Podcasts about raf lakenheath

CLIMATE ACTION SHOWProduced by Vivien Langford17th March 2025D O N ' T   B U R N   OUR   F U T U R E“The PM's Climate Speech we've been waiting for” from the SLF 2025 Join climate activists Violet CoCo, David Spratt and Mark Carter to view and reflect on the speech — that we all want to hear. They ask the government to safeguard the wellbeing of all Australians by responding at emergency speed to an honest, evidence-based, risk-averse assessment of our climate predicament. The panellists will discuss what that response could actually look like, why it is now necessary, and how it can provide climate-concerned Australians — those now despairing at current, demonstrably ineffective, national climate policy and actions — with a future they can demand.Remember with an election coming up:Pick your battles, Don't go alone, The Time is Now! Music by  James Brook featuring Violet Coco "Peoples' uprisinghttps://jamesbrook.bandcamp.com/album/yandoitViolet Coco https://greenagenda.org.au/author/violet-coco HEADLINES showing CLIMATE ACTION WORLDWIDE Our energy bills are torching the planetMarch 04, 2025 by Extinction RebellionActivists from Extinction Rebellion North and Axe Drax staged a banner-burning action on the day that tree-burning power station Drax announced earnings of over one billion pounds in 2024. The action called for an end to public money to burning trees for electricity. A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said: “Even the government's own advisors say we need to end burning trees in power stations by 2027. So the fact that the government has committed billions of pounds of public money so Drax can keep doing this until 2031 doesn't make sense. This decision needs to be urgently revisited.”  International Year  of Glacier Presrevationhttps://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1159236#:~:text=2025%20key%20initiatives,engaging%20youth%20and%20local%20communities.  Lakenheath UKhttps://extinctionrebellion.uk/2025/02/26/join-xruk-at-lakenheath-alliance-for-peace/Join XRUK at the camp organised by Lakenheath Alliance For Peace, culminating in a blockade of the largest US airbase in Europe:Where: Outside RAF Lakenheath, SuffolkWhen: 14–26 April 2025Militarism and climate change are catastrophically linked. Weapons-related activity causes significant emissions, and over half of the most climate-vulnerable nations are already in conflict.RAF Lakenheath is the largest US airbase in Europe and supports operations across the globe, hosting aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons with over 20 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. The base is now getting ready to receive US nuclear weapons, putting the UK in the nuclear front line. CYCLONE AlfredDr Joelle Gergis connects the cyclone with the coal oil and gas which are warming the oceans to intensify storms. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/could-cyclones-become-a-new-norm-for-northern-nsw/105033536 https://www.echo.net.au/2025/03/leading-global-climate-scientist-based-in-northern-rivers-speaks-out-on-need-to-stop-burning-fossil-fuels/ 

From this week's Moneyweek Magazine …Two rumours have been swirling around the gold markets for many years. Some have called them conspiracy theories. Others note that conspiracy theories often prove true. What's the difference between conspiracy and truth? About 30 years.The first is that China has far more gold than it says it does. We actually now know this to be true. The other is that America has far less than the 8,133 tonnes of gold it says it possesses.This rumour has been doing the rounds since 1971, when Peter Beter, a lawyer and financial adviser to former president John F. Kennedy, said he had been informed that gold in Fort Knox had been removed. He went on to write a best-selling book about it: The Conspiracy Against the Dollar.The problem is a total lack of transparency on the part of the US authorities, something that according to current US president Donald Trump, and the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, will not be the case for much longer.Roosevelt triggers a boomBut to understand this situation we need to go back in time, all the way to 1933, when US president Franklin D. Roosevelt famously devalued the US dollar and revalued gold upwards by 70%, from $20 an ounce (oz) to $35/oz, in order to bolster growth. US gold reserves would increase to unprecedented levels in the next 15 years.Some of the gold came from US citizens. It was now illegal for them to own gold and they had to hand any they owned over to the authorities. Some came from the fact that the government then bought all US mined supply (the upwards revaluation of gold triggered a mining boom) and any gold imported to the US assay office. The US even began buying gold on foreign markets to protect the new higher price.Thus US official holdings in 1939 on the eve of World War II totalled 15,679 tonnes. They would only increase. With Nazi invasions, European nations sent all the gold they could across the Atlantic, either for safekeeping or to buy essential supplies; 1949 saw the high watermark of US gold holdings – 22,000 tonnes, as much as half of all the gold ever mined.In July 1944, with it clear that the Allies were going to win the war, representatives from the 44 Allied nations met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference to design a new system of money for the new world order.International accounts would be settled in dollars, and those dollars were convertible to gold at $35/oz. Countries had to maintain exchange rates within 1% of the US dollar. In effect, the US was on a gold standard, and the rest of the world was on a dollar standard.The system relied on the integrity of the US dollar to work, and that integrity was in question, even before the end of the war. The June 1945 Federal Reserve Act reduced required gold reserves for notes outstanding from 40% to 25%, and against deposits from 35% to 25%. Between 1944 and 1954, because of increased supply, the dollar lost a third of its purchasing power, though the $35 Bretton Woods price remained.“Six major European countries,along with the UK, co-ordinated sales to suppress the gold price”US government spending was soaring, and it began running balance of payments deficits – made worse by the costs of foreign aid, America's new welfare systems and maintaining a military presence in Europe and Asia. Gold began leaving the US. By 1965 reserves had fallen by 9,500 tonnes, down 40% from the 1949 peak.Successive US administrations tried to stop the outflow, without success. Dwight D. Eisenhower banned Americans from buying gold overseas, Kennedy imposed the “equalisation tax” on foreign investments, and Lyndon B. Johnson discouraged Americans from travelling altogether. “We may need to forgo the pleasures of Europe for a while,” he said.Fears that the dollar would devalue following the election (won by Kennedy) sent the gold price in London to $40/oz. The Bank of England, in collusion with the Federal Reserve, began increasing gold sales to keep the price down.Thus did the London gold pool begin, with the addition of six major European nations the following year (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, West Germany, Italy and Switzerland), which co-ordinated sales to suppress, or “stabilise”, to use their word, the gold price and defuse unwanted, upward market pressure.But the pool struggled against growing demand. In 1965, an ounce of gold was still $35, but the purchasing power of the dollar had decreased by 57% from 1945, while gold reserves had also fallen sharply. The culprit was the costs of the US government, in particular the Vietnam War and president Johnson's enormous welfare spending.If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times - and you should if you do not already own some - as always I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Bretton Woods under pressureWith inflation rising at home and international confidence in the dollar waning, these programmes were not just costly – they undermined Bretton Woods. Non-American nations felt aggrieved that they had to produce $100 worth of goods and services to get a $100 bill, when the US could just print one. French finance minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing called it “America's exorbitant privilege”.President de Gaulle, meanwhile, had had enough. He ignored the pool to turn all French dollars and sterling balances into gold. The French even sent battleships to New York to collect their gold. De Gaulle became the target of several assassination attempts – coincidence, I'm sure. There were rather more US dollars in the world than there was gold to back them, he felt, and he was right.By 1967, US foreign liabilities were $36bn, but it only had $12bn in gold reserves – a third of what was needed to back the dollar. West Germany, Spain and Switzerland began demanding gold for their dollars. Even the British, with sterling going through one of its quadrennial collapses, asked the Americans to prepare $3bn worth of Fort Knox gold for withdrawal. Private gold demand was overwhelming.“The floor of the Bank of England's weighing room collapsed under the weight of all the bullion”In November 1967, the British government devalued the pound by 14%, from $2.80 to $2.40, in order to “achieve a substantial surplus on the balance of payments consistent with economic growth and full employment”.In that month, the London market saw greater bullion demand than it would typically see in nine: as much as 100 tonnes per day. To stem demand they banned forward buying, leverage and the purchase of gold with credit. The pool still lost 1,400 tonnes that year, more than a whole year's mined supply.Selling pressure on the US dollar only increased when the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam launched the first of a series of surprise attacks on US armed forces in South Vietnam in January 1968.Desperate to prop up the system, US military aircraft flew tonne after tonne of gold to RAF Lakenheath from where it was trucked in military convoys to the back entrance of the Bank of England: at one point the floor of the Bank of England's weighing room collapsed under the weight of all the gold.You really should subscribe to this amazing publication.Shoring up the systemIn the four days between 11 March and 14 March 1968, some 780 tonnes were sold to market. The effort to protect the price was deemed hopeless. On 15 March, UK chancellor Roy Jenkins declared a bank holiday, and the gold market was closed for a fortnight, “at the request of the United States”.Zurich also closed. Paris stayed open with gold trading at a 25% premium. All in all, the final 15 months saw over 3,000 tonnes sold to market to protect that $35 price. The pool had lost more than an eighth of its reserves.Two days later, in the rushed-through Washington Agreement, governors of the central banks in the gold pool declared there would be one fixed gold marketfor official government transactions at $35/oz and another, free-market, price for private transactions. Not for the last time, central bankers were living in a world of their own.Gold is one thing. Gold standards are another. They tend not to last, particularly bogus ones such as this one, under which citizens themselves did not handle gold. Keynes called them barbarous – ironic, perhaps, given that he was one of the architects of this one.In August 1971, president Nixon took the US off the gold standard, a “temporary” measure that remains more than 50 years later. For the first time in history, gold – Switzerland aside – played no part in the global monetary system.Of course it was the fault of the speculators. It always is. “I have directed the secretary of the Treasury to take the action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators,” Nixon said, deflecting responsibility, and “to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold”.High time for a US gold auditThe US keeps its gold in four places: at Fort Knox, Kentucky (roughly 56% of its 8,133 tonnes); at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (8%); and the remaining 36% at the mints in Denver and West Point. There has not been a proper public audit of this gold since 1953. There have been internal audits, especially between 1974 and 1986, but these were not transparent.There are many people, among them gold experts, who do not believe the gold is there. The US spent it trying to suppress the gold price in the 1960s, theysay. But in this new age of American transparency, both Trump and Musk have repeatedly pledged that this gold will be audited.There is talk of it being done on a livestream. Trump has even suggested the gold has been stolen. “We're actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there,” he said, “because maybe somebody stole the gold. Tonnes of gold.”They've been making such light of it, one has to assume they know the gold is there. Musk was laughing about the conspiracies on podcasts, and he even posted a picture of a Fort Knox starter kit: a brick and some gold spray. I can't see how they would be joking if there were any serious doubts.Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, has said quite categorically that the gold is there. The last audit was in September 2024, he said in a recent Bloomberg interview, before looking down the camera and assuring the US people that “all the gold is present and accounted for”. But this would only have been an internal audit, and it would not have been a full audit.According to the US Mint, “the only gold removed has been very small quantities used to test the purity of gold during regularly scheduled audits”. No other gold has been transferred to or from the depository “for many years”. How long is many years, though? As far back as the 1960s?It's quite astonishing just how secretive the whole thing is. They opened the vaults for a congressional delegation and certain members of the press to view the gold in 1974. There were rumours swirling about then too. “We've never done this before and we'll probably never do it again,” said the then director of the US Mint Mary Brooks.“The gold commonly confiscated under Roosevelt contained some copper, and is not pure enough for sale”Then in 2017, during Trump's first administration, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell were invited to view the gold. “The gold was there,” Mnuchin said. He is “sure” nobody's moved it. There are “serious security protocols in place”. But there are more than 4,000 tonnes in Fort Knox. A tonne would be about the size of a medium to large suitcase. Did he see all 4,000 of them?The other big issue is the purity of the gold. What is there might not all be of good delivery quality, meaning it would not be readily accepted in international bullion markets. If much of the gold is the bullion Roosevelt confiscated in the 1930s, it will be in the form of “coinmelt”: melted down coins.The commonly confiscated coins, such as the $20 double eagle, were only 90% pure and mixed with copper to make them harder. When melted down, they were not always properly refined to modern standards, while the bars they were melted into weighed 320-330 ounces, not the 400 oz bars of good delivery standard today. In practice, this means Fort Knox gold would not be accepted without additional processing.But, until a proper audit takes place, this is all speculation, albeit reasoned speculation. We don't know the full facts. The reasons given for not conducting a full audit are flimsy: we don't need to, it would be too much of an undertaking. Please!If the US gold turns out not to be there, then the gold price goes up – potentially a lot. If it is there, it's business as usual.For now, I'd say the markets are behaving as though it is business as usual. They are climbing, and every dip is being bought, largely, it seems, by central banks (especially in Asia), who are diversifying their holdings and de-dollarising. But this audit cannot come quickly enough.Large volumes of physical gold - over 1,000 tonnes by some counts - have recently been transferred from London to New York. One theory is that was the gold was transferred in anticipation of tariffs. Another is that it was the US buying ahead of its audit. We will soon find out.Finally, I would just like to debunk one theory doing the rounds. US gold is currently marked to market at $42/oz. After the audit, those 8,133 tonnes – assuming they are there and of good delivery quality – could be marked to market at current prices, meaning a significant uplift in the value of holdings.The theory doing the rounds is that Treasury ecretary Bessent will use some of the upwards revaluation to monetise the balance sheet – not unlike how Roosevelt did in 1933 – to create funds for, among other things, the strategic bitcoin reserve. But Bessent has quite clearly stated that is not his intention.This article first appeared in Moneyweek Magazine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

