Badlands Media - SITREP Ep. 147: Military Readiness, Intelligence Missions, and the Politics of War

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

CannCon and Alpha Warrior return for another episode of SITREP, breaking down military operations, intelligence missions, and the political narratives shaping public perception of war and national defense. The conversation moves from military life and deployment realities into discussions about aerial refueling aircraft, intelligence gathering missions, and the operational role of specialized tankers that extend mission capability for U.S. forces. Throughout the episode, CannCon and Alpha also reflect on the personal side of military service, explaining the logistical and emotional challenges troops face when preparing for deployment, from family decisions to financial planning and the uncertainty of returning home. The discussion then shifts toward political reactions surrounding military leadership and defense policy, including criticism of figures like Pete Hegseth and the broader climate of anti Trump sentiment in media and political circles. Blending military insight, political commentary, and candid conversation, SITREP Ep. 147 examines how operational realities on the ground often clash with the narratives promoted in public debate.

of the badlands explain those badlands that's a hell of a name the choice every day as to which category you want to be in in which direction you want to move you have that choice because the best among us the best we ever had to offer fought and bled and died for it ever forget that Good evening. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to sit rep. Alpha, how you doing, brother? Flying by the wire, baby. Flying by the wire. I'm in the same boat. My in-laws came over for dinner today. And, well, for a lot more, they cleaned out Christy's closet, like her and her mom went through and we're taking all her clothes and giving them off to the local church, which is, is always a blessing for me because that means I get more closet space. Only temporarily until she replaces everything that she had that.

Don't you put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby. I'm just saying, brother. I'm starving, man. I haven't had a chance to eat. I'm so hungry. Oh, dude. Come on over. We got plenty of extras.

It's good, too. I'll be right on it. There you go. It's only a eight hour flight. Oh, man. So listen to this, dude. And I don't know if you have to deal with this. I don't know if you have to deal with this.

over the last year my wife has probably donated three hefty garbage bags like we're talking like the 50 gallon garbage bags right right normal kitchen size but still pretty big full of clothes she's donated at least three of those and they just pulled out another two today like does your does the lady in your life have that same issue here's what I will tell you careful okay I'm gonna I'm gonna help you navigate this okay give them the credit card mm-uh-uh-uh you're not listening to me give them the credit card and say hey I only got a little bit of room in the closet but you just gave away a bunch of clothes go go get what you need so this way you're the good guy because you're giving her the credit card but you gave it to her and you seated a guilt trip i only have a little bit of room in the closet so this way when she goes and she starts shopping she won't go nuts i'm telling you dude you try this next week you're

going to come back and you're like bro you're a genius and i'll be like you know what i kind of am man i i i don't i'm telling you man i'm telling you man i'm telling you let's see i don't have my card on me because she just walked by the studio so i could have flagged her down no no no because you you got to have you got to have time to do it and and see that you know only got a little bit of room in the closet but it's okay like you gave a lot of stuff away like like like you got to like you got to go like full like denzil washington in in this mode bro i mean like i'm and i don't know if maybe i'm just unique here but i have i think three pairs of jeans. I have maybe five pairs of shorts. And this is, you know, just strictly

normal wear. Like I do have golf clothes and stuff like that as well. Like I have, you know, stuff that's specific purpose, purpose built stuff. But like I don't have a lot of clothes. I have, now I have a shit ton of T-shirts because I get shirts everywhere. People give me shirts and all that stuff. So I've probably got like 30 different pairs of shirts. But like I don't have a whole lot of jeans i don't have a whole lot of shorts i've you know maybe five pairs of basketball shorts you know like gym shorts is is that just me or are you are you in the same boat as that dude i have more quote unquote chill clothes or gym clothes than i have regular clothes like i i probably outdo my jeans with sweats like two to one really yes dude

Really? But I mean, they're like not like the, I don't want to sound bougie, but not like that like this some like ghetto like ghetto gray sweats. Like they're the nice one. They're gray sweats that like the ruffled elastic band. No, yeah, like they're the good ones like the Nike or the under arm or you know what I mean. So I mean, technically you could throw on it's like, you know, nice pair of kicks with the sweats and a t-shirt and go to them all or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. man i i just i don't know i can never understand for the life of me and then the worst part is is you know what they always do alpha you know what they always do and i'm gonna get so much shit because i'm i'm pretty sure she can hear me right now because my dog kicked the door to the studio open so i think she can hear me every fucking time bro every fucking time we're going out i've got nothing to wear okay you get nothing to wear it's their brain it's how they're made.

I'm hungry. Where you want to go eat? I don't know. You, you pick. All right. Let's go to Joe's steakhouse. Okay.

Let's go to Joe's Italian house. No. It's not telling you, bro. Their brains are wired for confusion. And you know what the craziest part is? And I say this all the time. I'm like, babe,

you're not dressed. to impress me. Now, don't get me wrong. Doesn't mean that it doesn't impress me. But you're dressing to impress other women. That's what women do. Like, they dress, they do the makeup, they do all that stuff to impress other women. You know, like, this is the craziest thing. It'll be like, do you remember what I was wearing the night we met?

I'm like, fuck, no. Fuck, no. Not a chance. She's told me a hundred times. still don't remember so this this this is how you rock that the next time right you just make up an outfit that's made from like her favorite colors and dude you got a 50 50 shot on that one because chances are she doesn't remember either and then you just commit to your answer bro you just you just you just commit what that's what you worry what do you mean like she just

you listen worst case worst case scenario you start gas sliding bro like I so I'm way worse than that so to one up you know the the do you remember what we were wearing if she asked me to name three outfits that she has and describe them i don't think i'd be able to do it i i don't i don't know that i could name three outfits but again again women women predominantly dress or other women you know they dress to women are in constant competition with other women yes yes That separates us from them. Yeah. For us, it's like, you mean you go out and I see you have like some nice boots or like shoes.

I'm like, bro, I like those. Where'd you get some nice boots? Yeah. And you're going to be like, you're going to be like, dude, that's right. They got a sale right now. And be like, dude, that's right. You'd be like, want to go get them? Like you don't see it as, oh, he wants the same boots as me.

And I don't see like, oh, it's like, we're there's like, dude, those are good. You want some too? Yeah. Women, it's like, you know, oh, those are nice hills. Where'd you get them? And in her head, she's just like, oh, this bitch wants to be like me. Right? And they're like friends for like 20 years.

I'm telling them. Women are to listen. Not to put us in a tangent. This is the reason the entire universe was in a long. It was in synchronicity of perfection when it was just Adam and all the animals. Perfect synchronization, bro. No sin, no nothing. And then who took the apple?

The woman. Yep. He's hungry. They can talk all the smack they want. They can't argue that point, bro. Jackie's in the chat. She says, I don't agree with this at all. You don't have to agree.

We don't expect you to agree. It's in your DNA to disagree with us on this. It's a fact. It's a fact. If we rewind this. do the Mandela Effect and switch it to be like, oh, and make it the opposite argument, Jackie would have been in the chat saying, no, there's no way. We would disagree with each other. Because what you just said, they're wired, the just disagree. Yeah, I agree. We love you guys,

though. We cannot possibly live without our ladies. All right, this is not going to be a show with just me and Alpha assaulting, verbally assaulting the better halves than. that we use that prop us up right they they they do they keep us in line it could be it could be i could go on and on and on and on you know what the other you know what the other big one is what when when my mom comes down like when my mom comes down to visit the house has to be fucking spotless and she has to have everything perfectly put in place and uh you know the the crazy part is i'm like like babe my mom raised me she knows unlike unlike this guy here he knows that i'm a fucking slob well not not like a fucking slop but like i'll have clothes on the floor

for two or three days before I throw them in the laundry basket, like that kind of thing. Like she knows, right? She raised me. But when she comes down now, she has to have everything immaculate. To be fair, today, though, when my in-laws came over, I was the one that was tasked with cleaning the house. And I did a pretty damn good job of it until I remembered shit. Her mom's going to be going in our bedroom to take out the clothes.

