Interview with Maj. General Bentley Rayburn, STARRS Chairman of the Board

A fighter pilot’s logbook tells one story; the culture that shaped the pilot tells the rest. STARRS & Stripes host CDR Al Palmer, USN ret, sits down with the new STARRS Chairman of the Board: retired Air Force Major General Bentley Rayburn—F‑4 and F‑16 veteran, former USAFA cadet wing commander (class of 1975), and Air Force Doctrine Center leader—to explore how a lifetime in uniform forged Gen. Rayburn's views on leadership, character, and what truly sets a service academy apart. From early days flying the Phantom over the Mediterranean to directing joint operations and shaping doctrine, Gen. Rayburn shares lessons that connect cockpit decisions to classroom standards and the oath we all take.

We get specific about what builds officers who thrive under pressure: a 24/7 military culture, not just lectures; mentors who model integrity; and training that keeps warfighting at the center. Gen. Rayburn makes the case that selection metrics like GPA and test scores are easy to count but miss the trait that predicts the most—character. We talk about how to cultivate and assess it, and why Academy faculty composition and daily squadron life matter more than campus amenities. The conversation moves from the Academy’s changing culture to the practical realities of today’s force: recruiting shortfalls, fitness and academic gaps, and how prep pathways can raise readiness without lowering the bar.

We also discuss DEI, politicization, and the fallout from COVID-era policies in the military through a simple lens: merit, mission, and trust. That’s where STARRS "The American Creed Threatened by Radical Indoctrination" presentation comes in, grounding service in a shared understanding of the US Constitution and civic principles. When troops know what their oath means, decision-making under stress gets clearer, and cohesion improves.

If you care about military readiness, officer development, and how to rebuild trust without buzzwords, this one’s for you. Hear a seasoned commander explain what to fix, what to keep, and how to align training, talent, and teaching with the mission. If the message resonates, consider being a part of STARRS--read articles on our website, sign up for our mailing list, and financially support our ongoing mission.

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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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Transcript

Introducing Gen. Rayburn

Al Palmer 0:12

Well, hello America, and welcome back to STARRS and Stripes. This is your host, Commander Al Palmer, United States Navy retired. And I have got a very special guest today. Today with me is our new chairman of the board, Major General Bentley Rayburn. He's an Air Force retired Major General. He's a 1975 graduate of the Air Force Academy and was actually a cadet wing commander during his senior year. So he knows everything that we need to know about the Air Force Academy, which is a favorite subject around here. But he's also been a command pilot with over 3,000 hours in various kinds of fighter and training aircraft, including the F-4 Phantom that I used to fly, F-16s and AT-6s, I'm sorry, AT-37s and T-38s. General Rayburn also is commanded at several levels of command and led combat missions over southern Iraq, enforcing UN sanctions against our old buddy Saddam Hussein, and was the senior battle staff commander during Operation Allied Force, directing joint operations over Serbia and Kosovo. His very distinguished career culminated as a commander of the Air Force Doctrine Center in Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. And that's where we get all the wisdom about how we operate as an Air Force. And so General Rayburn, welcome back to our command and College of the Air here on the Stars and Stripes podcast. Welcome aboard, sir.

Bentley Rayburn 2:01

Thanks, Al. It's great to be with you. It's always nice to talk to a fellow F F-4 Phantom driver, so it's great to talk.

Al Palmer 2:09

Hey, listen, well, listen, but we we had to have two engines, unlike our F-105 guys. So that helped us stay in the air, I guess, sir, a little bit. So while we're on that subject, uh, would you please tell us a little bit about how you got roped into being in the Air Force and a little bit about your aviation career, which is stunning. Uh, I know our audience will uh enjoy that, as I know I will.

