Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
One of the greatest times that you'regoing to be able to have here in
the city of Omaha, or Imean, I guess technically maybe Bellevue,
just anywhere in Nebraska, Iowa.It's going to be the Defenders of Freedom
Air and Space Show, which ishappening here in the next few weeks.
And joining us to speak about thisis our good friend Chris Pierson. And
Chris, first of all, thanksso much for helping me out when I've
(00:22):
had some days. It was apleasure. And Matt kept me online the
entire time. Yeah, he's goodfor key keeping people in line. He
is a bad lockbone of this programfor sure. But thanks for coming in
here. You're in the studio forthe real job. Yeah, I'm here
on the real job. You arehere to talk about this the twenty twenty
four show for the Defenders of FreedomAir and Space Show. Before we talk
about some of the specifics with thisyear's show, there are going to be
(00:43):
people that are driving through or listeningand they're just not quite sure about how
big of a deal this thing is. I do have some information about this
because I had an uncle who wasstationed off at Air Force Base for a
while while he was in the AirForce. Can you just kind of explain
what this air show is all about? Well, for this year, the
interesting thing is, you know,we haven't done it air show in six
years because the flood of twenty nineteencanceled that show. Then we got hit
(01:03):
with COVID and then the runway finallygot replaced, which is what the fifty
FO we really needed. So it'sbeen a long time. But and the
other thing this year, this isthe one hundredth anniversary of off at Field.
It was established February twenty fourth,nineteen twenty four for Jarvis's Offit.
But this is a huge event towhere people can come and really understand not
(01:25):
only the history of aviation because you'regoing to see a lot of World War
two P fifty one's those kinds ofplanes, but you're also going to see
the cutting edge technology that we've gottoday that defends our nation and the Air
Force and DoD We're transparent, That'swhy we do air shows. We want
you to come and touch what defendsyou from a C seventeen to an F
(01:45):
eighteen to an RC one thirty fivethat we fly down at off It and
it really is that connection between thisgreat community that we've got here, this
Omahall Bellevue Council, bloss community andthe support that they give us day to
day. This is a way forus to say, you know what,
thank you, and we want toprovide you with a great time. So,
(02:06):
like you said, we've got theThunderbirds coming, the Premier Air Force
Demonstration Team, and we also havethe Army's Premiere Golden Knights parachute team.
They're gonna be jumping out and justfree falling, smoking around. It's gonna
be a great time, absolutely oneover time, two days of nothing but
fun, and we want to makesure that it's also an education experience.
(02:27):
This year we are integrating it's reallyimportant to us in the Air Force that
the youth of today have STEM engagements, so we've made that a big part
of our airshow. There's a big, huge STEM Engagement tent that's going to
be down there. There's gonna bea Metro Community College, there's gonna be
STEM Omahall, there's gonna be aUniversity of Nebrasa at Omaha down there.
Really immersing these kids into STEM,because if we don't have a future in
(02:50):
STEM, we don't have a future. Yeah, no, And this is
what we're talking about with the futureof our nation in general, in how
vital our military branches and places likeoff At Air Force Base are when it
comes to this sort of thing.So, Chris, for this specific show,
you talk about the air show andyou mentioned the Thunderbirds. Anybody who's
seen the videos of the Thunderbirds,this is gonna be incredible. But that's
(03:14):
far from the only demonstration that peopleare gonna be able to see with a
variety of different performers and these differentkinds of planes that they're gonna be able
to see. You know what,I tell people that if you see the
movie the original Top Gun where heinverts and these upside down and takes a
Polari, that's nothing compared to whatthese guys and gals do and their planes.
With the Thunderbirds, I mean itis five to six airplanes and they're
(03:36):
within inches of each other. It'samazing. But then we're also gonna have
there's a P fifty one group andthose are World War Two planes, and
you talk about the acrobatic phenoms thatthese made in the thirties and forties and
fifties, and they're still working today. But that shows our heritage, that
shows our history. And then you'vegot you know, you you go up
(03:57):
to the Sea one thirty or youknow the se one thirty five, the
Rivet joints, which is what wefly at Offen. You get to see
this is what we do now.And and the other thing what we really
want to show people is that theAir Force is it's cutting edge. Colonel
Howard, who is the commander ofyou, said today, we are modernizing,
we're engaging. We're looking at nextgen stuff already and some of that.
(04:21):
And I wish I could tell yousome more details because they're all in
the flux, but there may besome even more amazing features that that I
didn't even give you today. Igave you a great, a great idea.
But like the Red Bull guy,he's gonna be out there. In
fact, what we call is reallyfunny. He's called the California Tom Cruise.
I swear I've seen these pictures.He and Icepan will be walking out
(04:43):
there now. Remember guys, helooks like the Tom Cruise of the original
top Gun, not the older version, and he talks like him. It's
it's gonna be a lot of funfor all ages, for all ages.
