, gentlemen of friends, would you care
Speaker 1: to take the first shot? Kind of you know, conflicts
Speaker 1: that they had in Europe. It was most uncivilized. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the councilor contemporaneous from British
Speaker 1: officers that fought in the Americas were like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is a terrible place to find war. It was awful,
Speaker 1: which is kind of funny because it's our country. Back then.
Speaker 1: It was sort of this untamed wilderness to a large extent,
Speaker 1: and the British were it was a wild West kind
Speaker 1: of thing to the British who came over here and
Speaker 1: fought because it was like nothing, nothing like nothing they've
Speaker 1: ever seen on the continent of Europe. So it's a
Speaker 1: very very very different kind of very very different kind
Speaker 1: of war. For that, should we uh, should we talk
Speaker 1: about something for the ladies. Yes. So one of the
Speaker 1: things that there's a new show that's going to be premiering. Um,
Speaker 1: we're recording this on the thirties, So this is there's
Speaker 1: a new show that's it's premiering A Learner of the
Speaker 1: White House that's being hosted by Rachel Campos Stuffy, who's
Speaker 1: a frequent contributor on Fox News, and she's going to
Speaker 1: be looking into the history some of our nation's first ladies,
Speaker 1: like Dolly Madison and Mary pop and Edith Wilson, Ellano Versevelt,
Speaker 1: and it's sort of like the woman behind the Man
Speaker 1: kind of thing in terms of the presidency and how
Speaker 1: important they were to um to the presidencies of their husband,
Speaker 1: certainly in the case of Ellen or Roosevelt, certainly in
Speaker 1: the case of Dolly Madison. I mean, the War of
Speaker 1: eighteen twelve went on in the midst of the Madison
Speaker 1: administration and they evacuated Washington because the British, you know,
Speaker 1: came and burned our capital, which is why we had
Speaker 1: a right house. It was originally sort of I think
Speaker 1: it was a great granite and it got burned black
Speaker 1: the British. So they painted it because the stone had
Speaker 1: been marred. And that's why it's called the White House
Speaker 1: today because they paid it. But I think it was Madison,
Speaker 1: Dolly Madison that rescued um. And there's George Washington's poetrait
Speaker 1: that the famous poetsman approach Washington. I mean, they had
Speaker 1: the vactory, the cavili spent them accneection peculation independence and
Speaker 1: the Constitution and the records of Congress and all the
Speaker 1: congressmen stuff. They will basically slicked on their lives so
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be captured. And all Madison was, you know,
Speaker 1: pretty heroic and and taking charge and assisting in that evacuation.
Speaker 1: We tend to think of women back then as being
Speaker 1: just sort of like, you know, standing in the background,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't really the case at all. They were
Speaker 1: very They were very active in the presidencies of their
Speaker 1: of their husbands, you know, working behind the scenes and
Speaker 1: charitable causes and things like that. But it should be
Speaker 1: an interesting shell um. It will be very interesting, especially
Speaker 1: I think the one about Mary Todd Lincoln will be
Speaker 1: very interesting because that would sort for mental illness and
Speaker 1: her husband was assassinated, one of her children died, and
Speaker 1: three of her three of them in so she was
Speaker 1: she was a unique person to be some to see
Speaker 1: their treatment of her wife. I mean that there were
Speaker 1: reason to be depressed. That would be one of them
Speaker 1: or four of them, losing your husband and three of
Speaker 1: your children. So was way ahead of her time when
Speaker 1: it comes to yeah, and also a first time a
Speaker 1: wartime first lady, you have the uh. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a kind of war where if you lose, you know,
Speaker 1: you could expect the journals in the Japanese would shoot
Speaker 1: you right next to your husband. You know. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's a different perspective. You think of first ladies today,
Speaker 1: who are you know, holding social functions in the White
Speaker 1: House and things like that. Some of these first ladies
Speaker 1: were like involved in war, some of them very closely
Speaker 1: and would be thinking of, you know, I just could
Speaker 1: get me killed, like probably Matson. You know, he can
Speaker 1: tust me my life. This isn't the tea party they
Speaker 1: promised me. You know, I can get captured by the
Speaker 1: burgers at home. So they had some pretty harrowing experiences
Speaker 1: in this. So Edith Wilson of course, is with the
Speaker 1: Wilson's wife, and that was during the one Um. And
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of actually of the ones that think, actually,
Speaker 1: I don't think one of them wasn't involved in in
Speaker 1: a conflict of some kind. So that that will be
Speaker 1: interesting show to catch. And I'm going to watch it
Speaker 1: too because I think their stories are part of the
Speaker 1: Marthan history as well. And me and I were both
Speaker 1: big history boxes. So that will definitely be on the
Speaker 1: That will definitely be on the list of must must
Speaker 1: watch kind of stuff. And then I think, finally we
Speaker 1: come down to um to look to Lee Greenwood's show.