From this week's Moneyweek Magazine …Two rumours have been swirling around the gold markets for many years. Some have called them conspiracy theories. Others note that conspiracy theories often prove true. What's the difference between conspiracy and truth? About 30 years.The first is that China has far more gold than it says it does. We actually now know this to be true. The other is that America has far less than the 8,133 tonnes of gold it says it possesses.This rumour has been doing the rounds since 1971, when Peter Beter, a lawyer and financial adviser to former president John F. Kennedy, said he had been informed that gold in Fort Knox had been removed. He went on to write a best-selling book about it: The Conspiracy Against the Dollar.The problem is a total lack of transparency on the part of the US authorities, something that according to current US president Donald Trump, and the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, will not be the case for much longer.Roosevelt triggers a boomBut to understand this situation we need to go back in time, all the way to 1933, when US president Franklin D. Roosevelt famously devalued the US dollar and revalued gold upwards by 70%, from $20 an ounce (oz) to $35/oz, in order to bolster growth. US gold reserves would increase to unprecedented levels in the next 15 years.Some of the gold came from US citizens. It was now illegal for them to own gold and they had to hand any they owned over to the authorities. Some came from the fact that the government then bought all US mined supply (the upwards revaluation of gold triggered a mining boom) and any gold imported to the US assay office. The US even began buying gold on foreign markets to protect the new higher price.Thus US official holdings in 1939 on the eve of World War II totalled 15,679 tonnes. They would only increase. With Nazi invasions, European nations sent all the gold they could across the Atlantic, either for safekeeping or to buy essential supplies; 1949 saw the high watermark of US gold holdings – 22,000 tonnes, as much as half of all the gold ever mined.In July 1944, with it clear that the Allies were going to win the war, representatives from the 44 Allied nations met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference to design a new system of money for the new world order.International accounts would be settled in dollars, and those dollars were convertible to gold at $35/oz. Countries had to maintain exchange rates within 1% of the US dollar. In effect, the US was on a gold standard, and the rest of the world was on a dollar standard.The system relied on the integrity of the US dollar to work, and that integrity was in question, even before the end of the war. The June 1945 Federal Reserve Act reduced required gold reserves for notes outstanding from 40% to 25%, and against deposits from 35% to 25%. Between 1944 and 1954, because of increased supply, the dollar lost a third of its purchasing power, though the $35 Bretton Woods price remained.“Six major European countries,along with the UK, co-ordinated sales to suppress the gold price”US government spending was soaring, and it began running balance of payments deficits – made worse by the costs of foreign aid, America's new welfare systems and maintaining a military presence in Europe and Asia. Gold began leaving the US. By 1965 reserves had fallen by 9,500 tonnes, down 40% from the 1949 peak.Successive US administrations tried to stop the outflow, without success. Dwight D. Eisenhower banned Americans from buying gold overseas, Kennedy imposed the “equalisation tax” on foreign investments, and Lyndon B. Johnson discouraged Americans from travelling altogether. “We may need to forgo the pleasures of Europe for a while,” he said.Fears that the dollar would devalue following the election (won by Kennedy) sent the gold price in London to $40/oz. The Bank of England, in collusion with the Federal Reserve, began increasing gold sales to keep the price down.Thus did the London gold pool begin, with the addition of six major European nations the following year (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, West Germany, Italy and Switzerland), which co-ordinated sales to suppress, or “stabilise”, to use their word, the gold price and defuse unwanted, upward market pressure.But the pool struggled against growing demand. In 1965, an ounce of gold was still $35, but the purchasing power of the dollar had decreased by 57% from 1945, while gold reserves had also fallen sharply. The culprit was the costs of the US government, in particular the Vietnam War and president Johnson's enormous welfare spending.If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times - and you should if you do not already own some - as always I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Bretton Woods under pressureWith inflation rising at home and international confidence in the dollar waning, these programmes were not just costly – they undermined Bretton Woods. Non-American nations felt aggrieved that they had to produce $100 worth of goods and services to get a $100 bill, when the US could just print one. French finance minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing called it “America's exorbitant privilege”.President de Gaulle, meanwhile, had had enough. He ignored the pool to turn all French dollars and sterling balances into gold. The French even sent battleships to New York to collect their gold. De Gaulle became the target of several assassination attempts – coincidence, I'm sure. There were rather more US dollars in the world than there was gold to back them, he felt, and he was right.By 1967, US foreign liabilities were $36bn, but it only had $12bn in gold reserves – a third of what was needed to back the dollar. West Germany, Spain and Switzerland began demanding gold for their dollars. Even the British, with sterling going through one of its quadrennial collapses, asked the Americans to prepare $3bn worth of Fort Knox gold for withdrawal. Private gold demand was overwhelming.“The floor of the Bank of England's weighing room collapsed under the weight of all the bullion”In November 1967, the British government devalued the pound by 14%, from $2.80 to $2.40, in order to “achieve a substantial surplus on the balance of payments consistent with economic growth and full employment”.In that month, the London market saw greater bullion demand than it would typically see in nine: as much as 100 tonnes per day. To stem demand they banned forward buying, leverage and the purchase of gold with credit. The pool still lost 1,400 tonnes that year, more than a whole year's mined supply.Selling pressure on the US dollar only increased when the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam launched the first of a series of surprise attacks on US armed forces in South Vietnam in January 1968.Desperate to prop up the system, US military aircraft flew tonne after tonne of gold to RAF Lakenheath from where it was trucked in military convoys to the back entrance of the Bank of England: at one point the floor of the Bank of England's weighing room collapsed under the weight of all the gold.You really should subscribe to this amazing publication.Shoring up the systemIn the four days between 11 March and 14 March 1968, some 780 tonnes were sold to market. The effort to protect the price was deemed hopeless. On 15 March, UK chancellor Roy Jenkins declared a bank holiday, and the gold market was closed for a fortnight, “at the request of the United States”.Zurich also closed. Paris stayed open with gold trading at a 25% premium. All in all, the final 15 months saw over 3,000 tonnes sold to market to protect that $35 price. The pool had lost more than an eighth of its reserves.Two days later, in the rushed-through Washington Agreement, governors of the central banks in the gold pool declared there would be one fixed gold marketfor official government transactions at $35/oz and another, free-market, price for private transactions. Not for the last time, central bankers were living in a world of their own.Gold is one thing. Gold standards are another. They tend not to last, particularly bogus ones such as this one, under which citizens themselves did not handle gold. Keynes called them barbarous – ironic, perhaps, given that he was one of the architects of this one.In August 1971, president Nixon took the US off the gold standard, a “temporary” measure that remains more than 50 years later. For the first time in history, gold – Switzerland aside – played no part in the global monetary system.Of course it was the fault of the speculators. It always is. “I have directed the secretary of the Treasury to take the action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators,” Nixon said, deflecting responsibility, and “to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold”.High time for a US gold auditThe US keeps its gold in four places: at Fort Knox, Kentucky (roughly 56% of its 8,133 tonnes); at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (8%); and the remaining 36% at the mints in Denver and West Point. There has not been a proper public audit of this gold since 1953. There have been internal audits, especially between 1974 and 1986, but these were not transparent.There are many people, among them gold experts, who do not believe the gold is there. The US spent it trying to suppress the gold price in the 1960s, theysay. But in this new age of American transparency, both Trump and Musk have repeatedly pledged that this gold will be audited.There is talk of it being done on a livestream. Trump has even suggested the gold has been stolen. “We're actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there,” he said, “because maybe somebody stole the gold. Tonnes of gold.”They've been making such light of it, one has to assume they know the gold is there. Musk was laughing about the conspiracies on podcasts, and he even posted a picture of a Fort Knox starter kit: a brick and some gold spray. I can't see how they would be joking if there were any serious doubts.Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, has said quite categorically that the gold is there. The last audit was in September 2024, he said in a recent Bloomberg interview, before looking down the camera and assuring the US people that “all the gold is present and accounted for”. But this would only have been an internal audit, and it would not have been a full audit.According to the US Mint, “the only gold removed has been very small quantities used to test the purity of gold during regularly scheduled audits”. No other gold has been transferred to or from the depository “for many years”. How long is many years, though? As far back as the 1960s?It's quite astonishing just how secretive the whole thing is. They opened the vaults for a congressional delegation and certain members of the press to view the gold in 1974. There were rumours swirling about then too. “We've never done this before and we'll probably never do it again,” said the then director of the US Mint Mary Brooks.“The gold commonly confiscated under Roosevelt contained some copper, and is not pure enough for sale”Then in 2017, during Trump's first administration, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell were invited to view the gold. “The gold was there,” Mnuchin said. He is “sure” nobody's moved it. There are “serious security protocols in place”. But there are more than 4,000 tonnes in Fort Knox. A tonne would be about the size of a medium to large suitcase. Did he see all 4,000 of them?The other big issue is the purity of the gold. What is there might not all be of good delivery quality, meaning it would not be readily accepted in international bullion markets. If much of the gold is the bullion Roosevelt confiscated in the 1930s, it will be in the form of “coinmelt”: melted down coins.The commonly confiscated coins, such as the $20 double eagle, were only 90% pure and mixed with copper to make them harder. When melted down, they were not always properly refined to modern standards, while the bars they were melted into weighed 320-330 ounces, not the 400 oz bars of good delivery standard today. In practice, this means Fort Knox gold would not be accepted without additional processing.But, until a proper audit takes place, this is all speculation, albeit reasoned speculation. We don't know the full facts. The reasons given for not conducting a full audit are flimsy: we don't need to, it would be too much of an undertaking. Please!If the US gold turns out not to be there, then the gold price goes up – potentially a lot. If it is there, it's business as usual.For now, I'd say the markets are behaving as though it is business as usual. They are climbing, and every dip is being bought, largely, it seems, by central banks (especially in Asia), who are diversifying their holdings and de-dollarising. But this audit cannot come quickly enough.Large volumes of physical gold - over 1,000 tonnes by some counts - have recently been transferred from London to New York. One theory is that was the gold was transferred in anticipation of tariffs. Another is that it was the US buying ahead of its audit. We will soon find out.Finally, I would just like to debunk one theory doing the rounds. US gold is currently marked to market at $42/oz. After the audit, those 8,133 tonnes – assuming they are there and of good delivery quality – could be marked to market at current prices, meaning a significant uplift in the value of holdings.The theory doing the rounds is that Treasury ecretary Bessent will use some of the upwards revaluation to monetise the balance sheet – not unlike how Roosevelt did in 1933 – to create funds for, among other things, the strategic bitcoin reserve. But Bessent has quite clearly stated that is not his intention.This article first appeared in Moneyweek Magazine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

In late November, a series of concerning incidents began to unfold in the skies above several U.S. Air Force bases in the United Kingdom. For several days, military officials and local civilian witnesses observed incursions by mysterious drones over these high-security facilities, all of which the Pentagon says remain unresolved. This week on The Micah Hanks Program, we analyze the recent mystery drone incidents in detail and explore what is known about the military response to these incursions, what their origins may be, and why some UAP proponents have argued that the objects may not be drones at all. What is the most likely explanation for the concerning spate of sightings, and what could it all mean for the national security of the Western nations that have been targeted? Have you had a UFO/UAP sighting? Please consider reporting your sighting to the UAP Sightings Reporting System, a public resource for information about sightings of aerial phenomena. The story doesn't end here... become an X Subscriber and get access to even more weekly content and monthly specials. Want to advertise/sponsor The Micah Hanks Program? We have partnered with the AdvertiseCast to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. If you would like to advertise with The Micah Hanks Program, all you have to do is click the link below to get started: AdvertiseCast: Advertise with The Micah Hanks Program Show Notes Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode: NEWS: China Just Activated the Most Powerful Advanced Hypergravity Machine Ever Built Buried Beneath Arctic Ice, a Secretive Underground Military Base Emerges in New Radar Images  Strange “Quack-like” Noises Were Detected Off the New Zealand Coast Decades Ago. This Researcher Thinks They Were Communication AARO HEARING: Closed hearings to examine the activities of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office BECOME AN X SUBSCRIBER AND GET EVEN MORE GREAT PODCASTS AND MONTHLY SPECIALS FROM MICAH HANKS. Sign up today and get access to the entire back catalog of The Micah Hanks Program, as well as “classic” episodes, weekly “additional editions” of the subscriber-only X Podcast, the monthly Enigmas specials, and much more. Like us on Facebook Follow @MicahHanks on X. Keep up with Micah and his work at micahhanks.com.

En los últimos días, bases militares clave de Estados Unidos en el Reino Unido, como RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall y RAF Feltwell, han sido el escenario de un fenómeno inquietante: drones no identificados han sido avistados sobrevolando estas instalaciones estratégicas. Aunque hasta ahora no se ha reportado un impacto directo en las operaciones, la preocupación es evidente, no solo por el alcance de esta tecnología, sino también por las posibles implicaciones geopolíticas y de seguridad. Está siendo una locura, por cierto para quien no sepa que es un s,UAS es lo siguiente: s,UAS: «sistemas pequeños de aeronaves no tripuladas» Un lio esto, a ver por donde salimos Sergio Ruiz

