Speaker 1: M Beau. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Software Up Radio Special Operations, military news
Speaker 1: and straight talk with the guys and the community. Hello,
Speaker 1: weok and everyone, welcome back to Software Radio, Softwareup Radio,
Speaker 1: on Time on Target. We have a very special guest
Speaker 1: rejoining us again, General Don Boldog. If those of you
Speaker 1: who we can recall, he joined us about a year
Speaker 1: or so ago. Uh. He was the commander of Sock Africa.
Speaker 1: Uh he was one of the initial troops and our
Speaker 1: war in Afghanistan back in two thousand one. Man, it
Speaker 1: seems like yesterday it was almost twenty years ago. And
Speaker 1: uh now he's running first Senate and my former state
Speaker 1: of New Hampshire. So uh a state that's near and
Speaker 1: dear to my heart. So we want to welcome General
Speaker 1: Baldock back to the podcast. Sir, thank you for taking
Speaker 1: the time to join us this afternoon. We really appreciate it. Steve,
Speaker 1: thank you very much and it's great to be here
Speaker 1: once again. And my very best to your listeners. Oh,
Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time today. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I was looking at your website and uh I saw
Speaker 1: that one of your endorsements was my favorite Red Sox
Speaker 1: player growing up. Rico petro sally I was like, I
Speaker 1: was more excited to see that than anything else. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what. I have become very good friends with
Speaker 1: with Rico Petrocelli, and what an honor it was. You know,
Speaker 1: he discovered I was running listening to the War Room
Speaker 1: Steve Bannon's program, and I've I've been appearing on Steve
Speaker 1: Bannon's program periodically because I was one of I guess
Speaker 1: now a little over three hundred, but it was originally
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty four of us that signed a
Speaker 1: letter with you know, twelve points of concern about the
Speaker 1: direction of our country. You know, everything from election integrity
Speaker 1: to um, you know, teaching CRT in our military. Right. Uh.
Speaker 1: I call it critical race training, right because that's simply
Speaker 1: what it is. But nonetheless, um so uh you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, just being on his show, Rico said, hey,
Speaker 1: he's running for senate in my home state. I got
Speaker 1: to talk to this guy. So he reached out to
Speaker 1: somebody who connected us, and we went to lunch and
Speaker 1: we have been um, you know, he's been supporting me
Speaker 1: ever since. He sits on my strategy team. Uh. And
Speaker 1: just what a great guy. What a down to earth guy.
Speaker 1: You know, a father of four, nine grandchildren. I've been
Speaker 1: living in Nashville, New Hampshire for twenty two years. Uh
Speaker 1: get you know, just a great charitable man. Does a
Speaker 1: lot of fundraising for a variety of different, great, great causes.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad you saw his name. He's a good man. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, when I first started watching baseball, right around
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty seven season, when I was a youngster,
Speaker 1: Rico was part of that Impossible Dream team which those
Speaker 1: of us who grew up in Boston in the area,
Speaker 1: you know, New England area, that was my favorite Red
Speaker 1: Sox team of all time, and he was a big
Speaker 1: part of that. And of course of being of Italian descent,
Speaker 1: so you know, Rico was obviously one of my favorite players.
Speaker 1: And when I saw that, I was like genuinely excited.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if he was still living in the area,
Speaker 1: so that's yeah, he's great. You know, he signed with
Speaker 1: Boston in sixty three. He got on the team permanently
Speaker 1: and played to seventies six. I grew up with him
Speaker 1: being a Red Sox you know player, along with Yazz
Speaker 1: and and you know Fisk and all the greats, and
Speaker 1: it was just it was just awesome to meet meet
Speaker 1: somebody that we would uh, you know, pick up games
Speaker 1: in the sand lot there. We you know, we all
Speaker 1: had a Red Sox player name right depending on the
Speaker 1: position you played. So it was pretty cool. Yes, sir, Well,
Speaker 1: getting back to I know there's a military podcast, not
Speaker 1: a baseball one, So we'll get back on track. Um.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to throw that in before I forgot.
Speaker 1: But um, I know, you know, with the war winding
Speaker 1: down in Afghanistan, you know we're last reports that were
Speaker 1: about which drawn from that. I know that you've spoke
Speaker 1: in favor of President Trump's plant to what draw from there?
Speaker 1: Has anything changed for you? I know recently there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff about the Taliban executing people, prisoners
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Has any of this change for you? Well,
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, Um, yes, I was. So the
Speaker 1: short answer is, yes, things have changed. And I was
Speaker 1: an advocate for getting out of Afghanistan, uh when President
Speaker 1: Trump suggested it as candidate and then as president, And
Speaker 1: in my mind, he gave the Secretary of Defense, then
Speaker 1: Jim Maddison, Secretary of State, and the National Security Council
Speaker 1: staff and Sentcom and I staff and many others um
Speaker 1: the warning world, Hey, I want to get out of Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: You know, in two years into his first term, he
Speaker 1: called for the plan and they didn't have one. UH.
