Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - A NASA Commander Explains Why You Don’t Get to Space Without Risk [Featuring Robert "Hoot" Gibson"]

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

What does it actually take to survive five missions in space—and what is the U.S. doing to win the new space race? Former NASA Space Shuttle Commander Robert “Hoot” Gibson shares firsthand insight from decades in the cockpit, including the risks, breakthroughs, and behind-the-scenes reality of America’s journey to the moon and beyond. He explains how space exploration has shaped modern life on Earth and why the next era of missions is so critical. In the end, he reveals a simple but challenging truth: The best things in life—like spaceflight itself—only happen when we’re willing to do difficult things.

Welcome to Culture and Christianity. We've got a special podcast for you today for a couple of reasons. One is our guest. NASA has been in the news a lot. I hope most of us or many of us have been watching Artemis and their mission around the moon and back and their successful landing and see them rescued reminds me of what I used to watch when I was much younger. So it has a lot of good feelings. So we've got an astronaut that actually lives here in Murfreesboro,

Commander Hute Gibson. Actually, he and his wife, Ray Seddon, were both astronauts. And so I had an opportunity to sit down with Commander Gibson and learn a little bit about NASA. He was on multiple space shuttle missions. It was the captain for multiple space shuttle missions, as well as a test pilot, just some remarkable things. He's won the Reno Air Race, has competed in it multiple times. For those of you that are into flight and aviation, I suspect you know what that's about. So he's a remarkable person in and of himself, and I think you'll enjoy the conversation we had.

But the other part of the podcast today is we taped it as a part of a daily current events show that we do called AJ Now. And we wanted you to see kind of the behind the scenes, all the things that go into producing that daily current events conversations with people who are thought leaders and influence policy and are really engaged in what's happening in our nation and in global. events. And so you're going to get kind of a behind-the-scenes peak at all the components and some of the team that work on that. You know, you tend to see me in front of a camera, but there are dozens of people much smarter than me that have to work really hard to make the part you get to see work. And so we wanted to introduce you to AJ now, if you're not familiar with it. We've been doing that now. June will be two years. We do five episodes a week. It airs on TBN every evening at 6 p.m. And then you can see it on We'll post it on YouTube at 7 p.m. every evening. If you want to see the whole archive, you can go to AJNow.com, and there's an archive of all the shows there. You can watch them at your leisure, pick your favorites, find your favorite guests. It's easy to share them with a friend. You know, I think we have to learn to watch, listen, think, and act in our world.

We talk about that a good bit through a biblical worldview. And so we have made the commitment to do AJ Now to help us do that better. better. I hope you enjoy Commander Gibson, but even more than that, I hope you enjoy an introduction, if that's what it is, to AJ Now, and you'll become a frequent flyer on that platform as well. You know, church means so many more things than just worship services and sermons. It is, it's about communications and how we take the good news of the gospel and understanding the world we live in. what does it mean to be salt and light in the midst of an ever-changing world? And A.J. Now is a part of the ministries of our church and Alan Jackson Ministries.

So we're glad to introduce you to that for the first time. And I hope you enjoy Hoot Gibson. You'll even hear how he got his nickname Hoot. I think it'll make you smile. But I know you'll enjoy the heroes that are working on our behalf to make our lives better in the future while they have the courage to face the challenges of today. I hope we can find that same courage and willingness for our faith. Enjoy the conversation with Commander Gibson. Well, good evening and welcome to Nashville. I'm Alan Jackson. You know, Vladimir Putin may be interested in Ukraine,

but the leadership of the old Soviet Union, well, they had their sights set on something bigger, much bigger, something out of this world. I'm talking about the moon and the fact that in 1961, the Soviet Union put the first man in space. His name was Yuri Gagarin, and it caught the atten, of the young American president who within weeks made this commitment to our Congress.

