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Speaker 1: Guess what, mango, what's that? Well? Alright, so I was

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Speaker 1: reading this article from the Guardian. This was back in

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Speaker 1: two thousand twelve, I think, and it was about the

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Speaker 1: Swiss Air Force. So there was this emergency with this

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Speaker 1: hijack plane over Swiss territory, so like no small deal,

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Speaker 1: something they really needed to deal with. But instead of

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Speaker 1: the Swiss Air Force escorting the troubled plane back to

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Speaker 1: Geneva and that would be typical, it was actually handled

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Speaker 1: by the French and Italian air forces. So, um, why

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Speaker 1: is that? Well, because it was six oh two am

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Speaker 1: and apparently that was two hours before the Swiss Air

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Speaker 1: Force came to work on and that can't be true. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they at least it wasn't two thousand fourteen. So here's

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Speaker 1: a quote I found from the Guardian. It says, um,

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Speaker 1: there's something almost too civilized about a country whose fighter

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Speaker 1: jet stick to office hours. I mean, this is crazy.

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Speaker 1: So they supposedly keep this eight to five schedule, they'll

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Speaker 1: break for an hour and a half for lunch, and

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Speaker 1: until two thousand seventeen there was no service on weekends.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty crazy. And I know this all sounds crazy,

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Speaker 1: but it was also because the Swiss didn't feel the

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Speaker 1: need for it, and they're military budget and so they

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Speaker 1: just they'd make arrangements when neighboring air forces to you know,

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Speaker 1: be on call whenever they were off. And it's an

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Speaker 1: interesting way to spend military money. I don't think this

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Speaker 1: is how it's done in the U. S. If I'm

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Speaker 1: not mistaken, but it did make me wonder like, how

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Speaker 1: much does our country spend on the military and where

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Speaker 1: exactly does that money go? And that's what today's episode

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Speaker 1: is all about. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part

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Speaker 1: Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined

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Speaker 1: by my good friend man gues Ticketer, and the man

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Speaker 1: on the other side of the soundproof glass wearing camo

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Speaker 1: in honor of today's topic is our friend and producer

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Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. He's always so prepared noticed this. Oh wait,

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Speaker 1: he's saluting us, thinking, good job, Kristen. All right, so

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Speaker 1: today we're answering the question how big is the U. S. Military?

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Speaker 1: And we're gonna be answering that from a few different angles.

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Speaker 1: You know, how much money has been how many people

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Speaker 1: are employed by the military, how many bases does the

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Speaker 1: US have and then other questions like how many countries

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Speaker 1: are we obligated to protect based on treaties and you

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Speaker 1: know things like this. Yeah, and our goal with this

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Speaker 1: episode is to answer these questions out of pure curiosity,

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Speaker 1: not to make any sort of political point. It's kind

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Speaker 1: of funny when you cover a topic like these, people

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Speaker 1: are always a little on edge and so ready to

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Speaker 1: pounce if they sense any bias. It always makes me

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Speaker 1: think about that time in Mental Floss and the year

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Speaker 1: we published a cover of the magazine with the headline

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Speaker 1: Wildest Rides to the White House. Yeah, and keep in

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Speaker 1: mind this was about a decade ago. Anyway. The cover

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Speaker 1: showed to roller coaster ride and in the roller coaster

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Speaker 1: was I think Nixon and Teddy Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter and

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Speaker 1: of course Hillary Clinton. Well, and if you remember, you

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Speaker 1: could see Lincoln's hat flying off in the background. And

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Speaker 1: now again, we we always tried to stay pretty free

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Speaker 1: of politics Mental Flaws because we saw ourselves as kind

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Speaker 1: of this break from the news and all of that.

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Speaker 1: But that issue generated so much angry male like more

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Speaker 1: than any other issue did from both sides of the

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Speaker 1: political spectrum, and those on the left were angry that

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Speaker 1: we used the photo of Hillary looking like she was screaming,

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Speaker 1: and and those on the right, we're angry because Hillary

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Speaker 1: didn't belong in that car, having never been a president.

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Speaker 1: But the reality is we felt we had no other

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Speaker 1: choice but to use that photo because there were no

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Speaker 1: fewer than like a hundred photos online of Hillary doing

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Speaker 1: the roller coaster face at least there are so many

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Speaker 1: to choose from it. But you're right, I mean, it

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Speaker 1: looked so real And you can actually google image search

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Speaker 1: this cover today. Just type in mental Flaws, Wildest Rise

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Speaker 1: to the White House and you'll see the cover that

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Speaker 1: we're talking about. That's a great example of what we're

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Speaker 1: dealing with here, And so as you listen to the episode,

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Speaker 1: try to keep in mind what our goal is, and

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Speaker 1: that's to answer this question. All right, So let's get started.

