Talking With Space Force's General Jay Raymond and Astronaut Nick Hague About A Million Things

<v Speaker 1>Standing by.
<v Speaker 2>Let's go.
<v Speaker 3>Here's talking with Thompson Square.
<v Speaker 4>It's a podcast, so.
<v Speaker 3>Shauna for.
<v Speaker 5>I don't even know what to say. I'm so I'm
<v Speaker 5>so excited about tonight. This is by far, well, this
<v Speaker 5>is probably good. This is going to be the most
<v Speaker 5>important podcast we've ever.
<v Speaker 3>We ever do, or that we'll ever do.
<v Speaker 5>Yes, it's crazy tonight. It's been an amazing day. We
<v Speaker 5>We've been getting the house ready and cooking and doing
<v Speaker 5>a low country boil here for some American heroes. Some
<v Speaker 5>men and women here are in our house, gracing our house.
<v Speaker 5>We're very, very blessed to have so many wonderful people
<v Speaker 5>here in our house today. And one of our great
<v Speaker 5>friends who it's a very odd scenario how we became friends,
<v Speaker 5>how we even met, being you know, one of our
<v Speaker 5>closest friends. And I say that with all sincerity and.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, man, it's just this is just it's
<v Speaker 3>a weird night.
<v Speaker 1>He needs no introduction.
<v Speaker 3>Well, we have we got to introduce the guy. He's
<v Speaker 3>right here across from us.
<v Speaker 1>We have we have four star General Jay Raymond with
<v Speaker 1>us tonight from Space Force, and we cannot thank you
<v Speaker 1>enough for being here. This is incredible.
<v Speaker 6>Oh it's I'm excited to be here. It's really cool
<v Speaker 6>and it's great to see again. Thanks for welcoming us
<v Speaker 6>under your home, and thanks for what you do.
<v Speaker 5>Man, thank you for what you do. And if you
<v Speaker 5>guys want to, you guys, can you make a little
<v Speaker 5>bit of noise if you want to. We have about
<v Speaker 5>fifteen people in here.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, so I have to say thank you for
<v Speaker 1>showing up because I got so many things done, or
<v Speaker 1>key forgot so many things done from the honeydo List's
<v Speaker 1>rephrase that, well, I did a lot to you, but
<v Speaker 1>there's so many things that I needed to get done.
<v Speaker 1>So can you just come back and visit like next
<v Speaker 1>month so we can get that honey dealer anytime.
<v Speaker 6>I'll tell you it is so good to be with you.
<v Speaker 5>Well, you know how it is like when you invite
<v Speaker 5>people over to your house and it's the only time
<v Speaker 5>you ever clean your house.
<v Speaker 3>This is that on crack. This is like we're not
<v Speaker 3>just having a friends over.
<v Speaker 5>It's like all these these wonderful heroes and servicemen and
<v Speaker 5>women and then you got a guy with four big
<v Speaker 5>fancy stars on his collar, and so it was like
<v Speaker 5>clean the house, rebuild a house, and then she was painting.
<v Speaker 3>You have any idea how much work you cost me?
<v Speaker 1>Today?
<v Speaker 5>I was hanging ceiling fans, she was painting furniture. It
<v Speaker 5>was absurd the amount of work, but it was all
<v Speaker 5>worth it. We had to get it done, and that's
<v Speaker 5>what we should do. Just keep inviting people over so
<v Speaker 5>we get the house done.
<v Speaker 1>Yes.
<v Speaker 3>So this is General J. Raymond.
<v Speaker 5>And for the people who don't know you, I was
<v Speaker 5>fascinated the first time that we met, and just just
<v Speaker 5>the history of your family was astounding to me. My
<v Speaker 5>dad serving in the army, so did shown his dad.
<v Speaker 5>Her dad was in Vietnam. But the history, you know,
<v Speaker 5>kind of started this. Stop to there. Can you tell
<v Speaker 5>us to tell our listeners the history of how you
<v Speaker 5>became I mean, how do you become a four star
<v Speaker 5>general is insane to me anyway, but then to become
<v Speaker 5>a multi generational family of generals is just unheard up
<v Speaker 5>to me.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah. So I grew up in a military family. My
<v Speaker 6>great great grandfather, my grandfather, I'm sorry, my great great grandfather,
<v Speaker 6>my great grandfather, my grandfather, and my dad all served
<v Speaker 6>in the army and they all went to West Point,
<v Speaker 6>and so I knew I wanted a life of service,
<v Speaker 6>and I knew I liked that lifestyle. I liked how
<v Speaker 6>I grew up. I liked being able to live in
<v Speaker 6>places all over the world, and I liked belonging to
<v Speaker 6>something that was bigger than myself, and so I knew
<v Speaker 6>I wanted to serve. A lot of people have asked
<v Speaker 6>me why did I go into the Air Force when
<v Speaker 6>I had a whole history of the Army, And I
<v Speaker 6>jokeingly say, because I grew up in the Army. That's
<v Speaker 6>really though. I went to Clemson University in South Carolina,
<v Speaker 6>and when I went there, there was a great ROTC program.
<v Speaker 6>There was a spectacular Air Force ROTC program. It gave
<v Speaker 6>me an opportunity to serve, and I just fell in
<v Speaker 6>love with it. And I've been very, very lucky. I'm
<v Speaker 6>not a hero by any means. I'm privileged to serve
<v Speaker 6>with a lot of heroes and a lot of people
<v Speaker 6>that that have They want to be belonged. I want
<v Speaker 6>to belong to somebody, something bigger than themselves and serve
<v Speaker 6>their country. And I'm really lucky they have had an
<v Speaker 6>opportunity to serve for thirty seven years now and work
<v Speaker 6>with some really impressive Americans that are doing great things
<v Speaker 6>for a country.
<v Speaker 3>Wow. So what does it take though, to become a general?
<v Speaker 3>Does everyone?
<v Speaker 5>Because I'm sure that everyone that goes into the armedforces,
<v Speaker 5>well not everybody, but a lot of people have the
<v Speaker 5>aspiration to go up into the ranks and to get
<v Speaker 5>a better classification.
<v Speaker 3>But you're the top.
<v Speaker 6>So I you know, a lot of people ask me that,
<v Speaker 6>and I never I never thought i'd be a general.
<v Speaker 6>And I think if you if you started from the
<v Speaker 6>beginning and thought you were going to be a general,
<v Speaker 6>you probably wouldn't. My view is you kind of grow
<v Speaker 6>where you're planet and you just take it one job
<v Speaker 6>at a time, and you know, I mean, you're a
<v Speaker 6>second lieutenant, you're the best second lieutenant doing the job
<v Speaker 6>that you do, and then you get promoted again and
<v Speaker 6>you just keep trying to do the best job that
<v Speaker 6>you can. And if you're lucky like me, you get
<v Speaker 6>surrounded with great people, great people and great leaders, and
<v Speaker 6>then being a good person and working hard and really
<v Speaker 6>caring about what you do, being excited about what you do.
<v Speaker 6>Just like you have passion for music. It comes across
<v Speaker 6>every time I'm with you. I just feel the passion
<v Speaker 6>that you have for music. Yeah, well I have that
<v Speaker 6>same passion serving with the folks that on privileged to
<v Speaker 6>serve with, with serving in our country. And if you have
<v Speaker 6>that passion and you're lucky and you're in the right
<v Speaker 6>place at the right time, and you work hard and
<v Speaker 6>you're a good person, good things happen.
<v Speaker 1>So obviously we've been talking about you in our other
<v Speaker 1>podcast because we've been so excited that you're going to
<v Speaker 1>come and talk to us, and we posted on Facebook,
<v Speaker 1>you know, for anyone who would like to ask you
<v Speaker 1>a question, and I have since we're talking about this
<v Speaker 1>right now about coming up through the ranks, someone asked
<v Speaker 1>Kat Jergs. I hope that's the correct pronunciation of her
<v Speaker 1>name or his name. They wanted you to explain the
<v Speaker 1>bars that you have on your dress uniform and have
<v Speaker 1>the photo here so I can show it to you.
<v Speaker 1>So the ribbons, they said, can you explain a few
<v Speaker 1>and maybe why you got them and which one is
<v Speaker 1>the most significant to you.
<v Speaker 6>You know that the the ribbons that we wear, you
<v Speaker 6>get them for all kinds of different reasons, and you know,
<v Speaker 6>some get them for doing very heroic acts. That's not me.
<v Speaker 6>I haven't gotten I have not been awarded a ribbon
<v Speaker 6>for a heroic act. Largely, what you get, what you
<v Speaker 6>get awarded or ribbon for is in my in my case,
<v Speaker 6>is serving in positions of importance in doing a good job.
<v Speaker 6>And so there's I think probably the first ribbon I
<v Speaker 6>ever got, the very bottom ribbon. If you're looking at
<v Speaker 6>the picture to be the bottom right, hopefully this is a.
<v Speaker 1>Is that your newest.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, that's the one.
<v Speaker 1>That we posted on Facebook. So if you're listening, you
<v Speaker 1>can go check out.
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<v Speaker 6>Very the very first ribbon is probably the ribbon that
<v Speaker 6>means the most to me because it is the first one,
<v Speaker 6>and it meant that I I was trained to serve
<v Speaker 6>in the military, and that's what that's what I always
<v Speaker 6>wanted to do. I wanted to be I wanted to
<v Speaker 6>serve in the military. I wanted to follow my family's footsteps.
<v Speaker 6>And to have the privilege of being able to do that,
<v Speaker 6>you know, it's a real privilege to serve. It's not
<v Speaker 6>it's not a it's a real privilege. And to know
<v Speaker 6>that I had gone through college, I went through an
<v Speaker 6>RC program, and then I was commissioned thirty seven years
<v Speaker 6>ago on eleventh of May. And to have the privilege
<v Speaker 6>to serve that ribbon means something to me because it
<v Speaker 6>means that I have the opportunity to follow what my
<v Speaker 6>family did.
<v Speaker 5>It's it's weird to me because you're so accessible and approachable,
<v Speaker 5>at least to civilians. It might be a different situation,
<v Speaker 5>but it's it's it's it's it's weird to see to me.
<v Speaker 5>It kind of caught us off guard the first time
<v Speaker 5>we started hanging out, and then we went to Tuley,
<v Speaker 5>Greenland and we did all these things.
<v Speaker 3>And you expect a.
<v Speaker 5>High ranking military person to be very callous and hard
<v Speaker 5>on the exterior and I find that to be completely
<v Speaker 5>the opposite in your case, and I just thought that
<v Speaker 5>was refreshing. Now everyone else might be like, oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 5>he's brutal, you know, I don't think I don't think that,
<v Speaker 5>but doubt to me that was very to be able
<v Speaker 5>to balance, Hey, I don't have to be over the top,
<v Speaker 5>you know, drill sergeant type person to be able to
<v Speaker 5>be effective and in respect, Like when we flew into
<v Speaker 5>we we took a trip to to the air base
<v Speaker 5>with General Raymond and it was one of the highlights
<v Speaker 5>of our life. It was one of the coldest highlights
<v Speaker 5>of our life. Volar bears and you know all that
<v Speaker 5>about it. I did, yeah, I mean, we'll get back,
<v Speaker 5>we'll get to that later. But it was it was
<v Speaker 5>the amount of because we've never been around military personnel.
<v Speaker 1>Really, We've we've played a lot of basses, but typically
<v Speaker 1>we're just kind of in our own little bubble. We'll
<v Speaker 1>get to the base and we'll set our instruments up
<v Speaker 1>and things like that. So this that was the first
<v Speaker 1>time that we really hung out.
<v Speaker 5>But like when the when the the jet landed and
<v Speaker 5>we go into the hangar, I'm sorry, but it's humming
<v Speaker 5>is driving me nets.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sorry about that.
<v Speaker 5>But we go into the hangar and then you flick
<v Speaker 5>the the shutters on the plane. Everyone's at attention. You
<v Speaker 5>flicked the shutters on the plane, everybody goes at ease,
<v Speaker 5>and I was just like, that's just cool.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's pretty rock starting.
<v Speaker 3>It was cool.
<v Speaker 6>Again that I'm really lucky. We've got spectacular people that
<v Speaker 6>have volunteered to serve our country and that the place
<v Speaker 6>that you want. And I'm very grateful for you and
<v Speaker 6>Shauna coming up because he's he came up right right
<v Speaker 6>at Thanksgiving time. In fact, we took off the day
<v Speaker 6>before Thanksgiving. And what I really liked and what was
<v Speaker 6>what really impressed me about the both of you is
<v Speaker 6>you know, you could have gone up there, sat in
<v Speaker 6>your room, and then come out and did your show,
<v Speaker 6>and then we got back on a plane left. That
<v Speaker 6>wasn't you. You spent the entire day crawling all over
<v Speaker 6>that base, and bit started running away from running right
<v Speaker 6>from Poverts, seven hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle,
<v Speaker 6>with about three or four hundred folks that are there
<v Speaker 6>away from their families, doing really important work for our nation.
