Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:00
Welcome to the Metavec podcast, stories
0:03
of injury,
0:03
rescue, recovery,
0:06
and resiliency. We'll
0:08
find more than that back podcast dot
0:11
com.
0:23
Hello, everybody,
0:23
and welcome to the MetaBank podcast. I'm
0:25
your host, Christian Myers, joined by our other
0:27
host, Dave Gread. Hello, everybody. If
0:30
you don't know, today is September twentieth,
0:32
which is David Reed's a live day.
0:34
Oh, yes. Wanna do a quick shout out. Thanks for
0:36
staying alive. Yeah. That's that's always a
0:38
good I'm glad to be alive. Yeah.
0:41
I'm glad you're still here, man. Thank you. If you ever
0:43
heard Dave's story, you can go back a few episodes roads
0:45
will plug it in, but Dave talks about his story
0:47
little bit more in-depth about what
0:50
happened with his injury and onto
0:52
his recovery as well. go give that one a listen
0:54
if you haven't too. Our guest today is
0:56
Brendan Powers. Oh, boy. Oh, wait.
0:59
There is a price for the show. Oh, there's a price
1:01
for the show. Yeah. Do you wanna fill them in on the price?
1:04
No. No. No. It's gotta be you. If you
1:06
haven't listened to the show before, there is a price. You have
1:08
to share it with a friend or family member. if you get
1:10
something out of today's episode. So even if there's just
1:12
a little tidbit of information, you wanna share with someone,
1:14
make sure you hit that share button, interact with the
1:16
video somehow. Let's get those numbers up.
1:18
It really does help. I had someone come up to airport
1:21
the other day and say he joined the military
1:23
specifically because of this podcast.
1:25
So it helps share, comment below. We love
1:27
hearing what everybody has to say. Which branch did
1:29
it join? Air Force. I
1:32
wonder who inspired him. Yeah. You heard all those five
1:34
star recording. Staking lobster
1:36
stories. Who's our guest today?
1:39
The guest today is Brendan Powers. Welcome,
1:42
Brandon. Thank you. Thanks for being here. He is a
1:44
former marine. Can I say former marine?
1:46
Sure. No. It's you're once a marine,
1:49
always a marine. Right. So why marine list? Yeah. That's
1:51
right, please. So Brent is a former
1:53
marine transition into the army. He's a chief
1:55
warrant officer now, flying
1:57
UH six issues. So my old helicopter
1:59
platform love having another rotor head
2:01
rotor head on board. It's a it's a great aircraft.
2:03
I really love it and I love what I do. Absolutely.
2:05
And and we'll dive into this in a minute, but
2:08
going from truck driving in the marines
2:10
to a pilot, a sixty pilot
2:12
in the army -- Mhmm. -- what a transition that
2:15
is. So let's wind it back a
2:17
little bit and, like,
2:19
how was your journey into
2:21
getting into the military? So
2:23
I come from a a military family.
2:25
Yeah. My three of my grandparents
2:27
served in World War two to include my
2:30
grandmother. She was actually the highest ranking of of
2:32
my three grandparents. No kidding. Yeah. She
2:34
was an officer. She met my grandfather.
2:36
He was a a rater. So
2:39
pre UDT -- Yeah. -- and
2:41
just he was always he
2:43
was a diver. So, you know, we've got his old
2:45
Mark five dive helmet and pretty
2:47
sure his statue limitation is out on that
2:50
acquisition of gear. This
2:52
is tactically acquired
2:54
-- Tactically acquired. -- and then
2:56
my my father served in the navy
2:59
and he had he
3:01
had never really left New York before. And
3:03
so his first duty station was Key West. And his
3:05
second duty station was Aluthra in the Bahamas
3:07
where he met my mother. and then they
3:10
got stationed in Bermuda and
3:12
then Virginia Beach. And he'd
3:14
he'd said during his tenure in the navy,
3:16
the vehicle never invaded the bomb. So
3:19
On his watch. On his watch. Yes.
3:21
And in that Vietnam era veteran,
3:23
but he he never went overseas. So he's just,
3:25
you know, the military send you where they
3:27
send you and you accept the mission and do as best
3:29
as you possibly can. So, you
3:31
know, come from military family after nine
3:34
My my brother and I both looked
3:36
at past to join the military. Mhmm.
3:38
We had civilian careers at that point,
3:40
and I was I was pretty old. I was
3:42
twenty seven when I went to boot camp and I realized
3:45
I was older than my senior drill instructor. I think
3:47
that's a unique question
3:50
to ask too is how nine eleven
3:52
affected you and your family coming from that
3:54
background. Well, my sister
3:56
was actually in the capital that day. Yeah.
3:58
Oh, wow. And, you know, we couldn't
4:00
couldn't get a hold of her for a couple of days or
4:02
not for a couple of hours. Okay. We're finally
4:04
able to speak with her later that afternoon.
4:06
And we knew she was safe. She
4:09
was working for a member to congress at the time,
4:11
and my I remember my father asking her,
4:13
you know, where's where's David? Oh, he's
4:15
here. He's here at the house, you know, because they they nobody
4:18
knew what where to go, what to do. Mhmm.
4:20
And nine eleven was a
4:22
really special not special, but it was
4:24
impactful on our community because president
4:26
Bush was at our local airport
4:28
at the time. Okay. So the
4:30
day before, my my wife and
4:32
daughter had the opportunity to
4:34
to meet the president on on September
4:36
tenth. And there's a great picture
4:38
of my wife and healy's, you know,
4:40
with the president. It's
4:42
really impactful because we
4:45
really saw how much the world changed
4:47
in an instant -- Yeah. -- in a day. In a
4:49
day. Yeah. And
4:51
So it was very very impactful on
4:53
the the Sarasota Bradenton area because,
4:56
you know, we were part of
4:58
history that day. Absolutely. And
5:00
our our local congressman ended up flying
5:02
on the first leg with the president, and he
5:04
did a a retelling of his experience.
5:06
of, you know, what it was like to fly on
5:08
Air Force One when nobody knew what was
5:10
going on. Mhmm. So there's a
5:13
there's a special call to service for
5:15
me and my brother in in thousands and millions
5:17
of other people because of the events of
5:19
that day. Mhmm. Just go and do something.
5:21
Absolutely. And that that
5:24
led me down the path of the first
5:26
thing I wanted to do was I wanted to join the Coast
5:28
Guard because I thought, you know, protect the
5:30
homeland. Mhmm. And
5:32
So that's where I started. Long
5:35
story short, I didn't join the Coast Guard.
5:37
I spoke to the navy, you
5:39
know, I spoke to the army, I spoke to the air force,
5:41
you know, and it was you're too old for this or we
5:43
don't really have a job for you. And I
5:45
ended up in the Marine Corps recruiter's office.
5:47
And you know,
5:49
I I actually signed up to do
5:51
Amtraks. Mhmm. And I didn't
5:53
wanna be a truck driver. And,
5:55
you know, so I one
5:58
day in boot camp, the senior general structure
5:59
calls me in. He's like, hey, Brendan. Guess what?
6:02
Recruit powers. You're gonna
6:04
be a truck driver now. needs to the Marine Corps. We need more
6:06
truck drivers, so you're now at thirty five
6:08
thirty one. And that does that
6:10
does suck. Very green.
6:13
It's just just like you quintessential marine
6:15
corps. You know what you wanna do
6:17
when you go in and then just
6:19
have your whole world shattered. for the
6:21
next four years. Yeah.
6:23
But, you know, I ended up making
6:25
great friends. I I did
6:27
a deployment with great
6:30
people. I learned a lot emotionally
6:32
about myself of challenge, be
6:34
able to challenge myself, to be able to do things
6:36
that I never thought possible. Mhmm. because
6:39
I remember asking my brother when it kinda came
6:41
down to, you know, the
6:43
Marine Corps looks like your paths. Mhmm. And my
6:45
brother had just graduated from
6:48
Paris Island a couple months prior. Okay.
6:50
And, you know, when I asked him, I said, you
6:52
know, what does it what does it take
6:54
to join the Marine Corps? You know, do you think I
6:56
can do it? And his response to me is, you
6:58
know, still powerful these days. It's it's
7:00
you can't describe what it's like
7:02
unless you do it. Unless you've done it, you
7:04
can't really describe it to somebody. So
7:06
you know, I took that as a as a personal
7:09
challenge -- Mhmm. -- to just alright. I'm
7:11
doing this. Let's go. So and
7:13
I've tried to take that in life
7:15
to everything else that I do. and
7:17
that that helps me get to where I am in the army
7:19
now. Yeah. I wanna do that.
7:22
So figure out a plan, execute it.
7:24
don't put those barriers, stop you along the way. Right?
7:26
Absolutely. Absolutely. The yeah.
7:29
The the road to accomplishing your
7:31
dreams is setting goals, I suppose.
7:33
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
7:35
Yeah. The military has a tendency
7:37
to do that. It did really challenge
7:39
you to to push yourself and apply that in
7:41
the civilian sector So what
7:43
did you do before nine eleven?
