STARRS Podcast
STARRS Podcasts includes the series STARRS & Stripes which interviews military veterans, talks about their careers and military service, and their concerns about what is happening in today's military. See our website, starrs.us, for more information.
STARRS Podcast
The Military's Leftwing Ideological Resistance: Fighting Back Against the Military Reforms of the President and SecDef
STARRS held its quarterly Town Hall meeting on 9 April 2025 with special guest speakers Sam Shoemate, a retired Army intelligence analyst, and Chase Spears, a retired Army Public Affairs Officer.
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A chilling revelation unfolds as military whistleblowers expose the coordinated resistance against presidential executive orders to dismantle DEI programs within the Department of Defense. Former Army intelligence officer Sam Shumate and former Army public affairs officer Dr. Chase Spears share firsthand accounts of "malicious compliance" and deliberate subversion from within military ranks.
We discover how senior officers openly mock the chain of command while carefully constructed networks of resistance operate through the Judge Advocate General Corps and public affairs channels to undermine reform efforts. The discussion reveals troubling patterns: affinity groups functioning as resistance cells, strategic leaking to embarrass the administration, and an ideological capture so deep that DEI functions "almost as a religion" for adherents within military leadership.
Matt Lohmeier, STARRS Executive Vice President and nominee for Undersecretary of the Air Force, offers a sobering perspective on the challenges facing political appointees attempting to implement change against entrenched bureaucratic resistance. His candid reflections highlight the tremendous pressure to conform rather than speak truthfully about military challenges.
The town hall culminates with STARRS leadership outlining their adjusted mission: monitoring executive order implementation, advancing national defense reform, supporting service members harmed by vaccine mandates, and continuing vital education efforts. The message is clear—while policy changes represent progress, the deeper cultural battle for America's military institutions demands sustained vigilance and commitment.
This episode serves as both warning and call to action for all who believe our armed forces should remain focused on warfighting excellence rather than ideological experimentation. Join us in this crucial fight for the soul of our military and the security of our nation.
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For more information about STARRS, go to our website: https://starrs.us which works to eliminate the divisive Marxist-based CRT/DEI/Woke agenda in the Department of Defense and to promote the return to a warfighter ethos of meritocracy, lethality, readiness, accountability, standards and excellence in the military.
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Okay, good morning everyone. Welcome to another STARS Town Hall meeting. On behalf of Lieutenant General Rod Bishop and our leadership team, I'm honored to be your host today for this Town Hall meeting To start off. Right, cindy, if you want to go ahead and display our flag and if I can ask everyone to rise, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all, thank you.
Speaker 1:Now a few administrative comments here. Those in attendance today include senior and junior officers, enlisted men and women, non-veteran patriots and possibly our colleagues in the media. We are recording this session just so that you know. So we don't want to read some comments in the paper that we would have retracted. To speak, we ask that you use the raise the hand icon below or just post your comments in the chat box. We do welcome comments in the chat box and if you want follow-up responses that we don't get today, make sure we have your contact information so we can get back to you. Today's lineup Introductory remarks from our board chair, general Bishop, a presentation by Sam call sign Shoemate, a short follow-up by Dr Chase Spears, an update from our STARS Executive Vice President and nominee to serve as the Undersecretary of the Air Force, matt Lohmeyer, a mission adjustment pitch by our Vice Chair, general Arbuckle, and then we'll follow that up with the Q&A Over to you, general Bishop.
Speaker 2:Hey, ron, thanks for the opportunity to welcome everybody and thank all of you out there that have been strong supporters of STARS over the last several years. Since geez, we're over into triple digits here. I have to assume that some folks have never heard of STARS, so I'm going to give you 30 seconds to one minute kind of summary of how we came about. Hard to believe it was five years ago next month now that George Floyd was killed. Unfortunately, to quote a good four-star friend of mine quote a good four-star friend of mine that death opened the door to an ideology that infected our country but certainly our military. His comment was they've taken a page out of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and bamboozled half of America. Our football coaches at the Academy put together a three-minute video in which they almost chanted the slogan of Black Lives Matter, black Lives Matter seven times in that three minutes and we go wait a minute. So we engaged with the soup, tried to get the video down. We did. It took us nine months, but we saw from feedback from cadets and multiple military members across our services that there was an indoctrination taking place the American populace on the roots history intent, the Marxist roots history, and intent to divide, that Black Lives Matter, that this whole ideology behind critical race theory and DEI was all about Somewhere along the line. We also, when military members told us that our own government was breaking the law, stood up against the vaccine mandate, played a role in helping Congress overturn the mandate. If you are one of those who think, well, the vaccine was good, yeah, maybe for some people probably wasn't necessary for young military age people, but the crux of the matter for us was our government was breaking the law. The crux of the matter for us was our government was breaking the law and that was substantiated. It has been substantiated now by six different district courts across our country.
Speaker 2:So last fall, with an upcoming election, we set about trying to decide okay, you know, have we educated America enough? What are the possibilities of the election? What are the potentialities? Are we going to need to stick with our mission? And you'll see later when General Arbuckle, our vice chair, gives you an update. We're going to tweak it a little bit Because, yeah, we do believe that America has been educated, but we also know that and knew then that there was going to be some resistance.
Speaker 2:I live right outside the North Gate of the Air Force Academy have a lot of interface with cadets and they tell us that you know, dei critical race theory was divisive identity politics on steroids.
Speaker 2:But they're also up front and saying, yeah, about 20% of the force buys into it. So we also knew something in the fall and that was, if there was a trifecta and the Republican Party were to win the House, the Senate and the White House not because we're all Republicans, but because that was the party that was standing up against this indoctrination Republicans, but because that was the party that was standing up against this indoctrination that our donations would go down, and they have. But there's a mission still ahead and I think today we have a couple of guest speakers that are going to share with us some truth, some of the things that they're seeing, that, yes, indeed, this ideology has not died very easily. Our first speaker is a former Army intelligence specialist. Recently, on the Sean Ryan podcast goes by the call sign of SHU, sam Shumate, shu, over to you to help educate us all what you're seeing.
Speaker 3:Right, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on A couple of things. I'm mostly recovered, but still recovering from pneumonia, so if I cough or sniffle, just bear with me. Let me give you a little background on myself, though, for those of you who don't know me. I retired as a chief warrant officer after 21 years in 2023 from the Army. Like you said, I was an intelligence officer. Why do I have a voice of authority on this?
Speaker 3:Back in 2020, I started a social media account. It was just a humorous account to make memes. It was called Terminal CWO on Instagram and, along with a couple other folks, we got involved with exposing some of the stuff that was going on during the COVID era. It was when the lockdowns had happened and we started seeing a lot of bad behavior, and at first I didn't believe it. I didn't think that the institutions as they were designed could allow for such things to happen. But there were some egregious things taking place early on during the lockdowns, before the mandate. A lot of bad behavior by senior leaders and troops were paying the price for it, and I won't regale you with that, because that's not the reason why we're here, but over time, I took on the fight for the unlawfulness with the COVID mandate took on the fight for the unlawfulness with the COVID mandate, and the reason it was unlawful was because, quite clearly, there was not an FDA-approved vaccine available for troops. It was never disseminated. We have proven that over and over, like General Bishop said, and they forced people to take the EUA under the guise that it was interchangeable and you could legally do that. That's just not correct. Anybody who has any kind of medical background whatsoever will tell you that that's just foolish.
Speaker 3:But fast forward, talking about the DEI stuff, I dealt with a lot of this over the years. We made numerous videos. We exposed numerous officers who were saying just blatantly racist comments. There was, top of my head several years ago, the lieutenant colonel who said to his formation that white males were the problem. He said that in a diverse company, and he ended up getting investigated for that, and, of course, nothing happened, and now he is on the promotion list of Colbert Colonel. A lot of serious infractions with this type of behavior, though, and, as you stated, george Floyd was a catalyst for this and what happened with that and the ideology that spurned from that, but regardless, I tend to think that this started far before that with Obama, and I won't beat you up with politics on that, but there's a lot of things I could talk about with the Obama era and what was done during that time and how our senior leaders ended up making promotion, going from being combat leaders to being progressive ideologists and speaking eloquently enough to that, that leftist mantra that got them promoted.