Nicole is a military spouse who had her VBAC in England. She shares what it was like to unexpectedly move overseas during pregnancy, how she navigated not receiving her household goods in time, and how she made the choice to deliver on base versus off. Nicole's first birth was a Cesarean during the height of COVID. During pushing, she was required to pause, take a COVID test, and wait an hour for the results or risk being separated from her baby after birth. Labor had gone smoothly up until that point, and Nicole knew something had changed after the pause. Things felt different, progress stalled, and ultimately Nicole consented to the Cesarean. Her VBAC was a surprisingly wild precipitous birth with only 2 hours between her first contraction and pushing the baby out! Meagan and Nicole discuss the unique challenges of precipitous births and how important it is to hold space for every birth experience. Needed WebsiteHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode Details Meagan: Hello. Welcome to The VBAC Link. Today is Veteran's Day. If you are just joining us this month for the very first time, then welcome to your first specialized episode week. I don't even know what to call it. What would you call this, Nicole? I don't even know. Nicole: A one-of-a-kind situation. Meagan: Last month in October, we had Midwifery Week and now we have Veterans. Nicole is the wife of a Servicemember and she definitely and experience that I think a lot of military members and moms experience and people don't think about it. I don't think about that. When I was having my baby, it was like, Which hospital should I go to? There are 10-15 right around me. Then you're like, “Oh, hey. I'm pregnant and now I'm moving overseas.” You know? I think it's something that we just don't think about. It's fun to have it be Veteran's Day and to have a Servicemember's wife sharing your story today. We might even talk a little bit about navigating the military healthcare system and what choices you made. We learned a little bit about that before we started recording. We've got her amazing story today. Where are you right now?Nicole: I'm in England right now. Meagan: You are in England, okay. And that's where you had your baby. Nicole: Yes. Meagan: Awesome. So England mamas, definitely listen up for sure. All mamas, really. We do have a Review of the Week so I'm going to get into that then we'll start with your first story. This is from Roxyrutt and it says, “Inspiring”. It says, “Listening to these podcasts has been truly inspiring and I have been on my own hopeful VBAC journey. Listening to other stories has been incredibly helpful in my mental preparation.” We were just talking about that before we started recording as well just how impactful these stories can be for anyone but especially during your VBAC journey. It says, “My due date is April 17th this month–” so this is obviously a little while ago. It says, “I'm hoping to have my own VBAC story to share. Thank you all for what you do.” Thank you so much, Roxyrutt, for sharing your review. As always, we love your reviews. You can email them to us at info@thevbaclink.com or you can comment “Review” on your podcast. I think it's on Apple Podcasts, Spotify– I don't know if Google allows reviews. You might just have to do a rating. But wherever you listen to your podcasts, if you can leave a review, please do so. Okay, Nicole. Let's get going on your stories. I seriously thank you so much for joining me today. Nicole: Oh, thank you so much for having me. Like we mentioned before we started recording, this podcast has been extremely inspirational to me and it really led me to having the VBAC of my dreams. Meagan: And you had a precipitous VBAC, right? Did you have a pretty precipitous VBAC if I'm remembering right? It was 2 hours or something?Nicole: Yeah. It was so quick. Meagan: Okay. We are going to talk about that. Don't let me forget about that in the end. It is something that we don't talk about a lot. Most people think about birth being a long time. Nicole: Yeah. Meagan: Yeah. Precipitous birth can come out of left field and I want to talk about that. But first of course, every VBAC starts with a C-section so let's hear about your first.Nicole: Okay, yeah. So I had my first in June 2020 so literally right as the world was shutting down. Everybody was terrified with reason, right? I go in. I remember I had my baby shower planned and everything was planning and everything was canceled. I just felt depleted and I was scared. I remember watching videos on how to have a birth and what to do and all of the birthing videos and there was like, “Here's a segment on if you have a C-section.” I was like, That will never be me. I don't have to watch this because that will never happen. That is not in my cards. That is not in my birthing plan I typed up and had signed. That is not in my cards. So I decided with my doctor that I wanted to be induced and I said at 40 weeks I had done my time. Get this baby out of me. I had committed to 40 weeks because she kept saying, “Well, we can do it at 38 weeks if you're comfortable or 39 weeks.” I was like, “Nope. I will do it until 40 weeks. I've done my time. At this point, this baby is evicted.” On June 20th, I went in for my induction. Everything went smoothly. I was progressing but not as fast as they would like so we started Pitocin. That went well. I was doing really well and all of a sudden they were like, “I think we need to break your water.” I had heard horror stories about your water breaking and it's super painful and you're miserable after it. So I was like, “Well, let's get the epidural because why would I put myself through that if they have the option to make this smooth and comfortable? Why would I sit there and not be comfortable during this?” So I got the epidural and I just laid there. I laid in bed for a really long time then at about 3:00 in the morning, I got the urge to push. I let the nurses know. They checked. They said I was at 10 centimeters. Everything was good to go. They came in at about 3:10 and I started pushing. I pushed until about 6:00 AM. At that point, at about 5:00 AM, I started getting really hot. I noticed that they had turned the temperature in the room up obviously for baby. I started getting really overwhelmed and really hot. I started to throw up. My doctor turned down the temperature. She was like, “Let's turn down the temperature. I feel like you're just getting hot.” I was like, “I'm just hot. I just don't feel so good. I'm just hot.” They turned the temperature down then a new NICU nurse came in and she turned it up. I was watching her turn it up and I was just so uncomfortable. I started throwing up again and they were like, “Well, we need to pause because everything you're doing is an epidural symptom but it's also a symptom of COVID so we're going to stop you because we have to test you. You can either continue to push–”Meagan: We have to test you.Nicole: Yeah. I had gotten tested before I went in and then during my labor 3 hours in of pushing, they literally stopped me and said, “We need to do a COVID test.” I did a COVID test and it was crazy. You see all of these doctors in scrubs and masks and then all of a sudden they come in in these inflatable suits and everybody has these– which is more terrifying. I'm already scared. Meagan: Yeah, talk about invading your space. Nicole: Yeah, then you're telling me that I have an hour until this test comes back. I can either continue to push but if I push and have my baby, you're immediately going to take her away until my results come back or I can pause, not push for the hour and just let my body do it naturally and then resume pushing if my test comes back negative and I can continue to have skin on skin and the one-on-one time with my baby. Meagan: Hashtag, eye roll. Nicole: Yeah. So during that time, I was pushing well up until the COVID test. My baby was descending correctly. I stopped. I waited an hour and something shifted to where she then twisted a little bit and she– once my test came back negative and I was able to push again– was getting stuck on my pelvic bone and I could not get her out. They were tying blankets together and my husband would hold one end of the blanket and I would push and pull the end of the blanket as hard as I could to try and get her down. I was doing everything to push this baby out. Nothing was working. I started to develop preeclampsia so that was red flag number one. Then my baby's heart rate started to drop in between each contraction which I guess means that it could be around the neck and it's more concerning if it's between contractions versus during the contraction. So after her heart rate started dropping and continuously dropped, they decided to call it an emergency C-section. I just remember feeling devastated. I remember shouting– not shouting, but crying to my husband, “I don't want this. I don't want a C-section.” My doctor was like, “I have to hear it from you that you are okay to have the C-section.” I was like, “I mean, I guess if that's the only way to get this baby out but I don't want it.” I remember feeling the pain from my C-section and feeling so depleted. I pushed from 3:00 to 6:00 then I stopped for an hour. We resumed at 7:00. We pushed from 7:00 to 9:00 and then they called the emergency C-section and I had her at 9:36. It was a lot and I was pushing hard. I just remember getting back to the room, because my mother-in-law was there, and saying, “I haven't held her yet.” I didn't want anybody to hold the baby without me holding her first. I had heard stories of people who were like, “Everybody in my family got to hold the baby before I held my baby.” I just remember crying and I cried for weeks. I just felt like my body gave up on me. My recovery was terrible and that's what my doctor kept saying. She was like, “You have both recoveries. You pushed for so long that you're recovering from pushing and then you're also recovering from your C-section.” Then because I pushed so hard and I was trying so hard, I had tore all of the right side abs so I couldn't even move my legs to get in and out of bed for 4 weeks because my whole ab muscles were just torn. I had to go see therapy for that and I remember trying to drive me and this infant to therapy sessions and I was just in pain and then the drive home– it was so hard. I just felt like I was really bonding with my baby, but I felt like I was so disconnected with myself. I just couldn't do it. I had to have therapy because I went into postpartum depression. It was the hardest moment of my life because I really just felt like everybody was like, “Oh, it's so beautiful though. Your body did its job and it birthed this healthy baby.” I just wanted to scream every time somebody said that because I was like, “But it didn't. I pushed for hours, literally hours, and it didn't do its job. I had to have my baby taken out of me.” Meagan: You didn't feel that way.Nicole: Uh-huh. Yeah. People would be like, “Well, aren't you glad that you didn't have vaginal tearing?” I was like, “No, but I had hip to hip tearing and not just through the skin. It was muscles and layers.” I felt like everybody was trying to comfort me and it just felt like I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs because I didn't feel like anybody was understanding what mentally I was going through. Meagan: Yeah. I think that happens so often in the provider world but also just in our family and friends' world. We get thrown the, “Aren't you just happy you have a healthy baby?” It's like, “Yeah, duh.” But then also that thing, “Well, aren't you glad that didn't happen to your vagina? Aren't you glad you don't have to deal with incontinence?” Or similar things where in people's minds, I don't think they realize that it's causing harm or that there are ill feelings at all. They are just saying these things, but it's like, “I don't feel like I birthed my baby and I don't feel good about it and I'm dealing with a lot of trauma physically to my body, not just even emotionally but physically to my body. No, I'm not feeling great right now and it's okay that I don't feel great. I understand that you're just trying to help and validate me maybe, I don't know.” Maybe that's what people are doing but it doesn't always feel good. Nicole: Yeah, people kept telling me to be mad at my provider. I was like, “I hear you. But at the end of the day, she's new to COVID just like we are. She's going into this trying to navigate it.” I think she did and I think she made the best calls, but everybody was like, “Why are you mad at yourself? Be mad at this person.” I was like, it wasn't her fault necessarily. She didn't know what was happening. COVID was so new and it was just blowing up in Utah. It was just this big thing and it seemed like nobody was listening to the fact that I was upset with my body and how my body handled this. Everybody was just like, “Well, it's a healthy baby. Blame this person or that person. It's COVID.” I was like, “But what about me? You're not listening to me.” That was so tough. I felt like I was screaming it and people were trying to silence it without purposely trying to silence it. Meagan: Right. Okay, so I have some questions for you. So when they were offering you sheets and it sounds like you were maybe playing some tug-of-war. What I call it in my doula mind is tug-of-war where you are pulling and tugging and all of those things. Obviously, they were really trying to help this baby get out vaginally and things like that. Did they offer you changing of positions even though you had that epidural? Were they like, “Hey, let's try to get you on your side or get you on your hands and knees?” You said you kind of felt your C-section a little bit, right? Is that what you said? So it maybe wasn't as deep of an epidural so maybe you could have done hands and knees or something? Did they ever offer anything like that?Nicole: They didn't. They did try the vacuum three times but it immediately would just pop right off of her head because she was shifted. Meagan: Asynclitic a little bit, maybe?Nicole: Yeah, so they said that after three times it was unsafe at that point and it was going to have the same results. Nothing was going to happen. I didn't want to do the vacuum, but once we were at that position, I was like, “Let's just try it.” I agreed to three times and then we were done. Keep it safe. That's when we started doing the tug-of-war and we did that for a long time. My husband was holding it and he was like, “The first time, you almost knocked me down because I wasn't expecting you.” I was pulling so hard. I just wanted this baby out. Yeah, they didn't move me in any positions. I was just on my back. Now that I know better, I wish I would have tried. Meagan: But again, you didn't know what you didn't know. For listeners, if you are in a situation where your baby might be tilted to the side asynclitic or transverse and maybe you have done tug-of-war and things like this, and even then, sometimes it doesn't work. For some reason, the baby is where they are, but a little bit of a tilt to the side especially if there is one side where they feel the baby's head or try to get on hands and knees to change that pelvic dynamic can help. But I love that they were like, “Let's do tug-of-war. Let's do these things.” I love that providers are still encouraging other things in other ways. It sounds like they really did try and avoid a Cesarean by doing a vacuum and doing the tug-of-war. That is super awesome. I was also wondering if you have any tips for moms who have maybe pushed for a really long time like you did and had essentially have vaginal pelvic floor trauma and also gone down the Cesarean route. Is there anything you would suggest to moms? Or even for moms who maybe had a C-section and had this possibly happen. Yeah, do you have any tips that you would suggest to help with healing both physically and mentally?Nicole: Yeah. One of the biggest things that we did which was incredibly helpful– I'll give you a funny story after– but one of the biggest things that we did was my husband would get out of bed. We breastfed. He would hand me baby. I would breastfeed her and burp her and then he would get out of bed, change her, and put her back down. That was incredibly helpful because all I had to do was go from laying to sitting. I couldn't pick my legs up to move them out of the bed without it being excruciating, so having him just help me sit up and hold baby made a huge difference. Having that support person there to help do the heavy lifting technically to get in and out of bed was next-level game changer. It helped me. I got to sleep more because he changed the diaper. We took turns then he would sleep during feedings. We were really changing. I do remember going to the pediatrician and my husband talking to the pediatrician and I was like, “Wrong person to ask.” He was like, “She keeps waking in the middle of the night and rocking holding this invisible baby and bouncing it.” It was because I would forget that I gave the baby back to my husband. Meagan: Yeah, because you're so tired. Nicole: I'm so tired and he would be like, “It's freaking me out.” I picked up my little Yorkie and I was rocking her. My husband was like, “That's the dog.” I thought I had fell asleep and the baby was next to me so I picked up the dog. I remember the husband talking to the pediatrician and I was like, “That is the wrong doctor. He knows nothing about my mental state,” and him being like, “It's terrifying,” but it really did help me. It might have scared him, but it just was so helpful and I just felt like I didn't have to worry about dropping the baby walking in and out of bed. It helped speed up my recovery because I wasn't constantly getting in and out at all hours of the night. Meagan: Yeah, that is so impactful. I love that you pointed that out. I know that some postpartum doulas do that too but if your partner is able to help you in that way, I also think it's really great because that helps them bond with the baby too. I mean, they might not be feeding the baby but they are changing and carrying and soothing the baby back to sleep as well. I love that. I love that you did that. How long did you do that until you were feeling better and getting in and out of bed was feasible?Nicole: It took me about 3 weeks until I felt comfortable and confident. That was another thing. I could feel comfortable but wasn't confident to get in and out of bed without worrying about a sharp pain or something glitching or stumbling. Meagan: Mhmm. I'm so proud of you guys for being a team and making sure that you took care of that. Nicole: We'll keep him. Meagan: You needed to take care of yourself and I love that you were like, “This is what we need. This is what we need to do.”Awesome. Well, before we get into your next story which is amazing, we're going to take a quick moment and listen to me, I guess, about our sponsor. Okay, and we're back. Let's get onto this VBAC story. Nicole: So being military, we had decided my daughter was so great and so fun at about 8 months or 9 months and we were like, “Let's do this again. Let's have another one. We want them close in age. Let's try again.” So she turned 1 in June. In May, we decided to go on a long weekend because my husband had just graduated college. He's military and was going to school which is a whole other added pressure. Meagan: That's a lot. Nicole: Yeah. We flew our mother-in-law out. She stayed with our baby for Memorial Day Weekend and him and I went to Tahoe for the weekend. We decided starting in May that we were going to start trying again. We were like, on May 1st, we're going to start trying for a baby. We get back from Tahoe on June 1st. I think it was June 1st. It was right at the end of May and the beginning of June. His coworkers were like, “Guess what? You have orders to RAF Lakenheath in England.” My husband was like, “No, I don't. You're kidding. I don't. That's a joke.”He called me and he was like, “I have bad news.” We had just dropped my car off at the dealership that morning so I was like, “Oh no, what we thought was a minor issue was huge.” He was like, “We have orders to England.” I was like, “That's not terrible news. That's the best news I've heard all month.” He was like, “No, that's terrible,” because he was planning on getting out of the military. Meagan: Oh no. Nicole: We had 2 weeks to decide if he was going to stay in and take these orders or if he was going to get out. We spent 2 weeks going back and forth if this was the best option for our family and if this what we wanted. What could we do over there? We decided that we would go overseas if we decided to wait on having a baby. We cut it off. No more babies at the beginning of June. We were like, “We're done. We're going to have our one. Towards the end of our 4 years is when we are going to start trying for our second. That way, we can get back here and have our baby back in the States.” We were like, “We'll travel with our one child because it's easier to travel with one than two. We'll travel with one kid. We'll do our 4 years there and when we come back, we'll have our next baby.” It wasn't ideal because we wanted them close in age, but at least we were traveling and eventually, we would have our second. He took the orders on June 2nd. I was prepping for my daughter's first birthday. We were having a pool party. I was like, okay. Her birthday's on June 20th. It is June 16th. I wonder when I'm going to get my period because I don't want to be on my period and swimming. Meagan: During the pool party, yeah. Nicole: I looked at my app and I was 7 days late. I was like, What? I don't think that's right, but let's just take a test. I took a test and I was pregnant. So, the joke was on us. Meagan: Oh my gosh. Nicole: Yes. We found out in June that we were having our second and we were due to be in England in November. So at the end of the month in November was our DEROS date or the day that we were supposed to be in England and he was supposed to be signed onto the base. We decided that we would just pack up and do this all while I was pregnant. We moved over there on November 15th. Once I got here, I was like, Well, what do I do now? I am halfway through my pregnancy. I have nothing because COVID again, had stopped all of our furniture stuff because the ports were closed and that whole issue of everything being shut down. The world was still closed so we were like, “What do we do?” We had sent our stuff at the beginning of October to arrive in England and they were like, “Well, you're not expecting anything.” We had bought all of our baby stuff before because we were like, “Well, we'll just buy it here and ship it over there, and then we won't have to worry about trying to buy it over there.” There are different sizes of cribs there, and the bedding size is different. I don't want people to buy us sheets then all of a sudden it's UK sizes and it doesn't fit and it's unsafe for baby. It was a big thing. We bought all of our stuff. I was ready to have it. Then we got here and they were like, “It looks like you're not going to get any of your household goods until April.”Meagan: November to April?Nicole: October to April because we shipped in October. Meagan: Oh my gosh. Nicole: Uh-huh. Yeah. We were living in temporary furniture that was terrible. We had to go out and buy blow-up mattresses because those were more comfortable than the beds that they gave us. It was wild. Then I'm trying to find a doctor. I'm trying to find a provider. I don't know what I'm doing. I've called all of the birthing doulas because of the podcast that I had been religiously listening to. I was like, “I know what a doula is. That's what I need.” They were all booked up because by the time we got here in November and I got the chance to interview them, they were all booked up for the month of February when my baby was due.So now I'm sitting here, “Well, what do I do? Do I have the baby on base? Do I have the baby off base?” I don't know. I don't know anything about where we're living. I don't know anything about the hospitals. I don't know anything. I'm just guessing off of people's posts on Facebook, but they are so hit-and-miss. Somebody is going to post a really great story, then all of a sudden, somebody makes a post of a traumatizing story which scares you. It's like, was the good story one in a million, or was the traumatizing story one in a million? I was just navigating this. I started going to my doctor's appointments on base because I knew that Tricare covered the OB/GYN. I was trying to navigate how it would cover overseas. I had to make a lot of phone calls and all of that fun stuff. I was like, “Well, I'll just start on base and see if I need to transfer off base.” On base was okay. It's way different seeing a military doctor than it is seeing a provider who chooses this field and who wants this field. All of my prenatal care was okay. There were a few things that I wasn't a fan of and if we weren't talking about it, I could tell you what is the strep B test, right? Meagan: Group B strep?Nicole: Mhmm. They test you. They swab you to see if you have a skin infection to see if you need to be on antibiotics. In the states, my doctor performed that on me. Here, they gave me a test tube and told me I had 5 minutes to complete it. I was like, “What? I can't even see down there let alone swab myself.” I just remember crying in the thing and begging people to do it and they were like, “We don't do it. You have to perform it on yourself.” My husband was home watching our toddler, so I had no support with me. It was definitely different. I looked at the hospitals off base and I was really unsure with the way that I had them. You would give birth in a birthing suite with your husband, then they would send him home and move you to this big room with other moms who had their babies. I was really navigating, what is the best fit for me and how am I going to have this baby and my VBAC? I want this VBAC. Who is going to advocate for me? I don't have a doula. I'm doing this by myself. My husband only knows so much. He doesn't understand it all, so he is only retaining half of what I'm saying. I made it to 40 weeks. I was like, “Get this baby out of here.” My mother-in-law was here to watch my daughter. That's another thing. You have to find childcare for your toddler because you don't have family around to watch your baby. We were so new here. We didn't have friends here to watch our baby. My mother-in-law luckily came out and made it for the birth. She watched my daughter. I decided that since she was here, and I needed to get this baby out before she left so I had childcare, I would do a membrane sweep because I was 40 weeks and I think I was 2 days at that point. I did a membrane sweep. That was unsuccessful at 40 weeks and 2 days. I did a second one. That was very successful. We had my membrane sweep in the morning. I remember just doing lunges and squats all day long. We took my daughter to a forest. She just ran, and I did lunges behind her. There are videos of my husband following my daughter around, and I'm in the background just doing lunges and doing anything to keep active, to keep this baby going. I went to bed that night on February 23rd. I went to bed at about 9:00 PM. I woke up at 2:00 AM. It was about 2:30 when I woke up. I felt this really sharp pain in my stomach. I thought he had kicked my bladder, so I stood up on the bed. It was like a movie. You heard the gush, and then all of a sudden, water was just trickling down my legs. I was like, “Well, I still feel like I have to pee, so that was definitely my water breaking not me having to go to the bathroom and him kicking my bladder,” which signaled me having to go to the bathroom. My husband had just come to bed at about 2:00 AM. He had only been asleep for about 30 minutes. I was like, “Hey, no rush. This is going to take hours.” Again, nobody thinks that labor happens fast. I woke him up. I was like, “No rush. I just need you to go downstairs and get my military ID,” because at this point, I decided to have him on base. I was like, “I just need you to get my military ID because they are going to ask for that information in labor and delivery. Let them know that my water broke and that we would be in in a few hours. No rush. I'm going to take a shower. I'm going to go back to sleep. I'm just going to sleep this off. We will wake up in the morning, say goodbye to Naomi, and then go to the hospital.” Again, I had told my daughter that I would see her in the morning, and then I left the room that night saying, “Why did I say that? There's no guarantee.” I had been saying for weeks, “I hope you sleep good,” and that's it. Then of course, the one time that I accidentally said, “I'll see you in the morning,” I wasn't seeing her in the morning. He calls Labor and Delivery and they were like, “Well, because of her past, we want her in now.” I was like, “No. No. I don't want to labor in a hospital. I want to labor as long as I can at home. I want to do this by myself. I want to be comfortable. I don't want people to tell me what I should be doing then it going against what I want to do. I really want to do this by myself.” He's arguing with Labor and Delivery. He was like, “Well, let me talk to my wife, and I will call you back.” I was like, “I'm going to get in the shower real quick and wash myself off because my water just broke.” Meagan: Had you started contracting at this point or just trickling? Nicole: Very minimal. It was every 5 minutes. It was very minimal, nothing crazy. I could totally go clean my car at this point. I was walking on water. My water broke. I'm great. I feel good. I feel nothing. I'm in the shower. All I did was put shampoo in my hair. I didn't even get it rinsed out, and all of a sudden, my contractions went from 0 to 100. I could not breathe. I could not talk through them. I could not even do anything. I felt like my mind was so focused on the pain. My husband was trying to ask me questions, and I couldn't even register what he was saying through each contraction. I told him, “Call them back because we are on our way now. I need to get out of the shower. I need you to throw conditioner in my hair while I have this next contraction. I need to rinse it out, then we need to go.” He's trying to talk to them and put conditioner in my hair. I'm having a contraction. I put my pants on, and as I'm pulling them up, another contraction hit. Then they started going from having a contraction for a minute and a half to a break for 30 seconds, and then immediately back into another contraction for a minute and a half. I was like, “What is happening?” I never felt this with my daughter. I had the epidural. Things went so smoothly and so slowly that it was cake. This was the next level. I waddled into the car. I remember sitting in the front seat and saying, “I can't do this.” I climbed into my toddler's car seat because I had the infant car seat up, and I couldn't fit in between the two car seats, so I had to sit with my knees in my toddler's car seat. I was holding onto the back headrest for support and just standing there. I was on my knees, chest against the back of her car seat, and I'm just holding onto this headrest with every contraction. I'd have three in a row. I'd have one for a minute and thirty, a break for 30 seconds, a minute and thirty, a break for 30 seconds, a minute and thirty, then I'd have a two-minute break, and then they would kick back up again. My husband was just flying. The roads were closed on our normal fastway to base. We lived 30 minutes away, so it was an extra 15 minutes to get to base. He was flying at 2:50 in the morning at this point. I'm sorry, it was 3:50 in the morning at this point. We get to the hospital at 4:05. I am hugging a tree outside because my husband couldn't figure out how to open the wheelchair. Poor guy, he was trying so hard to help me. Meagan: I'm sure. It was a frantic moment. Yeah. Nicole: Yeah. He couldn't figure out how to open it. He had to go to the ER and get somebody in the ER to help him. They were wheeling me up, and I remember yelling at them because they kept saying, “We'll have to do triage and see if you're in active labor before we can bring your husband back.” I remember telling this poor ER nurse, “You'd better not split my husband and I up. I am not doing triage. We are going into a room. We are having this baby.” She was like, “Ma'am, I think we're just going to put you in a room. I don't think we are going to need triage.” I get into the room. I am continuously having contractions. They tried to stop me to do a COVID test. I death-glared this guy because he wanted to do a COVID test on me. I was like, “Been there, done that. Not doing that again.” I remember them trying to put an IV in my hand. I was like, “I don't need an IV. This kid is coming out of me. I know I tested positive for the strep test, but I don't need an IV. He's already out. There's nothing that this is going to help.”I get up on the bed. They tried to get me to lay on my back to push and I couldn't. I remember my husband was like, “No, that's not how she wanted to push. She wants to push with her knees on the bed and her chest against the back holding on. That's how she wants to deliver him.”He was advocating for me which I was so grateful for because I felt the entire time that he didn't know what I wanted because he didn't understand my terms, he didn't understand why, he didn't understand the VBAC world, so I felt like I was talking to thin air. So for him to sit there and be like, “No, that is not how she is going to deliver this baby. She wants to be on her knees hunkering down.” I did. I got up there. I pushed two pushes, and he was out. His hand was stuck to his face. Meagan: Nuchal hand, wow. Nicole: He was holding onto his face. He got a little stuck because of his elbow, so after I got his head out, they made me flip over and deliver him on my back which I was totally okay with because we had done the hard part. I remember my husband saying that was the weirdest thing watching me turn around with this baby hanging out. He was like, “You just flipped around like it was nothing.” I was like, “I knew he was fine.” I tore because his hand was up and it was added pressure. But yeah, he came out in two pushes. He was born by 4:36, so 2 hours and I had my baby. It was absolutely wild. I just remember that I had him. I was just in the chaos of it, and about two minutes later, my husband was like, “Nicole, you had a VBAC.” I just started shouting it. I was like, “I had a VBAC.” It didn't even dawn on me in the craziness of it all that I pushed this baby out of me. I was just like, “Is he okay? Is he healthy? Does everything look good? Are you sure he has 10 toes and 10 fingers? Is everything good?” My husband was like, “Nicole, you had a VBAC. You really did it.” Yeah. It was crazy. He came so fast which was unexpected and nobody tells you about that. It was just wild, but I had a VBAC. Meagan: You had a VBAC with a nuchal hand too. That can be a little tricky sometimes, right? That is amazing, but I love just how intuitively from the very beginning, your body too was like, hands and knees. Forward-leaning position. That's what your body intuitively was telling you to do to get this baby here. I love that you just went with that. I love that he advocated for you despite not really understanding. I can relate to that. My husband did not understand why I wanted to do what I wanted to do, but it's so nice to have them be there for you in that ending moment when it really matters so much. Nicole: Absolutely, yeah. I was shocked. When he started saying it and he was like, “No. She wants to push like this,” I was like, “What? You listened?” Meagan: You listened. I love that. Oh, well thank you so much for sharing that story. Huge congrats and man, precipitous labor like you said, people don't talk about it. It does happen. It's funny because I had a long, 42-hour labor. Someone asked me, “Would you rather have a long labor that took forever like that or would you rather have a precipitous labor?” I had said that I really wanted a fourth and I just hoped it went faster. I don't know. I don't know which one I would prefer because long is exhausting and hard, but man, precipitous– and I have seen them. I have supported them as a doula and seen 2-3 hour-long labors. It's a lot of change in a body to happen in such a short period of time, and it's so intense. I mean, it is the next level. So, I don't know. Nicole: It's crazy. It's crazy that they are so fast, but your body just knows what it's doing. That blew my mind. With my daughter, I felt like I was trying. I was listening to everybody, and they were telling me what to do. I was just following suit, but with this one, there were no decisions being made. My body was like, “This is how it's going to happen and that's it.” I remember shouting for the epidural when I got in the hospital room. I was like, “I want that epidural. Call the anesthesiologist now.” They were like, “Honey, I think he's already here. I don't think we have time for that.” My body was like, “No, you're not sitting down. You're not going to do this. This is how–” I didn't even have time to focus on my breathing. My body was just doing it itself which is crazy thinking back on it. My body just knew. I was so down on myself thinking my body had failed me, but then having a super fast labor, my body was just like, “Nope, this is how we're going to get it done and that's it.” Meagan: Okay, so with precipitous labor too, like you said, it went from 0 to 100 like that. Do you have any tips for moms with that experience of that type of intensity? Obviously, listening to your body and getting to your birthing location on time. I'm assuming that's continuing. Sometimes, I feel like it can be really intense when it feels like they are ramping up and then they piddle out. But it does, it seems to ramp up, like you said, from 0 to 100 and it hangs on. It holds on tight and it is not stopping.Nicole: Yeah. Definitely listen to your body. I felt like I spoke up a lot with what was happening at one point. I've always been this way where there are certain sounds that make me nauseous if I'm under a lot of stress or if I'm feeling sick, so my husband talking– it's funny because he was like, “Say your affirmations. You are brave. You can do this.” His talking was making me nauseous. I was like, “Stop. Stop talking. Although it is what I want to hear, it is not helping.” Being super open about what was happening like when he went to get the wheelchair, I was like, “I can't sit in this car. I have to get out.” He was like, “Just sit in the car. Let me help you.” Being super aware and open about what I was feeling and what my body was telling me to do because going up and holding onto this tree, and every time I walk past this tree at medical, I'm like, “I almost gave birth right there had we not gotten that wheelchair open.” Hunkering down on that tree gave so much more relief that it was sitting in the car waiting for him. Although, I know that the car probably would have been the safest option for me rather than the tree with dirt and bushes–Meagan: Hey, that's actually pretty cool if that happened. Nicole: Right? But knowing what it was and being communicative. Even through all the chaos, every second that I could, I was saying, “This is what I need right now. This is what I'm feeling.” That was helpful not only for myself mentally because I didn't have the option. Things were just happening, but mentally being aware, and also allowing my husband to help me and support me where I needed was also really helpful. Meagan: I love that. Speak up. Follow your body. Have an awesome partner to help guide you through. I think too like what you said earlier, he listened. That goes with speaking up, talking about our feelings, and talking about our desires. Even if you don't think it's being understood or really heard, it probably is. Nicole: Yeah. It was just so crazy to me with him being like, “I'm so confused why somebody would want to push like that,” then him being like, “No, she's going to push like that.” I was like, “What? You remembered.” Even in all the craziness, and he thought for sure when I told him to stop when we were driving, he thought I meant to stop the car because he thought I was going to have the baby before I could finish after my contraction, “Stop talking.” Yeah, so even through all of the craziness and his mind going rampant, because he's going through it too thinking, “Am I going to deliver this baby on the side of the road?” Now that we're in a different country, who do we call? Do we call 9-9-9 or do we call 9-1-1? Do we call base or do we call locals? We're in the middle of the country. His mindset is going, so having him say that in the craziness was even more powerful. Meagan: Mhmm. Oh my gosh. Well, huge congrats again. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. I do know that it's going to impact someone out there, probably hundreds and thousands of people to be honest, so yeah. Thank you so much. Do you have any other tips or any advice that you'd like to give to any moms in regards to VBAC, in regards to birth, in regards to preparation, or in regards to navigating military changes? Delivering on base or off base? Are there any other suggestions that you'd like to give? Nicole: I would say to really trust your instinct. I was obsessed with my first doctor with my daughter and she was my second daughter going into this. Obviously, I couldn't keep her. I tried to get her to come over here, but she wouldn't. Trust in your instinct in what you think is right for you and your baby. It's so interesting to where you believe that this is one thing and this is how it should be, but then when your instincts are kicking in and they are telling you, “This is what's best for you and your baby,” it's a whole other path. I just recommend to listen. Listen to your body. Listen to what your gut is telling you. It will fall into place. Things are scary and sometimes things are wild, especially with the military and moving in the middle of a pregnancy. It is terrifying. I've known spouses who stay after and they bring their baby over when their baby is 8 weeks old and can finally get a passport. But knowing that you can do it overseas, I definitely think it's special because your partner is there. It's just a crazy ride, but if you trust yourself, your self will always guide you in the right way. Meagan: Yeah. We've been saying it since this podcast started in 2018. Your intuition is so impactful. Trust it all the way. Go with it. I love that advice. Thank you. Nicole: Thank you. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

