Podcasts about wright patterson air force base

What does it take to lead at every level and shape the leaders of tomorrow? SUMMARY Long Blue Line podcast host, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99 sat with Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Sherman '95, the U.S. Air Force Academy's vice superintendent, for a deep dive into leadership, humanity and building a world-class service academy. This episode is packed with wisdom for aspiring, emerging, and seasoned leaders alike.   SHARE LINKEDIN  |  FACEBOOK   GEN. SHERMAN'S TOP 10 LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS  - Leadership is a human experience - focus on connecting with and caring about people.  - Love what you do and love the people you lead; passion inspires others to follow you.  - Embrace failures and challenges as opportunities for personal growth and development.  - Set the right culture and values within your team to build trust and mutual support.  - Be present and engaged with your team, understanding their motivations and experiences.  - Leadership is about more than rank or position - it's about earning genuine trust and respect.  - Invest time in understanding different generations, cultural nuances, and individual perspectives.  - Balance professional excellence with personal growth and life experiences.  - Support your team's development by providing encouragement and holding them accountable.  - Your legacy is built through individual interactions and the positive impact you have on people's lives.   CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction to Major General Thomas P. Sherman 01:29 Choosing Leadership Over Flying 07:23 The Impact of Mentorship and Values 12:46 Heritage and Evolution of Security Forces 17:43 Personal Growth in Aviano, Italy 24:17 The Importance of Work-Life Balance 29:50 Culminating Command Experience at Bagram 42:25 The Role of Family in Leadership 51:29 Continuous Self-Improvement as a Leader 56:27 Embracing Failure as a Growth Opportunity 01:00:06 Legacy and the Impact of Leadership   ABOUT GEN. SHERMAN BIO Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Sherman is the Vice Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. He is serving as the chief operations officer to the Superintendent and overseeing the Academy's blend of military training, academics, athletics, and character development for cadets. Gen. Sherman commissioned in 1995 from the Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. He built a distinguished career as a security forces officer. He's held command at nearly every level. His key assignments include leadership of the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson AFB and critical staff positions at the Pentagon. In May 2024, Gen. Sherman was tapped to serve as the Academy's Vice Superintendent   CONNECT WITH GEN. SHERMAN LINKEDIN     ALL PAST LBL EPISODES  |  ALL LBLPN PRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR PODCAST PLATFORMS       TRANSCRIPT SPEAKERS Guest, Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Sherman '95  |  Host, Lt. Col. (ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99   Naviere Walkewicz  00:00 Welcome to Long Blue Leadership, the podcast where we share insights on leadership through the lives and experiences of Air Force Academy graduates. I'm Naviere Walkewicz, Class of '99 today. I'm joined by a leader whose career has taken him from the flight line to the halls of Congress and now back to the very institution that launched it all. Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Sherman currently serves as vice superintendent of the Air Force Academy, where he plays a critical role in guiding the development of our future officers and ensuring the Academy remains a world class institution for leadership, character and Day 1 readiness to win the future fight. A 1995 Academy graduate, Gen. Sherman has spent nearly three decades serving in key operational, strategic and command roles. He's led at every level, from squadron to wing command, and his assignments have included everything from nuclear security enterprise to homeland defense, policy development at the Pentagon, and legislative affairs at the highest levels of the Department of the Air Force. Prior to his role as vice superintendent, Gen. Sherman served in the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense, where he was a principal military assistant leading policy integration across joint staff, interagency services and combatant commands. He's perhaps best known in command circles for leading the 88th Air Base wing at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, one of the largest and most complex wings in the Air Force, with a focus on people first, leadership and mission excellence. Gen. Sherman, welcome to Long Blue Leadership. We're so glad you're here too.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  01:32 It is great to be here. Thank you.   Naviere Walkewicz  01:33 We're excited and we're going to dive right in, because I think what is so special for our listeners is really hearing these moments that have changed your life. I'd like to start at the Academy. You turned down a pilot slot. You were rated, but said no.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  01:48 Well, actually it was a little bit before that. You know, it's kind of interesting, because that was the draw that brought me here, is I just had this incredible passion to want to fly, and I love flying, and I truly enjoyed it, especially through all the different airmanship programs and things like and things like that we had here. The experiences were fantastic. But, you know, as I was starting to learn more about myself going through the Academy, I was starting to feel my heart getting pulled in a direction of wanting to really lead people and really spend a lot of time working with the enlisted. And I think that came from a couple different areas. I think it was some really unique exposure that I got during my ops Air Force time, which I went to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, during ops, and just had our action officer that worked this, I think just did a phenomenal job. And I really started getting pulled to what was then called security police. That is actually when Laurie and I got together and started dating, because Laurie is here in Colorado Springs, but she grew up as an Air Force brat. My father-in-law is a retired Chief Master Sgt., and so there was a lot of mentorship that was taking place around dining room table when I was a young cadet. And I think one of the things that her parents really taught me was just the value of the enlisted force, and so I was feeling my heart really getting pulled. And so obviously, there's a conundrum. There's a conundrum on what were the root desires that brought me here — what were the things that I was learning as a cadet, my joy of flying, and also, particularly the culture at that time, was that that was really the job that you needed to aspire to be, that was the expectation of cadets. And so then to really kind of run counter to that strong current was really kind of a unique, you know, almost unnavigated area, right? And so to really kind of take the story out to its next level is that I'd really gotten to a point where talking with people there — we hadn't had the AMT program, but there were these NCOs that were kind of tangentially attached to cadet squadrons. And so I got a chance to talk to one of the master sergeants that was there who was a maintainer by background. And I was kind of pouring my heart out to him on, you know, what had I been talking to him with my now in-laws, about where was my heart pulling me? And so he said, ‘Give me just a second.' And he picked up the phone, and he called my AOC and he goes, ‘Hey, you're gonna be there for a little while.' And this was a Friday afternoon. He said, ‘I got a cadet that needs to come talk to you.' And he hangs up the phone and he goes, ‘Now you go tell your AOC what you just told me.' And so I ended up going to my AOCs office that day, and we had about a two-hour conversation about this. I sat down and really, kind of took the time to explain to him what was I feeling, And obviously, I really try to see the best in people. And so I think from a noble place, he was doing his best to convince me that I was making a grave mistake. And went on to talk to me about what his concerns were, the career field that I was looking at, things along those lines. And we can save that conversation for another time, but I think really where the foundation came in is where we started to talk about leadership. And you know, what I was asking him to do was to pull my rated recommendation form, so we had just submitted them, and I was asking him to pull my rated recommendation form. I didn't want to compete for it anymore. And so we started to talk about leadership. And he says, ‘Hey, Cadet Sherman, you need to understand that leadership in this Air Force is being the lead F-16 pilot on a bombing run, you know, putting iron on target.' And that's true. It's a very important part of leadership. It is a very important part of tactical operational leadership in this Air Force. So he's not wrong in that space. But I was looking at it from a different lens, and I was looking at it, I think, on a larger level. And what I don't think he realized is that 30 seconds before I walked into his office, he set me up for success. I just happened to be waiting outside the office, and all of a sudden, I looked on his cork board, and somebody, and I don't know who it was, had pinned a note that was written to Airman Magazineby an airman first class. And this airman first class titled this, “I need a leader.” And this A1C felt so strongly about what they were feeling — and I have no idea who this person was — felt so strongly about it that they put pen to paper, and this would have been the fall of 1994, and sent this into Airman Magazine, and it says, “I need a leader.” Commissioning sources. ‘Send us lieutenants that we can look up to that will hold us accountable when we do wrong, that will encourage us when we do well, that will be an example that we can look up to, that will care about us as human beings, because you are not sending them to us now. Air Force, I need a leader.' Like that 30 seconds just before I walked into his office — that changed my life, and it changed my life, because for me, at that moment, what I was getting ready to go ask my AOC to do, what I was looking at inside myself, that became my charge. And so as we spoke, you know, 20-year-old Cadet First Class Sherman — I might have been a 21-year-old at the time — Cadet First Class Sherman pushed back on my AOC, and I said, ‘Sir, I disagree.' I said, ‘I want to be that guy. I want to be that guy that that A1c is asking for on your cork board outside, because that's leadership in this Air Force.' And so, to his credit, he said, ‘Hey, I want you to go think about this over the weekend. You know, think about what you're doing. Come back to me on Monday. No questions asked. I'll pull it if you want me to.' And I left there, and I remember feeling like, not like a weight had been lifted off my shoulder, but I almost felt like this sense of like, ‘Now I've got my purpose,' because that little article has shaped me my entire career, and I mean to this day, and at a scale. You know, as a lieutenant, my scale is this big on what I'm affecting to help do and be what that A1C needs to a wing commander. I always keep it in the back of my head, and after all of these years, I am still thinking about, Am I doing right by that A1C that 31 years ago, felt so strongly about something that they wrote a note to Airman Magazine, and that became my charge.   Naviere Walkewicz  08:09 That is incredibly powerful. I'm a little bit without words, because I'm thinking about, first off, being brave enough to disagree with an AOC. I mean, I think that takes courage in showing your leadership there. Were you always like that? Have you always been someone that is steadfast in a decision and being able to kind of speak out?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  08:30 So I get that from my parents. And, you know, I grew up in Corona, California. My mom and dad are amazing people. And we didn't grow up with a lot of money, and we grew up from a pretty meager background, and my mom and dad had made a decision early on in their marriage, when they had my sister and I, that my mom was going to focus to make sure that Nancy and I got an education, and my dad was going to work as many jobs as he had to to put food on the table. And sometimes my dad was holding down three jobs to make sure that we had nutritious food to eat, and my mom was working miracles to make sure that we were fed well, but that also that she was dedicated and had the time to volunteer for things like PTA, being involved as a class volunteer, making sure that we were involved in things and had exposure to things that what they did was they also instilled in me this really strong blue collar work ethic. And it was this aspect of, if I just roll up my sleeves and put in the work, anything is possible. And so on that line, this young kid growing up with a West Coast father and an East Coast mother, and just this, really neat family background that things for me, that I believed in I would go after with all of my heart and soul. And so I found out about the Academy when I was 12 years old. And so, you know, when I at 12 years — we were going to a community event there in Corona, and there was an officer recruiter — Capt. Craig. was her name — and we started talking. She says, ‘Hey, did anybody talk to you about the Air Force Academy?' And I said, ‘No, this sounds great.' So from there, I just made this decision as a 12-year-old, and I worked all the way through junior high and high school to get here, because to go to your point like, ‘I made a decision, I'm gonna see this thing through.'   Naviere Walkewicz  10:30 Whoa. OK, so you knew you were going to the Academy before you graduated high school.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  10:35 Yes, in my mind, there was no other option.   Naviere Walkewicz  10:39 And so anyone in your family serve, or were you the first one in your family to serve?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  10:43 So I am the first officer and career member of the family. My dad was drafted and went to Vietnam in 1967 and stayed through Tet of 1968. I had an uncle, Harry Lee Schmidt, who was a C-47 loadmaster in World War II and Korea, and my grandfather was actually a part of the initial kind of what was the foundation of the OSS and the Navy doing beach recon on beaches in the South Pacific, prior to island hopping campaign and island landings. And so there was this real heritage of service, right? Just not career service. But even then, as a kid, I always had in my mind, ‘OK, one way or another, I'm going to serve, and if I do an enlistment and then go to college afterwards —' but I had this idea that, ‘OK, I'm going to serve,' and then all of a sudden, this became this amazing conduit that got me here, right?   Naviere Walkewicz  11:38 And they also had ties to aviation. How did they feel about your decision, your family?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  11:43 It was interesting, because they knew how passionate I was about aviation growing up. I mean, we did not miss an air show at March Air Force Base, the Chino air show, which was planes of fame, which was all historic aircraft. I volunteered as a high school student to work there, and we helped restore airplanes with me and my friends. You know, it was interesting, because my parents were very supportive in ‘OK, where's your heart leading you? And, what makes you feel so strongly about this?' Because when I first talked to him on the phone, I called him from Ramstein Air Base and said, ‘Hey, I think I know what I want to do in the Air Force. I want to go to security police. And my mom was like, ‘What's that? And, so, as time went by and I explained it, I think my parents probably all along knew that that was probably going to be a very good fit. And then after commissioning and at my first assignment, I think that they were certain of it, right? Yeah, they were absolutely certain.   Naviere Walkewicz  12:37 That is amazing. Well, I want to dive into this profession a bit, because it's interesting. You know, you've mentioned, when you came in, it was security police, and, security forces and you hear people saying defenders and peacekeepers. So there's this lineage and this heritage. Can you maybe talk a little bit about that and then maybe lead us into that next transformational moment that you might have had in this role?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  12:58 OK, I'm very proud of the fact that, you know, I am part of an ever decreasing group of folks that came in when we were still security police, and that was really still the peacekeeper days, because this was all kind of the follow on on the Cold War. The peacekeepers were our cold warriors and that was a huge part. Our defenders came in and really, that name started to really grow in 1997 when the name changed from security police to security forces, and we were actually going back to some of our heritage that was in Operation Safeside, which was the combat security police squadrons in Vietnam. So when you think about the courage that was displayed during the Tet Offensive at places like Tan Son Nhat that those were safe side warriors that were a part of these combat security police squadrons. And so the very — part of the lineage of the very beret, and flash that we have is actually a tip of the hat to the lighter blue berets, and that flash with the Falcon and the crossed runways that goes back, actually, to our Safeside heritage days. The beret goes back even farther than that. It goes back to Strategic Air Command, Elite Guard back in the 1950s. So it's this great lineage. And so, you know, for me, part of it was like when I got my first beret, wow, that meant something to me. And then, you know, as we then kind of transformed along the way, and this amazing career field grew, and the aspects of this air based ground defense, which was really, I would say, was kind of the draw that got me into wanting to go into security police, was I really liked this idea of, ‘How do we do base defense?' The law enforcement side was intriguing to me, but it was based defense that just had me just had me captivated.   Naviere Walkewicz  14:44 And was that something that you found out early in your career? After you graduate the Academy, you're now in security police. Is that when you kind of realized, ‘This is where I want to go in, air, base, ground defense.'?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  14:54 It even happened at ops. So as we were spending time with the security police squadron, I ended up spending time with a captain who was heading up the Elite Guard, and there was an interaction we had as I was doing a ride along. He's like, ‘Hey, you need to come see me.' And so I went and met up with him, and he took me around and introduced me to all of his airmen that were part of the guard. He knew something all about them. And then we went to his office and talked, and he had gone to Ranger School and Airborne and things like that, and said, ‘Hey, like, the future of the career field is actually us looking to the past.' And really kind of got me fired up on what we call back then, air base ground defense. So when I got to McChord — McChord Air Force Base was my first duty station. And the great thing about going to AMC first is it AMC is a mobility — I mean, it is all about mobility and the operations associated with it. And so the first thing that that my task was as the second lieutenant in that squadron was, I was the air base ground defense flight commander. So that was, I mean — we would go out to Fort Lewis, and we would bivouac for days. And I had, you know, a 44 person team that was a base defense sector. I had specialized K-9 units heavy weapons. And back in those days, we had 81mm mortar teams and fire direction centers that we would set up. So I just got completely on board with the air base defense piece. And so that was that was very passionate for me, which then made the next step to Korea an absolutely logical next location, going to the wolf pack at Kunsan, not only getting a chance to then stand up Gwangju as a part of the first Air Expeditionary Unit to go back to Korea since the Korean War, but then doing the mobile reserve aspect of it. And it was just a great assignment.   Naviere Walkewicz  16:40 Wow. So you were right in from the very beginning. You got kind of just into it all.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  16:45 So when we go back, when you were talking to me about, ‘Hey, when you make your mind up...' So I had this five-year plan built out. And, you know, my five-year plan was ‘OK, I'm gonna do my first assignment at the first opportunity to PCS. I need to go remote. I need to go to Korea. And then, OK, how can I get another overseas assignment after that? And then what do I need?' So the thought was, “Let me get to as many match comms as I can, as fast as I can in my career, and use that as a place — OK, because I want to build my experience base out. Because even as a lieutenant and young captain, I didn't want to come across as a one-trick pony. So my thought was, “Let me just get as much as I could under my belt early on.' And so after I left Kunsan, I ended up going to Aviano Air Base in Italy, which, for me, when you look at like those moments in life that are transformational, this was transformational on a different level. You know, some assignments you go to are very much professional growth assignments. This assignment, for me, was very much a personal growth assignment.   Naviere Walkewicz  17:52 OK, so tell me more.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  17:55 I mean, when you think about it, four years at USAFA, very uniquely focused on a plate that is overflowing with things that you need to get done. So you are, you're focused on, you know, everything from grades to military training to all of those things. And then I get to my first base, and I am just working, and I'm volunteering for everything, and we have got a heavy ops tempo of exercises and things like that. And my leadership was fantastic, because they were throwing me into every opportunity I could. And then, boom, I go to Korea, and that is a unique warfighting focused — and at Kunsan especially was heavily warfighting focused. So now all of a sudden I am spending really, when you think about it, the last almost seven years being uniquely focused on mission, right? And so I get to Aviano Air Base, Italy, and the first thing that happens is Operation Allied Force kicks off. So I get there in January, boom. Allied Force kicks off. I think it was in end of February, beginning of March. And wow, what? Again, what an amazing, mission focused experience. And then after we finished up Allied Force and the base returned back to more of its steady-state standpoint, it was the Italians that took me under their wings, that because I made a specific choice, because I grew up — my mom's side of the family are all Italian immigrants — and I was always at my Nonnie and Papa's house, and there was just a lot of that growing up, which is that whole, like, you know, West Coast dad, East Coast mom thing, but I didn't know, you know, my mom and her brothers never spoke Italian. And there was a lot of that, that thought back in those days that, you know, ‘Hey, we're here to be American, so we're going to learn English, and we're not going to speak, you know, the language that we came from,' right? And so my mom and her brothers really never learned to speak Italian. And so my thought was, ‘Gosh, I grew up with this as such a strong part of my childhood that I need to put myself in a position where I can learn the language and start to kind of get an appreciation on the culture. Together.' And so I specifically — and really lucked out on a location, but I was about 20 kilometers away from Aviano. I was in an amazing town. I was the only American living in the complex that I was in. So I was like, ‘If I'm going to learn, I need to just dive in the way that you do, in the way that I do, and just start learning.' And so I ended up kind of building this support group of Italian families that all kind of took me under their wings.   Naviere Walkewicz  20:27 Wait, I have to ask you a question, because back when you're at the Academy, you said you spoke to your now in-laws. So was Laurie not a part of this?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  20:35 So Laurie and I, right. So that's an important part of the story. Laurie and I dated for two years while I was a cadet, and when I was in tech school, her and I made the very difficult decision — and as painful it was — to part ways, so her and I actually parted ways for a few years. I was single at the time. Laurie was still here in Colorado Springs, and I was getting a lot of assignments under my belt, which, to be honest with you, you know, in retrospect, it was very fortunate, because I may not have made the same assignment choices had I been married at the time. And because I wasn't married, there were no other variables that I needed to factor in, other than personal experience goals, right, that I wanted to play into, and so I could just put down whatever assignment I wanted, and that allowed me the opportunity to just focus on job. And while Laurie and I stayed in touch, and I stayed in touch with her parents over the years, I was in Aviano, and her and I were not together at that point,   Naviere Walkewicz  21:39 That makes sense. I was like, why were you alone in Italy?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  21:43 It's a fair question. But I also think that being single in that environment allowed me — and that's where I think it helped me develop as a person. And so there are a lot of, I think, really wonderful things that happened during that time, and that was because I was so uniquely mission focused. It was these, this amazing group of Italian friends together, that really kind of taught me about there, there's a time to relax, you know, there's a time to work, there's a time to relax, and there's also a real human need to enjoy life and enjoy time together, which is quintessentially Italian. And so, as my pool of this, these amazing people — that  by the way, for the last 25 years, we've been going to visit. It's the same families that took me under their wings when I was a lieutenant, are the same families that were all tuning in as we were doing a live stream of me pinning on my second star. And so I've never been stationed anywhere else in my career where I felt more at home. And so I think this sense of like, ‘Wow. This like independently as my own person, this feels like home.' And as time went by and I started to get an appreciation for actually things that were a part of my childhood. Because, you know, we would have these long, huge meals, we would spend four or five hours at the table as a family. And for me, this was all normal. Well, that was also a part of kind of normal Italian life and normal Italian culture. You're not going out to dinner with your friends unless you're investing at least three hours at the restaurant. But for me, this was all — this felt normal to me. And so it was about, you know, you don't need to eat your food in five minutes.   Naviere Walkewicz  So contrary to USAFA, by the way.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN You know, you don't need to chew no more than seven times and swallow. So it was about experiencing that, and learning even just some things that became personal passions. Like, you know, how wine is made and why wine pairing matters, and how is this process? And so all of a sudden, this personal experience — and I think growing as a human being was taking place there, and I was maturing as a human being because I had gotten all of this phenomenal job experience under my belt, but this was where I was growing as a human being. And you know what's interesting, as time has gone by, I have noticed just how impactful that time was, because there are things that I've noticed, even as a senior officer, that I feel very strongly about, that I don't think I felt as strongly about as a junior officer, and it was because of that experience, and it was the aspect of when people are on leave, let's let them take leave. There is a part of the human experience that you need to enjoy time with people that you care about, because what it does is you're not slacking off from work. You're not leaving everybody hanging. What's happening is that, because you're taking some time to just enjoy life with people you care about, when you come back, the restorative effects that have taken place because you simply breathe and you enjoyed what it was that you were doing and whatever your passion was, you know, unencumbered, you could enjoy that. And we all realize that there are times, especially as you get into positions of authority, that, hey, they're going to need to call you periodically. But what was interesting is that, especially, I mean, I'll give an example as a wing commander. As a wing commander, despite realizing how important that mission is and how big Wright-Patt was, we, Laurie and I took leave, and we took two weeks of leave, and we went back to Italia and visited our friends and enjoyed life, because the culture helps us to slow down. But what it also did is I gave my staff some parameters. ‘Hey, here are the things that I think are important, like on a scale of one to 10. Here are the things that I think are an eight. So an eight or higher, call me. Don't text me.' I said, ‘Physically call me, because I will answer the phone knowing it's for — and then you have my undivided attention.' But what it also does is it means that my vice wing commander who is there, that I am empowering my vice wing commander and showing to everybody else I trust this leader to lead this wing in my absence. And if it's something that really needs my involvement, they'll get a hold of me. But I think our junior leaders need to see that at the senior most levels, that I can physically trust and emotionally trust my vice, my deputy, to hold things down while I'm gone, and that I'm not irreplaceable, and that if I did my job as a leader, I set the conditions that allowed the wing to thrive in my absence, and didn't mean that the wing had to hang on every decision I made or every word that I said, that I set the conditions that allowed them to be successful and fostered the leadership that allowed them to lead in my absence. And I felt great while I was gone, because I knew the people that we had there, and I knew the investment that we made in them. So that was kind of a long, you know, trip around this…   Naviere Walkewicz  27:26 I mean, I think it was so powerful that you kind of learned that about yourself in Italy. And then would you say that there was anyone that you saw emulating that? Or was it just something over time, you developed this realization that you need to enjoy life and you need to allow people the space to do so.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  27:43 So I would say the people that I was emulating in that aspect were a lot of the families that were there. I have been fortunate that I have worked for some commanders who, at different times in their life felt the same way. Conversely, I also worked for commanders that did not feel the same way. And, you know, an interesting case in point on something that on an experience I had in a command bill and after I had left Aviano — this is when Laurie and I were back together; we were married at this point. I had a group commander that was frustrated about me taking leave and called me every day at 1500; every day at 1500 I got a telephone call. And you know what that does is now all of a sudden, you're eating lunch, and the clock is getting closer to 1500 and you start to get that knot in your stomach and you're like, ‘OK, what are we going to talk about today?' And so, unfortunately you don't see some of the same appreciation for that across the board. So how do we deal with it? The best thing that we deal with it is that that's where the buck stops. We don't pass it down to our people. So after I got the call from him, I didn't call back to the squadron. I got the call from him. We went through the call, we answered the questions, and I didn't then immediately turn around and call back to my ops officer who was running the Squadron at the time, and say, XYZ. And we just left it there, because at that point in time, the bucks got to stop it at that point. So I think that that's kind of the, you know, the alpha and the omega of learning and then also having your own personal resilience and courage to say, ‘I accept that the buck stops here, and I'm not going to let this roll downhill to my people.'   