Jocko Podcast - 504: Congressman Wesley Hunt: Discipline, Leadership, and America’s Future

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

>Join Jocko Underground< Congressman and former Army Apache pilot Wesley Hunt, who shares his journey from West Point and combat deployments to the halls of Congress. He reflects on his family���s history from slavery to public service, the lessons of struggle and resilience, and the values of faith, family, and country. Hunt and Jocko discuss leadership, authenticity in politics, America’s challenges and strengths, and the importance of discipline, service, and personal responsibility in building a stronger future.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko Podcast number 504 with Echo Charles and me, Jocco Willing. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. The presence of veterans in legislative bodies is not merely symbolic. Veterans bring to politics a distinct understanding of national interest, discipline, and a sense of responsibility shaped by their military service. Their experience instills an ability to deliberate on matters of war and peace, security, and the burdens borne by citizens in uniform.

When those who have sworn to defend the nation's laws also help make them, the healthy integration of military and civilian spheres is enhanced, strengthening the very fabric of democratic governance. The statesman who has also been a soldier is armed not only with theories of national security, but with the tested realities of service and sacrifice. His judgment about the requirements of policy is tempered by direct knowledge of the costs of war and the limits of force. Military experience does not guarantee wisdom, but it provides an anchor against illusion and an appreciation for the discipline, unity, and responsibility that preserve a free society. And those right there are some quotes from a book called The Soldier and the State written. by Samuel P. Huntington, who graduated from Yale, served in the army at the tail end of World War II, got a master's degree from the University of Chicago, a PhD from Harvard, and eventually became one of America's most influential political scientists and theorists.

And his thoughts that I just read about the importance of veterans in our government are just as important then as they are now going from the military into the government, provides a link between both of those and grounds them both in reality. It's an honor to have one of those veterans leaders here with us tonight to discuss his experiences on the battlefield and now in the political world in the halls of Congress. His name is Wesley Hunt. He's West Point graduate Army Apache pilot, Iraq War veteran, and now a congressman representing the 38th Congressional District of Texas,

the great state of Texas, as they say. Wesley, thanks for joining us, man. Great to meet you. Thank you for having me on, brother. Thank you all very much. Glad we can finally make this happen, man. Sure. You got a lot of stuff, a lot of experiences.

Let's get right into it. Let's talk a little bit about your background growing up. Okay. What was that all like? Background growing up, my dad's retired lieutenant colonel in the Army. What are you doing in the Army? My dad was an adjutant general. And so graduated ROTC at Southern University.

And then was active duty for a little while, then went reserves for a while in Houston, Texas, where my brother and I and sister were basically all born and raised. Okay. So my sister is West Point 93. Dang. So she served 23 years active duty, military intelligence officer deployed multiple times. And she started, she graduated 93? So she's more of my era of time.

She is your vintage, sir. Check. So, and now, you know, she retired, lives, lives in Houston is doing awesome. I'm West Point 2004. So finish up West Point, then did eight years active duty as an Apache driver, deployed to Iraq, flew 55 combat admissions in Baghdad, two tours of duty in Saudi Arabia.

And then after that, went to grad school at Cornell University, earned three master's degrees in four years. So the master's business, public administration, industrial and labor relations, moved back home to God's country. That is Texas, sir. And then ran for Congress and now here I am. And my brother is also West Point graduate. So my brother, my brother's 10 months and eight days, my junior.

So I always make sure that eight days are always delineated because it's very important to us, very competitive. He is West Point O'5 and then went into the Navy as a service warfare officer. So he was stationed down here in San Diego. And then went to Harvard Business School after that. And so he's the only one that defected to the Navy. He would give him a really hard time. But then I realized when I was stationed at Fort Hood and I got back from my deployment, he invited me down to San Diego. And this dude pulls up and it's BMW convertible.

in his uniform, beautiful women, beautiful weather, you name it. And he goes, welcome to San Diego. And I'm like, damn it. You are the smart one. This is ridiculous. Fort Hood, Texas, San Diego. You get it. That played a role for me joining the Navy.

So I was looking at all different special operations. And I grew up as a kid, I surfed in Maine, which is like there's not many surfers in Maine. And there definitely wasn't many surfers in Maine in the 80s. So I was a surfer. And I looked at all the different special operations. where I was trying to figure out what to do. And if you were in the SEAL teams,

you were either stationed in Virginia Beach or San Diego. Each one had surfing. And I looked at all the place, all the other special operations, you weren't surfing. So it was one of the things, you know, and also because I was a water guy,

you know, the SEAL teams made sense. But so when you were growing up, like at what age did you know the path you were going to take? So we drove my sister up to West Point. So she's 10 years older than me, and my brother and are 10 months apart,

10 and 10 years, 10 months. And so I was about eight, it was seven years old when we drove her up to West Point to do her plea summer. And we drove from Texas, drove all the way up to West Point. And then when you're there and you're a six, seven year old little boy and you see West Point for the first time,

something gets locked in you. That's all it took. That's literally all it took. And we tried to fight it. I mean, we were saying we're not going to go to West Point. We're going to go to my brother and went to go to Harvard for undergrad. And I went to go to University of Michigan. We would joke around.

But when it came down to it and when the rubber met the actual road, we're all on the West Point. I mean, it is just kind of what it was. So knowing though that at a young age that you wanted to go there, at least you wanted as an option, that had to get you focused because you're not getting into West Point without doing the work. So the good thing is, is that helps focus you. And then I had what I call parent privilege.

There are, there is no privilege in this country. There's only parent privilege. And also the privilege of being an American. Those are only two privileges that I would ever deem in this country today. And so both of my parents didn't play games. You don't have three West Pointers coming from one house. growing up in a soft home. Okay, so my parents were very big on,

you're going to serve this country, you're going to figure out how to preserve the lineage that got you here in the first place. You are not going to be a victim. My parents grew up in the Jim Crow era, and they're looking at us and looking at guys like me and their sons and their daughters becoming West Point graduates, the United States,

congressmen as Republicans and white majority districts. And my parents were like, no, no, we don't play the games of the past. We always look forward. So you find a way to serve this country, which is exactly what we all. did and at one point we were all in Baghdad at the same time during uh in 2006 so I was by

far the coolest flying patches that's how like so when you as you look at you know how did you map out okay I'm gonna West Point that means I need to get these kind of grades that means I need to get this in the SATs that means I need to get this type of leadership uh uh kind of skills I need to play these sports well did you just package it up was that your phone The good thing is, this is I'm talking about parents. Like my dad and my mom, like, they were our Sherpas going through life. They were like, look, if you want to go to West Point, you have to do X, Y, and Z. But if you want to do anything excellent in this life, even if it's not West Point, this is what's required of you.

And so, yes, we always played a sports. I went from football to basketball, basketball to running track. All of our summers were filled with something spiritual, something physical, and something academic, every single summer. And so you constantly push yourself to be a very well-rounded human being. And the one thing about my parents that I really appreciate, and the one thing I like about West Point is it's not just one-dimensional. You have to be good at everything, basically. There is a bar that you have to meet.

You have to meet a military bar, an academic bar, a physical bar. You can't just max out your SAT, but you can't lift your body weight. That's just not going to work. And so in areas that you are deficient, you have to work on those areas to get them proficient enough to meet the standard. And that's kind of the house that we grew up in. My brother was definitely more the brainiac. I was more of the physical guy and my sister was more the personality kind of person.

But we were actually pretty decent at everything in being well-rounded human beings. And that started in the home with my parents. Now, a lot of people ask me questions about kids. A lot of, I've written a bunch of kids books. A lot of people ask me questions about kids. And if parents aren't careful, they can push their kids to a point where the kids go in the other direction. Now, part of that, I believe, comes from if you're a do what I say, not what I do type person,

there's a higher chance that the kids will push against you. But is there something that you saw in your parents that you looked in and said, oh, yeah, I can see that they're trying to help me. Well, I always think the most important thing is if your parents, if you know your parents care about you, then you know that they're pushing you for the right reason. but did you ever feel, did you ever get to a point where you're like, like, hey man,

I know, hey, dad, it's summer. I get spiritual, I get academic, I get physical, but I also want to, you know, take a break. Did that ever enter your mind? No. And is that just because the environment

that your dad showed you, your mom and dad showed you, was like, hey, we're not doing that. Yes, sir. And it's all about love too. And they came from a place of love. And we had a good time.

They wanted us to have a good time. My parents were, my parents were actually pretty fun people. But when it came down, when it came down to developing children, they had a saying is that, I'm not your friend. I am your parent. When you are 18 years old, then you can do whatever you want to do. But then by the time you're 18, you grew up in this environment, well, the kicks already been begged, brother. I mean, you're going to start making decisions based on how you were raised once you become an adult if they do it the right way. Also, just being present.

Like, my mom was the president of the PTO when I was in elementary. school. When I was in high school, I drove one hour one way every single day to attend a private school in Houston, Texas, one hour one way. My dad would drive us, drop us off on his way to work, and then on his way back home, he would pick us up and take us back home. And every now and again, I would look up on the, I'd be at football practice and I would look up and I would see my dad just standing in the distance watching, just to make sure that we aren't slacking off, to make sure that we're getting treated right. And you realize that he's doing this because he loves us. He's doing this because he cares about us.

He's doing this because he wants what's best for his children. So then you have to respect the home. And my parents were my dad especially were the kind of people that were like, look, you know, if you get locked up or you do something stupid, you get a DUI, I'm not getting you out of jail. You're going to stay there. Now, are your little buddies, their dads, their lawyers? They're going to come get them out the next day. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You're going to stay there for a little while.

You're going to remember what you did. And when you think about that and you're like, I don't really want to go to jail. because my dad's going to leave me there. And he's not kidding. The colonel is not playing around. So it's a certain level of fear, but then it manifests itself in a form of respect, especially when it's instilled at a very young age.

And what was the biggest trouble you ever got in with the old man? Oh, man. There was, I got in a fight. I got in the sixth grade. And when they found out about the fight it wasn't my fault. I didn't start to fight. And this was when I was in public school before I went to private school. And then they kind of found out what happened. And I fought back. But my dad was more

upset with me because I had kind of a bloody nose and a busted lip, but the guy just had a busted lip, but he didn't have a bloody nose. He was upset with me because he was like, that guy should also have a bloody nose like you do. Like you stick up for yourself. You're a good kid. And I'm not condoning fighting, but I'm also condoning you need to also stick up for yourself. And that kid needs to look as bad as you look. He looked, you know, I roughed them up, I roughed them up a little bit, but it wasn't enough. And then the application process getting into West Point, that's rigorous. Yes. And as you, as you show up there, you already saw your sister go, you knew what you were in for.

Of course I did. And we had visited, you know, there a lot and keeping my sister's 10 years older than me. And so there's a saying at West Point, the history that we teach is made by those that we taught. So my sister, my sophomore, my, you know, Yuck in my sophomore and junior year at West Point. She actually went off, got her master's degree in applied mathematics at post-nable graduate school, and then was an instructor at West Point as a captain and major, while my brother and I were both plebes, were both freshmen and sophomores at West Point. And so we were all there at the same time.

And I had to salute my sister every damn day. It was excruciating because sometimes she would see me, like, across the quad. She's coming your way. She was a long way. It does a high salute. Like, it was actually really hilarious. But we knew what was coming our way And a lot of her classmates

Were actually our instructors as well So it's nice to have that family You know, you know what you're getting into But the one thing about us was this When you start this journey and you start going down this path You're going to finish it And my dad said you can't leave once you start Because you have to understand that you took the place

Of somebody that would have died to be in your shoes So if you quit You're not quitting on yourself You're quitting on the person that wanted this slot that didn't get it. So guess what? Suck it up. The ups, the downs, the highs, the lows,

you're going to walk out of here a much better human being and a much better person, but you're not going to quit. And that nonstop, like, don't quit attitude is something that my dad instilled in all three of us.

Was there anything that was more than you expected when you got there? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, one thing I was remember about boot camp. I was going through Navy boot camp. And one thing I was not prepared for is the complete and utter lack of privacy.

Oh, yeah. So you, you're going to the bathroom. You sit down on the toilet and you look to your right and there's a guy sitting there on the toilet next to you and look to your left, same thing. Because by the way, you only got six minutes to use the head. So yeah, I was like, okay, I guess that's just the way it is. Like we're just one big happy family. We're a real happy, a real close family around here.

What kind of thing? What shocked you were, where you kind of go, dang? I don't know this was happening. You know, so when you go to West Point, you do an application process, obviously you're pretty sharp, you know, young man or young woman at the end of the day. I mean, that's what's required to get into any academy. And so you think pretty highly of yourself. You know, I was captain of the football team, a captain of the basketball team,

and I was a class prefect and leader and, you know, felt pretty cool, you know, a pretty cool guy, you know. And you get there, you realize everybody's like that. Like, dude, you're not special. Like, you're not special. And everyone gets treated the same way at that first plebe summer. And so it is a reprogramming of the way you view yourself and the breaking down of the individual to realize you are a part of a team and you are not special. I don't care what you did.

I don't care how good you were. I don't care how badass you think you are. You're all plebs. So deal with it. And then not only that, our summers were, the cadre, they were. they were upperclassmen that went through the same kind of program as well. You know the upper classmen were also pleased. They did pleaves summer.