For review:1. Israel - Hamas Hostage Deal Remote. The chances of a phased hostage-ceasefire agreement being achieved on the basis of Israel's May proposal are “close to zero” and there is “very broad pessimism” among the Israeli negotiators.2. Germany to Provide 155mm Howitzers to Ukraine.Germany will deliver a batch of 12 x Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, the Defense Minister announced. 6 x howitzers will be delivered by the end of this year and the rest next year.3. UK to provide 650 x Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMM) to Ukraine as part of a 162-million-pound ($212 million) contract.4. EU spends too much money on US defense items. A report on European Union Defense Competitiveness says that from mid 2022 to mid-2023, the 27-Member Nation contracted 63% of their defense orders with US suppliers. 5. US Defense Security Cooperation Agency- Foreign Military Sale:The Government of the Netherlands has requested to buy two hundred forty-six (246) AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II tactical missiles. The estimated total program cost is $691 million.6. Poland offered Boeing CH-47F Block II Chinooks.Boeing announced today at the International Defence Industry Exhibition (MSPO) that it has formally offered the heavy-lift helicopter to Poland.7. Norwegian Army to upgrade Sniper rifle capability with the American Barrett M107A1.  The M107A1 is capable of delivering precision and rapid fire on targets up to 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) away.8. Two USAF F-35As land on highways during exercise in Finland. The F-35s, which were from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath in England, carried out the landings on the Hosio Highway Strip in Ranua, Finland.

