Podcasts about Langley Air Force Base

With news of mysterious drones flying over New Jersey and concerns about spying, this week's 60 MINUTES investigates a surprising story about another drone incursion. Correspondent Bill Whitaker reports what happened 15 months ago over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, which houses nearly half of the most advanced U.S. stealth fighter jets, the F-22 Raptor, and how it is part of a series of brazen overflights of sensitive military sites. Young dreams were dashed when the U.S. Marine Band followed orders to cancel a concert featuring middle and high school musicians of color, a result of the Trump administration's executive order ending DEI initiatives. Correspondent Scott Pelley speaks with performers of The Equity Arc Wind Symphony about the importance of supporting all talented, aspiring musicians. The name Werner Herzog may not be as recognizable as Spielberg or Scorsese, but over the last six decades, the German filmmaker has had a profound and far-reaching influence on the world of cinema. He's made over 70 features and documentaries, which are often dream-like explorations of nature's power, human frailties and the edges of sanity. Correspondent Anderson Cooper sits down with the enigmatic director to discuss his films, and his other roles as writer and actor. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recently, there were numerous UFO reports over Washington, D.C. Sightings of a large craft or light formation have been seen over Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia. An official wishing to remain anonymous says that he believes the so-called UFOs were actually drones that flew over the Chesapeake Bay and headed to Norfolk. While UFOs fall under fringe findings and are usually considered paranormal anomalies, they can also be a threat to national security regardless of their origins. This kind of public disclosure is still containment and confusing. Tonight on Ground Zero (7-10 pm, pacific time), Clyde Lewis talks with UFO researcher and author, Anthony F. Sanchez, and, founder of the Paradigm Research Group, Stephen Bassett about OBJECT FEVER.Originally Broadcast On 10/16/24

//The Wire//2300Z December 18, 2024////ROUTINE////BLUF: RUSSIA APPREHENDS ALLEGED KIRILLOV ASSASSIN. CONGRESS PROPOSES 1,500+ PAGE SPENDING BILL. MORE DRONE INCURSIONS REPORTED AT OHIO MILITARY BASE. CALIFORNIA DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY REGARDING BIRD FLU.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-Russia: As the investigation into the assassination of General Kirillov continues, one alleged assailant has been detained for his role in the attack. Allegedly, the unidentified attacker planted the IED, and managed the video camera which livestreamed the attack to a command center in Ukraine, which remotely detonated the IED. AC: Though none of this information is independently verifiable, perhaps more concerningly is the lack of Russia's response to this attack. Russia will certainly respond in some manner, though at the moment the means by which this will occur is anyone's guess.-HomeFront-New Jersey: The “drone” saga continues as before, largely spurred on by recent contradictory governmental statements. Very few new sightings have occurred (possibly due to poor weather conditions reducing visibility throughout the region), however many people are still concerned that the drones (as in, the legitimate ones that can be discerned from commercial aircraft) are being operated by a foreign adversary. A few days ago the DoJ, DoD, and DHS issued a joint statement that none of this activity is abnormal and that all drone activity is either lawful civilian operation or a case of observers mistaking commercial aircraft for unmanned platforms.Ohio: Following Friday's airspace closure at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, more drone reports emerged this morning. Additional unmanned aerial platforms were observed flying over the base overnight, as well as early this morning.Washington D.C. – The latest omnibus spending bill has caused concern in Congress due to its roughly 1,500 page length and the last-minute introduction of the bill which statistically suggests that no one has had time to read through it all. However, readers of the bill have already identified that Congress is allegedly trying to give itself a 40% pay raise, prompting a general state of outrage from taxpayers.California: Governor Newsom has declared a state of emergency regarding the H5N1 bird flu outbreak. No human-to-human cases of transmission have been reported.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: The recent statements by government agencies to address the New Jersey situation haven't really alleviated concerns due to most people simply not believing anything federal agencies have to say. One surefire way to ensure that the American people think the drones are part of a secret government test, is to say that the drones are not part of a secret government test.Perhaps most damningly is the contradiction of what government says, and what agencies do. For instance, the DHS says the drones aren't a threat. However, the drones spotted all around the country are so little of a threat that it has become essential to deploy large scale defenses to protect against them, and to close airspace over critical military bases due to drone activity. For instance, in October, Langley Air Force Base issued a solicitation (Notice ID FA480025R0001) for counter-UAS netting to protect the F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft parked on the ramps at their airfield. The use of anti-drone netting is a wise force-protection move, however this does raise the larger concern as to why anti-drone netting would be required at an American military base within the United States.Recently, a Chinese national was arrested for flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Yinpiao Zhou was arrested before boarding a flight back to China on December 9th.Ever since the Ukrainian war proved their utility, small quadcopters (and now, fiber-optically controlled FPV drones) are a cle