And so there's a certain level of respect that you have to deal with of breaking down the individual, humbling the individual, then realizing that we're all in this together. We better work together because nobody is special. And that for me was the biggest, you know, kicking a teeth. Because, man, I thought I thought I was cool. So you show up there in 2000. You go through Pleeb Semin freshman year. What's it like on?

campus on September 11, 2001. So September 11th, 2001, that was my sophomore year at West Point. So keep in mind, at the academies, the first two years are actually free, meaning that you could stay at the academy for the first two years, and if you leave before your first class of your junior year, you don't owe anything back to the military. So first two years, free of charge. 9-11 happened in the beginning of my sophomore year. And so during that time, you're like, well, we are now going to war.

we're sitting in Eisenhower barracks at West Point watching the planes fly into the Twin Towers. And we're at West Point just an hour north of New York City. So all this carnage is happening. And I could literally almost feel and sense the negativity in the world in that moment because you know you are very close in proximity to where this is happening as we live and breathe. There was an upperclassman got in full battle rattle. Full battle battle. He got camoed up. He got he had his in 14 camoed up.

put on, put on, put on the ACUs, you name it, and was knocking on everybody's door saying, we're going to war boys, we're going to war boys, we're going to war boys, because at that point, we knew it. Everybody knew that we're going to war. One of the most proudest things about my class that I can say is this. My sophomore year, we all could have left. Most of us stayed. Only a handful left.

So we knew that we were entering West Point during a time of peace, but we're exiting at a time of war, and we're all going to fight and nobody left. See, a lot of people try to use West Point and use the academy just to get the education and then to move on. They don't realize that, no, we're training you to be a warfighter. When you enter during a time of peace, a lot of times, you know, you kind of go to the mundane stuff. We're going to go to our, we're going to go to JRTC. We're going to go to NTC.

We're going to go to Vincenza, Italy. We're going to go hang out, you know. And when we were coming out, everybody's going to Baghdad. You're going from Fort Hood and you're going to go to Baghdad. you're going to go from Baghdad to Fort Hood, and then from Fort Hood, you're going to go back to Baghdad. Get your mind right.

And most of us stayed. Consequently, we lost 14 of my West Point classmates in the global war on terror, and none of those brave men saw the age of 28 years old. I bring them up frequently because those guys, they were all, by the way,

they were 14 white guys. And when they gave their last full measure, they didn't do it for black people or white people or Asian people or Hispanic people. They did it for my fellow Americans. And their deaths is what actually really helped to shape the way I view the world today.

We are Americans first. We all bleed together in this fight. And so when you enter atomic war and you watch the Twin Towers fall and you're like, oh my gosh, like this is it. This is where the river meets the road. Giddy up, let's go. See all the race and all of the division.

All of a sudden that goes away because we're all in this fight together. Now the question for me is, I get asked as frequently, why did I want to fly Apaches? at the time you had a choice to fly four aircraft I knew I wanted to go aviation so you could fly Chinooks black hawks apaches and Kiowa warriors but I knew I was going to go to bagdad and it's hot so which airframe has air conditioning just kidding well the Apache doesn't have air conditioning you always knew you wanted to go aviation though yes I did since my freshman year at west point

did you go on some kind of a tour or something did you see the birds or something we did a tour and a black hawk that we flew napp in the earth of the earth or the of the Hudson River. Oh, that'll do it. And that's it. And that's it. And I realized, yeah, I'm definitely going to go aviation. Didn't grow up really wanting to be a pilot.

But at that moment, I realized I wanted to do it. And then also, you know, I joke about the air conditioning because it was nice to have an air conditioning in Apache. But I also realized that if I'm going to go to war, I want to shoot back. I want to shoot back. And, you know, the Apache is a weapons platform. We don't carrying anything. We don't pick up.

We don't drop off. We're not a bus. We have hellfire missiles, rockets, and 30 millimeter chain gun. And you call us in. to destroy the enemy with extreme prejudice, end of discussion. And if I'm going to go get shot at, I want to make sure that I'm shooting back. Literally, that was my decision process.

Would you end up getting your degree in? From West Point or from, from, from West Point. So I got my degree in leadership and management and mechanical engineering. And as you come out of West Point, now since you're a pilot, you're focused on being a pilot, but still you're going to be in a leadership position.

Oh, yeah. Right? How did you feel about your leadership, your specific leadership training when you were at West Point? West Point, when I talk about being a well-rounded person, that also was construed in that as well as being a well-rounded leader. And they are training you to be a leader, to be an officer in the United States Army. And so the biggest thing is you brought up earlier about, you know, do as I do, not do as I say. No, as a leader, you got to do as they do too. So that means you have to be proficient.

That means you have to be good at your craft. That means you have to be in shape. That means you have to be able to hang. That means you have to, when they see you, you have to be the first one in the room and the last one to leave. You have to be the last one to eat. You have to be the one that is the leader because you can talk to talk. But if you don't walk to walk, well, then they're not going to believe it. If you're not going to be the person that's willing to hang in there and stay with your guys and they're never ever going to fully trust you.

And so what West Point taught us is, look, you can't be a fat leader. I had a military history teacher And he was a hard charger And this is at the time before we had a You know, this is to throw no shade at some Some heavy leaders that have Kind of come around, I'm not going to give me names But at that time, this is, you know, 2002

He said this, I'll never forget this, brother. He goes, how many fat leaders are there? How many fat heads of state are there? I mean, if you can't take care of yourself And if you can't control your body, you can control what you look like. How can you possibly lead anybody? And he goes, how can you lead your family,

if you're not in good shape? So you need to figure out what kind of regimen that you have to do, just stay in shape, don't eat like a pig, and if you're going to lead, make sure that you look the part. Because that's the first impression somebody is going to have of you is,

this guy's sloppy. This guy's a slop tart. How is he going to tell me what to do? So that physical piece of this is something that's awesome to that West Point, that's why you have a physical, grade, you have a PT grade, you have a military grade, and you have an academic grade. That academic grade is weighted heavily, but the other stuff matters too and plays up to your

overall GPA. Yeah, one of the ways I explain that when I'm talking to young officers especially is I'll tell him, hey, when I was an enlisted guy in the sale teams, I was a new guy. Didn't know anything, right? But when my leader showed up four minutes late to something, I was taking notes. When my leader forgot a piece of gear, I was taking notes. When my leader didn't do, didn't know how to properly execute something with a weapon system, I was taking notes.

And it was like just a degradation of, you know, look, not disrespectful, but a degradation of respect. Correct. So you got to remember that all these people, and what I think really hurts people sometimes is they think people don't notice. They think, oh, you know, no one will notice that I'm four minutes late. By the way, I'm in charge. So it doesn't really am out. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're taking notes.

Yep. If you show up late, you go home. everybody sees it and respect levels going down that whole time you got it I uh I went to talk to West Point and man I mean what an org what what a what an incredible place of of tradition yeah but I remember walking into the area where they have all the names of all the West Pointers that have been killed in combat it's just it takes your breath away going there and talking and the way that they run their leadership you know you can see that's such a huge focus because they know leadership is the most important thing on the battlefield right if there's any institution that knows that it's it's west point and having those leadership discussions with those with those young you know soon-to-be officers that are heading out on the battlefield it's just so important and what they're going to face and especially you know I guess the war's over now but especially at that time there was it was on yes that's right so so as your did your mindset because you're you're

You also went through a transition of like you thought you were going to go to whatever you said, Spain and Italy or whatever else before the war started. Did you kind of connect the dots? Did you know from your dad, from your sister that, hey, listen, there's a lot of stuff on the periphery about going to West Point and being an officer. But you're a warrior. You're going to fight the nation's wars. Had you made that connection and did it just get strengthened by September 11th? Yes. Yes.

So I think at some point when you raise your hand and you'd take that oath, especially I believe some, after going through all of that, and then finally you go from a new cadet to a cadet, which is finally, you know, when the academic year starts and you're done with the summer training, you realize that, no, no, this is about the military. This is about military service. All the other lickies and chewies are great,

but this is about military service. That's what West Point is. When you stand, when you're standing in a parade in front of Washington statue every single weekend, or when you have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and you're standing at formation, and you're living in Eisenhower Barracks and MacArthur Barracks and Patton Statue, which is in front of the library,

and you're walking past all these landmarks. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. This is not the University of Texas here. Like, this is going to be a warfighting experience. Now, the good thing about it is it's actually very well-rounded. And so you do get other experiences in academia that I really do appreciate. But just a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago, the president, President Trump just appointed me to be.

on the West Point border visitors, which I think, which is a great honor. And basically it's basically being like on the border of regents. And you meet quarterly, you get to kind of see kind of what's going on. You have an inside look on how training is going to be in the future. And just kind of, you know, to make sure that everything is cop aesthetic. And so I have my 20-year reunion back in November. And to see these young people, to see how sharp they are, even in an era that I, you know, we always say the new era is always softer.

than it was when we went through. I mean, just get out of here, right? It's all easy now. But honestly, I was actually pleasantly surprised and pleased to see the state of affairs of these young people and how they are going to, how we are morphing the way we fight battles in the future and how they are going to be a strong part of it and a part of that transition that we're watching right now. And I was actually very, very pleased with what I saw.

Yeah, there's going to be some major changes in warfare coming. As much as the machine gun. you know as much as the tank these these drones and the disaggregated battlefield that these are these are legitimate real changes that are happening before our very eyes so that the next generation's going to have a they're going to have it rough and they're going to learn some lessons yes sir but they're proactively leaning into that right now which they absolutely have to do yes and i'm glad that you're seeing that when when you when you meet with them uh how's flight school flight school was a good time because i was there with basically 100 of my classmates.

So basically 100, 100, I think it was 100 in, roughly 100 of it. So about 10% of the class ended up going aviation. And you go there and you start off learning on what's called a T-867. It's a small turbine engine aircraft. And then you kind of go through flight school with your classmates and you're learning how to fly a helicopter, which is, I mean, come on, man. That's about as cool as it gets. And then you transition to the aircraft that you're going to fly.

So you go from this little single-turbit engine aircraft to an Apache. Dang. Bro, it's like more from a Honda Civic to a Rolls-Royce. I mean, like, you first sit at this. I remember the first time of me sitting in the cockpit and you're looking around and looking at this. They're like, okay, now I have really truly arrived here. Okay, I felt like a complete badass. That is absolutely insane.

I'll never forget that moment. But I really appreciated going there with a lot of my classmates and we helped each other out in ways that's kind of, it's kind of interesting. You forge that bond together, and then you're off learning how to fly together. And I remember, you know, Adam Smoot was my roommate while I was in flight school. I mean, I love this guy. He's a dear friend of mine to this day. And just, you know, whenever we needed to pick me up, whenever we needed help, you know, Adam was just always there to help. He was a really smart guy.

He was always really there to help me out. And then also Adam was a big fitness guy too. So he kept us, he kept all of our group accountable to make sure that we also just didn't just hang out. We also worked out and went to the gym. He was a parlippedin champion at West Point. And he was a complete stud. And, you know, to have guys like that that were around you, it's like the adage iron, sharpens iron still one man sharpens another.

We were in this fight together. And then we also knew that we were all going to deploy it together as well. So interesting point about when I went to Baghdad, I was at, we graduated flight school and then usually you go to a unit and then you get trained up in the unit and then you go downrange. Well, we had a unit that lost two air crews, one to a midair and one got shot down. And so this unit, our fourth ID, was short for pilots. So I got done with flight school and I didn't go to Fort Hood to train up. I went straight to Baghdad.

Damn. So I went from flight school to Baghdad. I will never forget, Lee Major was my IP, was my instructor pilot. He goes, Wesley, I want to let you know, you're getting ready to enter a space now where this range is now two-way range. So for you, you need to pay closer attention to what I'm teaching you right now because you're going right into the fire, literally. I got trained up in Baghdad flying around Camp Taji, and then I was out flying missions shortly after that. So talk about frying pan and fire. How much live fire range time do you get in your training?

Backstayside. Quite a bit. Quite a bit. Quite a bit. Squared away then. Quite a lot. Absolutely. And they do a pretty good job on that piece of it.

But again, nobody's shooting back. Mm-hmm. So it's all funny. It's all funny games. Okay. It's all funny games. You get everything squared up in the sites and you pull the trigger and, you know, you're knocking down targets and everybody's laughing.

And like, yeah, too close with missiles. I'm switching the guns and it's all funny, you know. And then you're downrange. And you realize that that is a Russian-made. 50 caliber Dishka that's trying to take us out the sky and it's one o'clock in the morning and we got to shoot back that's a whole different conversation what year did you go on deployment I was in 2006 what and I was in Baghdad what months did you show up I showed up in February of that year okay February March of that year I was over down the road in Ramadi in 2006 yeah I probably flew over you there's a high likelihood that we had we had Apache's role in a couple times and they got like so much gunfire. It was on Ramadi. Ramadi was nuts.

Yeah, that they left. You know, I actually have, I actually took pictures. I was out and I was out in their Overwatch position or actually I was in a combat outpost that was being built and in come the Apaches because we had briefed them and I'd met the Apache Pops, man, they were, they said, they were a flying tank. That's what they said. They said, we're a flying tank. I said, hey, a lot of, a lot of bad guys out of there said, we're a flying tank.

I said, hey, oh man. Okay. Let's go. So they roll in from the IP and man, when they came in there, it was an ungodly amount of gunfire that lit them up and they rolled back out. It was sketchy. It was very sketchy for helicopters. I wrote one night. It was so bad.