7:45
You said you were in the civilian world? So
7:47
I I
7:49
think it's really it's a part of
7:52
the citizenship requirements of
7:54
Florida to be a realtor. Okay. So
7:56
that was a realtor. For a period of time,
7:58
I worked on some campaigns. the
8:00
And III actually
8:03
got to work for a a member of
8:05
congress, and somebody
8:07
didn't like her. and they tried to
8:09
run her over while we were waving signs on the side
8:11
of the road. Sure. And I I it
8:14
was not heroic at all. I kind of like dove
8:16
and fell on top of her ended up getting her out
8:18
of the way. And two days later,
8:20
I got introduced to the first lady of the United
8:23
States. And I joke that it's the best
8:25
introduction one could have. Brandon,
8:27
he's joining the Marine Corps. He saved my life last
8:29
week. So that, you know That is a
8:31
pretty good I'm surprised I didn't give you a job in
8:33
the Secret Service. Well,
8:35
again, I pretty much just tripped and fell on
8:37
top of her knocked her out of the way. Yeah.
8:39
Yeah. You were like, III wasn't actually trying to
8:41
rescue her. I was trying to get out of the way and I just
8:43
tripped and helped. helped her out.
8:46
And it perfectly helped. No. I mean, that's a great
8:48
introduction though. I mean -- Yeah. -- what a what a way
8:50
to do that. So in the Marine
8:52
Corps, as a truck driver.
8:54
What was, like, your day to day? What were you,
8:56
Holland? Was it Troops? Was it We
8:58
did we essentially did convoy
9:00
security. Mhmm. I started off
9:02
in a gun truck. Mhmm. So I was
9:04
driving a a big
9:06
seven ton and, you know, we had a two forty up on
9:08
top and we would load to, like, a little
9:10
bit of cargo, but it was mostly escorting the
9:12
civilian truck drivers. Okay. They
9:14
they got to their bases safely. Mhmm. I
9:16
was in the Alarm and Alarm
9:19
province. Mhmm. So
9:21
start yeah. We're based in t q, but it
9:23
was Felicia, Ramadi, a
9:25
landbar. We went to Taji, to
9:27
Baghdad, a little fobs out all over
9:29
the place to just make sure that they've got
9:31
food and water and generators and fuel and
9:33
everything else. Mhmm. So that was my job I started
9:35
off in a gun truck. I ended up
9:37
getting promoted to our
9:39
platoon leaders driver. Yeah.
9:42
So that ended up making
9:45
couple months later, realized that the
9:47
the car with all the antennas on it
9:49
is a bullet magnet. Yes. So
9:51
we we got shot a couple of times,
9:53
and it was it was always interesting
9:58
how you react under
9:59
fire. you know, some people, you
10:02
know, for for me, I'd like to think
10:04
that I act I did my job because it was
10:06
just, okay, push through. somebody
10:08
else needs to get on comms and make sure that
10:10
they're engaging, you know, with positive ID.
10:12
So but my job during
10:14
that moment was to just get out of
10:16
the kill zone. Sure. Push through. Our tires
10:18
are blown out. And
10:20
my my favorite
10:22
treasure or
10:24
Trophy, if you will, is a I just
10:26
received a care package from home. And I
10:28
have a head and shoulders bottle that I keep in
10:30
my office. because a a bullet went through
10:32
it. And then my wife
10:34
constantly is saying, like, why do we have trash out
10:36
in the office? I'm like, that is a momentum.
10:38
Yeah. That's
10:40
days. That doesn't go anywhere --
10:42
Yeah. -- head and shoulders. That's
10:44
funny. So let me
10:46
tell you that to ask you this is how
10:48
was it being an
10:51
older marine?
10:54
There was a little
10:56
bit of little
10:59
bit of built in maturity -- Mhmm. --
11:01
only because I had I had done some
11:03
things before. Mhmm. I
11:06
have a I have a really good friend of mine. His name
11:08
is Alex, and I was
11:10
ten years older than him. And
11:12
to this day, I still call him
11:14
Double Pop. devil
11:16
pop. devil pop. But,
11:18
you know, having worked in the
11:20
civilian world and and kind of having a little bit
11:22
of customer service background it
11:25
I do believe that it made it a little bit easier
11:27
for me -- Sure. -- to to
11:29
be older because you can kinda
11:32
see through some of the games, but you also
11:34
have the ability to
11:36
just show up on time with the right
11:38
gear. Yeah. You know, I I
11:40
another marine his name was Steven. and
11:42
he he said to me one day, he was like, I'm I'm never gonna be
11:44
a stellar of a marine as you. And I said,
11:47
well, you just have to show up on time with the
11:49
right gear. You apply that lesson to life and
11:51
you're gonna go really far. all you gotta
11:53
do. Right. Place right time. Right. Right. Right.
11:55
Right. Right. Uniform. Yeah. If you start
11:57
executing with that mantra, you're gonna go really far in
11:59
life. Mhmm.
11:59
And that's
12:01
So, you know, maybe it was a little bit
12:03
of mentorship to help the other guys and
12:05
-- Yep. -- maybe it was just a little bit of,
12:07
you know, built in maturity by having a couple
12:09
years on them that it I think it
12:11
it made it easier -- Mhmm. --
12:14
physically not so much. Mhmm. You know, my needs
12:16
started hurting before the other guys. I couldn't
12:18
I'm I'm sure you asked a little bit. Yeah.
12:20
I'm I'm sure you also dealt with a little bit of bullshit.
12:22
Like -- Yeah. -- you know, is is being
12:24
twenty seven years old as a marine and then,
12:26
you know, having to listen to the
12:28
nineteen year old or then --
12:30
Yeah. -- twenty year old. I one
12:32
of the things I did for amplitude was that guys
12:34
were falling asleep while they're driving. So, you
12:36
know, dangerous environment to fall asleep in
12:39
driving the truck. But in a combat
12:41
situation, it's even worse. Yes. You know, you crash,
12:43
now you stop the convoyed everything. So I came
12:45
up with this plan where I would okay.
12:47
What time do we need to roll out the gate? Okay.
12:50
Backtrack everything, and I would basically
12:52
come up with a bedtime for the guys.
12:54
Yeah. This is what time we need to go to bed. She can get eight hours
12:56
of sleep. Extreme baby said it.
12:58
Extreme baby said, yeah. And I was AE3I was a
13:00
Lance corporal. Yeah. It's somehow I was tasked
13:02
with this. And I
13:04
remember my roommate at a time was a
13:06
corporal. And I was about five or
13:08
six years younger than me, and he was like, oh, you can't go
13:10
to bed yet. Bed times at this time. Like,
13:12
well, I want ten hours of sleep, not
13:14
eight. So, you know, that was the
13:16
the BS that you have to deal with
13:18
of no. You know, we we don't need to
13:20
play these games. I'm gonna go I'm gonna get a good
13:22
nice rest ten hours of sleep in the
13:24
military. No. Yeah. Sounds like the air
13:26
force. Very
13:29
similar. Yeah. That's a lot of aviation now.
13:31
That's a joke. Yeah. I was just set
13:33
myself up for crew rest management. Yeah.
13:35
There you go. Yeah. Practicing earlier.
13:37
Practicing earlier. Perfect. Perfect.
13:40
So what was your mission? when
13:42
you were a truck driver overseas in Iraq?
13:44
Like I said, it was Convoy Security.
13:46
Mhmm. Yes. Okay. Just that's right.
13:48
But but Any any hairy
13:50
issues besides a couple gun?
13:52
I mean, couple couple of
13:54
ID's gun skirmishes. a couple of IDs. We
13:56
got hit by an ID. I
13:58
did have a cool guy moment
14:00
where I got to drive through some smoke from
14:02
an explosion. I was like, this is a cool thing I remember
14:05
guys. And
14:07
but it it was a
14:10
nothing that's gonna you know, they're gonna write books
14:12
about, you know. But did you felt
14:14
like you were part of something, I'm sure. Like,
14:16
especially being there after nine
14:18
eleven and just Well, there was a there
14:20
was a moment. There's a this young
14:22
family outside of the gate of Volusia,
14:24
and we used to bring, like, school
14:26
supplies to the to the kids and bring
14:28
candy, and they'd see our truck, and they'd
14:30
recognize myself, and in Melvin. He was
14:32
fired for two meter. We
14:34
really like, we would this kid wanted a
14:36
soccer ball and we somehow figured out the logistics to
14:39
get a soccer ball to him. And
14:41
the day after Saddam
14:43
Hussein was executed -- Mhmm. -- his
14:45
mother who had never come up and spoken to us, she
14:47
just always sat in the background. she came up to
14:49
us and she said, you know, I wanna thank you for
14:52
making my country safer because
14:54
she was afraid that Saddam was gonna come
14:56
back. and that really, you know,
14:59
tugged on the hard strings of,
15:01
you know, we made a difference in this woman's life --
15:03
Yeah. -- by being here. So she
15:05
and she thanked us for the future for her
15:07
kids and, you
15:08
know, I think
15:10
there's no shortage of driving that home,
15:12
you know. there was huge heart and minds
15:14
mission, you know. And a
15:16
lot of the civilians over there just
15:18
straight do not like
15:20
their leadership. you know, and they
15:22
were scared. Yeah. You you
15:24
could tell she, you know, I
15:27
that that moment plays over in
15:29
my head You could tell there was there was
15:31
real emotion in that -- Mhmm. --
15:33
to, you know, just come up and speak
15:35
to us. And how how did that make
15:37
you feel? it felt like I was I was doing the
15:39
right thing. Yeah. No. And I I joined
15:41
the Marine Corps to to help
15:43
people. Mhmm. It's It's not
15:45
often that, you know, marines think about I'm
15:47
helping somebody. They think about, you know, I'm a
15:49
marine. I'm gonna go kill somebody. Kill
15:51
somebody and break things. Yeah. It was the enemy. Yeah.
