Join us on an inspiring journey with Robert Darling, a retired US Marine Corps officer. He shares his insights on life, leadership, and service, drawing from his experiences as a Marine One Pilot, including training, handling a Cobra helicopter, and working in the Air Mobility Command. Bob also offers lessons on leadership and the influence of his military career. Join us for his powerful stories and reflections.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
Join us on an inspiring journey with Robert Darling, a retired US Marine Corps officer. He shares his insights on life, leadership, and service, drawing from his experiences as a Marine One Pilot, including training, handling a Cobra helicopter, and working in the Air Mobility Command. Bob also offers lessons on leadership and the influence of his military career. Join us for his powerful stories and reflections.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
We had the meeting kick off right away. My job was easy. I said President Sarasota, he's due to be wheels up at 1300, one o'clock in the afternoon he's coming back. And as we're going down the schedule, all of a sudden somebody came running into the room and goes a quick set All playing just hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Speaker 2:Hey, blue, great we are back. This week Got another great episode. I hope you're enjoying the past episodes We've been rolling out. Please click on the bell. Thumbs up like follow stalk whatever you do on social media to our podcast. If you have a guest idea, please shoot us a email blue grit at tmpaorg.
Speaker 3:Blue grit at tmpaorg. Or you can give a clinic call at nine I'm kidding.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, Clint McNeary, and I got Tyler Owen Tio my co-host. Are you man?
Speaker 3:I'm good, good Nestle down there in Wembley Just hanging out living the dream yeah. I ain't got no complaints. I was telling you the other day, living down here, I never thought I'd live near Austin and be as happy as I am. I hate to say that, but man, I ain't got no complaints. This is the happiest I've been in the wild. And I mean I got a bad ass boss. Boss is I should say, yes, you do, and you've got a great boss.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, it's enough, it's enough. But yeah, I'm doing good. How about you? All good, all good For those that listened. A couple episodes ago, I inherited a I guess I could call her a niece chocolate lab that Clint had to give to us, and I'm forcing it for him as she's doing quite well. Good, miss Keem, she's doing great. She's doing great.
Speaker 2:That makes my heart happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we snuggle together and my wife's getting a little jealous, but it is what it is.
Speaker 2:We've got a great guest on hey, will you scoot down towards him Just a hair. Scoot on in like the army.
Speaker 3:Okay, we have.
Speaker 2:Lieutenant Colonel Robert Darling, usmc, retired Urah.
Speaker 1:Raw.
Speaker 2:Glad to have you on sir.
Speaker 1:I tell you what. Clint, it's great to be here. You too, tyler, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:Just let you know. We had to put all the crayons up. Uh, there's no crayons in this room whatsoever in this building. Had a backup, everything's out.
Speaker 1:Well, my books out and pop up, yeah.
Speaker 2:And for our listeners, purple, purple crayons in my. My opinion, they're tastes way better than the green ones. Colonel, you got opinion on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah the orange, you can't go back. Orange, yeah, orange.
Speaker 2:That's good, that's true, let's uh. I've been waiting on this episode for a while. I am pumped about this. I met, um, I don't know what to call you. How about Bob?
Speaker 1:daddy Bob. I'll call you daddy.
Speaker 2:I met Bob years ago. Um, one of the coolest guys, humblest guys, wittiest guys that you'll meet, and his background and his experience is insane, cause if you met him out on the street you would just say, man, that's just a cool dude to go drink beer with. Um, his story is incredible. I'm I've been waiting on this episode for a long time, but we want to start off. Kick it off. Who the hell's, bob? Where are you born? Tell us?
Speaker 1:who Bob is. Yeah, wow, we got a couple of hours here. Well, I tell you I, uh really, I grew up in Newberg, new York, that's a about an hour north in New York city, grew up in a town, a small town, newberg, and um got into this way of life which is supporting law enforcement. My, my dad, was a young state trooper in New York. You know that state Yep. He became the chief of police in the town of Newberg when I was growing up.
Speaker 2:So Newberg- us Texans we all think of New York as Manhattan.
Speaker 1:So where you grew up, kind of rural small town very small town, about about 40,000 people, north of Manhattan, about 60 miles, and they had, you know, one high school. Everybody went to the one high school. We had 3000 students in that high school but we had, you know, basically one high school and just a great, great place to grow up. You know, kick the can kind of town.
Speaker 2:Oh, cool Everybody everybody knew everybody.
Speaker 1:We were outside, there was, you could drink from the hose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know that kind of place. Yeah, get the shit no more yeah. Um, graduate from high school, grew up your whole, your whole young life there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I grew up, I came out of, you know, born on Pachaw, long Island, new York, went up to Newberg when I was four so stayed there my whole life and all the. I graduated high school in 83 and then went to Iona College in New Rochelle, new York, just north in New York City, and got commissioned in the Marine Corps in 87.
