Speaker 1: You're listening to The Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure
Speaker 1: you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everybody, welcome to the
Speaker 1: Buck Sexton Show. This episode, we have Amber Smith with us.
Speaker 1: She's a phenomenal, amazing lady. She was a Kiowa helicopter
Speaker 1: pilot in Afghanistan and Iraq, so combat tours in both
Speaker 1: war zones. She was also a Deputy Secretary of Defense
Speaker 1: for Public Affairs under the Trump administration, the author of
Speaker 1: the phenomenal book During about her time as a Kiowa pilot,
Speaker 1: Danger Close and Amber, You gotta tell everybody what do
Speaker 1: they need to know about the Kiowa platform, right because
Speaker 1: people people give a lot of a lot of hoopla,
Speaker 1: a lot of attention to the Apache and of the
Speaker 1: black Hawk. But tell everybody about what it is to
Speaker 1: be in a Kiowa and what kind of stuff you
Speaker 1: were doing. Well. I was grateful enough to get to
Speaker 1: fly the most amazing, badass helicopter in the Army's inventory
Speaker 1: at the time. It's a light attack reconnaissance helicopter. It's
Speaker 1: a two seater. At the co pilot, we have a
Speaker 1: fifting gun, we have a rocket pad that carries high
Speaker 1: explicit rockets and then we can carry hell fire missiles
Speaker 1: as well. But the best part of our job was
Speaker 1: who we worked for. We worked for a ground force,
Speaker 1: so infantry, marines, special forces, NATO forces, in country forces
Speaker 1: like the Iraqi Army or the fn National Army. And
Speaker 1: we fly extremely low level, just anywhere from fifty two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty feet off of the ground, so well
Speaker 1: within range of the enemy's weapon systems, and it's definitely
Speaker 1: down in the fight every day we go out on
Speaker 1: a mission. So I mean there's there's flying close to
Speaker 1: the ground, you know, like like Maverick in the recent
Speaker 1: Maverick where he's all, you know, doing the obstacle course
Speaker 1: thing or whatever. And I spoke to you an F
Speaker 1: eighteen pile who said, you got understand at that speed
Speaker 1: you're in the you're in the dirt in like two
Speaker 1: seconds if you mess up. Um, but you were not
Speaker 1: much time mistakes. Yeah, right, you were flying at a
Speaker 1: level where you could basically see like someone's you know,
Speaker 1: you see the color of someone's hair right or there.
Speaker 1: Beer if the ground high off the ground, we're very loft.
Speaker 1: The ground intint behind that is that we do hunt
Speaker 1: for IDs on the road ahead of convoys, and um
Speaker 1: we do, like I said, get into these close combat
Speaker 1: attacks when um often we get called into an enemy
Speaker 1: firefight with friendly ground forces. So based off the range
Speaker 1: of our weapons systems, just by nature, we have to
Speaker 1: be very close to the ground. And that does mean
Speaker 1: that it is an intense light It's an intense mission
Speaker 1: because you know, you do have the hazard of the
Speaker 1: enemy of their weapon systems, but then you have all
Speaker 1: of those other hazards that come with flying so close
Speaker 1: to the ground. You heard in Iraq fires used to
Speaker 1: be such danger toilets and unfortunately resulted in you know,
Speaker 1: multiple multiple kier crashes. So it was a pretty dangerous job.
Speaker 1: Which like telephone wires, you're saying like you would you
Speaker 1: would actually have about telephone and comms wires, Yes, birds,
Speaker 1: telephone wires, cell phone towers, trees, yes, wow, that's remember
Speaker 1: what kind of what kind of defensive armor do you
Speaker 1: have on I mean except whenever I've seen photos of
Speaker 1: the of the Kiawa, it's um, it's an agile platform,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't look like it's not. You know, when
Speaker 1: you see like an aten ward hog, you're like that
Speaker 1: thing looks like you could kick the crap out of it.
Speaker 1: You guys in the KaiA was I assume, yeah, you
Speaker 1: really had to avoid enemy fire. The Kaiwa could take
Speaker 1: a beating. It brought me home many times my aircraft
Speaker 1: got shut up when I was in Iraq and I
Speaker 1: had an AK forty seven bullet land about twelve inches
Speaker 1: behind my spine. M Thankfully there was an armor plate
Speaker 1: behind the back of our seat and then underneath our
Speaker 1: seat as well. But we also had an armor panel
Speaker 1: that an engine block. But get this, because of weight
Speaker 1: purposes so we could carry more AMMO, we would actually
Speaker 1: remet AMMO plates so the engine was less protected. Right, So, Amber,
Speaker 1: you've seen the military from being a combat deployed rotary
Speaker 1: aircraft warrior, if I may say, and you've also been
Speaker 1: somebody who's dealt with the DoD at the policy communications
Speaker 1: deputy Defense secretary level. So I think you're in a
Speaker 1: particular position to talk a bit about the concerns over
Speaker 1: a military that is increasingly concerned with d EI, social justice,
Speaker 1: and wokeness instead of being being the most effective combat
Speaker 1: machinery for the defeative enemies and defensive America possible. What
Speaker 1: do you think of that problem, the scale of it,
Speaker 1: the reality of it, well, I think it's incredibly dangerous
Speaker 1: to our national security, to the health of the fighting
Speaker 1: force as a whole, especially when we compare it to
Speaker 1: what our adversaries look like today. We face some very
Speaker 1: real threats. We inch closer to World WARREE on a
Speaker 1: daily basis with this administration and the threats that works
Speaker 1: those two around the world. And what do we see
Speaker 1: our military doing. We see policies that are pushed down
Speaker 1: on the force that have the intent of dividing the
Speaker 1: force instead of unifying the force. And the military works
Speaker 1: because everyone is one after basic training, everybody puts on
Speaker 1: the exact same uniform and you put the American flag
Speaker 1: on your shoulder, and you are a team. You're serving
Speaker 1: towards one purpose, and you do that by coming together.