Naviere Walkewicz  29:41 That's an excellent leadership lesson, because I was going to ask you, ‘What does that look like, and how would you how would you handle that?' And so you went right into that. Thank you so much for that. So what has it been like leading security forces — defenders? What's it been like? Has there been a moment in time where — a particular assignment or something's really stuck into your mind or into your heart, because it's just really affected you?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  30:05 Absolutely. I will tell you, as we go back, as we were kind of talking about decisions that you make in your youth, and that critical decision that I made in the fall of '94 I mean, I have worked with some of the most amazing people I've worked in my life. I have gotten a chance to go to places I never thought that I would see. And so, when you kind of roll up, I would say it was my final squadron command, and I would say that that was a real culminating squadron command. So I commanded four squadrons, and we command early, and we command often, and there's a lot of responsibility that that's placed on us as young officers to command as a young officer. And so having the opportunity to command two times as a captain, or one time, you know, as a major-select, then as a major, then as a lieutenant colonel. So that culminating command would have been Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in May of 2012 to May of 2013 and you know, it was interesting because all of my previous squadron commands had all been vested in either the contingency response or the kind of combat contingency environments. And it was almost like all of those were leading me to this moment. So let me just kind of set the conditions on what Bagram was like at that point in time. We had grown the squadron to about a 1,200-person squadron, huge squadron. And what we were also responsible for is we had taken over battle space ownership from the Army. So the Air Force was controlling 220 square miles of battle space throughout Parwan province, which is a huge. I mean, it's twice the size of Washington, D.C., if you want to try to give a comparison, more or less is fair to look at that level as just a huge amount of terrain in which our airmen were responsible from everything from humanitarian operations and goodwill outreach to engagements to literal kinetic action and combat in the battle space. And so a part of this culmination was, was an environment where as the defense force commander — as that squadron commander to them as a lieutenant colonel at that point — I mean how we are weaving ourselves into their lives, and how we are working with their section commanders, and how we're working and managing the value of our perimeter defenses with our teams that were going outside of the wire doing legitimate patrolling and engagement and things along those lines, was huge. And I think that that is an example. And when you look in the rearview mirror to say, ‘Gosh, now this, a lot of this makes sense, like all of these assignments, whether by design or whether by fate, somehow gave me an experience that at this moment, I needed it most.' And I think, as I talk, we've really enjoyed being here with the cadets and talking to them about, how does a leader really develop trust, and how does trust really manifest itself? And so, through the time that we were there, and the engagement as their leader — not just the leader who's just simply circulating, because that's important, but they also need to see your decision making and your strategic thought. And how do you react under pressure? How are you reacting as we've got incoming in, and what do you do being the person in the joint defense operations center, helping to manage that, and how are you both taking care of people, and how are you managing mission? And they see that. And so I would say that the development of that level of trust, especially in an environment where you are literally dealing with high costs, is huge. And so I think there was one, situation that really rests on my heart that and I don't talk about this to give validation, but I think I talk about it on it's about how people connect, and why do I feel so strongly that leadership is a human experience, like this is a what we are doing as a human experience. And so I was retiring my chief. So I was asked by my chief at Bagram — this was some years later. He's out of the 105th Base Defense Squadron out of the New York Air National Guard, and him and I were a phenomenal team there. Dave Pritchard and I just made a great team. And so he was retiring, and asked me to come back and do his retirement. So we had done the retirement ceremony. We were at the VFW afterwards, having his after-party and so forth. And so I had gone into the bathroom for a comfort break and washed my hands and things like that. And I noticed, as I was kind of moving towards the bathroom, there was kind of a young man who was kind of floating. You know, floating around. And so I came out of the restroom as I was finished, and he was waiting there at the exit of the restroom for me, and kind of, you know, got in front of me, and he stood there, and he looked at me, and he goes, ‘Hey, sir, I just, I needed to let you know this, that I was one of the airmen in one of your patrols that got hit by an IED, and he said, your investment in us, and the words that you used and when you came to talk to us, and the faith that you had in us gave me the courage to go back outside of the wire when you asked us to go back outside.' And so why that rests so heavy is when you think about what, what is the what is the con? The consequence there is that somebody believed in you so much that when you spoke to them and said the word, they were going to go back out and do it again, in spite of what had just happened to you. And I don't think there is any stronger level of trust that you can ask from somebody than to have one of those moments. And so that moment just resides very, very heavy on my soul, because I think it puts into real, tangible context, what is the responsibility of leadership? What is your responsibility of leadership?   Naviere Walkewicz  36:42 I'm letting that sit a little bit, because I can't even imagine the amount of feeling that you had first for him, the courage to share that with you. Because I'm sure that he really wanted to share that. I'm curious if you can remember perhaps, what he might have been referring to, like what you were sharing with the men and women there.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  37:02 So, you know, it was also a part of things that, in times after Bagram have really been used for me as a senior leader on why I reinforced the importance of values. And, this was one particular incident there that really comes to mind is, and I use this when I when I talk to people, because I again, it's the consequence, and it's why our responsibility as leaders to set the right conditions and culture and all of that is so incredibly valuable. And so I talked to people about a story about we had had a situation where we had some real destabilization in the battle space. There was a particular village that we were having some unique challenges with, and we were doing a lot of kind of battlefield shaping, and we were doing some particular village engagement, and the engagement just wasn't happening. And so we were now kind of starting to escalate our interaction with the village a little bit more and as we were doing that, we were now going to start doing more shaping operations. So it just so happens that one of these nights —this was in the late fall, early winter of 2012 — and we were sending one of our patrols outside to do some shaping and engagement operation there. But this was in the evening. This was a different aspect that we were working for this particular mission. And so mounted up that the airmen are ready to go. They're pushing outside, they're right on time, and everything is going according to plan, and they are getting close to what we call the objective rally point. So that was where they were going to rally up before they actually moved into the village after that. And so everything was going according to plan. And the only thing they needed to do before they got to the objective rally point was really kind of go down a small gully over a rise, and then they meet at their objective rally point at that point. And so teams are moving out. First truck over the rise, getting to the point. Second truck over, everything's going fine. Third truck over, fourth truck after that, BOOM, off goes the IED. And what had happened is, they were waiting for this opportunity, and they knew exactly what to do. And that is, if you hit the last truck in the movement, you've got three trucks that are gone ahead of time, and now we've got folks in a very precarious situation. And so what I talk to people about, when we talk about conditions and the real impact that a leader has, is I'll talk to them about who was in that truck, who was in that MRAP that we were sending down at that point in time. And inside that MRAP was the face of America. And the explosion was significant, and it did some considerable damage. It threw the engine out of it, penetrated the hole, ripped one of the doors off the side in the front. And so, you know, the truck commander was National Guard from, actually from Tennessee, and he had gotten injured, broken an arm because that door had peeled back. And as the door peeled back, his arm got caught and broke his arm. The driver, Asian American coming out of the state of California, active duty. He had injuries to his legs because of the penetration of the hole. We had a gunner up in the turret, African American female from the New York Air National Guard. She had a broken pelvis at the time, and she just stayed on the gun the entire time despite her injuries. We had our radio operator. European American female coming from the Midwest. She was actually Air Force Reserve. She had a case of TBI from the explosion, and she was still making calls on the radio. We had two of our riflemen in the back, both came from Hispanic heritage, one of them from Puerto Rican heritage, one of them from Mexican heritage. They were very fortunate that while they got tossed around the back and had some minor TBI issues, they were more or less bumps and bruises, and they were all by themselves. Yeah, because they were all alone, they were in the middle of Afghanistan, they had just gotten hit. And so for me, what's so important about that story is that if we did not set the right culture and the right values and the right expectations and be in a leader by example, and they were harassing each other on Bagram, and they were assaulting each other on Bagram, and they weren't respecting each other on Bagram, and they didn't care about each other on Bagram, they would have died out there that night. But they treated each other like a family, and they cared about each other like a family, and they took care of each other like a family that night, and they lived and they all came home. So for me, if we're going to talk about what is the true consequence of leadership — and I use consequence deliberately, because oftentimes that's used in a pejorative manner — but this is the true result of your actions, that if you don't set those conditions, then you are legitimately putting your people at risk. And so that whole experience at Bagram, and in so many ways that we all carry our scars and our bruises and things like that. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world, but that was tough. And I often describe it as a tale of two cities. You know, it was the best of times. It was the worst of times.   Naviere Walkewicz  42:34 I think a lot of times, when leaders go through experiences like that, they have some more fortunate than others, but a support network. And I would guess it would be your family. How has your family played a role in these moments in your life, in helping you as a leader?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  42:54 So I will say it's primarily my wife. I have got this wonderful support of parents and my in-laws and so forth. And what's been truly fortunate is how close I am with my in-laws. Because when Laurie and I were dating while I was a cadet, anytime I had an overnight or weekend pass, I was over at her mom and dad's house and so I think that being married to somebody that has truly known you from the beginning, you know, where, whether we got a training weekend going on, or something like that, or I'm working first BCT or whatnot, that Laurie was a unique part of all of these things. And I would say that it has been incredibly heartwarming to watch her interact with the cadets here, because it's fun, because her and I do everything together. And so as we're going to events, I'll have a group of cadets that I'm talking to, and then I'll look over and Laurie's surrounded by a group of cadets who are asking her just very insightful questions about our experiences together, and ‘Was it tough sending them away on deployments?' Or how, you know, in those tough times, ‘How do you how do you keep your marriage together?' Just really insightful questions to ask, but she has just been so central to everything that I do. And so going back a little bit and talking about, like the strength of our relationship and how much that helps, we actually needed to have that breakup period as horribly painful as that was, and wow, was I carrying a torch for her all of those years. I mean, I remember, you know, as time was going by, I would talk to my mom, and I'd be like, ‘Mom, I just wish that Laurie could see the man that I become.' But we needed that time because oftentimes, and what we found in ourselves, we didn't know it at the time, because you're living in your environment and you can't see it, right? Is that in youth, things are often absolutes. And you often will get to a place where you're starting your marriage, your relationship is growing. And if you start to talk about marriage, there are things that we have found were absolutes for us. You know, certain things that we did, how we practiced our faith. Did we open up presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but the expectation was somebody was going to have to give up their particular tradition to conform to the tradition of one of the spouses. And in your youth, that seems reasonable, and I think we needed that time to be apart, having had that time together at such an important time in each of our lives here. But we needed that time apart, because I think we needed that frame of reference as we grew as people into adults. Grew as young adults. And now all of a sudden here I'm getting multiple assignments, and now being thrust into leadership positions with accountability and authority, and then coming back to that, all of a sudden, you're realizing, ‘Gosh, the world just isn't always in absolutes. And maybe a marriage doesn't have to be zero sum, but maybe a marriage can be positive sum.' And do we really have to make somebody give up something that is important to them, that is a part of their identity? Because somehow you feel like you have to conform your marriage into one side or the other. And so, I think for us that was that was so incredibly important. So to kind of get to that story is that, you know, I left Aviano and I went to Al Dhafra. I was in Al Dhafra actually for September 11. It was my first squadron command, but it was a squadron command I wasn't expecting, because I came there as a chief of security forces for about a 70-person security forces flight as a part of the 763rd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron at Al Dhafra. And then all of a sudden, 9/11 happens, and we went from about 400 people on Al Dhafra to about 4,000. And you know, U-2s came in, ISR platforms came in. Everything changed. And all of a sudden, this 70-person security forces flight that I had grew into about a 350-person security forces squadron. And AFSET said, ‘Hey, Sherman, you built it, you keep it, and we'll replace you with a major when you leave.' And I was a six-year captain, and so then finishing up that assignment, and I got picked up for — there was a point to that story — but it was about coming back, is that, hey, I got these new, unique experiences that grew me under my belt. And then I came back to do an AFIT program at Cal State San Bernardino. And that was the moment that brought Laurie and I back together.   Naviere Walkewicz  In what way?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN And so, I had a health scare. Nobody knows what it was. We never figured it out. Doctors never figured it out. But it was one of those things, like, all of a sudden, I shotgun something out to everybody I knew. I said, ‘Hey, doctors are a little bit concerned, you know, keep me in your thoughts.' And so Laurie, Laurie is like, ‘Holy cow, you can't just send a one liner and leave it at that.' So she called my mom and dad and said, ‘What's his phone number?' And so it started to turn into ‘Hey, give me all of your test results after you get it back.' Then pretty soon we're talking a couple times a week, and then pretty soon we're talking every other day, and then we are talking every day. And the beauty of this was that we already knew each other, so we already knew what everybody's favorite color was — by the way, Laurie's is purple. We knew what music each other liked. We knew things about each other. And some of the things that actually drew us together when we were dating here was, you know, we had things like some common family traditions, like, you know, Italian fish on Christmas Eve and sitting around the table for hours and stuff like that were all things that we had in common. So we already knew that about each other. Now, her and I on the phone, we're getting into some real, like substantive discussions, children, faith. How do you how you raise children? How do you know, what are we going to do for different traditions? What happens if I have to take a remote; what does that mean? And so we were getting into these really, deep conversations. And, you know, I would come back from either class or then when I PCs to the security forces center out at Lackland, you know, I would come home from work, and this was in the old flip phone days where you had a battery that came off the back. So I would have one battery in the charger, and then I would have an earbud in, and I'd have the phone in my pocket. Yeah, and I'd come home and to call her, and we would just go throughout the evening. So I'm ironing BDUs at the time, shining my boots and stuff like that, and so, and we were just talking. And then we were just kind of like living life together. And, after that point, it became very clear that those two young people who sincerely cared about each other, now, each of us grew up and had experiences in a place that allowed us to really appreciate each other and really love each other. And you know, we were married just a little over a year after that. And it has been phenomenal, her support. And I think one of the great testaments to that was, 10 days after we got married, I went to Baghdad, but she's like, ‘I grew up in the Air Force. I know how this works. We're gonna move the house. I'll get the house put together.' And she's also a professional in her own right, which is great. So she was working in a legal office here as a paralegal and legal assistant here in Colorado Springs, and has been a GS employee for the last 18-plus years. So what's great is she, too has her own aspect of service. What I love about it is that in the jobs that she's in and then the jobs that I'm in, we can talk shop, and then we cannot talk shop, right? And so she's the first person I go to if I have to ask a question, she's the first person that I'll go to say, ‘Hey, did I do that right? Or do I need to backtrack on that a little bit?' Because she knows me, and she knows me completely, and that level of trust and love and faith that we have for each other has truly enabled me to be able to serve our airmen on a level that I don't think would have been possible without her.   Naviere Walkewicz  51:59 Would you say that she's had a role in your development as a leader, in the way that you lead.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  52:05 Oh, absolutely, absolutely, because, and I love it, because her experience as a brat and her dad as a chief gives her a very unique lens to look through. And so the advice that she gives me she can give me from her teenage self in some way, you know, from that experience, watching how her dad interacted with something or knowing her aspect about this. And then as she's developed professionally, working on the E-Ring at the Pentagon a couple different times, working for very senior leaders, knows how to navigate that space. So then I'll go to her for advice, like, ‘Hey, how did your boss handle something like this?' ‘Well, let me tell you what, how we work through this...' And so I would absolutely say that that Laurie has uniquely influenced and helped me to become the best version of myself that I can be.   Naviere Walkewicz  53:03 Wow. Well, I want to ask you a little bit about developing yourself as well, because one of the questions we like to ask is, what are you doing every day to make yourself a better leader? Can you share what that might be?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  53:17 I've said it a couple times during this: I truly believe that leadership is a human experience, so for me, it's about the interaction. And so oftentimes, advice that I've given to people — like there are amazing resources abound that can help people, give people leadership perspectives, and we can either learn it from history, or we can learn it through study. We can learn it through analysis. We can learn it through books. And I've always talked to people about use the external tools that help to grow you, but make sure that you're using it to influence the personality that you already have. Because oftentimes what happens is, is that people will have this really strong desire to say, “OK, I want to make sure that I do this right. And so in doing this right, let me make sure I've got my checklist, and so I'm going to greet them, I'm going to ask them how their family is, I'm going to ask them if the kid did all right in the baseball game. And I'm going to go through my checklist, and if I do that, I fulfill my leadership obligation.' Now not everybody does, and I'm making generalities on but, but I think that there can oftentimes be the allure that when you are focusing on what may be the theory or the principle of the day, and not using it to supplement and grow and mature your personality, that there is a strong allure to want to wholesale replicate what it was that you learned, and you're doing it in a noble place. It's not nefarious. It's being done in a noble, genuine place. But there's that allure to say, ‘OK, good, I really like what I've learned. I'm going to do these things and step through.' And so why I talk so much about the experience, and why I talk so much about the interaction, is that the more that you know the people that you may be influencing by just simply being there and understanding what that means. It means you're eternalizing the value of your presence. You're listening to their stories, and you're understanding for them, what are the things that are motivating them? What are the things that they value? Because each generation, each environment, each condition is going to require something a little bit different from you, and if you don't take the time to understand your environment or generation or cultural nuances or things like that on where you're at, then you are missing that opportunity to develop trust, where they start to believe in you as a person, and not just the rank and position that you hold, because they'll do the right thing for the rank and position that you hold. That's the caliber of people that we have in this Air Force of ours. They'll do the right thing. But if you transcend that in the fact that they believe in you wholeheartedly and trust you, oftentimes with their own lives, it means that you've invested something into them, where they truly know that you care. And that goes back to that A1C on the cork board that said, ‘I need somebody who cares about me as a person.'   Naviere Walkewicz  56:41 You know, as I think about what you've experienced through your career and the lessons you've learned, both professionally and personally, what would you say to yourself back then that you should be doing back then to get to where you're at now? Because we have listeners that are like, ‘What can I start planting today, that will bloom down the road?'   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  57:03 Absolutely. And so I think if I was to go back and put my arm around Cadet First Class Sherman, I think what I would do is — because it is, it is oftentimes easy to look in the crystal clear mirror of hindsight, right? But I think instead, what I would do is I would put my arm around him and say, ‘Keep following your heart and let the failures happen, because the failures are going to grow and let the stumbles happen and enjoy the triumphs with people and be appreciative for what got you there.' And I think it would be more of the encouragement of like, ‘You have laid out a path for you take the path wherever it goes, the joy, the pain, the triumph, the failure, all of those things, because all of that helps to develop the leader.' And oftentimes you want to go back and say, gosh, if I was going to talk to my previous self, then I would say, ‘Ah, don't do that one thing,' right? But I'm looking at it saying that if I didn't do that one thing, then I'm not sure that I would be where I'm at at a time to make sure I didn't do that thing at a moment that was incredibly catastrophic. And so while we have this desire to want to prevent ourselves from the failure, I think that what we have to do is say you're going to fail and you need to fail, and it's going to sound — relish in the failure, because it is often emotionally troubling, especially those of us that come here because we are Type A perfectionist, and that's part of the draw of coming to this amazing place. Is there a certain personality traits that help us to be successful here, but not all of those personality traits make us uniquely successful in all situations outside, and so you've got to have that failure at some point in time. And the failure that you can get up and say, ‘OK, I did this. This happened. My soul is bruised. My ego is bruised. I may have to take a little bit of accountability for this. OK, now I need to have the courage to take the next step forward again.' Because I could easily retreat back to a safe place, and I could become risk averse, and all that does is hurt the people around you. OK. I have to have the courage to breathe and take the step again and get back in there. So I would tell my — I don't think I would want to prevent myself from doing anything. I think even the growth that took place while Laurie and I were apart — and, like I said, that torch that I carried for her — I think if I had whispered in my ear and said, ‘Hey, just relax, you're gonna marry her.' I think I needed that torch, because that in my own mind and my own emotion was me needing to become a better man, and so I think I needed to go through — like, sometimes you need the struggle, and sometimes the things that are most valuable are the things that you had to go through the struggle for, right? And I think that's where my blue collar ethics background comes in. It's like, I'm just going to roll up my sleeves and I'm going to work through the struggle.   Naviere Walkewicz  1:00:36 Wow. Well, we took a look back. I just want to ask you a question forward. So do you think about legacy? And what do you want your legacy to be? Is that something that plays in your mind as you wake up each morning or go to lead people?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  1:00:50 I think the way that I look at it is, I look at it in a in a different aspect, and the way that I look at it is in a very confined point to point. It's not about what is going to be Tom Sherman's legacy when he retires someday, but was that interaction that I had with somebody to give them some encouraging words when they fell down, did that matter to them at that moment? Because there are people for me in my failures that were commanders, that were leaders, that were mentors, that were senior enlisted, that, you know, grabbed that lieutenant by the arm and helped to lift me up. And their memories are etched in my fabric. And so I think that it's about that individual event that your legacy will live in the people in which you made a difference to them.   Naviere Walkewicz  1:01:49 Well, I'll share with you, I was telling my son — he's a cadet, a third-class cadet, actually, now he's about to be a C2C — that I was doing this podcast with you, and he said, ‘What an incredible leader, Mom, he motivates me. He's so inspiring.' So your legacy is already through my son—   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  1:02:05 Thank you! That means — thank you so much for sharing.   Naviere Walkewicz  1:02:10 —that you really made an impact. So we're going to get to your final thoughts here in a little bit. But before we do, I want to make sure that you know our podcasts publish on every second Tuesday of the month, and you can certainly listen to Gen. Sherman in any of our other podcasts on longblueleadership.org. So Gen. Sherman, what would you like to leave our listeners with today? This has been incredible, by the way. Thank you.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  1:02:32 I have truly enjoyed this, and it's just been — it was just wonderful having the conversation with you, and it's in real honor to be a part of this. I truly believe in what you're doing here.   Naviere Walkewicz  1:02:43 Thank you. It's my pleasure to help share your story and help inspire others. And is there anything we might leave with our listeners that that they can part with tonight?   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  1:02:51 I think, for me, you need to love what you do and love I think, is one of the most powerful words in language. And I don't just say the English language. I say in language because of the strength behind the meaning and how wide the meaning can be impactful. If you love what you do, people will feel that your very presence will make a difference. They'll feel that if you love what you do, then you're being, you know, internally, inspired by the love that you have for what you're being a part of, right? If you love and care about your people, they will follow you to the ends of the Earth, because they know the passion that you have and the belief that you have in them. So I think that as we go back to these things, we oftentimes look at the terms of courage and love may seem diametrically opposed, and I would attest that you can be most courageous and that your courage will be most effective only when it's buttressed by the love that you have in what you do and who you do it with.   Naviere Walkewicz  1:04:08 Thank you, sir, for that. Thank you for being on Long Blue Leadership.   MAJ. GEN. SHERMAN  1:04:11 Absolutely. Thank you. This was a wonderful time. It was a real honor.   Naviere Walkewicz  1:04:14 Thank you. Well, until next time, I'm Naviere Walkewicz. We'll see you on Long Blue Leadership.     KEYWORDS Leadership, Air Force Academy, Major General Thomas P. Sherman, mentorship, personal growth, security forces, work-life balance, family support, continuous improvement, legacy       The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association & Foundation        

