March 17, 2025 • 58 mins
STARRS & Stripes podcast host Al Palmer and guest Ron Olds, two veteran F-4 Phantom pilots during the Vietnam War, discuss how political ideologies infiltrated military academies and threatened the warrior ethos that once defined service to country, and how the STARRS organization is fighting to restore military readiness as the primary focus. Ron Olds is a 1969 graduate of the US Air Force Academy.
- Ron Olds shares his journey from a small farming town to the Air Force Academy and combat missions in Vietnam
- How a Black Lives Matter video at the Air Force Academy sparked concern about Marxist ideology infiltrating military training
- The formation of STARRS organization to combat DEI policies that were replacing combat readiness in military education
- Military readiness suffering with operational rates around 60% and maintenance crews cannibalizing parts from museums
- Recent positive changes with the new Academy superintendent restoring focus on the "warrior ethos"
- The fight against embedded DEI continuing despite progress, with concerns about civilian instructors and K-12 education
- The critical importance of commitment and family support in maintaining military strength
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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
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Al Palmer (00:12):
Welcome back America.
This is your host for STARRSand Stripes, a great podcast by
the STARRS organization that isbehind the success of getting
rid of DEI and some of the othercorrosive effects in the
military.
Today we like to talk about themilitary in terms of readiness
(00:34):
and our ability to fight and winwars, and that's what we're
going to do a little bit today.
I've got a very special guesttoday and he's also an old
personal friend because we bothflew F-4 Phantoms together in
the Air Force.
His name is Ron Olds, after thefamous video that was produced
(01:04):
by some of the athleticdepartment concerning Black
Lives Matter and race in theacademy at the Air Force Academy
in Colorado.
So Ron is a real prime suspectto talk to today and I'm glad to
have him back with me.
Ron, welcome to our episode ofSTARRS and Stripes today.
(01:25):
It's good to have you with usmy friend Well, al, thanks a lot
.
Ron Olds (01:35):
Thanks for all you're doing for stars, and not only
what you've done for the countryover the years.
Appreciate our time togetherand thank you for our many years
of friendship.
Al Palmer (01:43):
Well, listen.
So our audience needs to know alittle bit more about just the
fact that we're out flying fastjets.
You've got an amazing historyof your own.
Can you tell us a little bitabout how you got sucked into
the Air Force?
Ron Olds (01:59):
Yeah, I guess it's a little bit interesting there.
It seems probably differentthan most young people.
I grew up in a small farmingcommunity in northern Illinois,
a town of about 900 people.
I really never had the AirForce Academy as an objective.
And back in 1964, let's face itthe Air Force Academy first
(02:21):
class graduated in 1959.
So it was a very, very younginstitution.
A lot of interest in it.
Me personally, I was not quiteso interested at that time.
The superintendent of schoolsknew me and my family very well.
We didn't have much money.
Well, we didn't have much moneyand it was going to be very
(02:44):
difficult for me to go tocollege.
I did well academically.
I was a two-year all-conferencefootball player, so I was
fairly well known in thecommunity and knew a lot of
people around the conference.
The superintendent of schools,I think, brought up the idea
that here was a possibility fora young man of limited means to
(03:09):
get an education.
So he started trying to pushthis a little bit.
He wrote letters to thecommunity asking people to write
to our congressman, call ourcongressman on my behalf and lo
and behold, our congressCongressman did give me an
appointment at the Academy.
So that was how it started Ihad never flown in an airplane
(03:32):
before.
My father was a World War II vet, as were my uncles, but I
didn't really know a lot aboutthe military.
So 1965 summer off I went tothe Air Force Academy and of
course the first question waswow, what have I done?
But anyway I started to getexcited.
I think a real watershed eventin my life was Brigadier General
(03:57):
Robin Oles showed up in myjunior year as the Commandant of
Cadets and as we all know, hewas an ace Vietnam hero, a real
motivating guy.
So he started getting meexcited in my junior year at the
Academy of really wanting tofly, and particularly the F-4,
(04:20):
and go to Vietnam.
But he was a real motivation atthat time and of all of us my
classmates still today honor thememory of Robin Oles.
So anyway, that's what got meexcited.
I wanted to go to pilottraining and I was crushed.
(04:41):
My eyesight wouldn't let me go.
I even tried to memorize theeye chart and still failed.
But anyway I went to navigatortraining and they were going to
kick me out of navigatortraining because I had a waiver
for commission which I knewnothing about.
But anyway, I wrote to RobinOles and said, hey, they're
(05:02):
going to kick me out of here.
I want to fly F-4s.
And got called in after a monthof ground school and said
Surgeon General says you canstay.
So Robin Oles not onlymotivated me but he also stepped
up to help me get to where Iwanted to go.
I finished high in my navigatortraining class.
I took the first F-4 out ofthere and, of course, went
(05:25):
through training and then thatfirst assignment was F4C's over
in Okinawa, which is where Al,you and I met and served
together at that time.
So that's how I my route intoF4's and meeting people like
yourself and wanting to reallygo to Vietnam.
Al Palmer (05:47):
I dug through my old picture file here and found one
of us there at Okinawa inJanuary of 72.
We both looked a little bityounger.
You're right there underneaththe round patch which was our
squadron patch, and I'm overunderneath where the break is
and the vertical tail there, uh,but yeah uh, interesting bunch
(06:09):
of young guys.
We're now a bunch of oldwhippersnappers.
Ron Olds (06:11):
So there you go, that's, that's.
Uh, that was quite a group.
And then, sadly, as youprobably know, uh, a good friend
of ours, john staveley, who wasin that picture, passed away,
and I'm assuming that John Lowryis also in there, who just
passed away last week.
Al Palmer (06:29):
Yeah, unfortunately.
Well, what a great bunch ofyoung guys.
But we're all volunteers.
We weren't drafted, althoughsome of us tried to dodge the
draft, I think.
Ron Olds (06:42):
I never did, to be honest, I never did find out
what my draft number was.
Al Palmer (06:47):
I went to the academy and, like I said, started to
get that motivation and wantedto go fly and fight because I
passed all the tests andeverything and found a way to
get in to the Air Force throughOTS and I thought I'd dodged a
(07:08):
bullet, but then found myself,like you, Ron, dodging bigger
bullets over North Vietnam.
Yeah, exactly that really didn'twork out so well, but listen,
so you spent some time, so youwere in some combat there.
I think while I was gone flyingweasels in Thailand, you went
off to South Vietnam, I thinkright.
Ron Olds (07:31):
That's correct About the same time there in August of
72, they were looking forbackseaters down there in some
of the units in Vietnam, and soI volunteered to go.
And then I was sent down toTockley in August of 72, which
is probably pretty close to someof the time that you were sent
(07:55):
over there to do your weaselmissions.
Al Palmer (07:58):
Yeah, in fact I was.
My first tour was 100 missionsat Tockley earlier before the
weasel business.
Yeah, tockley was a fun place.
So is that where you wereflying up in country then?
Ron Olds (08:11):
Yes, yes, I was flying out of Tockley.