Speaker 1: You don't sit there and focus on everyone's unique individuality
Speaker 1: and then talk about how other people may be a
Speaker 1: part of the problem. And so it's really creating this
Speaker 1: softer generation of a military that we haven't really seen before.
Speaker 1: And I think it's incredibly dangerous when we look at
Speaker 1: the attention and the training hours and the shift of
Speaker 1: focus away from these priceless training hours to prepare for
Speaker 1: the mission, to prefare, to deter and then if necessary,
Speaker 1: fight in some of these conflicts that are now being
Speaker 1: focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, extremism training to being
Speaker 1: soldiers being told that domestic terrorism is the biggest threat, solitary,
Speaker 1: transgender policies, double standards for physical fitness tests, and the
Speaker 1: recruiting numbers are showing the damning effects that are having
Speaker 1: on the military today. The Army missed their numbers by
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand soldiers in twenty twenty two. That's twenty five
Speaker 1: percent below what they were looking to hit. That is
Speaker 1: absolutely damaging to our nation. It silly shows the health
Speaker 1: of the force and it's struggling right now. And when
Speaker 1: you start paying attention to some of the policies that
Speaker 1: are being forced on soldiers that are damaging moral, this
Speaker 1: is what you get. Awoke military that is absolutely drisk
Speaker 1: to recruit, movement to morale, and young Americans are saying no,
Speaker 1: thanks are for other opportunities. It's really sad when I
Speaker 1: hear people that have either gotten out recently or serve
Speaker 1: for many years. In some cases friends of mine, who
Speaker 1: did I mean more combat employments. Then that I feel
Speaker 1: like I can even count when I try to run
Speaker 1: them all past them, I say, wait, weren't you how
Speaker 1: many times are you interact? How many times are you
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan? And they say, not only would they not
Speaker 1: want to go back in, but that if their own
Speaker 1: son or daughter I was thinking about serving, that they
Speaker 1: would try to obviously it's the you know, the person's choice, um,
Speaker 1: but that they would try to discourage them from joining
Speaker 1: with the military as it is today. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've had that experience. I have many friends, particularly
Speaker 1: from the heavy combat branches, who say, nope, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: want my son joining up right now. I have had
Speaker 1: so many of the exact same conversations, and it's it's
Speaker 1: terrifying for the military, the fighting force as a whole
Speaker 1: in our national security with when you when you put
Speaker 1: it in the perspective of what is our military supposed
Speaker 1: to do and how generate up to serve the country.
Speaker 1: But for me personally, it's it's um, it's really sad
Speaker 1: to see a military that I served in for over
Speaker 1: seven and a half years. I did two combat deployments
Speaker 1: and one to Iraq, one to Afghanistan, and to see
Speaker 1: a military that is unrecognizable to the one that I
Speaker 1: served in, where we had a mission, we were focused,
Speaker 1: we were a team. We didn't nitpick each other about
Speaker 1: a part based on our differences. There was a standard
Speaker 1: and you had to meet it and didn't then guess
Speaker 1: what that wasn't the job for you too, and you
Speaker 1: went on and did something else. Now, all of these
Speaker 1: lowered standards, it's just it's absolutely creating resentment within the
Speaker 1: ranks and it's killing morale and people are saying, maybe
Speaker 1: I should look elsewhere, Like what are these sacrifices Living
Speaker 1: a life in the military is You're missing birthdays, You're
Speaker 1: missing kids graduations. You're like, I've talked to soldiers who
Speaker 1: are like, I'm I'm done watching my children grow up
Speaker 1: over zoom, you know, and they're missing all of these
Speaker 1: life things that you these life celebrations, that anniversary's, weddings, funerals,
Speaker 1: like these times that you don't get back, and that
Speaker 1: sacrifice was always worth it to so many people who
Speaker 1: and then they see the fall of Afghanistan, they see
Speaker 1: the no accountability, they see Secretary of Defense Austin testifying
Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill last week that he has zero regrets
Speaker 1: for the way that the withdrawal for Afghanistan happened and
Speaker 1: how the country collapsed and fell into the hands of Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: He saw that thirteen US service members were killed as
Speaker 1: a result of a suicide attack while they were guarding
Speaker 1: h Kaya Kabul International Airport during the withdrawal. So to
Speaker 1: hear leaders like that that creates such a distrust of
Speaker 1: the commander to subordinate relationship that is absolutely vital to
Speaker 1: the success of the relationship to get soldiers to want
Speaker 1: to fight and win on the battle field. Just that
Speaker 1: trust of their leaders which they have with senior military
Speaker 1: officials and generals, you've lost the military. We live in
Speaker 1: extremely dangerous times right now. In those recruitment numbers, Like
Speaker 1: we'll see the next year coming up what those look like,
Speaker 1: but it's not going to look any better. Like I
Speaker 1: had lost fifteen thousand soldiers to their recruitment goals. The
Speaker 1: other branches. The only reason they made it was because
Speaker 1: they were pulling from their delayed entry programs. That means
Speaker 1: they're setting themselves up this year for an either harder
Speaker 1: recruitment goal. So it is just it is dangerous, dangerous times.
