Life Liberty Happiness - 5.14.2025

Mm hmmm. Broadcasting on Grove Street FM, brought to you by Media Squatch. It's Life Liberty Happiness with your host Brian Slide with Trent Water. Turn me around, keep walking, keep on talking, watching up your freedom lads. Hey gonna let those lousy billion theres turn me around the knot. YadA die yadadda, and you must build this world from love. Yella, lie a, lie Gonna stand with you in this fight, and we will win. We will win. We will win. We will win. We will win. We won. We won't rest. We won't rest, we won't rest. We will side. Are you on? Which side are you on? We're fighter against change. We're fine. Leave on. All right, nobody. Welcome to another episode of Life Liberty Happiness. I'm your host, Brian Sla in the studio in the David Homemaker State Farm Studios with Trent Warner. Howdy, Emma, full time producer. Hello, man, she's really picking up the game around here, Yeah she is. That was a little montage of all the protesting. Songs that turn them out. They're hilarious. Here's the thing when I like try to start downloading clips right to put that together? Not hard to find, like there are a thousand of them, different ones. And they're getting more and more pissed every day. Like what does the singing do? I'm just I'm just confused. We shall overcome, just all get together. Anyway, we got a great show, got a wonderful show for you today. A little later on in the show, we will highlight another one of our veteran voices. Man. Great feedback from the first one, Yeah, my dad, Yeah, it's good stuff. Yep. Captain Ben will be with us a little later on, so yeah, we'll start to show with backwards and forwards. Okay, last weekend, uh South Boston? Back there again. Yeah, Ashley and I took the trip. Did you'all take Reagan? What y'all do with her? She went to stay with her brother but didn't step it up for the friend's house for the weekend, which he was probably happy about. Yeah. Uh, Now we went to uh South Boston in the motor home. Enjoyed the heck out of it. How many people camp when you're camping? You know? Last year it was. Hardly any right, this time I think we had like, I don't know, eight or nine maybe. Some of them the drivers of the drivers also can so you think that you would. I know, you've erace all night and I have to go home. It's crazy, man. Man, They're just they're built different, like the amount of money that they put into that in the passion. So well, it was awesome obviously for those who don't know, grow Street FM sponsors Corey Dunn, the number seventy five and me and you got to hang out and watch the first race a couple weeks ago. Second racing thing was yeah, centished third. Yeah, that's really cool. He came by along with his dad and just introduced themselves and we just talked a little bit of racing and stuff like that. So he's got a brand new car that he purchased and has built, putting an engine in it now that he's going to take in the shoot A Speedway to race the He says Greensboro. It's outside of Greensboro. I think it's near Burlington maybe, Okay, So anyway, he'll race that division, which is the gosh, what do we call it? Late model? Late model? Thank you? I don't know. I always forget that. So yeah, he'll race the late models, but right now he's in Sportsman. Anyway, it's a great night of racing like it always was. You have to see the same ones any fights, no, but same guy yelling, screaming, hollering. Yeah, now this time what was crazy and I won't spend a lot of time on it, but someone wrecked in front of his dad, which made his dad have to avoid the wreck and he lost a spot. So then it became flipping that guy off the ones and it was the whole group still. But the son ended up winning. Really, yes, like the father finish. I don't know what it was with the son won, so they were happy. The whole crew was down there. But yeah, it's fun man. It's a. First night race of the year. So it was, you know, a pretty good crowd. No lead pipes come out, No, but I real quickly, I will say this. In the booth that we sit in. Right beside me is an older gentleman and you got to meet him. They are grandparents one of the drivers, the Lingwood's kid. Right. Well, I didn't I know how you talking about. I don't mean him. I don't like talking to people. I know that, that's why you come here. So anyway, they were back their grandson races. The dude is fourteen years old. Yeah, he ends up on pole. Now, of course Corey was on pole, that's who he knocked off at the time, and I'm just like ah, But at the same time that the look on his grandfather's face right just was and I gave him a high five because I mean, how cool is that? Yeah, your grandson is on pole at fourteen years old? Does Corey know you dropping like a hot rock? That she probably does now, So recruited the fourteen year oldest drive force next year. The dude, I felt so bad because the kid dominated he was two, which you know, two and a half seconds at South Boston. Yeah, is a straightaway that's an eternity, right, and he's gonna win the race. And then my wife has to open her stupid mouth. Stupid sweetheart. But she'd open up her mouth and say, man, he's gonna win this easily unless one of them idiots that's lap down recks. She jinxed it, Yes, and it happened like that lap. Actually, as much as she's been around us in sports, do not know the rules? Yes, you don't. You count your chickens because they will not hatch. Yes, it's awful. So turn turn one the lap car, which I think he was like two or three laps down, spins out and he hits him head on. Oh wow. Yeah. So and as a conversation just you know, I was like, oh, he's out of a car. He's good, because grandmother was all worried, you know. Yeah. And I was like, so, what school does he go to? And she said Stanton River and I was like, oh, it's nice. And then she said, well, Stanton River Middle. School and I was like, oh my god, yeah, this is n racing men. Oh that's pretty cool. Yeah. So anyway, we had a great weekend, enjoyed the heck out of it, woke up, slept late on Sunday, was not in a hurry to get back, you know, enjoyed it just she said, yeah, and you have gotten old because when I went outside there was no other campers because usually I'm the first one up. Yeah, but nah, Sunday I was. I was enjoying camping. Huh. So cool. I can't wait to do it again. What you got coming up this weekend? Oh, We've got the Minimum Club banquet, so we will introduce the male and female athlete of the Year at Liberty High School. The banquet is at the Bedford Country club. Yep, and then we have a lifetime Achievement award that we give away. Let me guess the female. Yah, yeah, you can guess the Oh the basketball player. Oh no, I didn't say it on the agenda. Oh you got it right there. Yeah, tag on it. Well, what is her name? Dag on it? That just escapes mean, we just did the whole season, now you don't. You don't have to tell me. It's Sierra Saint John's Okay, dag gone it. That is the name I want to think of. Yeah. So there was a few people that said, oh, I thought Mariah Tate because Mariah is a multi sport Oh yeah, but oh I think there were some people that like, she was only there for one year. That's right. Yeah, so I could see Sierra. It's hard to go. Like I keep saying this. Don't get me wrong, Sierra had great numbers, but I think she could be even better in college. Yeah, for sure, you saw some of the stuff she was doing. Just yeah, well, how cool is it? The two teammates are going to play D three basketball in the same conference, so they'll be facing each other for the next four years. Not to mention the lady who did they play in the James River. Wasn't it how good that girl was. They're all going to battle each other. Yeah, that's really cool. So yeah, I'll be doing that. What you got man, last weekend, I don't know. I can't It's likely one of the things. It's already Wednesday, and I've forgotten what we even did last weekend. I remember had a good time. Friends came over and bread because you sent me a picture of it. Oh yeah, I don't mighty. I'm out here, I'm watching a race making bread. Well that was not TikTok? Was that guy? The forty year old guy? Yeah, you tell me, for forty years I've been should have been putting ice cream in what? So? I just made these little desserts. You head out, because I didn't know if you were gonna laugh. I'm not laughing if you're. Not laughing, Okay, It was all right, Emma. It was like six hens. Yeah, these little they were a little ten little and he even had the ice cream lined up. I know, I had it organized like it was almost like he had a little remember them a little baking ovens that. You got when you were six years old? Yeah, my daughter had one. Lord all right, what are you doing this weekend? Oh you got the graduation. We got graduation next weekend, so I know we're doing some preps stuff. Oh you don't have a party this weekend. No, it's Friday next week. Why ain't you coming? I got an imitation, but it had like scratches on it. Oh my god? What is this a topic of conversation? Or it's got a little bit of that? Okay, family and type things. It's okay anyway. Yeah, so it's next weekend. Okay, I don't know. I have to ask the wife. I haven't ye know. She said something to me about it, I think because I told her that VT was catering? Right yet? Am I right about that? Yeah? Big a good deal. It's wonderful. Yeah, well, what did you do? I went to Nashville. Oh yeah, gosh, we haven't even Wow, we should have never even talked about ours. First question, did you or did you not drink? No? Not out in public? No. I tried a couple of things and then I spit them back out. They were really bad. I tried what is back out? That's awful? Well, okay, I tried truly's and that was bad. They are I tried you know, the simply lemonade. What's the doing? Beer a blue? What's it called caraco? Didn't you just do simple stuff like what? Oh good lord, just a simple run coco get you through the night? No beer? No, I just I hated everything so well into it designative walker grow, thank you? So what did you stay? Just curious? Quickly? Right on downtown there is like apartments that are airbnbs. Stayed right behind the Predators Stadium. That's where we are. Where we were, Yeah, we were next to uh was the Embassy Margaritaville. We were in the Embassy suites. I don't know, but I bet she was on the other side. Yeah, the bridge Stone. Yes, so it was nice. I lost my debit card. I think it's in an aquarium, but that's okay. Okay, did you so? Where did you go? Give me quickly with your Our favorite was Miranda Lambert's bar. I really really like. Well, the problem was my sister's not under over twenty one. My youngest sister man got carried out of a couple of bars after nine o'clock. But I liked Luke Bryan's a lot. Yes, No, I didn't go to Luke Brian. You did. I can't remember you and Perry went to Luke. We got kicked out of a bar too, but not for under age. Did you go to Tutsi's. Yes, that was the first place. My grandma was saying, there are you serious? Band? Yeah? How are we just learning that stuff about you? She's my step grandma. They just got married, but she used to perform there in her band wow years ago. So we had a good time. A lot of drunk people and hoboes touched me. Wasn't a fan of that good grief? Touched you? Well, like they're so drunk and out of it that they just like run right into you. Yeah, I had that. That's not touched well. One did drop me? Oh my god, don't you remember the guy? Perry and him were sitting down and that guy came up. But I told you, he grabs me and goes the South is coming back, man, And I'm like, what makes you think I want to hear that? Like, what are you? He was so drunk that poor kid. Parry and I just laughed. I think you were on the third floor at that point. You ain't gonta worry about it with me, Emma. With you, I'm the first floor kind of guy. First floor, first table, and. Going up to the rooftops that night. They're really nice, that's Trent. As soon as we walked, like, see what's around. It's different bands on every floor, so it kind of gives you a It is really cool. How you can't hear him it is. That's one of the things I like the mast. Yeah, all right, moving on, yep, this day in history. In eighteen o four, Lewis and Clark set out to explore the land west of the Mississippi. That was a year after the Louisiana purchase. Wown that seem a little backwards. Could you imagine? That's why you wonder if TJ had tried that nowadays I would buy something and not yeah, well yeah. Could you imagine Trump saying, hey, let's just have it. We'll explore it later. Yeah, God, they would roast him. But no, it turned out to be a pretty good purchase, didn't it. I would say so, And Lewis and Clark explored it obviously. I think it took three years or two years at least. They didn't haveing vehicles, but said they started their journey in Missouri. They can't be right, right, I mean yeah, Missouri, they had to start. I don't know East. Coast I would have thought. But so speaking of history, man, yes, it was so cool. I drove up so the stuff we're doing veteran voices. A guy reached out to me and said it was really cool. He was at VMI ahead of me. So it's a term called a dyke. It's the guy that shows you around when you're at vm I. He was my dyke and I haven't talked to him since he left vm I. Wow. And he saw the post. He goes, hey, and he told me he does a podcast. And Eric was a historian. He was a history major at VIMI and became a lawyer in Tennessee. So he said, hey, check his out. So on my way to Richmond Monday for work or Monday night, I listened to his podcast. Dude. It was freaking awesome. This dude is telling talking about history, and he's talking about He actually read the Thomas Payne's speech when Virginia decided to get into the war, you know, the Revolutionary War. I mean he was the colonies, right, and the Colony of Virginia is deciding whether or not they're going to contribute money to fight the British. And do you know who led the first rebellion to defeat the British. It was at Fort taikonder Rock, taykonder Roga. Do you know who one of the leaders. It was two of them. The people actually followed the guy Ethan Allen, the famous furniture name. All right. The other person that was the power that be was Benedict Arnold. The first siege of the British and it helped motivate us that we can actually beat the British. Yeah, it was kind of cool. But listening to his podcast was like, that's really neat cool. Yep, what's you got? A page and a half? You know he got it? We got better and void. Yeah, so real quick, on this day in nineteen forty eight, Israel was But when I was researching, I looked down and the damn headline that got me better than that that Israel was formed in nineteen forty eight. It was in nineteen ninety two the FBI seized the world's largest t rex fossil. Oh wow, dude, I'll start reading the story and it's like the government seesed this guy, this guy took the fossil, Like the remains that they found in South Dakota. Wow. So he goes to the farmer and says, hey, you have a t rex, and this is nineteen ninety two. I'm going to give you five thousand dollars if you let us excavate and take the fossil. So he has it in a museum in South Dakota, I think, and the government comes and raids it and takes it from him, jeeze. And they said it was because he had taken fossils off of government land. Well, he