Yeah, and no doubt about it. And there's so many different things you
gave me, like a packet that'syou know, twenty pages of just information
to some of the stuff that hebut it was gonna be able to see
we're speaking with Chris Pierce here aboutthe Defenders of Freedom Air and Space Show.
I also have the website pulled up. I'm sure this is gonna be
(05:06):
a great resource for people as theyget adjusted to some of the awesome stuff
you guys are going to have available. Yeah, and on the website.
So really we kept our website reallysimple. So if you go on there,
there's a lot of FAQs because oneof the things we talked about today
and our press conference was some ofthe safety and security measures. Now people
have to remember security is very important. We are on an active Air Force
(05:26):
base. We had to be veryvery careful who we lot. But the
public is open. This is afree event everybody. But the other thing
is there the performer profiles are onthere, all the performers that are going
to be there. You can takea look at. You know, there's
gonna be plain food, there's gonnabe free water, but you know,
there's other things. Make sure youbring a bottle for your water. There's
gonna be free refills, where sunscreen, wear a hat, wear the right
(05:48):
clothing. It's gonna be the middleof August, it's gonna be hot,
and you're out on a tarmac,which means there is no shade, Ladies
and Juda, there are no tentsout there. So we want you guys
to have a great time, butwe want you guys to have a safetime
as well. Certainly, let's goahead and talk about the website. I'm
on it here. You guys gotvideos talking about the Thunderbirds. You got
a bunch of different ways that peoplecan get tickets for the seating, the
(06:09):
premium seating that you have available.There is some premium premium seating that basically
there's you get a premium parking spot, you get under a tent for that.
But the funds, those funds goto our force support services. Those
are things that support are the minimwomen uniform and their families. So this
isn't something that you know, theAir Force is making money off of.
(06:30):
This is one of the ways thatwe can support the minim women on base,
both military and civilian. So that'show they raise those funds to do
that. Uh, And we're reallyhappy that that we give them an opportunity
because you know, we don't havean air show very often and and we
haven't had a premiere. Like youdon't get the Thunderbirds and you don't get
the Navy Seals every time you havean air show. We don't. Uh.
(06:51):
But it's been six years and theysaid, you know what we want
you. We want to help you. You off At Air Force make a
big bang out of this, andwe're back and we're stronger. I love
it. So this is going tobe the twenty fourth, twenty fifth of
August, and you can find allthat information at the Offit Air Force Base
website which is off It dot AFdot mil for military. It's quite simple,
(07:11):
and you can also put in OmahaAirshow. I pick it up.
Yeah, I googled Omaha Airshow forsam popped up was a website and there
is a Facebook page that we're tryingto keep up to date as well as
acts. But if you find ourweb our Facebook page, you'll find we're
highlighting all the acts two every weekto where you say, we'll show videos
and stuff that they provided us,but we want people to have a great
(07:33):
time. That's our only reason todo this is for people to have a
great time, come out with theirexperience and a better appreciation of what the
Air Force does for our nation.Chris Pierce, just the last thing before
I get you out of here,because certainly we could talk a lot about
these planes and stuff. That isjust it's incredible to see in person.
I was sitting and we were onthe ferris wheel in the parking lot of
(07:58):
the College World Series just a coupleof weeks ago. We were there the
previous Saturday and saw that there wasa flyover. I couldn't identify the planes,
but it was like, whoa,that was awesome. They were really
low and you know, the noiseand just the speed. And we were
on the ferris wheel basically as thenational anthem for the finals was underway,
and I was like, there's achance that we're gonna be on this ferrist
wheel and I was able to seetwo F sixteens that flew over c hi
(08:20):
Hel Center. Almandras zoomed right across. We're spoiled a little bit the fact
that we have this right in ourbackyard here right the other thing is we're
spoiled because other nations don't allow thepublic to do these things. I mean,
you can come out and you willsee working, active aircraft that we
fly day and day, and youcan go up and you can touch them.
I mean, that's what's so greatabout our countries that we don't hide
(08:41):
anything. We don't have secrets fromour citizens. Come into our air show.
We're going to show you what wedo and how we protect you.
And that's what the Defenders of FreedomAir and Space Show is all about.
It's going to be happening on thetwenty fourth and twenty fifth of August.
Again, gates open nine am eachday. Okay, that's the case of
the base or I'm sorry, youcan get onto the earlier. But the
gates of the air show, whichis the airfield, will open up at
(09:03):
nine o'clock each day. Perfect,And you can go to off it dot
a F dot mil for more information. Just sir chill Mahaigh Air Show.