Speaker 1: And because there's no accountability because of this toxic or
Speaker 1: leadership that refuses to look internally. You keep seeing when
Speaker 1: a Pentagon is questioned about any of their failures, all
Speaker 1: they do is look outward and they place blame elsewhere.
Speaker 1: It's never like, hey, maybe we should take a look
Speaker 1: at what we are doing that is causing some of
Speaker 1: these self lifted problems, and they won't do it. Come
Speaker 1: back in a second here and talk about both Ukraine
Speaker 1: and also what it was like dealing with the press
Speaker 1: from the DoD during the Trump years. I bet that
Speaker 1: was sometimes very illuminating about their real goals and intentions.
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Speaker 1: when you go to my pillow dot com. So Amber,
Speaker 1: let's start with Let's start with Ukraine. How do you
Speaker 1: think Biden and the DoD right now? He's commander in
Speaker 1: chief right and you've got some interesting, interesting people who
Speaker 1: are including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Millie and Lloyd Austin,
Speaker 1: Secretary Defense, who are making all kinds of decisions about
Speaker 1: this one way of putting all this, how do you
Speaker 1: think they're doing so far? I mean, how does the
Speaker 1: picture look to you of US support for the war
Speaker 1: in Ukraine eighteen months in or fifty fifteen months in. Well.
Speaker 1: I think that the United States military industrial complex, the Pentagon,
Speaker 1: mini political leaders in Washington, DC are addicted to war.
Speaker 1: I think they're addicted to conflict. I think war has
Speaker 1: become big business and that's extremely dangerous for our nation.
Speaker 1: If you look at the withdrawal of Afghanistan, we shifted
Speaker 1: almost immediately towards a new conflict, a proxy war in
Speaker 1: Ukraine with Russia, and really a fight that is not
Speaker 1: within vital US national security interest. This is a regional
Speaker 1: war between neighbors. The United States has already pumped in
Speaker 1: more money than it ever did in an annual amount
Speaker 1: for Afghanistan. So a war that we were fighting on
Speaker 1: the ground in Afghanistan and it's and it's just win
Speaker 1: is enough enough? And I'm not happy with the status
Speaker 1: of how things are going with the war in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: I think that we have some more led navity interest,
Speaker 1: some real threats that base our nation, like China. Every
Speaker 1: single day that threat grows, it increases on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: and I think that the US is preoccupied with fighting
Speaker 1: a proxy war in Ukraine with Russia right now. You know,
Speaker 1: when I think back to I was in Afghanistan in
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten, and interfacing with I was a
Speaker 1: very you know, very low man in the hierarchy, but
Speaker 1: I was interfacing with the people who were, let's just say,
Speaker 1: calling the shots in country for both the military and
Speaker 1: the intelligence agencies. And I was always, even at that
Speaker 1: stage and at that age, shocked at how everybody was
Speaker 1: repeating everybody else's lines. But everybody kind of knew that
Speaker 1: it wasn't really true. You know, all the stuff about
Speaker 1: all we're making all these gains in this year area
Speaker 1: and we're we're consolidating what we've done in that area.
Speaker 1: But when you actually talk to people who were there
Speaker 1: were dealing with it. Like when I when I met
Speaker 1: with a couple of different odias, a couple different special
Speaker 1: Forces teams and asked them, what do you guys think
Speaker 1: is going on? They're like, oh, well, you know, the
Speaker 1: big military assessment versus what you were getting from from
Speaker 1: door kickers who were living in combat outposts. It always
Speaker 1: felt like there was a huge disconnect, And I was
Speaker 1: there in twenty and ten, I was like, this is
Speaker 1: just not going to work. But if you told anybody that,
Speaker 1: or if you talked about that, um, you were kind
Speaker 1: of treated like you were disloyal to the American war
Speaker 1: effort there or the NATO as we know war effort
Speaker 1: there before the Ukraine war, Right, this is what NATO
Speaker 1: existed for somehow, m do you feel like we're heading
Speaker 1: into the same trap with Ukraine, not obviously with our
Speaker 1: own forces deployed, but just with our diplomatic, economic, and
Speaker 1: material support to a war that to me looks like
Speaker 1: it's going to go on for years, And we're talking
Speaker 1: about we better start thinking about our support for Ukraine
Speaker 1: with a T not a B as in a trillion,
Speaker 1: two trillion. Well you think it's heading that way or
Speaker 1: are you? Are you have any faith that maybe they'll
Speaker 1: cut it off before that? Well to your point about
Speaker 1: Afghanistan and people sort of saying that you're disloyal if
Speaker 1: you sort of have an opposing view to push poker
Speaker 1: to potentially start World War three with a nuclear power.
