Badlands Media - SITREP Ep. 161: Vietnam Huey Pilot Rick Talks Hot LZs and War Stories

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

Grab your coffee (or bourbon pecan, your call), because CannCon and Alpha Warrior trade the news desk for the hangar this week. They sit down with Vietnam War veteran and Huey pilot Warrant Officer Rick McAninch, who flew assault helicopter missions with the 334th and trained alongside the 317th Air Cav. Rick walks through what it actually took to fly troops into hot LZs with no night vision, why tail rotor failure is not the day ruiner you would expect, and a few stories that prove gear regulations were a lot looser back then. Expect a tiger encounter, a near miss with mortar fire, and enough helicopter trivia to make you rethink every war movie you have watched. It is equal parts history lesson and buddy comedy, told with the kind of respect only guys who have been there can offer.

The Badlands, what are the Badlands? Explain those Badlands. That's a hell of their name. 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. Don't ever forget that. Right, good evening. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome.

to the sit rep the lovely Thursday evening and I'm joined by the lovely alpha warrior how you doing brother I'm doing good brother he was on time this time always on time yeah except when you're not haters gonna hate haters you know you know how it goes uh we're gonna disappoint our chat well I don't think we're going to disappoint him maybe initially but I think tonight's show they will not be disappointed in at all but they want to see the catfight they want to see us going at it they want to see about what come on man they want to see us arguing we already had like a 30 minute phone call about this uh this afternoon or this evening for me this afternoon for him yeah but we don't argue no not at all i think i think we mostly agree

you just don't you just don't go down the same rabbit holes that i go down yeah no i i i stick to the stuff that's actually legit the shekels are too good for for alpha to go there Let me tell you. Send the shackles all up my game. Then the shackles all up my game. I'll tell you what, though. I'm batting near 100, baby. I'm batting near 100. That's not good. I'm batting near a thousand. No, no, no, no. You had it right the first time. You had it right the first time. You're batting near 100.

I'll give you that. You know what I meant. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. All right, guys, we're going to get into our sponsors for tonight's show and then we've got a very special guest joining us tonight. And so let's go ahead and talk about those sponsors. First up, guys, you're all familiar with loaded gun coffee. They've been a long time supporters of Badlands, and you may have met them in person at our guard events, but did you know that they are a veteran-ran family-owned shop out of Lake Havasu, Arizona? Every bag of their whole bean coffee delivers a high-octane, patriotic punch of flavor. And with a long history of commitment to

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not all. Order right now and we'll ship your order absolutely free. All right. MyPillow. com promo code badlands and great products from them as well all american company right there in minnesota as they like to call it so alpha man when you and i started this show out we kind of had more of an intention of uh doing what we're going to do tonight and i'm excited because we haven't gotten to do this we haven't gotten to do this we haven't done this uh in quite some time and we're

going to go back to the roots baby going back to the to the old the old grunt you know the old school i was going to say the old core but he wasn't marine so we're not going to go there but uh the old core right that's what they always tell us uh there's the new core and there's the old core right but uh we're we're going to take a a trip back and uh guys welcome to the show we've got from the 334th assault helicopter company and the 317th air have welcome to the show warrant officer Rick McKinich which that me what's that Macaninch Macaninch Mac an inch excuse me you know I've never said I know Rick and Michelle your son and daughter-in-law and I've never said their last name and it just dawned on me it's always McCannich in my head

or or Mickinich it's Mickinich I don't know I don't know how you doing I'm good yeah he always misses people's names up I'll get right Rick McInich I'll get I'll get it right this this guy struggles you didn't get it right he got it right thank you very much I like them apples Brian how you like them yeah yeah so um for those of you that don't know Rick is uh is Rick from Tamerac Gardens dad and I had the pleasure of playing with Rick playing golf with Rick um three times actually in Deadwood and during the, during the scramble that we played on Thursday, he started talking about you. And I was like, man, those are some pretty cool stories. So I was like,

maybe we get them on a on sit rep. He's like, oh, that's a great idea. And so now here you are, sir, and we're pleasure. It's our pleasure to have you with us tonight. So, Rick, tell us a little bit about yourself and specifically your service, but overall, let's get an idea of who you are. Okay, thanks. Again, I wanted to fly, and so I went down and took the test and they said, they let me do chopper school. So that's the beginning of the story. I went all the way through basically basic training was in Walters for helicopters and Rucker, Fort Rucker in Alabama was the advanced training for in Hueys and then off to Vietnam. So hold on. So when you enlisted, you got to go straight to helicopters. Yeah, well, after basic, you go to basic. You go to basic.

Fort Polk, Louisiana. They sent all the warrant officer candidates to Fort Polk, Louisiana. I'll tell you, that's, I don't know if, I mean, it's, no, I had no idea what that's like, but, but so in the, in the Marine Corps, man, you got to be like, man, you pretty much got to be a staff NCO before you're, you could put a warrant officer package in. And you're not flying until you're a warrant officer. So you're talking guys that have been in for 10 years plus before they can even sniff aviation fuel. Yeah, well, you know, Vietnam they needed a bunch of us. And, uh, You know, we were targets. They're like, oh, you're the dumb guy that wants to fly. Have at it, man. Let me ask. Let me ask.

The attention rate, we lost over half of our class. You know, it was a tough school because you're not only going through basic and flight school, but you're going through officer candidate school as well. So the runs, the PT, everything, they push it all together. Because they're trying to make sure that you, really are going to be there. And so it was, you know, it was rigorous, but if you want to do it, you just stay in there. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this, Rick. So you went in and the war's already, the war is already occurring, if I'm understanding your story. So it's kind of

the world of how I entered into the core. Let me ask you this question, because I would imagine, and it's much more sophisticated because you're flying a thing with the big ass propeller above your head. When you finally got out there and you're doing the thing, did you kind of feel like, you know, we probably could have had a lot more training. You know, go ahead. No, you know, when you're 20 years old, you know, you think you know more than anybody else around. So once you got through the training, and I just took to it. I was able to get in there and just do it.

You know, I don't know if you call it a natural light, I qualified expert in the firearms. And I was just, I was, gung-ho, I was a Boy Scout. How long is your training before you fly at that time? You know, we were in, well, right after basic, so you have the basic training, and then you go into preliminary flight school. And the ground school was, you know, I don't, I would have to look back at the training, but, you know, you do a lot of classroom stuff for you ever get in the cockpit. And you start, you know, with an instructor, obviously, but, but there's a lot of ground school that is involved before you ever get in the air. So, you know, it's like you guys have your AIT and, you know, after basic. And it's basically, you know, you go right into flight school instead of AIT.

And if the thing about it, if you wash out, we were promoted to E5 after basic. Wow. So you got, you know, I figured if you're going to make it. And so if you wash out, you still retain that E5 grade. So, but you end up 100 Bravo Zero, which is infantryman. So, you know, I mean. Better pay attention in class. Well, you know, I mean, people quit washed out for all kinds of reasons.

some guys couldn't handle it um they they take to drink and you know the pressure's on um and and that's i anybody that is doing that kind of stuff i don't care whether you're flying or if you're on the you know pushing tank or whatever it is it's intense so yeah nowadays like the the the the how strict they are like i was talking to i think it i think it was talking to colonel long about this a while back, you know, because she was a, uh, a flight surgeon. And, you know, she was saying like nowadays, you can't take like prescription or over the counter medications before you fly. Like you can't drink Coca-Cola before you fly like, you know, how strict they are in terms of diet and all that. It seems like it was a little different back in the day.