got it from the farmer. It turned out what they were mad at him about didn't even have anything to do with the t rex. It was some other fossils that they got. But the government sees that t rex from him, jeez. And then the five thousand you know, he showed that he had given five thousand dollars that he's you know, he did it the right way. Turns out the farm is on an Indian reservation, so the government says, that's our land, not your land. And the judge upheld it. So they took his t rex from him, and it's in a Chicago museum today. And the original owner of the Indian got seven point six million for it. Good lord, it was like the craziest freaking story. Now I'm assuming t Rex is a dinosaur, okay, yeah, making sure it's notaur chief t Rex. That would make more sense. It was in South Dakota, the biggest like that's crazy capture of around. Now she's wonder where it's at now, did you It's in the museum in Chicago. Oh yeah. So the government never gave it back to him and he got out. He served eighteen months in jail. Good lord. He gave five thousand, got the thing, dug it, put it in a museum, and they took it from him and sent him to jail for eighteen months. He had the wrong attorney. He could have ended up with seventy hours of community service. Right on. Anyway, now, all right, moving on to the most important part of the day. All right, that sounds like it was seamless, like you were still talking. Oh that's pretty good. Beforehand, No, I. Here, it sound a little feminine. First go around. Can we please get to our guest, Yeah, sure, all right, joining us in the studio, Captain Ben Walls. Welcome to the program. Yeah, thank you. This is gonna be a lot of fun. No, doubt. I'm telling you this is gonna be fun. I'm excited about it. I know Trend's excited about So first question I got before we dive into everything. If you just say, Captain Ben Walls, how do you know in the military the difference between Army, Navy, Air Force? Is there a difference or you could be a captain in the. Navy. So yeah, what's the way of saying it? Well, it's still the right. So the differentiation, So the Navy captain is the equivalent of a colonel okay, full bird got Jeremy. So basically there's some crossover, but different ranks in regards echalons. So it's but if I send it to a military person, Captain Ben Walls, they know exactly. Yeah, as long as you say you know Army, okay, okay, cool, because obviously I was. If I was in the Navy, I'll be cooler, higher ranked. Yeah, oh, I get it. And should we as civilians refer to you as former Captain Ben Walls? Is it now? Is it? Is it? Captain beIN Walls the rest of your life? No, it's And just to be up front, I know Ben because I've worked with him in construction for a couple of years. Well he's doing all the construction. I'm just walking over and he's just observing still, and you and I were talking and I realized, this dude is one of the most organized construction guys I've ever been around. And we just started talking and realized it's his army background. And I was like, hey, do this thing and one thing led it done to another, and here he is. Well, we're tickled to death. And I know you probably hear this, but we do appreciate your service in the military. And I do want to ask a question. Do you get like, because people say it, thank you for your service, right, but does it become do you does it become a thing where you're just saying it to say it, or do you get the impression that when people say it, they're really think Because I know Trent and I are extremely dedicated to, you know, the military, like we're sincerely thankful because we understand we don't get to do what we do here without you guys. Sacrifice. Yeah, it's become kind of a catchphrase, especially like you know, gonna lose or home depot and you use your car to get the discount and thank you for your service. It's just, you know, I don't want it's something that obviously they'd being nice. I I don't know. It's two parts, at least in my perspective. I didn't serve a full twenty years, so it's kind of like one of those things where like, yeah, I served, I didn't do all I could have done comparatively, but it's still appreciated. When people say something like that, it's not and it doesn't you know, it's not as much as you would think. Therefore, it doesn't really bother me because it's once in the blue moon comparatively, So it's not a big deal. It's just there's a moment I'm like, man, I really didn't do as much as. I could have, But yeah, think you so well, that's you sound like a typical person who served. You're very humble and that's very much appreciative. Yeah, well, let's dive in. So how did where does what has been called originally home? Where you were born and raised? So I grew up in Smithfield, Virginia. Okay, so it's it's still in the seven five to seven area code, but it's small little town on the peripheral and so I grew up there and I went to high school in Yorktown, so I drove across the James for a bridge every day. Well you know, I wasn't a fourteen year old driver obviously, but I was still still getting a lot of miles in, so it was. It was definitely a good area to grow up in. Obviously a lot of military down there, not too much army other than Fort Eustace, which was funny. My parents have a property where I where I grew up and where they currently live. It's called Morgart's Beach. That's right on the James River and you can see across James River right to where Fort Eustis is and then also the idle Fleet is due you know, northwest, so I could see that growing up. And Eustace, so is that where there was a hotels, a chamberlain. Is that not Eustace? That's probably the wrong one. Probably Fort eustis Langley Air Force Base near there too. So Langley Air Force Base. So Fort Eustace is more of a got to the logistician, like a supply type, and they have a couple of different units of course there. But I never really went onto that installation until I got into the Guard and they actually have some ranges there, which is pretty funny because it's not very big installation. So I was like, oh, there's actually a IN four range back here. Cool and you kind of shoot off towards the river. Kind of what high school did you go to? It? So it was a small a Christian school called Summit Christian Academy in town. So it was it was a cool experience, but ultimately growing up there was great and that was kind of the military interests. Most of it is really derivative of my family background, his grandfather, dad, and my brother, and my brother is twelve years older than me, and so he actually did full twenty he did twenty three or four. I always say it wrong and he's like, hey, you shaved a couple of years off, buddy. So obviously I want to be like my big brother. And so that's one of the main interests, and that was my goal from probably when I was eight years old. I just wanted to be in the army. Yeah, and so. My dad was like, hey, you really should consider going to college. I was like, that makes sense, and then ultimately like, hey, you want you to think about artc I was like, well, I gonna nest perfectly with everything I would. Like to do. So wound up going to Liberty. Oh yeah, and so so was that influence at the Christian school Liberty? Yeah? I mean, I mean is that how you find out about Liberty universities? Through Christian School? Basically? I mean you don't have a lot of options. No, it was. It was funny because my dad was like, hey, you can go to these different colleges, but I'm only going to pay for Liberty. Well, then I go to Liberty. I get a four year scholarship through the ARTC program, so he won't. I don't know this. Liberty had an r TC program. Wow, that's school because I didn't know that anither. Well. So it's interesting is that it's actually a I think it's congressional in regards to having your your primary arts program. So UVA is the primary and they'll have these satellite schools at least when I was going. It might be different now, but ultimately we were underneath the UVA. Wow. But interesting enough, we had more cadets than UVA and so we're like, we're just rocking it out. We had a whole bunch of guys and Giles of course, and so four years there and commissioned out of there. So it was a great experience to the great institution. One of the cadret members teachers was Major Donahue. I don't know if that name scrabuch. He actually passed away overseas an ID attack, and so I had him as a as a teacher. It was a great influence, solid guy, and so kind of getting into the ARTC program and having these great mentors really set me up for continuing my interest in pursuing that that path. So when you're in that program, when you graduate, you know your path sort of or to a degree. It's interesting. So it's very competitive. Well, I guess the different administrations make that case or not. So when I was coming up, there was a big interest in having because they're talking about the surge which is during pre during Afghanistan, but they're basically saying, hey, we're going to need a lot more officers. We're getting ready to go into a. Big push and just two thousand and eighth Yeah, OK. Yeah. So ultimately interesting enough, you can have a bunch of cadets in these programs and not all of them gets appointed to be an actual officer or not all of them will get an active slot. They'll actually go, hey, thank you for doing this. You have been selected to be an officer, but you're going to go to the reserves. So you're going to go to the National Guard. So it's kind of this very competitive dynamic. You obviously, ay, I'm really wanted to be in the active Army. So they have this Order of Merit list, so you're based on grades based on the actual military program. They'll have different leadership quality, type of things are looking for, and so they'll evaluate you and then they'll put you on this order. And so they actually had fortunately enough enough slots for me to go to the active route. And so once you get your orders, you you kind of get nested. You say, hey, cool, you got selected to be an armor officer. So in that OML, the Order Merit list, you you picked, Hey, these are my top three. I really wanted to X, Y and Z. Well it's funny because that wasn't the smartest guy. Of course I'm still not the smartest guy, but ultimately I picked high and I didn't get picked the one I wanted. So I was just like, hey, I want to be cool. I want to go aviation which is very very competitive, infantry, which is actually very competitive really, and then Engineer, which was like kind of a throwle. I was like, oh yeah, let's try this. So then they're like, hey, cool, cadet walls. You got air defense artillery, which is like the inverse, no one wants there. Well, sorry for whoever's listening to the air defense. But it was one of those things like, oh that's a letdown. But by the way, if you look further down this order, you're going to branch detail armor. So basically what the big Army says is, hey, we have kind of a pyramid. We have different task orgs that don't need a lot of second lieutenants early on. They want them to be more mature, so I first lieutendant captaint type thing. Usually that's for like military intelligence or I guess technically this of course, but there's another branch that is kind of top heavy that they went higher ranks, and so they'll they'll branch detail out, let them go get their their lower years or you know, second lieutenant, first littenant years, and then they'll let them come back to the fold quote unquote. So at the time, ADA was like, hey, we don't need any second lieutenants armors like, yeah, we do. So I got armor, which was a godsend, honestly, a great branch to be a part of. It's armored tanks with. Yeah, so there's two there's two parts the armor and it falls. So it's it's armor traditional being tanks, so be Abrams and Bradley's and then they actually have cavalry and so that's just light. Basically you're in Humb's or in wraps or TVs and so the traditional scout reconnaissance type mission. Has just let me think it's something. So, I mean, we see constantly the glory stuff of aircraft changes, right, does tanks change? You know? We still so as you mentioned those names, and those names seem old. Oh yeah, so the eight Rams, and I'm gonna butcher this because like I said, I was a cavalry officer, so I kind of after my training for the armor basic corse, I didn't never touch the tank again. But they basically the Army has invested in these main battle tanks and they've been doing these versions. Basically they're they're upfitting them with new technology, incorporating different aspects of it. So they're on like version three now, so the same platform that's been in existence since I think the nineties, which I could be butchering that of course, but ultimately that investment, that core investment, they're trying to just keep working off of that. It's like an iPhone, Yeah, just keep new version. Yeah, got, it's really cool. All right. So you end up in cavalry cover like a lighter duty the fleet. Right, Yeah, so it's it's funny because you get the wear stetsons to get the wear cowboy hat. Yeah, it's pretty funny. And spurs because cavalry is the horse courses, right. So we're carrying that tradition within the modern force. And so when you have formations and different kind of big moments, the arrier stats and and you earn your spurs, basically they have like the little internal unit challenge that says, hey, you're a spur holder now. And so it's pretty funny. There's a lot of a lot of heraldry behind, a lot of tradition behind it, and of course they're just carrying that through. And so it's funny because it's always a competition, which is what you want in regards to the military. So thin in the teering, its like infantry is the badasses, right, and then Calvary is like, oh man, they're just trying to, you know, be like infantry guys. But it's a different mindset honestly because basically they're their focus in the cavalry realm is really is a reconnaissance piece and so basically they don't have a lot of the big guns that the infantry companies would have because be light and nimble, and they're basically their goal and their training is designed to be able to go out into sector get all the information they can, to bring it back to the leaders to then shape the battlefield. Not on horseback, not on horseback. Okay, I'm just trying to follow that. Yeah, yeah, okay, but you're I see what you're saying though, So that's okay. God, it's gotta be a fun part though. That's very fun. So where you stationed when this kind of stuff happens? From liberty? Where do you go to? So liberty? Oh? Yeah, yeah? Graduated. Kind Of an interesting dynamic is some officers, after they commissioned, they actually don't get paid until they report to their first whatever duty it is. So I had a couple of friends who didn't have a job for six months. You know, they got commissioned, but they technically don't get paid until they show up to their next duty station. And so I was fortunate enough. They're like, hey, you know, Lieutenant Walls, we're going to go to Fort Lewis, Washington and be a cadre member for this evaluation process. Basically it's called Leadership at a Time Leadership Development Accession Course, and it's like the first or sorry, the last thing you do between your junior and