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. And that we did on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped into the sea of tranquility. That's one small step for man. It was truly an amazing achievement done long before there were supercomputers. In fact, the onboard guidance system on those Apollo flights was 2,000 times slower than our smartphones are now. Twelve Americans eventually walked on the moon, and Russia, well, they never made it. America then launched the space shuttle program and built the International Space Station.

The shuttle flew 133 missions. And the space station, well, it's still in orbit. So now we're heading back to the moon aboard the Artemis. A new generation is fired up about it, and America is winning again. Fly me to the moon? It might play on Dad's old vinyl records, but the renewed interest in space is just as real as it was when John Glenn circled the Earth back in 1962. The dream of going into space, it lives on. I think the effort around NASA is meaningful.

It's an expression of hope for the future. It illustrates how when we work together, we can solve problems. I think our politicians can learn a lot from this expression of cooperation. Our efforts in space, well, they produced a lot of good fruit for us in so many ways. The technologies that have spun off from it have improved our daily lives. GPS is one. What started as satellite tracking for space missions. Now it powers everything from Uber rides to global shipping and precision farming.

Without space exploration, modern weather forecasting wouldn't again. exist. The demand to make computers smaller and lighter for spacecraft, well, it accelerated the microchip revolution that made today's phones and laptops possible for all of us. NASA needed ways to monitor astronauts from Earth that led to remote health care solutions that now serve patients around the world. None of these advances would have taken place, if not for the astronauts who were willing to do difficult things. Somebody must be willing to go through extraordinary training to go to space. There's no loomings. mission unless somebody's willing to put themselves at risk. We may not all have the opportunity

or even be asked to be astronauts, but we all have to be willing to do the difficult things in our lives to get to the best place. You see, all the best things in life, well, they're on the other side of difficult. Being a good parent, it's not easy. Having a good marriage, that's not easy either. Being a good student, you guessed it, it's not easy. Forming good character, not easy. Practicing humility, that's not easy either. All the best things in life. require us to be willing to engage in difficult. So while we may not be asked to take a trip around the moon, we can make our contribution to something amazing

by being willing to do difficult. It's way too easy for us to be co-opted by comfort and convenience. I'm not opposed to those things, but I refuse to worship them as my life goal. Let's determine to do uncomfortable things. Let's do things that cause strain for the sake of the kingdom of God. You know, the backbone of America is ordinary people doing extraordinary things when it matters most. Well, in a moment, we'll hear from a man who's done a lot of very extraordinary things.

He was the successful five-time space shuttle commander, former Navy Captain Robert Hoot Gibson. He spent a lot of time circling the globe, and he'll tell us about the thrill of victory and what the NASA team does to lessen all the possible risks. I'll be right back. You know, this podcast is made possible because of sponsors. And one of our sponsors is preserve gold. And I appreciate their partnership with us. And I pray it's a blessing to you. You know, one of the things that I hear most often right now is this,

that people are doing their best plan for the future, but they're not sure what to trust anymore. You know, the headlines, they change every day. And the economy, it feels pretty unpredictable. And that uncertainty, it's unsettling to all of us. But as people of faith, we're not called to live in fear. We're called to live with wisdom, with discernment, and with peace. Well, part of that is simply taking practical steps to protect what you've worked so hard to build and establish for yourself and your family.

That's why many are turning to time-tested assets like gold and silver, not as a reaction, but as a way to bring stability into their financial plans. Well, if you'd like to learn more, I encourage you to connect with preserve gold. They've helped many people understand how to diversify their savings with physical gold and silver, including in retirement accounts. And right now, you can get their free wealth protection guide by texting Allen, it's A-L-L-E-N to 50-505. Plus, with a qualified purchase, you can receive up to $15,000 in free gold or silver. Well, if you want to learn how precious metals could help protect your savings, text Allen to 50505 today. You'll receive your free wealth protection guide. We're joined now by a neighbor of ours just outside of Nashville here.