Guys out there boozing it up and all that stuff. Yeah. And I, I, I, I, ran I was pretty serious I wanted to come back and like in the army once you make aircraft commander you're assigned an aircraft and the the maintenance guy the crew chief is assigned to and I I said we'll get a long fine on our first name base as long you don't show up drunk or high you know you got it I mean people start shooting at you you've got to have your wits about you you know you can't go out there Oh, what's this? And when, toward the end of my tour, I was training in Vietnamese pilots. And we'd go into a hot LZ and they key the mic and start gibbering in Vietnamese.

And I told the crew chief, pull his mic cord. Because you have to be able to communicate. If the guy next year gets shot up, you have to go back and grab him. And so, you know, when you, if you're going into a hot LZ, you have to just do short message. and keep going. So you just, if you panic, you're just going to cause problems. So what year did you get in, Rick? And what year did you, was your first deployment in?

I went in in 69 and I went to NOM in 70. So I was in NOM 70, 71. And the first unit you went over there with was the 334th air assault? Yeah. Salt helicopter company. Yeah. And so good. And so you moved to units.

I went, as soon as I had enough time, I went down to what they call in, in-country instructor school. And that was in a vongtow, but, you know, that's just a city along the Cameroom Bay. And so I went through instructor school because I wanted to give check rides. And once I got enough check ride time in, I went down and took the exam for, standardization instructor. And at the time, I was probably the youngest standardization instructor in the Army. So, but that's just the level of flying. You know, if you, you know, you, you do a check ride every 90 days for proficiency. So, so I was given those check rides. And the hardest, the hardest check ride was to a senior captain one time. And he wasn't in our unit. So they sent me

over to give him a check ride. And I said, do you know the procedures? He said, yes. Well, he about killed us on a simulated hydraulic failure. And I said, let me in let me go through the demonstrations. He panicked. That's not a good place to panic. Oh, no, no, he's a panic. And I said hydraulic. It was tail rotor failure simulated tail rotor. Oh, wow. And that's one of the only things that have I had holes in the bird but I lost a tail rotor once and you know there's procedures you can you can fly them you just can't hover because the the boom catches up with your rotor rpms yeah that's not right so if the tail rotor goes out you can still fly you just have to stay moving yes you know it's arrow it'll list a bit and and and but it'll stay aerodynamically it'll fly because of

that boom sticking back there. But you can't hubble because of the torque. Right. It'll just start spinning the bird out like the yeah start spinning. The rotor is 334 r pms and you I can't go that fast. So what was what's I got it I got to know how this how that how that formula so you're you're flying you're keeping it in motion with a little bit of a list but at some point you got a land. Yeah, and what you do is you're coming in and you do a, you do a landing like an airplane. You do what they call a run on landing. And so you're coming in at an angle.

And at the last minute, you either roll the throttle on to correct it or roll it off to drop the torque. And then you set it down and you're moving 30 miles an hour. And so then it's just, you know, but if you go the wrong way, you don't want to come in tail first. because the skids will catch on the back end the front of the skids are rotated up a bit so anyhow I don't want to land on a helicopter backwards period that's crazy man but but there's ways it's like if you lose an engine the auto rotation they they actually land better engine off than they do with the engine on because of ground effect of the but you only have one shot at it you can't you know you come in once and you flare to slow your speed and pull the power and set it down.

And you pick your spot between your feet and the pedals. And that's where you're landing. You're not glide. There's no glide in a helicopter. The glide path was like a rock. I am so glad I didn't know all this before I went on helicopters in the Marine Corps. Now I know what the mean when they spend time trying to kill you. Yeah, but you know, that's that's, that's what.

why you do the check rides and the training. But it's a whole lot better than we can cover a whole lot more ground than you can on the ground, found in the walking. Oh, no, there's no question about it. Way more efficient than humping everywhere you got to go. But, you know, I mean, we took a like a 45-minute helo ride out to our A.O. in Afghanistan. And, you know, the first time was on a VF22, which was nice, because it was quick. But then the next time it was on a CH-50. and that thing sucked and then a Chinook on the way back that was even worse. A Chinook hauled asses, I won't say. Chinooks are, they're amazing helicopters.

Yeah, it hauled ass, man. That thing was fast. Yeah, and powerful. They can lift 10 tons or whatever it is. Yeah. Rick, what would you say is the average altitude that you're flying at when you're actually going into an LZ? Well, we flew, we flew above 2,500 feet.

That's small arms range. So in NAM, you either flew it to tree tops below 50 feet or above 2,500. And so that window, you went as quickly as you could through that window. So when you were coming into an LZ, you would come in from 2,500 feet and just make an approach. And there's usually for three, four, or half a dozen choppers doing an insertion. so and the guy in lead everybody behind the lead guy has to be lower because of rudder wash so the last guy is actually on the ground first because you can't you don't want to come through disturbed air you lose lift I mean there's you know it's just what you're trained to do and the guys

riding them back have no clue what's going on you know I mean you're You're just, you know, it's a taxi right. Fat dumb and happy, baby. Fat dumb and happy. Just get us on the ground and let us shoot at the bad guys. Let me mention my slim gym before we get to where we're going. I know I can't leave the trash in the bird, got to put in my cargo pocket. Just get me there.

That's it. Just get me there. Well, because that trash just catches up in the rudders and it becomes an egg beater. So, so Rick, what's the difference between air assault or assaults? helicopter squadron and air cav uh air calf the assault helicopter company basically was troop transport hughy's um in an air cab unit you would have cober gun chips a low bird and and a company like three or four helicopters if they found something or search and rescue So air cab unit had the three elements.

Assault helicopter company was just called in when you had to take a whole bunch of people into an LZ. I'm assuming the former was much more dangerous. No, they were equal. You know, it's just exposure time. You know, I don't know. It probably one of them, the men, Metta-back units probably were the highest loss. Some of those guys didn't even have guns on the side.

Wow. And so I ended up pulling a lot of people out, but I wasn't in a medevac unit. So we still had our M-60s on each side. And that put, you know, those guys put down a lot of suppression fire. Keeps heads down. What's the heaviest ever topped your bird? off with bodies to take off.

I'm sorry, I missed that. What's the heaviest amount of bodies that you put on one of your bird one time to get out of? Six, seven, eight, eight guys, probably. It really depends on the altitude and humidity. When we were, I was telling Brian earlier, I was, I used to put in what they called the long range patrol guys, and there was like four guys. And they were, they're packs. I don't know how heavy they were, but, you know, they would set up ambushes on the trails,

and they were packed with claymores, and, you know, they all carried AK-47, so in a firefight, you couldn't distinguish the weapons. But those were, those were hardcore guys. And so I don't think we ever carried more than four of those guys because of the packs they were carrying. And you would hover into a hundred-foot jungle and drop those guys off. you know and that's always a lot of fun but we used to good when we went to pull them out i've hovered in a hundred foot jungle with no lights because i didn't want to be a target and that's real tricky did you guys have n bgs you have night vision no we did not oh man that's oh wow

Wow. Oh, ball. That's palsy as fuck, man. Because when we would go into the jungle environments, I didn't know what it was like looking up at the tree line. It's dark as shit. I imagine it's the same thing looking down. Yeah.