I was assigned to the 421stBlack Widows and I think that
was part of the 366th GunfighterWing, who had moved from Da
Nang over to Tak Lee just priorto my arrival there.
So I was there at Tak Lee andspent quite a bit of time
(08:32):
sitting alert over at Da Nang,but most of our missions out of
Tak Lee, as you probably areaware, were up north.
Al Palmer (08:41):
Yep, yep On tankers up that way north.
Yep, yep on tankers and up thatway.
Ron Olds (08:50):
So after your time there.
You got out and went to workfor Michelin right, that's
correct.
I went back after Takli inSoutheast Asia, went back to
Okinawa, finished up my tourthere and then it was time to
rotate back to the States in thesummer of 1973.
And so I came back and was aninstructor at George Air Force
(09:12):
Base, and after a period of timethere, my commitment from the
academy was coming to an end andI was trying to decide do I get
in or stay out?
And I decided I was going toget out.
We weren't flying much in1973-74 due to the fuel shortage
, and so it was just kind ofgetting to where.
(09:36):
I didn't wasn't excited anymore.
So I put in my papers to getout.
And then I got contacted fromthe Pentagon.
A guy, class of 1968, said hey,we want you to stay, pull your
papers out.
So I did, and they talked to meabout a number of opportunities
, some which were interesting,some which were not, and
basically they said, hey, we'dlike you to be an Air Force
(09:58):
Academy PE instructor.
I said, bingo, we've got one.
And then they said, well, we'regoing to send you to Udorn for
a year.
And I said, well, wait a minute.
I just got back and so that'swhy.
Yeah, they said, well, we've gotto send you a year, so you have
a good solid four years at theacademy.
And I said, OK, that's a bridgetoo far.
So I decided to get out and Ihad a lot of interviews.
(10:22):
I had 50-some interviews withcompanies around the country and
I finally kind of liked whatMichelin had to offer and they
had a good reputation in my mindit was not a large company at
that time as a tire supplier andso I accepted a job with
(10:42):
Michelin in Portland, Oregon, asa field engineer, which was
kind of nice.
My boss was in New York.
I saw him twice in two years.
So they sent me out there andsaid do what you think is right.
So that's how I joined Michelinand we can talk more on where
my career went as you desire,but that was my entry into
(11:05):
Michelin in fall of 1974 so hecouldn't get too far away from
aircraft tires well it is.
It turned out my initialassignment had nothing to do
with aircraft tires.
My initial assignment wasintroduced radial tires to the
log truck industry in thenorthwestern United States.
(11:26):
And then, anyway, I was theretwo years and then Michelin said
hey, we would like you inoriginal equipment.
And I asked is that Detroit?
And they said yes.
I said hell no.
Then I ended up in Detroit.
But they sent me to Detroitbecause Michelin had tires on
(11:48):
Lincoln at that time and some ofthe Ford cars and they were
trying to get into GeneralMotors and my job was be the
engineer to introduce tiresMichelin tires into General
Motors Took me six years but gotit done.
Then they wanted me to move toNew York, to the headquarters
and I said hell, no, and then weended up in New York and it
(12:15):
seems to be a trend here.
Al Palmer (12:17):
And then after yeah, surprising how that happens,
isn't it?
Ron Olds (12:20):
Almost two years in New York in 1984, I got called
in one evening and said hey,michelin has developed a radial
aircraft tire.
We would like to introduce thatto North America.
How would you like to do that?
So in May of 1984, I started asthe only employee in Michelin
aircraft tire in North America.
(12:40):
So I had a lot of meetings withthe manufacturers Boeing,
mcdonnell Douglas, northrop andall of those.
I had a lot of interviews withAviation Week, usa Today and
things trying to talk about theradial tire.
I wrote a couple papers, did alot of speaking, and so then
(13:01):
Michelin relocated to Greenville, south Carolina.
So I made that move.
And then in 1989, we were doingsome discussions with BF
Goodrich aircraft tires and so Iwas instrumental at that time
in Michelin's purchase of BFGoodrich, which kind of launched
(13:21):
us from a very, very smallcompany of a couple of people to
a good manufacturing testingorganization, and BF Goodrich,
which had a good reputation inaircraft tires, finally was
(13:44):
promoted to vice president ofsales and zone director for
North and South America.
So that was kind of what mademy big step and I stayed in that
position and then retired in2012.
Al Palmer (14:02):
And settled in beautiful Colorado.
Ron Olds (14:09):
Yeah, and basically, when I mentioned I started 1984,
I was a company of one and whenI retired 2012, we were the the
biggest tire supplier in theworld, so, uh, that that was
quite a a jump.
And and also during my time atMichelin which I failed to miss
I stayed as an Air Force Academyliaison officer for the Air
Force Academy, retiring in 1992from that position.
(14:33):
So I've been involved inworking with potential Academy
cadets for a lot of years andhave stayed in that.
But, yes, you're correct,retired in 2012, loaded the
moving van and moved to Colorado.
I wanted to be back near themilitary community and be around
the Air Force Academy, and sothat's where we are today.
Al Palmer (14:59):
So that's where you were when you and I were doing
some reunions of our old fightersquadron there.
And along the way you called meup one day and said now we got
this problem at the at theacademy.
There's this film that's beendone and it's exposing BLM and
all to the, the cadets.
And I know you were quiteconcerned about that and I
(15:22):
talked with one or two of ourother friends and said, boy,
this is really a problem.
But I I kind of stuck it in theback of my hat for a while.
But the more I thought about itthe more I realized how serious
that was in infecting theproduction of our leaders in the
air force.
But it wasn't just the airforce was, was it?
(15:42):
It spread to Annapolis, itspread to West Point and now
we're left with this problem ofthe leaders and the future
leaders in our services havingsome other kind of a direction
than what we all grew up with.
You want to talk a little bitabout how that affected you?
Ron Olds (16:03):
Yeah, absolutely, Al.
That was a real shock to me.
Interestingly enough, my nextdoor neighbor is General Rod
Bishop, and he and Ron Scott arestars present right now.
The three of us did sometalking when this video came out
(16:24):
, and so, oh my goodness is this, is a real shock, and this,
this has got to be fixed.
And we started talking.
Then we need to get thesuperintendent to pull that
video down.
And another thing that happenedaround that time, which you're
all familiar with, was theHunter Biden laptops, which
you're all familiar with was theHunter Biden laptops and,
(16:44):
without getting into a lot ofdetail, I was highly aware very
early on that that was alegitimate laptop and it
bothered me a lot that ourgovernment was poo-pooing this.
And so all of this started toreally concern me with what's
happening at the Air ForceAcademy, what's happening in our
(17:06):
government.
And, like I say, between RodBishop and Ron Scott, we did a
lot of talking.
We talked to a few other peopleand said, OK, what can we do to
try to battle this infection?
That's happened, this infection, that's happened.
(17:27):
So that's when we startedtalking about forming some kind
of an organization to see if wecould first of all take on the
Air Force Academy, because wetried talking to the
superintendent at that time andwe were getting very, very
little response from them.