Speaker 1: There's nothing more dangerous than a week army with nuclear power,
Speaker 1: and that's where we keep pushing this war. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: just to your point about speaking out in opposition to Hey,
Speaker 1: maybe we should be pushing a peace agreement between the
Speaker 1: two nags instead of pushing more war. It's like the
Speaker 1: thing that you know, the Pentagon on in certain leaders
Speaker 1: in Washington, DC to do they throw money at the problem.
Speaker 1: And we have a lot of old in DC that
Speaker 1: cannot give the cold out of their heads. So you
Speaker 1: Russia into the conversation and it's nope, you know, We're
Speaker 1: going to throw absolutely anything in every at Russia. And
Speaker 1: it's like they get tunnel vision if you bring up
Speaker 1: the word Russia. Guess what. Russia is a near peer
Speaker 1: adversary in a conflict with a regional conflict right now.
Speaker 1: Who is a bigger threat to US than Russia right now? China?
Speaker 1: Who where geographically is the United States primarily focused on
Speaker 1: right now? Russia? Okay, the United States military cannot is
Speaker 1: not capable of fighting a two front war right now.
Speaker 1: So when we're sending all of our ammunition, you know,
Speaker 1: brigades of our military into Poland, into Romania, in these
Speaker 1: other areas around Ukraine, helping train in Ukraine, depleting our
Speaker 1: own United States tradition stockpile that we will likely need
Speaker 1: in the very near future. It's just really not smart
Speaker 1: decision making. I can't say I'm very surprised, but focusing
Speaker 1: on Russia when we have such a very near threat
Speaker 1: with China, which is no longer a near peer. China's
Speaker 1: a peer adversary. Everybody wants to focus on Russia and Washington, DC,
Speaker 1: everybody wants to throw hundreds of billions of dollars their way.
Speaker 1: And it's absolutely a disgrace for US leadership, who is
Speaker 1: tasked with protecting the American people, to put us in
Speaker 1: harm's way the way that they are today with how
Speaker 1: they're handling the war with Russia. You know, Senator Lindsay
Speaker 1: Graham recently said he's definitely opened the idea of putting
Speaker 1: US troops in Taiwan, creating a US military presence on
Speaker 1: that island. What do you think about that? Does he
Speaker 1: want an immediate war with China? Because guess what, that's
Speaker 1: not going to look like the wars that he was
Speaker 1: pushing in Iraq and Afghanistan for twenty years. That's gonna
Speaker 1: look like a war to end all wars. It's gonna
Speaker 1: get very ugly, very quickly. That is very true. I'm
Speaker 1: a little bit surprised always, and this is more of
Speaker 1: just a general political feeling that Lindsay Graham is always
Speaker 1: so he's always treated by conservatives and conservative media for
Speaker 1: the most part, with some kind of reverence. And this
Speaker 1: is a guy who I've never seen him refer to
Speaker 1: a war that other people will fight with any trepidation whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Like there's never a sense when Lindsay Graham talks about
Speaker 1: US troops going somewhere to fight. He's not going anywhere
Speaker 1: to fight. Children aren't going anywhere to fight. He doesn't
Speaker 1: actually have any children. But you know, he's not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: And you sit there and you say, well, why is
Speaker 1: he getting reelected so many times by the people of
Speaker 1: South Carolina? You know what has to happen here? I mean,
Speaker 1: I just I'm surprised that his constant push for more
Speaker 1: expenditure of men and materiel in conflict isn't a bigger
Speaker 1: problem for conservatives who are taking more of a here
Speaker 1: at home approach. Yeah, because it's just an interview to him, right,
Speaker 1: It's just another campaign cycle, it's just another rally cry.
Speaker 1: It's not like you said, it's not his kids, it's
Speaker 1: not his money. He's it's not his time away. He
Speaker 1: gets to go on these congressionally sponsored trips into a
Speaker 1: war zone, take the photos, get them, you know, special treatment,
Speaker 1: and say that he's been to a war zone and
Speaker 1: he gets to see what it's really like. But that's
Speaker 1: not actually what real war is like. Politicians have got
Speaker 1: to get back to the stance where war is a
Speaker 1: last resort. It is a very last resort. People's lives
Speaker 1: shouldn't be so loosely thrown out to fight these wars
Speaker 1: and that sort of policy stance for foreign policy and
Speaker 1: conflicts and wars that we've seen around the world that
Speaker 1: is taking a toll on our military. It's completely damaging
Speaker 1: the all volunteer force. I I mean, I think it's
Speaker 1: scary times speaking of the all volunteer Force and how
Speaker 1: long that's going to stick around for, which is seriously
Speaker 1: going to change some things. And if a war with
Speaker 1: China breaks out, that's exactly we will be looking at.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to talk about, but that's the reality. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I mean, I'm I'm down here in Florida,
Speaker 1: and you know, if if we if you had the Chinese,
Speaker 1: it was like a red dawn situation where I think
Speaker 1: it was actually North Korea on the remake, right, if
Speaker 1: they started, you know, setting up landing craft or whatever
Speaker 1: on the beaches year of South Beach, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's go, you know, mount up. We have
Speaker 1: to fight. But on the other side of that equation,
Speaker 1: if someone told me that I, you know, some future
Speaker 1: child of mine is eighteen years old, if my son
Speaker 1: son to be said I want to go and help
Speaker 1: out with the US war effort, assuming we deployed troops.