And I was like, damn, I forgot to clean up up there. So that was kind of bad. But it is what it is. All you got to do is we go into the middle. mess, just look at it as in one section at a time. You know, I'm just going to tackle the dresser today. And then a couple days later, all right, now I'm going to tackle this. And before you know it, in two weeks time, it doesn't look like a dump.

Like, I don't know what other word used to describe it, but. I mean, so our house is, is really clean. We just have a lot of stuff. Are you guys hoarders? I'm not. i'm not oh oh like you never know i might need that i'm like you haven't touched that in five years you know what i'm a hoarder with uh receipts and that i hadn't very well for you in your legal battles it did it did but i'm talking like like even if i go like when i bought these new

sets of cans yeah like that was months ago i still have i'm still have the receipt Why? In case you know, it's just because like I grew up poor. Are you a money longer? No, no, I'm not like the opposite of that. It's just I grew up poor. So if something doesn't work, you know, it's like, well, shit, that thing's under warranty. Like I'm taking it back to like Target.

You're giving me a new one, right? You're going to exchange this shit. And here's my receipt. But now it's to the point where I pull up my box of receipts and I'm just like, it just looks like a white paper. Oh, it's, yeah. Yeah, you can't even read it no more. So let me, let me ask you this.

You know, women, obviously, they have their clothes and the things like that that are like, their pride and Jewish clothes and shoes, right? The two things. My wife, I have five pairs of shoes. I have maybe five pairs. Again, outside of purpose built stuff like cleats, golf spikes and that kind of stuff. What is as a guy? What is your like?

thing that you're very particular about like you're willing to spend some good money on it well it's not expensive in of itself but what like hogs like hogs like hot stream are you talking about like for instance it for me it's hats like if you guys could tell like i have a lot of hats you know and but i mean even like the best like you know i wear a lot of black clover you know you you're talking $38, $42, bucks for a hat. So they're not super expensive, but I'll buy a lot of them. Now, you know,

life's starting to get a little bit better. I'm starting to get into the green. So if I was to revert back to like one of the extreme things that I like, it'd be my sport bike. And then I'm buying a helmet. I'm buying gloves. I'm buying, yeah, you know,

Alpine stars is this, you know, whatever on this, whatever, you know, it's like putting on, you know, some Q2 Dunloups, sticky tires, you know, custom Yamaha grips, changing out my mirrors.

I mean, look, we can just talk all day about that, bro. And it's just like, it's just like, cheat, to cheat, je, and to me, it's just like, don't question me on that. But this, that's, that's my, that's my sanctuary. Now you're talking. Now you're, so for me, it's, it's, uh, it's cars. Like, I, you will never catch me willingly driving like, um, just a milk toast car like I don't when I buy a car I don't go and like what's got the best miles per gallon you know what's got the best warranty I'm like how much horsepower does it have you know is it four wheel drive right you know like that that's my kind of thing and so it's unfortunate for me because it's infinitely more expensive than uh then the uh the clothing thing but also it doesn't take up as much space and it's it's it is

I said, man, we're going to set some people out. I see it retarded to spend some of the money that women do on clothes. I do too. Like wouldn't you rather buy a sport bike? Like, you know, wouldn't you rather have your own motorcycle and buy some badass shoey helmet? You know what I mean? Like, like, I don't know, man. cars are my thing so i i

are cars yeah i mean i get that well any so anything fast so cars i don't do sport bikes because in south florida it's like a death wish and like we have the worst drivers in the world dude everywhere you go is bumper to bumper traffic all the roads are dead straight and that's it in so cal you know we got a lot of like bad drivers but it's one of those things where as long as you drive like nobody sees you're good it's it's when you start doing the stupid shit you know what i mean that people get hurt but if if you're if you're riding careful you're no more at risk i mean statistically i'm probably wrong but you know you're not very much more at risk than you are you know at the car put it this way in in my 14 years of

law enforcement that it's the ratio of car accidents to motorcycles I went to is not even close yeah but in per capita though I don't I don't know what that will I mean there's always going to be that obviously there's more cars and obviously well I mean not obviously necessarily but I would imagine more often than not the motorcycle is going to be a fatality yeah I would say the majority of them were really bad or fatals yeah yeah I would I would acknowledge that yeah i've lost you feel like you're flying i know dude i've i've rid mics i had a i had i when i was uh in the marine corps i had a 2007 r one hell yeah dude that thing was fucking sick that thing was sick man i said i had it was a 2009 r1 well so i think it was oh i think it was the year

between oh seven and oh eight where they actually lost five horsepower on the r one And I don't remember why. I don't know. 09 was the year that they dropped the crank shack. They literally made it model their, their motorbike. And that bike was this. It was, I mean, being fly by wire. I mean, it was, it was, that bike was a confidence builder.

Yeah, mine was not fly by wire. That, that was new on your model, I believe. Here's, uh, this is, this is my car. That's my, my, my catalanck. I just got to go fast. man. You're going to make me grab my old bike. I think it's 500,

560 horsepower stock. Zero to 60 and 2.9 seconds. I freaking love that thing. And then my other car is a Jeep because I got to have something to tow my jet skis because like I, and I sounds like an, you know, pompous asshole, but I got these things for an

absolute freaking steel. Like a steel. Like I, when I went to buy I got to manage of someone else's plight. Bro, when I went to buy these, the guy told me how much they were. And I was like, oh, shit, I'll buy him. And he came over. And when I was counting the cash, I paid him, I paid cash for him.

When I was counting the cash, I gave it to him. And I was like crossing my fingers that he wasn't going to say, oh, dude, that's each. You know, it's, it's that much for each one. And he's like, all right, we're good. And I was like, oh, my God, I just stole these things from him. I literally stole these things from him. And, uh, well, once I find this, I'll share. story but you you took you took advantage of someone's hard times no he was moving he

came to me and was like hey this is how much I'm selling them for you want him and I was like yeah so it is what it is man there you while you're while you're pulling that up let me hit our sponsor real quick and then we will actually get into the show man all right so here we go guys we are in the middle of the worst stretch of data breaches this country has ever seen and it is hitting right in the middle of tax season. In just the last 90 days, a government contractor that handles Medicaid and benefits for 46 states got hacked. 25 million Americans had their social security numbers and medical records stolen.

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Oh, she was gorgeous, bro. Those are, those are Q2 dumb lute tires. I mean, that was like bubble gum to the road. At the time, I mean, these were like the sticky, icky. It was, that's her. That's beautiful, man. It's a good looking bike. I love.

So the thing I really loved about the R1 was the tucked dual pipes like that, I, Yoshimura's as well. Yeah. You know, they don't do that no more because I was looking at bikes because it's like, how much I got to save up to buy one? And I was just like for the Yamaha like the new ones they don't run the dual exhausts under the tail and I was like that's such a good that's a sexy look on the bike like why'd you go away from that but they all had that small little one that's you know tucked under you know your right foot yeah Dukati was the first ones that started doing that weren't they with the with the under under the valence I mean was it I don't know man I think it was I think it was Duccottie it might not have been but Bring up the middle one one more time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dude, look at that bike, dude. Tell me, tell me you can't tell that I took care of that thing. Oh, man. God. Here's the thing. Let me share the story. This had like me, me, me, me, me, me story, right? So obviously you guys know the story of what happened, right? And times got rough. So I had to start selling things, right? Sold the boats, sold the dirt bikes, sold everything. I was hanging on to this. hanging on to this. I was like, I'm not selling it. I'm not selling it. I'm not selling it. And finally, it got to the point where things were that bad, that I listed it and listed it at a price that I was like, the dude that's getting this bike is literally stealing it.

