America's Legacy of Courage: Colonel Trey Morriss on DOOM 34

As America celebrates 250 years of Freedom and independence, be inspired by the story of Colonel Trey Morriss, Author of the new book DOOM 34. He recounts those harrowing first hours and the overall mission and impact that was part of an incredible secret 35-Hour Mission that launched Desert Storm. Brad Jurkovich and Col. Morriss discuss not only this amazing secret mission but what it means to be a part of the legacy of courage and faith that has been a part of America’s story from it’s very beginning.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Well, I'm so glad to be here today on the Brad Djerkovich podcast, and we've got a very special guest with everything going around America. 250 years of our celebration. There's a lot to celebrate, and I'm so thankful to have as my special guest today, Colonel Trey Morris' brand new book, Incredible Story, served in our nation's Air Force for years. And sir, it's great to have you here today on the on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Truly both my pleasure and my honor to be here, Pastor Brad. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Well, thank you. This is really cool. We're going to get to your story and your book uh in just a few minutes. But the bottom line is you have served our country uh how many years, by the way?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

31 years. Wow, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

It really is. And in the Air Force.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Yep. 31 years wearing the uniform, and now uh by the way, seven years as a government service employee. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you're good.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I love it. I love it. And so this is amazing. I I'm just kind of curious. Where did you grow up? Where did you grow up?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Northwest Arkansas, God's country. Yes. Yes. Like Fettville? You have roots there, yes. Springdale, Arkansas.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Oh my gosh. That's fantastic. Yeah. Um, so you grew up there and just out of out of high school said, I want to join military, or what did that?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Uh set very deep early in life. So I have a grandfather flew B-24s and B-29s in World War II, an uncle that flew B-17s as a gunner in World War II, and then an uncle that's uh chief master sergeant in the Air Force, and also a master sergeant uncle in the in the Army, Vietnam War veteran. Wow. You know, decor highly decorated both of them. So I had this DNA already inside of my family for military service.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

So was that just like out of high school? You just said I'm going in. Is that how that works?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

So uh high school, yeah. I was uh a fairly good uh distance runner, middle distance runner. So I I did uh run that in uh for University of Arkansas. So I got my degree, didn't do the Rotzy thing, the R O T C thing inside there. So I I decided to focus on on school, kinda. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you, I hear you. And then and then uh you know, then running track and field there for the University of Arkansas, John McDonald there. So that was a a a really that's a storied program there.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Story all by itself. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

But yeah, right after I graduated, OTS, and then and then uh on the public service and military service in the Air Force.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

You know, Trey, it's interesting. My friend, when I was graduating high school, okay, I graduated in '91, which is gonna be an interesting time frame for your story in just a moment. But um I graduated high school, and my friend was like, hey, and I lived in Southern California. He said, I'm going to the Marines. And he said, you know, you can go with me on the buddy system. And Trey, I'm gonna be honest with you, I really thought that was like, yeah, I'll be your buddy, and I'll send you care packages and let's but Trey, that is not what the buddy system is. What did it mean to go like all in with you? I was like, bro, I'll pray for you. You're gonna do great. And so he did. He did great. But anyway, um, so that's pretty amazing. You just said, I'm I'm gonna go in, but that is quite a legacy as well. You said even back in World War II.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Yeah, all the way back to World War II. Yeah. You know, combat missions over Europe, both of again, my grandfather and my uncle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

The just speaking of that, I'm just kind of curious. The the uh series that came out a couple years ago um on the bombing or the Mighty Eighth and all that.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

The Masters of the Air Series. Masters of the Air Series, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah. That was amazing. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Super amazing. And Melody, my my wife and I, we both uh embraced that story. I mean, her father was she's kind of at the end of a long line of siblings, and her father was a Vietnam, I'm sorry, World War II veteran. Her father was a World War II veteran. Wow. So we really embraced that story, and yeah, and uh we'd become friends with uh John Lucky Luckadu, who was not in the movie, but he was uh actually a consultant. Oh my gosh, a consultant to the movie. And we'd become friends with him a couple years prior to that movie coming out.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, I I'm just saying when you were talking about World War II, I was glad that that series came out because it was people needed to understand what the the bombing heritage and how critical that was.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Such a story, yes, and and part of our country's DNA defending freedom.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