senior year as a cadet, your final evaluation. So there's a lot of stress involved. So they're like, hey, and as much as you have what one year of college difference, I want you to go and evaluate the guys that you're going to be, you know, seeing down range eventually. So I did that for a couple of months and then from Fort Lewis to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and that was for a basic officer leadership course which they phased out, but basically their goal with that was a hey, we're gonna take all these branches, you know, the m I, the military intelligence guys, the financial guys, all the softamesses, and we're gonna put them in like a infantry style of training so that they have that baseline just in case they have to begin to a situation at least know that so. They do that. Fort Sill was really hot. I was there was just a great place regardless. But that was in three or four months. And then Fort Knox, Kentucky, and that was the Armor Basic Course, so that was basically saying, hey, this is your branch. So I got the drive, get licensed, get the de gunnery on Abrams, which is crazy. You know, you're twenty one, twenty two and second lieutenant you're driving the tank around like well this is kind of weird. But then did the same thing with Bradley's and then they had a second set where like all right, now your cavalry. So then they'll send you out and you just walk around. So from that to Fort Knox to stay there for another couple of months, doing a thing called Army Reconnaissance Course, which is like a souped up version of AOBC but more kind of getting the big picture of like, hey, what's your goals when you become a cavalry officer and really getting nested down to the reconnaissance piece. And then finally got to my unit, which was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and it was not funny. It was it was kind of surreal. Well, I was at Fort Knox. My unit was actually down at Fort Polk doing their their upcycle training for deployment. So I knew kind of early on that hey, I'm gonna probably hit this window. As soon as I get to Fort Campbell, I'm gonna probably deploy. So I got to Fort Campbell and thirty days later, I get deployed to Afghanistan. Wow, it was so funny because it's like, man, I don't know nothing, and even even more sreal. So I'm an Air Defense Artillery. Office what twenty two yeah, twenty three years old. Air Defense artillery officer brands detailed armor, gets sent to an infantry company and like, what does this think? I don't know what I'm doing. And that was the extra lieutenant basically waiting for an opportune leaders spot to open up. So I was this minion, which is good because I got the watch before I became actually a leader of men. And so. But you know this thirty days you know, so I install the technical like certification process that they all did, so again they're gonna inject me into this and I have no background of what they did for the past six months ye to get ready for deployment. I'm just gonna get shown up and hopefully not get shot. So ill I mean, is that a is that a call? Hey, come to my office? How is that? How is the diplom Because your dad said when he was on a couple of weeks ago that it was Westpac or something. Right, Yeah, I didn't know what Westpac was and he said, you're going to Vietnam. I mean, yeah, I mean, what's that? How does that look? Well? I mean, for for me, as soon as I got my orders, even at Liberty, I had a good idea of because like I said, they were they were so there. There's you know, during Iraq and Afghanistan, you had key divisions that were constantly deploying. So the Tenth Mountain eighties you knew. Yeah, so basically you can look down and see, okay, so third brigade just got back. It looks like second brigades. Oh okay, it's up on the queue. So you would always have this cycle. And then that was before I actually got nested with like talking to the right people. That was just me just doing some analysis. Basically I'm just looking online. But then as soon as I got my orders, I was able to call. You know, you have liaisons basically. Who's given you those orders. So the pack it comes down from a bunch of civilians, which is pretty cool. I mean they have they have military guys with them, but ultimately up at four Knox, they just changed it. Four Knox become has become more of the central focus of the branch, and I butchered this like detail off. Basically, they're the ones that put you where you want to or where you want to go, where they want you to go kind of thing. So if I stuck in longer, I would be reaching out to this guy and saying, hey, what are the openings. Oh, you can go to Darmstock, Germany, you know, go to Stuttgart, you can do all these different things, and you kind of figure out. But these guys will sign and they they're just looking at the numbers like, Okay, we got all these guys coming up from all these different schools. Let's put him here, put him there. And so it comes down and it all lands into your email. Basically, once you get that going and then you're like surprise. So then uh, once I got my orders. I kind of knew that there was gonna be a high probability. There was a little bit of a nuance to it because sometimes you would have officers and new guys show up to the units, and depending on the leaders, they might just say, hey, we're going to keep you back on they call it rear D for a couple of months so you can train up a little bit. But then like my commander, he's like, yeah, we're gonna take you with us. So, now, what's the Afghanistan? What's the picture in two thousand and eight, two thousand is it? Two thousand and eight, two thousand nine. Two nine, Well was going to deploy, but two thousand and nine, yeah. Yeah, So in twenty ten and you're in Afghanistan, what's what's Afghanistan look like? I mean, what's going on? And therefore that because I've all didn't wonder this. The farthest you've been is Oklahoma or Washington. You've not gone overseas, right, yeah, what Afghanistan looked like? You're right, what does it look like? But I mean what does it really look like? I mean, you have no clue what you're getting to do. It was pretty interesting, like I said thirty day training or really was more like we were just loading up all our connexes and getting ready to deploy, and it was me just picking people's brains because you have all these information streams, you know, so the S two say you have like different acronyms, of course, but the intel officer for the battalinon or squadron is getting all this information fed up from the brigade, from the division, and so there's they're slowly letting you know, like hey, this is the picture of where we're going and this is what. So which is interesting is we got a signed to RC South, which is Kandahar, so Canada Airfield is one of the bigger obviously names. But they're like, hey, I remember we had a company formation and the company commanders like, hey, we're gonna get I think the phrase he used was the heart of darkness. He's like, yeah, there hasn't been a NATO force presence in the a area of Operation the AO that we're going to in the past two years, so you can imagine it's going to be pretty interesting, right, And so he painted this picture like we're all gonna die. So we're like, okay, cool, Lily says a second lieutenant. Walls like, oh my gosh, we're going to the heart of darkness. Okay, wow. So then we're getting all this nap and imagery and kind of getting an idea of what we're going to land. And once we got pushed out into the sector and really cool. I mean what it was very flat, obviously, very arid, but the primary legal product grown there was grapes in that region. And what they did was they would actually the wealthier you were, as that farmer or that landowner, the taller. They would actually make walls out of mud so be vertical, straight on one side and they don't have a slant so the vines could grow up on the other side. And so the richer you wore, the taller walls were basically you had more more production. So I mean the primary growth products, of course were poppy marijuana and then grapes, and so you had to go out into sector and you'd be in these marijuana fields are a ten foot tall lord, Yeah, those nuts sounds like. What does you know? You come back and just covered in dust, covered in and then of course you see the Afghan guys just grabbing some pieces and taking it with them pocketing it and getting ready to light up that night. But it was very interesting because basically you could see from. Our AO. All the way down to the Red the desert which is south of Arghanda River Valley, so you had this really interesting clear line of sight. Are you interacting with the people of Afghanistan too, well, yeah, you were mentioned and they were like grabbing things. Are you on their pockets? Are you on a base at that point? Yeah. So we got to Canar Airfield, so we actually it was funny as we flew commercial. So we went from Fort Campbell to Bangor Maine, Bangor Maine to I can't remember where. Typical flight, yeah, I think it's like the check and then checked to Kazakistan and it was an Air Force installation called Manis. I think it's what Manus was the name. It was interesting because I was the first like oh or landing in a military uh installation which is run by the Air Force, and they had like bars and so of course everyone who was stationed there could participate, but those guys who were just cycling through was not allowed. It's like okay, cool, that's fair. So we're just there for a couple of days, and then we finally, you know, flew into Afghanistan on a military plane and so we flew in to Kandahar. We did a training cycle. I think it was two weeks, three weeks, and basically you're you're getting your theater property, you're getting all the which is surreal at time, and all the stuff that we left behind. Of course, so this all this equipment that we didn't have home. So M A t V S, M wraps, all these really high speed pieces of equipment. What is so basically the army, the Army created, you know, so we were being smart and creating products, vehicles platforms that were designed to interdict at least as best we could for I D S. And so they have these new vehicle systems and of course M A TV stands for something I can't remember, M wrapped the same thing. But basically it's too different vehicle platforms that were super duty. They're basically like hum v's on steroids. To to this, to the point where some of the m m ATVs had a crow system, which basically you would have either fifty Cali Mark nineteen mounted on top and you would have your gunner actually in the vehicle with the screen and a joystick controlling it versus him being into the gunners. This is the way we need to hunt. Yeah, oh yeah, that's infrared. Really cool platform. So you don't have the guy up on the turret up above anymore. For certain, there's like a ratio basically you have like two or three per convoy would half of the crows, but you got the cool one there. Well. I have a funny story about that was when we finally got to kandaharen deployed, who get assigned to what they called at the time Bob Wilson, so Ford Operating Base Wilson, And then of course the wokeism came into play mid deployment and they had to change it to a local name FA SAB. Yeah, they gotta be nice. So you're you're experience and woke stuff even back then, right, well, I mean or friendly stuff. I guess. Yeah, So, I mean that was one of the things that I am. We can always talking to you later, but basically the military is a spearhead in multiple ways. In one of those ways is unfortunately that kind of stuff you were you're seeing those things earlierly. Yeah, so the d I you know, so away, so. So we have bases in Afghanistan at this time, so we've built it, Okay. Yeah, So basically, so Helmsdale Province was the next province to the west, was controlled by the Marines. Yeah, and so we would hear contacts and stuff, and our our battalion wasn't on the border between helms but we were the next one over, so we would hear about it, and we would hear our sister battalion go and do some support missions with the Marines. So they'll do the kind of divvy up to the land. It's like you're gonna own this land. You're gonna own this land. The Marines are over here owning this land. Army you're gonna be here, and then they'll divvy up between that organization. So then we got from Bob Wilson as when we started having the fun stuff, we were pushing out in the sector and claiming the land, basically saying, hey, there hasn't been a NATO force. We're gonna start doing presidence patrols. We're gonna start pushing out into sector and then start establishing combat outposts. Basically just smaller versions of those fobs. The fobs are huge. Basically you can put an entire brigade within that installation and have plenty of room. Still, so do you have people under you at this point? So I didn't really gets signed a platoon until roughly five months into the deployment. So the platoon that I took over and they, you know, they try to do this rotation internal. That platoon leader moved into the executive officer position. Basically, you have your company commander who's the top, first sergeant who's really the top, but he's in the illicted sector. And then obviously XO is the the next guy under the company commander, who does most of the logistics and support work, all the stuff the commander doesn't want to do. Basically, So I took over that platoon because he was a senior platoon leader and he got promoted to the executive officer spot. So I took over third platoon. And so that's when we took over. Literally it was a compound. We took over a presousting structure, made it into a patrol base basically just kind of made it defendable, little creature comforts, a nice little you know whole for you know, all the number twos and all that is basically just try to make it habitable, knowing that eventually we're going to go a little bit further south and build this nice combat outpost, which is a segue to the engineering thing, which is funny. Succinctly remember having to be I'll still a second lieutenant in charge of supervising CBS. So the Navy sent out these CBS who are in their engineer asset. They obviously vertical and horizontal components to that, but they had all this heavy equipment and they were all and they had carpenters on their team. They actually built this nice framed talk which is basically a tackle center, and uh, but we're pulling security for them, and we've had a couple of kinetic interactions, you know, basically some some rounds fired. And it was funny because ultimately the CBS are like, hey, you're here for us, and I'm like, that's fair enough. Because they had like M sixteen's, like these long rifles. And one of the funnier stories is while we were building this cop one of the heavy machine operators climbed out of his his bulldozer and he's like, oh, where's my rifle? And we're like, oh, my gosh what So he looked over and he actually ran over and sixteen and demolished it. And so like in the army, that would have been like you're you're in trouble. You're gonna lose rank. It's a big deal. But then when their chief found he's like, oh, it's okay, we'll get you another one. I was like, all right, these guys are cool. So now is there any threat where you are? I mean, is