It was right by Sauter City one night. It was so bad that for a second in my mind, I thought to myself, this reminds me of the 4th of July. It reminded me of a grand finale of a 4th of July fireworks parade. And at one point, I was like, this is, you realize, well, this. I was going to say you realize you're the target. Those in our fireworks, right? Like, Parker factor increases exponentially, but. So when you roll into Baghdad, you just get out of flight school, you go straight to Baghdad.

And now they're like, okay, dude, welcome aboard. You have, because a normal train up state side would be another, what, six months to a year's worth of training? Of course. And that means, you know, you get to go out to the National Training Center and fly a bunch of missions and get all kinds of, you know, You know, you get dialed in. It's like going to grad school, you know? Like, it's how you get ready for deployment, and you didn't get any of that.

None of it. Right in combat. So did the guys take you out and be like, okay, this is what you're going to watch out for? Did you get some kind of in-doc flights? Of course we did. Of course it is. So first they put you in a tactical operating center,

they put you in a talk, and it make you a battle captain. So you could figure out what the battle space looks like. You understand kind of the battle rhythm, what's going on, and you're like an assistant battle captain. So you're on the radio, you're talking to the aircraft while they're flying around,

all this good stuff. So at least you have an idea on how things work. And so I did that for about a month, month and a half. But in the meantime, we're also doing just training flights around Camp Taji where it was safe,

getting your proficient, all that good stuff. And then they just cut you loose. And then at one point, I would never forget, this is the most tired I've ever been in my entire life. I flew 15 days straight.

And I'll never forget, finally, I got that next day off and I think I slept for 24 hours straight. But I remember just being exhausted. And keep in mind, a mission profile for us was about four hours. But it's four hours of concentrated flying. So it's the equivalent to 3X that. Basically, the toll that it has on your brain because of the concentration, deconfliction, talking to air traffic control, talking to the other aircraft, talking to the ground units.

And it is a focused four-hour mission profile. And by the time you're done, your brain is completely wiped. And then when you throw the stress on being in combat on top of that, I mean, that's what people don't understand. Like the mental stress of this might be my last flight. Every time I took off, I said the Lord's Prayer in the 2023rd song because I was like, let me get right with God before I take off because this actually might be it. Imagine the stressor of this might be it on top of everything that you have to do. And then the most important part of our job is to make sure the ground unit guys got home safely.

So if I don't do my job, that some ground guys might die. And that's not going to, that's that's unacceptable for us. That's unacceptable for our mission. And even if it means we sacrifice ourselves, it's our job to keep the ground guys safe. Now, the cool part about an Apache was usually, usually when we stood up on station, like the shooting stopped.

That was actually, and the guys loved us just even hovering around. They were kicking down doors. Hey, just be in the periphery. I heard of Apache pilot call it troops were in contact. That's right. Because when you guys showed up, they weren't in contact anymore.

Because that is... Drop their weapons if you're like, yeah, never mind. Yeah, we don't want none of that. It's awesome. No. So do you remember, is your first time you're going out? How'd you feel?

The first time you're like, okay, this is it. Go up and go on station and wait for the call to come from the ground. You know, you're the first person that ever asked me that, actually. And I remember that moment very vividly,

and I've never been asked that. Thank you. It's fascinating. I remember it vividly. I remember actually taken off, and I remember being like, okay, so now it's real. and you are hyper-focused,

you are realizing that this is the first time I'm trained up, I'm ready, this is what I've been trained to do, this is what I've been fighting for, I've been a battle captain, okay, now it's time to actually perform. And so you were on the edge of your, I was on the edge of my seat,

too, I was on the edge of my seat, just trying to get everything right, didn't want to screw up, didn't want to mess up. And then you also think that every time you go out, you're going to get in a firefight. So you're like, let's go. And then that's not how,

works so so you go out and I realized that I came back I landed nothing really happened it was just a routine you know you know for our QRF mission or whatever and we went out came back I was like okay that okay okay okay that was I figured it out I think I'll be all right and the first probably five missions you're very just hypersensitive and then after that you relax you settle you realize that okay this is the mission profile this what we have to do we've plotted out a few things. There's going to be a lot of downtime. But at the end of the day, you have to always be ready, but don't be nervous. Because if you're nervous, that's when you make mistakes.

Now, that's all fine and dandy. And then you have another come to Jesus moment once you get shot at for the first time. So I'll never forget that. I remember the first time I remember my very first mission, and I remember vividly the first time I got shot at. Because then that's now a whole, that's like a whole other level of stress that you're adding on to it. So what did you see muzzle flashes? Were you getting hit, the aircraft get hit? Tracers. Tracers.

Tracers. Tracers. That'll make you look. Parker a little bit. Parker factor was really big. So your first response to that is denial. Like, this isn't happening, right? And your back seers, usually the guy that's more experienced that I've seen it before, obviously.

He's like, well, captain, we're getting shot at. Now, Lieutenant, we're getting shot at. Now, my mate captain was there. I was like, oh, yeah. I see it. And for a second, you're like, now what do I do? And that five seconds feels like an eternity. And then you settle, you rely back on your training,

rely back on your TTPs, and then you get right back into what you're doing. The second time you get shot at, there is no pause. There is no, there is. And by pause, I mean, it's very, very quick the first time. It seems like an hour, but literally it's probably like five seconds.

You're like, they weren't kidding, but two-way range. Like, that's like legit. And I'm here doing this. This is not a video game. This is not a drill. Right. It's not a drill.

And then the second time and the third time, then after that, you realize your reaction is taking fire, responding immediately, immediately. But I'll never forget that first time. And it's important to have those kinds of experiences. And it's important to always look back on that moment in life because from then on, nothing is that hard. Nothing is that stressful. I tell people all the time, Wesley, you know, you're a congressman, you're in politics, you know, it's pretty rough. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not getting shot at. And I was 24 years old when I was doing that.

I mean, keep that in mind. I mean, I am fighting a battle in an Apache at 24, 25 years old. I am deciding who lives and who potentially dies at 24 years old, 25 years old, as a very young man. So from there on, my life is really, stress in my life is really not that big of a deal. nothing is that serious. Now, much of the regretting my wife, every now and again, she kind of gets upset with me

because I don't... You're not getting spun up about something. I really don't. I really don't get spun up. It's very easy for me to rely back to those moments. And every now and again, we live a good life. You know, I talk about being an American

and how blessed that we have it. And every now and again, you kind of forget. You know, you kind of get a little soft and, you know, I have two little girls and a little boy. And you start going, through the day to day of life and you kind of forget those moments where things get hard and you find yourself getting spun up over something that really is not that significant.

And then before I go to bed at night, I think back to these two moments when I was 24 years old flying around in an Apache and you're like, you know what? It's going to be just fine. Yeah. Unique thing about the Apache and I don't know if this is only the Apache, but so echo like normally when you're calling an aircraft fire. there's a big protocol that you got to follow. If you're calling fast movers overhead,

you got to give them a nine-line brief. There's a bunch of really specific information that they need. Same thing. And it can get pretty complicated. But when you get an Apache on the ground or get Apache in the air over, like the Army guys will just talk to the Apache

like they're talking to someone else with a rifle or someone with a machine gun. Like, no, the building to the far left hit that one. And Apache guys, since they're so close, to the ground and they're so in touch with the guys on the ground, it's almost like you have just another part of your infantry unit that's ready to lay it down. And that's why guys love Apaches. Because they can just make things happen.

How is it for you? You're in the air. You're in the aircraft. You hear these guys on the ground. That's got to be like tormenting when you know that they're in bad situations. And you want to help them and you're trying to understand what's happening. Like what kind of mental place were you in when you start getting the call? Hey, we need support now.

What was that? What was that like for you? First thing is most important, situational awareness. You have to know where the good guys are, first and foremost, because the last thing that we want is fractured. So when we go weapons hot,

you have to understand where the good guys are and where the bad guys are. Number one, most important thing. And sometimes you could hear the duress. You could hear the sense of urgency that they're like, guys, we really need you on target, like right now. What was your primary way of identifying friendlies?

they would give us a grid coordinate as to where they were eight digit grid coordinate and then that's how we were usually able to easily identify them. Also, sometimes they would use tracer fire. So they would say, I'm shooting right now, trace the fire, we are here shooting

in the direction of the enemy. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You would hear on the radio and you see the trace of fire and be like, okay, Roger, got it. And then we're guns hot. So that's just, you know, a few of the ways, but that's the most important thing

is we're here to save friendlies. We are here to make sure that these young men get back to their families alive. We aren't going to be the ones that eliminate them. We have to be very, very cautious. First and foremost, I think that's the first and foremost important thing for any Apache driver was always, who are the good guys? We don't shoot the good guys.

We shoot the bad guys. Most important. So situational awareness was something that we always had to be very, very mindful of. Yeah, and it's really hard for people that haven't been in combat to understand how confusing the battlefield is. It gets very, it gets chaotic, you know, and I wrote about, I had in Ramadi there was probably one blue on blue reported a week reported yeah every week yeah

and not all of them had casualties but you know like hey you were shooting in our direction we were in this building oh the you know the army was over here the Marine Corps over here that's how and there was there were situations where soldiers shot at Humvees yeah like the al-Qaeda or they didn't have humvees you know and Humvee is a very distinct profile of a vehicle. It's pretty hard to mistake something. Don't mess that up. So that's how stressful it is.

That's the kind of decisions people are making and how confusing it can be when you're out there. And so being in the aircraft overhead and you've got these guys panic on the ground and you want to support them as much as you can at the same time, like rule number one, it's almost like a doctor, do no harm. That's right.

That's rule number one. Do no harm. And just like you said too, us showing up a lot of times was just all they needed to sometimes. I mean, sometimes we didn't even engage the enemy because it was too close of contact, but the comfort that they had knowing

that we were overhead and how that shifted the entire battle just by our presence being there. You know, I take a lot of pride in that. So you're opt tempo. I know you just said you did 15 days straight. And then one day rest. But generally speaking, you're flying every day.

I think for us at that time, it was like, you know, four to five days on, Two days off. Four to five days, one to two days off. And are you on a cycle flying at night the whole time? Or sometimes at daytime? We had like a rotating cycle to roll pilots on and off. And we had to get our proper crew rest at least eight hours, all that good stuff.

What's the preferred, is it better go out at night or during the day? Which one do you like more? If you're going to, that's funny. That's actually a really good question too. So at night is when, night time is when you saw the most engagements was at night. night. The daytime, though, you could see everything clearer. Like, like, you don't, you don't need envy, you don't need night vision goggles, you don't need Fleer. You could, I mean, there it is right there. You could see it clear as day. They could also, the enemy could also see you on the horizon

during the daytime. So that's when they would drop their weapons and move on. And you're like, yeah, we don't want to deal with that, with Colise's dragon at that point. Right? Like, we wouldn't not sleep no part of that. But at night is, is when you were, you were actually, going to see a lot more, a lot more action. So it just kind of, it just kind of depended, it kind of depended on the battle rhythm and where you were. But at the end of the day, I mean, everybody at some point is going to, is going to, there's going to be some engagements. And how long was your, was this deployment in total? Almost a year. Yeah, yeah. So I got in, I got a little bit late. So it must have been for me. It's like nine months, nine, 10 months.

And so somewhere around there. And as you're wrapping up, like, as you're getting towards the end of deployment, are you starting to feel like that little short time disease? Or are you starting like, well, maybe, you know, I know you're saying the Lord's prayer, but you've been saying it for eight months. I've been saying it for a lot. You know? And at some point, you start thinking like, I always, I always, with my guys, like, I would never tell them that this is the last mission. Yeah. Because I always felt like that was a jinx. Like, hey, guys, this is the last one. So what I did is we kept doing missions, kept doing missions. And when administratively, we couldn't do it anymore, it was like, all right, hey, remember last night? Yeah, that was it. We're done. And they're like,

Wow. Yep. Because I didn't want anyone going out with like, this last one to be all paranoid and freaked out. Like just maybe I'm a superstitious or whatever. But that's kind of the way. It's like, hey, you know what? Last night and that was it. Did you start to feel any like pressure?

Like, you know, because you're rolling the dice every time. Every time. Did you start to think about that? Of course you do. That is a natural state of being a human being. Especially when you know like, you know, we're ripping out of here in about two weeks. which means that I have approximately three to four flights left and I want to go home

and I want to get home in one piece and I want to get home safely but the mission is as important now as it was when you first got in country like that hasn't changed nor can you have a lapse of judgment because you still want people to get home I mean people do die on their last missions

that has happened to feel my classmates literally they were they were doing less seat right seat rides and one of my very dear friends is no longer with us because he was killed on his last mission before he was getting ready to come home. And so how do you train your mind and how do you train your brain and your early 20s on top of that

and have the discipline and the state of mind and the fortitude to say, you have to be as focused right now knowing that you want to get home and hug your mom and hug your dad and see your dog and do all this good stuff and see your family. But if you screw this up,

that ain't going to happen. In fact, it's even more. more important to be acutely aware of your surroundings than what's going on, but not to the point that you're nervous. It goes right back to the very beginning. It's like the state of mind in those last few flights is the same state of mind that you kind of have in the very beginning, but you can't allow that to creep in. You can't. Unless you're going to be too nervous and then something bad is going to happen. And so it's not even about me being able to do. It's also keeping your soldiers focused. I know you want to get home. I know it's time to get home. I know

what you want to do. I know we're two weeks out. We're almost there. We're almost there. And fortunately for us, those last few weeks, no one was lost. Everyone went off without a hitch. Everyone performed accordingly. But that's the mental gymnastics that you have to kind of put your mind through to prepare

yourself, especially at the end. And how was coming back to America? So now it might have been 2006 still when you got home. Yep. It was the end of 2006 when I got home. And I got home and for the first two weeks

you're still in combat brain you know when I was in Camp Taji and so we're far up north but every now and again they would have mortar fire that would come in and hit our base and I remember one time there was a couple hundred yards away I mean there was it hit a trailer burst into flames and it woke me up and then you have to obviously

put on your your flag jacket and then you know head to safety head to shelter and you're not really asleep at night. You're constantly always worried about something can't happen. You know, you're thinking about that mortar fire. You're thinking about the next mission. You get back home for about two weeks, and you're still in that mode. And I didn't realize that until my mom and my dad would say something to me, like, Wesley, you're home.