15:53
So for somebody to come up and say thank you for
15:55
what you're doing. Really, is
15:57
it drives it home that you're doing the right Sure.
15:59
Yeah. It solidifies that for you. Absolutely. It's
16:01
a good perspective. Mhmm. You know? Yeah.
16:03
Especially come come from a marine mentality to
16:05
have a buddy that
16:07
literally said, yeah. Marines are really good at fucking
16:09
killing the enemy. That's it. They need
16:11
an officer, you know. This is the
16:13
mentality that they they have, you but you
16:15
gotta have it. I'm just gonna have it. But at the end
16:17
of the day, yeah, the the people that you're
16:19
keeping home keeping safe
16:21
at home, is of the
16:23
utmost importance. And that is helping people
16:25
--
16:25
Absolutely. -- you
16:26
know. So you had a moment when you were deployed,
16:28
when you saw some helicopters, Yeah.
16:31
It was February twenty second
16:33
two thousand seven, and I was right
16:35
outside the gates of Ramati.
16:37
Okay. And and these black hawks
16:39
and patches come flying over the
16:41
treetops and I'm sitting there and
16:43
I'm just like, I'm done with being on the
16:45
ground. Mhmm. My I'm stuck in the
16:47
mud, you know. That looks way way more
16:49
cooler and, you know, I watched Top Gun
16:51
as a kid and I gotta figure out how to be a
16:53
pilot. So at some point in my life.
16:55
So I I yeah. So it was on
16:57
that day that I decided I was gonna figure
16:59
out I'm doing this. I'm I'm gonna
17:01
figure out a way to go to flight school. And so
17:03
I started a journey there. And
17:06
little over a year later, I had transferred
17:08
an inner service transfer over to the
17:10
army -- Okay. -- joined my current unit
17:13
as an e four. Mhmm. And it
17:15
was hard going from corporal to specialist. I
17:17
didn't know there was a difference. Yeah.
17:20
I didn't know if one was NCO. So somebody had to
17:22
somebody had square me away real quick with that
17:25
one. End up going to
17:27
Tango School, ended up deploying
17:29
with my unit. And then Church chief school. Right? Church chief. Yeah.
17:31
Sorry. Fifteen tango -- Okay. -- Fort
17:34
Eustace. And So I
17:36
trained up, got went through progression as a
17:38
crew chief, and then deployed.
17:40
And I had heard that they were
17:42
a lot more forgiving with a flight packet
17:44
if you were deployed. Yeah. So I was like, alright.
17:46
Well, let's let's get this done. So we
17:48
pretty much my packet was ready. I
17:51
needed to make sure that I was in Kuwait when
17:53
I slitter across the table.
17:55
Yeah. Yeah. So I I ended up
17:57
doing that whole deployment. I got accepted very
17:59
on air very early into the deployment.
18:01
I got accepted to flight school.
18:04
Awesome. I ended up doing, like, another
18:06
six months in theater, and
18:08
then came home, had my
18:10
leave from the deployment, and
18:12
then just and it ended the day before my report date
18:15
four walks. Okay. Well, I'm rolling
18:17
back just a little bit. Do you think your deployment as
18:19
a crew chief helped get you prepared --
18:21
Absolutely. -- at school? Yeah.
18:24
So anytime you have
18:26
the the opportunity to
18:28
work a specific job, it's going
18:31
to enhance you when you become a a leader or higher
18:33
ranking within that organization. So
18:35
my deployment as a crew chief
18:37
was was very valuable. Mhmm.
18:40
I understood how missions work.
18:42
I understood like all the logistics that
18:44
needs to go into it. And,
18:47
you know, everybody comes
18:49
to flight school unless
18:51
you're street to see everybody comes to flight
18:53
school with Vagatrix.
18:55
Yeah. You know, I I used to do
18:57
this. So therefore, it makes me makes
18:59
this task easier. Exactly. And
19:02
actually, what I found was My
19:04
time in the Marine Corps,
19:06
most helpful for flight school was
19:08
the land map. Mhmm. Being able to
19:10
read a map, and being able to navigate off of that is a
19:12
a skill that I learned in the marine corps and I
19:14
was able to translate that to flight school.
19:17
Mhmm. So because that's that's how
19:19
we navigate. is the
19:21
entire point of aviation
19:23
to support the ground commander. Exactly.
19:25
So we're gonna use the same maps as
19:27
So, you know, people talk about
19:29
being a crew chief helps you, you know,
19:31
understand systems or understand a little
19:33
bit of awareness in the aircraft
19:36
but I honestly, I believe that the the land
19:38
apps was the biggest biggest thing that helped me
19:40
through through our flight school. Interesting. Yeah. I figured
19:42
you would have said, you know, becoming a a
19:44
more skilled technician Right? Is it
19:46
acting as a crew chief? It's gonna get you familiar with
19:48
the systems, how they integrate and operate together,
19:51
especially on sixties because there's such
19:53
complex systems that are all
19:55
correlated. feed into each other. It did help. Yeah.
19:57
It did help. Interesting. You said land now
19:59
though.
19:59
Yeah. There you'd
20:01
just be surprised how many
20:03
people can't read a compass and they got the map upside down and --
20:05
Oh, yeah. -- yeah. III entered
20:08
up the one time we did the land half
20:10
competition in
20:12
in walk school as I made sure that I
20:14
beat a buddy of mine who was a ranger.
20:16
And I ran that course as fast
20:18
as I could. And I purposely
20:20
packed a lunch that I could, like, set out
20:22
and have a nice spread. And -- Yes. -- I probably beat
20:24
him by ten seconds. But I got my lunch
20:26
set up and I must have just been Ranger
20:29
qualified.
20:31
He he was actually an
20:34
instructor every that doesn't mean
20:36
anything. Just kidding. Just
20:38
kidding. know, the camaraderie that happens, you
20:40
know. You gotta you gotta give him shit a little
20:42
bit. But See, Andrew spread out when he arrived
20:44
on the I had it all spread out and
20:46
I was like, hey, Clayton. John, been waiting where you've
20:49
been. And who that's Yeah.
20:51
Me. That time hack is never fun, though,
20:53
and land that. Is it? No. We're
20:55
just sprinting to the next point. In
20:57
the brush. Yeah. It's fun stuff. Yeah.
20:59
But that's that is interesting that that
21:01
helped you so much as a
21:04
crude chief. And so
21:06
what other skills do you think
21:08
you carried over that helped
21:10
you with that? Well, The
21:12
story of my life when it comes to military
21:14
schools that tend to be the oldest.
21:17
Mhmm. I was the oldest in my flight
21:19
school class. And
21:22
that's I
21:24
had my flight instructor. He's he's now
21:26
passed on. His name was mister
21:28
C. And he was kinda he's kinda legendary as an
21:30
instructor at flight school. And
21:32
I struggled so much with
21:34
the academic side of
21:37
it. And he
21:39
and I had a conversation. It was a Friday afternoon
21:42
probably two weeks into primary. Mhmm. You
21:44
know, I'm I'm going to the learning
21:46
center on Sundays. I'm I'm studying.
21:48
I've I've, you know, but for the life of
21:50
me, I can't remember temperature limits on
21:52
the engine. You know? and
21:55
our instructor, he got to the
21:57
point the one day doing doing daily
21:59
questions. And he's like, oh, we're gonna call
22:01
something different today. Mister Powers stand up. Of
22:03
course, he'd been calling on me every day for the last
22:05
two weeks. And as I stood
22:07
up, I just said,
22:09
oh, fuck. And he goes,
22:11
no. The first step in the
22:13
emergency procedure is not that.
22:15
Yeah. Power sit back down. mister
22:17
C ended up speaking to me later that afternoon. He's like,
22:19
you know, something needs to happen. Otherwise, you're
22:21
you're not gonna make it through. The academics have
22:23
just got to you've got to have the
22:25
academics down. And he told me he said
22:27
every Saturday morning, for the rest
22:29
of high school, I'm gonna be sitting at this booth
22:31
at the McDonald's at six
22:33
AM. I'm
22:33
a drink cup of coffee.
22:34
You can come
22:35
or not? So
22:37
every Saturday for almost the rest of
22:39
flight school, I went on that ministry and I
22:41
sat down with and it was, you know, no pressure table
22:43
talk. So in
22:46
in to answer your
22:48
question of what skill helped me
22:51
throughout fight school was
22:53
I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna figure out a way
22:55
to do it. And when resources were presented to
22:57
me, I didn't shun them. It was
23:00
know, I and and I think maybe that was a little
23:02
bit of maturity too because I had to
23:04
admit to myself, either gonna make it or
23:07
you're not. Yeah. And this guy is sitting here and he's telling me
23:09
that he's gonna help me do it.
23:11
But I've gotta show up. You gotta make
23:13
sacrifices. Yeah. And a lot of a lot of
23:15
people that scares him away.
23:17
Mhmm. And you really gotta if if you're
23:19
gonna make a commitment, you gotta follow through
23:21
on that or crash
23:23
and burn. Right? That's the only options. You
23:25
fail or you don't. Absolutely. We
23:27
still do that same thing with our students at
23:30
Kirkland every Saturday morning between
23:32
seven and eleven Saturday
23:34
school. all the instructors would show up or a
23:36
couple of the instructors would show up when you walk the students
23:38
through just additional help. But it's
23:40
required, especially for for entering aviation.