there any Afghani threat? I mean, is there anything going on? Yeah, So it was cool. One of the cooler contact moments. You know, what we'll do is we would post up while we're building this combat outposts and they're using these Hesco barriers, which is basically these like netal kind of they would wrecked and you would fill up with dirt and it would make these really ingenious, you know, easy installation and construction basically wall and then they'll stack you know, too high, and then they'll put these at the corners, basically these these towers so you can have overwatch and security. But while they're building it, obviously we're there and we have our matvs, m rapps as our gun platforms, pulling security on all the Apex, and so one day I'm sitting there and trying to keep myself busy. I set my vehicle up on the road adjacent and I was actually doing like I was stopping people, I was searching them. I was like, come on, you know, I'm here. I'm just going to talk to people and I'm gonna look through their bags, which is being a dumb second lieutenant. And obviously I had guys with me, so I wasn't just by myself. But I'm sitting there waiting for the next you know, motorcycle to pull up or whatever, and starting in some rounds fired into our our you know, construction site basically, and it was like it was southeast of where I was. So I started running just to get to my guys vehicle that was closest to that point of contact. And so the funny moment was as I was running, there was a bulldozer driving and so I just got behind the bulldozer and I said, keep going, keep going, keep going. So I just drove, rode behind there, walked behind this bulldozer to get to my guys, just trying to get more information, like how far is it where there's a contact and all they're doing is just taking some pop rounds. Was anything crazy where they're doing some kind of assault, but they were just trying to say, hey, we're here, we don't like what you're doing. Yeah, he starts the story with the funny part is talking about live round The funny part is, yeah. But there was like a school. So you know, Afghanistan's a hot mess. Everyone knows that, and so there was you know, I'm not sure who built it, but there was these key installations and one of them that was nearby our combat outposts was this this school that was built. You know, it was some mission that was established and of course it failed. You know, they came in and took it over and basically kicked everyone out and said, hey, this is not what we want you guys to do. Won't you learn anything? Right? But then they use that as kind of like their staging point. It would go out from that school and do like little you know, assault or contact missions that they would so we knew it was from that area and that was exactly where those rounds were coming from. But very interesting segueing back to it. So I'm a second lieutenant. We're building this combat outpost and these these CBS are keep there asking me questions like, hey, where do you want us to finish this wall at you know, like all this stuff. I'm like, I don't have any rank. I'm not and so I knew like it was one of those moments where it's like, oh my gosh, this is going to impact for the next five ten years my decision on following forces. Yeah, and so I was like, all right, well, ye know, in the absence of guidance, someone make my best guess, and yeah, exactly. So it was funny. It's just like a humbling moment, like they're asking these questions and I'm a second lieutenant and some colonel is going to find out getting mad. And it's also it's a big when you're that young, and like Brian had asked you about when you take over, and you've got people that are veterans that have been in the military around you too, and you're the second lieutenant, so you take shit, take you know, grief from yeah, take grief from all the old salts and veterans and people that have been there. And you don't know anything that you're doing, and you've got to make decisions and you're the one responsible for him. So that's it's a lot of responsibility and pressure on a young person. And oftentimes I've always wondered, because I mean, I do it, I build out in my head what actually is going on over there? So you get dropped into it and then is it totally different than what you've thought in your head or you're like. No, this is pretty accurate. So obviously because you've trained, but you've not trained for what you're actually doing, right, Yeah, I mean, the. It's such a it was such a convoluted conflicts. Yeah, so. In as much as nothing compared to World War Two and that you know, true sense you want to be a staate, pablished these fortifications, these combat outposts, these patrol but we were basically secure. We knew we can go to sleep at night and not unless you know, at least the Narsiy South. There's obviously other regions in the country that based on elevation dynamics and a lot of whether it be mortar rocket attacks or you know, they're they're shooting up from this mountaintop down into the valley, that kind of stuff out in Narsy East. But where we were, we just had such a presence that we didn't have that concern of being overwhelmed. And so it's like the differentiation between those prior conflicts and you know, being in a situation where you know you can get killed any moment kind of thing. For us, it's like, all right, well we're in we're in our house. No one's gonna mess with this. But the compounding thing was that what you who you were finding wasn't black and white. It wasn't a clear thing. So, for example, one of the things that would kind of be consistent is that you would have these random you know, as we're doing like a presence patrol as an example, Basically we're just going out into sector, showing force, trying to get some information, having key leader engagements, talking to the elders of the village, just trying to build some rapport, just getting some some information. Honestly, you would have these rounds just really pop off. You're like okay, So then you try to like figure out where it came from. Usually just one guy, right, and so talking to the interpreters, talking to the So one of the big things during our time was was Karzai was in power, and so you had these rules cars like twelve and one of them was we couldn't do a patrol without a counterpart, so whether it be an Afghan National Army or an Afghan National Police force within our so we would in order for us to move, you had to have an Afghani partner with you. Yeah, so then you build these relationsis, but ultimately you'd asking questions like yeah, man, that's this guy who just shot at us. He's getting paid like five bucks to pick up this random AK forty seven that was dropped off. You know, five bucks is like two months for them, and so we're just we're shooting and potentially killing these guys that are just trying to survive. Yeah, you're not really fighting the guy who's calling the shots. He's causing these insurgency type things. So as you know then, so it's just hard to figure out what the best course of action was based on those constraints, like, man, what what what was. The reception you get from the civilian people that you're walking by and having an interpreter talk to you. Are they. Looking at you like what the hell are you doing here? Or about two thousand and nine, Yeah, they're probably starting to get fed up with us being there. Right, Well, here's a good snapshot. So when we were down establishing her patrol base and then their cop there is this random mount this hill, and it was definitely unique. You know, there was nothing other than this mountain range in the far distance that was controlled by the Canadians. There was no real elevation changes in at least the good ten miles. It's all flat. And then you would have these random mounts and they were like I don't know how tall, but it was significant where you could see and I'm like, what is that? And usually it would have a compound on it. Somebody just built their house on top of it. And then you talk to the locals like, yeah, those were built by Alexander the Great, no kidding, So he had these installations built. So these people have been their. History is not our history. Well we're seventeen seventy six in our history, you know what I mean. That's amazing. But you just think about that. Their culture is engrossed with conflicts, so we're just the revolving door. Yeah, right, exactly. So the Russians were here, Okay, cool, there's another key interesting dynamic. You'd have all these blonde hair, blue red hair. No way, Afghani's no way. Yeah. I never knew that just because the Russians had been there. Yeah yeah, yeah. So you'd have these like random dude in Afghan National Army fatigues and you're like, you did not look the part right, and then you're talking, you know, to the interpreter's like, oh yeah, his great grandma got messed up. It makes a lot of sense though, So it's just real, like we're just that that was. Yeah, that was crazy. So it was one of those things where we knew that we were just the revolving door, like they've seen everything. So how long is your this is your deployment, So how long were you there? So we did eleven months. We didn't to do a full twelve. I forgot what the justification was, but basically the unit that releaved us came early. Kind of thing. Are you relieved to come home? Yeah? I mean obviously I enjoyed coming home. It was interesting, especially the guys like platoon sergeant. He was a young, krusty old dude, Like it was surreal that was his fifth deployment and I mean he was only thirty maybe maybe not. I mean that it's one of those things where it's like you've been through it. So for him, obviously he was just done. He was tired of doing that. You know. He finally he came home and got married and he started finding the right jobs and make sure he wouldn't deploy as much. But ultimately, for me, even why I'm bringing this all up is you you developed this this core of soldiers and you learned to you know, yeah, you know love them, but basically they certain they watched your back. You watched theirs. You went through helen back to agree with them, and you kind of reminisce you miss that time. Yeah, it sucked in the moment, but obviously it made you the better person in the end. And then it got to the point, unfortunately, where you would see those who were better off being deployed. Yeah, so I would have really good soldiers that I deployed with when I came home became really bad soldiers because they just could not cope and they wanted to be in conflict. They wanted to do the things. You know, it's a big army situation. It's basically overseas. You're you're a big boy. You know, you had your left and right limits, but you know you were able to make good decisions, and you know, the lowest level, you know, you trusted, but you still had your roles of engagement, all that kind of stuff you would allow. But when you came home, you became you're a baby. You're like, okay, make sure you have your your rifle up and down range when you're actually you know, doing your qualifications like yeah, no, duh, like yeah, And then it became like this overarching like you just didn't feel like you were respected. So where do you come back to when you come back from deployment? Where do you land back into? You're back at for Campbell or Campbell? Did you just serve out the rest of your Yeah? So the four years active I did? I stayed at Fort Campbell? Was the decision? After your four years? Was it difficult to walk away? So it was interesting because when I got back from deployments and kind of get settled, probably six months later, my wife and I were talking, were like, yeah, I think we can do this twenty year thing. Because she was not initially she was. She your wife, the wife is just coming to just got settled. When did this happen? So I went to Liberty right, So I got I did the whole ring before spring, So we got. Engaged before she goes a liberty. That's hilarious. Yeah, yeah, so it was. It was pretty interesting because. Does she stay in Fort Campbell while you were in afghanis now back home? She came home? Okay? Yeah, so I we got engaged in December. I graduated in May, got commissioned in May. We got married in May. Okay, Lord, is she a yorktown girl? She No, She's from Lynchburg. So yeah, why we came back after the active army, you know, so long a story short, we say, hey, we can do twenty years. And then we were in a small group at church. I was the small group was funny because it was just me and one other guy and there's all a bunch of ladies. So of course me and the other guys are talking. And he just retired from doing insurance. I was like, oh, that's interesting. My my family does insurance. My dad, my grandfather started it kind of thing, and so he was he was talking to me, and so eventually I think it was like, you're a year left of my contract, and my dad called me was like, hey, man, I don't know if you would ever be interested if you are thinking about getting out, but if you do, you can always come and join me. And I kind of laughed it off, and then I got into the small group start talking to the guy and I kind of told him, you know the situation. He's like, if you don't strongly consider it, you're an idiot, because you I know, you know this, but the military does not value family. You know, the military primary is you know, the top three things is army, army, army, and the fourth is family, like in regards to what's the most important. And so I was like, okay, you know, it's difficult. Took it to heart. And so that was the kind of you know, after weighing my options, like you know, and then I had some culminating events that really pushed me out of deciding not to do it, just some bad interactions with toxic leadership. I was like, all right, sure, yeah, so it's kind of that was the nail that finalized it for me. I was like, you know what if I stay in here and I don't go with certain routes and I'd stay in the big army, then I might become that toxic leader that I don't want to be. Interesting. Yeah, So then but so you went insurance coming out of the army. But then you got the National Guard. Would you just miss being around the military, and so you re enlisted or I mean not re enlisted, but yeah, we signed up for the military. So they have a program where you you transition from the active to the Guard, and so I got into that path and the justification primarily was kind of a soft transition. I was like, oh, you know, I'm so interested in serving and I really am interested in health insurance. So I. Got set up and actually went to unit at in Portsmouth, which was not it was a cavalry unit. So I was like, Okay, it's good, you know, easy transition over to that organization. And so I stuck that, stuck out with the Guard for another five years and really good interaction. Yeah, really surprised. It was funny, you know, based on my dad's conversations about his Guard experience, He's like, yeah, man, we just go and hang out on drill weekends and try not get in trouble. Like, oh, we can do that. It's fun. So go from those stories to then go into the actual current garden, it's like night and day. They're a well organized just they get stuff done. Yeah, really yeah, surreal. I mean, basically they're required their their goal is to maintain the same