In Episode 10 of Long Blue Leadership, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Burt Field '79, now president and CEO of the Air & Space Forces Association, discusses his leadership philosophy, and emphasizes the importance of continuous learning, effective communication, family, and the five core values by which he lives. Listen now!   SUMMARY Burt Field, a retired Lieutenant General and CEO of the Air and Space Forces Association, discussed his career and leadership philosophy. He highlighted his upbringing as an Air Force brat, his academic journey at the Air Force Academy, and his early leadership roles. Field emphasized the importance of continuous learning, effective communication, and avoiding being an "asshole" in leadership. He shared impactful experiences, such as leading during the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, and the significance of family support. Field also discussed the Air and Space Forces Association's efforts in advocacy, education, and family resilience, stressing the need for strong national security and defense.   LEADERSHIP BITES Values-Driven Leadership: Burt shared his 5 core leadership values - integrity, fortitude, excellence, teamwork, and service. Defining your values and using them to guide your decisions and actions is crucial. Continuous Learning: Burt emphasized that as a leader, you can never stop learning, whether it's about your organization, industry, or even topics outside your expertise. Staying curious and open to growth is key. Empowering Others: Burt stressed that a leader's job is to empower and inspire their team, not try to do everything themselves. Recognizing and rewarding excellence in others is vital. Effective Communication: Burt noted that leaders can never communicate too much or well enough. Repeatedly delivering clear, consistent messages is essential for alignment and buy-in. Humility and Inclusivity: True leadership requires humility, giving credit to others, and making the organization successful.   SHARE THIS EPISODE LINKEDIN  |  FACEBOOK   TAKEAWAYS Never stop learning. As a leader, you must continuously learn and expand your knowledge, even in areas outside your expertise. Define your leadership philosophy and values. Burt shared his 5 core values of integrity, fortitude, excellence, teamwork, and service. Having a clear set of guiding principles is crucial. Recognize and reward excellence. Identify and empower those who have put in the hard work to become experts in their fields. This builds a strong, capable team. Communicate effectively, repeatedly. Effective communication is critical, but leaders often underestimate how many times a message needs to be delivered clearly. Burt emphasized the importance of being inclusive, giving credit, and making the organization successful rather than yourself. Avoid toxic, self-serving leadership.   CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction to General Burt Field 01:52 Growing Up as an Air Force Brat 05:40 Choosing the Air Force Academy 10:26 Life as a Cadet at the Academy 19:09 Leadership Development During Cadet Years 23:15 The Integration of Women at the Academy 24:12 Influential Leaders in General Field's Career 28:28 Learning from Subordinates 34:15 Career Path and Leadership Philosophy 37:54 A Chance Encounter: Love and Military Life 41:13 Building Resilient Families in the Military 42:12 The Journey to Leadership: From Air Force to AFA 45:57 Empowering the Next Generation: Education and STEM 49:46 Leadership Lessons: Insights from Experience   5 FRANK KEYS TO LEADERSHIP SUCCESS "You can never stop learning. You have to learn. And whether it's leadership or anything else, you have to always learn." "Everything comes from your values. When I make leadership decisions, or when I look at how we're going to move forward, or what, how we're going to accomplish the mission, it should reflect those values in my decisions, how I act, how I from the biggest thing of creating a here's the strategy, or in objectives on on what we're going to accomplish, to the smallest things, like how I conduct a meeting." "If you want to be a really good leader, you need to be really good at something. So you got to put in the work when you're young to be really good and understand how hard it is to be really good at something." "You cannot communicate enough, and you cannot communicate well enough. So I use this example all the time. I come up with a message. I craft it, I think about it, I write it down, I practice it, and then I deliver it, and it's awesome. I was perfect. I nobody could have misunderstood me when I'm done with that, and I really think that I have hit the mark with maybe 20% I probably got to say that again, that way or differently, about another 10 or 15 times when I can barely stand to hear myself talk anymore, and I'm still not going to get everybody." "I'm going to give the credit and I'm going to take the blame. That's how you become a good leader."  - Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Burt Field '79, October 2024   ABOUT GEN. FIELD BIO Lt. Gen. Burt Field, USAF (Ret.), is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Air & Space Forces Association, leading the Association's professional staff in its mission to advocate, educate, and support the Air & Space Forces. As CEO, he oversees operations and resourcing for AFA and its 113,000 members, including events, publications, and the Mitchell Institue for Aerospace Studies, the nation's only think tank dedicated to air and space power.   A veteran of 35 years of Air Force service, Field retired from active duty in 2015 following his final tour, as Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans, and Requirements. Throughout his career, Field commanded a squadron, the Air Force Weapons School, three wings, a numbered Air Force, and a sub-unified command. A command pilot with over 3,400 flying hours in the F-16 and F-22, he served twice on the Joint Staff and completed a tour in the State Department as the military assistant to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. In his last assignment, he led policy and requirements decision-making for air, space, irregular warfare, counter-proliferation, homeland security, and cyber operations. Prior to that assignment, he served as the Commander of United States Forces, Japan, and Commander of 5th Air Force from 2010-2012 where he led the U.S. military response to support Japan during the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster of 2011.   Following his retirement, he served as the Vice President of Strategic Planning for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, developing strategies that guided and contributed to over $5 billion in growth in a five-year period. He also managed a $500 million New Business Funds portfolio for independent research and development. Since 2020, he has been an independent defense consultant, served as a subject matter expert working with and mentoring Airmen at all levels, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the U.S. Air Force Academy Falcon Foundation.   Field graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1979 and earned a master's degree in business administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He and his wife, Lisa, have two sons, both officers in the USAF. - Bio image and copy credit: AFA.org     CONNECT WITH GEN. FIELD LINKEDIN | FACEBOOK | AIR & SPACE FORCES ASSOCIATION     ABOUT LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP Long Blue Leadership drops every two weeks on Tuesdays and is available on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn + Alexa, Spotify and all your favorite podcast platforms. Search @AirForceGrads on your favorite social channels for Long Blue Leadership news and updates!          TRANSCRIPT SPEAKERS GUEST:  Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Burt Field '79 | Host:  Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99   Naviere Walkewicz 00:00 My guest today is Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Burt Field USAFA Class of '79, president and CEO of the Air & Space Forces Association. He spent 35 years in the Air Force, retiring in 2015 as deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements. Gen. Field has held many positions of leadership throughout his career, including squadron command, the Air Force Weapons School and three wings. He has served as a command pilot with over 3,400 hours in the F-16 and F-22. He completed a tour in the State Department as the military assistant to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. He has also served as the commander of United States Forces, Japan, and commander of the 5th Air Force from 2010 to 2012. In his post military career, he served as vice president of strategic planning for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. He has been an independent defense consultant and has served as a subject matter expert, working with and mentoring airmen. He is also a member of the board of trustees for the United States Air Force Academy Falcon Foundation. Today, we'll talk with Gen. Field about his life before, during and after the Academy. We'll discuss his role in leading the Air & Space Forces Association. And finally, we'll ask the general to share advice in leadership development. Gen. Field, welcome to Long Blue Leadership.   Burt Field 01:23 Thank you, Naviere. Please call me Burt.   Naviere Walkewicz 01:24 OK, yes, sir, Burt. Will do. And I will say that was quite an introduction. You have had an incredible and ongoing career.   Burt Field 01:30 Well, frankly, and no false modesty, I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time and take advantage of the opportunities presented to me.   Naviere Walkewicz 01:39 Well, I appreciate you saying that, and I think our listeners are really going to enjoy hearing about what some of those right places at the right time kind of look like. But here's what we do at Long Blue Leadership: We like to rewind the clock a little bit and start with Burt as a child. What were you like growing up? Where was home?   Burt Field 01:56 Well, I'm an Air Force brat. My dad was a fighter pilot. I like to say his first assignment was the Korean War, flying F-86s and his last flight was in an F-4 over Hanoi. Now, didn't get shot down, but that was his last flight. So, I grew up traveling around both country and the world and went to a bunch of different elementary schools and then three high schools before I ended up at the Air Force Academy.   Naviere Walkewicz 02:27 Wow. I can imagine some of our listeners have also been some kind of service brat. As I always say, I was an Air Force brat as well. Are you an only child? Do you have siblings?   Burt Field 02:37 I have three sisters. I have one older sister and two younger sisters, which irritated me to no end when I was a kid, but now we couldn't be closer.   Naviere Walkewicz 02:49 So did you get special benefits because you were the only boy of all the girls?   Burt Field 02:53 Of course not. Now, their stories are a little different, but of course not.   Naviere Walkewicz 02:57 Understood. And did they also serve as well.   Burt Field 03:01 They did not. None of them did. My older sister's a doctor. My next down is an accountant and CFO, and the one below that is a bunch of different medical community things and a nutritionist.   Naviere Walkewicz 03:15 Wow. So, you are the one who followed in the military family footsteps.   Burt Field 03:18 I was, but interestingly enough, I never really thought about it growing up. My dad just happened to be in the Air Force. He just happened to fly airplanes. And you know, whoever you were, your dad was a doctor, lawyer, plumber, dentist, truck driver, whatever, and now let's go play ball. And that's pretty much the extent of it. But when I was in high school, I knew that I needed to start figuring out what I was going to do, because I'm pretty sure my dad wasn't going to let me just lay around the house after I graduated. And I was definitely afraid of being bored, and nothing really sounded good — doctor, lawyer, dentist, plumber, truck driver — none of it was good. So, I came into the house one day in my junior year, and I attribute this to the Air Force Association: The magazine was laying on our coffee table, and it was face down, and on the back was a picture of the F-15, which was one of the brand new airplanes that was coming out. And I looked down at it, and for whatever reason, it clicked, and I said, “That does not look boring.” And I went and talked to my dad, because I figured he might know how to do this. So, he did some research for me, and he said, “Well, to go to pilot training…" And this was 1974 and that's the wind down of the Vietnam War and letting a lot of people out of the Air Force, “…to go to pilot training, you have to be an Air Force Academy graduate, or distinguished graduate from ROTC.” Well, my dad had retired, or was about to retire, and we were going to move to Florida for my senior year, and I was going to go to the University of Florida, like everybody in my family did, except for two, and so I knew that the Air Force Academy would provide me an avenue, and the University of Florida would provide me an avenue to be a bellboy down in a Key West hotel when I graduated.   Naviere Walkewicz 05:18 So you chose the Air Force Academy, of course. So, that's interesting. Forty-five years later, you are now the president and CEO of the Air & Space Forces Association, which was what kind of caught your eye in high school.   Burt Field 05:34 It's really kind of amazing. And the editor of the magazine — they have a bunch of back issues at our headquarters building, and he found that magazine.   Naviere Walkewicz 05:47 Oh my goodness, I hope that's framed in your office now.   Burt Field It is.   Naviere Walkewicz Oh, that's amazing. What a story. And we're going to talk more about that. I really want to hear more about that role, but let's stay in the childhood range a little bit. So you were going to go to the Air Force Academy. Were you already involved in sports? Was that something—   Burt Field 06:06 Yeah, so, I played baseball growing up. We moved around a lot, so it was hard to play a lot of other sports. I did Pop Warner football, played basketball, you know, on teams growing up. And I was a good athlete but not a great athlete, and so I wasn't recruited for going to come here to the Academy. But I played football, I wrestled and played baseball until my sophomore year, when I blew up my shoulder and couldn't throw anymore. Then I just wrestled and played football for the rest of my high school career, and then when I came here, I just played intramurals until a friend of mine that was a couple years older was on the rugby team, and so he kind of said, “Hey, come on out, you'll like this.” And so it was the rugby club back then, and it was a way to get out of stuff in the afternoons when you're a freshman. So I came down and I played on the rugby team for a few years.   Naviere Walkewicz 07:10 I have a lot of rugby friends, and it definitely is, it's a family, for sure.   Burt Field 07:15 It is. And it was really that way back then. It was all local Colorado sports teams. You know, the guys who were 45 and over down to other colleges around the state.   Naviere Walkewicz 07:28 Your extended family.     Burt Field Right.   Naviere Walkewicz So, speaking of family, how did your — I think I know how your dad felt about you wanting to come to the Air Force Academy. How about your mom?    Burt Field 07:37 She was pretty proud of me. Both of them were mad because I only applied to one place.   Naviere Walkewicz 07:44 So, it was here or a bellboy.   Burt Field 07:48 It was here or a bellboy somewhere. But they were pretty proud of me, and they were really proud, obviously, when I graduated.   Naviere Walkewicz So, you came into the Academy. You had a little bit of an idea of what to expect, because your dad had been the military, right?   Burt Field 10:06 Well, no, nobody is prepared for the Academy.   Naviere Walkewicz That's true.   Burt Field I mean, your dad went to the Academy and…   Naviere Walkewicz They were classmates.   Burt Field And you were not prepared.   Naviere Walkewicz That's true.   Burt Field Because you are immediately thrown into the deep end of a very cold, murky pool and told to start swimming. But the interesting thing: I came out with a few guys from my local area, and the way we did it back then is, you told the Academy what hotel you were gonna stay at, and they came and picked you up in a bus and they drove you onto the Academy and dropped you off at the base of the ramp, and you jumped off the bus, and all your newfound friends started telling you all the things that were wrong with you personally, with your family, your genetics, your upbringing, and how you would never amount to anything ever in your entire life. And then they take you — I wasn't really good with authoritarian figures.   Naviere Walkewicz 11:10 Well, I can imagine, with three sisters, you probably chose your own path, right?   Burt Field 11:15 So, you can imagine — as we're most of my classmates. We all are kind of like that. So, I wasn't sure that this was for me, but it was 1975 and everybody had long hair. So as soon as I got my head shaved, I said, “Well, I'm staying here at least until I get my hair back.”   Naviere Walkewicz 11:37 That was a good thing then.   Burt Field 11:39 That kept me here. And so then I kept staying. But that first day was a bit of a shock, as it is with everybody around here. But, I have a great memory. I was standing in line getting something issued to me, and the guy behind me and I started talking, and he actually graduated from the high school that I spent my ninth and 10th grade in in Las Vegas, Nevada. His name's John Pickitt. And so we became friends, and he's the godfather of our oldest child, along with Tom McCarthy, who you met earlier today.   Naviere Walkewicz 12:16 Wow. I mean, it really is… We talk about family a lot in our podcast, and family spans way beyond blood.   Burt Field 12:26 Yep, it sure does, especially with graduates of the Air Force Academy.   Naviere Walkewicz 12:31 Yes, 100%. Wow. So you jumped into that murky pool and making friends along the way. What was life like for you as a cadet? Were you really strong in your academics? I mean, obviously you were an athlete, because you were doing everything.   Burt Field 12:45 I mean, everybody did that kind of stuff. So, I got good grades in high school, and I got good grades here, except for one semester. So, I was on the supt's list every semester except for one. That's just the way it was.   Naviere Walkewicz That's amazing.   Burt Field I would do it different now, if I had it to do over again, because I got on the dean's list by cramming instead of doing my homework. And so every young person that goes to the Air Force Academy, I tell them, “There's one way to success and happiness at the Air Force Academy…” I don't tell them this, not that they're going to be happy, because they're not. But I tell them, “Do your homework every night.”   Naviere Walkewicz 13:32 That's right. I think there was a saying: “If you wait to the last minute, it only takes a minute, but then you get to see…   Burt Field You really reap the results.   Naviere Walkewicz 13:42 Exactly, exactly.   Burt Field So, that's no different than a lot of my friends. And back then, you're pretty restricted to the Academy, especially your first year, and then gradually you get out more and more. So, it wasn't like we were out and about very much.   Naviere Walkewicz Right.   Burt Field We stayed around here. We worked out a lot. We played games, sports on the weekends, and that was it.   Naviere Walkewicz 14:07 And were you 1 and 3? What was the squadron change like? Was it 2 and 2 back then?   Burt Field 14:13 And so 1 and 3. So, I was in 35 as of Doolie, and the only squadron— 35 and 38, they're still together, but it was carpeted, and we had carpeting, and so we took a lot of heat from people just because of that.   Naviere Walkewicz Because you had it nicer?   Burt Field Yeah, then I went into 27 and graduated from 27.   Naviere Walkewicz 14:38 OK, and your son is also a graduate from your legacy squadron, 27.   Burt Field 14:42 He is. He graduated in 2008.   Naviere Walkewicz 14:43 Love that legacy. Great. What a wonderful legacy. So your cadet time sounds like it was pretty pleasant, or…   Burt Field 14:50 Oh yes, just like everybody's. Everybody leaves here with a love-hate relationship with the Air Force Academy and it changes over time from mostly hate to mostly love. So, that was no different with us. I had a group of great friends, both in my squadron and outside my squadron, from the rugby team and a couple other places. And so it was like — I tell everybody, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th grade.   Naviere Walkewicz 15:24 I love that. That's a great way to put that into an analogy, yes, because you're still developing.   Burt Field 15:31 Classes, you know, five or six classes a day. I play sports after school. I go home and do homework or avoid homework and go to bed so I can't go out during the weeknights. Can't go out very often on the weekends. And, there you go.   Naviere Walkewicz 15:45 That's right. That's very much like high school, absolutely. So we like to talk about how you developed as a leader, even early on. And so we're getting to know you a little bit better. While you were cadet, did you hold any leadership positions in particular?   Burt Field 16:02 Well, I was the — what did I do? I did something as a third-classman. Oh yeah, chief of training? Or whatever.   Naviere Walkewicz 16:11 Sounds like it could be accurate.   Burt Field 16:12 Back in the day, the the guy that was in charge of training for the freshman. I was an ops officer when I was the, I mean, op sergeant when I was a junior, squadron commander when I was a senior. So nothing hugely out of the ordinary. I like that kind of role and that kind of challenge, but I wanted to stay inside my squadron. So, when I got offered a chance to, “Hey, do you want to be on a group staff or wing staff?” I declined.   Naviere Walkewicz Tell me more. Why?   Burt Field Because my brothers were my squadron.   Naviere Walkewicz OK, I love that, yes.   Burt Field So, I didn't want to leave that for six months or four months, or whatever the time period was back then.   Naviere Walkewicz 17:05 So, leadership in your squadron, and this is interesting, and this is a good topic, because some of our listeners, some of the challenges that they experience in leadership is on a peer level, or maybe, you know, how do you lead someone that you're really close with? How do you earn that trust? So maybe you can share some lessons that you have learned about yourself during that time.   Burt Field 17:24 Well, I always tell people that the hardest leadership challenge that we face is when you have no authority and you still need to lead, and regardless of what we say about cadet squadron commanders, you know, we can all think we're in charge, but we're not that in charge. And so what you had to do is you had to lead by influence and by doing the right thing. And so whether we agree with that, it's the right thing, because I don't want to do it, because it's no fun, because I'd rather do something else. Everybody knows what you have to do at the Air Force Academy on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, on the way through the week. And so we just went and did it. And I encouraged people to come and do it all with me, whether it's doing drill, whether it's playing intramural sports, whether, “Hey, it's your turn to be the referee for this season,” whether we want to go to these whatever it was. So you just encourage people to do that, and then you talk to people and try to empower them so that they can figure that out on their own, and then later pass that on as leaders themselves.   Naviere Walkewicz 18:44 No, those are really great examples. And I think just leadership tidbits that some of our listeners can take, and it really is some of the best ways, just leading by example and then inviting them to join you on that, absolutely. OK, so your cadet career was, I think, really important to you, because it formed you, and it formed you like you said your brothers, because you were the last class of all men cadets together. So how did that translate? And if I may be so bold, you started having women cadets there while you're at the Academy as well. Can you share some of the dynamics of that then at the Academy, and maybe some of the stories that you saw of how that really evolved into a stronger Academy that we have today?   Burt Field 19:26 Yeah, let me put some of this in perspective, and I'll start with a story. I get a large ration of crap from my friends that are in '80 and '81 that I'm really close with because of my role in terrorizing the women of the Class of '80, which I said, “Exactly, what role was that?” Basically, these guys considered us the source of all evil. My perspective was different, and it's just my perspective. When I talked to my classmates, most of them — I'm talking about most of them, not all of them — we were children that grew up and came of age in the late '60s and early '70s, which was basically that whole protest movement, grow your hair long, protest the Vietnam War, and we really didn't care that much that women were coming into the Air Force Academy, because most of us were smart enough to know that the only reason that women were not in my class and they were in that class was an accident of birth and the accident of when the legislation passed to do the right thing in the United States of America. So there's nothing special about being the last all-male class. There's nothing special about being the first class that had women in it, other than, you know, it was the end of one way of doing business and the beginning of another way of doing business. To your point, I think it makes the Air Force stronger. It certainly makes our Academy better. While they were here, the first semester, all the women were in one part of the state, in one part of the Academy over in Fairchild Hall. And they were only in 20 squadrons, so 1 through 20.   Naviere Walkewicz In Vandenberg?   Burt Field In Vandenberg, I'm sorry. So we're they were only in 1 through 20 the first semester, for whatever reason. Then they came the next semester to our squadron, and you know, well, one of them I'm still friends with, so, to me, it was a no brainer. I wish I was more profound on this. This is one of the things that my friends from later classes yell at me about. But I didn't consider it to be that big of a deal. I didn't, at the time, think that this is some big historical event and change in the Air Force or the military, or anything else that we could all maybe talk about better today than I could back then. So for me and my friends that I knew, it was not an issue. I don't think I treated women any different than I treated men, and I don't think I treated women or men badly, regardless of my role and their role at the Academy.   Naviere Walkewicz I really appreciate that perspective.   Burt Field Yeah, so, you know, bluntly, most of us just didn't care.   Naviere Walkewicz 22:50 You were there just trying to get through the Academy, right?   Burt Field 22:53 That sounds terrible, but, I mean, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about social implications of race, sex, gender, however you want to put it. I was just trying to get through the day without getting yelled at, like everybody else.   Naviere Walkewicz 23:12 Thank you for sharing that, because I think it's sometimes a question that people have, and it's really helpful to hear a perspective that really is, “We're all just trying to get through the Air Force Academy, we all come in, and we hope that we all graduate.”   Burt Field 23:23 Yeah, and some of them, very impressive, had huge careers. You know, Susan Helms, just one of my heroes, frankly, as a person, as an officer, that have nothing to do with her role in space. That just makes me more in awe of her. But, you know, there's a lot of great, great people out there, and a lot of them are women.   Naviere Walkewicz 23:49 Yes, thank you. Thank you for sharing that, and I appreciate that you said that. You know, Gen. Holmes is one of your heroes as well. Let's talk about some of those that maybe inspired you in leadership roles. It could be while you're a cadet, or maybe early in your career as an officer after you graduated. Maybe talk about some of those influencers.   Burt Field 24:09 Well, I had some great AOCs. My freshman AOC was a guy that was a Fast FAC in Vietnam, and actually was the guy that gave me a ride in a T-37, which was fantastic and really solidified what I wanted to do. My sophomore and junior year, my AOC was not that guy.   Naviere Walkewicz We learned from those leaders too.   Burt Field We'll probably talk about leadership philosophy later, and if you'll remind me, my last bullet on my leadership philosophy partly came from him. And then my senior year, we had a great guy named Ken Lawrence that came in that several of us are still in touch with. And he was both a welcome relief and a great role model for us as we spent that last year here at the Academy, before we went off. I went out in the Air Force and my first two squadron commanders, the first one was a guy named Tiny West, 6-foot-5, 270 pounds, barely fit into an F-16, and taught me how to fly fighters.   Naviere Walkewicz 25:21 I totally understand his call sign then.   Burt Field 25:24 Just a great guy. A second squadron commander was a guy named John Jumper, who ended up being the chief of staff of the Air Force and is still kind of like a second father to me.   Naviere Walkewicz Oh, wow.   Burt Field Let's see. And then multiple people along the way that you know, from crusty old majors and young captains that taught me how to fly the F-16 and in what we called RTU at the time, now, FTU in how we kind of learn together. Because when my class showed up at Hill in the B course, we went into the 34th at the time, tactical training fighter squadron. We were their first class, and the high-time guy in that squadron with F-16 time had 30 hours. So they were teaching all of us second lieutenants how to do this. Went from there down to Nellis and served under Tiny and John Jumper. So, that was how I started. And there's lots of great people in that time frame that obviously I'm still in touch with, and taught us how to fly. There's my squadron commander in Korea, which was my second assignment, another great role model. And then just on and on. When I came back to Nellis on my third assignment, I worked for a guy named Sandy Sandstrom. Sandy was one of my RTU instructors, also, and we became really lifelong friends. And he and his wife, Jeannie, have sadly passed away, but we, Lisa and I keep in touch with both their children to this day. Yeah. But anyway, there's a lot of great leaders, both above us in squadron commander roles, and then you watch your fellow officers and brothers and sisters, and see and you learn stuff, watching them, how they develop relationships, how they train, how they identify what's important, how they communicate, how they focus, how they connect. All of those things are important, and you can learn something from everybody around you. And if you don't, you're probably missing out.   Naviere Walkewicz 27:48 I appreciate that perspective. I think, especially as someone who is more experienced in leadership, the fact that you are looking to continue to learn and see what you can kind of pick up from those even that support you and serve under you. Can you share an example? Is there one that sticks out in your memory of someone that you're like, “Wow, that's something I really took back”?   Burt Field 28:08 Are you talking about somebody that served under me?   Naviere Walkewicz Mmm-hmm   Burt Field Oh, yeah, so, there's thousands of these. I'll tell you two stories. So I'm a squander commander, and I had a friend, a very close friend of mine, who was a squadron commander, and one of his guys was coming to our squadron, and he said, “This is a great guy. You're going to love him. Really good pilot…,” blah, blah, blah. It's his second assignment. And so he shows up in the squadron and we have about four or five guys about that that time in their career, and they're ready to become flight leads, which is leading flights in the fighter community. And so I put him in without really thinking this through, and one of the other guys came up and said, “Hey, I need to talk to you.” And he came in my office, and he explained to me how I wasn't looking at everybody through the same lens and was probably missing some of the things other people were seeing. And I mean, pretty blunt, pretty focused, not yelling, and just a straightforward conversation. And I sat back and thought for about five seconds, and I said, “Holy cow, Bruce Fisher is totally correct. I have missed the boat on this, and I'm never going to do that again.”   Naviere Walkewicz Wow.   Burt Field And so that was one guy. The second example I have is in Japan when I was a 3-star general. I was there during the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, and it was a wild time. It started on a Friday. On Monday, so Friday was the earthquake and the tsunami. Saturday was the first explosion in one of the nuclear reactors. Monday was the second explosion in another nuclear reactor. On Monday, I also went up with the Japanese minister of defense and the head of their military to a place up near the epicenter, or the center of where the disaster area was, and they stood up, for the first time, a joint task force in Japan to take to take on the role of trying to work through all the things they had to work through. So we tried to land at the airport and could not. We tried to land at one of the air bases and barely could in a helicopter, in a helicopter. So I flew over Sendai Airport, where we couldn't land, and it was totally flooded, and it looked like when you tell your 5-year-old son to pick up his room and he shoves everything over into the corner, so there's trucks and cars and toys and giraffes and boxes over in the corner of the room and he says, “I'm good.” That is exactly what this airport looked like, except those were real cars, those were real cranes, those were real age equipment that was working on airlines, all swept away into the corner. So came back, and that night, met a guy named Rob Toth. Now we were getting a lot of people in to help, and Rob Toth had actually, he was the commander of the special ops group that was down at Kadena that we had brought up to Yakota. And he said to me, “Sir, my name is Rob Toth.” He's a colonel. And he said, “My guys have been up to Sendai, and I think we can open Sendai in about two weeks.” And I looked at Rob, and I said, “Rob, no way,” except I added a word in between “no” and “way.” And he said, “Sir, I know how you feel, like, I knew you'd feel like that, but just listen to me.” And I said, “No, that thing's not gonna be open until the summer.” And he said, “Sir, hold on. Let me tell you something.” Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm starting listening to him, I'm thinking, “OK, here's a special ops guy telling me how his experts think that they can go up and solve an enormous problem for us. They know how to do this. And I am telling him no, because I flew over it in a helicopter and it was flooded. Why don't you just ignore your opinion and say yes to a good idea?” Because all I have to do is say yes, and the worst that can happen is I'm going to be right. The best that can happen is he's going to be right and they're going to open the airport. Well, guess who was right? Not me.   Naviere Walkewicz He was right. Oh, wow.   Burt Field So, three weeks later, the first airplane, well, two weeks, a week later, the first airplane landed on it, and three weeks later, the first commercial airplane landed there.   Naviere Walkewicz Wow.   Burt Field Just say yes to good ideas.   Naviere Walkewicz 33:14 I think that's a leadership nugget right there.   Burt Field 33:16 And it's all from somebody that, you know, he had never met me before. I'm a 3-star general. He's a colonel. Took a lot of courage to tell me that, and keep persisting when I said, “Forget it,” because I was busy and didn't believe it, and I had just been there, so if you're not listening to people, you're probably not gonna make the best decisions.   Naviere Walkewicz 33:38 That's an incredible story. Thank you for sharing that.   Burt Field You bet.   Naviere Walkewicz Oh, that's fantastic. So, your career was outstanding. I mean, I think you had the opportunity to really lead and impact a lot of lives by the time you put on your third star. Had you known that was your destiny? When you graduate the Academy you want to be pilot. We knew you went into the Academy to fly.   Burt Field 34:01 To fly fighters.   Naviere Walkewicz To fly fighters.   Burt Field Actually, to fly F-15s.   Naviere Walkewicz 34:07 OK, OK, so very specific.   Burt Field 34:08 Yeah. So I ended up going to third lieutenant to Langley Air Force Base. And I kind of, I was fortunate enough, because I traded with a guy that was from California. I was going to George. He was from California. He had the Langley slot, so we switched, and I went out there because I wanted to fly in an F-15 to make sure I liked it, because it was after sophomore year, before junior year. And I knew that I wasn't all that fired up about the Air Force Academy at the time. It was not the most fun place I'd ever been. And so I wanted to ensure that this was something I really wanted to do. Fortunately, I went to a great squadron, great people. They welcomed us with open arms, and I flew three or four times, five times during that third lieutenant and just loved every second of it. Now, of course, I didn't fly the F-15, except in the back seat a couple times later on. But I was lucky enough to get an F-16 out of pilot training. So 1980, F-16, go through that RTU with those guys, and we're all learning this together and into a squadron where we're all learning this together. Cool part about the first squadron I was in is we had… there was a squadron, which means that we had 25 people in the squadron. So squadron commander, an ops officer, and 23 other folks. And when I went in there, 12 of us were lieutenants and classmates.   Naviere Walkewicz Oh, my goodness.   Burt Field And so it was really cool to go through that experience with people like that. But it's 1980, the Cold War is in full swing. We're pretty sure that we're going to be in a fight with the Soviet Union, and basically I didn't want to die in that fight. And so I figure what you need to do to not die is be the best there is. And I was went to work with a bunch of other guys that felt the same way, and so we helped each other. We competed with each other. We pulled people along. We got pulled along. And we all became really good at what we did. And it was just that drive to be really good at what was important — which was flying — that drove me, and that's what drove me to try to go to the Weapons School. That's what drove me to go back as an instructor. That's what drove me to train people to be the best that they could be, so that when we went to combat, we would all come back, because anybody can lead men and women into combat. I want people that lead them home.   Naviere Walkewicz I'm so glad that—   Burt Field Anyway, so that's what drove me. That's what drove me. You know, because I had friends that didn't come home.   Naviere Walkewicz 37:27 So part of what you've shared with us today, and I think we're really appreciative of how much you're sharing, because I think it gives us a sense of really who you are, and the family aspect with your brothers, the family aspect with your extended family at the Academy, on your teams. When did your family come into play? Because I had the opportunity to meet your wife, Lisa, and she's lovely. When did she come into your life?   Burt Field 37:54 Well, I like to tell everybody that I met her at a bachelor party, which I did. But, we were in pilot training at Willie Air Force Base in Phoenix, and somebody was getting married, and we're going to have a bachelor party, but it already required way too much planning, and somebody had to host it, and that meant somebody had to go buy stuff for it. And basically we just went down to where we went every Friday night, and that was the bachelor party. And I met her that night, and then we just started talking on the phone, and we started dating, and then we got married. And so we got married in 1981 and she's still putting up with me.   Naviere Walkewicz 38:48 Wow. She's literally been part of your life since the Academy.   Burt Field 38:53 Oh, yeah, so I married her a year and a half after I graduated, and so we have two sons, and both of those boys are in the military. My oldest son is a University of Florida grad.   Naviere Walkewicz 39:06 So he did follow the family footsteps.   Burt Field 39:09 But he's smart. He graduated with a high GPA, and anyway, he's a maintenance officer in the Air Force. And my youngest son is a C-130 pilot in the Air Force, and he's the 2008 grad from the Academy, and he's married to our daughter-in-law, Natasha. And right now, both David and Natasha fly C-130s for the Alaska Air Guard up in Anchorage in Elmendorf.   Naviere Walkewicz 39:36 That's amazing.   Burt Field So, it's the family business.   Naviere Walkewicz So, dad, you and your son?   Burt Field 39:39 Not only that, well, one of the reasons, when we bring up Lisa, when I met her, she said, we started talking, and I have short hair, because most people, have long hair. She goes, “Obviously, you're in the Air Force.” And she had told that to her roommate, and I said, “Yeah.” And she said, “Oh, my dad was in the Air Force.” And we said, “Where'd you all live, and what'd your dad do?” Well, her and my dad flew together and so stationed in the same places, sometimes at the same time. And when we went home and called our parents and said, “Hey, do you know this guy or this guy?” Without hesitation, both of them said, “Oh yeah, I know Dave.” “I know Burt,” and so they were in the other squadron. They didn't really hang out together, but they knew each other. So both my dad and my father-in-law were F-100 pilots and fighter pilots. And so Lisa is also an Air Force brat. So both of us are — we call ourselves nomads because we've never really lived anywhere longer than five years.   Naviere Walkewicz 40:44 I used to say that, and now I actually can. But can you claim anywhere longer than five years now?   Burt Field 40:52 No, getting close though. So I've been in five years, five years in a couple places, but never longer.   Naviere Walkewicz 40:58 Oh my goodness, what an incredible story.   Burt Field 41:00 Yeah. So anyway, this is one of the things we're doing in AFA now. And I think the Air Force is Air Force and Space Force are recognizing that if you want strong and resilient airmen and guardians, you need strong and resilient families behind them. And you need to have that kind of family dynamic that's supportive of what you do with your life and what the country is asking of you and your family to be all in and if we can work with the families to change that dynamic, to make sure that we're focused on building strong and resilient families, then the strong and resilient guardian and airmen will come out of that effort. So both the Air Force and the Air & Space Forces Association, that's part of what we're doing these days.   Naviere Walkewicz Before I get into the last couple of questions I want to ask you, what is the best way that anyone that's listening can learn more about the Air & Space Forces Association?   Burt Field  Well, we can go to afa.org, simple as that, and do that. That shows you how to contact us. For another thing, you can join, which is what I would like you to do, and become a member, and then you get access to all of that information. And you can find out how to do that again, on that website. But joining gives you access to that information. It gives you access to what we do. It tells you where the chapters are that are close to you, that are similar-minded people doing similar things. And we have about 120,000 members right now. We have about 230 chapters in every state except Maine, and in several foreign countries where we have airmen and guardians stationed. Those chapters can do a lot of this work, whether it's working with your local government officials, with your state officials, like your congressmen or your senators, and it arms you with the things that you can deliver these messages with. It also arms you with how can I get access to these kind of programs that help with my family, my friends' family, the people I work with, their family. Where can I direct an airman when she needs some help? Where can I put a guardian in touch with somebody that can help him get through something that he's got a problem with? So, you have a lot of resources at your disposal that can help both you and your brothers and sisters you work with   Naviere Walkewicz  That is outstanding. So I mentioned two questions. I'll start with the first and then we'll come back after a short break. The first one is, some of our listeners aspire, at some point to be a C-suite executive. What's the coolest thing that you've done, or that's happened for you since being CEO?   Burt Field  Oh, man, that's a hard question.   Naviere Walkewicz  Well, take a minute to think about that. But first we're going to take a moment and thank you for listening to Long Blue Leadership. The podcast publishes Tuesdays in both video and audio, and is available on all your favorite podcast platforms. Watch or listen to all episodes of Long Blue Leadership at longblueleadership.org. So have you had a chance to think about something cool that's happened since you've been CEO?   Burt Field  I would say that the coolest thing about this job is that you get some pretty good access. Because of what we try to do in support of the Space Force and the Air Force, I've been able to spend some time with the chief, the CSO and the secretary. And you know, the vice chief, the vice CSO, chief master sergeant of the Air Force, chief master sergeant the Space Force. So that part has been really interesting to me. Next week, I'm going to something with Secretary Austin, and so that that's kind of interesting. And then we do some work up on the Hill. And so I've been able to go up there and meet a few of the members up at the Hill. The good news, though, is that I knew a lot of those guys already, so, you know, because I'm old and. But it's still good to be able to listen directly from a leader on what he or she really is trying to communicate, as opposed to get it interpreted by somebody else or through some rumor or, “Here's why their vision doesn't match up with what I know we should be doing.” So, it helps us in our mission to kind of advocate for those strong forces when you know exactly what the leadership is thinking and what they're driving at.   Naviere Walkewicz  No, that's powerful, and that's transparency that you're able to bring to the members of your organization and all of their families. So, we like to leave our listeners with kind of leadership lessons, and I wanted to go back earlier in our conversation. You said, “Remind me to tell you about a leader that's shaped one of my bullets, maybe on how not to lead.” Or something to that effect. So what are your lessons of leadership that you want our leaders to take away today from you?   Burt Field  Well, so first off, you can never stop learning. You have to learn. And whether it's leadership or anything else— when I was in Japan during that disaster, I didn't know the first thing about nuclear power plants. Virtually nothing. I knew that there's some kind of nuclear reaction. They put something in water. It made steam power to turbine. Viola, you have electricity, period. There's a chance I might not even know that. So, I found a couple books that in the three or four hours a day that I didn't have work, I read so I could learn about nuclear power plants, the effect of nuclear radiation on the human body. What we can with withstand, what makes you sick and what kills you. So you have to always learn. And that goes double for being a leader, and you can never rest on your laurels. And so, I have been fortunate to be in a lot of different leadership positions and work for a lot of great leaders, most of them military, but some of them civilian as well, like Richard Holbrooke, a completely different leadership style than most military people. In fact, when I was working for Richard, my direct report was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen. And I talked with Adm. Mullen virtually daily, and my other virtual three-times-a-week conversation was with Dave Petraeus, who was running Afghanistan at the time, because of what a Richard's job was and they always want to know what he was thinking. So, it was interesting to watch all three of those who have three distinct leadership styles and learn from take the best from all of that. It was a learning experience. But the upshot of it is, having been exposed to people like that and being able to ask them questions about leadership, why they did things, helped shape my leadership philosophy. So, one of the things that I think everybody should do is kind of define what they think leadership is and have a leadership philosophy. And so, the way I look at leadership, it's, how how do you empower people? How do you inspire people? How do you get people to get the job done? Because you can't do it yourself. You're not going to win the war, you're not going to make all the sales, you're not going to get all the gross profit, you're not going to reduce all the expenses, you're not going to fight all the fights. You're going to be part of a team if you're going to be successful. So, how do you inspire that to happen? And how do you ensure that that team that you're building has the resources that they need? And resources come in all shapes and sizes. Some of it is equipment, some of it is money, some of it is the people that are in those roles? Do they have the education, the training, the experience and access to what they need to be successful? So that's what your job is, in my opinion, as a leader. And then how you go about doing that? You need to have a list of things that you do. So I start with values. You should have a set of values. For the cadets listening, and you're going to go into the Air Force, the Space Force, and if you cross commission into something else, every one of our services has a set of values, which are your values. Now you can have more, but your values include those. But at my stage of life, I have about five, and it's integrity, which everybody knows, and most people say, “Hey, that's when you do the right thing when no one is looking.” In the last four or five years, I added a second one to that, and I call it “fortitude.” Fortitude is when you do the right thing when everybody is looking. Then excellence. You know, from Excellence in All You Do. Teamwork and service. So those are my five values. And so when I make leadership decisions, or when I look at how we're going to move forward, or how we're going to accomplish the mission, it should reflect those values in my decisions, how I act, how I from the biggest thing of creating a here's the strategy, or in objectives on what we're going to accomplish, to the smallest things, like how I conduct a meeting. So, that that's the second thing. So everything comes from that. I think you need to be really good at something. If you want to be a really good leader, you need to be really good at something. So, you got to put in the work when you're young to be really good and understand how hard it is to be really good at something. Normally, when we “grow up,” in quotes, and become leaders of large organizations, there's a whole bunch going on in that organization that you will have little or no expertise in, but you know how to recognize excellence, and you know how to recognize effort that it takes to become excellent. And so you can look for those because you've seen it in yourself. So, that's the other thing. The next one is communication. You cannot communicate enough, and you cannot communicate well enough. So I use this example all the time. I come up with a message, I craft it, I think about it, I write it down, I practice it, and then I deliver it, and it's awesome. I was perfect. Nobody could have misunderstood me. When I'm done with that, and I really think that I have hit the mark with maybe 20%. I probably got to say that again that way or differently, about another 10 or 15 times when I can barely stand to hear myself talk anymore, and I'm still not going to get everybody. So, one of the things that you have to recognize as a leader is you're probably miscommunicating. So, you have to check and recheck to make sure that the message is going out the way you think it should be heard. So, communication is really important, and probably one of the biggest things that infects an organization is somebody misperceiving what somebody else is communicating, and then they get mad, and everybody's feelings get hurt, and on it goes. And we've all seen that. I told you about the “say yes to good ideas.”   Naviere Walkewicz  That was fantastic. Burt, is there anything that I didn't ask you that you would really like to leave with our listeners today?   Burt Field  I think we pretty much covered it, and I appreciate the opportunity to come on and chat with you and watch your act, because you're very comfortable doing this, and I need to take some lessons from you.   Naviere Walkewicz  Thank you so much for that compliment. And I must just say it has been a pleasure being on Long Blue Leadershipwith you. I can't wait for our listeners to hear more about your story and the way that you will, I think, affect great change for our Air and Space Force leaders.   Burt Field  Thank you, Naviere, it's really an honor to be on here and I appreciate the opportunity to share some of the lessons that I've been able to learn throughout my career, and also what the Air & Space Forces Association brings to the table, and why our cadets and our grads and all those out there who care about strong Air Forces, strong Space Forces, a strong national security and defense in the future.   Naviere Walkewicz  Thank you so much.   KEYWORDS Air Force brat, leadership philosophy, Air Force Academy, rugby team, squadron commander, family dynamics, career progression, leadership challenges, communication importance, resilience, Space Force, education programs, family support, military service, leadership lessons       Long Blue Leadership is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the United States Air Force Academy Association of Graduates and Foundation    