Speaker 3:Was that your? Was that your long goal going into high school was always to go to the military or maybe you know to?
Speaker 1:TO. I wanted to be a stockbroker. So you were asking about my family. So there's four boys in my in my family I was a third of four. They were all year apart, so it was Sean Dennis and then me, bob and then Neil. So by the time I got hand-me-down sneakers, you know, I had to sew them shut myself. Yeah, you know, everything was everything was uh not new when I got it. So I wanted to be a stockbroker. I wanted to make so much money that you just had new stuff everywhere. You know, all the shoes I had a closet for shoes and stuff Went to Iona and then what ended up happening was if, as a freshman on campus, we had the Bay Root bombing in 1983.
Speaker 2:And the barracks and Bay.
Speaker 1:Root yes, we lost 241. We had three sailors. A bunch of Marines were killed by the Hezbollah, the terrorist group. I knew nothing about this. And then the upperclassmen were running off to go join the Marine Corps. And I was talking to the upperclassmen go hey, what's this Marine Corps thing? What do you, what do y'all do? They go, we're going to go fly jets. We're going to join the infantry. We're going to go fight Hezbollah. We're going to, we're going to. Okay.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:We're going to kick some butt, yeah, and I said well, I want to go meet this. Do stockbrokers do that? They make money doing nothing but talking with their fingers.
Speaker 1:I want to do that. I don't know what they're doing down there on the floor. Well, I went to go see this captain and he's like, hey, we're looking for leaders and you're obviously here. The Air Force is right down the hall. If you're just looking for, you're looking for doing an interview. And that reverse psychology really weighed on me. So I went back and I was like how do I become a Marine? And I got into that process of getting you know in shape and getting ready for OCS and my junior year. They sent me down to Quantico for 10 weeks. Ocs the PLC program platoon leaders class came back immediately upon graduation, was commissioned on the USS and trapped off. I went Wow.
Speaker 2:What was your degree in?
Speaker 1:I got a degree in economics because of that whole stockbroker. Yeah, so I stayed in that Bad when to lean back on it. Yeah exactly Right. I still may lean back on that. You never know these days. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:So for younger listeners, I've got one active in the military now and I've got a 16 year old dead set by gosh when I graduated. I'm going to the military Tell what PLC that's a great program. Tell your listeners what PLC is.
Speaker 1:If you're not fortunate enough to get into one of the service academies and I'm talking about the Air Force Academy, west Point Naval Academy those, those folks that get in there knew they wanted to go in the service and they had great SATs and GPAs. For the rest of us, they offer us a program that if you just want to go to OCS, you get no benefit. You pay for your own college. There's it's do or die. Either make the cutter, you don't, and you can go down for 10 weeks or two six week summers if you want to break it up, and it's bootcamp for officers, and you come out of there and you get the opportunity to take a reserve commission in the Marine Corps. And at some point, what will you do? You augment. Augment means you move over to the regular forces once your initial commitment is up, and so like junior year, college.
Speaker 2:Commit to the Marine Corps summer. Between junior senior year, go to OCS. Go back to college for your senior year. Then, when you graduate, you're a Butterbar Lieutenant.
Speaker 1:You get commissioned the next day You're a Butterbar Lieutenant Great program.
Speaker 1:They send you right down to the basic school and then we're all learned how to be a rifleman. That's what Marine Corps is all about. Everybody's a rifleman. Your basic infantry leadership skills, and then everybody from there goes to tanks, or you go to you know air defense, or you go to flight school, you know. Whatever your military occupational specialty is going to be. We all divide up from there, and I went to flight school, School out of basic school, you went to flight school.
Speaker 2:I did.
Speaker 1:Damn. How'd you do that? Is that common? It is common. That's where everybody then goes down to do what they're, what they're trained to do, so, and then you spend about a year and a half to two years in flight school.
Speaker 2:So backtrack a minute, you went into the recruiter and he kind of kind of poked the barrier and said, yeah, this is for leaders, not you. And then you ended up in an officer candidate school and then you clearly knew you had the ability or the desire. Was that something you knew in high school? Did you play sports? Or did you have something in grain where you realized up, I think I have these traits or these abilities. Or was it something you're like screw you, you're not going to challenge me and I'll go try it?
