Speaker 1:
0:31
All right everybody. Hey, welcome to the show. It's episode two. Thanks for coming back. I appreciate you listening to the intro. Once again, I'm Doug Pastoreas. That's P-I-S-T-O-R-I-U-S. The Xenia LaVeator. If see, you already like it. You already like it. It's great.
Speaker 2:
0:49
Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1:
0:51
So, yeah, please, if you guys like what you hear today Apple Podcast, leave me a five-star review. Anything less than a five-star review is not going to help. Even if you don't like what you hear, just be a bro and go on there and please leave that five-star review. If you have any questions or comments about the show, or you'd maybe like to be a guest on the show, hit me up on the socials. They'll be on the show notes, or you can email me at theseenialavator at gmailcom. Either way works. Just get a hold of me. So today's going to be a fun show. Today's going to be a really fun show.
Speaker 1:
1:22
First and foremost, give you the drink of the evening, sipping on some bourbon. This is actually Brass and Anchor. It's a small batch. Yeah, it's good shit, dude. Very Neville. Yes, it is actually, it's a small batch whiskey. So it's made by I mentioned this in the intro it's made by a master chief and a couple other dudes here in Jacksonville and they have their own distillery, warriors and whiskey. They also do some charity work as well. So I'm looking to have that master chief on the show here, probably in a couple of weeks Once he gets back from TAD. Temporary orders for those of you who don't know, and we'll have some C stories and we'll talk about some whiskey and maybe do another tasting that voice you just heard on the other side there, that's Mr Travis Koch, aka Tito. So we're going to be talking to him today. Two maybe. Thanks for coming up.
Speaker 3:
2:11
I have multiple aliases yeah, man, it's good to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:
2:15
Yeah, absolutely. So just to give you guys a brief intro, travis was a naval aviator, still is. He served, was active duty with me, did a couple tours and he is now a pilot for Delta Airlines. Just to give you a kind of prefix of Travis love this guy to death. I definitely firmly believe there's a small percentage of people I'd say there's probably only a one or two percentile of this type of person and Travis fits it. It's definitely the in case of emergency break glass Like this guy, loyal to the end and awesome guy. But this is the guy you want when shit hits the fan. He is the man you're going to want whenever things are going to go awry. This is the guy they keep in the container and they break out the hammer and they break the glass, because when you let Travis off the leash, things are going to happen.
Speaker 2:
2:59
But yeah, absolutely glad to have you here. You make me blush.
Speaker 1:
3:04
Oh man, it's real talk. Dude, you're definitely a straight shooting guy and I appreciate that. You know that's somebody after my heart. So yeah, without further ado, let's start from the beginning, man. So just yeah, kind of give me your story.
Speaker 3:
3:18
Oh yeah, where to begin? How far back you want to go? Start?
Speaker 1:
3:22
wherever man, it's on you.
Speaker 3:
3:24
Yeah. So let's see. Yeah, gonzaga University grad, pacific Northwest native, wanted to get far enough away from home to escape a little bit, but not so far that if you needed to get home in case of emergency, yeah and break the glass. But now to use good right in the Navy after that. I had always known from a young age that I wanted to fly planes. At the very least I had a love for the military Just fascinating to be.
Speaker 3:
3:53
My dad used to build race boats and so this was back when you know like the unlimited hydro planes were just coming out. Great grandpa, ted, the raceway in Washington's Ted Jones raceway is on Lake Washington where they run these boats and they're basically back in the day it was P 51 motor. There's put on boats and then it became Huey engines put on. So instead of rigging a propeller or a or not a propeller, a rotor, not a helo guy, yeah, it just pushes a lot of water and so horsepower, jet fuel, always near and dear to my heart. I thought I missed my window and just by happenstance was in a rock climbing class with a gal and she's like what do you really want to do? I had an elective to fill, I swapped over to business. I was like, honestly I'd love to fly planes for the military but I think I missed my window. You know, wait a second.
Speaker 1:
4:46
You took rock climbing in college as an elective. I did Awesome, see, and you can definitely tell that's a Pacific Northwest thing, because in Florida I took scuba diving as an elective. You got to love them, I did that too.
Speaker 3:
4:59
Oh, nice. And actually we pioneered the advanced scuba class at Gonzaga because we weren't done with the initial, so we got dry suit called and not open water. What's the advanced? Yeah, there we go. Yeah, so it was pretty dope man. But anyway I had swapped over to engineering and had time to kill because I hated engineering. I was never going to survive in that. And yeah, I did that and she's like dude, just call this guy. I was like that's weird, you want to give me his email first or something. So I called this dude out of the blue, said I want to fly planes for the military. Still Can I do this? And he's like absolutely, I was a sophomore and so the rest was kind of history. Man Signed the papers ASAP off to OCS in July T6's, C12's went P3's fly with Kilikong here and, yeah, T6 is after that, just because, man, we will talk about this, but the P3 community will burn you out real fast.
Speaker 1:
5:53
Yeah, we're definitely going to talk about that, yeah.
Speaker 3:
5:56
And then off to T6's where I, like, had my love for flying rekindled, just because it's cool. To teach kids man, it is I was that frustrated student, and to be able to hit home with them and take the time and do that and watch the light book, it was just cool. So then I had to go serve my boat sense. This is where I got shitty again, and I'm sure we'll talk about this too and we'll put a bunch of highly qualified pilots for a year so that they drop their flight currency and then can't go to the airlines. They got to take their department head orders. It's a perfect crime. Readiness is green.
Speaker 3:
6:36
So yeah, I'm still pissed, but anyway, now we're back as a dirty reservist flying for the Mother D, the widget, and working for Spitfire Elite on the side. Shout out Trump, bill, nut, jroo, everybody, man. We make more millionaires than baseball. Wow, just with 96, 97% success rate for the airlines Nice. And we just launched Vets, which is pretty cool for all our homeboys that don't want to fly afterwards or don't have the ratings or can, okay, but still need jobs. Awesome, dude. So that brings us to now.
Speaker 1:
7:11
Sweet man, I want to kind of peel back some of the history a little bit. So yeah, tell me about flight school. What was your experience in flight school? You know?
Speaker 3:
7:20
good, bad ugly, oh, honest experience.
Speaker 1:
7:22
Yeah, absolutely honest. Yeah, I already told people these are going to be no bullshit recordings, you know? I mean, obviously we're both. We're both still bound by our oath to serve at the pleasure of the president. But that doesn't mean we can't critique things.
Speaker 3:
7:34
I agree with this whole hardly. And also, that's not the kind of officer I was raised to be. All of my mentorship was like Sears school chief master sergeants Back when I was at GU because I volunteered out at the Air Force base with the Sears school and those dudes are real right. They're like don't be a for lack of a better term, and I quote yes, man, here it comes. Yes, don't be one of those. Yeah, I've already, and it's going to cost you some things.
Speaker 1:
8:04
I've already prefixed on my first episode that if you want, if you want the no bullshit answers to things, you ask a chief petty officer, but yes, a chief, chief, master, sergeant, or really anybody, you seven and above, and any armed force is going to give you the, the end of bridge to filter, to answer.
Speaker 3:
8:19
Yeah, so yeah, flight school dude, I hated it and had I been in a different squadron it probably would have been that way. If I was a student at the squadron I instructed now and the one I was instructor in the fleet, I would have had more fun and I probably still have more. This was a place this is VT 27, like the second or third T six class to go through and so they padded their stats right. They went and recruited all these people with prior flight time. The first class through had a hundred hours in the sim before they ever even flew. And so you're sitting here. Odds are already stacked against you. And then the culture and we can talk about this too. Squadron culture, for better or worse, is incredibly hard to change.
