Millennials ARE Freedom's New Guardians

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome everyone, to episode 18 of the Duster Mud podcast. Let's get to our special guests today. [00:00:07] Speaker B: We got Hannah and Matthew here. Welcome. [00:00:09] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:00:10] Speaker A: Hello. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Good to be here. Hannah is our second daughter. So now you have met Rebecca, our oldest, michaela, our youngest, and Hannah number two. [00:00:21] Speaker C: That's right. [00:00:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So welcome. We're really happy to have you here visiting for the holidays and we took advantage of you being around to chat with you about freedom. And I believe the unique perspective that you guys are going to bring to the conversation is two active duty service members serving in the United States Air Force as officers and pilots. So we're excited to get your perspectives. [00:00:49] Speaker C: We're excited to just be here chat with you. [00:00:52] Speaker B: Cool. [00:00:54] Speaker A: So what does freedom mean to you? [00:01:01] Speaker D: Freedom means to me to do, to think and to speak without reprisal or penalty. Just a small, simple definition of what freedom means to me. [00:01:17] Speaker B: Okay. Hannah? [00:01:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Actually I knew that you were going to ask this question, so I looked it up. I looked up the actual definition just to see what my thoughts were on that and it was to do, speak and think what you want. And I think that 100% I agree with that definition. [00:01:35] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good. [00:01:37] Speaker B: So has your military service affected that at all? Has it changed it? Has it enhanced it? Has it lessened it, or no factor at all? [00:01:48] Speaker C: I think that we have, or at least I have learned through a I don't want to say lack of freedom, but there are certain things that you can and can't do in the military that kind of enhance the idea of what you consider to be free, if that makes sense. [00:02:07] Speaker B: It does. We're going to go further into that. [00:02:08] Speaker C: Okay. [00:02:09] Speaker B: How about you, Matthew? [00:02:11] Speaker D: I think just being around the world and seeing other countries and how they do things, I think we take for granted just the small things that we have here, just because most mean we don't go to other countries. Like the United States is just huge and you have to cross either two gigantic oceans just to get somewhere and that costs an arm and a leg. You can't buy guns in Europe. That's a right that we have here that's written to our citizens. Just little things like that just makes you miss home, appreciate home and realize you don't really realize what you have until you're not protected at home. [00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. So do say think what you want. That seems at odds with military. [00:03:16] Speaker C: It is at ODS with the military, yes. [00:03:20] Speaker B: Obviously, I serve for 25 years, so I'm with you. But I'm interested to hear your perspective on how describe just start talking about the concept of freedom and fighting for freedom and defending freedom and a lot of the cliches that you hear, especially about military service with your definition of freedom, with the obvious lack of freedoms that come with military. Does that how does that mesh for you? [00:03:54] Speaker C: I mean, growing up with you in the air force, we all understood that there were things that you could or couldn't say. So whenever I joined the air force, it was very apparent to me that I was giving up that freedom. It was completely voluntary and I knew what I was giving up, and I was more than happy to do it because of the service that I was encouraged by you guys and encouraged to do and what my dreams were as to become a fighter pilot. And so I was 100% willing to give up whatever it took in order to do that. So things like freedom of speech, you can't say what you think necessarily. Our elected officials are my boss. [00:04:44] Speaker B: That's right. [00:04:45] Speaker C: So you can't say certain things if you want to, and then the freedom of even as simple as living where you want or moving where you want. So, I mean, yeah, we're told to where we're going to live as far as in the world, but even as far as what houses you select. [00:05:08] Speaker A: The. [00:05:08] Speaker C: Military goes and inspects that house and then decides whether or not you're going to live there. You know what I mean? So those kinds of things, I think that not a lot of people understand that there is that level of freedom that you give up. Another thing, whenever it comes to security clearances and stuff like that, every detail of your life is unveiled to whoever is inspecting you. So the freedom of privacy as well is something that you give up your entire life, especially being overseas, having the PRP program, which is even more a lack of privacy there because we're constantly being. [00:05:55] Speaker B: Personal reliability program required for all people that have a nuclear mission. [00:06:02] Speaker C: So it's a constant monitor process, it's constant reporting process. [00:06:07] Speaker B: Down to an aspirin. [00:06:09] Speaker C: Down to an aspirin. They know what you put in your body, they control what you put in your body to a certain extent. I wouldn't change it for the world, but there is definitely a distinct lack of what most people would consider freedom whenever you're especially overseas in the air force privacy. [00:06:33] Speaker D: That was a good one. Yeah. Small things like you have to put in your vacation, your leave approved if you want to go outside of a four hour radius to your base, so you can't just pack up and leave and go see a baseball game in Boston for a weekend, it has to be approved. And you better not have any deployments coming up, and you better be current with all your work. It can be a pain sometimes to just go on a trip. [00:07:05] Speaker C: But I mean, on the plus side of that is that we are required or we are insured leave. So most people, they get two weeks out of the year, including sick days, whereas we get, what is it, two and a half days a month, guaranteed leave. So we have the ability to remove ourselves and go get some vacation time. [00:07:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:32] Speaker B: Listening to you guys talk has reminded me over the past couple of years, especially after spending two and a half decades in it. Right. It was the still remember the first time we just left and went over to my parents house in a different state? We didn't ask anybody. We didn't tell anybody. We just literally got in the vehicle and left. [00:07:55] Speaker C: What did that feel like for you? [00:07:56] Speaker B: It was crazy. [00:07:58] Speaker A: Do you know? We just left and we didn't ask anyone. [00:08:02] Speaker C: Who approved? [00:08:02] Speaker A: We didn't tell anyone. [00:08:04] Speaker B: No one. [00:08:04] Speaker A: No one approved. [00:08:06] Speaker B: We actually talked about that. Do you know who's told us we could do this? Nobody. [00:08:13] Speaker A: So freeing. I don't know. Felt also like you are untethered. [00:08:21] Speaker B: Almost like you're about to get in trouble. Teenager I just snuck out of the house. It's exhilarating, but I'm probably going to get caught. [00:08:31] Speaker A: But you're 18 and you're allowed and no one cares. And nobody actually cares. Check in with mom and dad. [00:08:38] Speaker B: It felt a lot like that. So absolutely understand what you're saying there. And then, Ben, I'm sure if you go back and look at some of the first blogs that I wrote about a year ago and the first time that we started doing some YouTube videos, it has been very difficult for me to just spout out an opinion. It's hard. I'm still very guarded and very cautious. [00:09:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I can tell. Whenever I read your blogs, I'm like, oh, I know that he has more to say on that. [00:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah. But it's so hard because you're right that's one of the things that you give up is just that ability to just spout out whatever you want to poop out of your mouth. You really do have to censor yourself. Censor and filter. Yeah. So I totally agree with you guys there. [00:09:29] Speaker C: Yeah. I think that also there's a and maybe we'll get to this later, but I was just thinking about it, as you were saying, is that there are inherent freedoms that we have that you don't even realize that you have them until they're taken away from you. Well, like being able to say whatever you want okay. In front of whatever camera that you want or in front of whoever that you want, or the fact that you can. This one for me is we joked about it the other day is, oh, I'll just hand in my two weeks. That's not a thing. You will show up for work. [00:10:06] Speaker B: That's right. And you both are on year two of a ten year commitment, right? [00:10:11] Speaker A: Roughly. [00:10:12] Speaker C: About just about. Just about year two of a ten year commitment. Yeah. So that commitment starts not whenever you join the Air Force, but after you're. [00:10:19] Speaker B: Done with pilot training, which is typically about two years. [00:10:22] Speaker C: Two years? Yeah. [00:10:25] Speaker D: I was just thinking, wow, has it been that long? Been in for five years and only two years into my commitment. Wow. I don't think about it. [00:10:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So about twelve years, I believe is typical for a pilot as your first opportunity to leave the service. [00:10:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:52] Speaker A: It'S just an interesting thing to give up all of the things that we all I have not ever served in uniform, but there's still things that you gave up. No. Right. But coming from the civilian's perspective and thank you for your service and thank you for your whatever, and you protect our freedoms and whatever, and so many people not understanding the amount of sacrifice and it's not just, oh, I'm willing to go die, it's the daily, every single day, keep your trap shut. Sacrifice. [00:11:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Your opinions don't matter for the most part. [00:11:38] Speaker C: Nobody wants to say again, we're happy to do it, right? [00:11:44] Speaker A: Absolutely. It's an interesting thought exercise in what our service members not just you, what the service members writ large do, or the level, the accountability that they're held to. [00:12:02] Speaker C: Yes. [00:12:04] Speaker A: Not just you. [00:12:07] Speaker B: So do you think freedom plays a part in your daily squadron life? Is it something that you talk about. [00:12:14] Speaker A: Or the lack of. [00:12:19] Speaker C: So? I think that whenever you ask that question, a lot of people are going to think the freedom, as in the freedom that we protect. And the honest answer is that is not part of the daily conversation. Okay. Most of the daily conversation has to do with well, okay, maybe it does have to do with freedom, but it's tactical and it's how do we become and maintain air superiority and how do we maintain being the best air force in the world? And so maybe that does have to do with freedom, but we don't typically use the word. [00:12:58] Speaker B: How about you, Matthew? [00:13:02] Speaker D: Our squadron, we mainly just talk about our mission. That's probably the biggest topic of the day, like, oh, who we were feeling today? What'd you guys do yesterday? What'd you guys go out and do? Or what country did you land in, what kind of beer did you bring back for everybody? How's the weather? Oh, it's England. It's bad. So mainly just day to day operations. [00:13:29] Speaker C: Is. [00:13:32] Speaker B: My concept of squadron life is obviously coming from a fighter squadron, having been twice in the squadron that you're currently in, Hannah. So I don't have a great concept of squadron life in a tanker squadron. It seems to me that it might play more of a role with you guys. That the idea of freedom in that in a fighter squadron, unless you're deployed, really, most of the time you're just training. Training where my concept is from your squadron's perspective, you're doing the mission like all the time, every day. Obviously there's training involved as well, but in a fighter, you go, you practice fighting each other and you land at the same place you took off from and you debrief, but it's all training. Training. And for you, when you go refuel folks, you're actually doing the mission. So does that mission orientation, do you think that that plays a part at all with a different viewpoint from your squadron than from Hannah's, maybe? [00:14:53] Speaker D: Yeah, I can try to give an example that would maybe make sense to some folks, being where we are. We're the only tankers in Europe, so we are very busy. Every mission is really important because everybody needs their gas. So sometimes the freedom for a pilot to say, no, I don't really think it's safe, or I'm not really feeling up to it. We call it Operational Mismanagement operational Risk Management. I might not get a whole bunch of say of saying, I don't feel like I should do this mission because the weather is bad, or some other outstanding factor. Like, we have to go, there's no choice. Like, you're going, yeah. [00:15:50] Speaker C: And that's because the dudes who need your gas are actually doing the thing. They're not just practicing, he's going and giving gas to guys that actually need it every day. [00:16:08] Speaker D: So I would say that's kind of the freedom aspect of it. There's not a whole lot of leeway with the mission that we have out there. Yeah. [00:16:23] Speaker B: You mentioned something to me, Hannah, that when we were talking about doing the podcast and talking about freedom and stuff, and you said that not only do you not really talk about it in the squadron, but you're getting better. Not for the sake of freedom, but for the person in the squadron with you. Yeah, talk about that a little bit. [00:16:50] Speaker C: In a fighter squadron, your days are long. [00:16:54] Speaker B: No, you just show up, walk to your jet, it's ready for you to step into. You zip up your zipper suited sun god suit, my Speed jeans, and off I go. And your Speed jeans and fly away to the wild blue yonder, break the. [00:17:11] Speaker C: Jet, come back here's, your broken jet. [00:17:13] Speaker B: And then you go drink beer. [00:17:15] Speaker C: And then I go drink