Like, he's still in it. Because this was a bike that never missed maintenance, was well taken care. Never, yeah, never dropped. Like, I mean, you saw the way I take care of my truck. You know what I mean? That didn't even. compared to how I took care of my bike, you know.

It was parked indoors. Like, like this thing was baby. And, you know, he came to buy the bike. And he's like, hey, that's a nice helmet. He's just like, you look for the helmet. I said, the helmet's not for sale. Because to me, it was like, if I sell the helmet, that's me kind of giving up and saying that it's like it's done, done. And for me, I still have the helmet in my garage.

I still have my helmet. Yeah. And it's, bro. I sold my bike in 2012, 13. years and I still have my helmet mine was 2019 he was 2019 when I sold it or 2018 no 2019 and it was just like he was like I was happy as you know he's out in San Diego I was happy as he was how excited he was because you could tell this like you could tell he was like a sport bike enthusiast like this was someone that was gonna appreciate it but it hurt man I went I went I went

when I walked back inside the house and the entire family just They knew just don't say nothing to him. Like, let them go upstairs and just be alone. Like, be alone. That was, that was a, that was a heartbreaking day, man. That's my other, that's my other love. My, my, my C-DU RXPX 300s. Sport like the water.

That's exactly what this thing is. It's, dude, it's 300 horsepower. Supercharged 300. Top speed is limited at 72 miles. an hour because coast guard limits all that is so fast for water it it it so on the ocean yeah on the ocean you can't go that fast i mean well you can but like on lakes it's nothing it's nothing like you get up to 72 and you're just chilling bro you're just chilling and uh it's so like when when cam and jacky were down uh they came down for the fourth of july we took them out and uh i i don't

remember if they had ridden before or not but uh within like within like 15 minutes they were going wide open throttle cam was going 70 miles an hour on it and that was that was a lot of fun i took um i might get in a little bit of trouble for this telling this story so i'm going to i'm going to tell it anyways i'm going to tell it anyways she might hate me for it but whatever colonel towner came down uh and and came over to the house and i was like hey we're going to go out on the jet skis you guys want to come they were down for an event down here. And she's like, yeah, yeah, her and her husband.

And, okay, Jackie says they had both ridden before. There we go. And so I was like, all right, we'll take the jet skis out. Christy hates to drive. She's terrified of driving. She'll ride, but she's terrified to drive. And so I was like, you guys have ridden before? And they're like, oh, yeah, we had one back in the day.

And I was like, okay, well, you know, just know, like, in order to turn, you have to give it gas. Like, you can't take your hand off the throttle and turn because the propulsion is what, you know, is moves and is what turns. you and they're like yeah yeah we got this and so we're going out to the spot that we go to it's this big open area we call it carpet beach we dock them there's you know sand beach it's it's fresh water but it's like sandy and so we're going out there i'm towing the float that we're taking out there and i've got all the coolers and everything else on here christie's holding on to all this shit we're

just cruising like 20 miles an hour and christie goes uh oh uh oh turn back around and i'm like what and I look over my shoulder and they're like 500 yards behind us and I'm like what's going on? And then all of a sudden they start turning into the shore. And I'm like, oh no. Oh no. Boom. They run and it's straight rock. Like it's straight rock in the canal.

And I'm like, oh, God. So I turn around. I go back and I get them like, you guys good? And they're like, because they both dumped. And they're like, yeah, yeah, we're good. They get back on. We get out there. And I went and looked at the bottom of it.

And it got rubbed a little bit on the hole. Like it got rock chips pretty bad. But I was able to put a hole guard on there. Like I let it sit overnight, put some fiberglass over it, and then, you know, put the whole guard on there. And now it's better than new. But I was just like, oh, no, it's going to be like that. But we had a great time. You ever see someone use their boat to punch out the rear windshield when they're, when they're.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There was this guy and it was a nice SUV. you could tell this dude like his boat and his SUV were his thing right so he leaves he gets in the the SUV wipes in the in the boat and he's telling her all right come on come on and so she's going you know she's coasting it right and then you just hear her and you're like oh and she just goes and it was an SUV so the windshield's right at the back and the front of the boat just goes dude the entire everybody at the ramp was just like oh no

That's going to be a miserable day. All right, all right. So let's get into, I don't want to say let's get into the show, but so we do have, I don't know if you've seen these reports yet that we lost a KC-135 over Iraq today. I heard people talk about it. I didn't know that it was formally acknowledged. Yeah, so Sentcom put this out. U.S. Central Command is aware of the loss of a U.S. KC. 135 refueling aircraft.

The incident occurred in friendly airspace over operation during Operation Epic Fury and rescue efforts are ongoing. Two aircraft were involved in the incident. One of the aircraft went down in Western Iraq and the second landed safely. This was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire. And there's an update here from where to go. Where was the update? There was an update from here it is. Jennifer Jacobs, CBS News says both of the two aircraft involved in the incident over Western Iraq on day 13 of the war were K-3-K-C-135 refuelers.

So both of these guys were 135s, which are big airplanes. I mean, I think they're essentially aren't, are they 747 platforms? Hold on. What is they're a little bigger than that, aren't they? Hold on. I'll let you know. It looks good. How do two KCC130s hit each other, bro?

That's what I'm wondering. It's similar to the 707, the Boeing 707. Okay. So this is actually what the aircraft looks like. Like what kind of maneuvers were they doing? Were they flying in low? I have no idea, man. I have no idea.

So the smaller one on the right, now that's a, that's a galaxy, but the smaller one on the right is the KC-135 and they're the ones that refuel the aircraft out there. So I, you know, I don't know. This would have been a good day to have Matt from two weeks ago on because he could have, he might have had some insight, you know, whether they're trained to bail out and, you know, parachute down or. Would a KC-130 refuel a KC-130? That's interesting. Yeah, yeah, I guess. Maybe that. Let me see, let me see.

Can a KC 135 refuel another KC1. I'm sure they can. Yeah, some KC 135s can refuel another KC 135, but only specific variants. The KC 135, KC 135 RT is specifically modified to, receive fuel in flight these aircraft have a refueling receptacle above the cockpit allowing them to be refueled by another tanker such as a case now our case now research what that specific model what their typical role is the r t yeah all right what is the typical role of a k c c 135 rt because if it's like a surveillance or

Intel gathering one, that would make sense on why it would be getting refueled. It says KCRT are specialized variants of the strata tanker designed for aerial refueling receiver capability, allowing them to receive fuel mid-air. This unique role enables them to support extended missions, particularly for special operations forces by acting as a mobile fuel depot in remote or contested environments, primarily used for force extension and special operations. Interesting. Either way, we're hoping there's no update on whether or not the six crew members on board survived or not.

So we're waiting, I guess, on that. Hopefully they did. Yeah. Because if it was a refueling thing, they do that at high altitude, right? Yeah, yeah. That would provide them time. Now, if they were flying low to avoid radars and stuff like that. I don't know.

I mean, it just says it's a mid-air incident. Like, it doesn't say whether it was a collision, whether they, you know, it doesn't say anything. Like they, and the crazy part is, ascentcoms like, we're aware of a KC 35 being lost. Dman in the chat is saying they said that one, they said that the one that landed had bad tail damage. I mean, that's not, that's not indicative of a refueling issue. Unless it's the one that was way above. Well, if it's the one that's doing the refueling and the boon, you know, broke off or snap, that could probably cause some tail damage. I don't know, man.