Speaker 3:But that's my, my personal opinion either way. So we had I have personally talked to thousands and thousands and thousands of troops in every branch and every service over the years and it has given me a vast network of people to talk to. Uh, hence the unfortunate Sean Ryan show where I got the crazy email. That was a not a fun time in my life, but regardless. Um, that is how, that is how I've come to, you know, to develop these networks of people that tell me this stuff, every, everyone from I. I've had two general officers, active serving general officers that have reached out to me, sent me information and all the way down to the lowest level, so every, every rank you can imagine.
Speaker 3:And, and recently we are seeing a an influx of malicious compliance and lash back from Trump's executive orders remanding DEI policy, I think. Several incidents that I'll bring. I just made some notes before we started doing this. Several incidents I'll call to light was the very recent firing of Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, was the very recent firing of Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, representative to NATO. So, if the reports are to be believed, the reason she was fired and I say if okay, because I don't know this truthfully, I know that a lot of big accounts and this has been published in several media outlets but she was fired because she refused to post the Secretary of Defense's picture and Trump's picture and then said we will wait them out for four years and that that idea right there, that we will wait them out, is not a singular idea. It is pervasive and I will I'll talk about that in a little bit but it is pervasive across the senior officer spectrum, officer spectrum, and we have to get an idea of where we're at with that, because we're not beholden to the constitution in every corner of our military anymore.
Speaker 3:There are folks who have adopted this ideology, that are beholden to DEI as almost a religion, dei as almost a religion, and it's important to understand that the DEI is not just a program, this is not just a thing that is codified on websites and taught to our troops, but it is an ideology and a religion that these people adhere to and they are extreme about it. This is that these people adhere to and they are extreme about it. This is, this is their world. This is what they've adopted. So what? What have I seen?
Speaker 3:I've seen dozens and I'm talking about field grade officers I'm not talking about captains and below, not talking about enlisted, because there's plenty of those too, and I've seen a lot of those, but I'm talking about field grade officers and up social media posts openly mocking and disparaging the commander in chief on their personal social media with some very vulgar words. If you want an idea and I'm not going to put it out on this forum because it's some foul language, but if you want an idea go to my social media page my ex account, which is Thamasaur, which is like a dinosaur, and just look up JAG page, my ex account, which is Samasaur, just like a dinosaur, and just look up JAG and go read the go read the thread on the JAG Corps and what some of these officers are saying. It's, it's wild that they are openly posting this stuff on their social media accounts without any fear. You know one of the things that I wrote down here is I I've talked to a number of senior officers that are retired that served during the 80s and 90s, and I think some of you could probably relate to this.
Speaker 3:There was this idea that being apolitical was such an important thing that they've told me they didn't even vote it was considered like uncouth to vote, that they were so apolitical that they wouldn't even do that. Now, I don't know how many of you have lived that way, but my point is there was this idea that being apolitical was, above all else, that you were beholden to. You know the oath you took, and that uniform and nothing else mattered. And there's this idea now that we are on teams, we are divided within our military and we are on teams and attacking these current policies, these policies which are Marxist in nature, like you said, and are meant to divide and destroy and tear us down as not only a military but a nation. These people are sold out to them Malicious compliance, specifically.
Speaker 3:We've seen this in the news. So we've seen how the executive orders came out saying tear down everything, dei. Well, what did they do? They started tearing down websites that had, you know, black officers or female officers that had done something honorable. They said well, you said DEI. No, that's not what DEI is. Dei is not, you know, attacking somebody because, or protecting somebody because, of their skin color. Dei is elevating somebody because of minority traits beyond their merit. That's what it is. So that has nothing to do with a black officer such as the Tuskegee Airmen, who served honorably and did something valorous for this nation. But they did this to be malicious and paint the administration as being racist, and that's another thing we've seen a lot of. We've seen this overwhelming attack on Trump over the years, mind you, and this is a propagated effort for years now, and it's built into the military to call him a fascist, a Nazi, and regardless of how you feel about Trump, the fact that people are openly espousing this stuff on social media about their commander in chief and believe that they have the right to defy his orders under the guise of you know it's racist or whatever else, is extremely scary and dangerous.
Speaker 3:Let me talk about something that's the biggest deal that I've seen lately the JAG Corps. I'm going to give you a couple of examples in the JAG Corps specifically. So I've had a senior officer in the JAG Corps reach out to me and he started sending me screenshots of public social media pages of group chats that were taking place at the schoolhouse of uh, of group chats that were taking place at the schoolhouse for, um, I'm I'm unfamiliar with the schoolhouse, but it's uh, it's for majors and uh, I'm sure somebody you could fill me in, but either way, it was uh. It was some some chats among them and they were talking about affinity groups. They were talking about malicious compliance and they were talking about malicious compliance and they were talking about how these affinity groups, specifically the LGBTQ affinity group, was actively working against Trump's executive orders as we speak. So what are affinity groups that are built based on somebody's cultural background or whether they're a female officer, or whether they're gay or whatever the case may be, and they are. They are groups of these JAG officers that basically divide and connect together and they are they're openly about espousing between each other as field grade officers that they are defying Trump's executive orders. So I actually had an interesting conversation today, just a couple hours ago.
Speaker 3:Earl Matthews is the nominated general counsel to the DOD. Earl Matthews is a Ful bird colonel in the Army Reserve. I want to caveat this by saying I am not saying anything bad about Earl Matthews at all. I am not disparaging and I'm not saying he's subversive. What I'm saying is, when I posted these groups, one of the things that the senior officers the senior officers and there was multiple at this point and the JAG Corps that I was talking to told me about these affinity groups is that they are a stepping stone for higher leadership in the DOD. If you want to make it up the chain, they're a stepping stone.
Speaker 3:Now the JAG Corps has pulled all of their affinity groups off their official page, while it was a JAG Corps-sponsored program and event. They have since been pulled down in light of Trump's executive orders. However, they are still intact. These affinity groups still exist and they are still seen as the rebellion, the group that is fighting to save America from the fascist and evil Trump administration, america from the fascist and evil Trump administration. So in this affinity group, earl Matthews was seen on a Zoom call with the rest of them and posted this.
Speaker 3:And then recently I think yesterday or the day before Laura Loomer came out and made some posts about him. That I'm not going to substantiate one way or the other, but she made a pretty big post about Earl Matthews and so I just added on to it that, yeah, this is who this guy is and he'd been a part of these affinity groups and I and I put the post in there and he engaged with me directly and he called me a liar and I said are, are? Is this not you? Are you? Are you the one that was not in these JAG Corps? I said, okay, I didn't accuse you of saying anything subversive.
Speaker 3:However, these affinity groups have been accused of being subversive and speaking out against the Trump administration in the shadows and trying to fight back against his executive orders. And you have, in fact, been in attendance to these meetings. Take that for what it is. The fact is you were part of this, not saying you're evil or you're not, I don't know anything about you, but this is something I try to point out to people and say understand that there are these networks, these networks of people run deep within the Department of Defense and they advise at every echelon.
Speaker 3:I saw the rank of people attending this, the stars town hall, and I know how many of you have have had to hold command and have worked at every echelon. We have multiple general officers in here, colonels and and officers of every rank. I'm sure many of you have held multiple commands. You know how. You know how your JAG's voice is in your ear when they're saying things. Now imagine these JAG officers, one of them who's a senior advisor to the Army Secretary, the Secretary of the Army, and the kind of things that they would say as a legal standing. We saw it with the COVID mandate. Like General Bishop said, we have six rulings I think it was General Bishop and maybe it was Cindy but we have six rulings that state that this was unlawful. But we had hundreds and hundreds of JAG officers that said that it was lawful, despite the overwhelming evidence that you cannot force a service member to take an EUA vaccine.