And you also know that when tracers are coming at you, they look like basketballs. Going away from you, they look small, but when they're coming your way, that phosphorus, it's the biggest basketball. Holy crap. So what kind of birds were you personally flying? I was Hueys, UH-H-1-H, the hotel models most of the time. Yeah. Which it depends on the, we didn't have the twin engine.

Air Force had the twin engine hughies. And they would hover at 100 feet, you know, because they had two engines. If one died, they could still land it. We didn't hover above 50 feet, you know, because if you lost an engine, you're going down. were you guys sitting on kevlar's too to protect your ass from yeah my particular helicopter was an old medevacs i had armor plated in my seats but yeah i didn't but the guy a lot of guys did we and what happens you know you guys have had combat the guys that i mean you just don't know until they start shooting at you. I don't care how much training you go through. And some guys

could not stay away from the alcohol. And there were certain guys in my unit, chopper pilots, I wouldn't fly with. You know, I mean, you know, I wouldn't want to be part of them or I would want to fly what we call the last bird trail. I didn't want them over flying me. So, but there's always those things in combat, you know, I mean, you can, I don't care how much training you go through. When they start shooting at you you know things change absolutely murphy's Murphy's rule of uh of of uh warfare right Murphy's law and warfare plan never survives the first the first attack um I don't know if you've seen Rick lately what they've done to the Huey's now in the Marine Corps but they've outfitted them with hellfire rockets and mini guns like pilot shot like pilot

controlled right now you come in and you just dive in and just and just, you just, well, we had, we had the cobras, which were that same thing, but we also had what they call

the C models, which was the Huey gunship. Oh, maybe that's what it is. And I, I didn't have anything with rockets on it. I've got a funny story to tell you, but,

you know, because I'm kind of a crafty guy, but I wanted to build a, a bar in our room one time. And so we had, do you know what a Fleschette rocket is? So, you know, they have a gross of, like eight penny nails with fins on them. And they're for troops in the open. So when we were going into Cambodia, I took one of those rockets apart and used the nails out of them to build this bar in the room.

I couldn't get nails, but I could get a rocket and take it apart. Somebody goes to pull the trigger and expecting Fleschette rockets to come out. like click and they're like son of no yeah i just yeah i just got it out of armament but you know that's just a side story i'm i'm a scrounger uh i had you know it's a long i've got all kinds of stories but how old were you at this time rick i turned 21 and numb I tell you, we were babies, man. Babies. I don't know.

The reason to ask Rick, and I'm sure you probably experienced this with your kids as I got older, I remember when my oldest turned 20 and 21, and I'm looking at her, and I'm like, like, you're so young. You got to learn so much. And I was already in combat. I'm just like, what the hell? What was the world thinking, man? Well, our adopted son is 26.

He just got married. And he was dual sport in college. He did, he was state champion in javelin in high school and then played scholarship to football and track. He did javelin in college too. And I'm thinking, man, by the time I was 26, we already had three kids. You know, I mean, married. You know, they. It's different now than it was when I married because I was supposed to I had signed indefinite papers.

We were going to get married on my 30-day leave after NOM. And that was already set up. So we just got married and then I got out. How long were your tours when you went? One year, one year tour. Oh, that sucks. Well, this is the other thing I tell people too. You know, a tour.

during active combat, you may hear three months, six months, eight months, but when it's active combat, that's a long ass time. Well, in the first night in country, there was a mortar attack on the, on the, where we, induction center there in outside of Saigon. And, you know, here, guy gets killed on that murder attack, you know, first day in country. I'm thinking, this is, this is for real. But like I said, I've lots of stories, but I never. Do you remember your first troop in contact?

Do you remember your first tick? Uh, you were saying you got shot at? Yeah, yeah. Um, it wasn't, um, it wasn't real traumatic. I, I don't know. Yeah. I, you remember all those missions. I mean, it's just, um,

If you're flying out of that landing zone and you're making it, you're heading back. One of the times we put troops in and there was a four-ship insertion. So we were putting them into smoke. There was people on the ground already. Well, the smoke set the elephant grass on fire. And when we came in, I thought I was pretty close to ground.

It was six-foot high elephant grass. And so the guys were going out of the, you know, we make an approach. I think, well, there's grass. We can't see how deep it is. And the guys go out and they disappear. You know, you just don't know. Because you're not touching down.

You know, you're just, you're rolling in. They get out and you roll right out. You know, it's a motion. So, but then because of the smoke cut of fire, we had to come back, circle back around, and pull these guys back out. They're in the middle of this grass fire. Shit.

And you can't see over elephant grass. And so if you get just spun up a little bit, you have no idea what direction is what direction. And you end up just walking around aimlessly. Like, where are the, am I? Man, that's dangerous. Good thing you got them out. Well, we had to. We couldn't leave men there with a wildfire going.

Right. So that was, that was, you know, there's all kinds of different things that happened. Holy cow. What was the closest call? What was the one? I know we have trooping, you know, in contact, but what was the, what was the moment you started negotiating with God? You know what I mean? Yeah.

Well, it's a longer story, but I was flying in to pick up the XO. He had come in off of leave in in Saigon. And the section leader said, he had a brand new aircraft. He said, take my aircraft. So I went out and pre-flighted it. Well, it had a chip detector light on the transmission. So I'm not flying over the chip detector light on. You know, that's a, you don't want that transmission to seize up when you're flying.

That's not a good healthy thing. Because anyhow, so I went over and pre-flighted mine from the day and went in and got him. What time we came out of Saigon, there was thunderstorms. And you had to cross the Air Force approach, so you had to be below 50 feet. in thunderstorm with 1,500 foot a minute thermals below 50 feet. Horn range. And here I am flying from the right seat, the instruments, from the left seat, the instruments on the right side.

The co-pilot hadn't been in a Huey since flight school. He was my roommate. He was a gunship pilot. So here I'm flying instruments at 50 feet, 1,500 foot a minute thermals, because I didn't want to have a fast mover run me over. that was that was tense because you're you're just you know I mean any pilot would understand you were just pulling power and dropping it and pulling it dropping it

and dropping it and so let me yeah let me pull up some of these photos here we got some photos that were sent over to us by by Rick your son and so let's just go through some of these and if you want to give us a quick description here. So that's you as a young Warren officer. Sitting in a low bird, yeah, and always 58. Yeah, my wife put all these together and sent them over to Rick. That's pretty badass. Yeah, that's, that's again, that was one of the low birds. And that's an oh age 58. Loach, they call them low observation helicopter. Oh, you definitely had my shit don't stink attitude look it with the cap and everything i like it i like it half cocked on his head like yeah that's there we go what gun is that

it's a uh yeah gatling gun we had a few of them on our units actually a vietnamese helicopter number they were i was training Vietnamese pilots at the time for the end of the tour so is that like a like a mini yeah but what does it shoot like a five five six seven six two i think there were seven six twos i don't think those were yeah they were seven six two gatling luds we had some 50 cows on the side no things about push you sideways yeah hell yeah they would hell yeah they would Hell yeah, they would. Oh, so there we go. Little, is that the, the, uh, the AKs that they were using?