Last year, mysterious drone swarms targeted Navy ships and Langley Air Force Base, nearly colliding with an F22 and causing a fighter squadron to be relocated. Despite intense investigation, their origin is still unknown. This year, the drones are back! This time they're targeting several RAF bases in the UK as well as the entire state of New Jersey. They've been in the air every night for over two weeks. These drones are unusually large and quiet, and they can hover in place for hours at a time. Countermeasures are ineffective, and no one's been able to track where they come from or go to. What is happening? You can find show notes and references at our website, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠VeryExcitingTime.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or support us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/VeryExcitingTime⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Drone incursions have been getting reported over U.S. military installations in the United Kingdom for more than a week. Pentagon and U.K. Ministry of Defense officials have so far been unable to figure out who or what is behind the incursions. Links/Sources: Unidentified UAVs over Langley Air Force Base raise security concerns - GPS World

Drone incursions have been getting reported over U.S. military installations in the United Kingdom for more than a week. Pentagon and U.K. Ministry of Defense officials have so far been unable to figure out who or what is behind the incursions. Links/Sources: Unidentified UAVs over Langley Air Force Base raise security concerns - GPS World

For at least 17 days last December, swarms of ufo's were seen 'moving at rapid speeds' and penetrating the highly restricted airspace above Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Senior ex-Pentagon security official Chris Mellon said it was 'clear they want to be seen as though taunting us." Also, an unidentified flying object that displays none of the signatures normally associated with propulsion has been officially dubbed " the Jellyfish UAP." LINK TO MY 2/14/24 PODCAST ON JELLYFISH UAP: https://youtu.be/Z0ooxkE6XTQ?si=V_iMgwdP6__Z17nR

Guests, Col (Ret) John Mills and Mark Pfoff PROMO: CO GOP reveals Colorado's corrupt Secretary of State publicly posted top secret election system passwords on her website. Is the entire system compromised? Law enforcement and computer expert Mark Pfoff joins the show. Plus what's up with a complex swarm of drones flying over Langley Air Force Base and why can't the military stop them? National security expert Col. (Ret) John Mills has insight.

God commands the angel to use The Sickle; Pentagon officials report a swarmof UFOs from a mother ship was spotted over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia;What was it really? Texas troopers arrest large numbers of special interestaliens, including men from Iran; NATO warns Russia that they are going to armUkraine with nuclear weapons; US intelligence documents outlining Israel'sattack on Iran were leaked; We have traitors in our midst; and Israel has thewarrior spirit of David upon them! New episodes are released every Monday. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and leave us a rating on your podcast platform of choice. For more info or to support Burning Bush Ministries, visit our website at burningbushministries.tv.Follow us on social media:Twitter.com/ediifypodcastFacebook.com/edifypodcast Product Spotlight:Nashville Gold And Coin:https://nashvillegoldandcoin.com/Dr. Rhonda's Ultimate Daily Detoxifier:https://doctorrhonda.myshopify.com/discount/BURNINGBUSH?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fultimate-daily-detoxifierUse promo code Edify!Dr. Rhonda's Ultiamte Immune Booster:https://doctorrhonda.myshopify.com/products/bpuibooster?_pos=2&_psq=ultim&_ss=e&_v=1.0Use promo code Edify!My Pillow:https://www.mypillow.com/?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=6481386640&cq_term=my%20pillow&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_plt=gp&gclid=CjwKCAjwue6hBhBVEiwA9YTx8D1g59gXEUjFegHoWVjHHx6V_dwQUAQpc2fT4fQqsK93A1s2W-XT-RoCeLsQAvD_BwEUse promo code B66 Sources:https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Revelation-Chapter-14/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13958541/ufo-mother-ship-military-bases-drone-swarms-pentagon.htmlhttps://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/10/drone-swarm-virginia-shows-concerning-gaps-seams-homeland/https://realamericasvoice.substack.com/p/texas-troopers-arrest-large-numbers?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=1edukz&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=emailhttps://www.infowars.com/posts/german-news-publication-claims-ukraine-could-have-nuclear-weapons-within-weeks-reporthttps://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-825249

The News You Missed 10-18-2024 …What's the Deal with the Drones over Langley Air Force Base

Recently, there were numerous UFO reports over Washington, D.C. Sightings of a large craft or light formation have been seen over Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia. An official wishing to remain anonymous says that he believes the so-called UFOs were actually drones that flew over the Chesapeake Bay and headed to Norfolk. While UFOs fall under fringe findings and are usually considered paranormal anomalies, they can also be a threat to national security regardless of their origins. This kind of public disclosure is still containment and confusing. Tonight on Ground Zero (7-10 pm, pacific time), Clyde Lewis talks with UFO researcher and author, Anthony F. Sanchez, and, founder of the Paradigm Research Group, Stephen Bassett about OBJECT FEVER. Listen Live: https://groundzero.radio Archived Shows: https://aftermath.media

Midnight Mike, Joe and Cretched / Battle of the D Bags / Joe iso clips / Alex Jones Clips of the week / Mystery Drones Swarmed over Military Base / Nano Tech in blood / Havana Syndrome and Implants / Joe is bored with implants / Kamala Dancing Guy / Elon is trans / What is really going on at Aurora CO Apartments / Biometric Trump / Star Trek Frogs / Gaint Pumpkin Attacks Police / 2000lb Pumpkin / Exploding Horses / Smelly People and Politics / End Pentagon confirms that unidentified drones flew over Langley Air Force Base over 17 days last December https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/national/military-news/pentagon-confirms-that-unidentified-drones-flew-over-langley-air-force-base-over-17-days-last-december/291-cbad5a35-0a5a-4297-864d-9cd8e551a37c Havana Syndrome Exposed: Implants https://youtu.be/gh7II5_1lME?si=U7vGVzxxs8-MBZDH Hate body odour? You're more likely to have rightwing views https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/28/hate-body-odour-youre-more-likely-to-have-rightwing-views How to Blow up a Horse https://cdn-wordpress.webspec.cloud/intrans.iastate.edu/uploads/2018/03/Boom-Boom-Boom.pdf - Affiliates Links - Jackery:  https://shrsl.com/3cxhf Barebones:  https://bit.ly/3G38773  - OBDM Merch - https://obdm.creator-spring.com/ Buy Tea! Mike's wife makes some good tea: Naked Gardener Teas: https://www.thenakedgardener.us/store Bags Art Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/BagsDraws/   Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Phone: 614-388-9109 ► Skype: ourbigdumbmouth ► Website: http://obdmpod.com ► Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/obdmpod ► Full Videos at Odysee: https://odysee.com/@obdm:0 ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/obdmpod ► Instagram: obdmpod ► Email: ourbigdumbmouth at gmail ► RSS: http://ourbigdumbmouth.libsyn.com/rss ► iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/our-big-dumb-mouth/id261189509?mt=2  

Patrick discusses UFO seen hovering near Langley Air Force Base.