F-4 To F-16: Early Ops And IP

Bentley Rayburn 2:36

Well, my uh dad uh was an army chaplain in the tail end of World War II and in Korea and had some pretty amazing uh experiences. Uh his first jump uh as a paratrooper uh was north of Seoul, behind the lines with the 187th Regimental Combat Team, and he had never jumped before, and that's one of the few ways you can get your jump wings is to jump in combat. So I always held my dad in great respect for a number of things, but very much so for his uh military service. And uh so I was always kind of attracted to that and also to flying. Uh we have a uh summer cabin out here in Colorado, and so as I was growing up, I was well aware of the Air Force Academy, and uh they just kind of all came together when I was a junior in high school and decided to apply, and uh very fortunate to be accepted into the class in 1975. Um I enjoyed, um I really enjoyed my academy experience. Uh I was a uh math major. I played on the intercollegiate soccer team and was also involved with uh cadet leadership positions. Uh, you mentioned that I had the great privilege of being the cadet wing commander my senior year. Uh just like uh for those who are familiar with West Point, that would be uh equivalent to the um uh to the I guess it's the group captain or the uh the senior uh uh cadet at the military academy. And uh so uh that kind of uh started my career. I wanted to go f wanted to fly airplanes and was uh fortunate enough to be selected for pilot training. And after a year of pilot training, uh I checked out in the F-4 Phantom and then was off on our first operational tour in Spain at Torrehon Air Base, which uh uh now is not an active uh Air Force air base, but um we spent uh time all around the Mediterranean. We had operations in uh Aviano, Italy, and also in Injer, Turkey. Uh so it was a great assignment for me. I finished that and uh went to uh work for the Secretary of the Air Force for a little over a year. I was privileged enough to get a uh master's degree from Georgetown at the time, and then uh able to transition to the F-16 at Hill Air Force Base, and it was in the early days of the F-16, and it was just a really great assignment uh uh there at Hill Air Force Base. So uh that's how I got into the F-16.

First Leadership Lessons After Graduation

Al Palmer 5:32

Getting paid more to go uh fast and burn fuel, right? Yeah. So so were you were you uh probably an IP there? Instructor Power? I was an I yeah, I was an IP at uh by the time I left Torrehon, I was uh uh an IP and what we called a supervisor of flying. And because the air the weather was a little bit better in in Spain than it was in Germany, a lot of my classmates who ended up in in Germany uh had to fight uh weather, and so it was harder to get your time and get qualified in some of the advanced qualifications. So I was very fortunate, privileged to be stationed in Spain and and get uh advanced in my uh checkouts. Well, I know that's uh that's a tough assignment I can imagine being in Spain, yes. So so but as as you were doing that as a younger guy, you even though you came from a service family as I did, uh what did you learn about leadership that you that surprised you when you got in after after the academy and when you're out there flying every day? What surprised you about leadership that you discovered?

Bentley Rayburn 6:51

Well, I you know, one of the things that I we saw right off the bat uh when we got to pilot training, I can recall a uh commander's call that was held in the uh in the theater there where I was uh in pilot training, and the senior commander was saying things uh uh in terms of uh what he wanted done, and I and I kind of uh bumped my classmate and said, We learned not to we learn not to do that when we're at the Air Force Academy. So um the the kind of leadership training that we got as cadets uh I thought was all through my career, I I reflected back on things that I learned at the academy and uh was was pleased that I learned those fundamental lessons early in my career rather than learning them by mistakes and uh in tough situations later on.

Faculty Culture And Military Instruction

Al Palmer 8:00

And and in in the 70s, you still had a lot of the faculty was coming out, was was Air Force, right? It wasn't all civilian uh instruction.

Bentley Rayburn 8:10

No, in fact, uh in uh when we were there and for the years prior and for a number of years after, uh I rem we had one civilian faculty member. He was a Foreign Service officer from the State Department and taught in the political science uh department. And we had uh a number of international officers, mostly in the languages department, and we had one uh Brit who taught in the uh poli sci department as well. So uh even though they were international officers, they were still military officers and still understood military culture. And uh uh and and so when you transitioned from uh from the day-to-day into the classroom, the culture didn't change because it was still a military culture. And that that was that was key, I think, and and still is one of the important things to consider as we look at uh our present situation with academics and the faculty at uh not only at the academies, but uh in a lot of the military schools that we have.

Al Palmer 9:20

Yeah, and and in recent years, you know, depending on which academy, it's been between like the uh 20 and 40 percent of the professors are from East Coast uh Ivy League schools mostly.