Speaker 1:No, it was a former. I grew up playing ice hockey. I really credit my parents with putting me in hockey as a very young age started when I was playing. At nine years old started playing hockey. All my brothers and I played hockey and you know for those of you who don't know much about ice hockey it's the sport that makes you good at everything. You're not great at anything, but you're good at everything. And it's very challenging, keeps you in shape. But you got stick and rudder skills. I mean, you got to, you got to handle the puck and do all that. It's. It's pretty intense. It's like not not as combat, intense as football. You know hitting, but it's right up there. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I've watched some pretty good hockey games, you can't be sure. Yeah, bullshit, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that really gave me the physical ability I, you know, I needed. I didn't know if I had the intellect, you know, the intelligence, to do it, and that's where OCS really challenged me, but I had the inner skills. My dad, mom, gave me the skills that I needed to adapt and become the leader that the Marine Corps wanted me to be.
Speaker 3:And about what age is this Is it? Is it talking about where you're kind of preparing your career? How old were you then?
Speaker 1:I wanted um it happened in college. It really did.
Speaker 1:I, I, yeah 21 years old I it's when I went to OCS. So I got interested right there during the Bay Rupam and when I was 18 years old that happened down to college and then I started getting interested in military life and what that means and what's the commitment and what would I do in the military. They have so many different opportunities. So I took the the entrance exam for flight school and they said hey, you passed. You know, you got pretty good aptitude. I didn't still didn't know if I wanted to be a jet pilot, helicopter pilot or you know some type of turbo prop cargo pilot.
Speaker 1:And when I was at the basic school one of the exercises was to call in Cobra gunships to blow up stuff. It's called the nine line brief. All the second lieutenants get the nine line brief. And I started fumbling on the radio, fumbling around, and this captain in this Cobra helicopter goes Lieutenant, where are you? I go, sir. I'm on hill. Alpha Bravo, one, zero one. I'll be right there. And he landed his Cobra right on top of my position, had his co pilot jump out. Come over to me and go. This is you, this is a target. Just clear me hot, I'll take care of the rest. And he jumped back in and took off and I was like that was God himself. I want to be that guy, be that guy, and I put my sights on becoming a Cobra pilot. Really, that's cool.
Speaker 2:So in basic school, for our listeners, you can become a comms officer, an infantry officer, a tank commander. A comms officer, an infantry officer, a tank commander. Did you know what did that decision look like? Of of aircraft, the air air.
Speaker 1:It's very competitive because you go to flight school first. You don't know what you're going to get. It's the needs of the Marine Corps. It's based on your grades and your performance. Some of the folks that go to flight school already have a commercial pilot's license. They've known they want to be a pilot, so they're way ahead of you. So as soon as you get there, it's hook and jab. You're really trying to keep up and do the best you can. So then, all of a sudden, the first breakpoint is did you make the cut for jets, yes or no? And if you did, then you put down your wish list I want to fly AVH to harrier jet. I want to go fly F-18s at the time, a6s, ea6bs, different jets. If not, then you're looking at props or helicopters. So I was on the phone. I made the cut for jets. So literally they're talking to Pensacola, the other flight schools in Corpus Christi, texas, not too far from here, and they go darling, what do you want?
Speaker 1:Because I had jet grades and I said I want to fly Cobras. And they pick up the phone and they call Pensacola and goes he wants helicopters. Now there's no guarantee you're getting Cobras. You just said you want helicopters, so they gave my jet slot away to somebody else and I'm like, oh, what did I do? I hope I did the right thing, because now I got to go recompete for getting Cobra helicopters and not, you know, cargo helicopters.
Speaker 2:So when you commit to helicopter, you could end up in a 46, a 53, a Huey, wow.
Speaker 1:more compete for Cobras, and Cobras are in high demand. Everybody wants to be cool.
Speaker 3:So just because I'm not, I'm not a military gun. What is a Cobra and how does that describe what a Cobra is?
Speaker 1:It's a combat. It's a combat.
Speaker 2:helicopter, it's a gunship, right it's the sexy looking, angry looking helicopter with all the kind like the Apache.
Speaker 1:Exactly right, the Apache is flown by the Army, the Cobras flown by the Marine. Perfect, there you go, I'm on track and uh, you know we're way better looking, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, just come put the job. You are the are the are the are the are the are the helicopters? Yeah, both, exactly Okay. As soon as I say, as soon as you say Cobras, your mustache comes in.
Speaker 1:Oh, everything everything just makes you way better looking. I was like Magnum PI.
Speaker 3:You had to get Ray Banz to yeah, and I ended up long story short.
Speaker 1:I ended up getting Cobras and Cobras East Coast. I was my dream.
Speaker 3:But at that point, how long had you been in the, in the service, and how long had you been to the process and to and to get that news? Like man, I'm, I'm here, I've made it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question. I got commissioned 87. So I didn't find out. I got Cobras until 89. Okay, and then two years to get my wings and get Cobras and then they send you out to Camp Pendleton, california, to go through the Cobras school. So you start getting their basic skills to fly the Cobra before you they assign you a squadron back on the East Coast Where'd?
Speaker 2:you get a cherry point.