Speaker 2:
9:05
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
9:06
VT 27 was the better or worse or whatever it is. You know what I mean. It was awful. We had dudes come in from sister squadrons that were like super chill and then they got to us and like over did it, trying to be a dick, to be part of the culture.
Speaker 1:
9:24
It's almost like that act is another squadron. We know that we can talk about.
Speaker 3:
9:29
Yeah, and so it was really really difficult. For somebody who gives a shit, for somebody who wants to be there more than anything, going from flying enough to an 1100 horsepower turbo crop, it's like, dude, it's already not easy. We jumped through plenty of hoops to get there and that's whatever you still got to earn it.
Speaker 1:
9:47
Just curious. So for those of you who don't know, in flight school for both Navy Marine Corps and I'm sure the Air Force does the same thing your instructor pilots are going to come from various different platforms and backgrounds. You're going to have Helo guys, jet guys, multi-engine guys like me and Travis, so you get a little mix of the culture. Would you say that I guess the taint on the culture for lack of a better term was it coming from a particular community or was it just people coming in and the community in the culture that was in the squadron kind of engulfing them, so it really didn't matter where they came from.
Speaker 3:
10:21
Yeah, that's a good question. You can kind of tell the communities your instructors came from and you still can today, yeah, so that's the whole point of having that spread. That being said, I think, like the jet guys, a little more straight-laced, very focused on book knowledge and kind of your tactical acumen, if you will, of the progression of the maneuvers. But I had some really, really, really big-ish Helo dudes who you can tell are just making up for insecurities they had, because you know, for those that don't know, typically the people who perform the worst in flight school end up going helicopter. But I know some of the pilots I've flown have come from that community and so it's, some people want it, some people that's their only option and that's just how the Navy is sometimes, which is fine. But I would say the large spread in personality, oddly enough, came from the Helo community and all the multi-engine guys and their nice hair just over there, like it's like. Oh yeah, it's just my job. You had a couple good ones in the mix.
Speaker 3:
11:28
I probably should have been a Marine. You got guys like you, me, fish they're good dudes in there that, for whatever reason, just ended up in 40 and, you know, lost our morale. But back to fly school. Dude, primary was the worst Going on a multi-engine like super awesome squad Night and day difference. And then the rag was the rag. But again it's a bunch of P3 things I don't know, you know a lot of that and they end up in VP30. The pros nest, the Heman Haas yeah, the Heman Haas. There was a lot of really good dudes there. And then one who I won't name here, who, let's just say, if he was on the side of the road from the flat tire three in the morning and I passed him, I would back up and drive back off again.
Speaker 1:
12:16
So who was it? I can blank it out. Who was it? That's funny. Yeah, I know exactly who you're talking about.
Speaker 3:
12:25
So, with that, something I say here I will say is a reflection of Spitfire League we take care of people, but we're real dudes. So, anyway, I'm wearing my Spitfire sweater. I like it.
Speaker 1:
12:40
I like it, that's nice.
Speaker 3:
12:42
Yeah, do they give us Johnny O stuff for the conferences which is super comfy, it looks cool. So that was fly school in a nutshell. Man, Like glad I did. It Lends a lot of perspective and anybody I would say, go over now. I'd just be like go through Whiting, dude Corpus is a different animal.
Speaker 1:
13:01
Yeah, and for those of you who don't know, yeah, the Navy has three different areas where we send people to flight school. Primarily you got Whiting Field, that's outside Pensacola, that's where I went, and then you got Corpus Christi. I believe that's where you went for primary, is that right?
Speaker 3:
13:17
And advanced yeah.
Speaker 1:
13:19
And I went down there for advanced as well. Yeah, and I would have a couple unlucky souls get to go to Enid Oklahoma to a Air Force base and that's, that's hell on earth. Right there, air Force know their shit left and right when it comes to aircraft, there's no doubts about that. But dude like when it comes to their training, oh man, I feel sorry for those dudes. Like just stand up emergency procedures and just that's a haze fest.
Speaker 3:
13:43
It's a little bit of hazing, for sure, but I and you know the Air Force has mentality on things Like here's everything you can do, and do only those things. I still. I got love for the Navy. The Navy never really did me super dirty, except for the boat. Outside of that it was like here's what you can't do and pilot judgment for everything. So I like that.
Speaker 1:
14:06
Yeah, so it's funny you bring that up because I've had that talk, especially once I started to fly drones with a lot of the global Hawk dudes. Yeah, because the Navy is like, inherently known especially if you talk to the other branches for having that whole command by negation sort of a style which is I know. I'm using both. What are you?
Speaker 3:
14:24
going to tell me Centralized command, centralized execution, yes.
Speaker 1:
14:29
Yes, but you know what, dude? It's true, because the time I so, I went to the Army Staff College for your out in Kansas. And what? Yeah, I man, I didn't tell you that.
Speaker 3:
14:39
No.
Speaker 1:
14:40
Yeah, so in between my, in between my tours, when I finished up with my first tour of the drones, that's when I got picked up for a tar, so full time reservist for those of you playing at home and I had a lot of time in between that before I started my department head tour. So the detailer, the gentleman who handles our orders, he was like hey, he's like you, you did really hot out of a VUP. Do you want to go to college and get your, get your master's and get your JPME? Sure, Well, actually I'm lying.
Speaker 1:
15:12
The way this really happened was Nicole was about four months pregnant and he asked me this question and, like a jackass, I was like, oh, I don't know, I I need to go back and ask Nicole. So that night I went home and I was like, hey, babe, I was like they just offered me a spot to go to Kansas to get my master's. But I told him I don't know, because you're pregnant. And literally it stopped right there and she's like what the f**k are you doing? She's like call him back right now and tell him yes, you will go there.
Speaker 2:
15:37
Oh, that's cool, we like her.
Speaker 1:
15:40
Yeah, so I yeah, she'd knock some common sense to me. I called him back but yeah, dude went there for a year so it was pretty cool because I learned a lot about the army. I knew nothing about the army until I got there. Now I know a lot about battalion's divisions, all that good stuff, but it's very interesting, like the army they. I think the people are very good. I think the organization sucks and I think it's they have no idea how to allocate those resources.
Speaker 1:
16:06
Yes, 100%. When it comes to leadership, they're spot on with that. But in terms of actually empowering their subordinates to make those sort of command decisions Sorry, I know we're getting off on a large tangent with what we were just talking about there, but they very much envy the Navy when it comes to that. We are unique in that structure to where we do empower our junior officers and even some of our enlisted to make those decisions and say, hey, here's your, you know, here's your rope, you can hang yourself. So it's kind of a mind blowing thing when they think about, hey, the CEO, he got fired. Why did he get fired? It was this person, this person's fault. Well, it's the culture, man. That's how it rolls.
Speaker 3:
16:42
Yeah, but.
Speaker 1:
16:43
I digress.
Speaker 3:
16:45
No, it's all good, but you used to remind me that's why they liked us when we were doing the Iraq series thing was like I was over Iraq and they're like, hey, can you guys go check this box over here? And we're like we got gas. Yeah, I just asked the crew you boys want to go to see what Like? And the Air Force can't do that. Nobody can do that because that would be poor planning. But we excel in poor planning here in the United States.