Due to personal circumstances, I've been unable to produce a new episode this week, however, you will be aware of the many gems in the back catalogue and I have chosen one of my favourites today which is a rip-roaring story of service in the USAF with Rick Shreve an F111 pilot which I know you will enjoy. Normal service should be resumed next week. Rick Shreve was a US Air Force F 111 pilot based at RAF Lakenheath in the UK. He was trained to carry out nuclear as well as conventional missions against the Warsaw Pact forces in Europe. Rick describes his low-level training missions to attack targets in the Soviet Union and East Germany, where he recalls a near-fatal incident amongst the Scottish lochs. Rick was also part of one of the crews that flew on Operation El Dorado Canyon, the operation to bomb Libya in April 1986 in retaliation for the West Berlin discotheque bombing ten days earlier. Rick gives you a very frank and honest view of his role in the US Air Force and his approach to the huge responsibilities he carried. Episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode358/ The fight to preserve Cold War history continues and via a simple monthly donation, you will give me the ammunition to continue to preserve Cold War history. You'll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, and get a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank you and you'll bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, We also welcome one-off donations via the same link. Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/ Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Love history? Join Intohistory https://intohistory.com/coldwarpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Drysdale “Dale” H. Hernandez is the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) for Headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command where he serves as the Chief, Force Development Division in the Directorate of Manpower and Personnel. In this position he serves as the primary advisor to the MAJCOM Commander on all Learning Strategy issues. His A1D Division plans, develops, and directs advisory and support services for command-wide Professional Development.In this episode, Colonel retired Hernandez discusses the importance of education in Air Force Global Strike Command and the efforts made to develop and educate strikers. Global Strike Command was created in 2009 to address the atrophy of nuclear expertise in the Air Force. The command offers over 20 courses and has invested over $23 million in the development of strikers. The education programs aim to build courageous problem solvers capable of critical thinking and problem-solving. The command also focuses on leadership development and strategic stability through a credible long-range strike force.Mr. Hernandez was raised in El Paso, Texas and was commissioned in 1991 as a graduate of The University of Texas at El Paso's Air Force ROTC program. His Masters-level education includes degrees in Human Resources Management and Administration from Webster's University, Military Operational Arts and Science from Air University, and Strategic Studies from the Army War College. Mr. Hernandez began his professional career in 1992 as the Chief of Social Actions at Griffiss AFB, NY. His Air Force career included multiple deployments, staff positions at Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe and U.S. Air Forces in Africa, Headquarters U.S. Air Force and The Joint Staff. He has served as the 48th Mission Support Squadron Commander at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom and as the 52d Mission Support Group Commander at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany. Socials:Follow on Twitter at @NucleCastFollow on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nuclecastpodcastSubscribe RSS Feed: https://rss.com/podcasts/nuclecast-podcast/Rate: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nuclecast/id1644921278Email comments and topic/guest suggestions to NucleCast@anwadeter.org

#PREVIEW: #NUKES: #UK: Excerpt from a conversation with colleague Gregory Copley re the report in London that the Biden Administration is deploying tactical nuclear weapons -- likey gravity bombs to be droped by manned aircrat such as the F-35 --to the RAF Lakenheath base in Suffolk.  And why?  And to what intention? More tonight. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/plans-progress-to-bring-us-nuclear-weapons-to-uk/ar-BB1hqDrv 1945 Hiroshima burn victims

#NATO: "The US is upgrading facilities at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk to enable nuclear weapons to be stationed on British soil for the first time in 15 years: TIMES."   2/4: Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO by  Tom Nichols  (Author), Douglas Stuart, Jeff McCausland. https://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Nuclear-Weapons-NATO-Nichols/dp/1479181951 The role and future of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe are subjects that sometimes surprise even experts in international security, primarily because it is so often disconcerting to remember that these weapons still exist. Many years ago, an American journalist wryly noted that the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was “a subject that drives the dagger of boredom deep, deep into the heart”— a dismissive quip which would have remained true right up until the moment World War III broke out. The same goes for tactical nuclear weapons: compared to the momentous issues that the East and West have tackled since the end of the Cold War, the scattering of hundreds (or in the Russian case, thousands) of battlefield weapons throughout Europe seems to be almost an afterthought, a detail left behind that should be easy to tidy up. Such complacency is unwise. Tactical nuclear weapons (or NSNWs, “non-strategic nuclear weapons”) still exist because NATO and Russia have not fully resolved their fears about how a nuclear war might arise, or how it might be fought. They represent, as Russian analyst Nikolai Sokov once wrote, “the longest deadlock” in the history of arms control. Washington and Moscow, despite the challenges to the “reset” of their relations, point to reductions in strategic arms as a great achievement, but strategic agreements also reveal the deep ambiguity toward nuclear weapons as felt by the former superpower rivals. The numbers in the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) are lower than at any point in history, but they are based on leaving each side a reliable ability to destroy up to 300 urban targets each. Inflicting this incredible amount of destruction is, on its face, a step no sane national leader would take. But it is here that tactical weapons were meant to play their dangerous role, for they would be the arms that provided the indispensable bridge from peace to nuclear war. Thus, the structures of Cold War nuclear doctrines on both sides remain in place, only on a smaller scale. 1945 Nagasaki

#NATO: "The US is upgrading facilities at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk to enable nuclear weapons to be stationed on British soil for the first time in 15 years: TIMES."   3/4: Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO by  Tom Nichols  (Author), Douglas Stuart, Jeff McCausland. https://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Nuclear-Weapons-NATO-Nichols/dp/1479181951 The role and future of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe are subjects that sometimes surprise even experts in international security, primarily because it is so often disconcerting to remember that these weapons still exist. Many years ago, an American journalist wryly noted that the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was “a subject that drives the dagger of boredom deep, deep into the heart”— a dismissive quip which would have remained true right up until the moment World War III broke out. The same goes for tactical nuclear weapons: compared to the momentous issues that the East and West have tackled since the end of the Cold War, the scattering of hundreds (or in the Russian case, thousands) of battlefield weapons throughout Europe seems to be almost an afterthought, a detail left behind that should be easy to tidy up. Such complacency is unwise. Tactical nuclear weapons (or NSNWs, “non-strategic nuclear weapons”) still exist because NATO and Russia have not fully resolved their fears about how a nuclear war might arise, or how it might be fought. They represent, as Russian analyst Nikolai Sokov once wrote, “the longest deadlock” in the history of arms control. Washington and Moscow, despite the challenges to the “reset” of their relations, point to reductions in strategic arms as a great achievement, but strategic agreements also reveal the deep ambiguity toward nuclear weapons as felt by the former superpower rivals. The numbers in the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) are lower than at any point in history, but they are based on leaving each side a reliable ability to destroy up to 300 urban targets each. Inflicting this incredible amount of destruction is, on its face, a step no sane national leader would take. But it is here that tactical weapons were meant to play their dangerous role, for they would be the arms that provided the indispensable bridge from peace to nuclear war. Thus, the structures of Cold War nuclear doctrines on both sides remain in place, only on a smaller scale. 1945 Little Boy

#NATO: "The US is upgrading facilities at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk to enable nuclear weapons to be stationed on British soil for the first time in 15 years: TIMES."   4/4: Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO by  Tom Nichols  (Author), Douglas Stuart, Jeff McCausland. https://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Nuclear-Weapons-NATO-Nichols/dp/1479181951 The role and future of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe are subjects that sometimes surprise even experts in international security, primarily because it is so often disconcerting to remember that these weapons still exist. Many years ago, an American journalist wryly noted that the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was “a subject that drives the dagger of boredom deep, deep into the heart”— a dismissive quip which would have remained true right up until the moment World War III broke out. The same goes for tactical nuclear weapons: compared to the momentous issues that the East and West have tackled since the end of the Cold War, the scattering of hundreds (or in the Russian case, thousands) of battlefield weapons throughout Europe seems to be almost an afterthought, a detail left behind that should be easy to tidy up. Such complacency is unwise. Tactical nuclear weapons (or NSNWs, “non-strategic nuclear weapons”) still exist because NATO and Russia have not fully resolved their fears about how a nuclear war might arise, or how it might be fought. They represent, as Russian analyst Nikolai Sokov once wrote, “the longest deadlock” in the history of arms control. Washington and Moscow, despite the challenges to the “reset” of their relations, point to reductions in strategic arms as a great achievement, but strategic agreements also reveal the deep ambiguity toward nuclear weapons as felt by the former superpower rivals. The numbers in the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) are lower than at any point in history, but they are based on leaving each side a reliable ability to destroy up to 300 urban targets each. Inflicting this incredible amount of destruction is, on its face, a step no sane national leader would take. But it is here that tactical weapons were meant to play their dangerous role, for they would be the arms that provided the indispensable bridge from peace to nuclear war. Thus, the structures of Cold War nuclear doctrines on both sides remain in place, only on a smaller scale. 1945 Fat Man

#NATO: "The US is upgrading facilities at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk to enable nuclear weapons to be stationed on British soil for the first time in 15 years: TIMES."   1/4: Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO by  Tom Nichols  (Author), Douglas Stuart, Jeff McCausland. https://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Nuclear-Weapons-NATO-Nichols/dp/1479181951 The role and future of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe are subjects that sometimes surprise even experts in international security, primarily because it is so often disconcerting to remember that these weapons still exist. Many years ago, an American journalist wryly noted that the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was “a subject that drives the dagger of boredom deep, deep into the heart”— a dismissive quip which would have remained true right up until the moment World War III broke out. The same goes for tactical nuclear weapons: compared to the momentous issues that the East and West have tackled since the end of the Cold War, the scattering of hundreds (or in the Russian case, thousands) of battlefield weapons throughout Europe seems to be almost an afterthought, a detail left behind that should be easy to tidy up. Such complacency is unwise. Tactical nuclear weapons (or NSNWs, “non-strategic nuclear weapons”) still exist because NATO and Russia have not fully resolved their fears about how a nuclear war might arise, or how it might be fought. They represent, as Russian analyst Nikolai Sokov once wrote, “the longest deadlock” in the history of arms control. Washington and Moscow, despite the challenges to the “reset” of their relations, point to reductions in strategic arms as a great achievement, but strategic agreements also reveal the deep ambiguity toward nuclear weapons as felt by the former superpower rivals. The numbers in the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) are lower than at any point in history, but they are based on leaving each side a reliable ability to destroy up to 300 urban targets each. Inflicting this incredible amount of destruction is, on its face, a step no sane national leader would take. But it is here that tactical weapons were meant to play their dangerous role, for they would be the arms that provided the indispensable bridge from peace to nuclear war. Thus, the structures of Cold War nuclear doctrines on both sides remain in place, only on a smaller scale. 1945 Hiroshima

Pre-Order Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs: https://www.10percenttrue.com/shopSupport me with a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/10percenttrue Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/9vJ3hPYFQh0:00 Intro and Jim's background6:18 Turning initial (F-111) disappointment into determination 11:44 How she wants to kill you, but WSOs are good!16:36 Arriving at Lakenheath and an overview of the F-111F29:25 The mission33:35 Flying heavy/the end of the world/not all pylons pivot 38:14 Genesis of the Libya raid, accumulation of “indicators”47:20 Stepping to the jets, time to go49:30 The “original” small scale plan, crew selection 54:57 An ad break we can all get behind!55:50 Planning, involvement of actual participants, deconfliction with the Navy1:01:40 CSAR plan?1:03:30 Practice of long missions?1:05:30 Deception plan1:07:50 Planning in more detail1:11:32 The step in more detail1:13:36 Emotions and managing them throughout this phase?1:16:08 Vietnam lessons passed down by vets1:18:40 The SAM threat and mitigation? 1:21:17 A couple of side stories before “we” drop off the tanker1:27:01 Lights off and dropping off the tanker……1:41:50 Downtown - approaching the target1:45:14 Off target - delousing ship and 662kts!1:49:01 First go pill - time to tank1:52:22 The BBC keeping the crews company on RTB1:54:55 Coasting in/sunrise/ national anthems1:57:10 Handing piddle packs to the “welcoming committee”1:59:20 Debrief and details2:07:38 Any lasting after effects/thoughts?2:10:10 Loss of Karma 522:14:25 The influence of the raid on remaining service 2:16:20 The “red headed stepchild” lives up to the moment 2:18:10 Why the raiders avoided any limelightSupport the show

In this episode, Cadet McMahan and C/Willis discuss their experiences with the Capstones they participated in last summer. Capstones are base visits that allow cadets to experience and meet active duty AF personnel. These vary depending on the desired AFSC of each cadet. C/McMahan went to Sheppard AFB in Wichita Texas and C/Willis went to RAF Lakenheath, England. *IP stands for Instructor Pilot

Former USAF EWO, Starbaby shares what it was like transitioning from the F-4G to the F-15E, being stationed at RAF Lakenheath and flying in combat with some incredible stories!Help keep the channel going:Pick up some AI merch - https://www.teepublic.com/user/aircrew-interviewPATREON - https://www.patreon.com/aircrewinterviewDONATE - http://www.aircrewinterview.tv/donate/Purchase our Aviation Art Book, Volume One - https://amzn.to/3sehpaP Use our Amazon affiliate link when you purchase from Amazon as it costs you nothing extra and gives us a little kickback to help the channel to keep going:.co.uk - https://amzn.to/46BCbFi.com - https://amzn.to/44vNf4XFollow us:https://www.aircrewinterview.tv/https://www.instagram.com/aircrew_interviewhttps://www.facebook.com/aircrewinterviewFind more interviews with Starbaby via https://www.youtube.com/@10percenttrue/videosSupport the show

This edition features stories on the Air Force Heritage Ball at RAF Lakenheath celebrating 50 years of joint partnership between the United States and United Kingdom, a Joint Base Balad hospital offering eye care to Iraqi bombing victims, and the recent unveiling of the new Air Force physical training shorts.

This edition features stories on Air Force active duty deployment schedules shifting beginning in 2011, U.S. European Command (USEUROCOM) organizing exercise Combined Endeavor since 1995, and this year's Combined Endeavor getting underway, Operation Pacific Angel 2010 providing medical and engineering assistance to Pacific countries, and service members stationed at RAF Lakenheath recalling what they were doing on Sept. 11, 2001. Hosted by Staff Sgt. Shannon Ofiara.

This edition features stories on the U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) band performing in Bulgaria, forming partnerships through music, Army and Air Force Exchanges (AAFES) implementing an updated point-of-sale system that scans customers Common Access Card (CAC) for age restricted items, students from the Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP) taking their language skills to new levels through the intensive training the program offers, and Airmen at RAF Lakenheath conducting Engagement Skills Training (EST) on the EST 2000. Hosted by Airman 1st Class Alina Richard.

This edition features stories on Dr. Elizabeth Warren, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, visiting service members stationed at Lackland Air Base, United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, visiting RAF Lakenheath to learn about the joint care provided by the 48th Medical Group, the 35th Fire Emergency Services Flight at Misawa Air Base and how inclement weather impacts their mission, RAF Lakenheath load crews competing in this year's Load Crew of the Year competition, the opening of Williams Hall at Langley Air Base, Mixed Marital Arts (MMA) fighters touring Misawa Air Base. Hosted by Senior Airman Brad Sisson.

This edition features stories on the 48th Fighter Wing becoming the first U.S. Air Forces Europe (USAFE) unit to receive new radar systems for air traffic control, Yokota Airmen building on their relationship with the local community by visiting children at a local elementary school and sharing an educational experience, Kunsan Air Base improving quality of life and raising morale by opening a newly built dormitory for Airmen stationed there, and Security Forces Airmen at Misawa Air Base using a creative event to raise money for the Security Forces Association. Hosted by Airman 1st Class Alina Richard.