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Speaker 1: You know, the timing on this topic is pretty interesting

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Speaker 1: because while we're watching all of the fighting going on

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Speaker 1: over healthcare and a new tax plan and things like

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Speaker 1: the National Anthem, it almost went unnoticed that a couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks ago, the Senate passed their version of the

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Speaker 1: National Defense Authorization Act, and unlike so many other votes

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Speaker 1: these days, this one wasn't even close. The vote was

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Speaker 1: I think like eighty nine to eight, and they passed

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Speaker 1: this authorization of a seven hundred billion dollar funding for

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Speaker 1: the military for the upcoming fiscal year. And that happens

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Speaker 1: to be even more than the Trump administration had proposed,

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Speaker 1: which is crazy. And I thought it was a bill

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Speaker 1: of over twelve hundred pages, and you know, well, one

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Speaker 1: of these days I want to do an episode entirely

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Speaker 1: on how bills of that length are actually drafted, because

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Speaker 1: that's a lot of pages. Kidding, I wonder if anybody

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Speaker 1: read all twelve hundred pages. But yeah, that's seven hundred

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Speaker 1: billion included six hundred forty billion for basic Pentagon operations

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Speaker 1: and then another sixty billion for ongoing war operations. So

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Speaker 1: we're talking places like Iraq and Syria, Afghanistan, you know,

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Speaker 1: those are the biggies in the group. Yeah, and so

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Speaker 1: most of that funding goes to the Department of Defense,

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Speaker 1: but there are additional funds to the Department of Energy,

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Speaker 1: which is is uh, you know, responsible for the US

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Speaker 1: nuclear program, the Department of Homeland Security, the Veterans Administration,

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Speaker 1: the Military Retirement Trust Fund, and also health care for

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Speaker 1: retired military members as well. As allocations for intelligence agencies

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Speaker 1: because they have specific defense assignments. Yeah, and and and

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Speaker 1: those also have money authorized separately. So there are some

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Speaker 1: estimates you know that when you look at all the

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Speaker 1: agencies involved in our national security and military it it

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Speaker 1: may actually be closer to a trillion dollars annually. So

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Speaker 1: if we go with that seven billion dollar figure, the

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Speaker 1: military comes in second in terms of the largest federal expenditures.

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Speaker 1: You know what's first? What's that Social Security that comes

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Speaker 1: in around one trillion dollars? But where does that put

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Speaker 1: us in comparison to other countries? Well, you can look

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Speaker 1: at this in a few ways, but I think maybe

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Speaker 1: we should look at it into So first you can

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Speaker 1: look at it as total dollar amounts spent um, and

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Speaker 1: then you can also look at it as a percentage

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Speaker 1: of GDP. Now, in terms of total dollar amounts, the

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Speaker 1: US spends more each year than the next eight countries combined.

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Speaker 1: So what I want to tell me what those eight

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Speaker 1: countries are? No, I want you to guess. All right,

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Speaker 1: I'm looking at the two thousand sixteen figures here and

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Speaker 1: and the estimates on the US spending from that year

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Speaker 1: were about six hundred billion. Actually a little bit more

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Speaker 1: than six hundred billion. So I mean, I probably have

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Speaker 1: to guess the first two or past the US are

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Speaker 1: China and Russia. Maybe yeah, you'd be right to guess

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Speaker 1: them in exactly that order, but they're not as close

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Speaker 1: as you might think. So the estimates I was looking

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Speaker 1: at have China spending about two hundred and fifteen billion

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Speaker 1: on their military and Russia only spending about sixty nine billion.

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Speaker 1: So that's less than a third of what China spent.

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Speaker 1: That's crazy, Um, But I mean I guess it kind

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Speaker 1: of makes sense when you think about the population, because

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Speaker 1: I think China's population is about like ten times that

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Speaker 1: of Russia and they have something like one point four

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Speaker 1: billion people. I think, yeah, that's a good point. But

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Speaker 1: I feel like you're just kind of stalling. Here are

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Speaker 1: you looking at your phone? I'm just texting with my mom. Okay,

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Speaker 1: all right, Well what's your next guest? Um? Germany? I

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Speaker 1: guess yeah, they coming at number nine at forty one

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Speaker 1: billion dollars, And uh, what you know, North Korea is

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Speaker 1: in the news. How where where do they fit into this? Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, they spend a massive amount on their military.

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Speaker 1: We all know that. But because they're so secretive we

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Speaker 1: actually really can't know, so they're not included in the

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Speaker 1: list that I'm looking at here, So we're gonna put

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Speaker 1: them aside for now. But alright, one more guests and

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Speaker 1: then I'll just go ahead and tell you the rest

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Speaker 1: of the list. How about the UK, Yeah, they coming

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Speaker 1: at number six at about forty eight billions. So let's

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Speaker 1: go back to the top ones here at fourth is

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia sixty yeah, and then India at fifty five billion.

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Speaker 1: And one of the things surprised me the most in

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Speaker 1: terms of just how high they ranked is France at

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Speaker 1: fifty six billion dollars. Then you've got the UK as

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Speaker 1: we mentioned, Japan, Germany as we also mentioned, and then

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Speaker 1: South Korea rounding at the top ten at about thirty

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Speaker 1: seven billion dollars. So I think you're saying it's a

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Speaker 1: slightly different picture if you look at the spending as

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Speaker 1: a percentage of the g d P. Yeah, it's you know,

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Speaker 1: it's interesting, not just to look at it in terms

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Speaker 1: of how much other countries spend and comparing it to that,

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Speaker 1: but even looking at it, you know, it's compared to

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Speaker 1: previous decades. So the US spends a smaller percentage of

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Speaker 1: its GDP on military now than it did in the

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Speaker 1: mid twentieth century. And that's also the case for most

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Speaker 1: countries in Europe and the Americas. So let's go back

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Speaker 1: to nineteen sixty and we were talking about in the

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Speaker 1: neighborhood of like eight point four percent of our GDP

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Speaker 1: being spent on the military at that time here in

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Speaker 1: the US at least, and in two thousand and sixteen

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Speaker 1: that was only three point three percent. So it's a

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Speaker 1: significant decline when you're looking at it in those terms.