Legislating From a Perspective of Faith and YouthImagine being the youngest face in the room as you try to find your footing among seasoned legislators. That is the struggle Ty Mathews, one of the youngest legislators at the Ohio Statehouse, has had to face as he follows his faith in Jesus and forges a clear path for his constituents in the 83rd District.In this episode of the Cedarville Stories podcast, freshman representative Ty Mathews shares his journey to the Ohio Statehouse, where he's still getting his feet wet in his third month on the job.Ty's story begins at Cedarville University, where he balanced ROTC training with political and biblical studies, learning to lead with both discipline and faith. At Cedarville, Ty was introduced to a worldview that combined leadership with purpose, an experience that still shapes how he approaches his work today. He credits his time there for grounding him in Christian values that continue to guide his decisions in the Statehouse.Now, as one of the youngest members of the Ohio legislature, Ty is already working hard to make a difference. In the podcast, he shares his main priority — the Ohio Defense Initiative — which aims to bring high-tech defense companies to Ohio, tapping into the state's strategic military assets like Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. His plan is to create high-paying jobs and foster innovation in areas like cybersecurity and drone technology.Through it all, Ty remains grounded in his faith, finding strength in the values he developed at Cedarville. His story is a testament to the power of youthful ambition, faith, and determination. Even though he's early in his political career, Ty is already showing that age doesn't determine impact — purpose does.https://share.transistor.fm/s/c3aade88https://youtu.be/h31q8O0_DWI

Sorry guys, I accidentally uploaded the after hours in stead of the actual episode. Here is the real deal. Enjoy!   Come along for another installment of everyone's favorite old ufo document show, From The Files Of Project Bluebook! https://linktr.ee/allts   Project Blue Book was a U.S. Air Force study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) from 1952 to 1969. It was the third such study, following Project Sign and Project Grudge. The project was headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and was publicly discontinued in December 1969.   The project had two primary goals: To determine if UFOs were a threat to national security.   To scientifically analyze UFO-related data.    Over the course of its existence, Project Blue Book collected and analyzed over 12,000 UFO reports. The vast majority of these reports were eventually explained as misidentified natural phenomena, conventional aircraft, or hoaxes. However, a small percentage of cases remained unexplained.   The project's conclusions were that no UFO ever posed a threat to national security, and that there was no evidence that UFOs were extraterrestrial spacecraft. These conclusions have been widely disputed by UFO researchers and enthusiasts, who argue that the Air Force did not adequately investigate the phenomenon and that some UFO sightings remain unexplained.   Project Blue Book remains a controversial topic, with many people believing that the government is still hiding information about UFOs. The project has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, and television shows, including a recent History Channel series of the same name.

John Horrigan received five Boston/New England Emmy Awards (and had twenty nominations) for his role as host and writer of the critically-acclaimed television show entitled "The Folklorist". The program even featured paranormal segments on the Gloucester Sea Serpent, Ape Canyon, The Angels of Mons, Spring-heeled Jack and the Dover Demon. He has had an interest in unexplained mysteries and paranormal events for nearly 40 years. He began broadcasting about the unexplained on local access television and radio beginning in 1991, producing programs dedicated to mysterious phenomena such as Nightime Talk Television (1989), Omnibus Unlimited (1992), Tails (1993), AAHA (1999) and Forteana (2000). He was the last person to interview Betty Hill (alleged first alien abductee) in 1999 with “The Lost Betty Hill Interview”. His research into Unidentified Flying Objects took him to Roswell, New Mexico (three times); Area 51; Kecksburg, Pennsylvania; Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia; Gulf Breeze, Florida; the San Luis Valley (investigating cattle mutilation), the Lockheed Skunk Works; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Eglin Air Force Base; Cheyenne Mountain; Edwards Air Force Base; Hill Air Force Base; Dugway Proving Grounds; White Sands Missile Range and Hurlburt Field.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.

John Horrigan received five Boston/New England Emmy Awards (and had twenty nominations) for his role as host and writer of the critically-acclaimed television show entitled "The Folklorist". The program even featured paranormal segments on the Gloucester Sea Serpent, Ape Canyon, The Angels of Mons, Spring-heeled Jack and the Dover Demon. He has had an interest in unexplained mysteries and paranormal events for nearly 40 years. He began broadcasting about the unexplained on local access television and radio beginning in 1991, producing programs dedicated to mysterious phenomena such as Nightime Talk Television (1989), Omnibus Unlimited (1992), Tails (1993), AAHA (1999) and Forteana (2000). He was the last person to interview Betty Hill (alleged first alien abductee) in 1999 with “The Lost Betty Hill Interview”. His research into Unidentified Flying Objects took him to Roswell, New Mexico (three times); Area 51; Kecksburg, Pennsylvania; Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia; Gulf Breeze, Florida; the San Luis Valley (investigating cattle mutilation), the Lockheed Skunk Works; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Eglin Air Force Base; Cheyenne Mountain; Edwards Air Force Base; Hill Air Force Base; Dugway Proving Grounds; White Sands Missile Range and Hurlburt Field.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.

John Horrigan received five Boston/New England Emmy Awards (and had twenty nominations) for his role as host and writer of the critically-acclaimed television show entitled "The Folklorist". The program even featured paranormal segments on the Gloucester Sea Serpent, Ape Canyon, The Angels of Mons, Spring-heeled Jack and the Dover Demon. He has had an interest in unexplained mysteries and paranormal events for nearly 40 years. He began broadcasting about the unexplained on local access television and radio beginning in 1991, producing programs dedicated to mysterious phenomena such as Nightime Talk Television (1989), Omnibus Unlimited (1992), Tails (1993), AAHA (1999) and Forteana (2000). He was the last person to interview Betty Hill (alleged first alien abductee) in 1999 with “The Lost Betty Hill Interview”. His research into Unidentified Flying Objects took him to Roswell, New Mexico (three times); Area 51; Kecksburg, Pennsylvania; Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia; Gulf Breeze, Florida; the San Luis Valley (investigating cattle mutilation), the Lockheed Skunk Works; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Eglin Air Force Base; Cheyenne Mountain; Edwards Air Force Base; Hill Air Force Base; Dugway Proving Grounds; White Sands Missile Range and Hurlburt Field.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.

In this episode, we sit down with Sara Leslie and Nate Armstrong, Co-Chairs of the CHANGE organization at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, as well as Josh Beitel, one of the advisors to the organization. They share their insights and experiences leading the organization and discuss the benefits and opportunities that CHANGE provides to contracting trainees. The conversation covers a range of topics, including the organization's activities, such as networking events, community service and professional development opportunities. Our guests also share their thoughts on the importance of feedback, leadership development and employee retention in the contracting workforce. Tune in to learn about the CHANGE organization, its mission and goals, and the importance of community and connection in the contracting workforce. The conversation also touches on topics such as employee retention, feedback and leadership development. CHANGE - The Community Helping through Action and Networking toward the Greatness of our Environment. AFLCMC – Air Force Life Cycle Management Center PKX – Human Resources Division ***This podcast episode and the mention of non-federal entities does not constitute or imply official endorsement on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Air Force or Department of Defense. The Department of the Air Force does not endorse any non-federal entities, companies, products, or services. The views expressed within this podcast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

Major winter storm impacts Ohio; Dayton's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base restricts access in light of recent domestic terror incidents; Ohio students can now take time off for a Hindu holiday; Akron native LeBron James has broken a couple of NBA records.

Drones drones drones!!! Some are saying they're Chinese, and drones actually shut down Wright-Patterson Air Force Base... yea, that one...  AND, there's a bit of… The post NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE NEFARIUM DEC 19 2024 appeared first on The Giza Death Star.

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

Since November, American East Coast residents and U.S. officials have demanded clarity after a wave of drone sightings occurring over New Jersey and New York, with their origins and intent still shrouded in mystery. While the FBI and others have activated specialized drone detection systems to help assess the situation, Pentagon officials have reassured the public that most of the sightings are misidentifications, although many local leaders and residents remain unconvinced and increasingly anxious. This week on The Micah Hanks Program, we take a deeper look at the ongoing mystery drone sightings, as well as popular theories that have recently emerged as sightings have now been reported over Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and other military facilities. 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: DRONES: Drones shut Wright Patt airspace down for about four hours late Friday Biden Admin Official Offers Reason for Mystery Drone Sightings   East Coast drones latest: 'Something's going on,' New Jersey mayor says  Trump discusses drone sightings Chuck Schumer on New Jersey drone sightings (Pt 1)  Wright Patterson AFB Audio SECRET TESTS? NARTP Signs Cooperative Research and Development Agreement With USTRANSCOM, USAF Air Mobility Command, and ACEA  NUKE SNIFFERS? Mystery Drones Could Be Trying to Find 'Radioactive Material'—Aerospace CEO Ferguson's original posting on Tik Tok New Jersey State Emergency Responders Have Issued An Intelligence Bulletin 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.

End of Daylight Saving Time on the horizon? The latest drone sightings across the nation this weekend. Drones shut down airspace around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Glenn Beck stops by with his own theories on drones above the Northeast. Is the government incompetent or lying? How the Left thought about presidential pardons then and now. Joe Biden makes life better for Chinese spies. Talking heads still trying to figure out how Donald Trump won the election. The future of cryptocurrency is a lot more promising now than it was before the election. Democrats continue to seemingly excuse the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. Mitt Romney on the state of the two parties. ESPN host Stephen A. Smith goes off on the Democrat Party. Welcome to the Joe Biden comedy tour. ABC News pays $15 million to Donald Trump in a settlement. Republicans still into big spending. Is war about to break out between Russia and NATO? 00:00 Pat Gray UNLEASHED 00:50 Trump to Stop Daylight Savings 06:28 NewsNation goes Drone Hunting 10:39 PteroDynamics??? 15:19 Mayorkas tells CNN Drones aren't Flying over NJ 19:26 Drones over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base 25:15 Presidential Pardons By the Numbers 30:49 Why is the Government Quiet? 33:48 Glenn Beck Walks In 46:12 Flashback to Adam Kinzinger  46:33 Joy Reid Flashback on Pardons 51:51 Chinese Spy Commuted Sentences 57:14 Blinken on Cost in Afghanistan 1:00:37 Mark Cuban on Why Kamala Lost 1:03:57 Van Jones calls Trump Smart 1:08:55 Bernie Sanders on UHC CEO Murder 1:09:38 AOC on UHC CEO Murder 1:13:11 Mitt Romney Reflects on GOP 1:16:01 Stephen A. Smith is Tired of the Lies 1:19:40 Joe Biden Describes his Presidency 1:21:50 Joe Biden says his Campaign was Scandal-Free 1:23:05 ABC Will Pay Trump $15 Million 1:28:33 Rep. Tim Burchett Explains NDAA Passage 1:31:31 Dan Patrick Purchasing Border Wall Materials 1:34:48 Russia & Germany??? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Kevin Rusnak and Emily Carney drop in to talk about the movie that made us all dream of going to Space...or at least Cape Canaveral. This episode gets into an era of nostalgia around the Space Shuttle program, the changing role of women inside NASA, and how the Challenger disaster affects how we remember this movie.About our guests:Kevin M. Rusnak is the Chief Historian of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Office, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio.  He is responsible for leading the professional research, collection, preservation, analysis, writing, and dissemination of AFLCMC's history and heritage to the organization's leadership and workforce, as well as to a public audience. Disclaimer: Kevin's thoughts and opinions do not reflect those of his employer or the federal government.Emily Carney is a spaceflight professional with over a decade of industry experience. She is a space historian and podcaster, and the original Space Hipster. In 2018, the National Space Society named her one of the Top Ten Space Influencers. She is also the co-host of the Space and Things podcast and a Celestis Ambassador at Celestis Memorial Spaceflights. 