What Makes Academies Distinct

Bentley Rayburn 9:35

Yeah, when the uh Air Force Academy uh was kind of told to that they needed to have civilian prep professors, the uh dean at the time uh brought in civilians, but but they were almost exclusively retired military officers. So again, the culture in the classroom didn't change that much. And then later on, it was it was said, well no, you can't you need you need to have real civilians. People have never been in the military, and and that's when the culture started to change, in my opinion. And and uh I haven't done extensive research by any means, but um a lot of anecdotal research tells me that that's the case. And it seems that maybe we're heading back in that direction, hopefully, where we get more active duty guys and gals coming in uh to teach well it's it yeah, it's it's crucial because when you look at the academies uh particularly you you've got to s ask yourselves, okay, well, I've served with a lot of just wonderful uh ROTC and OTS grads. And so if we're gonna spend all of this money uh on the academies, why is it uh that we should, and what makes the academies fundamentally different? And of course, you can you can get a math degree and like I did at the academy, you can get one at Colorado University in Boulder, you can get an aeronautical degree all over the place. So it's not necessarily the academics per se, um, but it's this it's this culture that I uh I talk about. And uh it's not only in the classroom, but it's in the uh in squadron life, it's down on the athletic fields, uh it's out on the playground. The culture is what's critically important in in um in building the academies that make them fundamentally different uh than the than an ROTC unit at a civilian university.

Warfighting Focus Versus Campus Comforts

Al Palmer 11:47

I remember uh uh about ten years ago, uh one of my uh squadron mates, uh Ron Olds, who's on our board, uh we headed up a reunion we did there in Colorado Springs. I went out to the academy and hung out there for a while. And I remember we had a briefing one day by uh a uh Brigadier General who was on the staff out there. And during that, it was really great because I talked a lot about academic achievement, the focus again on culture and and uh honesty and you know being a good leader. What Ron and I both uh did was we asked a question or two about that's great, we can be all be budgeteers, we can be human resource type officers, we we can be out in a squadron somewhere flying, but the one thing that's missing in that we thought at the time was the war fighting experience, teaching people how to be war fighters, which which is one of the primary reasons, of course, why we do leadership, and particularly in the military. That was noticeably absent at the time. It was a time also when they were bringing more diverse uh elements of the culture in, and uh and and that was perhaps focusing on that, but they were willing to put a Starbucks into one of the areas of the academy instead of making it a place where you know you could go study and learn a little bit about the history of the Air Force and the military. So we we kind of objected to that a little bit at the time. Hopefully that's now kind of gone away a little bit.

Bentley Rayburn 13:27

Yeah, I don't know the uh the exact situation on the ground in all aspects, but um, of course, when when I was there back in the 70s, uh you had to go into a uh uh an operational combat assignment of some sort, whether you were rated as a pilot or navigator or something else, you went into uh combat logistics or whatnot. Now, uh I don't think that that's a requirement these days, uh, but that needs to be debated uh again as to why we have these academies and uh what's the purpose and what kind of officers do we want to produce out of our academies.

Why We Keep Serving After Retirement

Al Palmer 14:10

Well, that's quite an experience, and I know that set the tone for what would follow for you. Um but now that you're retired and and had such an enormously broad experience in the military, uh we're now doing all this again. And as my wife says, why? What are you guys doing doing this? You should be retired, you should be playing golf or fishing or riding a boat around somewhere. I said, honey, I already had enough boat time thanks in the Navy. But uh but when when you when you get back out and look at it, as Cindy and I were talking about earlier, there is this feeling again about people like us who have been there and done it, uh being able to just do something different in life. But here we are back again trying to help out where we can. And this is what's I think so important about stars and what gets me going is there's there's a wealth of opportunity, and as we used to say, you know, it's targets of opportunity. We get to be able to choose some of the things that we think we can do to make life a little bit better for our folks in the military, as well as the general society that we uh are very uh much a small part of, but I think we can do a lot to educate them, and that's another one of the big missions, of course, of STARS. So, so sir, where do you think that's going now that you're gonna be taking the reins? Uh, how are we gonna do some of that, do you think?