Speaker 3:So we have these years long history of bad rulings from the JAG Corps that is working against the Trump administration, working against his executive orders and is flat out subversive to the oath they took and to lawful orders. Try that on. I mean, how far does this go? We are dealing with some extremely dangerous things that have the capability to destroy our ability to protect our nation as a military. And then, on top, you know, with the fallout from all that, we have hundreds and hundreds of examples of lower enlisted posting videos in uniform on TikTok, calling the commander in chief a Nazi fascist. These just crazy, wild videos of all sorts of stuff. And where do you think they get that idea from? It's not worth pointing them out and crushing them and this, and that those aren't the people that are setting the tone for this.
Speaker 3:The people that are setting the tone for this behavior and the subversion are these senior officers, all the way up to a vice admiral, that are saying no, I'm not going to do what you tell me, I'm not going to obey your lawful order and they are lawful orders, but I'm not going to obey them. And then, when they get fired, who comes in to defend them? Congressman, on Twitter and the media. This is so dangerous. Trump is doing this dangerous thing. He's destroying the very network of our democracy. You've heard this over and over and it's just flat out not true.
Speaker 3:Ladies and gentlemen, we have a real issue in the Department of Defense and it's not going to get cleaned up by simply getting rid of DEI programs and it's not going to get cleaned up by simply getting rid of DEI programs. These programs shifted in name, they shifted in scope. Some people saw the writing on the wall and I know factually that they rolled up their programs, even before Trump was elected, into other programs because they saw the writing on the wall that he was going to get elected and they did not want to get snuffed out and they did not want to get snuffed out. So these are general officers at every level, every command, that are working against what their commander-in-chief has told them to do. I don't think I have anything else to talk about beyond that, but you know what?
Speaker 3:Let me highlight one more thing. This was a recent whistleblower that I got. This is a substantiated and this has made it to the Secretary of Defense and his team. I know this firsthand. There was a whistleblower at a military base I have to be very careful what I say because I'm trying to protect the individual's identity but basically they were notified he works at a pediatric clinic and they were notified that they had a prepubescent male who's wanting to transition to female that was coming into the clinic and they were told to respect this boy's gender affirming name and he was coming in to be seen for puberty blockers. And then I found out, after posting this and talking about this and trying to get some exposure on this, that apparently this has been happening in the thousands in the Department of Defense. Our medical facilities are being used to provide transition services to minors. It's something to understand that, once again, simply eliminating DEI policies is not going to stop the infection and the cancer that has taken root within our military. And I'll stop at that, thank you.
Speaker 1:Sam, that was awesome. Thanks for sharing your personal experience. And I know it's just beginning. It's just going to get bigger for you, which really reinforces what Shu was talking about in terms of the JAG Corps and the vulnerability that they have brought to our Department of Defense in terms of ideology. So with that we've got Major Lieutenant Colonel Select Dr Chase Spears on the line. He's a professional public affairs officer. We've had a couple of PAO comments in the chat box, so Chase over to you for some reflections there Great.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much, ron, for the invitation. Sam, appreciate you all the work that you're doing and I'm pretty much just going to kind of pick up a little bit from where you left off and talk more specifically about the public affairs realm. For those who don't know me, I'll also give a little bit of where you left off and talk more specifically about the public affairs realm. For those who don't know me, I'll also give a little bit of background. I was a 20-year PAO. I'm kind of a unicorn. I did that job my entire career in the Army. Usually it's a career functional designation. When you hit major I was enlisted as public affairs. I went to OCS and was commissioned signal. They made me a comm cam officer and by the time I had captain they'd made me a PAO again. So all 20 years this is what I specialized in. This is what I studied. I'm pretty widely published in it as well and have a lot of expertise in them.
Speaker 4:Sam talked a lot about the issues among the JAG Corps and this gets into how professions are set up, and so you have the legal profession, you have the engineering profession, the ministerial profession, the military profession, public affairs. We're not quite a profession but we're certainly a kind of subset work specialty and there's been a long march through the institutions, through the professions, to continue pushing social activism. And public affairs has been no exception. And Sam mentioned how the legal side of the house has really worked to fight Trump. And that's not surprising because when you look at the American Bar Association, that is a very left-wing organization and it encourages legal practitioners to follow that trend. In the public affairs realm we don't have credentialing associations like the American Bar Association or American Medical Association that we have to get through to do our jobs. But we do have trade associations like the Public Relations Society of America and they also trained very left wing. When you're looking at people who work in public affairs, we are a creative class and traditionally the creative classes do tend to be a little more socially progressive and public affairs in the military is no exception.
Speaker 4:I have found when I first enlisted again keep in mind this was 2003. This is pre-Obama, this is the Bush years, iraq and Afghanistan and I was very much surprised to find very quickly when I got to my first unit, which was the 14th Public Affairs Detachment, that there was very much an open, boisterous approval to talk about politics from a left-wing perspective. Folks like me who held to a conservative perspective what I would say is basically just a constitutional perspective, holding to our oaths. It was very clear that we were outnumbered and we were less free to speak than our left-wing counterparts and this was during the Bush years. And so I thought maybe this is just the personality of this unit. But I found, as I continued through the career field, that that was representative of the majority of the field.
Speaker 4:Now I want to be very clear. There are some great America-loving, constitution-loving, god-loving people in the public affairs ranks. I'm friends with a lot of them, but right now, even in this age where we have a Republican president, even when we have a very conservative secretary of defense who is saying the days of DEI are over, the days of WOC are over. Right now, my conservative colleagues and again we're not talking about hard right, we're talking about people who just believe in the Constitution they're reporting to me that they're still afraid to speak out, they're afraid to stand up, to be counted, they still feel very surrounded and that they feel like the military is paying as much lip service as it has to to support the administration, but secretly trying to just carry on and wait it out, and public affairs has really kind of been at the forefront of the military's left-wing move. Of course this was directed by President Biden, it was directed by Secretary of Defense Austin and on through the chain of command. But you have to keep in mind, every time units were out there marching in pride parades, every time you saw woke social media posts, every time you saw a general officer trying to get in a fight with Tucker Carlson, officer trying to get in a fight with Tucker Carlson, every one of those things has the fingerprints of a public affairs officer doing staff work on it, because we were the communicators and we were the ones responsible to push that message. And that's why I retired about 18 months ago as a major instead of staying and taking the promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, because it was getting increasingly difficult to hold to a moral principle as an Army spokesman and it was just, it was very much easier than I thought it would be to turn that down, to leave and be able to have my conscience intact.
Speaker 4:But a lot of my colleagues, because they didn't have prior enlisted time, don't have that option to get out and retain their pensions and they are really struggling Stories they tell me my heart breaks for them. There are a lot of them who tell me look, I don't agree with this stuff, but I have to push it. And so the supervisors are not letting go easily, and what I've found over the last few weeks, since the executive orders came out, is that they're like Sam talked about the malicious compliance, and there's a malicious public affairs compliance. Every website that comes down again that that in some way, if not directly, is at least indirectly touched by a public affairs presence. And I I've talked to colleagues of mine who've said look, the EOS came out and we had limited time, so we just started pulling everything down. We didn't put any thought to it and they knew this would be an issue. Not only did they know it would be an issue by pulling this down, but I submit to you I have no direct proof of this. I will put that out front. I can't take it to court, but I know a thing or two because I've seen a thing or two, thing or two because I've seen a thing or two. And the Associated Press doesn't find out about military webpages being pulled down, about people that the Associated Press has not been watching for the last 20 years without being tipped off.
Speaker 4:You have to keep in mind, paos are deeply embedded into the press. They have personal relationships with members of the media. They have personal relationships with members of the media and I am absolutely, 100% convinced from my own experience and from people who I talk to, who are still in some of them in the building, that there are direct, malicious leaks being made to the media to bring up things that can be embarrassing to Secretary Hegg Seth and can be embarrassing to the administration. I've seen with my own eyes field grade officers condemning the administration and private, closed public affairs Facebook groups condemning the EOs, saying the EOs are wrong, they're immoral and for everyone. I see it's kind of like roaches For everyone. You see, there are probably a dozen more behind the wall that are deliberately not coming out and voicing their antipathy toward the administration because they don't want anyone to screen grab. But there are some. There are some brazen enough to come out and risk that and that is unfortunately not an uncommon thing. That's why I wrote a piece that was in Real Clear Defense last week, hoping to help leaders to see that their PAOs, they need to pay closer attention to that.