Yeah. Yeah. Damn. That's my roommate. He was the gunship pilot. That's Rick with hair. Well, we haven't seen you without hair. You got your hat on, but we, you got a beard.

Oh, there you go. Okay. All right. So Rick with hair. There we go. That's. I'm flying trail on a four I was actually training a guy but we're way off we should be a lot closer but I was taking pictures of an insertion. Is this in Vietnam?

Yes. Yes. Wow. Doesn't look too much different than like Carolina or something. No. We were in three core, you know, there was jungle, but it was after the defoliation stuff. So agent orange stuff. So it thinned it out pretty good.

But the trouble is, for that Agent Orange, it would thin out the greenery, but it left snags and dead, you know, killed the foliage, but didn't kill the trees. So you still had the tree sticking up. Oh, the big guns, the big guns. Yeah, we would go out to fire support bases and then take troops in and out. What are those there, 155s? Yeah, howitzers, yeah. The big dogs.

That's a 50 cow with a litter behind you. Yeah. That, that, well, no, that, that's actually a seat rail. And the crew chief and gunner sat in little outcoves behind the troop seats there. Oh, okay. It looks like a litter. Yeah. You see the barrel of the 50 right there.

That's pretty badass. Now, this picture, we're going to need some, we're going to need the story behind this picture. Oh, the first unit in country, the low bird found this tiger drinking in the river. And so they shot it. And then they went down and got it. And I don't, you know, not exactly protocol. But so it's six feet long from the head and not including the tail. Bingle tiger. You are. You are well past the statute of limitations to be brought up on war crimes.

Self defense. Wow. Yeah, I just took pictures. It was in my unit. I wasn't even on that mission. Oh, man. That's unfortunate. It's such a beautiful creature.

Was it, is there at least a story that it was like ravaging the villages or something? I was drinking in the river. Oh, no, no. But, you know, to me. I'm trying to do it out here. Rick. I know. You may have to look it out there because you wouldn't want to meet that bingo tiger on the

on the trail. Hell yeah. That's what I'm saying. That every every grunt out there was like, thank you. K bar, baby. Thank you. I was like I to take him on with a K bar. There you go. Things have come out to snatch it. That's a painful way to die, man. It's going to eat you. I was trying to get you out there that like the villagers were complaining. No, he was just drinking water like my cousin Vinny. The little deer comes down to the creek and which is the deer lips dam and boom a bullet rips his fucking brain out that's still pretty badass though man did the do the locals eat it or buy it off you guys or do you know i you know i don't know what they did with the meat they skinned it and and then dressed out the hide the guy

wanted it for the and i don't know how he got at home but you know that was i was only in country less than a month when that happened crazy home with one of the opioid. I don't know how you get that in your luggage and, you know. That's crazy. All right. So what do we got here? The best damn professionals in the world walk on this bridge.

I don't know what that is. Yeah. That was actually, I'm pretty sure that was done in Van Tau at the aviation instructor pilot school. Ah. You know, and I would have to verify that. But, you know. All right, hold on, let's get back there. All right, there we go.

Is that you flying or is that your, you're just, okay. Just picture. Gotcha. Damn, that's pretty badass, man. That is. That's pretty badass. I hear the mash music when I see this picture. Oh, my God.

If this isn't the most, if this isn't the most like cliche Vietnam, picture like i hear fortunate son with this picture you know you've you've probably seen mel gipsons we were soldiers yes that was the most realistic movie i've ever seen of what you know and that's obviously the pretty hot deal but that's you know he did a good job making making that up yeah i'm glad you brought that up because Is it like the whole time I'm, you know, we're talking about this. That's what I'm thinking in my head is, is, you know, the, the we were soldiers and, you know, getting the guys in and out and the birds coming in and, you know, that kind of thing.

And I wanted to ask you that is, is that, you know, even from a pilot's perspective, is that what it was like in some of these hot LZs? Yes, it is. It was really pretty accurate. That was pretty close. And again, they stumbled on to a brigade size. you know settle my there was underground i don't know that it was ever we ever stumbled onto something that big but but it was pretty realistic as far as what goes on wow that is crazy was there ever

you know a grunt or anyone that you just you kind of like a guy you just grew fond of that you're out there um do you know what i'm saying Well, yeah, the crew chief. Actually, my roommate through flight school, Scotty McIntosh, he was older, eight, ten years older than me. And we were going to go to Australia together because he'd been to Australia before. And then he was killed about a month before we were supposed to do leave. and so the friend that introduced me to my wife said well let's meet in hawaii and i didn't want to go to

australia by myself so i flipped my r-and-r to go to hawaii and met audrey and uh so anyhow but that was you know there was a lot of commodity with between pilots um you know they but we were billeted separately from the enlisted but my crew chief and i got pretty close but the rest of them you know they had separate facilities so you know how good how how when you're flying these grunts you know doing the the the inserts and the extracts how often are you flying the same guys in and out or is it just a rotation where it's different guys every time mostly different guys mostly so you know no We weren't, because they rotated in and out, we would take them to fire support bases and

LZs and sometimes we would go to fire support base, pick up guys to do an insertion for their sweeps around their support bases. So it varied, but no, we weren't, you know, because of maintenance for helicopters, we had to come back to the same place and pull maintenance all the time. You know, so it's not, you can't be stationed, you know, very, very far out for more than a few days because of maintenance. One time, I thought Audrey probably sent you a picture, but she didn't. One time we had just fueled, landed, and we parked in revetments, and there would be parallel revetments for protection. And I wasn't 20 yards from the post-flight.

Crew Chief was half of that distance. And the first round from mortar attack hit our helicopter right behind the mast and the fuel cell. There aren't that thing to the ground. Wow. And so if we had delayed post-flight, it had been over. There's no way you'd have gotten out.

That magnesium aluminum just burns way too hot. too fast. Willie Pete. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. But you know, you just, I don't think, I didn't see a picture of that in that. Is it?

No, it's not that, is it? This is fueling. This is the fueling station here. Uh, gotcha. And then I think we're back to, that's a pretty picture right there. That is a badass picture. That is a really freaking cool picture. What is going on in this picture?

You know, boy, right after that tiger kill. One other time, I was checking out of operations. I was on my way to instructor school, and the aircraft was opposite of the flight line. And I had it all loaded up. You know, over there you had flight suits, the Nomex flight suits you were issued, and you could buy one fan and everything was loaded in the bird going to instructor school. And I came out of operation and here's some kid had come through the wire and had my flight suits and fan and he was heading for the wire.