Speaker 1: I know we haven't at least officially deployed any troops
Speaker 1: in Ukraine, but I want to go fight for Ukrainian independence.
Speaker 1: I'd be like, do not join the military if you
Speaker 1: want to fight for Ukrainian independence, Like I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't know what else to say to me if that's
Speaker 1: our fight. It feels like people keep bringing this up, say, well,
Speaker 1: what if a NATO country's next. We have a treaty
Speaker 1: with those countries. We have a written promise with those
Speaker 1: countries it says if X, then Y. We don't have
Speaker 1: that with Kraiza. So I don't know why these things
Speaker 1: keep getting conflated. Yeah, people seem to be missing that
Speaker 1: point of absolutely we have an obligation to NATO. Putin
Speaker 1: is not invading a NATO country. If that should happen,
Speaker 1: of course the United States would protect our NATO alley Ally,
Speaker 1: that's not what's happening right now, and so that's why
Speaker 1: I say it's provocative that the United States wants to
Speaker 1: fight this proxy war with Russia. It's pushing the biggest
Speaker 1: nuclear power in the world, and it is not in
Speaker 1: the best interest of the security of our nation, of
Speaker 1: the safety of our nation, and too many people it's
Speaker 1: almost like Ukraine is the next you see the blue
Speaker 1: and yellow flags waving and the sunflowers. It's like the
Speaker 1: new thing that people want to support without accepting what
Speaker 1: the reality of a war in Ukraine against Russia actually means,
Speaker 1: Like how much farther do you think we're going to
Speaker 1: go before the United States commits some sort of US
Speaker 1: ground force and then guess what. Then we're at war
Speaker 1: with Russia and it's no longer we no longer get
Speaker 1: to say, oh, we're supplying equipment, Oh we're supplying training,
Speaker 1: or we're supplying medical care. No we're not. We're at
Speaker 1: war with Russia. And the devastating effects of that if
Speaker 1: the war were to expand because Russia would obviously feel
Speaker 1: that it's an exit now it faces a true existential threat.
Speaker 1: The Russians also view Ukraine as existential to their long
Speaker 1: term survival. We don't really get that part of it.
Speaker 1: This is not a justification of the aggression, it's just
Speaker 1: the understanding of the Russian perception of the issue. Right,
Speaker 1: So the Russians view a Ukraine that is de facto
Speaker 1: or you know, close, basically de facto, and NATO were
Speaker 1: actually in NATO, which some people talked about as something
Speaker 1: that's completely unacceptable for their long term strategic interest in
Speaker 1: the survival of the Russian Federation. Point being, they'll keep
Speaker 1: fighting this out as long as they have to, and
Speaker 1: they don't see this as a you know, we're just
Speaker 1: going to give up because this is too costly for us. Now,
Speaker 1: there might be a negotiation that could end this, and
Speaker 1: that's what I think should be pursued. But there seems
Speaker 1: to be very little interest in even talking about these days.
Speaker 1: And I think that from the administration of people in Washington.
Speaker 1: It's really disconcerting. After twenty years of war, where it
Speaker 1: was very clear to people you were there, I was there,
Speaker 1: very clear that this wasn't going to be the thing
Speaker 1: that they thought it was going to be. It's like
Speaker 1: we haven't learned a lesson. But I want to come
Speaker 1: back and actually ask you about some trans agenda issues
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Speaker 1: gotta ask this before we want to talk about some fun,
Speaker 1: happy things too. Amber, Um, I'm gonna have you weigh
Speaker 1: in with wayn As. You know, I'm newly married, and
Speaker 1: one thing that we keep talking about is what kind
Speaker 1: of dog we can get. And I know your team Bulldog,
Speaker 1: which is amazing, So we're gonna have to talk about yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: team Bulldogs. We're gonna have a bulldog discussion a second.