Speaker 1: And I think that was to me. Uh. They let
Speaker 1: him down, and they let America down. And the reason
Speaker 1: why I wanted out was they changed strategy which reversed
Speaker 1: all the all the security games we had in the
Speaker 1: rural area. UH. And the Taliban researched al Kaeda research
Speaker 1: and then isis are an opportunity to come in and
Speaker 1: we simply just did not have policy and a strategy
Speaker 1: that supported body bags and hospital bids. And once again,
Speaker 1: our general officers and our senior military folks let us down.
Speaker 1: And I'm one of those general officers that let you down.
Speaker 1: I could not convince anybody that changing strategy was gonna
Speaker 1: be was gonna be detrimental to the mission. And remember
Speaker 1: when we started this new strategy in in under General
Speaker 1: McCrystal and then really solidified it under General Petrayus and
Speaker 1: then pushed it over the goal line on the way
Speaker 1: to victory under General Allen. Uh. You know, we had
Speaker 1: the highest casualty rates in Afghanistan. In two thousand ten,
Speaker 1: we were we were behind in the insurgency. The Taliban
Speaker 1: was resurging. They owned most of the rural area and
Speaker 1: in three and a half years we reversed that with
Speaker 1: village stability operations to the Afghan local police and are
Speaker 1: our casualty rates came down all time low and we
Speaker 1: owned almost of the rural areas by the middle of
Speaker 1: and we just needed a couple more years to solidify it.
Speaker 1: The Taliban was saying, if they keep doing this, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna win. So we even had a boat from
Speaker 1: the enemy, right and although the Taliban could beat the
Speaker 1: Afghan military and the Afghan police in a fight, they
Speaker 1: couldn't beat the Afghan local police, the local police of
Speaker 1: the Arbakai type uh fighters that special ops went in
Speaker 1: and you know, trained our small teams training them and
Speaker 1: they go over the security situation. They developed a will
Speaker 1: to fight, They developed the plan and it was working fabulously.
Speaker 1: Nothing's perfect, there's always gonna be problems with it, but
Speaker 1: suffice it to say, the strategy was on track, the
Speaker 1: operational approach was on track, The tactics matched the you know,
Speaker 1: the goals of the strategy. And then I'm sitting in
Speaker 1: a meeting with the new Commander Dunford and the new
Speaker 1: chief the chief of staff of Obama's White House, and
Speaker 1: General Millie and General Thomas and the rest of them,
Speaker 1: and they lay out this plan to discontinue combat operations
Speaker 1: come out of the villages, and I'm I'm like, well, respectfully,
Speaker 1: time out. That's not a good idea right now. It's
Speaker 1: a good idea a couple of years from now, but
Speaker 1: it's not a good idea right now. And I laid
Speaker 1: it out and I even gave him a rand study
Speaker 1: that proved it right. Um, I made him mad. They
Speaker 1: sent me to Africa, and um, you know that was
Speaker 1: the end of that. But I continue to write about it.
Speaker 1: I continued to write about my strong objections to the
Speaker 1: change in strategy. And what happened. We changed the strategy,
Speaker 1: security situation reversed, Taliban researched, al Kada research isis came
Speaker 1: into the fight, and our casualty rates are at all
Speaker 1: time high by uh And so if we didn't have
Speaker 1: a good strategy executing the war, how the hell does
Speaker 1: anyone think we're gonna have a good strategy coming out
Speaker 1: of the war. And that's what I disagree with. That's
Speaker 1: what's changed that I don't like. We should have had
Speaker 1: a better strategy because this isn't good. And you know,
Speaker 1: General Miller, you know, I like General Miller. General Miller's respected,
Speaker 1: but General Miller was part of the problem. As a
Speaker 1: two star and a three star. He could have intervened
Speaker 1: and he could have said, hey, listen, we had a
Speaker 1: good strategy here. He knows it was a good strategy
Speaker 1: because he was my general officer that I worked for
Speaker 1: when we put the strategy in place, and in two
Speaker 1: thousand eleven, uh, I got him walking around in all
Speaker 1: these areas that we took back from the Taliban, uh
Speaker 1: with no kid on, no kid not even a hat.
Speaker 1: All he had was a sidearm walking through the markets,
Speaker 1: walking through all these areas that now he needs to
Speaker 1: be full kidded up with a complement of you know,
Speaker 1: a platoon of guys um you know, securing him. So
Speaker 1: he knows that there was a bad decision, and like
Speaker 1: all of them, they did nothing to stand up and say,
Speaker 1: excuse me, sir, this is a bad strat this is
Speaker 1: a bad decision. At this time, we understand what your
Speaker 1: goal is and we're with you on that. However, we
Speaker 1: can't do that and then not to leave the kind
Speaker 1: of terrorism task force in the region to be able
Speaker 1: to deal with that, UM, and to just you know,
Speaker 1: bug out. China's gonna take advantage of it. Russia's gonna
Speaker 1: take advantage of it. Iran is gonna come in full force.
Speaker 1: North Korea is gonna fall China. Um. The region is
Speaker 1: going to go to hell in a handbag most likely.