Like, I don't know about those things. Yeah, I don't, I don't know. That's not my, that's not my wheelhouse. Running and gunning, yeah, got you all day long. But refueling in midair never jumped out of a plane, never jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. That's an, it's an army thing. They like to do that. you know so alpha we never get to like when we do Y cromes like I save all these videos and I always come across these ones I want to play on on for sit rep but I don't want to play them on Y crumbs because you know it's it's not that's not the place that it is so I do want to play this one real quick and let me preface this by saying that we don't do this in the Marine Corps okay it'd be pretty cool to do this like I think

that this would actually be pretty cool as a Marine to do this. But the first, so it's one of those, you know, montages here, the first person that, that the first clip you're going to see, like, what the fuck are you thinking doing this? But then the rest of them are pretty badass. We got everything I would do you were standing there by my side. And now you're going to be with me for the last ride. Oh, I should probably preface this by saying in the army, apparently, after you graduate from, you know, school, boot camp, whatever, or basic training, it's only boot camp in the Marine Corps.

You have to stand at parade rest until somebody taps you out. So somebody in your family, they have to go walk through all the troops, find you, and then tap you out, and then you can, you know, you're released at that point. Without you, my friend, and I'll tell you all about it when I see you again. you again we've come along where we begin no we start it's pretty badass man that's cool that ain't the marine corps yeah i get it's feeling stronger with smog turn to a friendship of friendship turn to a bond in that bond will never be broken in love will never get lost it's pretty badass man that's cool but ain't the marine corps yeah i i get it i get it you you know just even if the if the drone structures came out and told us, hey, family comes up and hugs, you can hug them. Ain't none of us going to do that like that.

Oh, no, you didn't, you didn't hug your anybody? No, of course, but like once we got off the parade deck. Oh, okay, okay. You know, not, not there, but dude, we, I hate to use the word brainwash, but when, you know, you go on leave, right, until you go to SOI, we immediately went to, it was a restaurant in San Diego. I don't remember where it was. But we go to a restaurant.

Dude, I'm still sitting there with my hands on the laps like this. I'm still doing that kid. Yes. Yes. Dude. And it was just like, hey, you know, like relax. And it was just like we were hardwired man, hardwired. Yeah, 100%.

The first one. So the first one when I saw that, I'm like, what the fuck is this woman thinking? First and foremost. I mean, obviously it's a girlfriend, perhaps a wife, but most likely a girlfriend. And the so so you know me being in a and you as well being in a different time of the military although not so much now. But you know over the last probably six, seven years most deployments have been non-combat deployments, you know, not much of a risk outside of, you know, some freak accident, right? But like if if my wife had come up to me and I was in that situation and done that, to me like when I graduate I'd be like damn I gotta leave this woman all by

yourself down here for seven months with you know a base full of other alpha males which my wife came back home to Florida when I deployed but yeah that's not a that's not a good look man like everything else in that was beautiful but that first one is just like what the fuck wasn't just me okay I'm glad it wasn't just you man wasn't just you I'm telling you it's just obviously we're biased Of course. The Marine Corps, it's like, that's perfection. That's a perfected tool.

So let's get into this clip here, because this has been the shit show over the last two days. And first this popped up. I was hesitating on bringing it up. But I want to see if things were the same on the East Coast as it was on the West Coast. So when, when Mail calls. came in and you know Susie sent a recruit a special picture did they look at it drone structures were like oh look at this look at this recruit you know recruit you know

John Smith Susie wants to be nasty yeah they they so yeah they open our mail they do open our mail they do they make sure that there's not like gum and cigarettes and shit like that like all you can send is a letter

and so when they're when they wave it if it if it doesn't bend because there's pictures in there they're gonna open it and they're gonna look at it And it's going to get passed around. So ladies, if you ever sent, if you ever sent your man or men, if you ever sent your lady, it's kind of weird, you know, intimate photos while they were in boot camp. A whole platoon saw it.

A whole platoon has now seen your platoon. And then it went on a pushboard. That's true too. We did have a pushboard. They would only keep it up there for a couple days. And then they would give it back to you and they'd be like, all right, you've earned this. This is yours. Yeah.

Yeah. So come pick up your nasty. Yeah. And then there were all the people in like the, they were like these, these groups like, you know, forums and stuff like that back in the day. Hogboard, there you go, St. Massel. That's what we called it, the hog board. There were these like assholes that would be like, oh, yeah, send your recruit sticks a gum. It's fine.

you can send him sticks of gum and y'all got us fucked up every time you did that by the way just throwing that out there y'all got and there was no kindness no like if your girl was ugly or big like they were going to make you cry bro you need to go on double rats in order to be able to hang with that that big old dependipotamus how do you feed this thing i'm going to hang this picture over the trough so that every time she's eating she has to look at that fat ass we're going to send this to the enemy we're going to destroy them like cut broke man so let me uh let me get this pulled up here real quick so the car fingers as we called them busted bitches busted bitches that makes sense that makes sense um all right so i wrote an article about this yesterday or two days ago there's like this whole big thing going on now about the department of war and their expenditures molly jung fast who is a reporter for vanity fair or contributor for vanity fair in new york times says that some frivolous september purchases made under

secretary heggseth stewardship include a 98 000 stineway and son's grand piano for the air force chief of staff's home 5.3 million for Apple devices such as the new iPad and an astronomical amount of shellfish including $2 million for Alaskan king crab 6.9 million dollars worth the lobster tail lobster tail is apparently a favorite of Hegss Pentagon the department spent more than 7.4 million total on the luxury item in March, May, June, and October and other pricey food purchases the government decided to drop 15.1 million for ribby steak again just in simple. September, $124,000 for ice cream machines and $139,000 on 272 orders of donuts. Two things I want to highlight in there.

I'm sure you're going to cover them both. So the first one is this is absolutely fucking ridiculous. Retarded. It's just like there's a thing called troop morale that's fucking very important. We're sending these guys off telling them you might not come back. As a matter of fact, some of you are not going to come back. Your president already told you. And we're going to bitch about giving these guys some solid good meals that our congressmen eat all the fucking time.

Like these guys are going to get it once twice. And you guys eat that like in all you were tapping glasses. So the first, I'm pissed about that part. The second part, this is kind of funny. They're finally fixing the fucking ice cream machines. Like like like like good to go good to go Pete like good to go because dude you want to talk about a morale dampener how many times did you get your cone or your cup and you went oh there and it's like err just like yeah it's like they're finally squaring away the ice cream machines dude so there's a couple things about this that are very important that a lot of people don't know first and four foremost that's not for the pentagon nor is it for pete hegseth i don't know if you saw

baby i'm not a fan of baby you know i think they're you know they used to be funny and then i found out you know i was curious to the piano the only part of that that spiked my curiosity was the piano um but even then it's just like you know if you're trying to do some cultural stuff you know and give you know give some things some like you know pride right like class then then I get it. It's not like you're buying a bunch of them. It's not like he's taking it home with him. You know, like this is going to stay with the military.

You know, but again, I was kind of curious, this like, you know, was there a piano that got replaced that we've had for 20, 30, 40 years or something like that? Or did there used to be piano? Like, I'm sure that there has to be more story to the piano. So there, a lot of people don't know this, but the Army chief of staff actually lives in on-base housing. So again, it's not like this was in his private home and he's going to take it with them. It's staying in that house. It's a decorative piece.

Is it exorbitant? Yes, it is. Absolutely. But you're also dealing with an 04, excuse me, an O4 star general, right? At this point, you're dealing with a, I would assume the Army chief, excuse me, the Air Force chief of staff is a four star general. So this is something, I mean, it's, it's no different than. Barack Obama's basketball court at the White House, right? Here's one.

Look up how much money we spent on transgender studies and operations in Pakistan. Oh, I know. I know. I get it. I get it. I get it. Babylon B put this out. Morbidly obese Pete Hexeth denies any knowledge of what happened to leftover lobster for the troops.