Speaker 1: And also just want to ask what your plans are
Speaker 1: here going forward and other things of the projects you're
Speaker 1: gonna be involved in. But you know, there's so much
Speaker 1: attention now to trans stuff in sports, the trans community
Speaker 1: in sports. And you've seen him recently. Megan Rapino, for example,
Speaker 1: of very left wing, became kind of famous for being
Speaker 1: a really a left wing voice in the women's national
Speaker 1: soccer team and saying that like they don't make enough
Speaker 1: money even though they're actually paid disproportionately to what they
Speaker 1: bring in in terms of revenue. But you know who
Speaker 1: cares about things like math? She thinks that trans men
Speaker 1: should be able to compete against women now in soccer,
Speaker 1: to which I say, like, I'm a guy who spent
Speaker 1: way too much time at a desk last ten years,
Speaker 1: I would toss around members of the women's national soccer
Speaker 1: team on a soccer field still to this day, having
Speaker 1: played at like a reasonable high school level, like a
Speaker 1: long time ago. It's crazy. We all know it's crazy
Speaker 1: in sports. What is the situation now in the military though,
Speaker 1: for how the issue is is handled? I mean, because
Speaker 1: if you're a if you're a man who becomes a
Speaker 1: trans female, are you still in it? Are you kept
Speaker 1: in a male unit in male barracks? Like? How do
Speaker 1: they handle that? What's policy? So the policy, the Department
Speaker 1: of Defense policy for transgenders is that they can serve
Speaker 1: in their preferred gender. So once they go through the
Speaker 1: transition process and they then are allowed to put their
Speaker 1: preferred gender on their military ID card. Once they have
Speaker 1: that ID card, they are allowed to shower in Like
Speaker 1: a man that now says he's a transgender woman, I
Speaker 1: said that right is now allowed to shower in the
Speaker 1: women's locker room, They're allowed to use the women's bathroom,
Speaker 1: sleep in women's quarters, they are treated as though they
Speaker 1: are a woman. That is the policy, and then they
Speaker 1: have to meet whatever female versus male standards exist. Wait,
Speaker 1: I gotta ask, Yeah, I'm just processing this. How what
Speaker 1: has to happen for them to even like qualified? Do they?
Speaker 1: Is it just a do you have to meet with
Speaker 1: a base psychologist or something you know to go? Or
Speaker 1: can you say no, I'm a woman now and therefore
Speaker 1: the military will treat me as a woman. There's a process,
Speaker 1: you have to meet with a doctor. But not every
Speaker 1: transgender that exists out there or wants to transition has
Speaker 1: gender dysphoria. Some do, but some don't, and it does
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter like regardless of if you have it
Speaker 1: or not, you're still allowed to transition if you speak
Speaker 1: with your doctor and then you speak with your commander
Speaker 1: and you it takes away considerable amount of time a
Speaker 1: soldier who is in that process of transitioning hormones surgeries,
Speaker 1: the time it takes with all of the administration things,
Speaker 1: you're missing training, and then the team grows without you, right,
Speaker 1: but then you have to be fully accepted back as
Speaker 1: soon as you come back. So it does not add
Speaker 1: if the military had like a litmus test for pretty
Speaker 1: much everything they do and said, does this policy make
Speaker 1: us a stronger fighting force? Does this make us more
Speaker 1: likely to win a war against China? Does this make
Speaker 1: us a more lethal, you know, more elite fighting force
Speaker 1: in the world. If the answer is no, maybe they
Speaker 1: should look twice at forcing those policies on the entire force.
Speaker 1: But here is the kicker of equality rights, which is
Speaker 1: what the Biden administration is trying to do with this
Speaker 1: executive order that they pushed down to the Department Offense
Speaker 1: when they then allowed transgenders to serve openly, so they
Speaker 1: fully you know, have are on board with everything transgender.
Speaker 1: The Selective Service what all men eighteen to twenty five
Speaker 1: in this country have to sign up for within thirty
Speaker 1: days of their eighteenth birthday. Men men have to sign
Speaker 1: up for the Selective Service. Now, the Selective Service only
Speaker 1: says your birth sex, so only men born in their
Speaker 1: bogic biological sex as a man have to sign up
Speaker 1: for the draft. So women who transition and become men
Speaker 1: they do not have to sign up for the draft,
Speaker 1: but men who become women are still required to sign
Speaker 1: up to for the draft. So it's like which one
Speaker 1: do they see? So are they saying that, like transgender
Speaker 1: women are really men according to the Selective Service if
Speaker 1: a draft was ever to happen, or there's just this
Speaker 1: like complete double standard there, which happens a lot when
Speaker 1: some of these policies are shoved down. They don't think
Speaker 1: in third order effects of the decisions. But it's like
Speaker 1: as a society, it's like, when are we going to
Speaker 1: accept reality? Just like what we were talking about with
Speaker 1: Ukraine Afghanistan, generals everybody went and testify it up on
Speaker 1: Capitol Hill, like through the lens of these rose colored glasses.
Speaker 1: They painted this pretty picture of what Afghanistan looked like,
Speaker 1: but in reality, we all knew Afghanistan wasn't gonna stand
Speaker 1: on a stew feet without the United States military and
Speaker 1: the US dollar. Ukraine, everybody knows what happens as soon
Speaker 1: as the United States leaves and quit standing up Ukraine.