Speaker 1: And that's a dangerous region with Pakistan and India with
Speaker 1: nuclear weapons. The stand brothers up north. I ran out
Speaker 1: to the West. It's just it's just bad policy. It's
Speaker 1: it's bad decisions by general officers who are political in nature,
Speaker 1: more interested in their career and their next job than
Speaker 1: they are in making sure that we have a good strategy,
Speaker 1: we get best military advice. And if that means you
Speaker 1: lose your job, well that means you lose your job.
Speaker 1: But at least you stand on principle. Very good. UM.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about the early taste in
Speaker 1: two thousand one when in the troops first went in
Speaker 1: back then, I believe you were you were either captain
Speaker 1: or a major at that time. No, just the first
Speaker 1: few months, like when it was strictly just like an
Speaker 1: sf C I A type operation there, it was awesome
Speaker 1: and it was the way that we needed to fight.
Speaker 1: We had small teams in there on the ground. We
Speaker 1: didn't take away the Afghans will to fight, We didn't
Speaker 1: take over the fight. We augmented them with air support.
Speaker 1: We augmented them with getting them the equipment that they needed,
Speaker 1: the weapons that they needed in order to fight uh
Speaker 1: and take the fight to the enemy. And and you know, UH,
Speaker 1: it was a quintessential special forces mission, right, I mean
Speaker 1: unconventional in nature, asymmetric in its tactics. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: small teams that achieving strategic results. And I believe that
Speaker 1: by June of two thousand two, we could have left
Speaker 1: UH and we could have left the Afghans to handle it.
Speaker 1: We could have given them economic support, UH, and we
Speaker 1: we wouldn't be in this mess that we're in today.
Speaker 1: That was that is um, you know, decision point number
Speaker 1: one that we should have made, but we didn't. We
Speaker 1: decided to stay, and we decided a half step it.
Speaker 1: And then we decided to create a constitution and write
Speaker 1: it in you know, UH, in in Western Lingo, which
Speaker 1: they didn't like. We named their country, which they didn't like.
Speaker 1: We we brought in contractors, We put contracts in, which
Speaker 1: created corruption. And then we said, hey, we're gonna tell
Speaker 1: you what kind of justice system you're gonna have it,
Speaker 1: which didn't work. We tried to take religion out of
Speaker 1: their governance, which doesn't work in a Muslim country. What
Speaker 1: else do we do? Oh yeah, We tried to create
Speaker 1: military and police in the image of Western forces, which
Speaker 1: doesn't work. Afghanistan never protected itself and never won its
Speaker 1: wars with a top down military structure or top down
Speaker 1: police structure. It always did it from within the villages.
Speaker 1: And we completely lost our minds and then we half
Speaker 1: stepped it. And when Iraq kicked off in nineteen March
Speaker 1: two thousand three, the sucking sound from Afghanistan could be
Speaker 1: heard around the world. I mean, that was the sound
Speaker 1: that was heard around the world. And we just didn't
Speaker 1: get anything to be able to fight and and you know,
Speaker 1: do anything with the insurgency. So guess what from two
Speaker 1: thousand three to two thousand five, and then from two
Speaker 1: thousand five to two thousand ten, we got stronger and stronger,
Speaker 1: and then we decided we're gonna hand over peacekeeping missions
Speaker 1: to NATO, and they were completely taken by surprise, despite
Speaker 1: the efforts of special opts to say, hey, there's an
Speaker 1: insurgency here, and if you don't come in here ready
Speaker 1: to fight an insurgency, it's gonna get ugly for you,
Speaker 1: And it did get ugly for him, and that resulted
Speaker 1: in in you know Medusa, you know the Battle Medusa
Speaker 1: in two thousand five and six, and then and then
Speaker 1: Bazuka in two thousand and six to seven. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't until General McCrystal came in with a different idea,
Speaker 1: different approach, bottom up instead of top own um and
Speaker 1: asked us to write a supporting plan, which we listened
Speaker 1: to the Afghans and we looked at history, we listened
Speaker 1: to what the Russians had to say, well, listen to
Speaker 1: what everybody had to say, and we put together this
Speaker 1: program and it was something that the Afghans recognized. It
Speaker 1: It was one eighth the cost of the military and
Speaker 1: the police um and it just took off because why,
Speaker 1: it's how they defended themselves against Alexander the Great Jenghis
Speaker 1: Khan the bricks the Russians, so it's proven to work,
Speaker 1: and we abandoned it. So, you know, twenty years of
Speaker 1: state except for me, except for the first rotation, and
Speaker 1: then you and a half, and then you know, it's terrible, terrible,
Speaker 1: and no one's gonna be held account before it. But
Speaker 1: the point that needs to be made is our men
Speaker 1: and women are service members. They did a hell of
Speaker 1: a job. Every crazy thing that they were asked to
Speaker 1: do they did well. Even when they knew it it
Speaker 1: wasn't the right thing to do, they still did it.