John Horrigan received five Boston/New England Emmy Awards (and had twenty nominations) for his role as host and writer of the critically-acclaimed television show entitled "The Folklorist". The program even featured paranormal segments on the Gloucester Sea Serpent, Ape Canyon, The Angels of Mons, Spring-heeled Jack and the Dover Demon. He has had an interest in unexplained mysteries and paranormal events for nearly 40 years. He began broadcasting about the unexplained on local access television and radio beginning in 1991, producing programs dedicated to mysterious phenomena such as Nightime Talk Television (1989), Omnibus Unlimited (1992), Tails (1993), AAHA (1999) and Forteana (2000). He was the last person to interview Betty Hill (alleged first alien abductee) in 1999 with “The Lost Betty Hill Interview”. His research into Unidentified Flying Objects took him to Roswell, New Mexico (three times); Area 51; Kecksburg, Pennsylvania; Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia; Gulf Breeze, Florida; the San Luis Valley (investigating cattle mutilation), the Lockheed Skunk Works; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Eglin Air Force Base; Cheyenne Mountain; Edwards Air Force Base; Hill Air Force Base; Dugway Proving Grounds; White Sands Missile Range and Hurlburt Field.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.

John Horrigan received five Boston/New England Emmy Awards (and had twenty nominations) for his role as host and writer of the critically-acclaimed television show entitled "The Folklorist". The program even featured paranormal segments on the Gloucester Sea Serpent, Ape Canyon, The Angels of Mons, Spring-heeled Jack and the Dover Demon. He has had an interest in unexplained mysteries and paranormal events for nearly 40 years. He began broadcasting about the unexplained on local access television and radio beginning in 1991, producing programs dedicated to mysterious phenomena such as Nightime Talk Television (1989), Omnibus Unlimited (1992), Tails (1993), AAHA (1999) and Forteana (2000). He was the last person to interview Betty Hill (alleged first alien abductee) in 1999 with “The Lost Betty Hill Interview”. His research into Unidentified Flying Objects took him to Roswell, New Mexico (three times); Area 51; Kecksburg, Pennsylvania; Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia; Gulf Breeze, Florida; the San Luis Valley (investigating cattle mutilation), the Lockheed Skunk Works; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Eglin Air Force Base; Cheyenne Mountain; Edwards Air Force Base; Hill Air Force Base; Dugway Proving Grounds; White Sands Missile Range and Hurlburt Field.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.

We visit the Brunswick Naval Aviation Museum in Maine and speak with the Vice President and Operations Manager, and the Executive Director. In the news, more furloughs and cost-cutting measures at Spirit Airlines, the FAA's final rule is out on powered-lift vehicles such as eVTOLS, a fuel top-off assumption leads to the loss of a Beechcraft B-60, the “doomsday plane” gets an official designation, and Boeing machinists vote again on a contract proposal. Guests At the Brunswick Naval Aviation Museum we spoke with Vice President and Operations Manager Jeff Smat and Executive Director John B. Briley. The Museum was founded in 2009 as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation with a mission to preserve the rich heritage of NAS Brunswick (NASB) by honoring the tens of thousands of men and women who served here, educate the public about the history of maritime patrol aviation and NASB, and maintain a memorial for those NASB-based airmen who gave their lives in service to their country. The museum is located at 179 Fitch Avenue, Brunswick, ME 04011. Currently, the Museum and Memorial Gardens are open Wednesdays (10:00 am-4:00 pm) and Sundays (12:00 pm-4:00 pm). For more on SERE, see Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. Jeff Smat on the flight simulator. Aviation News Spirit to Furlough More Than 300 Pilots as Losses Mount Spirit Airlines is experiencing financial difficulty and a second-quarter net loss of $158 million. More red ink is expected for the third quarter. Last month the airline furloughed 186 pilots and plans to do the same for 330 more pilots effective January 31, 2025. (Spirit has 3,500 pilots.) About 120 captains are to be downgraded. Spirit says it will sell 23 of its Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft next year. That's a fleet reduction of about 11 percent. Energy Reserves and Pilot Training For eVTOLs Addressed in FAA's SFAR Rules The FAA issued its final rule for powered-lift vehicles, such as eVTOLS. The Integration of Powered-Lift: Pilot Certification and Operations; Miscellaneous Amendments Related to Rotorcraft and Airplanes - Final Rule adopts permanent amendments and a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) for ten years to facilitate the certification of powered-lift pilots, clarify operating rules applicable to operations involving a powered-lift, and finalize other amendments which are necessary to integrate powered-lift into the National Airspace System (NAS). The Integration of Powered-Lift: Pilot Certification and Operations; Miscellaneous Amendments Related to Rotorcraft and Airplanes NPRM was issued in June 2023. Standing order to top off fuel tanks backfires on pilot In November 2022, the pilot of a Beechcraft B-60 (N51AL) assumed the FBO topped off the fuel tanks, per his standing fueling order, before hangaring the aircraft. But fuel was not added this time and the pilot landed in a cemetery when both fuel-starved Lycoming engines quit. The pilot and his wife sustained minor injuries. See Project Summary: Aviation Investigation - 3 Docket Items - ERA23LA050 from the NTSB. SNC Receives Second Boeing 747-8 for SAOC Conversion as Aircraft Gets E-4C Designation Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) now has the second of five Boeing 747-8s from Korean Air for conversion to “Doomsday aircraft,” which become airborne command centers during national emergencies. These provide critical command, control, and communication (C3) for the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The E-4C will replace the current fleet of E-4B Nightwatch B747-200 aircraft. The contract notice says the award was for $13 Billion. SOC recently cut the ribbon for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) at its Aviation Innovation and Technology Center (AITC) in Dayton, Ohio. This 100,000 sq. ft. hangar is located near Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Boeing Machinists head to the polls in decisive vote that could end strike

In this episode of The Contracting Experience, we are joined by Tony Everidge, Executive Director, Air Force Installation Contracting Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where he helps lead a team of over 750 acquisition professionals who manage a $55 billion contract portfolio. Tune in as Everidge shares his insights, drawing on his days of playing collegiate and semi-professional basketball. He discusses how those experiences taught him valuable life lessons—like teamwork, commitment, and accountability—that have helped shape his professional career. Everidge demonstrates that contracting truly is a team sport by using various sports analogies to demonstrate the importance of teamwork, accountability, feedback, personal development, game-planning, resilience, and collaboration in government contracting. This episode is packed with actionable advice for contracting professionals looking to enhance their approach to teamwork and accountability. Don't miss Everidge's "halftime speech" at the end of the episode, where he rallies contracting professionals to stay motivated and committed to the mission, regardless of their role in the larger Air Force team. AFICC – Air Force Installation Contracting Center If you would like to share feedback on the podcast, please submit via thecontractingexperience@gmail.com. Register at https://www.dvidshub.net/ to access transcripts of the podcast.

John Horrigan received five Boston/New England Emmy Awards (and had twenty nominations) for his role as host and writer of the critically-acclaimed television show entitled "The Folklorist". The program even featured paranormal segments on the Gloucester Sea Serpent, Ape Canyon, The Angels of Mons, Spring-heeled Jack and the Dover Demon. He has had an interest in unexplained mysteries and paranormal events for nearly 40 years. He began broadcasting about the unexplained on local access television and radio beginning in 1991, producing programs dedicated to mysterious phenomena such as Nightime Talk Television (1989), Omnibus Unlimited (1992), Tails (1993), AAHA (1999) and Forteana (2000). He was the last person to interview Betty Hill (alleged first alien abductee) in 1999 with “The Lost Betty Hill Interview”. His research into Unidentified Flying Objects took him to Roswell, New Mexico (three times); Area 51; Kecksburg, Pennsylvania; Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia; Gulf Breeze, Florida; the San Luis Valley (investigating cattle mutilation), the Lockheed Skunk Works; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; Eglin Air Force Base; Cheyenne Mountain; Edwards Air Force Base; Hill Air Force Base; Dugway Proving Grounds; White Sands Missile Range and Hurlburt Field.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.

Hangar 18, a classified facility rumored to exist within Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, is believed by some to be a secret storehouse for extraterrestrial technology and artifacts. Conspiracy theories abound regarding what may be housed within its walls, including crashed UFOs, alien bodies, and advanced weaponry. Despite government denials and secrecy surrounding the base, speculation about Hangar 18 continues to fuel rumors and intrigue within the UFO community. For a full list of sources, please visit: sosupernaturalpodcast.com/alien-hangar-18 So Supernatural is an audiochuck and Crime House production. Find us on social!Instagram: @sosupernatualpodTwitter: @_sosupernaturalFacebook: /sosupernaturalpod

This week we talk about the life and legacy of Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 mission. Joining us is Jim Hansen, who wrote the book First Man and served as a consultant on the film, along with HATM space expert Kevin Rusnak. We talk about the Armstrong's inward journey into outer space, his relationships with his fellow astronauts, and the role his wife Janet played in Armstrong's journey. We also get some inside details on the making of the film, including Ryan Gosling and Damien Chazelle's work to get this movie made. This is a podcast on NASA, Neil Armstrong, and an absolutely brilliant film unlike any you've heard before.About our guests:James R. Hansen is a professor emeritus of history at Auburn University. A former historian for NASA, Hansen is the author of twelve books on the history of aerospace and a two-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize in History. His 1995 book Spaceflight Revolution was nominated for the Pulitzer by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the only time NASA ever nominated a book for the prize. He serves as coproducer for the motion picture First Man, which is based on his New York Times bestselling biography of Neil Armstrong. Kevin J. Rusnak is the Chief Historian of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Office, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio.  He is responsible for leading the professional research, collection, preservation, analysis, writing, and dissemination of AFLCMC's history and heritage to the organization's leadership and workforce, as well as to a public audience.Mr. Rusnak graduated with a degree in History from the University of Dayton, Ohio, in 1995, and subsequently entered the History of Technology graduate program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.  His thesis focused on the production of B-29 bombers in Marietta, Georgia, during World War II, while his dissertation explored the development of Air Force and NASA pressure suits and space suits from the 1930s through the 1960s.  He spent over four years as a historian at the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where he researched and interviewed dozens of pioneering engineers, managers, and astronauts from the early years of human spaceflight.Mr. Rusnak joined the Air Force History and Museums program in 2002 as the Senior Historian for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson AFB.  Over the next 18 years, he researched and wrote numerous annual histories, biographies, reports, heritage products, and special studies.  In 2017, he was the primary author for AFRL's award-winning 100-year history compendium, Aiming Higher: A Century of Research in Science and Technology by the Air Force Research Laboratory and its Predecessors, as well as for its companion photo essay volume.  He also pioneered AFRL's leveraging of history on modern platforms, such as social media, to provide a broader audience with access to AFRL's significant legacy. 