You're gonna find the Facebook page andthe website there. Chris Pier says always,
thanks so much for popping in todayand my pleasure. I appreciate you
having me. I'm sure we'll talkto you again, all right, Hi
matt Hey, Chris
One of the greatest times that you'regoing to be able to have here in
the city of Omaha, or Imean, I guess technically maybe Bellevue,
just anywhere in Nebraska, Iowa.It's going to be the Defenders of Freedom
Air and Space Show, which ishappening here in the next few weeks.
And joining us to speak about thisis our good friend Chris Pierson. And
Chris, first of all, thanksso much for helping me out when I've
(00:22):
had some days. It was apleasure. And Matt kept me online the
entire time. Yeah, he's goodfor key keeping people in line. He
is a bad lockbone of this programfor sure. But thanks for coming in
here. You're in the studio forthe real job. Yeah, I'm here
on the real job. You arehere to talk about this the twenty twenty
four show for the Defenders of FreedomAir and Space Show. Before we talk
about some of the specifics with thisyear's show, there are going to be
(00:43):
people that are driving through or listeningand they're just not quite sure about how
big of a deal this thing is. I do have some information about this
because I had an uncle who wasstationed off at Air Force Base for a
while while he was in the AirForce. Can you just kind of explain
what this air show is all about? Well, for this year, the
interesting thing is, you know,we haven't done it air show in six
years because the flood of twenty nineteencanceled that show. Then we got hit
(01:03):
with COVID and then the runway finallygot replaced, which is what the fifty
FO we really needed. So it'sbeen a long time. But and the
other thing this year, this isthe one hundredth anniversary of off at Field.
It was established February twenty fourth,nineteen twenty four for Jarvis's Offit.
But this is a huge event towhere people can come and really understand not
(01:25):
only the history of aviation because you'regoing to see a lot of World War
two P fifty one's those kinds ofplanes, but you're also going to see
the cutting edge technology that we've gottoday that defends our nation and the Air
Force and DoD We're transparent, That'swhy we do air shows. We want
you to come and touch what defendsyou from a C seventeen to an F
(01:45):
eighteen to an RC one thirty fivethat we fly down at off It and
it really is that connection between thisgreat community that we've got here, this
Omahall Bellevue Council, bloss community andthe support that they give us day to
day. This is a way forus to say, you know what,
thank you, and we want toprovide you with a great time. So,
(02:06):
like you said, we've got theThunderbirds coming, the Premier Air Force
Demonstration Team, and we also havethe Army's Premiere Golden Knights parachute team.
They're gonna be jumping out and justfree falling, smoking around. It's gonna
be a great time, absolutely oneover time, two days of nothing but
fun, and we want to makesure that it's also an education experience.
(02:27):
This year we are integrating it's reallyimportant to us in the Air Force that
the youth of today have STEM engagements, so we've made that a big part
of our airshow. There's a big, huge STEM Engagement tent that's going to
be down there. There's gonna bea Metro Community College, there's gonna be
STEM Omahall, there's gonna be aUniversity of Nebrasa at Omaha down there.
Really immersing these kids into STEM,because if we don't have a future in
(02:50):
STEM, we don't have a future. Yeah, no, And this is
what we're talking about with the futureof our nation in general, in how
vital our military branches and places likeoff At Air Force Base are when it
comes to this sort of thing.So, Chris, for this specific show,
you talk about the air show andyou mentioned the Thunderbirds. Anybody who's
seen the videos of the Thunderbirds,this is gonna be incredible. But that's
(03:14):
far from the only demonstration that peopleare gonna be able to see with a
variety of different performers and these differentkinds of planes that they're gonna be able
to see. You know what,I tell people that if you see the
movie the original Top Gun where heinverts and these upside down and takes a
Polari, that's nothing compared to whatthese guys and gals do and their planes.
With the Thunderbirds, I mean itis five to six airplanes and they're
(03:36):
within inches of each other. It'samazing. But then we're also gonna have
there's a P fifty one group andthose are World War Two planes, and
you talk about the acrobatic phenoms thatthese made in the thirties and forties and
fifties, and they're still working today. But that shows our heritage, that
shows our history. And then you'vegot you know, you you go up
(03:57):
to the Sea one thirty or youknow the se one thirty five, the
Rivet joints, which is what wefly at Offen. You get to see
this is what we do now.And and the other thing what we really
want to show people is that theAir Force is it's cutting edge. Colonel
Howard, who is the commander ofyou, said today, we are modernizing,
we're engaging. We're looking at nextgen stuff already and some of that.
(04:21):
And I wish I could tell yousome more details because they're all in
the flux, but there may besome even more amazing features that that I
didn't even give you today. Igave you a great, a great idea.
But like the Red Bull guy,he's gonna be out there. In
fact, what we call is reallyfunny. He's called the California Tom Cruise.
I swear I've seen these pictures.He and Icepan will be walking out
(04:43):
there now. Remember guys, helooks like the Tom Cruise of the original
top Gun, not the older version, and he talks like him. It's
it's gonna be a lot of funfor all ages, for all ages.