That's hilarious. The dude's a stud, bro. Yeah, he is. He really is. I'm very impressed with Pete. heck set um again i still you know take you with a grain of salt you know uh or or i you know very critical critical that's what i should say but he's done a tremendous job so far here's here's the thing he can demand 300 pfTs when he can hit 300 pfd when he can still fucking do a 300 pfd yes

yeah 100 percent 100 and it's a big it's a big change so a lot of people are like oh well he was a mid grade officer he was a major and blah blah blah and i was like He didn't have to sign, get a waiver to do the role because he was just coming off a defense contract with Raytheon, like Lloyd Austin was. Lloyd Austin had to get a waiver to become the defense secretary because he was already working with Raytheon. I think it was Raytheon. It might have been Lockheed Martin, but I'm pretty sure it was Raytheon. But that's, you know, that's one of the things I put when I wrote that article, I said, nobody enlists in the military to get rich. Notice the key word enlists because there are people that get commissioned that they might not be their goal when they start.

But once they get up to Lieutenant Colonel, Fullberg Colonel, and they're like, hey, I can make a career out of this beyond the military. I've got all these defense contractors jockeying for my attention and looking to put me on a board when I get out. and you know they're going to pay me half a million dollars to you know use my resources and the people the relationships that i've made within the military itself to secure some of these contracts that's the concerning thing you get to the point where you're a yes man you know and um you know a lot of i just say it a lot of these general officers and even full bird colonels are yes men right they say whatever they got to say it becomes a very political office at that point appointment uh promotion uh promotion uh promotion rather but anyway getting back to the lobster thing a lot of people don't know this go

ahead it's this this part's upsetting man a lot of people don't know this but we pay for our food in the military a lot of people don't know that we get an allotment every month it's 13 a day that you get for food and it comes out of our paycheck and if you're married you can waive that and you get the you get the cash so like i lived out in town i could not go to the chow hall like so when i was on base i had to go eat lunch at you know wendies or you know whatever was on base and so you know when when they're saying that they spent this on it yeah and then they're getting it back from the troops because they pay for it now granted we don't pay for food while we're deployed okay just to be clear because a lot of people are like you shouldn't be

be paying for anything. Well, I mean, it's a job. You know, for a lot of people, a majority of the military, they show up and they work a job. They go in there, they sit in an office at a desk, and they do their job. It's not, not everybody in the military is like, you know, an 0-3-11 or an 03, whatever and out there, you know, running and gun and all that shit. So the other thing is, is like this existed when we both were in the Marine Corps. Did you get, you guys got steak and lobster, right? Yes, we did. Yeah. We got steak and lobster. Never once was I like man why is Obama spending so much money on steak and lobster what the fuck is wrong with this shit never once never once It's so stupid these people don't recognize

What these men and women are going through when they get orders that they're gonna deploy out It's you know you not everybody's in the best of financial positions. You know we're coming off You know, Trump did very good in a year, but a lot of damage was created in the four years before that. And people are, you know, trying to recover from that. And so you have these troops, everybody's signing power of attorneys, you know, decisions got to be made. Some people are deciding, you know, is, you know, the wife going to stay on base, you know, is the wife going to go back with family? How's going to do that? You know, who's going to take care of this bill?

You know, there's, there's a lot on these guys' minds, aside from the fact is, you know, am I going to make it home? you know some people you know their their wife's pregnant and they're just like man am i going to make in time to see my baby born you know some people still have issues going on like with their parents like there's a lot on these people's mind and if you're giving them a nice dinner to boost their morale that how are you going to complain about that shit especially with the the foreign spending that we have it's just it's it's spitting in the faces of our troops and it's disgusting.

And this started as, you know, and I put this in my article, you had like all these writers for the Atlantic and contributors and editors for the Atlantic specifically, which is very interesting that we're coming out and like, oh, they shouldn't be doing this, but you can't have health care. You can't have, you know, but snap recipients are the problem, Jamel Hill, right? She's not an Atlantic writer, but Jamel Hill came out and she was like, yeah, but snap recipients are the problem it's like hang on a second here i i'm i'm pretty sure like i just said the military is paying for this food sure lobster and steak might cost a little more than 13

but they're paying for this food they're also you know our troops they make about uh you know and i said this on the on badlands daily on wednesday they make about 650 dollars a week that's the pay for an e3 in the in the military it's shit it's shit pay. And what people, you know, again, when you talk about the pay, what people don't understand is they're like, oh, $650 a week. Okay, you might have to have a part-time job as well. You can't have a part-time job in the military. You can technically, but your part-time job better be very understanding to the fact that you're randomly going to have to go to the field for two weeks at a time, or you're randomly going to have to stand duty for 24 hours straight, or you're randomly going to

be deployed for seven to 15 months, depending if you're a Marine and you're actually going to work or your army and you're just going to go over there. I'm just kidding, guys for the army, get dogs out there. But yeah, like, people don't understand. Like, when you're in the military, like, it's a 24 hour a day job.

That is not a nine to five. And when you do the monthly pay and divide that by 24 hours a day, that hourly pay comes up. Freakins and dimes. Nothing. It is dog shit pay. So let's play this clip here.

So CNN, this guy, I don't even know what the fuck this guy's thinking talking like this. That's not important. You know what's important? He has spent $15 million in one month for ribby steak, $6.9 million for lobster tail, $225 million for furniture. He spent more in the month of September than most countries on earth spend in their defense.

Do you believe? All for himself? Lobster tails? Do you believe? Are our troops are eating MREs? No, no, no. Lobster tails? Do you believe the Secretary of Defense is personally eating all the lobster?

Well, he can't eat six. Oh, really? troops are getting lobster frequently in theater of god troops who are going to work oh my god great me you know that you're gonna get a lobster you are so cold over this you're gonna get killed over this internet do something he gets they get the gold mine we get the shaft i'll end this by saying i hope the internet ate him alive that guy should be immediately fired like you you that was his gotcha moment he knows the numbers and he knows everything you didn't look online to see if we actually do eat steak and lobster like that's the joke going on I apologize last

night I delete those because I put a post and like troll people for a minute and then delete them I was trolling somebody last night intentionally but but we put we this is an ongoing thing like this is historically the troops get this before either deployment a major operation that they conduct like if we go like when we went to 29 palms for a month and a half of training when that when that when that that iteration was over, we got a warrior's dinner. It was called. And we, you know, in 29 palms, we got beer, we got steak, we got lobster. But it's your, it's their way of saying, hey, job well done, Marines. Here you go. Fucking insane. And this is, this is this is, this is,

this is the comparison that they're making right now on the left. And, and, you know, I'm glad to see people on both sides of the aisle pushing back on this. Obviously, you know, our side is pushing back fiercely on this. But there's there's Democrats out there that are like, yeah, you guys, this is not the hill to, you know, to die on right here. Like, this is not a good look. Service members that came home with flags over boxes. Yeah.

And you're going to bitch about this. They hate, they hate our country. And this is their answer to the snap fraud that's been uncovered. This is their answer to the Minnesota Somali fraud that has. been uncovered. This is their answer. Our troops got $15 million worth of rib eyes. There's also 1.3 million troops in the military. That comes out to $14 per troop. Did you hear what Stephen Miller's wife said? What, what show did she come on? No. I have the clip. But she, she goes, do you know that the Somali fraud under Tim Walts?

is higher than what we have spent on the entire war so far. I was like, what? That's good stuff right. And here's the thing. We've, we have spent a lot so far on these combat operations. And it's still less than the Somali fraud. Like that's crazy. Why,

why isn't he complaining about that? That's nuts, man. That's crazy. I, I just, I can't believe that, that's that's where these and and this is the far left you know the quote unquote far left i hate using democrat republican left right i hate using those terms but there's no other way to describe them

at this point this is far left the severe anti-trump disorder people the pete hegseth is a scumbag and he's a major and he shouldn't be in the secretary defense he's doing a better job right now than i've seen from a lot of of of the previous secretary of defense offenses, you know, who are, you know, bought and paid for, essentially, and don't have that conflict of interest. They're not trying to, you know, further their private career when they get out. Pete Higgseth is doing a great job, man. I haven't heard if he's responded to this at all yet. I'd be curious to see if he has.