Speaker 1:
17:10
Yes, I think I forget who came up with the quote, but it was in World War II. Basically, germany and Japan were definitely afraid of us because we don't follow doctrine, and they knew that other organizations are very regimented when it comes to doctrine.
Speaker 3:
17:24
But I'm saying that's old school USA, it's like George Washington, right, right, we'll kill you in your sleep on Christmas morning. Hell, yes, just for shits and giggles. Yeah, because they're like who would do that? It's a holiday. And then we got soft. Yeah, but hey, here we are.
Speaker 1:
17:43
When you go in on 20 years, they definitely see culture is always crazy. Yeah, 20 years, I know.
Speaker 3:
17:49
Company man, yeah, I didn't think that one was going to happen, trust me but it's all right, dude, I'm about to do the same thing, just as a dirty reservist.
Speaker 1:
17:57
Hey, I mean, I'm technically a dirty reservist too, so it's okay.
Speaker 3:
18:00
Technicality.
Speaker 1:
18:01
I want, yeah, I want, the path of at least resistance. The work. Work smarter, not harder.
Speaker 3:
18:06
Yeah, I was. I mean, you know, our FTS guys worked harder than active duty guys. Oh, don't tell them that. But I did run into somebody that was a VUP type and I was like you know, doug Bisturius, aka Kill the Kong, aka Doug Fresh AKA my spirit animal. And they knew you and they were. It was the best. Oh, I see on the plan, just because he was a real dude and that's what it takes amongst all of this. You know tactics in this and that and you talk to the random passerby and what they think of the military. It's just like, oh, you know, thanks for your service, you guys are great. It's like you know that 10%. You would talk with them. They probably like, hey, yeah, you know, like, yeah, I've given up marriages and my body, like I'm a year away from a neck surgery. But there's the dudes in there that still just do it for the right reasons. You were one of those dudes, this person saying your praises. So way to do it right, doug.
Speaker 1:
19:06
Well, that's good. I appreciate that and you know it's good to hear from one time somebody didn't call me an asshole right off the bat.
Speaker 3:
19:12
But you're still an asshole. Yeah, but some of the best leaders are man. You have to be now Fair enough, because if you're going to say no to the man, you're an asshole.
Speaker 1:
19:23
Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 3:
19:24
That's why I have a pineapple grenade tattooed on my ass cheek. We can talk about that story in a different way.
Speaker 1:
19:31
Well, I remember you sending me the picture on deployment. So there you go.
Speaker 3:
19:35
Just cold cocking people a picture of my butt. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:
19:39
Yeah, sounds like flight school is definitely an experience for you. Don't feel bad. That was definitely the same experience for me as well. Primary was definitely the pain in my dick, and once I got to advanced in 30, it wasn't so bad. I already know most of the story. Go ahead, let's talk about so. When you got to your first squadron.
Speaker 3:
19:57
Yeah, man, and I did well in the rag and so I got first pick on the squadron piece and I remember looking at him and saying what is the last squadron transition to the beat? Because flight school for those who don't know, you get good at an aircraft, then you move on, then you get good, and then you move on, and you move on and you're this kind of this jack of all trades pilot. So after the rag I was like give me something I can just be great at, or at least mediocre plus. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:
20:31
Like give me time to get good at something like real good, and so that's what I picked 40 and I got it and met him out on deployment, which is awesome Because you don't want to be that guy. That's just like telling stories from the OCS and the rag and get your feet wet, More just like do a cannonball man Jump in and do it. So 40 was good until the first day on the job when I met. Am I allowed to say your name?
Speaker 1:
21:01
Yeah, you can say it and I'll cut it out. That's fine, okay.
Speaker 2:
21:06
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
21:07
This is my first taste, she's a peach.
Speaker 3:
21:09
She's a peach Of like. I know nothing about how the fleet operates. All I know is I'm supposed to meet my squad and I'm going to deploy them. Enter, like the people that book your tickets, say no, all the travel people who booked me a flight and then sent me the wrong confirmation and so I missed my flight. And that automatically got me, as you can imagine, just super high praise from my squad Before I was even a part of the team, you know. And so, anyway, got that smooth. They kind of knew it wasn't my fault, but still, you know you want to make a good impression.
Speaker 3:
21:49
Then you were one of the first people I met there, because I remember it, yep, me and Brett were walking around. We went to the hotel, saw you and Fishburn and I was like, hey, man, I'm new. You're like all right, I'm VP 30. I was like yeah, f***. He's like yeah, we're going to get along. Am I boring you, dougie?
Speaker 1:
22:08
No, sorry, I was getting a text from my wife. I'm listening, I'm very much genuinely listening.
Speaker 3:
22:14
We like her, but I'm more important.
Speaker 1:
22:17
You are, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, you're absolutely correct, but that's the shit way. I'll go f*** myself, all right.
Speaker 3:
22:22
Yeah, tell her. I said hi, by the way, I will and give her my love. I will, as always. Yep, so but yeah, that's where it kind of started. Dive right in, man, it just started doing this whatever PQS is, didn't even know what it stood for. All I know is there's this giant book of things I need to know. But the cool part was your buddies are TJ. Hey, man, I again. This is where I was like maybe I'm cut out for this. You know, it's like I want to do. Really well, I got these people. I'm not afraid to admit when I don't know something. But yeah, man, it was good, learned a lot, really. Second deployment is where I kind of started to bloom, if you will.
Speaker 1:
23:03
Yeah, I wasn't there for that, so I'm kind of curious. You were a co-pilot for my deployment. So background for those listening, I was on my last P3 deployment when I was a plane commander. Anyhow, travis was my co-pilot for quite a bit of deployment and then I left and headed over to VUP to start flying drones. Yeah, tell me about your second deployment, man. Like you were PPC then, right.
Speaker 3:
23:27
Almost so past my board, that deployment. But, dude, by then the planes are in such bad shape. It took me 20, like three months, maybe 21. No, 21 months, but I was board complete at 19, something like that, and so it was. It's just waiting on a plane in the events and there's not that many of them. But we're talking like second deployment seven hour pre-flights into a. It's sometimes an abbreviated profile, but still, even then it's like pre-flight flight, post-flight.
Speaker 3:
24:05
But I had good mentors in that one man and that was a mission that mattered. That was the EREC, serious stuff and yeah, it was good. It was good all the way around. The only thing that sucked about it was studying from that board. But outside of that, it's like the mission mattered.
Speaker 3:
24:19
The people were on board. It was the first time where I've kind of seen them like put together what we do in an unclassed format and give it to the maintainers, cause, like your e-docs are the ones that are grinding man, like they're the ones keeping the planes up. Yeah, I love those guys and so that was really cool. Just because everybody was on board for a change, everybody. There was not one person out there that was like dragging ass or not wanting to go the extra mile, just because, like you could see from the briefs, every time the plane went down, the red line creeped up and when the plane was up, the red line creeped down. For those who have done that, red forces like enemy forces, but you it was a visible, tangible difference and that was super cool.
Speaker 3:
25:07
But yeah, in this case, dude, it was cool. I got my feet under me, I was in the position to actually teach and tell people where I screwed it up and just to try to help, cause there's two types of pile, especially in that community it's like it's sucked for me, so it's going to suck for you, or it's sucked for me and it doesn't need to suck for you. Man, just do it this way, it'll be easier. Yeah, not necessarily like wrong, wrong way or the right way is not always the easy way, you know, but like you can still help your bros, that's, and that's what it was kind of about. So we started to enter that territory a little bit and it felt good.