I make this joke a little bit every now and then, and but it's true. I mean, Eighth Air Force and what we did over the skies of Europe is really why the people of the United Kingdom don't speak German.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

That is amazing. I mean, really.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

It is.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

And they'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Yeah. Well, I I I'm just curious. So this this journey, you get into the the Air Force, and what happened next? I mean, like you were in there for a few years before we went into combat, or what was it for you?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Oh, yeah, so well, if you count the Cold War, we were in combat in from that context right away. Okay. I mean, during the late 80s when I came in 1987, uh, and I arrived here at Barksdale in November of 1987 and started again my my story connected to this community and to into that base. Yeah. Uh, you know, 24-7-365, we are doing the nuclear deterrence mission. Wow. So to answer your question as far as kinetic combat or active combat, yeah, it was about it was about five years from entering the Air Force till we're we're uh flying this record-setting 35-hour mission that we talked about in the book.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

And Trey, let's let's talk about that because for years you probably couldn't talk about it, right? Yes. Wasn't there a lot of this that was classified?

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Oh, yeah, for a full year we couldn't mention it at all. Wow. Nothing. It was a full information blackout, highly classified, even above the top secret level. And people ask us, yeah, there are there are levels even above top secret. Yeah. And that mission was was that. And then there were components of it that that really to this day are still not declassified.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Amazing. So again, a lot of our listeners too, they're gonna, you know, such a pivotal, tragic scenario on 9-11, and we go into that conflict with Iraq. But this is about 10, 11 years before that, where, like I said, when I was graduating high school in '91, I remember President George H.W. Bush, right, you know, saying, hey, we're going to war uh in uh no, not Kuwait, um, with Iraq.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

And Saddam Hussein. So I'm just trying to set some of the context there because that was that was a big deal. Right. I mean that's what you were entered into. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

And he makes that famous the address to the nation, like at nine o'clock Eastern time in my fellow Americans to let us know that we'd entered into this conflict.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

And that was was that January 91?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

January 16th, 1991. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

And so why why is that so important for you? Because this was like you were right on the cusp of this thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Oh, absolutely. So, I mean, this was months of buildup after Saddam had invaded Kuwait in August of 1990. Okay. So H. W. Bush built this tremendous, unprecedented coalition of nations to force them out of Kuwait. Yeah. The deadline was January 15th. So that's what the book really talks about is this mission of seven B-52s, 57 airmen flying 14,000 miles by the numbers, by the way, right? Wow. Uh 35 plus hours, record-setting mission at the time. Uh it has since been surpassed. But that record stood for 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

And it still stands as the longest combat mission for a B-52.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

So when you say, let's just break that down just for a moment, all right? I want to get into the whole story, but 35 hours in a B-52. In a B-52. Now, when we talk about a B-52, or we're talking where you can just kind of get up and walk around and hang out and you're cooking meals in the back of the airplane.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Exactly. No, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

You guys are like, I mean, it's what people don't realize, and I've gotten to get, you know, I've gotten to go inside and be I mean, it's an amazing aircraft.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Yeah, the first thing anybody says, and you I'm sure you said this, when you when you see the outside of the airplane that's so large, I mean 187-foot wingspan, gigantic, and the first thing you say when you walk in, it's so small.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

It's very small. That's what I wanted some of the listeners to understand is like it is small. So when we say 35 hours in an aircraft.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Yeah. So in a B-52, there's there are two levels. You walk in and you're immediately faced with a ladder that takes you to the second level. Yeah. That ladder is the only place you can stand upright in the B-52. Even if you're a small guy like me, I'm 5'10. Yeah. Even all the way down to 5'5, there's no other place to stand up right except when you're on this ladder.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

You're continually hunched over as you're walking through this jet from the front to the back.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

So you guys get prepared for this mission. Was it what what what was going through your mind, man, when that when all that was coming together? I mean, did you call your sweetie and go, all right, Melody, I'm going. I can't tell you this is what's going to happen, or what I'm just kind of getting.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah, there was a subset of us at Riley. I mentioned earlier about the nuclear mission at the time, the nuclear uh alert mission. And I was on nuclear alert. Wow. So I received a phone call from our uh director of operations, Jerry Maxwell, letting me know he's gonna take me off nuclear alert, but I had to stay sequestered because this phone call was January 14th for the day before the deadline.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