Speaker 1:I ended up going to New River, jacksonville, north Carolina. I was HMLA helicopter, marine light attack 269. We were the gun runners Awesome and checked in in 89. And sure enough, in 1990, I deployed Desert Shield, desert Storm.
Speaker 2:Wow. So I was attached to a wing for a bit, wasn't around with the officers, that much. Are you still a butter bar Lieutenant when you get assigned to your first Cobra?
Speaker 1:You're already a first Lieutenant. In two years you get automatically pretty much promoted to first Lieutenant in your focus as a brand news.
Speaker 2:Uh, first, Lieutenant, you got a Cobra as far as leadership. At that point, it's your crew of your individual bird at that point.
Speaker 1:Right, that's right, you got it, it's it's get tactically proficient in flying your aircraft and start learning about basic small unit leadership you and your crew working your way up to become a section leader to aircraft and then division leader up to four or five aircraft. And you're working through those qualifications night vision, goggles, instruments, um. You got to go through all the weapons systems. You got to shoot a side wanderer. Lots of rockets and guns, you got to hit stuff with it. You got to become proficient and that's your whole focus in your first tour of duty is getting proficient in your aircraft.
Speaker 2:And for our listeners, is Cobra a single seat or a double seat?
Speaker 1:We call it tandem, tandem seat. We have two pilots, somebody in the front, somebody in the back. I knew that they both had flight controls, but the primary purpose of the guy up front, the pilot up front, is to use the anti tank weapon system. We call the toe the toe missile system and that that's a wire guided missile designed to take out tanks. The guy in the back has a primary flight controls but he also controls the aim nine side wander air air.
Speaker 2:And so when you're in the rear as the pilot, is it your helmet with the system that, wherever you look, the front gun goes, clint your spot.
Speaker 1:And he's got it too. We both have it. He can either use the, the telescopic sighting unit if he wants to zoom in, or he can just look up like this it's attached to our helmet, it's a. It's a mechanical, electrical attachment and all of it's boresighted to your right eye. All you got to do is look at the target. You got a reticle and a 20 millimeter Gatling gun just starts cooking off high explosive rounds and you know, it literally shakes the helicopter almost the pieces. That gun is so big, so powerful, but it'll take out light armor every day and you don't recommend sneezing while you're, yeah, you don't you don't sneeze Well you literally like if I have a feeling it's gone.
Speaker 1:You know that thing is just shaking you to death. It's so powerful that when you're in a dive going on a target, it'll slow the helicopter down, it's just a beast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Second first lieutenant, hard charge and get your first Cobra. How long does that evolution last before the leadership pyramid begins to grow? Now you've got two birds or two crews under you. What does that look like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in the first four years you're in your squadron you probably don't get division leader. You get to be a section leader, you got. You got to, but then you got to go. You did a couple of deployments, you're getting your quals, but then you got to go to another squad. It's time either to do something else. You either go become a Cobra flight instructor, a recruiter, go to school, and then you come back to the squadron again and by then you're a senior captain and it's time to get your division leader qual. It's time to get go to WTI in New Arizona the weapons and tactics and you know school for some.
Speaker 1:I didn't go to WTI, but that's what people strive to do. Go to WTI. My career path is I went and I became a Cobra flight instructor and then, instead of going back to the squadron, I went off to New York to be a recruiter, back to where I first met that captain Cooper, who was, and I love that. My job up there was to fly college kids around. I was like a barnstormer, you know. I'd take a college kid, get him in a helicopter, get him in a fixed wing plane and yank and bank with him and try to get them interested in marine aviation. It was the greatest job ever.
Speaker 2:And you are just targeting bright, young, great potential leaders and trying to hand pick and impress like a college recruiter, football recruiter you. You find a kid, you feel like a star and so you're trying to recruit him and get him air sick and exactly.
Speaker 1:We want to expose him to aviation. Yeah, we want. You know a lot of them are studying. They want to be pilots their whole life. They're really into it. And then they get to fly with you and you let them yank and bank a little bit and you try to seal the deal. Oh wow, they want to go and be an aviator too. That's cool, Good ship.
Speaker 2:And so, what recruiter you're. What a captain now I'm a captain, okay.
Speaker 1:And then you put in, and when that tour was up which was a great tour I put in a package for Marine helicopter squadron one. I was now a major, I had over a thousand flight hours, all the right quals, and now it's can I go and fly the president? And you have to put a package in and go before board. And you called it Marine one.
Speaker 2:We called it HMX. Is that the same?
Speaker 1:thing it is. Hmx is a squadron helicopter, marine experimental one, the H, because we also not just fly the president. There's a contingent, contingent that is run out of Pax River, maryland, that does tests and evaluation on new equipment. Oh, okay, so they gave us the X designation too.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, okay, so Marine one HMX, or that's a squadron, okay.