23:43
Like, you really have to buckle down. There's a lot of
23:45
information that you have to lock in your head.
23:47
I think I might even still remember temperature
23:49
limits since it's been about four or
23:51
five years since I flown. I think
23:53
I have an a part on Thursday. So I've got a study up
23:55
on the flight home. Oh, there you go. Here we
23:57
go. It's so important though to to put
23:59
the time in, especially if you wanna enter
24:01
anything that's a little bit more advanced than,
24:03
you know, your your typical jobs. Right?
24:05
When you're entering aviation or special
24:07
operations or whatever it is,
24:10
it's require determination, and it's gonna
24:12
require sacrifice. Like, you're gonna have to
24:14
give up your weekends. You're gonna have to give up
24:16
your evenings. you have to fully commit those
24:18
things in order to actually progress on them.
24:20
Yeah. Be successful. Yeah. And
24:22
that's that's what I did because I ended up coming up
24:24
with a routine from my
24:26
school. and it was, you
24:28
know, I would go
24:30
on Thursdays. I would go and I'd buy a twelve pack of
24:32
beer and I'd put it in my fridge.
24:35
so that when I got done studying with mister C
24:37
on Saturday -- Mhmm. -- I could, like, pick up a
24:39
pizza, go home, just sit on the couch,
24:41
and just relax. I'm not gonna study
24:43
for twenty four hours. Yeah. Turn your brain off.
24:45
Turn my brain off. Yeah. And then I'd, you know,
24:47
wake up Sunday morning, I go to church, I'd make my
24:49
public's run, and then it's straight to the learning center.
24:51
Mhmm. So from about, you know,
24:54
o'clock on Saturday afternoon to one o'clock on Sunday afternoon. That's
24:56
the only time I didn't study.
24:59
Yeah. And, you know, I I got a routine where
25:01
I I knew I was gonna
25:03
come home, make dinner. I was gonna I
25:05
had a I had an alarm to go
25:07
to sleep because I know that
25:09
I needed to stop studying. Yeah.
25:11
get a good nice rest, maybe not eight to ten
25:14
hours. Mhmm. But get a
25:16
good nice rest and then wake up ready for the day.
25:18
Mhmm. So, you
25:20
know, their daily questions eventually got easier, the limitations,
25:22
they stuck in my head, and it was just a matter
25:24
of time, buckle down, accomplish a mission, and
25:26
get it done. whether that's in school or
25:28
in theater. Yeah. I think it's important
25:31
to have good mentors in your life
25:33
like that, you know. And and we
25:36
hear so many stories of a lack
25:38
of leadership or support,
25:40
but it's always great to hear that
25:42
there's you know, fellow soldiers out
25:44
there that are willing to give up their
25:46
time to help someone out to the
25:48
next step. That's that
25:51
I've done on on my civilian
25:53
side right now is that, like, if I'm reaching
25:55
out to somebody and just talking to them about
25:57
their current situation and
25:59
I ended up speaking to a brigade commander,
26:02
and he was over in Kuwait right now.
26:04
And he he told me he was like, you know, when
26:06
I get back, we're gonna talk. And
26:08
my point to him was, do me
26:10
a favor now. If there's anybody
26:13
in your brigade who's wanting to go to flight
26:16
school, tell him hit me up, you
26:18
know, because I can help him with the application
26:20
process. I can help him just
26:22
be a sounding board for is this
26:24
the right thing to do? Is that the right thing to
26:26
do? Yeah. because a lot of people will will
26:28
come to me and ask me, you know, I wanna
26:30
go to flight school, what do I do? I'm like, well, you gotta take
26:32
the test first, make sure you can go. Mhmm.
26:34
So that, you know, because that was one of the things
26:36
that was brought me when I started the process.
26:38
Mhmm. It was, don't go asking
26:40
people for letters of recommendation when you don't
26:42
even know if you're qualified to go. Yeah. Mhmm.
26:44
So it's So that's one thing that I try
26:46
to do is tell
26:48
people always try to be a mentor
26:50
to people who want
26:52
to go to Fischool because it's it's a commitment
26:54
just to get in. Yeah. And it's
26:56
a long process and there's there's
26:58
really nobody who's an ex
27:00
Birk who can tell you, you know, if you go find a recruiter, he
27:03
he's never been to flight school. Mhmm. But he's the
27:05
guy who's supposed to guide you through it.
27:07
So I always try to put that out on social
27:09
media if somebody's want to go to fly school and they just need need
27:11
some help and some guidance. Mhmm. You know, I'm not
27:13
a recruiter. I'm I'm not gonna be able
27:16
to say yay or
27:18
nay. but at least be a resource
27:20
for people. Yeah. That's what I try to
27:22
do. What are some of the kind of
27:24
top questions that you're you're finding that
27:26
most people are asking? really
27:29
it's where do I start? Yeah. You
27:31
know? And it's everybody
27:34
everybody wants to be pilot
27:36
until the time to do pilot stuff. Mhmm.
27:39
And it's it is a
27:41
challenge to figure out where to start. You
27:43
know, the army's unique in that. You've got
27:45
warrant officers. And so
27:47
you don't necessarily need a college degree if
27:49
you're a good NCO. you
27:51
can submit a flight packet and,
27:53
you know, you can
27:55
be a ranger qualified
27:58
person. and, you know, step into flight school and
27:59
and do really well. Mhmm. But
28:02
there's also those the street to see applications
28:04
and people that go in
28:06
there. And it's it's just a
28:08
daunting process to get to get through.
28:10
Mhmm. The the biggest question that I
28:12
have is where do I start. Yeah.
28:15
So I always tell them, start with the test.
28:17
Yeah. It was the a fast when I when
28:19
I went, it's it's different now. You know, just
28:21
change the acronyms. But
28:23
take the tests, you know, get a study
28:26
guide. What are what are some of the things on
28:28
this test? Basic
28:30
understanding of airspace Okay.
28:32
Basic understanding of flight controls. You know,
28:34
if I put the cyclic here, which ways the
28:36
helicopter gonna go? Mhmm. If
28:39
I, you know, if it's if the aircraft
28:41
is pointing up, where's the cyclic?
28:43
Yeah. So very it's very
28:45
basic in elementary, but you have to
28:47
understand those concepts. And
28:49
and there's a study guide for this. There's a study
28:51
guide for me. And I remember when I when I did
28:53
when I took the AFAS, there was a section
28:56
it was just personal information. It's like fill out your
28:58
name and address and your phone number and, you
29:00
know, but basic instructions. So
29:02
it's like thirty seconds.
29:04
Go. Yeah. You know? Yeah. How accurate? Can you write
29:07
down information that you should know --
29:09
Mhmm. -- very quickly. So and
29:11
make it legible. Everything's a
29:13
test. I mean, that's very it's very applicable to Aviation,
29:15
though, because sometimes you get a radio call one
29:17
time, you have to remember that information and be able
29:19
to jot it down real quick. IFR
29:22
clearance, man. I still use Craft. Oh, you still
29:24
write it down? Yeah. Craft. Make sure that I get
29:26
everything. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Well,
29:28
now you gotta tell us for us non
29:31
aviation folk. with draft is. Sorry. I don't
29:33
I don't do public, man.
29:35
No. It's your it's your
29:37
basic information. Yeah. It's your call sign. We
29:39
I'm sorry. We're cleared to, what
29:41
radio you're gonna go to, what altitude you're gonna
29:44
go to, what frequency you're gonna talk
29:46
on, and frequency.
29:49
Oh, and transponder. Sorry. Transponder. Yeah. That's
29:51
what transponder code you're gonna put in there. Okay.
29:53
I'm only asking for the audience there.
29:55
I, of course, know this.
29:59
Season. Clarity hours.
30:02
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Clear to this radio
30:04
altitude, the frequency, and the transpond.
30:06
Yeah. Good. Okay. Okay.
30:08
So, yeah, that's gotta be
30:10
this gotta be a lot of information that goes
30:12
down. The academic part I
30:14
hear I hear is very challenging. It is. Yeah. Well, there's more
30:16
more mhionic of devices
30:19
than there are acronyms. to
30:21
help you with all the other apps -- Interesting. -- sort
30:24
of information. Everyone's got their own
30:26
technique, so there will be three different, you know, mnemonic
30:28
devices that you can use for one
30:30
specific thing. So remembering those and
30:32
applying them is just as hard as
30:34
remembering. Yeah. It's just I I remember
30:36
that, you know, for, like, physics. You know, there's,
30:38
like, different ways get a cat here. Yeah. You
30:40
know, but and it now was always
30:42
the most confusing part to me. The most
30:44
confusing part to me is when the army
30:46
changes the acronym. Yeah. You
30:48
know, it was this. Now it's this. I mean,
30:50
like, you know, the a it used to be the a fast. Now
30:52
it's something else. It's kind of it's very
30:54
stereotypical of the military as decide
30:56
to change the name of it because of
30:58
-- Yeah. -- reasons. Yeah. It might help
31:00
someone get a star. I don't know.
31:02
I'll redesign this program.
31:05
Yeah. Maybe. probably Could be yeah.
31:07
Leave your mark on this on this, sir,
31:09
as I suppose. Yeah. As far we change
31:11
uniforms every ten minutes. Yeah.