Speaker 1:
25:43
Good, that's good. Yeah, it's a. It's kind of crazy how the culture can ebb and flow and how just one or two individuals can really twist and shape that. So it's good, though it sounds like the experience was definitely a lot better. That's second time around, and it's especially to your point doing real world stuff as opposed to just going to fly circles around all the time it makes, it makes a huge difference in impact on people's attitude, especially when they know what's going on.
Speaker 3:
26:10
And we're just like turning red boxes to green boxes, yeah, so somebody can make rank Exactly.
Speaker 1:
26:16
It's funny you mentioned about the two types of people. It's. That was something that when we. So when I got into that, I was like I'm going to be so.
Speaker 1:
26:24
When I got the VUP, I was one of the first couple of people there and we coined ourselves as the Isle of Misfit Toys because everybody there was pretty much in my shoes. We were all not instructor. Maybe mission commander must promote sailors. Basically, they sent us there thinking, oh, you guys are just going to go fade off into the distance. Well, you put a group of us together like that. But we were still knowledgeable and combatant commanders actually really wanted to see what a UAV can do for large periods of time.
Speaker 1:
26:59
So we were able to build the culture and base it off of what you just said. Basically, hey, we had these experiences, good or bad. We want to be able to make sure that we do our best to make sure these people don't have a bad experience and try to boost the good experiences that we had. So we very much made it a point at DUP, especially in the inception of the squadron, to do that. Let's learn the video game and let's do it right. And yeah, it was amazing how much like basically was told by multiple people, especially from, like, the 06 and above level, that this program was meant to fail. Excuse me, but somehow we ended up succeeding and exceeding expectations. And look at us now I'm not there anymore, but they have multiple UAVs and they're in multiple spheres. So it's amazing what you get a group of people with the right attitude can do.
Speaker 3:
27:54
Well that's, and you stop and think it's like the Navy's hemorrhaging bodies, the DoD is together.
Speaker 3:
28:01
And one thing I figured out certainly on the outside world it's like between Spitfire, delta or whatever.
Speaker 3:
28:07
If you put care and time and effort and in Delta's case, money into your people, everybody's going to sing those praise. But you get enough good dudes that have the right attitude and want to work for it and they put out a good product, which in our case is some level, even the defense, warfighting, winning support, whatever it is. But like how much less would the Navy heard or the DoD in general, if we put the right effort, time and money into our people, because that when somebody's working and all they want to do is kick ass at their job turns out the product's way better. You don't have to motivate them, you don't have to pay them more, it's just you're recruiting problems solved, your advertising problems solved, and I really just wish we'd get better about that. But to your point, it's like dudes get there, put out results and like shit, those results made it to my ear about like how good you were as an OIC from somebody I'd never met and you probably may or may not remember. So like that's the difference, that's one. That's the advertisement piece.
Speaker 1:
29:19
Yeah, we need to put you in charge of recruiting man.
Speaker 3:
29:21
Oh, that noise. I'm not good at these conferences that go to a lot of times. The military guys are there and specifically the Navy, they have a recruiting booth. That's. They're all aviation conferences. I'll go up to the recruiters be like hey, you guys need to be honest with your people, Like you need to level with them and they will put out a much better product for you.
Speaker 1:
29:44
Yeah, and it's, I think, to your point. It's setting expectations and that's all across the board. That's not just with recruiting but that gets in the later on with just with day to day operations and day to day like job for the military. You mentioned the OIC thing, just kind of give you an idea of how that went. My experiences so I guess, going on two years ago now, we took the UAV out to Japan and we operated from a new airfield that we normally don't operate from. I took over from an OIC who was currently out there. We just high-fived in between, nothing different, just my time to go out there.
Speaker 1:
30:19
But it was. It was a shit show when we got out there because communication, expectations and really just how you approach people, they made it very tough for us to operate. It took getting into the whole changing the culture piece which is probably going to end up titling this episode. It took me and my chief at the time to basically for lack of a better term do some hood shit. We were just like, okay, look, we need to go on a coast to coast tour here. Basically, we went from command to command. We hit every tenant command on that base, just went in, shook hands, said hey, we're the new sheriff's in town. Sorry about what was happening earlier. We're just catching up on things. I'd like to start this relationship over hey, what kind of whiskey do you like? Let's sit down and have a beer Right and dude, People are people.
Speaker 3:
31:10
Yeah, even in the military.
Speaker 1:
31:12
Within a month, dude. It was a night and day difference and we started to get traction and we were actually getting things done. That's amazing what happens when you talk to people the right way and you talk to them like human beings.
Speaker 3:
31:25
Right, am I yelling, by the way, can you? No, you're fine, okay, sweet. You're fine, I'm an angry person.
Speaker 1:
31:30
I can adjust your volume too.
Speaker 3:
31:33
For those that don't know, so call sign Sue. Yeah, scouts were spools up easily, easily. There it is.
Speaker 1:
31:40
I was going to ask you how you got that, so thank you for telling us.
Speaker 3:
31:43
Were you not there when I got coined Sue.
Speaker 1:
31:45
No.
Speaker 3:
31:46
Oh yeah, dude, I guess you got tuna Tuna coined that one. He was like yeah, he gives a shit, a lot of the shits, but he's like he gets a little spools a little quick. So you know, I'm a country music fan, I'm kind of a Northwest Redneck, but boy named Sue, johnny Cash had the time Really, and everybody asked us they're like because I just that became my name. That's one thing the Navy's good at. It's like your call sign becomes your name. But hey man, I'm Sue You're like oh boy named Sue.
Speaker 3:
32:21
I'd be like yeah, it actually means I have a really short fuse. Try to piss me off.
Speaker 1:
32:26
I mean it fits with the song too. It really very much fits with the song.
Speaker 3:
32:30
So I got a short fuse but you know I was number one out of the T6 command before I went to the boat and it wasn't like one of one. But it wasn't because I was the best pilot out there, like the smartest guy, like not dude but business major.
Speaker 1:
32:45
That's rewind for a sec. How was so? We talked about 40 house flights.
Speaker 3:
32:49
as an instructor, it was amazing as an instructor is great because we talked about how pissed off I was as a student, but it was cool to have freedom to operate Like when I was in 40, I canceled a flight because I didn't want to fly through a squal line to get five minutes on station after a six hour preflight for a mission that we were told was just a long data collection process. Don't push your planes, don't push your crew. And that CEO, who remained unnamed, was the one to give us that brief and later denied ever saying that. But either way, I got my ass handed to me. That's where the pineapple came from, and Connor Leonard was actually in the squadron that I was teaching T6's in when I canceled for the very first time as an instructor. I was like man, I just my safety bubble is very small. Right now I have one engine I used to have for I like risk managed and I was still just new and it was pretty decent day to go fly, but just enough conditions.
Speaker 3:
33:52
I was a little uncomfortable and called it and I'm on my way to the CEO's office and Connor intercepts me. He's like where you going? I was like I'm going to tell the boss why I canceled. You know, it's just like prepping my ass for the beating that's about to get here. He's like no, dude, don't go down there. I was like, is it going to be that bad? He's like, no, nobody cares, it could be a blue bird day out there. You're here because you worked hard. You wanted to be Now somewhere along the road. Things changed. Used to be they sent the burnout P3 guys like the guys that couldn't make MC or an IP or whatever and they would send them to primary to do the least amount of damage.