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Speaker 1: And according to the World Bank, the world average in

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty was around six percent. Today it's around two

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Speaker 1: point two percent. So you've seen a decline really across

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Speaker 1: the globe in terms of percent of GDP. But last year,

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Speaker 1: the country that spent the most on their military as

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Speaker 1: a percentage of GDP was Oman at thirteen point seven

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Speaker 1: uh Saudi Arabia being a close a second there, let's

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Speaker 1: see they were at just under ten percent, and then

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Speaker 1: the Democratic Republic of the Congo at a little over

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Speaker 1: seven percent. Now, again keep in mind that because North

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Speaker 1: Korea is so secretive about all this, we really don't

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Speaker 1: know exactly what they spend. But I've seen some reports

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Speaker 1: that were guessing around thirty of their GDP being spent

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Speaker 1: on the military, which I clearly that that isn't that surprising.

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Speaker 1: But so, so back to the u S. How is

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Speaker 1: that money divvied up? All? Right? Well, since the vast

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Speaker 1: majority goes to the Department of Defenses budget, so let's

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Speaker 1: let's look at that right now. The biggest percentage of

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Speaker 1: that at about goes to their general day to day

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Speaker 1: operation and maintenance. So you know, this includes things like

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Speaker 1: equipment maintenance and training and healthcare program. And you know,

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Speaker 1: it's also where civilian employees and contractors go, which I

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Speaker 1: feel like we should talk about in a bit, But

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Speaker 1: this isn't where the members of the military go. Now,

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Speaker 1: that's a separate category of its own, and that makes

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Speaker 1: up about twenty seven or twenty eight percent, And that

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Speaker 1: includes not just the pay for those in uniform, but

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Speaker 1: things like housing and subsistence allowances and other costs like

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Speaker 1: those moving you know, military families to new locations stuff

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Speaker 1: like that. So I'm scribbling these numbers down fort Okay, so,

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Speaker 1: speaking of military families living on bases around the world,

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Speaker 1: I just wanted to do this quick Tangent. Do you

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Speaker 1: know that stores on military basis don't accept pennies and nickels?

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Speaker 1: Apparently they're not worth their costs and shipping because they

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Speaker 1: way too much. But back to your Matthew, I scribbled

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Speaker 1: it down and it looks like it's at about sixty

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Speaker 1: seven or sixty eight percent between those two. So what

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Speaker 1: else is on there? Well, first of all, I enjoyed

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Speaker 1: that Tangent. I did not know that. Well, the other

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Speaker 1: big category, about thirty one percent, combines all the investment

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Speaker 1: in new technologies, you know, R and D, as well

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Speaker 1: as testing an evaluation of that R and D work,

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Speaker 1: and this is some really fascinating stuff and it's no

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Speaker 1: surprise that it would require a ton of money to

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Speaker 1: stay on top of the latest technologies, really in many

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Speaker 1: ways to create the latest technologies, when you think about

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Speaker 1: how important that is for the military. So let me

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Speaker 1: just give an example of this. And as a side note,

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Speaker 1: it's super interesting to look through the various budget allowances

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Speaker 1: for specific R and D projects, and you can do

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Speaker 1: this through the Department of Defense Investment budgets search. Alright,

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Speaker 1: So so the example here the armies zero six zero

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Speaker 1: three seven one zero A night Vision Advanced Technology. I

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Speaker 1: have no idea what those numbers stand for, but I

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Speaker 1: kind of like saying that to just make me sound official.

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Speaker 1: I know, I was gonna ask if you're sequence in

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Speaker 1: the army Army reserves. Yeah, I'm not at liberty to

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Speaker 1: say a mango, so but but but anyway, the cost

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Speaker 1: for the fiscal year two thousand and seventeen is just

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Speaker 1: shy of forty five billion dollars. And here's the description

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Speaker 1: of that project. Project Case seven zero pursues technologies that

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Speaker 1: improve the soldiers ability to see at night and provide

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Speaker 1: rapid wide area search to enable passive long range target identification.

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Speaker 1: Evaluate sensors and algorithms designed to detect targets, you know,

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Speaker 1: whether that's vehicles or personnel, and in camouflage or concealment

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Speaker 1: and deception from airborne platforms. So this is some super

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Speaker 1: sophisticated stuff. Yeah, and and I mean they're spending four

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Speaker 1: million dollars on it, so it's got to be pretty incredible.