31:13
So you you I have to ask a question
31:15
of how does it feel going
31:17
from driving a truck to
31:19
first sitting in that cockpit?
31:22
It was it was a dream come
31:25
true. Yeah. It really was. You know,
31:27
that was I remember my nickel ride,
31:29
like it was yesterday. And
31:31
It was really awesome because I've
31:34
flown with friends of mine in their airplanes
31:36
and this was cool, but man,
31:38
air tax seen for that very first day. Almost crashing
31:40
and killing my instructor and my stick buddies.
31:42
How did you almost do that? Everybody
31:44
does that. Yeah. But how? Like, what's what's
31:46
the common error? to the
31:48
ground. Oh, you hit hard? Oh, yeah. Hard impact.
31:51
You don't you're not able to hover
31:53
for a couple of days. Yeah.
31:55
Yeah. It was a, you know, zero
31:57
time to zero total time cannot hover
31:59
--
31:59
Yeah. -- especially in a belt 206 Now they've got
32:02
the Lakota. So there's a little more systems on
32:04
it, but is purely sticking rudder in
32:06
the belt 206 If you're just bouncing all over the
32:08
place, hit, you know, hitting the ground,
32:10
you you can't keep it straight. It's all over the
32:12
place. Yeah. Do you think
32:14
eventually get that hover button? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
32:16
Take the iron side saw. Yeah.
32:19
Thank you. So
32:21
do you think that aviation is going in a direction where
32:23
these systems are just gonna make
32:26
it so easy that almost
32:28
anyone could get behind? I
32:30
So my opinion is that
32:33
sometimes the systems can be a detriment.
32:35
Yeah. We had, you know
32:37
I guess, I fly lima. So we
32:40
we'll bust out the tables and do the calculation
32:42
and, okay, you know, only put x
32:44
amount of gallons in because I gotta carry
32:46
so much weight. Mhmm. and, you know,
32:49
not to dime out the mic guys. I I
32:51
might qualified, but they
32:53
would tell us, we gotta start
32:55
the aircraft and look it up in the computer as to how much cargo we
32:57
can take. Yeah. We're like, just put it on
33:00
ours. We'll get it. Just throw it in the back. Just throw it in the
33:02
back. We'll get it. So you you
33:04
lose those fine skills, and that goes back to what
33:06
I was talking about with Land NAV.
33:08
Yeah. Yes. So people took took
33:10
advantage of fact that I don't need to use this
33:12
anymore. I'm gonna dump it off the iceberg and that
33:14
penguin's gone. Mhmm. So
33:17
retaining the basic skills
33:20
really, I think, is the most important thing when
33:22
it comes to aviation. That's one thing
33:24
that I did on the last deployment was
33:26
III went to the tac ops
33:28
office and I was like, you give me the biggest
33:30
map of our rack that you can. And I did
33:32
my Australian folds and I carried them with
33:34
me and you know, now those
33:36
maps are sitting on the the stand with
33:38
my flight school maps. Mhmm. And,
33:40
you know, the head and shoulders or Right.
33:42
Next to the head and shoulders. Sometimes my wife will
33:44
hide it. But, no,
33:46
I did the whole duct tape cover and everything
33:48
just like just like in flight school
33:50
and and I carried it with me. while
33:52
I was flying because I could I could look down and I'd see
33:54
a convoy or something with a weird flag and I'd I'd
33:56
make a note. Okay. I'm here
33:59
and here's here's what I saw, and then I could
34:01
go back and give accurate reports to tac
34:03
ops where, you know, instead of,
34:05
you know, someone doing a Target store and saying, I
34:07
saw something here. I was like, it was at this point on the
34:10
map where where I saw it and here's my
34:12
notes of what was there.
34:14
So I
34:16
think in aviation, it's vital to,
34:18
you know, retain the
34:21
basics. Mhmm. Because if you dip
34:23
if you're too dependent on
34:26
systems, then you you lose your edge. Yeah.
34:28
And and I mean that is, like,
34:30
on the personal side.
34:34
If you doll the
34:36
senses around a specific skill, you're
34:38
going to lose it. Yep.
34:40
Exactly. I mean, we and we face that every
34:42
day with the growth technology. Right?
34:44
I mean, basic skills like starting
34:46
a fire. How many people could do that?
34:48
You know what I mean? Like, You
34:50
know, so people rely heavily on these systems. And I hear
34:53
that's a big big problem in
34:55
a in a aviation people
34:58
fly with instruments. Mhmm. You know? Well, you
35:01
know, you don't wanna fly without instruments if
35:03
you're in the cloud. Yeah. That's
35:05
helpful. But the
35:08
my mentors, one of my mentors
35:10
named Lanny. And he
35:13
he was on a
35:15
boat to Vietnam. and then I deployed with
35:17
him in in two thousand ten. So Lanny has been around for a
35:20
while and, you know, any of my friends that that watched
35:22
us are gonna know exactly who I'm
35:24
talking about. And
35:26
Lanny was just old school. Yeah.
35:28
You know, you gotta learn the basics before
35:30
you get to use, you know, the
35:32
iPad. Yeah. you gotta show me that you can fly this
35:34
aircraft, navigate with a
35:36
stopwatch -- Mhmm. -- with a stopwatch and
35:38
a compass.
35:40
and get me to where I need to be, plus or minus thirty seconds.
35:42
Until you can do that, all
35:44
this other, you know, newfangled technology,
35:47
you ain't use it. Yeah.
35:49
Mhmm. Well, that the the basics in
35:51
aviation too, that's what gets you killed or
35:53
somebody else killed too. Right? Mhmm. I
35:55
mean, brownout landings It's a very
35:57
basic skill to learn at the end of the day. Right? It's it's
35:59
real
35:59
easy to to
36:01
become masterful at. but
36:04
it's very boring to fly routinely over and over and over. People
36:06
get so caught up in in the
36:08
additional instruments or being complacent with
36:10
just simple things like being able and
36:13
in a cloud. Yeah. Right? You should be able to
36:15
do those things. And nine times out of
36:18
ten, that's that's what's getting more people killed in
36:20
aviation than anything. if you can't navigate
36:22
correctly, you're gonna end up getting someone else
36:24
killed if you can't get to them in time. Right?
36:26
Yeah. And, you know, one of the the
36:28
points that they always told us was go
36:30
around for free. Yep. So,
36:32
you know, if you can't put it on the ground,
36:34
just pick it up, go go
36:36
around, and it's that can
36:38
save your life. And absolutely, they
36:40
can. Yeah. Maybe go rounds aren't always free and high hot
36:42
environments like Afghanistan. I mean,
36:44
you guys are flying around a little bit lighter than
36:46
than we
36:48
were. Yeah. Well, down in Kuwait or I'm sorry. When
36:50
I was in Saudi Arabia, we had we
36:52
didn't we weren't quite as
36:54
heavy. It was really hot, though.
36:57
Yeah. But we were landing at
36:59
these, you know,
37:01
the makeshift positions
37:02
that were set up, and it was serious
37:04
sand and dust. Oh, yeah. That's just landed on the moon. Yep. With
37:06
that dust out there. Yeah. And then add a night
37:09
a night component to that. So
37:11
do it under MBGs, and she gets real
37:13
hairy, real fast. Nobody's even shooting at you
37:15
half the time. Like the is Harry
37:17
just getting on the
37:19
grass? That was in Saudi Arabia. That was that the environment
37:21
was definitely the the biggest retinas as
37:23
it was routinely. Yeah. And
37:26
complacency. So Yeah.
37:28
Yeah. So that's it's
37:30
gotta be interesting. So I have AAA
37:32
question for you is if if
37:35
We thought this whole system of learning how to become
37:37
a pilot. What do you think are some of the
37:39
things that should the skills that should
37:41
be bolstered at? like, should be focused on a little bit more.
37:43
Besides, like, the land map and the basic skills,
37:46
like, what are some
37:48
things that you
37:50
know, could be improved.
37:52
I don't know because
37:55
the the army does a really good
37:57
job of teaching you how fly
37:59
-- Mhmm. -- teaching you the systems. Mhmm. It's
38:02
the the things that make it more
38:04
challenging are, you know, in your
38:06
head. Mhmm. people
38:08
just not want to follow through and commit on it. Mhmm. And
38:10
and then your your typical bureaucracy
38:13
that exists, you know, I
38:15
had AA1 pilot. Tell me, the
38:18
army can take the fun out of anything. Yeah.
38:20
Oh, that's very true. Yeah. I think
38:22
they take the fun out
38:24
of everything. They they really do. You
38:26
know, even flying. Yeah. I'm sure.
38:28
You know, we just we we have our
38:30
challenges with with budgets
38:32
and logistics and whether or not we can
38:34
get parts or -- Yeah. -- if if this
38:36
airfield will fuel you or not
38:38
and whether or not the filter is good. How about like
38:40
mental health support? mental health
38:42
support, it it needs
38:44
to be there. Yeah. There
38:46
is, you know, a lot of
38:48
people that
38:50
just don't wanna do it anymore. Mhmm. And, you know,
38:52
looking back on it, what
38:54
what the army has invested in me,
38:56
when the taxpayer has invested in
39:00
me, is a lot of money -- Mhmm. -- probably more money than I will ever
39:02
make in my lifetime. Mhmm.