Speaker 1: They went out there, they served with honor. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing you don't hear right now, is our troops
Speaker 1: did a superb job. Right of course you're you're not.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get the joint chiefs or or anybody
Speaker 1: that came before them, or the senior military leaders, to
Speaker 1: include General Austin when he was a sent Com commander,
Speaker 1: say hey, we failed them. They're not because I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say that, and I'm gonna say I failed them, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna include myself and that because I'm not one
Speaker 1: that points fingers. Yes, I was a general officer during
Speaker 1: this time frame. Yes I did tend tours in Afghanistan. Yes,
Speaker 1: I know a lot about Afghanistan. But the more you
Speaker 1: know about Afghanistan unless you know about Afghanistan, and you've
Speaker 1: got to remain humble. There's a right way to do
Speaker 1: things and there's a wrong way to do things. And
Speaker 1: we had to listen to our people, and we didn't
Speaker 1: listen to our people. And yeah, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of regrets. There's seventy two
Speaker 1: service members I lost in ten tours, and I think
Speaker 1: about them every single day, and we let them down
Speaker 1: because of bad strategy and bad policy, both during and
Speaker 1: now coming out of there. It's it's it's it's upsetting. Sir.
Speaker 1: You are one of the very few, not the only
Speaker 1: general officer that was open about his own struggles with PTSD. Um,
Speaker 1: how's that working out for you? And I saw a
Speaker 1: picture of your dog, Victor? Is he is? He a
Speaker 1: big help to you? Victor is a great help to me.
Speaker 1: He's sitting right behind me right here, and more importantly,
Speaker 1: he's a great help to many many others as well. Um.
Speaker 1: No matter where I go with Victor, Victor changes the
Speaker 1: mood and attitude of every room, every place we go to.
Speaker 1: And and so let me get back to the beginning
Speaker 1: of your question. Yeah, so my wife noticed, Hey, this
Speaker 1: guy's no, he's not the same guy. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and he's he acts differently, and he's you know, uh,
Speaker 1: not comfortable at home, and he's hyper vigilant all the time,
Speaker 1: and he's moody all the time, and he's um, you know,
Speaker 1: his balance is off, and you know, just a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of things. And she started noticing it in two
Speaker 1: thousand eight, and she was encouraging me to go for help.
Speaker 1: But hey, there was no help gonna be given out
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight. And it's questionable even today. Uh.
Speaker 1: I'd like to make some comments about oh oh and
Speaker 1: ray uh when I get a chance here. But after this,
Speaker 1: the bottom line is, it wasn't until two thousand thirteen
Speaker 1: when she drew the line and said, hey, listen, you
Speaker 1: gotta go get some help. So I was in Africa.
Speaker 1: I had just been promoted to one star. UM I
Speaker 1: went to launch Stool. I met a wonderful nurse named
Speaker 1: Sarah McNary, and she's known all over the so Off
Speaker 1: community for all the great work she's done for us.
Speaker 1: She helped me put together the program in South Africa.
Speaker 1: After I came to grips with my own issues, my
Speaker 1: own problems, and listen, I finally realized, hey, as a leader, right,
Speaker 1: particularly a general officer, if you can't take care of yourself,
Speaker 1: you've got no business taking care of anybody else or
Speaker 1: being in charge anybody else. And let's face it, we
Speaker 1: have mental injuries, physical injuries, and spiritual injuries. And if
Speaker 1: you're gonna keep sending people off the war rotation after
Speaker 1: rotation after rotation, you've got to address those things. And
Speaker 1: we know that, we we know it. We should be better,
Speaker 1: but we weren't. And after about two years from I
Speaker 1: was doing it under the radar because I was a coward,
Speaker 1: right um. I was afraid of what what impact it
Speaker 1: would have on my career and and let's face it,
Speaker 1: and as a general officer, I had some latitude to
Speaker 1: go to doctor's appointments and launch tool that the men
Speaker 1: and women working for me just didn't have. And I
Speaker 1: thought this is unfair. And when I became a Sock
Speaker 1: African commander on on April, I said to myself, this
Speaker 1: has got a change. And I talked to my senior
Speaker 1: enlisted advisor, Rich Blasi, and Navy Seal Master Chief, and
Speaker 1: I talked to my deputy commander, and I talked to
Speaker 1: my subordinate commanders, and we all agreed we got to
Speaker 1: do something, and so we did it, and we worked
Speaker 1: with Sarah McNary and we put together a great program
Speaker 1: for the men and women. And I came out and
Speaker 1: I said, I I get therapy for post traumatic stress,
Speaker 1: I get therapy for traumatic brain injury. I get therapy
Speaker 1: for sleep disorder UM and paying management issues and so
Speaker 1: on so forth, and I believe that you guys need
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do that, and we've created a system
Speaker 1: to do it, and I will support you. You won't
Speaker 1: be taken out of your job, you won't lose your clearance.