Speaker 4:There's a cultural issue, at least in the Army, and I think the other services probably are there too the PAOs they're the leaf eaters, if you will, and so they kind of get the back burner treatment. Don't worry about them. Break glass in case of emergency, but in this day and age it really is a strategic threat active malevolent players in that field who are working to keep the secretary of defense and the administration in a daily knife fight if they can. Um, and when you are leading an organization the size of the department of defense, uh, you need your people working with you and helping to get the truth out, and I'm not saying you need people to lie for you by any means. I'm a huge advocate for honesty and let's own our failures where we make them. But the Pentagon and the public affairs force around the rest of the Department of Defense. There isn't a problem with a left-wing viewpoint and, like Sam said, an EO doesn't make it immediately go away. This is deeply rooted in the culture. This is something that's been building for decades and it will take time and it will take focus to fix and solve, and so I just encourage you keep an eye on that.
Speaker 4:For those of you who have access to senior defense leaders. Encourage them. You know, don't don't neglect the fact that your communicators need to be on the team as well. Don't assume.
Speaker 4:Okay, well, I've got an office of a hundred guys over here who work in press and they're going to do what they're told to do. A lot of them are going to do what they're told to do. They're going to love the nation, they're going to support you, but it only takes one or two. It only takes one or two to cause you an enormous amount of headaches. It only takes one leak to derail an entire career, to to cause I mean, think about russiagate. Right, though, it took one rogue officer, you know alex finman to cause all that headache, and so I just whether it's through malevolent action or inaction, there is an issue specifically there. So, as Sam has highlighted, this is in the JAG Corps. You know, my argument to you is that we have the the same issue in the public affairs force and and I, it is really incumbent upon commanders and senior leaders to not take either of those for granted. So thanks for letting me share my concerns on that Great.
Speaker 1:Dr Spears, thank you so much for sharing that, and we look forward to working closely with you as we go forward, because we believe truth and justice will prevail, and there are so many narratives out there that are just infested with falsehoods, and so it's important that we educate people on the truth, what is as opposed to what should be. So, anyway, thanks for what you're doing. We follow you very closely when you publish. You've got a talent there and we sincerely appreciate what you are doing. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to our very own Executive Vice President and nominee for Undersecretary of the Air Force, matt Lohmeyer. Matt, you're up, sir.
Speaker 5:Thank you, ron. We always have an outstanding turnout at these town halls and have outstanding speakers. I'll just start to meet Sam in person for the first time at an event that we had both attended a few weeks back and liked him even more when I met him in person, and we've got outstanding support from people like Sam and of course, also no Chase and just. Thank you both for your work and we need more of you out there if we're to continue to move the ball down the field. I thought I'd just I'll be brief. I wanted to share an update about how my confirmation prep is going. I'll tell you a few things I've learned along the way and I'm going to keep it relatively high level for various reasons. If you need to get up and stretch, please feel free to get up and stretch. I know there's a lot of listening at these town halls but, by way of update, the Secretary of the Air Force nominee, dr Troy Mink, had his hearing a couple of weeks ago. I was there in person for that. It was a batched hearing. He was one of four nominees that were on a panel. He, of course, got more attention than the other nominees and it was a relatively benign hearing and he's just been voted out of committee with, I think, what was a 23 to 4 vote, which is actually outstanding when compared to some of the other DOD nominees, other cabinet picks. To get that number of votes from the Democrat side of the aisle was great and he's been easy for them to work with on both sides of the aisle for a number of years in the jobs that he's had, so I would have been a bit surprised if it turned out any other way. The nomination, of course, now that it's been voted out of committee, moves for a vote in the rest of the Senate, which unfortunately won't happen until after a two-week recess that they're going on. That ends at the end of this month, at which point I'll have a hearing. My hearing is informally and not publicly scheduled on April 29th and mine will be a batched hearing. The Undersecretary of the Navy, presumably Hung Kau, and I will be going. Let me restate that because that wasn't clear. Presumably the Undersecretary of the Navy nominee, hung Kau, and I will be going. Let me restate that because that wasn't clear. Presumably the Undersecretary of the Navy nominee, hung Kau and I will both be on that panel and there could potentially be four nominees on that panel as well. I welcome that.
Speaker 5:As much as I want to earn my keep by having a standalone hearing, I like the fact that they're going to have to pick and choose who they want to throw their spears at during that two and a half hours, and so that kind of eases the stress of anticipation that I have for my own hearing and expect that a week after that hearing, sometime at the end of the first week of May, I'll be voted out of committee and be passed off to the rest of the Senate for a confirmation vote and then officially in the seat, assuming all goes well. In the past several weeks I've been in DC taking meetings on Capitol Hill, and now this gets more into what I'd like to share with this group by way of update and some of the things I've observed and seen firsthand. The Republican side of the Senate has been very supportive, as you'd expect, and very willing to take meetings with me, and the other side of the aisle has not been willing to take meetings with me, although a few have scheduled but then later canceled. I did meet with Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona, my own home state, who gave me just a little bit of time and you could tell. Really, it seemed this is my perception. Perhaps it's unfair, but you know, again, I would expect this, really was hoping for reasons to not like me. And then that sit down and I was disappointed at every turn to feel like he was actually able to have a conversation with me. And I've really hoped to be able to meet with every member of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the lead up to my hearing so as to demonstrate a willingness to genuinely work with both sides of the political aisle.
Speaker 5:It's not the nominees that aren't willing to work with in a bipartisan manner, with the Senate or members of Congress. It tends to be the other way around. It's the political agenda of those who have been elected to those seats who seem most unwilling to work with President Trump's picks. And again, maybe that's not a surprise to you, but here's what I've learned and it's what I've chosen to want to share with this group, because I think it's eye-opening and sobering as we figure out ways to try and tackle the challenges that Sam and Chase have laid out for us.
Speaker 5:I've seen firsthand and I've experienced in my own heart and mind, as I've gone through this process, which has been very consuming how easy it is for decent men and women to become victims of the system, and what I mean by that is victims of the apparatus, the machinery that's in place, the administrative state, the bureaucracy. There's a kind of forcing function that one becomes subjected to as they try and navigate the apparatus. Every day of the week I'm being told what I can and cannot say, and I've grown quite accustomed over the past several years to saying whatever I'd like. And because integrity matters to me, that's a bit of a shock to the system, and so I try and play a game nicely, on the one hand, try and not jeopardize my nicely, on the one hand, try and not jeopardize my confirmation, on the other hand, and reflect in my evenings about how is it exactly that those who have been appointed to positions of importance are to keep their integrity intact, are able to speak the truth and navigate that space.
Speaker 5:And I think, unless one deliberately, wittingly, works against the powerful forces that aim to control your thinking and that aim to control your speech, you will likely inevitably succumb to the undue pressures of the machinery, the bureaucracy that's there in DC. It's thick, there's tremendous pressure and it's not I'm not saying it's necessarily pressure that is political in nature even although there's that too there's just simply tremendous pressure within the bureaucracy to conform to acceptable talking points, and so I can learn a great deal, for example, about our nuclear modernization efforts, in the B-21 bomber, for example, or in our transition away from the Minuteman to the Sentinel ICBM programs, and I can develop a line of thinking and a strong opinion about some things and then be coached out of everything I've ever thought, because it's simply not acceptable to say publicly all the things that I think need to be said publicly, because it's simply not acceptable to say publicly all the things that I think need to be said publicly. And so the struggle for me and for anyone else that you have learned ends up in these seats, I think, is going to be the challenge of staying true and honest and actually being public servants in a way that benefits the American people and the warfighters. So with that, I thought I'd I was reflecting on that, that dilemma, and I was reflecting on something that was said in Job that I wanted to read to you as a kind of concluding thought. I share it by way of encouragement, but I'm appropriating the language and misapplying it, if you will, and applying it to myself as a way of providing encouragement to myself and to you.