It's okay. You're home. And I remember I didn't completely decompressed until two weeks later I was sitting in church with my family, with my mom and my dad, and I was sitting next to them. And then finally, I relaxed. I felt the weight of no longer being in combat finally released from my body. It was like a spiritual moment almost. And I remember being emotional and being like, I'm okay. I'm okay.

I'm safe. I made it home. And then only to do that to go back to Fort Hood and to get training up for the next one. Like that is just like that is the rhythm. I thank God every single day for those experiences in my early 20s. I am so glad that I had to go through that, through those moments in life at a very young age, at a very early point.

That's why the military is so important, especially for young men. It's critical. It's critical to train your mind and to hone your craft and to put yourself in an uncomfortable position early on in life because you get used to being uncomfortable for the rest of your life. And life is hard. Yeah, and I think I realize it's a,

a couple months ago, they build that into you by little, they do exposure therapy, where the first thing you get is yell that by, you know, a drill instructor or whatever, okay, getting yelled that. Okay, well, not too bad. And then, you know, you got to climb that rope wall. And you're like, oh, that rope ball is a little hard to get over. It's a little scary at the top. And then you go over the cargo net, which is 30 feet up.

Then you're doing the slide for life. Then you're repelling. And then you're fast roping. And each one of these things is a step into fear. And you're each one of those, you're overcoming. The first bit of fear. It's tiny, but it gets bigger and bigger, bigger. You just learn how to overcome it, learn how to overcome it.

And finally, by the time you're jumping out of an airplane, you're like, oh, I know what this feeling is. It's called fear. I know what to do in response to it, and this is what I'm going to do. This is how I'm going to handle it. Now you're in combat. You go, oh, oh, that little thing? Oh, yeah, I know what that is. That's fear.

Here's how I overcome it. Don't, I don't back down from it. I don't pretend it's not there. I deal with it. We go and we execute the mission. Correct. So they do a really good job in the military of teaching you how to do that. If you take someone from zero to combat,

like they're not, they're going to see that big monster fear and it's going to freak them out. You're not going to do it. So you got to get used to it. And the military does a very good job of doing that. I felt the same thing. For me, it was about a month after I got home. And, you know, I was sitting there on the weekend and I woke up in the morning.

And I felt like, good. I felt like, you know, it was a sunny day. I'm in San Diego. Yeah. I was like, what is, what am I feeling? Like, why do I feel good? And I realized I didn't feel good because of something that was there. I felt good because of something that wasn't there.

And that was being worried about one of my guys getting wounded or killed, which is the worst, not in your stomach that lasts for months and months and months. And it's just perpetually there. So when you go home and it's gone, you go, wow. Oh, I'm not fearing the loss of one of my guys right now. And that's a big weight off the shoulders. You know, you never let those guys go either. You never let the guys that you served with go.

So a couple months ago, Brandon Bender is his name. He was my crew chief. He is no longer with us. He passed away a couple months ago. And I'm not, I have a lot to deal, have a lot going on. I'm very busy. But when I found that out, I went to the services in Georgia because I had to go because he was one of my guys.

He was one of my friends. He was a corporal serving under me, and he's a person that kept me alive. He's the guy that fixed my aircraft. He's the guy that was my confid on. He was a dear, dear friend. And to be full disclosure, you never let him go. And he's not with us anymore. And I'll be the first to admit, I wish I was in contact with him more.

I wish I could have said something. I wish, as his, you know, as his leader, I wish even this. And we haven't seen him in years. We haven't served together in 15 years. But he's still with me. Brandon is still with me. And so when you say somebody that you trained with, that you are in combat with, somebody that you are in charge of,

it's not just them in combat, it's them in life too. Like you build these relationships with people literally under fire. I mean, I'll never forget, I landed from a pretty rough mission and Brandon was there to bring me in

and I gave him the biggest hug in the world. He goes, I heard on the radio, sir, I'm glad you're back. Like, it was rough and Brandon, what's the guy? That I'll never forget looking at. And so that kind of relationship

is forged in steel and it's something that, That never goes away. And this is not a shout out to Brandon Bender, a shout out to Brandon Bender and his family, but I think of him often. I think of him almost daily to this day because he's no longer here.

But that level of care and that level of, I want to make sure my guys get home and I want to make sure my guys prosper and that they stay alive. That care becomes a greater feeling than taking care of yourself. Yeah, no doubt. I realized this years ago,

I had a guy named Tom Fife on the podcast He was in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He's a hard charger. And he got a purple heart in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. And so we're talking, and we're talking, you know, when he was in World War II, he was like a, you know, he was a private. He didn't know what was going on. By the time he's in Korea, he's now like a lieutenant.

And by the time we get to Vietnam, he's a battalion commander of Vietnam. And we're having this conversation, you know, and just awesome conversation with this hero. this hero and you know we're talking about you know kind of like the tactical military stuff you know know what's your mission what were you doing what was the op temple like what you know what were the techniques were the ewees what procedures what procedures we're having that conversation and then you know I said I said you know how many casualties did you take when you're a battalion commander and so this is 60 years after the war yeah and he got choked up and I thought to myself that I realized at that

that moment that I'm always going to feel that way about my guys. Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with it. And that was a huge lesson learned for me because I've been able to share that with other people. It's like, hey, when you lose your friends, that's going to leave a mark. Yeah. And especially being in the military, you know, you're going to lose your friends that

are 23 years old, 25 years old, 26 years old that are going to, they're not going to get to experience what we get to experience. Maybe they didn't get that chance to have kids. They didn't get a chance to live the rest of their lives. And so that's going to hurt. Yeah. And the best thing we can do, look, you're never going to, it's okay to say, oh, yeah, oh, I'll freaking shed a tear tonight thinking about my friends.

Then there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, it's okay. It's perfectly okay. And the best thing you, what you don't want to do is pretend that that's not there or dwell on it to the point where you're caught in the past and thinking about, thinking about what, what it could have should have been. Right. Because you can't change the past.

So those are, I think, really important lessons and even what you're saying right now about your buddy. It's like, what do you do? You honor them. That's it. You live your life for them moving forward.

You do what I would want them to do if that were me. I wouldn't want you to mourn me. I wouldn't want, don't feel bad for me. I'm in a better place anyway. Please live your life to the fullest. Just don't forget it and understand that there are a lot of people

that are no longer here. So we must continue to find ways to serve and live for them in their stead. They pay the ultimate sacrifice in the name of this country and the name of freedom and the name of growing and making a better

and more perfect union. That's why they died. So get in the business of doing that. Literally that's why I got into politics, sir. That's one of the biggest reasons why. Look, you may not agree with me politically this down to a third, but please know that my heart is in the right place

to make a more better union and to continue to serve for those who are no longer here to surf for themselves. That's what this whole thing is about. When you opened up about people that were in the military that serve now, no matter how you feel about them personally, keep in mind, we are the ones that said, I'm going to die for our country. Hold on.

Show us a little bit of respect here because that's actually real to us. And most of you didn't do that. So you may disagree with us politically, but you should respect where our heart is because we are the ones that I wouldn't believe for the country. So get home from this deployment. What's what? Do you go into a workup preparing to deploy again? Is that what happened?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, that's kind of, I mean, you take. obviously there's some downtime and then there's some obviously NTC rotations and all that kind of good stuff but then after that I actually didn't deploy the second time I actually was on rear detachment

and then I actually because I was getting out the military I knew I was getting out the military and so I did my last two combat deployment actually it was considered to be combat and Saudi Arabia as a diplomatic liaison officer and so we did I did the train up then went to the captain's career course and then from

there went to Saudi Arabia for two years this is where I got the true diplomatic political bug during the last two years in a military station in Saudi Arabia. So explain what a diplomatic liaison officer is doing. Okay. So one of the one of the largest Apache contracts actually goes to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a big purchaser of a lot of our aircraft and a lot of our munitions. And so I was at that time I was doing four military sales for the military in Saudi Arabia. And so we advise them on what they need, what their battle needs were, what their training needs were,

coordinating with Boeing to figure out what Apache model you need and the specs that you needed on the Apache to best fit your needs in Saudi Arabia as a diplomatic officer. And so that's when I got exposed to the region as a whole. And imagine being able to travel in that region as well as a diplomatic liaison officer. As opposed to flying around backdad. As opposed to firing around Baghdad. The diplomatic quarters in Rio are way different than Baghdad. So you're saying a five-star hotel or something? Every night again.

It wasn't terrible. Are you wearing? Well, I was actually stationed on an Air Force base. So yes, it was a five-star hotel. Oh, yeah, for sure. They know how to do it. They know what they're doing. They know how to make those things happen.

Are you wearing a uniform? Yes. Okay. Every day. Driving down to Rioad every day. And then you're interacting with their squadrons of Apaches? Correct. Correct.

with their equivalent counterparts. One interesting fact was, so Osama bin Laden was from, to bring this whole thing full circle. He was from Riyadh from Saudi Arabia. I think 18 or 19 of the 20 plus 9-11 attackers were from Saudi. Keep that in mind.

And so the bin Laden family is a construction family. And then there's also a piece of them that funge terror. So keep in mind, when I was in Saudi Arabia is when we killed bin Laden. So I was driving downtown to work with Saudi escorts

And we were armed every single day going into work Because again, I mean you don't know who wants to do harm to to To American soldiers and this was also me it was a diplomatic job But also every day we drove in with with Saudi escorts Just keep that in mind So when the Laden was killed we didn't go to work for two weeks We stay on the base they shut it down just threat levels too high Threat level was way too high

threat level was too high what sympathizers are even within the Royal Saudi land forces that viewed bin Laden as kind of their hero and I know we're working together here but keep in mind there are a lot of people that don't view us the same way

even though they're wearing the Saudi uniform and we know where the 9-11 attackers came from for two weeks of threat was too high we didn't go to work so keep in mind this is what people have to understand about the world there are people that want to see the end of us just by virtue of us being Americans, even some of our allies.

We have to be vigilant and understand that everybody doesn't want to sing Kumbaya. Everybody doesn't come from America and everybody doesn't have this Judeo-Christian background that believes in the greater good. That's not how a lot of countries work. Keep in mind when I was in Saudi, they were still doing public be-handings and beheadings. Women were not allowed to drive when I was there.

They are now finally, women were not allowed to operate a motor vehicle. like this is happening in the world and so that perspective that I have and living in another place and living in the Middle East for a long period of time is what gives me

the ultimate appreciation for what we have right now and if anybody asks me why I am a conservative a big part of that is not just because of my parents where I grew up I've seen the world

we have it pretty good we have champagne problems in this country you people don't understand. Like, you really don't get it. Yeah, and there's, there's,

the cultural differences are very, very difficult for people to understand. And how dramatic they are. Yes. You know, like you said, be handing, you kind of threw that word out there, like everybody knows what be handing means. Oh, yeah.

Like, oh, you stole something, we're cutting your hand off. In the discussion. Yeah. Oh, you cheated on your, you know, husband or wife. okay, you're going to be stoned to death. You're dead.

Yeah, these are different cultures, very, very different. And one of the mistakes that we make as Americans is we think we can just, we think if they look at our culture, they go, oh, cool, that's what we want to do. And it just doesn't work that way. It just doesn't work that way. If you're going to change a culture, it takes generations, generations of persistent effort to change a culture. You know, like generations, three, four, five generations before someone goes, oh, yeah, I guess we're going to start to shift. Yes.

But, you know, they've lived the way that they've lived for thousands of years. And you can't change that in five years, in 10 years, in 15 years. It takes generations to make those changes. And by the way, you might not be successful, by the way. You probably won't be. And there's a very, you know, there's a high likelihood you won't be successful. So understanding that from the get-go is very, very important. and we seem to fantasize that, or I shouldn't say we, but yes, we.

America, many people in America fantasize that we can change the world, and we can change people's cultures and we can change the way that they think. And that's not a, that's not a, it's an arrogant attitude to have. It is. It really is. And it's cost us dearly in, you know, throughout history. It costs us a lot of money and a lot of lives. Yep.

Yep. You mentioned that you were doing these billets because you were going to get out. Yes. What made you make the decision that you were going to move on from the Army? So, you know, my sister obviously made a career out of it. My dad did 20 plus years. But I was in a place to where, especially I think after the early deployments, I mean, you graduate. You know, my sister, it was, really, that was funny.