<v Speaker 6>That's the they operate two things there. They operate a
<v Speaker 6>big radar. It's the first radar that would detect any
<v Speaker 6>kind of threat coming into North America. And they're away
<v Speaker 6>from their families for a year doing this in a
<v Speaker 6>very remote environment. The other thing that they operate are
<v Speaker 6>is a command and control station to send commands to
<v Speaker 6>satellites as the satellites fly over the poles, flies flies
<v Speaker 6>over the north orbits over the North Pole. And so
<v Speaker 6>they're away from their home, they're in a very remote area.
<v Speaker 6>It's it's kind of a harsh condition you have to
<v Speaker 6>experience that. But you spent the entire time there, and
<v Speaker 6>you from the second that we got there, you interacted
<v Speaker 6>with all of our airman And to this day I
<v Speaker 6>hear from people that said I was there when you
<v Speaker 6>brought Thompson Square up there, and the kindness that you
<v Speaker 6>that you showed to all of us really really meant
<v Speaker 6>a lot to them. I remember the very first thing
<v Speaker 6>we did. We went got off the plane and we
<v Speaker 6>went to an ice cave, called it the Ice Cave,
<v Speaker 6>and it's a game room, and you put pulled out
<v Speaker 6>a guitar and you sang a song and you were
<v Speaker 6>and not only did you sing the song though you
<v Speaker 6>told the story about the song, and you talked about, uh,
<v Speaker 6>you know, you you were and don't I'm going to
<v Speaker 6>get this wrong, probably, but you were, you know, working
<v Speaker 6>with a pickle jar, you know, for tips on down
<v Speaker 6>on on broadways, pretty spot on that and U. And
<v Speaker 6>then you talked about, you know, you didn't give up,
<v Speaker 6>and you were persistent and you kept uh you know,
<v Speaker 6>and you were kind of at what's end and told Sean, hey,
<v Speaker 6>I don't know if you know, we want to continue
<v Speaker 6>doing this. And I remember you telling that story, and
<v Speaker 6>it was a message to to our to our airman,
<v Speaker 6>hey be persistent. If you care about something, keep at it.
<v Speaker 6>And and it was a great message here and for
<v Speaker 6>so from that minute until we got back on a
<v Speaker 6>plane and took off, the kindness that you showed and
<v Speaker 6>the respect that you showed from them meant a lot
<v Speaker 6>to us, and it surely meant a lot to me.
<v Speaker 5>Well, I appreciate that it was weird. As soon as
<v Speaker 5>we landed, they were like, hey, there's a polar bear
<v Speaker 5>on bass.
<v Speaker 1>Well we almost didn't land.
<v Speaker 5>Well we almost didn't land because our so guys were
<v Speaker 5>flying into a place where it's it's dark twenty four
<v Speaker 5>hours a day, or it's light twenty four hours a day,
<v Speaker 5>and there's a little bit of in between there, but
<v Speaker 5>for the most part, that's your two extremes. And we
<v Speaker 5>get there, it's twenty seven below and looking out the
<v Speaker 5>window it's just nothing but ice for hours going in
<v Speaker 5>and we get ready to land, and we kept circling,
<v Speaker 5>kept circling.
<v Speaker 3>We're like, what's going on here?
<v Speaker 1>You know, hold on, We've we've flown a lot, a lot.
<v Speaker 1>We started landing, and then we took off again and
<v Speaker 1>I was like, something's this is a little odd, right,
<v Speaker 1>and then go in.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, this plane is a little gippy. You know, maybe
<v Speaker 5>we should have went with the five star. I don't
<v Speaker 5>know six star seven? Is there a seven star plane?
<v Speaker 5>Because this one's kind of gippy?
<v Speaker 6>Uh, you know.
<v Speaker 3>It wasn't a prop or anything.
<v Speaker 5>No, but yeah, supposedly our our landing gear was frozen
<v Speaker 5>and we were banking in front of the tower and
<v Speaker 5>trying to get them to look at it.
<v Speaker 3>But it's pitch blacks. You can't see anything, so U
<v Speaker 3>thank you for this.
<v Speaker 6>But I remember the line of the whole wall trip.
<v Speaker 6>He forgets off the plane, The group commander meets us. Hey,
<v Speaker 6>it's how cold was below zero? It's bits dark. Welcome
<v Speaker 6>to Tooley. It's twenty seven below. You're not going to
<v Speaker 6>see the sunlight while you're here. There's a polar bear.
<v Speaker 6>We saw some polar bear footprints, so you might have
<v Speaker 6>to get locked in your room. And but welcome to Tooley.
<v Speaker 6>And the first thing you told me was general, I
<v Speaker 6>had kissed the ground up. My lips didn't stick to it.
<v Speaker 5>That would have been my luck. Though, my lips bring
<v Speaker 5>up the hot water kettle and I could just sing
<v Speaker 5>with it.
<v Speaker 3>But I tell you, Nick Jaggers.
<v Speaker 6>Were you were out polar bear hunting though, and you
<v Speaker 6>you got pictures of some pretty significant put prints.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, we saw where it went off into the water
<v Speaker 5>and where it was hunting and everything.
<v Speaker 3>It was. It was crazy.
<v Speaker 1>That was really cool.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that was awesome.
<v Speaker 5>So speaking of this too since we're talking about the
<v Speaker 5>Tooley thing, So Touley we did a show there and
<v Speaker 5>it was a lot of fun at the toe.
<v Speaker 3>At the Toe there was the bar there. It's a place.
<v Speaker 5>This is a place where you have to go, is
<v Speaker 5>that right? Or you don't have to stay for a
<v Speaker 5>year if you go. No, it's a you lose a bat,
<v Speaker 5>you go to Lee.
<v Speaker 6>No, not at all.
<v Speaker 3>It's potatoes cling the toilets or go tot tu Lee.
<v Speaker 3>Which one you want to do? Which way?
<v Speaker 6>It's actually a great place to go. It's awesome, and it's.
<v Speaker 3>It's a beautiful place, but it's it's cold as hell.
<v Speaker 6>It's cold. It's it's a really critical place for the
<v Speaker 6>security of our nation extremely and and we have those
<v Speaker 6>those radars that you got to visit spread out across
<v Speaker 6>the globe, and again they're they're the they're providing that
<v Speaker 6>unblinking eye, if you will, for for any kind of
<v Speaker 6>threats that come that would come into North America. Tully
<v Speaker 6>Greenland obviously is the furthest North and may be the
<v Speaker 6>first to detect it on on radar. We also have
<v Speaker 6>satellites in space that do that same mission. But between
<v Speaker 6>those the ground radars and the and the satellites that
<v Speaker 6>we have in space, we're providing that unblinking eye for
<v Speaker 6>for our nation to It's a really critical place. It's
<v Speaker 6>really a great place for young people to go because
<v Speaker 6>it's a it's a small place. They get they have
<v Speaker 6>jobs that are much higher in responsibility than they would
<v Speaker 6>if they were at a large base back at home,
<v Speaker 6>where there's a lot of a lot of airman and
<v Speaker 6>so it's a great place to start your career. You
<v Speaker 6>get a lot of leadership opportunities very early, and you
<v Speaker 6>get it's a very tight knit community. When when you're
<v Speaker 6>away from your families, and especially in a remote environment,
<v Speaker 6>the bond of the team gets really really close.
<v Speaker 5>Get close quick. Probably it was it was impressive. We
<v Speaker 5>walked into this one area where there's a radar that's
<v Speaker 5>communicating with these satellites coming through at fifteen thousand, five
<v Speaker 5>hundred miles an hour seventeen thousand whatever is.
<v Speaker 6>Fifteen thousand, five seventeen five seventeen.
<v Speaker 3>Dang it missed by two thousands.
<v Speaker 1>We tried to pay attention to the briefings. It was
<v Speaker 1>a lot of info.
<v Speaker 6>If you're going less than seventeen thousand, five hundred miles
<v Speaker 6>an hour, satellites will fall into back to Earth and
<v Speaker 6>so you have to go that fast just to stay orbit. Wow.
<v Speaker 5>Well we so we saw this bradar was communicating with
<v Speaker 5>these satellites as that were coming across, and it's just crazy.
<v Speaker 5>This the technology there was just it was an amazing thing.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, there's a there's a an antenna there that is
<v Speaker 6>what you what you're talking about. There's an antenna that
<v Speaker 6>sends signals to satellite. So the way we operate satellites
<v Speaker 6>is that we we send commands to them. And when
<v Speaker 6>there's a satellite in a polar orbit, that's a satellite
<v Speaker 6>that goes over the North pole and then over the
<v Speaker 6>South pole and at orbits that way, it's about a
<v Speaker 6>ninety minute orbit from the time because it's going so fast,
<v Speaker 6>it takes about ninety minutes to do one lap around
<v Speaker 6>the one lap aer on the Earth. Because Tulli is
<v Speaker 6>so far north, it's the perfect spot to have a
<v Speaker 6>command center or an antenna to send commands to satellites
<v Speaker 6>in that polar orbit. And so it's a really critical
<v Speaker 6>asset for that.
<v Speaker 5>So we saw we went through a couple of scenarios
<v Speaker 5>where so if we can get serious just for a second,
<v Speaker 5>because I know there's a lot of people out there
<v Speaker 5>in the world that as soon as they created space Force,
<v Speaker 5>the jokes ensued and it was like no one took
<v Speaker 5>it serious, and why do we need space Force? And
<v Speaker 5>it was everyone looked at it like a Hollywood thing,
<v Speaker 5>you know, which a if you know if you know
<v Speaker 5>General Raymond, you know, you would see an integrity and
<v Speaker 5>you would never have that question again. On top of that,
<v Speaker 5>if you went to Greenland, just to one place and
<v Speaker 5>saw what we saw and.
<v Speaker 3>The seriousness of the situation.
<v Speaker 5>We went through mock missile launches, and so anywhere in
<v Speaker 5>the world people are like, why don't we need space force?
<v Speaker 3>Why don't we fix our roads?
<v Speaker 5>And why don't we you know, why don't we do
<v Speaker 5>this and this and this, and and you see a
<v Speaker 5>lot of social media makes a lot of brave people,
<v Speaker 5>and it's a lot of it's not stupid, it's ignorant.
<v Speaker 5>And ignorant means not educated in a certain thing. And
<v Speaker 5>I see a lot of ignorance, just people just blasting
<v Speaker 5>the administrations and everything else about space force is space
<v Speaker 5>force and you want this, we need this, And I
<v Speaker 5>wish what would you tell our listeners and the American
<v Speaker 5>people that aren't educated about space force, just that from
<v Speaker 5>even at the standpoint of just being in Greenland, of
<v Speaker 5>how important it is as to globally keeping us safe,
<v Speaker 5>keeping the globe safe, because I think it's no one.
<v Speaker 5>I don't feel that anyone really understands the scope of
<v Speaker 5>what is being done there and in space force.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, it's a great, great question. It's really hard to
<v Speaker 6>understand space because you can't see it, you can't feel it,
<v Speaker 6>you can't touch it. I said something in the press
<v Speaker 6>a month or so ago, you can't hug a satellite.
<v Speaker 6>Everybody laughed at me saying that you can't hug us out.
<v Speaker 6>But you can't you don't have a connection to it.
<v Speaker 6>We have a saying in space that satellites don't have
<v Speaker 6>a mother. It's really hard to care about something you
<v Speaker 6>can't see that's orbiting well above your head, going at
<v Speaker 6>the speeds that we just talked about. What everybody needs
<v Speaker 6>to understand though, that connection is real, and you both
<v Speaker 6>use space multiple times a day before you have your
<v Speaker 6>first cup of coffee. Your smartphone that's sitting here is
<v Speaker 6>real stupid. Without space, you couldn't connect to the global Internet.
<v Speaker 6>You can't do internet banking without space. You can't go
<v Speaker 6>to the gas station and play with a credit card
<v Speaker 6>of the pump rather than going in and paying in person.
<v Speaker 6>Because all of that, the DNA, of that connectivity and
<v Speaker 6>an information age is all provided by space. Our weather
<v Speaker 6>satellites help predict bad weather, hurricanes, that's all come from space.