So I couldn't leave. Yeah. And you can imagine all the things you would want to be prepared for a 35-hour mission, which really translates to snacks, right? Proper comfort food I didn't have. Wow. And and so my girlfriend Melody at the time, yeah, uh, I give her a call and say, Look, you know, I can't tell you why, yeah, but can you please go and get and I gave her a list of things I really needed and wanted, and I talk about that in my book, Doom 3-4. And um, and then she grabs her her best friend Susan, and they truck they they tread off to Albertson's. Yeah. And um, and there's a lot of crying, of course. And uh, and then so anyway, yeah, that's that's the way that conversation took place. She comes back, yeah, and then we get um connected. She she gives me the bounty. Yeah. Wow. And uh which includes you know, Trisket's and and Oreos is basically the comfort food of choice.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah. So you go into this mission, do you know it's gonna be 35 hours?

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Well, actually, we know it's gonna be about 32 hours. Oh, you do know that? Yeah, that's okay. That's part of the challenge that's happened throughout this mission is the enormous weather conditions that we never anticipated. Oh, wow. Unprecedented. Wow. You normally plan for these long-range missions for worst case about 90 knots headwinds. Uh or tailwinds as you're going east, headwinds when you're coming back west. They were 160 knots.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

So all your fuel calculations, all of the all of the uh that critical component of this mission, out the window. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

So you're planning for one scenario and it's just actually I mean double what you're thinking. Absolutely, almost double. Yes. So as far as there's the ground assault, right, that we were preparing for, this is the air assault, and you guys were going in on the front end of this entire operation?

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Absolutely. Almost exactly the the what we call the H hour, the beginning hour of it. Wow. Almost. There was a little bit that had already happened prior to we got to us arriving into the region. And there was this little narrow window in the operations, like a phase one and maybe a a phase three that we were strike striking critical command and power control places along the northern part of Iraq that this was the only way you could reach it was with this long-range strike weapon. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

So you guys are you're you're gearing up, you knew you're getting that call, and you're taking off. I mean, just give us a couple of highlights on that on that journey.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

I mean, just man, the the first highlight is waking up at three o'clock in the morning with an airman and a flashlight standing over you telling, sir, it's time. Wow. And trying to figure out what do you mean what it's time.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

You know, he he even said, sir, his shakes, sir, it's it's time. And I can remember answering him. I don't what it's time for what, sir, it's time to go fly. Wow. So you go into the briefing room, and there's General Buck Shuler sitting there at the front row. Flight suit kind of pulled down a little bit, hair all messed up. You can tell he'd been awake for days. Yeah. Kind of standing on that front row, waiting, yeah. You know, sitting there, and at 3:30 in the morning is when the briefing starts, just like you see in the movies with 12 o'clock high. Wow. You know, the the one you saw in Masters of the Air.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Identical. Wow. Weather briefing, intel briefing, all that prayer. Uh the night before we had filled out Lee uh Wills. Wow. I mean, this is all coming, and and Buck Shuler telling you that person to your left may not come back with you. My goodness. I mean, that's sobering. Yeah. We walk out to the airplanes, you know, it's it's cold, it's raining this morning because it's January, right? Yeah, sure. Still dark, the the stadium lighting's kind of casting shadows along the way with uh with all these gigantic B-52s out there. So yeah, it it thinking back on it now, when you were there in the moment, you're just doing your job. Right. But you look back at it now and it's so cinematic in your in your in your brain. It's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Wow. So does everything go according to plan? Oh, never. Never and never. Not in life and not in a mission.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

No, no, yeah, not in life and never in a mission. You know, we always talk about it. Will it survive contact with the enemy? Wow. Well, the enemy could be weather, the enemy could just be this this old B-52 that doesn't want to cooperate. Wow. And for Doom 3-4, now remember we're the fourth aircraft in this in this stream of B-52s taking off where we took off in a group of three, a group of two, and another group of two. So we're leading the second group. Two to three minutes in the end of the mission, we lose number five engine. Really? Oil pressure depletes to zero. So we lose every bit of oil out of out of that engine between somewhere between starting engines, taxi, and takeoff, wow, we lose all the oil. So we have to pull it back, shut it off immediately. So here we are, we know we've got what we think is 32 hours ahead of us of mission, and we're already down one engine.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