Speaker 1: I will provide top cover for you. And I did
Speaker 1: it even if it was inconsistent d D policy because
Speaker 1: d D policy was wrong, and I was willing to
Speaker 1: say it was wrong. Uh, And nobody was gonna tell
Speaker 1: me to change because they knew it was wrong as well,
Speaker 1: even though they told me this is not going to
Speaker 1: bode well for your career. And I said, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not doing it for my career. I'm doing it for
Speaker 1: the men and women in my command. Because we're hurting.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what, Steve. After twenty six months
Speaker 1: of doing this program, we identified fifty two people with
Speaker 1: PROS traumatic stress, four seventy one with traumatic brain injury,
Speaker 1: numerous people with pain management issues, sleep disorders, um uh,
Speaker 1: self medication issues, so on and so forth. Our alcohol
Speaker 1: and drug incidents almost down to zero, almost amazing inside
Speaker 1: the unit, Sexual harassment UM, inappropriate behavior in the work
Speaker 1: area down to nothing, right, I mean zero goose eggs
Speaker 1: nothing right uh, domestic issues, family issues right, shoot down.
Speaker 1: Every measurable area that we were looking at as leaders
Speaker 1: and and passing it off as in discipline was a
Speaker 1: direct result of mental injuries and people not having the
Speaker 1: ability to properly deal with how their brain has changed
Speaker 1: because we've thrown them in combat. Rotation after rotation after
Speaker 1: rotation after rotation. Right, unbelievable. And I offered this program
Speaker 1: the Special Operations Command, General Thomas didn't want anything to
Speaker 1: do with it, really, um and nobody else want anything
Speaker 1: to do it. And I thought it would be a
Speaker 1: great program for the rest of the Special Operation Commands,
Speaker 1: the rest of the side. No. The first thing the
Speaker 1: commander did that replaced me was get rid of the program. Uh,
Speaker 1: and so we're hurting our people, and we know we're
Speaker 1: hurting our people. And we heard Colonel ray Owen Ray.
Speaker 1: Everything that happened to him was avoidable. There was an
Speaker 1: i G complaint against him. And I'm telling you, I
Speaker 1: met people that that didn't have a lot of good
Speaker 1: things to say about them, uh, you know, family members
Speaker 1: and subordinates, because he was suffering personally and professionally, and
Speaker 1: he was self medicated. And the sad thing about it
Speaker 1: is he's a good leader and a well respected leader,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't being able to optimize any of that
Speaker 1: because he was he didn't get any therapy and any help,
Speaker 1: uh with these you know, with these issues of post
Speaker 1: traumatic stress and other issues that he had. And that's
Speaker 1: what the IG investigation told the chain of command. And
Speaker 1: what did the chain of command do? They ignored it,
Speaker 1: and then what happened to him got worse and worse
Speaker 1: and worse until it culminated into event involving a gun
Speaker 1: with his family and their home and the police and
Speaker 1: now he's facing criminal charges. And the chain of command
Speaker 1: back didn't do anything. It's the same chain of command,
Speaker 1: except they all got promoted, right and now they're not
Speaker 1: helping him, right, and this is a bad thing. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write another article for soft Rep. You know,
Speaker 1: you know, putting this out, Lieutenant General Dietrich, Lieutenant General Boudette. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, these guys need to be held accountable for
Speaker 1: their lack of action, right, the same the same things
Speaker 1: that they did during the Knees Year ambush, right, not
Speaker 1: taking care of our guys there pointing the fingers right,
Speaker 1: trying to protect their you know, um, their boys, trying
Speaker 1: to you know, trying to protect the higher chain of command.
Speaker 1: This is just wrong. We gotta stop doing this. We
Speaker 1: have to stop doing it. Um. We have a series
Speaker 1: of senior leaders that are part of the good old
Speaker 1: boys Club organizational nepotism. They take care of each other
Speaker 1: at the expense of the people that they're supposed to
Speaker 1: be helping. And someone's got to do something about it.
Speaker 1: And if someone's gonna do something about it quick, well,
Speaker 1: that brings us to you know, why you're running for office,
Speaker 1: because uh, you know, I read something you wrote. I
Speaker 1: want to say it was about two or three years
Speaker 1: ago for Small Wars Journal about there being a leadership black.
Speaker 1: I guess it would be the great word of uh
Speaker 1: the way to describe it in our you know, national
Speaker 1: government and then the top echelonce of our military. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. I did write an article about it.
Speaker 1: I experienced it, right, Listen, I have my own faults, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not a perfect leader either. Um. I
Speaker 1: had to learn how to be a good leader. I
Speaker 1: had to learn how to do things. I had to
Speaker 1: admit things. I had to look at myself in the
Speaker 1: mirror and say, hey, listen, this is not good. It's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I went for treatment for PTS
Speaker 1: and and t V. I. I had guys that worked
Speaker 1: for me when I was a battalion commander and I
Speaker 1: was an O six who came to work for me
Speaker 1: in South Africa and said, wow, you know you are
Speaker 1: the same guy. You're motivated, purpose, direction, all that, but
Speaker 1: your approach is much different. Yes, I'm a better version
Speaker 1: of myself, right because I got treatment. And that's what's lacking.