He's the former commander of several space shuttle missions and a very accomplished Navy fighter pilot as well. Robert Gibson, he's better known as hoot to those of us around here. Welcome to the show, sir. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure. This is a real treat. I get you in a formal setting to ask questions. I'm going to take advantage of it. Sounds like fun.

We've all been glued to our sets on the liftoff of the art of, too, especially when those solid rocket boosters were lit. You know that there's no turning back once that happened. So what's it like for you to watch and see them float back home safely? It was such a thrill from start to finish. And I have to say, I've been saying prayers every single day. And we all need that. We all need prayers.

But it was such a thrill. But when I watched my friend's launch and I knew the crew, My heart gets beating fast. My palms get a little sweaty. And it's exciting. It's just really exciting. Makes me very envious, however. I'm sure it does.

You've been through that several times. You've got to wish you were in that seat next to him? Yes. And I was talking about it a couple of days ago. The commander, Reed Wiseman, as a former chief astronaut. I'm a former chief astronaut as well. So maybe I should be next. Sounds good to be.

I'd love it. But I don't think they're going to invite me. They're going to say, haven't you been greedy enough already with five missions? And I guess I have been, yes, but I'd still like to go. I think experience matters. I'll vote on that one. You were one of the most experienced shuttle commanders in the history of the program. You share with us some of what you and your fellow astronauts did up there that we're benefiting from now.

We probably don't even realize most of it. We certainly always had medical testing that we were doing, medical research and medical testing. on the guinea pigs, who was us, the astronauts. We were the test subjects. And I've given five injections in my five missions, most of them that happened between flights three and five. But we also, we were carrying some high technology to orbit, communication satellites and surveillance satellites and the like,

and things that all of us take for granted, because most of our cell phone calls go through a satellite. And so we did all of that, but also some groundbreaking research in the medical world and the materials physiology and materials science envelopes as well. So it was quite thrilling to be engaged in the space program and getting to go five times. I can't imagine. You know, one of the Artemis crew talked about how struck they were looking back at Earth, how black everything else is except for this unique planet that we live on.

Tell us what those moments in space looking back at Earth meant to you. I can't imagine. I never got to go as far away as they did. They went 250, 2,754 miles from Earth. Farthest ever, right? The farthest ever, yes. They broke the record that Apollo 13 had set back in 1972. I was only as high as 285 miles away.

Oh, is that all? Yeah, that's all. But even so, from 285 miles, you look back at this beautiful Earth and the blackness of space. And you say to yourself, this is the only place that we've ever found any life. And it's our home. It's our home. And it's exciting to cross it and spend all that time looking back at our beautiful Earth. I can't imagine.

Well, as I mentioned in the open, the Gemini and Apollo programs were jump started when President Kennedy saw the Russians going into space before we did. Well, now China wants to go to the moon. But it sounds like we'll be landing on the moon in roughly two more years well before China gets there, at least I hope so. Some of our presidents have been more into driving a successful space program than others. Do you think the competition makes us push a little higher? Absolutely. It certainly does. and the fact that China wants to go there, we have a new race to the moon going on.

We won the first one, and we're going to win the second one as well. China, we think, is going to want to go there in the 2030s timeframe. We expect to land there in 2028. That's the plan right now. So it's an accelerated time frame over what they did in the 60s. I mean, we've shortened that from the commissioning to the imagination we're going to land there. That's a four-year window?

That's correct. That's correct. That's pretty crazy. So, yeah, because as you mentioned, Gem and I did a lot of the groundwork for space rendezvous and the things that we needed to do to be able to go to the moon. And then finally, as you mentioned, July the 20th, 1969, we did it. We landed on the moon. So we are actually in a little bit of a hurry now because we need to do Artemis 3 to test out

the lander, which we haven't built yet, but we need that flight and we need that flight to be successful so that in 2008 we can send Americans to the moon once again. I don't think most people know that more than 20 countries have sent astronauts to the International Space Station, including Russia, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and even France. It's been a very successful laboratory for all sorts of global scientists. Do you envision something similar when we build the base on the moon? Absolutely. Absolutely.