My goodness.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

And not only that, the navigation system decides to roll over and reboot on its own. So now we've got this idea: is the navigation and bombing system even reliable?

unknown 13:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

So with all these questions going on in your mind, now there's margin built in, but we're already eaten into our margin. Yeah. We've pretty much depleted our margin at the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah. Wow. Wow. So that gets your attention. And so you go you don't turn back from that at that juncture.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

No, all the data shows that you can accomplish this mission on seven engines, but that's usually with the understanding that's going to happen somewhere later. Right, right, right, right. So we elected to, how should I say, keep the uh the decision to ourselves as much as possible and not let the mission commander make that for us.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

That's amazing. Yeah. So you guys are rolling, and you guys just what refuel how many times do you guys have to refuel an oil?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Plan for refueling. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Uh first one's off the coast of Portugal. Second one, a very large one, is is in the Mediterranean, just about off the coast of Libya. Yeah. We go in, we do our strikes, and then it's kind of reverse routing all the way back. Same same kind of idea on the refueling plan.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

And I'm just saying, you know, I have so much appreciation now for that type of deal because when I served on the Military Affairs Council, um, I got to uh go on a KC-135 and refuel a B-52 in one trip and a B-1 on the way back. Wow. And it was amazing. I mean, what you guys do is insane. So you went back there and laid in the I was laying right next to the boom operator and everything, man. I was like, this is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

It's amazing. And you can tell they can see you down there. They can see the entire airplane. Oh, yeah. Well, let's not forget these weapons were top secret. They look just like the nuclear variants, nuclear cousin. Wow. Right? So you can imagine these boom operators looking out, seeing those weapons on the wings, not knowing there again that they're this new top secret conventional version of that missile. Wow. This new top secret use of this thing called GPS. You may have heard of it. Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

That's the first time that this was ever used in a weapon. Really? It was, yes. That's what it's one of the reasons. So this comparison of the two weapons is one of the reasons why this was so highly classified. So you can imagine they're looking out thinking we're carrying nuclear weapons.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Wow, that's a great point. It is. Holy cow.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Now they're already read in and you're going to see something unusual. So they're not totally unexpected, but still. How do you reconcile this? Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

So you go, you did the refuel, and you uh were you successful in what you were out to do?

SPEAKER_00 16:19

That's well, I'm here.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Well, obviously, but I just mean as far as your mission, were you able to like were you dropping bombs? Were you doing what you needed to get ahead of the game or yeah?

SPEAKER_00 16:28

So we carried 39 of these these these missiles, the entire inventory that we had in the United States Air Force. Oh, wow. Everything that that Boeing had built for us had had retrofitted. Yeah. We took every one of them. Wow. So out of the 39, again, this was a missile, this was a capability that was that really we say it was out of test, but it was it had only been out of out of the test just a few weeks earlier. So you can imagine it's not really integrated into the into the airplane just yet. So there were a lot of manual workarounds. Yeah. All that to set up set you up to the fact that 39 missiles, and we were able to launch 35. Wow. Now, what's unprecedented in this case is we get a taste for what high precision really is. It's typically a bombing run at this point in our in our in our world's history. Yeah. You get about 50% effectiveness out of a weapon, depending on how good that crew member or that pilot is. Right. We got almost 90% effectiveness. That's amazing. First time ever used. To the point where it even made it difficult for our analysts to do in the bomb damage assessment to see that that the thing that we were after was destroyed. Wow. For example, communications tower. It's still standing. Yeah. But when you look at the wiring bundle that comes up out of the ground, it's severed. Wow. That was the target, not to destroy the communications tower.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

That's how accurate these things were and are today even.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

That is amazing. It is interesting. Um we were talking about CNN. So we talked about communications. Yeah. And it, you know, people, you know, if they remember back at that point where CNN really, it really kind of launched their whole, I mean, capabilities all over the place, but they were covering that war like nothing had ever been done like that. And you guys helped, I mean, you guys knocked out communications, and that even affected them and everything. I thought it was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