If somebody has seen Pete Hegseth respond to this, I would love to see it because I hope, I hope when he does respond, he doesn't fucking hold back. I hope he goes full bore on these fucking retards. I do too. I don't know if this changed from the time I was in the urine, but all are like upgraded gear, we bought that shit ourselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I'm not talking about like the actual tech equipment,

you know what I mean, not that stuff. Boots, if you wanted. Yeah, if you wanted upgraded boots, if you want it up like an upgraded like, you know, molly pouch system, you know, an upgraded sling, you know what I mean? You know, at the time, For us, I think it was Arrow that had the soft, the soft liner stuff for the inside of your,

your, your, your grape cover. Um, like we bought all that stuff. Yeah. I, I, I, I remember I bought a pair of, uh, SWAT boots because they were more comfortable, but most importantly, they were a lot lighter than our jungle boots were. And when we had to run like PT tests and stuff like PFTs and CFTs and you're doing them in boots, I was like, I want these. I want to be able to run faster, you know, less weight.

And like right away, they were like, you can't wear those. I'm like, why not? And they're like, they were the same color and everything. They didn't have the EGA stamped on the side. So I went home and I took my EGA. I lit it on fire. Like I had like one of the ones for, you know, your, your uniform. And I, we have like 30 of them.

So I took it and I just got it real fucking hot. And then I, and then I, and I, And I come in the next day, never got fucked with again. Never got fucked with again. I still have those boots to this day. To this day, they're so fucking comfortable, man.

So comfortable. What were you going to say? I'm sorry, I cut you off there. No, it was just, it's just crazy, man. I remember how excited I was when we went to theater because our pay was going to be tax-free for combat zone. and that pay was still shit compared to what everybody else is making but we were excited about it you know and you know it was in the beginning of the war man it was very it was a while before we got our first warm meal it's just like people i just people maybe don't grasp

of something like lobster or crab legs or steak and really boost morale yep like like Like when everything around you is horrifying and you miss your family and you're sick, right? You've gone you got Saddam's revenge, you know, all this stuff. And then, you know, you find out you're going to get a warrior real. Like that's a game changer. Like that's a huge deal. And to complain about it.

Yeah. So, um, our, our friend that's been on the show a couple times, our buddy reeve, uh, fellow 03, 03, 31 Marine Corps former retired federal prosecutor. He texted me this morning and was like, hey, uh, your article was great. He sent me, you know, he's like great article on the steak and lobster thing. And then we, we had a conversation about this.

And he says, uh, he asked grok about the historical context behind like the warrior's meal and everything. He says, Greeks and Romans got extra meat and wine rations right before they went into battle. Commanders knew that empty stomachs meant dead morale, uh, faster than a than any sword. Medieval troops, they would slaughter whole herds for fresh meat, feasts pre-fight, 5,000 calories in Brotherhood to stare down death. World War II D-Day, Navy ships stuffed troops with steak and egg breakfast, so they hit Normandy with full-bellied and fired up. U.S. military Marines included steak and lobster, surf and turf, is the pre-deployment last good meal since at least the 70s, Iraq and Afghanistan's staple after months of MREs. Friday Chow Hall tradition, Friday Chow Hall tradition to pure morale rocket.

And and and that's the thing when I was when I was in, you know, both of us were in during wartime like full-fledged war not like I'm not saying this Iran thing's not a war, but like we were you know thousands and thousands of troops over there boots on the ground. Yeah. And every D-FAC that we went to on Friday nights had steak and lobster under Obama. Everyone. Everyone. And nobody was ever like, hey, maybe we shouldn't be spending this. I didn't hear any civilians back home that were like, why are they getting steak and lobster? But I'll tell you one thing, the chow halls when you were in the rear, so me and Alpha were both infantry.

So we, and I don't know if it was the same for you, but when I got to Afghanistan, I had about two weeks at Camp Leatherneck while they processed us and got us with everything in ducks in a row and everything. And then they shipped us out and we were in the middle of fucking nowhere for seven months. you know nobody around us except afghanis taliban drug lords and all that shit and then on the way home we got two more weeks in the rear and you know we got good shit we could go to the the mcx right look at like a grocery store kind of thing we could go to the green bean coffee domino's pizza there was a defac which is the chow hall where they had legitimately good food good food and i remember when i deployed when we when we kicked out after the first two weeks incoming i remember like talking with my buddy that we were over there and he's like what are you dreaming about when we get back home i was

like well before we get back home we got to go to leather neck and when we get to leatherneck man i'm dreaming of making like a sandwich at their sandwich bar man i'm just going to take the fucking rye bread some fucking turkey some pastrami some roast beef like pile it on there tons of mustard some provolone cheese some Swiss cheese tomato spinach and lettuce and all this and dude I I shit you not the first thing I did when I got back to Leatherneck was I went to the chow hall and I made a sandwich that was like it had to be like four or five inches tall like it was huge and I just sat there and ate that thing because we we eat fucking MREs every fucking day MREs and C rats which are

equally atrocious. Oh. Or you're risking it and you're buying something from the locals. Yeah. Which it got to a point. So we actually had a standing order that we were no longer supposed to buy anything from the locals. Because a lot of troops were getting sick. We were so just done, done with the MREs that we were buying.

They said it was chickens, right? Or chickens, right? The way they spelled us. chair us you know and and we were eating it man because we were just you're done with the morees like this is it is man yeah i i never heard that before you know an empty stomach you know is bad for morale but i mean we lived it you know because when when we got into theater like there was nothing existed in iraq like we were we were the ones crossing the l o d so it was a very long time i if i remember correctly man it was

like six weeks I think it was like six or seven weeks man before we got our first hot shower wow like it was big got showers so well wasn't the water wasn't necessarily hot but I mean they called it a hot shower but you didn't care you know what I mean you like you just you went in there and you have like what I think it was like 30 seconds because they were portable it was the portable stuff that they set up you know so you're in and out you know standing on the grates and on that you're just trying to clean the important parts because you know you're not trying to get sick it's it's like it was it was rough man we we were literally there during the times where you were digging a trench a mangrave right remember the mangraves that you put your you put your

you put your vortex bag in there and you're sleeping in that stuff you know and every now and then if there was like an abandoned you know building or something like that we'd go and clear it and we go in there and i think it was months later when they gave us cots you know what i mean and and and and and and Cots, like, that was like, you know, you're like, like we were bougie. Like, you're bougie for having a cot, you know what I mean? And then the next thing after the Cots was they gave us these sticks or you put a stick up in the corner of the cot and you had the mosquito net. And that and that was living like, you know, that that was a presidential suite. If you had a cot, a stick and mosquito net. That was the, the presidential suite. Like, it's, it's, it's very rough out there, you know,

you know like i know a lot of people there were this like you know your guys's deployments are so much shorter it's like yeah but they abused this shit out of us absolutely in that short window so our our idea of a hot shower was uh you know the sea bags not the sea bags but the the what do they call them the bags that you put your stuff in to keep it dry like they're watertight you know what i'm talking about yeah i know i don't think they're vortex but you put all your stuff in there It's a big, big bag. And then you fold it over like three times.

You tie it. There's like a clip on it. And then there's like a little valve on there that you open and compress it. And it sucks all the air out. And then you close that valve and it's like this really compressed back. So we would take that and we would fill it up with bottled water because we did get bottled water. They would air drop us water all the time like pallets of water. And so we got this bottled water air drop to us.