Civics Gaps And Youth Readiness

Bentley Rayburn 15:39

Well, just uh just to comment a bit about what you just said. You know, we're all of us in STARS, and so many of our classmates and and those colleagues that we work with in the military, you know, we're dedicated to uh the country and to um to our services. We took an oath uh and uh that oath hasn't expired, didn't have an expiration date on it. So I think we're all very much dedicated to doing what we can to help our country and our services as we see them today and how they've changed over the over the years. And so really, when I think about stars and when I think about the great uh folks that are involved in uh in this effort, along with uh our sister uh groups uh at West Point, the MacArthur Society, and at uh the Naval Academy, the Calvert Task Group, so many um both uh military and and some non-military folks as well, who are as dedicated to seeing the country move or move along a path um that is in cons that is consistent with uh the the thinking and uh the philosophies of our founders and our our founding documents, that our declaration or constitution. And uh we I think collectively of all of the people that I've talked to and have worked with and stars and and the other groups, uh we're we're still 100% dedicated to making sure that the country stays on track with those uh fundamental fundamental uh documents and uh uh and philosophies.

Al Palmer 17:35

And so one place you probably notice that more these days is the younger generations coming along now seem to be less tuned into some of that than than certainly we were when we were younger, but in some cases that was a little bit longer than it should have been in the past. But uh I think the kids coming along today are not getting the exposure to that with the founding fathers, with our uh civics, with our history, and particularly with the military and what's happened. Sometimes that can give you a pretty bad reputation just because people are regurgitating things they've heard instead of the things that they have experienced. And so uh, do you see that as a challenge that stars can attack?

American Creed And Education Efforts

Recruiting, Readiness, And Prep Programs

Bentley Rayburn 18:21

Oh, I think it very much is a challenge that we need to attack. Um we've looked at a number of things, and we're all very well familiar how different elementary and high school education is in our country today than it was certainly when uh I went through my primary and uh and high school experience uh back in the late 60s and and very early 70s. And um we got a lot of I I mean, I just came from a kind of an average uh public high school, but back then, you know, we we studied all that stuff in uh social studies and and civics class and so on. And so I think when I went to the academy, I I I may not have had the absolutely best uh education on those kinds of top topics, but I had a solid background uh when I got to the academy, and and you know, we all took an oath to support and defender the constitution. Well, that's really important, but he you probably ought to need to know what's in that constitution that you're raising your hand and swearing that you're going to uh to abide by. And uh I'm afraid that your your average uh uh you know youngster or teenager coming out of high school today, I think if we were to give them a relatively easy test on the Constitution may not do do very well. Uh so that's one of the things that uh we've been looking at hard at STARS, as as you well know, Al, is uh how can we help uh this whole uh challenge of educating our kids and where what can STARS do uh to to help that effort? And I think uh everything from some of the uh programs that we put together, like uh this briefing on the American Creed, which talks about America and where we what are those founding documents that we that we stand on and what do they what ought they mean to us today and in 2026? Uh those kinds of efforts are helpful. And Al, I think you also well know, as the uh as we've talked about in STARS a lot, uh you know, the Army and uh Navy particularly and the Air Force as well over the last couple of years has really had a uh recruiting challenge. And it was tough to get enough recruits into the services. Uh since the Trump administration came on, we've been very fortunate that we've been able to meet recruiting goals. But we found that uh particularly in the Army and to a lesser extent, probably the Navy, that uh it's great to have these young people sign up for the military, but we found also that they're they're not really ready to be in the not all of them, but uh uh an important percentage are not really ready to be in the military. Either they're not in in good physical condition, or probably more importantly, um they're they're lacking some of the basic educational things that that they need. And so uh I do know that the Army's considering putting putting together a uh a program to help these uh young people coming into the military to beef up some of the things in the areas that they're weak in so that they really can succeed once they get into the service and then. The uniform.

Merit, DEI, And Character Assessment

Al Palmer 22:02

Yeah, it's sort of like some of the programs we've had in the past where we prepare, they go through a prep school and they learn a little bit about that just to get them up speed. And I do think that's something we can help with where we can. But in a larger sense, there's also issues that went with the old DEI business that had to do with uh accountability and leadership. Uh, and one of those is, I mean, if you've got things going wrong in your organization, which all organizations have to some degree, but if you don't come come to terms with that and find good solutions to it, it's hard then to get people to follow you as a good leader if you can't recognize some of those things. And I think there's been a big change in that that goes kind of hand in hand with retention and recruiting, also. Uh so I think we're making some good progress there. Uh, what are your thoughts on that?