Speaker 1: And people are afraid to say. I'm still the only
Speaker 1: general officer in sauce to publish an article calling himself
Speaker 1: out in The New York Times saying, hey, listen, I
Speaker 1: wasn't I wasn't an optimal leader, and I had tremendous
Speaker 1: responsibilities and we need everyone else to do that as well.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't not be promoted because of that. You you
Speaker 1: get you get help, and you move forward. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: And that's that's where we're that's where we're stuck. We
Speaker 1: we pick people in our own image. We exclude those that, um,
Speaker 1: that are contrarians. We don't like contrarians, Steve. If somebody
Speaker 1: disagrees with you, they're out of the club. Oh, they
Speaker 1: can't disagree with me. How dare they disagree with me? Right?
Speaker 1: And that's not right either. Right now, we have a
Speaker 1: political We have a generals and admirals who are totally political.
Speaker 1: And you prove it. I've watched them change from late
Speaker 1: Bush era, through the Obama era, into the Trump era
Speaker 1: and now into the Biden era. They change their stripes,
Speaker 1: they change their chameleons. They're political in nature. They're allowing
Speaker 1: critical race training to occur in our military. They're creating
Speaker 1: problems where they're not at they're not focusing on more fighting.
Speaker 1: Our military is not ready to fight. It needs to
Speaker 1: be ready to fight, and they have nobody to blame
Speaker 1: but themselves. Oh you know, what they do. They say, Oh,
Speaker 1: it must be the battalion command ender's fault. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna put a bunch of more programs in for botanic
Speaker 1: commanders and lieutenant colonels, and we're gonna look how we
Speaker 1: select lieutenant colonels and majors and captains and blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, when we should be looking at how
Speaker 1: we select senior leaders. And the Senate needs to stop
Speaker 1: rubber stamping these lists that come over, and they need
Speaker 1: to they need to do their job and take a
Speaker 1: deep look in that. However, the problem that is is,
Speaker 1: you know, they genuflect when a general walks into the
Speaker 1: walks into the Senate chamber. They're looking for a ring
Speaker 1: to kiss, and they don't hold them accountable and a
Speaker 1: lot of them are inexperienced and they don't even know
Speaker 1: how to ask them the right questions. Right Well, I
Speaker 1: want to be a United States Senator to be able
Speaker 1: to do that. The d D needs reform, and the
Speaker 1: only way it's gonna get reform is from the outside
Speaker 1: in uh and UH we have to be better than
Speaker 1: we are because right now we have not earned the
Speaker 1: privilege to command the men and women that we command. Well,
Speaker 1: you already answered my next question, because that was going
Speaker 1: to be why in the world what you want to
Speaker 1: run for office in Congress after already serving thirty three
Speaker 1: years of active duty, and you just answered that. But
Speaker 1: we'll see. I've been asked by people in New Hampshire,
Speaker 1: in all ten counties. I've received correspondence from people in
Speaker 1: all fifty states and all over the military to run
Speaker 1: for the United States Senate. That's my one. Uh. If anyone,
Speaker 1: if one person thinks that I can make a difference
Speaker 1: for them and serve them and move these career politicians
Speaker 1: out of the way and create a less divisive political
Speaker 1: environment so that we can get stuff done in this country, Uh,
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna try it. Yeah, that's the biggest problem
Speaker 1: we have right now. You know, I can remember in
Speaker 1: the old days, I mean growing up, there was a
Speaker 1: star difference between Democrats and Republicans, but when it came
Speaker 1: to what was best for the country, more often than not,
Speaker 1: they would come together. And it seems like today there's
Speaker 1: none of that, and it's it seems like it's getting
Speaker 1: worse rather than better with the partisan politics that's going on.
Speaker 1: And it's I think it's a pulling our country apart.
Speaker 1: It is pulling our country apart. Right. We forgot. We
Speaker 1: forgot that we will you know, we will pay any price,
Speaker 1: we will meet any burden, We will defeat any enemy
Speaker 1: in order to preserve freedom. That is a paraphrase of
Speaker 1: John F. Kennedy, but it's absolutely true. And we forgot
Speaker 1: about the fact that we have to come together for
Speaker 1: economic prosperity, fiscal responsibility, and the safety and security of Americans. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that I'm doing right now,
Speaker 1: just what you know is, uh, you know, I just
Speaker 1: went through the entire hiring process to be a police
Speaker 1: officer at Hampton Police Department. I'm in the police academy
Speaker 1: it now. Oh no, kidn't. I'm giving back to my community.
Speaker 1: You know, we can't find police officers. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: basically there's four thousand police officers in the state of
Speaker 1: New Hampshire and from last March to this July, over
Speaker 1: two hundred have left. We can't recruit anybody. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: very hard to recruit. It's very hard to get the
Speaker 1: quality that we need. And so I figured, you know,
Speaker 1: I've been a police officer before in Lacartia, New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: In night I went through class number four and now
Speaker 1: I'm going through class number two, right, so, um, you
Speaker 1: know they said, hey, we can't grandfather you because a
Speaker 1: lot's changed since nineteen eighty, don't we know that? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Growing up, I mean I spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: in New Hampshire then later on moved there, and the
Speaker 1: the police officers there in New Hampshire always I thought,
Speaker 1: very professional. But you know what the world we're living
Speaker 1: in today, so many police officers are getting you know, disorder,
Speaker 1: not diss oriented, but disillusioned. I guess it would be
Speaker 1: the better word. With the way things are going, and
Speaker 1: they're they're not retaining people, guys are retiring and that
Speaker 1: needs to stop because this whole defund the police thing, Uh,
Speaker 1: that needs to go away. It's terrible, Steve, It's terrible
Speaker 1: what's going on, the demoralization of our of our police officers.