Speaker 1:
34:32
Which explains why I mean you had such a great experience when we went through flights.
Speaker 3:
34:35
Right, somewhere along the road it changed. Dude, if that is not your number one choice and you're not top three EP, you're not getting it because they want you to go to VP 30 or the advantage squad. It's 31 or 35. But somewhere along the road it changed because now there's a huge halo presence. But I was, fortunate, busted ass and got to go down there. But yeah, it was somewhere along the road to change and so I went back down there, worked hard for it, because after 40, dude, I was going to go to VX 30. I was going to try to go do C-130s, b-3s, kind of experimental cool shit, and I was so over the eat your young, the blue falcon types. For those that are just tuning in, that's a buddy fucker, which means you will sell your soul at all costs to preserve your own reputation and throw everybody you know under the mask.
Speaker 3:
35:30
Love them yeah we got a few of them. We have coins for it. Now I should get you a coin, doug, just so you have it, not because you are one, but anyway. So it was really nice to be around people that just wanted to fly, and that's why nobody cared. When you cancel is like they know you want to be there, yeah, and the whole reason I went there was to be like I'm going to go be one of the good ones, I'm not going to be one of the shitty ones that I had. And oh, by the way, the people that we were getting sent from training into us you may have noted. Well, this is probably second and third deployment. We started to get some people where I was, just like they really must be hurting for bodies.
Speaker 1:
36:15
Yeah, I heard the quality spread went down.
Speaker 3:
36:19
It went down significantly. Oh yeah, no, the quality spread went down. But the cool thing is, after being at six with a bunch of dudes kind of like me and you, dude, we had an awesome culture, yeah, and the students loved being there and as a result, they flew better. They were telling all their buddies like, dude, six has the highest attrition rate and we know that. But we don't do it on purpose. It's just like here's what it takes to make a good aviator that I want flying with my crew who's still out there, and that that attitude is kind of contagious. The results are contagious. We have the lowest attrition rate out of advance, which means we're doing it right. But the students like being there, they want to be there and, yeah, I got to tell you it just rekindled my love for flying.
Speaker 3:
37:12
Awesome. That got killed after the P three thing and that's to be fair. Cac two combat aircrew two man. Jesus, we had a great crew and kind of like a squad and culture. Cac two stayed awesome.
Speaker 3:
37:27
But it was good when you were there without two in the horn.
Speaker 3:
37:31
It was good when I was there, good man, we were putting up the highest numbers and it wasn't because we were trying to like, try to get the medals, get the awards.
Speaker 3:
37:39
It was because it was like I'll take it to save my crew. And they knew that to the point where it's like, when we finally got the air medals for the rack serious stuff you got your crew being like hey sir, if you're good, we're good and just and that was the highest compliment anybody could have ever paid me, more than any award or anything was just like you took care of a. If you say it's worth it, we're good to go. And that's kind of what it was. Going back to primary, even when you got a fail, a student, they're like I understand, thank you. And I was like we're not done here, dude, like let's go to the Sims, let's get this hammered out, and so it was just really, really cool to be around motivated people from the students perspective and also from the instructor perspective, and people were just good man and the product was good, like we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 1:
38:32
That's good to hear, dude. Yeah, it's. It's kind of the mentality I tried to take with me over to VUP. When I got there, I mean, honestly, I was pretty much burnt out with the situation leaving VP 40, but I, hey, I got what I wanted. I got Jacksonville, I got the drugs, I got a job. That was just a good job. I did a lot of things but I was pretty happy. So I, I went in, going to make the best of it and quote the infamous Elton John it's just my job, five days a week. I'm a rocket man and that's. I mean. No bullshit, bro. That's how I took it. Like I went in and I just I did my best. I didn't try to. Like I said, we had a culture of good dudes who, like we all had a similar experience. Some had a way worse than I did. There were at least I got the fly. Still, I was like DFW work horse, but we had. We had some dudes who weren't touching and playing.
Speaker 1:
39:16
But hey it was all equal footing once you got here, and it was nice to be able to both change the culture around and redeem myself and prove that basically that situation was a fluke due to a bad culture. But yeah, I try to definitely do the same thing too. You said something that just really rang volumes to me, talking about the mission and just the give a shit factor of people willing to do stuff. That was my biggest reward in Japan when I was doing the OIC gig, was? It wasn't the like. I'll be straight with you, dude.
Speaker 1:
39:48
Like our mission percentage was, I guess, at the very unclass level. Was wasn't great, but it wasn't. Yeah, we know. Yeah, it wasn't. Yeah, I mean, if you're, if you're in the community, you know, if you know, you know right. But to the point though, dude, like my guys busted their ass and they did an amazing job and I made sure they knew that. And, at the end of the day, I had such a great relationship with my chief and the maintainers that, without eating my own horn, I knew that I would just have to give the word and they would go to the gates of hell for me to make things happen, and we did quite a few times Now it's to us still not getting off deck, but we still gave it that effort and that's all I wanted. That's all I asked for, and it's amazing how, sometimes, when you a tell people the why and B you show them that you're genuine person how things will get done.
Speaker 3:
40:41
You know it's funny about that. At Spitfire we have a guy who is my I call my boss. They're all friends man. But like Bill Sims is my boss, tron Williams is my boss, nick Fialk is my boss Bill Sims founded the lab Right and this is what happens when you equal playing field it and Bill's old gunny, because Bill's a Marine. His old gunny is like some HR director for a Fortune 50 company. The guy's just good. He is good people through and through and through and there's a reason. He is where he is Right. But he just put out a session on one of our podcasts called Finding your why. And this is what I teach people when we're interviewing is like, if you can tell me why you made a decision, I know way more about you than you could have told me. And like tell me about yourself five minutes, that whole, give them the why thing.
Speaker 2:
41:41
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
41:43
Now again you got your old school types that are like it's not everybody's business to know the why, yes, but also look what we did on deployment with the maintainers, right, Is it their business to know? No, it's their job to make sure the aircraft are ready to go. But if you bring them into the loop on why it matters and why we're pushing them that hard and why we're out there pushing just as hard, things change.
Speaker 2:
42:08
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
42:09
Right, everybody wants to be included, human nature thing. The other piece about, just like this general leadership thing, things that I found you learn a lot about people based on how they treat people that have nothing to offer them. You know, and that's a quote from somebody, but it's so true, I remember where I heard it, but like flight Right, is that it no?
Speaker 1:
42:35
I don't know, I was lying.
Speaker 3:
42:36
Oh, cool, right on. But yeah, that's it. It's such a true thing. It's like flight students right, they have nothing to, they can't further my career or make me more money or whatever. But they were just like me and I remember being right there and I remember being pissed off and confused and victims of double standards and triple standards, a quadruple standards and just to have somebody. You know, I had a guy, one guy, in primary that everybody hated. I had kind of an offline conversation.
Speaker 3:
43:10
But once you figure out people are people, you can kind of get through to them, crack the shell if you will. But this dude just like leveled me through my own day and I was like, holy shit, he's just a guy, he's just a normal guy and that's all it is. And I just had lunch two days ago with one of my onwigs who's now a captain, and that's the return on investment from a lot of the people you for lack of a better term lead is. The shitty ones aren't getting calls from their students to be like, hey, thanks for everything, because you got to wait like two years. They got to get through, they got to get their wings, they got to have a chance to apply and learn from all those lessons that you tried in season for them to be. It's just like when you're growing up with your parents. You'll understand when you're older and you're like fuck it, no, I won't. And then you do.