Speaker 1: You can know that Russia is the enemy and wish
Speaker 1: that this was not happening to Ukraine, but you can
Speaker 1: also live in the reality of the situation. And it's
Speaker 1: the same thing with transgenders. The military is focusing so
Speaker 1: much money, so much time and training, taking away training
Speaker 1: to focus and give special treatment to the transgender demographic
Speaker 1: for the military, and they do so by saying, well,
Speaker 1: we want to make sure that we are recruiting to
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of the population. The military has never
Speaker 1: been able to recruit to one hundred percent of the population.
Speaker 1: They're at about, you know, less than twenty five percent
Speaker 1: of young Americans who are eligible to serve today. So
Speaker 1: it's like, how about we focus on the problems that
Speaker 1: exist in the military today on fixing those instead of
Speaker 1: contributing more problems to the military. Yes, I think that
Speaker 1: would make a whole lot of sense. I want to
Speaker 1: come back. We'll talk with the Amber here in a
Speaker 1: second about just some some more general some more general topics,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe'll take a little trip down memory lane too.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that in just a moment. I want
Speaker 1: to tell everybody but the Tunnel of the Towers Foundation.
Speaker 1: The foundation honors fallen and severely injured heroes and their
Speaker 1: families with mortgage free homes. This year alone, hundreds of
Speaker 1: gold Star on fallen first responder families with young children,
Speaker 1: and our nation's most severely injured veterans and first responders
Speaker 1: are receiving homes. More than five hundred homeless veterans received
Speaker 1: housing in services last year, and more than fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: receiving housing in services. Here is coming memorial day. All
Speaker 1: the brave men and women lost in his nine to
Speaker 1: eleven in the War on Terror are having their names
Speaker 1: read aloud in a Tunnet of Tower ceremony in our
Speaker 1: nation's capital. Through the Tunnel of Towers nine to eleven Institute,
Speaker 1: the Foundation's educating Kanda kindergarten through twelfth grade about our
Speaker 1: nation's darkest day. Join Tunet Towers on its mission to
Speaker 1: do good. Please help America to never forget its greatest heroes.
Speaker 1: Join me in doing any eleven dollars a month the
Speaker 1: TNT of Towers at t twot dot org. That's t
Speaker 1: the number two t dot org. All right, Ever, so
Speaker 1: I gotta ask your Your husband is a fighter pilot.
Speaker 1: What is he? What is he flying? What was he flying?
Speaker 1: Is he an FA team guy? Oh? He fives the
Speaker 1: best thing out there a helicopter. He's not a fire pilot.
Speaker 1: He's a helicopter pilot. Oh he's also ye see I
Speaker 1: and all these jokes worth like if you know, if
Speaker 1: you like did a lane change and almost caused an accident, Like, ah, yeah,
Speaker 1: just like a fixed wing guy, you know, too fast
Speaker 1: for everybody. You're both you are married to a rotary
Speaker 1: military rotary aircraft military pilot. I don't know why I thought.
Speaker 1: I thought twenty two guy. Pardon me, I'm way off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he is a helicopter pilot like me. He's a cab
Speaker 1: guys got a stetson, so yeah, oh wow, very cool.
Speaker 1: I was unaware. I was wondering if they're like any
Speaker 1: jokes you make. But since you're both rotary, but do
Speaker 1: you make jokes about fixed wing aircraft people? You know?
Speaker 1: Are you kind of just like yeah, couldn't make it
Speaker 1: in rotary aircraft school, Like I feel like helicopter pilot.
Speaker 1: You guys are different, right, You guys are like a
Speaker 1: different bunch because you're flying. I've seen the videos like
Speaker 1: little birds and stuff, and uh um, you know the
Speaker 1: night Stalkers. I mean they're like practically flying these things
Speaker 1: upside down beneath the bridge, smoking a cigar MP five
Speaker 1: in one hand, and you know they're just going crazy
Speaker 1: out there doing amazing stuff. Yeah. When I was in
Speaker 1: flight school, we would have instructor pilots who this didn't
Speaker 1: happen in I cockpit. But students within my class, they
Speaker 1: would have stories because a lot of the instructor pilots
Speaker 1: were old Vietnam pilots. So then you know, after they
Speaker 1: get out the military, their helicopter pilots, they come and
Speaker 1: they teach like the newer generation of pilot military pilots,
Speaker 1: and they would they Vietnam pilots were the absolute best
Speaker 1: guys in the world. They had the most amazing stories.
Speaker 1: And yeah, one guy was even like I didn't know
Speaker 1: what to do. I got in my car, I got
Speaker 1: in the helicopter and like once we got up to altitude,
Speaker 1: like you just started smoking and we just are laughing
Speaker 1: because obviously that's like no longer allowed. But back in
Speaker 1: Vietnam days, like that's what they did. Well, that is
Speaker 1: kind of amazing having having been you know, I remember
Speaker 1: when I was in a rocket Afghanistan because you watch
Speaker 1: some of these movies and like every American Vietnam movie,
Speaker 1: for example, everyone's walking around shirtless, smoking drinking beer on
Speaker 1: base all the time. Right, that's when they're back on base,
Speaker 1: you're smoking cigarettes, you're drinking beer. Not a lot of
Speaker 1: I didn't see a lot of beer drinking in theater
Speaker 1: or are they They definitely got rid the British would
Speaker 1: do it though the British were always you know, able
Speaker 1: to which I thought was interesting. Yes, yes, they got
Speaker 1: rid of um all of that uh in today's military.