Military Families As A Talent Pipeline

Bentley Rayburn 23:04

Well, I I'd agree. I think we have made some uh real important progress, uh, particularly in making sure that uh the services are focused on on merit and um and bringing in uh the folks that are that are the best we can find out there in our communities and and across the country. Um the interesting thing, particularly for the academies, I I find, is that um, you know, when you're selecting a class for the academy or you're selecting people to come into the military, it's fairly easy to put numbers against GPAs or uh SAT uh course or uh or even some sorts of leadership uh things, whether they were involved in scouting or whether they were uh in athletic teams and so on and so forth. And of course, the academy and any or large organization, they they like to put a number against those things and add the numbers up and figure out who's who's the right person to select next. The problem is, in my opinion, the most important thing that we need to assess, but it is the absolutely hardest thing to put a number against it against is character. And so um you want you we want to pick the the young people who have the highest levels of character and um and dedication and and maturity, and and those are hard things to assess and and put a number against when you're trying to select for whether it's the the academies or ROTC or or any of the um not only the commissioning uh programs, but also just in general, people coming into the services.

STARS Beyond DEI And COVID Cases

Al Palmer 25:07

Well, and they do, and they and they should have a commitment to it, which is pretty strong, especially in the officer ranks, because that's where the leadership takes its probably most visible action uh most of the time. And I found uh and and like like you being a service brat, being a part of the military family at a younger age does kind of condition you. You see it up close, you know how people in the military live, because that's the way your family lived, right? And and you were exposed to other people who had some interesting ideas that related to that smaller world, perhaps. So by the time that you get to be of age going into the military, that's been a that's been a prime recruiting group to get people to be able to assimilate in a way uh that others, perhaps, and and the 99% that don't have families related to the military work in. Uh and yeah, it's different than going to work at IBM or Amazon, uh, getting shot at or having to put yourself on a crowded flight deck or having to go out in the jungle and spend weeks out there in a tent is something that's not for the faint of heart. And yet the people who have come from families I've found, uh they they gravitate toward that pretty easily. And I think for the long run, those end up being the people who are the career people and special officers that we need to uh effectively run the operation. Uh, what do you think about that?

Focusing Mission And Influence

Bentley Rayburn 26:43

Well, I agree completely. I mean, I look at my own uh family, particularly my kids, growing up in a military environment and moving around every couple of years. And I just I remember kind of with some amusement, uh, my older daughter uh when she was in high school coming up and kind of asking, uh, well, hey, when are we gonna move again? You know, not that uh she was not that it was some terrible thing and she didn't want to move at all, but it was just kind of time to move. And so, hey, when are we when are we gonna move next and where are we going? Uh and of course, uh they all look back on their experience growing up as military brats, and uh they've got friends that uh range all uh all across the country and and even to to some degree the world. Um so uh yeah, it's a it's a great life, and uh and we've all found that a lot of our uh officers and enlisted folks sign up because uh they come from military families, and it's something that they're you it's a culture they're used to, it's a culture that they that they like, um, and uh they want to serve themselves.

Al Palmer 28:06

And they find a home. Uh it's like being in a family after a while as you get used to life in the military, and I think it has some very positive aspects to it. And hopefully we're we're getting back to some of that too. And least and and least uh of all to not forget is the wives uh who tend to keep us straight, keep things at home going when we're all gone someplace. Uh and that's that's a tough job that I think most people don't understand very well.

Positive Solutions And Messaging

Bentley Rayburn 28:37

Right. And uh I I mentioned it's kind of funny just uh just because a lot of people don't know it, but I mentioned the term brat, and and we kind of use it um uh as a term of endearment. Uh and it's pretty it's pretty clear that uh it actually stood for something at one time. Uh I think we got it from the Brits, and it was a it was a uh British regimental uh uh attached traveler, was a brat. Basically it was uh Yeah, so basically it was people who uh were traveling with and uh we would call it a PCS, traveling with the uh the officer. And but we picked it up and and it's become a kind of a term of endearment for our kids. Uh and they they gave they take great pride in calling themselves brats.