Yeah, and no doubt about it. And there's so many different things you
gave me, like a packet that'syou know, twenty pages of just information
to some of the stuff that hebut it was gonna be able to see
we're speaking with Chris Pierce here aboutthe Defenders of Freedom Air and Space Show.
I also have the website pulled up. I'm sure this is gonna be
(05:06):
a great resource for people as theyget adjusted to some of the awesome stuff
you guys are going to have available. Yeah, and on the website.
So really we kept our website reallysimple. So if you go on there,
there's a lot of FAQs because oneof the things we talked about today
and our press conference was some ofthe safety and security measures. Now people
have to remember security is very important. We are on an active Air Force
(05:26):
base. We had to be veryvery careful who we lot. But the
public is open. This is afree event everybody. But the other thing
is there the performer profiles are onthere, all the performers that are going
to be there. You can takea look at. You know, there's
gonna be plain food, there's gonnabe free water, but you know,
there's other things. Make sure youbring a bottle for your water. There's
gonna be free refills, where sunscreen, wear a hat, wear the right
(05:48):
clothing. It's gonna be the middleof August, it's gonna be hot,
and you're out on a tarmac,which means there is no shade, Ladies
and Juda, there are no tentsout there. So we want you guys
to have a great time, butwe want you guys to have a safetime
as well. Certainly, let's goahead and talk about the website. I'm
on it here. You guys gotvideos talking about the Thunderbirds. You got
a bunch of different ways that peoplecan get tickets for the seating, the
(06:09):
premium seating that you have available.There is some premium premium seating that basically
there's you get a premium parking spot, you get under a tent for that.
But the funds, those funds goto our force support services. Those
are things that support are the minimwomen uniform and their families. So this
isn't something that you know, theAir Force is making money off of.
(06:30):
This is one of the ways thatwe can support the minim women on base,
both military and civilian. So that'show they raise those funds to do
that. Uh, And we're reallyhappy that that we give them an opportunity
because you know, we don't havean air show very often and and we
haven't had a premiere. Like youdon't get the Thunderbirds and you don't get
the Navy Seals every time you havean air show. We don't. Uh.
(06:51):
But it's been six years and theysaid, you know what we want
you. We want to help you. You off At Air Force make a
big bang out of this, andwe're back and we're stronger. I love
it. So this is going tobe the twenty fourth, twenty fifth of
August, and you can find allthat information at the Offit Air Force Base
website which is off It dot AFdot mil for military. It's quite simple,
(07:11):
and you can also put in OmahaAirshow. I pick it up.
Yeah, I googled Omaha Airshow forsam popped up was a website and there
is a Facebook page that we're tryingto keep up to date as well as
acts. But if you find ourweb our Facebook page, you'll find we're
highlighting all the acts two every weekto where you say, we'll show videos
and stuff that they provided us,but we want people to have a great
(07:33):
time. That's our only reason todo this is for people to have a
great time, come out with theirexperience and a better appreciation of what the
Air Force does for our nation.Chris Pierce, just the last thing before
I get you out of here,because certainly we could talk a lot about
these planes and stuff. That isjust it's incredible to see in person.
I was sitting and we were onthe ferris wheel in the parking lot of
(07:58):
the College World Series just a coupleof weeks ago. We were there the
previous Saturday and saw that there wasa flyover. I couldn't identify the planes,
but it was like, whoa,that was awesome. They were really
low and you know, the noiseand just the speed. And we were
on the ferris wheel basically as thenational anthem for the finals was underway,
and I was like, there's achance that we're gonna be on this ferrist
wheel and I was able to seetwo F sixteens that flew over c hi
(08:20):
Hel Center. Almandras zoomed right across. We're spoiled a little bit the fact
that we have this right in ourbackyard here right the other thing is we're
spoiled because other nations don't allow thepublic to do these things. I mean,
you can come out and you willsee working, active aircraft that we
fly day and day, and youcan go up and you can touch them.
I mean, that's what's so greatabout our countries that we don't hide
(08:41):
anything. We don't have secrets fromour citizens. Come into our air show.
We're going to show you what wedo and how we protect you.
And that's what the Defenders of FreedomAir and Space Show is all about.
It's going to be happening on thetwenty fourth and twenty fifth of August.
Again, gates open nine am eachday. Okay, that's the case of
the base or I'm sorry, youcan get onto the earlier. But the
gates of the air show, whichis the airfield, will open up at
(09:03):
nine o'clock each day. Perfect,And you can go to off it dot
a F dot mil for more information. Just sir chill Mahaigh Air Show.
You're gonna find the Facebook page andthe website there. Chris Pier says always,
thanks so much for popping in todayand my pleasure. I appreciate you
having me. I'm sure we'll talkto you again, all right, Hi
matt Hey, Chris
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.