<v Speaker 6>If you're watching direct television that's coming or any kind
<v Speaker 6>of satellite TV, that's coming from space. So there's no
<v Speaker 6>other service, there's no other service in our Department of
<v Speaker 6>Defense that has a connection to the American people. Like
<v Speaker 6>the space horse. People just don't recognize it because you
<v Speaker 6>can't see it. The thing that so, space fuels our
<v Speaker 6>American waylife. Everything that we do is fueled by the
<v Speaker 6>integration of space into our way life. It also fuels
<v Speaker 6>our American way of war. And so just think back
<v Speaker 6>in World War Two, there would be one thousand bombers,
<v Speaker 6>the world's best air force. The world's best air force
<v Speaker 6>would take a thousand bombers off with nine bombs on
<v Speaker 6>each bomber, so nine thousand bombs going after one target,
<v Speaker 6>and on a good day, again with the world's best
<v Speaker 6>air force, with no close second, on a good day,
<v Speaker 6>about one hundred of those bombs would hit within a
<v Speaker 6>half a mile of the target. Today, you take one
<v Speaker 6>bomber off with multiple multiple weapons and they all hit
<v Speaker 6>perfect strikes. And how do you do that? You do
<v Speaker 6>that from space. Well, our competitors or our adversaries understand
<v Speaker 6>the advantage that space gives to us in the military,
<v Speaker 6>and they're rapidly developing capabilities to deny us our access
<v Speaker 6>to space and to keep us from reaping the benefit
<v Speaker 6>of that. That wouldn't just affect the military, it would
<v Speaker 6>affect everyday Americans. And so both China and Russia specifically
<v Speaker 6>with China being the pacing threat for sure, have developed
<v Speaker 6>two things. One robust sets of capabilities for their own use,
<v Speaker 6>so they have that same advantage that we have for
<v Speaker 6>integrating space. But they've also built weapons to keep us
<v Speaker 6>from accessing space. And so they have jammers. They can
<v Speaker 6>jam our GPS satellites, they can jam communication satellites. They
<v Speaker 6>have lasers they can blind our satellites and damage our satellites.
<v Speaker 6>They've got satellites on orbit that are custom built to
<v Speaker 6>destroy our satellites. There's a China has a satellite with
<v Speaker 6>a robotic arm and it can reach out and grab you.
<v Speaker 6>And satellites don't like to be grabbed, and so if
<v Speaker 6>you're at that satellite in the future could reach out
<v Speaker 6>and grab a US satellite, would it would be very
<v Speaker 6>detrimental to that sale. There's missiles that can launch from
<v Speaker 6>the ground to blow up satellites, and so what used
<v Speaker 6>to be a peaceful, benign domain where we could just
<v Speaker 6>take for granted the access the space. You can't take
<v Speaker 6>that for granted anymore. And so the Space Force was
<v Speaker 6>about staying ahead of that threat. And while we're the
<v Speaker 6>best in the world in space today we have competition
<v Speaker 6>that's moving really fast, and the Space Forces was all
<v Speaker 6>designed to stay ahead of that threat, to remain the
<v Speaker 6>best in the world and make sure that you know
<v Speaker 6>when you walk in the room and turn on the
<v Speaker 6>proverbial light switch, that the lights are always on that
<v Speaker 6>when you need to access space, it's always there. That's
<v Speaker 6>our job, and it's in that space. Those space capabilities
<v Speaker 6>fuel our American waylife.
<v Speaker 5>So you feel so you were in the Air Force
<v Speaker 5>and now you're in Space Force? Why did why did
<v Speaker 5>we Why couldn't we have that all wrapped up? Because
<v Speaker 5>one of some of the questions were like, why do
<v Speaker 5>we need to hold into the branch right? Why does
<v Speaker 5>it have to be divided between air and space?
<v Speaker 6>What do you?
<v Speaker 3>What do you? What would you say to those people?
<v Speaker 6>And so I I was in the Air Force for
<v Speaker 6>thirty five years. Thirty five and a half years I
<v Speaker 6>served in the Air Force and I served in the
<v Speaker 6>space mission in the Air Force, and so people will
<v Speaker 6>naturally say, well, that was working just fine. Why don't
<v Speaker 6>we just keep it where it was? Why did we
<v Speaker 6>have to stand up this independent service? Well, the challenge
<v Speaker 6>is our competitors are really going are really going fast,
<v Speaker 6>and the Air Force has a very very broad mission set,
<v Speaker 6>and the thought was if we stood up an independent service,
<v Speaker 6>this was their primary job that focused on space, we
<v Speaker 6>could move fast and stay ahead of that threat. I'm
<v Speaker 6>very proud of my Air Force heritage and I'm very
<v Speaker 6>proud of what the Air Force built in space. But
<v Speaker 6>I will tell you in just the seventeen months that
<v Speaker 6>we've been up as an independent service, we have made
<v Speaker 6>great strides and there's nobody questioning, nobody questioning inside the
<v Speaker 6>department why did we do this? We see and have
<v Speaker 6>quantifiable advances that nobody can question. And again, the goal
<v Speaker 6>is to make sure that every American has this as
<v Speaker 6>the capabilities at their fingertips.
<v Speaker 1>Right for a second, about space trash, absolutely, that was
<v Speaker 1>one thing that Keeper and I learned about when we
<v Speaker 1>were in Tully that I thought was interesting. We don't
<v Speaker 1>as civilians, we don't think about that kind of thing
<v Speaker 1>being up there and how dangerous it is to our
<v Speaker 1>International Space Station, to our satellites, how one little bolt
<v Speaker 1>can destroy you know, up there is there is that
<v Speaker 1>part of space force, like figuring out a way to
<v Speaker 1>get rid of, not get rid of.
<v Speaker 3>I have a great idea.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not even sure.
<v Speaker 5>Whenever you're ready, I have rd avery idea for springs
<v Speaker 5>for it's a giant vacuum cleaner.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, sort of, but it's going to work.
<v Speaker 6>But go ahead, answer to so, uh, there is we track,
<v Speaker 6>we track. Let me know when you're ready, I'll invest
<v Speaker 6>in that.
<v Speaker 3>Back and yeah, this thing will suck like you're crazy.
<v Speaker 6>There's about twenty thousand. There's about excuse me, there's about
<v Speaker 6>thirty thousand objects that we track in space and they're about.
<v Speaker 5>The Wait a minute. Last time we were in Greenland
<v Speaker 5>there was fifteen thousand.
<v Speaker 6>It was twenty two. We're up to thirty.
<v Speaker 3>That's fantastic.
<v Speaker 6>And so there's thirty thousand you really paid, you really
<v Speaker 6>paid attention to the Yeah, yeah it was super But
<v Speaker 6>there's about thirty thousand now. They're about the size about
<v Speaker 6>the size of a softball is what we can track.
<v Speaker 6>There's about a half a million other objects smaller than
<v Speaker 6>that that we can't track. And so as you said, Shauna,
<v Speaker 6>if you have something even the small as small as
<v Speaker 6>a little bolt going seventeen thousand, five hundred miles an hour,
<v Speaker 6>if it hit you, it hurt. And so the Space
<v Speaker 6>Force acts as the space traffic control for the world.
<v Speaker 6>We keep track of those thirty thousand objects. Of those
<v Speaker 6>thirty thousand objects, only about probably about thirty five hundred
<v Speaker 6>or active satellites. Everything else is a piece of debris,
<v Speaker 6>and so we keep track of all of that. We
<v Speaker 6>provide warning to the world. So if two satellites are
<v Speaker 6>going to collide, or if a satellite and a piece
<v Speaker 6>of breed is going to collide, we warn the satellite owner,
<v Speaker 6>whoever it is across the world to move their satellite
<v Speaker 6>to keep from hitting debris. So a lot of people ask,
<v Speaker 6>how are you going to solve this debris problem. The
<v Speaker 6>big way that we're working to solve that debris problem
<v Speaker 6>is not to create the debris in the first place,
<v Speaker 6>So to keep track of all that, to provide warning
<v Speaker 6>for everybody, to to keep that domain safe, to have
<v Speaker 6>better engineering standards so when you launch a satellite, you
<v Speaker 6>don't litter the space with debris on a launch at
<v Speaker 6>the end of the life of a satellite that you
<v Speaker 6>build it in a way that they don't break up
<v Speaker 6>into pieces of debris, and so we're actively working to
<v Speaker 6>manage that. Satellites and lower th orbit. Depending on how
<v Speaker 6>high they are and depending on a lot of different variables,
<v Speaker 6>they they'll re enter satellites that are higher than that
<v Speaker 6>or even in high lower orbit, think eight hundred or
<v Speaker 6>so miles above the Earth, they'll be up there for
<v Speaker 6>a long time. And if you're up at geosynchronous orbit,
<v Speaker 6>which is twenty two three hundred nae aico miles high,
<v Speaker 6>for all intents purposes, that's up there forever.
<v Speaker 3>So how do we get it out?
<v Speaker 1>Do you send it like in deep space or something?
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, so for those there's one orbit that's really really
<v Speaker 6>critical just based.
<v Speaker 5>It's dirty of everybody else's place Mars with this, see
<v Speaker 5>there's one out we're humans day, but we're more important
<v Speaker 5>than you g Aliens.
<v Speaker 3>Take our trash. You guys deal with it.
<v Speaker 5>You're probably higher advantace. You just point out and just
<v Speaker 5>vaporize it, like like just spray them and on it.
<v Speaker 6>Just go. There's one there's one orbit that's really really
<v Speaker 6>critical based on math in physics. At twenty two three
<v Speaker 6>hundred miles above the Earth, a satellite orbits the same
<v Speaker 6>speed that the Earth rotates, and so it gives you
<v Speaker 6>the it gives you the persistence that you need. If
<v Speaker 6>you're lower than that, your satellite goes faster than the Earth.
<v Speaker 6>And if you're higher than that, your satellite's slower than
<v Speaker 6>the Earth. So in fact, when we have satellites in
<v Speaker 6>that orbit, to move them will either raise them or
<v Speaker 6>lower them and have them drift around the belt. The
<v Speaker 6>geosynchronous spelt for that orbit, because that orbit is so
<v Speaker 6>is so important and it's the only place in the
<v Speaker 6>only only altitude that that works. That at the end
<v Speaker 6>of life of a satellite, you have to have enough
<v Speaker 6>fuel to lift it higher. And other than that, space
<v Speaker 6>is really the wild wild West. There's no rules. Basically,
<v Speaker 6>the rules are.
<v Speaker 1>Kind of scary. It is kind of scary, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>especially with independent people starting.
<v Speaker 6>To you know, it's interesting. Back in the in the
<v Speaker 6>early days, UH space was great power competition between the
<v Speaker 6>United States and the and then the Soviet Union. Now
<v Speaker 6>you have students launching satellites. The cost of the launch
<v Speaker 6>has gone down. Small satellites are much more operationally relevant
<v Speaker 6>and so there's all space is becoming more congestity each
<v Speaker 6>and every day, and so they're there. We're working very
<v Speaker 6>hard with our with our close partners around the globe
<v Speaker 6>to develop what we call norms of behavior. What are
<v Speaker 6>how should safe? How should what? How should we define
<v Speaker 6>safe and professional behavior so we can best all operate
<v Speaker 6>together and keep that domain safe for all. We're working
<v Speaker 6>that very hard and making some good progress on that,
<v Speaker 6>but we've got to come up with some rules. And
<v Speaker 6>I'm not I'm not convinced that. I'm not naive enough
<v Speaker 6>to think that if you know, if the rule is
<v Speaker 6>key for that, you're only going to drive thirty five
<v Speaker 6>miles an hour down your street. I've seen you drive,
<v Speaker 6>You're probably going a little faster than that. I'm I'm
<v Speaker 6>not I'm not saying there. But it's going to follow
<v Speaker 6>the rules, but it's going to help us identify who's
<v Speaker 6>going fast or who's running the red lights, and so
<v Speaker 6>we think that's very important.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that kind of leads to this next question from
<v Speaker 1>Facebook NBA Alexander. He said, when private companies start their
<v Speaker 1>civilian space travel excursions, inevitable, inevitably, there's going to be incidents,
<v Speaker 1>maybe they get stranded. Will space Force help in that situation?
<v Speaker 6>You know, it's it's interesting, you know, we're building the
<v Speaker 6>space Force not just for today, but we're building the
<v Speaker 6>space force for the next hund years. You know, what
<v Speaker 6>does a space force look like one hundred years from now?
<v Speaker 6>And if you look at just what the Navy looked like,
<v Speaker 6>or the Air Force looked like, or the Army looked
<v Speaker 6>like at the beginning of its service, they're they're way
<v Speaker 6>different today. And so really what we're focusing on the
<v Speaker 6>near term is making sure that we can protect and
<v Speaker 6>defend those capabilities that we have. We have the capabilities
<v Speaker 6>that can fuel Americans way of life and be able
<v Speaker 6>to assure that. But in the future, there's predictions that
<v Speaker 6>between now in the end of the decade, for example,
<v Speaker 6>there's gonna be a trillion dollar economy between Earth and
<v Speaker 6>the Moon, and as that develops and as space travelers,
<v Speaker 6>commercial space travelers happen, there's lots of opportunities in the
<v Speaker 6>future for for new mission sets. That's not our focus today,
<v Speaker 6>but I wouldn't rule it out in the future.