Speaker 5:There's a metaphor, if you will, in the language here that I'll read, and I picture the war that is in front of us. It's not necessarily physical, it's spiritual, it's ideological, and I picture needing to be courageous in that war and to be a man of action and integrity. And I read this language about a horse that's described in Job and I apply it to myself, and I'd like to invite you to apply it to you as well, and think how, as private citizens all the more unencumbered by these constraints that I've just identified and a part of a non-profit organization like stars, or supporters of a non-profit like stars, recognize the importance of groups like this because, as private citizens who have more of a means of participating, unencumbered by pressure to conform to pre-planned talking points and whatnot, you have a way of making impact that some of these appointees may feel somewhat helpless at times, whether that's right or wrong, to make impact. So here's the language. Stick with me. It's a bit symbolic.
Speaker 5:Again, it's a metaphor, but I picture riding this horse that's described in Job off into the battle, going headlong into the battle without fear and knowing that. You know, if there's ever a time to um to charge headlong into the conflict, it's today. We've got serious challenges before us. It says in at the end of job hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He pawth in the valley and rejoiceth in his strength. He goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocks at fear and is not affrighted. Neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage. Neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, ha, ha. And he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting.
Speaker 5:I love the imagery of this bold, strong horse that you can ride off into the battle with no fear. This bold, strong horse that you can ride off into the battle with no fear, taking the blows that come, because there's truly a war that needs to be waged. And I think there's a way to do that and be a lovely human and keep your values intact and to be genuinely you, be genuinely Sam Shoemake, be genuinely Chase and to be genuinely. You be genuinely Sam Shoemake, be genuinely Chase, and it's in fact in that authenticity that I think will make great strides in combating the difficulties that we're still identifying. And I think it's one of the great strengths that STARS as an organization and its supporters have at this juncture is that you don't need to be fearful of those that are caught up in the machinery of DC or anywhere else in choosing how to think or how to speak, because you're totally unencumbered except for legal concerns that maybe a nonprofit like stars has to not become politically partisan but you're unencumbered, you're free, you can speak freely, you can be true to yourselves, and that kind of support coming from the private citizen will help those who end up in the seats as decision makers to be all the more effective in confidently pursuing good solutions to the problems that we face. Those problems aren't just cultural. Although as an organization we've tended to focus on the cultural, we've got other priorities as well that don't necessarily have anything to do with culture, but one of my priorities is in fact very cultural and it very much aligns with our priorities here at STARS.
Speaker 5:So just wanted to share those thoughts and lessons learned. It's a bit of rambling, but I think you'll get the picture. We've got an uphill battle. We've got a tremendous opportunity for success right now, but we've got many, many challenges. And so I'd say that to thank you for your support and for the support of STARS, and we've done tremendous work over the last five years, as General Bishop indicated at the very beginning of this meeting, and I think that in whatever ways, as General Arbuckle will articulate, that mission continues. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. So thanks, ron, for allowing me the opportunity to give that update. I'm humbled by the process, but there's a lot of exciting things on the horizon and once I'm confirmed and I assume that that will in fact soon be the case then I'll look forward to speaking very candidly about some of what I'm doing in the Department of the Air Force and working with the other undersecretaries to do across the entire joint force.
Speaker 1:If I may be so bold. Mr Secretary, thank you for sharing those thoughts with us. I know they came from your heart and an individual who is extremely well-read and reflective. And I'll tell you, I only know two Lieutenant Generals that have read your book twice, so it took a lot of courage to do that when you did it. And we know that you're going to bring in a breath of fresh air to the Department of Defense, and so Matt can't tell you how honored we are to be part of the same team here, and we wish you all the best with the confirmation hearing up ahead.
Speaker 5:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:Ron. Thanks, matt. So at this time I'm going to ask General Arbuckle if he could update us on where we're headed. Let me bring up a slide for him to talk from.
Speaker 6:Okay, while you're doing that, Ron thank you First, matt, back to you and the scripture. Thanks for that. We've talked about this issue among stars many times and, at its root cause, dei is a fight of good versus evil. We know what we're up against. That's the bottom line. Shifting to Sam and Chase thanks for your comments. They were sobering, not a surprise, but they do reinforce what's on this chart I'm about to go through.
Speaker 6:As General Bishop mentioned, we've been brainstorming our top leadership and stars here what to do about the future in view of the executive orders and the memos that have been issued. Because we've had two strategic goals in STARS for years and that is, as was mentioned, to get rid of DEI out of the Department of Defense and also deal with those now harmed by the mandatory vax policy. Well, it's largely been accomplished. So the question we ask ourselves is do we declare mission success and pack our tents and go home? And no, we don't. We modify our mission. Let's get into that. What's missing right now from those EOs and memos are a couple of big things. One is national defense reform. That's not been mentioned so far. It's badly needed. We have to basically take a look at the threats that we are facing over the rest of this century not only external but internal, which is what we've been talking about a bit this morning and come up with how to reorganize our entire defense structure to address those threats. And we've written a position paper and some legislation to do that. And we've established what's called a compact right there. That gets into the VaxHarm remedies. It stands for a commission on military COVID and anthrax policies. We've included anthrax because there's so much commonality between what happened between those two illegal vaccinations, as you all know. In addition, we've written 12 position papers, distributed those on the Hill. General Bishop and others went there early February and passed those around during 25 different meetings with staffers and members of Congress. And to reinforce that, we know that we need legislation to codify what's in those, and so we've written 10 pieces of draft legislation and provided those to various members of Congress, hoping that they're going to get those put into the 2026 NDAA.
Speaker 6:So, moving on, we recognize that you know the D is in a transition phase. It's easy to issue orders and say let's go out and do this, as has been done. It's another thing to make sure that they're executed, and you guys were talking about that this morning. So it's easy, we know, to take down all these physical aspects of DEI, get rid of the people, the offices, the posters, some of the websites etc. But again, the culture and changing the mindsets that we've been touching on here is the challenge and we put in there.
Speaker 6:Expect some resistance. Well, some might be an understatement, it might be a lot of resistance based on what you're telling us. We've been working and will continue to work with the MacArthur Society, a group of primarily West Point graduates, and also the Calvert Task Group, same there, only Naval Academy. Raf-t is an interesting thing and we think that's the touchpoint for stars in the future. If we can get some kind of an official role with this Restoring America's Fighting Force Task Force that Pete Hegseth has set up, that will give us a lot more leverage to assist in ensuring that these EOs and memos are in fact executed and monitor those, especially at the service academies, through the two organizations we have and here at the Air Force Academy.
Speaker 6:Education will continue to be a part of our mission, letting people know that DEI is really toxic. It's terrible for not only our military but our society at large and the Marxist roots there that go with it. We do that through multiple mechanisms such as briefings, articles, etc. Right there, Website is great. Cindy does a wonderful job with that. It's a major educational tool. We're going to continue with that and focus on success stories as well as stories that we pick up where the executive orders are being resisted in ways that you two guys have illustrated already.
Speaker 6:And also we have a big outreach effort going on. We have leaders in about 29 different states, volunteers they cover actually 40 states because some do more than one state and within those 29 volunteers we've got about 128 people that are working with those state leaders. Their mission is education. Get out in the local communities, talk about DEI, talk about what STARS is doing Department of Defense at whatever forum they can find in churches, town hall meetings, whatever it may be. So that's ongoing.
Speaker 6:Legal is interesting. We have a great general counsel, mike Rose, and he's been able to reach out to at least two other legal organizations service members or veterans who have been harmed by the illegal vaccination policies and also DEI being imposed on them in proper manners. So that's a great initiative that Mike is leading right now. And finally, our limitation we've got about four or five of us at the senior leadership level in STARS. I think our youngest is 73 years old, our oldest is 79, one old fart in that group and we're hoping to get relief with some younger blood coming in with Matt, but unfortunately the president had different ideas for Matt's future so we've lost him. We're still out there scratching around trying to find some young blood to come in and help fill us in. So that's basically where we're at in STARS and I'll turn it back to you, ron.
Speaker 1:Great. Thank you, sir. Wow, we're right up on the hour and we've had a jam-packed series of presentations series of presentations so at this time we can go to 1130 Mountain Time to answer any questions that you might have. So if you have a question, please raise your hand and we'll call on you in order. Sam, you're up.