And I hollered and he dropped them and ran. I was really glad because I had my M-16 with me. I just, I'm glad I didn't have to pull up. But, you know, you just fought, you know, that kind of stuff all the time. they you know they wanted what because those things were worth a lot of money on the black market I bet I can imagine um all right let's let's pause here for just a moment we got two more sponsors we got to get to real quick and uh let's uh let's uh hydrate your elbows folks no gee gee we can't stop percent and we have to deliver all of these soft disclosure gift

card he goes by Zach Hay the motion detective All right, soft disclosure.com. promo code muffin hit it for 15% off. Did not know that that was the promo code until yesterday. Actually earlier today, technically, technically. So check out soft disclosure. Get you some of that beard oil. Get you some of that beef, the tallow lip balm.

Amazing stuff. What are you doing with Alpha? What do you got? Oh, he's got the lip balm. There it is. Absolutely fantastic products. And then same one I've been using for the last couple months. This stuff last, folks.

I love. I don't know, Rick, if they've gotten you any of the beard oil yet, but they comes with this nice, you can get this nice bamboo beard brush. And I know my beer's not quite as full and as illustrious as yours is, but it's good stuff, man. It's fantastic stuff. It seems like a three-in shotgun shell, man.

I start, I've worn this beard since. I got out of the police department in 77. Oh, you just turned Alpha on. Yeah. Alpha's like Alpha's over here. Like he's like, oh, he's a police officer. I'm an ex. Kind of.

Yeah. Definitely next. Definitely. Leave the badge, but the badge never leaves you. Yeah, right. I see the badge below on Alpha's little thing there. Yeah. All right.

Real quick, before we, before we get back into. these stories in Alpha is probably going to open up a whole other can of worms. Can of worms. Since we got Rick on, let's talk about Tamarack Gardens. Three boys taught me two things. Summer is an adventure and bugs are relentless. As a herbalist, I know you don't need harsh chemicals to protect your family. Here at Tamrat Garden, we've got you covered with natural sunscreen,

mosquito and tick repellent that's even safe for your pets, a self to draw up bug bites and soothing sunburn cream, all made with the power of plants. because we think summer memories should last longer than the bug bites. Tamarack Garden, protect your family naturally and eat your weeds. All right. Eat your weeds. They gave me a shirt that says eat your weeds.

I was going to rip off the S and just be like eat your weed. But that's only when you get pulled over by 5-0 and you got too much and you got too much. All right. So, I'm going to ask my question. You know, Rick, when you're going to ask you. look back at as your time as as a young pilot doing your thing and you look at your time when you when you were wearing the badge uh what what do you think was one of the main similarities between those two lives and what will you say is probably one of the biggest differences in those two lives

interesting question um the combat was totally different and there was you were there to search out the enemy put in the insertion the time of the badge was a service to the community and and so there's a big difference there um i you know i don't know if that's no you you you you absolutely i do get what you're saying you know because i remember the transition from that military concept into the law enforcement one where in the military you know superior firepower superior numbers and then maybe that was a little different for for you guys you know but through my experience and deploy maximum force to win versus the badge it was the least amount of force necessary and i might be outnumbered and outgun you know and it was you know recognizing

that this like you said it was a service and you know no i i completely understand what you're saying yeah i you know it's interesting because you mentioned um afghan well not so much afghanistanistan but iraq my wife was really glad i was old as i was i was because she said you had to sign back up my god in there and i leaves i i i don't when i was in the police department i was going to i was offered to go to guards and they were going to give me schnooks school because of the unit up here in washington uh they were they had chinooks And, but the chief came and said, you know, I can't stop you from going, but you put a hardship on the department. I was in a small department.

Yeah. And so I didn't. But that's one regret because I would have really enjoyed going to Chinook School. Add that same conversation. He said the same thing. Can't stop you. Won't. But it's going to create a hardship, especially because we had two guys that got activated and got taken out.

Not taken out, but, you know, deployed out. And to this day, I was like, you know what? Had I done it, I probably would have stuck around in there and went career. And everything changes. Like those decisions change everything. Yeah. And I was so into flying and the whole career got cut short. I mean, because the war was winding down.

But, you know, we ended up going to Africa. I spent 25 years in Africa, I've rescued him kids. So, you know, that was the tradeoff. God bless you, man. God bless you for that. We've rescued. We've probably rescued 350 kids from the streets and 150 babies. We rescued over the years.

That's badass. We need more people like you, Rick. We need a lot more people like you. Think about the family trees that spawned from. those little lives i know yeah it's crazy yeah they were lost they were on the streets so yeah i i thought you had shown all the pictures you still have some more oh no i got a few more i got a few more i keep clicking off of that uh let me go back audrey said she thought she sent the one of the helicopter oh maybe back up yeah that's that's right up no back right there that's my hilly

Well, I told you it took a direct hit right, right behind the mass and the fuel cell. Dude, that thing melted down to nothing. Let me make it a little bigger for everybody. That thing melted down to nothing. I want to go back to where to go. There was a picture. I just lost a picture. This, no, no, wasn't that one.

That one. That's another good picture. That's a, you got a couple frame. This is a frameworthy picture. That's a frameworthy picture. And it has to be classic like this. You want the, you know, kind of the old school vintage feel to it. But that, dude, that, where'd it go?

That is nuts right there. Well, you can see the windshield center pillar. Uh-huh. And then in the back there, that's the transmission. Wow. That's crazy. Oh, look at that. It's a cobra.

Yeah. They don't look like that anymore. No. They look. way cooler than that now i'm not going to lie i'm not going to lie how come you didn't get to like did you want to fly cobras or was it just like no i was into you know i can't say i didn't want to but i was more into the um true transport and rescue side of it so that was more my thing was it like more schooling to fly a cobra yeah there was another school um they they had the same engine

the same setup the rotorhead was a little bit different but the same setup as a hughies as far as control and that kind of stuff i don't i don't know if you can see it alpha but that's a playboy bunny that little white spot that's very good school yeah i didn't know if you could see that or not that's pretty badass another great uh another great uh framable quality picture right there yeah all right you guys killed a deer No, that's the, that's the tiger strung up. That is 100% not a tiger, Rick. Oh, well, okay.

That is definitely a deer of some sort. That could have been. Yeah, I don't recall that picture. That's the tiger strung up. Yeah. There's the tiger. No, that's a deer. You know, I saw that and like, again, this is, you know,

the things you take for granted when you're deployed that you don't get, you know, and like good quality meat is one of those things. And so like we killed goats and chickens and all sorts of things while we were over there and ate them. But see, if you're attached to an aviation unit, I was a section leader, I'd go down to the Air Force commissary and buy a whole crate of chicken. Oh, well. So things haven't changed. The Air Force still had it made.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Those guys, yeah. Yeah, we would go to the commissary and buy, that's why I built the bar in my room. I had an electric skillet. I'd cook my own food. I'll tell you a story real quick, Rick. When I was on my way to Afghanistan,

we stopped at Manus Air Base. I think it's in Kursikstan. and it's like an old Russian looking creepy-ass airfield, really freaking creepy. And we stayed at an air base there, an Air Force base, for probably about a week and a half on the way out, and then like two weeks on the way home. They had like the best chow hall that you could ever imagine. The best chow hall. They had an ice cream machine.