This edition features stories on the Air Force adding a new career field to its enlisted corps, the two-week long Falcon Air Meet exercise in Jordan, holiday mailing deadline for overseas bases, RAF Lakenheath welcoming Weisbaden's high school football team from Germany to compete in the Division I playoffs, Air Traffic Controllers practicing emergency evacuation procedures at Davis-Monthan Air Base, Airmen receiving quality training at a lower cost using a C-130 simulator at Moody Air Force Base, and the Afghan Air Force training its first female pilots since the fall of the Taliban. Hosted by Senior Airman Brad Sisson.

Getting immunized is a safe and easy way to help you and your family combat illnesses.

At RAF Lakenheath, an Airman shares how the Air Force Assistance Fund has helped him throughout his career.

Instructors teach female airmen at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom techniques to prevent becoming a victim.

On today's edition of Air Force Report Staff Sergeant Renee Carberry tells us about a self defense class at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom, which focuses on helping women learn techniques to prepare for potentially dangerous situations.

DoDDS Students at RAF Lakenheath developed their leadership skills participating in National History Day.

Ray joined Essex Police in 1976. He had previously worked as a trader at Lloyds of London.As a police officer he worked in a number of locations including Basildon and Grays. As a Detective Sergeant he worked at Chelmsford and was promoted to Inspector at Basildon where he started as a uniform Inspector but soon moved to CID when he became involved in the investigation relating to the murder of Steven Pell.Ray transferred to The Metropolitan police as a Superintendent and was posted to Belgravia. It was in the MPS that he worked with Assistant Commissioner Mike Todd. Ray and Mike had been Pcs together at the start of their careers in Essex. Ray concluded his service after 30years service at HaveringRay has always been involved in charity projects and was a heavily involved with the Rotary Club of GB ad travelled to Sri Lanka where he took part in a project to support the local community. During this trip he had an overwhelming urge to visit a church. When he returned to the UK his interest in the church continued and resulted in a meeting with Rev Martin Fletcher of St Luke's Tiptree. Martin encouraged Ray to visit the church and for Ray this was inspirational.Ray took the bible with both hands and has now become an ordained priest. He resides in Hockwold and dedicates his time to his parish. He is a bee keeper and works part time at 48th OSS at RAF Lakenheath.Listen to Rays story Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Frederick McCarthy Forsyth CBE is an English author and journalist. He was born on August 25, 1938.A former RAF pilot and investigative journalist, created the modern thriller when he wrote The Day of The JackalHe is best known for thrillers like The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra, and The Kill List.Forsyth's books are often on lists of the best-selling books, and more than a dozen of them have been made into movies. By 2006, more than 70 million copies of his books had been sold in more than 30 languages.The Shepherd tells the story of a De Havilland Vampire pilot who is going home on Christmas Eve, 1957. On the way from RAF Celle in northern Germany to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, his plane loses all of its electricity. He gets lost in fog over the North Sea and is almost out of gas when he runs into a De Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber that seems to have been sent up to "shepherd" him in.The main themes of the story are how he is guided to a safe landing and how he tries to find the pilot who saved him.Forsyth wrote this original piece as a Christmas present for his first wife Carrie, who had asked him to write her a ghost story. The story was written on Christmas Day, 1974, and came out around the same time the next year. The idea came to the author when he was trying to think of a setting that wasn't a haunted house and saw planes flying overhead. Many people have thought that the references were to old RAF stories. Even though Forsyth is a former RAF pilot and could have heard and changed such a story (whether on purpose or not), no references or personal stories have been given to back up such claims.Since 1979, the story has been told on the Canadian news show As It Happens on CBC Radio One. It is always read by Alan Maitland and is always on the last episode, which is always on or before Christmas Eve. As it Happens had a 50th anniversary special in 2018, and Carol Off, Michael Enright, and Tom Power read lines from The Shepherd to honour the tradition.On December 14, 2014, in London, at St. Clement Danes, the Central Church of the Royal Air Force, actor Nigel Anthony put on an original version of The Shepherd by Amber Barnfather, complete with music and sound effects. Frederick Forsyth opened the show, which raised money for the RAF Benevolent Fund. David Chilton was in charge of the sound, and the Saint Martin Singers sang a cappella pieces.John Travolta confirmed in 2022 that he is making a movie version of The Shepherd right now.Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens AudiobookIf you like my voice and want to support my work, get my narration of this Christmas Classic herehttps://theclassicghoststoriespodcast.bandcamp.com/album/a-christmas-carol-by-charles-dickensNew Patreon RequestBuzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREESupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback

    Slam the Gavel welcomes Author Toby Strebe to the podcast. He was last on the podcast Season 3, Episode 139. Toby authored the book, "Striking Down The Home, The Propaganda of Family Court and Child Support Mechanisms."  Toby has become an advocate of defending freedom and exercising individual responsibility as a result of an unjust divorce and child support process.      Toby is the son of a retired USAF MSgt. and was born at RAF Lakenheath, England. Being raised in a Christian home, Toby accepted the Lord as his Savior at age five. He has four daughters and one son.    In his book, Toby explains what has become common place today was practically unheard of  decades ago. The State's war against the family via divorce and the child support system where many are unjustly suffering.    Toby shared his personal divorce experience and the permanent scars caused by the government intervening in their lives. His courage to stand against this tyranny is an encouragement to all who are trapped in the grinding machine of family court and child support system.   We discussed Jury Nullification and what that entails. Jury Nullification  happens when a jury comes back with a "Not Guilty," verdict even though jurors believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant has broken a law. Each state could nullify an unenforceable law. The state makes the law unenforceable.  We also discussed the supreme extortion of child support and how that affects 401K's and wage garnishment. Excellent discussion with author Toby Strebe!To Reach Toby Strebe: strikingdownthehome@protonmail.com  toby@strikingdownthehome.comSupportshow(https://www.buymeacoffee.com/maryannpetri)http://www.dismantlingfamilycourtcorruption.com/Walter Beede - Baseball Lifer's Podcast"The Youth Baseball Guy" | Former NCAA Head Baseball Coach, Speaker, Author | Tweets...Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the showSupportshow(https://www.buymeacoffee.com/maryannpetri)http://beentheregotout.com/http://www.dismantlingfamilycourtcorruption.com/

Slam the Gavel welcomes Author Toby Strebe to the podcast. He was last on the podcast Season 3, Episode 139. Toby authored the book, "Striking Down The Home, The Propaganda of Family Court and Child Support Mechanisms." Toby has become an advocate of defending freedom and exercising individual responsibility as a result of an unjust divorce and child support process. Toby is the son of a retired USAF MSgt. and was born at RAF Lakenheath, England. Being raised in a Christian home, Toby accepted the Lord as his Savior at age five. He has four daughters and one son. In his book, Toby explains what has become common place today was practically unheard of decades ago. The State's war against the family via divorce and the child support system where many are unjustly suffering. Toby shared his personal divorce experience and the permanent scars caused by the government intervening in their lives. His courage to stand against this tyranny is an encouragement to all who are trapped in the grinding machine of family court and child support system. We discussed Jury Nullification and what that entails. Jury Nullification happens when a jury comes back with a "Not Guilty," verdict even though jurors believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant has broken a law. Each state could nullify an unenforceable law. The state makes the law unenforceable. We also discussed the supreme extortion of child support and how that affects 401K's and wage garnishment. Excellent discussion with author Toby Strebe! To Reach Toby Strebe: strikingdownthehome@protonmail.com toby@strikingdownthehome.com Supportshow(https://www.buymeacoffee.com/maryannpetri) http://www.dismantlingfamilycourtcorruption.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/maryann-petri/support

    Slam the Gavel welcomes Author Toby Strebe to the show. He wrote the book, "Striking Down The Home, The Propaganda of Family Court and Child Support Mechanisms."  Toby has become an advocate of defending freedom and exercising individual responsibility as a result of an unjust divorce and child support process.      Toby is the son of a retired USAF MSgt. and was born at RAF Lakenheath, England. Being raised in a Christian home, Toby accepted the Lord as his Savior at age five. He has four daughters and one son.    In his book, Toby explains what has become common place today was practically unheard of  decades ago. The State's war against the family via divorce and the child support system where many are unjustly suffering.    Toby shared his personal divorce experience and the permanent scars caused by the government intervening in their lives. His courage to stand against this tyranny is an encouragement to all who are trapped in the grinding machine of family court and child support system.    In his book, Toby offers ways to endure this adversity, strategize your divorce case and peacefully resist a more than oppressive opponent/government.To Reach Toby Strebe: strikingdownthehome@protonmail.com  toby@strikingdownthehome.comSupportshow(https://www.buymeacoffee.com/maryannpetri)http://beentheregotout.com/http://www.dismantlingfamilycourtcorruption.com/Support the showSupportshow(https://www.buymeacoffee.com/maryannpetri)http://beentheregotout.com/http://www.dismantlingfamilycourtcorruption.com/

  Slam the Gavel welcomes Author Toby Strebe to the show. He wrote the book, "Striking Down The Home, The Propaganda of Family Court and Child Support Mechanisms."  Toby has become an advocate of defending freedom and exercising individual responsibility as a result of an unjust divorce and child support process.      Toby is the son of a retired USAF MSgt. and was born at RAF Lakenheath, England. Being raised in a Christian home, Toby accepted the Lord as his Savior at age five. He has four daughters and one son.     In his book, Toby explains what has become common place today was practically unheard of  decades ago. The State's war against the family via divorce and the child support system where many are unjustly suffering.     Toby shared his personal divorce experience and the permanent scars caused by the government intervening in their lives. His courage to stand against this tyranny is an encouragement to all who are trapped in the grinding machine of family court and child support system.     In his book, Toby offers ways to endure this adversity, strategize your divorce case and peacefully resist a more than oppressive opponent/government. To Reach Toby Strebe: toby@strikingdownthehome.com. strikingdownthehome@protonmail.com Supportshow(https://www.buymeacoffee.com/maryannpetri) http://beentheregotout.com/ http://www.dismantlingfamilycourtcorruption.com/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/maryann-petri/support

Originally published on Oct 19, 2016 Welcome to episode number 1!!!! It has been a long time coming! First, I wanted to introduce myself so you know who is behind the microphone. Then I'll go over what you can expect from the Forever Wingman Podcast and Website. All About Me!Starts: 00:51I'm from Texhoma, OK...a very small town in the panhandle, just north of Amarillo, TX. I'm married to my beautiful wife, Allie, and we have 2 amazing boys, Noah and Gabe.I joined the Air Force directly out of High School and was stationed at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom; Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan; and Langley AFB, Hampton, VA. I had the privilege of being in the 1C3X1 - Command Post and 3E7X1 - Fire Protection AFSCs. After I separated from the Air Force, I was an Air Reserve Technician (ART) and Reservist at Dobbins ARB, Marietta, GA. Following my time in GA, I worked for FEMA in an  operations center (much like an Air Force Command Post) with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Denton, TX.In short, the Air Force has given me just about everything I have...education, my wife (met her on deployment to Savannah, GA), and my current job! I will always be thankful for what the Air Force has done for me.All About Forever Wingman!Starts: 10:07Forever Wingman came to existence because there just wasn't that much information about what life was like in the Air Force for people thinking of joining. I wanted to solve that problem. I plan to provide content through: Individual Job pages. Each AFSC has a dedicated page with description, ASVAB requirements, CCAF Degrees, YouTube videos, and more. I created these to help you research what jobs are available to you and which ones meet your career goals. FW Blog. The blog is my way to provide some of that “technical” information that will benefit you along your journey of joining the Air Force. Topics will range, but I'd love to hear what you would like to see. Hit me up! FW YouTube Page (Subscribe). Here I'll be interviewing Airmen and Veterans who have the knowledge about the AFSCs that you want. Also, much like the blog, I'll be discussing topics and answering questions that are important to you. Reach out to me and we'll get you pointed in the right direction. Don't forget to subscribe and leave an honest review!Want to help the next generation Airmen by sharing your Air Force story? I'd love to have you on the show: https://foreverwingman.com/interview/ Looking to learn more about the Air Force? The most comprehensive information on all of the Air Force jobs: https://foreverwingman.com/air-force-jobs/ Search and Filter AFSCs: https://foreverwingman.com/search-afsc/ Study for Air Force Basic Training: https://foreverwingman.com/afbmt-course/ Forever Wingman Podcast (leave a review!): https://foreverwingman.buzzsprout.com/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/foreverwingman

“Spliff” shares what it was like to fly the Strike Eagle in combat in the famous Battle of Robert's Ridge during Operation ANACONDA and shares how he got his callsign!We filmed this at the O-club at RAF Lakenheath.Help keep the channel going:PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/aircrewinterviewDONATE - http://www.aircrewinterview.tv/donate/Purchase our Aviation Art Book, Volume One - https://amzn.to/3sehpaP Visit our online shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/acinterview/shopFollow us:https://www.aircrewinterview.tv/https://www.instagram.com/aircrew_interviewhttps://www.facebook.com/aircrewinterviewhttps://www.twitter.com/aircrewtvSupport the show

Today's Story: Supporting Fifth Generation Fighter Jets

Join, Carlos, Matt, Nev and Armando for this week's programme. In this week's show one low cost airline gets its sizes wrong, Delta gets classy in first class & one passenger gets to sit on the flight deck "In flight" In the military we have a couple emergency landings in the USAF, we watch an RAF Chinook deliver a large radar on top of Gibraltar, and we think the SU-57 may have been deployed on its first combat deployment in Ukraine. Here are the links to the stories we featured this week : COMMERCIAL Flybe 2.0 starts cabin crew recruitment ahead of possible May launch https://ukaviation.news/flybe-2-0-starts-cabin-crew-recruitment-ahead-of-possible-may-launch/ https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=RJHCReQoDESEAK0E81gCvb5248MyoaRJmDT8P3051eZUNFdRMlBNMlU3SDBCSkNVOVIxUkszVU1WOSQlQCN0PWcu https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?f_C=23151%2C2730623&geoId=92000000&keywords=flybe&location=Worldwide&position=1&pageNum=0 Ryanair International Women's Day posts slammed as campaigners point out 68% gender pay gap https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/travel/ryanair-international-women-s-day-posts-slammed-as-campaigners-point-out-68-gender-pay-gap/ar-AAULW9B?li=AAJsPCA https://twitter.com/PayGapApp/status/1500891839355838485?s=20&t=W6emO1y18bskMe5MSlQvcg https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Employer/rrAcOspy/2020 https://investor.ryanair.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Ryanair-Gender-Pay-Gap-Report-2020.pdf Stansted Airport to open 'Instagrammable' cafe in huge £12 million Departure Lounge makeover https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/jet2-tui-easyjet-ryanair-ba-6769798 Airline offers up to $187K in bonuses over five years for pilots as it opens new crew base https://www.pennlive.com/life/2022/03/airline-offers-up-to-187k-in-bonuses-over-five-years-for-pilots-as-it-opens-new-crew-base.html Police recruiting fixed-wing pilots for air support roles https://ukaviation.news/police-recruiting-fixed-wing-pilots-for-air-support-roles/ https://westyorkshirepolice.tal.net/vx/lang-en-GB/mobile-0/appcentre-3/brand-3/xf-4227bdba33a0/candidate/so/pm/6/pl/1/opp/3272-XP220-Line-Pilot-Fixed-Wing-External/en-GB Easyjet criticised for using incorrect bag sizers in French airports https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Easyjet-criticised-for-using-incorrect-bag-sizers-in-French-airports Delta's snazzy new first-class recliners that are raising the bar https://thepointsguy.com/news/delta-air-lines-new-first-class-seat-tour/?fbclid=IwAR2nGlelfId-P9dApsSzQwCKyDS5lLUvka9WXHDcNnG-JH7yF0re7NO2T24 SkyWest battles pilot shortage by shifting dozens of nonstop flights into 1-stop https://thepointsguy.com/news/skywest-eas-consolidation/#:~:text=TPG%20App-,SkyWest%20battles%20pilot%20shortage%20by%20shifting,nonstop%20flights%20into%201%2Dstops&text=The%20nation's%20largest%20operator%20of,because%20of%20the%20pilot%20shortage UK Starts impounding Russian aircraft https://ukaviation.news/uk-starts-impounding-russian-aircraft/ https://www.airguide.info/boeing-suspends-russian-titanium-from-russia-as-airbus-keeps-buying/ Report: Pilot fought to save helicopter before deadly crash https://apnews.com/article/transportation-national-transportation-safety-board-31da6055111fb3256a3448b3e5ba58ab Woman Gets To Sit In Cockpit With Pilots After Finding Out She's The Only Passenger On The Flight https://www.indiatimes.com/trending/jugaad/only-passenger-in-flight-gets-to-sit-in-cockpit-564062.html MILITARY Two F-15 jets from RAF Lakenheath make emergency landings https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-60646877 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=691740461852658 RAF Chinook Helicopter Airlifts Massive New Radar Onto The Top Of Gibraltar Rock https://theaviationist.com/2022/03/07/raf-chinook-load-lift/ 1st Combat Deployment! Russian Su-57 Stealth Fighter Jets Spotted Over Northern Ukraine Before Crucial Peace Talks https://eurasiantimes.com/1st-combat-deployment-russian-su-57-stealth-fighter-jets-spotted-over-northern-ukraine-before-crucial-peace-talks/ RAF F-35B Lightnings Have Started Patrolling NATO Airspace Over Poland and Romania https://theaviationist.com/2022/03/06/raf-f-35b-lightnings-nato-patrols/