Speaker 7:Yeah, Ron, I don't want to take up much time, but I do want to ask you and Mike Rose, you know, if it's worth just briefly covering the presentation that Mike has given already and that you and he plan to give in Southern California regarding the American creed. I think it's absolutely outstanding and maybe you or Mike can cover it just a bit. But again, I don't want to monopolize this half hour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question, sam. I'll start off and then hand it off to Mike, because we're shifting towards a more aggressive educational platform. Because we're shifting towards a more aggressive educational platform, the speech that Sam is talking about, which can be presented in a lot of different variations, really has some very key central themes. The first is the American creed. You know what is it? There are so many older Americans that were exposed to the American creed and have forgotten it, or a lot of younger generations that were never exposed to the American creed. It's basically captured in our Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That's it. That's simply. That's the American creed, that we have rights endowed by a creator, not a government, and governments are instituted to protect those rights. And that's the Constitution, how it codified it. And then the Bill of Rights provides more specifics in terms of what those rights entail.
Speaker 1:So then we get into the fact that it's threatened by radical ideology, and so that's the title of the speech the American Creed Threatened by Radical Ideology. And so we get into the radical ideology. And for America it really started back in 1843 with a letter between Marx and Arnold. Ruge talks about the importance of critical philosophy, and that we need to confess to our current sins and whatever. Five years later the Communist Manifesto was published. Both of those occurred before the American Civil War, so those seeds of ideology were already getting planted in America. And so we get into that ideology, what it consists of, and then we get into stars why stars came about and what we've been doing.
Speaker 1:And then there's a call for action at the end of the speech. We've got three embedded videos One that is the video that the Air Force Academy football coaches put out chanting Black Lives Matter. Then we have another awesome video that talks about what happened to the military, and this is one that our webmaster, cindy Quitchoff, put together. It's a world-class video. It overwhelms you with the volume of material. And then we wrap it up with another video that was put together for an affinity group called E Pluribus Unum from Mini One, and so Mike has presented that already in Somerville and had a very great response to that, and we're scheduled to give that presentation in Southern California to four different groups at the end of April. So, mike, over to you.
Speaker 9:Thank you, ron. Well, I had a great response, except for the one person on the left who stood up and started screaming and ran out saying we shouldn't be talking about this. So I guess that's an indicator of how well received it was by the others. Ron has done a great job connecting the dots philosophically on what is happening to our society as a result of these leftist ideologies. I learn from Ron myself constantly, and Ron has put this information together in slides to tell a story that makes sense and help a lot of people who know things aren't right but wondering you know what the heck's going on? Wondering you know what the heck's going on?
Speaker 9:One of the great things about this presentation, I think, is that it is connected or consists of modules. So if you're talking to a group that only gives you 10 minutes, you could reduce it to a 10-minute talk. If they give you an hour and a half, there's enough there to go on for an hour or an hour and a half. I think my talk took an hour and five minutes with questions, and this is a template that everybody can use. So if you have a group that will listen or watch, or even as an individual, they could literally watch the talk that I or Ron and I or anybody else has already given, because we videoed it, or Ron and I or anybody else has already given because we videoed it, or by just watching it, you can see yourself what you could be saying to individuals you know or groups you know, and my vision of this is for this to spread across the country through the state leaders.
Speaker 9:Ron and I are going to Southern California at the end of this month. We'll be talking on three successive days to groups. The important thing is to get started. So, like anything else, you do it once, you do it twice, it gets better and better. You feel more comfortable with it. So I think this is a great initiative, given that our mission is education and given that there's just millions of people out there that need a better understanding of what the heck's going on.
Speaker 1:Over.
Speaker 7:Great Thanks, mike Lester you're up, are you going to be updating the brochures and other literature to reflect the changing mission of stars?
Speaker 1:The answer is yes, lester. So, yeah, lester, we'll get those out as quickly as possible, and for Mike's and my trip to Southern California, we'll want to make sure that some of the key brochures are updated accordingly. So a lot of that depends on how the board reacts to proposals that will be presented to them this Friday, and so if they give us a thumbs up and all this stuff, then we're going to press. Thank you, you bet. Thanks, lester, okay, and B Skilperort, skilperort. Okay, you're up, sir.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, major Brennan Skilperort, I'm currently being kicked out over the flu vaccine mandate.
Speaker 1:And I wanted to ask guys has the flu shot been brought into that conversation?
Speaker 9:with COVID and anthrax Over Mike over to you. Well, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is a federal statute, enables people to seek religious exemptions from actions by the government. Just like the COVID vaccine exemptions were sought, I think that a religious exemption from taking a flu shot could be applied for Then the burden is on the government to prove that it's a military necessity. Then the burden is on the government to prove that it's a military necessity, and I would think it would be easier for them. I don't know whether it'd be easier for them to do that on the flu instead of the COVID vaccine or not. So if you don't want to take it, you can apply for a religious exemption. If you have a basis for a medical exemption, you can apply for that.
Speaker 9:I have both All right. Well, then you can apply for one. Like I've known people that applied for the religious and then it was denied and then they applied for the medical, and I just dragged it out even longer. So what you should do, I think, is to go to either your personnel office or to a JAG on your base and ask for what are the regulations pertaining to religious and medical exemptions and you find out what is the procedure for applying, and then you go ahead and apply Now if you want to. I'm saying this for the benefit of everybody listening, but if you want to contact me afterwards and just talk about this privately so I could help guide you further, I'd be happy to do so.
Speaker 1:And not to brag too much on Mike, but he's helped hundreds of people, maybe even thousands. So anyway, if you have an issue there, take him up on getting in touch with him. Gregory, you're up, sir.
Speaker 10:Yeah, General, this is, I guess, for you. Can you talk a little bit about the engagement, if any, with STARS, with the new Board of Visitors at the Service Academies? I think they might be very, very good at monitoring compliance with the new regulations and executive orders that have come out of the current administration. Over to you, sir.
Speaker 1:Is that for me?
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, yeah, greg, great question. We've reached out to. Let's see. I think I've met so far with four new Boards of Visitors members and we'll continue to reach out to them all Both Congressman Ploeger we met with in DC, as well as Congressman Crank we have a follow-up meeting here in Colorado Springs with Congressman Crank later this month. The presidential appointee Stolle we've had shoot hour-long Zooms with him. So we're certainly spinning them up on our issues and that's one of the things, come April 25th, that we hope to get the AOG board of newly elected and now new AOG board of directors to commit to, and that's updating the boards of visitors all the time. We think they can be a powerful force.
Speaker 2:Mike and I spent literally days no question about it, days in the December of 2020 and January of 2021, spinning up the boards of visitors to help them understand the indoctrination that was taking place at the academy. And then, for those of you who don't know, as soon as the previous administration came into power, within two weeks they had suspended the board's visitors of all the academies and the schools and then later, three or four months later, fired all the appointees. So, yep, great, great avenue, great oversight you know from where we sit. For four years, the academy was left without the oversight that Congress had enacted a statute to make sure happened, and it didn't. Mike, you had your hand up. Is that a follow-up on this one?
Speaker 9:Yes, it is. I would just add, general Bishop, to what you said. For those who do not know, is that the alumni of the Air Force Academy just passed in a referendum an amendment to their governing documents by more than 76 percent. That redefined the purpose of the Alumni Association is to keep the academy leadership informed of these 40, 50,000 graduate opinions about the Air Force Academy.
Speaker 9:There's been 180 degree shift in attitude now from the Alumni Association saying we can't get involved, we're not going to tell the superintendent what to do and we're certainly not going to talk with the Board of Visitors. And the Board of Visitors wasn't reaching out to anybody either. That we're aware of. It was a dog and pony show. Now you have these newly elected members five of them of the Alumni Association, with these amendments passed, and now the newly appointed people on the Board of Visitors are reaching out to and actually interfacing with the Board of Director members of the Alumni Association. So now they're working together to find out what improvements are needed at the Academy. I could not be more happy about the direction it's going.
Speaker 1:Great Thanks, Mike, and I'll add, Charlie Kirk has already expressed an interest in getting spun up by us and we have a relationship with Congressman Pfluger and we hope to have a better relationship with Senator Tuberville coming up.