Speaker 1:The Marine one is really a designation and Marine one is the commanding officer of HMX. One is a full bird colonel and he was selected to run that large squadron. He is the Marine one, he's the boss, okay, and he then can make other Marine ones as as he sees fit. And usually it's your XO, your Ops O, your maintenance of it, very senior people in that squadron, everybody's fully competent and capable. But that's a political designation and Marine ones can sign the for the for the president of the United States. You're, you're the aircraft commander for the president and you have literally the president's life in your hands. You're responsible for making sure the safe conduct of that mission.
Speaker 2:So becoming a Marine officer's competitive in and of itself. Going to flight schools competitive. Getting helos is competitive. Getting Cobras is competitive. Holy crap, how competitive is Marine one pilot?
Speaker 1:Yeah, 75, there's like 70 pilots and they all want to be a Marine one pilot and it's like becoming a general officer in a way it's it's it's political, because everybody is equally capable. It's now who gets that designation, given to them by the commanding officer, and we had five in our squadron and you become an aircraft commander.
Speaker 1:an aircraft commander which is not a Marine one, it's just your basic. You can sign for the aircraft and go do a mission, and then you can become a command pilot, where you can take a debt, a small detachment, go overseas and support the president and even if he's not doing a lift sometime we're wherever the president is. We are right, we have a helicopter just in case he needs it, and that's usually done by a command pilot, and then those get selected by the command officer to become a Marine one.
Speaker 2:And for a listener's Marine. One Marine, one pilot. When you see the president come in and land on the White House front front lawn, that big green helicopter giant helicopter with the white top beautiful, beautiful piece of equipment when it lands, that's Marine one.
Speaker 2:That's Marine one Colonel was a pilot of that and you always see the stairwell drop, you see Marine shimmy down, Usually like a sergeant or or corporal will salute the president as he passed by on. The Colonel flew that Marine one and that's a very small cadre that that carries out. Carries out that duty.
Speaker 1:And just to be clear too, I was a co pilot for that, for the Marine one, so that I was not senior enough and selected to be the signer. But I did a lot of present presidential missions as a co pilot for the CEO or the co pilot for the XL those who were designated Marine one. So I always say, why flew Marine one? But I was not the signer of the president, I was a co pilot for the president and you can be the pilot in command of the vice president. So I was a a signer for the vice president but a co pilot for the Marine one flying the president.
Speaker 2:It's interesting. I was in DC three or four weeks ago, walked up to the White House a bit. I've done it too A couple of years ago and I had you on my mind because it looks really easy to set that bird down in the front yard. And the other day I'm standing there looking going because the helicopters large. I mean it's a big bird, the front yard is not large in the trees and that's a hell of a task to set that down in a front yard. The first time you came in, was that a? Was that a visual? Was that surreal to come in and see I'm about to land in the front yard of the White House?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's actually the backyard oh okay, okay. The front is facing to the north, it's the backyard and you realize how tight it is. There's trees in the left and right and you kind of it's not a straight shot landing. You have to kind of come in and jink to the left and then turn to the right and those boards are there. It's not so difficult to land. It's difficult to land smoothly where you're not scaring the present to look cool doing it.
Speaker 1:And they do that. They put the rear wheel down and then the left and the right and you want to be so smooth there's sometimes. You come in, you slam it. You're like, hey, I'm tired to everybody out, you know, but you really want, you don't want the president to be jarred around, you know. So you really try to do it.
Speaker 2:But the first time you're coming in and in the White House comes into your, to your focal, is that was that I can't even imagine it is such an honor.
Speaker 1:Right, you're pinching yourself going. I can't believe I'm landing on the White House grass. I'm landing along. I'm dropping off the president of the United States. In my time I was flying as a co-pilot for Marine One who was supporting President Clinton, and he would. He was so grateful he would come up say hello, talk to you a little bit, and you're literally dropping the leader of the free world off at his house and watch and his harem.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no. No. I meant Hillary, not harem blackout blackout, Blackout yeah that's. I can't even fathom it. I can't even. But it was cool a couple weeks ago when I texted you. I'm like I can't imagine. I can't imagine trying to sit like a little bird down in there and coming in in the size of that aircraft.
Speaker 1:You're doing a freaking cool and really to the credit of the pilots, they all have at least a thousand hours. They're really. They're really nobody. Hot dogs they do it right every time. That's cool.
Speaker 2:And how long were you attached to Marine One?