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: We kick off by unpacking newly uncovered secret documents that reveal details about the planning behind the October 7th attacks and Hamas's attempts to convince its key backer, Iran, to join the deadly assault. We'll cover the mysterious swarms of unidentified drones buzzing over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, with officials unsure if they're connected to foreign adversaries or merely civilian hobbyists. Plus, we delve into new reports on the extent of the damage caused by Iran's October 1st missile barrage against Israel. And in today's Back of the Brief, we've got a strange story about actor Steven Seagal and his undying loyalty to Russian President Vladimir Putin. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. Email: PDB@TheFirstTV.com  Blackout Coffee: https://www.blackoutcoffee.com/PDB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A conversation with Sam Eckholm '18 about his unique path and work to inspire the next generation of military leaders through social media and content creation.----more---- SUMMARY In this edition of Long Blue Leadership, host Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99, is talking with Sam about his journey from the three times he landed on the “footprints” on in-processing day through the challenges he faced as he learned to lead his peers, side-stepping career advice that might have left him in obscurity, his relentless perseverance pursuing his dreams, graduation in 2018, the history he's making now and Sam's continuing support of the Air Force Academy.     SOME OF OUR FAVORITE QUOTES "Putting yourself in other people's shoes is big." "If you have an end goal in mind, it's not going to be easy to get there. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it." "What you see as a finished polished video, the behind the scenes is crazy." "Don't lose sight of that end goal." "Dig deep down and realize what you want. And just relentlessly go after that."   SHARE THIS EPISODE FACEBOOK  |  TWITTER  |   LINKEDIN    CHAPTERS 00:00 - Putting Yourself in Other People's Shoes 21:13 - The Terrazzo Gap: Challenges and Perceptions 23:49 - Finding Passion in Clubs and Sports 27:40 - From Photography to Public Affairs 30:05 - Inspired by the F-22 Demo Team 31:00 - Pursuing a Career in Public Affairs 32:24 - Learning and Growing as a Young Lieutenant 33:22 - Challenges and Rewards of Public Affairs 34:22 - Maintaining Motivation and Finding Balance 35:44 - Leading Others and Finding Personal Outlets 38:41 - Transitioning to Entrepreneurship 41:49 - Impactful Moments and Inspiring Others 46:49 - Overcoming Challenges and Pursuing Dreams 53:31 - Supporting the Academy and Creating Impactful Content 56:19 - Final Thoughts and Message to Listeners   TAKEAWAYS  - Putting yourself in other people's shoes is important for effective leadership  - The Terrazzo Gap between intercollegiate athletes and non-athletes at the Academy is a unique challenge  - Being involved in clubs and sports at the Academy provides valuable experiences and friendships  - Passion for photography and social media can lead to a career in public affairs.  - Don't lose sight of your end goal and relentlessly pursue it.  - Advocate for yourself and trust in your own decisions.  - Creating meaningful impact requires hard work and dedication.  - Inspire others by sharing your journey and experiences.  - The Academy Blueprint program helps level the playing field for aspiring cadets.  - Expand your knowledge and learn from various sources of inspiration.  - Don't be discouraged by challenges and setbacks; they can lead to growth and success.   ABOUT SAM Deep down, Sam Eckholm always knew the Air Force Academy was where he belonged. As the son of an Air Force pilot and Academy graduate, he was brought up on the blue and silver. After graduating high school in Dallas, Texas, he followed in his dad's footsteps, attending the U.S. Air Force Academy as a member of the class of 2018. Following graduation, Sam was selected as a member of the F-22 Raptor Demonstration team, where he traveled the world as a Public Affairs Officer, documenting the 5th generation stealth fighter jet at air shows across the globe. After separating from active duty in 2022, Sam's passion for military service has not changed, but his ability to share that passion with an even larger audience has. His videos have accumulated over 100 million views online, with over 1 million followers across his social media platforms. Attending the Air Force Academy is what started it all, and Sam's goal is to help others achieve their dreams of throwing their hat in the air and graduating from the Academy. The Air Force Academy Blueprint is the culmination of almost two years of pouring his heart and soul into a singular project, and he can't wait to bring it to you. - Image and copy courtesy of Sam Eckholm CONNECT WITH SAM LINKEDIN  |  INSTAGRAM  |  FACEBOOK  |  TWITTER   LINKS WE MENTIONED ACADEMY BLUEPRINT SAM'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL     ABOUT LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP Long Blue Leadership drops every two weeks on Tuesdays and is available on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn + Alexa, Spotify and all your favorite podcast platforms. Search @AirForceGrads on your favorite social channels for Long Blue Leadership news and updates!          SAM'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL     TRANSCRIPT OUR SPEAKERS:   Guest:  Sam Eckholm '18  |  Host:  t. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99   Sam Eckholm Putting yourself in other people's shoes is big. It's kind of hard to remember that because you're getting information from your leader, right, your boss, they're telling you one thing, it's hard for them to see kind of two layers down how that's going to impact everyone else. So, I mean, I would always just try to put myself in other people's shoes. Okay, if I do this, what's that gonna… how's that going to make this person feel?   Naviere Walkewicz My guest today is Sam Eckholm, USAFA class of 2018 and Air Force captain turned full-time entrepreneur and storyteller, the third in his family's Long Blue Line. Sam is the son of a 1989 graduate and the nephew of a 1993 graduate. All three hail from Cadet Squadron 28, the Blackbirds. We'll talk with Sam about his Dallas roots to the day he stood on the footprints at the Academy. We'll ask him about how he made his way from the wing to the F-22 Raptor demonstration team, then public affairs, out of the Air Force in '23, and now an entrepreneur, content creator and social media influencer. Sam's father and uncle were his main sources of inspiration for becoming a member of the profession of arms. And he has stayed close to the Air Force and the Academy ever since. He leads hopefuls to reach for their dreams and shares his passion for all things Air Force with the world. As we move through the conversation, we'll talk about lessons he's learned in being a leader, and what advice he would give to those aspiring to become leaders and leaders who want to be better. Sam, I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Welcome to Long Blue Leadership and thank you for being here today.   Sam Eckholm Naviere, it's always great to see you. It's always great to be back at the best school in the world.   Naviere Walkewicz Yes, it is. And I mean, I think what's so great about your story, Sam, and what's so unique for our listeners is they feel like they know you because you have such an incredible presence. But today, they're really going to get a chance to understand how you got here. And I think that's what's so fascinating for people.   Sam Eckholm Yeah, that means a lot. It's always fun to sit down and kind of talk a little bit more in depth. You know, with the videos I do, I'm trying to focus on highlights and showing some action and keeping the viewer's attention. But this is just kind of laid back.    Naviere Walkewicz  Let's talk and relive some fun, exciting , you know, stories from the Academy and beyond. Yes, this is about you now. So, you get to be the spotlight and I'm really excited to take everyone on this journey. So, let's roll it back a little bit. We'll start with a journey of Sam as a little boy, you know.  I know you shared you kind of grew up in Dallas after third grade. We had a little bit of a chat, but you did some bouncing around before that. Let's hear about your childhood.   Sam Eckholm Yeah, so my dad, an '89 grad, like you said went off to pilot training ended up flying KC-135s. So I was actually born at McConnell Air Force Base, right, and so Wichita, Kansas. Fun fact: little full-circle moment for me, I'm gonna' be headed out there in two weeks to do a KC-46 video with the unit there and first time I'll have been back since I was born. So that'll be really fun to see. But yeah, growing up I mean, I don't consider myself an Air Force brat because my dad did separate when I was young, but we bounced around every two years but Dyess McConnell, it was fun. Definitely have some early memories of him and his flight suit walking out on the flight line. And that probably sparked the initial interest in wanting to serve. I think I shoved that to a side for a little bit until I was a bit more mature and could realize what that actually meant. Kind of around the second or third grade, he got out, transitioned to the airline world settled on American Airlines, and moved to Dallas, Texas. And that's really where I call my home. That's where I grew up. And as you know, Dallas is a super not just for Academy athletes and future cadets. It's just seems like a hot hub, right, for a lot of people move there. So, I had a great experience. When it came time to applying to the Academy I knew I was going to have to have my ducks in a line because it's competitive. There's a lot of people trying to get in. But looking back I mean, I've been all over the world now at this point, but Texas always feels like home.   Naviere Walkewicz I love that you have your roots. So talk about what you were like as a kid. Were you really active in sports? Where are you — you kind of have the social media side, so, are you really interested in some of the dramatic arts? Like, tell me about what that looked like?   Sam Eckholm Yes, sports were always a big part of my family. My dad was actually a basketball player here at the Air Force Academy. My uncle played on the football team as well. So, they were huge athletes. I was always, growing up, I was playing tennis, basketball, golf with my dad, my brothers. I have two other brothers as well. We're all super competitive. Probably, I think what also helped me just realize the Academy was a great school because you know, what other college do you go into where everyone's so competitive and athletic, and sports are built into the curriculum? So yeah, I mean, I would say that was an important part of growing up. My dad especially instilled a lot of values he learned at the Academy in serving. And it's just so cool looking back now, because I didn't realize at the time what those were, and then you go through four years here, you go through five years active duty, and you're like, “OK,” that's why he was the way that he was. When I was actually here at the Academy, I had this mental checklist of stories, he told me, and I will try to like check them off as I also accomplished them. So, you know, his basic training experience, right? Him jumping off the 10-meter board and water survival; him going through survival training and getting some of that experience and jumping out of an airplane. It's really fun for me to experience those as well because those were the stories I had grown up with back home in Texas.   Naviere Walkewicz Wow. So, a house of three boys. Where were you in the lineup?   Sam Eckholm I was a middle child.   Naviere Walkewicz And so did your other brothers want to go to the Academy as well or that wasn't...   Sam Eckholm So my older brother Ben, he originally was interested. In fact, you know, he's only a year and a half older. So, we were only one grade apart. And I remember he went to one of those service academy, congressional just learn more about it, right. And he went with a couple of his buddies, and I think they turned him off from it, because they came back and said, “Oh, I ain't doing that. We're going to Texas A&M. We're gonna' have fun.” But I remember he came back and had this pamphlet he got from it. And I stole it from his bedroom. And then I started looking at it. And I was like, “OK, if he's not going to do that, I think this is something I want to do.” And we can talk more about that, obviously, but my brother did end up going a different route. He went to Texas A&M, not in the core there, just kind of a normal student. Little brother, he's like seven years younger than me. He was always interested in the academies, but you know, as he grew up, I think he navigated a little bit more towards another route as well. So, to answer your question, I was the only one who ended up going into an academy and serving, but they're still incredibly close to me. And I actually have this hilarious photo of my older brother. He came to visit during Parents Weekend. I was like a junior. And during Parents Weekend here at the Academy, my family would actually like stay at the Academy because all the other kids and their parents would go to Boulder, go to Garden of the Gods or the Broadmoor, whatever. And so, the Academy was completely empty. And so, it was kind of like this country club for my family. So, like, we would go down... And then you got like the golf course to yourself. You got these beautiful greens…   Naviere Walkewicz I could see you've got your stretch view…   Sam Eckholm Right, exactly. So, we would go down to like the athletic facilities and play tennis and just hang out and have fun. Anyway, there's this funny photo of my older brother. I gave him my PT uniform, the ringer tee and the shorts. And he like blended in as a cadet for the weekend. And it was really funny one day because retreat played and he was saluting. I'm like, “Well, they're gonna' think you're a cadet.” So, everyone's super close to me and the Academy, and they loved coming to visit. And I think in an alternate world, they would have all tried to come here too. But yeah, very close with the family.   Naviere Walkewicz That is outstanding. We love, hearing about the dynamics of kind of what your support network was like, what those influences were like in your life. You mentioned something about your dad sharing stories. What were those initial nuggets? I know you talked about the experiences they had, but what was he instilling with you and your brothers at that time when you were in those impressionable years?   Sam Eckholm Well, my dad is just one of the most like regimented individuals I know. He's very, very focused, you know. And now looking back, I think I just attribute so much from the Academy, and especially back in the '80s, you know, the way things were run and like how he did it, but you don't know that when you're a kid, right? Like, I heard the stories of the Academy. And I don't know, I think when I was young, I didn't think they were cool. And then as you get a little older, they are kind of cool, but you don't want to tell him they're cool, kind of like shove that in the back of your head. And then now I'm like, “Wow, that was really, really cool.” So yeah, I remember there was this photo we had in our house. I don't know if it was above our piano are just on some dresser and it was him in pilot training and his flight suit standing next to T-38. And I thought that was the coolest thing growing up. I mean, he looked like Tom Cruise from Top Gun. And so I literally to go to my room, I would walk past that every single day. And that photo is just like, I don't know, it's cemented in my mind of, “Wow, that was so cool.” And, you know, at the time, I did think “Hey, I'm going to be a pilot. I'm going to do this,” and learned obviously down the road there's so many opportunities to serve in the Air Force. But yeah, I mean, it was just such a cool thing to be able to say, “My dad went to the Academy. My dad's a pilot,” you know? Other people's parents, whatever they did, you know, still interesting. But to be able to say that was always so cool. I just wanted to be able to experience that, wanted to be able to do something different from my friends in high school, being able to have my dad actually, which I know a lot of applicants don't have someone who served in the Army. I'm trying to change that with the work I do to make everyone feel like they understand what they're getting into. But that was huge for me. And it was fun. I still remember I would text him through every milestone we had at the Academy, whether it was Recognition or Ring Dance or commitment. And he would kind of share where he was back then or a photo he had. And yeah, it was cool.   Naviere Walkewicz That's really beautiful. And, and it makes me think about how we capture now, and I think this might have been, this was happening during your class as well, but we had WebGuy, the WebGuy team actually capturing moments. And so, it's probably neat that he actually sees some of those while you're texting him. And those you know, those listening, the texting ability is not something we had back in the day when I was there. We just had the red phone booth to try to get your like five minutes to call.   Sam Eckholm I can't imagine that.   Naviere Walkewicz Yeah, it's wonderful. I think we preserve so much of the experience for our cadets.   Sam Eckholm Yeah, there's still a bit now where the family almost gets to feel a little bit of that assurance with us. Why are they still writing like letters home?  Pen to paper. Yeah, and you know, stamp. And yeah, WebGuy, I think was my mom's like, saving grace during basic as many moms out there. Yeah, shout out, Mom. I know you liked WebGuy. I always tried to smile when I saw a camera. So, she knew I was I could see how I was doing even though I sometimes was not that I was like, yeah.   Naviere Walkewicz So let's talk about life at the Academy. So, you were direct entry. Were you an intercollegiate recruit or just kind of in and started?   Sam Eckholm No, yeah, I was direct entry. I was very, very fortunate to get the principal nomination from my congressman who did that method out of Dallas. It was an incredibly competitive area. I mean, there were like 60 kids just from my area trying to get in and oh man, I was so stressed going in because I knew how bad I wanted it. I knew I looked great on paper. But the problem was 60 other kids also look really good on paper. So, the interviewer really helped me out there. I was able to talk about family experiences got the principal nomination, so I knew I was going to have my shot. So yeah, direct entry got here. And it's kind of funny because having a dad and uncle who went here, I thought I knew everything right? I had probably watched every single video and read every article, looked at everything on the Academy, I was obsessed. The second I got here, day one or Day Zero as they call it, like the bus ride here.   Naviere Walkewicz Tell me about your experience on the bus.   Sam Eckholm Oh, man, this is a lot different. Well, the bus is, I mean, I knew what was coming. I'd seen every single video, but it hits you different when you're there and they're screaming in your face. The footprints was really rough for me. I've told this story before, because then — I don't know what they do now — but they broke it up by your basic flights and your squadron. So, Cobras is what I was in. And so, all my future flight members were with me and we're on the footprints. And an upperclassman is — [there's a] crazy photo; I can send it to you guys — but just someone screaming at me, right? And I don't know what happened. But I think they lost track of me. So [I'm on the] footprints when the rest of my squadron was sent up the ramp to begin their in-processing, I got sent to the back of the footprints line to kind of do it again.   Naviere Walkewicz Really?   Sam Eckholm Yeah. And so, they did that for a few cadets. So, I got sent to do it again. And the crazy part is I went through that, I got sent a third time. But, and this is like the whole footprint spiel again. The whole “Get on attention.” So, I had like triple the footprints experience and then for the rest of the day because my squadron had already in process, I was so far behind. It was now like, “Are you lost, basic!” Like, I was that guy the whole time in the morning. So, it's just when I finally got there, at the end of the day, like to my squadron, I was already known and had the reputation, like the lost basic. You know it was for next six weeks, which turned into the next year, I was trying to get rid of that reputation that I was the lost basic, but hopefully now I've gotten rid of that.   Naviere Walkewicz All right. We'll leave that one alone. That's a fantastic story. Yeah. Wow. All right. So, let's talk about your life at the Academy. I know where you graduate from Squadron 28, legacy squadron, right? Let's talk about some of your experiences, both from the cadet perspective — athletics, academics, wherever you'd like to take us — but also let's weave in a little bit of some lessons you've learned about yourself during that time in leadership.   Sam Eckholm Yeah, I started out in CES-14 Baby Cobra. I don't know, I think what they're now doing like one and then three years. One and three. Yeah. I always knew that's what I wanted to do. Because like, literally, even when I was growing up, my dad had his A-jacket, and I saw the Blackbirds patch. And that was really cool. But yeah, I mean, my first two years were definitely different from my last two years, I always tell people, the first two years, I was discovering who I was both as a person but as a cadet, right? Like, you come in thinking you're going to do something and have a path and major in this and do this when you graduate. But it was so much information coming at me of here's what you can do, here are all the opportunities. And that's one thing, I'm really proud of myself for that — I didn't feel like I had to follow a certain path. You know, when I came in, I thought I was gonna' fly, I was gonna' be an engineer, I'm gonna' do this. And that's amazing for all the cadets who want to do that and are excited about it. But I knew I was excited about other stuff, too. You know, you mentioned kind of social media photography, that sort of stuff. I had that kind of in the back of my head, I just had to figure out a way how to make that work in the Air Force, right? Because I had no idea when I came in that was something you could kind of do. So the first two years were a lot of discovery, right? I did not, and this was kind of strategically, do any clubs or anything the first two years. I kind of regret that looking back, but I thought I just needed to be in the squadron with my flight. Versus now, I always encourage people at the Academy take advantage of the clubs, take advantage of the extracurricular stuff, because, I mean, you've formed so many friendships there.   Naviere Walkewicz I don't know if you agree, because you did a lot, right? And I definitely agree, I was not a recruited athlete. And so, I think I explored a lot of different lanes. But you know, one of the things that when you were talking, I was thinking about this, because when people see you and hear you now, you just have so much confidence. Did you always have that? Or is there a time when maybe that was not the case as a cadet?   Sam Eckholm Yeah, in high school, you know how it goes, right, you're at the top of the top in high school, especially someone going into the Academy. To go to the Academy., most students are presidents of their classes, or whatever. And so, you go from the top, and then you're dropped very quickly and humbled when you get to the Academy. So, I think I definitely lost a little bit of that. But then I built it back up. And I think that's kind of the goal of the Academy, right? They're trying to build back up leaders; you start as a follower. So, by the time I left, we can get to that, I was a squadron commander of CES-28. And that is, to this day, one of the most rewarding experiences. I learned the most about myself and talk about confidence. Getting up there every morning, talking to over 100 of your peers as their quote-unquote, cadet leader. I mean, that right there to this day, I'm like, if I can do that, and be able to tell other students my age, what they have to be doing, I can do anything.   Naviere Walkewicz Peer leadership is definitely a challenging type of leadership. What did you learn about yourself in that? Can you share a story where you're like, well, am I really cut out for this?   Sam Eckholm Well, it's hard because you have all different types of cadets, all different types of classes. Everyone has their thing that interests them. And let's be real, I mean, you're up here, right? You're not in the real Air Force, yet. You've been appointed this position. And so, some cadets are like, OK, come on. I mean, literally, two weeks ago, he was just, you know, Sam, and now he's like, oh, cadet first class at home squadron commander, cadet lieutenant colonel. So, with the younger classes, it's easier, because the rank structure, they kind of understand, but to your senior class, it's your peers. So, my mentality for that is that I was just going to try to be someone that everyone could relate to, that had everyone's best interest in mind. So, I would take so long for any decision or working with my AOC, just trying to advocate for what everyone wanted. I didn't see myself as higher, better, above anyone. It was just, I'm going to be the spokesperson for everyone. And I'm gonna' work as hard as I can to make sure everyone's happy. And I think there's a lot of lessons you can take from that approach. Of course, not every leadership position, you have the ability to do that. But at the Academy, I don't know, I think that was just a really cool opportunity to kind of explore and find out how that works. And I learned a lot from that. And because I've had opportunities to lead in my Air Force career and beyond, I still pull from those experiences. I'm like, “Well, this would maybe work here.” But yeah, I don't know. Did you have any opportunities to do the leadership stuff, the higher level here? It's so unique, there's nothing else like that.   Naviere Walkewicz No, it really is unique. And I think one of the things that, when our listeners are always looking for are those little nuggets. So you learn so much, you know. What is one takeaway from a pure leadership perspective that you could say, “I've leaned back into multiple times?” What would that be? Putting yourself in other people's shoes is big.   Sam Eckholm It's kind of hard to remember that because you're getting information in from your leader, usually from your leader, right, your boss, they're telling you one thing, it's hard for them to see two layers down how that's going to impact everyone else. So I would always just try to put myself in other people's shoes. “OK, if I do this,  how's that going to make this person feel?” But the other thing is you can never make everyone happy. And I had to come to grips with that. And that's hard for me because I'm the type of person — it like messes me up if I know someone's mad at me or upset or doesn't think I'm doing the right thing. But you learn real quickly, you grow up really quickly and realize that if 90% is good, I mean, that might even be because that might be the best 99 whatever number you want. 15 a year and I'm like, well, this is working. You can't make everyone happy. And I still struggle with that, because you want everyone to be happy, especially with what I'm doing now on social media, when there's millions of people watching what I'm doing, and you look at comments, and you're kinda' like, “Man, I tried so hard on this, and I could have done it differently.” But then if you change it for one person, and someone else isn't gonna' be happy… so thick skin, that's the biggest thing I had to realize I wouldn't be where I am today if I let that bother me. And I remind myself that that's better to be where I am today and have thick skin then be hiding in the corner because I was scared. I couldn't make everyone happy.   Naviere Walkewicz So that is a great lesson. Thank you for sharing that. So, the Academy was great. You had some wonderful leadership experiences. Can you share maybe one of your favorite things about the Academy while you were a cadet?   Sam Eckholm Yeah, well, you asked about clubs. Oh, and I mentioned I didn't do anything really the first two years, which is true. That completely changed. When I switched squadrons, I got super involved, still within the squadron, but also within the Academy. I was on the mock trial team. That was so fun. Gave me an opportunity to travel on the weekends. I ended up being a legal studies major because of that and really enjoyed just everything that came from that. You know, I love talking. I don't know if you knew that I love speaking and talking with other people, communicating. And in mock trial and legal studies, our exams were literally us standing at a podium delivering a fake appellate speech or like you're talking to a judge and that was really cool. And then being able to compete and travel by talking and being a lawyer was fun. And then I also had the opportunity to be on the women's basketball practice team, the scout team. So I was a basketball player in high school, not at the level they play at the Academy. But I was like, “Well, how can I continue doing this?” And so someone, one of my classmates, is like, well, the women's team they look for former high school players to come into rugby, the scout team, run their upcoming opponents' defensive and offensive plays against them. And I tried out for that and made it and that was such a blast. I never knew we do that. And I had a schedule. I was able to go down there — we got the merch, the swag bag. It was fun. So, I tell everyone I was on the women's basketball team. Some kind of laugh, but it was the most amazing opportunity I had. And there's so many things like that at the Academy. By the time I was a firstie — people ask if I had any experience with photography, video, social media while here. One answer I say is “I started the CS 28 Blackbirds Instagram account,” which is still running strong, right? But then I actually worked with my then-physics instructor to start a photography class for the Academy. So as part of the Fine Arts Department, is the first time it was ran. And it was an elective I was able to sign up for when I was a first-year. And yeah, I mean, we literally had like 30 cadets take this course and raised enough money that we were able to get everyone a camera. Our professor, Col. Maddox at the time, she's still in, but she was amazing. She taught us and instructed us because she had her own business doing wedding photography and stuff like that. And that was so cool. I remember going to class, it felt like I was at a normal school. I was taking a photography class. And so that was when I was graduating going into public affairs, as my career, realized that I'm going to keep this up. And it was just cool to be able to do something like that, that you don't think the Academy has. We've got some cool classes that you might not expect.   Naviere Walkewicz No, that's wonderful. And I think our listeners are really excited to hear that too. And before we go on to your career in the Air Force and that transition, I wanted to go back to a little bit about the intercollegiate experience because I think you have a really unique perspective, right? You are not a recruited athlete, but you experienced really diving into the Academy from that aspect. And then you got to have the schedule and understand the rigors of what our intercollegiate athletes experience and you will hear this term: “Teezo Gap.” What's your perspective on that? You know, for people that are just listening, I think that's a fascinating topic that we haven't really explored.   