We had to start the FOIA processand even then they just
stonewalled us.
So yeah, that's what caused myconcern is watching what I felt
(17:50):
was the degradation of what washappening at the Air Force
Academy and also being thisclose to the Academy.
We were mentoring a number ofcadets and I'd go out the
Academy and I'd talk to some ofthese cadets and they would
express some real concernswhat's going on here, and I
don't think I like thisenvironment.
(18:10):
So that's kind of what causedme some real concern.
As everybody else, I mean, Ilove the Air Force Academy, I
love the military and ourcountry needs our military.
So this caused me deep concern.
So when we started talking whatdo we do, we had a lot of
meetings over a lot of coffeetalking about what can we do,
(18:34):
and that's when the idea ofSTARS was born.
Al Palmer (18:39):
And so the three of you being retired then stood up
and realized that there was aproblem.
My question would be why didn'tthe active duty side do the
same thing?
Ron Olds (18:52):
Well, and I also want to point out that there was more
than three of us I tend tothink, I can't remember the
original founders were probablyabout six or seven of us, some
locally, some not.
So we did a lot of talking andso, yes, we, as retired people,
were very, very concerned.
But don't forget, one of thebiggest voices against this on
(19:17):
the active duty side was MattLohmeyer.
And Matt Lohmeyer startedraising concerns with his
command and all the way up theline to the four-star general
who he had worked for, about hisconcerns, about the Marxism
infecting our military.
Why they wouldn't listen to him.
(19:42):
I don't know if they weregetting instructions from on
high, but they all poo-pooedMatt and Matt, because of his
integrity, said I cannot sitidly by.
And then Matt published his book, which really started raising
the awareness, and then, ofcourse, matt was fired from his
position, which is sad because,as we all know, if we know Matt
(20:05):
Lohmeyer, he's one of the finestpeople, one of the finest
officers we have ever known andhe was destined for big things
in the Air Force.
But he was fired and of coursethat made other people start to
be concerned.
If I raise my concerns I I'mgonna be kicked out of the
military.
So this was another one ofthose big things that happened
(20:29):
which made us all really shakeour heads.
And Matt, it turned out, was agood friend early on.
We spent some time together.
He's got a wonderful wife,wonderful family, and so we had
some discussions about what wasgoing on early on and we are big
(20:50):
supporters of Matt Lohmeyer andI think Matt kind of lit the
fire in the active duty.
We were pushing the academy,the Air Force Academy.
Matt was kind of lighting thefire in the active duty and then
it was sometime after that westarted meeting some of the
people from the Army and theNavy and getting West Point and
Annapolis in our sites as well.
Al Palmer (21:12):
But that's exactly the point is, it was the
dedicated people who werecommitted, you know, and you
would hope that that would bethe case in the leadership in
the Pentagon, on the active side, but somehow that sense of
accountability and being able tostand up disappeared for a
while.
We're hopeful that that'scoming back right.
Ron Olds (21:35):
Well, I hope so and I don't mind telling you I was
extremely disappointed in thehigh level leadership and one of
the things we found early on inour formation of stars is three
and four star generals didn'twant to talk to us.
I don't know what they wereafraid of, but they just, you
(21:57):
know, we were called an awfullot of names and told to go away
.
And we're just causing troubleand quit blaming the Air Force
Academy for everything.
And so, yeah, I was highly,highly disappointed in senior
leadership, in not only activeduty but retired, because we
(22:20):
were fighting significantheadwinds early on and I think
you've heard some of the thingssome of the people at the
Academy didn't want us aroundand wouldn't talk to us, but
again, we just kept our headsdown and plowed ahead.
Al Palmer (22:39):
And so some of that even spread into the Associate
of Graduates of the the academy,who are the alumni who, now
that they're out of the academy,ought to have a pretty good
voice about things that they cansee and sense are happening and
report that back to the headshed, if you will, the
(23:01):
leadership of the academies.
They got dismissed in somecases or have been downright
ignored, which they shouldn't be.
I mean, that's a very positiveresource that the academies each
of the academies has, and yetthat seems to have been sort of
dismissed by the previousadministration.
(23:21):
How do you feel about that?
Ron Olds (23:24):
Well, this was exactly right, Of course, over the
years I've been a member of theAssociation of Graduates for
many, many years I know a lot ofpeople and there was a lot of
discontent with grads about whatwas going on at the Air Force
Academy.
They were of the opinion thatthe Association of Graduates
wanted our money but not ouropinions and our knowledge.
(23:48):
And what a lot of thediscussions were is hey, we want
a voice.
You know, we've got what?
50,000 graduates out there andthere's a little bit of
experience out there and wethought we should at least be
able to get our voice?
Yeah, just a little bit.
I mean, we know we don't.
We don't run the Air ForceAcademy, but again, there are
(24:09):
things we observe and we allinterface with a lot of cadets
that are out there and a lot of,a lot of our parents of cadets.
So we get some real honestfeedback about what's going on
at the Air Force Academy and wewant it to be successful.
So we wanted to at least have avoice.
(24:31):
And the other thing we wantedfrom the AOG was transparency.
When you publish, we'd like tobe aware of what's going on and
we want balance and we want theAOG to be able and there were
some articles being published inthe AOG quarterly magazine
called Points, which seemed tofavor DEI but didn't offer any
(24:53):
balanced points as well.
So that was another thing westarted to push on, and I think
that was the biggie.
We just want transparency andwe want to have a voice.
We're not trying to run theplace, we just like to have a
voice.
Al Palmer (25:12):
But that kind of seems to me to be something that
keeps them from being isolatedand insulated in leadership If
they're out there getting thatopinion from the larger group of
graduates and also, you know,being able to talk to the cadets
and you know there's someinterface there that needs to
occur too to keep them up withwhat's happening.
(25:34):
Do you think that's been aproblem a little bit with the
leadership being unfocused?
Ron Olds (25:40):
Well, I think there's two people I really need to
compliment.
Mark Hilly is the CEO of theAOG.
Mark, I think, has been doing avery, very fine job since he
was appointed to that position.
I've met with him on a numberof occasions and he listens.
I've been able to tell him somethings.
(26:02):
He listens and I know he for afact meets regularly with the
superintendent at the academy.
Now I don't know what they talkabout, but I trust Mark that
he's sharing things.
The second person I have tocompliment is the superintendent
.
I may butcher his name,lieutenant General Bauerfein,
(26:22):
and I have talked with him on anumber of occasions and he has
been very open and say I welcomegraduate feedback, be it
positive or negative.
So I think we have twosignificant people here which I
think are representing what wewant, and I'd like to say I
think we've kind of turned acorner in that regard from
(26:45):
previous leadership out at theAcademy.
So I feel quite good about thatand I think we're going in a
good direction.
Al Palmer (26:53):
You know I think back a little bit to you and I when
you were putting on a reunion ofour fighter squadron there in
Colorado.
We went out to the Academy oneday and we were being briefed by
one of the senior officersthere and I think the question
came up what about war fighting?
Are you teaching that still?
And as I recall, the responsewas not very enthusiastic.