Speaker 1:I was flying for two years and then that position opened up in the White House. They were looking for an airlift operations officer to represent the squadron and the squadron commanding officer picked me to say hey, you know what you did great with us. Now it's time for suit and tie. Go up and work in the White House, represent us in airlift operations Like an attaché. An attaché, but a logistical attaché, because what folks don't realize is our president only flies in our helicopters and our limousine driven on our limousines. So that stuff has to be moved in advance worldwide. So somebody's got to get the Air Force to pick up all that gear, fly it, put it back together, rehearse. Where are the landing zones? Where's the Trommel One Center? Where's the events? What we? You know? Who are we going to work with? Who are we going to talk to? Where are the primary and alternate routes? Everything you have to do to make sure he's successful when he gets there, and we have to make sure that equipment is working and in place so that White House liais position.
Speaker 2:Was that a something folks applied for, or did you? Or did you just get a phone call of Bob? You're the guy we think you're the guy that can do it. Congratulations. Shoot tomorrow in a suit.
Speaker 1:It was. It was a ladder right. The boss knew he had senior guys that needed to go do that and he just thought who has a personality, whose, whose career is not going to be hurt because he hit all this wickets flying, and who do I want us to represent? Wow? And he was like, hey, I got a great deal for you. Stop by my office tonight. And I knew it. But I was apprehensive at first, because you want to fly, everybody wants to fly. But when I got up there it was just like, um, what an honor it is. I have a badge, I'm working in the White House alongside the staff and I have the credibility of the entire staff because I'm representing the equipment that's going to support the president of the.
Speaker 1:United States worldwide.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and at this point would be Clinton, or would it be? Would it be now Bush?
Speaker 1:It was Bush because I flew president Clinton and Marine one, you know, as a co-pilot there and then now I'm working in airlift operations after the Bush administration was just now coming in W? W and you know it was so great about him. Every time there's a new administration everybody has to turn in their badge and they get issued a new badge with permissions. What are your? What's your level of access? Because now this president decides. Well, president Bush came in, god love him, and he said my military guys, they can go anywhere they want. They're blue badgers. They got full reign on this entire 16 acres. And then other people, the press corps and everybody else was getting different color badges and they can only go certain places. We could have went to the residence if we wanted to. We had access everywhere. We were smart enough not to take up on that right. You know to stay in our lane. But he showed us that kind of respect, saying wherever you need to be and past administrations did not have that security.
Speaker 1:No, we were in our lane. You know, we, we were limited, like we couldn't go down near the situation room. You don't go by the oval office, you're not going to the residence, and President Bush elevated us.
Speaker 2:That's cool and it's cool. I've had some friends on details for him and Secret Service guys and folks in his circle and every person's story about W is what you just said If you're a military law enforcement you were. You were not down here on a level, you were gold and he was big on first names. They said he called you by your first name. That's cool to hear that.
Speaker 1:Just they said he's just a guy, I mean but just a great guy right, very respectful of us and in turn we were so respectful of him. Of course we're respectful of the president, but seeing that mutual respect go back and forth, it's greater, it just, it just elevates. You know your morale every single day to do the best, the best job you can for him and for our listeners.
Speaker 2:He was talking about logistics officer, ops officer, moving assets around around the world. So if, if the president has to go to some detail, in Australia brain ones are folded down. Folded up, disassembled, put in what C5s.
Speaker 1:C5 C17s.
Speaker 2:So, the whole.
Speaker 1:Thing is just to send. I mean, it's just, we can actually roll in H 60s, the VH 60s that we have. They will fit in the belly of a C 17,. But only one, only one, gets in. That means if you're going to bring three aircraft, you got three 17s right there. And then you got limousines, you got phones, you got medical gear, you got snipers and doctors. So I'll give you an example the president's going to go to Australia. We'll send 20 C17s.
Speaker 2:Good Lord, and as the ops logistics officer, you're coordinating between Secret Service. The president of okay, 10 days out, we need to be doing this. Three days out, we need to be doing this. These assets need to leave Andrews on this date. Is that somewhat?
Speaker 1:accurate, exactly right. Plus, we're on the advance. Can this runway handle a C 17? I'm going to bring in some heavy gear, can this? I don't want this runway to fold up right behind me when I touch that.
Speaker 3:And how many of you is doing this job?
Speaker 1:We go preadvance and you're like 50 people on the ground with all different missions. Now my job and when I went preadvanced was to check out the airport. Where are we going to park? Do we have enough parking spaces? And I need some VIP spaces. Is there another airport I could go to if this one becomes clovered somewhere? Where am I going to park my other assets? You know we have other.
Speaker 1:People are looking at the weather, some are doing the hotel food and, for example, when he went to I think President Clinton or with President Bush, went somewhere in Africa, they rented three hotels in their entirety and didn't want which hotel to know he was going to go there. He drove by the first two. He just stopped at the third for security purposes, but the other two were fully booked and paid for and we did that. You know that. So somebody did that in the White House. Mess is checking all the food and the refrigerators and what he's going to eat and where that food comes from. Doctors are looking at trauma one centers. Do we have to fly a trauma one center in If there's not one here? You can't say you can't do surgery on the president If something happened. You got to have that capability on the ground and we'll fly it in if you don't have it. So some of these African countries who don't have it, we fly a trauma one center in and build it before he gets there.