Like they had like soft serve ice cream, three different flavors. chocolate vanilla and strawberry we we had ice cream machines they just didn't work yeah exactly exactly we we did on leather neck to be fair we did on leather neck uh camp leather neck that was really nice camp leather neck was nice but the the the best part rick is they had a uh like a candy stand that was full of like wreaths and twicks and snickers all you could eat just grab whatever you want and so i'm like bro i'm about to go out into the suck here i'm like I'm loading up, man. I took like two boxes of candy and it all melted on the plane.

So, but it was delicious anyways. So the Air Force still, yeah. Oh, I still fucking ate it. Of course I ate it. Still, no question I was still going to eat that. Oh, yeah. But the Air Force, they had, you know, they had to protect their planes. So, yeah, we would go down.

Back then, it was really. reel-to-reel tapes. So we had leave, we would fly the Air Force base and record from their music into reel-to-reel tapes and then come back and play it. And we, you know, so that's how we got our music. But so we would go just on their playlist and it was before all this digital stuff, you know, it was all tape back then. Oh, man. Like people think we're making fun of the, the Air Force. we're being dead ass honest with you on how good the air force has it compared to every other branch except well no every other branch like they they are the spoiled stepchildren of the united states military they're the newest but well now space force is the newest and they probably have it even

better to be honest with you they got all the tech shit too yeah they probably have it better to be honest but you know you're flying that high-tech aircraft you want that thing to to work right. So in other words, because they have all the expensive equipment, they get treated better? Is that what you're saying? Well, they have to have the maintenance people there to work on that stuff. I don't know.

It's all contractors. They get more funding for the contractors. That doesn't come out of their budget. I remember when we were going from, we did something from Kuwait to Iraq. know it was from Iraq to Kuwait and we got in the back of one of their still one thirties it was one of the nuts to butts transports right and I remember seeing like I shouldn't be seeing light like through the panels on an airplane right like somebody tell me like like this is the United States Air Force and I see I see

light and they're like when we get out to that seals up what I was like up to this day I'm just like I remember thinking like all right man like you know it's bad enough I got to do the balls behind me and my balls are behind this guy but now I can see sunlight through the frame of a plane like this this story sucks but we landed safely just to obviously yeah transport airplanes are just loud and you guys probably know that So what are we got going on here? Aircraft burning. Oh, that's never a good thing. No, that wasn't mine. That was just, it was something got hit. Here's the tiger.

Did they shoot the tiger from the helicopter? Yes. Yeah. Oh, man. Oh, man. Look at that, Alpha. Is that bringing back some memories right there? Jesus, I want to go watch Rambo.

bro these things just to get the size comparison because you folks probably haven't seen it there's a man there's two men on the top by the rotor just so you can get an idea how big this fucking thing is oh it there big skorsky we we called them super stallions i'm pretty sure they're the same yeah looks looks pretty much the same what what did these do in vietnam Not a lot. I mean, they weren't, they were shipped to shore type of things. They didn't use those in combat that I know of. I mean, I'm not saying none of them. I can't say they weren't. But I think they were the ones that went from the ships bringing people in and back and forth. You know, over water, you want to have a pretty reliable machine. I don't know if I feel about if I feel it's reliable. I mean, those those portals right there are, are door guns or are, you know, guns.

Right. And they want to back too. But, but they weren't, I mean, I'm not saying they never saw combat, but we didn't utilize them in what we were doing. Right, right. They're big, huge targets, very slow, burly. They're not going to land in tight spaces.

they're not going to get up and get moving quickly. I got you. I just didn't know. But for resupply, they'll haul a lot. And then the Chinook. So they were bringing stuff, you know, ammo and stuff in from the ships, resupply stuff.

Gotcha. All right, we got some more. I just got word from Tamarack Flats that more pictures were uploaded. So we'll have to go through and see if we missed any here. but there's another picture of you guys taking off, I'm assuming. Yes. Yeah. All right.

I tried to play this video, but it's got a really bad sound to it. So let's just mute it here for a second. It's kind of long, but we'll play a little bit of this. This is in that this, this is that bar I mentioned. I built. And those are, what we did is they had two men rooms. And so we took one room and put all the bunks in there. made the other room a day room.

So these are two other pilots. And that thing behind there is, that's our shark poster. Guy, the guys who are getting close to rotating back, you got their name on that poster. There was no sound of this. Yeah. I would never want my name on a poster signifying that I'm getting ready to go back. That's like bad ju-joo right there.

You got a little positive vibe. man. Positive vibes. F that, man. No thank you. Looks like y'all going out on a mission here. Yes. Damn, you're above the clouds.

Yeah, you're high. Yeah, this is, I'm training a Vietnamese pilot. I'm taking the pictures. Oh, he looks scared shitless. He looks scared shitless. Like, he ain't ever seen aircraft before. And he's like, holy crap, the clouds are below me. That is not good.

That's, Tainan mountain there sticking up that right on the Cambodian border. So we were flying. We were flying near that mountain into Cambodia at the time. That is so badass. You guys definitely had a different perspective from above the clouds than we did on the ground. I told General Kwas when we had him on, he was an F-15 pilot. I used to look up and envy you guys because you guys got to go back to the rear.

once all the shit was done yeah well we had the normal ceiling was 10,000 feet we could go above that but you know above 10,000 you need oxygen so are those are those trace rounds out there uh yeah things hard to tell this is toward the end of my tour i ended up with a camera video camera so I took some video. I feel like going and watching like full metal jacket now. Yeah, this is so cool, man. I want to go watch full metal jacket.

Yeah, that's a typical four-flight insertion formation there. Damn. Did you do any flying when you got out? I did. I flew a couple times, but there were so many pilots out. They were flying for nothing. You know, I mean, I'd say nothing, but, you know, I flew one aircraft in Arlington.

The guy was taking it up to Alaska, but they didn't understand maintenance and logistics, so I turned it down. This is pretty cool, man. Look at that. Holy crap. People are right on top of each other. The rounds popping.

Oh, is that? No, that was a tree. Never mind. I thought that was a smoke. That's flying on. That was Highway 1, North South. And all this is this is in Vietnam or in Cambodia? Vietnam.

Oh, you're doing a pickup here. Look at that. Troops just sitting on the side. Mm-hmm. Casual. Now, was this, was this considered? Would this have been considered like a lot of people don't understand when they're watching something like this? Do those troops on the ground, is this considered like a friendly area to them?

Like they're not. Okay, okay. But you can see there's smoke up a few clicks away. Yeah. there was something going on and these guys probably pulled back they would stop traffic this is the main this would be like the i5 going north south and california wow it's the main highway they just shut it down and we'd go pick people up god you guys are out of there quick man you don't you're a target touch and go bro touch and go yeah a lot of people like when they see like videos of like you know

iraq and afghanistan you know they see people driving through the streets and stuff and they're like why aren't these guys like on high alert and it's like because we drive through there every day like that's a very friendly we're still alert but we're not like dialed in behind you know you know we're not we're not cooper's code red we're you know maybe yellow at that point so i can smoke too though yeah smoke smoke yeah we're putting the troops into that lz landing zone look at this shit man this is cool i hope you guys are seeing this is good on on rumble and youtube coming through pretty clear i'm surprised i'm going to take this and i'm just going to dub fortunate sun over

it yes dude yes i'm going to take it i'm going to download it rick i'll send it back to you i'm going to dub fortunate sun and then like uh what are some other good like vietnam songs now this is this is refueling the fuel brought in on bladders and we pump it in so you had basically flight time was like two and a half hours between you're refueling outside of your fob what's that you guys refueled outside of like your fob yeah yeah there would be refueling stations yeah this wasn't at at base this was Holy shit. How many gallons of fuel did they take?