And we take like seven or eight bottles of water, put it in there, and then we would hang it up in the sun all day long. And so by the end of the day, you had hot water. And so we would take, we would take those bags and we would poke like 10 or 12 holes in it, put a piece of tape over it when it's not being used. And then when we want to take the shower, we open that piece of tape. And you got like seven or eight, you know, streams of water coming down like a showerhead. And you would get a hot shower. And that was the only hot shower that we got. other than that it was baby wipes like yeah 100% baby whites make a lot money during the war the way the way we cooled our water was you had your big water bottle and you'd get one of your socks put your sock around the water bottle zip tied the sock around the water bottle then you would wet the outside with not drinking water right because you know you had to be careful of that and then we hung them on the side of the vehicle and so as the air would cool and you would actually get to have some you know cool water i don't want to say that's you know

say cold, but cool water, you know, it was, I mean, it was the best times and it was the worst times. We should never bitch about what we're spending on food for these guys. No. I mean, until you've lived on a fob where you have to piss in a tube to get it off the base, like we would have, we had the heskos and we drilled a hole through one of the Hesco barriers and we put like a big six inch pipe like six inch wide pipe through and that was the piss tube. You would go out there and you would piss in the tube and it would run out the back of the out the back of the Hesco so it's outside the fob and then roll down the hill that we were on. That was our bathroom. You know and again if you had to take a crap, you're going and you're

pooping in a wag bag and then you're taking the wag bag and you're throwing it in a pit and you're burning it or I you know I don't know if when you were in if they even had wag bags or if you guys were shitting in pots and then had to burn we we were shitting in 50 gallon drums cut and have filled with uh it was it wasn't diesel for I think what was it's a JPA which is yeah yeah essentially diesel yep yeah that was miserable man God I miss it though but dude I was I was a Lance Cooley during deployment bro so so We were part of that working party. So here I'll be very quick on this story. It was teams of three when it was your turn to go to the burn pit. And we would play cards. Because you could rotate like, hey, I went and then you had to go because you have to stir it light it and fire and stir it. And so we would have played cards and loser is the one that they would take it and go do the deed.

I think I told you this before. I was incredibly lucky in that regard because I was the only person on the base that knew we had we had a big John Deere I think it was like a 714 front end loader right huge piece of equipment and I was the only person that knew how to drive it and I'd never driven one in my life but I'd driven backhose and all sorts of other heavy equipment so I was like how hard can this be I'll figure it out right and so I volunteered the first time to do that And so my job was I would drive the tractor, the front end loader. They would put all the buckets into the bucket of the front end loader. And then I would drive it outside the base. And one Marine would go with me. And he would be the Marine that would roll them off and have to either dump them and burn it or whatever the case might be. So I never had to burn shit.

That is my one saving grace is that I volunteered to drive that thing. I paid for it a lot. Because like when we got air drops and shit in the middle of the night, you know, C-130 comes in and just dumps like 20 pallets outside of our fob. And we have to go out and bring the pallets in. And so we would rig them up to the front end loader and I would have to drag them up the hill. And so I would spend like 20 pallets doing it the way we did it because I could only go up the hill at like half of a mile an hour. It was so slow. And so it took me like, it took me like five or six hours to do that.

And these loads would come in at like two o'clock in the morning. And so I would have to wake up at like two o'clock in the morning, get dressed, go down there, start pulling the thing up. And, you know, it was a shit show. I've told the story before, but that thing was a bullet sponge, man. That thing was a bullet magnet, I should say. I'd be working on the hill, like digging a new burn pit or like, you know, whatever. I'd be getting shot at all day long. I'd be up there just ping, ping, ping, just bouncing off the machine.

but again, we didn't trade it for anything. And how dare you fucking retards want to take away the steak and lobster from our troops? While all this shit's going on with Snap and Somali fraud and Medicaid fraud and all this other bullshit that's going on. And that is what we're talking about over the last two or three days. I am blown away by that. Absolutely blown away. The hate us because the anus. you know I came across this video I think I think we should play this it's like 10 minutes long

but have you ever wondered what it would be like to be on an AC 130 you know an AC 130 is right I do gunship Specter gunship I don't know I thought this might be pretty cool to see if you want to play it if not we can we can do whatever I feel like you're trolling me right now I swear to God I'm not I swear to God you haven't seen the chat huh no what's the chat saying our chat oh no i have not oh well hurry up we're gonna play this so this is the ac so the ac 130 is a specter gunship they're going to tell you everything about it it is one of the saving graces it's one of the greatest things you can see as an infantry

men on the ground when you're in contact for like four hours and you're like holy fuck when is this firefight going to stop this is one of the best things you're you can ever see. I have not watched this video in its entirety. So we're going to watch it together. All right. You're going to see what the most heavily armed aircraft in the world is capable of. 3-130 J gunship, the most heavily armed aircraft in the world. To the rear of the aircraft, we have a 105 millimeter howitzer, which is the gau x-X, which is the newest version of the 105. To the port of the aircraft, we have a 30-millimeter gal 23, which is a chain-link gun. And then we have the capabilities to carry on the wings, small diameter bombs as well as hellfire missiles.

And in the tail of the aircraft, we can actually carry a grip of missiles. Now when you step inside the cargo bay, the level of firepower on display is really tough to comprehend. The first thing you'll notice is the 30 millimeter gun, which is capable of firing up to 200 rounds per minute, each roughly the size of a Coke bottle. Each round blows up with the same force as a hand grenade.

And let's just say that we have enough on board to do some serious damage. The 30-mill brings a lot of flexibility to the ghostwriters crew. The gun is on a trainable out which means it can pivot along two axes making it easier to aim at the target without having to reorient the entire plane. The ammunition also feeds in from two different chains, allowing gunners to quickly switch to a second kind of ammunition if they need to take out a different

threat. Here in front of us, we have the 105 millimeter howitzer, which is capable of shooting rounds that way up to 50 pounds. By the way, a 105 millimeter howitzer is essentially artillery. It is artillery. Yeah, let me show you. Okay. Yeah. Oh. My gosh. For those of you watching, this is every bit of 50 pounds, and I can't believe you guys have to grab these and load them up every time. Every single time. Create some serious firepower. Very serious. Yeah, so this round and this weapon, the howitzer, is actually used by the army.

They utilize it on the ground. Here we have modified it so that we're able to shoot it in there. Flying artillery. And when the guns go off, you can definitely feel the recoil. When the 105 goes off, the airplane moves six feet in the opposite direction. and when the 30 goes off, someone's kicking your seat the whole time. Now that massive recoil, the one of five...

That's crazy. Did you hear that? The plane moves six feet in the opposite direction? That's nuts. Produces also causes the cannon to shoot back about 43 inches with 14,000 pounds of force, easily enough to do some serious damage to a crew member caught behind it.

This yellow-looking cage that we have here is actually called the safety cage. This was built around to protect crew members from the recoil of the gun. So as long as you're not behind it, Sam, I think we'll be all right. Definitely. I don't want to get a hand caught in there, a foot. I can't imagine the damage that would do. You definitely don't.

I'm going to be making sure you're looking out for me. Oh, we got your back. All right. All right. All right, guys, we're about to load up here. I'll be honest. I'm feeling a little nervous. I know this isn't a fighter jet or a helicopter doing low levels, but I mean,

the firepower on this thing is crazy. And the fact that I get to strap in and shoot it myself, it's going to be exciting, but we'll just see how it goes. So I can't wait to bring you guys along. Just like we briefed, I started out in the flight deck where I would be sitting for takeoff. As the pilots ran their pre-flight checklist, the rest of the crew was busy prepping the aircraft for our mission. Now, one thing I haven't shown you yet is probably the most important component of the Ghost Rider. This dual-consul computer system known as the MOP or Mission Operator Pallet.

This is where all the weapon systems are controlled, including the camera, sensors, and most importantly, the trigger. The mop is typically occupied by the combat and weapon systems officers. However, today, when we get out to the range, I'll have a chance to take a seat and give it a go myself. Specter 6-1-R-4, Vend to 310-11-Gust-15. Can I just throw this out there? Can me and Alpha get some of these gigs? We'll fly out there and do this kind of shit.