standards as the big Army with an eighth to the sixteenth of the time, you know, because the. Only yeah, you got what two weeks summer and then. Then a certain amount of they call the mudas of drill weekends a year, and so they're like, hey, we won't you do all this stuff with no time? So did you any of that time frame? Did you have any orders or anything to do any anything other than your normal weekends? And yeah, I mean it's kind of a negative thing, but I was being careful. So when I was in the active Army, I was I went from aton leader to the executive officer. Oh and so in my last year and a half of being at Fort Campbell as the executive officer for the same company, Charlie Company that I was deployed with. But during that tenure, I was acting commander, the commander and a bunch of other key leaders within my company, and technically the battalion and squadron got deployed and they're doing like this unique they kind of try to do like a Special Forces thing. They're like, hey, we're gonna take all these key leaders and we're gonna send them out to attached to a different you know, whether it be after National Police or army, and they'll be like a liaison, the teach, coach mentor but we're going to leave the executive officers and then all the soldiers behind. So I had like ninety percent of the company with no leaders other than me and the couple of East six's to run this and anyway as long as it's short. So I had acting commander time, but technically not company commander time. I wasn't true like being raided as a company commander. So when I got into the Guard, then I moved from Portsmouth to Fredericksburg. And then when I was in Fredericksburg, I was a company commander up there for a engineer company. So that's you know, during the day to day I was doing insurance, and then during the weekends, during drill and during the annual training, I was doing the Guard stuff. And then a couple of times before I took over the engineer company, I got picked up to be a company and it was one of those like hey, congratulations, your company commander. Oh, by the way, they're going to deploy in a couple of months, I was like, what, Yeah, it was like it was one of those things. I was like, man, this is interesting because if if if I wasn't starting my own business and basically a sole proprietorship and you guys were actually deploying somewhere cool, that would be all about it. But they were going to like cool Sinai Peninsula and Cutter mm hmm. So it's like he's really oddball mission sets that were basically just pulling security. So I was like, man, I'm not gonna do that. So I said thanks for no things, and then I finally picked up a job up at Fredericksburg. Yeah, so it was interesting. It was one of those things where those are the guys to. Activates the National Guard. When there's in the National Guard get activated, like tornadoes and stuff like that hit or am I thinking. Something, Yeah, the governor activates the guard. Governor does, so you're. You swear allegiance to the governor as well as the president, so you're technically the governor's the main and then they'll they'll title ten you and deploy you. So you have these you know, guardians to get overseas. The first interaction I had with the Guardian in Afghanistan was a route clearance package basically, you know, I d so it was interesting. I was like, man, and they're actually pretty high speed. Very cool. So you interact with people you've been in do you still stay in touch with with people? Not as much as I should. Honestly, I have a couple of friends that I do reach out to, but not as many as you know. I stay in touch with them, but not on the regular. It's kind of hard. Yeah. Everyone once they get out, they got to do their own thing, and you can only have you know, conversations about the same stories over and over again kind of thing. So I just I never really kept up with as many as I would want. And most of the people I interact with currently their military bye by prefery, were guys that I went to college with. Of course that's commissioned. So you're Fredericksburg. How did you end up back? So all the while I was living in Lynchburgh, yep. So when I was down in Portsmouth, I would drive down there, Oh okay, and then same thing for Fredisburg and every time, you know, it all would end up at at Fort Picket, So I always it was funny. I would go to Portsmouth and I drive by Picket and know that in six hours' driving back to Picket, but I had to go to the unit. First, and I got to meet your brother. He's a pretty strack dude still, right. I mean, both of you all looked like you could jump right back in the military right now. So what did he what did he think of your service and what did he end up going to? What did what is he at a different location than you are you're both serving at the same time or what was that like family wise? Yeah, so. We were I don't even know how many years. I guess it was like two or three years. Yeah, okay, So Lenstra is short. He did. He was a signal noncommissioned officer for the majority of his active service, so he was actually primarily stationed I think for eight or nine years in Germany, which was pretty cool to go visit him during that. But then when we were both in the military, he was at Fort Drumm, I think he deployed the same time, but to Iraq, so it was kind of interesting. But you know, he was an n c O and he had a lot of years, so he was a first sergeant during that time. So it was very interesting. And then he gave you a bunch of ship for being an officer. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it was. It was great. I mean he taught me a lot. You specially second attent. You really don't. You don't earn your voice until you're at least the first tenant. Yeah, if you're doing it right. Yeah, so when you're a second team, you just shut up and you listen to your platuon star and you listen to any high rank in East six there is six seventy eight, and then you just watch. It's the best way to survive, yeah, for sure, and so you like do that. So I was like, all right, so I did it and it worked out great. But a lot of good relationships with then he is because of it. So but your parents, your dad, they had to be worried. I mean both of y'all are deployed across the globe, want an Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Yeah, I mean they obvious, the really supportive. I mean we try to interact with them as much as they could, you know, via email basically, but yeah, they were just not trying to worry to death. So how do you communicate with your wife while you're in Afghanistan. Facebook really yeah, Okay, that's the most immediate outher than email. But most of the time we would time it and we would just chat. Yeah. Cool, that was pretty funny. I did have a phone. I got a. Civilian phone, So no, it was crazy. It's crazy they I mean they have a network, no kidd, Yeah, you just go to the hodgy stand and buy a cell phone and get a SIM card. And they have the so they would they control the towers so they would turn them off at night. Yeah, but you can. You can call on their network. Wow. Well, I appreciate you coming in. Yeah, really cool. If we'd learn a lot, I mean I've I have no idea, like I learned so much in these segments, So we appreciate you coming in. Before you go, we always ask our guests if you could pick anybody in history, whether they're still around or not, who would you hang out with in a twenty four hour period and where would you hang out with them? You pick anybody in history? Oh my god, mmm, I love putting people. On the spot. Well, honestly, it be kind of one of these either Paton or MacArthur kind of things. Wow, in the area of where their most influential in that Yeah, just because you know, you can read about them, it would be interesting to actually see what they were like in real life and you can imagine what they were thinking, but ultimately be cool to just interact with them just because like having a beer with Oh my god, no doubt, it'll be just surreal. So one of those type of things. Obviously there's probably a better answer to that, but that would be kind of my knee jerker answer. Well, again, thank you for spending some time with us, and thank you for your service again. Yeah, thank you very much. Awesome stuff. All right, we'll take a quick commercial break. Sports fans, podcast enthusiasts, and music lovers. Are you tired of the same old radio stations, boring content? Introducing the Grove Street FM app, your one stop destination for local sports, engaging podcasts, music channels, and so much more. Whether you're into the latest game scores, thot provoking podcasts, or groovy tunes, We've got it all. Don't keep this hidden gem to yourself. Spread the word and let your friends know. Physic grovestreetfmapp dot com and download the app now. Man, that was awesome. Yeah, so that. I mean, honestly, man, that's what this thing is supposed to be all about. Just come in and tell your story. I mean, I cannot believe I looked over it was six twenty. Yeah, that's like an hour. I mean, how fast did that go by? It's crazy? Could have done that in another hour? Oh yeah, so we appreciate that quickly. I will speak through these. Still enjoying this Pranos, Yeah, catch it up, I think on season three now. Also been listening to Sean Ryan. God, that just a really neat episode with a foreign and it's so funny. Man, are you watching it on Spotify? No? I watch him on YouTube? Ok, yeah, and just interesting things. This was an Albanian I think, and I'm not going to tell his whole story, but it's funny listening to foreigners, like they use terms that don't mean what they think they mean. And it's when you're listening to it you can understand how translations can be different, you know what I'm saying. And so I was watching that and they constantly are making and I can't think of the word he used constantly, but I'm like, that doesn't mean what you think it mean. But anyway, so it was a really good episode. And I can't even remember the guy's name, but I'll tell you I just started a new one today. Tim Tebow. Oh yeah, I've said a couple of clips of that. It's pretty cool. I thought I knew his life. I knew nothing, huh compared to like, I've just started too. Yeah, it looks like it's gonna be great. Yep, what do you got, man? I? So I obviously done with Chosen. So, man, I am a documentary guy. And this week Netflix, well I don't know if it's just this week, but I saw Martin and I watched one with a Husband and Wife. No, the wife and father in law killed a husband. And it's one of those documentaries that you go, oh, they need to go to jail, and then they tell you more about the story, and then you go, oh, he should have died, and then you go, oh, they should go to jail. It's like one of those documentaries, you know, you go back and forth forget what the name of it was, but it's like top top ten this week. And then man, those doc documentaries, the untolds. They got three that I hadn't seen, Shooting Guard. Yeah, I saw bits and pieces but oh man, that thing was so good. That's basically basketball players in locker rooms, right, Gilbert Arenas, who was an All Star, and this guy Crittenden that you probably recognize when you see him at Georgia Tech. He was a guard that got drafted in the NBA by the Lakers and he could not catch on with the Lakers because he couldn't graant. Well, I'm taking what they said is Phil Jackson was not happy that he wasn't grasping the offense and so he wasn't playing. So while he's an NBA player, he gets in with the crips of La Jus. So you know the whole NBA style in the world of gambling, you know, you hear about the card games that they do. It just escalates. They go from I mean it wasn't even their fight. It was two other players fight about one owing the other money, and it just gets into bringing guns to the locker room. M oh it was really good. And the story gets worse for Crittington. Yeah, when you said Gilbert Arenas, that made me think because I remember seeing something his son was choosing a college. Yeah, they showed his son last night and then he got in a massive car accident. Oh really, and so I was curious when you said that. I was looking it up. So I think he's a usc but he was in a coma. Oh wow, I think he's finally come out of the coma. Well, they show him in the in the documentary because he's training his son. Where he was practicing with his son. Yeah, but I don't know. I don't know what his you know what his status is. He's released from the hospital, so he did make a recovery. The other one worth watching that I saw, remember Tiger King. Yeah, they got one called liver King. Oh my god, have you seen this guy? Have you seen this guy? Liver King? Okay, he eats liver and testicles. We're moving on, by the way, that's going on as we speak right now. There's a club in Bedford. That eats tescls. Yes, are you getting me? No? As a matter of fact, I told him last night when he called me, and I get invited to these and. It's supposed to be what kind of friends do you have? Now? I'm just it's the. You'll be surprised when you get what's it called. There's I guarantee you I will go to my grave, and no one. Will have called me to Oh, no, you're going to get a call on the next goal, right, I promise you, because I said, why don't you call Trent? Because I get invited to this thing and it's like, I'm just saying, it's like a a Bedford thing, right, a passage. It's like, oh my god, you got invited and you didn't go, and I'm like, no, I'm not going. It sounds to me like it's more of a I'm sure it's a party of social thing. Yes, yeah, well that's what and this guy does some of that too, right, But it's like, no, I'm not going to eat testicles. That's not on my list of things to do. Oh man, there's no way. Oh. It just gives me the heavues Bedford ball Club or something. I'm not joking. Yes it is. Because I got invited again last night and he said can you come and I said no, I said I'm doing a. Show and he's like, ah, is that really what they do? And I said, so they fry him and then there's a lot of alcohol involved and I'm sure a lot of storytelling. I have been invited by I think three different council members, a former mayor and a gentleman last night who Trent knows very well. He called nasty, So I said, call Trent, so, yeah, you're gonna get invited. Yeah, I might do it. Go get shell ball now, liver testicle o, God, moving on. You got anything else? Nope, that's it on sport. For sports. Idiot, all right, sports will go through quickly. Just curious now that you know, somehow, some way that the Dallas Mavericks ended up with the number one pick overall. Yes, the trade basically ends up being Luka Donchitz for Cooper Flag and Anthony Davis. Pretty damn good trade by Dallas. Now, wouldn't you say we take that all day, every day of the week. Listen, you're not a Luca fan I am. I mean, however, he literally made it one round farther than Dallas did. Here's what I'm gonna say when you sit down and listen. Finally, an announcer or non announced analyst said what needed to be said, which was, listen, there's a lot to the story that people don't want to talk about. Management sat down with Luca the prior year and said, we can't win a championship unless you can play defense. You can't play defense with the weight. You are either lose it or we got to figure