beer. No, we work twelve to 14 hours. I call it work, but we're in the squadron, we're studying twelve to 14 hours days. And that work that we put in is so that we can be the absolute best at what we do. And yes, it's because we want to be the greatest Air Force in the world. But more than that, it's because I fly with someone in my yep. And I know their families and I know their kids names, and they're my best friend. And so, more than I want to be the best for my country, I need to be the best for that guy. [00:18:07] Speaker B: Or your wingman or your flight lead. [00:18:09] Speaker C: Or my wingman or my flight lead. Because no matter what, they're entrusting me to be with them in the sky. And that, to me, is the most important thing. I will be the best. I will wake up at 330 in the morning, and I will be at the squadron by 05:00 a.m. So that I can study for however many hours before I go fly so that no one has a question in their mind. If they tell me to do something that I can do it, and I can do it. Good. [00:18:37] Speaker B: That's awesome. So take us through a typical sorty. You're having a surface attack tactics sorty. So that is we're practicing for actual combat, going in and doing the mission, not just a part task trainer where there's a little bitty piece of the sorty. So you have a Surface Attack Tactics check ride coming up next week for your two ship flight lead upgrade certification. [00:19:05] Speaker C: Yes. [00:19:06] Speaker B: So talk me through prep all the way through debrief, like, when does it start, that sorty? When does it start and when does it end? [00:19:17] Speaker C: So the sorority has already started for me, it's next Wednesday. [00:19:20] Speaker A: Still in America? [00:19:21] Speaker C: Yep. But the studying began about a month ago, whenever the opening of the phase. So we go through phases in a fighter squadron, and right now we're in that phase. Right now we call it OCA, or offensive counterair. It's been different names for a lot of different people, but right now that's what we call it. And so that's whenever the studying starts, and that's whenever the preparation starts. And then the actual mission planning starts, typically one or two days prior to the actual event. [00:19:59] Speaker B: So your sorty is on Wednesday. You will start prepping Monday. [00:20:07] Speaker C: Yep. So we'll get back to England on Monday morning, and I'll probably be in the squadron by Monday afternoon prepping for my Wednesday flight. [00:20:20] Speaker B: How can you possibly prepare for two days? [00:20:22] Speaker C: You would think that you can't, but I'm telling you, if they give you two weeks to prepare, it takes you two weeks and five minutes, as much time as you have. Plus a little is typically how long it takes to prepare for these sorties or any sorty, really, especially whenever you're going through an upgrade. But yeah, so it starts with we call them DLOs or Desired Learning Objectives. And as a flight lead, you come up with what you want your squadron squadron, what you want your flight to learn that day during the sorty. All right, I want us to learn how to fight this threat in the air to air realm. I want us to learn how to drop these kinds of bombs in this environment or opposed by whatever that threat on the ground is. And then I want us to learn how to if one of us gets hurt, how are we going to get the formation out of a contested environment? Okay, those are my three Desired Learning objectives, and then we call it building from the target backwards. So if the desired learning objectives are your target, then you say, okay, then how do I build the sorty from there? And typically it involves especially, like, first of all, what airspace do we have available to us? What is the target area going to look like? We call them red air. How many bad guy jets are we going to have against us? [00:21:48] Speaker B: What's the weather? [00:21:49] Speaker C: What's the weather? Which is constantly changing, especially in England. And so that's where all of the planning process begins. But that is after you've already done the studying, like all of the tactics, all of the we call it GK general knowledge that you have to know that's all before even the mission planning starts. And then once you have kind of a shell of authority, then you go into what we call a mission planning cell or an NPC, and that typically involves all of the blue air. So we've been doing a lot of integration with the F are currently at Lake and Heath. So we take the F 35 Bros, we bring them into the room, and now we mission plan as a package. So how are we going to use Fi or force integration to win today? And then they tell us what they are capable of. We tell them what we're capable of, and we come together and make a plan as to how against the threats that we decided that we're going to face, how we're going to win against those threats. And then from there, you can come up with contingencies, which is I think you talked about this a little bit, so you have your assumptions, right? So we assume that this is all going to happen, and then if everything goes perfectly, this is how it's going to run. We're going to kill everybody in the air. One missile done, everybody's gone. And then we're going to drop all of our bombs, shack every target, and then we're going to run away bravely. And then you get into the contingencies of, well, red air gets a vote, right? So, no, they're not going to die on the first leaf, and no, the bombs aren't going to get they're not going to hit every target the first try. And how are you going to get out? Whenever we call it wounded bird, if you have a wounded bird or if there's red error, respond all at the same time as you're trying to egress the target area. So it takes a lot of and that's where we spend most of our mission planning time is in the contingency realm. [00:23:50] Speaker B: Okay, so now you've got it all planned out. You're showing up the day of if you have a let's just pretend 11:00 a.m. Takeoff time, you show up at about 1045 at the jet. [00:24:02] Speaker C: No, typically I decide whenever I want to show up the next day. And we have what's called crew rest. So we have to have 12 hours between the time we leave the squadron by the time we show up at the squadron the next day. So I was like, okay, 11:00 a.m. Takeoff. I'm probably going to get there around between 530 and 06:00 A.m.. So that means I need to leave the squadron the night prior at 530 or 06:00 P.m., and I will milk that as much as I can. Right, and then you show up the next day at the time that you plan based off of the time that you left, and then you begin practicing your brief. And time matters, the time hack matters, and you have a certain time limit to talk to everybody. [00:24:48] Speaker A: So brief. [00:24:50] Speaker C: Yes. [00:24:51] Speaker A: That is when you guys all get together in a room kind of like this. And what are you doing in the brief real quick for people who don't know what a brief is and how long does that last? [00:25:07] Speaker C: Yes. So it typically lasts after we call it a crew coordination brief, we bring red air into the room and we tell them what threat you are, how we would like you to replicate that threat today. [00:25:20] Speaker A: And this is everybody who's going to be flying in that particular sorty? [00:25:23] Speaker C: Yes, it's typically in