<v Speaker 1>That would be really scary getting stranded.
<v Speaker 5>It would be like to me at this point like
<v Speaker 5>if if a five five, if a five category five
<v Speaker 5>hurricane was coming in to your city, and you're like,
<v Speaker 5>I've went here on my whole life. I ain't never leaving,
<v Speaker 5>and then you're the one that needs help and then
<v Speaker 5>everyone has to come and get you. That's kind of
<v Speaker 5>how I would look at space, Like if I would
<v Speaker 5>go up there and I'd be like, hey, oh, I
<v Speaker 5>shouldn't have done this at all. I do not belong
<v Speaker 5>in space. Will someone please come and assist me? They'd
<v Speaker 5>be like, sorry, dude, you know we're not quite there.
<v Speaker 6>Are gonna are you gonna kiss me or not? Kiss?
<v Speaker 8>Wow?
<v Speaker 1>So you told us when we're in too late, and
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember which country, but you said that they
<v Speaker 1>have these satellites that were like Russian dolls. Is this
<v Speaker 1>scares the c a little sneaky?
<v Speaker 6>So there's a I define them as it's Russia, and
<v Speaker 6>they have a satellite that I refer to as the
<v Speaker 6>nesting doll, and it's a you know those dolls that
<v Speaker 6>are a doll inside of a doll inside of a doll.
<v Speaker 6>One of my friends told me, you know that he
<v Speaker 6>didn't like those dolls because they're all full of themselves
<v Speaker 6>that's pretty good. But so Russia has a satellite that
<v Speaker 6>they can launch, and that's once that satellite it's a
<v Speaker 6>little bit, it opens up and sends out a baby satellite,
<v Speaker 6>and then that satellite can open up and send out
<v Speaker 6>a grand baby, and that grand baby is a weapon
<v Speaker 6>that's designed to kill US satellites, and so US well,
<v Speaker 6>they understand, they understand the advantage that space provides our military.
<v Speaker 6>They don't like what they see and they know they
<v Speaker 6>can't beat us on the land, or on an air
<v Speaker 6>or on the sea unless they can take out our
<v Speaker 6>space cable. It's because space is a huge force multiplier
<v Speaker 6>for for our Department Defense and for our country, and
<v Speaker 6>so our purpose in the space force. We do not
<v Speaker 6>want to get into a conflict that either begins or
<v Speaker 6>extends into space. That's not what we want at all.
<v Speaker 6>We wanted to deter that from happening, and we think
<v Speaker 6>that if we can deter that from happening, then we
<v Speaker 6>have the opportunity to deter that from spilling over into
<v Speaker 6>other domains and keep more from happening. And so we
<v Speaker 6>come to work every day focused on protecting and defending
<v Speaker 6>those capabilities that would deny an opportunity for an adversary
<v Speaker 6>to think that they might be.
<v Speaker 3>Able to take that out real quick. Could you just
<v Speaker 3>tell that joke one more time for me?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Let's be honest.
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<v Speaker 3>Dull jag What is it about it?
<v Speaker 6>Because they're they're they're all full of themselves.
<v Speaker 3>There we go.
<v Speaker 6>Now we're talking to.
<v Speaker 3>Everyone's like, what are they laughing at?
<v Speaker 1>Okay, well there's laughing for the audience that's here.
<v Speaker 5>So I.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I don't have a room shot sound by.
<v Speaker 1>Yet well, speaking of room shots, we have to explain.
<v Speaker 6>How we met, how we met? Can I explain it?
<v Speaker 1>Yes? Please?
<v Speaker 3>So I get a question.
<v Speaker 6>Now I agree, So I think it's back in twenty seventeen,
<v Speaker 6>you were coming to Peterson Air Force Space where I
<v Speaker 6>was stationed to play at a music festival for the
<v Speaker 6>for the base. It was around around the Fourth of
<v Speaker 6>July weekend, and you were gracious enough to come do
<v Speaker 6>a performance. And you know, a few years before that,
<v Speaker 6>my kids we you know, we got the rock band
<v Speaker 6>game and I was the family drummer and it was literally,
<v Speaker 6>you know, hit the red drum, hit the green drum,
<v Speaker 6>hit the purple drum, and that was kind of my thing.
<v Speaker 6>But I after I did that, I was like, man,
<v Speaker 6>it'd be really cool to be a drummer. And so
<v Speaker 6>I went and I could do this. Yeah, I can
<v Speaker 6>hit the drum. And I went to the Air Force
<v Speaker 6>Band at Peterson. I say, hey, can you teach me
<v Speaker 6>how to play a song on the drums? And so
<v Speaker 6>they they A guy named Henry Dielmita is an incredible,
<v Speaker 6>incredible drummer, was in the h the Air Force Band.
<v Speaker 6>It got out and went and taught school at a
<v Speaker 6>Berkeley School of Music in Boston. I mean, just an incredible,
<v Speaker 6>incredible percussionists.
<v Speaker 9>Uh.
<v Speaker 6>He put clips on YouTube on just the basic beat.
<v Speaker 6>And so I sat at home with a knife and
<v Speaker 6>a fork and I practiced this basic beat, and then
<v Speaker 6>they brought me into the band and I got on
<v Speaker 6>a drum set and then I did that, and then
<v Speaker 6>they brought the band in and they played this one
<v Speaker 6>song that you know, they just started playing and I
<v Speaker 6>started doing that same beat the entire throughout the entire thing.
<v Speaker 6>And so every now and then when they would play
<v Speaker 6>a performance the one song, the song was I'm from
<v Speaker 6>the Country, and every time they play that song, they
<v Speaker 6>invite me up and I just played the basic boding. Well,
<v Speaker 6>then you were coming to town and they said, hey,
<v Speaker 6>would you like to play a song with play the
<v Speaker 6>drums with Thompson Square. And I was a big fan
<v Speaker 6>of your music. I listened to your music all the time,
<v Speaker 6>and so I went home and I had listened, got
<v Speaker 6>my iPhone out and listened, and I said, you know,
<v Speaker 6>I think I could learn Are you going to kiss
<v Speaker 6>me or not? It's I think I could do that.
<v Speaker 6>And so I went over to the Air Force Band
<v Speaker 6>and I said, hey, can you teach me this song?
<v Speaker 6>And so they the drummer got got the drum set
<v Speaker 6>out and put go pro cameras all around the drum
<v Speaker 6>set and filmed him playing Are you going to kiss
<v Speaker 6>me or not? And then I went home and I
<v Speaker 6>have a drum set and it was in front of
<v Speaker 6>the television, and I put that video up. And for
<v Speaker 6>three months, I told you, just for three months, I
<v Speaker 6>would listen on my iPhone and I would practice this
<v Speaker 6>song over and over and over again. And my poor wife, Molley,
<v Speaker 6>if he plays this song one more time.
<v Speaker 3>I hate those people and everything they stand for.
<v Speaker 6>And so so I show up. I show up, you know,
<v Speaker 6>three months goes by. I am ready, and I show
<v Speaker 6>up at the parade field where you're playing. There's about
<v Speaker 6>four or five thousand people that were there, and they
<v Speaker 6>said told me to show up at one o'clock for
<v Speaker 6>the sound check. And so I show up and Elton Charles,
<v Speaker 6>your drummer's setting up his drum set and he's meticulous,
<v Speaker 6>you know, tuning in the drums and setting it up.
<v Speaker 6>And I walk up and he says, hey, are you
<v Speaker 6>the guy playing with us? And I said I am,
<v Speaker 6>and he said have you been practicing? I said I have.
<v Speaker 6>I've been practicing for three months and he looks at me.
<v Speaker 6>Three months. I said yeah. He said, what have you
<v Speaker 6>been practicing with. I said, I've been listening to my
<v Speaker 6>iPhone and playing away and he said, man, he said,
<v Speaker 6>we have this track and we don't play the iPhone
<v Speaker 6>version and I looked at that. I'm like, you got
<v Speaker 6>to be kidding me, and so he uh, he said
<v Speaker 6>it's okay, I can teach you. And he started talking
<v Speaker 6>music terminology and I'm like, no, he's yes, he is.
<v Speaker 6>He went there he went, and so I said, listen, this,
<v Speaker 6>this is like hit the blue drum hit, the red
<v Speaker 6>drum hit, the this is not this is not music.
<v Speaker 6>This is you know, memorization and uh and I'm like,
<v Speaker 6>this isn't gonna work. And so then you both came
<v Speaker 6>up and he said I generally decided to have you
<v Speaker 6>play and I said, well, I'm really excited too, but
<v Speaker 6>but I don't think that's gonna happen. And he said
<v Speaker 6>why and he said, well, you apparently you got this
<v Speaker 6>new version of Are you Gonna Kiss Me or Not?
<v Speaker 6>That's not the one I've been our new track that
<v Speaker 6>this is not the one I've been practicing, and you said, oh,
<v Speaker 6>we'll just play the icephone version. I think, oh, thank goodness,
<v Speaker 6>because if I had a practice for three months and
<v Speaker 6>not have had that opportunity would have really been But
<v Speaker 6>I'll tell you it was the for nothing.
<v Speaker 3>You did that for nothing, the worst band in the
<v Speaker 3>history of music. Hate him but hashtag, But.
<v Speaker 6>I'll tell you it was a thrill. And in the
<v Speaker 6>big thrill for me was looking out of the crowd.
<v Speaker 6>And this wasn't about Jay Raymond. This was about the
<v Speaker 6>joy that you brought to a whole lot of people,
<v Speaker 6>a whole lot of people that that volunteered to serve
<v Speaker 6>their country and you really brighten their day. And just
<v Speaker 6>the joy that you bring to people with your music.
<v Speaker 6>I know you know this, but maybe you probably don't
<v Speaker 6>understand just how how impactful that is. And to be
<v Speaker 6>up there on stage watching you both perform, and and
<v Speaker 6>having your bass player right up next to me hitting
<v Speaker 6>helping me out, you know, so I wouldn't screw it up.
<v Speaker 6>And and Elton was there taking video of me, and
<v Speaker 6>and uh, I remember right after you, I think, three
<v Speaker 6>doors down, we're about to play. And I remember getting
<v Speaker 6>off the drums and that drummers have. Man, you rocked it.
<v Speaker 6>And I'm like, yes, well, if you only knew I
<v Speaker 6>just hit the purple drum and the green drumdrum. But
<v Speaker 6>it was a it was a it was a real
<v Speaker 6>career highlight. And again, thank you for thank you for
<v Speaker 6>doing that, thank you for helping out. Time you brag on.
<v Speaker 5>Us, it makes me feel strange, but that I mean,
<v Speaker 5>I'm thankful for that that moment because we became friends
<v Speaker 5>after that.
<v Speaker 3>We've stayed in contact this whole time with.
<v Speaker 5>Ice fishing with your families ice fishing place, which is
<v Speaker 5>a dream for my dad to do that with me,
<v Speaker 5>And it was a big moment for me, So thank
<v Speaker 5>you for that.
<v Speaker 10>But there is a.
<v Speaker 5>There's so many questions that I have and we really
<v Speaker 5>wanted to open We wanted to have the opportunity for
<v Speaker 5>our fans to to also ask some questions.
<v Speaker 3>And there there's a few.
<v Speaker 5>People who you obviously are rude, mean and just like
<v Speaker 5>but one question really stood out to me and and
<v Speaker 5>if you could shed any light on his question was
<v Speaker 5>when do you start building? When does construction start on
<v Speaker 5>the Death Star? This is a serious thing and I
<v Speaker 5>had the same I had the same thing. I was thinking,
<v Speaker 5>surely we have a death star in the plans.
<v Speaker 1>Actually we did have a serious question that's similar.
<v Speaker 3>He's going to answer the death star question first. Okay,
<v Speaker 3>don't cut me off now, I'm just kidding. I'm not.
<v Speaker 3>I wish there was a death star. My god, I
<v Speaker 3>wish there was a death start.
<v Speaker 1>That would be really cool. No, the real question is
<v Speaker 1>from Richard Barbie, and he asked, when will you build
<v Speaker 1>a permanent settlement on the Moon or another planet. Ye.
<v Speaker 6>So you know, NASA has has the goal of exploration
<v Speaker 6>and science, and they're you know, announced that they're going
<v Speaker 6>to try to get back to the Moon by twenty
<v Speaker 6>twenty four. Hopefully that'll happen a couple of years later.