Sam Eckholm Yeah, was a cadet for the first two years not being an intercollegiate athlete, the Teezo Gap, as you mentioned, it's a completely different perspective. And I'll be honest, sometimes you buy into it, you're like, I mean, these athletes are having an easier — they get to go do this and travel and wear civilian clothes as freshmen with their team, you know, miss all the mandatory squadron events and the training sessions and so I'll be honest, you do have some of that perception. Now flashing forward, that completely changed when I got a taste of it. And this was a small taste of it. I mean, I was a scout team player. And it wasn't every day, I had to go down half the week because we had two different teams that did it. But even then, I can't imagine what they have to go through. Because you go down there, your schedule is modified to where you don't have afternoon classes. So, after lunch, you're kind of going down there. And then it is practice meetings, dinner, sometimes meetings again, and then homework, and then rinse and repeat. And at the same time, sure, maybe they're missing some squadron stuff, but you know what, they're not missing anything academically, that's the same. So I have so much appreciation for all of the intercollegiate athletes at the Academy and experiencing that gave me more of an appreciation. And I just, again, it's something you can't fully appreciate until you have done it yourself. But for those students that can be so successful on the field and then still graduate from this. I mean, I know I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. So, to answer your question, it is something that I think people who aren't aware, or who are listening and you know, might have that perception that it exists. I think we need to work to change that a little bit. Because these people are incredible.   Naviere Walkewicz And again, it's just I mean, you can probably share more. So, you went through that. Like, it's fascinating. I really appreciate you sharing that. Yeah. I think that's a wonderful thing for people to hear. You know, some of the perceptions versus realities. So, let's talk about when you were in the military. So, you graduated the Academy, what AFSC did you get? Yeah, so public affairs?   Sam Eckholm Yes. 35P1. When I was a firstie, I kind of knew I was going to not do the pilot thing. Multiple reasons. People asked me why. Couple: I wasn't even fully medically qualified at the time. I had some color vision stuff. Probably could have gotten a waiver for that eventually. But you know, there was a long process. So that's where I first started to think, “Hey, maybe there's something else I can do, too. I just loved being on the ground talking to people, there was more I wanted to do than just fly. And so, I was trying to find a career field that allowed me to still be around aircraft, still be bebop and buzzing around and doing my thing but also having an impact. So, after my sophomore year, when we went on ops Air Force, I went to Travis Air Force Base and part of that trip, I got to shadow the public affairs career field. And while I was there, I still remember the feeling of like walking through the doors at the PA building, which was right by the wing staff,. They had like a full suite of Apple MacBook computers, airmen on Lightroom and Photoshop and editing videos. The San Francisco 49ers were in town to do a base visit and PA was out there escorting them. I got to interview the commander who was about to PCS and write a story on him. This was all in the span of like three days. And I was like, “What other career field is there where you can do all of this?” It's like kind of a jack-of-all-trades job. And so that visit, I was like, “Wow, this is really, really cool. I want to do this!” Now the next part was like, “Well, how do I do this?” So, I came to find out there was only five slots. Since I've graduated, I've heard some years they have had no slots, some years a couple slots. So, I don't really know how it works anymore. But I would go up to Harmon Hall, literally every day the first semester of my first year, second of my two-degree year, and I would just talk with, then at the time Lt. Col. Allen Herritage, who is the PA director. Now it'd be like, “Sir, how can I learn more about this job?” I was like, “How can you help me? How can you help me get this?” It's all about connections. And regardless of whether or not that actually did help, I know two things are true. I went up there every day and I talked. And then I also got public affairs. So, I just, I worked really hard, though. I mean, I worked so hard in school, and I had a good class ranking. And that definitely helped me and just networking as much as I could to let a FPC know that this is something that I want. So yeah, I dropped public affairs. I was so excited. I remember our squadron put on this awesome AFSC drop release with Nerf guns and blindfold maze stuff. And when I saw that, I was like, “This is gonna' be fun five years, or longer.” Yeah, I didn't know looking back. I mean, you know, we can get into that too. But it's a career field that is fun for life and I'm so glad I got it.   Naviere Walkewicz Wonderful. So let's talk about that. And let's talk about that career field and some of your experiences both from the experience perspective, but maybe where there was some leadership lessons you took as a public affairs officer.   Sam Eckholm Yeah, well, I was kind of thrust right into it. So, I got stationed at Langley Air Force Base. I was, I think the only one from my class, maybe one other who even got sent there. So, it's not like pilot training or a lot. You know, if you got your buddies, it's kind of like a little reunion and you run it back for the next couple years. I was off on my own, so to learn quickly what life was like, to be just Sam as an officer, as a lieutenant, it's like the first week when I was out there we were doing unit PT with my PA shop, running around the base track, which those who have been to Langley, it's a beautiful ride on the coast on the running ground. It's amazing running the flightline. And out of nowhere an F-22 took off just full-burner. But it wasn't a normal takeoff. It started doing maneuvers and rolls and just putting on this spectacle of a show. I mean, my ears were like, “Oh my gosh,” and I turned to my boss at the time. I was like, “What is going on right now?” She's like, “Oh, Sam, that's the F-22 demo team. They travel the air shows around the world just like the Thunderbirds, and they put on shows and help recruit and they actually take one PA person from our office to travel with them each year.” It was at that second I knew that's what I want to do. That right there, is what I want to do. And flash forward a few months, the opening came up. I was completely inexperienced at the time, but I pitched myself and sold myself and the commander at the time, Lt. Col. “Loco” Lopez, who's now out in Hawaii, is the squadron commander for the F-22 unit. And he's been a big inspiration to me. I interviewed with him and I was showing him a YouTube channel. “Look, I can edit, see, like, I can take photos, look at my Instagram.” And he hired me in for the next two years. And every year I was like, “What is real life?” I mean, we were at shows all over the world. I went to Dubai, Singapore, Chile, Hawaii, I mean, Alaska, pretty much every base here in the U.S. got to meet my classmates who were stationed there, got to run all the social media, do all the videos for the team, the coolest jet in the world. It's the F-22 — blew up their social media, just made it my goal to do what I called “no life.” Literally, for two years it's all I did was live, breathe F-22 demo team, and just really wanted to give it my all. And that was so fun. Now to go back to the leadership side of things: Imagine being a butter bar, a second lieutenant now thrust on a team, which has national-media-level attention. I remember I was at a show in Chicago andI just got called in to do an interview because our pilot wasn't available. And I'm literally in front of thousands and thousands of people having to just talk about the Air Force mission and these high-level questions that I was like,”Oh my gosh,” so back to your question of being confident. Like, that's probably where it came from. I just had to learn and had to fake it ‘till I made it. But what a fun experience for a young lieutenant and just something I'll never forget.   Naviere Walkewicz Wow. Well, I think something I took from what you said as well as you identify very quickly, when there's something that you really want to do and you make a path to get there. And I think in your relentless pursuit, in a way that is really convincing. And I think that's a lesson right? You have to put in the work, you obviously can't just only be talk, you have to be able to show like, you can put some cred behind it. And I think that's a lesson where you're able to share with folks, “Hey, if you're really interested in something, go all in for it.” And to your point, “and then live it.” Yeah, do that. soak it all in. So I think that's really inspirational. Were there any tough times you had as a public affairs officer?   Sam Eckholm Tons. PA, it's not always the good side of things, too, right? We really exist for the most part for the crisis communication, right? When something bad happens, to communicate that as well. And so, it doesn't matter if it's the highs or the lows, you still gotta' get out there and talk to people and make things happen. So, luckily, when I was on the team, you know, we didn't have anything catastrophic, any mishaps like that, but I know people who have right I mean, [I've] had mentors, PA world or former Thunderbird PAs when they've had crashes and there's a lot that goes on there. So, we always have to be prepared for that. And even though I didn't have to necessarily be thrust in that environment, that's still on your mind, you just have to be prepared. Now, the other thing was just tough with being in this lifestyle for two years is that when you're constantly gone, so we are TDY I mean, like, literally 300 days a year. And so, it's hard to continue to have the same motivation every single day when it's just the same show, monotonous, like doing everything day in and day out. And I think that's a lesson anyone can learn in the Air Force or beyond, you know, because a lot of the times it, it is repetitive. So, I would always look for ways to make it not repetitive. And for me if we're going to a different show, as a photographer, videographer making content, I would always try to do something different. I would always try to focus in on a different element of the story. So instead of just focusing on the pilot in the jet every time, I would tell behind-the-scenes stories of our maintainers, of our aircrew flight equipment specialists, of the fans who came and traveled across the country to watch and, doing tours with them and I would arrange a ton of school visits and talk to Civil Air Patrol units in JROTC and really just focus on the community relations and the recruiting side of things. And there's a lot I had to work with and that was really fun for me to mix and match and that was the way I just stayed motivated and still had fun with it. And even to this day, I'm always trying to one-up the last thing I did and branch out and evolve and just make everything interesting. And I think the viewers kind of understand that and appreciate it. And that's always my goal is for no one to ever click on a video of mine or see what I'm doing and be like, “Oh, that's kind of the same thing.” I want it to always be exciting.   Naviere Walkewicz I can absolutely appreciate that. And it seems like that kind of pace is, I mean, how do you maintain that? So maybe my question would be for you, Sam, what is your outlet? Because if you live, breathe as a leader, right, if you you expect a lot from your people, and you always want the best and you want something new, how do you maintain that level of give? And so, what's your outlet?   Sam Eckholm Yeah, well, kind of the first part of what you asked, I also had to realize that just because I'm this way doesn't mean everyone's this way, right? So, if you're a leader, and you are 100% committed and want it to be your entire life, that doesn't mean everyone's going to be that way. And I had to realize that because at times that can be frustrating, if you're leading a team and you're gung-ho about it, but like, OK, maybe they aren't, well, that's OK, you know, you need to, again, put yourself in their shoes and see what motivates them. And I learned that lesson as well, even back to when I was a squadron commander, I'd pitch an idea and I was so excited. And I can tell him that everyone's [not] gonna' be as excited as you, Sam. But yeah, my outlet, I mean, a lot of different stuff at the time, you know, I was just so excited about doing what I was doing. So as weird as it sounds, my outlet was my work. And that's something not everyone understands. But I actually felt depressed if I wasn't continuing to work, because I knew there was a time limit on how long I would have this opportunity. So, I was like, “Well, I'm going to keep working hard now.” And as I've moved on, I have found a healthy balance between work and other things. So, you know, friendships are incredibly important, especially other people in the space with what I'm doing, being able to talk with them and how they are handling stress levels. Because not everyone can relate especially to what I was doing and am doing. So other people in the space, in the industry, we're all dealing with the same things. So that's something I tell people all the time is, “Other people who are in your world — those are some awesome friendships you can have, because they understand what you're going through. Not everyone does.” That's a classic example of when people talk about the Academy, you go home on a winter break, none of your friends understand what you're going through. It's really, really hard, you know? Who does? Your classmates at the Academy. You go through that with them. And so that has been a huge thing for me: other people who have gone through what I have, like, we're in it together. And those are some times when I really feel like I can sit back, relax, and the stress is taken off.   Naviere Walkewicz Now that's really helpful. And I think I did chuckle in my head a little bit when you said, you know, “Actually, my outlet is my work.” But I think when you're doing your thing that you're wired to do and your passion, that makes sense.   Sam Eckholm Yeah, it's both fulfilling and exhausting. I mean, I love to travel to like, I do normal things as well. But in some way, even then I battled the whole, like, well, what can I be doing, especially when you're a full-time, have your own company entrepreneur. That was a huge adjustment for me. Because it's not like you have a salary job where there is some end at some point to kind of go home. It's like, well, you could always be doing more, right? You could always be working. And I've had to struggle with that sometimes, because it's like, I could keep working, keep working. So that's something I've learned and doing better at still to this day. But yeah, it's interesting.   Naviere Walkewicz So, let's talk about that transition. You know, you knew there was a time period on that F-22 demo team, and the PA role. But when did, you know, “I think I'm going to be moving out of this into my own kind of work.”   Sam Eckholm Yeah, so once I finished the F-22 team, I had to move on with my career. They don't let you do something in the Air Force forever, totally understood that. But I wasn't done personally inspiring, making content. I had developed kind of a following along the way of people who were just interested in what I was doing. So, I would kind of take my free time. I always made it my goal — I was like, I'm going to stay focused on the PA job. I never want anyone to be able to look at lieutenant at home and be like, “He's not locked in on this PA job. He's not focused. He's interested in these other things.” So, I would make that my goal. But my free time, my leave, my time on the weekends, instead of normal hobbies people do, I would make videos. That was my thing. And so, my next assignment, I went to Scott Air Force Base, I was 375 Air Mobility Wing, and that was a demanding and fun job. And I kind of still had this thing going on the side. It got up to the point where it's at the end of my Academy commitment, and I had a tough decision to make, right? I loved being in the Air Force. I was a captain at the time. I was excited. But as you rank up, you get more responsibilities, understandably, and I knew that I did not want to let that lack if I was going to stay in the Air Force. I did not want my airmen — I did not want people to think I was distracted doing something else. But I loved this other thing as well. So really, what I had to decide is, “Where am I having the biggest impact in the Air Force?” And as weird as it sounds, right, because you think of serving — most of the time people think like, in uniform active duty. Well, I think of service in many different ways, right. And I actually felt, and I know this is true, that I could serve the Air Force, the military, our country, better on the outside, continuing to inspire people by doing these videos, making this content, showing people what life was like, inspiring all these kids on the outside, being able to go at that with 100% of my time. And luckily, that wasn't just a personal decision I made. I was having conversation with like, the highest levels of leaders in Air Force recruiting and public affairs explaining this as well. And that's just what I decided I wanted to do. And it was scary. It's very scary going from a job, one that I had worked since I was a freshman in high school to get to in the Air Force, to now kind of giving that up to do this other thing. But we're really helping the viewers, it wasn't giving it up to me, it was just doing it in a different way. I would say I'm still connected now more than I was even when I'm in with what I'm doing. I'm not in uniform, you know, I don't have my CAT card anymore. But I am serving more than I ever thought I would be around the units traveling to bases every single week filming what I'm doing. So that's kind of what helped me make that decision. And it was the right decision. And to this day, the comments I see from kids, the people I've been able to help and resonate with, it's crazy. And it's something that probably wouldn't have been able to happen if I stayed in just with the amount of you know, stuff I would have had to do on the normal job side. Right?   Naviere Walkewicz Wow. So, you talked about impact. And that was really important to you. What's one of years or maybe a couple of your most favorite, impactful moments that you've had since moving into the entrepreneurial side of things?   Sam Eckholm Yeah, I mean, it's hard sometimes when you're like a video creator, because what you see is numbers on a screen, right? You see views, you see comments, which can be really inspiring too. But sometimes, you know, you miss the in-person interactions because you're traveling and it's the videos people see. But I always, even to this day, a couple times a year, I do like in-person events, I just went out to an airshow and was in San Antonio and I did a couple of these previous years. And it's a different feeling when you're out there. And there's tens, dozens of people, who are like literally waiting in line just to say hi, to take a photo to tell me that like, hey, these videos are the reason they want to join or have joined or have inspired them. It's crazy. And that to me keeps me going. And that was so, so impactful. And you know, I have a folder on my computer. On my phone I have like screenshots of all the messages I've gotten, because when I'm having a hard day or when I'm like, “Man, this is tough,” I can look back at those and be like, “Well, this is why it's all worth it. And this is why I do the things that I do.” And yeah, it's cool being a creator who's not just in it for themselves. And I try to tell people that really what I'm doing is to inspire other people. It's tough. It probably looks really cool when you see all the things I'm doing. And that is fun. But it is a lot. But I know the impact that's possible. I remember when I was a freshman in high school looking for content online, and there wasn't too much of it. And I wanted to change that. And I know Naviere, we've worked so much together and you've seen the stuff I've done and you know how much it means to me. So just being able to see and hear from people, it means everything.   Naviere Walkewicz Yeah, so what's your, is there a story, a video that you've done that just, it just kind of sits right into your heart like this one is just so special? I mean, we probably have so many, but is there one that you just feel has really resonated with, you know, youth or just that level of impact? Is there one you can speak to?   Sam Eckholm Yeah, well, I'll give, I'll give kind of two. So, one that is incredibly special to me in a personal way. I actually got to go back and do a video on the KC-135 and I brought my dad out there for that. Yeah, that was something I always wanted to do. And he's great. I was a little nervous. I was like, “How is he going to be on camera?” But he knocked it out of the park to the point where some comments were like, “He needs to come to every video like that. You need to take over the channel at this point. Everyone loves you so much.” But it was so fun. I mean, he studied for weeks on the facts of the aircraft. He was an instructor for the instructors at the schoolhouse. It took him a few minutes, but literally after half an hour, he knew his way around that aircraft so well and was teaching the current pilots out there some things that they didn't know. Anyway, so I look back — that video is like a full-circle moment for me. And that resonated with a lot of people too, who just enjoyed seeing my inspiration and have some people who look at me as their inspiration. Like it's just really, really cool to see outside of that. I mean, I would say a really personal project of mine was when I actually got to come out here to the Academy and do a complete tour of the grounds and the campus and facilities. With the audience I've been able to build, a lot of people know me as an Academy grad. And so they reached out asking me questions about the Air Force Academy. “What it's like to apply?” How they can get in. And it's hard to answer all of those questions because that's all I'd be doing if I did it. So, I was like, “Well, what's a way I can put this message out to everyone?” And so, you know, I worked with your team, worked with the Academy team, and we came out here for a week and filmed what I think is the most beautiful school ever. And I just wanted to show that and that video to this day is, I don't know, 1.2-something million views. And you go scroll through those comments, the amount of people who didn't know it exists — which probably sounds crazy to us, right? — that now know and can see all of these cool things you would have access to and can do if you're cadet, I mean, I think that video is going to have returns and just inspire people for years to come. That was such a big project I wanted to do to get back to my school and to show other people, “This school did this for me. You guys need to understand what it can do for you, too.” So, I'm really proud of that one. I have a lot of people reaching out to me about that still to this day. Every single week, you know, “Hey, Sam, I want to go here. I watched this video. How can I do it?” And I'm like, “Alright, well, let's talk. Here's what you need to start doing. You need to do this.”   Naviere Walkewicz I love that. So, it's really unique, your journey, right? Because you have been a leader of peers, of people, of airmen, etc. You've also been, I think, a leader of yourself, and you know, in part of how you navigate that. One of the ways I think our listeners really feel connected with our guests is, you know, life is pretty imperfect. What are some challenges you've experienced along the way in your life, just in your professional and personal life, that you have has felt as evolved you as an influencer as a leader, as someone who inspires you to share any with a group that makes them feel like, okay, Sam, I'm in? You know, I'm kind of like, Sam, you know, in some way, what would that be?   Sam Eckholm Yeah, I mean, like I said, it's one of the things I sometimes struggle with when you have an online presence is you kind of gravitate towards only showing the highlights. And that's just how the business works, right? I mean, I don't want to be putting out negative content all day. But then, you know, you're right. I mean, some people kind of see like, “Oh, everything seems to be going well.” I mean, that's not the case. Absolutely not, especially with what I was doing. There's a reason it's very hard to get into this space, especially being in the Air Force. I made some decisions that some might have said would hurt my career, right? Even going back to the demo team, that was a job that typically you don't do as a lieutenant, right. And I was told, “Hey, this might hurt your career going forward.” But I also knew that this was something I wanted to do. And I had goals in mind. And I was young and I just hated the idea that a decision I made when I was 23 years old would ruin my career. I was like, “There's no way that can be true. I'm so young, I've got so much opportunity.” And so, I'm glad I kind of listened to myself. And that was a big decision. But even along the way, making videos while being in the Air Force, I was writing the rules, because there weren't regulations for what you can and can't do. And I was having a lot of tough conversations with people. I'm like, “I'm trying to do the right thing here. You guys gotta help me, I see a lot of potential in this.” So that kind of lesson can be applied to, I think, anyone. A lot of people, I feel, want to do certain things or have dreams and goals. And neither one get talked out of it. To talk themselves out of it. Three, you just look at the negatives, and it gets in your head. And it makes it hard for people to kind of pull the trigger and do it. And I completely understand that. “Comfortable rut” — I kind of use that phrase — you get comfortable in thing and it's hard to break away from that. And so, I don't know, for me, that's the biggest advice I give people: If you have an end goal in mind, it's not going to be easy to get there. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? I mean, especially being an entrepreneur. It's hard, it's a gamble, it's a risk. And you've got to prepare yourself. I never say, “Hey, just go take this without any plan or backup plan.” And I always had that in place. But you know, I guess I kind of am a risk taker in some world. And I know I have good intentions at heart. And I know what I'm trying to do. And I think that was really important is just having the backup plans, having a good background, having things set in place to where I'm able to do this and — I don't know, coming across as a good person has been huge. So, people hopefully watch my stuff and, like, “Sam's good. He's doing the right thing.”   Naviere Walkewicz So, I don't know, it's hard. If you have any specific advice on that, because you've done so much. But when people look at your stuff, hopefully you can kind of resonate and don't think it's all good all the time. But I think you'll come across as very approachable. I think it's lovely for them to hear in your own words some of the struggles that you have when you're thinking about your content when you're thinking about the delivery of it. They maybe don't get that glimpse, right? They just see the final product. I think it's good for listeners to hear that you've kind of had to advocate for yourself, trust in yourself. And I think you've shown a path of what belief and grit and, going back to your core of, “My intention is to create meaningful impact and do great things for our Air Force and for the future leaders,” right? I think you can always hang your hat on that with pride.   Sam Eckholm Yeah, and I always tell people like what you see as a finished polished video — like, the behind the scenes is crazy. It's like, cameras everywhere, months and months of coordination for the shots and for these approvals. We plan videos — like I'm planning now that you will see six months from now. That's how long it takes. And things change. When I first started out, and it was fun, it was a hobby, it was just what I was doing. And then now when it becomes like, a full-time job, and you have a team now I've got employees who rely on me, like things kind of changed with that. And, you know, definitely the advocating for yourself is something that sometimes hard to do. But it's, it's necessary. And so yeah, it's a lot of lessons I've learned, and I'm still learning. But I'm not going anywhere. I'm gonna' keep going hard.     Naviere Walkewicz So, love that. So, your dad and uncle were inspirations to kind of get you into the profession of arms, the Air Force Academy, who inspires you now? Do you listen to any particular leaders? Are there books you read when you have time? You know, what, what kind of fills your inspiration bucket, Sam?   Sam Eckholm Yeah. You know, it's crazy. It sounds, there's not necessarily like a, like a one specific person who inspires me. And that's just because I try to consume so much different stuff and take the best from all of those. So yeah, I'm constantly learning, right? If I'm not creating content, I'm watching other content for inspiration, listening to a ton of podcasts, like this one here. So yeah, there's so much we can take from different people and different leaders. It is hard a little bit in my case to find someone who's exactly done what I've done. But there's a lot of people who have done other things and kind of made it, like Col. Kim Campbell, I've been listening to her actually, like what she's been doing with her Air Force career and then afterward and like, I've actually never met her.     Naviere Walkewicz You feel like you've met her, right?   Sam Eckholm I actually tried to. Same thing with Michelle Karen-Mace. You know, she's not Academy grad, but she's all over the world. And we did similar things in our careers. And so, she's been awesome to talk to as well, in pretty much any Academy grad. And that's something that I really enjoy. Being a member of the Long Blue Line, we come from the same roots. And everyone's very intelligent and understands things. And I've just been able to have so much support with what I've been doing through the grad network, especially when I go out to different bases and units like grads, like, “Hey, Sam, what's up? I'd love to work with you.” And that's been really cool. So, yeah, I mean, a ton of different inspiration from a lot of different people. And, you know, hopefully, I can eventually be that inspiration for someone else who wants to do something similar to what I'm doing. That's exciting to draw inspiration not just from people, but experiences. And what you see, just you're constantly looking for, yes, kind of pieces.   Naviere Walkewicz That's pretty special. So, you know, let's talk about right now what is, you know, how are you in support of the Academy through what you're doing? Maybe kind of share with our listeners what that looks like.     Sam Eckholm I'm always trying to further the Academy mission with literally every video I produce. I'm always doing something else. So I had the awesome opportunity to partner with Air Force recruiting and we did a six-video series exploring different aircraft, different career fields, — one of my favorite videos we did is actually went down and experienced Air Force Special Tactics officer training for a week in Hurlburt. And I was literally hands and feet behind my back bobbing through the pool like going through selection that normal people train for years for, I had like a week of advance to go out there and do that. So I tried to put myself in uncomfortable situations to show other people what that's like. It was extremely brutal. And I think there's more of that coming down the road as well. As you know, one of the huge goals was to give back to people trying to go to the Academy and honestly level the playing field in my mind with people who maybe don't have graduates or parents who went to the Academy and worked extremely hard work with you guys on the Air Force Academy blueprint program to just have a resource out there where anyone can navigate the Academy application can know what they need to be doing in high school, and to know what to expect once they actually get to the Academy too, and that's been incredibly successful. I mean, we have over 300 atudents enrolled — over two dozen who've been accepted this past class.   Naviere Walkewicz I was going to ask: Have you seen any of those come through?   Sam Eckholm Yeah, we have. Well, this will be the first year. so they haven't entered yet because we launched last August, right? So yeah, I'm excited. There will be a little mafia of Blueprint students here at the Academy as well. And like I said, that was something — you get so man