out something else. He refused and came in overweight. He's going to drop forty a night, right, That's just He's an incredible offensive player, but he is a detriment on defense. And you have smart people in smart places that recognize, we got beat four to one by Boston in the championship. We've got to play defense. So you start looking down that path. Oddly enough, I did not know this. That exact same conversation was had with Jokic. You've gotta lose weight and you've got to be able to run up and down the floor and play defense. Guess what he did. He ends up being three time MVP and a champion. So if you're not gonna play, then don't don't be pissed. Would you take the Cooper flag straight up? For anteitakupo Milwaukee want ed that? No? And I hate when people say that, why because No, I. Would do it. Of course you would. Why an't it? Cooper is an MVP and a exactly Cooper hadn't done anything yet. Oh okay, but you're so you're just saying, let me have my couple of years with Aunt Takupo and hope we win a championship. Yeah, or I can build a franchise. Now, I know that Cooper could be but. Well, I'm saying I would consider that one. I would. Well, you're a Duke guy. No, I'm just saying, whether he's Duke or not, the kid's incredible player. Do you know who the last white person was drafted number one? That's a great question. Uh, number one overall? Yep? No, who is it? It was a guy you'll never could never guess. I was thinking it wasn't your guy from Duke he was? Was he behind Shack? Is that why he wasn't number one? Late? Yeah? Yeah he was. He was like six or seven. I think it's a guy named like Tom Kent from the seventies. Good lord, Yeah, I don't know. I don't get me wrong. I love Anto Takoupo. I just don't. I don't. I think you're going down the path like you. There's more than just one player. That's why he didn't win in Milwaukee last couple of years. You got to have more than just ant to Goupo. Yeah, well, I mean every team does. There's no no more one person teams. So I do agree with this. This was finally brought up yesterday that I thought was interesting. You traded Luca because you wanted you needed defense, but you brought in Anthony Davis and you've got Clay Thompson. You traded for a championship. Now you didn't trade for let's build. Well you didn't think you were getting the number one pick, but now you've got it. So now what do you do? Because you're putting something on a player that, hey, we're supposed to win now and you're the one that's supposed to do it. That's a lot on a rookie coming in. Yeah. So, well he's got Kyrie and Ad and other players that can take some heat off. That's what I'm saying. You've got Clay, Let's not forget that. Klay Thompson's there. Yeah, who can score thirty and fifteen minutes. They didn't have the year I thought he was going to have that. No, but you've got Derek c Lively. Basically you have the whole duke roster there. Yeah. Anyway, so that's the NBA, the or at least the draft. Kansas Speedway. Yeah, uneventful now'll yeah. Which the truck race was pretty incredible. Yeah, host of are yeah, which, uh was interesting. He had a nice win. The ARSA races this weekend at North Wilkesborough. That'd be interesting. What I'm more interested in that I will one hundred percent watched is the car's tour. So the Car's Tour is like the the Cup for I just lost the Late Models, thank you. I can't I say late I don't know, but I know that you're having you struggling with it, so I just throw it in there. It is like the Cup for Late Models, right, It's the series that you want to be in because it is the stepping stone right now for NASCAR. That's where Josh Barry came through. That's where. Uh McQueen who is now winning an ARCA and probably will be have an Exfinity car next year. So they typically race Wednesday at North wokes Borough Borough, but it's being moved to Friday, and it's also going to be televised by Fox, so which is massive. And guess who your announcers are going to be? Dale Junior Yes and Kevin Harvick. Oh okay. And I'm like, now, of course they own the Car's tour okay together, So I'm interested. I want to watch it because I can't wait to see who's in it. Yeah, that's kind of cool. And I bet Peyton Sellers, who's the guy that at South Boston. I guarantee you he's in it. So I'm gonna watch that. Yeah, I don't know that. I watched the All Star to be honest with you. Yeah, it can't. His cars just aren't. I'm just glad they're not doing Charlotte. That's right. I agree, you need a little bit of a break from that. What do they do? I mean, it hasn't been in Charlotte. What do they do North Wokesboro? Okay, they've been there before? Yeah all right? Uh, NBA inch is closer. You've got the Pacers now yeah, probably the Nicks. Yeah. Uh and then I don't know if the Nuggets can beat Okay, see they're not. Last night was tough. They should have beaten ok see in Okay, see, yep, it'll go game seven, you do you think? Okay, yeah, Timberwolves, I think they'll win that, right. Who were they playing? Who the Warriors? Oh that's right? Oh yeah, yeah, that's serious. It's over. Stuff. Ain't coming back, is he? No? Okay, yeah, that's done. F one's in Italy. You know. F one does not look at a map. Yeah. Yeah, they're not going in sequential order. No to me, if you're gonna come to America for Miami, why wouldn't you then go to Mexico and then Brazil and then. Can to stay in the same hemisphere? Correct, Now you go America and then back over to Italy. I guess they're in the same northern hemisphere. Okay, as you were. Anyway, they'll be there. I have fallen into the trap of college baseball. I'm flipping through the other night. LSU's playing Arkansas and it was a great game and it was fun to watch whatever. And then I flip over and there's Tennessee and Vandy and oh my god, the rivalry. You know what I thought about this the other day. When you grew up, you had the Lakers and Celtics. Couldn't wait to watch that rock didn't even didn't matter whether I liked the teams, just knowing that those two were gonna battle it out or the Pistons, you know it, just you had that Who the hell is tuning into the NBA right now. For a rivalry, I would say the NBA is probably happy to have a Knicks, Pacers Cants again. Yeah, so let's hope do they get along now? Yeah, I mean let's hope not. But baseball you see it immediately. Let me tell you two teams that hate each other, Tennessee and Vandy. Oh my god. So I don't know if you know this, but the NCAA cracked down on batters and players talking. They will cost you now yeah, yeah, like the Virginia Many North Carolina game. Yeah, so it you know, the Tennessee game, I don't know, they got into a bench is cleared and it's like, oh have. You seen the TikTok? They do not like these Virginia chech North Carolina game Jackson cherries on it. I think I did see that. Yeah. Yeah, it's really funny. But the tech guy got thrown out right, It's crazy. So anyway, I am getting excited about college baseball and one of my bucket list things is to go to Omaha. Yeah cut two, all right, that's not I'm huh, that is what I mean. I've always wanted to go, and obviously I want to go when LSU has the best chance to win. If L s U and Tennessee go oh yeah and make it. Then where we're going got to I'm telling Marty right now count on me being going. I want to do like I'm one of those I can sit in the stands and I can watch three games in. An Now, I'm not going if Vanderbilt's there. Now, what is it that you don't? Oh my god? That whistle? Great point? How in the hell does do they let him keep doing it? I don't know. That's awful, It just oh, it burns me up. That's a great points the whistler. I'm not going to go to a game where he's there. Yeah, it's like soccer. You can't do it because I are What is that stupid thing called Emma the horn? It's called it's kind of name. I literally have no idea. What you don't know? The blowing of the horn during a soccer game. That happened because when it was in South Africa, when they weren't killing white people. Jesuz, All right, that's sports. Neat Insurance in Bedford, I'm David Honeker, local state farm agent. Whether it's home, auto or life insurance, You've got you covered. With personalized service and great rates. Let us help you protect what matters most with the reliability and trust of State Farm. Call us today at five four zero, five eight six eight one ninety four, or visit our office that is conveniently located at one two three two East Lynchburg Salem Turnpike in Bedford, right beside the Walmart. We are your go to State Farm agent, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Call us today. It's time for news man. The winning is just it's on a whole other level right now. And dude, I looked for. I literally flipped on the news yesterday morning and I think it was CNN and they literally said not good inflation report. I know. And then I flip on Fox and it's the exact opposite. Inflation continues to come down, right. And here's the part that I loved more than anything, and I couldn't find that. I hate when they show a graph and then you can't go steal the graph. The graph was what we care about. Stop with the stupid inflation rates. Show me the consumer, like the groceries, the all that stuff was down, down, down, down, every single one of them, not like the inflation inflation rate that was what point some percent down? So I watch ABC News because that's the channel that I grew up on, So I still watch it. And I like the talent of David Muir, the guy that does agreed one hundred percent. Good looking guy, voice is good, and he's intense. He's but man, I just they annoy me with their writing. I know he's reading it, but I know he's a liberal because I watched him in the debate. Sure cover for Kamala the whole time. Yes, but last night his inflation report was unexpectedly the lowest it's been in four months, right, or the least amount of gain or however the way they put it. However, analysts, some analysts say, LOI we talk about how they use that term. Some analysts say, we have not realized the full effect of the tariffs. Dude, they can't. They can't help themselves. I mean, you literally just lied because it would have some impact if it's made an impact, of course, but if it's a positive impact, you haven't even said that it could be positive. So if if the tariffs happened and now they don't happened, like are they they've gone away? Yeah, like they're not tariffing few your products. Like it's either happened or it hasn't. That's exactly right. I have paid a tariff. I bought a muffler from Canada and I had to pay, you know, three hundred dollars for it. You think maybe we should talk about trickle down. They won't let you talk about. Trickle down, right, Okay? But no, I just thought it was funny because all the percentages that I was looking at was like grocery prices down three point eight percent, and then it went over to energy costs was down six point nine And I'm like, dude, those aren't small figures. This should be everywhere. I'm gonna ask you if you've heard this word at all? Eggs oh way down massively. No, you don't hear it. It's not on that channel. An there's not an egg to be heard from. No. And what was the the thing that I saw that I just it blew me away? Oh it said the ticker at the bottom said that now because it was the one that the ABC News was touting just a couple of weeks ago, because they used to say all the top economists they were heading toward arrest recession. But then what's the big financial financial institution? JP Morgan? Yeah you know now it said JP Morgan doubts of recession or something like that, and it's like, damn, y'all change your minds quick ye. So anyway, I just we keep winning in that and then watching I am literally watching Donald Trump go overseas and you sent me a text that hit the nail on the head man that could you imagine Caamella doing that? That's what coys have at it. That's the theme of today's have at it. There's no way this is what we have. Yeah, And they like I just saw a headline a few seconds ago. He's coming back with trillions of dollars that are going to be inflected here. Look, we talked about it our whole life. Why are we paying other countries? Yeah, hey, Donald Trump has other countries paying us. We got a four hundred million dollar plane and we're complaining about it, like we literally want to impeach the guy over there, which if it had been Biden, I would have thought, okay, that was done, some family deal, but not with Trump. Trump just lays it out there like, hey, of course we're gonna take it. You take the putt did you see did you hear that right analysis? And he's exactly, well that's coming up. Yes, I agree. We got a deal with China. This is all just this week, Trent. Yeah, we get a deal with China. Yeah, we get Katar, Saudi Arabia giving us money, like they're paying us now, not we're paying them, they're paying us and we're complaining. Like the news is going nuts, and if the stupid lady on Fox. God, I know they have to have a Democrat, but at least come up with something original. Donald Trump is pocketing all of this. Oh, come on, And I love just Waters. She said, you know, this is what happens when you've got Trump who owns companies. They're going overseas and now he's getting all this money. And Jesse Waters says to her, what company did Biden known? Yeah, and dude, she froze like, oh yeah, Like at least if you're going to claim it, at least his is legit. Yeah, like he has a company. How did Biden get all of his millions? It's preposterous. That's a great word, preposterous. And by the way, what I have really come to love about Trump and people have talked about it. It's the eighty twenty issues. Yes, like now talking about prescription drugs are too costly. He just took an issue that no other Republican would touch and touched it right and got on the eighty percent side. He's so genius. Here's what I love about that, because I love the Democrats and Republicans that come out and talk about, well, these are things that have to be worked out in legislation. Didn't get to it. Yeah, that's all I've ever said. Hey, he can sign an executive order and you can complain about it, or you can go sit in your seat and say, hey, let's codify, let's bark out some legislation here. Yeah, exactly. But they don't. They don't want to do anything. And that brings me to my next thing. The Dems who tried to break into an ice detention to Almighty and listen, I'm glad they only arrested the one person. And I know we want them to arrest other people, but I'm telling you, Trent, that's what the Democrats want. They went there to get arrested so they would have a platform to stand on. So I don't know what you do if what would really be cool is if they just simply find them thousands of dollars something instead of putting them in handcuffs. I told you that's the next part of this administration that I don't want to see actual shit happen. I just want to see it happen. The difference, this is what's crazy. And I've they still can't understand why Donald Trump is popular. They don't get that it's organic, like for instance, when they charged him and mugshotted him and did all that stuff, he became more popular. So, in honest, honest to god, I think there are Democrat think tanks that go, we need to get some members arrested. We can become popular that way. Idiot manufacturing