Speaker 2:I think we have a good relationship with the superintendent too, and three times I've been with him he has said man, I just want graduate input.
Speaker 1:Amen. Okay, roy, you're up sir.
Speaker 11:Thank you and greetings to all star supporters out there, especially to Matt Lohmeyer Congratulations on your appointment or selection to be the next undersecretary of the Air Force. My question is as we move forward as an organization as STARS is an organization with all the political climate that we're facing how do we make it known to our congressmen and senators? There are other organizations out there that have a site built where you can go in there and do an automatic oppose or non-support for various bills that are being passed. Is there something like that that STARS has that we can communicate what it is that we want to support from our congressmen and senators and things that we want to oppose, where it's easy to go in there, click it and send it off to them to communicate so that we move as a larger voice. And the second thing that bears on my mind is the more supporters we have, the stronger our voices. How do we continue to recruit new members into STARS? I think it's a very viable organization, but there's also other organizations out there that have like-minded men and women that support the very things that we support.
Speaker 11:And one example that I would like to share with you there's an organization it's the oldest veterans organization in the nation. It's called the Military Order of Foreign Wars of the United States, founded in 1894. And part of their vision for the next hundred years, and I just want to read a short portion of it. On every hand we hear preached doctrines of communism, internationalism, pacifism, fascism, socialism and other such isms which are diametrically opposed to the aims and purpose of this order. Therefore, it is for us who bore arms that our country might live and grow great In the future. Companions of the Order. What it is is. There's other organizations. How do we interconnect with them? How do we draw them in to supporting the efforts that STARS is promoting? That's the questions that bear in the back of my mind. That's all I've got.
Speaker 1:Yeah, roy, you asked a lot of great questions and a lot to unpack there. A while back we did attempt to use a platform to make our voice known with Congress and it didn't work very well. One of the boundaries we have to operate within is the fact that we are a 501c3. And because of that we have to limit any lobbying efforts to no more than 20% of our annual expenditures. So we have a boundary there that we have to operate within. But I would share your ideas, send them via email to us, because the last one in particular that you mentioned you know there's always a great potential there.
Speaker 1:We're trying to establish inroads with the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars and we have a good development right now. That's playing out in California and it's going to the national level. If it's approved at the national level, that's going to be a huge entry point for us to go in and build a more formidable relationship with them and to animate them to do some things. So you mentioned some very important concepts there that if you could submit that to us so we can more fully develop it, I appreciate it. Anybody want to add to that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would. Actually, I hate to come on somebody else's organization's platform and stump for something that I'm doing, but I recently took over as the chief operating officer of two different organizations One of them is called Republic operating officer of two different organizations. One of them is called Republic. Republic is a community engagement platform that had a bad start initially. It came out in August and didn't get the start that it needed.
Speaker 3:Anyways, we are coming out with an app and a lot of new features in the next couple of months, and the reason I bring this up specifically is because what you just stated is what we are doing. So one of the biggest features we'll have is every single representative out there, all the way down to the town level, that people can engage with through polls. We're gonna have the ability for people to understand how to connect, collaborate, discuss bills that are going to be voted on, and a lot of different features in that regard. It's not there yet, but it is being built, so I would say that there is a mechanism in place in the near future and I believe in this strongly. I just came on board in February and I think this has a real chance at overturning our communities for the better from the ground up instead of focusing on everything at federal. But there is a mechanism for what you described on its way to three months away.
Speaker 1:Great and.
Speaker 2:Sam Ron, if I can jump in there, don't be shy in pitching. What you have that's a strength of STARS, I think is our ability to reach out and collaborate with other organizations. We had a spreadsheet at one time. I think it had 90 different organizations that we're trying to collaborate with. I know we've actively collaborated with close to 30, if not more. And going back to Roy's suggestions, roy's great suggestions. Two other limitations we have, though. One is mission creep. I mean, we've had to kind of hold a stiff arm against a lot of good ideas because of. The second limitation is we just don't have the people we're trying to organize our board of advisors into. You know, strapping on some of these additional issues. Hopefully we'll get there. But great suggestions, keep the cards and letters coming.
Speaker 1:Right, and we are big collaborators, Sam, so let's see trying to figure out who was next. Al, were you up?
Speaker 13:One of the groups I'm a part of is the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association and also the Wild Weasels and a bunch of other veterans groups.
Speaker 13:Each of those have invited me to be a speaker somewhere just because I knew the people who were executive directors or presidents of that, and they'd call me up and say hey, we know that you're in that neighborhood. Would you like to come talk to us? That happened up in Minnesota at the 1st of March when I was invited to be the speaker at a joint services military ball in Minneapolis and there was about 400 or 500 people there in a formal function and I talked about, you know, warrior ethos, getting together to eliminate DEI and all those things that we're for, and at the end of it I said if you want to know more, go to our website. Here's some materials, go to our web, our podcasts, and that got tremendous response. But that's kind of a layering thing. Other people will get a hold of you that way, ask you to come talk as well. So I think that's something that we're going to really focus on, particularly in Texas here where I'm at work. Anyway, thanks for listening to that.
Speaker 1:Great Thanks, bigfoot, former wild weasel pilot here. So, phil, you're up, sir.
Speaker 12:Just a quick update. I wanted to tag on to the remarks about approaching Board of Visitors that our task group has engaged with several of the nominees for the Naval Academy Board of Visitors and is actively supporting them. So those efforts are complementary and ongoing.
Speaker 1:Great Good to hear Bill, Chris and then Fred Thank you.
Speaker 14:The idea that you all put together with regard to sectional parts of briefings, I think is rock solid and tapping into the number of organizations that are out there. I was a sergeant at arms of a rotary group out here in Honolulu and they meet every week and they're constantly looking for someone to present and it's usually about a 15 minute presentation. So as I've associated with stars more and see where we're going, I'm really thinking that being more proactive and stepping up and getting in their face and saying, hey, do you have need for a presentation on this subject? And not only Rotary, but Qantas and Lions and others. I think it ties into the comment that was made earlier about if we're involved in more than one organization. We may find some commonality in the topics of interest, and I would just suggest that you're really on the right track by having those packages and for us as state leaders to go out there and start talking about it. In that way we might be able to build some new recruits.
Speaker 1:Great Thanks for that reinforcement, chris. Chris gets up at early hours of the day to join our meetings from Hawaii and we appreciate your discipline. Fred, you're up, and then Bud Okay.
Speaker 15:I don't know how many people watched the Senate hearings with the three superintendents. I watched it and I was absolutely disgusted by what I saw. Absolutely disgusted by what I saw. I think the most transparent one of all was West Point General Gilland. He recited the stuff that the Public Affairs Office put together about how wonderful they're doing. It's like the same briefing that I'm going to get in a couple of weeks when I go up for a class reunion and it'll be a big briefing but it won't really say much. It'll say how they're doing such a wonderful job about this, that and the other.
Speaker 15:The problem with that hearing was that every time he said that, if he was the first one, the Naval Academy and then the Air Force Academy just said yeah, we're doing essentially the same thing and they were kind of piggybacking off each other's and they were kind of piggybacking off each other's obfuscation and everybody's evasion and everything else. Not a one of them said at any time that they were doing positive things to actively get rid of DEI. And so the thing that triggered this thought was Rod, when you just said that you've got a good relationship with the Air Force superintendent, I thought he was the weakest of the three. As far as his stand on DEI, he didn't say a thing. I was really quite shocked. I sent out an email to several of you guys just to see what your reaction was, and Rod responded and said he hadn't had a chance to look at it yet. But I hope that a lot of people. If you haven't, go back and look it up you can find it on the Internet, you know how and take a look at that hearing. The other sad part about that hearing was that most of the people there, once they made their own political statement, they got up and left. So the only people that stayed were Tuberville and Warren, and Tuberville talked about sports and Warren attacked Trump and that was about all that happened in that thing.