Speaker 1: That's that's going to be broadcast on the eleven. So
Speaker 1: you and I grew up listening Greenwood, whether we were
Speaker 1: or not, right, you know, when the when the Lee
Speaker 1: Greenwood's on God Bless the USA came out, of course,
Speaker 1: that was like a huge hit at the time, and
Speaker 1: then during the First Gulf War that became like icon
Speaker 1: of that that error. And I mean it was played
Speaker 1: everywhere or if you were in the military and you
Speaker 1: went somewhere, people played it for you. And no offense
Speaker 1: to Mr Greenwood. It's an awesome song. But I got
Speaker 1: so sick of that song by the you know, the
Speaker 1: early nineties. It was like, oh my god, they're not
Speaker 1: gonna play it again. You know, well, it would be
Speaker 1: like hearing the national anthem every day on the radio
Speaker 1: four or five times. You okay, okay, you know, I
Speaker 1: get it. I get it, But it's sort of like
Speaker 1: the it sounds like the unofficial it's like the second
Speaker 1: national anthem. Yes, and you know what what makes it
Speaker 1: neat is when he you know, he travels around um
Speaker 1: to visit troops all over the world and they always
Speaker 1: play it and he sings it for them. Those are
Speaker 1: kind of neat moments. Those they're very neat moments, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna show that in the show Proud to be
Speaker 1: an American. And Lee is a guy who made I
Speaker 1: don't know how many appearances over the years the us
Speaker 1: O shows. I mean, if the Troops tour overseees, he
Speaker 1: wanted to be there, and that isn't easy. He could
Speaker 1: have stayed in Tennessee outside Memphis and played golf. You know,
Speaker 1: the royalties on that song would have kept him. Basically, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it riches creases for a lot of time. But from
Speaker 1: from my understanding is those USO tours are tough. They're
Speaker 1: they're not they're not luxury tours. Those guys, those guys
Speaker 1: are sign up with it. They don't live high. When
Speaker 1: they're flying a military they're helicopter on them. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they're constantly on the move. I mean, they don't spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time at one specific place. So it's it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it wears on you. I've talked to a couple of
Speaker 1: people that have been on those tours. And they say
Speaker 1: those I mean because they try to get, you know,
Speaker 1: the people that are going on those tours to see
Speaker 1: as many of the you know, troops out there that
Speaker 1: they can, and that's the whole purpose of it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: and they zoom them around, um and it's a whirlwind
Speaker 1: kind of thing, like sometimes two or three performances a day.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've had some you know, sort of
Speaker 1: ideological philosophical differences with celebrities, but I have to say,
Speaker 1: when I find out that they're out there on the
Speaker 1: road doing USO tours for the troops, are kind of
Speaker 1: like a man, Okay, I guess they're not such bad guys.