Speaker 1: The the disrespect to their families. Uh, you know what
Speaker 1: we're doing to their years and years of service, those
Speaker 1: that have fallen. Um. You know, the suicide rates among
Speaker 1: police officers now are um, are higher than the in
Speaker 1: you know, in the line of duty. Right now, I
Speaker 1: would tell you that, you know, suicide is a line
Speaker 1: of duty death, right. Um. If they're taking their life
Speaker 1: because of the pressures, because they're not getting the help
Speaker 1: that they need, you know, that's a casualty, right, That's
Speaker 1: a casualty of uh, you know, And and it's it's
Speaker 1: a it's a tragedy, is what it is, the same
Speaker 1: thing in the military, with our high rates of suicide
Speaker 1: and the military depression is you know, you're you're like
Speaker 1: more likely to be depressed as a police officer than
Speaker 1: you are in any other profession, uh, in in our society.
Speaker 1: And that's pretty significant, right, And it's because we'll make
Speaker 1: them feel bad, right, We're we're we're you know, telling
Speaker 1: them that they're bad people, uh, and that we don't
Speaker 1: appreciate what they do for us. And and that's wrong.
Speaker 1: And it's mostly coming from political leaders, right, which is
Speaker 1: what is even worse. The same political leaders who go
Speaker 1: around with bodyguards, uh and you know, armed bodyguards, and
Speaker 1: they they want to take away your Second Amendment rights
Speaker 1: and they want to defund the police. They make absolutely
Speaker 1: no sense to me now, and uh, you know, with
Speaker 1: with you running against Maggie Hasson up there, in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: What are some of the issues up there that you
Speaker 1: know the people of New Hampshire are looking to you
Speaker 1: to to change the landscape basically what's going on up there? Well,
Speaker 1: first and foremost, election integrity is big right up here
Speaker 1: in New Hampshire. We want the federal government to stay
Speaker 1: out of our elections. So this HB one and s
Speaker 1: SP one nonsense that that um, you know, the representatives
Speaker 1: and the Senators want to do, uh interfere with our
Speaker 1: election process and take it over from the States is
Speaker 1: absolutely wrong, violation of the constitution. So they want me
Speaker 1: to make sure or that I go down there and
Speaker 1: make sure the federal government stays out of our business
Speaker 1: right when it comes to elections. They also want me
Speaker 1: to be a voice for them inside the state to
Speaker 1: get our state, to get our governor and get our legislature, um,
Speaker 1: you know, to fix the election integrity issues that we
Speaker 1: have here in New Hampshire. Our machines are broke here
Speaker 1: and nobody has any confidence in them. So in election
Speaker 1: coming up, we want a hand count, We want an
Speaker 1: audit of these machines. We want mandatory I D. We
Speaker 1: want a law that stipulates and says, Hey, if you
Speaker 1: don't live here, you can't vote here. How about that one?
Speaker 1: And we want to repeal HB one to six six,
Speaker 1: which is a House bill here that expanded mail in voting,
Speaker 1: which created more corruption, and we want to bring that
Speaker 1: back to what it was before so that we don't
Speaker 1: have mail in voting corruption. And then, um, you know,
Speaker 1: we we have a huge problem with out of state
Speaker 1: college students voting in this state and we've gotta make
Speaker 1: sure we do that by getting rid of same day
Speaker 1: voter registration. Same day voter registration is an election integrity nightmare.
Speaker 1: All these things we don't allow other countries to do
Speaker 1: when we're helping them, uh with their elections. But we're
Speaker 1: okay with it here in America. Uh, that's just wrong, right.
Speaker 1: It's none of that is voter suppression. It's all ensuring
Speaker 1: that our that your vote counts, that you know your
Speaker 1: vote counts, that someone's not stealing your vote or not
Speaker 1: counting your vote appropriately. And um, that's what they want
Speaker 1: me to do with election integrity. They want to fix healthcare.
Speaker 1: The number one reason for personal bankruptcy here is healthcare,
Speaker 1: and we gotta fix it. It's broke. They want me
Speaker 1: to help with with with veteran issues. We got we
Speaker 1: got to get the v A fixed. You know, the
Speaker 1: the bureaucracy there in Washington, d C. From the v
Speaker 1: needs to be fixed. All these bills that they're putting
Speaker 1: in are all band aid solutions. The big problem is
Speaker 1: the breaucracy. And we got to fix that breaucracy. Uh.