Speaker 15:To say that there was a hearing that investigated what's happening at the service academies was absolutely false. No truth in it whatsoever from my perspective. I'd like to just quickly mention one other thing. Rod, I'd like to congratulate you and your Unity slate that you got elected to the AOG at the Air Force Academy, and I'd like to remind people I don't know what the Naval Academy's structure is, but I do know that the structure, the way they elect their boards at West Point is a little bit different. So there's not a one size fits all Air Force. You are able to put a group together. That's at large, I presume. At West Point they have three different types of groups that they elect from. They have one by class and the three classes that are coming up toward their upcoming reunion. They are the three classes that are serving. Then they have area. They're divided into six areas around the country and they elect three each year from each of those areas of the country and then they have at large and those are the advisors that advise the smaller board of directors.
Speaker 15:So to do what you did is not very possible at West Point. The same way and I'm just kind of alerting those who might say let's do the same thing every place else I think it's important that something be done, but you're not going to do it by invading the association of graduates with a significant number of like-minded people. It just can't happen. The way it's structured and it's intentionally structured to make it highly represented.
Speaker 15:I'm going up there in a couple of weeks and if I can get a hold of Mark Bigger, the head of the AOG, I'm just going to try and slip a quiet word into his ear that you know it would really be nice if you had some kind of a mechanism up here to listen to concerns that graduates have and filter them and determine whether something should be done, whether that should be passed on or not. I'm going to try a soft sell on him if I get a chance to do that, but again, rod, congratulations to you and the group that got elected at the Air Force Academy. I think you've got a good, solid head start on that and I wish you good luck on it.
Speaker 15:Well thanks for the note.
Speaker 2:Congratulations, fred. And regarding your comments about the Senate hearing, I sent a note to General Bauerfein after the hearing saying that you know, the input I got, quite honestly, from other grads is everyone seemed to think that General Bauerfein seemed to do the best job, with the exception of you, I mean, I didn't go out and seek input and it was random and it's a small sample size, maybe seven or eight people. That said, I communicated to him that we were all disappointed in the too much grandstanding and the lack of clarity in the questions. We thought they could have made a lot more progress.
Speaker 2:Since then, though, we've been back and forth, and just to tell you about our superintendent, if you ever hear him speak, he can't say I'm trying to reinstill a warfighting focus at the Air Force Academy more in one sentence. He does it two or three times every time. I mean, every sentence seems to have the word warfighting in it, so we see that as good news. His requests of the AOG and the foundation is for equipment to put him under more stress so he can have more actual exercises. So he's going along the same route. Just this weekend we were engaged with him on trying to dispel some of the social media posts that were out there saying oh, woe is me, we're going to lose all civilian instructors at the academy. So yeah, we just need to keep the communication and cooperation going. On a positive note, I think.
Speaker 1:Great. Thank you, sir, and thanks Fred, for the inputs there. One more question, and then we'll ask General Bishop for some closing comments, and then Chaplain Baldwin will close it with a blessing.
Speaker 16:Bud, you're up. Okay, Ron, thank you, you can hear me, okay. Yes, loud and clear. Good, well, I just really just wanted to make a comment.
Speaker 16:I'm actually here from North Carolina, retired Brigadier General, and I'm one of the CASAs here in North Carolina and I actually it's only been about three months since I learned about STARS and I just want to say it's great to see an organization like this, because even in my role as CASAs I've been quite concerned about what I was observing from the DEI point of view, and I'm out obviously a lot out in the community point of view, and I'm out obviously a lot out in the community, and so many veterans you know and I can confirm this even with our adjunct general here that the people out there would say you know, I love the Army but I don't want my grandson to join with the way it is now, and so I don't have any doubt even though in some cases I don't think they would admit it, and I made the point several times that our recruiting in the Army was hurt by the DEI because people saw that out here in the community.
Speaker 16:So anyway, I just wanted to kind of introduce myself and let you know I've learned about you. I'm getting your website out to people because I'm out in the communities. In fact, we just had a breakfast this morning with over 700 veterans and I can tell you most veterans saw what was going on in our Army and they knew it had to change. So I just want to thank you all for what you're doing and I'm going to stay a little bit more up to date and engage with you all. So that's just kind of my comment. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity.
Speaker 15:Great Thanks, general, but where are you located in North Carolina? I'm in Cary.
Speaker 16:I'm in Winston-Salem, so I'm the civilian aid secretary for the central area of North Carolina, so I cover Salisbury to basically Raleigh.
Speaker 15:We'll have to get together sometime.
Speaker 16:We'll do that.
Speaker 11:And. I'm over at Flat Rock near Hendersonville.
Speaker 1:Okay, good Thanks, general. We look forward to working with you. Good, what we discovered is, from day one, things just continue to emerge in very positive ways and the talent that's come together is just awesome. I don't think it can be matched anywhere. So with that, I just wanted to share one slide from the American Creed presentation. This is towards the very end and it kind of wraps it all up, and it's got a picture of Antonio Gramsci, and the bullets on the slide for observations are the Marxist ideological infiltration has affected K through 12 universities, media and the courts.
Speaker 1:The long march through the institutions, which I'm sure you all heard of before. That was from Gramsci, but here's what he said in 1915. Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. In the new order, socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media, by transforming the consciousness of society. And earlier in the brief we talk about, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission criticized the concept of colorblindness. It's far better to be color conscious is what they were promoting and it was purely Marxist. And the other quote from Gramsci the civilized world has been thoroughly saturated with Christianity for 2,000 years. Any country grounded in Judeo-Christian values cannot be overthrown until those roots are cut. But to cut the roots, to change culture, a long march through the institutions is necessary, and that's what we've been up against. And I'll tell you what we're having an impact in terms of stemming it and we're going to defeat it, no doubt in my mind. So with that, I'm going to ask General Bishop for some closing remarks, and then Chaplain Baldwin to close it out.
Speaker 2:Well, Ron, I'm glad you put the chaplain after me because I'm not sure I can top what you just said. But yeah, let me thank everybody for attending once again, and for Shu and Chase. I see Matt had to leave us, Joe, for your talks. As I was listening to you, Churchill popped into my head and his quote this is not the end, not even the beginning of the end, and I think that's the message that was sent to all of us today, especially by Shue and Chase.
Speaker 2:At STARS we have a number of little acronyms. They're not acronyms, but sayings we often use Listen to your people, Engage, engage, engage. Don't put off to tomorrow, until what you can do today. It's pretty clear to all of us sitting through this. I think, that the DEI monster is not dead. As Matt said at that town hall, with then candidate Trump, that monster's head will probably raise again. And what do we do to keep it from ever entering our Department of Defense again? And the way we do it is just engagement from all of us.
Speaker 2:As you can see, we're moving our mission a little bit from education yes, education still has to be a part because, shoot, I just ran into people this week that said what's DEI? I mean people don't understand what has happened to our society and certainly to our military, and I've expressed it lately that maybe we are seeing the beginning of the end of DEI in these executive orders, but it certainly isn't eradicated yet. And if the collective, we are going to take a part in that eradication mission, I maintain that we have to be asked, and so far we haven't been asked. Otherwise we're kind of like the East German Stasi, looking around spying and you know sending stuff up hoping somebody will grab a hold of it, and you know sending stuff up hoping somebody will grab a hold of it.
Speaker 2:We got where we are today, I think, by very good communication with our now Secretary of Defense, through Matt and through us, Mike Waltz, members of Congress. They all got it. But going forward, there's more that we can do. Again, we just have to be asked and I think we're going to need some resources. So with that I'll say thanks again for attending, Thanks again for what you'll do for the mission in the future and, Chaplain Baldwin, we're so proud to have you as our STARS. Chaplain, Please close us out.
Speaker 8:Thank you, general Bishop. Let us pray Almighty God, you're great and greatly to be praised. We live in challenging days and we need your help and we need your guidance. We thank you for this holy season of Passover and Easter. We celebrate with great joy and thankfulness that we live in a country that we can stand unashamed and proclaim the truth. We thank you for the privilege of blessing living in America. We thank you for our president and the national leadership. Guide them, give them your wisdom. We thank you for stars. Keep us vigilant. Thank you for stars, keep us vigilant. We pray especially for Matt Lohmeyer, that you will give him wisdom and bless his family and protect them and use them for your glory. Help us always to wake up, stand up, speak up and never give up, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. Thank you everyone.