it does not work. I did see something that I thought was a pretty good strategy that I just saw recently. And this is what This is what I'm my problem with the Republicans. Are we have doge correct, we have budgets. Yes, now, if you don't fix this, oh yeah, and the Democrats can come around and go, we your administration and your Republicans just spent five hundred and fifty million on such and such, so you better start coming through. I agree with that. Yeah. Well, yes, that's the difference between Democrat and Republican. Yeah, we will vote people out. Yeah, that's what happened when the stupid Republicans ran stuff under Bush. We said enough's enough, and we did vote them out. It's how we ended up with two freaking Democrats in Virginia. So well, yeah, and we got MAGA. That's how we got Maga. That's also how MAGA came along exactly. All right, we'll wrap up this section in session unless you got anything else, all right, sure, so win win win. We're gonna win, win, win, and we're gonna make America great again. Here's that clip of uh and it just means something every week. Yes, we can say it. That's something we can actually point to and go do just one again. Yeah. So this is cut three. This is his interaction with an ABC reporter. You say, people who knew got luxury Chat as a personal get to you, why not leave it? Why not? Only Well a few of you would, let me tell you, you should be embarrassed to asking that question. They're giving us a free jet. I could say, no, no, no, don't give us. I want to pay you a billion or four hundred million or whatever. It is, or I could say thank you very much. You know. There was an old golfer named Sam Snead w a two tournaments. He was a great golfer. Then he had a motto, when they give you a putt, you say thank you very much, You pick up your ball and you walk to the next hole. A lot of people are stupid. They say no, no, I insist start putting it, and then they put it and they miss it and their partner gets angry at him. You know what, remember that Sam Snead, When they give you a putt, you pick it up, and you walk to the next hole, and you say thank you very much. Right on, respectfully, he is so much better now as a pro. Ain't though, I mean you had a connection with Sam Sneed. Didn't you painted his house? That's right. You did pay us to mow the lawn while I was painting the house. Isn't that interesting, Emma m she liked that delegate sleeping. Sam Sneath. He was a famous golfer. He's kind of Mount Rushmore of golfers historically, especially his courses he designed. He's a designed courses too. But he was a big town golfer. He lived in Highland, or actually Fad County. Ye, hot springs, Hot Springs, all right, today's top ten. He had a hot granddaughter too. We've got a. Wonderful top ten today when I was at that age, moving on top ten. So my top ten today is top ten fads that are no longer around. So here's what's interesting. If you google fad, it does not come up. Isn't that what we called it back in the day? A fad? Yeah? What do you mean? It don't come out? What's a fad? What's a fad? You don't know what a fad is? No, I do, but I couldn't find a definition for it. Huh? Is it an acronym for something? We said it all the time? I know, I don't know, but I tried to look it up and it never came up. I never heard of it. I mean, obviously I never heard of. Oh my god, definition. Okay, yeah, it's in the dictionary. I couldn't find it on my Google. You probably typed here we go. So anyway, top ten fads that are no longer popular? Okay, number ten? Yeah, what are you laughing at him? Oh my god? Do you not know what breakdance? Okay? So listen. In my day, breakdancing was so popular. You literally had people that would walk down the street with a piece of of noleum. Yeah, roll it out and start breakdancing. Am I watch this? Oh my god? Please don't have recording. Y let's don't put that on TikTok. All right, so breakdancing is out right. Nobody's done breakdancing in a long time. That was the pop but it was a big deal. Yeah. Number nine, the neon colored bracelets. I remember this. Where are those? Are? Like halfway up their arm? A little rubber jelly kind of cup colored bracelet. No, emma, wristbands. Your sister had the jelly jelly shoes. Yeah, she posted about that. Yep, didn't make no list. M hm. Number eight this was our kids fidget spinners, right, that wasn't our age, correct, our kids fidgets. But they're no longer around now they're going, Emma, no fidget spinner? Do you even know what it is? Okay? How about Rubik's Cube that's not on your list? Do you remember that one? Yeah? Rubics Cubi. Yeah, I used to cheat. I would take the stickers off and put them, or you could pull the buttons off and that I could only ever get one side. I could never do the whole thing. I couldn't either. Okay, so you at least know what a Rubik's QB is. Yes, all right? Number seven, Yeah, ice bucket Challenge. Remember how that was big? You did it. I wouldn't do it. Yeah, I did do it. I can't even call it me out, and I still wouldn't do it. I don't don't have to help the needy. Number six. This was going to revolutionize everything. Remember how big of a deal they made these things? Yeah a segue. This is still a thing I saw people. I don't know why you said as a fact, because it's still around. Yeah, people, I saw Nashville too. You do not trimp when it came out. Yeah, it was going to change everything, kind of like literally, it was supposed to be in airports everywhere. Yeah, I have seen them in maybe a few hand full of cities. You think it's because of the cost, I don't know. You know what's cool now? You ever see those guys with that one wheel? Yeah? Oh yes, it's called one wheel, is it? Yeah? Yeah? Everyone's getting ready to correct me. No I was not, but I keep looking at it thinking my toe getting sucked down in that thing, you know what I mean. Let's segue on the number five. I got gout hurt. The fat shoe strings like Adidas shoes, Remember the strings, Yeah, you would change them out. Yeah. I never did that in my life, of course, not probably because you didn't have shoes with strings. No, you had the vel I did do Velcrow shoes, of course. Yeah. Zips Logan told me that fat shoe strings were coming back. Everything makes its way back. Never never throw something away, it'll eventually come back. Number four Yeah, bandanas, remember they would put bandanas around their head. Or day backs are just made up a good point. What breakdance and never left? That was an Olympic sport this year. Do you remember that lady that was doing that. She was awful, just stopped. Dave. Yeah, could you imagine, Dave Baxter. Have you ever put a bandana on? No, me, neither, But it was a thing. It was heck, they would wear them around their legs. Yeah yeah, all right. Number three music videos. Yeah, I mean it was. Music videos were so popular at one time. They had stations. It was just the channel dedicated Yeah, MTV v H one yeah uh CMT like these were huge. Yeah. Did they even do music videos anymore? Yes? Oh they do. Yeah, a country of music. I think CMT still has a channel. Okay. Number two fanny packs. I don't agree with this that it's because sad. Yeah, because they're still around. They are still they can be around, but they're not. They are came out with one and they had the kind of go across ort like it's a crossbody. Yeah, and like Marty comes walking out and I'm like, what in the hell are you wearing? Exactly the reason you say it is because it's no longer a fad, well accurate. What about what about the water bottle toss? Do you remember that where everybody had the damn toss a dawn water bottle. I thought you just got it. That would have been a TikTok. Uh. All right, so y'all say fanny packs are still in. Well, your number one isn't right either. It's not either. I agree with you, Emma. You put on some jeans shorts. I'll put some on tomorrow. I still have them. I feel like everyone still wears jeans shorts shorts. They are not like they were, There's no doubt, but I do see it. So many people wear Jean shorts Jesus Nashville. Okay, hey wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, we're talking about two different things here, because Emma, there are some hot women at tailgates that that's not the gene shorts. That's not what Brian's talking about. He's talking about the men that wearing down to their knees like Bermuda. Go to Liberty. They still wear them. We called them George George Jean shorts and they would roll them up. That's a where they would cut off. Yeah, it was awful. Exactly. You don't have any, Emma, any fads that are no longer around you. And all your young friends used to do when you were in high school skateboard had to have. Wouthing. You know what bothers me today, what and how it morphed is everybody has the Stanley water bottle. Everybody. It's men, women, adults, kids, everybody's got a damn water bottle. Was unicycling ever a fad? What the hell? If you were on the Barnum and Bailey's with that was my. Only skill as a kid, I think, yeah, I can, Oh my god. My cousins did it for their fifth grade talent show and then we just learned how to do. Do they still have talent shows at school? No? I think. It was a really good yo yo or two. Hey, have you ever seen the lady that does the panda. She's called the Panda Chinese Panda or something, and she's on that big giant unicycle. She flips the saucers and the bowls. Do you know how what she makes a year? She makes big time coin? Why I should quit my life? She became famous at a Lakers halftime show. Okay, there's a whole story behind all that, but yeah. Yeah, she makes I've seen her in person. She was a UVA game. Yeah, I think that artist became famous him at Uva at a basketball game. The one that like spins it. Oh that's really cool. It is neat. Yeah cool. I don't know how we got off from that? Is that it? I try to ask Marty for some fads and she did not come through at all. She's not listening, she cut us off, apparently not. There's a lot. I mean, you can go through. There's a million that go in and out, and if you're a company that makes that stuff, you got to strike while the iron iron Why the fire. Is hot, and then they go to the next thing. Like I'll bet you some of the stuff that you said, the same company has made, like the fidgeted spinner rub it. You probably morphed into that, you know what I mean. But I love the long lasting like Lego blocks. Legos are great. And then the Lincoln Logs is what I loved as a kid. Dude. I played with Lincoln Logs for hours. I did. I love Lincoln. Kevin, burn your little fort down. We would build card houses out of the deck of cards. Oh yeah, I did that with my kids all the time. But see that, now that brings us to something before you get to have at it. Do kids have imagination? Like, dude, we got two minutes left. What's emma? Emma, you're gonna be upset? All right, we'll go ahead, how about it. I can't do it this fast. I just talked you. Stuck. There's no Kevin today, I know, but dude, it's time for I'm going to go home, all right. I'm gonna do this as fast as I can. Am I I've always been getting paid. Oh yeah, but now these are brownie points. We're going to overtime or in this case, they are, okay. The theme of this, the theme of this and dude, I can listen to our show and I know you're eating a bit. I mean every time, like I'm going down and listen to it. Just anyway, this was my dinner. Well, I know, for the show, before the show or after on your way home. I cut my mic see you you can hear it, okay, but I ask you questions. Yourself. Go all right, listen. So the theme of this have added is backwards and forwards what we had versus what we've got now. Okay, So this is what we were spared from cut ten. Everything is in context. My mother used to She would give us a hard time sometimes and she would say to us, I don't know what's wrong with you, young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree. You'll exist in the context. Of all in which you lived and what came before you. Can you imagine her doing that in Saudi Arabia? No, gosh, she's a great producer. So the question that I have just swallow when is this? This was? This was I played this back in the day. This was several years. Ago, let's go say, because it didn't have the laugh track with it. Uh nobody laughed. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, you remember that they used to pull the little like the crowd would laugh. All right, dude, listen to the hypocrites. This is my favorite favorite thing that's going on this week is the liars that are all acting like in the news. How dare they not have told us about Biden's uh uh deficiencies? Right? What do they call that? The mental thing? Yeah? All right, So this this clip is from I think last night MSNBC, and they are CNN and they are interviewing at the end of Chuck Todd, I mean, I'm sorry of Chuck Schumer, and then they have a pain and listen to what they It's like Chuck Todd has to say this and she cuts right to them, so cut fifteen. All right, editor, Chuck Schumer, I know you got to go. I appreciate your time today. See you soon, I hope, Thank you, big gear. All right, and our panel joins us now CNN political commentator Joan Goldberg, the host of the Chuck Podcast, Chuck Todd, Democratic strategist Paul Lagalla, Republican polster Christen Soltis Anderson, both Stan and political commentators, Chuck. Todd go. He is among the people that are responsible for this, the leaders of the Democratic Party, the staff of the White House. And I have to say, I find everybody now talking to these authors, get out of here, go home. You're part of the problem. Now you tell us so, I just and I find you know the reason why the Democratic Party has less credibility today. Here's an unpopular president and the Democratic Party has a worse rating than the Republican Party with this catastrophic governance that we've seen over the last one hundred and twenty eight and yet why is the Democratic Party in worse shape because of this distrust? Because of this frankly, what the public feels as if the party leadership let them down and let them let this happen. He's as responsible as anybody else. He was a leader in the party. He could have said something sooner. Jesus Oh Trent. In the interview, she asked Chuck Schumer a couple of things about the cognitive and he kept saying, we're moving forward, We're not going to talk about the past. What else can he say? Chuck Todd is pissed, But Trent, he did it himself. That's what I'm trying to say, like they are literally throwing arrows. Yeah, when the arrows should be pointed at them. He didn't. Do you remember when COVID hit how he this same guy is yelling at everybody about not taking the vaccine you are killing other people and then refused to apologize, or when he said later he goes, oh, well we didn't know. Well, you're the one that was yelling. Yes, And he like he's literally saying this right, yes, throwing Jake Tapper who's seeing in under the bus. Yes. And he also said, all of you, if you listen to what he says there, all of you, stop stop running to these reporters and telling in the stories he doesn't want. So he's trying to actually just undermine any of this that's going on right now. Yes, because he's being undermined and he knows it correct. But listen to what he also said there. He said, we have the worst run country right