this sort of scenario, it's typically around twelve aircraft, between twelve and 15 aircraft. [00:25:31] Speaker A: Okay. [00:25:31] Speaker C: And then we bring everybody in. We tell everybody what the this is the war today. [00:25:37] Speaker A: Okay, good. [00:25:38] Speaker C: And then you tell red air what their role is in that war. And then you ask them if they have any questions, and then you kick them out. And now it's time for blue air. Let's talk about how we're going to beat them. [00:25:48] Speaker A: Okay. [00:25:49] Speaker C: And then we call it chair flying. So we chairfly as the briefer, I will chairfly my formation through from phase zero, which is Marshalling, or we call it IPOE, which is just preparing. So we're currently in the IPOE phase, phase zero. And then I chairfly them through phase zero, which is through the Marshall, then phase one, which is the air to air ingress, phase two, the air to ground attack. Phase three. The egress. Or there might be some more phases based off of our dealers, but you talk them through exactly what formation we're going to be in, what we expect to see whenever our radar looks downtrack the first time, how we're going to handle that as a formation, how we're going to handle that with the F 35s through fi. And then each phase you go through, the contingencies of this is every single thing that I could possibly think of. [00:26:44] Speaker A: That could so how long does that brief last? [00:26:47] Speaker C: It takes about an hour. [00:26:49] Speaker A: So you guys get together, talk about it for about an hour, and then, all right, everybody's released from their brief. And then you go and now we get to go put on the outfit. [00:26:57] Speaker C: Yes. I call it a prom dress. [00:26:59] Speaker A: A prom dress? [00:27:00] Speaker B: I never called it that. [00:27:01] Speaker C: Han, you didn't call it that? [00:27:05] Speaker B: I did not. [00:27:06] Speaker A: That's funny. [00:27:10] Speaker C: So we leave the brief with about 20 minutes until step time, and you take that time, you go do your business, have another cup of coffee, eat breakfast, and then go put on your prom dress, which includes your poopy suit. Nowadays we fly over the water so. [00:27:31] Speaker B: We have an anti exposure dry suit. [00:27:34] Speaker C: Thank you. Anti exposure dry suit, which is a waterproof ish type of suit that you put under your flight suit. And it's supposed to keep you dry if you have to end up in the water that day for any reason. So we put on our poopy suit, put our flight suit back over it. [00:27:52] Speaker A: Put on all the cool guy stuff. [00:27:54] Speaker C: Yes. G suit, cool harness, whatever. [00:27:57] Speaker A: So you put all the cool guy stuff on and then you said something about step. [00:28:02] Speaker C: So prior to walking out to the aircraft, or what we call stepping, we will get a step brief from the we call it top three. So the guy who is in charge of the jet lineup that day, who gives us our jets, and we get an airfield brief, a weather brief to top everything off before we go step out to the jet. [00:28:29] Speaker A: These are the current situations that you're going to encounter when you get out there. Here's the keys to the car. [00:28:34] Speaker C: Yeah, here's the keys to the car. This is what the squadron commander wants you to focus on. This is what the do wants you to focus on. These are what the weapons officers want you to focus on for today. Here are your jets. Here's what is wrong with your jets? So just off you go. And then you can step out to. [00:28:54] Speaker B: Your jet and you fly. About how long are these sorties for? [00:28:57] Speaker C: You depending on a tanker, anywhere from about 1.5 to 2.2 hours. [00:29:04] Speaker B: So an hour and a half to 2 hours and 15 minutes ish matthew. [00:29:07] Speaker A: How long are your sorties? Typically? [00:29:11] Speaker D: Typically, probably five to six, five to 6 hours. It can range from two to 13. [00:29:19] Speaker A: So where you've got all this time on the ground talking and talking and talking and planning and talking about talking about things. [00:29:26] Speaker C: Oh gosh, we're talking about things. [00:29:28] Speaker A: And then you go zip, zip, zip up in the sky, get back down and hurry up and start talking about things. Hurry up and start talking about it. And then you guys are kind of like absolutely opposite. [00:29:36] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I was going to get at. [00:29:38] Speaker A: Were you? [00:29:39] Speaker B: Okay, you've flown for 2 hours now. How long is your debrief? [00:29:43] Speaker C: Well, here's the best part, is the debrief really consists of from fights on to knock it off, which is typically about 20 to 35 minutes on a missionized sorty. So our debriefs, they're trying to shorten them. They're always trying to shorten the debriefs, but typically they last in an upgrade anywhere from two to 5 hours. [00:30:12] Speaker B: Okay, so you showed up, if I'm counting correctly, about five and a half hours prior to your takeoff. [00:30:19] Speaker C: Yes. [00:30:19] Speaker B: You flew for 2 hours. Then you take about an hour after that flight to get everything ready. And then you debrief for 5 hours. [00:30:27] Speaker C: Including the shot validation. Yes. [00:30:29] Speaker B: Right. Awesome. So that's how you get to your twelve to 14 hours day. [00:30:33] Speaker C: Yes. [00:30:33] Speaker B: Got it. So Matthew, did that make you like, sick to your stomach listening to that? Talk us through stressful. [00:30:44] Speaker A: Me too. [00:30:46] Speaker B: Talk us through a typical sorty for you. You're flying on Wednesday. So what does that mean for you? [00:30:53] Speaker D: So, for us, we show 3 hours prior the first hour. We get all our mission paperwork. We brief about 15 minutes. About 15 minutes or so. Really? As long as you can leave for the folks at home. At home, if you can leave the brief with nobody has any questions about what you're going to go out and do that day, then that's a good brief. That's really the objective of having a brief. And then we step, we go out to the jet 2 hours prior to take off. Kind of like how you see an airline. We go out and we have to pre flight everything, get the jet ready to go, deal with any maintenance issues, which never happens. Deal with those. And then we start our engine 30 minutes prior to takeoff. And then we taxi ten minutes prior to takeoff. And then we take off. And we have anywhere from like a two hour mission, which could be a training flight, and going out right up the road and refueling her squadron, which I still haven't gotten a chance to do yet. [00:32:09] Speaker A: It'll happen, I'm sure of it. [00:32:13] Speaker D: Or maybe we'll fly out over Germany and refuel the Germans or over Italy and refuel the Italians and then come back. And that can range from 2 hours to 12 hours, depending on the weather, depending on training requirements for us or training requirements for them because they might be having an exercise or they might fight, go up to the tanker, go back and fight again and maybe come back for a second time. But I would say average is about four or 5 hours and come back and land. And debrief for 15 minutes is a long time. It's usually anything safety of flight happened or anything that we could have done better, just hash it out