39:04
And I'm I'm coming up
39:06
on twenty years and I'm gonna
39:08
I'm gonna part ways with the army and,
39:10
you know, move on to my civilian life and and
39:13
and, you know, hopefully, a plea
39:15
not ever have to leave my my family again for a
39:18
year. Yeah. Mhmm. But
39:20
there needs to be some
39:24
understanding and hope that,
39:26
you know, the army is not the only thing going
39:28
on in our lives. Yeah. You
39:30
know, there needs to be
39:32
some accommodation for families and for for wives and children.
39:34
Mhmm. I remember I I wrote
39:36
a post and my my sister
39:38
is much better at writing than I am. So I'd have I'd
39:40
have run it by her
39:42
first to kind of edit it for me and But my point
39:45
was, you know, when when I
39:47
come home from a deployment,
39:49
the Everyone's
39:50
gonna say thank you for your service. Thank you, you know, great job. Welcome home.
39:52
We'd love to have you back. But the
39:54
point of my post was that my
39:57
wife is the one who struggled. You know,
40:00
my wife is the one who had to do everything by
40:02
herself. And, you know,
40:04
I got to go be cool guy and fly
40:06
helicopter around in four or five different countries.
40:08
And, you know, everybody thinks
40:10
that's cool. And it is cool and it's fun, and I
40:12
love that the Army has given me the opportunity to do
40:14
that. But you know, my
40:16
wife is the one people should be thinking.
40:18
Mhmm. So recognition of
40:20
families -- Yeah. -- members who don't
40:22
deploy is just as important, if not more important -- Mhmm. --
40:24
because, you know, she had to maintain a
40:26
house without me. We we're
40:28
a team, you know, we're we're fifty fifty
40:30
on everything.
40:32
and it was, you know, I wasn't taking the trash out anymore.
40:35
She had to she had to, you know, step up
40:37
and do that. Who's gonna mow the lawn? Who's gonna
40:39
fix this? Who's gonna fix that? And
40:41
I had really good friends who good
40:44
friend of mine. Same to Adam. And
40:46
he made a point to
40:48
come and change the AC filters.
40:51
every month. And, you know, to have
40:53
a friend like that, to
40:55
know that those little tiny things are
40:57
gonna taken care of. Yeah. Mhmm. So
40:59
so you don't have to stress while you focus on the mission -- Exactly. -- which reminds me of the
41:02
story of
41:04
comms, because That
41:07
was back in my my Marine Corps days. Okay. And,
41:09
you know, we're we're at a stop, you
41:11
know, refuel. We're a free average
41:13
base we were on. And our
41:17
comms person had told me that she was the
41:19
most important person in the entire
41:21
platoon because without comms, we
41:23
can't communicate and therefore, we
41:25
can't get in and out of gates. We can't talk to our
41:27
air support. If we need help, you
41:30
know, we're we're stuck by
41:32
ourselves. Yeah. And so on the spot, I just I thought of
41:34
it, and I I told her I said,
41:36
you know, your your
41:37
husband and your
41:39
kids are back home.
41:41
If the guy who's processing
41:43
their pay back in Ohio or
41:45
wherever doesn't do his job -- Yeah. -- are you
41:47
gonna be able to focus on comps
41:49
and rapidly send up nine lines
41:52
or do this and really do your job.
41:54
If you're worried about your your kids
41:56
back home, don't have money
41:58
for groceries. Mhmm. Mhmm. And your point is, like, yeah. Yeah. I
41:59
my mind would be occupied by
42:02
that. I said, that guy's mission is just as
42:04
important as our
42:06
mission. Yep. So nobody's the most important. Everybody's job
42:08
is important. And, you
42:10
know, you you talk about, like,
42:12
if if everything's a priority, nothing's a
42:14
priority. Yep. think
42:16
in the military, it is a everybody's
42:18
job is a priority because it's there's
42:20
so many moving parts that have to work
42:22
together. You can't be, like, I'm
42:25
a pilot.
42:26
So pilots don't do that. Yeah. You
42:28
know? Wow. There's some
42:29
washi windshield dude. Mhmm. You know? There's
42:31
nothing worse, you know,
42:33
than know, downrange, staring at
42:36
your family almost going homeless, you
42:38
know, because your paycheck's not taken care
42:40
of. Right?
42:42
I mean, And and you hear all these combat
42:44
oriented MOS's come at
42:46
you with with,
42:48
you know, my jobs better and and
42:51
most important thing known to man. It's not. You know,
42:54
everybody needs each other. It is a cog in the
42:56
machine and everybody needs each
42:58
other to support that one
43:00
true mission of defending this
43:02
nation. Yeah. If there were no cooks
43:04
-- No. -- you're not eating. You're not
43:06
eating that. And we we know
43:08
how soldiers who
43:10
don't eat act. Right? Yeah. Hungry.
43:12
Yeah. Well, we could look look at
43:14
the past. Right?
43:16
Napoleon said, that himself
43:18
that troops should be fed really
43:20
well. Yeah. I'll give you I'll give you one
43:22
last war story. We were
43:24
flying back to our base at TQ,
43:26
not TQ. Taji. And
43:28
I got a call over to SATCOM. Her
43:30
base was being mortared and, you know, you can't
43:32
land here. And I was like, boy, we're gonna bag
43:34
that in some way to know. Yeah. Yeah. I
43:37
had a divert over there. And I was like,
43:39
here's my car go get sandwiches for everybody. Yeah.
43:41
We lucked out. Yeah. Yeah.
43:44
So Man, that that's insane. So your last deployment
43:46
as a pilot was what
43:48
year? Twenty nine twenty nineteen. Twenty
43:50
nineteen. Yeah. And that was
43:53
what what was your mission there?
43:55
So we started off in I
43:57
volunteered to go on the
44:00
last aircraft that was going to strat air or air some
44:02
aircraft over there. So I volunteered to go last.
44:04
So we're like, oh, you're on ad vlog now.
44:06
So I was the the in
44:08
the very first group of of my that ended up
44:11
at Todji. Mhmm. And so
44:13
we landed at Todji. We we
44:15
did our rip with
44:17
the outgoing guys. Mhmm. And
44:20
just set up operations there,
44:22
flew all over
44:24
the fear. we do the the runs to the
44:26
embassy in Baghdad over the
44:28
airport. We go out to, you
44:30
know, all stretches, all the way up
44:32
north, all the
44:34
way out, west. You know, go to the the Spanish
44:36
paces and just bring people
44:38
around basic basic
44:40
logistical support. We
44:42
had to do a a couple of, like, missions where we
44:44
would go drop some guys off in
44:46
the middle of the field. No questions asked. You can
44:48
pick us up in two weeks. Okay. I
44:51
mean, how how did that make you feel? That's great.
44:54
Yeah. Yeah. because we Hey,
44:56
dude. You feel cool. I mean, going from driving
44:58
a truck. like having these
45:00
flashbacks as a marine, you
45:02
know, as a like, you had three
45:04
separate jobs
45:06
in deployments. Yeah. Is is all three of my intents were very different.
45:08
Mhmm. That's interesting. Different different
45:10
mission. And that kind of holistically
45:12
helped understand
45:14
more than just your a o?
45:16
Absolutely. You know, it's understanding the
45:18
guys on the ground. We did a lot
45:20
of work as a medevac escort.
45:23
Mhmm. Okay. We're we would take
45:25
shifts as a CASI vac
45:28
setup,
45:28
you
45:29
know, and helping people the
45:31
guys who, you know, their wedding ring rip off their
45:33
finger to like a dog being shot on a mission, you know.
45:35
There's all all sorts of
45:37
things that you would have your
45:39
standard mission every day.
45:41
of just flying guys around, basic
45:44
logistical support. Here's my manifest.
45:46
Okay. I got everybody to, you
45:48
know, real world wake up in the middle of the night, go
45:50
and execute. Yeah. So,
45:52
really, if you look at my
45:54
deployment my last deployment
45:56
really did two separate missions. Mhmm.
45:59
Working with the MetaVAC guys was was
46:01
great. Being that CASI VAC, you
46:03
know, escort for them was
46:06
great. And then you know, you come off
46:08
shift and you got a day off, then it's back to
46:10
work. Okay? Here's your here's your route.
46:12
Go go fly. Go execute. Pick up these guys.
46:14
Bring them here. So it
46:16
was really I guess she would say I had four
46:18
jobs. I was deployed.
46:20
Yeah. That's
46:22
that's unique. It really is unique. It took you a while to
46:24
figure out what you truly wanted to do, but
46:26
you learned that throughout the military, which
46:28
is great.
46:30
And I think it's a really great lesson for everybody as well as that you're
46:32
never too old -- No. -- to pursue
46:35
your dreams. Absolutely. Yeah.
46:38
So it's just it's just a
46:40
mentality. Yeah. I wanna do
46:42
this. Okay. How do I do
46:44
it? Do which mentors should I
46:46
seek out? you know, that
46:48
help me that can help me down that
46:50
path. Mhmm. So Yeah.
46:52
So so you came
46:54
back home from that mission in twenty nineteen as well or
46:56
is that twenty twenty? It was twenty twenty. Okay. So
46:58
right before the pandemic. Okay. And
47:00
how was Justin done? And how
47:02
was that?
47:03
Well, I was actually
47:05
in strapping down and put a vaccine
47:07
in your way. Well, probably good
47:09
that you got out in time because a
47:11
lot of people got stuck overseas -- Yeah. -- employed for,
47:13
like, six extra months. Well, I actually I came home from
47:15
that deployment straight to the safety course at
47:18
Rutgers. Oh, okay. And so I'm in the
47:20
safety course. and
47:22
they're like, we can condense this down because we're
47:24
either you're either gonna stay here for the rest of
47:26
your life or we can get it. You know,
47:28
we're not all active duty. They're
47:30
my wife would have just said, you know what? You're done with the Army and you're coming home. Yeah.