My sister was 10 years older than me, graduated at West Point, 1993, and I beat her to Baghdad. Because she entered a time of peace. So, you know, she spent a couple of tours in Korea. It kind of bounced around a little bit. from West Point Flight School, Baghdad. And I wanted to have a family and I kind of wanted to see what else was out there. And I realized that shortly after that first deployment,

I realized, you know, I'm going to do my job. I'm going to serve what my time to the best of my ability. But I'm going to go do something else. Also, brother, I always wanted to be a politician in some capacity. I didn't know how or where or when I was going to get there. But I've always had a political bug. And I've realized that unless you want to be a general,

because no shade on generals, but, you know, they could get pretty political, actually, to become a, you know, a general means you're playing a political game. You have to play some games. You got to play some games. And I wasn't, I didn't want to do that within a confines of the military because I don't like that. But if I'm going to be a politician, you have to get out, go back home, go get some more education, go figure a life out, and then see what opportunities present themselves. Now, as you look at the political landscape and you see the number one, a lot of people that are in the political landscape, but number two, You see the bad people that are in there and you go, this is my perspective. I'd say, well, I see a bunch of people that seem like disgusting human beings in the political world.

Yes. And then when I see good human beings in the world in the political world and I see how they get treated, how they get ripped apart, what part of your freaking mindset? Oh, that sounds like a good deal. Let's go, let's go sign up for that gig. This goes back to, this goes back to if not me, then who? And this is the problem that we have in politics is that a lot of good guys don't get in it for that very reason.

And so at some point you've got to be kind of the beacon of light to others to say, come on in, the water is warm. We need more people like you. We need more veterans. We need more younger people because our system is way too old. Brother, I'm 20 years, basically 20 years

below the average age of Congress. And that's a damn shame. So you have to keep in mind, laws are being made by people. Don't these people want to retire? Don't want to go? I don't get that. I know.

If I see those numbers, you talk about term limits. These people have 30, 40 years in there. It's ridiculous. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. So keep in mind, if you're 70, 80 years old, you're making laws, but let's be real here. I mean, look, we all die. This is what happens.

It's called life. But you're making laws that you're not going to be here for. So you don't give a damn about the laws you make. When you have a 40-year-old that's making laws, oh, no, no, I care. Because I'm going to be around here in 10. 20 years and my children are going to be around in the next 10 20 years. So I am fully invested in every vote that I take because I'm going to be around to see it come through fruition. So whenever you have a lot of older guys that aren't bought in like a lot of military guys

as well that have kind of been very self-serving in the political spectrum, guys like me come around and we tend to rub people the wrong way and I'm here for it. Was there anybody any specific because you said you wanted to be a politician? Yes. Was there any politicians? Was there any politicians? that you looked at when you were growing up or at any point in your life you said that's a good role model. I like what that person does like to follow in their footsteps.

You know, there were... By the way, I got to ask that question the other day. I drew a blank. I was like, no, I got nothing for you. And you know what? I did eventually think of later if I had to state someone at Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who was the governor of Maine. Yeah. But, you know, he was the hero of the Battle of Gettysburg. And not just the hero of Battles Gettieburg. I mean, he was a heroic guy

that freaking went back into combat with a leather colostomy bag after the guy's freaking guts blown out. He's just a weird badass, right? And just such an eloquent guy. So that if somebody asked me about, next time I get asked a question, who's a politician that you admire?

I'm going to say Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. So you can steal that answer or if you got someone, because maybe you do. Maybe you got someone, okay. I do. So for me, it's, when I'm not necessarily,

he was an abolitionist, not necessarily politician, it's Frederick Douglass. And what he was, able to do during slavery during that time period and how he was able to get this country, not as an elected official per se, but the influence that he had amongst political powers was something that I realized I wanted to be a part of. And I always tell the story, too, about my family history. My great-great-grandfather was born on a plantation. He was born on

Rosedown Plantations, about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Look up Rose-Down Plantation that still exists today. So you have a guy who is me. who is the great-great-grandson of a slave, literally. And not just me, but my brother, sister, and I all went to West Point. I'm matriculated through West Point. Lived in Robert Lee Barracks that we talked about earlier.

I lived in Robert Lee Barracks. And I was a guy that lived in Robert Lee Barracks was like, wow, this is one hell of a country that not just me, my brother and sister, we've been black for our entire lives, matriculated through West Point, and I'm living in Robert Lee Barracks,

and at no point where we're a victim, this is one hell of a country. And then I then go on to become a congressman for a white majority district that Trump would have won by 20 plus points. And I won by 27 points. The great, great grandson of a slave. That is the progress of the greatest nation in the world. Don't let anybody tell you anything different. And so when I go back to thinking about Frederick Douglass and his famous saying,

if there is no struggle, there is no progress, we have to live through the struggles. and that's applicable in everything in life. You have to struggle. You have to hurt. It has to suck in order for there to be progress. And we live in the world right now of instant gratification. Everybody wants it right now. People have to keep in mind.

There are people that died for us to be sitting here right now. And there are people that went through a lot for us to be sitting here right now. And as a black man sitting here with the white man having this conversation, do you know that my great, great grandfather would never have the honor pillages of sitting in a seat just like this. And I soak it up and I love every second of it. Because at the end of the day, we are the progress

of this great nation. That is the influence that Frederick Douglass had, I think, during that time period. And I want to make a very similar difference. So what did that path look like? So you decide you're going to go into politics? Correct.

And were you in the Army? Or did you... I was out. I was out. I got out the Army. I went to grad school. Went to grad school. Got to grad school, moved back home. You did four. You get 17 master's three. Were you still single at that time? I was still single.

Because I was going to say, no woman would have allowed you to take three classes at a time. Still single. Yeah. Still single. I did an NBA, a master of public administration, and a master's of industrial and labor relations at Cornell. I had a great education, great school, had a really good time there. But here's the funny thing. It's very liberal.

As you know, Ithaca, New York is very liberal. So either you go to a school like that, you come out liberal or you come out as conservative as you could ever imagine. Because you realize more conservative. I went off the reservation. Like I left there and realized. I left Cornell the most conservative I've ever been in my entire life because I realized that I understand the liberal mind. I understand that they live in the world of sugar plum fairies and everlasting gobstoppers and Willie Walker's Chocolate Factory. I mean, they live in this fake world that oftentimes can seem to be well-intentioned,

but that's not the realities of the world. So it's able to learn and see kind of how people think and then realize that, okay, how do I apply some of those adages to real life that I know that I've experienced that I can see? And then how can I then be a vessel to help educate people in a far better way, especially given the conservative leanings that I have? And that's what Cornell did for me. So you're sitting in classes all day long. Did you become a master of debating, you know, other people?

And what, what approach was most effective? Because, you know, I'm a huge proponent of the indirect approach, right? This is B.H. L.D.H.L. Hart. This is, you know, when I go into combat, I don't want to attack you, you know, on your front. I want to come from the flank and, you know, not face your defenses. I want to sneak in. Hammer anvil, yeah. And I find that a lot of times

when I see people debating politically, they just go, you know, straight at someone. Did you do that? Did you have any success with that? Did you find it was better to like have conversations and find out what the common ground was and say, well, you know, oh yeah,

you want health care for people? I want health care for people. Look, how do you think we should do it? We'll give it to them for free. Okay, well, where are we going to get? How are you going to pay for that? Yeah, how are you paid for that? Yeah.

How are you paid for that? Did you, like, what, What approach you? How was it dealing with these people? So you have to keep in mind, too, the liberal mind sees someone like me. And until you know who I am and until you've had a discussion with me or until you've talked to me, you have to keep in mind that the assumption for most liberals is that I'm black. Therefore, I must be a Democrat.

And I must be liberal. And that sir was my advantage. That was always my advantage. Because you're going to start opening your mouth and making assumptions about me what asking you without asking about my background and where I came from it, what my dad did. And I spent a lot of time to Baptist Church two times a week and that

don't get it twisted. I might be black, but brother, I'm as conservative as it gets. So they open their mouths. You know who Brian Babbin is? I do know Brian Babbin is. I do know Brian Babbin. Well, his, you know, so... His son. Yeah, his son, Leif. Yes. And Leif got asked when Brian Babbin won, you know, his election and became a representative down in Texas,

someone asked Laif, you know, hey, do you think that your dad has become more centrist now that he's won the election? And Leif looked at him and said, my dad's a Southern Baptist deacon. That's who he is. There's no, like, that's who he is.

That's, you know, that's the guy that's who they elected and that's who he is as a person. Yeah, so, yeah, similar, right? Very similar. And Brian Bab is such a nice guy. Oh, for sure. He's the nicest guy in the world is,

but he is conservative. And so, and also, brother, You got to lead with humor. You got to have a good time. And don't take yourself so seriously. And understanding that a lot of people, they have a benevolent mindset. But at the end of the day, they haven't had the kind of experiences that we've had. They haven't struggled.

They haven't been shot at. They're just trying to figure out how to live a better life without having those very hardcore experiences. So I oftentimes will just let them talk for a little while. And then ultimately, I just drop the hammer. just like, drop the hammer on them. They're like, okay, yeah, like, now, never mind. Now today, sir, I don't have that advantage anymore.

Everyone pretty knows where I lean, where I lean these days. But here's the best part, and I say it's to everybody. I wish everybody could run for office. I wish everyone could be a politician, and here's why. You find out who your friends are. You find out who respects you for who you are, not necessarily your political leanings. You find out who you're,

friends are. You find out who would have conversations with you, not based on how they thought you should be in their mind, but who you really are as a human being and who you have always been. And so what I found out very quickly is I've lost family members and I've lost friends. Thank God, as you would say, good. I don't need you in my life anyway. You are a waste of time and a waste of space. You're nothing but a flesh covered doormat as far as I'm concerned at this point don't need you. That's a very good thing. My circle has gotten so small now it's like a dot.

And the people that I now have that I rely on are my closest friends and my closest confidants and everybody else that jettisoned me because you don't like my political stances or you never respected me anyway. And I always knew you were a flaming liberal, but I respected you and we were friends. That's so crazy. It's crazy. You know, I grew up. My dad was a very conservative guy.

Shocker. Yeah. And, well, I mean, actually, I grew up in New England, right? I grew up in Connecticut. Like, oh, yeah. It is a little bit of a shocker. I get you. And, but, like, I remember when I was a kid, you know, we had probably four or five families that were all the big friend group.

You know, all the parents were friends. And various political leanings in there. But I remember, you know, my dad had a guy, a guy that I grew up with, a guy that I looked at, you know, was like, like an uncle, you know, like one of those guys. and this guy was far left. And my dad and him would sit at the dinner table when we'd have dinner. And they'd argue all night long. It'd be great.

All night long. Yes. And they're still friends to this day. A very, you know, conservative guy with a very liberal guy. Arguing all night long about everything in politics, you know, through the 70s, 80s. While I was there, I would watch them argue

and I'd leave because I didn't care because I was a little 13-year-old. I'm going to go throw stuff, throw rocks at trees around. But, But it's like it's sad when I hear you say that someone because of, they're friends with you. Yes. They're friends with you. And then they, then they see what your political stance is and they decide they're not going to be friends with you anymore. Unbelievable.

That to me is crazy. It sucks. It sucks. It's sad. And I'm the first to admit that. I remember I never forget. I had a friend of mine. And we were dear friends for a very long time, family friends even.

And I'll never forget. I mean, we would hang out. We were, gosh, we were very, very close. And then out of the blue, she sends me this text message out of the blue. We hadn't spoken in a while and I can kind of tell why, but I didn't really care. I still felt like we were still friends. Out of the blue, I get this text message. That's the most demeaning thing I've ever gotten in my entire life.

And I was like, who the hell do you think you are? Or you can pick up the phone. We can have a conversation, but you won't even respect me enough to do that. And so that's the last time we ever spoke. I haven't ever speak to her again because I realized that you never respected me for who I was before. And so for me, I look at it as I view myself as a very tolerant person. I have absolutely no problem with you being a flaming liberal. In fact, we could be great friends.

What I find out from the other side is that they are the ones that are the most rejecting of anything that doesn't fit their paradigm. Damn this thing. So you get done with college running for, do you get a job? What did you do? Yeah, yes, I got out of school, did some real estate stuff, worked for a home builder. And then there was a district in Texas and Houston that opened up. So it was a long-term, long-time conservative, been a red seat, George H.W. Bush's old seat in Houston, Texas.

The congressional district seven. It flipped blue in 2018. And I was living at home in Houston. And I was like, with this 20-year incumbent loses, I will never forget looking at my wife and being like, so if this guy loses, honey, I think we're going to be running for. Congress against the Democrat because I think we could have a good shot at winning. And so, lo and behold, that night, he lost. And I remember looking at my wife and being like, well, here we go. I didn't think my first swore away in the politics was going to be the United States Congress.

I thought it was going to be, you know, maybe state rep, state senator, you know, county commission or something like that. PTA president. PTA president. How did your wife feel about this? My wife is a beautiful Iowen who is supportive of me no matter what. My wife is a pediatric nurse practitioner. She has a doctorate in nursing.

She is a caregiver and she literally said, I'm not ever going to allow you to settle. I'm not ever going to allow you to settle is what she told me. And since then she has had my back and been by my side throughout this entire journey the entire time. I have a six, four and two-year-old at home. And you could imagine, you know, it gets kind of busy. when I'm on 130 flights last year, 132 flights last year. Brother, I refuse to spend a weekend or spend any time longer in D.C. than I absolutely have to. I'm the last one in. I'm the first one in. I'm the first one out. And here's why I say that.