right there and then it's usually no big deal. And then we just go home. [00:33:16] Speaker B: It seems to me that the difference in the mission really does lead to that. I mean, the fact that you're flying for 1012 13 hours, you can't show up 5 hours prior to that and then debrief for 5 hours. Just physically, that's not possible. So it really does make sense to me that the focus would be different for you and your squadron than it would be for Hannah, her squadron. Just that one, you're doing the mission most of the time, and two, it just takes longer to do it. [00:33:57] Speaker D: And you all's job is you guys play the tapes and you. Go by the second, because the standard is perfection, because you have to be because we need our best pilot. We need like our best pilots to be fighter pilots to do that. And then our mission is timing. We need to be at a point in three dimensional space on time. That's the emphasis for us. [00:34:21] Speaker A: Right. Having you having during your service time deployed and gone into combat, if I remember right, yes, there were briefs and there were debriefs. But in real world stuff going on, some of your missions would be up to 8 hours during those times. You guys can't sit and talk about it and talk about it and talk about it. You were talking about the time they spend in the air when you're down range doing the thing. You guys didn't spend all that time debriefing. No, it was vastly no time spent doing. [00:35:00] Speaker B: Typically there's a mission planning cell that will do the majority of the planning. The flight lead will come in and make sure that he or she knows what's going on. Typically a few minutes, maybe 15 minutes prior to the rest of the flight. The briefs, after you've been in the area of responsibility for a week or two, the briefs become very standard. You sort of talk through things just so that it's on everybody's mind, but typically it's just standard. Standard is the way you discuss it. And then you're absolutely right. You show up not too far before takeoff, maybe two hour and a half before takeoff, and then you fly six, seven, eight. [00:35:45] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:46] Speaker B: I think my longest airborne sorty was twelve and a half hours. [00:35:51] Speaker A: So when she's talking about the briefing and the amount of time spent, those are training days, those are at home days. And the thing about Matthew and where you guys are currently stationed right now being, quote, as we all call it, the tip of the spear is you are on that side of the Atlantic Ocean. And so therefore, you can service Europe, you can service the guys that are over there from Home Station versus being, quote, deployed somewhere, and so constantly out doing that mission, whatever that might be, and you guys at home, unless you go forward into another deployed location, So training days at home versus at home mission days. Mission days. It's just a very different, very different life. But I did remember that your emphasis when you were down range was incredibly different as far as the way your time was spent. [00:36:49] Speaker B: Yeah. So talk a little bit about being an American military service member serving in a foreign country. [00:36:58] Speaker C: Okay. So I want to talk about I think first is the culture shock that we weren't expecting whenever we went over to England. [00:37:11] Speaker B: Okay. [00:37:11] Speaker C: And I think a little bit of it was because I'd been there before. [00:37:14] Speaker B: That's what I was going to say. That's interesting. [00:37:15] Speaker C: Five years. I know. So people ask me where I'm from I'm like, Well, I spent most of my time in England, but it didn't feel like that whenever I showed up there as an adult. And for you, I want you to talk about it a little bit, too, because yours is kind of funny, but there's a lot of culture shock whenever it comes to going over somewhere where I mean, they speak English. You don't really expect the stark differences between being there and being here. But I want you to tell your story of showing up for the first time at Heathrow. [00:37:47] Speaker D: Oh, God. [00:37:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:49] Speaker D: Oh, God. I've never lived overseas before or been on a cruise to Mexico one time, but America is all I've known. Didn't really want to even live overseas either, just because I didn't want to move all my stuff. [00:38:10] Speaker C: Cross notion, but it's hard. [00:38:12] Speaker D: Here we are. And I had three weeks to get all of everything in our house packed up while you were at training and I was at training. And it was just a nightmare. Because another thing about freedom, too. We were separated. For a year and a half as a joints palace couple just due to different most people in the States I hope they don't have to experience. [00:38:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not fun. [00:38:51] Speaker D: But anyway, back to the England. [00:38:53] Speaker A: Oh, heathrow. [00:38:54] Speaker D: Yes, that lovely. So all I had was just a couple bags in my backpack moving over to a different country that I've never been to before. And thankfully everybody spoke English. But yeah, get in line for them to check my passport. And the British guy's like, yeah, mate, why are you here? Like, why am I here? I live here now. [00:39:22] Speaker C: Me and my backpack and my one suitcase. I think I live here to deliver. [00:39:27] Speaker D: I'm in the military. Yeah, I'm stationed here. And he's like, okay, which base? And I was like, Milden hall. He's like, okay. I could think that was a weird answer for I live here now. [00:39:42] Speaker C: Yeah. For someone that's never been anywhere. [00:39:45] Speaker A: No, like that. [00:39:48] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:39:50] Speaker C: But, I mean, we're guests in their country and they welcome us very well. And we really enjoyed over there. For sure. Everybody has their opinion, but we enjoyed. [00:40:01] Speaker A: Our time over there. [00:40:02] Speaker B: We did a lot. [00:40:03] Speaker A: So much we went back and highly recommended it to other people. [00:40:07] Speaker C: I would not have dreamt of a better first assignment. [00:40:09] Speaker A: No. Yeah, it's amazing and fun. [00:40:14] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, for sure. [00:40:17] Speaker D: Everybody's driving on the left side of. [00:40:19] Speaker A: The road most of the time. [00:40:21] Speaker D: Most of the time the font in the airport is different from the US. And it bothers me. I don't know why. It's just like it's just a weird font. I don't, like don't like their choice in their font. [00:40:40] Speaker A: Maybe you could just hear their accent. [00:40:43] Speaker C: They do have a couple of Wins, though. Like I was telling mom earlier, the England winds are I mean, not that they don't have air conditioning. That, to me, is not a win but roundabouts took a minute to learn how to do it. [00:40:57] Speaker B: But my God, so much faster. [00:40:59] Speaker C: Better than red lights. [00:41:02] Speaker B: But although if the people don't know how to navigate a roundabout it's very difficult. It is very difficult and it's like. [00:41:11] Speaker C: A significant emotional event, right? Whenever my first time at five ways, which you know that roundabout