It's amazing how we learn something every time we do something new. One of the big things that we want to accomplish with a lunar base that is somewhat constantly inhabited is how to operate. What are the pitfalls? What are the shortcomings? What are the things that we need to be prepared for when we send Americans to Mars? that's a long-term goal. We do want to send Americans to Mars. And so the lunar base is going to be a proven ground for us, a testing ground, and we're going to learn even more. All of our,

all of our moon landings that we did previously, the 12 Americans who walked on the moon, those were all very short stays. And it was get there, get some things accomplished. Now come back home. We're going to extend that greatly with the Artemis program. As a space shuttle commander, you conducted the first space shuttle docking with the Russian Space Station. What was that like, both from a mission point of view, but also from working with a foreign country that haven't always been our best friend here on Earth? It took a little bit of accommodation and accommodation on their side, which I don't think we got as much from them as we gave in terms of, okay, you are now our friends. You're our friends in space now instead of being our enemies. I think they somewhat reluctantly agreed to it when we were doing it.

And so we, the crew, we had to make some exceptions and make some provisions and smile pleasantly sometimes when they told us something like, the only reason we're here is because you, America, have all the money and we have all the know-how, which we didn't agree with that, but we, in the course of wanting to get along well and politically, bit our tongues and didn't didn't say how wrong that was, but it was a fascinating mission. It was the first docking that had ever been done by a space shuttle. And it was, it came out beautifully. It really came out wonderfully because of the very talented people that build the plan and

build the checklist and the program and the schedule and the training. And then we the fortunate astronauts get to go execute it. Well, you brought up the human component of all of this. It seems to me that through your training and getting ready for your actual time and space, you would work through most of those personality things that bring friction. Is that real or do you have to carry all that into space too? You would have to work through it. You are too closely bunched together to let anything like that fester.

And so I never had any real problems in any of my missions. I have a very forgiving outlook on life. and a very forgiving temperament, I think. And there are two types of leaders. One is a leader by leading, and another one is a boss. I don't want to be a boss. I want to be a leader. And I would say to my crew, this isn't easy,

but we are going to make it look easy. And we're going to do that by working together and getting along. Almost everybody I know wants to be healthy or healthier. And I think most of us would like it to happen to us by accident. But that hasn't been my experience. So what do we do in a world where there's so many options and diets seem to be like fashion trends? They change with every season. How do we respond?

Well, I want to tell you about something that I trust, something that has worked in my life. Ancient nutrition gives you a whole menu of supplements, sources for protein and collagen that I have found made a difference in my life. You know, I decline most of sponsorship invitations, but this isn't something that is just an invitation to be a sponsor for something. I've actually used it in my life, and it's made a difference. Jordan Rubin happens to live in the Nashville area, so he and I have become friends long before I was doing this podcast. And his coaching has helped me lead a healthier life. And I have found those ancient nutrition supplements to be very valuable, whether it's the multi-collegin or now the new multi-protein. It's hard to eat enough protein sometimes as you age.

to maintain the muscle that we want to maintain. And those supplements have been very helpful for me. They've been gracious enough to give those of you who are listeners to our program. If you'll use the code fuel 26, you'll get a 26% discount sitewide on ancient nutrition. That's ancient nutrition.com. Let's make choices to be healthier. And maybe we can limit the pharmaceuticals will be dependent upon. That would be a God thing.

God's moving in the earth and we can be a part of it by what we put on our fork and not just the pills we take. When we first landed on the moon in 1969, there were only three television networks. No YouTube back then. So when there was something as big as setting foot on the moon, nearly 600 million people tuned in around the globe. It was so jaw-dropping that some people thought it was fake done on a Hollywood soundstage. Obviously, people now have many more choices watching on their phones, watches and laptops. But this new artist's mission drew a vast audience. What is it about space that inspires folks who are usually buried in their work,

their sports, or their phones? It seems to open a whole new thing of possibilities. I think it would be the gigantic challenge that it represents, because it's not easy to get to space or many, many more people would get to do it. It's an exciting adventure. It's an incredibly amazing ride to space. and also back from space.