Speaker 1: You know, we kind of think of of Hollywood as
Speaker 1: being all, you know, hardcore leftists, but some of these guys,
Speaker 1: they genuinely care about the troops and they unlike performing
Speaker 1: at some kind of a charity benefit where you just
Speaker 1: basically right off your four hundred thousand dollar appearance and
Speaker 1: then get back to your limle and go back to
Speaker 1: your mansion and every hills. When these guys that go
Speaker 1: on these USA tours that they go out for a
Speaker 1: while and it's it's rough living. It's it's it's hard work, um,
Speaker 1: obviously not as hard as it is to be a
Speaker 1: soldier in there, but they're deaf really getting an idea
Speaker 1: of what it's like to be in the military to
Speaker 1: go and do those shows. So I got a lot
Speaker 1: of respectful lee and I'll be interested to see what
Speaker 1: this show um looks like on the on the eleventh,
Speaker 1: because he's a great entertainer's I will probably better how
Speaker 1: a long time you to see what other kind of guests.
Speaker 1: And this kind of brings us back to what we're
Speaker 1: talking about before that that if you're inclined to enjoy
Speaker 1: unabashably patriotic programming about America and its history, Um, it's
Speaker 1: present in the way it moves forward. You're very I'm
Speaker 1: a very very hard time finding a better place for
Speaker 1: that than Fox Nation. And that's that's no that's no
Speaker 1: cress commercialism, and it's really great stuff. And if you
Speaker 1: if you like that on this this time of year
Speaker 1: the way I do, definitely definitely take advantage of this
Speaker 1: offer for veterans and sign up for a year show
Speaker 1: your support. UM. The way that broadcast media has changed today.
Speaker 1: Remember when it was cable and you had to pay
Speaker 1: to watch the shows. And then there was free TV
Speaker 1: the three or four channels that you got to watch NBC, ABC, CBS,
Speaker 1: and TBS, and that was the free television. Well, the
Speaker 1: broadcast medium has changed now, so now we have subscription
Speaker 1: channels like you know, um, Netflix and Disney Plus, and
Speaker 1: all of them are offering programming that a specific to
Speaker 1: an audience that they think will enjoy it. And if
Speaker 1: you're somebody, you know, red blooded American and love your country,
Speaker 1: I don't think any of you will be disappointed by
Speaker 1: what you see on Fox Nation. I know I'm not. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I couldn't awarded it any better myself, my friends. So
Speaker 1: you know, Fox Nation is great. You know when we
Speaker 1: did the the programming, you know, just a while back
Speaker 1: with those uh, those folks over there at Fox. We
Speaker 1: we got to speak with Pete Exit on the podcast,
Speaker 1: which was great, um pizza awesome guy. Um. And hopefully
Speaker 1: we'll we'll get one or two more of the some
Speaker 1: of the hosts over there at Fox. If we can
Speaker 1: get them, we'll be sure to run them, uh right
Speaker 1: over here to our podcast because great stuff. And we
Speaker 1: encourage all of our listeners to sign up for the
Speaker 1: free year at Fox nation, and be sure to sign
Speaker 1: up for soft reps dot com um, you know for
Speaker 1: our you know, third quarter sweepstakes. But before we go,
Speaker 1: if you want to get soft rep on your phone,
Speaker 1: download our free mobile app and get easy access to
Speaker 1: our articles, podcasts, great gear reviews, all perfectly formatedy your device.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe to softwareup dot com to get access to
Speaker 1: all our library of e books and our exclusive team
Speaker 1: room content forums. Um It's available on all of your
Speaker 1: Apple and Android devices. Sean, what can I say? This
Speaker 1: was fun. We don't get a chance to do this
Speaker 1: very often, so we need to make a habit of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know this is this broadcast one is almost like
Speaker 1: our telephone coversocius James jumping to the news in college
Speaker 1: other and go hey do you see that? Anyway, I
Speaker 1: just want to say on behalf of all of us
Speaker 1: here at that Software Happy Independence Day to all of
Speaker 1: our members and listeners here on Software Radio. You make
Speaker 1: the difference in what we do and we certainly appreciate
Speaker 1: your continued patronage and support. God bless America. Everybody, Happy Independence,
Speaker 1: Love them listening to self repea