(27:17):
Do you think that was a problemthat it developed that now may
be switching back?
Ron Olds (27:24):
Absolutely.
I think as this woke philosophy, the Marxism philosophy,
started to sneak in, there wasso much attention being given to
social things.
I remember I got a notice oneday of a cadet telling me that
oh, there was a transgenderbriefing going on out at the
(27:49):
academy at a given time in alecture hall, and the first 50
people to sign up would get afree lunch.
So there was some enticement intrying to, you know, address
some of these things and we saidwait a minute, what's going on?
We're having trans briefings,the Air Force Academy, and of
(28:11):
course we're all familiar, Ithink, with the purple rope
thing that came along wherethere were DEI, represented
squadron that wore a purplearmband or a purple rope and
they reported through a separatechain of command, which almost
like a Gestapo kind of asituation.
So that really bothered usquite a bit.
But one of the big events thathappens every year at the Air
(28:34):
Force Academy is the NationalCharacter and Leadership
Symposium, ncls.
They invite war heroes fromaround the world.
Some of the things I've heardin years past Navy Seals, and
some of the things that theseyoung people have done Medal of
Honor winners just warms yourheart.
But over a few years ago thoseconferences or symposiums
(28:59):
started to trend to bringing inIvy League professors that were
left-leaning and a lot of youknow.
I attended one that was a transColonel in the Air Force and a
lot of these social so neverthat works of trends.
(29:20):
well, I just went to the onelast month in February of this
year.
The theme was warrior ethos andI'm thrilled to be able to say
I attended a number of thepresentations.
They were all wonderful.
The superintendent gave awonderful introduction to kick
(29:41):
things off.
I talked to him several timesone-on-one throughout the
conference and keptcomplimenting him on various
presentations.
So this year, in my opinion andI've talked to a lot of other
friends that were at thesymposium as well it seems like
a watershed event this year thatthings really seem to be
trending back to the warriorethos, the focus on fly, fight,
(30:06):
win, that mentality, and I wasvery, very pleased with what I
heard last month at thisconference.
Al Palmer (30:18):
Well, and to show you how that, I think, is trending
right now, about a week ago now,about a week ago I was invited
to be the keynote speaker at abig military service ball of all
the services up in MilwaukeeI'm sorry, minneapolis and when
I was there the theme was thatwas the warrior ethos.
(30:40):
What did you guys do in the past, how did you do it, what was
combat like, and all of that.
They're now more interested inthat coming back.
And at the end of that, thisLieutenant Colonel pulled me
aside and he said he said, sir,he says look, you know, I'm
happy to hear what you have tosay, because my son is at the
Air Force Academy right now andhe's got another year to go, but
(31:03):
he's been talking about notstaying in.
He'll do his time, do his five,get out, and he's gone.
But I talked to him the othernight and he says daddy says I
think I'm going to stay nowbecause things are changing, and
that was that's real timefeedback and I was kind of happy
to hear that.
But he wasn't the only onesaying it.
Ron Olds (31:28):
And I was kind of happy to hear that, but he
wasn't the only one saying it.
Well, I agree with you and Iwill say, over the past couple
of years I talked a lot ofcadets and the theme was five
and dive.
You know, I'm getting out ofhere as soon as I can.
I don't like this.
And I have a nice opportunitysince the chapel has been closed
, a number of cadets attend ourchurch, so I have the chance
(31:58):
almost every Sunday to talk to acurrent cadet out at the Air
Force Academy and how things aregoing and just the feeling you
get is definitely improving.
Feeling you get is definitelyimproving and I see some of
these young cadets and greatyoung people feeling more and
more positive about militaryservice.
And I can also tell you, as youknow, we all know a number of
people that have, unfortunatelyat our point in life, grandkids
(32:21):
and you know before here, twoyears ago, the last thing they
wanted their grandkids to do wasgo into the military.
I'm starting to get a littlebit better feeling of people
like you and I that saying youknow what, maybe that wouldn't
be a bad path for my grandson orgranddaughter to take.
So I'm seeing some trends andbeing out here, where we're
(32:47):
completely immersed in themilitary, as you are down there
in the San Antonio area, I thinkwe're starting to feel some
things turning and I think PeteHegseth is going to make some
big changes, and I'm quiteanxious to get Matt Lohmeyer
sworn in as the Undersecretaryof the Air Force and I think
(33:08):
he's going to have some bigimpacts as well.
So I think we're getting goodleadership in Washington.
I'm happy to see some of theattitude changes from some of
the cadets, so I think a lot ofthat is feeding down right now
and, like I say, thesuperintendent out at the
academy seems to be a realsupporter of this warrior ethos.
Al Palmer (33:32):
So, given that that's now a big change that is
occurring and we're all kind ofhopeful that that will continue
to expand, do you think thefight's over with the embedded
DEI and Marxism?
Is that now a done deal?
Is it dead?
Ron Olds (33:49):
Not at all.
We've had a lot of discussionswithin STARS, as now with what's
just happened in November.
How does that affect ourmission and what we need to do?
We've had a number ofdiscussions about this and I
think we're all pretty much inlockstep here.
No, the battle is not over.
The war is not over.
(34:11):
We've won some battles, the waris not over, but a lot of this
Marxist indoctrination is inplace.
I worry about our K through 12schools.
You know I have two grandsonshere locally in the school
system and I try to payattention and talk to them.
You know what's being taught inschool and I think that's a
(34:33):
battleground what's being taughtin DOD schools?
A lot of this DEI stuff wasembedded in the DEI schools
around the world with theteachers.
So I think there's some workthat still needs to be done, and
not only that.
We've got to make sure thatit's embedded and doesn't go
(34:54):
away in three or four more years, depending on what happens in
the administration.
So I think that's still a majoreffort.
We need to make sure that ouryoung recruits are focused on
the mission and readiness andnot on all of these social
things.
As you and I know, al, themilitary cannot be a social
(35:18):
experiment.
It's sad.
We have a mission, we breakthings, we kill people,
unfortunately.
I hope we don't have to come tothat, but that's what we have
to do and that's our job, and wedon't have time for a lot of
this social activity.
But another thing that hasconcerned a number of my academy
(35:40):
friends is the amount ofcivilian instructors at our
academies not just the Air ForceAcademy, but, I think,
annapolis has more civilianinstructors than others, and so
I mean we've got there's someweeding out that I think needs
to be done in these militaryacademies on the side of a lot
(36:04):
of these professors, because Ithink a lot of them are very
left-leaning, Some of them camefrom a lot of the Northeastern
schools, and I think we need tofigure out how we're going to
handle that.
I know, when I was at theacademy, almost all my
instructors and I think I wouldsay mainly all of them were
military, so not only and ofcourse, coming out of Vietnam,
(36:27):
they were all war fighters andso we were indoctrinated with
wonderful heroes and stories andit made us want to be like them
.
Al Palmer (36:37):
And I'm afraid we've got so many civilian instructors
now that this warrior ethos isnot being passed on from those
instructors, and you know, we'vetalked about that a lot on this
program, this podcast, in thepast, about that very issue of
the ability of young people tobe inspired, so they want to be
(37:01):
war fighters instead of justbudgeteers or something.