Speaker 2:How long in that role? Two years, that sounds super challenging. Yeah, sounds super stressful. Well, his calendars the president's calendar is crazy, and so you're. I mean that's probably just an ongoing hourly assessing. Okay, his schedule just got tweaked. He now it's not going to Australia.
Speaker 3:He needs to go to the UK. How far out are you planning? I mean, so let's just say we're not, that I am the president and you are in your role how far out are you having to plan this?
Speaker 1:Probably two months out, and there's multiple missions going out. They're doing a preadvance here and then they're doing a preadvance over there in progress and they're looking, there's people rotating and doing and the schedule gets changed and they divert and so it's really intense. So we in airlift ops would rotate. So you're doing presidential travel logistics and you do it for a week and then we move you to the vice president. Somebody else takes over the president's trip. Then you move to the first lady or congressional missions so you don't get burned out, so you can get home and see your family once in a while and you know you got a chance to breathe and make sure the schedules, you know you're doing everything safe. We don't want anybody to get too overwhelmed and drop the ball.
Speaker 2:So at this point in your career? You've been a flight school, you've been a Cobra pilot. You've promoted some, got out as a lieutenant colonel. You're now logistics ops officer. You do a lot about leadership. You got a lot of great insight on leadership. Are you recognizing you're being selected for these positions above others and are you aware of the traits, the leadership and your sphere of leadership? Are you aware of that at that time? Or is it just I'm young and I'm doing good and I'm enjoying it and this is challenging and this is really cool? Or is it intentional that you're seeing that, yeah, I've got a role, I've got a leadership ability, I'm continuing to get selected for nice spots? Talk about the leadership side of what you're feeling or seeing or during that time.
Speaker 1:It's a great subject because a Marine Corps harps on leadership. As you know, from day one, marine Corps grows leaders, marine Corps develops leaders and all along your career you're being further challenged in different leadership positions to hone that skill. It's not something you're born with, it's an innate ability that you have got to develop through trial and error to get to the point where you are a not just a competent leader, but you're a leader who can inspire and make a difference in other people's lives. So as I'm being promoted to major and ultimately to lieutenant colonel those leadership roles you're evaluated on your ability to lead. And I was evaluated and against my peers I was doing well enough to get promoted. But I will say you're not better than anybody else. You were just when you were in those situations where leadership really needed to be the difference between success and failure, you were successful and I'm sure thousands of others could have been successful. But when you mentioned about growing your ability to lead, the Marine Corps does that day one. I mean they pride themselves on developing those skills.
Speaker 2:Are you intention? Are you being intentional at that point? How old are you at this point?
Speaker 1:I'm 36 years old.
Speaker 2:So are you being intentional at 36 about man, I'm, I'm, I'm leading, I'm excelling, I'm getting selected for these great positions? Or 36 is still pretty young? Is it more like shit? This is a lot of fun and I do pretty good when I put in, I'm getting picked. Or is it? Is it an intentional? I'm pretty squared away, I can lead and make great choices. Evaluation at 36, what was that looking?
Speaker 1:like yeah, I think it's a combination of both. You have to really love what you're doing always, and then your inner training and your character traits will shine through in periods of adversity. So, yeah, you're being groomed, yes, you're, you're honing those skills, but you're also having a great time and you're surrounded by folks that you respect and that respects you. And the mission is serious and the mission is everything and it's do or die in the Marine Corps. If you get to a plateau and you can't go on, you're recognized as that and you don't get promoted any further. Your career is over. But if you can and you want to go to top level schools and continue to hone your ability to lead larger and larger groups, then the sky's the limit and that's cool.
Speaker 2:That's a hell of a responsibility at 36.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hell of a responsibility.
Speaker 1:Well, look at the look at our four stars today. You can go right around and they'll say General McChrystal, did you read his book? Or you know the, the, the bin Laden admiral, admiral McRaven, did you get a chance to talk to him? Have you ever met him? And they all have this innate ability to give you goosebumps when you meet them. They're not only mentally sharp, they're physically in shape. They they just command the room wherever they are. You're not born that way. That is a lifetime of commitment to the art of leadership. It's true.
Speaker 3:I never thought of that way.
Speaker 2:It's, it's, it's it. I had a brief opportunity. My uncles are retired Lieutenant General, marine Lieutenant General and I was helping do philanthropy for the frozen chosen monument and he let me write his cocktails and go to the Marine Corps Museum when we presented it and the chairman of the joint chiefs was there uh, marine general, and his names left my mind. It'll come to me. I've got a cool photo but I was in awe. It was like meeting, you know, the most famous person you could ever meet of as a Marine, to go meet the chairman, joint chief staff. And when I walk up, my uncles like, yes, this is a great enough, you clean as a retired cop.