So interesting story. I think you're alluding to this story. Yeah, yeah. So we know Bernard Shaw, CNN, famous CNN reporter, was really the only reporter in downtown Baghdad. Everybody else had pulled out prior to the January 15th deadline, and he elected to stay on his own volition. He he volunteered to stay. Yeah. And so he's actually sharing one of the Iraqi communications tower that's used by the military, but he was using it. How his technology worked at the time, he had his transmitter mounted on this same tower. Well, there are very few people at the Pentagon even knew the existence of our mission or this weapon. And when the when the time came and everybody is in the Pentagon crowded around their CNN feeds, there's a few people over in the corner counting down three, two, one, and Bernard goes off the screen, and they know that at least our missile that was that was striking that target was successful.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

That is amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Immediate feedback.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Yeah, you guys like, yeah, that was that worked. What's amazing in me, Trey, is there was how much uncertainty is in the I mean you plan and plan and plan, but what you guys have had to literally navigate around and through and certain things, and you're hoping for this to work and you have new technology that you're doing. I mean, it really is amazing. When you talk about 30 to and then a 35-hour mission, how do you know that it's going to be extended like that? You said you planned for 32, but then you go, oh, we're going to be three more hours.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Well, we're noticing the winds are a little bit higher than normal on our way over there. But after we we strike the targets and we we turn around and we start, uh we have to cross over Egypt, which was which was a total uh issue there. It was very, very uh I could that's a whole nother story. Yeah. Again, it's in the book, talk about it a lot. But as we come back out into the Mediterranean, we realize this ain't gonna work so well. Wow. Um we realize that uh those headwinds are really start already starting to chew into the to the fuel burn. Um we're actually carrying back two missiles that didn't launch on our aircraft. Okay. This engine that's that's spinning, so the so the drag is not so bad, begins to seize, which means now it's a it's a huge air uh fuel sucker. We've got a couple other airplanes that are having engine problems. So the so the the airplane's starting to show it's it's it's stress, it's reacting. So that's when we begin doing the calculations and realize we don't got enough gas. Wow. We're not and the planned offloads, and again I say planned, the planned offloads from these from these next two airy fuelings still isn't enough to get us even to the eastern seaboard. Wow. So we have a lot of stress already, a lot of anxiety. And we're realizing that it isn't gonna work. So luckily, the first the next area fueling that we're fighting through, some weather and these initial winds, they have more fuel than than we needed. Wow. So we so we take everything they have. The fourth area fueling canceled. Really? Cancelled. Cancelled. We're like, what are we gonna know? And you know, unbeknownst to us, all the the planners and the and the strategists and all the people that that can that find those type of resources, yeah, find some tankers in Europe, they chase us down out over over the Atlantic Ocean and and give us the fuel we need to get us closer to home. Closer to home. There still was a there was a fifth area fueling for some people that that there's no way they were gonna get back. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

So in the scheme of things on that uh uh war, you guys really were the tip of the spear.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

I we really were. I mean, there's there there are tremendous things that happened a few more hours before we got there. I recognize that. But yeah, uh we were the we we were in this again, this narrative. Window that really created a tip of the spear for the rest of the air campaign. Yeah, of course. And the fact that we had to take off 15 hours before the war even started, and secrecy involved in that was tremendous pressure on us to be able to follow our procedures, follow the plan as best we could. Right. And uh but uh we're still able to get over there and strike targets in secrecy.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

It's an amazing scenario and situation. And um over the years, Trey, have you were you able to talk about that story or reference it? Because now you've written a book about it. I'm just curious, like, how did how are you able to talk about that? Yeah, we're or was it only in like a mission type setting where first of all, military members are the worst at telling their stories.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

We're the worst. So even though we could talk about it, and we did, we talked about it in small reunions, okay, yeah, maybe maybe type of heritage type of settings. But it wasn't until General Robin Rand, which you're your group of good friends with with General Rand, came alongside of us when we started approaching the 25th anniversary of this great accomplishment, did he look us in the eye and look, you guys have to create a heritage to this. That's cool. And an identity and a legacy. So much though that um Dick Cole, the the five the final survivor of the Doolittle Raid, he also came alongside us. Wow. And he would call in to our reunions and uh quite literally pass the torch to us. Wow. Of of what bomber strikes mean at long range. I mean, his strike off those carriers, off the uh carrier, not one carrier, not carriers, or the US Hornet. Yeah, that really is the first demonstration of what long-range strike was all about.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