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Speaker 1: But uh so, according to my map based on your number,

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Speaker 1: is I think that all adds up to about eight

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Speaker 1: or of my calculations are correct. Yeah, there's a few

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Speaker 1: other things there, so that the remaining like two ish

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Speaker 1: person is a combination of smaller things like military construction

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Speaker 1: or family housing, just a few odds and ends that

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Speaker 1: all add up right there. So this is the thing

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Speaker 1: that just like baffles me with with such a huge

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Speaker 1: budget and so many people involved in making these spending decisions, like,

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Speaker 1: how is all of that managed? Well, it's definitely not easy,

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Speaker 1: and they've actually had some issues with this, and so

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Speaker 1: they brought in some people from Mackenzie to even consult

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Speaker 1: on this and and just to make sure they could

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Speaker 1: wrap their heads around how all the money was being spent.

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Speaker 1: So this was back in two thousand, fourteen and fifteen,

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Speaker 1: and the Department of Defense found that it was spending

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Speaker 1: about a fourth of its budget on overhead and administrative matters.

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Speaker 1: So that's a ton of people in it, and you

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Speaker 1: can imagine that it's difficult to really keep a handle

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Speaker 1: on that and easy to see how that could swell

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Speaker 1: out of control in some ways, or at least do

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Speaker 1: so in a way that they don't know exactly how

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Speaker 1: it's being spent. So, in fact, the Pentagon's back office

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Speaker 1: bureaucracy employed over a million people, so that's about three

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Speaker 1: hundred thousand of those being in the military, almost four

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand of those being civilians, and then

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Speaker 1: another two hundred sixty eight thousand I think it was

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Speaker 1: being contractors. It's a lot of people. So Mackenzie and

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Speaker 1: this advisory board, they worked to help the Department of

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Speaker 1: Defense kind of you get a much better handle on

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Speaker 1: what they were spending. And after their analysis, they realized

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Speaker 1: the department was spending about fifty more than they'd previously

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Speaker 1: guessed on business operations alone. That's kind of crazy. So well,

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Speaker 1: I I definitely have a couple of other questions for

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Speaker 1: you before we get to the size of the military

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Speaker 1: from a personal perspective, which I actually looked into. But

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Speaker 1: before we tackle any of that, why don't we break

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Speaker 1: for a quick quiz? All right, mango, So it's time

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Speaker 1: to play a little quiz. And as you know, we've

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Speaker 1: allowed some of our listeners to write in and tell

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Speaker 1: us why they should be on the show. And one

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Speaker 1: of those wrote in. His name is Liam and he

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Speaker 1: was a nuclear trained electrician on submarines in the Navy.

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Speaker 1: How perfect an episode on How Big is the US Military?

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Speaker 1: But Liam, welcome to Part time Genius. Thank you, glad

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Speaker 1: to be here and where are you joining us from

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Speaker 1: Hampton Roads, Virginia? Okay, terrific? All right, well, you know,

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Speaker 1: let's let's start with that fact that you were a

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Speaker 1: nuclear trained electrician on submarines in the Navy. So, so

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Speaker 1: what exactly is a nuclear trained electrician? So? Uh? By rate?

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Speaker 1: Uh or you know, job description. When I joined the Navy,

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Speaker 1: I was an electrician. I went to school for that,

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Speaker 1: and then later went to school to learn how to

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Speaker 1: operate and maintain a nuclear power plant because all of

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Speaker 1: our submarines are nuclear powered and the aircraft carriers are

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Speaker 1: also nuclear powered, and that was that was the job

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Speaker 1: I got to do. Wow, well, thank you for doing

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Speaker 1: a good job with that. That's really cool. Um. And

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Speaker 1: so how long were you on submarines for? Uh? Well,

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Speaker 1: I was in the Navy for thirteen years. Most of

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Speaker 1: that time was was on board submarines, with a short

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Speaker 1: stint at a shore duty command and the training before that,

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Speaker 1: so I don't say about eight of those years I

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Speaker 1: was on submarines. Wow, what's the most fun thing that

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Speaker 1: happens on submarines? The most fun thing? Well, I'd probably

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Speaker 1: say halfway night, um, halfway through underway and schedule underway.

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Speaker 1: We have a little celebration just getting to that port

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Speaker 1: point and knowing that, you know, it's all down hail

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Speaker 1: from there. We're heading home soon. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, well, Liam,

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Speaker 1: you may have thought it was a tough job to

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Speaker 1: to be an electrician in the Navy, but but actually

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Speaker 1: we've got something even tougher for you. We've got one

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Speaker 1: of our very important quizzes. Mango. What's the name of

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Speaker 1: today's quiz. It's called Oh captain, my captain? All right,

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Speaker 1: So every answer is a fictional captain, and we're gonna

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Speaker 1: see how many of these eight fictional captains you can

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Speaker 1: get right in. What are we saying? Ninety seconds? So

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Speaker 1: we're gonna set the clock to ninety seconds. This is

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Speaker 1: some high press your stuff, just like summer in, just

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Speaker 1: like submarines. Are you ready, Liam, I'm ready? All right,

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Speaker 1: here we go. We'll get started. The captain that hung

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Speaker 1: out with Spock on the Enterprise. Also his middle name

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Speaker 1: is Tiberius Captain Kirk, that's right. This captain is featured

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Speaker 1: on cereal boxes and sales the s s Guppy Captain Crunch.