<v Speaker 6>It's really an exciting time to be in our business,
<v Speaker 6>and in all phases that whether it's whether it's military space,
<v Speaker 6>which is what the Space Force does, whether it's civilian
<v Speaker 6>space that's what NASA does and that's all about scientific
<v Speaker 6>exploration and discovery, or whether it's commercial space and that's
<v Speaker 6>commercial companies that are that are launching rockets, are building
<v Speaker 6>satellites for commercial gain. In all sectors of that, there's
<v Speaker 6>a big explosion of opportunity. The one thing that there
<v Speaker 6>is one rules. When I told you that it was
<v Speaker 6>the wild Wild West, there was there's not a space
<v Speaker 6>treaty that was done back in the nineteen sixty eight
<v Speaker 6>that says you can't put a weapon of mass destruction
<v Speaker 6>in orbit in space. And the other thing is you
<v Speaker 6>can't put a military base on another celestial body, on
<v Speaker 6>another planet. And so that's not that's a treaty that
<v Speaker 6>we've all signed up to, and so there's we won't
<v Speaker 6>do that. It's it's it's spaces for everybody, and you
<v Speaker 6>can't go put a put a military base on that
<v Speaker 6>on those planets.
<v Speaker 1>Very cool. I had no idea that there was rules
<v Speaker 1>like that.
<v Speaker 3>So I have a question to digress a little bit.
<v Speaker 5>So we're talking about China, we're talking about Russia with
<v Speaker 5>these different satellites and you know, trying to destroy the
<v Speaker 5>American satellites and everything else. If they know that we're policing,
<v Speaker 5>If they know that we're policing the world and they're
<v Speaker 5>benefiting from it, what what's the what's the end game?
<v Speaker 5>What what's what's what's the win on destroying what we're doing?
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, Well, so I think the win for all of
<v Speaker 6>us is to keep a domain that's safe for all
<v Speaker 6>for everybody to use, and that's our goal.
<v Speaker 5>We are I mean, like, what's the win for someone
<v Speaker 5>who's trying to destroy our satellites and although.
<v Speaker 6>Win for them if they their view is if they
<v Speaker 6>destroy our satellites, then they hurt our military capability and
<v Speaker 6>and therefore if if there's something that's that again, we
<v Speaker 6>don't want this to happen. We do not want to
<v Speaker 6>get into a conflict that begins to extent in the space.
<v Speaker 6>We want to deter that. But if deterrence were to fail,
<v Speaker 6>I'm convinced that it's going to begin in space, space
<v Speaker 6>and cyber and their thought is if they can do that,
<v Speaker 6>then they'll have more success.
<v Speaker 5>It's just it's it's so crazy to me that we're
<v Speaker 5>in We're in the year twenty twenty four now.
<v Speaker 3>And and we're still trying to It's just such a macho,
<v Speaker 3>a global macho situation that we were still in.
<v Speaker 5>It's like you would think at this point, I guess
<v Speaker 5>I'm having a hard time expressing myself because it's like
<v Speaker 5>you continually have to be in the gym proverbally and listen,
<v Speaker 5>look at being stronger than the next guy, stronger than
<v Speaker 5>the next guy, because you can't let up, because if
<v Speaker 5>we let up and go, because there's a lot of
<v Speaker 5>people out there that like, we don't need space force,
<v Speaker 5>we don't need set we don't need missiles, we don't
<v Speaker 5>need nukes, we don't need guns, we don't need.
<v Speaker 3>Armies, we don't need any of this stuff. We just
<v Speaker 3>to be peaceful.
<v Speaker 5>But what I think they don't stand is the rest
<v Speaker 5>of the world doesn't feel that way, and the rest
<v Speaker 5>of the world, especially our enemies or enemies of the world,
<v Speaker 5>not just us, but I think if there enemy of us,
<v Speaker 5>they're a global situation.
<v Speaker 6>But it's like.
<v Speaker 5>They're looking at this, this global situation to win and
<v Speaker 5>like you can't ever you have to be stronger than
<v Speaker 5>the next guy.
<v Speaker 3>You can't.
<v Speaker 5>Like if you could push a button and all the weapons,
<v Speaker 5>all the nukes, all the devastating things could be gone
<v Speaker 5>at once, that would be one thing, but there's always
<v Speaker 5>going to be one guy that's going to have it,
<v Speaker 5>and you know, for the world domination or whatever it is.
<v Speaker 5>It just seems so crazy to me at this point
<v Speaker 5>in our life and our society and what we've learned
<v Speaker 5>in the past, which is hardly anything because we're repeating
<v Speaker 5>it over and over again, all the hatred and the
<v Speaker 5>fighting and everything else.
<v Speaker 3>People who say we don't need this.
<v Speaker 5>I just want you to realize that I'm sitting across
<v Speaker 5>the table from a regular guy that just happens to
<v Speaker 5>be responsible for your safety and someone who's going don't
<v Speaker 5>need this in it. And it's like I'm sitting here
<v Speaker 5>with the guy who is giving you the freedom to
<v Speaker 5>not worry about it and complain about it, and they
<v Speaker 5>don't understand it was which it really just takes me. Obviously,
<v Speaker 5>they don't understand. They don't want to educate themselves, they
<v Speaker 5>don't want to read about it, they don't want to
<v Speaker 5>know why you guys do what you do.
<v Speaker 3>And it's not just a military thing. It's a it's
<v Speaker 3>a it's a it's it's humanity.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I think it's one of those out of sight,
<v Speaker 1>out of mind sort of thing, you know what I mean.
<v Speaker 6>It's really hard to understand. It's just it's just hard.
<v Speaker 6>It's like I said, you can't see it. It's things
<v Speaker 6>are going in space, I mean, the vastness of space.
<v Speaker 6>Just think how how much volume of space is up there,
<v Speaker 6>and and just think how fast things are are happening.
<v Speaker 6>Just to stand space. So it's really hard. It's not
<v Speaker 6>easy to understand.
<v Speaker 1>And we have someone here who probably understands it more
<v Speaker 1>than we do.
<v Speaker 11>We do.
<v Speaker 1>We actually have an astronaut here tonight, which is insane.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for bringing your friend Nick here.
<v Speaker 6>I bring I bring Nick with me whenever I go,
<v Speaker 6>especially when I got card. You know, it's it's yeah,
<v Speaker 6>he is the cool card, and it's it's you know,
<v Speaker 6>when you actually have been a satellite like he has
<v Speaker 6>been in space, uh, living on the International Space Station
<v Speaker 6>for six months, about six months and uh, and then
<v Speaker 6>also doing a couple of space walks outside of the
<v Speaker 6>space station. He's actually been a satellite. He's been in
<v Speaker 6>that domain. Uh. There's not many people that have an
<v Speaker 6>opportunity to do that. So it's an incredible opportunity for
<v Speaker 6>us to have him on our team. And can he
<v Speaker 6>can really help. He really helps us put things into context.
<v Speaker 6>He really helps inspire youth of America. You know, I
<v Speaker 6>remember Keith for when I was a little boy, my
<v Speaker 6>dad was a teacher at West Point, and I remember
<v Speaker 6>as if it was yesterday, sitting on sitting in my
<v Speaker 6>living room on my living room for looking at a
<v Speaker 6>television screen and watching Man walk on the moon. And
<v Speaker 6>I remember getting up off the floor and right and
<v Speaker 6>back of me was our dining room with a little
<v Speaker 6>table and building an Apollo rocket. That's what inspired the
<v Speaker 6>youth of the day, I will tell you today, with
<v Speaker 6>all that's going on in space, that same, that same
<v Speaker 6>there's kids today being inspired for it. And that's that's
<v Speaker 6>why I was here in Tennessee. I had an opportunity
<v Speaker 6>today to talk to the Tennis Tennessee STEM Innovation Network,
<v Speaker 6>a group of seven hundred educators that are teaching young
<v Speaker 6>children about science and technology and engineering and math. Had
<v Speaker 6>an opportunity to visit Vanderbilt University and talked to some
<v Speaker 6>really smart people doing some things that would be of
<v Speaker 6>value to us. Went over to Tennessee State, met with
<v Speaker 6>the ROTC unit that's there and the leadership of that
<v Speaker 6>school as well. We have a great opportunity in our
<v Speaker 6>nation to harness space for a great advantage, and I
<v Speaker 6>really believe in all segments of space again, military, civil,
<v Speaker 6>NASA or commercial. It's it's a great thing for a country.
<v Speaker 3>I freaked out so much right now, I'm really freaked out.
<v Speaker 1>I want to answer really exist right, It's one of
<v Speaker 1>those things when you're growing up.
<v Speaker 5>You're a kid and you know, And I want to
<v Speaker 5>get Nick up here in a second, if he'll, if
<v Speaker 5>he'll talk to us. He's a little bit too I
<v Speaker 5>would if I wasn't asked, I'd be like, I'm not
<v Speaker 5>talking to anybody.
<v Speaker 3>I'm not doing it.
<v Speaker 5>I do what I want to do because I'm cooler
<v Speaker 5>than all of you guys. I want to touch on
<v Speaker 5>a couple other questions from our fans and our listeners
<v Speaker 5>out there.
<v Speaker 1>There is one constant question that I noticed.
<v Speaker 3>Well, they can we talk about aliens? Are you guys?
<v Speaker 5>Are you guys looking for aliens? What's going on with
<v Speaker 5>the aliens? Are there aliens? Are they friends? I've seen
<v Speaker 5>more and more of UFO staff.
<v Speaker 6>There's a lot of UFO stuff in the news today.
<v Speaker 3>It's all over the place.
<v Speaker 6>You know, Nick lived in space, so it might be
<v Speaker 6>better better to ask Nick about aliens when he comes
<v Speaker 6>up here. All right, I'll leave that one for Nick. Yeah,
<v Speaker 6>there's a question that I see who is your Space
<v Speaker 6>hero growing up?
<v Speaker 3>As I mentioned, Uh, yeah, for me, it was the
<v Speaker 3>Polo crew in Preston Smith.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, uh, Neil Armstrong and his crew for you know,
<v Speaker 6>walking on the Moon, and that that inspired inspired a
<v Speaker 6>generation of folks that wanted to come into space. And
<v Speaker 6>so that was that was clearly the space hero for
<v Speaker 6>for me and probably a generation of Americans, young Americans
<v Speaker 6>that are that are involved in space.
<v Speaker 5>What do you think Space Force looks like two hundred
<v Speaker 5>years now? I know you guys are planning and you're
<v Speaker 5>building that for an right now, but what does it
<v Speaker 5>look like like even even short term, like a couple
<v Speaker 5>of decades to be ond?
<v Speaker 6>I think I think for the first ten years or so,
<v Speaker 6>we you know, we're actively building the service. We've been
<v Speaker 6>up for seventeen months. We've made incredible progress. We've redesigned
<v Speaker 6>the entire National Security Space Organization, we have handpicked. By
<v Speaker 6>the end of the summer, we'll have about eight thousand
<v Speaker 6>active duty members of the Space Force. Those active duty
<v Speaker 6>members are called guardians. We've got about an equal number
<v Speaker 6>of civilians that are also as part of our force.
<v Speaker 6>We've got a great problem and that we have way
<v Speaker 6>more people knocking on a door that want to come
<v Speaker 6>into into our business than we have room force. That
<v Speaker 6>we're being very very selective. Space is really hard. I mean,
<v Speaker 6>it's it is tough work. And that's why the be smart.
<v Speaker 6>You have to be smart, and that's why or or no,
<v Speaker 6>or if you're like me, you surround yourself with with
<v Speaker 6>smart people. But that's why that the to the academia
<v Speaker 6>today is so important to start attracting that talent when
<v Speaker 6>they're at young ages and then igniting their passion for
<v Speaker 6>space and so when then they go through school and
<v Speaker 6>then college, they want to come work in that business.
<v Speaker 3>Well at least.
<v Speaker 5>I mean, one question is what does my twelve year
<v Speaker 5>old son need to do to get into space force
<v Speaker 5>when he's twenty.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, So I would tell you your son to follow
<v Speaker 6>his dreams into what he's passionate about. And I think
<v Speaker 6>just as and you, you both would say this that
<v Speaker 6>if you want to be good at something, you do
<v Speaker 6>something you love. I would also say, do good in school.
<v Speaker 6>And to steal a line from my favorite astronaut who's
<v Speaker 6>sitting here with us, he one time said to a
<v Speaker 6>young kid, don't ever stop asking questions. Always be inquisitive, right,
<v Speaker 6>And I think that's also another thing that I'd recommend
<v Speaker 6>always being because of keep asking questions, keep doing well
<v Speaker 6>in school and you too can be an astronaut. The
<v Speaker 6>Tennessee Stem Innovation Network has a motto from Kindergarten to
<v Speaker 6>job two jobs, and what I told them was it
<v Speaker 6>should be from kindergarten to space, because if you do
<v Speaker 6>well in school, you can do cool things. I mean,
<v Speaker 6>you can do really cool things. Whether you want to
<v Speaker 6>come into military and do cool things, whether you want
<v Speaker 6>to go to NASA and do cool things, or whether
<v Speaker 6>you want to work for commercial industry. There's a lot
<v Speaker 6>of opportunities here in space and and follow your passion.