Like, hello, U.S. military. Hello. You got two combat vets right here. that we'll put out this kind of production. Let's go. Takeoff. After starting the engines and receiving tower clearance for taxi and takeoff, my flight aboard the Mighty AC130 was officially underway.

All right, Sam, we're at 10,000 feet. We've got about 15, 16 miles till we get to the range, then we'll start our shoot once we get all our stuff done over there. All right, I'll plan on head to the back. Ready to let those guns up. Yeah, absolutely. And to shoot them too. Yeah, it's going to be sweet.

Take a time. After making my way to the back, I grabbed my helmet and gloves and found a seat behind the mop as I waited for the crew to finish prepping the guns. Before they're ready to fire, the guns have to be adjusted through a process called tweaking. This is very similar to lining up the sights on a rifle or shotgun, and for the AC130, it involves firing rounds at different points in the gun orbit, so wind adjustments and other corrections can be made. Once all the tweaks were made, it was time to take my seat at the mop. The first thing I'll say is that to some extent, it really did feel like I was playing. a video game. The side controller where you see my left hand is where you change the position of the camera over the targets as well as the zoom. And you can actually adjust the sensitivity,

just like your typical Xbox or PlayStation controller. I'm not kidding, it seriously was. But anyways, once I had a fairly good idea on how things worked at the mop, it was finally time to fire. Starting out on Gun 1, the 30-mill, this was gonna be fun. All right, I'm so fucking jealous right now. So fucking jealous right. now. And don't worry, because I promise we're just getting started. I'm going to go guns one and two on a line. Hi, the copies. Okay, so that was pretty cool, but I think it's time that we move to the gun I had been waiting patiently for.

Yep, gun two, the 105 millimeter cannon. For this, things were going to work a little bit differently. Instead of just pulling the trigger, we were going to simulate a real-life fire mission. Alright, you're ready for fire mission? Fire mission? Hell yeah. This is how things would work in a real-life combat situation with friendly forces on the ground calling in an air strike.

Spectre. Fire mission out. This is what I did in the Marine Corps, but with mortars and artillery and all that. First piece of comms is from the simulated controller on the ground who is calling in the initial request for an air strike. I then responded, send it, which prompts the controller to transmit the coordinates and target. In this case, a group of three enemy tanks. Spectre 6-1 copies looking at an enemy tank.

Now this final piece of comms you'll hear is my favorite part because it includes a checklist rundown from the entire crew. As the WISO or Weapon Systems Officer, I'll relay the gun type, ammunition, and distance to target, which then allows the Sizzo or Combat Systems Officer next to me to confirm. It then goes to the pilot who has a consent switch up in the flight deck before going back down to the gunners who load the ammunition and confirm that gun two is ready to fire. Pro two, whizzo, gun 40, 5-500. One, go!

Fire first-up. I'm from the pilot. We're going to descend down to 9,500 just to see if it's a little less bumpy. 10,000 puts us right at the face of the clouds, basically. So if you've stuck around this long, you'll know that there's still one thing I have left to do. Experience loading the 105 millimeter cannon myself. As I pulled on my gloves and made my way to the rear of the aircraft, I realized this was not going to be the easiest thing I'd ever done. Handling 50-pound rounds at almost 10,000 feet in the

air while experiencing some pretty bad turbulence, let's hope I brought my A-game. All right, Sam, we're going to get you on the 105 shooting some T-P rounds. You get with that? Good. I want you to be absolutely careful because the turbulence right now is really bad. Remember how this works, right? You're going to... Okay, so he said they're going to be shooting T-P rounds. Now, I don't know if they're different from 105s, but when I was in T-P meant training practice. So I don't know if he's actually shooting real HE rounds. Take your hand.

It's going to cut the back. You want to cut the prime drop all the time. It has a blue tip. It's a training round. You're going to take it out. Slide it into your hand. You're going to swing over. It slides right in, right?

Okay. Awesome. Does that make sense? Yep. It was actually a little bit more complicated than it sounded, especially remembering how to arm it once it was loaded in the gun. But anyways, I gave it my best shot. Okay.

Let me see, that might be... I gave it my best shot. That could be a training round. You see that blue line right there? Blue is like the military's color for training. All right, it's already selected, so you're going to close your breach. Hit the F1 and then arm it. You're gun ready.

A little rusty and definitely lacking the speed that an actual AC130 gunner has, but hey, not bad for my first time. I gave it a few more goes, but then decided it would be way more fun to let the experts have at it as we finished up our final few rounds before landing. That's the end of that there. Alpha has not made it back, but that is pretty fucking badass, man. That is pretty fucking badass. An AC130, man. That is like death from 10,000 feet, man.

An A10 in the video later? we we might have to do an a 10 at some point that is that is the ultimate so the a 10 has a 30 millimeter as well so does that thing except the 30 millimeter on the a 10 is a gatling gun so it's got like six barrels I think maybe seven barrels whereas that one's just one single barrel so you hear that thing going is whereas the a 10 is burr the famous burr say that to any grunt they're like yep we know all about what the bert is about all right guys that is going to uh that is going to bring the show to an end here we'll get into rants in one second before we do that let's talk about some soft disclosure after you're handling all those big rounds

and you got the nice beard you got to make sure your beard's still intact it's got to be good right it's got to be good if you're coming off that ac 130 you got to look like a rock star Legend says on St. Patrick's Day, a beard without oil is just a chin with ambition. But a beard with soft disclosure beard oil, that's true treasure. Spiced vanilla, naked, smooth as a lepracons getaway plan. Soft enough to impress your barber, bold enough to confuse a baby goat. And this bore bristlebrush tames your beard like it owes the crown coin. Every bottle is American made, which means when you buy soft disclosurialial.

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I actually saw Maggie Bund say Alpha's on a space and I look to check. is alpha actually on the space uh he is not actually on a space you are a rumor starter uh and that's that i look though you got me uh thomas time 76 levity time and then a link here and for five dollars i will absolutely pull this link up can't guarantee i'm going to play it but oh is that is that Oh, wait, hold on. Let's go back. Probably die. Or not. Go Army.

Okay, so that's an RPG. And that guy famously got hit, struck by an RPG. Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, uh, good share there. Thomas Times. Appreciate that. Uh, sore 47 behind every strong successful man is a stronger woman that that lets the man take all the credit and sits back and then and lets them take the credit for wait let's let's let's the man take all the credit and sit back and let them take the credit

former extreme sport athlete thank you guys hey you know i've i've never even doubted that like never even called this into question women are infinitely better than men at almost everything. If it's not physically demanding, and even then women are better at some things. If it's not physically demanding, chances are a woman is better at it than you are. May 60,

appreciate the show. Maybe I could show up and tell you my NAM experience. Sent you both emails with photos, could give it a try. And then you sent two. Smey, we will get you on, I promise, brother.

I promise. promise we will get you on all right guys that is going to do it for tonight's show thank you guys all so much for tuning in please smash that thumbs up deeply appreciate that helps us out tremendously patriot hyphen protect dot com slash sit rep promo code badlands check them out stay secure your data guys i'm telling you right now it's the one thing you're like man i wish there's actually there's two things i lied there's two things securing your data and a good firearms attorney self-defense plan. Like, I used to use, I still, well, I used to use, I still use, I still use US Shield.

So if I ever get in a gun crime, like if I ever have to use my gun and self-defense, they pay your legal fees. Hopefully, I never use it. Best 20 bucks a month I have ever spent. Same with this, Patriot-hyphen protect.com slash sit rep. Hopefully you never need it. But just in case, it's there. All right, thank you guys all so much for tuning in.

And we'll see you tomorrow morning, me and Chris Paul on Badlands Daily. And yeah, have a great night, guys. Thank you so much for joining us. And don't forget to hit the thumbs up on this video. And a special thank you to all of our advertising partners. Please remember to shift your dollars to support those businesses that support Badlands Media.