1,400 pounds. JP4. What's that? Like 3.8 pounds a gallon, 4 pounds a gallon, let's call it. So it's like 400 gallons. Yes, about that. How long it take you guys to fuel them? Not very long.

They had some 2-inch nozzles and some pretty hefty pumps. Here's, you can see the armor on these seats. Uh-huh. the old tape marks on there from medaback that's the armor plating on the backs of the seats damn you all are booking it right there yeah

well you know you're either at five feet off the ground or 2,500 feet so what's the top speed on those uh about 120 miles an hour okay that gets You could go to 150 if you weren't pulling a lot of load. But, damn, a little booking it.

Well, when you have to raise it up to go over trees, bushes, and I mean, that was the safest way to stay down low and go. Right, right. That's crazy, man. Hell yeah, that's crazy, man. I enjoyed it. I could push up again. I'm going, hey, yeah, yeah.

I mean I would you ever see a tree and you're like up that tree's a little too high let's go around it or do you go above it you but you just bump over it just bump up a little bit that's freaking so cool I yeah I love low level all right let's see if they added any new ones let me back out of here that was a good video that was a great video oh we got some more okay Okay, so they added, look at this, they added some of your, uh, looks like your time in, in Africa here. Oh. Oh, that's Alaska, Alaskan youth village. Yeah, we did that right after we were married up in Alaska. That's so cool. Damn, that was 1994. That's recent. Well, this, this is Africa. What part of Africa was this? Kenya, yeah, East Africa. Check that out. man that's wild that is wild man that is so cool and you guys building on the lower school it was a school

building i built over there how long it takes to get that building up about eight months each eight classrooms 20 by 25 with a art room in the end was 20 by 30 it was 20 000 gallon underground water tank and we put a building over it do you know if it's still standing yes it is that's rescue babies that's awesome that is cool man well that is badass man you have lived one hell of a life that is so cool so you know rick we were talking and and you know i don't want to throw a wet blanket on this but what was your experience coming home from Vietnam? You know, it was

some of the stuff was hard to talk about for a while. But I thought I was staying in. So I didn't know a week before I was leaving Nam is when I got paperwork, the ETS paperwork. So, you know, it was a sudden shock. But I had signed indefinite paper. I was going to career. I was in the helicopter.

But because I was flying, you guys had some more... I mean, we went through some tense moments, but we got to go back to a bed each night. You know, some of the ground people, you know, they had... I mean, situations were bad. I mean, we had combat, yes, but we went home each night, didn't have a bed. So some of the guys out in the field, man, that was tough, I think.

So, and a lot of it is, my personality is such that, you know, I mean, I can't say that it didn't affect me, but I didn't come back all messed up like some guys did. So there's differences. You know, we weren't quite Air Force, but we were better than the infantry guys. you definitely had it better than the infantry guys i can promise you that although you know i remember um where did i hear it that like a medevac pilot like the average lifespan in in combat was like two minutes what yeah well because they were picking up wounded i i did some of the i wasn't in a designated medevac unit i didn't have the red crosses on the yeah but you guys would get

called in though right yes yeah if there was it's like my roommate was in a low observation helicopter and there was a bunker guy popped out and they did a turn to check it out yeah they had 18 rounds stitched in that cockpit from the 21 clip and he he took three hits his gunner took two but he landed it i went and pulled him out he's they both survived But that helicopter, it was always 58, was just stitched. And, you know, because they were in a turn at airspeed, but no ground speed. They were coming back around to check out this bunker. And they got popped out and got him.

So, you know, I had situations like that and people were shooting at you. But again, you got to go home and sleep in the bed. That's crazy. Yeah, you, so, I mean, the Vietnam guys, when you guys came home to Conner, to the to the u.s man you know i look at how guys like alfa and i were treated following iraq and afghanistan and you know it's like i we were talking before the show both wars were incredibly political you know i don't think i don't think we had business in either location in either of the three locations that we fought in uh but like you said rick before the show it doesn't take away from

what we signed up to do that's what we signed up to do and you know and that was lookout for each other but you guys when you guys came back you know we see those stories about you guys being spit on and and called baby killers and angle tiger killers and all this other stuff but and i and i think you know i came back to the pacific northwest uh i married a ken of a girl and we went into seattle area i don't think it was as bad in the northwest as it was in other parts of the country. You know, and I think that was a regional thing. I think some of the bigger cities, and I can't name them, but I, you know, I didn't,

I didn't run into that hate, all that hate stuff that other people did. But like I say, we went to Alaska right after we were married. A couple years, I came back and was a policeman for several years. So smart. I mean, we, we, we came back and we went to a bar. If we had dog tags on, we drank the whole night for free. Like that's, that's what we came back to. Yeah, we didn't, we didn't do that. I, but anyhow. So I didn't run into some of that stuff I've seen. But, but again, you didn't talk about much of it because it wasn't, you know, I mean, it was one of the first conflicts that was televised.

You know, there were reporters there taking pictures of everything you did. So, but. So. So some guys were worse off than I was. You know, I, a fellow pilot, he couldn't handle it. He was, he was drunk half the night sitting on the rooftop drinking. I just, I wasn't in that same frame of mind. We were in the same missions.

combat but some guys I don't know you know everybody's different yeah you know everybody's different so you uh as we start to wrap up here uh you got to do an honor flight you want to tell us about that experience that was a highlight i had never been to orcian in dc we'd skirted around at one time when we were traveling for the mission but you know that was a real highlight and that the honor flight group they were so organized it was just amazing to me they you know we had a charter flight there was they chartered a whole airplane and there was I think one World War II guy most of us were Vietnam and my neighbor went and he was Navy and but to see the memorials and everything in

person was just a highlight for me in fact it was almost overload. By the end of that last day, it was hard to go see that stuff. But to be able to pull my roommate's name off the wall was a real highlight for me. So it's an amazing. Those guys do an amazing job. Well organized. They treated us well. you know they they had people there in case you know some guys if you reacted to the memorials they were there to come alongside you so it was really they do an amazing job so i was i was honored to go thrilled so that is so cool i'm i'm really really really glad you got to northwest honor flight hell yeah

Oh yeah that's badass well alpha any final thoughts or questions I just jealous man That's so cool This that that quilt behind me is an honor quilt So on by some ladies in the church but and they took all my specs so on the back of it is sewn into it as rank and years of service and To me that was given to me about three years ago that That was a real, real thrill. That's badass. Let me ask you this, Rick, on the way out.