While a cadet at the Air Force Academy, Jason Kim '99 experienced the “pedestal effect” and learned the importance of curiosity, compassion, trust and mutual respect.   SUMMARY Jason Kim, a USFA class of '99 and CEO of Firefly Aerospace, discussed his leadership journey and experiences. He emphasized the importance of curiosity, compassion, and mutual respect in leadership. Jason shared his upbringing in Richardson, Texas, and his parents' influence. He recounted his time at the Air Force Academy, highlighting the humbling experience of being among top cadets and the value of building trust. Jason detailed his career path, including roles at Boeing, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman, and his MBA from UCLA. He stressed the importance of giving back to the Air Force Academy and the Space Force.   OUR FAVORITE QUOTES "I think just being curious and being an active listener and asking questions and listening to other people, sometimes people want to vent, or sometimes people want to just be heard or have a voice, or some, most of the time, people just have good ideas." "And so I would just say, just be curious, what did I miss? Did you miss something? Did we both miss something? If you get all those great ideas and you share it amongst different people from different backgrounds and walks of life, you don't miss as much, you know, and you're just bet off better off, you'll have a better solution." "Building that trust, you know, with your your your teams, that's extremely empowering and motivating when you trust someone else, and they trust you, and you can go much, much further when you build that trust up." "We got this drilled into us, and we didn't even know at the time how important it was. But you know, building that trust, you know, with your your your teams, that's extremely empowering and motivating when you trust someone else, and they trust you, and you can go much, much further when you build that trust up." "And then the last thing I would say is, I think we were one of the first classes that had non commissioned officers alongside with AOCs that were there to teach us about mutual respect, about mutual respect between officers and non commissioned officers. And I think that went a long ways for for all of us, because, you know, once we went to the real Air Force, you know, we were going to lead a lot of officers and NCOs, and getting that kind of exposure early on was helpful, but also learning about mutual respect, that's something that is extremely important in any work setting that you're in."     SHARE THIS EPISODE FACEBOOK  |  LINKEDIN      CHAPTERS 00:00:  Introduction and Background 02:24:  Welcome to Long Leu Leadership 07:42:  Early Inspirations and Motivations 10:56:  Discovering the Air Force Academy 16:00:  Memorable Experiences at the Academy 23:26:  Leadership Lessons Learned 26:32:  Leadership: Curiosity, Compassion, and Mutual Respect 28:14:  Startup Journey: Taking Risks and Minimizing Regrets 30:07:  Leadership Lessons: MBA and Personal Growth 32:05:  Startup Experience: Joining and Growing a Company 36:18:  Family and Risk-Taking: Lessons from Parents 39:36:  Hidden Talent: Drawing and Painting 45:36:  Giving Back: Involvement with the Air Force Academy Foundation 51:30:  Impact of the Air Force Academy: Building Resilience and Confidence   TAKEAWAYS Growing up in Texas with immigrant parents instilled a strong work ethic and a desire to give back to the country in Jason Kim. Inspired by the space shuttle program and the Gulf War, Jason decided to pursue a career in the military. At the Air Force Academy, Jason experienced the pedestal effect and learned the importance of curiosity, compassion, trust, and mutual respect in leadership. Jason's academic and extracurricular experiences at the Academy helped shape his leadership skills and provided him with lifelong friendships. His parents and role models like Colonel Ellison Onizuka influenced his decision to join the Air Force and give back to the country. Curiosity, compassion, and mutual respect are essential qualities in leadership. Taking risks and minimizing regrets can lead to personal and professional growth. Giving back and supporting future generations is important. The Air Force Academy provides valuable experiences and lifelong friendships. Learning multiple languages and exploring different cultures can broaden perspectives. The Academy's challenging environment builds resilience and confidence.   ABOUT JASON KIM '99 Mr. Jason Kim '99 is a member of the Air Force Academy Foundation Board of Directors. He is also CEO for Firefly Aerospace. Jason's career includes his work in the satellite and national security space for Boeing Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. While in the Air Force, he served as a program manager for the Space Superiority Systems program and Reconnaissance Systems Program offices. He has served on the boards of the National Defense industrial Association and space enterprise consortium formation Committee. He began his Air Force career as a cadet, having graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, followed by a master's in electrical engineering from AFET and then an MBA from the University of California, Anderson School of Management.    CONNECT WITH JASON LinkedIn     ABOUT LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP Long Blue Leadership drops every two weeks on Tuesdays and is available on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn + Alexa, Spotify and all your favorite podcast platforms. Search @AirForceGrads on your favorite social channels for Long Blue Leadership news and updates!          SPEAKERS Guest:  Mr. Jason Kim '99  |  Lt. Col. (Ret.) Naviere Walkewicz '99   Naviere Walkewicz  00:01 Our guest today is Mr. Jason Kim USAFA class of '99 and a member of the Air Force Academy Foundation Board of Directors. Jason's career includes his work in the satellite and national security space for Boeing, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. While in the Air Force, he served as a program manager for the Space Superiority Systems and Reconnaissance Systems program offices. He has served on the boards of the National Defense Industrial Association and Space Enterprise Consortium Formation Committee. He began his Air Force career as a cadet, having graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, followed by a master's in electrical engineering from AFET and then an MBA from the University of California Anderson School of Management. We'll discuss Jason's life before, during and after the Academy, and we'll ask him to share a unique talent. We'll end with his advice for those striving to become leaders and those already in leadership positions, endeavoring toward excellence. Jason, welcome to Long Blue Leadership, my friend, my classmate. Thank you for being here today.   Jason Kim  01:04 Thank you for having me, and thanks for using my call sign.   Naviere Walkewicz  01:09 You're welcome. I know we want it to catch on so everyone knows now. Well, as we do in this, this is such a wonderful opportunity for our listeners to get to know you, and we like to go back and so for us, we're talking, you know, closer to 30 something years ago, right, when you were young. Jason, tell us about what life was like before the Academy was even in your in your line of sight.   Jason Kim  01:31 So, I grew up in Richardson, Texas. It's a suburb north of Dallas, and if you've been to Dallas, it's a metropolitan city, and but it's a little bit country as well. And so yes, I grew up with cowboy boots. I grew up with a belt buckle, you know, driving a pickup truck, all those kinds of things. But I'd listen to all kinds of music. So, judging by my call sign, you know, rap music, R&B, but also some country as well. And my parents were first-generation immigrants from South Korea, and so I really saw how hard they worked, you know, learning a different language, buying a house, doing all that in their late 30s and 40s and raising three children. I'm the youngest of three boys, and so I'm very, you know, grateful for what my parents did for us three boys. My dad was an electrician on oil rigs and was in the oil and gas industry, and that's why we ended up in Texas. And I'd see him travel away for a month at a time, and then come back home for a month to places like Venezuela and United Arab Emirates and Gulf of Mexico and all kinds of places. And so, you know, I heard stories of travel and just everything he was doing. So, we'll get to this later, but he was definitely an inspiration early on for me, and he always, you know, was very grateful for being a naturalized citizen and allowing our family to grow up in the U.S. and get an education. And so, he always kind of inspired me to give back to the country, and always do good things for the community as well. And so that's where I kind of got those roots. And, you know, also being the youngest of three boys, my older brothers were seven and nine years older than me and so you can imagine I was the little kid that they would bring along to school or, you know, meeting with friends. And so, I learned the good things from them and emulated the good things, but then the bad things, the mistakes that they made, I tried to avoid that. So, I kind of got it easy watching them. And so, I owe a lot to them coaching me and mentoring me as I grew up, and then being in Texas, of course, what did I play sports in, I played football. And I would say that a lot of the leadership skills that I got early on came from football, and a lot of the work ethic came from football — the teammates, the collaboration, the strategy. Texas football is pretty legit, and so I got to watch tape, I got to lift weights, practice. All those things that Tom Brady says in his Hall of Fame speech I resonate with now, I didn't end up like Tom Brady, but I resonate with what he said, all those early mornings, waking up, you know, training, all the hard work. It really taught me a lot of good lessons. And, you know, I still kind of  have a lot of that work ethic because of, you know, playing football, and a lot of the team and collaboration came from collaborating with 10 other football players trying to score a touchdown, or keep others from scoring a touchdown. And also, a big reason why I'm a big college football fan, so I'm really happy to see your son play for the Falcons, and I'm going to be rooting for him and the rest of the Falcons, as well as my other alma mater, UCLA, so I'll be at those games as well.   Naviere Walkewicz  05:55 That is awesome. I mean, I'm almost developing a visual of young Jason and his two older brothers and his mom and dad. And what a story. I mean, I think about, you know, just first off, the confidence, resilience and grit of your parents, right? And then you're seeing this, and you're growing up in a household. So, what, as the youngest? I mean, I think, like you said, you were able to kind of see what to avoid, what pitfalls to avoid, and how to kind of navigate that. Well, when did the military kind of come into the picture? Was that something that your older brothers participated in through school? How were you introduced into that side of the world?   Jason Kim  06:32 Yeah so, I would say it kind of goes along with some inspirational people in my life. You know, growing up in Texas, the Space Shuttle program was a big deal. And I think you and I were 8 years old when the space shuttle Challenger event happened, and one of the astronauts that was a hero among all the astronauts on that mission was Col. Ellison Onizuka, and he made a career in the Air Force. He was a test pilot, graduated with his Ph.D., I believe, and became an astronaut, and really gave his life in many ways, to for science and for the Air Force. And so, seeing someone like that that also kind of looked like me was a good role model for me at an early age. And so that kind of got me interested in the Air Force and the Shuttle program. And then, you know, I think you and I remember when we're young, 1991 before we went to the Academy, you know, the Gulf War, and we saw on TV for this first time, all this shock and awe and Gen. Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell, and all the strategy that was used. The technology. You know, you heard about the second offset strategy with those F-117 Nighthawks, and all the flares that you would see that night. And it really just made an impression on me. It got me kind of excited about the military and all the technology that's involved. And also, you know, kind of got me into thinking about being a pilot someday. And again, you know, my dad always saying, “Hey, give back, Jason. You know, this country has given a lot to our family. Give back.” I kind of got that motivation to go into the military. And then, you know, I think we also had family friends that had some people that went to the academies, whether it's the Naval Academy or others, and got to learn a little bit from them what was it like to go to the Academy? And these were really good role models as well. So, I got with my liaison officer, which was a really great liaison officer, got me involved with what I needed to do to get more information. And went to the summer scientific seminar and spent a week on the campus and got to learn what it was like to be a cadet, somewhat. Yeah, it was actually fun. But, you know, meeting people, meeting the upperclassmen, and they were all super nice at the time. And I also, it turns out, I met my future roommate there, and we were, yeah, we met at the summer scientific seminar. And so, lo and behold, when I go into basic cadet training, I see him there. I'm like, “Oh my gosh, you were there at the same time as me!” So it was a really great experience, and that kind of solidified it for me that I wanted to go the Air Force Academy.   Naviere Walkewicz  09:56 So, I mean, you had some great role models to kind of facilitate some of that interest. There was a lot of things happening in the country that, you know, we both were, were very familiar with, and it created some feelings of pride and wanting to give back. Were you always thinking about the Air Force Academy because of those motivations, or were you thinking other service academies as well?   Jason Kim  10:16 I think I had my heart set on the Air Force Academy. You know, I don't know if I said before, but you know, my parents had me late, later in life, and so since I was the baby of the family, by the time I got to the age of going to college, my parents were retirement age, and I was not going to put them through what they did for my older brothers, which was room, tuition, board, and all that stuff that they had to work hard to pay for. I wanted to get a scholarship somehow. And this was a way to give back to the country, get a scholarship, get a great education. Plus, you know, I applied to all the service academies. But, you know, you'll, you'll hear this later, but I wasn't the best swimmer, so I wasn't going to go to the Naval Academy. West Point was foreign to me. I just didn't know enough about the Army, and I wanted to be a pilot. So, I thought, “Hey, the Air Force Academy is the best way to do that.”   Naviere Walkewicz  11:17 Awesome. So, you had a great ALO (pronounced AY-low and is an Academy Liaison Officer) you know, you kind of went through the process, which, in itself, is quite a process, as we remember. And so how did you find out? When did you find out you received an appointment to the Air Force Academy?   Jason Kim  11:31 That was, oh, that was, you know, I've had a lot of great moments in my life, so it's, that's reaching far back. I just remember that I was super happy. You know, it was Congressman Sam Johnson of the 3rd District of Texas that, you know, gave me the nomination. He was actually an Air Force pilot and a Vietnam POW. He since passed away. But, you know, getting a nomination from a legend like that was very much an honor. You know, I also got a senatorial nomination to go to the Naval Academy, but not knowing any better, as the 18-year-old, or whatever I was, 17-year-old, I was like, “Sorry, Senator, I'm going to the Air Force Academy. Thank you very much. I'm not going to the Naval Academy.” So I was very set on going to the Air Force Academy. I was very, very happy, because it was hard to get in. I mean, one of the challenges I had as a fairly big football player in high school was the, you know, the test that you have to physical fitness tests you have to take to get into the Air Force Academy. So, you had to do all the pull ups and the runs and all that stuff. And I had to cut weight, and it really took me waking up every morning, just going through the routine of practicing all those things, and eventually got enough confidence to pass the physical fitness test and all the other things you got to go through. So, it was very rewarding to get to the point where I got in.   Naviere Walkewicz  13:15 That is awesome. And I can see that drive, I mean, just from your family instilled in you to get to be like you said, confident, ready to go. That's no surprise at all. So, talk about at the Academy, we know a little about your roommate. You met him in summer scientific seminar. What was your Academy experience like?   Jason Kim  13:35 I remember Day 1 because there are two funny things that happened. One, somehow I got lucky, and I got paired up with a NCO, enlisted person, who I wish I remembered his name. He didn't end up staying after Basic Cadet Training, so I lost touch. But what he did for me was amazing, because he already knew the drill. He was like, “Jason, you don't know how to wear BDUs, but this is how you do it. This is how you put the blouses on.” How did I luck out? I had somebody that knew what to do and was teaching me how to do it from Day 1. So very, very much grateful to that individual. I wish I could have kept in touch with him. The second funny thing is, we all had name badges. And you know, my name badge, for some reason, it said Jun Kim. And I was like, OK, that's my last name, and it's June, I think. So it makes sense. And then everybody, all the upperclassmen, were like, “Is your name Jun Kim?” I was like, “Yes, yes, sir. My name is Kim,” and I thought it was the month. But it turns out they accidentally switched my nametag with another Cadet named Jun Kim. Yeah, and so he was wearing my Jason Kim, and so, on Day 1, you know, it was very confusing, and that got me into a lot of trouble. They're like, “Do you know…,” all the things you could think of, I was getting all those kinds of comments. And so, it was quite the memorable experience. It's like, it's hard enough being a new doolie and trying to figure it out. But then when you have those kinds of incidents, it's like, it makes it even more confusing, but it was memorable.   Naviere Walkewicz  15:33 Oh, that's awesome. I can, literally picture this.   Jason Kim  15:37 That was Day 1, and then, you know, life as a cadet. They warn you of this. They warn you of the pedestal effect, where you're in high school, you're top of your game, and top of your class and you varsity letter and all that stuff. But when you get to the Academy, oh, boy, was I humbled. I mean, there were people that were smarter than me, more athletic than me, you know, better in every way. And so, I just felt very average. And in retrospect, there's nothing wrong with that, right? But just being around 1,500 cadets, you know they just were the best of the best from wherever they were. It was very, very humbling, but also rewarding, because I got to meet people from different states. I'd go on spring break to California for the first time, because I'd make friends with people that were from Northern California or Los Angeles. So, I got to meet a lot of lifelong friends that have been my support group for my entire life, you know. And every time I get together with my friends from the Academy, it's just like it was old times. It just, it's hard to explain, but you know what I'm talking about, and…   Naviere Walkewicz  17:02 I do. It just feels like time didn't pass.   Jason Kim  17:05 That's right. Some of us, like yourself, look like you do from those days. Some of us aged a little bit differently, like myself, but yeah, it was a great experience. Now, if you remember our year — our year was the first year that had the increased level of the internet and so that got a lot of people in trouble. Because, you know, “What's this internet? What do you do with it?” What we got in trouble for in my class was we played a lot of online games, you know, in first-person kind of games. So, I remember there was a game called Quake, and it was a lot of us just playing together in our in our dorm rooms and spending a little bit too much time on that. And then I remember other video games, like Goldeneye on Nintendo, and it just sucked so much time out of our days that, in retrospect, it's like, “What were we doing?” So, I guess you could say we were kind of old-school video gamers back in the day.   Naviere Walkewicz  18:20 It's funny. I was just going to ask you, we knew that you were getting into electrical engineering. What else were you doing? So, it sounds like it wasn't football, but it was Nintendo.   Jason Kim  18:30 I really loved sports. So, I loved taking all the intramural sports and the classes like golf and tennis, and I got into rugby for a little bit, for a minute, which I really enjoyed, but it's not a very forgiving sport, so that didn't last that long. But, you know, I think just the camaraderie you get playing sports like that was fun, and I think from the academic side, you know, I did go into electrical engineering, so I did all the nerdy stuff. That's probably why we didn't cross paths. Also, you probably weren't at the robotics competitions that we were doing, because that's really nerdy. But we got into doing little Roomba robot construction before Roombas existed, and we created our own Pac Man, you know, handheld games from scratch using a box of parts and processors. And my senior design project was pretty interesting. My classmate and I decided to make a digital karaoke machine. You know, using everything we learned from electrical engineering and apply it to something fun. I just remember us just trying to make the most of it with our friends and our classmates, and trying to make it fun, because it could be a lot. I took a lot of semester credit hours my freshman year. I just remember something like 22-plus credit hours. It was just a lot, and you really needed a way to recharge. And so those were some of the ways. But of course, the skiing was amazing. You know, being so close in proximity to all the ski resorts, like Breckenridge and Copper Mountain and Vail — all those great places. So those were always fun things to do. I had my first bowl of pho in Denver.   Naviere Walkewicz  20:49 In Denver?   Jason Kim  20:52 I remember that vividly. I went to one of my first concerts, Smashing Pumpkins at the Nuggets center. And then I got to go to Red Rocks. So, there was a lot of cultural things that I got to be a part of, too.   Naviere Walkewicz  21:09 I love that. So some of the things that you expressed, and I think this is great for our listeners, because, you know, sometimes some of some of our guests have been very, I don't say tunnel vision, but there's very, like, one track they've been really dedicated to, like one aspect. You know, obviously we have to do military, academic and, you know, physical fitness, athleticism, but there's kind of one track that they really hone in on. It seems like you really kind of experienced a lot, and through all of that, I might ask, what were some of the leadership lessons you picked up and learning about yourself, because you kind of talked about that pedestal effect, right? You were really kind of high coming from high school, and then you came to the Academy, and you kind of had to rediscover yourself in a different way. And it looked like you did that. What did you learn?   Jason Kim  21:53 Yeah, so some of the leadership things that I would say, that I got exposed to — and it made me kind of think about it and much later in life, kind of reinforce it — was just to be curious. A lot of times as leaders, you can jump to conclusions but I think one technique that is very helpful, no matter what industry you're in, is just be curious. You know, when you have employees, you could hold folks accountable but be curious about it. Ask the right questions. “Is everything OK? Do you have enough support? Do you have the tools, training to do what you need to? How's your family life?” That kind of stuff. So, I think you could be very curious and compassionate and graceful in terms of leadership, and that's partly learning from good leaders, but also bad leaders that didn't do that. So, I think you got to see both sides as a cadet, and you always want to pick the good leaders and emulate the good behaviors and leave out the bad. So that's one thing I would say. You know, we got this drilled into us, and we didn't even know at the time how important it was. But building that trust with your teams — that's extremely empowering and motivating when you trust someone else, and they trust you, and you can go much, much further when you build that trust up. And then the last thing I would say is, I think we were one of the first classes that had noncommissioned officers alongside with AOCs (Air Officer Commanding) that were there to teach us about mutual respect, about mutual respect between officers and noncommissioned officers. And I think that went a long ways for all of us, because once we went to the real Air Force, we were going to lead a lot of officers and NCOs and getting that kind of exposure early on was helpful. But also learning about mutual respect — that's something that is extremely important in any work setting that you're in. So those are kind of three examples of leadership, things that I would say I remember from the Academy that are also still important today.   Naviere Walkewicz  24:35 I think that's wonderful. Maybe you'll even share an example where you saw either curiosity, compassion or mutual respect really play a role in your professional or personal life after the Academy, but before we get there, I remember you talking about wanting to maybe get into space, right? The astronaut program, be a pilot. How did that all shape out? Because you were an electrical engineer, and then what?   Jason Kim  24:58 So, I really wanted to be a pilot. And for some reason, I really liked the C-17, the Globemaster. And I think it's because it was a fly-by-wire kind of system. It was a stick, but it was like more of a commercial airline-kind of transport plane. So, it was a blend of — fighter pilots use sticks but it was still kind of an air mobility command-kind of system. But, you know, unfortunately, my eyesight, my color deficiency, just didn't allow me to go into that track. So, I really just leaned on and doubled down on my electrical engineering background and got to go to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as my first assignment. And there I was an engineer-slash-project-manager working on uncrewed aerial vehicles before they became popular. So, things like the Global Hawk and the Predator, UAVs, those were things that I was getting exposed to, and I got to put payloads on. If you remember, in the 1999 timeframe, there were Hellfire missiles put on the Predator. I was there when that was happening. And so, it was just very, very amazing to see all that happen before my eyes. I got to work on the U2 and put payloads on the U2 and other very important missions. And I think that exposed me to the real Air Force. Even though I wasn't flying, I got exposed to assets that actually went into the theater and were very valuable. And then from there, I got assigned to L.A. Air Force Base, and finally got to live out my dream of living in Los Angeles, and was assigned to the Space Superiority Material Wing, and that's where we were acquiring satellites and ground systems to help protect our freedom in space. And so, I learned a lot about space there and ground systems. And, you know, after several years working there, I decided I wanted to go into industry. And so, I did two things. I went to a large aerospace company and became a program manager there. You know, now, in charge of designing and building these satellites. So I went part time to UCLA to get my fully employed MBA, just knowing that I wasn't going to know everything about industry. I wasn't going to know everything about how to be part of a company, and so I wanted to kind of learn more about that side of the industry by getting an MBA. Unbeknownst to me, the MBA wasn't just about company operations and finances, it was actually about leadership. And so, I got a lot of leadership lessons from my MBA program as well. So, it gave me a lot of confidence. And what I mean by that is confidence in just going with your gut, taking risks, getting into high-risk, high-reward situations. And it's because I learned about, the company financials, the underpinnings of a company. I learned about entrepreneurism, what it what it's like to start up a company or operate a company or go through different case studies of how to turn around a company. I learned a lot about accounting and how important and valuable that is. But then most of all, I learned a lot from my classmates. And there were people from the Hollywood industry or investment banking or the medical industry. So, it was really great to learn from my classmates. It got me to conference level where I was like, “Hey, what am I doing at this company? I want to take a risk and go to a startup company.” And I did. I took that leap of faith, and that's where our first, you know, joined Millennium Space Systems, which was a small startup company when it was 20 people. But it was something that I guess I go back to the Air Force Academy where, you know, there's that quote in the Eagle and Fledgling statue that says, “Man's flight through life is sustained by the power of his knowledge.” That kind of always stuck with me and it's one of those things where, when you join a startup company, and you help grow it, and eventually we sold the company to Boeing, you learn so much. I mean, I had five different hats, you know, and I had to learn about finance, program management, business development, engineering, integration and test, all that stuff, mission operations — you learn all those things by doing, and no one will ever be able to take that knowledge away. You just, you just get it for life.   Naviere Walkewicz  30:34 Wow, there's, there's so much that, I mean, you covered such a span, because I'm imagining, you know, maybe I don't want to call — maybe “gift” is not the right word, but not being able to be a pilot might have been something that opened up obviously these opportunities for you in ways that you could not have even foreseen. So, I actually wanted to go back to that really quick and just ask, how did you, how did you kind of re-change your thoughts or shape your mindset to, “OK, well, it's not that. So, what's next?” And how did you handle that? Because I think some of our listeners find themselves in situations where, “Well, if I do all these things, then it will lead to this.” But sometimes there are things outside of your control that even if you do all the things, you can't get there.   Jason Kim  31:20 Well, I think, first of all, I'll always be a fan of pilots and aviators and all these fighters and bombers and transport airplanes — I definitely bleed blue still to this day. So, I definitely appreciate all of our classmates that have sacrificed so much to fly in the Air Force and defend us. That's kind of my mindset is, “What can I do to still contribute to the mission to national security?” And so as long as that was kind of my guide-star, I was fine, because I knew that I was contributing to the mission in some way, whether it be acquiring platforms and putting payloads on those platforms to go support our classmates, or today, you know, designing and building systems and operating systems that end up helping national security. It's really the mindset of, “What can I do to help and make a difference, to help defend our country?” So that's how my mindset shifted, because it takes all of us to contribute what we each contribute to make these missions work. And so that's kind of where my head was at.   Naviere Walkewicz  32:50 I think that's fantastic advice. And there's this theme that's been woven since you talked about your parents, and I think it's this, you know, looking forward and investing in yourself and educating yourself. And so along this path, you've done those things. You're also a family man. When did that kind of come to fruition and how does your family feel about when you joining startups and taking risks and doing some of these things?   Jason Kim  33:16 It goes back to my dad. He gave me a lot of great advice when he was still around, and one of the advice was just sharing his regrets. You know, a lot of people thought he was my grandfather because he had me so late. Really,there's something to be said about that. He was very wise. He had a lot of experience in life, and he had global experience and had seen so many different hardships and overcome them. And he would always say, “Hey, I wish I would have taken, you know, that risk and left my company and joined my other co-workers to go start up that other company.” That actually happened. He had co-workers that ended up starting up a different old drilling company in Texas, and he thought it was too much risk at the time. He regrets that, because obviously those people that went over at the time they did, they did well for themselves. So he would tell me stories like that, and really all that wisdom he would just try to share with me from a young age. And it's hard to admit, but at some point in your, all of our lives, we start to realize how right our parents were sometimes, and so, you know, a lot of the risk taking that I'm doing, that I have done, stems from advice that my dad gave me. It's like, “Hey, go for it. Take the risks. Don't have those regrets.” And so, I think I have lived my life in that manner — just minimize the regrets and take some risk and take calculated risk and really be confident with yourself and double down on yourself. So, yeah, absolutely.   Naviere Walkewicz  35:12 I love that. And your family obviously doubles down on — yeah.   Jason Kim  35:16 I mean, I had kids late in life. I really enjoy spending time with my kids. That's how I recharge. You know, I've got a son that's turning 9 this month, and a daughter that turned 6 a couple months ago, and just watching them grow up and be curious and learn and ask questions and try different things out. You know, we try not to push things on our kids, and I'm the same way. I'm not trying to push anything on my kids, but I do want to give them a lot of opportunities that I wish I had, and just expose them to those opportunities, because you just never know which one takes off and which one really resonates with them. And so that's kind of my mindset right now is, “How can I give my son and daughter as many opportunities as possible so that they could figure it out on their own what they want to do,” right?   Naviere Walkewicz  36:09 Well, even the words that you used, you kind of talked about some of those lessons that you took away as a cadet, and you are seeing it in your children, with the way that they ask questions and the way that they explore. So, I think you have kind of taken those and pass it into your legacy line. I do want to ask a question, because we always find it fascinating when we learn more about our guests. So, do you have a hidden talent that you might share with our listeners?     Jason Kim  36:35 I do. I wish I could say it's something that is so fascinating. But really, it's just some something that I could — I could draw and paint really well, and it was something that I just noticed when I was very young. You know, I learned from my older brothers, and they were pretty good at it, too, but I learned at an earlier age than them, and so I've always been able to sketch and draw realistic pictures. When I was younger, drawing Lamborghinis. Because I always wanteda Lamborghini Countach. They don't make those cars in the price points that I would like, so I don't have one today. But I was always drawing things. And, you know, recently, I started painting as well, and it was crazy. I had never done oil painting before, and when I had my first child, my son, whatever got into me, I just picked up a brush and painted a picture of him, and it actually looks like him. And we did a side by side, like picture of him smiling, and the painting of him smiling. It definitely captures his essence, because I never got training or anything. And so, I would say that's my hidden talent. It was even hidden for me. And, you know, it's just amazing — just go for it. Just go do it. And that's one of the things that I would recommend to people that are wanting to go the Air Force Academy is just get out of your comfort zone and do as many things as you can early on, even before going to the Academy. You know, learn different languages. Just learn as much as you can. Learn lifetime sports. Take lessons of swimming or golf or tennis — all those kind of things. Just do as much as you can, because you'll get busy when you're at the Air Force Academy and you'll have less time to do all the things you want to do. But even when you're in industry and you're working, you don't have as much time to go do that kind of stuff. And you may not think you have a lot of time during junior high or high school, but you do, and you should take advantage of just learning as much as you can, and you'll appreciate it later in life when you go travel to Paris or travel to different places like Thailand or, you know, Japan. You know, if you learn those languages, you can explore those places even more in a way that you know is more enriching, and that gets me to that's what I want to do more of, is travel, travel globally with my family. I think that's something that I want to expose my kids to. And a lot of times you grow up in the United States and you start thinking, “Hey, there's only one way to think about stuff.” But when you travel — and I got to travel for work to Paris a couple years — it opened my eyes. It opened my eyes to a different world and how other people think and dress and go about their daily lives. I've also gotten to London recently for work, and that was eye opening as well, and been to Southeast Asia as well. So, it's just fascinating to go to this these different places and learn the cultures and talk the languages and meet the people. It's very enriching.   Naviere Walkewicz So how many languages do you speak?   Jason Kim So, I grew up learning Korean so I can speak a little bit of Korean. I obviously took Spanish because I grew up in Texas, and that Spanish is a very valuable language in Texas, even in California. And because I took Spanish, you know, when I get to the Air Force Academy, what do they do? They said, “Hey, we don't want you to take Spanish. We want you to be the handful of people that takes Arabic.” So, I got the privilege to take Arabic. I got volunteered into it, and it was very, very difficult for me, because I just had no background in it. I struggled with it. But the silver lining is that I learned about a new culture, and I learned about how to write right to left and, you know, just a new language and new foods that go along with it, too. So I really appreciated that. In hindsight, at the time I didn't think it was that easy, but in hindsight, I wish I would have done more and kept the fluency in it, because learning a different language means you can talk to a different group of people, and you can learn more or teach each other new things. So, it just opens a lot of doors.   Naviere Walkewicz  42:02 So, the experiences you've had, both from the Academy and the languages and throughout your career, both professionally as well. It's personally, what's something that you've taken back from those experiences that you might share with a listener that maybe hasn't had that kind of exposure, that they can bring to the leadership table. And how do you use that at yours?   Jason Kim  42:20 I think it just goes back to what it touched on before, is just the curiosity. Just always be curious. You know, I think Ted Lasso had it right. Just be curious, right? If you had just asked questions about, “Hey, did you throw darts when you were younger?” Oh, if you would have known that you would have known that Ted lasso was really good at darts. I think just being curious and being an active listener and asking questions and listening to other people, sometimes people want to vent, or sometimes people want to just be heard or have a voice, or, most of the time, people just have good ideas. And you know, it's all about, “Hey, did I miss something? Did you miss something? Did we both miss something?” If you get all those great ideas and you share it amongst different people from different backgrounds and walks of life, you don't miss as much and you're just better off, you'll have a better solution. And in my industry, you have a better design, you have a better result, performance result. And so, I would just say, just be curious.   Naviere Walkewicz  43:29 What did your road back to the Academy look like? You know, now you're part of a board of (USAFA) Foundation directors, and so you talked about learning from your dad and your mom, always about giving back. So, I have to think that's probably been part of was in the back of your mind. But how did that all come together?   Jason Kim  43:44 You know, I had no road map to do the job that I'm in right now. I never anticipated doing this job, and I also didn't anticipate being on the board of directors for the Air Force Academy Foundation. But I had folks reach out from, you know, the Air Force Academy Foundation, and ask me, “Hey, do you know what we do? You're a big football fan. Are you aware there's a Falcon Stadium renovation?” And I was like, “No, tell me more.” And with that first visit, I actually donated right away, I was like, “I'm on board. Sign me up. I want to donate to this because I believe in it.” You know, Falcon Stadium was where we graduated, right? It's such a memorable place. We saw a lot of football games there. And so, it means so much. So, I was all about donating to that cause. And then I would say that the second time around, when the same person came back and said, just to check up on me — he had mentioned, “Hey, there's this foundation, and they're looking for someone that has a space background, and you have a space background. So, are you interested in potentially coming to a board meeting?” When I went and attended the board meeting as a guest, I just stared around the room, and I was just in awe, because there was Paul Kaminski, who's, to me, is one of my role models in terms of all that he's done for the country and continues to do for the country. And he was on the academic committee. And so, of course, I wanted to join the academic committee. I saw Gen. Eberhardt. I saw Gen. Born, and there were just so many amazing people, Paul Madera, that I was just in awe. And, you know, from that respect, I was like, “Sign me up. I want to be a part of this.” And I saw them and how much they cared about the Academy and the cadets and making sure that the Academy kind of stayed relevant and was giving the cadets the best education that they can to compete with the Stanfords and MITs and the Harvards, I really saw a good cause, and then the fact that they were interested in my space background. I said, “Yeah, I definitely want to be part of whatever I could do to contribute to the Air Force Academy, to graduate not only people that are going to go to the Air Force, but also to the Space Force.” And so that's something I hope to contribute to is maybe someday a future space education center at the Air Force Academy, so that the cadets could get a great education and be future leaders in the Space Force as well.   Naviere Walkewicz  46:53 Well, it certainly makes a difference. And I think I remember seeing you at that first board meeting that you participated in. I was so excited to see you. That was like, oh, '99s in the house. So that was wonderful. Yes, well, I have two questions left. The first one is, really, I want to just ask you, because we've covered so much, and you've given such wonderful, I think, advice and just perspective. But is there anything that I didn't ask you that you had wanted to, you know, talk about today?   Jason Kim  47:20 You know, I think at the end of the day, going through the Air Force Academy is extremely challenging, but after you graduate, and after you go through life experiences, all the hardships, the challenges, what I've realized is going through the Academy kind of helped me overcome what I had to overcome in my adult life and in my industry life. We didn't like it at the time but breaking you down and then building you back up and making you get up back again every time you fall down, gives you life lessons and a confidence in yourself that you can kind of do anything that you put your mind to. I really believe that the Air Force Academy kind of helped me overcome a lot of different hardships in my life. You don't really realize that going through it, but later in life, I appreciate the fact that I went there and getting through there actually gave me the confidence that I could get back up and be OK and keep growing and continuously learn and get better and improve. So that's kind of something that I could attribute to the Air Force Academy.   Naviere Walkewicz  48:49 Oh, that is awesome. And, I mean, and it's obviously taken you to new heights. Leading a corporation is no small feat. So,  one of the things we really like to do is make sure we kind of hear the takeaways, from you to our listeners. So, it's really kind of a message to them. But before we do that and get your final thoughts, I just wanted to offer a note of thanks to our listeners for being here on the Long Blue Leadership. The podcast drops every two weeks on Tuesdays and is available on all your favorite podcast apps. Be sure to send us your thoughts and comments at socialmedia@usafa.org, and listen to past episodes at longblueleadership.org  So, Jason, I want to come back to you now, because I hope that gave you a little bit of time to think about what is the message you'd like to share to our listeners. And our listeners are far and wide. We have those aspiring to go to the Academy, we have family members of cadets, and we have graduates all alike. What would you like to share when you think about kind of your experiences in the realm of leadership?   Jason Kim  49:48 To them, I think the Air Force Academy is a great place to graduate from. It's really hard to get through. So, be really proud of your sons and daughters that are going through it and persevering, and it really is a great experience for them. For those that are prospective students: You're going to get to do things that you never could do anywhere else. You know, jump out of planes fly gliders, eventually go into the Air Force or Space Force. And then for graduates, we've made so many lifelong friends, and we've made so many memories. It's something we can all do is give back, whether it's — go march back from Jacks Valley, or go to the reunion this year for our 25th reunion for the class of '99, or go to some football games. The Foundation has plenty of great, noble causes to donate to, because it's all about that Long Blue Line. We want the next set of cadets to get an even better experience in education than we did. We want to keep it going.   Naviere Walkewicz  51:12 It is always a pleasure to not only hear your voice, but today, I got to see you as well. That just brings me such joy, and I can't wait until our reunion, just in a couple of months as well. Thank you so much for your time today, Jason, it's been amazing. Lil' Kim, thank you. Bye.   KEYWORDS Jason Kim, Firefly Aerospace, Air Force Academy, immigrant parents, work ethic, space shuttle program, Gulf War, military career, pedestal effect, curiosity, compassion, trust, mutual respect, leadership, CEO, curiosity, compassion, mutual respect, electrical engineering, startup, satellites, taking risks, giving back     The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation      