Speaker 3:
44:01
It's the same thing in aviation or just the military in general, dude, you're not hearing from people that you treated like shit, even if they went out and did great. And do you do it for the thanks? No, but that's how I came to be as angry as I am on a regular basis. But it's people just being dicks for no reason to cover up their own insecurities while airborne or on the ground trying to do this leadership thing. Dude, it's the complete opposite. If you can call yourself out, look for like your crew's opinion, right, just because if you can finally swallow the pill that I don't have all the answers. It's like shit just changes, man, it's no different. Either side of the fence you're on. Shit just changes.
Speaker 1:
44:50
I think it's. I think what you just said rings volumes, dude, very much. It's funny. I just had this conversation with Nicole a couple of days ago, talking about something very similar with leadership, so just to give you some background. So I know I told you a story about me crashing part of the not my fault and I'm acquitted. I went through my FINAB but I crashed it my OJ.
Speaker 1:
45:13
Yeah, I have to prefix that. But when we had the mishap it was around the time I was being considered for instructor and literally I had nothing to do with that. And it had nothing to do with that. But because the CEO at the time had access to my record, I failed a couple flights in primary. He said he could not unsee that so he could not consider me for instructor for drones the XO at the time and she heard this and she just looked at him. She's like so change of command is in two months. Things happen literally the day she changed.
Speaker 3:
45:47
She's like, by the way use your IET letter. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:
45:51
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
45:52
Which kind of sucks, because you know what it takes to fail a flight in primary.
Speaker 3:
45:58
I don't the judgment of just another guy. Yeah, orgal, right, you have those people. I wouldn't consider myself a high canceler but I wasn't flying for my own logbook because I already had all the men's before I ever went there. But I'm not taking a student out on a contact flight if you can't see the ground. This context is entirely VFR. For those that don't know, it's students, brand new first flights in the plane. We have them memorize all these ground reference points so they knock, they don't get lost. And you still got instructors taking them out and they're like well, any touch is a good issue, which is true, like that, any touch is a good touch when it comes to, like, starting the engine and maybe some stick skills and stuff. But like when you're out flying and doing maneuvers, if you can't do the maneuvers because the weather doesn't allow you to, why the fuck are you flying? And so what did you say that spurred that thought?
Speaker 1:
46:58
We're talking about how you can't unsee it and just people making. The people making decisions and being afraid to go back and saying they're wrong.
Speaker 3:
47:05
There you go that. But, like with your CEO, what it takes to fail in primary is going out on a check ride on a day like that with an instructor who's oh you know, maybe they're new, maybe they're not, maybe they're the hammer and they probably shouldn't have gone to do a check ride that day. The weather didn't support it, the conditions didn't support it. Like you set a student up for failure, you still got to keep the hours, but what did they get? They got a blem on their record. They're probably 15 years away.
Speaker 3:
47:37
Some CEOs look at that shit and be like this guy sucks, it's like no dude, because you got to know some of the people that end up in that squad and, remember, do the least amount of harm. Right, we had a I'll just keep it gender neutral here. We had a pilot who flew unscheduled formation flight in a helicopter with this individual's wife, who owned a bonanza right, Managed to steal their NETops jack and run out the door because they were about to check out. Before they could get FNAB checked into, our squadron took a plane 80 yards off the end of the runway. Now for those that are, like, not super savvy with aviation stuff sometimes planes go off the end of the runway right Stopping distance. Something's wrong with the bird.
Speaker 1:
48:30
That's the P8.
Speaker 3:
48:32
Yeah, oh, you know, I was waiting for the next Shamu paint job to come out and anyway got him. Hey man, it's never too soon, that's why we're here. But 80 yards, dude, imagine like a football field in a single engine plane that was sunk in the mud like the whole way you had up beyond belief. And they still let them keep flying. And then they go and sling a traffic cone because they didn't clear the prop at one of the FBOs we were flying into. And then on this person's finny flight they took bad guys from another FBO or whatever. So you're just like this person also had a high failure record for failing students and you're like well, I mean, what makes you so great? Right? Like, why are you up there? We know why you're trying to get ours.
Speaker 3:
49:33
This person had a helicopter background, they wanted to go airline and finally the CO is like you're done, we can't keep doing this. But so that's the difference. Right, that's what happens when you got guys like you or me, or even this dude that I'm talking about. That's a high flyer. Like he gives a shit, but I think he gives more of a shit about flight time than he does about what this student's career looks like when they go to the fleet and run a crew. Because I was that pissed off kid. You know what I mean. And if you don't have those good lessons or if you don't have that good instruction, I'm like dude. There's shit that saved my life that the only time I ever heard it was primary flight training.
Speaker 2:
50:17
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
50:17
Right, so I try to bring that in now where it applies. But if you're not up there trying to make a good aviator, with how many incidents and accidents and dead bodies we've had the last five years of Navy Marine Graviation dude, what are you doing up there? So that's kind of like I know this all started with your CO. It's been like I can't unsee that You'd be like well, here's something you might be able to unsee. There's some shitty people that are still in high profile billets out there, and a lot of times when somebody tanks a flight, yeah, they could have done shit better. You know who never had a perfect flight either, though F*** Chuck Yeager.
Speaker 1:
50:57
So like-.
Speaker 3:
50:58
He was coming. This whole thing where your sins follow with you for a career. Yeah, if you're drinking and driving and raping people, then yeah, yeah, but while you were off altitude, on course rules gotta fail. You Dude, get f*** out of here.
Speaker 1:
51:12
Yeah, I think it stems from a lot of people who didn't have those experiences we had in training so they can't relate to it Like me, and you both know what it was like I don't wanna say struggle, but you know having a tough time like going through and maybe not getting those that quality of instruction. So that remained with us in our back pocket and we made a decision to remember that and to push forward with that and do better with that and do better, be better, do better right With students and with our subordinates.
Speaker 3:
51:44
But like if you know better, do better yeah facts. Provided they know better.
Speaker 1:
51:50
Yeah. So yeah, we don't have to talk about the boat because nobody gives a f*** about the boat and, honestly, like it's a shitty experience anyway.
Speaker 3:
51:59
But let's Dude. I wrote a memoir every duty day, I know.
Speaker 1:
52:03
I have it saved in my text messages.
Speaker 3:
52:05
I can probably print it out. I've printed it out. Oh, really I'm gonna bring you a copy, yes, the next time we do this podcast for all these listeners. Right now it's like I can hear myself talking after I say it, so it's like getting used to it. But I'm going to Jacksonville for the next one. We're just gonna sit mono-way, mono.
Speaker 1:
52:21
Yes.
Speaker 3:
52:22
I'm gonna drink your bourbon.
Speaker 1:
52:23
Yes.
Speaker 3:
52:24
I have an extra and it'll just be good.
Speaker 1:
52:25
I have an extra room, I have an extra microphone. Yes, we can do this live.
Speaker 2:
52:30
Literally. We can do this live I was gonna snuggle with you, Nicole.
Speaker 1:
52:31
And we can do that. Yeah, that's totally fine too.
Speaker 3:
52:34
Or we do it like pack and play PD did, and I'll just take your kid out of their crib and I'll sleep in the crib.