Speaker 1: One of my fly instructors, though, he was I actually
Speaker 1: write about this in my book Danger Clothes when he uh,
Speaker 1: he didn't drink alcohol, He never drank alcohol, but everybody
Speaker 1: else in his company drank alcohol. And he said he
Speaker 1: was so sick wherever they were in Vietnam. He was
Speaker 1: so sick of never getting any mail runs that everybody
Speaker 1: was too hungover to like work or fly the next day.
Speaker 1: So he literally like took a helicopter, didn't tell anybody,
Speaker 1: flew to whatever base has the mail, loaded up the
Speaker 1: helicopter with all of their mail, and then flew it
Speaker 1: back to everybody because he was so sick of waiting around. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure he was. I'm sure he was a hero
Speaker 1: and everybody who wanted to get some mail from back home.
Speaker 1: Very very good speaking. I'm gonna have you help settle
Speaker 1: this bet, which is not really a bet. A debate
Speaker 1: in the in the Sexton Household between mister and Missus
Speaker 1: Sexton and I keep my voice down because when I'm
Speaker 1: recording that, she might be able to hear me. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like, I don't want anyone to know
Speaker 1: I love bulldogs. You and your husband, right, you are
Speaker 1: English bulldog people. And people give me all this stuff.
Speaker 1: They say, oh there they have all the health issues
Speaker 1: and they snore and all that stuff. But I try
Speaker 1: to tell them I will find the snoring adorable because
Speaker 1: it's English bulldog snoring. It's not gross human snoring. Help
Speaker 1: sell right now, she'll listen to this. I'll tell her
Speaker 1: about this. Help sell missus Sexton on the English bulldog
Speaker 1: which you have as a breed. So I have been
Speaker 1: obsessed since I saw one on like gift card when
Speaker 1: I was probably like twelve years old, and that was
Speaker 1: my dream. I wanted to get a bulldog ever since then.
Speaker 1: When my husband got in gauged and you know we
Speaker 1: were gonna get married, I started sending him photos and
Speaker 1: videos on a daily basis of bulldog puppies interacting. They're
Speaker 1: like everywhere on Instagram. Um so just start tagging her,
Speaker 1: Start tagging her on like every single cute video that
Speaker 1: you see and get it in her brain and she's
Speaker 1: gonna come around. She's gonna wrinkly and smushy and how cuddly.
Speaker 1: And there's nothing like a bulldog personality out there. They're
Speaker 1: stubborn but hilarious, and they're the most loyal dogs, the
Speaker 1: best cuddlers, and if you snor, they're a little stinky
Speaker 1: every now and then. But I mean, is there a
Speaker 1: dog that isn't say, you know what I mean? Come back?
Speaker 1: You know, humans, we come back from the gym or whatever.
Speaker 1: It can be a little rough. Sometimes you gotta lead
Speaker 1: the shoes out the back door, like you know. It's
Speaker 1: not I don't. I don't see that as such a
Speaker 1: big issue. Um I told you I'm already doing the
Speaker 1: bulldog propaganda from instagram, sending her a little bulldog photos
Speaker 1: of puppies and things. So we'll see. But she likes
Speaker 1: she's a big dog person. This is the thing we
Speaker 1: keep coming. She wants a big dog, like you know,
Speaker 1: eighty pounds. Are you guys looking at a frenchie or English?
Speaker 1: I want to I mean, I want an English If
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna get one, I'm gonna English bulldog. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the plan. So maybe you might have a lot
Speaker 1: of people think that English aren't very athletic. But if
Speaker 1: you do have a bulldog and you train them when
Speaker 1: they're young, they will. They're like good walking dogs if
Speaker 1: you get the right harness um, but you gotta start
Speaker 1: them young. And they're also very like fast sprinters and
Speaker 1: they can jump extremely high, so throwing frisbees, throwing a ball.
Speaker 1: Like they are outdoor dogs, Like you can get them
Speaker 1: out there. It's kind of like up to the owner
Speaker 1: if you want them to be like lazy couch dogs
Speaker 1: and that's all they do from when they're puppies, that's
Speaker 1: all they do. But like you want to get them
Speaker 1: outside and like have them go play at the park
Speaker 1: like they love that too. Amber. Your book Danger Clothes,
Speaker 1: people should get a copy of they don't already. I
Speaker 1: know you're working on another book which will have you
Speaker 1: back when that is published to talk about obviously, but
Speaker 1: anything else anywhere else. People should look for your work,
Speaker 1: your commentary, all that good stuff. Yeah. You can always
Speaker 1: see what I am up to lately on official Amber
Speaker 1: Smith dot com and then you can follow along on
Speaker 1: Instagram or Twitter at Amber Smith USA. Awesome, Amber, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. We'll talk to you again soon. Thanks back.
Speaker 1: Great to see you