Washington, DC Journalist Matt Laslo returns to The Good Trouble Show with Congressional reaction to drones flying with impunity over Langley Air Force Base and other US Air Force installations. Senators Tim Kaine, Mark Kelly, Mike Rounds, and others react. Are these UFOs / UAPs or foreign adversaries? The Pentagon and the USAF cannot protect our skies.Recorded 4/13/2024The Good Trouble Show: Linktree:https://linktr.ee/thegoodtroubleshowPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheGoodTroubleShowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGoodTroubleShowTwitter / X: https://twitter.com/GoodTroubleShowInstagram: @goodtroubleshowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@goodtroubleshowFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Good-Trouble-Show-With-Matt-Ford-106009712211646 Threads: @TheGoodTroubleShowBlueSky: @TheGoodTroubleShowBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-good-trouble-show-with-matt-ford--5808897/support.

Patrick discusses a newly released UFO Video from December 2023 showing a "car-sized orange orb", according to the witness, flying and then hovering over Langley Air Force Base.

In December of 2023, there were objects filmed flying over Langley Air Force Base. Matt Laslo spoke with Tim Kaine about what they were and if there were things being done about it? #uap #ufo #disclosure #government #information #ufonews  CHECK OUT PAVEL: https://www.youtube.com/@psicoactivopodcast  

Dr. Brian Laslie is the Command Historian at the United States Air Force Academy. He previously served as the Deputy Command Historian at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and as the Historian, 1st Fighter Wing, Langley Air Force Base, home to the 94th and 27th Fighter Squadrons. A 2001 graduate of The Citadel: The Military College of South Carolina and a historian of air and space power studies, Dr. Laslie received his Master's degree from Auburn University Montgomery in 2006 and his Doctorate in history from Kansas State University in 2013. His first book The Air Force Way of War: U.S. Tactics and Training after Vietnam (Kentucky, 2015) was published in the Spring of 2015 and landed on the 2016 Chief-of-Staff of the Air Force's Reading List and the 2017 Royal Air Force's Chief of the Air Staff Reading List. Dr. Laslie is currently finishing work on his fourth book manuscript as well as serving as the Air Power and Aviation Series Editor for the University Press of Kentucky.

This edition features stories on the acting SECAF visiting Langley Air Force Base, a German doctor training with U.S. military doctors and a street in Italy dedicated to the remembrance of 9/11. Hosted by Senior Airman Robbie Arp.

This edition features stories on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visit to Langley Air Force Base, an airlift squadron keeping Airmen safe and Fly Away Security Team (FAST). Hosted by Senior Airman Robbie Arp.

This edition features stories on an F-16 crash during a training mission at the Utah Test and Training Range, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah; Iraqi army Generals visiting Langley Air Force Base as part of the growing partnership of U.S. and Iraqi forces, a memorial dedicated to an Airman, who, after serving the Air Force for twenty-one years, was mortally wounded in the line of duty as a Tuscon, Arizona, police officer, the problem vehicles abandoned at Yokota Air Base, Japan after Airman permanently change duty stations, new standardized physical training standard instituted throughout Pacific Air Force, the control tower at Lajes Field, Azores, that allows pilots to communicate with ground personnel as they cross the Atlantic Ocean, and the back-up system at Andrews Air Base. Hosted by Master Sgt. Shawn Sprayberry.

This edition features stories on Airmen hoping to make the U.S. Olympic bobsledding team, Airmen at Yokota Air Base celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and his legacy, Aviano Air Base's Key Spouse program, the 633rd Air Base Wing taking over as the Installation Host Wing for Langley Air Force Base, and Airmen preparing Kwangju Air Base for the population increase during exercise Max Thunder. Hosted by Senior Airman Brad Sisson.

This edition features stories on the crash of a Osprey, a new simulator, a language program for Airmen and the Langley Air Force Base Youth Center in Virginia and Alabama's hometown hero who was promised by over 1000 local kids to get in shape with his help.

This edition features stories on the Pakistan flood relief efforts, the drawdown of troops in Iraq, the final F-15 training mission and the COMACC visit to Langley Air Force Base. Hosted by Airman 1st Class Alina Richard.

This edition features stories on the nation's longest running Armed Forces Day Parade, Airmen at Langley Air Force Base having the effects of being a good or bad Wingmanship reinforced for Wingmen-Stand-Down Day, a group of Incirlik Security Forces Airmen showing some area children about being a cop as a part of a celebration for National Police Week, a seasoned drummer who coaches United States Forces-Europe [USAFE] band members, Japan Air Self-Defense Force pilots taking to the skies with some of their U.S. counterparts nearby as a part of preparatory training for the upcoming multinational exercise Red Flag, and 5,424 Technical Sergeants chosen for promotion to Master Sergeant. Hosted by Airman 1st Class Alina Richard.

This edition features a story on a pair of owls that have taken up residence inside a new visitor's building being built on Langley Air Force Base. Hosted by Patrick Bloodgood.

This edition features a story on a pair of owls that have taken up residence inside a new visitor's building being built on Langley Air Force Base. Hosted by Patrick Bloodgood.

Ist der chinesische Ballon über den USA wirklich ein Spionage-Ballon? Ist das eine reine Provokation und ist die Aufklärung durch einen Ballon noch zeitgemäß? Wieso schießt man so einen Ballon nicht sofort ab? Ein ehemaliger Nato-Luftbildauswerter ("Spion") erklärt die Zusammenhänge. Mehr ansehen für zusätzliche Information. Joey Hoffmann: https://www.facebook.com/ungemeve/ https://www.ungemeve.de/ Hier der erwähnte Beitrag zur Ballontechnik: https://steadyhq.com/en/realitatsabzw... Hinweis: Das weitere Flugobjekt war zum Zeitpunkt der Aufnahme noch nicht bekannt. https://www.nzz.ch/international/amer... Weitere Informationen vom Team Rieck: Was folgt, ist eine unabhängige Zusammenfassung aller Primärquellen, öffentlichen Aussagen und bekannten Fakten zum Vorfall aller beteiligten Parteien. Mittwoch, Feb. 1: Chinesischer Ballon öffentlich gesichtet, Flüge am Billings Logan Airport 2 Stunden gestoppt. Donnerstag, Feb. 2: Pentagon offenbart, dass chinesischer High-Altitude-Ballon mehrere Tage über dem Festland USA fliegt. US-Politiker kritisieren Biden für Nichtabschluss. Zweiter Ballon über Lateinamerika gesichtet. Kanadas Verteidigungsministerium verfolgt "potenziellen zweiten Vorfall", ohne weitere Details. Weißes Haus kommentiert kanadische Aussage nicht. Freitag, Feb. 3: Chinesischer Sprecher sagt, dass China keine Absicht hat, US-Territorium zu verletzen. Bedauert, dass Ballon durch Fehler dort hingeflogen ist. US-Außenminister Blinken nennt es Verletzung, US-Souveränität und Völkerrecht. Geplante Reise nach China von Blinken verschoben. China sagt, keine Ankündigung von Reise durch Peking oder Washington. Respektiert US-Entscheidung und fordert ruhige Handhabung. US-Politiker drängen Biden zu handeln, China sagt, US-Politiker und Medien bauschen Vorfall auf. Samstag, Feb. 4: Chinas hochrangiger Diplomat Wang Yi hat mit Blinken telefoniert und sagte, China ist ein verantwortungsbewusstes Land und wird die Situation ruhig mit den USA handhaben. USA beschießt Ballon mit Luft-Luft-Rakete, abgeschossen von einem F-22-Kampfflugzeug aus dem Langley Air Force Base. FAA stoppt vorübergehend Flüge zu und von einigen Flughäfen in North Carolina und South Carolina. US-Militär startet Bergungsbemühungen. Chinas Außenministerium bestätigt erneut, dass das Luftschiff meteorologische Forschung durchführte und aufgrund "höherer Gewalt" unvorhersehbarer Umstände versehentlich in den US-Luftraum geriet. Sonntag, Feb. 5: Das US-Militär sammelt weiterhin Überreste des Ballons aus 15 Metern Wasser in einem 11 Kilometer großen Gebiet vor der Küste South Carolinas. China verurteilte die USA für das Abschießen eines zivilen Luftschiffs mit militärischen Kräften und forderte die USA auf, dessen Trümmer nach Peking zurückzugeben. Chinesisches Militär sagt, dass es eine Überreaktion ist, ein ziviles Luftschiff mit militärischen Kräften abzuschießen und behält sich das Recht vor, "eine ähnliche Situation mit notwendigen Mitteln" in Zukunft zu handhaben. Montag, Feb. 6: Washington beschuldigte China, den Ballon zum Spionieren in den USA zu nutzen. Das chinesische Außenministerium wiederholte, dass es für Wetterzwecke ist und forderte die USA auf, das Thema nicht zu sensibilisieren. Der Sprecher des chinesischen Außenministeriums, Mao Ning, sagte, dass das Ereignis des versehentlichen Eindringens des Ballons in den US-Luftraum ein Test dafür ist, wie ernsthaft die USA bei der Verbesserung der Beziehungen und der Behandlung der Krise mit Peking sind. Mittwoch, Feb. 8: Die USA sagten, dass ihr Verteidigungsminister mit seinem chinesischen Amtskollegen sprechen wollte, aber abgelehnt wurde. Donnerstag, Feb. 9: China lehnte einen Anrufvorschlag des US-Verteidigungsministers ab und nannte die Zerstörung des zivilen Luftschiffes durch die US-Militärkraft eine schwerwiegende Verletzung internationaler Praktiken. China besteht darauf, dass das Luftschiff für Wetterzwecke genutzt wurde und versehentlich in US-Luftraum eindrang. Der US-Spionage-Vorwurf wurde von China als unverantwortlich bezeichnet. Bücher von Christian Rieck: Die 36 Strategeme der Krise: Print: https://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASI... Kindle: https://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASI... *Digni-Geld - Einkommen in den Zeiten der Roboter: print: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN... Ebook: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ProfRieck?s... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/profrieck/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProfRieck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/profrieck/ *Hinweis: Die angegebenen Links können Affiliate-Links sein, bei denen ich eine Provision bekomme. Vielen Dank, falls Sie diese Links nutzen!

Ist der chinesische Ballon über den USA wirklich ein Spionage-Ballon? Ist das eine reine Provokation und ist die Aufklärung durch einen Ballon noch zeitgemäß? Wieso schießt man so einen Ballon nicht sofort ab? Ein ehemaliger Nato-Luftbildauswerter ("Spion") erklärt die Zusammenhänge. Mehr ansehen für zusätzliche Information. Joey Hoffmann: https://www.facebook.com/ungemeve/ https://www.ungemeve.de/ Hier der erwähnte Beitrag zur Ballontechnik: https://steadyhq.com/en/realitatsabzw... Hinweis: Das weitere Flugobjekt war zum Zeitpunkt der Aufnahme noch nicht bekannt. https://www.nzz.ch/international/amer... Weitere Informationen vom Team Rieck: Was folgt, ist eine unabhängige Zusammenfassung aller Primärquellen, öffentlichen Aussagen und bekannten Fakten zum Vorfall aller beteiligten Parteien. Mittwoch, Feb. 1: Chinesischer Ballon öffentlich gesichtet, Flüge am Billings Logan Airport 2 Stunden gestoppt. Donnerstag, Feb. 2: Pentagon offenbart, dass chinesischer High-Altitude-Ballon mehrere Tage über dem Festland USA fliegt. US-Politiker kritisieren Biden für Nichtabschluss. Zweiter Ballon über Lateinamerika gesichtet. Kanadas Verteidigungsministerium verfolgt "potenziellen zweiten Vorfall", ohne weitere Details. Weißes Haus kommentiert kanadische Aussage nicht. Freitag, Feb. 3: Chinesischer Sprecher sagt, dass China keine Absicht hat, US-Territorium zu verletzen. Bedauert, dass Ballon durch Fehler dort hingeflogen ist. US-Außenminister Blinken nennt es Verletzung, US-Souveränität und Völkerrecht. Geplante Reise nach China von Blinken verschoben. China sagt, keine Ankündigung von Reise durch Peking oder Washington. Respektiert US-Entscheidung und fordert ruhige Handhabung. US-Politiker drängen Biden zu handeln, China sagt, US-Politiker und Medien bauschen Vorfall auf. Samstag, Feb. 4: Chinas hochrangiger Diplomat Wang Yi hat mit Blinken telefoniert und sagte, China ist ein verantwortungsbewusstes Land und wird die Situation ruhig mit den USA handhaben. USA beschießt Ballon mit Luft-Luft-Rakete, abgeschossen von einem F-22-Kampfflugzeug aus dem Langley Air Force Base. FAA stoppt vorübergehend Flüge zu und von einigen Flughäfen in North Carolina und South Carolina. US-Militär startet Bergungsbemühungen. Chinas Außenministerium bestätigt erneut, dass das Luftschiff meteorologische Forschung durchführte und aufgrund "höherer Gewalt" unvorhersehbarer Umstände versehentlich in den US-Luftraum geriet. Sonntag, Feb. 5: Das US-Militär sammelt weiterhin Überreste des Ballons aus 15 Metern Wasser in einem 11 Kilometer großen Gebiet vor der Küste South Carolinas. China verurteilte die USA für das Abschießen eines zivilen Luftschiffs mit militärischen Kräften und forderte die USA auf, dessen Trümmer nach Peking zurückzugeben. Chinesisches Militär sagt, dass es eine Überreaktion ist, ein ziviles Luftschiff mit militärischen Kräften abzuschießen und behält sich das Recht vor, "eine ähnliche Situation mit notwendigen Mitteln" in Zukunft zu handhaben. Montag, Feb. 6: Washington beschuldigte China, den Ballon zum Spionieren in den USA zu nutzen. Das chinesische Außenministerium wiederholte, dass es für Wetterzwecke ist und forderte die USA auf, das Thema nicht zu sensibilisieren. Der Sprecher des chinesischen Außenministeriums, Mao Ning, sagte, dass das Ereignis des versehentlichen Eindringens des Ballons in den US-Luftraum ein Test dafür ist, wie ernsthaft die USA bei der Verbesserung der Beziehungen und der Behandlung der Krise mit Peking sind. Mittwoch, Feb. 8: Die USA sagten, dass ihr Verteidigungsminister mit seinem chinesischen Amtskollegen sprechen wollte, aber abgelehnt wurde. Donnerstag, Feb. 9: China lehnte einen Anrufvorschlag des US-Verteidigungsministers ab und nannte die Zerstörung des zivilen Luftschiffes durch die US-Militärkraft eine schwerwiegende Verletzung internationaler Praktiken. China besteht darauf, dass das Luftschiff für Wetterzwecke genutzt wurde und versehentlich in US-Luftraum eindrang. Der US-Spionage-Vorwurf wurde von China als unverantwortlich bezeichnet. Bücher von Christian Rieck: Die 36 Strategeme der Krise: Print: https://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASI... Kindle: https://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASI... *Digni-Geld - Einkommen in den Zeiten der Roboter: print: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN... Ebook: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ProfRieck?s... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/profrieck/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProfRieck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/profrieck/ *Hinweis: Die angegebenen Links können Affiliate-Links sein, bei denen ich eine Provision bekomme. Vielen Dank, falls Sie diese Links nutzen!