Speaker 1:
52:40
Oh man, yes, yes.
Speaker 3:
52:42
Stories for another time. Yes, that's fine.
Speaker 1:
52:45
But yeah, okay so.
Speaker 3:
52:46
Dude, there's some really good memories amongst all the bit.
Speaker 1:
52:49
Yes, there is.
Speaker 3:
52:50
But that's what people need to realize is like everything you see on Facebook or whatever. Like I don't send my mom my lowest moments in the United States, you know what I mean. Or like your family. It's like hey, this was super cool, check this out. Like the top 5% people see.
Speaker 2:
53:06
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
53:07
The other 95% is you're grinding man, but you're with your buddies.
Speaker 1:
53:11
Yeah, I thought about it a lot. Our experience in WIDB it wasn't WIDB, it was the we talked about this whole time, it was the culture in general. But, like for the experience in WIDB, the people we met were awesome. Like I wouldn't trade that for the world. It was just, it was the culture there and it's amazing what that can do.
Speaker 3:
53:27
But it gave you perspective too. So like I can't even hate it. You know what I mean. I'm grateful for that Absolutely, because I think I don't want to say it made me softer, but it definitely made me, or it helped me, put myself in other people's shoes. Yeah, when it came down to boat stuff or student stuff, cause, like dude, if you've never been through this suck you. Like, how do you handle that? Are you just learning lessons or trying to apply lessons from the you saw on TV? Or maybe you knew a senator or whatever, I don't know who is like, oh, this is how you be a man of the people. But no, dude, if you've been through the shit turns out like you can level with people a little easier.
Speaker 1:
54:14
Absolutely.
Speaker 3:
54:16
So I'm grateful for it.
Speaker 1:
54:18
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
54:19
But it also caused me half my hair.
Speaker 1:
54:20
Yeah, I'm in. Hey, that's all right. It gave me some gray hair, so I feel you dude.
Speaker 3:
54:25
I'd rather it might be gray in there.
Speaker 1:
54:27
Yeah, okay, fair enough, I do kind of got the silver fox thing going on. You got the angry dad thing going on, so I do, I do. Yes, all right, real quick. We're gonna have to close this up here pretty soon. But so before we talk about you becoming a Delta D, tell me about Spitfire. Elite dude, tell me a little bit about what you guys do.
Speaker 3:
54:47
So Spitfire Elite started originally for people of color women and like kind of English as a second language says, okay, so it was an underdog program. There's more of a story behind it. It was like I was a client with Emerald Coast. I know some decent people there, but really Bill and Amelia and Tron everybody we have worked for Emerald Coast before Spitfire got started 2021, I went to a conference on a win with a buddy and he's like dude, just come out and hang out with these dudes, like I'm well outside of a hiring window. I was like 15 or 16 months out from being available and it was like, but again, kind of never say no to good training thing what do I got to lose? So I went out there and just like you have to understand, after the Emerald Coast training, just doing the academics and some of the webinars, I was like dude, I wouldn't hire me.
Speaker 3:
55:45
Maybe these responses worked five years ago, but I don't believe what I'm saying. It's in a format that I would never talk Like that. I would never mold my senses around, if you will. It just wasn't authentic. It wasn't me. So I was like, hey, this isn't for me right now and then you have to do their credit. They can do it.
Speaker 3:
56:08
I was like all right, cool, so, but then, like just hanging out with the Spitfire dudes, I was like this is a different bunch, the motives are different, the culture is different. It was like you mean, I get to be me, and all they wanted to do is give back, which is an easy thing to say and an immediate red flag when anybody else says like, yeah, we're just about giving back, but you have a bank account. So, yeah, there was that, but I have never been so glad to be wrong and proven wrong so many times that these dudes go down. Dude, they advocate for you. They built all these relationships on trust, directors of pilot, hiring everybody.
Speaker 3:
56:52
It started from we don't like how they're doing it, we're gonna do it our way, and if we lose money, we'll lose money. Turns out, though, like we were talking about earlier you put your time, effort and money into making the best product you can, which, in our case, is the people, founded around pillars of authenticity, cultural fit and a bit of empathy. Right, and this is not sympathy. Empathy is put yourself in other people's shoes.
Speaker 1:
57:20
There's a difference.
Speaker 3:
57:20
How did we arrive there?
Speaker 1:
57:21
There's a difference.
Speaker 3:
57:22
Why are we doing the things to do? That's empathy, right. So authenticity, cultural fit and empathy. Everybody's got core values. Everybody's got a mission statement. How many people are actually living by it or doing anything about it? These dudes all day, every day, like Tron. Today there was a conference, ngpa just happened. Tron flies for FedEx, so he was a Navy guy but he flew in to LA on a FedEx trip and was like oh, I'm super close to Palm Spring. Dude went to Palm Spring because we had dudes getting hired there. It was designed as an underdog program now or back then, sorry, and now we make more millionaires than baseball.
Speaker 3:
58:06
So that's like we talk about, like we give ourselves out in the chats. I get at least two calls a day from spitfire clients because there's like call me if you need anything. And they pick up and they're like I don't know how to tell this side of the story and I don't tell you what to say. We, none of us tell you what to say, but there's elements that people overlook. There's elements that people didn't think are important, that are actually huge, like talking about your why, or stories that people thought were super great. And I'm like yeah, dude, it had a beginning, a middle and an end. There's no choice or not no choice. But no score with that.
Speaker 2:
58:39
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
58:40
And so I ended up getting three job offers Delta, united, southwest and it was easy because I got to be me. I knew that all I had to do was know what they were looking for Like. Why do you think these airlines are asking the questions? It's a cultural fit piece.
Speaker 2:
59:00
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
59:00
Right. So once you understand that and how to speak and not how to speak, but like how to speak authentically what elements to bring in? And my favorite part of the job is the same thing I love about flight instruction these people have those stories in there. I'm not gonna tell you what to say, but what kind of pointed questions can we ask to get you pulling out those past life lessons or times you failed or times you did great right?
Speaker 3:
59:27
Talking of bringing mentors and things like that and all things we had to do, like as pilots, as students, even as instructors it didn't matter and to get people to be like, oh, I never thought about that, like I didn't know that would count. It all counts. Dude, this is an interview. They want to know about you, not just those pieces of your fit rep or resume that made you like think you're a rock star or whatever. For those that don't know, fit reps in the Navy fitness report, you could be the most useless oxygen converter on the planet, but your fit rep will somehow reflect the Navy would fail without your presence.
Speaker 3:
1:00:09
God's gift to every camera God's gift to everyone. But now Spitfire has been so cool and Bill called me about a year and a half ago now. He was like hey, man, you've got all the jobs you wanted. We have nothing else to offer you. Talking about you know how do you treat people that have nothing to offer you anymore? Right, and but I had all these conferences, volunteering and everything. That's another. It's like story and podcast time, but they just give it a little bit of your time. Giving a shit is free, it just is and it matters and networking is still everything. But Bill called me and he was like you know why we do what we do. Do you want to coach for us?
Speaker 1:
1:00:53
Nice.
Speaker 3:
1:00:54
Yeah, man, just let me find some time to work this in. And he's like, oh, no, no, we'll pay you. I was like, oh, I would have done it for free, you know like he's like yeah, that's why we want you to coach. That's how this got started, man. It was giving a shit about people, about things that matter, and well, you know, and when I say things that matter, it might sound grandiose, but what matters it's like I made it. I probably shouldn't be here. People got me here. How do we give back from that? I don't even want to say be worthy of that effort or sacrifice, but really it's like somebody does you a solid. What's the first thing you want to do?