is where stoplights and roundabouts become one significant emotional event on the left side of the road. [00:41:24] Speaker A: Yes it is. Oh we have so many stories, right? We'll save this for another time. So many stories. Goodness. [00:41:38] Speaker C: But I love being over there and we love being over there and I think that just living in another country and having access to just inherently by being over there, having access to most of the other parts of Europe have really opened our minds and our perspectives a lot to just the way that people live. [00:41:59] Speaker A: How has it changed your perspective to home? Did they welcome you home when you flew in this last time? [00:42:06] Speaker C: They did. That's always a good feeling whenever you fly into Dallas and they stamp your passport and say welcome. [00:42:19] Speaker D: Mean I tear up almost every time know, they'll ask why are you here? I'm like oh, military, I'm coming back home for the holidays and they're like oh, welcome home. And they mean it and it's like. [00:42:33] Speaker A: Been there enough to so many times and it's just like yeah, that is an amazing feeling. It really does change the way you see your home country. [00:42:44] Speaker D: Yeah, like home means something now and. [00:42:48] Speaker A: The perspective of there might be a lot of griping right now from citizens of this country about the state of things good, bad or ugly. And when you've been over to other countries and seen what you were talking about earlier, the way the rest of the world lives and then you come back here and you realize, dang, it's good here y'all, that's the way I. [00:43:21] Speaker C: Felt I think also even just now before leaving the squadron, they're like oh, where are you? Oh, I see you're going on leave, where are you going? I was like oh man, I'm going home. And they're like oh, that's awesome. Where is home right now? And I've never lived in Missouri. [00:43:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:43:39] Speaker C: But home is the US. It doesn't matter where to be honest, just showing up here whenever they say like, oh, we've landed in Texas. Yeah we did. [00:43:53] Speaker B: Matthew, you said home means something. [00:43:56] Speaker D: Expelled like before. If you're going on a trip and for maybe a civilian welcome home doesn't of it hurts. It doesn't hurt but you just feel it in your heart, the tug in your heart of welcome home. And it's like oh man, if I was ever told I wasn't able to come back to America, I'd be gutted, I'd be sad. So that's what when they say welcome home it means a lot to me. [00:44:31] Speaker B: Why can you describe the why is it freedom? Is it the weather? [00:44:37] Speaker D: Yeah. The freedoms that we have here are our way of life, our way of doing things. That not that I don't like how Europe does things. It's just it's not my home. And you can get pretty homesick living overseas. I think. [00:45:03] Speaker A: Some of the things that are special about here really begin to stand out in your mind and in your heart when you do without it. When you're overseas. [00:45:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you learn to love where, you know, home is where the air force sends us, is what we all say. Oh, I have that on my yep, on my little plaque, which is what we all say. And you feel that way whenever, you're know, you're like, oh, this is my house. This is where my things are, which is typically for air force folks, is like, where your things are is where your home is. [00:45:39] Speaker B: Behind it all, home, but behind it. [00:45:42] Speaker C: All, there's this thing that you're missing. Whenever you live over there, there is an absence of. [00:45:57] Speaker A: I don't want to. [00:45:58] Speaker C: Say America, but I don't know what that thing is necessarily. [00:46:05] Speaker D: We just have what I heard from Europeans. Americans just have a free spirit, and it's just like I can't even describe. [00:46:18] Speaker A: We just have our nest. [00:46:21] Speaker D: Yeah. It's born in us. Like, it's ingrained in us, and they don't really understand. [00:46:30] Speaker A: Right. [00:46:33] Speaker D: So when they say welcome home, it's like, oh, man. [00:46:41] Speaker C: To us, that really means something. [00:46:44] Speaker D: It means a lot. [00:46:45] Speaker A: You were telling us a story. If you can remember the story or another story that comes to mind that is really particularly led you to have that feeling of freedom and, wow, this is why we're here doing this. [00:47:09] Speaker C: Yeah. So the first time I deployed, we had been to this restaurant several times, and I'd built a rapport with one of the waiters that was there. And I think it was the third or fourth time we went to this restaurant, which we really enjoyed, and we finished our meal, and the waiter, unprompted comes over to us with a small saucer, and on top of the saucer was an orange or, like, a tangerine. And he set it on the table and started opening the tangerine. And I'm like, did any of us order a whole tangerine? I don't recall ordering tangerine. Well, anyway, so I'm kind of looking at it. I'm like, what are you doing? He kind of started getting emotional a little bit. But it was around this time of year, it was the holidays. And as he was peeling open the orange and he was placing one slice in front of everybody at the table, and he was looking at me as he was telling the story, and he said, in my country, the citrus is very rare. And so his father and his grandfather or the older generation of men in that country around the holidays, whenever citrus was in season, they would share one and so they would open it up and they would break it apart and they would with family, and they would each share one slice of a citrus. And he was describing it to me in a way that it was a significant treat to have a slice of a tangerine. And the fact that whenever he walked over to the table with a whole tangerine and I was like, why are you bringing me an orange? And then the significance of that to him, or even just having one slice of it to him, the fact that that's what his grandfather and his father did. [00:49:38] Speaker A: And what was he saying to you guys? [00:49:40] Speaker C: He was saying to us that he appreciated us and he wanted to share that around the holiday season. That meaningful experience that he had with his father and his grandfather, he wanted to share that with us. And that to me was like it was very moving. And I took that with me as to gosh I go buy a bag of oranges to slice up and make my house smell good for two pounds at the Tesco. And he's breaking apart this tangerine, handing me one slice and telling me how meaningful that was to his family and. [00:50:24] Speaker A: Recognizing what he was doing was trying to show you the recognition and appreciation for what you guys were over there doing or near around, whatever them yeah. [00:50:38] Speaker C: I got pretty emotional with that one. I would too. [00:50:42] Speaker A: I would too. [00:50:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:43] Speaker B: It was expressing appreciation for your service and helping him stay free. [00:50:49] Speaker C: Him. [00:50:53] Speaker A: No, that would get me emotional too, right there. Sorry, guys. Yeah. So he knows what freedom means. [00:51:03] Speaker C: He knows what not freedom