Ray joins us to discuss his upcoming and last appearance in 2024 at the Taylor, Michigan Public Library on October 16th at 6:00 pm Eastern. Link to his live presentation in Taylor: https://taylor.lib.mi.us/event/not-swamp-gas-the-true-story-of-the-1966-ufo/ It's FREE but hurry the seats are limited to just 50 people so this would be a great opportunity to be in a small group about this topic! Ray is a returning guest on the show and an award winning author /researcher, Raymond Szymanski, is the acknowledged expert on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) and its alien connections. In his first book, *Alien Shades of Greys: Evidence of Extraterrestrial Visitation to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Beyond, Raymond reveals compelling photographic evidence and research that supports long held rumors of Wright-Patterson's alien involvement. In his 2nd book of the *Alien Shades of Greys trilogy, Victoria's Secret Truth, Raymond presents an in-depth, convincing two-year case study for Close Encounters of the 7th Kind that crosses multiple generations of the same family. The final entry in the trilogy is Swamp Gas My Ass, the true exploits of two American heroes who intercepted the famous 1966 Michigan Swamp Gas UFO, an interplanetary visitor that governments officials tried to explain away as “marsh gas." Remember we are not alone and KEEP THOSE EYES TO THAT SKY! :-) ********************************************************* You can email the hosts with your UFO/UAP and Paranormal stories at: mi.ufo.podcast@gmail.com Help support the show with the links below: Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjUTzsRX5rBq9_r7_YtaEJg/join You can now purchase our Merch on the "STORE" TAB in the channel description All Our Links Including Our MERCH Store: https://linktr.ee/mi.ufo.podcast Paypal: Donate via paypal: https://paypal.me/miufo Become a Patreon supporter and get a show shoutout for as long as you're a member! Become a Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/miufospep --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michiganufos/support

Easton Hawk art - https://eastonhawkart.etsy.com Deep in the heartland of America lies Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, a place shrouded in mystery and conspiracy theories. From reverse engineering foreign aircraft to UFO research, Wright-Patterson has been at the center of many intriguing stories. The base's history dates back to the Wright brothers and has been involved in aviation experiments, upper atmospheric testing, and the training of astronauts. The infamous Roswell incident is also connected to Wright-Patterson, adding to its mystique. While some theories may be far-fetched, there is enough factual evidence to understand the basis of these conspiracies. The conversation explores various eyewitness accounts and testimonies related to the Roswell incident and the presence of aliens at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Witnesses include pilots, former employees, and UFO researchers who claim to have seen wreckage, alien bodies, and unusual materials. The conversation also touches on the skepticism surrounding these accounts and the government's alleged cover-up. The chapter titles could be: 1. Eyewitness Testimonies at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 2. The Unusual Materials and Wreckage, 3. The Controversial Claims of Ted Phillips, 4. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

Who's up for some thrash metal?Megadeth is one of the founding bands of the thrash metal genre, and considered one of the "big four" of U.S. thrash metal (along with Anthrax, Metallica, and Slayer).  The heart of the band, primary songwriter, and sole constant member of the band throughout the years is Dave Mustaine.  The formation of the band is well known as a revenge effort on Mustaine's part.  He was fired from his role as lead guitarist of Metallica just prior to the recording of their debut album due to personal issues with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, and due to drug abuse problems.  The name of the group was inspired by a political pamphlet from Alan Cranston that read "The arsenal of megadeath can't be rid no matter what the peace treaties come to."  Mustaine took the word out of that pamphlet and adjusted the spelling.Rust In Peace is the group's fourth studio album, released in late September but featured in November as it was gaining traction with fans at the time.  The album name came from a bumper sticker Mustaine saw that read, "May all your nuclear weapons rust in peace."  It was the first album to feature Marty Friedman on guitar and Nick Menza on drums.  Dave Mustaine is on guitars and lead vocals, and long time collaborator David Ellefson completes the quartet on bass and backing vocals.The album takes on a number of topics including religion, plitics, warfare, and personal issues Dave Mustaine was dealing with such as drug and alcohol addiction.  Mustaine explored a number of religious expressions over his life, and became a born again Christian after attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and focusing on his Christian faith.  Lynch brings us this hallmark album of thrash metal in this week's podcast Holy Wars...the Punishment DueThe opening track starts fast, shifts to a slower acoustic bridge, and finishes at a higher speed.  The lyrics discuss religious conflict with particular attention being paid to the situations in Israel and Northern Ireland.  The subtitle "the Punishment Due" is a reference to the Marvel comic book character called the Punisher.  It was the first single released from the album  Hangar 18The second single is the second track from the album, and was inspired by the Roswell alien conspiracy theory.  Hangar 18 is supposedly located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and was believed to be the location where an alien spacecraft and/or bodies were stored.Tornado of SoulsThis is a somewhat deeper cut since it was never released as a single, but it is considered a staple of the band's discography.  Marty Friedman's guitar solo in this piece is considered one of the best metal solos of all time, and one of the hardest to play.  Bassist David Ellefson co-wrote the lyrics, making it one of the few songs on the album not written by Mustane alone.Rust in Peace...PolarisThe concluding song reflects the album title.  It is written from the perspective of a Polaris nuclear weapon, and reflects the catastrophic consequences of nuclear warfare.   ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:Shotgun by Junior Walker & The All Stars (from the motion picture “Misery”)This movie based on the Stephen King novel starring James Caan and Kathy Bates would win Bates an Oscar for Best Actress. STAFF PICKS:Full Circle by the Jeff Healey BandRob starts the staff pick with this blues-infused pick which is the lead track to the Jeff Healey Band's second album, "Hell to Pay."  Bobby Whitlock, a member of the supergroup Derek and the Dominos is playing the Hammond organ on this piece.  Jeff Healey, blind since an early age, was known for holding his guitar in his lap while playing.Vigilante Man by Hindu Love GodsWayne's staff pick is a bit of a super group.  Warren Zevon got together with the members of REM minus Michael Stipe to create this single album on a lark.  The group recorded old standards for the album, and this one was originally done by Woody Guthrie in 1940.  The song itslef is about hired thugs who would chase away migrants trying to escape the Dust Bowl by moving to California.Traveling Riverside Blues by Led ZeppelinBruce features another cover song, this one written by Robert Johnson in 1937.  Led Zeppelin recorded it in 1969, but it was not released until 1990, over ten years after "Fool in the Rain," their last single.  It hit number 7 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart in November 1990.Blaze of Glory by Jon Bon JoviLynch finishes the staff picks with a rock ballad containing elements of country and western, written for the motion picture "Young Guns II."  It won the Golden Globe award for Best Original Song, and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it one of Bon Jovi's most successful solo hits. INSTRUMENTAL TRACK:Theme from the motion picture "Dances with Wolves" by the Royal Scots Dragoon GuardsThis cinematic piece accompanied the Kevin Costner Western which was out in 1990. Thanks for listening to “What the Riff?!?” NOTE: To adjust the loudness of the music or voices, you may adjust the balance on your device. VOICES are stronger in the LEFT channel, and MUSIC is stronger on the RIGHT channel.Please follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/whattheriffpodcast/, and message or email us with what you'd like to hear, what you think of the show, and any rock-worthy memes we can share.Of course we'd love for you to rate the show in your podcast platform!**NOTE: What the Riff?!? does not own the rights to any of these songs and we neither sell, nor profit from them. We share them so you can learn about them and purchase them for your own collections.

EPISODE 114 | All Your Base Are Belong to Us – US Military Installations The United States spends more on their military than the next nine countries combined. With around 450 bases (or maybe 500 or maybe 750 or maybe 800 or even more) operating more than 111,000 installations in 80 or more countries, there's a lot to keep track of. In fact, no one is really sure how accurate those numbers are, since a lot of places are deemed classified or even top secret, and yes, cover stories have sometimes been deployed. Some of the things we do know about are pretty interesting and often sad or infuriating, depending on your outlook. And yet that's not enough for some folks, who feel the need to fill in the gaps with long, complicated conspiracy narratives that are better suited to novels than anywhere else.  Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. #ConspiracyClearinghouse #sharingiscaring #donations #support #buymeacoffee You can also SUBSCRIBE to this podcast. Review us here or on IMDb! SECTIONS 02:43 - Living in Danger - "Wargames", NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain, Mount Yamantau and the Perimeter System 08:14 - Happy Nation - Granite Mountain, Utah Data Center and PRISM; Dugway Proving Ground, CHASE and the Sheep Kill Incident; the Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas, Project 112 and SHAD; Nellis AFB, Pahute Mesa and the Tolicha Peak Electronic Combat Range 17:14 - Waiting for Magic - Area 51, OXCART/D-21/Tagboard, Operation Diamond, AQUATONE and the U2, Majestic 12 stuff, the alien autopsy, Sean David Morton, Bob Lazar, Dan Burisch, Bill Moore, Storm Area 51, the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository and the Tonopah Test Range, Area 6  23:08 - The Sign - Edwards AFB, Plant 42 and Site 10; 1957 UFO sighting at Kirtland AFB, Paul Bennewitz, Richard Doty and Yucca Mountain 32:03 - Always Have, Always Will - Wright-Patterson AFB, Hangar 18 and T-2; Camp Hero, the Montauk Project, Lab 257 on Plum Island; COG sites - Mount Weather and TWA flight 514; Raven Rock and Site R 37:23 - Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry - Fort Detrick, USAMRIID, Building 470, Operation Whitecoat, Operation INFEKTION/Denver 42:34 - Don't Turn Around - Fort Hunt and P.O. Box 1142, Camp Peary and The Farm (Veritania) 46:03 - All That She Wants - The Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Hangar 511 47:49 - Wheel of Fortune - James Casbolt's DUMBs Music by Fanette Ronjat More Info EPISODE 31 | Scammers, Inc. - MJ-12, Bennewitz & Serpo EPISODE 44 | The Philadelphia Experiment & the Montauk Project - Time Tunnel Vision EPSIODE 85 | Project Pegasus - Mars and Beyond! EPISODE 94 | Peek-A-Boo: Project Star Gate THE UNITED STATES SPENDS MORE ON DEFENSE THAN THE NEXT 9 COUNTRIES COMBINED The World's 30 Strangest Military Bases in Popular Mechanics Listverse's 10 Not-So-Secret Classified Military Installations No Trespassing: America's Ultra-Secret Sites on Spyscape 10 Military Bases More Secret Than Area 51 on Serve Most Interesting TOP SECRET US Military Facilities on Covert Cabal channel (video) 15 Most Secret Military Bases on Top Fives channel (video) 15 Most ADVANCED Military Bases on Top Fives channel (video) Worlds Most Famous Secret Bases on Sideprojects channel (video) 13 secrets of NORAD and Cheyenne Mountain on Denver ABC 7 The Granite Mountain Records Vault - take the virtual tour Military Mystery Solved: Two Guys Out-Googled Google for an Image of Secretive US Base on LiveScience Tolicha Peak Electronic Combat Range at Otherhand.org UFOs seen near Nellis Air Force Base which is home to aliens, conspiracy theorist claims Revealed: How Area 51 Hid Secret Craft  Alien Autopsy video  Area 51 warning: Man shot dead for trying to enter military base The Secret Facility "Hangar 18" Crashed UFOs in Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (video) Air Force Names Wright-Patterson's Hangar 18 as Newest Software Factory How the Death of 6,000 Sheep Spurred the American Debate on Chemical Weapons National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) ALIEN WAR and The Horrors of Dulce Underground Base on The Why Files channel (video) Long hidden, a Nazi-interrogation unit gets its due Spy School Confidential: CIA Officers Spill Secrets About ‘the Farm' on Spyscape EX-CIA AGENT TELLS OF SIX-WEEK PEARY COURSE extract from the Richmond Times Dispatch, 1972 Operation Whitecoat on PBS Religion & Ethics Weekly Article on Hangar 511 titled Hangar Life James Casbolt MI6 -Buried Alive pdf Underground Bases, Missing Children and Extra-Terrestrials 2006 testimony by James Casbolt Agent Buried Alive - a whole bunch of Casbolt/Project Mannequin stuff  Follow us on social: Facebook Twitter Other Podcasts by Derek DeWitt DIGITAL SIGNAGE DONE RIGHT - Winner of a 2022 Gold Quill Award, 2022 Gold MarCom Award, 2021 AVA Digital Award Gold, 2021 Silver Davey Award, 2020 Communicator Award of Excellence, and on numerous top 10 podcast lists.  PRAGUE TIMES - A city is more than just a location - it's a kaleidoscope of history, places, people and trends. This podcast looks at Prague, in the center of Europe, from a number of perspectives, including what it is now, what is has been and where it's going. It's Prague THEN, Prague NOW, Prague LATER

In this episode, we sit down with Special Agent Chris Graham, Director of Operations, Procurement Fraud Detachment, Air Force Office of Special Investigation, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Special Agent Graham discusses the history and mission of AFOSI, his role in investigating procurement fraud, and the daily life of a Special Agent. He talks about "finding the lie" and "following the money," as well as the Procurement Fraud Triangle, which consists of pressure, rationalization, and opportunity—three elements that often comprise the psychology of a fraudster. He also shares insights into the collaboration between AFOSI and the contracting community, emphasizing the importance of cybersecurity and data protection. Tune in to hear real-life examples of fraud cases and learn how contracting professionals play a vital role in safeguarding critical resources. If you would like to share feedback on the podcast, please submit via thecontractingexperience@gmail.com. Register at https://www.dvidshub.net/ to access transcripts of the podcast.