<v Speaker 6>Always be inquisitive and do well in school.
<v Speaker 5>That's that's good advice for a lot of different things,
<v Speaker 5>for sure. So I want to I want to digress
<v Speaker 5>a little bit because one of the I want to
<v Speaker 5>go back to Tully for a second, because because Tully
<v Speaker 5>Tully was truly one of the most amazing experiences of
<v Speaker 5>my life. And as a songwriter, I wanted to leave
<v Speaker 5>Tully with a little bit of keeper. You know, he
<v Speaker 5>just won legal behind and so one of the coolest
<v Speaker 5>things that and we we we've won some awards and
<v Speaker 5>we've done some things. But there are some lyrics that
<v Speaker 5>I wrote about a bar called the Tow into the
<v Speaker 5>Greenland and I wrote this song as.
<v Speaker 3>The opening acts. Well, remind me his name. I'm so
<v Speaker 3>sorry I forgot it.
<v Speaker 6>So we had an airman that was from Nashville, that's right,
<v Speaker 6>and his name is Jamie Teaching. And Jamie was a
<v Speaker 6>country music writer, songwriter and a very accomplished song was
<v Speaker 6>successful and he he after nine to eleven, he decided
<v Speaker 6>he wanted to join the military and service country. And
<v Speaker 6>so he came into the he came into the into
<v Speaker 6>the Space Force, or into the Air Force and played
<v Speaker 6>in the Air Force band and uh and he he
<v Speaker 6>came up with us and did did the opening. Jamie's
<v Speaker 6>has sense uh left the Air Force is now back
<v Speaker 6>in Nashville, but he served his country for four years.
<v Speaker 3>And we need to get his connection with Yeah, he's
<v Speaker 3>a he's a.
<v Speaker 6>Really good man and he's a great, great songwriter. But
<v Speaker 6>so he kicked it off and then then you came up.
<v Speaker 6>And you know, one of the one of the questions
<v Speaker 6>that I saw from one of your from one of
<v Speaker 6>the questions that one of your followers had on Facebook
<v Speaker 6>was you know, what's what's the biggest challenge you have
<v Speaker 6>building the Space Force? The biggest challenge it reminded me
<v Speaker 6>of of that song that you sing right and and
<v Speaker 6>the way I would say that the biggest challenge is
<v Speaker 6>we're driving the cars. We're building it, and so we're
<v Speaker 6>building the space force. But it's not like we could
<v Speaker 6>stop providing GPS for the world or missile warning for
<v Speaker 6>the world, or satellite communications for the world. We have
<v Speaker 6>to build this and keep all that up without missing
<v Speaker 6>a beat, and to do great analogy. And so the
<v Speaker 6>analogy that I saw was when you were up at
<v Speaker 6>Tully and you said, Hey, let me I'm going to
<v Speaker 6>step out for a minute. And then so you stepped
<v Speaker 6>out for a minute and he came back. He came back,
<v Speaker 6>and you got the smile on your face and it
<v Speaker 6>could tell something was up. And then you get up
<v Speaker 6>on stage and the last song you said was, Hey,
<v Speaker 6>I've got something that I just wrote for you before
<v Speaker 6>before we believe I'd like to end with this. And
<v Speaker 6>if you recall, Uh, Shauna, you sat there and held
<v Speaker 6>the iPhone up with the lyrics right uh, and you
<v Speaker 6>were you were saying, Hey, it's gonna take me a
<v Speaker 6>little bit because I don't know what key this is in.
<v Speaker 6>I don't even trying to figure this out and you
<v Speaker 6>were trying to drive the car. Just write the song
<v Speaker 6>when you were singing.
<v Speaker 3>It, and so that's creating.
<v Speaker 5>This is equally as important as space for us being constructed.
<v Speaker 5>Uh So I wanted to write a song. I want
<v Speaker 5>to we don't want to talk about all facts.
<v Speaker 3>This has some fun.
<v Speaker 5>I was writing, I wanted to write a song about Tooley,
<v Speaker 5>And what do you say about Tooley? You know it's cold,
<v Speaker 5>you know, what are you gonna say? But it's a songwriter,
<v Speaker 5>they say all you need is a hook, you know,
<v Speaker 5>to start the whole process.
<v Speaker 3>And so I have to give credit where credits due.
<v Speaker 3>My wife said, I was like, I can't wait.
<v Speaker 12>You know.
<v Speaker 5>We were talking about it and she was like, I
<v Speaker 5>can't wait till Lee, you know, like to leave, you know,
<v Speaker 5>because it's so freaking cold here. So I want to
<v Speaker 5>play this song in its entirety because A I have
<v Speaker 5>to pee and this is going to lot me the
<v Speaker 5>time to do that. And this is so this is
<v Speaker 5>what happened. So we were at Tuley Greenland.
<v Speaker 8>General.
<v Speaker 5>Right now, I think we're all good, and so this
<v Speaker 5>song was written as we were being introduced. I put
<v Speaker 5>the final touches on this song and it's so hilarious
<v Speaker 5>because you hear jay l He's video and then you
<v Speaker 5>can hear him laughing. So we're gonna We're gonna listen,
<v Speaker 5>this is what happened.
<v Speaker 11>And it was.
<v Speaker 3>Just to get a little serious.
<v Speaker 5>It wasn't just a song for me. It was like,
<v Speaker 5>I know, no one's doing that at that moment in time.
<v Speaker 5>No one's writing a song for those people who were
<v Speaker 5>there at that time, which they were from away from
<v Speaker 5>their families. It's freezing cold, it's dark out, there's freaking
<v Speaker 5>polar bears, you know, peeing on your front porch, you know,
<v Speaker 5>all of the it's just weird, right, And so to
<v Speaker 5>give them, and it was just a small room of
<v Speaker 5>small gathering to give them just a little bit of
<v Speaker 5>laughter and everything else. It meant I'm telling you, man,
<v Speaker 5>it meant the world to me. And the fact that
<v Speaker 5>Molly wrote these lyrics out and they're in the toe
<v Speaker 5>in Greenland a piece of us.
<v Speaker 3>It's unbelievable. Man, it's so cool. So this is you
<v Speaker 3>guys are gonna hear exactly what happened at the exact
<v Speaker 3>same time. Hang on, here goes.
<v Speaker 6>This song is called.
<v Speaker 3>I Can't Wait to Lead.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know why I just touched. Now almost serve
<v Speaker 4>my country proud. This is rolls and grown, so I
<v Speaker 4>can't wait to leave. I'll get serious. My toes are
<v Speaker 4>froz and my nuts are cool, and I gotta round,
<v Speaker 4>So I can't wait.
<v Speaker 1>To leave.
<v Speaker 12>Poor green lom Green lam Why are you live green,
<v Speaker 12>poor green lacengreen Lamb.
<v Speaker 13>Somebody lied to me. We're airing on the space, but
<v Speaker 13>we can't be love face. Can we serve in a
<v Speaker 13>warmer place?
<v Speaker 1>I can't away.
<v Speaker 10>They've got polar bears, so many polar bears, those gods
<v Speaker 10>damn polar bears.
<v Speaker 6>And I came away to me.
<v Speaker 4>Who breathe land, Breathe loud while you and I agree,
<v Speaker 4>poor lad Lamb, somebody lies to me. But the best
<v Speaker 4>place to go.
<v Speaker 8>Here's the place called the toad. But the girl population
<v Speaker 8>is so damn lord, I can't wave me. They're giving
<v Speaker 8>me a happy light because here it is always the nights,
<v Speaker 8>and man that sitious day light.
<v Speaker 3>So I can wait leave.
<v Speaker 2>Breath loud, breath loud, while you and not bring bad
<v Speaker 2>land bread land.
<v Speaker 5>Somebody freaking live to me, it's the most important person
<v Speaker 5>I hear.
<v Speaker 4>Fifteen gigs a month. That's its just stand up.
<v Speaker 6>So say, can you hook us up.
<v Speaker 3>When you leave to me?
<v Speaker 4>While agreed?
<v Speaker 9>Somebody lies?
<v Speaker 1>That was it, man, That brought back some great memories.
<v Speaker 12>It did.
<v Speaker 1>That was so much fun.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that was crazy. That was That was one of
<v Speaker 3>the coolest moment.
<v Speaker 1>It's like just acoustic there with I don't know one
<v Speaker 1>hundred people. Maybe it was. It was a really cool night.
<v Speaker 3>So one of the questions we had was why they
<v Speaker 3>were like, this is the guy in his basement.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, paint the picture. He's in his basement eating cheetos,
<v Speaker 5>He's in his gaming chair. Uh, his mom's making pizza rolls.
<v Speaker 3>And this guy's going.
<v Speaker 5>Space force needs to be dissolved to NASA, and I'm
<v Speaker 5>sure he has a great great facts to back this up.
<v Speaker 5>So who we have here tonight? This is this is crazy.
<v Speaker 5>So we broke bread with all these wonderful people to night.
<v Speaker 5>So we got we got Jay here, and then we
<v Speaker 5>have Nick Haig, who you were just on you were
<v Speaker 5>in the space station. He was six hundred pounds when
<v Speaker 5>he went up and he's like a Bucco five.
<v Speaker 6>Now the space is hard on you.
<v Speaker 1>So how long have you been back? Like, how long
<v Speaker 1>ago was this, Uh.
<v Speaker 11>It seems like a lot longer. The COVID year seemed
<v Speaker 11>to take a toll on everybody, right, But it's been
<v Speaker 11>two years almost two years now. Yeah, yeah, so I'm
<v Speaker 11>back to normal.
<v Speaker 1>I was gonna that was my next question. It's like,
<v Speaker 1>how long does it take to feel normal again? With gravity?
<v Speaker 11>And so we the space station, we've been up there
<v Speaker 11>with people inhabiting it for almost two decades straight now,
<v Speaker 11>and so we've we've figured out how to stay strong,
<v Speaker 11>We've figured out how to try to counteract all those
<v Speaker 11>negative effects that space can have on your body. And
<v Speaker 11>so when when I got back, I did a they
<v Speaker 11>do you're a test, your a guinea pig, right, So
<v Speaker 11>they do tests before you launch, and they do tests
<v Speaker 11>when you get back. And so I did a strength
<v Speaker 11>test when I got back about seven days after and
<v Speaker 11>I was stronger after I landed than when I took off,
<v Speaker 11>because we work out every day up there, lifting weights, running, cycling,
<v Speaker 11>and all of that is to counteract the fact that
<v Speaker 11>you float all day every day.
<v Speaker 1>There's no resistance.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, so how much you bench in space, I've been
<v Speaker 5>seventeen hundred pounds in.
<v Speaker 3>Space in space is very small in your t shirt.
<v Speaker 11>In space, you can take a thousand pound object and
<v Speaker 11>you can push it with one finger.
<v Speaker 3>It's crazy, so crazy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, sorry, we're geeking out.
<v Speaker 5>This is going to be a four hour podcast. People
<v Speaker 5>are like, can we please go home? There's more cake
<v Speaker 5>up there by the way.
<v Speaker 1>What's the most common question that people ask you?
<v Speaker 6>Have you ever seen aliens?
<v Speaker 8>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>I figured yeah, in like what happens with the PA
<v Speaker 1>P so.
<v Speaker 6>I can take them in reverse order. So the PA.
<v Speaker 11>Launching stuff into space is really expensive, and water weighs
<v Speaker 11>a lot, and so we try to recycle everything. And
<v Speaker 11>I mentioned that we work out, so we run on
<v Speaker 11>the treadmill, and while you're running on the treadmill, you're sweating,
<v Speaker 11>and all that sweat goes into the air. And we've
<v Speaker 11>got air conditioners that condense the moisture in the air,
<v Speaker 11>the humidity, and they capture it and they put it
<v Speaker 11>into our water purification system and then turn it into
<v Speaker 11>clean drinking water and we use it. We do the
<v Speaker 11>same thing with our urine. We capture the urine, we
<v Speaker 11>process it, and we turn it into clean drinking water.
<v Speaker 11>And here at our house, we use a sock and
<v Speaker 11>we just have a sock. But it's pretty much to say.
<v Speaker 11>It sounds very scientific, so I'd stick with it.
<v Speaker 1>So obviously water is very important to as humans. What
<v Speaker 1>happens if that filtration system goes a miss. Yeah, there's
<v Speaker 1>somebody there that is like a pro at fixing that right. Well,
<v Speaker 1>I mean you can't call he'ler plumbing is like no.
<v Speaker 6>I mean that you're you're the crew.
<v Speaker 11>So there's experts on the ground that know that system
<v Speaker 11>inside and out, and they can give you procedures and
<v Speaker 11>they can talk to you on the radio, but ultimately
<v Speaker 11>you've got to be the one that can fix it.