And then the time that you do get to spend up there being weightless, you don't have to walk anywhere. You fly everywhere you go. And so the whole entire thing is exciting and amazing from the first seconds to the final landing. I've thought about it a good bit thinking about our interview. And just the notion of overcoming gravity, being set free from gravity, that binds all the rest of us.

And you're one of a very few group of people that have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and know what it is to be free of gravity. That's got to be more than a physical experience. That's an emotional thing, isn't it? It is. It is exciting to be able to fly without an airplane because we don't walk anywhere when we're in space. We fly from place to place. And so you have a lot more room because you don't all have to inhabit the floor. Some of you can be on the floor.

you can be on the ceiling and you can pass over the top of somebody. So it really is exciting. It really is fun to be able to fly. Eventually, you've got to come back to Earth. And when you come back, you stand up for the first time and you say, you know what, I don't like this gravity stuff, but you're going to have to live with it. Well, you know, you sounded fearless when you described your liftoff and those solid rocket boosters going off underneath you. Tell us about what it's like coming back down when you have to reenter the atmosphere and guide that big spaceship down to a safe landing. I suspect most people don't understand. Unlike a regular airline flight, the space shuttle is mostly falling to Earth, dropping fast, and then stopping with parachutes. Is that more dangerous

than the liftoff? It's about the same level of risk as the liftoff. Now, the liftoff happens much faster because it's in the space shuttle. It was only eight and a half minutes from when we lit the engines, until we arrived at orbital speed. Wow. And then circularized our orbit from there. The reentry and landing in the space shuttle, we did a deorbit burn, and then we free fell for 30 more minutes

until we hit the top of Earth's air. And then we had 30 minutes in Earth's atmosphere with the G's building up and the heat building up. We would see 5 to 6,000 degree temperatures right outside the vehicle in the course of the reentry. And I remember looking at it and saying, I'm amazed that we humans can build something that can survive this kind of an environment.

But it's really impressive to see. And then the space shuttle was always landed by the mission commander. So I was the first person to make four landings in the space shuttle. In fact, there were only two of us that ever commanded four missions or more. And it's a thrill.

It's a real big challenge, but it's a huge, accomplishment, the feeling that I would get when we rolled to a stop after a year of training for a mission and then all the things that we had to do in the course of the flight and of course we hear the expression mission control. Mission control can't control it at all. It's controlled by the crew. It isn't radio controlled from the ground. The crew has to do it and I would always tell my crews in our very first meeting when we got together for the first time we are going to live or die depending on whether we execute this mission correctly. And you had very talented, smart people that were the astronauts. And so

it always came off very, very, very well. I'm curious, I've made quite a few international flights. Those big jumbo jets that once we get, they've got autopilot on the space shuttle. How much of that are you solely responsible for it? How much help do you get from computers? We want the thing to fly

itself up to orbit. So that's all automated. However, if something goes wrong, then the commander is gonna take over manual control and fly it. And we did that in the simulators to verify that we knew how to do it, then we could fly it if we needed to.

The reentry was the same way. The majority of the reentry from the time we hit the atmosphere on down, we wanted to be an auto-automatic flight control. But if anything goes haywire, the crew is trained and prepared take over. Only one time did I come close to take in over manual control. And it was when we hit a density shear in the atmosphere, which we never knew existed before space shuttles. And that was a

large pocket of air that was at higher density than the surrounding air. The drag went way up on us and we were falling down too rapidly. And the automatic control system was too slow to correct for it. it and I was about five seconds away from hitting control stick steering and flying it myself because I knew what it needed to do and the computer was slower than me at figuring out what it needed but it finally made the right kind of correction for the landing the commander he or she because we had some women commanders as well took over manual control at about 50,000 feet and then flew it all the rest of the way down to landing there was never an

automatic landing of the space shuttle. That had to be a thrill. That was a big thrill, because that was a challenge as well, because as you mentioned, it is coming down like a brick. And the amount of time that you have to react to something is very, very short. And you had to have been very well trained and very well prepared for really anything you might encounter, like a wind share or the jet stream winds. We have to come back down through the jet stream winds.