means more than I think any of us do. And I think that's the difference. [00:51:16] Speaker A: Have you had anything, any particular stories that you've encountered? [00:51:24] Speaker D: Yeah, I wasn't a part of this mission, but the story of it was really cool. We took a tanker and landed in a country, and when they landed in this specific country, all the security guards and the part of that country's armed forces were like, holding American flags and just welcome them. And they thought it was the coolest thing to see a big American plane land on their runway. And they treated those guys like rock stars, and they thought it was just amazing. That's super cool. [00:52:07] Speaker A: Little things like that. It's a big thing. [00:52:14] Speaker D: I think another thing that's interesting too, living overseas is just American influence on the world and how big our culture is around the world. Like all of our movies, all of our music, style of dress, like, everybody you're going to see influential. Yeah, you're going to see our music is going to be in every bar in Europe. [00:52:41] Speaker A: That's funny. [00:52:42] Speaker D: And you wouldn't think it would be, but oh, wow, dang, this is cool. [00:52:48] Speaker A: So Future man, you guys are killing it over there right now for sure. We could not be prouder true. At all. Your future within the Air Force plans if you just had to just like this is kind of what we're thinking. [00:53:12] Speaker B: We know things change. [00:53:13] Speaker A: We know things change, right? Yeah, they change. Yeah, absolutely. [00:53:18] Speaker C: Yeah. Gosh future. To me, it's like getting through next week. Yep. So outside of making it through next Wednesday. [00:53:37] Speaker A: I think generically. [00:53:40] Speaker C: Yeah, generically. We love England and we love being able to be together. It's one of the few places in the world that Tankers and Strike Eagles are together. So if we can stay there as long as we can, that would be. [00:53:56] Speaker A: That. [00:53:57] Speaker C: Seymour Johnson's. Probably close. North Carolina. [00:54:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:01] Speaker D: If you want to travel more. [00:54:05] Speaker C: And I think we're going to get to now that I'm going to be hopefully done with the upgrade soon. [00:54:09] Speaker D: I've already hit a lot of my bucket list items for things that I would like to see in Europe and that was pretty small. [00:54:14] Speaker A: So, yeah, my turn. Bucket list gets longer or she. [00:54:21] Speaker D: People go to Europe like once in their lifetime and we have been blessed with the opportunity to live there. [00:54:28] Speaker A: That's so cool. We traveled as much as we could. That's been our probably number one or number two recommendation. First of all, stay over there as long as you can. And second of all, travel while you can. Do it, do it, do it. [00:54:41] Speaker B: Do you think career? [00:54:46] Speaker D: I want to be in the Air Force as long as love it doesn't feel like a job. And I love that. I don't feel like I'm going to work. [00:54:58] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:54:59] Speaker D: It doesn't feel like that to me. [00:55:00] Speaker C: We don't call it that either. And I take that from you, by the way. You're like, I've never called it work. I just go to the squadron and that's how we talk about it. Hey, what time are you going to the squadron tomorrow? [00:55:10] Speaker D: Yeah, I don't go to work. Dreading it. I've had a job where you just have to go. [00:55:18] Speaker C: We all have. [00:55:19] Speaker D: I don't want to ever live like that. I really do love what I do, even if I wasn't just the Air Force is just awesome despite not having some freedoms that most people have. But I can imagine doing anything else. [00:55:35] Speaker A: So I'm going to shift gears and we don't have to stay here very long, but we talk about food, freedom. We've just covering some serious ground on freedom. But you guys live seriously busy lives. I'm going to talk about food because that's what we do here. We do food, we grow food, cook food, eat food. You all are super busy, but you have high requirements, meaning there are expectations that you have as far as being in the military, being fit and ready to do the job. You have to maintain your health. How do you do food over in working twelve to 14 hours a day on eight hour missions? How do you incorporate any kind of health into that. [00:56:35] Speaker C: Well. [00:56:39] Speaker D: Be careful. [00:56:40] Speaker C: Yeah. So I would say it's shifted in the past couple of months, but prior to that, it was I want to tell a story about this in just a second, but it's a you know, you wake up at 330. In the morning you show up to whatever brief by 05:00 a.m before step, you shove whatever food is in the bar at the time probably a Pop Tart down your throat. [00:57:12] Speaker B: So we got to pause for just a moment. Air Force fighter squadrons all have heritage rooms or bars, and typically inside the bar is the snack area, which is stocked by the snack o with Jalapeno popcorn. The snack o. If they're really good, there's always coffee, and there's always Jalapeno popcorn. [00:57:32] Speaker C: Snickers bars. [00:57:33] Speaker B: There's always got to be Snickers bars and Diet Cokes, right? And for the end of the sortie, there better be beer. [00:57:40] Speaker C: It's basically just a big break room. [00:57:42] Speaker B: It's just a big break. It's a big break when you say, I go to the bar for breakfast. [00:57:47] Speaker A: Right, but you're actually talking you're talking about a big break room that there's some groceries and beverages in there for you to survive. [00:57:57] Speaker D: Room with beer. [00:57:58] Speaker C: Yeah, that's good. So you have enough time to maybe eat whatever prepackaged food is in the bar, and then you go fly until after lunchtime. So you land, and there's popcorn, so you eat Jalapeno popcorn, and then you have whatever prepackaged meal or you order what Deliveroo, which is the English or British version of what Uber eats or something like that, for dinner. And that's how we lived life for about a year. [00:58:32] Speaker A: And it's not the description I was hoping for. [00:58:36] Speaker C: No. [00:58:36] Speaker A: Bet not being mom over here, thinking. [00:58:39] Speaker C: No, they're taking care of themselves, and they're not. [00:58:42] Speaker A: They're eating crap. [00:58:44] Speaker C: Well, at the time, you feel like that's all you can do. The fact that I ate anything that day, I was pretty proud. I was like, I ate a Pop Tart this morning, so I at least have a calorie in my body. And that's kind of how it was for a long time. And the story that I wanted to tell was I don't remember if it was a flight docker or what are those? The aerospace physiologist came in and talked to us on, like, a safety day. He had all the squadrons in together, and he got in front of all of the fighter pilots on the base and was talking about aerospace physiology, as they do, and they said, well, I know that all of you have a well balanced breakfast in the morning. And all of us giggled at him, and he was like, and you go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day, and then the entire crowd just bursted out laughing, and he almost looked like, I don't understand, brother, because