Because I want to be spent as much time in my district as I possibly can. I have a young family. I want them to know who their father is. So I'm going to be there for the critical stuff. But keep in mind, my priority is my district. And it is my family. And it is my country number one, first and foremost, God country is very real to me, but family is very important too. I think God smiles on those that are there for their families as well. And so the idea of me being on a flight every weekend, never spending a weekend in D.C. And knowing that on Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays of most weeks of every week, it's just my wife and those three kids. That's a lot, especially two-year-old boy.

He's a menace. But the fact that she is very supportive, stands by me, allows me to do this, allows me to serve. allows me to spend time away from the family and it's still 100% bought in it wouldn't work any other way. So you Roger up to say you're gonna run for that seventh district. And how'd that work out?

I lost. Did you, when you say, yep, I'm running, what's the swarm of both praise and attacks that you get? Because some people look, you can go, great, we got a veteran here, conservative, we got a good candidate here, let's run him. They're happy.

And then the other side looks and you go, I mean, are they get private investigators out there digging through your dirt? Of course, you know it. Looking through your trash, looking to what you're throwing away. Thank God. I mean, thank God I lived a pretty clean life, you know. For the most part. They had to go back to six grades to where you gave a guy or you didn't give a guy a bloody knows.

That's your biggest crime. You're in a pretty good spot. You know, we're not perfect, obviously, but I lived a pretty clean life. I will say that. And I will also say that you're right. They come for you. You didn't realize, you don't realize until you actually put your name on that ballot. That's why a lot of people that criticize me

are saying anything about it. I just kind of laugh and I'll be like, put your name on the ballot and see what happens, but you won't ever do that because you'd rather sit behind your keyboard and talk a lot of trash, but you're not going to put your name on the ballot. I have the guts to put my name on the ballot.

So that says a lot. And by the way, that says a lot for any Democrat or Republican. And so got a lot of heat, as you could imagine from the other side, but ended up getting through the primary without a runoff the first time I ran and then ended up losing that race by three points.

It's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, was losing. And this is what I mean by Frederick Douglass. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Because when you get challenged and you lose, you have to realize how bad do I want this? Do I want to go through this again? Am I going to run again? When I lost, it made me a better father.

It made me a better human being. It made me a more humbled person. It made me a better husband. It made me a far better politician. because I looked at everything that we did wrong and then I made it right. Lo and behold, as God would have it, two years later,

we get two new congressional seats in the state of Texas. It's redistricting. Keep in mind, when the first time I ran, I had no idea what the hell redistricting was because I burnt the boats,

brother. I'm running for Congress and hell or high water. I'm winning and the original backup plan because I don't believe in backup plans. The only backup plan I have is getting up. That's it.

That's the only backup plan. So I burned the boats and I was all in and I lost and I remember being completely rejected. Did it take you by surprise or were the polls shown that you might lose? I didn't care about polls I'm going to win. You thought you're going to win?

Poles. No factor. I'm not losing. I'm running. I'm not losing. Worked my ass off. Raise the most money that cycle of any other politician

in the entire cycle. Ran hard, worked hard. Kemp, sure. Two years later, a new district gets drawn in the greater Houston area and it just so happens that the precincts

that I won in the previous election, found them, found their way to this new congressional seat in Houston, Texas, which I ended up running for and winning very handedly. If God would have told me, Wesley is going to take you four years to get here, and not two, I would have never done it. So talk about thank God for unanswered prayers.

God doesn't reveal things to you when you want to, is when you need it. Because if I would have known, I would have had to lose and run again, but I'd have never done it. Because I got to make money and I just got married and I got a young family and I would have made all the excuses as to why I couldn't do what my destiny and what my will was to do. But in working my butt off and losing, I realized that I built a brand and built something that two years later will come to fruition. And that is something that I tell to my children and young people all the time. Losing sometimes is the best thing that could ever happen to you.

Getting kicked in the teeth sometimes is the best thing that ever happened to you. because either you're going to get up or you're not. And that's the test of a man or a woman is what you do after you get kicked in the teeth. When you're putting together that team, how big is the team that's helping you run? So he said this was really interesting in learning. See, the first time I ran, it was a very robust team with a lot of consultants and a lot of people's hands in the cookie jar. And the second time I ran, there wasn't very many hands in the cookie jar. I found three very competent people.

One of them is sitting right here in the back corner right now who are friends, who are loyal, who work their asses off every single day, who get up and they don't work for another client or they don't work for other people. They work for us in this brand and we're in this boat together. And I've known this man for almost 20 years. I bring in a young guy to be my chief of staff and run the campaign that is just relentless in everything that he does. And keep in mind, talent is very hard to find in D.C. Good talent is very hard at D.C. Because the grift is real. People sit around and do nothing and get a paycheck.

But you find two or three people that are all in, that are bought in, they get up every day, ready to fight for you and your brand. And these two men love this country and they love this brand. And they get up with a fire under their ass like you wouldn't believe every single day. Well, then you could move mountains. It really is. But the first time you had a bunch of people. They wanted money.

They were collecting a paycheck. They were consultions, and fundraisers and this. And then the amount of money that gets spent and wasted and the amount of money that literally is like, it costs that much to make an ad. What? It costs that much to make,

it costs that much to shoot a commercial? I mean, I have a guy on my team and a few guys on my team. Matthew Topolski is a guy that can pop in a Zen. Popping a Zen. Have a bourbon and put together an ad that's better than any consulting firm could do, and he's one person. Because he's motivating me wants to get it done.

It's kind of like you. I see, you're on a lean operation. Oh, yeah. Well, when you have competent people, you can run a lean operation. Chuck. Little Zen for Echo Charles. Little Zen, we're in. So you win.

You win. What's it like going to? to D.C. for the first time to get sworn in and whatnot. It's an honor of a lifetime. It's an honor of a lifetime to represent almost a million people from my hometown that I grew up in.

Keep in mind, my district spans about an hour from the north, from the northern end to the most southern tip of it. The most southern tip of it is where I went to high school, literally. My high school border is the southern border where my parents grew up where I grew up in spring, Texas. That's the northern border basically of the district. So I have the honor

of representing my hometown, the halls of Congress. And what an honor to walk past where Abraham Lincoln set when he was in Congress every day. What an honor to think about the lineage and the history of this country and our founding fathers and to be a part of the lawmaking process. What an honor to be able to voice my opinions and voicing opinions of the district in front of God and country every single day. Like, like, there is no greater honor than that that for people to vote for you

and put you in office to represent them in what is the greatest constitutional republic that's ever existed. Like, that is an honor in spite of our flaws. Keep in mind, too, I had one hell of a freshman run, too, because I was the first person in the country when President Trump ran a second time to endorse him. So keep in mind, that was before it was cool.

So you want to talk about intestinal fortitude and taking some hits here. I mean, this was the rise of Ronda Sanders and Nikki Haley. And I was the person that said, nope, he walked up. President Trump walked off that stage. I was the first person in the country to endorse him. And I stood by him. And I stood by that endorsement, which ended up being a really good bet on my part. So my freshman year of Congress, I'm flying around on Trump Force One with the president.

I'm campaigning with him in Iowa multiple times. He came to my wife's hometown. He came to Houston multiple times. I am campaigning who is now the president of the free world. Just this past December, he invited me to the Army Navy game. And I'm sitting there singing the national anthem, 20 years removed from when I was on that field, 20 years to the year. And I'm looking at JD Vance, me and the president. And I'm singing the national anthem.

And I always, I mean, I'm always fighting back tears. I mean, this is absolutely insanity. And then after that, we're seeing an accident. National Anthrop, President Trump turns to me and he goes, Wesley, what are you doing for the rest of the day? I said, well, Mr. President, I was just going to go back home. He goes, do you want to fly back to Marlago with me in Elon? And I'm like, yeah. Let me check my schedule.

Yeah, you're right. Like, of course. And I'm sitting, so after the game is over, getting the motorcade, get back on his plane because at the time of Air Force, when he was using Air Force one because he was just a candidate. At the time, who just won, he just won the election. And I'm sitting on the plane sitting across from President Trump where you are right now, and Elon Musk is sitting right here, and the most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world. And the only thing I could think about was,

I am literally living the dream of my ancestors. I don't care how you feel about politics. This is quite a ride that I have been on. And this is America. Here's the best part about this whole story, brother. the only flight out of Florida, Fort Lauderdale, at 11 o'clock at night, after a full day of going to the Army, to the Army Navy game, spending the full day with the president,

and then landing back in Marlago, trying to find a flight of Fort Lauderdale to get my butt back home to Houston that same day. The only airline available was Spirit Airlines. Get some. Get some. That's right. I go from Trump Force. one.

Two Spirit Airlines. I'm in a three-piece suit. I'm in an overcoat. I have pictures of me and the president that he signed on his plane, two MAGA hats that he signed on his plane with him. I just got off sitting next to the plane sitting next to Elon Musk

and President Trump. And then here I am amongst the people. And I realize that this is the dichotomy of life. And by the way, no experience was better or worse, they're just different. And then sitting on Spirit Airline flying back

and people are like, why are you dressed up so nice? And where did you come from? I was like, do you want to hear a really wild story? They're wondering if you're on the wrong. Right, right. I was at the Army Navy game too. You were there. I saw you guys.

I saw you guys. I mean, everyone's on you, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, oh, damn, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. We got to go this year. Yeah, yeah. Oh, next time you go, dude.

I'm going, I go with the Travis Manion Foundation. Oh, great. Yeah, so it's pretty awesome. And we do the whole tailgate thing, and we get jocco fuel out there. And, yeah, it's awesome. What a proud tradition that is. And I, at halftime, I go down and I, like, I see the midshipment, and then I go see the cadets. I like go, and it's freaking nuts, man.

It's totally nuts, dude. Because, like, I mean, I love the Army and I love the Marine Corps. I love the Navy, obviously. And, you know, those, there's. they know about me, right? They teach stuff. Of course. So when I show up there, it's freaking, it's epic.

It's just such an awesome experience. Seeing all the cadets, seeing all the midshipmen. Yeah, I love you. Everyone's, you know, who do you think's going to win? I'm like, America's going to win. America wins that game. Yeah, America wins every time. America wins that game.

So we got our butts kick pretty bad that game. But that's always why I tell people, too, is like, I had no idea what the score was. Nor did I care. It's like, this is, this is, you know, what the saying is, It's the only game that's played that everybody on the field is willing to die for everybody watching. And that means a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

So you show up there. Like, what is it like when you're showing up now you're a congressman? You're elected. You're in. You're getting sworn in. How's that feel? So you have to keep in mind, too. I mean, it's like, this is the Capitol.

I mean, this is D.C. This is my office is in Longworth. It's like, you know, it's like a three-minute walk away from the Capitol. Like, it's really funny, too. You think about all the movies, you know, growing up that you would watch this, you'd see on TV, and you look at all the people that played all these political figures. Now you're one of them. And I'm like, one of them. It's like, it's like House of Cards.

You know, everybody got into House of Cards. And it's not like House of Cards. Not nearly as salacious as everyone thinks it is. But it's the idea that people have been making movies about the experience that I am having right now. I remember watching Eddie Murphy and the Distinguished Gentleman. And I'm like, yo, like, I'm the Distinguished Gentleman now. This is crazy. And this is just the beginning of my political career starts here in the halls of the United States Congress.

You know, like this is a story. This is the American story. This is the American dream. This is the quintessential definition of the American spirit fire. And so even on days that aren't as great, even though on days that are kind of mundane that are kind of rough, I don't necessarily want to be up there certain times as you could probably imagine when one of my staffers picks me up

and drives me to Capitol Hill every single day takes us down the street and you could see the Capitol Dome peek through the trees. And every day I tap on a shoulder and I said we have the honor of pillars of working in that building. Still to this day, we get to work here. We have the honor of working here.

Don't ever forget that. And keep in mind, there's only 435 of us that exist on the planet. It's an honor that's been bestowed upon us by we the people. Don't ever take it for granted. And keep in mind, we work for we the people, not the other way around. So you're looking at America now. Actually, before I ask you that question, what's Trump like when you're hanging out with

him? He's a stand-up comedian. He is. The kindest guy, you know, generosity and kindness is, is what. what comes to mind when I think about my personal interactions with President Trump. A lot of people, they see what's on TV and they see what the media says. But it's until you're around him when you realize that, no, this is a man that really loves this country and is trying to operate in the best interest of the country.

End of discussion. The fact of the matter is, is that I'll never forget I walked on this plane in Amher. He was like, I walk in his like, hey, Wesley, go fly in the front. Go take this thing off, right? I'm sitting in the cockpit of his plane. It's just like, nicest guy in the world. Of course, there's McDonald's, quarter pounded with cheeses, pizza, water burger, in and out.

It's just, it's because all junk food. He looks at me, he goes, Wesley, you're not going to eat that already. I said, Mr. President, for you. I absolutely am going to eat every last bit of this. This is my cheat day with you. But my favorite story about President Trump was we were campaigning in Iowa, where my wife is from, and we went to the Iowa. State Fair and I had my kiddos with me

and my oldest daughter loves President Trump and I really wanted her to meet him and she wanted to meet him as well. And you could imagine flying in on Trump Force One ascending on to the Iowa State Fair and it's like he's a rock star. It is like the Beatles coming

through time to me. Everybody just, hundreds of people just started running. And so he's in full Trump mode shaking hands you know, flipping, you know, going through the flipping burgers and the pork chops this and that and above, just doing his thing, just making his rounds around the Iowa State Fair. And finally, there was a break in service. There was a break where he was kind of standing there, getting ready to go to his next destination. And I tap him on

his shoulder. I said, hey, Mr. President, real quick, my daughter is here. He wants to meet you. He goes, okay, well, where is she? And she's right down there because she's five years old. And he looked down, he goes, his shoulders, his disposition, everything changed. Scoops up my daughter, gives her a hug and says, I'm fighting for you. I'm fighting for you. and so was your daddy and we're going to make sure you have a better future. You're beautiful.