And so all of those are things that we've tried. for. Well, Artemis 3 is scheduled to fly next year, and the mission after that is supposed to be the one where we actually land on the moon again. John Glenn was in his 70s when he flew on Discovery. We alluded to it while ago. You got any desire to go up again? I'd love to.

I'd love to. But like I say, if I say, hey, why don't I do Artemis 4? Why don't I command Artemis 4? Because I was chief astronaut as well. They're going to say, Who, haven't you been greedy enough with five missions? and also I'm even older than John Glenn was when he went. So they're probably going to say, they're not allowed to tell me you're too old.

But they'll say, well, you've been greedy enough. You don't get to go again. I don't know if it's greed. I'd put it in that experiment category. Let's see what your experience brings to the table. That's right. That's what we need. We need a five-mission commander to command Artemis for it.

I have a childhood memory I want to share with you. It was our kitchen table. I've got two younger brothers. I've gathered around the table. and my parents were consistently, persistently inviting guests to dinner. You know, practicing that notion of hospitality. My brothers and I weren't always excited about it, but I realized that we had a front row seat for expressions of the kingdom of God.

We can still do the same. Imagine your kitchen table as an expression of God's love in this generation. God's moving in the earth. Let's join him. Hospitality doesn't have to be complicated. Sometimes it begins with inviting someone to your kitchen table. To help you get started, we've created a tools for hospitality set. It includes a custom kitchen towel that reminds you sweet tea, pecan pie, and your God's story make a difference.

It also has three favorite recipes from Pastor Allen and some tips that will help make hospitality a little bit easier. Request the tools for hospitality set with your gift of $25 or more at Alan Jackson.com or call 800-8805102. I know you flew in the Reno Air Race. Yes. 18 years. I've raced Reno 18 years. I didn't know you've done it that made, but you won it twice? I won the unlimited championship my final year. I had a second place finish. I had three fourth place finishes out of 30 airplanes.

But my final year of racing, I didn't know it was going to be my final year. But the owner of the airplane, after I won the championship at the highest speed anybody ever did, he said, I'm too old and you're too old. I'm going to have a younger pilot from now on. Well, his younger pilots didn't go as fast as I did, but I have been told I'm the oldest person to ever win the unlimited championship. I mean, and that's a real deal. I mean, that's like the Wild Wild West in the air.

It really is because we don't race one airplane at a time. We race as many as nine airplanes at the same time. And it's not the most sane thing in the world to be doing. of the 18 years that I raced, we killed a pilot eight of those years. Wow. Forty-four percent of the years that I raced, we lost a pilot. So it wasn't the most sane thing in the world, but I always say if you had to replace a rocket ship for excitement, it's going to have to be the Reno Air Races.

Are there rules in the, I know like there's rules on the road, I'm not a pilot. So are there rules when you're up there racing like that, or is it just whoever's got the guts to get there first? For example, you can't pass some, we raced around a set of eight pylons, so it was an 8.1 mile race course. I was doing it in 50 seconds, 8.1 miles in 50 seconds, the year that I won. And going around the pylons, you're in turning and you're pulling six six and a half Gs around the course. You are not allowed to pass anybody on the inside because that leads to mid-air collisions. And so that's one of the rules.

You always have to pass to the outside. We had altitude limits. You couldn't be higher than a certain altitude. You also weren't allowed to be lower than 30 feet to the ground, which I see as a reasonable rule. You think? Because my first lap in the championship race, I averaged 503 miles an hour for the first lap.