if I eat anything in the morning. It's a good day. And there's no way that the schedule is allowing me to go to bed or wake up at the same time ever. No. And you don't find out what you're doing the next day until the evening before. And it was just a lack of understanding with the whole situation that made everybody laugh. So the way that it shifted from hopefully I will eat a Pop Tart and some popcorn today to where we are now, which is we pre plan our meals enough to now I'm eating three meals a day, which is a significant improvement. [01:00:32] Speaker A: Okay. [01:00:32] Speaker C: How do you do that for breakfast? Typically, we make boiled eggs on Sunday. [01:00:41] Speaker A: Okay. [01:00:41] Speaker C: And we make enough boiled eggs so that I have eggs in the morning that I take with me to the squadron. And then I'll take some fruit as well because it's quick and easy to grab, and it's nature's pre packaged I. [01:00:56] Speaker A: Was going to say that. Nature's pre packaged food. [01:01:00] Speaker C: And then the tesco in England has really cool pre made meals that are like a chicken breast, potatoes, and green beans. [01:01:10] Speaker A: It's kind of like how we were talking about the other fresh never frozen fresh, never frozen heat and eat. [01:01:15] Speaker C: Yes. And so I'll buy five of real food, though. Yeah. [01:01:19] Speaker A: Real food. [01:01:20] Speaker C: I'll buy five of those on Sunday, and that's what I have for lunch and then for dinner. We've been enjoying, I think, cooking more lately. [01:01:29] Speaker D: Yeah. For a while there, I think we were just so burnt out and just so tired and like, I don't want to go to the grocery store. And then we would continue to not have groceries and continue to order food. [01:01:43] Speaker C: Which I think was a self looking. [01:01:44] Speaker B: Ice cream cone, by the way. [01:01:47] Speaker C: Yes, I eat not good food, and then I don't feel good, and I don't feel like doing anything prepping good food because I don't feel good kind of deal. [01:01:57] Speaker D: Yeah. And then it's also tough, too, because I honestly don't know what I'm going to do the next day. [01:02:04] Speaker A: Right. [01:02:05] Speaker D: Because something will pop off, and I'll be like, Sorry, babe, I have to leave for, like, five days. [01:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, sure. [01:02:12] Speaker D: Can't tell you where I'm going. [01:02:13] Speaker A: Have you noticed any difference you said you were doing a couple of months ago, you were eating that way. Now you're eating this way. Have you seen any difference in how you feel, how you're performing? Just your overall physicalness a stark difference. Stark difference. Okay. Basically, you just went from eating prepackaged foods to real food. [01:02:36] Speaker C: Prepackaged and restaurant ordered your house. [01:02:40] Speaker A: Okay. So you went from eating convenience processed foods to real food. And some of it's still convenient. It's just real. [01:02:48] Speaker C: Yes. [01:02:49] Speaker A: Okay. Changes. Yeah. [01:02:52] Speaker C: So, first of all, I have energy in the mornings and throughout the day now, and we aren't keto and we're not carnivore. Sure. But just going from prepackaged processed sugar to actually eating real food. That, as you say, is what it always was. [01:03:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:03:19] Speaker C: It changed my energy levels throughout the day. It changed my moods throughout the day. [01:03:26] Speaker A: Really? [01:03:28] Speaker C: I get hangry real bad. [01:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah, we all know that. [01:03:34] Speaker C: So it's helped quite a bit with. [01:03:36] Speaker A: The hangry hangry, which doesn't help. [01:03:38] Speaker C: Hangry doesn't help in a debrief. [01:03:42] Speaker A: No, it does not. [01:03:43] Speaker C: So there's less of that. I have energy to work out in the mornings, so even before I go to the squadron, I'll get a workout in that snowball is in a positive way. [01:04:01] Speaker A: Right. [01:04:03] Speaker C: So you start with a whole food kind of breakfast. That is easy anyway. [01:04:13] Speaker D: And foods that we enjoy, we enjoy. We make chicken soup. We were eating that for every night for, like, a couple of weeks in a row. And pulled pork. So easy. [01:04:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:26] Speaker C: That was a food that we could make on Sunday and make it for the whole week. [01:04:29] Speaker D: Just set it and forget it. There's not much to it. [01:04:33] Speaker A: There are ways to cook real food, and it not be difficult to do. It doesn't have to be time consuming. [01:04:42] Speaker C: It was intimidating to get there, though. And it's not like we didn't know how to cook. [01:04:46] Speaker A: Yeah, you all know how to cook. [01:04:48] Speaker C: We grew up cooking. [01:04:49] Speaker A: Sure. [01:04:50] Speaker C: We cooked for most of our marriage, and then all of a sudden, it was this big, intimidating time suck. [01:04:56] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:04:58] Speaker C: I just can't how could I possibly have time to literally do anything else? [01:05:04] Speaker A: Right, but you've figured that out. You made it a priority. [01:05:08] Speaker C: We made it fun. [01:05:09] Speaker B: Oh, that's cool. [01:05:10] Speaker A: That's cool. [01:05:12] Speaker C: Now it's a hobby. So it went from I have to eat something. It is a chore to think about food. Now I make my own pasta because I think that that's a good time. He loves getting the grill going, and he will spend all day out there by the grill. We've turned food into fun, and that has just allowed us it is no longer a chore. And now we can have fun spending time doing this. [01:05:49] Speaker A: We did that at some point along the way, we turned food into fun and use it as a creative outlet. [01:05:57] Speaker C: And you can I go on YouTube and I find the oldest grandpa that's cooking Italian food, and I follow his recipe. You know what I mean? Make it as fun of an activity as that's cool. You want? [01:06:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool. Awesome. Well, congratulations on your journey to whole food. [01:06:17] Speaker C: Well, thanks. [01:06:18] Speaker D: Right? [01:06:22] Speaker A: I had to. Well, this has been fun. [01:06:27] Speaker B: Yeah, that's been fun. [01:06:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it has been. [01:06:30] Speaker C: Thanks for talking with us. [01:06:33] Speaker A: Well, thank you for talking us into throwing this all together, because this was really impromptu. We were not expecting you guys this week. Even this was a late notice visit. First of all, we were surprised by it. And then your willingness to sit down and have a talk with us is just really cool. It's been really cool. Such a blessing. And we wish you guys all of the love and blessings and everything to your career and your life as you go forward and go back to your home here shortly. So do you have anything else you would like to no ma'am chat about? Okay, well, this has been great and thank you guys all for joining us. Again, thank you for our new subscribers and growing this channel. And we look forward to bringing you more just cool topics guests as we go forward. But until next time, bye.