<v Speaker 11>We do keep reserves on board so that if if
<v Speaker 11>the machine, if the machine breaks, then now I'm drinking
<v Speaker 11>out of water bags and I've got six months worth
<v Speaker 11>of water to be able.
<v Speaker 5>To survive up there before you're going straight p Yeah,
<v Speaker 5>no you don't. I'm coming home, coming home right now.
<v Speaker 6>At that point, you cash it in. You just hop
<v Speaker 6>in the capsule and come back home.
<v Speaker 1>What was the most surprising thing about space to you
<v Speaker 1>that you were just your mind was just like blown.
<v Speaker 6>How adaptable the human body is. Yeah, so you think.
<v Speaker 11>You kind of focus on the motion sickness aspect of
<v Speaker 11>adjusting to space, and that goes away pretty fast in
<v Speaker 11>a few days. But the things you don't think about
<v Speaker 11>are just like the way your brain processes information. Your
<v Speaker 11>inner ear. You have crystals that on the ground will
<v Speaker 11>settle on top of little hairirs inside your inner ear,
<v Speaker 11>and that tells you which way is down up there
<v Speaker 11>they don't, and so it sends these mixed signals to
<v Speaker 11>your mind, and your mind over the course of a
<v Speaker 11>few days, just stops listening to your inner ear, and
<v Speaker 11>you use visual cues to navigate and figure out which
<v Speaker 11>ways up and which ways down. Your mind is constantly
<v Speaker 11>predicting the environment around you, and so if you throw
<v Speaker 11>something down here on the ground, your mind knows where
<v Speaker 11>it's going to go beforehand.
<v Speaker 6>You know. That's how a quarterback can lead a wide
<v Speaker 6>receiver with a pass on orbit.
<v Speaker 11>For a while, your mind is still predicting gravity to
<v Speaker 11>have an effect. But you know, after I think, I think,
<v Speaker 11>I told my wife at about the four month point,
<v Speaker 11>everything had shifted where I expected everything to float. And
<v Speaker 11>so then when I got back down on the ground,
<v Speaker 11>I distinctly remember within the first few days I was,
<v Speaker 11>you know, putting a T shirt on, and so I
<v Speaker 11>took off a sweatshirt and I threw it on the bed,
<v Speaker 11>and it looked like the sweatshirt weighed five hundred pounds
<v Speaker 11>because of the trajectory it took. In my mind thought
<v Speaker 11>it should float more. And so just the way you
<v Speaker 11>perceive the world around you. You know, I'm middle aged, right,
<v Speaker 11>I figured, you know, think the die is pretty much cast,
<v Speaker 11>and that's completely incorrect. You are constantly changing and adapting
<v Speaker 11>to everything you expose yourself to, whether it's mentally or physically,
<v Speaker 11>and so the human body is so adaptable.
<v Speaker 1>Just insane.
<v Speaker 5>Actually, I would love to have you come back and
<v Speaker 5>just do because it's so interesting. We could literally between
<v Speaker 5>the two of you, guys, we could do this to
<v Speaker 5>the morning.
<v Speaker 6>You know.
<v Speaker 5>But in terms of in terms of space force, what's
<v Speaker 5>why should it not be the same thing as NASA?
<v Speaker 5>Why should they be separate entities? As if like this
<v Speaker 5>gentleman suggested that it needs to be rolled up into
<v Speaker 5>into one thing.
<v Speaker 11>They're very distinct missions when you think about it, and
<v Speaker 11>and and when you look at those missions, I think
<v Speaker 11>there's a very clear distinction about why you'd want to
<v Speaker 11>keep one not military and one would be military. And
<v Speaker 11>so the defense of our country, the defense of of
<v Speaker 11>the you know, this basically preserving the stability of the
<v Speaker 11>space domain that provides the umbrella for us to have
<v Speaker 11>a better life, for for NASA to be able to
<v Speaker 11>do that civil mission where you're out there doing science
<v Speaker 11>and you're answering questions and you're you're trying to figure
<v Speaker 11>out how to make life on the ground better for humanity,
<v Speaker 11>and you're able to do that in an international fashion.
<v Speaker 11>One of the things that I found most rewarding about
<v Speaker 11>my time on orbit was the fact that I was
<v Speaker 11>part of an international crew. My crewmates were an Italian astronaut,
<v Speaker 11>they were a Canadian astronaut, it was Russian cosmonauts uh
<v Speaker 11>and and and being able to work together in such
<v Speaker 11>a positive way to be be a way to it
<v Speaker 11>just shows you the power of exploring space. Uh and
<v Speaker 11>and how that can bring us together.
<v Speaker 6>I love you that that same question. When you travel,
<v Speaker 6>you fly in a commercial airliner. Air Force has air
<v Speaker 6>planes as well. Why don't we just cut the Air
<v Speaker 6>Force out and we'll just apply on United It's a
<v Speaker 6>different mission, right is. The Space Force is an armed service.
<v Speaker 6>It's meant to protect and defend and to allow NASA
<v Speaker 6>and commercial industry and in every human to reap the
<v Speaker 6>benefits of that. And so it's just a complete different
<v Speaker 6>mission set. Having said that, we work very closely with NASA.
<v Speaker 6>In fact, Nick is a Space Force kernel and we
<v Speaker 6>give Nick to NASA to act to serve as a
<v Speaker 6>NASA astronaut. We we operate launch ranges and when NASA
<v Speaker 6>when when Nick's counterparts launched into the International Space Station
<v Speaker 6>from from Florida, they launch off of our range, the
<v Speaker 6>Space Force range, so we can conduct that launch safely.
<v Speaker 6>We we train, We developed training things together because we
<v Speaker 6>both operate in that same domain. We we talked earlier
<v Speaker 6>about norms of behavior. NASA wants to have norms of
<v Speaker 6>behavior as well, so we're working with NASA to come
<v Speaker 6>up with norms of behavior. So there's there's a lot
<v Speaker 6>of things that we do together because we operate in
<v Speaker 6>that same domain. The Space Force protects International Space Station
<v Speaker 6>and the astronauts that are on space. I talked about,
<v Speaker 6>you know, tracking all those objects. We warn the International
<v Speaker 6>Space Station as well, and it's not frequent, but it's
<v Speaker 6>not infrequent either where the International Space Station has to
<v Speaker 6>maneuver to keep from hitting a piece of debris. And
<v Speaker 6>so we have a very close partnership with NASA. But
<v Speaker 6>it's two separate distinct missions and it's it's both are
<v Speaker 6>both are very important for our country.
<v Speaker 1>So we just recently had some debris this fell into
<v Speaker 1>I forgive me for not knowing enough information about this,
<v Speaker 1>but it was quite a large piece of debris that
<v Speaker 1>came down from maybe China or something. Is that something
<v Speaker 1>that space force would try to take care of before
<v Speaker 1>it it injured someone, you know.
<v Speaker 6>So what we track all that and so we track
<v Speaker 6>all those objects. This was a rocket body that was
<v Speaker 6>used to launch capability into space for China, and then
<v Speaker 6>that rocket body came down. It was a big rocket body,
<v Speaker 6>and so what was concerning was the size of it.
<v Speaker 6>And the thought was it because of its size, it
<v Speaker 6>might survive pieces of it might survive re entry and
<v Speaker 6>potentially land on the surface of the Earth. You know,
<v Speaker 6>the Earth is the vast majority of Earth is water,
<v Speaker 6>and the vast majority of these things come down in
<v Speaker 6>the ocean and they're no threat. But the size of
<v Speaker 6>this was significant. We tracked that and we track it
<v Speaker 6>very very closely, and we make predictions on when it
<v Speaker 6>will re enter. And the challenge though is we talked
<v Speaker 6>about objectsally going seventeen five hundred miles an hour, and
<v Speaker 6>so it's an art not an exact science on exactly
<v Speaker 6>when that's gonna re enter. We get we were the
<v Speaker 6>best in the world at tracking it, but if we're
<v Speaker 6>off by just a minute or so, something going seventeen
<v Speaker 6>five hundred miles an hour a minute later is a
<v Speaker 6>significant difference. So our job on that is to track
<v Speaker 6>and we have great analytical tools to determine exactly when
<v Speaker 6>we think that's gonna re enter, and we we track
<v Speaker 6>it all the time as it gets close, so we
<v Speaker 6>can refine that and then provide warning.
<v Speaker 5>Right because I think people automatically think, well, we've got
<v Speaker 5>space for us. You guys are just gonna zap it
<v Speaker 5>just is, And that's what we're trying to do right
<v Speaker 5>now is educate more than inform and educate people on
<v Speaker 5>what you guys are doing. But it's like we have
<v Speaker 5>space force, oll, they should be able to just zap
<v Speaker 5>that rocket out of the sky and vapor you know,
<v Speaker 5>it's none Like you said, it's.
<v Speaker 6>Exactly the risk of this was very very very low,
<v Speaker 6>very low.
<v Speaker 3>It's so just answer their question.
<v Speaker 5>You guys knew about it absolutely so was going and
<v Speaker 5>everything else, and that's where they were.
<v Speaker 6>That's right. We were tracking it. We were tracking it
<v Speaker 6>and providing information to the globe on where it is.
<v Speaker 6>Us Space Command has that mission. The Space Force operates
<v Speaker 6>all those capabilities, and then we provide that to Space
<v Speaker 6>Command and they provide warning to the world. We're the
<v Speaker 6>best in the world of that. We have sensors all
<v Speaker 6>over the globe. You saw the radar up at tully Greenland.
<v Speaker 6>It also tracks objects that are in space. We have
<v Speaker 6>that all over the globe. We use commercial sensors now
<v Speaker 6>more than ever to help us as well. It's a
<v Speaker 6>big data problem. If you think about space, unless you're
<v Speaker 6>Nick or his fellow astronauts, there's nobody that lives in
<v Speaker 6>that domain. You experience that domain with data, and so
<v Speaker 6>we collect all that data, put all the analysis on
<v Speaker 6>that data to keep not just the domain safe, but
<v Speaker 6>help keep our world safe as well.
<v Speaker 1>Nick, what was the hardest part of being in the
<v Speaker 1>space station for six months?
<v Speaker 5>Dude, It's weird, man, I'm just gonna tell you, it's
<v Speaker 5>freaking weird. You're sitting here across from me and this
<v Speaker 5>guy was like, you know, like peanut in space. And
<v Speaker 5>now he's here at our house having shrimp.
<v Speaker 11>Yes, and seven months of drinking coffee and turning it
<v Speaker 11>into the next to these coffee coffee.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, mister coffee is someone the changes filter. This thing
<v Speaker 5>tastes a little bit like thee I'm gonna be honest
<v Speaker 5>with you, but it I asked him a question, go ahead,
<v Speaker 5>I have a million, but go ahead.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah.
<v Speaker 8>You know.
<v Speaker 11>So you guys talked a lot about Tully and and
<v Speaker 11>the separation, and so I think it's very similar in
<v Speaker 11>that it's the separation from family and loved ones for
<v Speaker 11>that period of time. Inside the station, the habitable volume
<v Speaker 11>is about the same size as a five bedroom, six
<v Speaker 11>bedroom home.
<v Speaker 6>Oh wow, So it's it's pretty spacious.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 11>And and for a period of time I had five
<v Speaker 11>other crewmates and it was cozy. When we went down
<v Speaker 11>to three crewmates, then it almost seemed lonely because you
<v Speaker 11>could go almost an entire day and not see another
<v Speaker 11>human because we're so busy working and and and.
<v Speaker 6>And so it changes.
<v Speaker 11>But but the constant and all that is just trying
<v Speaker 11>to stay in touch with the family that life goes
<v Speaker 11>on on on the ground, and so being able to
<v Speaker 11>call and being able to do video chats on the
<v Speaker 11>on the weekends. There's connectivity, but you're just separated. And
<v Speaker 11>so that that's a challenge, and that's a challenge that
<v Speaker 11>all the service members.
<v Speaker 1>So General Raymond shared with this that you did it.
<v Speaker 1>You actually did a spacewalk.
<v Speaker 6>I did. I did three. I did three while I
<v Speaker 6>was up there.
<v Speaker 5>So so just take me there for just a different
<v Speaker 5>level of nuts man like, like, that's that nuts crazy?
<v Speaker 1>Right before you lift the hatch, is it a hatch?
<v Speaker 3>Is that what you do?
<v Speaker 6>It's a hatch.
<v Speaker 11>So so we get into the airlock, they shut one hatch,
<v Speaker 11>we let all the air out. We actually pump it
<v Speaker 11>out so the back end of the station so we
<v Speaker 11>don't lose the air because we don't want to have.
<v Speaker 1>To actually having a hard time breathing right now.
<v Speaker 11>And then and then you open the hatch and you
<v Speaker 11>look down and two hundred and fifty miles below is
<v Speaker 11>the Earth and you can see clouds and you when
<v Speaker 11>you fly over northern Africa, you can see sand dunes,
<v Speaker 11>you can see mountains and the ice. You know, you
<v Speaker 11>can see glaciers and and what do you have a walk?