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Speaker 1: This captain considers Peter Pan his nemesis, but he's more

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Speaker 1: afraid of crocodiles. Hook Hook Hook. This captain is from

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Speaker 1: a kid show played by Bob Keishan was named for

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Speaker 1: a marsupial. Oh Captain, Kangaroo. That's right. This captain sits

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Speaker 1: on the label of spiced rum bottles. Oh Captain. This

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Speaker 1: captain once punched Hitler on the cover of his comic

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Speaker 1: book Captain America. This captain was featured in Moby Dick

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Speaker 1: Moby Dick that one my mom would would would kill

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Speaker 1: me for not knowing that she was big in the literature.

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Speaker 1: But don't remember that. Let's go to the last one

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Speaker 1: real quick. This captain slash environmental superhero used to save

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Speaker 1: the Earth on Saturday mornings. Captain Planet. He's a hero.

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Speaker 1: So Liam went seven for eight. He still had thirty

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Speaker 1: seconds on o'clock and he just missed Captain Ahab. That's

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Speaker 1: the only one in which which I think probably qualifies

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Speaker 1: in for a big prize. What do you think. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna send you a big box of Captain crunch. Well, Liam,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much for all the work you did in

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Speaker 1: the U. S. Navy, and thanks so much for joining

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Speaker 1: us on part time genius. Oh thanks for having me, guys,

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Speaker 1: I I really enjoyed it. Thank you. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: part time Genius now le Mango. Before the break, you

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Speaker 1: were saying you had a couple more questions and before

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Speaker 1: we dive into personnel and look at our bases around

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Speaker 1: the world, let's let's talk about those. Yes, something I've

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Speaker 1: seen several reporters write about only is something they referred

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Speaker 1: to as the quote black budget. Okay, can you explain

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Speaker 1: what that is? Yeah? Sure, that this is where the

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Speaker 1: funding for you know, covert military programs comes from. And

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Speaker 1: and in most recent years it appears this was something

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Speaker 1: like fifty to sixty billion dollars allocated to to this

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Speaker 1: black budget. And there was a really interesting Wired article

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Speaker 1: back in two thousand and twelve, and the quote from

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Speaker 1: that it says, to put it in perspective, the Pentagon

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Speaker 1: is still spending more unclassified projects than most nations spend

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Speaker 1: on their entire military forces in a year. So that

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Speaker 1: doesn't include the regular budget for intelligence funding, right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So when you include the funding from you know, the

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Speaker 1: national intelligence program, which is where agencies like the CIA

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Speaker 1: would fall, we're talking another fifty billion or so. So

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Speaker 1: when it's all added up, we're probably looking at like

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Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty billion dollars for these black accounts,

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Speaker 1: as you call them. Sure, and and these days the

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Speaker 1: US is covert and intelligence gathering operations are super important

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Speaker 1: and a big part of the way the government looks

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Speaker 1: to protect citizens from terrorist attacks or other dangers. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and and the amounts have fallen in a pretty similar

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Speaker 1: range for many years now. And and during the Cold

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Speaker 1: War spending was almost certainly about the same, though it's

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Speaker 1: really difficult to pull historical data on intelligence spending for

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Speaker 1: for reasons that aren't all that surprising. But all right, well,

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Speaker 1: why don't we jump to personnel now, since this is

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Speaker 1: something that you looked into, So why don't you tell

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Speaker 1: me what you got. Sure, So, I've pulled a lot

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Speaker 1: of numbers, and and here's the overall sense of it.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand fifteen, the U s is total number

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Speaker 1: of active duty military personnel was a million threety seven thousand,

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Speaker 1: And that's just shy of five percent of the total

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Speaker 1: number of active duty military personnel in the entire world. So,

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Speaker 1: and that's if you combine all the militaries of all

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Speaker 1: the countries, and then if you include the reserve forces,

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Speaker 1: the current number of military personnel is over three point

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Speaker 1: five million. That means that about point four percent of

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Speaker 1: the US population is on active duty and a little

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Speaker 1: over one percent or either active duty or reserve personnel.

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Speaker 1: And how does that compare to previous years? I mean,

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Speaker 1: I feel like that total number is down a little

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Speaker 1: bit over the past couple of decades. Right, Yeah, So

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Speaker 1: if you go back to like two thousand, the total

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Speaker 1: number of active duty is a little over five percent

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Speaker 1: smaller now than it was back in two thousand. And

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Speaker 1: if you go back to all military branches except for

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Speaker 1: the Coastguard, have really seen a decrease in active duty members,

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Speaker 1: Like the current military is active duty is historically small

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Speaker 1: for everything post World War Two. All right, well, why

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Speaker 1: don't you tell me what the breakdown looks branch by branch.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think the Army is the largest, right,

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Speaker 1: So I've got these numbers here. The Army has just

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Speaker 1: over four hundred sixty thousand on active duty, The Navy

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Speaker 1: has about three twenty thousand, the Air Force has about

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Speaker 1: three hundred eighteen thousand, and the Marines have about a

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Speaker 1: hundred eighty five thousand. And then you've got the Coast

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Speaker 1: Guard with much smaller. It's at forty thousand. Actually, I

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Speaker 1: didn't realize the Navy and the Air Force were so

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Speaker 1: close in size. I mean, I kind of always assumed