And just quickly, when we talk about the Doolittle Raid, you're talking describe that just real quick. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

So we're talking about 1942, take you back just a few, really a few weeks after we'd entered the war via Pearl Harbor. Yes. B-25s take off of a off of an aircraft carrier, the Hornet, yeah, to strike targets in Tokyo. Yeah. And the sign you know, the the destruction was insignificant, but what it did, it sent this message to the Japanese that they had to kind of pull back their their defenses and change their strategy tremendously from that strike.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

So that gentleman on that raid was counseling you and handing the torch off to you.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Handing us the torch. And helping us understand understand the heritage that he was he was giving us. And then then Rand again came alongside, and there's a lot of a lot of his energy in this. And General Rand's awesome. Matter of fact, he's one of my uh my endorsers on the back of Doom Cole for fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah, he's he's he's so cool, man. Yeah. I'm so glad to hear that connection. Yeah. So I'm just sitting here thinking, I mean, you're you're unpacking some of this. So by the way, this book you just wrote this book. When did you write this and when did it come out?

SPEAKER_00 25:01

So it came out March 3rd. Okay, yeah, of right here. Just a few months ago.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Okay, and so that's out now. People can get that anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Oh, anywhere, yeah. It's uh online retailers is the best option, but uh it it some Barnes and Nobles carry it. Sure, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

So I'm just but I'm just sitting here, trade, listening to that story, and I'm thinking about this great country called America. God's been gracious. We're not perfect, we have so many issues and challenges, but this incredible foundation of faith in God, and and we're we're gonna trust God through all these challenges. And young men like yourself who would answer that call. I mean, I'm just thinking about America's independence. When we talk about 250 years, 1776, going, are we gonna are we gonna do this or not? You know, kind of those go or no-go moments for freedom. I I think about that and all of that risk and all that courage and all that sacrifice. You've embodied that, my friend, and I can't thank you enough. What does that mean to you? I mean, when you reflect on that type of sacrifice and tradition and um legacy, just some thoughts that come to your mind, man.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Well, first you can see emotional thoughts come to mind right away. I what comes to mind is not so much my accomplishments, is us as a group. We just did our 35th reunion up at Dayton, Ohio, uh up at the uh the museum there, the Air Force Museum. Wow. Tremendous museum under the B-52, by the way. That's so cool, man. And and reuniting with uh 35 of our now we we have 53 still alive, four four of us have gone west. Yeah. So understanding those relationships, those brotherhoods. Yeah, and we were average age 26 years old when we did this. Yeah. A lot of people will say that's those those are those are kids, yeah, right? Of course. So what it means to me is is yeah, we can still make it. We're we're battered up a little bit as a country, we're bruised up here and there a little bit. Right. But I think that's when we focus on a lot of the the turmoil happening and the disagreements. There's so much good still going on. Yep. So much. People ask me, and I even answered that question in the prologue, why did you write this book? Yeah. And those are the words I wrote in there. The last two paragraphs of the prologue tells you exactly why I wrote that book. And it talks about how uh differing backgrounds, differing skin color. Yeah, we can still come together. My crew. Yeah. And and I had permission from all the people on my crew to do this, and I talk about them in the in the chapter called The Guys. Okay, yeah. So we got a um, if it if it's in, and I'm gonna use, I'm a visual thinker, so I'm gonna use skin color. I apologize. I don't want to anybody think anything otherwise. No. All right. So we've got uh uh an Air Force brat, grew up with an Air Force family, white dude, Southern California. Yeah. We got another guy who grew up grew up in an Air Force family, yeah. Uh another white face, but he grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. Wow. All right, so we're already moving across the United States. Here you go, yeah. All right. Uh another guy that grew up in a very high professional family, medical doctors, his parents, uh black kid out of out of Baltimore. Sure. Right? Yeah. Michael Branch. Um another kid that grew up in a little bit of a military family, grew up in Mississippi, whiteface. Another gent gentleman who grew up in New Orleans, who his mom is a naturalized Filipino, and his dad is is is black. Wow. So, and then we've got a guy that grew up in in West Texas. There you go. Uh, and then another dude in Ohio, and then me in northwest Arkansas. But the point I'm making, it ain't it's not so much about the the skin color or your nationality. That's important for us to for us as people to embrace that how we so we knew how we grew up. Of course. But you can see that went from Southern California to Baltimore, yeah, to the Philippines, if you want to you want to look at it. Right. And so I talk about we were probably from uh from an ethnic background and where we grew up, the most diverse, if you want to use that word diverse crew in this entire strike. Wow. And we never once talked about that.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