And I was at 50 feet. So I didn't feel like I needed to be 20 feet lower. So what's your reaction time from 50 feet to the ground? Oh, at that speed? A fraction of a second? Well, half a second. You might have half a second. So you've got no margin.

If your wing folded up, you're going to hit the ground in about a half a second. All right. But you're not doing that anymore? Reluctantly, no. I still want to come back and win again to show that it wasn't a fluke, the year that I won. But it wasn't in the cards. We're asked all the time, and you're an expert. Do you think there's life outside the planet?

There has to be. As big as the universe is, God has probably made life somewhere else. Now, we have studied all of the planets and all of the moons of the planets. And so far, we have not found any evidence of life or in the case of Mars, any evidence that there may have been life previously. So there's still a lot more to learn. That's why we want to put humans on Mars, because a rover or a remote probe can only do what it's been. programmed to do, humans can think, humans have eyesight, humans can spot something unusual and say, I'm going to take a closer look at this. So that's why we want to send humans to Mars.

So how long does it take to get to Mars? Well, using just chemical rockets, it can take as long as eight months to get there and eight months to get back. There is an experimental rocket and development that could get us there in a month. And it's a plasma rocket. And we really need to pursue that because that could get us there in a reasonable amount of time and back in a reasonable amount of time. Is that Elon Musk? Is he working on that? It's actually one of the astronauts that I worked with on my second mission.

One of my astronauts is Franklin Chang-Diaws. And he has been test firing. He calls it Vasamere because it's variable amplitudes. specific impulse something rocket. And the plan would be this would be the kind of a rocket that you would fire continuously halfway to Mars and then turn around and face backwards and fire it continuously to slow down the rest of the way. And that's why you could do it in a month, do the whole journey to Mars in a month. He's one of those brilliant plasma physicists and he went to space seven

seven times. I took him on his first trip, was my first mission as commander, my second flight. And he went on from there and flew six more times. So he went to space seven times. I only got five. I know after the show I'm going to ask dozens of times how you got the nickname Hoot? It's from the movie star cowboy. So anybody whose last name is Gibson is going to pick up Hoot. Dad had been an Army Air Corps pilot in the late 1920s and the 1930s. And he told me he had the nickname Hout because Hout Gibson was a movie star, cowboy movie star in the late 1920s and into the 1930s. And he's one of the few that made the transition from silent films to talking movies.

And I believe he made more than a hundred movies. He was a very popular cowboy movie star. And he did all of his own stunts because he had been world. champion cowboy in 1912. So they didn't need a stunt man to ride the Bronco. He did it. So pilots really do get nicknames. Yes, yes. Yeah, and everyone has, it isn't just a nickname, it's a call sign. So in the air, let's say you're in a dog fight and you've got five airplanes mixing it up in a dog fight. You really can't say, hey Jim, this is Bob. Okay, which Jim and which Bob is it? But Bear, Hoot. I'm going to extend it.

So anyway, it gets through right away when you use call signs. And I first got to be hoot when I joined my Phantom Squadron in Vietnam, April 13th, 1972. The operations officer said to me, well, hey kid, if he got a... He didn't say kid, but I was 25 years old, about to start flying combat missions. He said, have you got a nickname? And I said, oh, yes, sir, it's Bob. And he said, no, come on, I mean a real nickname.

And I said, well, okay. I said, well, occasionally I've been called Hoot, April 13, 1972. From then on, I was Hoot. That went on my canopy, the name on the canopy, that went on my leather name tag, that went on my coffee cup, so I've been Hoot ever since then. Well, you're a national treasure. Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Oh, it's my pleasure.

It's always a treat. Thank you. I sure enjoyed it. Thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment, so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure and subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel

and follow the Culture and Christianity Podcast. You can do that on Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith. We can change our culture. I'll see you next time.