Speaker 2:
1:01:38
Repay.
Speaker 3:
1:01:39
Like hey, if you need anything, let me know.
Speaker 2:
1:01:41
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
1:01:42
And dude, it's been so cool. The return on investment is immediate. Somebody calls you. They're like dude, I got an interview in a week. I didn't expect to get one. I don't think I'm going to pass it. I was like bullshit, come on and they go in there. And we just had a girl Got off the phone right before this, got turned away from Delta, turned away from Southwest Americans, said you need more time. Rosa United interview at the conference. This girl has been in my class for six months on and off, because people come in heavy when it's interview season and then they kind of fade away when it's not. It's kind of like the pre-gassidation. If I give you 10 weeks to send two emails, you're going to take 10 weeks. Facts. But this person put in the work. Dude, her name's Sydney, she is awesome and you don't even have to cut that. She's she. You know how hard it is to get the thanks, but no thanks from a dream company and then get back in that saddle.
Speaker 1:
1:02:38
I'm sure it's tough. That's three times man, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:
1:02:41
So this is the kind of people I like being around, right. And so by the end of it, like she was in my webinars this was a couple of weeks ago before I went back to Delta for a bit, but by the end of it it was so cool to see it's like I was like Sydney, why are you here? And she's like I'm trained so you can't get it wrong, right, and I was like hell, yeah, rosa. And she got a call directly from the pilot she interviewed with, which is not how that goes. Right, she's with the HR people, but she I just got off the phone with her she's like the guy had told the HR lady this person has the lowest hours of anybody we're interviewing today. They better knock this out of the pot. And she put them on their feet, man, like standing, oh, and so she'll be flying for United.
Speaker 3:
1:03:35
That's awesome, that's awesome, but that's dude. It's the same thing with flight instruction when you see a student finally just make it and just win that feeling you can't replicate, you can't pay me enough to feel it anywhere. It's like you just gotta find people that need it, put in the time, be in a position to give that help Right, which and thank God for Bill and Tron and Spitfire in general it's just like they hunt down people who just wanna help and somehow they keep finding these people to do it and we don't spend money on an advertisement.
Speaker 1:
1:04:14
Hey, that's one hell of a business model, dude.
Speaker 3:
1:04:16
We could, but like we partnered with Flight Shirts and tried in homeless and now, because they were all like, you guys are just building this empire. We wanna be on board and it's not for money, it's so cool. And so the fact that people and companies and missions like that still exist in the real world, the civilian side dude, it's cool. I'm like all of our dudes are 121 pilots, 95% of them are military.
Speaker 1:
1:04:46
Nice.
Speaker 3:
1:04:47
And so this was, and of those 95% that are military, they're probably in that 10% we were talking about at the beginning of this People that, just for better or worse, I'm gonna do my best, I'm gonna take care of my dudes and, if and when I make it, I'm gonna reach out and help the people behind me. It's just being a bro, and so it is my favorite of my three jobs, just because of how immediate that satisfaction is of just like you needed help. You asked me for my help. I'm not saying I moved mountains or did this amazing work. I was gave my piece. We have other coaches that give their piece constantly, any and all hours of the day, and then these people win. You put in the time, dude, and I don't bill them for half the. Bill yells at me. He's like dude, bill us for that. I was like no, it's cool, I don't. No, I'm not. No, if this dude gets the job, you can buy me a beer.
Speaker 1:
1:05:43
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
1:05:44
Right and so, and then they go and get the job and you're like that's, that is a 30 year multi-million dollar career, like that's, that is quite literally life changing.
Speaker 1:
1:05:58
Yeah, that's for your kids too.
Speaker 3:
1:06:00
So I don't know how I got here, other than just giving a shit and trying to be a good dude. And it turns out military civilian people are people. That's all they want. So that is the Spitfire gig, dude. I'm an interview coach and now, under Spitfire vets, I'm going to launch Spitfire TechOps. Nice, because at the last conference and I know we got to wrap it up here the TechOps dude from Delta came up to me and bill him was like of all these wrench turners I just hired, why aren't any of them like military types? I was like I don't know, they probably don't know that first year out of the Navy or the Marine Corps they can go make six figures turn and wrench just for Delta, united, america, whatever, southwest. And so Bill looks at me. He's like you said you wanted to do more, right, and I was like, yeah, dude, and so in the content creation process. But it's basically going to be a one-stop shop. There we go For your E-Dogs, you're good ones.
Speaker 2:
1:07:06
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
1:07:07
To get them taken care of for the next 30 years of their lives, and a company that will give you like 18% of your 401k without you having to do anything about like just profit sharing was 10.4% this year.
Speaker 1:
1:07:22
Send it.
Speaker 3:
1:07:23
Yeah, and it's not just pilot specific and it's like we were P3s dude, Like we know the love for the E's.
Speaker 2:
1:07:30
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
1:07:31
And for those tuning in E's, are you're enlisted, right? Nothing happens without them, though, no, and so they still got to get take care of them. Look, when the P8 came out, what happened to the flight engineers? It was like oh, you guys can go work, fly through hurricanes or go run down border crossers, but we don't have a job for you.
Speaker 2:
1:07:50
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
1:07:51
And so look every three months, the vet suicide rates at 9.11,. We had 12 of them in the boat yard. Thank God we only had one of them, which is one too many, but 12 suicides in a year, yeah, and for what? People probably just don't see an end. I don't advocate that ever being a viable solution for anything, but these people were decent, rational, thinking people. So at some point, what changed? And a lot of more often than not, what do you hear? I just didn't see an end in sight.
Speaker 2:
1:08:27
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
1:08:28
And so how do you give them a better means to kind of keep going? Well, it comes down to a quality of life and a means to put food on the table and support a family and all that. They said money doesn't buy happiness, but it can sure make shit easier, yeah. And so how do you get the good e-dogs that were making shit for money into good careers? We have the platform, we have the presence, we have the give a shit. Yeah, why aren't we doing this? And so now we're doing it.
Speaker 1:
1:08:59
That's awesome, dude. And yeah, I mean you know I'm prior and listed some all about that. I do. It's nice seeing that the opportunities and the Navy have given me and God's blessed me with. It's good to you know just the overall which you've just been talking about. It's awesome to be able to give that back and it's kind of funny because it feels like that whole reciprocating or paying back a favor for lack of a better term it feels like that trait really is going by the wayside.
Speaker 3:
1:09:23
When a loaf of bread costs seven fucking dollars, I can kind of see people's survival instincts taking a little more of a precedence over oh, what can I do for somebody else? Yeah, 100%. But yeah, dude, it's been good. I'm kind of right there with you. I'm grateful for it all.
Speaker 2:
1:09:40
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
1:09:41
That being said, I was just gonna say I wish I had more hair soap in here.
Speaker 1:
1:09:46
Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 2:
1:09:50
It was Tuesday. I was picking up some gum. He was dying my disease, just like the nun. He was doping. Yes, he was a lung run. His hair cast like stone. His shirt was left on. He claimed to be the best. He insisted that we play some chess as the evening shed his gown with like a robe. His life by now leads me to Interpol Spiling. Suddenly his bishop takes my phone. I've decided this is gonna look too long. My gold for my gun.