But, as you say, it's a bit of amore broadly based thing
because it spreads not just fromthe warfighters and the active
and reserve forces.
It's also an issue that spreadsinto the defense industry base,
because they're the people thatare building the ships, the
(37:23):
aircraft, the weapons and allthe things that go with it, all
the weapon systems, and they'rein trouble now too because they
don't have the technical talentto do that the way they used to.
They recently reported toCongress that the defense
industrial base does not havethe ability to respond to a
multi-front attack on the UnitedStates right now, like we did
(37:48):
in World War II.
So it's not just doing thatwithin the military, with
restoring patriotism and warfighting and the ability to
function in battle.
It's also spread into theindustrial base that supports
all that and makes all theequipment for it, don't you
think?
Ron Olds (38:07):
Well, absolutely, and you know, we always say like in
the military.
Our military is a reflection ofour society and I think our
military industrial base, thepeople that work there, are
certainly a reflection of oursociety and I'm not sure they're
military-focused in a lot ofcases, and there are some real
(38:30):
challenges.
I was reading things about theage of our aircraft and warships
.
It's incredible how old ourmilitary is.
We've been so focused over thelast 20-plus years on fighting
in Afghanistan and Iraq, whichis not going to serve us well in
the future.
(38:50):
I don't believe in the futureconflicts.
So I think our militaryindustrial base has got to trust
as well to what is the futureof military conflict, and I
think it's got different thanwhat we've been doing for the
last few years.
And and in this war at least,we've worn out a lot of our
(39:10):
equipment.
Our airplanes are being flown alot.
Our army, all of our militaryequipment has really been worn
out, and now we've got a problemof trying to maintain it or
replace it, which are all takinga lot of money.
And one of the things I heardyesterday which has really,
really disturbed me was ElonMusk said now our payment on our
(39:35):
debt exceeds our militarybudget.
Al Palmer (39:39):
That's a concern?
Yes, well, it really is.
Well, and more than that.
You know, some of the aircraftyou're right that we're flying
are older than the crews thatare flying them by a lot now,
like B-52s, you know.
But there are also some issueswith operational ready rates.
(40:01):
I was reading the other daythat the Navy's F-35 operational
ready rate is down around inthe 30s and for those of us who
have flown aircraft, if your ORrate was down below about 80,
you knew you were in a littlebit of a trouble.
So that's kind of a disturbingthing to find out about.
Ron Olds (40:24):
Yeah, and I think it's not only just the Navy F-35.
I mean, you look at I wasreading some things the other
day about F-16s, f-15s, a-10s,b-1s.
I mean, the ready rate frombasically our fleet, I think, is
around 60% or lower, which isthat's a lot of airplanes
(40:47):
sitting there Sitting in thehangar.
that and the other problem we'vegot is they're to the point of
robbing parts off of airplanesthat are sitting there to fix
other airplanes.
I remember a story a while backthey were taking if there were
B-1 sitting in the hangar, theywere taking nose gears off of
(41:08):
them to put on other aircraft sothey could get them
operationally in combat ready.
But that's another thing you'vegot to ask.
As well.
What about our maintenance?
Are our young maintenancepeople really excited and ready?
Are they trained well?
I think this is another thingwhere a lot of our young
(41:31):
enlisted people and active dutyAir Force and military were
complaining.
We're spending way too darnmuch time sitting in rooms
talking about social issues andnot military readiness.
But again, I'd like to thinkwe've turned that corner now,
but, like you and I talked aboutearlier in this discussion,
(41:52):
it's not over.
We still have to continue thefight to put these social issues
aside and focus on militaryreadiness, and that goes down to
training the young people towork on these airplanes so we
can get them back in the air.
Al Palmer (42:08):
Well, and that function of maintenance is
increasingly an issue.
It happened to me when I was amuseum director and it's still
going on now.
The services are sending folksout to museums to rob the
aircraft there of some of theparts that they've got that they
can use.
And I remember that with anF-14 when I was in San Diego,
(42:35):
that with an F-14 when I was inSan Diego they were taking wing
servos out, hydraulic systemsand airbags because they had to
have that for the air sweep.
But the problem is I don'tthink I want a car that's got a
whole lot of used parts in itthat have been around for 20
years.
So that's what we've got.
I've got one.
I have one in my, that's right,you got your.
You got your corvette, don'tyou?
Ron Olds (42:57):
yeah, but it's kind of interesting we talk about this
readiness.
A few years ago I had lunchwith the ceo of delta and and I
asked him straight out.
I said uh, other than giving youfree tires, what?
What can we at Michelin do toimprove your operation?
And of course, the first thinghe said was I've got to have a
(43:18):
safe product which applies tothe military.
We need safe products.
But he said, secondly, I haveto have tires on time where I
need them, when I need them.
Because he said, if myairplanes aren't in the air, we
don't make money.
And that's my feeling about weneed military aircraft in the
(43:39):
air or ready to get in the air.
Yeah, because you know withoutthat you and I know, when you're
(44:00):
flying a fighter aircraft at500 feet per second, you need to
be sharp and you need to beflying to maintain your
readiness.
So it's not just having anairplane ready to fly.
You've got to have the abilityto train your flyers, because
(44:21):
there's no room for error whenyou're doing 500 feet a second.
You've got to be sharp, You'vegot to be on top of your game
and that requires training and,as much as we like to think
simulator training will do it.
There's nothing like being inthe air pulling Gs at high speed
.
You need that training soyou're ready to go into combat.
Al Palmer (44:45):
And you know that's one of the things that was one
of the failures of the recentadministration not to pick on
administrations, but they triedthat here at Randolph Air Force
Base in Texas, near where I live, the pilot training classes
there.
They decided to have one classthat was structured with DEI,
(45:05):
basically they were going to putminorities in their categories
based on population samples, andthey did that, thinking that
that was going to be a great wayto balance it and they'd have a
more diverse set of pilots.
That came out of it.
It failed miserably.
They washed out half the classand it failed because, again, it
(45:27):
had nothing to do with externalfactors.
It had everything to do withability and commitment to doing
it and working hard at it.
And so I think that lesson isstill even there today in the
private airlines.
You know, I think United wantedto do this for the same kind of
thing.
That's not going to work outwell.
Ron Olds (45:50):
Well, I agree.
You know you can't take metoday and say, hey, we need a
certain number of old peopleflying fighters and put me in
the cockpit instead of someyoung 30-year-old gun.
That's best of the best, and Ithink to me to try to shorten
(46:16):
the circuit and put someone inthat's not qualified results in
deaths.
And I think the focus needs tobe we need to start, and this is
something else that I think isimportant.
We've got to start back atbasic levels of education for
our young people.
I don't care kindergarten,first grade, third grade, fifth
grade this is where it starts tohave the merit of somebody to
(46:40):
fly a jet fighter.
You can't wait until they'reout of high school and say, okay
, I'm going to put you in thatand it isn't going to work.
So I would like to see somefocus on our education.