After a singer from Kazakhstan, two magicians, a giant children's choir, a spoken-word artist, a man who did tricks with dogs and more, LSU freshman basketball standout Flau'jae  Johnson took the stage Monday night on NBC's “America's Got Talent: All-Stars.” All were competing for one spot to move on to the competition finals. At 14, Johnson was originally on season 13 of “AGT,” in which she dedicated her performance to her father, a rapper named Camouflage who was murdered when her mother was pregnant with her. As she approached the stage, one of the judges turned to Johnson's mother, Kia Brooks, and said, “Are you nervous, Mom?” Brooks said that she wasn't nervous at all because she “created a beast.” Johnson performed her rap song confidently, the lyrics including a basketball reference to “making three” and her outlook on the promise of the future, “Ready or not, here I come.” Judge Howie Mandel told her that she was a beast to be reckoned with and that she was talented. Judge Heidi Klum also was a fan, as was Simon Cowell. However, Kodi Lee, a visually impaired singer-songwriter and pianist, won the episode. You can catch Johnson on TV tonight, in a different role. Her number four ranked LSU Tigers will be hosting Ole Miss at 9:00 PM on SEC Network. The Cobb Planning Commission unanimously denied the request from an organization affiliated with Kennesaw State University to open a Jewish student center in a residential area near KSU's Kennesaw campus. The commission's vote was 4-0, with Chairman Stephen Vault absent. At a December hearing, the commission tabled the request from Hillels of Georgia for a special land use permit to use a rented house on Frey Lake Road for a Jewish student center serving KSU students. Hillels of Georgia has rented the home since the start of the 2022 school year. Ten residents in the area were at Tuesday's meeting in opposition to the request. Phil Anzalone, a representative from the Pinetree Civic Association who spoke against the request in December, reiterated that his and other residents' opposition was not faith-based. Neighbors' concerns about the location included lack of available parking along Frey Road and noise that might come from the deck of the home during events. Commissioner Deborah Dance made the motion to recommend denying the request “based upon the opposition and based upon articulated burdens and impacts of this proposal upon a residential neighborhood.” Since the Planning Commission's decision is a recommendation for denial, the decision is not final. The Cobb Board of Commissioners will hear the case at its meeting on Tuesday, February 21 at 9 a.m. at 100 Cherokee St. Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens announced Monday that a deputy recruit has been fired and arrested following an altercation with a Cobb jail inmate over the weekend. Owens said during a press conference that Jacqun Brown of Austell, a recruit with the sheriff's office, was arrested at 3:15 p.m. Monday for his alleged role in the altercation. The altercation occurred on Saturday, as the 24-year-old Brown was attempting to move inmate Matthew Cubbage of Smyrna inside Lima Pod, Dorm 3, to deescalate a situation in which Cubbage had caused a disturbance, Owens said. According to a warrant for Brown's arrest, he repeatedly punched and placed Cubbage in a choke hold. Cubbage was being held at the jail for allegedly trafficking heroin, fentanyl and meth. Cubbage received cuts, bruises and scratches on his head, shoulders and lower back area, according to Brown's arrest warrant. The entire incident was captured on video inside the dormitory. More than a decade after the final Marietta-made Lockheed Martin F-22 rolled off the assembly lines, the F-22 program notched its first air-to-air “kill” this weekend as it shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the South Carolina coast. The balloon, which was spotted earlier in the week over Montana and Idaho, traversed across the U.S. last week before being hit with a missile off the South Carolina coast Saturday. A Lockheed spokesperson confirmed the fighter, stationed at Langley Air Force Base, was one of nearly 200 F-22's built at the sprawling Marietta plant. The F-22 pilot used a single AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile to bring down the balloon, the Department of Defense said. As of Monday, the United States had begun to recover parts of the balloon from the Atlantic Ocean. Chinese officials have taken responsibility for the balloon, but claimed it was a weather-monitoring device, an argument rejected by U.S. military officials. China has criticized the U.S. shooting it down as a “clear overreaction.” The maiden voyage of the F-22 was in September 1997, when the first Raptor was flown out of Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta by then-51-year-old Marietta resident Paul Metz. Lockheed built 187 of the aircraft between 1991 and 2011, with the Marietta plant serving as the final assembly point for the plane. In 2005, at peak production, there were 5,600 employees working on the aircraft, 944 of them in Marietta. The Cobb Planning Commission approved a 21-home subdivision in west Cobb at its meeting Tuesday. The proposal from Brock Built Homes covers about 14 acres on Friendship Church Road, just down the street from Hillgrove High School. The request was approved 4-0 by the commission, with Chairman Stephen Vault absent. The rezoning request was for smaller land lots than what the area was previously zoned for, and the applicant also requested rezoning to an open space community, aimed at preserving greenspace to promote environmental sustainability in the development. The subdivision would have five acres of open space, according to the rezoning application. In other business, the commission approved a filmmaker's request to park a truck full of his equipment in the driveway of his east Cobb home. Roger Alexander said his request resulted from fear of “a coordinated crime ring” he said has been breaking into film studios around the Atlanta metro area and stealing millions of dollars' worth of equipment. For that reason, Alexander explained, he decided to move his gear into a box truck and park the truck in his driveway, behind a wooden gate. He was requesting a land use permit from the county to keep the truck in his driveway. The commission voted 4-0 to approve Alexander's request for up to 2 years. A former Osborne High School teacher received a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to having an illegal relationship with a student, the Cobb District Attorney's office confirmed Tuesday. Zachary Warren White, of Marietta, was first charged in 2021 after being accused of having sex with a student in his school office when he was employed as a graphic arts teacher. He was originally charged with two counts of sexual assault by a teacher. White pled guilty to one felony count of improper sexual contact by an employee or agent, per District Attorney Flynn Broady. In addition to his three years in prison, he will serve seven years on probation. #CobbCounty #Georgia #LocalNews      -            -            -            -            -            The Marietta Daily Journal Podcast is local news for Marietta, Kennesaw, Smyrna, and all of Cobb County.             Subscribe today, so you don't miss an episode! MDJOnline            Register Here for your essential digital news.            https://www.chattahoocheetech.edu/  https://cuofga.org/ https://www.esogrepair.com/ https://www.drakerealty.com/           Find additional episodes of the MDJ Podcast here.             This Podcast was produced and published for the Marietta Daily Journal and MDJ Online by BG Ad Group   For more information be sure to visit https://www.bgpodcastnetwork.com            See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today on the AJ Roberts Show we are extremely lucky to be joined by a former 'Super Soldier' of the post WW2 secret space program, Penny Bradley. Penny Bradley was abducted from her home at age 4 by men in green fatigues who took her to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia [1959]. She spent 5 years there being mind fractured and her abilities weaponised, with a side trip to the infamous Montauk in 1961/62. Out of the thousand children initially part of this project, only 20 were still alive in 1964 when the 'graduates' were sent through the Long Island jumpgate [artificial wormhole] to Mars. She spent 10 years in Schule on Mars and then 15 as a fighter pilot. In 1990, the war on Mars was resolved and she was transferred to the German deep space military known as Nacht Waffen. She was age regressed and returned to within 15 minutes of her initial abduction in 2014. And in 2021, the CIA Archivist who uploaded her file to the computer verified that what she remembers is in that file. Tune in to one of the most fascinating episodes you'll see to date Make sure you subscribe to AJ Roberts weekly newsletter at www.mrajroberts.com

A Chinese spy balloon... that's what they're calling it... has been the talk of the nation this weekend. The US military sent an F-22 from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to shoot it down. Mike Rogers, who witnessed the spy balloon, is from Utah but was in South Carolina and watched the balloon get destroyed. He joins the show to share what he saw.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Protecting & Prioritizing Your Military Marriage - with Dr. Lindsey Cavanagh I live in a really big military town, Virginia Beach, right next to Norfolk, VA, which houses the largest naval base in the world. We also have Langley Air Force Base in nearby Hampton, army bases nearby and marine bases. Because we have so much military here and Shaun and I actually have lots of military friends, I wanted to dedicate a specific episode to helping out our military spouses.   In today's episode, we are blessed to have with us Dr. Lindsey Cavanagh, a psychologist, marriage coach, and podcast host of Married to Military. She is going to help us to learn how to have happy, healthy, and sustainable connected military marriages. Military marriages do not need to be disconnected. Military marriages do not need to have higher divorce rates than civilian marriages. So if you are in the military and you are married or if you're dating someone and they're in the military and you're wondering if you really want to get yourself involved in all of this, you are going to want to listen to this episode today.   Now, enjoy a few snippets from my conversation with Lindsey.   [Dr. Lindsey Cavanagh] I have worked with marriages outside of the military as well. And, certainly, marriage has challenges in and of itself, and some of them are very universal. I say when it comes to military marriages, one thing that comes up is like the deployments, you have the really long separations, whereas there are many careers that will take people away.   The other thing that really comes down to military marriages is the military members are trained in a very specific way to be successful at work or in combat or whenever they need to be. . . to be very emotionless, to be very problem-solution-oriented, to be very defensive in their positions. And so, again, all of those things are needed at work, but they don't always translate into a healthy marriage when you're trying to do things like compromise or when you're having emotions that need to be addressed, which really comes up in marriage. So that's another area that I find that's really specific to military because they are all trained in this way.   Spouses often say, I'm tired of being second priority. This is probably the number one thing that I help military spouses with because it comes up so often. They say, “I'm tired of my opinions and dreams not being validated.” One thing that I'll say to military spouses is you have to remember that the military does a really good job of giving constant information about what they need to do to advance their career and what kind of skills they need. They are constantly getting counseling about how and what to do to further their career so they are very confident in what needs to happen at work.    Military Spouses Have Needs Too   A lot of times, really what needs to happen is that we, as the military spouse, are really educating our spouse in terms of what we need and how they can support us. So often what I find is people will come to me and they say, “My spouse doesn't care. My spouse only cares about the military. They don't care about me.”  Nine times out of ten, when you really dig into it, the military service member cares a lot. And they actually, even in many ways, feel guilty.   This is where education from our side is needed, here is exactly how I want you to support me. Here is exactly how I want you to support the family. If I want my ideas and dreams to be considered when he's making his work decisions, I need to make sure that I'm telling him what those are. So really figuring out first what is it that you want from your spouse, how can your spouse support you, and then finding ways to start having those conversations.   My spouse was really relieved once I started doing this because now he knows what to do at home to make me feel special, loved and valued even when I don't have as much control over life like the military does. So I find that oftentimes it ends up being a really great thing. It's just you have to put in that initial work and be really clear about what it is you want and what it is you need.   Lindsey also talked at length about how to incorporate each other's love languages into times of separation. Her insight was incredibly valuable and will help a lot of military marriages to stay connected even when they're apart.    If you'd like this military marriage episode to turn into a series where I do several episodes for military spouses, then make sure that you hit me up on Instagram. Links Mentioned in this Episode Married to Military Deployment Survival Guide Learn more about Dr. Cavanagh   SUBSCRIBE | SHARE | RATE | COMMENT To ensure you never miss an episode, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Remember, sharing is caring! So, share these episodes with your friends and family via email or social media.  

On Monday's Mark Levin Show, President Biden authorized the killing of terrorist Ayman al-Zawahri by a CIA drone strike. However, when then-President Trump ordered a strike on Qassam Solemani and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he was trashed by Biden for it. Biden's speech while well-delivered lacked much to be desired as he superfluously justified his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Al Zawahiri's death is important, but it is not the end of protecting this country when we literally have a border under siege by illegal immigration. Then, the U.S Air Force will be hosting a drag queen show at Langley Air Force Base. The U.S State Dept. also donated money to "Queer Lisboa" a gay-friendly film festival that promotes films including pedophilia amongst its offerings. Later, Nancy Pelosi is in Asia, and it's still unknown if she'll stop in Taiwan after China's threat to blow her plane out of the sky. China is aggressively preparing to invade and conquer Taiwan and they are watching how our military responds to their threats. Afterward, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich joins the show and explains why conservatives must get out and vote in Arizona On Tuesday. The stakes for liberty versus tyranny in Arizona and in the US are just too high.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Description: The Botts family shares how taking a gap year provided their son with opportunities they didn't know he needed. This podcast was made possible thanks to the support of the Mountain Home AFB Officers Spouses Club https://www.mountainhomeosc.org/   Show Notes: https://events-na5.adobeconnect.com/content/connect/c1/968319730/en/events/event/private/1825780098/2269380534/event_registration.html?sco-id=3755853814&_charset_=utf-8 https://www.springcanyon.org/peak-internship/   Bio: Morgan Botts is the 19-year-old son of an Air Force Chaplain. He was born along the east coast in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is currently living in Buena Vista, Colorado, where he serves as a staff member for Spring Canyon Christian Conference Center. After completing the gap-year program at Spring Canyon, Morgan intends to finish his final semester of an Associates of Arts degree in General Studies from Southeastern University this upcoming fall.   Karen Botts is an Air Force wife to Jason and mother to five kids, ranging in ages from 10-19 years old.  She is in her thirteenth year of homeschooling and has navigated home education pathways in six separate states.  Thanks to the military, Karen and her family have called seven different states “home."  This summer, they will be returning to Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, VA.  Karen is a graduate of North Carolina State University and enjoys great food and great bargain-hunting during her rare moments of free time.  

Sam Eckholm is a social media content creator and Air Force officer with a passion for creating videos that showcase both the incredible opportunities available in the military as well as some of the coolest aircraft and military technology out there. Time Stamps 0:00 - Intro 5:30 - What's your "why"? 10:25 - Why Public Affairs is an incredible career 14:20 - Joining the Elite F-22 Demo Team 21:00 - Vape City Baby! (Sam's approach to photography) 23:40 - How to make viral videos 31:00 - Being openly gay in the military and on social media 37:20 - Returning to a normal job after the demo team 42:30 - Why John Mayer is the man! 43:50 - Favorite place to travel to 45:35 - Does content creating get in the way of the experience itself? 48:30 - Who's your biggest mentor? 50:20 - Proudest Air Force moment? 54:10 - My wife and kids crash the show! Literally! Sam grew up in Dallas, Texas before attending the United States Air Force Academy as a member of the class of 2018. Sam's first assignment was to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, where he was selected to travel with the F-22 Raptor Demonstration team for two seasons as their photographer and videographer, documenting the world's most technologically advanced fighter jet at air shows all across the world. Sam's videos have showcased topics such as the thrill of flying in the back seat of an Air Force jet, an exclusive behind the scenes look at how the F-35 is made, and even what it's like to fire the U.S. Army's most powerful rocket launcher. To date, Sam has amassed over half a million followers and 55 million views across his social media platforms.

WATCH THIS INTERVIEW: https://youtu.be/LehwS6Gznz0 Chase Skylar DeMayo, a US Air Force Veteran died in 2008. After a Near-Death Experience through cardiac arrest while stationed at Langley Air Force Base, Chase kept his NDE private in fear of judgement and retribution for twelve years until now. Chase was sent back from the other side to spread laughter, light, love and joy with the world. He is passionate about helping fellow veterans. This is his story, and this is his Passion. If you liked this episode, please do subscribe to our channel and let us inspire you to live a life you love. ❤️ https://www.youtube.com/c/PassionHarvest/ Thank you for watching!

We are joined by Kosta Telegadas, Strength Conditioning Specialist at Langley Air Force Base. Tune in to hear about the different training protocols used to prepare pilots and how these approaches differ from training for ground soldiers. 

*The views expressed in this episode are those of Captain Michelle Jilek and do not represent those of the United States Air Force or the Department of Defence* Captain Michelle “Twitch” Jilek is an embedded Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) within the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, USA. Captain Jilek developed one of the first-ever unique active duty embedded DPT position in the United States Air Force to offer services specifically for fighter pilots within their own squadrons on the flightline. She has been working closely with Air Combat Command in developing the Optimizing Human Weapon System (OWHS) program for fighter pilots, and works closely with contract personnel including Athletic Trainers, Strength Coaches, and Licensed Massage Therapists. Captain Jilek specializes in treating high G-induced spine injuries in fighter pilots, and is currently developing research projects to reduce the chance of high G injuries sustained in F-22s and other fighter aircraft. Captain Jilek graduated from University of New Mexico School of Medicine with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2017, completed an orthopedic residency in 2019, and became a board certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS) in 2020. She has conducted award-winning research in spine and shoulder, and has been using her special skills for the United States Air Force since 2018 when she commissioned. In this episode we talk about: Common Injuries within fighter pilots. Setting up an embedded performance programme within a fighter pilot squadron. Her prehab and rehab process. How she is tracking performance. Resources discussed: High G flight by David Newman Movement Impingement syndromes by Shirley Sahrmann McGill Method McKenzie Method Career detail about becoming a PT in the USAF Current Concepts Physical Therapy Courses You can contact Michelle Directly via email at jilek.michelle@gmail.com or via social media on Linkedin Keep up to date with Monarch Human Performance via our website, Facebook and Instagram pages.

Songs of America, The United States Air Force Heritage of America Band, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. Major Larry H. Lang, Commander/Conductor, Recorded 1995-2001 Happy Fourth of July!

“I’ve always said that if other architects would stay out of Virginia, then I’d stay out of their states too.” After a late introduction to the golf design game, Lester George has made good on his promise to dominate the Dominion state. His in-state roster now consists of top-100 projects like Kinloch, the quietly explosive Langley Air Force Base, and the mindbender at Ballyhack. And that’s where he crashes our 2020 Broken Tee 2-Man to discuss how the military shaped his eye for topography, his affinity for surfing despite never hopping on a board, unloading his car collection and an upcoming Seth Raynor project. 

“I've always said that if other architects would stay out of Virginia, then I'd stay out of their states too.” After a late introduction to the golf design game, Lester George has made good on his promise to dominate the Dominion state. His in-state roster now consists of top-100 projects like Kinloch, the quietly explosive Langley Air Force Base, and the mindbender at Ballyhack. And that's where he crashes our 2020 Broken Tee 2-Man to discuss how the military shaped his eye for topography, his affinity for surfing despite never hopping on a board, unloading his car collection and an upcoming Seth Raynor project. 