47:32
If they had tried to make me stay there. Yeah. So they
47:35
we ended up doing this, like because nobody knew
47:37
what was going on, and we
47:39
had a, like, a one star briefing us every day on this is what's
47:42
going on with the pandemic and this is, you know, we're
47:44
trying to get you guys out of here and we've we've
47:46
shortened the the curriculum a little bit. So it was
47:48
it was nuts. but
47:50
ended up making it home and then, you
47:52
know, back to back to the civilian world.
47:54
Mhmm. And what was next
47:56
in the civilian world for you? Well,
47:58
I I went back to my old job as a realtor. No.
48:01
Sorry. Sorry. A
48:03
long time ago.
48:06
I I had to do it. No. I was a I was a
48:08
business development manager for an aerospace
48:10
manufacturing company. Oh, okay. And, like, that sounds
48:12
really cool, but it's it's just
48:14
paperwork. Yeah. And
48:16
I I wanted to do something different that
48:18
was just more fulfilling. Mhmm. Sure. And that
48:21
that's where I ended up where I am
48:23
now. So I I stepped away
48:25
from that probably a little over a year
48:27
ago and and just started
48:30
pursuing what I'm doing now,
48:32
which is I am a I'm a financial adviser.
48:34
Mhmm. So what I
48:36
do is I just I
48:38
help people figure out what
48:40
they're gonna do with their life.
48:42
Mhmm. You know, let's let's set some
48:44
goals. Let's create a mode a
48:46
roadmap. Mhmm. And then here's how you
48:48
execute it. And it's
48:50
I really like working with transitioning
48:52
veterans -- Mhmm. -- because
48:55
there's so much stuff
48:58
that the military does for you that you
49:00
don't even realize. You know, they they
49:02
help you with your retirement, your medical benefits
49:04
are there, you you know, the something
49:07
like disability. If you go to
49:08
sick call, here's your downslip and you're you're sick
49:11
for a couple of days, go to
49:13
your room and Take take ibuprofen and change your socks. Mhmm.
49:15
You know? Jesus. So but
49:18
in this civilian world, you're not working.
49:20
You're not earning. So there's
49:23
things that you don't realize that you don't have.
49:25
So I like working with transitioning veterans
49:27
to kinda help
49:30
them explain here are things that that the military did for you
49:32
that you now need to do for yourself. Yeah.
49:34
Mhmm. So I try to be
49:36
a a mentor. More than anything, I try to be
49:38
a resource. You
49:40
know, if somebody says Brendan, you
49:42
know, what do you think about this? My my
49:44
guy told me I should do this. Mhmm.
49:47
I'd love to give you a second opinion and
49:49
say your guy is a hundred percent correct.
49:51
Keep doing what you're doing. Or, hey,
49:53
I can help you out
49:55
here. Mhmm. So that's really what it is, is
49:57
just, you know, being a resource,
49:59
being a subject matter expert
50:02
and knowing when you need to seek help
50:04
and and find
50:06
other people. And, you know, a lot of my work partners or were all
50:08
veterans themselves. Some have gone to the
50:10
service academies. Mhmm. You
50:12
know, so if
50:14
I can't help you, I can find somebody who can. Mhmm. That's that's
50:16
my goal in this next chapter
50:18
in my life is just always
50:21
be a resource and know know your limitations and
50:23
when I need to find a
50:25
better resource for you. What do you think
50:27
are some of the biggest obstacles
50:30
that these service members are facing when they get out in a financial
50:32
mindset? Well, it kind of goes
50:34
back to, you know, I
50:36
wanna go to flight school. Where
50:39
do I start? Yeah. You know? And
50:42
and that's where that's where I'm able to
50:44
help -- Mhmm. -- is, okay, let's look at
50:46
what you've done and what you want
50:48
to do. Okay. I'll
50:50
I'll sit with you and take as much
50:52
time as as you want. And
50:54
then I can I can take all that back
50:56
and share with my team and say,
50:58
here's we achieve those goals. Mhmm. Or
51:01
I say to him, this one's off
51:03
the table because it's just not
51:05
possible. So it's it's a little
51:07
bit of a reality check It's also a
51:09
little bit of, hey, man, have you thought of this? You know, have
51:11
you really thought this through? Because I
51:13
was working with a gentleman
51:15
over the weekend, And he
51:17
was like, I I just I know that I want
51:20
his young guy. Just got out of the Marine Corps
51:22
in early twenties. He was like, I
51:24
know that I want to
51:26
retire, but I don't know where to put
51:28
the money. Yeah. I don't know what to do.
51:30
And I, you know, I
51:32
just said to him, like, well, without
51:34
diving into your budget, you know, where's an area where
51:37
you can save some money? It's like, well,
51:39
I I buy lunch every day.
51:42
Okay? Don't buy lunch every day. Yeah. Lunch? You
51:44
know, here's three thousand bucks that you just found.
51:46
So it's little things like that.
51:49
In in every situation is different,
51:51
what's the biggest, like,
51:54
sucky best for most people? Since you're
51:57
just, like, you should cut that off right away. Like, what
51:59
is something that you
51:59
see, like, time
52:01
and time again
52:02
on some of their plans,
52:05
and you're just like, this is not.
52:07
Well, the the biggest thing, I'll I'll answer
52:09
your question in a long form. Okay?
52:11
Most people are don't have
52:13
a plan in life -- Mhmm. --
52:16
because most of the time, because they're too
52:18
embarrassed to admit it. Yeah.
52:20
And that's the biggest sucky
52:22
best. Mhmm. Time is the most
52:24
important thing, you know. East when is the best time
52:26
to start now? Yesterday. Mhmm. When is the
52:28
second best time to start today?
52:30
Mhmm. So
52:32
it that's the biggest suckiness is that people are just embarrassed
52:34
or scared to start. Mhmm. They they don't
52:36
want to lift up that hood and
52:38
see what's going on underneath.
52:41
They're just like, I'm I'm gonna figure
52:43
it out someday. Well, my
52:45
goal is we start today.
52:47
Mhmm. So that's the biggest thing
52:49
is that's that's sucky bus that you're you're looking at. Yeah. Financial
52:51
literacy in the military is kinda hit or
52:54
miss sometimes I feel It really is. You
52:56
know, I've I've got some
52:58
clients who he says
53:00
the the officers do a great job
53:02
because they've they've got some business
53:04
classes that they attend in
53:06
college and the e four private has got a twenty two percent interest loan.
53:08
Yep. And it's and it's true.
53:10
And it it might come from
53:12
bringing and,
53:14
you know, not not having that knowledge instilled it in
53:16
you when you're younger, not attending
53:18
college, like you said, attending those business --
53:20
More access to paycheck for the first
53:22
time in your life.
53:24
That too. you know, that's a big one. You you you have a lot of
53:26
these, you know, privates that are coming back
53:28
and buying, you know, the brand
53:30
new mustangs, these Tacoma's
53:32
and twenty
53:34
five and APR. You know, v six Mustang? Yeah. Yeah.
53:36
You know, turn around. So that's a thing
53:38
too is is, you know,
53:40
how do we educate the public
53:44
before. That's so
53:46
that's the challenge. Mhmm.
53:48
Is,
53:48
you know, in
53:52
in reaching out to
53:54
people, it's
53:54
that's
53:55
a challenge for me -- Mhmm. --
53:57
is sometimes I'll I'll reach out
53:59
to a stranger. and they'll, you know, hey, man,
54:01
if you're selling something go away. I'm like,
54:04
well, I'm also offering
54:05
you help. Yeah. And that's that's
54:06
the way I look at it. is
54:09
I want to I wanna help people.
54:12
Mhmm. It really is my
54:14
job. Yeah. Just
54:16
let's let's do a deep dive let's understand
54:18
this. Let's take away the stigma and the
54:20
embarrassment of not having something in place.
54:22
Yeah. And just, you know, I'm gonna
54:24
help you achieve goals. That's that's my
54:26
job and you know, I I
54:28
wanna help. It really is. I truly
54:30
believe that it is helping people.
54:32
Well, and and at the same time, people would
54:34
need to understand that it is a service
54:36
that pays for its self. Mhmm.
54:38
Right? It is if someone gives me a
54:40
plan, they do it for me, the
54:42
stuff that I should know how
54:44
to do. and say this is what you're gonna save
54:46
here. Why not? Why
54:48
not have
54:48
someone to help you
54:49
do that? Because you in the long run, you're
54:51
gonna be taken care
54:54
of. for us for a nominal fee. Yeah. Right? Yeah. there's
54:56
there's things that we do and we can put
54:58
in place that protect the plan.
55:00
Mhmm. So if we're gonna
55:03
Okay? This is a plan. We're gonna execute
55:05
it. We're gonna make
55:06
sure that this happens. Mhmm. And we're gonna and
55:08
we're gonna do that by putting this in place, and we're gonna
55:11
do this by putting that in place. Mhmm.
55:13
So really look at it as everybody
55:15
is unique. Everybody needs a,
55:17
you know, a guy in their corner who's gonna
55:19
help them execute those missions. Yeah.