Today's Story: Special Delivery, Airpower

Today's Story: The First U.S. F-35 Squadron in Europe

Former F-111 pilot, Karl Gruner, shares what it was like to fly the beautiful F-111A/F Aardvark both in the US and Europe.Karl shares what it was like to go through training, working with WSO's, flying at Red Flag, the cockpit and wing sweep, flying at RAF Lakenheath, getting bounced by RAF Phantoms, and much more!Enjoy!Purchase our Aviation Art Book, Volume One - https://amzn.to/3sehpaPVisit our online shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/acinterview/shopHelp keep the channel going:https://www.patreon.com/aircrewinterviewor donatehttp://www.aircrewinterview.tv/donate/Follow us:https://www.aircrewinterview.tv/https://www.instagram.com/aircrew_interviewhttps://www.facebook.com/aircrewinterviewhttps://www.twitter.com/aircrewtvOriginal thumbnail photo from https://nara.getarchive.net/search

Arianna Cirincione is from La Crosse, WI, born and raised until leaving home at the age of 18 to join the Air Force. Arianna served on Active Duty as a Security Forces member from 2005 until 2018, until she was medically retired. Arianna began her career at Spangdahlem, Germany, followed by RAF Lakenheath, Fort Leonard […]

Rick Shreve was a USAF F111 pilot based at RAF Lakenheath in the UK. We hear about his early USAF career as a fighter pilot, then we move onto his transfer to the F111 and how he was trained to carry out nuclear as well as conventional missions against the Warsaw Pact forces in Europe. He describes his low-level training missions to attack targets in the Soviet Union and East Germany and recalls a near-fatal incident amongst the Scottish lochs.Rick was also part of one of the crews that flew on Operation El Dorado Canyon, the operation to bomb Libya in April 1986 in retaliation for the West Berlin discotheque bombing ten days earlier.Rick gives you a frank view of his role in the USAF and his approach to the huge responsibilities he carried.In his later career, he flew civil airliners with Pan-Am and recalls how he was astonished to fly over the Warsaw Pact airfield he had been tasked to attack in the event of war…If you have listened this far, I know you are enjoying the podcasts so I'm asking for donations to support my work and enable me to continue producing the podcast. If you become a monthly supporter, you will get the sought after CWC coaster as a thank you and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/If a financial contribution is not your cup of tea, you can still help us by leaving written reviews wherever you listen to us and sharing us on social media. It really helps us get new guests on the show.I am delighted to welcome Rick to our Cold War conversation…There's further information including photos and videos here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode193/If you can't wait for next week's episode, visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations on Facebook.Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/coldwarpod)

Maj. Trevor Aldridge served as the Left Wing Pilot for the United States Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds.Aldridge is a 2009 graduate of the Air Force ROTC program at Texas A&M University. He completed the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program, Sheppard AFB, Texas in 2011. After pilot training, he was assigned to the F-15C at Kadena AB, Japan where his squadron won the Raytheon Trophy twice and then Sheppard AFB, Texas as an instructor pilot teaching Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals and several other positions. Prior to joining the Thunderbirds, Aldridge flew the F- l5C in the 493rd Fighter Squadron, RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom.https://1.salesforce-partners.com/fundamentalszaGet in touch with Alex to improve the performance of your team: alex@alexmacphail.co.zahttps://twitter.com/AlexMacPhail1https://www.linkedin.com/in/flyingmogulwww.alexmacphail.co.za 

We look at the Restoration movement, the English Reformation and ask the question, what is the center of Anglicanism? Our guest is the Reverend Seth Snyder, Vicar at St. Mary the Virgin's Anglican Mission in McConnelsville, Ohio. He is a family man, an Air Force Reserve Chaplain attached to RAF Lakenheath, and a Ph.D. candidate studying theology at the University of Cambridge, England. https://www.anglicanchaplains.orghttps://www.anglicanchaplains-etf.org 

Ever wondered how you can live a less materialistic lifestyle?Our guest today is Paul Canham  a self confessed tree hugger, van dweller, tudor reenactor and brewer based in Suffolk.  Paul spent 30 years working at RAF Lakenheath  until he took early retirement to study sociology and psychology.We hear how he set out on a quest to live a more non-materialistic lifestyle, leading to living a more fulfilling life and how his latest project to re-wild 1 acre of former farmland is helping attract wildlife back to a natural habitat.Paul tells us about his brewery, Weird Sisters Brewery, which is one of the smallest registered breweries in the UK.If you have ever thought about how to live a less materialistic lifestyle in the 21st century this episode is for you.Paul's links:https://www.instagram.com/senunarewildingproject/https://www.instagram.com/lukes.truck/https://www.instagram.com/weird.sisters.brewery/https://www.kentwell.co.uk/events https://www.greendragonmorris.com/about Undercurrent Stories links:https://www.undercurrentstories.com/https://www.instagram.com/undercurrentstories/https://twitter.com/UndercurrentSt1

Join Carlos, Matt, Armando and Peter Collings for this week's show. In this week's show we learn all about a hard landing in Exeter, a german carrier makes plans to embark on their longest ever flight and there's finally some good news on the horizon for the MAX in Europe. In the military Australian Apaches are victorious in a helicopter competition, the 48th Fighter Wing in RAF Lakenheath looks to future challenges, and we have an update on radios stolen from the Russian Doomsday Plane. Captain Nick talks to George Lee MBE as he reminisces about his passion for gliding and in the Plane Truth Matt talks to Captain Al about how you start an aircraft. You might remember Peter from episode 314 in April 2020. https://youtu.be/ThionXEH4Ko He'll be talking to us all about the work he does on aircraft engines. Search social media for 'PlaneTalkingUK' Whatsapp Number - +44 757 22 491 66 Email - podcast@planetalkinguk.com Website - https://www.planetalkinguk.com Here are the links to the stories we featured this week : WEEKLY ROUNDUP: ERIKA ARMSTRONG - A CHICK IN THE COCKPIT https://amzn.to/2Y90UPb COMMERCIAL WEST ATLANTIC 737 HARD LANDING http://avherald.com/h?article=4e1e21a4&opt=0 LUFTHANSA WILL SOON DEPART ON ITS LONGEST PASSENGER FLIGHT WITH POLAR EXPLORERS ON BOARD https://airlinergs.com/lufthansa-will-soon-depart-on-its-longest-passenger-flight-with-polar-explorers-on-board/ FAA PUBLISHES AD ON CORROSION FOR MANY PA-28 AND PA-32 AIRCRAFT https://www.flyingmag.com/story/aircraft/faa-pa-28-32-corrosion-directive/ BOEING 737 MAX NEWS https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55716400 https://simpleflying.com/westjet-7-hour-max-flights/ MC-21 SUFFERS RUNWAY EXCURSION DURING SIMULATED SINGLE-ENGINE FAILURE https://www.flightglobal.com/safety/mc-21-suffers-runway-excursion-during-simulated-single-engine-failure/142004.article FLYBE Q400S TO BE CONVERTED INTO FIREFIGHTERS FOR CONAIR https://www.flightglobal.com/aerospace/flybe-q400s-to-be-converted-into-firefighters-for-conair/141994.article TIRE FALLS OFF SMALL PLANE BEFORE LANDING AT O'HARE, ENDS UP IN NEIGHBOURHOOD https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/wheel-falls-off-small-plane-ends-up-in-neighborhood-before-landing-at-ohare/2420406/ MILITARY APACHE TRIUMPHS IN AUSTRALIAN ATTACK HELICOPTER COMPETITION https://www.flightglobal.com/helicopters/apache-triumphs-in-australian-attack-helicopter-competition/141971.article AGILE COMBAT EMPLOYMENT: THE FUTURE OF THE 48TH FIGHTER WING https://www.dvidshub.net/news/386958/agile-combat-employment-future-48th-fighter-wing SUSPECT OF THEFT OF RADIO EQUIPMENT FROM RUSSIA’S IL-80 DOOMSDAY PLANE ARRESTED https://theaviationist.com/2021/01/20/suspect-of-theft-of-radio-equipment-from-russias-il-80-doomsday-plane-arrested/ MIRAMAR MARINES PREPARE FOR ‘WINTER FURY’ EXERCISE ACROSS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA https://timesofsandiego.com/military/2021/01/17/miramar-marines-prepare-for-winter-fury-exercise-across-southern-california/

On this week’s podcast we have special guest Major. Trevor Aldridge former Left Wing pilot for the US Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds. We discuss high-flying leadership lessons, and share a glass Lucky No. Seven Sparkling IPA Small Batch Series from Community Beer Company in Dallas, TX. Maj. Trevor Aldridge was the Left Wing Pilot for the United States Air Force AirDemonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. AsThunderbird 2, he flew the #2 jet and served as the teams Navigation Officer. He flew with the team from 2019-2020.Aldridge is a 2009 graduate of the Air Force ROTC program at Texas A&MUniversity. He completed the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program,Sheppard AFB, Texas in 2011. After pilot training, he was assigned to the F-15C atKadena AB, Japan where his squadron won the Raytheon Trophy twice and thenSheppard AFB, Texas as an instructor pilot teaching Introduction to FighterFundamentals and several other positions. Prior to joining the Thunderbirds, Aldridgeflew the F- l5C in the 493rd Fighter Squadron, RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom.

In this next episode we sat down with Steve Finley, a US Air Force veteran who served as a munitions systems craftsman. He was stationed at Lackland AFB, TX and then RAF Lakenheath, England for three years each. Once he separated from the Air Force, Steve returned to Cortland, NY to further pursue his career in Emergency Management. He received his B.S. in Emergency Management from the University of Akron, where he also served as a firefighter/EMT, and served with Team Rubicon. Since completing his degree, Steve has shifted his focus to higher education where he currently serves as Project Manager Online Programs at University College aboard Syracuse University.

Research begins at 26:08Cheerio, Bunk Funkers! Today we uncover what may be Britain’s second most popular UFO encounter! Lot’s of airplanes, lots of radar, and a whole lot of the whole enchilada on the Lakenheath-Bentwaters UFO incident! Thanks to Kris D. for the episode suggestion!Andy and Art are NOT captured once again by the titular Mr. Bunker - what postcard did he send them this time?In the second segment, Andy and Art give you, the listeners, an uninterrupted presentation of their research into the Lakenheath-Bentwaters UFO.Finally, Andy and Art discuss UK accents, sexy Mario Kart, Family Guy, and so much more!Send us your thoughts to @MrBunkerPod and mrbunkerpod@gmail.com using the hashtag #RadarLoveMusic by Michael MartelloArtwork by Hannah RossAudio Editing by Arthur StoneFollow Us:PatreonTwitterInstagramWebsiteYoutubeLinks Mentioned:Condon Report, Case 2: USAF/RAF Radar SightingCondon Report, Sec III, Chapter 5: Optical & Radar Analysis (245 - 246)Lakenheath-Bentwaters UFO | - David Clarke Lakenheath-Bentwaters incident - WikipediaUFO ENCOUNTER II , SAMPLE CASE SELECTED BY THE UFO SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE AIAA. - CIALAKENHEATH-BENTWATERS - MidiMagicHistorical Case Studies: Three UFO Radar Cases - Thomas Tulien Emails from Raymond Thomas to Dave Clarke June 3/4 2001RAF Bentwaters Lakenheath - NICAP Letter from F.H.C.Wimbledon to Martin L. Shough, 15 Sept 1986Interview with Flying Officer David Chambers, Chesham, Bucks, Sunday, March 4, 2001.Interview with Ivan Logan, Kent Jan l996 Interview notes compiled from discussions with Flying Officer Grahame Scofield, 23 Squadron, 17-19 May 2001.Home page of RAF LakenheathRAF Bentwaters History – BCWM

This episode was made possible by Foundation For Women Warriors. Foundation for Women Warriors (FFWW) is a unique support organization created exclusively for the women veteran community. They provide essential programs to enhance the economic and personal wellbeing of women veterans and their families. Originally established in 1920 to serve widows, war nurses, and mothers of fallen service members, Foundation for Women Warriors is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. FFWW honors the service of women veterans by empowering their future through financial assistance, childcare assistance, and professional development.  If you want to learn more about Foundation for Women Warriors and how to get involved head to their website foundationforwomenwarriors.org.(Want to be a Women of the Military Sponsor? Click here.)At five years old Nicole went to an air show in California and saw the F-4 fly and knew she wanted to be a fighter pilot. Even though women couldn’t be fighter pilots her family didn’t dissuade her from joining. She knew at 12 that she wanted to attend the Air Force Academy and even wrote a letter to the Academy letting them know she wanted to attend.She applied and was accepted into the Air Force and Naval Academy along with ROTC scholarships and choose to attend the Air Force Academy. Even though she knew she couldn’t be a fighter pilot when she began her training at the Air Force Academy in 1992 she was planning to be a tanker pilot.In 1993, the law banning women from fighter pilots was removed and the doors opened for her to follow the dream she had since she was five. She graduated and went off to pilot training and was able to graduate and become an F-15E pilot. She said she was never the greatest pilot but always worked hard.Her first assignment was at RAF Lakenheath in England. And she found herself flying her first combat mission after the Kosovo War ended. She followed her then-boyfriend, now-husband to North Carolina after spending more than a year apart doing long distance. They were set to be married on Oct 7, 2001. September 11th happening less than a month before. There was almost the potential the wedding would be delayed, but it happened. And it actually was the first day bombs were dropped in Afghanistan. She and her husband were given the opportunity to move together to Korea for their next assignment shortly after their marriage and they headed out to Korea. And a few weeks later her former squadron was preparing to deploy for Operation Enduring Freedom. She said it was hard to not go with them.We talked about a number of highlights from her career and the challenges that she faced throughout her career. Being dual military, they worked to have open communication with their leadership and also took turns having each other’s career be in the driver’s seat. In 2006, she became the first female Thunderbird pilot. She talked about applying to be a Thunderbird and not even realizing no woman had done that. She had always served in an Air Force where women could be fighter pilots and didn’t realize that she would be breaking a barrier when she applied. She said that it was important for her to not only open that door for women but leave it open for the women after her. She put pressure on herself to not only do the best for herself but also so that the next woman to fill that role wouldn’t be years away. In 2012 she was a commander of 333rd Fighter Squadron. She loved being a commander and had so many stories of how she was able to impact the lives of her Airmen directly through her leadership as a commander. She also began to have strange symptoms that no one could pinpoint what was causing and wasn’t able to fly anymore. She was determined to continue to provide service to the Air Force even if she couldn’t fly. She went to the Naval War College and was a White House Fellow. Then one morning in 2016 she woke up and couldn’t move. She was paralyzed temporarily and was sent to Massachusetts to get seen by a specialist. They discovered she had Lyme disease and had an infection in her brain. The military allowed her service to continue as she went through treatment and then in 2017 she was mailed her retirement paperwork and she was no longer in the Air Force. It was a hard transition and very abrupt. She credits the Wounded Warrior Program to help her find herself and what led her to find her purpose again as a Speaker.She encourages young women to join the military. She talked about the barriers being broken and how much opportunity there is. If there is a desire in your heart to do it, you should.  Connect with Nicole:www.nicolemalachowski.comwww.linkedin.com/in/nicole-malachowskiwww.twitter.com/RealMalachowskiMentioned in this Episode:Wounded Warrior ProjectUS Air Force AcademyUS Naval AcademyAir Force ThunderbirdsRelated Episodes:Before Women Could Be Fighter Pilots – Episode 29Do You Know the Story of the Original Military Women Pilots? – Episode 49A Navigator in the Air Force – Episode 62Thank you Pateron members for your support. Want early access to episodes, ad-free content, and one on one mentorship advice. Become a Patreon member today! Click here.Affiliate SupportAre you starting a business or needing help in the next step of your business check out the Ministry to Business Guide here.Are you trying to decide what you are going to do as a parent for the upcoming school year? I'm diving into homeschooling, but I'm getting support. Check out the Clever Kid Curriculum here.We recently started investing in the stock market, get two free stocks when you create your Webull Account today! Click here.