Never once considered that, never thought we need to bow up against each other on any it never did we ever say think about that.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

We were average guys doing an extraordinary thing. It's amazing. But we didn't understand it was extraordinary until really General Robin Rand told us, dude, yeah, what you guys do is extraordinary.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

I think that's such a great um perspective, Trey, because I when you look at America, it's really what unites us is our foundation, our character, our ideals, our principles. And um I I that's really been God's honored that, you know, and used that in so many ways and our faith of the Lord. You're a man of faith, you know, and and you've put your trust in in the Lord and in the Lord Jesus. And can you just talk about how that has shaped you and grounded you uh maybe in your marriage and life? And I'm just kind of curious, just a couple thoughts on that. I think that's so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Oh, absolutely. And uh, you know, I settled the question a long time ago. Is there a heaven and is there a hell? Yeah, and where do I want to be in eternity? Yeah, and and and my wife settled that, and and all children have. So uh we we may not always get it right, right? You know, and in our enthusiasm and and and focus on our our spiritual life, we're I think we're a lot like like like most families, it ebbs and flows a little bit. So I'll I'll say that up front. Yeah, but where it's really been our guiding light, uh that's awesome, man. Um I can't look at her for right now, but you know, we've had our we've had our pain points. Yeah. Everybody knows, man. I mentioned Matthew, our our middle child, six to fibrosis, and our other children have had their own pain points. But we don't want to live in those pain points, but just like Jacob, after he had he wrestled with with God, and really some scholars would say that was Jesus he wrestled with. Yeah, he had a limp. Yeah, right? And you can imagine, and before that he had that limp, it was mentioned in the scripture, he was blessed.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

So he wrestled, he was blessed, and he had that limp. Yeah. So we don't want to live and continually live in our pain, but just like Jacob, every time he took that step and that limp, it had to hurt. And it reminded him of that blessing.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

So I'm kind of in that season right now, is is again not living in those places of pain that we've had in our past, in our marriage, and our children and individually, but understanding there was always victory after we walked through that valley. Yeah. And it's a reminder that God's there and there's a victory is always available.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

That's so man, that's so good. You know, I was just thinking about that. I and I want you to know, Trey, too, that um living in Bouger City, Louisiana, these last several years myself, and that shadow of Barksdale right there in that Barksdale community, and the B-52s flying over, but I do not take for granted as a pastor, as a preacher, that uh the incredible privilege it is to preach God's word, but to have the freedom that you and so many others have provided for us in America, your courage, your defense, um, your willingness to put it all on the line. And that motivates me even more to share the good news of Jesus with people because I'm like, man, we've got the freedom in America to do this. Yeah. There are people around the world that don't have this. And that that's what motivates me. But I just want to say thank you. Um, and I'm so thankful for you and your family, your your family's willingness to say, okay, Dad, this is what you're you're doing. Let's get after it. And we support you. And I just want you to know, man, we support you. I thank God for you. I thank you for telling your story and uh for being willing just to share a little bit on our podcast today because it's you're, I mean, incredibly inspiring, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Well, thank you. Thank you for that, and thank you for those words. You bet. Yeah. You bet. No.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

We love you, man. We're grateful for you, okay, buddy?

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

You bet. Thank you guys for joining us today on the podcast. I pray that you've been encouraged, inspired. I'm telling you, God's doing some incredible things. He has been truly gracious to America, and to have Colonel Trey Morris with us today has been an absolute joy. So God bless you guys, and God bless America.