That's the basis for everything.
You know.
I mentioned early on mypersonal experience.
I came, I came from a familywithout, without very much, but
(47:02):
through some work I was able toachieve, get some good grades,
get some good, good resumesbuilt.
So I had an opportunity to gothrough a certain door and I
want these young people to haveopportunities to enter through
several doors and continue toadvance.
But again it takes someone thatsays I want to do this, I'm
(47:26):
prepared to do this, and wecan't short circuit, not in the
military.
Al Palmer (47:32):
You know the other thing in my discussions with
people recently, the one wordthat's come up, which I think is
a little different than I'mhearing these days.
The word is commitment.
It's not just being there forthe job, it's not just having
something that's exciting to doand then going off to do
something else.
It is a commitment to do yourbest to stay there and to make
(47:56):
sure that the country is safe,and that's a bigger thing than
just yourself.
But that's a tough commitmentand, as you know, it's even
worse when you're talking aboutgetting shot at and the dangers
that go with what you're doing.
That takes a real commitmentthat you can't find in the
outside world.
If you're doing that takes areal commitment that you can't
find, you know, in the outsideworld.
If you're working for Amazon,or or Boeing, or or or anybody
(48:19):
else, you know that's a toughthing to get people to do, to
commit their, their lives, theirenergies completely to
something in the military where,if you do it, you're actually
exceptional.
You're not just the regularkind of a guy or gal.
Ron Olds (48:37):
Oh no, I absolutely agree.
We need a commitment of youngpeople that want to serve.
And again, it's serve.
It's not about me when I joinedthe military, it's about unity,
and I think this is where wedid a lot of talking and stars
in the past, when we hadgenerals and leaders saying, oh,
(48:59):
diversity is our strength, andwe're saying, well, no, unity is
our strength, perhaps enhancedby diversity, but unity is the
strength, not diversity, butcommitment.
And I don't care where it is Al, I don't care if it's the
(49:20):
military, a civilian community,it's the commitment.
I used to drive 110 miles towork on Monday morning when I
was at Michelin and one personbeat me in the office.
It was my secretary, andwhenever we had any snow in
South Carolina, I could writeyou a list of who would be in
the office this morning and whowouldn't.
(49:41):
That's commitment.
But again, military requires acommitment way beyond what
civilian business requires,because it's not just a
commitment of you, it's acommitment of your family,
because the bell ring you and Iknow we set a lot of alert that
(50:02):
bell rings and you're off, and alot of times you don't know
when you're coming back.
So it requires a realcommitment of you and your
family.
And again, you and I know youneed to recognize the families,
the spouses of a military personhas to be committed and is a
(50:23):
real backbone.
Al Palmer (50:25):
You know, that's kind of funny because just recently
I had one of our folks we hangout with a lot tell my wife that
well, yeah, you were married toa guy in the military, but you
really weren't in the militaryand that got her a little bit.
That got her kind of excited,as you might imagine.
Ron Olds (50:42):
That fired up Susan.
Al Palmer (50:44):
Yeah, yeah.
So but again, this militaryball I was at just recently, all
the wives that were there hadwe talked about that and they
were very excited about being apart of what their spouse was
doing, whether it was male orfemale, and and that's something
that sometimes is notoverlooked but kind of takes a
(51:07):
back seat Sometimes we've got tomake sure that the families are
included and they understandthe, the, the critical role
that's played, because I don'tknow about you, but when I was
overseas and away from home, youknow, the one thing I was
always thinking about was what'shappening back there and, geez,
if it's not going right, I'mgoing to be in trouble.
Ron Olds (51:31):
Well, you and I know, when we were there in Okinawa 71
through 73, we were pullingsignificant temporary duty.
I mean we were gone All thetime I remember I was gone like
313 days in 12 months temporaryduty and then when we were in
Okinawa we sat nuclear alert inthe hole so we still couldn't go
(51:54):
home yeah we clearly understoodduring that time, as did our
families, this this is a familycommitment and you're exactly
right, we need to make sure wetreat and that's another thing
in today's military we need tothink about the families.
We need to get these young,young people in, we need them
committed, but we need to makeabout the families.
We need to get these youngpeople in, we need them
(52:14):
committed, but we need to makesure we're providing decent
housing for their families, makesure their families are taken
care of and make sure theirfamily you know, we always
talked about DEI inclusion, forinstance.
My goodness, we sure includedour families in so many things,
and it's not just inclusion ofthe individual military, but I
(52:35):
think we need to included ourfamilies in so many things.
And it's not just inclusion ofthe individual military, but I
think we need to include ourfamilies because, again, they're
the backbone and they're thesupport of you being at the tip
of the spear.
Al Palmer (52:48):
Well, you know, and maybe as a kind of a closing
thought here, I know when youheaded off to the Air Force
Academy, you kind of had toleave a lot of things behind and
start kind of a new journeythat took you someplace that you
probably didn't have a clue onwhat was actually going to
happen at the time right.
Ron Olds (53:09):
Oh, I'm telling you it was a rude awakening.
Oh, I'm telling you it was arude awakening.
My aunt and uncle were drivingfrom Illinois to California so I
rode with them.
They dropped me off under theBring Me Men sign at the Air
Force Academy.
The sign said walk up thisstairwell.
And I walked up that stairwelland life as I knew it changed
(53:30):
significantly.
Al Palmer (53:33):
I remember when I went to officer training school
here in San Antonio and I droveout in my MGB with my golf clubs
and tennis rackets and someother sports equipment stuck in
the trunk, thinking I was goingto have a great time at the
country club.
That didn't occur.
They never got out of the trunkwhile I was there.
What I did, though, was I foundmyself on all fours cleaning
(53:57):
toilets with a toothbrush,character, building right ways
of doing things and adapt tomilitary life, and I found it
it's so great to see youngpeople, who have some of them
(54:19):
have real problems when they getin the military.
They find out it is now afamily, there is a way of doing
business.
You have to get up everymorning, you have to make your
bed, and you have to be tuned into what people are telling you,
and it does work.
It builds character, it buildspeople, and I'd love to see us
get back to that.
Ron Olds (54:41):
Well, I agree, I was in charge of the parents club
for the Air Force Academy inDetroit when I was there and
mothers used to say, oh, why didthey do that to Johnny in basic
training?
And I said I hope Johnny neverknows, but the story I relate to
a lot of people.
When I was in Vietnam mywingman was killed and we spent
(55:04):
a lot of time trying to get asearch and rescue up to try to
rescue them and two in-flightrefuelings to try to conduct the
operation.
They brought other search andrescue people in.
We tried to get a thirdrefueling and they said no
return to base.
We've got a commander on site,they'll take care of this rescue
(55:24):
effort.
Well, when I got back to thebase in Taklea, walked down the
ladder, I couldn't stand anymore.
I collapsed right there underthe wing.
That was the military trainingI had had, that you do the job
you got to do to save yourselfand others.
And then you, you save any ofyour emotional uh, uh, um
(55:46):
distress till a time when itdoesn't threaten your life or
others.
So that to me was a real lessonin what all of that basic
training does.