Welcome to this special 10 percent true broadcast commemorating the 34th anniversary of the so-called raid on Libya – a retaliatory, but limited strike, on key targets in Libya designed to show then-leader of Libya, Col Gadaffi, that President Reagan would not put up with state sponsored terrorism.The raid was a multi service affair that involved air and sea elements provided by the US Air Force and US Navy.This short episode focuses on the experiences of on of the Air Force pilots who took part in the raid, and it not intended to be a documentary of any description. Rather, it is intended provide an extremely rare first-hand retelling of the raid, spoken by someone who was there.This is rare – it may even be the first time that the story has been broadcast using the voice of one of the Air Force participants – because all of the Air Force participants decided to remain anonymous after the event. They may have told friends and family, but they have never gone public.The man I interviewed was the pilot of F-111F call sign Puffy 12. He told me that I could reveal his identity if I wished. However, I have chosen not to. The act of going public must be his to take, not mine.The Air Force portion of the raid, which launched from four RAF Stations in the UK on 14 April 1986, was called Operation El Dorado Canyon. The first bombs were dropped at 0200 hours Libyan time on 15 April, and the mission became, at that time, the longest combat mission in history.El Dorado Canyon involved F-111F precision bombers from the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath; EF-111A Raven tactical jamming aircraft from 20th FTW at RAF Upper Heyford; and KC-10 and KC-135 refuellers, which launched from RAF Fairford and RAF Mildenhall.The F-111Fs were to fly against three target sets, while US Navy strike fighters protected against SAMs and MiGs. Militarily, the mission was a success – the Libyans lost many MiGs and major threat radars – even if the F-111s enjoyed only mixed success.However, one F-111 failed to return – the two-man crew of KARMA 52 drowned when their aircraft impacted the water in the Gulf of Sidra. The pilot, Major Fernando Ribas, was repatriated in 1989, but the body of the Weapons Systems Officer, Capt Paul Lorence, was never found.Fernando was my neighbour and something of a boyhood hero. Many times, he had taken me on base to see the 1-11s and he was always kind and patient. One day, I hope to write the definitive book about the raid to properly honor Fernando and Paul’s sacrifice. Until then, rare and all-too-short glimpses into the raid like that kindly given by Puffy 12 will have to do…I started the interview by asking about his Air Force career prior to the raid…Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/10percenttrue)

Leaders of the 48th Fighter Wing in partnership with Defense Infrastructure Organisation and members of the local community, hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the new F-35 Lightning II infrastructure at RAF Lakenheath, July 15.

Welcome to Episode 25 of the Women of the Military Podcast. This week’s guest is Elis Salamone. Elis was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She is the oldest of 3 girls raised by a single mother. At 18, she enlisted in the Army and after 20 plus years of military service, she retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. She served in the following assignments: Fort Dix, NJ; Camp Humphreys, Korea; San Antonio, TX; Andrews AFB, MD; RAF Lakenheath, England; Ramstein, Germany; Afghanistan, Colorado Springs, CO. Throughout, her civilian and military nursing career she has worked in neurosurgery, neonatal ICU, pediatrics, OB, the OR, as women’s health nurse practitioner, in management and leadership roles. Elis has served in Afghanistan with Army Special Forces and considers taking care of wounded warriors and being in charge of the Honor Guard team in England as two of her favorite highlights of her military career. Throughout her career, Elis has been awarded for her advocacy and leadership. Her passions include mentoring transitioning veterans, nursing professionals and women to fulfill their full potential. In her spare time, Elis is an active Lean In leader and is on the board of the National Association of Western Washington Hispanic Nurses, Global Girls Give and the Director of Women Veterans for ALPFA Seattle. Elis is fueled by self-care, travel, cooking, motivational storytelling and laughter. Elis has been a military wife, is a mother to an adult son, a warrior and a self-proclaimed “badass”. She didn’t do very well in high school so she decided to join the Army instead of going to college. While waiting to leave for boot camp she took a few college courses. She had wanted to be a medic but didn’t have high enough scores so she worked as a Personnelist. Connect with Elis: LinkedIN Are you considering joining the military? Check out my free guide: A Girl's Guide to Military Life

Today's story: Royal Air Force Lakenheath's 48th Fighter Wing and personnel from the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force teamed up for exercise Point Blank in Yorkshire, England last week.

We are happy to re-cast a wonderful conversation we had with former NASA Astronaut, Col. Rick Searfoss back in 2016.  He joined us to talk about rockets, The Space Shuttle, and being an astronaut! Col. Rick Searfoss From his NASA Bio: PERSONAL DATA: Born June 5, 1956, in Mount Clemens, Michigan, but considers Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to be his hometown. Married; three children. He enjoys running, soccer, radio-controlled model aircraft, Scouting, backpacking, and classical music. EDUCATION: Graduated from Portsmouth Senior High School, Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1974; received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the USAF Academy in 1978, and a master of science degree in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology on a National Science Foundation Fellowship in 1979. USAF Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College, and Air War College. ORGANIZATIONS: Association of Space Explorers, National Eagle Scout Association, Air Force Association, Academy of Model Aeronautics. SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded the Harmon, Fairchild, Price and Tober Awards (top overall, academic, engineering, and aeronautical engineering graduate), United States Air Force Academy Class of 1978. Air Force Aero Propulsion Laboratory Excellence in Turbine Engine Design award. USAF Squadron Officer's School Commandant's Trophy as top graduate. Distinguished graduate, USAF Fighter Weapons School. Named the Tactical Air Command F-111 Instructor Pilot of the Year, 1985. Selected for Outstanding Young Men of America, 1987. Recipient of the Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, NASA Spaceflight Medal (3), NASA Exceptional Service Medal, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, and Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross. EXPERIENCE: Searfoss graduated in 1980 from Undergraduate Pilot Training at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona. From 1981-1984, he flew the F-111F operationally at RAF Lakenheath, England, followed by a tour at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, where he was an F-111A instructor pilot and weapons officer until 1987. In 1988 he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, Patuxent River, Maryland, as a USAF exchange officer. He was a flight instructor at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, California, when selected for the astronaut program. He has logged over 5,000 hours flying time in 56 different types of aircraft and over 939 hours in space. He also holds FAA Airline Transport Pilot, glider, and flight instructor ratings. NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in January 1990, Searfoss became an astronaut in July 1991. Initially assigned to the Astronaut Office Mission Support Branch, Searfoss was part of a team responsible for crew ingress/strap-in prior to launch and crew egress after landing. He was subsequently assigned to flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL). Additionally, he served as the Astronaut Office representative for both flight crew procedures and Shuttle computer software development. He also served as the Astronaut Office Vehicle System and Operations Branch Chief, leading a team of several astronauts and support engineers working on Shuttle and International Space Station systems development, rendezvous and landing/rollout operations, and advanced projects initiatives. A veteran of three space flights, Searfoss has logged over 39 days in space. He served as pilot on STS-58 (October 18 to November 1, 1993) and STS-76 (March 22-31, 1996), and was the mission commander on STS-90 (April 17, to May 3, 1998). Searfoss retired from the Air Force and left NASA in 1998. For the next few years he worked in private industry and, more recently, was a research test pilot at NASAs Dryden Flight Research Center. In February 2003, Searfoss left Dryden to pursue private business interests.

We are happy to re-cast a wonderful conversation we had with former NASA Astronaut, Col. Rick Searfoss back in 2016.  He joined us to talk about rockets, The Space Shuttle, and being an astronaut! Col. Rick Searfoss[/caption] From his NASA Bio: PERSONAL DATA: Born June 5, 1956, in Mount Clemens, Michigan, but considers Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to be his hometown. Married; three children. He enjoys running, soccer, radio-controlled model aircraft, Scouting, backpacking, and classical music. EDUCATION: Graduated from Portsmouth Senior High School, Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1974; received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the USAF Academy in 1978, and a master of science degree in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology on a National Science Foundation Fellowship in 1979. USAF Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College, and Air War College. ORGANIZATIONS: Association of Space Explorers, National Eagle Scout Association, Air Force Association, Academy of Model Aeronautics. SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded the Harmon, Fairchild, Price and Tober Awards (top overall, academic, engineering, and aeronautical engineering graduate), United States Air Force Academy Class of 1978. Air Force Aero Propulsion Laboratory Excellence in Turbine Engine Design award. USAF Squadron Officer's School Commandant's Trophy as top graduate. Distinguished graduate, USAF Fighter Weapons School. Named the Tactical Air Command F-111 Instructor Pilot of the Year, 1985. Selected for Outstanding Young Men of America, 1987. Recipient of the Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, NASA Spaceflight Medal (3), NASA Exceptional Service Medal, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, and Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross. EXPERIENCE: Searfoss graduated in 1980 from Undergraduate Pilot Training at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona. From 1981-1984, he flew the F-111F operationally at RAF Lakenheath, England, followed by a tour at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, where he was an F-111A instructor pilot and weapons officer until 1987. In 1988 he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, Patuxent River, Maryland, as a USAF exchange officer. He was a flight instructor at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, California, when selected for the astronaut program. He has logged over 5,000 hours flying time in 56 different types of aircraft and over 939 hours in space. He also holds FAA Airline Transport Pilot, glider, and flight instructor ratings. NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in January 1990, Searfoss became an astronaut in July 1991. Initially assigned to the Astronaut Office Mission Support Branch, Searfoss was part of a team responsible for crew ingress/strap-in prior to launch and crew egress after landing. He was subsequently assigned to flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL). Additionally, he served as the Astronaut Office representative for both flight crew procedures and Shuttle computer software development. He also served as the Astronaut Office Vehicle System and Operations Branch Chief, leading a team of several astronauts and support engineers working on Shuttle and International Space Station systems development, rendezvous and landing/rollout operations, and advanced projects initiatives. A veteran of three space flights, Searfoss has logged over 39 days in space. He served as pilot on STS-58 (October 18 to November 1, 1993) and STS-76 (March 22-31, 1996), and was the mission commander on STS-90 (April 17, to May 3, 1998). Searfoss retired from the Air Force and left NASA in 1998. For the next few years he worked in private industry and, more recently, was a research test pilot at NASAs Dryden Flight Research Center. In February 2003, Searfoss left Dryden to pursue private business interests. SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Searfoss served as STS-58 pilot on the seven-person life science research mission aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, launching from the Kennedy Space Center on October 18, 1993, and landing at Edwards Air Force Base on November 1, 1993. The crew performed neurovestibular, cardiovascular, cardiopulmonary, metabolic, and musculoskeletal medical experiments on themselves and 48 rats, expanding our knowledge of human and animal physiology both on earth and in space flight. In addition, the crew performed 16 engineering tests aboard the Orbiter Columbia and 20 Extended Duration Orbiter Medical Project experiments. The mission was accomplished in 225 orbits of the Earth. Launching March 22, 1996, Searfoss flew his second mission as pilot of STS-76 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. During this 9-day mission the STS-76 crew performed the third docking of an American spacecraft with the Russian space station Mir. In support of a joint U.S./Russian program, the crew transported to Mir nearly two tons of water, food, supplies, and scientific equipment, as well as U.S. Astronaut Shannon Lucid to begin her six-month stay in space. STS-76 included the first ever spacewalk on a combined Space Shuttle-Space Station complex. The flight crew also conducted scientific investigations, including European Space Agency sponsored biology experiments, the Kidsat earth observations project, and several engineering flight tests. Completed in 145 orbits, STS-76 landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on March 31, 1996. Searfoss commanded a seven person crew on the STS-90 Neurolab mission which launched on April 17, 1998. During the 16-day Spacelab flight the crew served as both experiment subjects and operators for 26 individual life science experiments focusing on the effects of microgravity on the brain and nervous system. STS-90 was the last and most complex of the twenty-five Spacelab missions NASA has flown. Neurolab's scientific results will have broad applicability both in preparing for future long duration human space missions and in clinical applications on Earth. Completed in 256 orbits, STS-90 landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on May 3, 1998. FEBRUARY 2003

The 48th Medical Group, at RAF Lakenheath, provides invaluable training to doctors while building relationships with their host nation.

The 48th Medical Group, at RAF Lakenheath, provides invaluable training to doctors while building relationships with their host nation.

Join Carlos and Matt as they take their usual weekly trawl through the big Aviation stories. In today's show we cover another low cost airline 'In-Flight' bust up, the world's shortest international flight and we discover a fantastic fundraising solution for aviation enthusiasts everywhere. In the Military the highlights include some red faces at RAF Lakenheath as sonic boom is heard over Norwich and great news as the Red Arrow's future is secured - Time for an aircraft upgrade maybe? ;-) We also reveal our listeners choices in our Livery Poll. Search for us on social media using PlaneTalkingUK or visit our website to find out more about the show on http://www.planetalkinguk.com. :-)

Profile on the only female vehicle maintenance mechanic stationed at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom.

F-15's conduct a flyover with the last flying Vulcan aircraft over RAF Lakenheath.

Sesame Street performs at RAF Lakenheath, U.K.

This edition features a story on an aircraft crash emergency exercise on RAF Lakenheath.

On today's Air Force Report, we follow the life cycle of a bomb.

The flying mission at RAF Lakenheath could not be accomplished without the vigilance of radar airmen.

Students from RAF Lakenheath participated in the annual shadow day event to get a better understanding of their parent’s day-to-day duties.

Package about RAF Lakenheath is saving the Air Force time and money with their new aircrew training program.