now, the worst president, the one hundred and twenty days that we have suffered, and yet the Democrats are thought of is worse than he is. Yes, you're a news guy. How do you get to say that? He gets to say it because if you go back when Donald Trump's first term was he was asked a question. I'll never forget this, It's ingrained in my memory. He was asked the question, what did Democrats need to do to get back into power? And you know what he said? If you strip away you know all the bull crap that he said. Basically, we need to get together the Democrats and the media and come up with a narrative that the that the public will believe. That's the only way we can win. He didn't say it that way, but that's what he said. We've got to change the narrative. Yeah, and he's pissed because he can't control the narrative. How is I know I'm asking rhetorical questions. I know that. I mean, these guys are just absurd, But how do you get to be the host of an NBC news show and be that biased? You know what I'm saying? Yes, I do know, But I mean the question also is why isn't he on NBC anymore? Yeah? Notice nobody ever says that, Yeah, he left, No, he didn't. His ass was, Hey, dude, nobody listens to you anymore. If it wasn't for Scott Jennings, I don't know anybody would listen to see and I get these clips, but there's no way I'm watching it. They haven't changed as a network. Yeah, all right, so this is what I kind of want to remember. So this is him saying, how dare the staff not tell us these things? Well, here's one of those reporters carrying in the mail for them. Remember the thing that was called a cheap fake. Do you remember what a cheap fake was? Yes, okay, here it is cut sixteen. Uh, you know the whaiteouse perserret to use the phrase cheap fakes, the idea of cheap fakes. Let me explain what that is to people. We've been worried for years about AI deep fakes, that computer generated images are going to trick people into believing something that's totally false. Cheap fakes are a little bit simpler. They're cheap. They're just distorted, out of context videos, chopped up in certain ways, constructed in certain ways. That's what we're seeing. That's what the Biden administration, the Biden campaign is so worried about right now. But made no mistake. They are worried about this. This is a real problem. This is not something made up fiction. The videos are oftentimes made up, but the problem is real. That's an NB I mean, that's a CNN guy, Brian Stelter, I think getting fired. He's back. Oh that's right, he did come back, all right. Do you remember when he's talking about that, they showed the video on the clip, it's when Biden froze. Yes, Okay, that is what the story is this week about how Biden did not recognize George Clooney, like, oh my god, he didn't recognize who I was. We have to change who the president is. But and that arrogance is a story in its own exactly. But this guy came on there as an NBC, I mean a CNN News guy, yep, and he's saying what cheap fakes are? Correct? Okay, it's lunacy to watch them now, talk about as if they are surprised, yes to hear of his decline. Yeah, he's carrying the mail. I remember Blinky KGP the Claude Van down. She called it cheap fakes. And we were here on the show and I told you you know how you know it's not a cheap fake And that was a made up term. Anyway. I mean, nobody ever said it beyond this subject. The reason you knew it wasn't was why wouldn't you put the video up and then put the real video next to it? Yes, proved that Fox is showing something that didn't happen. He froze on stage and Obama comes over and grabs him by the arm and in the back and escorts him out. They called it a cheap fake, like they had manipulated the video. One of our favorite clips of all time, and we play it here often. Lima probably has it right by her fingertips, but him doing the sixty minutes. Yeah, Joe Biden, this was in his first year fly to discuss his decognitive decline, to which he couldn't even do it. And they're sitting here going this was a shock to us. I surprised myself. Sometimes I surprise my own self. I'm fly. I mean, all right, so we're going to switch. This is the transition. Man. You know how you say you look at things that it makes you laugh out loud. All right, people aren't going to be able to see this. You'll be able to see it, but they will get an idea. This is what we had versus what we have. Okay, cut twenty four. A. Jeez, that's it. You'd put it off there. So just to let you know that that went from we went from Tim Waltz's daughter, the one that's the freak, to Trump's daughter. All right, we go from the health secretary of Levin to RFK. It's crazy health secretary, which I don't know. I did see a little clip with him the other day that I'm starting to worry a little bit about him, RFK swimming in the sewer. Oh, I didn't see that. Like, yeah, I'm starting to question him a little bit. I'm just gonna be honest with you. Yeah, the Defense secretary, remember the black guy that went missing? Remember you had like and wherepacitated? By the way, I never told anybody he was gone, Am I am? I right about this? That he was currently still in the military. Yes, I don't know. I mean he's serving as the Oh they had to make a rule change for that. There was something about him, otherwise he would have been a wall. Right, you're a civilian. Yeah, But the biggest story was nobody knew where he went. Yeah, he had some kind of surgery to hegseeth. Right. Then we went from Jill to Millennia what a big upgrade that is, Amen, Kamala JD. I think it's the biggest. Yeah. JD's not getting enough press right now. Yeah, but he was. He is a rock star, dude. I got a clip of him here in a little bit. And then Hunter versus Baron. Wow. All right, so let's get to the smartest guy that's out there politically. Donald Trump is doing things that nobody else does. And this is two minutes long, but man, this is the leadership we've been craving since Ronald Reagan. All right, let's go cut forty seven. The transformations have been unbelievably. Remark Saudi Arabia or our eyes. A new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce not chaos, where it exports technology not terrorism, and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each. Other out of existence. We don't want that, man. It's crucial for the wider world to note this great transformation has not come from Western intervention. Less flying people and beautiful planes giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs. Now, the gleaming marvels of Riad and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so called nation builders, neocons, or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Kabal, Baghdad so many other cities. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves, the people that are right here, the people that have lived here. All their lives. Developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions and charting your own destinies in your own way. It's really incredible what you've done. In the end, the so called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built, and the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies. That they did not even under stand themselves. They told you how to do it, but they had no idea how to do it themselves. Peace, prosperity, and progress ultimately came not from a radical rejection of your heritage, but rather from embracing your national traditions and embracing that same heritage that you love. So dearly man, he's. Just he gets it. I wish I knew who's this speech writer? Now we should look into that because that's a that's a really good speech. Not only is it a good speech, but his delivery is like it's his words, like he is so comfortable at being president. Now, dude, he can just speak it. You don't know if I mean a lot of that seems like it was ad lib, but he was. He stayed on pace. What amazes me is knowing now what we know because we didn't know it then. We had inklings. But I remember I was a Republican then. I remember people talking about what's the big gigantic company that Dick Cheney was apart Haliburton. Haliburton. Right, we knew that the war's going on, Halliburton's making billions. That stuff hasn't stopped. By the way, how genius is it that he's over there talking about Listen, we're in a region now that cares about business, and you guys don't want all this conflict. You just want to be wealthy and grow your business. We're going, if you were willing, we're gonna make weapons. For you to purchase. Right, Okay, So you've done what they wanted to do all along. You're just doing it legally now, and you're not hiding and starting wars over it. We can still manufacture weapons. You know. Of course, our only concern would be to be duped and then they go kill Israel, right of course. But just in that speech, and it wasn't in that clip, he gives Iran all the opportunity to join us. You know what I mean. I mean he does it warmly, like Iran is a beautiful country. Like you know how he does, Yes, I Ran is a beautiful country. You have a chance, but we're not going to let you have the nuclear weapon. Correct, you do what you want to do and will be open arms. But you just got to drop that. Listen, you and I have talked about this before. He does not do things without purpose exactly. So there's a reason why he is there touting their success and that he did not visit Israel. There's a reason why we had a hostage released without Israel's input. Yeah, it's not because he's turning his back on Israel. It's saying, hey, we need to put it into this. We've talked about it, let's get it done. Exactly. Dude, he is so good, uh man, I'm just like every movie makes right. And by the way, he's also you know how they always like to say he dog whistles, right, Well, this is a dog whistle to Russia in Ukraine. Yeah, you can do this. You can both be wealthy. Yeah. And by the way, Russia used to dominate this region. Correct, and they're opening their arms to us because they know we got people that can help them build what they want to build. Yeah, it's freaking genius, dude, This last one I got and I'm calling it cut forty eight for a reason. I hope he is our next one. And you don't have to play the whole thing, mobo. Just just listen to how smart this answer is. Is anybody smarter than this guy? On politics? What these guys underappreciate is that the best way to defeat our debt long term is growth. If we have an economy that's growing at one percent a year, there is no way out of the debt problem in the United States of America. If the economy is growing at three or even four percent a year, that is the way that you solve the problem. And so what this tax bill accomplishes fundamentally is it grows the American economy I think in the biggest way in a generation. Now. If you go back to the first Trump administration, Martha, you had a lot of economists who said, the tax bill is going to lead to a reduction in federal revenue, the tax bill is going to blow up the debt. What actually happened is that revenues went up, and then, of course, until the COVID pandemic and then the presidency of Joe Biden, America's financial house was in much much better shape than it was under the previous administration. Common sense and just explains it, I mean, just explains it in such a way that you realize he's competent. Yes, But I think it was Bill O'Reilly that said what you don't see is behind the scenes that he's not just a confident guy. He's a cutthroat guy, just like Donald Trump. He just you don't he's abolished Donald Trump. Yeah, And I'm like, dude, I can't wait. I know, and you know what I can't wait for our party will actually have an election. Yeah, we won't just give jd Vance the nomination. He'll have to earn it. How about the Democrats already Yeah, kicking out their chair. Oh yeah, the one guy, right, they had an election, they're gonna So somebody finally brought it up yesterday. I think at Fox News, here are the Democrats again going, eh, we're just gonna pick her leader of the Democrat We're not going to have an election. Yeah, Like they don't what Charlie Kirk says. They're built to not have a leader, correct, because they have all these little factions and as soon as you make someone the leader and he says something the wrong way, the rest of them say, oh, he's not our leader. Correct. You can't You're not allowed to say that, dude, I'm telling you Trump Trump figuring out not what the Republican Party says, he figures out what the eighty percent want. Yep. And he gets on that side of the issue, and you can get on board or you can lose. That's right. Yeah. Will we get the big beautiful bill? Yes. I love when I hear Mike Johnson because I like Mike Johnson. And you know why, because they ask him and he says, we'll get there, and they go, oh, but you're going to have to do this, and he'll go, we'll get there. Yeah, And he gets there. So that's what I like about it. I really hope. I mean, I'm so worried about midterms. I know we got a whole we got another whole year of that, right Yeah, so yeah, I'll worry about that. But anyway, get a great interview today with cap'n Walls. Yes, terrific. Who's up next week? Next? I'm working on it right now. So if he hasn't said yes to the date, but on it? What was the name? Oh shoot, I meant to bring the whole list, dude, I've got us booked. I have us with people booked to mid July, and I have him gone the second time over there. Going to the Friday event with your father in law. Yes, with the Rivermont Terrace group was a gold mine. That's awesome. Everybody wants to up. This guy's name is Brian Keaton. He was a wounded warrior. And the thing that you would probably know about him if he says yes to next Wednesday, and I'm going to work on that now, is he's the guy that at the Nats game, Low crawled to the pitcher's mound to throw out the first pitch and he pulled a grenade with the baseball and threw it over his head to the catcher for the first pitch. That's going to be great. Yeah. For those people who are still listening and you are interested in sponsoring the veterans' voices out, Yeah, just reach out and call my number at four three four four for four eighteen seventy four, or you can email Emma at the show. You can email anybody, it doesn't matter. Facebook, ye, Facebook, whatever. Let us know we are we're going to start sponsoring those segments. So get on board now because I'm sure other companies will find out and when we're in bigger studios it would be too late to get on board. Some of the people that I talked to, by the way, are Vietnam veterans, good warriors. Talk to an FBI guy, I'm sorry, CIA guy that after he got out of Vietnam War, went back a second time to the Vietnam War and then served with the CIA in Kosovo, Iraq in Afghanistan. Wow, I can't wait to hear these stories. All right, folks at the let's see what do we have at the end. I just love the red, white and blue. That whole thing. Well, we can't play that, you can't, No, don't cut us. Yes, you don't play by rules, do you. I like it? Well, we gotta grow the show, all. Right, Well, don't play it, Emma. We talked about this, screw America. Well, it's the end of the show. We don't need to end of the show. People are tired of listening to us. Anyway. It's seven. Oh, I gotta get going, and there's a couch in the back end. Loud lord, all right, see you next week.