What do you miss the most? You know, I just enjoyed the flying the command, the instruction. I like being on the edge of it, I guess. I stay busy. I was a contractor for many years, built houses and I like being busy. I'm not a guy sit around and do nothing. I've got an end of reading,

but I like activity. Of course, you can't tell by looking at me. I'm, you know, a few pounds overweight now, but I guess you saw some pictures there. You know, that what it is in the military, that common

goals and common missions, so that was a lot of fun. The Brotherhood. the brotherhood that's the word i just i didn't have it camaraderie the brotherhood you know um we all had each other's backs man it was a it's a it's a different it's a different culture that if you've never experienced it you have no idea what it's like you have no idea and it didn't matter your backgrounds or anything you know all of that was just not there it didn't matter um what city you came from you know you didn't even i mean you've

talk about that but it didn't it wasn't a factor in how you treated each other absolutely it only mattered to give you a nickname hey chicago yeah i know the guy called on the radio said they they needed you got wounded and needed help we didn't i i never hesitated going in and get them you know it was just what you did you were their lifeline yep absolutely um and that's why you know a lot of people are always like oh cancun and alf are giving each other shit man we will give each other shit all day long and guess what there's no bad blood at the end of it there's a there's a bond that will never be broken uh you know so well rick that was that was awesome man i was so glad to uh to be able to get your story and and you know get it down on the record here and uh i know uh

i think rick is watching i don't know i'm it's probably it's probably the whole family so tam We love them all. They're incredible people and, uh, and see why they're incredible people, because you're, you're pretty badass yourself, sir. And, uh, yeah, we're glad to have you home, man, and we're glad to hear your story. Absolutely. I was 76 on yesterday. So, hell yeah. Happy, happy, happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy belated birthday. As a matter of fact, on the way out, folks, gonna do a little pull. Gonna do a little pull. God. Who has a better beard? If you think Rick does, put one in the chat. If you think Brian does, put it two. It's Rick. Rick for sure, dude. Look at, look at how full he's on the side. Hands down, but I'm trying to destroy your ego on the way out. So on.

Let me do my thing, man. It's really. This is a lot of years of working out this. I'm getting ready for Santa Claus next year. Yeah. I'm getting. I'm getting. there i'm getting there i'm it's a oh this is gosh don't look at the check can kankan don't look at oh i don't need to i concede it oh i conceded you didn't need to pull that you freaking pretentious douchebag oh dude vote for yourself so there's at least one to can khan khan kong god you're getting to all right i put it too i got i got a four huck Philary gave me a four real quick we do have a few rumble rants before we get you out of here and uh let's see i don't i don't know if there's any questions or anything along that those lines oh even even cam put a one in there i i totally expect he still thinks that you could beat up

a kangaroo so i can no you can oh i don't think so ha ha ha ha i've researched this on my side i've done the research here kangaroo would whoop your ass they tell they telegraph their moves. And once they do get into position, if you, after they, after they kick and you touch them, they're extremely clumsy. It's very difficult for them to get there, their posture back. So it's just, it's tiny. Well, I have no time in Australia, but all the years of Africa there, I've seen a lot of animals on the, on the plains. And you just, you don't want to miss on the animal in the wild. I guarantee you. Amen. All right, Smey 60, said, glad you finally got a non vet besides the guy a little old was a year later after him but new cambodia was no picnic i think he's talking about

remember that one we had on like uh two years ago and it was just a few years ago man yeah yeah it's kind of difficult uh that was one of the questions i asked rick when we rick was telling me i was like is he coherent and he's like oh yeah oh yeah he's he's fully there and he's like all right let's get him on then that was one of the questions i asked rick of your son i was like is Is he going to be able to talk and all that? And he's like, yeah, yeah, he's fine. I was like, okay, okay. Just got to make sure because we had a Vietnam guy on a while back.

And he was, it was very difficult to have the conversation. But, you know, it is what it is. We still got his story. You know, if you've lost friends and comrades, you know, it's hard. You know, to get your roommate, you know, it's a hard thing. Oh, yeah. You know, it's not easy. Yeah.

I was telling you before the show, my uncle from Vietnam, never talked about it one day in his life until we sat down to dinner after I got home from Afghanistan and it's seen some shit on my first deployment. And he opened up and my mom was like, I've never heard him tell those stories. I've never heard him talk like that. And it's like you can tell the story when you have somebody that can at least in some form or fashion relate to it. It makes it different. Yeah. And it's like a couple nights ago, we were talking with some other missionaries that are in Mobile, no, Alabama, Birmingham. And we could talk with them differently than you can talk with somebody else because we've been there.

You know, and it's the same kind of thing. Somebody who's been in a war zone, you know, and it doesn't have to be the same one. But, you know, you know what they're saying and you know where they're coming from. it makes a big difference uh huck fillery says just a couple measly huck bucks god bless rick mick an inch mick an inch not a foot but an inch mick an inch mc an inch mack an inch there's no a between the mcccc mccdonnells you know you know mcdonalds i say mcdonalds mcdonalds

i give the marines look bad brian damn mcdonald no it's a running joke nevada nevada okay it's a run i know i know but i got to get you got to get it right when is rick joining the badlands crew with a weekly podcast that's that's there we go huck fillery coming in clutch uh huck filer again tell rick huck thinks he dodged a bullet with the schnook thing thank you all for your service you dodged a bullet with the chinook thing rick oh i don't know yeah i mean you know flying's in your flying's in your blood so anyhow that's what i've heard for most people that have flown they're like if it's in your blood it's in your blood i feel you become it's like um riding a motorcycle you know you become part of the machine because you know i i have to equate it to that rather than a car

anybody can get in a car and drive it but you got a motorcycle and yeah you can go down the road but you get into the turns and figure out how to stop the thing and it's different. Yeah, balance. You're breaking. Yeah. Heck yeah. Yeah.

Well, Rick, thank you so much for joining us. We definitely appreciate it. It was a fantastic conversation. Did not disappoint in any way, shape, or form. And I'm glad we got your story down. Well, thanks for putting me on the air. I appreciate it. I enjoyed it.

God bless. Maybe we, there's rumors right now of a Gart out in Idaho. So maybe for out that way. Are you in? Idaho you're in Washington right I'm I'm right on the edge I'm only like Rick's in Idaho I'm 30 minutes away from I'm I'm one of the last place in Washington so okay so maybe if we get out there we'll get a chance to buy you a beer and and swap some stories sure great God bless sir thank you another great evening thanks for sharing the stories

Rick sorry my partner get butchering your last name he's got he's fucked up in the head man Oh, he'll, he'll get it. And Ricky, our son will straighten him out. That's for sure. That dude towers over me. It's not Michelle. Michelle will probably go after him worse than Rick. We, we, on Badlands, he's always the one jacking up words.

He's just known for this. Okay, Valentine's. Valentine's. Okay. All right, Rick, take care. God bless her. Bless. All right, ladies and gentlemen.

That was a lot of fun, man. That was a lot of fun. I thought that was my out trial. I was all ready to go. No, no, no. We get, we get a wait. There's more for me. We get a quick little five minute, no, like a two minute, like one minute.

We're already over. So we'll just say bye. Stay by. Do it again. All right. See you guys later.