Got a picture and set it down and then he went right back to Trump mode. It was like it was like a machine. But in that moment is when you realize this man's a father. This man's a grandfather. This man is a human being who is trying to operate

in the best interest of the country that made him and his family what he is today and it only happens in America. And when you see these moments that I've got to experience with President Trump one-on-one, it's something that you realize, yeah, we've got to follow this guy. In spite of what other people might say, in spite of all the noise and all the garbage, yeah, this is definitely the guy. And it made it very easy

for me to do that, especially after having those experiences. I was flipping channels between like MSNBC and Fox one time. And it literally is like two different worlds. Yes, it is. The way that, you know, Trump gets portrayed. Yes. When you're, when you're, when you see kind of

the way he's been, the way he gets treated, what's your, is it like a disgust? Is it just like, oh, this is just the political, the way the world works? It's a combination of both. And it is the way the world works, unfortunately. And it is the way politics works. That's why it's a very dirty game.

But it also takes very skilled practitioners to be able to be a bridge to those that are willing to want a bridge for those that are willing to actually hear both sides of the story. And that's what I try to do. Now, everyone knows that I'm in full support of President Trump. But there's also a certain level of complexity that I try to approach this job with. It's not just because I'm MAGA and I like Trump, which I am those things. It's also because here's what makes sense and here's what's in the best interest of this country. One example, I have daughters. You have daughters.

We're grown-ass men. Men shouldn't be competing. Biological men shouldn't be competing against biological women. This is a sanity check. It's very easy. This is not even a conversation. How are we even debating this right now? Unbelievable.

What does President Trump do on day one or one of his first executive orders? I'm in the White House and he is signing an executive order to not allow biological men to compete against biological women. Therefore, we are protecting our baby girls that you and I would die for and kill for. Our baby girls. End of discussion. And so when I look at a man that's willing to do that on day one and take all the heat, all the garbage from the left,

well, you're not sensitive to the trans movie. You're like, no, no, no, no, no. We are playing these games. That's just the right thing to do because it's simply common sense. Joe Biden was present for four years. He did not defend my baby girl. he didn't do that.

A lot of these guys don't have the guts to do just what the right thing is in spite of what the woke mob and mafia might say. So that's just one minuscule example of a lot of examples that I can give of somebody that says, this is what is right, I'm going to take the heat,

let's go. Have you been, a lot of people, myself included, say, you know, if Trump wouldn't have lost in 2020. No. Good. You know, right?

Like, I mean, he looked at the world and said, okay, I see how it works now. And, you know, the first time around, you know, you were looking at some of the people he was bringing in and you saw, oh, well, that's an interesting choice. But the second time around, it's like, it kind of was on. Now I know where the bathrooms are. Yeah. And he walked in there, guns blazing. He prepared for the previous four years for the second going around.

This goes back to me talking about why it's in. important to lose sometimes because when you lose you get to regroup and you get to come back stronger and better and badder and that's exactly what he did. I mean the first hundred days it was so funny trying to watch trying to watch liberals keep up. I mean

hell bro, I was with you brother, I couldn't keep up I mean I'll go to work the next day and turn around Foxville so what are we doing today? It was just he kept he's moving he's going he's moving he's going you look at the tariff war the tariff war by the way this is this is not a tariff war

that President Trump started. We've been in a tariff war for decades. We've just been getting ripped off in this war. And then we would then turn to foreign countries like China and India and say, yes, please, may I have another. And then now we have a leader that says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're going to pay for this.

You're going to pay to use what is the strongest economic force in the world. And that's the American consumer. You're going to pay for this. So we've always been at war. now we just have a war fighter that's one to actually do something about it and now how is that turning out for us later? It's working out pretty good

for us if you ask me so imagine if he had lost or if he had won the second time he wouldn't have cleaned house the way that he did because he would have done the same thing that got him there that had a saying what gets you here

is not necessarily what's going to get you there but if you don't change and if you don't learn then you're never going to get there. So we're seeing, you know, obviously Trump making moves, making progress, moving the things the way he wants. And what, what, what, what, I guess two part question, you know, what, what do you think the threats to America are right now?

And then what do you think the strength of America that's going to help us overcome these threats? So the greatest threat to us, to me, is our deficit. And the fact of the matter is for 36 trillion dollars. in debt we're running a $2 trillion annual deficit. That's unbelievable and it's not sustainable. And China. Those are the greatest existential threats to me, in my opinion, to the country and the

future of our babies. And that's what I try to fight against every single day. And our President Trump is on the right path here. We have to grow our way out of it. We have to have exponential growth because we can no longer cut our way out of the spending rut that we put ourselves in. Hence the reason why we have the tariffs. because we have to cut our economy loose.

We need to make sure that we have exponential growth. We need to make sure that people are poning up and paying their fair share if they're going to use the American consumer because the only way to get us out of this $2 trillion annual deficit is to both cut government bloat, which is what he's trying to do, and on top of that, grow our way out of it. He understands this. And by the way, we can have exponential growth

if we are willing to make some difficult decisions now that's going to benefit our future. And then, of course, there's the juggernaut. That is China and what they are trying to do in stealing our intellectual property. And building up their military, if we're not paying attention with, be very careful with this. They are building their forces faster than we are building ours. Space Force that got made fun of when President started it. We're talking about what's going to happen in the future of war fighting.

Space Force is going to be a very serious, but it's going to play a very serious role in how that looks moving forward. So if President Trump has done some things to set us up for the future, we're in the right track. Now we have to continue to grow and build on it. It's going to take leaders like me and many others of my vintage to ensure that we codify this year in and year out because we're at the point to where we cannot go back. Do you lose sleep at night thinking if we go back in the wrong direction? Of course I do. What's going to happen? Of course I do.

Of course I do. Because we have babies. I have babies. And I know that my life on this earth is finite. We're not going to be here forever. And so the greatest asset that we do have is our. our time and our babies. We have got to set up this country for the exact same exponential growth that we have seen in the last few generations and just in my family lineage.

It makes sure we have that same growth for them so they can have a more perfect union. We're never going to be perfect. We are all flawed. But if you look at this country and look at what we have and what our problems are, comparatively speaking, we're in a very good place. But if we don't fight for the values of this country every single generation that we're damned to lose them at some point. So this is why I love what President Trump is doing. We're fighting back. We're fighting back on the culture wars.

We're fighting back on Sydney Sweeney. And quite frankly, I thought she looked great in those American Eagle jeans from being honest with you. Well, I guess they couldn't get a hold of my wife to do that photo shoot. They use the next best thing. Of course they did. You are watching it. I understand mine too. They called mine second.

Emily was too busy with the kiddos. but, you know, the fact that we're even having these kinds of conversations, it's kind of tongue in cheek. But this is the kind of stuff that we're actually seriously fighting against. And then also, I will end with this, brother. I'll say this. Like, you know, the left is constantly trying to divide us along racial lines. And that to me is a regression to a dark past that the same people that are trying to talk about, how they are trying to further people of color.

and do this and that are the same people that demonize me to no end for being a black Republican. They don't respect my intellect. They don't respect my acumen. They look at me and look at the color of my skin and say, well, he needs to think a certain way and then if he's not, well, then that guy's an Uncle Tom.

And I'm like, Uncle Tom. I mean, how about a cousin once removed or something? Uncle is pretty tight. You know, that's really close to the root, you know, guys. But when I think about this country, and where I am right now and the life that we get to live

and the homogenous melting pot that we have as a country and as a union, this is as good as it gets. My dad would always tell me, son, I grew up in the Jim Crow era. I had it difficult. You don't.

And what I don't want is I don't want liberals dividing this country based on that when we have come so far. Yeah. You know, if you sit there and look at the problems all the time

and you focus on the problems all the time, you give the problems life. Right. I mean, they become your problems. And like you said, if you're looking to the future and looking at where you can go and look at the solutions, those solutions become your life. And it certainly seems like it would be a lot better for all of us if we looked towards the future and towards the solutions instead of continually going back to the past, especially the negative parts of our past, which, you know, you certainly have. It's like I talked earlier about, you know, you lose your friends. Yeah.

And you remember them. You learn from it. But it makes you cherish what you have now. It should make you cherish what you have now. And it's the same thing with our country. Like, oh yeah, we can look at the past. We learn from it. But we shouldn't dwell there.

We should look to the future and where we can go and what we can do. Yes. It would be a beautiful thing if we could move that in that direction. Well, that's why I'm trying my best. This is what I try to get up and do every single day. And I'm the person that's willing to be the first person in the door. I'm willing to take the heat rounds. I'm fine with that.

I can take it. I can take it. But what I also find out is you should see the direct messages I get, the DMs I get of people, young people, that may not have the courage to be as, you know, as at the forefront of this battle as I am, but they say things like, hey, just want to let you know, sir, I got your back. Hey, I feel this way too. Thank you for being a voice for me. You have to ignore a lot of vitriol that you see on X, which is just, it's a cesspool. It's just, it's just a mess. That's not the reality, though. It's not. And so somebody needs examples. We all need role

models and that's what leadership is. It's stepping up and saying, you know what, I'm going to be a role model and it's going to be difficult sometimes that people are going to say some really mean things about you. But like, I mean, let's be real here. They ain't shooting that. They ain't shooting at you. Awesome. Plans for the future.

Keep doing what you're doing, I guess. Keep doing what I'm doing. And just staying mentally. aware of what's going on, keeping your head on the swivel and doing difficult things every single day just to keep you sharp. So I had a...

I had an instructor pilot. He said Wesley, he was the same guy. It was Lee Major. He goes, Wesley, you know, you got to kill something every day no matter how small just keep the edge. I mean, he would go outside. Go kill an ant. Just to just feel like, okay.

I got my killing today. I like this dude. Like, he's hilarious, right? And this kind of goes back to like, staying fit, staying, being, being an example, being a role model, and getting up every day. This is where fitness always comes to me to. Like, staying fit, staying physically fit is so important. It's my favorite saying is from Ronnie Coleman.

It's like, everybody wants to be your bodybuilder, but don't nobody want to lift no heavy ass way. Right? That's like my favorite, my favorite saying. We have a similar one in the SEAL teams. Yeah. Everybody wants to be a frogman on a sunny day. Because when it's sunny out, you're down in Coronado Beach and just go out for a run and it's beautiful, got your shirt off, getting a tan. A cold.

It's, but you fast forward nine hours and it's freezing cold and it's like, no one wants to be a frog man. So Ronnie Coleman got it right. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did. So that's kind of what the future is for me, man. And also just always keep in mind that the reason why we do this is for the country. It is for we the people. it is for my little babies at home.

It is for your little babies at home. It's for the greater good and furthering the will of the greatest nation in the world. I'm not saying that because it's a slogan. I'm saying that because I genuinely believe that. And it's been codified by the blood of many of my classmates that I knew and loved that are no longer with us. The second we start forgetting our why is when we go to hell in a hand basket. and that just can't happen because we can't afford it. No doubt.

Awesome stuff. Where can people find you? So you got Wesleyfortexas.com. You got Instagram. You're at Wesleyfor Texas. TwitterX and YouTube, your Wesley Hunt. TX. Facebook, Wesley Hunt.

That's where people can find you, follow you, listen to you, hear you, support you. Echo Charles, what question you got? Can you tell me about the sneaker caucus? Oh, man. Secret Caucus. So one of the, you know, the things are that everybody gets so wrapped around the axle and everything is so serious, especially right now and everything is very polarizing.

You know, the one thing that we could all agree on is that, you know, sneakers are cool. Yes. You know, it's just where it is. And I'm a big Jordan guy, you know, because I, you know, I grew up in 1981. You know, I always tell people, you know, I grew up in an era where cash money of records was taking over for the nine, nine and the 2000. You know, that's when I was in high school, right? So like in that era, we are talking about Jays and Jordans.

And every now and again, kind of cut through the mundane monotony of Congress, you know, to have a few, you know, young millennial guys that are like, hey, you know, we're going to spend a day every night again and we're going to wear some Jordans on the House floor. It kind of breaks things up a little bit. As though, levity, it's bipartisan.

Who doesn't like Jordans? I never forget what Michael Jordan said, Republicans buy sneakers too. Right? So, like, you know, they kind of add that little flavor to it. And also being a younger guy too, you know, one of the more younger guys in my caucus, it's something that's just fun that we were able to do. What else?

What else? How much of the campaign ad cost, the inflated cost that you're talking about? A campaign ad? Yeah, remember, you're like, hey, that much for a campaign at? Like, well, how much are we talking? We're talking about, in upwards of $50 to $100,000 for, and they're not good ads. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can tell you that not good ads, because turn a TV on and look at any typical ad,

that you see. It's a cookie cutter this politician sleeves sleeves rolled up here, makes sure it's a blue shirt with something superimposed in the background with their arms folding. You're saying I'm here to fight for America and it's the most

horrible thing you could ever, it's most inauthentic thing that you could ever imagine but they print money on this stuff. They print money on it. And then on top of that, then you get paid by doing the ad buy which is you get a cut of that and the ad buy is just scheduling the ads

these people you're giving away money that can actually go back into your coffers that could actually be invested back on TV furthering your brand and so my guys have mastered all the above and we'd handle everything in house

yeah that's the move right there that is the move you had my video guy over here echo was starting to think about maybe you need to start making political ads in 50K he's like 50 Right.