Al Palmer 29:32

Well, they do. I I I've got relatives and uh and even family members, brothers and uh uncles and stuff, uh, who went through that also. But it but it really moved them to higher levels when they actually got into the service. Uh and I I think that's something we needed to maybe find a way to concentrate more on. Um well, let's see. But here's here's something I think I'd like to have you uh examine with me a little bit. STARS became almost famous for our countering DEI and eliminat some of the aspects of just the politicization of the services, which I think we all would agree in some ways we shouldn't be, but as uh our our uh president uh Ron Scott reminds me of from time to time, uh it is it is politics in a way, and discussing things that are problems for people. So that's what we've been able to do, I think, a lot in STARS. Uh, but now that we're kind of passing some of that, we've got some new challenges that uh I'll I'll be happy to have you go into about so where do we go from here? Uh what what's our core mission, our core values now? Has that changed or is it just increasing? Uh how's that going?

Partnerships, Resources, And Fundraising

Donate, Volunteer, And Stay Informed

Bentley Rayburn 30:57

Well, Al, you know, that's an important, very important question because um, as you mentioned, we kind of started with the whole aspect of DEI, particularly. We were originally focused uh uh almost exclusively in those first months and uh better part of a year on DEI at the United States Air Force Academy. And uh we, you know, in our the title of Standing Together Against Radicalism and Racism in the Services, we also looked at this whole notion of radicalism, and we we realized that uh as we got into the COVID the whole COVID area era and we recognized what was happening to people who weren't able to get uh rational and and reasonable um uh you know religious exemptions and and and things like that, and we and we understood how uh bad this the whole uh COVID uh philosophies were, uh we we kind of picked that job up as well as stars. And then uh after COVID's done, you know, we've been working hard on trying to get uh these folks who were so terribly hurt by the COVID policies, get them uh either back into the service or uh recognized that uh they were treated unfairly and improperly and and so on. Uh so that that's not gonna go away. And and while um DEI, for example, may not be on the front burner like it was when Secretary Hegseth came into the Department of War, uh it's still there, and it's it's sometimes it's buried in our educational institutions and and the way we deal with others. So we can't give up on uh those issues. And and we're working, we're continuing to work hard on this, uh the COVID issues. Uh our general counsel is very involved with uh with a large number of cases that deal with uh COVID remuneration to uh for folks who are uh unjustly hurt by the policy. But as we as we don't uh we don't set those aside in any way and we and we keep focused on them, we realize we we also have some other challenges. And we've talked already about uh this whole effort in in education and uh what can stars do with regard to uh to that influencing uh uh the education of folks coming into our military. And then uh other issues that uh are that uh that are critical to you know the effectiveness not only of the academies but of our services as well. So uh I think SARS is, you know, we're we're always wrestling with uh there's a there's a enormous number of things that we could be working on, but you can take on too much and then be ineffective. So we're always wrestling with, okay, well, what is our core mission and what what we what can we focus on that we can actually make some progress uh with the the contacts that we have, the ability to influence uh the the leadership and so on, uh not only in the services, but in the political realm as well.

Al Palmer 34:44

And it and it seems that uh the more that we try to do that, the larger we see that there's problems there. You're right, that we're kind of beyond us for some things. But I think that the uh ability that we've had, particularly with taking on the American creed and posing that as a solution, a positive solution to a problem, is a really good way to go. And it seems that people really are responding to that well. Uh and at the same time, we're trying here on our podcasts and other things we do publicly to let people know the pitfalls of not doing it right and and and getting into things that drag out and interfere with progress, particularly in the military. Uh so I think we're on, I think we're getting onto a very good track here. And uh Yeah, I'd agree, Al.