Speaker 1: And if we do that, then we'll go a long
Speaker 1: way and ensuring that our veterans have the care that
Speaker 1: they need, their families have the care that they need,
Speaker 1: and will be you know, it will be good to go.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I completely disagree with right
Speaker 1: now is the v A requiring all their doctors to
Speaker 1: have the COVID shot. I mean that's a violation of
Speaker 1: the constitutional rights. I mean, that's wrong right there, the
Speaker 1: first government agency to do that. Listen, I don't care
Speaker 1: if you get a shot. I don't care if you
Speaker 1: don't get a shot, right, that's your business. The government
Speaker 1: needs to stay out of your personal health care business.
Speaker 1: And this is this is wrong. I don't believe the
Speaker 1: v A should be paying for sex changes, right, and
Speaker 1: they just decided to do that too. I mean that's wrong, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you service connect some wanting to
Speaker 1: get a sex change. You can't service connected. It's political
Speaker 1: and they're bringing politics and everything that we do. Border
Speaker 1: security hurts New Hampshire, the pent and all that leads.
Speaker 1: You know, we have a huge opioid crisis problem here.
Speaker 1: It's worse than it's ever been UH and it comes
Speaker 1: from the southern border, right, same thing with human trafficking
Speaker 1: weapons that come in here. They want some help, you know,
Speaker 1: they want they want us to do something you know
Speaker 1: about that UM. Energy UM is another big thing, right,
Speaker 1: we need to be energy independent. We've got to leverage
Speaker 1: all forms of energy. We've got to create more jobs
Speaker 1: with that. UM. They want people with national security experience
Speaker 1: to fight against China, to fight against Russia, to fight
Speaker 1: against Iran and North Korea and keep them the hell
Speaker 1: out of our business. Right right now, we have people
Speaker 1: that don't have any national security experience and their Chinese
Speaker 1: sympathizers and Russian sympathizers. And when you do that, you
Speaker 1: help out Iran and you help out North Korea. UH.
Speaker 1: And border and immigration terrible, terrible, terrible. We have huge problems.
Speaker 1: And then the last one is infrastructure and critical infrastructure Uh,
Speaker 1: and the broadband issue gaps that we have here. Certainly
Speaker 1: as a senator, I can help with that, and I
Speaker 1: will help with that. Excellent. So I know, Uh, you're
Speaker 1: you're pressed for time. We can talk too much longer,
Speaker 1: but tell our listeners where they can uh find your
Speaker 1: message on there and how they can support your candidacy. Sure,
Speaker 1: So I need support, right, I'm not an independently wealthy man.
Speaker 1: I'm not a career politician, so I don't have a
Speaker 1: political machine buying me. And I'm a political outsider, so
Speaker 1: I don't have the establishment behind me. And I think
Speaker 1: people want to get rid of the establishment. They don't
Speaker 1: trust career politicians. I am for term limits, one of
Speaker 1: the first things I'm gonna do as co sponsor. Signed
Speaker 1: on as a co sponsor to Ted Cruz's term limits bill. Right. So, um,
Speaker 1: as a political outsider, as someone who understands public service,
Speaker 1: as someone who understands leadership, someone who understands who they
Speaker 1: are and what my strength and weaknesses are and my
Speaker 1: strong national security experience. Please go to www dot Don
Speaker 1: Baldock dot com read about me. But I need help
Speaker 1: in any amount donation will help, uh, And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: pass the word send it out to people, particularly if
Speaker 1: you're here in New Hampshire or if you know people
Speaker 1: in New Hampshire. Um, and uh, you can count on
Speaker 1: me going down there to serve you. That's all I
Speaker 1: know how to do. That's all I want to do,
Speaker 1: and that's why people want me to run well, Sarah,
Speaker 1: we want to thank you for your time, thank you
Speaker 1: for your service, and thanks for being forthcoming about especially
Speaker 1: those PTSD issues, because that is something that's a stigma
Speaker 1: that still is haunting our veterans community. I mean, the
Speaker 1: numbers of suicides are not going down. It seems they're not,
Speaker 1: you know, and we need we need people like you
Speaker 1: to step forward to remove that that stigma from the
Speaker 1: troops themselves, but also to make some of the changes
Speaker 1: so to help people out, you know, in the bureaucracy,
Speaker 1: as you said with the v A. But before we go,
Speaker 1: if you want to get softwarep on your phone, down
Speaker 1: load of free mobile app to get easy access to articles, podcasts,
Speaker 1: gear reviews, all perfectly format it to your device. Please
Speaker 1: subscribe to software dot com to get access to all
Speaker 1: our library of e books and our exclusive team or
Speaker 1: informs and content available on all your Apple and Android devices. Sir,
Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time again with us today.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it, and uh all the best of luck
Speaker 1: to you. And you know, one of these days we're
Speaker 1: gonna get back up to Laconi and visit your friends.
Speaker 1: Well you come back up here, I'd love to have
Speaker 1: coffee lunch with you. Thank you so much. I love
Speaker 1: Soft Rep. You guys do a lot of great work
Speaker 1: for our for our service members and their families. You
Speaker 1: tell it the way it is, You're looking for the truth,
Speaker 1: and I really really appreciate that. All right, sir, thank
Speaker 1: you once again, and uh all the best. DoD bless
Speaker 1: you too. In best of your listeners, thank you been
Speaker 1: listening to self Recreate. H