Because you're right. White, why you're short, man? Actually, really that it's what you, the point is what you said. It's like, because I see those political ads

and I'm like, bro, that would take me like 30 minutes to do the whole thing. You know, it's like it's just Photoshop and, you know,

some other stuff. Yeah, yeah. They have paid actors are in it. Then we even, they're not even showing the, they're not even showing the politician

of some of these ads. It's just paid actors saying it's a guy dressed up in a fireman suit like, well, vote for this guy. Because he's like, dude.

That's horrible So, you know, the first time I ran, I experienced that, the second time I ran, my buddy Matt said, you know what, Wesley, we're going to let Wesley Hunt be Wesley Hunt. We're going to let you be you. That's the move. That is it.

Authenticity, your authentic self. It's better that way. Hey, if you lose that way, you lose that way. If you win that way, you win that way, boom. How it should be. And that's why I'm left for President Trump, too. He is his authentic self. Yeah, you know, I look at it.

I used to look at fighters, like MMA fighters. And there would be some fighters that would protect their record. So they'd fight out very, very infrequently. And they'd have a really good record. But then there are other fighters that would just fight all the time. And they would have a winning record. And you kind of knew who they were. Right.

And when you see what Trump does, like, who is going to go and just do interviews? I mean, just open session interviews for hours. Like, I'll be like, oh, cool. I'll be like, you know, the White House. I follow the White House on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll see the, you know, President Trump takes questions.

And I've got a 10 minute drive. I go, I'll listen to it. No, he's on there for an hour and 10 minutes. Yes, he will be. It's not 10 minutes of him answering. It's an hour and 10 minutes of him answering questions. So he's a guy that's just in the ring all the time. And, you know, he'll say something that doesn't make sense or he'll, you know, quote

something wrong and they'll jump all over him. But it doesn't matter because he did, he said a hundred things. And he got 90 of them right, 96 of them right. people will jump on the floor that he got wrong, but everyone's like, hey dude, you know, like you talk for an hour. I don't care who you are. You talk for an hour. You're going to say something.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, I got that one wrong, but he's just in the ring all the time. And by the way, when you're in the ring all the time, you get good. You get better. You get really good. Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. What else, echo? No football questions?

Captain of the football team. Okay. Yeah. I was in high school, back in high school days. Did you play in college, too? I played a little bit at West Point. I played for the first two years at West Point. Then realized I had a, I had my football.

moment at West Point where we were playing Boston College. It was my sophomore year. And they had a running back Boston College. His name was Willie Green. And Willie Green was 6 foot 1, 230 pounds. He got drafted probably 30th, the first round. He was an animal. I ran a 4-4-40.

I mean, this dude, and he kicked our asses. I mean, it was a track meet. And I remember sitting on the sideline, and my neck was just breaking because it was just looking back. This guy was just running up down the football field. I looked at Willie Green, I was also running back, and I said, you know, I've always pride of myself and being a decent athlete, you know,

but at the end of the day, I come to Jesus here. I'm not Willie Green and I'm not going to the league. So it's time for me to focus on what I want to do which is fly Apatchies. You played running back? Yeah, I did. The whole time?

My whole life, my whole life. Running back from Pop Warner on up. And the important thing about sports and why my kids will also play sports is it's critical. sports are very important especially for young people to learn what it means to play on a team

what it means to understand difference between being hurt and being injured which one are you and they are very different things and it also teaches you the discipline of getting up and doing more than everybody else

has to do if you want to play this sport that's the kind of stuff that I see missing in this next generation and y'all are jiu jitzu guys too I mean young people learn that's the individual sport, which is another level, because now it's on you. Now it's mono-imano. It's you versus the other person, which is also a very important lesson to learn about

how to prepare yourself to fight the battles, not just in sports or not just in Jiu-Jitsu, but the battles of life that you've got to deal with every single day. Agree, especially football, where playing on a team, football, like, they have unique positions where the wide receiver, he can't just jump and play. You know, and the running, you know, like every once in a great while, you'll see a guy who can play two positions or both ways. But everyone's like, whoa, this is a big deal. Travis Hunter, right? Like, like, nobody's once in a generation guy.

Very uncommon. Yeah. So it's really like, hey, you got to do your job because, bro, it's not like this other guy can just jump in and fill your, you know, when you make a mistake, it, like, it affects everybody. It's just like, you know, the guys, we have a mission as an, as the Apache guys, and I can't do what they do and they can't do what I do. but we both have to do our jobs so everybody goes home safe. Yeah. You learn these very simple value,

very simple value, but you learn them in sports. Yeah, agree. Do your job. Do your job. Do your job. Good, Echo? It's all good.

Yeah, good to meet you. It's been a pleasure, brother. Good to be to you as well. Any other closing thoughts, man? Thank you for all you do. Thank you for your message. Good is something that we use in our house frequently.

I've showed my wife this a long time ago. I've been obsessed with it for a very long time. It's a mantra that we all need to adhere to. And your message is a very strong message. It's a very good message. And it's something that is positive. It's based for who you are. And it's something that we need to hear.

Something that our world needs to hear. And the fact that you are even willing to have somebody like me on, on your platform, it's an honor to be here. And thank you for your service and your continued service. what I think is the war on understanding what masculinity means, what it means to be a fighter

and what it means to be your best self and the best version of yourself and to become the best version of yourself ain't easy. It's not easy. But there is no alternative. You have to become that best person of yourself. Thank you for all you do.

Well, I appreciate it. And thanks for joining us, obviously. Thanks for your service to our great nation. Not only in the army, not only protecting those troops on the ground, and being there when they need them and scaring the enemy way out of minimum. But thanks for what you're doing now

as a member of Congress, putting yourself back in the line of fire. And I know that's what it's like. I see from the outside what you guys go through. And thanks for what you're doing to protect our way of life here in America. Thank you. My honor.

Thank you, brother. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, Congressman Wesley Hunt has left the building. Definitely awesome to sit down and hear his perspective, got a lot of interesting.

He's fired up from the got out of the vehicle. He's fired up. He brought me with him. Dude, you were fired up too. We're all fired up. 100%. Part of that is he's getting after it, right? Getting after it working out.

And I understand that you've confirmed a protocol for intra-workout scenarios. Yeah. So you're doing two workouts? Yeah, in a row. So this is when it counts. Yep. Okay. So, Jock Fuel, we got to hydrate.

and we got creatine. Right. It's seemingly like, you know, it's nothing new. Yeah, we already knew we had hydrogen. But anyway, if you time it, so here's my routine. Hydrate in the morning. It's just how. I drink a thing of water.

And then I go out on a little rock. Sometimes run. And then if I have, if time is kind of whatever, I'll do the lift right after. Okay. But sometimes. What do you mean if time is a little whatever? What does that even mean?

I know. Is that mean you have, don't have time? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, if I'm like, hey, I'm not, I don't want to, look, let's face it. Sometimes you get stuff to do right after that, you know, like today. But sometimes you don't. So I can be like, hey, I'll do the rock or whatever in the morning and then I'll work out in the afternoon. So I'm full energy so I can get the most out of each workout.

That's my routine. I know. Not everyone's like that. Whatever. But if I'm like, I want to get them both done in a row, sometimes the lift, which I do second, sometimes that suffers performance-wise because I went through, you know. but this is what you do hydrate during the

during the rock or right after hydrate and creatine mix big ass mix bro good as new good as new oh yeah I mean you're still sweating and stuff but it's like you're good as new I like it good protocol

if you need to get hydrate or creatine go to joccofuel.com we also have protein we got everything that you need joccofuel.com go check it out we're also in a bunch of stores around the country

you can find it it's what's good for you Also, Origin USA, American-made clothing. Talk about a lot of sacrifices that get made for America. We talked about those with Wesley Hunt today. But sometimes people forget that the sacrifice were made and go out and buy a pair of freaking pants that were made in China, which, by the way, Wesley Hunt pointed out as our biggest threat.

And yet we're giving them money. Let's not give them money. Let's keep the money right here in America. go to Origin USA and get a pair of pants. Would you wear on the, you were saying you were in the comfort zone on your flight to Hawaii? Yes.

Standard. What was you wearing? The standard uniform. Origin pants. All day. Genes. Origin jeans. Because there's a bunch of different kinds of pants now for more.

Yes. You got the GTFO pants. You got the, those kind of canvas cotton ones. those are those are pretty nice yeah yeah factory jeans have a little bit of stretching them too yeah well the factory jeans definitely have stretch yeah yeah yeah yeah and they're a little bit thicker because me like oh you were wearing the factory jeans yes it to hawaii to hawaii yeah how come because they put put on the air conditioning in the plane you know to keep it cool and bro i'm

going for max comfort i know but sometimes we forget that i'm kind of the connoisseur of comfort so you do that the the factory jeans of perfect amount of thickness so it shields you from from the air conditioning. And here's the thing too. So yeah, it's a science. I got it down to a science little here. And then the other thing I wear is that jacket. You know the, it's like it's kind of like a windbreak.

It's a origin one, that windbreaker. For sure, oh, perfect. The stow jacket. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. And then of course the Def Corps socks.

Oh yeah. Okay. That's the uniform right there. Origin USA, Maine America 100%. And then Joggle store you can get some DefCore socks. If you want. Yeah. Available.

We got other stuff on there. Um, so we got the short locker, which is like, as you know, the subscription scenario, every month you get a new design. So I thought of you for next month's design. Let's just say it's Celtic in nature. Okay. It's a good one. Also good. So you know good, right?

This one I'm wearing. This is like the second edition, we'll say. I got the third version coming next month. So be on the lookout for that one. And it's a Celtic? No, that one's not Celtic. The shirt locker for next month is Celtic. But the good just happens to be coming out next month.

You know what I'm saying? And now it's not Celtic. That's, uh, you know, just the third version 3.0. Good. There you go. Jocco store.com.

Uh, Dave Burke's got a book coming out called need to lead. Go check that out. Also, we just released, Eschelon front. We just released a, um,

a new academy course. It's about the ladder of alignment. That's extreme ownership.com. Yeah, that lateral alignment. Latter of. Latter of alignment. Oh, right, right.

Yeah, yeah. So it's like a comprehensive. course then yeah because this is one thing that can really gem people up to the parlance of echo Charles is if we're not aligned on what we're trying to do how do we find alignment how do we confirm our alignment and how do we continue on with alignment yeah but sometimes sometimes we aren't aligned and there's various levels that that can happen at and when you're not aligned at a lower level guess what you got to do find it climb the ladder of alignment so well that that

That one. And there's a skill to that. There's techniques around that. Well, yeah. And a lot of times you don't, it's the kind where you don't realize that you are aligned. So that's when you got to climb the line.

And this is why I know this, because when you explain it at the muster, this is why it comes up is when it's like, oh, they have like an agenda. You know, like that group or that person that I work with or whatever. They have like this agenda. But then you're like, well,

who's to say that's always bad, you know? Climb that ladder. You find out, maybe that agenda's kind of useful. Their agenda. And people can have different competing agendas, and that's actually okay, as long as we don't start undermining each other. We can have competing agendas on where we're going to have dinner.

Like I want to go here, I want to go there, but we both want to eat. You see what I'm saying? Yes, we do. So let's eat. Aisselaumfront.com, extreme ownership.com. Go check those out if you need leadership training.

Also, if you want to help service members active and retired, you want to help their families, check out Mark Lee's mom, Mama Lee. He's got an amazing organization if you want to donate or you want to get involved. Go to America's Mighty Warriors.org. Also check out Heroes and Horses.org. Micah Fink, his program,

taking vets up into the mountains so they can find their soul and finally Jimmy May's organization beyond the brotherhood.org. Check all those out. If you want to connect, you want to connect with Wesley Hunt on the internet,

WesleyforTexus.com. on Instagram, Wesley for Texas, Twitter X, and YouTube, Wesley Hunt, TX, and Facebook, Wesley Hunt. For us, I'm at jocco.com, and on social media, I'm at Jocko Willink. Echo's at Echo Charles. Just be careful, because you can waste a lot of time on social media if you're not careful, and you don't want that to happen. Once again, thanks to Congressman Wesley Hunt for join us tonight. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Thank you for sharing your lessons earned. Thank you for your service in the Army and thank you for your continued service in Congress. It's much appreciated, brother. Thank you. Also, thanks to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines right now staged around the world right now as we speak, away from their families, away from their homes in order to protect our safety and our way of lives. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice. Also, thanks to our police, law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, Border Patrol, Secret Service, as well as us all other first responders.

We are thankful for your service to protect us here on the home front for everyone else out there. I saw a little comment from Wesley Hunt. And he said this, quote, the only thing that's preventing you from being anything you want to be in this country is you. There are people that started off with way less and ended up with way more. The fact that you are born in this country, no matter how hard it might be for you, what's your excuse?

and do not allow people to have low expectations of you because you will live up to that. End quote. So there you have it. Set some high expectations and then meet them. And you do that by not making excuses, but instead, as you can probably guess, by taking ownership. That's all I've gotten for tonight. Until next time, this is Echo and Jocko. Out.