In this compelling interview, recorded on May 21, 2024, Colonel Karl Nell, former leader of the UAP Task Force, shares his insights on non-human intelligence (NHI) and UAPs. With a distinguished 30-year military career in aerospace and intelligence, Nell provides authoritative perspectives on these phenomena. He discusses his roles at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Bell Labs, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, and asserts with zero doubt that NHI exists and interacts with humanity. Nell also outlines six reasons for the government's reluctance to disclose UAP information and argues for the moral imperative of transparency. Join us as we explore the implications of his bold statements and the future of UAP disclosure.Podcast published on 23 May 2024.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lehto-files-investigating-uaps--5990774/support.

This episode of The Contracting Experience features Andrea Edmonds, a certified training instructor at the 88th Force Support Squadron, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Edmonds teaches several courses addressing generational differences in the workplace. In this episode, she discusses the origins and key takeaways of her course, explaining the characteristics and dynamics of the various generations currently in the workforce. Edmonds addresses common challenges and misperceptions about generational differences, providing practical advice for effectively collaborating with colleagues from different age groups. Her insights offer valuable guidance for enhancing group dynamics and creating a more inclusive, adaptable, and effective work environment. Generations defined: Traditionalist (Silent Generation): Those born from 1928-1945 Baby Boomers: Those born from 1946-1964 Generation X: Those born from 1965-1980 Millennials (Generation Y): Those born from 1981-1996 Generation Z: Those born from 1997-2012 Generation Alpha: Those born from 2013 to present If you would like to share feedback on the podcast, please submit via thecontractingexperience@gmail.com. Register at https://www.dvidshub.net/ to access transcripts of the podcast.

Join us on this special Mother's Day edition of Michigan UFOs/Paranormal Encounters as we welcome Ray Szymanski AARO reports and inside information about the Air Force attempting to keep the UFO status quo! Something big is going on! Grab a drink, your favorite snack, and hold on to your hats as we go for a wild ride down the rabbit hole!!! Raymond Szymanski is an award winning author, researcher, and lecturer, Raymond Szymanski, is the acknowledged expert on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) and its alien connections. In the first book of the Alien Shades of Greys trilogy, Fifty Shades of Greys: Evidence of Extraterrestrial Visitation to Wright- Patterson Air Force Base and Beyond, Raymond reveals compelling photographic evidence and research that supports long-held rumors of Wright-Patterson's alien involvement. Forty years of employment at the fabled Air Force Base, where Roswell crash wreckage was examined, has given Raymond unique access to locations and individuals providing tantalizing information on Men in Black, rumored alien burial sites, and the famous but elusive Hangar 18. Raymond has appeared on the History Channel's Ancient Aliens series; The Discovery Channel's Expedition X Premier Episode (where host, Josh Gates referred to Ray as “my Wright-Patt guy”); Science Channel's Mission Unexplained; Dayton Fox 45 Morning Show, Youngstown NBC Morning Show, The Boom Boom Room with Ray Mancini, and has been quoted and amusingly misquoted in every major UK tabloid including The Sun, The Express, and The Daily Mail. ********************************************* You can email the hosts with your UFO/UAP and Paranormal stories at: mi.ufo.podcast@gmail.com Help support the show with the links below: Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjUTzsRX5rBq9_r7_YtaEJg/join You can now purchase our Merch on the "STORE" TAB in the channel description All Our Links Including Our MERCH Store: https://linktr.ee/mi.ufo.podcast Paypal: Donate via paypal: https://paypal.me/miufo Become a Patreon supporter and get a show shoutout for as long as you're a member! Become a Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/miufospep --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michiganufos/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michiganufos/support

Bios Matthew S. Keene, MD (Director) Dr. Keene is a physician, entrepreneur, and business leader. Dr. Keene attended Georgetown University School of Medicine on a full military scholarship and graduated with multiple honors. He received his residency training at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Upon completing his residency, Dr. Keene served as a Major in the United States Air Force. After serving his country, Dr. Keene Co-founded the Scottsdale Center for the Advancement of Neuroscience (S.C.A.N.), an internationally recognized "Center of Neuroscience Excellence." The success of S.C.A.N. caught the attention of several Fortune 500 healthcare companies, including Medco Health Solutions (NYSE: MHS). He joined Medco and served as Vice President in order to create and direct their Neuroscience Therapeutic Resource Center, developing programs that brought value to the company while improving the lives of 10 million patients. In addition to his work as a physician and leader in professional education/clinical program development, Dr. Keene's corporate experiences and entrepreneurial spirit have afforded him the opportunity to manage and invest in several real estate/business developments. He owns/manages multiple investments nationwide, encompassing farming, fuel storage, healthcare, retail, and multifamily projects. Dr. Keene is the author of the award-winning book Chocolate is My Kryptonite: Feeding Your Feelings / How to Survive the Forces of Food. He served as a consultant to The Oprah Winfrey Show, America Talks Health, Wall Street, and several national periodicals. He currently directs one of Arizona's premiere outpatient chemical dependency treatment programs and serves as a consultant to multiple pharmaceutical companies as well as The Arizona Medical Board David A. Stone, PhD Dr. Stone is an entrepreneur, sales leader, and psychologist. Dr. Stone received his doctorate from Michigan State University with an emphasis in neuropsychology.  He received his residency training at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.  Upon completion of his residency, Dr. Stone served as a Captain in the United States Air Force. Dr. Stone had earlier received his master's degree in counseling psychology during which time he co-authored two research studies on personality assessment. After serving his country, Dr. Stone pivoted into professional sales. He spent the next 20 years in a variety of roles in business-to-business technology sales.  Most of Dr. Stone's time was spent with Convergint culminating in his promotion to Sales Director for the Seattle branch. He had leadership responsibility for 13 colleagues and $50,000,000 in yearly revenue.  Dr. Stone's team repeatedly exceeded sales goals and in 2018 was named the Convergint global branch of the year.  Dr. Stone completed his tenure with Convergint by serving as the Program Manager for the Convergint Development Program.  In this role, Dr. Stone recruited, on-boarded, trained, and coached over 100 new sales and operations colleagues. During Covid, Dr. Stone discovered an interest in creating games to lessen the isolation people were feeling during that time. In 2021 Dr. Stone formed Doozy Games and began self-publishing games.  His first game, Doozy Dice, is an award-winning game of strategy and chance.  Dr. Stone is in the process of bringing 3 more games to market to include Boozy Dice, Kadoozy, and Think Like a Shrink.  Dr, Stone has been nominated for the MoJo Nation Top 100 which is a list of the 100 most influential figures currently working in the world of toys and games. Sign up for 10% off of Shrink Rap Radio CE credits at the Zur Institute

This week on the podcast, Meghan talks with Mandy Taylor and Lexie Knick two teachers from Fairborn High School who lead the Environmental Club and are also members of the Fairborn Environmental Advisory Board (FEAB). They discuss what the Environmental Club does, the club's involvement in Arbor Day along with the Environmental Branch of Wright Patterson Air Force Base, and finally we discuss Mandy and Lexie's role on FEAB and the celebration planned for Earth Day with BW Greenway.The conversation is insightful and entertaining at times, we hope you enjoy! Happy Earth Week.

UFO encounters expert and military aerospace historian  @michaelschrattofficial beams in to discuss UAP disclosure, military industrial complex conspiracies and alien bodies on episode 148 of the Far Out with Faust podcast. Michael Schratt is a private pilot/aviation historian who has been investigating UFO encounters for over 25 years. So far, he has reviewed over 50,000 UFO cases preserved at the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago. He's developed relationships with contacts who have had first hand experience dealing with classified “black programs,” including former USAF pilots, retired Naval personnel and aerospace engineers who have maintained a TOP SECRET Q “MAJIC” clearance.Michael has appeared on multiple media platforms including Coast to Coast AM, History Channel, Paranormal Matrix, UFO Hunters and Fade to Black. He has also been a guest speaker at multiple UFO conferences including Phoenix MUFON, Orange County MUFON, International UFO Congress, MUFON Symposium and UFO CON.In this episode, Faust and Michael go back — way back — in time to shed light on some of the most interesting (and infamous) UFO encounters, crashes and cover ups. Topics include:-How long has the US government been hiding anti-gravity technology?-What doe eyewitnesses say really happened at Roswell?-Were alien bodies found at Roswell?-Wright Field: the original Area 51-What role did famous pilot Black Mac play in alien disclosure?-Did Tesla invent a directed energy weapon?-What role did flying saucers play in WWII?-The nature of classified and black ops reverse engineering programs-How the government funds defense contractors creating UAP technologies through covert ops and drug trafficking-Where were alien bodies and survivors taken?Stay tuned as Michael takes Faust on a journey through past encounters and crash retrieval cases, including:-Papagos Indian Reservation 1947-White Sands Missile Range 1947-Berkeley University 1947-Wright-Patterson Air Force Base 1953-Fort Polk, Louisiana 1953-Walker Air Force Base 1954-Cherry Point North Carolina 1963…and more!Check out Michael Schratt's book, Dark Files: https://a.co/d/hXLCRQmConnect with MichaelYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@michaelschrattofficialX: twitter.com/SchrattOfficialWebsite: http://www.projectblueroom.com/#Podcast #UAP #Extraterrestrial

In the 1950s and 60s, a unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio collected and investigated UFO sightings – including quite a few in Wisconsin communities. The Air Force concluded that most of the reports were due to easily explainable phenomena, but other cases aren't so easily explained. Shereen Siewert welcomes author and podcaster […]

In this episode of the Trust Your Voice Podcast, host Sylvie Légère engages in a thought-provoking discussion with Congresswoman Laurel Lee. Throughout the conversation, they delve into Lee's journey into politics, her unwavering commitment to public service, and the challenges she faced in stepping into a new role. They also tackle the pressing issues of restoring trust in American political institutions and the importance of constructive engagement in the democratic process. This enlightening dialogue offers valuable insights into the responsibilities of a House representative, highlighting the complexities and nuance of their work.  By sharing Lee's experiences and perspectives, this episode gives a compelling reminder of the significance of active participation in shaping our communities. It serves as an invitation for listeners to consider the impact of their own voices and engagement in the democratic process, encouraging thoughtfulness and introspection on the role each individual plays in contributing to the broader conversation of civic leadership and engagement.    Guest speaker bio:  Congresswoman Laurel Lee, representing Florida's 15th District since January 2023, has a rich background in public service. Born in a military family at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, she has a deep commitment to representing her district in Congress. Prior to her congressional role, Laurel served as Florida's Secretary of State under the DeSantis Administration, where she enhanced the state's election infrastructure and cybersecurity. Before that, she was a Circuit Court Judge in Florida's Thirteenth Judicial Court, appointed by then-Governor Rick Scott, and worked as a federal prosecutor handling a wide range of criminal offenses.

Inside the Military's Fight Against Drug Use: Origins, Myths, and Insights Into The Drug Demand Reduction Program with Expert Steve Callon 1. Introduction In a recent HeroFront podcast episode, host Josh White engaged in a compelling conversation with Mr. Steven G. Callon, the Drug Demand Reduction Program Manager for the Air Force Materiel Command stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Their discussion traversed the landscape of drug demand reduction, leadership, military life, and the transformative evolution of drug testing within the military. Drug demand reduction stands as a pivotal component of military culture, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a drug-free environment to uphold readiness and safety standards. 2. Steven G. Callon's Background Steven G. Callon boasts an impressive military career, culminating in his current role as the Drug Demand Reduction Program Manager. His journey includes serving as a dedicated drug and alcohol counselor, offering vital support to service members grappling with substance abuse issues. 3. Leadership and Military Retirement Mr. Callon's insights into leadership are informed by his extensive experience and enriched by his reflections on military retirement. His recommended leadership books provide timeless wisdom applicable both within and beyond the military context. Transitioning from military service to civilian life remains a significant milestone, underscored by the importance of maintaining connections within the Air Force community. 4. Unusual Experiences in Drug and Alcohol Counseling In the realm of drug and alcohol counseling, Mr. Callon shares intriguing anecdotes of navigating unexpected situations during counseling sessions. These experiences underscore the complexity and sensitivity required in addressing substance abuse issues within the military. 5. Evolution of Drug Demand Reduction Programs Reflecting on his tenure, Mr. Callon highlights proud moments and mentorship experiences that have shaped his approach to drug demand reduction. The evolution from traditional interdiction strategies towards a more nuanced emphasis on demand reduction underscores the military's commitment to holistic approaches in combating substance abuse. 6. Drug Testing Procedures in the Military The intricate process of drug testing within the military involves meticulous protocols, including random selection processes and stringent notification procedures. Mr. Callon provides insights into the comprehensive testing process, encompassing sample collection, analysis, and adherence to regulatory standards. 7. Drug Use and Consequences in the Military The ramifications of drug use within the military are profound, potentially culminating in separation from service. Mr. Callon delves into the legal procedures and available options for individuals confronted with positive drug test results, emphasizing the gravity of maintaining a drug-free environment to uphold military readiness. 8. Seeking Help and Support Seeking help for drug addiction is paramount, particularly for individuals occupying positions of authority within the military hierarchy. Mr. Callon shares personal narratives and reflections on overcoming challenges, underscoring the importance of resilience and support networks in navigating professional and personal endeavors. 9. Leadership, Mentorship, and Legacy As Mr. Callon expresses gratitude towards his mentors, he reflects on their enduring impact on his journey. In conclusion, he offers poignant insights into the essence of leadership, mentorship, and the enduring legacy cultivated through dedicated service within the military.

This week's Everyday Business Leader celebrates Rose Myers: I never aspired to be a martial artist, nor to own and operate a martial arts school, but God had other plans that I followed willingly. *MY* plan was earning an Environmental Engineering degree from the University of Dayton and working to protect the state of Indiana working at IDEM (Indy's EPA). Then I was told I had a hormonal disease that prevented me from conceiving children. But God is greater than science and had bigger plans for me. After giving birth, I retired from my engineering job for this single chance of parenting my precious child. Backing up a bit, my senior year in college someone was raped by my campus house, driving me to seek training from my internship co-worker at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. After college I relocated to Indiana, entered the ATA, and began formal training. I earned my First Degree Black Belt and entered the Certified Instructor Training program in December of 1999. I earned my Instructor Certification and signed my first contract to teach in 2002, not knowing I was pregnant. After my daughter was born, I opened a taekwondo program within the Greenwood Community Center, so I could enjoy her during the day, and her dad could enjoy her at night while I taught. Many students and 3 locations later, my husband retired from his engineering career and came to work for Pilsung. ATA requires the rank of 6 th Degree Black belt and completion of an extensive program to earn the title of Master Instructor. My “covid project” was passing one of the most unique tests in ATA history and completing the year-long Mastership process in 2021. That year I was honored locally as the Center Grove Icon of the year. Last year I celebrated 25 years in the ATA and 20 years running my own program. Pilsung is the Korean word for “Personal Victory,” that sense of accomplishment after doing something worthy. I chose the name as a reminder of my goal for every student. Yes, we teach traditional martial arts, but they're really a vehicle to deliver the truly important life skills. I have the honor an privilege of growing students in discipline, honor, respect, self-esteem, belief, and leadership. We work hard to have a positive impact on our community through their Black Belt community projects, as well as partnering with valuable organizations within the community. I strive to create better leaders to “be the change I wish to see in the world.” https://pilsungata.com/ https://fb.watch/pOpVKdnoV_/ https://www.gofundme.com/f/julians-fight-against-myleodysplastic-syndrome https://myiconmedia.com/center-grove-icon-december-18-31-2021/ https://www.wthr.com/article/life/greenwood-woman-reaches-rare-milestone-in-taekwondo-pilsung-martial-arts-rose-myers-indiana-black-belt-sixth-6th-degree-indiana/531-cfc8cd84-18a7-4fbd-ac35-9899b5b816fb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TmjDBYTsyY   Thank you for following Everyday Leaders. If you've been following us since 2018, we appreciate your support and look forward to continuing to add value to you if this is the first time you're finding us, welcome! We are a husband and wife media team based in Indianapolis, IN, and have been helping clients build their marketing and media strategies for over 20 years. I am your host, and my husband Joe, https://Joeakestudios.com, is the producer, director, and editor of the Everyday Leaders media programs, virtual and live event broadcasts, and more. We are excited to bring you a new focus on this platform, celebrating Everyday Business Leaders in our local community. Don't forget to subscribe to our YOUTUBE Channel, turn on notifications, and never miss an episode! Watch the full LIVE in-studio interview here from JPtheGeek Studio in Greenwood, Indiana: https://www.youtube.com/@MelahniAkeEverydayLeaders Everyday Business Leaders is a program dedicated to elevating our business leaders who inspire us to connect and thrive in our local community. A note from Melahni Ake, Founder of Everyday Leaders. When you visit EverydayLeaders.com, you will find valuable resources to become a better leader in your life, including. Women's Leadership Programs, including Top Floor Women Monthly Networking events, corporate workshops, and strategic business coaching services, discover personal development classes and products to develop yourself, including morning leadership devotionals and more. Order one of my inspirational books, sign up for classes, or pick up some gear in the leader store, listen to the Everyday Business Leaders podcast, apply to be a guest in our studio, or sponsor our show with your commercial advertisement. Contact us today at https://www.everydayleaders.com. #everydayleaderschangetheworld #interviews #inspiration #businessleaders #inspiration #jpthegeek #podcast #studiointerview #passiontopurpose #communitybuilding #collaboration #celebration #supportlocal #supportsmallbusiness #maxwellleadership #familybusiness #nonprofit #becauseone #podcast

In this show, we dive deep into the dynamic world of baseball operations, pitching development, and the intersection of analytics and player performance. As the Director of Operations and Pitching Development for Indiana Baseball, Denton brings a wealth of experience in budgeting, scheduling, travel coordination, and video breakdown, providing listeners with a behind-the-scenes look at the intricacies of running a successful baseball program. His role extends beyond the administrative, as he collaborates with pitching coach Dustin Glant on pitch design, video analysis, and the integration of cutting-edge technologies like TrackMan and Rapsodo. Denton served as the Director of Baseball Operations at Wright State University, where he delved into the world of analytics and its crucial role in player development. His unique journey includes a stint as an aerospace engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, specializing in computational fluid dynamics—an expertise that adds a fascinating dimension to his perspective on the game. Join us as Denton shares insights from his multifaceted career, from coaching varsity baseball at Centerville High School to being a two-time letterwinner for the University of Dayton's baseball program. Learn about his experiences as part of the 2012 Atlantic 10 championship team that qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Whether you're a baseball enthusiast, a student of analytics, or simply curious about the behind-the-scenes of America's favorite pastime, this episode promises to be a home run. Tune in for an engaging conversation that goes beyond the diamond with Denton Sagerman!