It trains you to be ready to dowhat you got to do to protect
your life and the life of others.
So, yeah, I agree with you, weneed to get back to that, and
it's sad today that only 25% ofour young people 18 to 25, meet
(56:10):
the requirements to enter themilitary.
Neither obesity, drugs, crime,a lot of things like that.
So there's another effort thatneeds to be done in our school
system and our health system toget these young people able to
enter into the military.
Al Palmer (56:28):
Well, I think, as you said so accurately, it's bigger
than just the military.
It spreads throughout thesociety.
We've got to get peoplereoriented again and it's not
anything that's unusual.
I mean civics.
Knowing about civics, how ourgovernment works, how our people
have built a history of thecountry, is important, and if
(56:50):
you're going to defend theConstitution, first thing is you
got to know what it is and whatit means.
So there's lots of work to bedone there.
Ron, listen, it's so greattalking to you, my friend, and a
lot of wisdom passed today, Ithink, between us and I'm so
grateful for you being one ofthe great forces and stars.
(57:11):
It's a great mission and it's agreat purpose that we serve,
and hopefully our friends thatare tuned in listening to this
can pick up some of that.
Ron Olds (57:22):
Well, Al, I hope it's beneficial to some people.
Again, I want to thank you.
I really thank you for being soactive in the STARS effort and
getting all of these podcastsdone, not to mention your talk
around the.
You interface with a lot ofpeople in a lot of communities
and I thank you for not onlyyour service, your friendship,
(57:46):
but thanks for all you're doingto help further this STARS
mission, and we'll keep at it.
Al Palmer (57:52):
Well, it's important and for our viewers.
Just to give you a little teasefor next week we're going to
have a judge and a JAG advocategeneral from the Air Force on,
and he's also an Academygraduate and his name is Bruce
Smith.
He's going to be here to talkabout what the issues are with
(58:15):
law and the military, how it'sworking, how it's not, and
that's going to be a prettyexciting one.
So stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, we'll sign offhere.
Ron, thanks again for beinghere and to our audience.
Ron Olds (58:35):
We'll look forward to seeing you next time around.
Thank you, al.
Stay safe.
Welcome back America.
This is your host for STARRSand Stripes, a great podcast by
the STARRS organization that isbehind the success of getting
rid of DEI and some of the othercorrosive effects in the
military.
Today we like to talk about themilitary in terms of readiness
(00:34):
and our ability to fight and winwars, and that's what we're
going to do a little bit today.
I've got a very special guesttoday and he's also an old
personal friend because we bothflew F-4 Phantoms together in
the Air Force.
His name is Ron Olds, after thefamous video that was produced
(01:04):
by some of the athleticdepartment concerning Black
Lives Matter and race in theacademy at the Air Force Academy
in Colorado.
So Ron is a real prime suspectto talk to today and I'm glad to
have him back with me.
Ron, welcome to our episode ofSTARRS and Stripes today.
(01:25):
It's good to have you with usmy friend Well, al, thanks a lot
.
Ron Olds (01:35):
Thanks for all you're doing for stars, and not only
what you've done for the countryover the years.
Appreciate our time togetherand thank you for our many years
of friendship.
Al Palmer (01:43):
Well, listen.
So our audience needs to know alittle bit more about just the
fact that we're out flying fastjets.
You've got an amazing historyof your own.
Can you tell us a little bitabout how you got sucked into
the Air Force?
Ron Olds (01:59):
Yeah, I guess it's a little bit interesting there.
It seems probably differentthan most young people.
I grew up in a small farmingcommunity in northern Illinois,
a town of about 900 people.
I really never had the AirForce Academy as an objective.
And back in 1964, let's face itthe Air Force Academy first
(02:21):
class graduated in 1959.
So it was a very, very younginstitution.
A lot of interest in it.
Me personally, I was not quiteso interested at that time.
The superintendent of schoolsknew me and my family very well.
We didn't have much money.
Well, we didn't have much moneyand it was going to be very
(02:44):
difficult for me to go tocollege.
I did well academically.
I was a two-year all-conferencefootball player, so I was
fairly well known in thecommunity and knew a lot of
people around the conference.
The superintendent of schools,I think, brought up the idea
that here was a possibility fora young man of limited means to
(03:09):
get an education.
So he started trying to pushthis a little bit.
He wrote letters to thecommunity asking people to write
to our congressman, call ourcongressman on my behalf and lo
and behold, our congressCongressman did give me an
appointment at the Academy.
So that was how it started Ihad never flown in an airplane
(03:32):
before.
My father was a World War II vet, as were my uncles, but I
didn't really know a lot aboutthe military.
So 1965 summer off I went tothe Air Force Academy and of
course the first question waswow, what have I done?
But anyway I started to getexcited.
I think a real watershed eventin my life was Brigadier General
(03:57):
Robin Oles showed up in myjunior year as the Commandant of
Cadets and as we all know, hewas an ace Vietnam hero, a real
motivating guy.
So he started getting meexcited in my junior year at the
Academy of really wanting tofly, and particularly the F-4,
(04:20):
and go to Vietnam.
But he was a real motivation atthat time and of all of us my
classmates still today honor thememory of Robin Oles.
So anyway, that's what got meexcited.
I wanted to go to pilottraining and I was crushed.
(04:41):
My eyesight wouldn't let me go.
I even tried to memorize theeye chart and still failed.
But anyway I went to navigatortraining and they were going to
kick me out of navigatortraining because I had a waiver
for commission which I knewnothing about.
But anyway, I wrote to RobinOles and said, hey, they're
(05:02):
going to kick me out of here.
I want to fly F-4s.
And got called in after a monthof ground school and said
Surgeon General says you canstay.
So Robin Oles not onlymotivated me but he also stepped
up to help me get to where Iwanted to go.
I finished high in my navigatortraining class.
I took the first F-4 out ofthere and, of course, went
(05:25):
through training and then thatfirst assignment was F4C's over
in Okinawa, which is where Al,you and I met and served
together at that time.
So that's how I my route intoF4's and meeting people like
yourself and wanting to reallygo to Vietnam.
Al Palmer (05:47):
I dug through my old picture file here and found one
of us there at Okinawa inJanuary of 72.
We both looked a little bityounger.
You're right there underneaththe round patch which was our
squadron patch, and I'm overunderneath where the break is
and the vertical tail there, uh,but yeah uh, interesting bunch
(06:09):
of young guys.
We're now a bunch of oldwhippersnappers.
Ron Olds (06:11):
So there you go, that's, that's.
Uh, that was quite a group.
And then, sadly, as youprobably know, uh, a good friend
of ours, john staveley, who wasin that picture, passed away,
and I'm assuming that John Lowryis also in there, who just
passed away last week.
Al Palmer (06:29):
Yeah, unfortunately.
Well, what a great bunch ofyoung guys.
But we're all volunteers.
We weren't drafted, althoughsome of us tried to dodge the
draft, I think.
Ron Olds (06:42):
I never did, to be honest, I never did find out
what my draft number was.