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Speaker 1: the Navy was much bigger for some reason. But speaking

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Speaker 1: of the Air Force, I know it's time for you

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Speaker 1: to go to Tangent Town. I know you would bring

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Speaker 1: up this fact, so I'm gonna go ahead and tee

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Speaker 1: you up for it. But I'm assuming you know some

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Speaker 1: of our listeners probably know this, but just in case,

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Speaker 1: we've got got Bob Ross to talk about. Yeah, Bob Ross,

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Speaker 1: And I suppose this one's pretty well known, kind of

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Speaker 1: like the Julia child being a spy thing, but it's

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Speaker 1: still pretty great. So you know, Bob Ross, who everyone

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Speaker 1: knows is the guy who painted happy little trees and

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Speaker 1: I could do that in his sleep and helped us

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Speaker 1: all find inner peace through his art. He was actually

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Speaker 1: a master sergeant in the US Air Force, and he

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Speaker 1: was apparently required to be mean and tough. He even

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Speaker 1: said he was the guy who would be forced to

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Speaker 1: yell at you to clean a latrine until it sparkled.

430
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:41,440
Speaker 1: And after twenty years in the military he decided enough

431
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:44,520
Speaker 1: was enough and he would never scream again, and that

432
00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:46,520
Speaker 1: was three years before he started The Joy of Painting.

433
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,240
Speaker 1: I never saw him scream on that. Also, he hated

434
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 1: his perm Oh nice tangent. All right, Well, I've got

435
00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,119
Speaker 1: a couple of quick facts on my own here about

436
00:21:56,119 --> 00:21:58,680
Speaker 1: the Coast Guard, which often gets ignored when people talk

437
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,399
Speaker 1: about the military because you know, it is pretty small,

438
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,439
Speaker 1: and actually it's even smaller than the size of the

439
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:06,440
Speaker 1: New York City Police Department. I don't know if you

440
00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:09,360
Speaker 1: do that as far as personnel goes, but they're definitely

441
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:12,440
Speaker 1: an active force. I saw one stat according to military

442
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,000
Speaker 1: dot Com, the Coast Guard sees is a hundred and

443
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 1: sixty nine pounds of marijuana and three hundred and six

444
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:21,440
Speaker 1: pounds of cocaine, worth just shy of ten million dollars

445
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,480
Speaker 1: every single day, every day. What do they do with

446
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,199
Speaker 1: all those drugs? Well, I think they've got this like

447
00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,520
Speaker 1: massive toilet that they flush it down. Actually have no

448
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:32,879
Speaker 1: idea what they do with all of it. I mean,

449
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,879
Speaker 1: if that's every single day, that's an enormous amount. But

450
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:40,120
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Alright. So, so you mentioned the active duty forces,

451
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:42,240
Speaker 1: but but we've also got the reserve forces, and that's

452
00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:45,120
Speaker 1: not a small number. Of people. Yeah, the various divisions

453
00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:47,520
Speaker 1: of the U S Military serve Forces are are where

454
00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,240
Speaker 1: you'll find another eight hundred twenty six thousand people in

455
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:53,000
Speaker 1: the selected reserves. So this would include members of the

456
00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 1: National Guard and those in the reserves that be called

457
00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:58,880
Speaker 1: into active duty. About two thirds of these come from

458
00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:02,320
Speaker 1: the Army National art and the Army Reserves. But in addition,

459
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,240
Speaker 1: you've got you know, the Navy Reserve, of the Marine Corps, Reserve,

460
00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:08,480
Speaker 1: of the Air National Guard, the Air Force Reserve, and

461
00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:11,480
Speaker 1: also the Coastguard Reserve. Wow. That's a lot to keep

462
00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:13,360
Speaker 1: up with. But all right, well, let's get to our

463
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,960
Speaker 1: presence around the world. And I'm guessing you're talking about

464
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,320
Speaker 1: the hundred seventy golf courses around the world that the

465
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:23,560
Speaker 1: military is responsible for. No. I mean, but somebody's got

466
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:26,199
Speaker 1: to keep those greens green and those sand traps trappy. Right,

467
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:29,080
Speaker 1: that's an old saying, I think, Are you serious A

468
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:32,440
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy golf courses. Yes, these are on militaries

469
00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:35,200
Speaker 1: or it's their recreation spots in various places around the world.

470
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 1: But let's back up a little and talk about those numbers.

471
00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:41,359
Speaker 1: If you count the small installations the US military currently

472
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 1: has about eight hundred bases abroad and in about eighty countries,

473
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,440
Speaker 1: and all other countries combined have about thirty bases outside

474
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,280
Speaker 1: their own borders. Oh wow, So that's eight hundred bases

475
00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:54,720
Speaker 1: around the world for the US and just thirty for

476
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 1: all other countries combined. Is way more than thirty. I'm

477
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,880
Speaker 1: pretty sure where we went on that, and that's incredible.