Bentley Rayburn 35:49

We're just taking some baby steps now as we kind of develop this thing and we develop some other ideas how we might influence the young high schoolers who may be thinking about the uh academies and so on and so forth. Uh so we'll we'll we'll flush those flesh those out uh uh in the uh months to come uh because you gotta start somewhere and your podcast, uh the ability to get uh people to write uh important uh editorials or or articles or whatever and get those into into um uh venues that people will read and and pass on. Uh you know, just the ability that to load stuff up on X and then see that the uh Secretary of War, you know, retweets it. I mean that that's really uh just ways to get our message out to a much broader audience. And so we'll continue to build on that and work on that and figure out what's the best way that we can influence decision makers about these key issues that we're facing.

Al Palmer 37:02

Well, it certainly is important work, General. And I know we've got a pretty deep bench, I think, in my own personal opinion, uh, of people who can and have done that before. And uh no lack of good ideas, no lack of uh enthusiasm to do it. Of course, one of the things that sometimes gets in the way is if you take on a lot of new things, you've got to have new resources, right, to do it. It's just like being a squadron commander or something. Hey, I I only got 11 airplanes here, I need 14. Uh well, sorry, you don't get two more. We're gonna, I know, focus on raising funds and getting integrated with other institutions who are like-minded as we are, who may have some expertise and an ability to kind of link up with. I think that's gonna be a a good challenge to take on because uh we've got what it takes, I think, to get it done. We just have to kind of concentrate a little bit on the resources to take care of it.

Bentley Rayburn 38:05

Well, yeah, you're right again, Al, because uh while uh all of us in leadership and so on are are volunteers and we're doing this uh uh pro bono, we've we do have uh expenses. Everything from uh our website uh to um the folks that who are doing essential uh administrative work for us to make sure that our message gets out. Um we uh we have some uh pretty significant monthly bills that we need to make. So if uh if if people on this that are listening to our podcast are in agreement and uh and want to help out, uh we would love to have that uh that kind of financial help, whether it's uh just a couple of dollars or or a large contribution. And I just tell you to go to our website, stars with two Rs, s t-A-R-R-S.us, and help us out.

Al Palmer 39:08

Yes, and and that's a great way for people to join the effort without having to leave home and go out in the sled in the middle of the winter time. They can do it right online somewhere, and we'd encourage them to do that. Well, General Issa, it's been a great thing.

Bentley Rayburn 39:25

Let me just say, Al let me just say, Al, that uh I would really encourage people to look at our our website if they haven't already, um stars.us, because there is a wealth of information on the issues that we're working on. Um the American uh Creed is in there, uh and a lot of just really good, solid information. And it's updated all the time, every day, and with new material and stuff. So I just really uh commend uh our website uh to people who who don't know STARS very well and uh and to everybody who is involved in SARS to keep checking it every day because there's there's crucial information that's put on on our website each day.

Closing Reflections And Call To Help

Al Palmer 40:18

And and for those that do have some spare time, uh they can also volunteer as a as a member of their state team, uh, or else if they've got a special uh occupation that is needed by us, the we're happy to have them do that as well. And they can do that also on the website. Well, sir, listen, it's so great talking to you. Thank you for being able to take the helm here and guide our ship through the waters that lie ahead, uh as I would say as an old Navy squib. Uh uh, but uh our work is important and uh we enjoy doing it, which is why we're here. And uh we're uh we're already here to to serve you and the leadership here as we go forward. So thanks very much for uh guiding us.

Bentley Rayburn 41:10

Well, thanks for having me, Alan. I uh really appreciate you and your podcast, and just uh just one more way to get our message out and to engage people uh in a in a venue that uh they like. And uh so I commend it, commend you for that, and uh just encourage everybody to uh get on board with stars. We're we're we've got some big challenges in front of us. We've got a lot of work to do, but it's important work for the country, and that's why we're all here doing it.

Al Palmer 41:43

We all we are indeed, sir, and thank you so much. And for our listeners, uh this is just another example of a little more in-depth look at the kind of people who are doing this sort of work and trying to keep our military and our country on a path to success. But I'd only suggest that you may want to go back and take a look at some things in your own history, your own families, and realize how important that's been to where you are today. And we can certainly use your help. Uh so stay tuned here. We'll do more of this on our podcast. And for now, uh, we're just gonna say goodbye, and we'll see you next time around for another edition of Stars and Stripes.