Speaker 2:And this four star general, he's got like a Lieutenant Colonel with the football following him around and he's just sharp, squared away. He goes, you were a cop. And I said, yes, sir, man, I always wanted to be a cop, my friends, a police chief down in somewhere right outside of Houston, big department, outside of Houston. Do you know him? That's my, my friend. He's a, he's a police chief down there. Man, I always wanted to be a cop, would you do? I said I was almost like man, it's freaking cool and it was so surreal watching this four star general that could start a nuclear war at any moment and just see that he's still a guy, he's still a human and talking about police work, he like melted down to like I feel like I was talking to one of my, my 20 year old kid, you know he was just, it was so cool.
Speaker 1:And then immediately he bearing came back, military bearing came back and he was the general get their meeting with and I thought I got two seconds and it was so it was so cool that that opportunity and you know the difference between the generals that can make you feel important and those that are, you know, too cool for school and don't want to know your name and don't like eye contact is you know, that is something you'll never forget and you put those on a pedestal. Those people that stopped and really said, hey, so it's Tyler, right, and you're married too, and you went to. I remember, you told me and you go. I took the time to remember it's. It's really a special skill. So even today, when I meet people, I try to go oh, that's that's Mary, that's that's Jim and that's. You know. They want, they want you to to acknowledge that they exist, they want you to ask them how they are, and that's important leadership.
Speaker 2:I've had. I've had two people that were in W's circle sitting like this BS and with them get emotional describing when they served for W, because both of them one of them is named Tracy and he goes yeah, I was first time- I had him, I was like hey, sir.
Speaker 2:And he's like no, no, no, no. What's your name, tracy? Okay, I'm George. He's like oh, yes, sir, yes sir. The next day W comes in walks by morning Tracy, did you get breakfast? You need to get your butt in there and get you some coffee. And he's like, oh my god, and he goes. And he gets emotional talking about him, because the reverence, the respect that he has for him is, he goes. Dude, I would have killed for W, I would have walked through hell for W, and a lot of it was because he was treated. He remembered. The next morning he's still.
Speaker 1:Tracy. Yeah, and you know we're gonna talk about police officers. Those that remember your name do the same thing. Yeah, those that get down to the community grass roots and can stop and shoot a basketball or say, hey, why aren't you in class? Hey, bob, what we don't like, hey, how's that going? That's an officer that you would take a bullet, for. You would make sure that nobody messes with him, because it's that basic leadership of taking the time to get to know the people that you serve yep yeah, that's cool man.
Speaker 2:So logistics ops officer at the White House, 36 years old, september the 11th. You show up to work that morning prior to the first airplane. Well tell, how'd that morning start?
Speaker 1:normal morning, normal morning the president and Sarasota, florida I adjust, I'm responsible for the logistics. We moved all the cars, helicopters, snipers and doctors. We're monitoring his schedule so we're gonna have our first meeting at 8 30 that morning got into date, got the newspaper outside the door, everybody's starting to huddle up and the world changed forever.
Speaker 2:You're sitting in an office just kind of in holding pattern for a meeting.
Speaker 1:We're eating. On the eight thirty meeting, we had a senior civilian who ran the airlift operations. We and you know the big boss was an Air Force Colonel, full Bird Colonel I'm a major at the time Bunch of we had like six majors in there and few enlisted, and we had this civilian GS 15 who was our boss, who did the morning meeting every day. And what's on the board? Where's the president? What can we expect? Vice president, what's going on?
Speaker 1:First lady, you got what he doing and you got a chance to brief your missions. What's what's happening? And all of a sudden we had the meeting kick off right away. My job was easy. I said president Sarasota, he's due to be reeled up at thirteen hundred one o'clock in the afternoon. He's coming back. We'll get that place cleaned up. Cars are almost. Everybody's coming back to Andrews, great. And as we're going down the schedule, all of a sudden somebody came running into the room and goes hey, quick turn on the TV set. Small plane just hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. Tune in next week for part two. Tune in next week for part two.
Speaker 5:The bones don't lie. They're broken, but they still got fine. I'm only getting started. I'm only getting started. You set my fire. Those flames are getting higher and higher. I'm only getting started. I'm only getting started.
Speaker 4:I'm bleeding now, but my fear is gone. I'm hollowed out, but I carry on. My bones don't lie. They're broken but they still got fine. I'm only getting started.
Speaker 5:I'm only getting started, my bones don't lie, they're broken, but they still got fine. I'm only getting started. I'm only getting started.