478
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I'm hoping you can walk us through

479
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:06,520
Speaker 1: how this came to be, but but actually, first, can

480
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 1: you just explain like how a base is defined? Yeah, so,

481
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:11,959
Speaker 1: so the definition can vary a bit based on who

482
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: you ask, But according to David Vine, the author of

483
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:19,080
Speaker 1: Base Nation Quote, bases come in all sizes and shapes,

484
00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 1: from massive sides in Germany and Japan to small radar

485
00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:25,840
Speaker 1: facilities in Peru and Puerto Rico. Other bases include posts

486
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:32,000
Speaker 1: and air fields, repair facilities, nuclear weapon installations, warehouses, military schools,

487
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:35,520
Speaker 1: drone bases, military hospitals. It's all that type of thing.

488
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,879
Speaker 1: And even military resorts and recreation areas in places like

489
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:41,879
Speaker 1: Tuscany and Soul those are also kind of bases. And

490
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:44,679
Speaker 1: that's where we get the hundred seventy golf courses that

491
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:46,879
Speaker 1: is a lot. Actually, I was reading about one of

492
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:49,040
Speaker 1: these bases. I've never heard about this before, but in

493
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty have you have you heard of Camp Century.

494
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:55,280
Speaker 1: So it was this top secret US military base and

495
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:57,960
Speaker 1: they were looking for a place to house certain missiles,

496
00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,199
Speaker 1: and so they built this base under the ice sheets

497
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:04,040
Speaker 1: in Greenland. Was just unbelievable, and it was, you know,

498
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:07,200
Speaker 1: they pretended that this place was there for climate research,

499
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 1: and so there was something like two people there and

500
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:14,119
Speaker 1: it was actually powered by the world's first portable nuclear reactors.

501
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 1: So it's a pretty fascinating place. And it went without

502
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: anyone knowing about it until Denmark uncovered this base. I

503
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:23,479
Speaker 1: think it was in like nine so we're talking like

504
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 1: thirty years or so before anybody realized this thing was there.

505
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,199
Speaker 1: That's crazy, all right, But but I guess what may

506
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:31,320
Speaker 1: be more surprising to me, since we, you know, we

507
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 1: grew up knowing that our military head bases all over

508
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 1: the world, is that other really big countries have so few. Yeah. So,

509
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:40,880
Speaker 1: according to a couple counts, I saw, the US has

510
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:45,320
Speaker 1: somewhere around of the world's foreign basis, and yet China

511
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 1: just opened its first military base abroad in Djibouty last month.

512
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 1: That really is surprising. So as far as our presence

513
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:53,840
Speaker 1: around the world, I mean, how did this come to be?

514
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:56,640
Speaker 1: I'm assuming like World War Two was a big part

515
00:25:56,640 --> 00:26:01,080
Speaker 1: of this. Yeah, the U. S. Began building military bases abroad,

516
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 1: and by the end of World War Two we had

517
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 1: over two thousand, and now about half of those were

518
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 1: abandoned after the war. And and then you see this

519
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:11,119
Speaker 1: up and down as we built more during the Korean

520
00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:14,040
Speaker 1: and Vietnam Wars and then declined after each and then

521
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 1: back up again during the Cold War. During the nineties,

522
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 1: the military abandoned a little more than half of those,

523
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 1: and and today we have about half as many bases,

524
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,200
Speaker 1: but in twice as many countries as we did in Yeah,

525
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 1: it's just looking back that number you mentioned at the

526
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 1: end of World War two, so two thousand bases around

527
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:33,800
Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, and if you consider how quickly they

528
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 1: were built, it's also really wild. So according to mine,

529
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: by ninety five, the U. S. Military was building base

530
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 1: facilities at a rate of a hundred twelve a month,

531
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,199
Speaker 1: and in only five years, the US had developed history's

532
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 1: first truly global network of bases. And he says it

533
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 1: vastly overshadowed out of the British Empire upon which the

534
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:56,720
Speaker 1: sun never set. It's definitely an impressive accomplishment for sure.

535
00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:58,640
Speaker 1: And you know, it makes more sense when I look

536
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 1: back at the annual budget and see that the maintenance

537
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:06,360
Speaker 1: of bases costs somewhere like five ninety billion dollars each year. Well,

538
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 1: there's one other piece of this that I think we

539
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: need to know, and that's the obligation the US has

540
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,920
Speaker 1: to provide military to others. What do you mean by that? Well,

541
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:18,840
Speaker 1: this political science professor from Tufts his his name's Michael Beckley.

542
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,159
Speaker 1: He looked at the network of treaties and all the

543
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,919
Speaker 1: defensive packs we've entered into since World War Two, and

544
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: through those we're actually bound to protect sixty nine nations

545
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:32,160
Speaker 1: comprising of the world's population. But you know that there's

546
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:36,120
Speaker 1: an economic and economic stability aspect to these nations also

547
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:40,119
Speaker 1: represent of the global economy in terms of output. Wow,

548
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:43,639
Speaker 1: so t of the world's population, and I have to

549
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,920
Speaker 1: assume some of these came about from these like big

550
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:49,080
Speaker 1: multi nation agreements that we've entered in over the years. Yeah, definitely,

551
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 1: So you've got the big ease like the Organization of

552
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:55,600
Speaker 1: American States, the os or NATO UM, the Australian New

553
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:59,120
Speaker 1: Zealand and U. S. Security Treaty, and and then there's

554
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:02,439
Speaker 1: several like by Lateral Defensive fact so um, most of

555
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:04,480
Speaker 1: these we signed in the fifties and early sixties, but

556
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 1: there were places like Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Philippine and South Korea, Taiwan.