Tonight, “The Light Gate” welcomes researcher, author, presenter, Raymond Szymanksi. Episode: 32 Date: December 4th, 2023 Discussion: Book: Fifty Shades of Greys About The Guest: Raymond is A four-decade U.S. Government senior scientist turned paranormal researcher and author, with his book, “Fifty Shades of Greys,” Raymond Szymanski takes you inside the Top Secret Holy Grail of Ufology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, to look at alien visitation possibilities that have never been previously explored. His interest in Extraterrestrials and their connection to Wright-Patt was ignited during his first week of government employment by a mentor who eventually earned promotion to the exclusive ranks of the Senior Executive Service. This intriguing back-story and many revelatory adventures are presented as Raymond investigates his way through the UFO/ET phenomena, transforming from a curious, skeptical researcher to a firm believer in the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis. Relying on decades of professional experience, Raymond does his own research, investigating available ‘facts' and theories all the way to ground – trusting yet verifying. The result is an exclusive, first-person adventure story described in a fast read narrative, illustrated by never-before-published photographs. The Truth is definitely in there. The first book is followed up by “Alien Shades of Greys: Victoria's Secret Truth,” the second non-fiction book in the Alien Shades of Greys trilogy. This book is an in-depth case study of lifelong, multi-generational contact with unidentified visitors. The compelling medical, clinical, physical, photographic, audio, and video evidence is subjected it to critical scrutiny before arriving at unavoidable conclusions. The fast-paced narrative in Victoria's Secret Truth is beautifully enhanced by over 60 photographs which document the corroborative physical evidence and take the reader inside the experiencers' sites. Included in this in-depth study are compelling and revealing transcripts and video captures documenting Victoria's four hypnotic regressions by three world class hypnotherapists - Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle, Barbara Lamb, and Yvonne Smith. Ray is also the author of the book, “Swamp Gas, My Ass.” This book is the extraordinary true story of two highly decorated U. S. Air Force fighter-interceptor pilots, fully enmeshed in America's hidden military history. Together they intercepted the world famous “1966 Michigan Swamp Gas UFO” in supersonic F-106 jets – a history changing story, denied by the government, told here for the very first time. LINKS: http://itsaufo.wixsite.com/rayszymanski https://www.facebook.com/RaymondSzymanskiETAuthor

Here are some historical events that happened on November 21st:1620: The Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower reach Cape Cod, Massachusetts.1783: Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight in Paris, France.1877: Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a device capable of both recording and reproducing sound.1916: World War I: The Battle of the Somme ends after more than four months of fierce fighting.1927: Columbine Mine Massacre: Striking coal miners are attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police in Colorado, USA.1974: The United Nations General Assembly grants the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) observer status.1980: A deadly fire breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, killing 87 people.1995: The Dayton Agreement is initialed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, ending the Bosnian War.2002: NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia to become members.2017: Robert Mugabe resigns as President of Zimbabwe after 37 years in power.These are just a few notable events that occurred on November 21st throughout history.Podcast Website:https://atozenglishpodcast.com/a-to-z-this-day-in-world-history-november-21st/Social Media:Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/671098974684413/Tik Tok:@atozenglish1Instagram:@atozenglish22Twitter:@atozenglish22A to Z Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/theatozenglishpodcastCheck out our You Tube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCds7JR-5dbarBfas4Ve4h8ADonate to the show: https://app.redcircle.com/shows/9472af5c-8580-45e1-b0dd-ff211db08a90/donationsRobin and Jack started a new You Tube channel called English Word Master. You can check it out here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2aXaXaMY4P2VhVaEre5w7ABecome a member of Podchaser and leave a positive review!https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-a-to-z-english-podcast-4779670Join our Whatsapp group: https://forms.gle/zKCS8y1t9jwv2KTn7Intro/Outro Music: Daybird by Broke for Freehttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Directionless_EP/Broke_For_Free_-_Directionless_EP_-_03_Day_Bird/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcodehttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/eaters/simian-samba/audrey-horne/https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Joplin/Piano_Rolls_from_archiveorg/ScottJoplin-RagtimeDance1906/https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-a-to-z-english-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

All music used with permission by USAF Flight One Combo.   The United States Air Force Band of Flight's "Flight One Combo" is a versatile small group performing the uniquely American art form of Jazz. The members featured in this group are all active-duty musicians serving in the United States Air Force and all but one are stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. This performance will be the last for this quintet as they're being reassigned to other groups performing in other parts of the world. We're honored they could join us and we hope you enjoy their performance here. Featuring Master Sergeant Gregory Pflugh on saxophone, Technical Sergeant James Hubbard on Trombone, Technical Sergeant Shawn Hanlon on Piano, Technical Sergeant Joseph Whitt on bass, Airman First Class Hayden Johnson on Drums and Technical Sergeant Kayla Richardson guesting on Vocals, it is the United States Air Force Band of Flight's "Flight One Combo" - Live at the Bop Stop.   Live At The Bop Stop is made possible by The Music Settlement – serving Northeast Ohio by offering music instruction – music therapy and early childhood education since 1912. The Music Settlement's mission is to welcome all to our music and arts community to learn – create – inspire – and heal.   This program is recorded at the Robert Conrad Studios at The Bop Stop in Cleveland, Ohio and the studios of Gilazar Media in Fairlawn, Ohio. Additional production at The Bop Stop is provided by Graham Rosen. Editing for WOBC WNPA and the Public Radio Exchange is provided by Doctor Pete Naegele - and for our podcast and other radio affiliates by Shawn Gilbert at Gilazar Media.     The executive producer is Daniel Peck – with additional consulting production from Bryan Kennard.   For extended version of all of our shows –our Live at The Bop Stop podcast can be found on your favorite podcast app or visit our website at www.themusicsettlement.org and click the Bop Stop link. Want to Support The Bop Stop?  Donate here!   Contact us here  

I'm so happy to bring you my talk with Charlynda Scales, author of the brand new book, Rock Bottom Has a Trampoline, which has already ranked as a best new release in its category! She's a veteran, now a reservist, a former military spouse, and an entrepreneur. Charlynda is not only impressive, but she's a kind-hearted person who is wise beyond her years. But that wisdom has been hard-won. We discuss the stories behind her book, her journey to becoming an entrepreneur, aligning yourself with others who are like-hearted vs. like-minded, advice for entrepreneurs or anyone starting over, and how to come back when life has brought you to rock bottom. As Charlynda says about the idea of "rock bottom has a trampoline," "I've heard the saying, 'rock bottom has a basement.' How freaking depressing is that statement? There's no faith in that. There's no light at the end of the tunnel in that quote. If you believe in something bigger than yourself, you'll never truly be at rock bottom. Rock bottom is not a place you go and stay. Rock bottom is a moment." Here's more about Charlynda: Charlynda Scales is a serial entrepreneur: She serves as founder and CEO of Mutt's Sauce LLC and OH Taste LLC; Director of the OH Taste Foundation (501c3), and creator of The Empower Collection. She is the author of the business empowerment book, Rock Bottom Has a Trampoline. Charlynda is a sought-after speaker and mentor for women's empowerment and small businesses. Her military career spans over 15 years; she's currently an Air Force Reservist stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Her son, David, is, in her opinion, her finest achievement. I'm certain you're going to be so inspired by Charlynda, just as I was. Get Rock Bottom Has a Trampoline Here: https://amzn.to/3Qv3DNM Get Jen's new book, Milspouse Matters: Sharing Strength Through Our Stories: https://books2read.com/MilspouseMatters  5-day Deployment Devotional, half off in the month of November with code November23: https://jen-mcdonald.com/product/deployment-devotional/  PILLAR online FREE deployment retreat, Nov. 17-19, 2023  - sign up here! https://www.facebook.com/groups/209167998492858  Connect: Jen's site: https://bit.ly/jenmcd Military spouse resources: https://bit.ly/MMPodresources  PCS move resources: https://bit.ly/MMPCS  Jen's blog: https://bit.ly/MMPodblog  Digital downloads: https://bit.ly/MMPoddownloads  Books: https://bit.ly/MMPodbooks  ---- Socials: Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/MMPInsta  Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/MMPodFacebook  Follow on TikTok: https://bit.ly/MMPodTikTok  Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/MMPodTwitter  Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MMPodYouTube Join the Christian Military Spouse Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/CMilspouseFB

Technical Sergeant Joseph Whitt is the bassist for the United States Air Force Band of the Pacific in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to joining the Band of the Pacific, he was stationed at the United States Air Force Band of Flight, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and at the United States Air Forces in Europe Band at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.   We dig into a variety of topics, including: the USAF Band mission the USAF audition process and preparation military lifestyle, service, and overseas experience benefits, education, training professional development double/electric bass cross-over   Enjoy, and you can learn more about a career in The United States Air Force Band here.   Subscribe to the podcast to get these interviews delivered to you automatically!   Connect with us: all things double bass double bass merch double bass sheet music   Thank you to our sponsors!   Carnegie Mellon University Double Bass Studio – The School of Music at CMU highly values each and every individual who wants to be a part of an innovative fine arts community immersed in a top research university.   Every week each student receives private lessons and participates in a solo class with Micah Howard. Peter Guild, another member of the PSO, teaches Orchestral Literature and Repertoire weekly. They encourage students to reach out to the great bassists in their area for lessons and direction. Many of the bassists from all of the city's ensembles are more than willing to lend a hand. Every year members of the Symphony, the Opera and the Ballet give classes and offer our students individual attention. Click here to visit Micah's website and to sign up for a free online trial lesson.   theme music by Eric Hochberg

Donald Schmitt was initially skeptical of the truth of the Roswell UFO crash in July 1947, but after interviewing hundreds of eyewitnesses, he became convinced that the incident was genuine and involved an extraterrestrial spacecraft. Eyewitnesses included Walter Haut, the public affairs officer at Roswell Army Air Field, who released the initial news report about the crash of a flying saucer. Haut posthumously confessed that the US Army Air Force had covered up the truth about the extraterrestrial origins of the retrieved craft. Pursuing the investigative trail further, Schmitt discovered that the crashed Roswell spacecraft was taken to Wright Patterson Air Force Base (formerly Wright Field) for secret reverse engineering projects. He explains how reverse engineering of retrieved alien spacecraft has been a top priority and has involved multiple military and corporate entities. Today, Schmitt is lobbying members of the US Congress to hold hearings on the Roswell and other UFO crash retrieval incidents and to disclose the truth to the American public. Donald Schmitt is the co-author of seven best-selling books dealing with UFO crash retrieval incidents and reverse engineering facilities. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exopolitics/support

Ever imagined how it feels to be in the shoes of a Development Advisor Special Duty Manager at the Headquarters Air Force Pentagon? Join us as we navigate the riveting journey of Senior Master Sergeant Stephanie Zengerle. From her humble beginnings in Pueblo, Colorado, to challenging deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kenya, and ultimately her influential role at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Stephanie shares her profound experiences. Overcoming her inherent shyness and fear of public speaking, Stephanie lets us in on how she's broken the barriers of her comfort zone.Stephanie goes onto narrate how she transformed her life's setbacks into stepping stones. She boldly shares her encounter with DUI and the pivotal role that mental health resources played in her life. Drawing inspiration from her late grandfather's motivating words, she highlights the significance of resilience in life. She candidly discusses the transformative power of learning from her own mistakes, demonstrating how they've shaped her into the leader she is today.This episode also taps into the exhilarating aspects of shaping policies that have a direct impact on enlisted development. Stephanie discusses her evolving methods over the years and how they've helped her juggle her varied roles. Also, she talks about the importance of positive self-talk and self-reflection, and how they've helped her effect change in her organization. As we wrap up, we engage in a fun discussion revolving around a game of Clue and her dream dinner party. This episode takes you through an inspiring journey of personal growth and resilience and gives you a glimpse into the exciting world of the Air Force. Get ready for an hour full of insights and anecdotes that are sure to leave you inspired.Connect with Passing The Torch:Social Media Facebook and IG: @torchmartin If you enjoyed this podcast, check these out Purple Heart Recipient: https://passingthetorch.buzzsprout.com/1946508/12511782-ep-28-your-capacity-is-limitless-with-ben-seekell Helping People Take Control of their lives & Hack Success with CIA Intelligence Officer, Decorated Military Combat Veteran and Fortune 10 Corporate Advisor Andrew Bustamante: https://passingthetorch.buzzsprout.com/1946508/10533881-ep-24-top-secret-helping-people-take-control-of-their-lives-hack-success-like-a-former-cia-super-spy-with-andrew-bustamante Navy Seal Commander turned mindfulness and meditation teacher Jon Macaskill: https://passingthetorch.buzzsprout.com/1946508/10142693-ep-18-slow-down-and-take-a-breath-with-the-mindful-frogman-jon-macaskill

Unlock the ultimate dynasty cheat sheet for the 2023-24 NFL fantasy season! In Episode 486 of the Dynasty Nerds Podcast, Rich Dotson (@DynastyRich) and Garret Price (@DynastyPrice) break down their top 12 players at each position, providing you with the tools you need to dominate your league. Special shout-out to Colonel Chris Meeker and the team at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH, for their exceptional hospitality last week. Discover why this episode is a must-listen for every serious dynasty fantasy football player and get ready to level up your game. The Dynasty Nerds app is officially here! Download our app: iOS & Android Sign up using promo code NERDS and deposit $10 with Underdog Fantasy and receive a FREE DynastyGM + NerdHerd annual bundle membership (new users only) - Click Here to sign up Check out FFPC's dynasty orphans and use promo code NERDS to receive $25 off your first buy-in (new users only). Join millions of players today on SLEEPER, the #1 fantasy football platform.

Episode #156 "Aliens & Wright-Patterson AFB"Our very own "Wright-Patt Guy" joins us for this special Roswell (UFO) Days Episode. For years rumored to house crashed UFOs and even alien pilots from the Roswell crash , Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio has a long historical association with UFO lore.  Raymond Szymanski, worked at Wright Patterson AFB for 39 years and got  to hear rumors of "aliens" which launched him into his own fact gathering personal secret mission researching UFOs.  In this episode he sits down to talk to us about his work there and his investigations including his link to the famous Phoenix Lights Incident, meeting Travis Walton and much more.  Plus reveals a major announcement and a preview of things to come at his Flatwoods Monster presentation this September in  Sutton WV. Its a Roswell Day Celebration like no other, on this episode of Wild & Weird Radio.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We want to thank our super chatters over on our YouTube who are making these shows possible for everyone!This show brought to you by :Thank you guys for the support.Theresa: Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-StateAdam GoodDewey EdwardsJames BoggsSpooky AppalachiaLarry HoseGuitarnchainscraigThanks you all so muchRemember to catch us LIVE every Thursday at 8PM EST on our YouTube Channel.

This week the ladies drink mimosas, wax poetic, and get weird. Cassidy covers some stories surrounding the studies done at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Amanda shares the ghostly and artistic story of Patience Worth. Want more Drinking the Koolaid? Find our social media, Patreon, and more at DTKpod.com!

On episode 314 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, we are joined by listener-favorite, Micah Hanks! Hanks sits down with us to discuss the recent Senate UAP Hearing, a new UAP video shared by AARO, a recent shadowy meeting of intelligence leaders at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, mysterious cattle mutilations in Texas, why aliens are likely to be artificial intelligence, and a giant-sized expose on former AATIP director, Luis Elizondo. It's a jam-packed episode as we head further into 2023 and deeper down the rabbit hole of UFOs!Follow Micah Hanks on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/MicahHanksVisit the Debrief at: https://thedebrief.org/Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskiesWebsite: www.somewhereintheskies.comYouTube Channel: CLICK HEREBook your Cameo video with Ryan at: https://bit.ly/3kwz3DOOfficial Store: CLICK HEREBuy Somewhere in the Skies coffee! Use promo code: SOMEWHERESKIES10 to get 10% off your order: https://bit.ly/3rmXuapOrder Ryan's book in paperback, ebook, or audiobook: https://amzn.to/3PmydYCEmail Ryan directly at: Ryan.Sprague51@gmail.comTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryansprague51Twitter: @SomewhereSkiesInstagram: @SomewhereSkiesPodRead Ryan's Articles by CLICKING HEREOpening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per KiilstofteCopyright © 2023 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My special guest tonight is here to reveal the hidden truths behind UFO Secrets Inside Wright-Patterson: Eyewitness Accounts from the Real Area 51. Beyond its storied legacy of military service, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base may guard something far more astonishing—a vault of secrets tied to one of the most extraordinary events in human history. Buckle up... the doors to the real Area 51 are about to be blown wide open.The Brain Trust has a LIMITED NUMBER of available spots. Once these spots are filled, individuals will need to wait for a cancellation in order to gain entry. So, get in now!Mysterious Radio is transitioning to a show fully supported by my dedicated fans. If you genuinely love the show and the content I've created for nearly a decade, now is the time to help me continue this journey we started together. I have millions of listeners, and each of you will bring me closer to my goal of having the largest Patreon community ever. Soon, you'll only be able to access full episodes by becoming one of my devoted members. Joining the community unlocks over 1000 ad-free episodes, bonus segments, and much more that will blow your mind! While the price is set to rise to $9.99, you can jump on board right now for just $5, and that's forever! ⁠⁠Join The Brain Trust Now.⁠⁠Get the ultimate experience and easy access to everything from the Patreon app!Download Patreon for IOS Download Patreon for AndroidFollow Our Other ShowsFollow UFO WitnessesFollow Crime Watch WeeklyFollow Paranormal FearsFollow Seven: Disturbing Chronicle StoriesJoin our Patreon for ad-free listening and more bonus content.Follow us on Instagram @mysteriousradioFollow us on TikTok mysteriousradioTikTokFollow us on Twitter @mysteriousradioDo you frequently miss episodes of Mysterious Radio? Don't worry; here are some tips to ensure you never miss out again: 1. If you haven't already, follow or subscribe to the show to receive updates on new episodes. Even if you have already done this, it's a good idea to click the option again to ensure that you are still subscribed. This is especially important! 2. Turn on notifications for new episodes in your podcast app. 3. Make sure that your device allows notifications from your podcast app. 4. If your app has the option, swipe down to refresh the list of episodes.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is the oldest flying field in the world and is located near Dayton, Ohio and is the site where the Wright Brothers developed the first practical airplane. This still active base has hundreds of buildings on the property and a few of them are reputed to be haunted, particularly the United State Air Force Museum. There are also urban legends about UFO reverse engineering and hidden alien bodies on the base. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base! The Moment in Oddity was suggested by Jared Rang and features Petrichor and This Month in History features Massachusetts ratifying the new Constitution. Check out the website: http://historygoesbump.com   Show notes can be found here: https://historygoesbump.blogspot.com/2023/02/hgb-ep-473-wright-patterson-air-force.html    Become an Executive Producer: http://patreon.com/historygoesbump Music used in this episode:  Main Theme: Lurking in the Dark by Muse Music with Groove Studios (Moment in Oddity) Vanishing by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4578-vanishing License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license (This Month in History) In Your Arms by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3906-in-your-arms License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Outro Music: Happy Fun Punk by Muse Music with Groove Studios The following music was used for this media project: Music: Ailien Lullaby by Mikael Hellman Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/5721-ailien-lullaby License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license