55:21
So that's that's the way I look at it.
55:23
Yeah. And III think people just need
55:26
to be able to ask for
55:28
help. Yeah. I I really think
55:30
that's that's the hard first step for
55:32
most people and accept it. Yeah. Yeah.
55:34
If finances can be a touchy subject for a
55:36
lot of people and they might they might
55:38
come at it and, well, if I'm asking for help, I
55:40
might get judged. Mhmm. Right? That that could be
55:42
a subconscious thought, and I think it is for a lot of
55:44
people who are not necessarily
55:46
financially literate. So, like,
55:48
bringing that up, like, I I know if I if I
55:50
brought my finances to you, you're not gonna judge
55:52
me about it. You're just going to assist me.
55:54
Mhmm. Right? And that's that's something that I
55:56
think people need to realize is when you're
55:58
asking professionals for help in these
56:00
arenas, they've seen much worse than
56:02
you would. I guarantee they've seen much worse. Oh, yeah. You have
56:04
nothing to be embarrassed about? In fact,
56:06
like, I feel like most people
56:08
general run of the mill are probably gonna
56:10
be decent. and it there's
56:12
nothing to be embarrassed about. Just Yeah.
56:14
I really love it when I talk to
56:16
a young guy who's twenty four
56:18
and he's like, I've got this in place, this in place, this in place. And I just I
56:21
I gotta figure out a way to squeeze out
56:23
x. Mhmm. I was like, Man,
56:25
you've done thousand percent more than ninety percent of
56:28
the population in their forties.
56:30
Mhmm. We're our own worst critics at
56:32
the end of the day, aren't we? We're always
56:34
beating yourself. ourselves up.
56:37
You know, it's true? It's true.
56:39
Yeah. And and don't be afraid to ask for help,
56:41
especially especially when it comes to finances
56:43
and I mean, things are so up and down right now
56:45
that it's really important to game shit squared away. And
56:47
it's just getting worse. Yeah. So, like, you know, one
56:49
of the reasons why we brought you on today is to
56:51
talk about this and to showcase
56:54
that this I know that our audience
56:56
will have a question, and that'll be
56:58
like, well, I I can't afford a
57:00
financial planner. Right? And that's not the
57:02
case either. No. There there is
57:04
services that could provide help
57:06
in all facets.
57:08
Right? Absolutely. you know, so I think
57:10
that's a big stigma too is like, well, I
57:12
can't afford a CPA or I can't afford a
57:14
financial planner. Yeah. I don't think you need
57:16
anything that that in-depth unless you're running a major business or you're making major
57:18
investments. Like And
57:20
and that's where I go to if I
57:22
can't help you, I'm gonna find somebody who can
57:24
Exactly. So
57:26
the first step is just asking for help. It's just asking for
57:29
help. You know, if just
57:31
what? Where do mr
57:34
I start? Exactly. Where do I start? And
57:36
it's going back to it,
57:38
it's go back to it is get
57:40
get
57:40
the stigma out
57:41
of the way. and over
57:43
the embarrassment and just
57:46
do it. Mhmm. You know? It's you
57:48
know, I I look at things in my life and
57:50
it's like, be a lot
57:52
easier to go modal on than deal with all these
57:54
bills. Yeah. You know? But I
57:56
gotta get it done. Get it done. Then I'll go
57:58
modal on. then I can rely. First
57:59
step is the hardest. Absolutely.
58:02
Just first step is the hardest. You know?
58:04
Done. You know. And building
58:06
a a disciplined schedule in
58:08
your life is something that helps you just just get started. You know?
58:10
Yeah. If you start the
58:13
so
58:13
my boss, for lack
58:15
of a better term, He's
58:17
a senior partner in the in the firm. He just he has
58:19
he's really focused on the miracle morning. And
58:21
it's if you start
58:23
your day right, the
58:25
same way every single day. You have a great day.
58:28
Mhmm. So whether it's
58:30
whether it's praying, whether it's going
58:32
for a run, exercise, sizing. Making your bed
58:34
in the morning. Making your bed in the morning. Whatever
58:36
it is -- Yeah. -- design it for yourself.
58:38
Mhmm. You have your miracle morning,
58:40
and then the day's gonna be great after that. Those small wins in beginning
58:42
of the day set you up for success. Small
58:44
wins. That's that's the key to it.
58:47
Well, Brenda, where can people find you if they do wanna reach out
58:49
for some financial literacy? So I'm on
58:52
LinkedIn. Okay. Brendan Powers.
58:54
And that's really the really the
58:57
only area where I have a social media presence -- Okay. --
58:59
just because I, you know, I keep
59:01
it fresh. Yeah. And
59:04
then I I also have
59:06
a a charity that I wanted to to mention
59:08
because it's it's impactful. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
59:11
So we work with a group
59:13
called k nines for heroes. Mhmm.
59:15
And they my office
59:17
does an annual fundraiser for them, but
59:19
they, you know, need funds all the time. And
59:21
what they do is they raise PTSD
59:23
dogs for about half the cost of
59:25
what the VA pays. Wow. So it's private charity. It's based in my
59:27
local area. And
59:31
like I said, it's just it's
59:33
great connecting veterans with them. Mhmm.
59:36
I've had people reach out to
59:38
me and or in
59:40
different, you know, chat groups. And then I say,
59:42
hey, does anybody know where I can you know, the the
59:44
VA is telling me I gotta do this or gotta do that, and
59:46
I can push them that way -- Okay. -- and say,
59:48
here's a great organization that's local. It seems, you
59:50
know, they'll they'll help you they'll
59:53
help anybody. Nationwide. Nationwide.
59:56
Nationwide. Okay. But being
59:58
able to have that resource in
1:00:00
our backyard -- Mhmm. -- is really important
1:00:02
to me, and it's important that that we
1:00:04
supported as well. We're doing a I
1:00:06
think we're doing a fundraiser in October. And
1:00:09
it's just it's great, you
1:00:11
know, because I've I've called people
1:00:13
up and earlier point is you
1:00:15
gotta start with the ask. Mhmm. And but
1:00:18
when I explained to them, the
1:00:20
organization and
1:00:22
what they do and how they're able to help so many people. It's like,
1:00:24
absolutely. Mhmm. Here's a check. What what can
1:00:26
I do to help? Like, when people learn more
1:00:28
and more about the charity about canine heroes,
1:00:31
and what they're doing in their mission. So
1:00:34
many people are able to come together and
1:00:36
help them and everybody loves dogs.
1:00:38
These these PTS dogs
1:00:40
are incredible. by the way, that the
1:00:42
training that they go through. If you're struggling with,
1:00:44
like, a nightmare or something like that, these
1:00:46
dogs will wake you up in the middle of the
1:00:48
night and you know, comfort
1:00:50
you. I think it's very, very
1:00:52
unique. It is. It is. It's and it's a
1:00:54
great organization, and I
1:00:56
love seeing you know, the veterans with their dogs and their their head
1:00:58
now and just making that
1:01:00
connection is is very important to
1:01:02
me because it's
1:01:04
going back to every everything that we said
1:01:06
before is I want to be a resource. Yeah.
1:01:08
Yeah. And
1:01:10
if it's If it's not
1:01:12
in this arena, then I'll be a resource over
1:01:14
here. Mhmm. And if it's not there, it'll be a resource
1:01:16
over there. So, you know, if
1:01:18
you if you need a dog and you need an
1:01:20
introduction to a great organization, I can help
1:01:22
you. If you're not sure where to start
1:01:24
with, you know, getting your
1:01:26
life together, and just having a
1:01:28
plan, I can help you
1:01:30
there. And I'll also say it too,
1:01:32
if you're thinking about going to flight school and
1:01:34
you just need to talk
1:01:36
to somebody, I can I can talk, you know, I can help
1:01:38
you because I wanna
1:01:40
see, you know, I'm at the
1:01:42
point in my
1:01:44
career where the next group is
1:01:46
coming in. Mhmm. Yeah.
1:01:48
I'm I'm not the oldest, but
1:01:50
I think I'm the second oldest in my company
1:01:52
at this But, you know, I'm I'm getting there.
1:01:54
Once you hit twenty, it's like, okay.
1:01:56
You know, it's time to pass that to work.
1:01:58
Sure. So
1:02:00
I wanna see great people make their way
1:02:02
to Fort Rucker and learn
1:02:04
the new aircraft and to continue the
1:02:06
excellence that Army
1:02:08
Aviation has provided to
1:02:10
me. Well, good thing, Top Gun came out
1:02:12
and raised Yeah.
1:02:14
It bumped up Navy recruiting just a little
1:02:16
bit last year. I think it's got
1:02:18
back down, but I'm still waiting on firebirds
1:02:20
too. Got you. Yeah. I think we're all we're all waiting on that.
1:02:22
Well, it's been amazing having you
1:02:24
as a guest on the show.
1:02:27
thank you so much for your incredible service
1:02:30
in just a multitude
1:02:32
of different areas and the work that you're
1:02:34
continuing to do
1:02:36
to help veterans and transitioning service members out
1:02:38
of the military. Thank you so much for having me.
1:02:40
And, you know, I love you guys podcast. It's
1:02:42
great, and
1:02:44
hopefully we can do it again sometime in the future. Thanks for being on, brother. Yeah. Thank
1:02:46
you very much. This has been the Metabolic Podcast
1:02:48
ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much
1:02:52
for listening. see
1:02:56
it.
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More