557
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:11,960
Speaker 1: I mean there's just a few of them. Yeah, and

558
00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:13,439
Speaker 1: I mean I guess I would add it to a

559
00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: significant percentage of the world's population. So well, I don't

560
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:19,160
Speaker 1: know about you, but I definitely learned a lot about

561
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 1: how big the US military is today. But we're not

562
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: done yet because there's one more really important thing to

563
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:33,960
Speaker 1: take care of, the PGG fact off. That's right, ye,

564
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:39,400
Speaker 1: all right, so I'll kick us off here. So we've

565
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 1: been talking about how much larger the U. S. Military

566
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: is than all other countries. So it's not a surprise

567
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 1: that the U. S. Air Force is the largest air

568
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,480
Speaker 1: force in the world. But you know what the second

569
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 1: largest air force in the world is. It's the U. S. Navy.

570
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 1: It's a true question. Got you on that one. Well,

571
00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:58,880
Speaker 1: speaking of lots of planes, I I laughed when I

572
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 1: saw a fact that after off Gun came out in

573
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 1: six the Navy saw this huge increase in the number

574
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,239
Speaker 1: of men who wanted to become naval aviators, reportedly by

575
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: as much as five. Apparently they're just low high five.

576
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,080
Speaker 1: And all right, Well, I guess we're just gonna keep

577
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 1: talking about big records here. So take a guess who

578
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 1: the largest employer in America is the Army. No, it's

579
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 1: another trick question. It's Walmart whatever, two million employees. I

580
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 1: think it's actually like two point two million. About one

581
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,240
Speaker 1: point three million of those are actually based in the US.

582
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:32,720
Speaker 1: But the Army comes in second with about a million

583
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 1: and active duty or the reserves. Okay, so I'm going

584
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,040
Speaker 1: to go back to the Air Force for another fact. Apparently,

585
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 1: after researchers looked into how bumblebees fly, the Air Force

586
00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 1: was so inspired to use the air dynamics discovered from

587
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: the research that they developed the F one seventeen fighter.

588
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's pretty crazy. Well, there's this really interesting

589
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 1: article for Atlas Obscure that's definitely worth looking up, and

590
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 1: it's about how the US government spent more than twenty

591
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: million dollars over the course of a couple of decades,

592
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 1: and they did is to train telepaths to help the military.

593
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: Curious how that all turned out. Um, So you may

594
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 1: remember from a few years ago a few people try

595
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,880
Speaker 1: to make a big deal online about a marine holding

596
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:16,880
Speaker 1: this umbrella over President Obama and the rain. Everyone was

597
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,600
Speaker 1: up in arms because while female Marines are allowed to

598
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:22,560
Speaker 1: carry umbrella, as male marines are instructed early on that

599
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 1: they're not to hold an umbrella no matter how hard

600
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: it's raining. However, as Marine spokesman Captain Eric Flanagan told

601
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 1: The Washington Post, according to the US Code, marines are

602
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: to quote perform such other duties as the President may direct.

603
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 1: So that means if the President says he wants an

604
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 1: umbrella held over him, he's gonna get an umbrella held

605
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:45,320
Speaker 1: over him. I vaguely remember this, but that's some serious

606
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: controversy there, And you know, I feel like a fact

607
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 1: about an umbrella controversy is worthy of the PTG Trophy.

608
00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 1: So I'm going to give you today's prize. So congratulations.

609
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 1: But before we go, what episodes that we have coming

610
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 1: up manga? We've got some good ones, right, Yeah, We've

611
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 1: got two really good ones in works. We've got the

612
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:05,280
Speaker 1: incredibly important history of Breakfast Cereal. I know we're both

613
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 1: huge fans of Cereals, so that should be a good one.

614
00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:09,400
Speaker 1: And and then next week we're looking at the worst

615
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 1: jobs in America. Yeah, both of those are going to

616
00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 1: be really fun. And thank you again to all our

617
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 1: listeners who are writing to us at Part Time Genius

618
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 1: and How Stuff Works dot com or calling seven Fact hotline.

619
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 1: It is still seven magas one eight four four pt Genius,

620
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 1: and I hope you've all noticed we're trying really hard

621
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: to respond to everyone who writes or calls or hits

622
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 1: us up on Facebook or Twitter, So we look forward

623
00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 1: to hearing from you guys. And if you like this episode,

624
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: please do us a big favor and share it with

625
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 1: a friend, and if you're feeling extra generous, give us

626
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 1: a review on Apple Podcast. But that's it for today.

627
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:55,320
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part

628
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 1: Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and

629
00:31:57,360 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 1: wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the

630
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,320
Speaker 1: important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil

631
00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 1: does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song

632
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 1: and does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does

633
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:11,840
Speaker 1: the exact producer thing. Gabe Louesier is our lead researcher,

634
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 1: with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan

635
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:17,080
Speaker 1: Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the

636
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 1: show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like

637
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, and if you

638
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:23,280
Speaker 1: really really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave

639
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: a good review for us. Did you? Did you forget Jason?

640
00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: Jason who