This chapter is mostly about one of my favorite sightings, the 1952 Washington D.C. flap. I'm sure we will do an episode on it soon. While we get a highly interesting inside look at the events, a few theories have emerged since this book was written. At any rate, one of my favorite chapters. A few topics in the chapter that may or may not be interesting as a reference to people who may want to reference them: Edward J. RuppeltEdward J. Ruppelt (July 17, 1923 – September 15, 1960) was a United States Air Force officer probably best known for his involvement in Project Blue Book, a formal governmental study of unidentified flying objects. He is generally credited with coining the term "unidentified flying object", to replace the terms "flying saucer" and "flying disk" - which had become widely known - because the military thought them to be "misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced "Yoo-foe") for short."[1]Ruppelt was the director of Project Grudge from late 1951 until it became Project Blue Book in March 1952; he remained with Blue Book until late 1953. UFO researcher Jerome Clark writes, "Most observers of Blue Book agree that the Ruppelt years comprised the project's golden age, when investigations were most capably directed and conducted. Ruppelt was open-minded about UFOs, and his investigators were not known, as Grudge's were, for force-fitting explanations on cases."[ UFOAn unidentified flying object (UFO) is any aerial phenomenon that cannot immediately be identified or explained. Most UFOs are identified on investigation as conventional objects or phenomena. The term is widely used for claimed observations of extraterrestrial spacecraft. Flying SaucerA flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a supposed type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947[1] but has generally been supplanted since 1952 by the United States Air Force term unidentified flying objects (or UFOs for short). Early reported sightings of unknown "flying saucers" usually described them as silver or metallic, sometimes reported as covered with navigation lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly, either alone or in tight formations with other similar craft, and exhibiting high maneuverability. Project BluebookProject Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) conducted by the United States Air Force (USAF). It started in 1952, the third study of its kind, following projects Sign (1947) and Grudge (1949). A termination order was given for the study in December 1969, and all activity under its auspices officially ceased on January 19th, 1970. Project Blue Book had two goals:To determine if UFOs were a threat to national security, andTo scientifically analyze UFO-related data.Thousands of UFO reports were collected, analyzed, and filed. As a result of the Condon Report (1968), which concluded there was nothing anomalous about UFOs, and a review of the report by the National Academy of Sciences, Project Blue Book was terminated in December 1969. The Air Force supplies the following summary of its investigations:No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of threat to our national security;There was no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge; andThere was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" were extraterrestrial vehicles.[1]By the time Project Blue Book ended, it had collected 12,618 UFO reports, and concluded that most of them were misidentifications of natural phenomena (clouds, stars, etc.) or conventional aircraft. According to the National Reconnaissance Office a number of the reports could be explained by flights of the formerly secret reconnaissance planes U-2 and A-12.[2] A small percentage of UFO reports were classified as unexplained, even after stringent analysis. The UFO reports were archived and are available under the Freedom of Information Act, but names and other personal information of all witnesses have been redacted. Project SignProject Sign was an official U.S. government study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) undertaken by the United States Air Force (USAF) and active for most of 1948. It was the precursor to Project Grudge. Project GrudgeProject Grudge was a short-lived project by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to investigate unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Grudge succeeded Project Sign in February, 1949, and was then followed by Project Blue Book. The project formally ended in December 1949, but continued in a minimal capacity until late 1951. ATICOn May 21, 1951, the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) was established as a USAF field activity of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence[2] under the direct command of the Air Materiel Control Department. ATIC analyzed engine parts and the tail section of a Korean War Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 and in July, the center received a complete MiG-15 that had crashed. ATIC also obtained[how?] IL-10 and Yak-9 aircraft in operational condition, and ATIC analysts monitored the flight test program at Kadena Air Base of a MiG-15 flown to Kimpo Air Base in September 1953 by a North Korean defector. ATIC awarded a contract to Battelle Memorial Institute for translation and analysis of materiel and documents gathered during the Korean War. ATIC/Battelle analysis allowed FEAF to develop engagement tactics for F-86 fighters. In 1958 ATIC had a Readix Computer in Building 828, 1 of 6 WPAFB buildings used by the unit prior to the center built in 1976.[2] After Discoverer 29 (launched April 30, 1961) photographed the "first Soviet ICBM offensive launch complex" at Plesetsk;[10]:107 the JCS published Directive 5105.21, "Defense Intelligence Agency", the Defense Intelligence Agency was created on October 1, and USAF intelligence organizations/units were reorganized. RadarRadar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, angle, or velocity of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. A radar system consists of a transmitter producing electromagnetic waves in the radio or microwaves domain, a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna (often the same antenna is used for transmitting and receiving) and a receiver and processor to determine properties of the object(s). Radio waves (pulsed or continuous) from the transmitter reflect off the object and return to the receiver, giving information about the object's location and speed.Radar was developed secretly for military use by several nations in the period before and during World War II. A key development was the cavity magnetron in the United Kingdom, which allowed the creation of relatively small systems with sub-meter resolution. The term RADAR was coined in 1940 by the United States Navy as an acronym for "radio detection and ranging".[1][2] The term radar has since entered English and other languages as a common noun, losing all capitalization. During RAF RADAR courses in 1954/5 at Yatesbury Training Camp "radio azimuth direction and ranging" was suggested.[citation needed] The modern uses of radar are highly diverse, including air and terrestrial traffic control, radar astronomy, air-defense systems, antimissile systems, marine radars to locate landmarks and other ships, aircraft anticollision systems, ocean surveillance systems, outer space surveillance and rendezvous systems, meteorological precipitation monitoring, altimetry and flight control systems, guided missile target locating systems, self-driving cars, and ground-penetrating radar for geological observations. High tech radar systems are associated with digital signal processing, machine learning and are capable of extracting useful information from very high noise levels.Other systems similar to radar make use of other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. One example is LIDAR, which uses predominantly infrared light from lasers rather than radio waves. With the emergence of driverless vehicles, radar is expected to assist the automated platform to monitor its environment, thus preventing unwanted incidents. 1952 Washington UFO Wave The 1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident, also known as the Washington flap, the Washington National Airport Sightings, or the Invasion of Washington,[1] was a series of unidentified flying object reports from July 12 to July 29, 1952, over Washington, D.C. The most publicized sightings took place on consecutive weekends, July 19–20 and July 26–27. UFO historian Curtis Peebles called the incident "the climax of the 1952 (UFO) flap" - "Never before or after did Project Blue Book and the Air Force undergo such a tidal wave of (UFO) reports." Langley AFB Langley Air Force Base (IATA: LFI, ICAO: KLFI, FAA LID: LFI) is a United States Air Force base located adjacent to Hampton and Newport News, Virginia. It was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1917.[2]On 1 October 2010, Langley Air Force Base was joined with Fort Eustis to become Joint Base Langley–Eustis. The base was established in accordance with congressional legislation implementing the recommendations of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The legislation ordered the consolidation of the two facilities which were nearby, but separate military installations, into a single joint base, one of 12 formed in the United States as a result of the law. Andrews AFB Andrews Air Force Base (Andrews AFB, AAFB) is the airfield portion of Joint Base Andrews which is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force.[3] In 2009, Andrews Air Force Base merged with Naval Air Facility Washington to form Joint Base Andrews. Andrews, located near Morningside, Maryland in suburban Washington, DC, is the home base of two Boeing VC-25A aircraft with the call sign Air Force One when the president is on board, that serve the President of the United States.[4]The host unit at Andrews is the 316th Wing, assigned to the Air Force District of Washington. It is responsible for maintaining emergency reaction rotary-wing airlift and other National Capital Region contingency response capabilities critical to national security and for organizing, training, equipping and deploying combat-ready forces for Air and Space Expeditionary Forces (AEFs). The 316th Wing also provides installation security, services and airfield management to support the President, Vice President, other U.S. senior leaders and more than 50 tenant organizations and federal agencies.The 316th Wing provides security, personnel, contracting, finance and infrastructure support for 5 Wings, 3 Headquarters, more than 80 tenant organizations, 148 geographically separated units, 6,500 Airmen in the Pentagon, as well as 60,000 Airmen and families in the national capital region and around the world. The 316th Wing supports contingency operations in the capital of the United States with immediate response rotary-assets. It also provides security for the world's highest visibility flight line and is responsible for ceremonial support with the United States Air Force Band, Honor Guard and Air Force Arlington Chaplaincy.[5]The Wing commander is Colonel TYLER R. SCHAFF. Its Command Chief Master Sergeant is Chief Master Sergeant THOMAS C. DANIELS.For statistical purposes the base is delineated as a census-designated place by the U.S. Census Bureau. As of the 2010 census, the resident population was 2,973. Bolling AFB Bolling Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Washington, D.C. In 2010 it was merged with Naval Support Facility Anacostia to form Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling. From its beginning, the installation has hosted elements of the Army Air Corps (predecessor to today's Air Force) and Navy aviation and support elements. B-26 The Martin B-26 Marauder was an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska, by the Glenn L. Martin Company.First used in the Pacific Theater of World War II in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe.After entering service with the United States Army aviation units, the aircraft quickly received the reputation of a "widowmaker" due to the early models' high accident rate during takeoffs and landings. This was due to the fact that the Marauder had to be flown at precise airspeeds, particularly on final runway approach or when one engine was out. The unusually high 150 mph (241 km/h) speed on short final runway approach was intimidating to many pilots who were used to much slower approach speeds, and whenever they slowed to speeds below those stipulated in the manual, the aircraft would often stall and crash.[3]The B-26 became a safer aircraft once crews were re-trained, and after aerodynamics modifications (an increase of wingspan and wing angle-of-incidence to give better takeoff performance, and a larger vertical stabilizer and rudder).[4] The Marauder ended World War II with the lowest loss rate of any USAAF bomber.[5]A total of 5,288 were produced between February 1941 and March 1945; 522 of these were flown by the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force. By the time the United States Air Force was created as an independent military service separate from the United States Army in 1947, all Martin B-26s had been retired from U.S. service. After the Marauder was retired the unrelated Douglas A-26 Invader then assumed the "B-26" designation which led to confusion between the two aircraft. F-94 The Lockheed F-94 Starfire was a first-generation jet aircraft of the United States Air Force. It was developed from the twin-seat Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star in the late 1940s as an all-weather, day/night interceptor. The aircraft reached operational service in May 1950 with Air Defense Command, replacing the piston-engined North American F-82 Twin Mustang in the all-weather interceptor role.The F-94 was the first operational USAF fighter equipped with an afterburner and was the first jet-powered all-weather fighter to enter combat during the Korean War in January 1953. It had a relatively brief operational life, being replaced in the mid-1950s by the Northrop F-89 Scorpion and North American F-86D Sabre. The last aircraft left active-duty service in 1958 and Air National Guard service in 1959. AWOL Absent Without Leave According to the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice, desertion is defined as:"(a) Any member of the armed forces who–(1) without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently;(2) quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service; or(3) without being regularly separated from one of the armed forces enlists or accepts an appointment in the same or another one of the armed forces without fully disclosing the fact that he has not been regularly separated, or enters any foreign armed service except when authorized by the United States; is guilty of desertion.(b) Any commissioned officer of the armed forces who, after tender of his resignation and before notice of its acceptance, quits his post or proper duties without leave and with intent to remain away therefrom permanently is guilty of desertion.(c) Any person found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, but if the desertion or attempt to desert occurs at any other time, by such punishment, other than death, as a court-martial may direct." Air Force Letter 200-5 1. Purpose and Scope.  This Letter sets forth Air Force responsibility and reporting procedures for information and materiel pertaining to unidentified flying objects.  All incidents observed by Air Force personnel or received at any Air Force installation from a civilian source will be reported in accordance with this Letter, except that all airborne sightings by Air Force personnel, Civilian Air Patrol, and regularly scheduled United States airline pilots will also be reported as provided by JANAP 146 series (CIRVIS).

Sunday evening service at Indianapolis First Church of the Nazarene, June 26, 1983. This message is in a series on the Beatitudes, as a picture of Christlikeness. There are three aspects of mourning: mourning over sin, mourning in ministry to others, and the anticipated joy of heaven for those who mourn. It includes illustrations from his reactions to his grandparents' deaths, and his own testimony of repentance at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

General Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle became president and chief executive officer of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) on June 15, 2017. Carlisle came to NDIA after a 39-year career in the Air Force, from which he retired as a four-star general in March 2017. His last assignment was as commander, Air Combat Command (ACC) at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Prior to serving as the ACC commander, Carlisle was the Commander of Pacific Air Forces, the Air Component Commander for U.S. Pacific Command, and Executive Director of the Pacific Air Combat Operations Staff at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Carlisle has served in various operational and staff assignments throughout the Air Force and commanded a fighter squadron, an operations group, two wings, and a numbered air force. He was a joint service officer and served as chief of air operations, U.S. Central Command Forward in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. During that time, he participated in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. He also participated in Operation Provide Comfort in Turkey and Operation Noble Eagle, which continues. Carlisle served as director of operational planning, policy, and strategy, deputy chief of staff for air, space and information operations, plans, and requirements, and twice in the plans and programs directorate. He also served as deputy director and later director of legislative liaison at the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. Carlisle is a command pilot with more than 3,600 flying hours in the AT-38, YF-110, YF-113, T-38, F-15A/B/C/D, and C-17A. What you’ll learn about in this episode: What the National Defense Industrial Association is, what its mission is, and how it works to support our military and manufacturers who create products for the military Why General Carlisle decided to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy, and how his military career and leadership progressed over 39 years What important lessons on leadership General Carlisle learned over the course of his military career Why a military career requires the right combination of personality traits including dedication, work ethic, and tenacity, and why it isn’t the right career path for everyone How the military promotion process works, and why having the right attitude is the key to advancing Why a willingness to learn and adapt are important traits for leaders, both within the military and in the business world How General Carlisle made the transition from his military career to post-military work, and how working at NDIA requires a different perspective from his roles in the military How the NDIA, turning 100-years-old this year, is looking to the future with the goal of adapting to modern challenges and opportunities What exciting new initiatives and programs the NDIA has been working on since General Carlisle came into his role as president and CEO Why new digital technologies and innovations are creating opportunities for the NDIA to continue to grow and serve Additional resources: Website: www.ndia.org LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/general-herbert-j-carlisle-09047bb1/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/NDIAMembership/ Twitter: @NDIAToday

The cliche goes that those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. But history is more than just a memory and a lesson, sometimes it’s a tool and a weapon. Some pundits are concerned that historians in their ivory tower of academia are neglecting the study of war and policy in favor of identity politics, and in some cases shirking their role of educating the public in favor of an academic elitism that is mostly aimed producing work for themselves and their colleagues to consume.Brian Laslie is the Deputy Command Historian at NORAD and United States Northern Command. He previously served as the Historian of the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base from December 2009 to August 2012. In 2011, he deployed as the Air Forces Central Command (Forward) Historian to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, from September 2011 to January 2012. It was while deployed that Brian wrote the majority of what would become his first book. Brian’s views expressed here are his own and don’t reflect those of the United States government.You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For this week we take a look at some very mysterious lights that appeared in Virginia and a brutal killer from South Africa. Get ready for scary mysteries Twisted Two's Please support Scary Mysteries! Check out our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries... - There's a lot of cool access, giveaways and even a custom episode! Buy awesome original shirts made by Scary Mysteries https://newdawnfilm.com/scary-mysteri... Subscribe for Weekly Videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiE8... _________________________________________________________ Scary Mysteries Twisted Two's: Whytheville UFOs and Donnybrook Serial Killer #1 Whytheville UFOs Nestled in the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Whytheville, Virginia is a small town where usually nothing out of the ordinary happens. But on October 7, 1987, a radio reporter named Danny Gordon checked in with the sheriff and was told of an incredible story. The sheriff claimed that three Whytheville officers had seen a UFO. Taking the story with a grain of salt, Danny reported it on his broadcast as a sort of entertaining piece. But then calls began flooding in from his audience who calimed to have seen the strange object too. Danny then set up October 17th as a special night for listeners to call in with their UFO sighting stories and the station was overwhelmed. One lady described the UFO as long and huge with blinking lights as it quietly moved through the sky. Meanwhile, a male caller said he saw it as egg-shaped and another person said it was flashing red, green and white lights as it moved. Danny initially believed there was a rational explanation for what it must have been. He thought it was probably an experimental military craft courtesy of Virginia’s Langley Air Force Base which was nearby. #2 Donnybrook Serial Killer The town of Donny Brook in South Africa has had its share of ups and downs. But from in1995, the residents there grappled with a different kind of menace – among them lived a psychopathic serial killer who randomly terrorized the community. Christopher Zikode was only 21 years old when he began his life of crime. The first time he was arrested was in July of 1995 when he attacked a young woman. He was charged with the attempted murder of a lady named, Beauty Zulu, but was unfortunately set free on bail. Instead of reforming after his prison encounter, Christopher only grew more vicious. During his time out of prison, he committed five additional offences. This included two attempted murders and three housebreaking charges with intent to rape and murder. Despite being young, or perhaps because of it Christopher was a brazen criminal who did not care much for tactics. His main MO was to break down the front door of his victim’s home – often choosing single women who lived alone – but he also didn’t mind if there were males there either. Once inside, he would shoot and kill the men first, Making sure they were dead by executing them with a shot to the head.

Truly inspiring is the story of my good friend Lelia (formerly Lee) and Jamison Murcelo.This couple is near and dear to my heart for many reasons. One?I met Lelia when we both attended York Middle School and we were very close, good friends. Our parents were stationed at Langley Air Force Base, and it was in Bethel Manor where we did reside.Upon returning to Virginia after years of being away due to my Mother's future deployments, it was a blessing to have come back to old stomping grounds to be welcomed by friends I'd grown up with during the Bethel Manor years.By chance, Lelia and I again connected when we converged upon the same telemarketing firm in the late 90's.Guess who also worked there? Mr. Jamison Murcelo. We all, at this telemarketing firm, were like family.I saw the connection almost right away. They had eyes for each other, but not just eyes, good conversation and a deep appreciation for one another.Their love blossomed and even after I'd moved away, yet again, I found out through Lelia that they'd taken an even bigger step and were later married. Not only have Lelia, Jamison and I kept contact through Facebook and other methods of Social Media, I've watched their children Jayla and Bianca grow and also the second reason why I think this couple is dear to my heart. Their transformation. Over the years of marriage, Lelia and Jamison have seen their weight ups and downs for sure. It's when they got comfortable that the weight started to overtake the two. In recent years, I've seen the transformation, in health and overall wealth of these two to take care of their home life, family as can be witnessed in the photos below. First the BEFORE pics. The following are photos of the transformation process for these two, the AFTER. Lelia and Jamison, with 22 years of marriage and having raised two beautiful children and with your tough transformation, I'm blessed to say that I helped you become one!Sonita M. Leak

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1XyWCvl. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Perspective comes from experience. Dan Clark, Hall of Fame Speaker and social entrepreneur, gained extraordinary perspective flying in an Air Force jet into space. (Disclosure: Clark and I collaborated on a book with 15 other authors but have no revenue or profit sharing arrangement.) Retired Air Force four-star General Hal Hornberg met Clark when the General attended a Senior Leaders Conference at Langley Air Force Base thirteen years ago. “It was probably the greatest public presentation that I had seen,” he told me. Thereafter, he went on to hire Clark to speak to leadership teams on multiple occasions. Social entrepreneur Rick Larsen, who now serves as the Marketing and Development Director at GIVE Salt Lake, said, “There are groups, from Credit Unions to Harley Dealers to the United States Air Force, who call on Dan again and again. This speaks volumes when you consider the variety of speakers and entertainers available to large organizations. Dan forms a connection when he speaks because, in my opinion, he cares. Just a couple of weeks ago Dan donated his time at my request, to fit in a speech to a group of troubled teens.” Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1XyWCvl. Please consider whether a friend or colleague might benefit from this piece and, if so, share it.

On this episode, a multi-national exercise brings together U.S. Marines and NATO allies in Bulgaria, Airmen at Langley Air Force Base prepare for a frightening scenario, Soldiers test out a new technology which links unmanned aircraft to pilots in the air, the Coast Guard practices whale rescue techniques off the coast of Hawaii, and a humanitarian program sets out to safely remove explosive remnants of war.

Two Langley teams square off for the 2015 intramural soccer championship.

Truly inspiring is the story of my good friend Lelia (formerly Lee) and Jamison Murcelo.This couple is near and dear to my heart for many reasons. One?I met Lelia when we both attended York Middle School and we were very close, good friends. Our parents were stationed at Langley Air Force Base, and it was in Bethel Manor where we did reside.Upon returning to Virginia after years of being away due to my Mother's future deployments, it was a blessing to have come back to old stomping grounds to be welcomed by friends I'd grown up with during the Bethel Manor years.By chance, Lelia and I again connected when we converged upon the same telemarketing firm in the late 90's.Guess who also worked there? Mr. Jamison Murcelo. We all, at this telemarketing firm, were like family.I saw the connection almost right away. They had eyes for each other, but not just eyes, good conversation and a deep appreciation for one another.Their love blossomed and even after I'd moved away, yet again, I found out through Lelia that they'd taken an even bigger step and were later married. Not only have Lelia, Jamison and I kept contact through Facebook and other methods of Social Media, I've watched their children Jayla and Bianca grow and also the second reason why I think this couple is dear to my heart. Their transformation. Over the years of marriage, Lelia and Jamison have seen their weight ups and downs for sure. It's when they got comfortable that the weight started to overtake the two. In recent years, I've seen the transformation, in health and overall wealth of these two to take care of their home life, family as can be witnessed in the photos below. First the BEFORE pics. The following are photos of the transformation process for these two, the AFTER. Lelia and Jamison, with 22 years of marriage and having raised two beautiful children and with your tough transformation, I'm blessed to say that I helped you become one!Sonita M. Leak

Truly inspiring is the story of my good friend Lelia (formerly Lee) and Jamison Murcelo.This couple is near and dear to my heart for many reasons. One?I met Lelia when we both attended York Middle School and we were very close, good friends. Our parents were stationed at Langley Air Force Base, and it was in Bethel Manor where we did reside.Upon returning to Virginia after years of being away due to my Mother's future deployments, it was a blessing to have come back to old stomping grounds to be welcomed by friends I'd grown up with during the Bethel Manor years.By chance, Lelia and I again connected when we converged upon the same telemarketing firm in the late 90's.Guess who also worked there? Mr. Jamison Murcelo. We all, at this telemarketing firm, were like family.I saw the connection almost right away. They had eyes for each other, but not just eyes, good conversation and a deep appreciation for one another.Their love blossomed and even after I'd moved away, yet again, I found out through Lelia that they'd taken an even bigger step and were later married. Not only have Lelia, Jamison and I kept contact through Facebook and other methods of Social Media, I've watched their children Jayla and Bianca grow and also the second reason why I think this couple is dear to my heart. Their transformation. Over the years of marriage, Lelia and Jamison have seen their weight ups and downs for sure. It's when they got comfortable that the weight started to overtake the two. In recent years, I've seen the transformation, in health and overall wealth of these two to take care of their home life, family as can be witnessed in the photos below. First the BEFORE pics. The following are photos of the transformation process for these two, the AFTER. Lelia and Jamison, with 22 years of marriage and having raised two beautiful children and with your tough transformation, I'm blessed to say that I helped you become one!Sonita M. Leak

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney was in charge of the military response to the attacks while the President flew around the country in Air Force One.  The 9-11 Commission failed to follow up on the nature of and order the Vice President had given which related to American Airlines Flight 77 which hit the Pentagon at 9:36.  Many have wondered if these orders were NOT to shoot down Flight 77 as it approached the Pentagon. We know about this order because on May 23, 2003, then Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta testified before the 9-11 Commission.  Secretary Mineta testified that he was present at the Presidential Emergency Operating Center (PEOC) in a bunker below the White House on the morning of September 11th under the direction of Vice President Dick Cheney.  During questioning by Co-Chairman Lee Hamilton, Mineta was asked if he was in the PEOC when the Presidential order was given to shoot down suspected hijacked commercial airliners. During the time that Secretary Mineta testified about, Flight 77 had already been severely off course for over an hour and it was thought that the flight was being controlled by terrorists.  Flight 77 was also being tracked by the FAA and NORAD and according to Secretary Mineta’s testimony it was even being tracked for at least 50 miles from the PEOC. Secretary Mineta’s testimony has raised many questions.  The most obvious question is, what were the orders that Vice-President Cheney had issued to the young man?  When asked by Mr. Hamilton during testimony if the order was a shoot down order, Secretary Mineta could not confirm that it was.   Is it reasonable to assume that this was a shoot down order? During this same hearing, Secretary Mineta also testified that aircraft had been scrambled from nearby Langley Air Force Base and were only 10 miles away from the Washington D.C. area.  If the orders Secretary Mineta spoke of was a shoot down order, then why was this plane not shot down before it hit the Pentagon?  Our modern fighters are the most sophisticated in the world and can shoot down multiple targets from many miles away.  The question begs to be asked,  were these orders the young man spoke of orders NOT to shoot down Flight 77? We now know that Naval Officer Douglas F. Cochrane is the young man Mineta was referring to in his testimony.  When questioned about the day, Mr. Cochrane has refused to answer questions about what happened and repeatedly refers to the 9-11 Commission as the definitive report on the terrorist attacks. It is another failure of the 9-11 Commission that this testimony by Secretary Mineta was not followed up on.  Today, important questions still persist about what these orders were and why the 9-11 Commission failed to dig deeper and ask questions of how Flight 77 could have possibly been allowed to strike the heart of the US Military.