<v Speaker 3>When you push play, it's like it's ground controlled.
<v Speaker 6>To me, You guys, there's been somebody that's done that.
<v Speaker 6>Did you listen to that? When you're up there, you
<v Speaker 6>had to listen to all the space songs.
<v Speaker 1>So just curious, like it's crazy what you can you
<v Speaker 1>tell us, like maybe what the mission was when you
<v Speaker 1>did have to do the space.
<v Speaker 11>Walk, Like yeah, So each each one's a little bit different,
<v Speaker 11>but in general, there's kind of two purposes.
<v Speaker 6>One is we're.
<v Speaker 11>Uh fixing something that's broken, or we're upgrading things so
<v Speaker 11>that we can extend the life of the station. So
<v Speaker 11>it's been up there for two decades and we're going
<v Speaker 11>to try to keep it up there, you know, another
<v Speaker 11>decade if we can, because we're getting so much benefit
<v Speaker 11>out of it. So the one the first one that
<v Speaker 11>I did, so I launched and then seven days after
<v Speaker 11>I arrived, we were headed out the door. My crewmate
<v Speaker 11>and McLean and I were classmates, both selected at the
<v Speaker 11>same time. It was both our first spacewalk. We're going
<v Speaker 11>out and we're going to take old batteries off. The
<v Speaker 11>space station's battery powered, so it's got big solar raised
<v Speaker 11>the charge batteries and the batteries are what power everything.
<v Speaker 11>And we were replacing old batteries and putting on new batteries,
<v Speaker 11>and so each battery is about three hundred pounds. It's
<v Speaker 11>the size of a really large suitcase. And so we'd
<v Speaker 11>go out there with our tools and go to work,
<v Speaker 11>and we spent seven hours crawling all over the outside
<v Speaker 11>of the space station and trying not to mess anything up.
<v Speaker 5>When you take the battery off, do you throw it
<v Speaker 5>toward a Chinese satellite just to see if you can
<v Speaker 5>hit it.
<v Speaker 6>That's not our mission, all right.
<v Speaker 5>This one's for This one's for j and you just
<v Speaker 5>throw it as hard as you can, like damn, that
<v Speaker 5>was one of ours.
<v Speaker 6>So actually.
<v Speaker 11>We we are Everything that we deal with has a
<v Speaker 11>tether on it because we don't want stuff to fly
<v Speaker 11>or flyway, you know what, to be a part of
<v Speaker 11>the problem, because reality is that's a that's a that's
<v Speaker 11>one impulse and change velocity that you've given that object,
<v Speaker 11>and so it can come around and hit you the
<v Speaker 11>next sie next time you go around on that orbit,
<v Speaker 11>because you're both going around about the same speed.
<v Speaker 6>So you try not to do that.
<v Speaker 11>So we put all the old batteries back on the
<v Speaker 11>palette that brought the new ones up and then it
<v Speaker 11>goes back on a vehicle that burns up in the atmosphere.
<v Speaker 6>I remember, when he's outside doing this walk, they're going seventeen.
<v Speaker 11>And seven and that can be a tough number to digest.
<v Speaker 11>Seventeen thousand, five hundred miles an hour, five miles a second.
<v Speaker 6>And so he's whipping around the orbit round four forty
<v Speaker 6>in like. But Nick tell one thing that that we
<v Speaker 6>were talking about a couple of months ago that I
<v Speaker 6>hadn't thought thought about having that lived in space. But
<v Speaker 6>when you're out there doing the walk, the difference in
<v Speaker 6>temperature from daylight the darkness, and how hot things and
<v Speaker 6>how cold things get. So space is either really hot
<v Speaker 6>or really cold.
<v Speaker 11>And so when you're in the sun, it's two hundred
<v Speaker 11>and fifty degrees fahrenheit, and when you're in the shadow,
<v Speaker 11>it's minus two hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit. And so
<v Speaker 11>so we're sitting there, crawling on the outside of the
<v Speaker 11>station and there's you know, different coatings on different places,
<v Speaker 11>and there'll be places where they say, well, you don't
<v Speaker 11>want to touch that, because if it was just in
<v Speaker 11>the sunlight, it's hot enough to melt your suit. So
<v Speaker 11>that's a bad thing. So don't touch those things. And
<v Speaker 11>you tend to pay attention to those kinds of instructions.
<v Speaker 6>Something else you tend to pay attention to me, I
<v Speaker 6>would be the guy touched that. Look at this, do
<v Speaker 6>you think so?
<v Speaker 3>Let me tell you he was keeper flying out of space.
<v Speaker 6>Let me tell you something else that you pay attention to.
<v Speaker 6>And this is this guy here is a real hero.
<v Speaker 6>He's a brilliant man. It served serves his country with distinction.
<v Speaker 6>He launched on a rocket to go to the international spaces.
<v Speaker 6>And he launched on a rocket from Russia. And he
<v Speaker 6>got on a rocket in Russia and it launched and
<v Speaker 6>two minutes out how long after launch? Two minutes after
<v Speaker 6>two minutes after launch, the rocket blew up. This guy
<v Speaker 6>was in the rocket that blew up, was in the capsule.
<v Speaker 6>The capsule ejected. And he's the only US astronaut to
<v Speaker 6>ever survive in a boarded launch. Here's the deal, thank god, Yeah,
<v Speaker 6>here's the deal. Five months later, back in it gets
<v Speaker 6>back on the same rocket, same type of rocket, and
<v Speaker 6>launches again. And uh, I'll tell you just truly inspiring
<v Speaker 6>person to get to serve with each and every day.
<v Speaker 6>The other thing. That's that's cool. The other person, one
<v Speaker 6>of the other people that are here with us today
<v Speaker 6>is his wife, Katie Higg And Katie is our public
<v Speaker 6>affairs officer, and Katie worked closely with you to help
<v Speaker 6>make these arrangements for the podcast today. Katie was there
<v Speaker 6>with their two children and watched the rocket go and
<v Speaker 6>and didn't know if Nick was okay for quite a while,
<v Speaker 6>and so then to also have Katie there watching the
<v Speaker 6>second time, it's an incredible family. These are the type
<v Speaker 6>of people that I'm really privileged to serve with. That's
<v Speaker 6>what keeps me in the military, to have an opportunity
<v Speaker 6>to work with talented people that are dedicated to their craft.
<v Speaker 6>Just as you're dedicated to music. These folks are really
<v Speaker 6>dedicated to our to our country. And that's that's what
<v Speaker 6>is so cool about what we do. We get to
<v Speaker 6>work with really great people.
<v Speaker 5>And that's the most and that's what frustrat It's me
<v Speaker 5>and it makes me so angry sometimes when you have
<v Speaker 5>so much with the disrespect of so many people with
<v Speaker 5>the military, space forest, NASA in general, it's it's it's
<v Speaker 5>it's unnerving because it's I just don't know, I don't
<v Speaker 5>even know where to go with that, because it's.
<v Speaker 6>Just it's I mean, it's not it's not unnerving. It's
<v Speaker 6>really hard to understand. It's hard to understand.
<v Speaker 5>How can you sit there in your house and have
<v Speaker 5>all the comforts of home and everything else, and you
<v Speaker 5>got Nick being blown out of the sky and then
<v Speaker 5>gets back in the south. I mean, I mean, if
<v Speaker 5>I'm on a horse and that lays down, I'm never
<v Speaker 5>even looking at a horse again, much less getting in
<v Speaker 5>a rock.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it's like that's crazy.
<v Speaker 6>But but then that also think about this Nick is
<v Speaker 6>in this capsule and he's speaking Russian, and so he
<v Speaker 6>had to learn Russian, and he under under stress. You
<v Speaker 6>know what, what's your normal instinct You're going to be
<v Speaker 6>talking in English? Becausing in English, sir, And so that
<v Speaker 6>the here the composure, the absolute composure of this of
<v Speaker 6>this officer under extreme uh stress. Uh. It's just incredible.
<v Speaker 6>And and our country is really lucky. We've got we've
<v Speaker 6>got great people, great people that raise their hand take
<v Speaker 6>an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the
<v Speaker 6>United States against all enemies. And now I'm really privileged
<v Speaker 6>to serve with Nick and with the with the entire
<v Speaker 6>entire team that I'm that I get an opportunity to
<v Speaker 6>work with each and every day. Well, I I.
<v Speaker 3>That seems like a pretty good spot.
<v Speaker 5>I think so, gentlemen. I I don't know what to say.
<v Speaker 5>I I I I'm very honored that you guys are
<v Speaker 5>in our home tonight. I would I could talk to
<v Speaker 5>both of you for twenty more hours. And your story
<v Speaker 5>is amazing.
<v Speaker 1>Nick and General Raymond. Thank you for sharing that because
<v Speaker 1>we never would have we never would have known, so
<v Speaker 1>thank you for sharing that.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, it's it's it's humble nature.
<v Speaker 5>And that's what that's what that's that's the general common
<v Speaker 5>thread between just if I just just just between the
<v Speaker 5>two of you and everyone really here is there's a humbleness.
<v Speaker 5>And and if I wasn't astronaut that blew up in
<v Speaker 5>a rocket, I would have it on my T shirt
<v Speaker 5>and like it wouldn't be like I survived Disneyland. It
<v Speaker 5>would be like I got blown out of this rocket
<v Speaker 5>and then went back up again.
<v Speaker 3>So what do you got? So you have to be
<v Speaker 3>the coolest guy in the room. It's like, what do
<v Speaker 3>you do for a living? Well, you know, I'm a lawyer.
<v Speaker 3>What do you do well, just go open rockets. I mean,
<v Speaker 3>you're the I mean, you got to be the coolest
<v Speaker 3>guy in the room, right, I mean, who who can
<v Speaker 3>trump that?
<v Speaker 6>My wife could tell you, I can't pull that off.
<v Speaker 3>I would be rocking that. I would be I would.
<v Speaker 3>I mean I have a big tattoo of myself on
<v Speaker 3>my back, you know what I mean, just like in
<v Speaker 3>a spacesuit.
<v Speaker 6>You know.
<v Speaker 3>Just get doing the rock and roll, you know.
<v Speaker 6>Just I mean, if you allow me to say the
<v Speaker 6>last word, let me just say thank you to you,
<v Speaker 6>to you both, It's it's a privileged to be in
<v Speaker 6>your home. It's that privileged to consider you both friends.
<v Speaker 6>It's a privileged to see you support our military and
<v Speaker 6>you have played concerts around the globe and uh, and
<v Speaker 6>you do it in a way that really connects with people.
<v Speaker 6>And so thank you both very much for for what
<v Speaker 6>you're doing, for for the joy that you provided so
<v Speaker 6>many and uh, it's it's not every.
<v Speaker 1>Call your friends thank you very much.
<v Speaker 3>Well, I can't say thank you enough.
<v Speaker 5>And uh, this, I mean, this is one of the
<v Speaker 5>highlights of our life to have you guys here in
<v Speaker 5>our house and to break bread together, and it's it's
<v Speaker 5>been an amazing day.
<v Speaker 3>And it's not just the two of you here.
<v Speaker 5>There's there's a lot of people here that hopefully ate
<v Speaker 5>all the shrimp and the pie it was upstairs, and
<v Speaker 5>I'm going to eat all the pie later on. But uh,
<v Speaker 5>thank you guys for your service. I know everyone says
<v Speaker 5>that they take it for granted, but thank you for
<v Speaker 5>what you do. Uh so I don't have to do
<v Speaker 5>it because if if the world was relying on me
<v Speaker 5>to go for the rocket, it's not your your so
<v Speaker 5>ol boys, I mean, I'm.
<v Speaker 3>It ain't happen, you know. And so just the crazy bravery,
<v Speaker 3>the the size, it's just.
<v Speaker 5>Got to be enormous. I don't even know how you
<v Speaker 5>put pants on. There's a lot of crazy. I mean, see,
<v Speaker 5>I want to wrap the whole thing up. But I
<v Speaker 5>hope you come back. I mean if I would love
<v Speaker 5>to talk to you about that. I know that everybody,
<v Speaker 5>I mean, who gets a chance to do this. So
<v Speaker 5>thank you guys very much, and I hope you have
<v Speaker 5>a great night. And there's one last thing I want
<v Speaker 5>to do before you guys leave, And I have a
<v Speaker 5>Gallaga machine over here, and I want to challenge you
<v Speaker 5>both to the game of galagha. We'll let you guys
<v Speaker 5>know on Facebook and Instagram how it turns out. But
<v Speaker 5>God bless you guys. Man, thank you so much for
<v Speaker 5>thank you to do man.
<v Speaker 9>Thanks became them totoy demasment and to relate the
<v Speaker 2>People and