Al Palmer (06:47):
I went to the academy and, like I said, started to
get that motivation and wantedto go fly and fight because I
passed all the tests andeverything and found a way to
get in to the Air Force throughOTS and I thought I'd dodged a
(07:08):
bullet, but then found myself,like you, Ron, dodging bigger
bullets over North Vietnam.
Yeah, exactly that really didn'twork out so well, but listen,
so you spent some time, so youwere in some combat there.
I think while I was gone flyingweasels in Thailand, you went
off to South Vietnam, I thinkright.
Ron Olds (07:31):
That's correct About the same time there in August of
72, they were looking forbackseaters down there in some
of the units in Vietnam, and soI volunteered to go.
And then I was sent down toTockley in August of 72, which
is probably pretty close to someof the time that you were sent
(07:55):
over there to do your weaselmissions.
Al Palmer (07:58):
Yeah, in fact I was.
My first tour was 100 missionsat Tockley earlier before the
weasel business.
Yeah, tockley was a fun place.
So is that where you wereflying up in country then?
Ron Olds (08:11):
Yes, yes, I was flying out of Tockley.
I was assigned to the 421stBlack Widows and I think that
was part of the 366th GunfighterWing, who had moved from Da
Nang over to Tak Lee just priorto my arrival there.
So I was there at Tak Lee andspent quite a bit of time
(08:32):
sitting alert over at Da Nang,but most of our missions out of
Tak Lee, as you probably areaware, were up north.
Al Palmer (08:41):
Yep, yep On tankers up that way north.
Yep, yep on tankers and up thatway.
Ron Olds (08:50):
So after your time there.
You got out and went to workfor Michelin right, that's
correct.
I went back after Takli inSoutheast Asia, went back to
Okinawa, finished up my tourthere and then it was time to
rotate back to the States in thesummer of 1973.
And so I came back and was aninstructor at George Air Force
(09:12):
Base, and after a period of timethere, my commitment from the
academy was coming to an end andI was trying to decide do I get
in or stay out?
And I decided I was going toget out.
We weren't flying much in1973-74 due to the fuel shortage
, and so it was just kind ofgetting to where.
(09:36):
I didn't wasn't excited anymore.
So I put in my papers to getout.
And then I got contacted fromthe Pentagon.
A guy, class of 1968, said hey,we want you to stay, pull your
papers out.
So I did, and they talked to meabout a number of opportunities
, some which were interesting,some which were not, and
basically they said, hey, we'dlike you to be an Air Force
(09:58):
Academy PE instructor.
I said, bingo, we've got one.
And then they said, well, we'regoing to send you to Udorn for
a year.
And I said, well, wait a minute.
I just got back and so that'swhy.
Yeah, they said, well, we've gotto send you a year, so you have
a good solid four years at theacademy.
And I said, OK, that's a bridgetoo far.
So I decided to get out and Ihad a lot of interviews.
(10:22):
I had 50-some interviews withcompanies around the country and
I finally kind of liked whatMichelin had to offer and they
had a good reputation in my mindit was not a large company at
that time as a tire supplier andso I accepted a job with
(10:42):
Michelin in Portland, Oregon, asa field engineer, which was
kind of nice.
My boss was in New York.
I saw him twice in two years.
So they sent me out there andsaid do what you think is right.
So that's how I joined Michelinand we can talk more on where
my career went as you desire,but that was my entry into
(11:05):
Michelin in fall of 1974 so hecouldn't get too far away from
aircraft tires well it is.
It turned out my initialassignment had nothing to do
with aircraft tires.
My initial assignment wasintroduced radial tires to the
log truck industry in thenorthwestern United States.
(11:26):
And then, anyway, I was theretwo years and then Michelin said
hey, we would like you inoriginal equipment.
And I asked is that Detroit?
And they said yes.
I said hell no.
Then I ended up in Detroit.
But they sent me to Detroitbecause Michelin had tires on
(11:48):
Lincoln at that time and some ofthe Ford cars and they were
trying to get into GeneralMotors and my job was be the
engineer to introduce tiresMichelin tires into General
Motors Took me six years but gotit done.
Then they wanted me to move toNew York, to the headquarters
and I said hell, no, and then weended up in New York and it
(12:15):
seems to be a trend here.
Al Palmer (12:17):
And then after yeah, surprising how that happens,
isn't it?
Ron Olds (12:20):
Almost two years in New York in 1984, I got called
in one evening and said hey,michelin has developed a radial
aircraft tire.
We would like to introduce thatto North America.
How would you like to do that?
So in May of 1984, I started asthe only employee in Michelin
aircraft tire in North America.
(12:40):
So I had a lot of meetings withthe manufacturers Boeing,
mcdonnell Douglas, northrop andall of those.
I had a lot of interviews withAviation Week, usa Today and
things trying to talk about theradial tire.
I wrote a couple papers, did alot of speaking, and so then
(13:01):
Michelin relocated to Greenville, south Carolina.
So I made that move.
And then in 1989, we were doingsome discussions with BF
Goodrich aircraft tires and so Iwas instrumental at that time
in Michelin's purchase of BFGoodrich, which kind of launched
(13:21):
us from a very, very smallcompany of a couple of people to
a good manufacturing testingorganization, and BF Goodrich,
which had a good reputation inaircraft tires, finally was
(13:44):
promoted to vice president ofsales and zone director for
North and South America.
So that was kind of what mademy big step and I stayed in that
position and then retired in2012.
Al Palmer (14:02):
And settled in beautiful Colorado.
Ron Olds (14:09):
Yeah, and basically, when I mentioned I started 1984,
I was a company of one and whenI retired 2012, we were the the
biggest tire supplier in theworld, so, uh, that that was
quite a a jump.
And and also during my time atMichelin which I failed to miss
I stayed as an Air Force Academyliaison officer for the Air
Force Academy, retiring in 1992from that position.
(14:33):
So I've been involved inworking with potential Academy
cadets for a lot of years andhave stayed in that.
But, yes, you're correct,retired in 2012, loaded the
moving van and moved to Colorado.
I wanted to be back near themilitary community and be around
the Air Force Academy, and sothat's where we are today.
Al Palmer (14:59):
So that's where you were when you and I were doing
some reunions of our old fightersquadron there.
And along the way you called meup one day and said now we got
this problem at the at theacademy.
There's this film that's beendone and it's exposing BLM and
all to the, the cadets.
And I know you were quiteconcerned about that and I
(15:22):
talked with one or two of ourother friends and said, boy,
this is really a problem.
But I I kind of stuck it in theback of my hat for a while.
But the more I thought about itthe more I realized how serious
that was in infecting theproduction of our leaders in the
air force.
But it wasn't just the airforce was, was it?
(15:42):
It spread to Annapolis, itspread to West Point and now
we're left with this problem ofthe leaders and the future
leaders in our services havingsome other kind of a direction
than what we all grew up with.
You want to talk a little bitabout how that affected you?
Ron Olds (16:03):
Yeah, absolutely, Al.
That was a real shock to me.
Interestingly enough, my nextdoor neighbor is General Rod
Bishop, and he and Ron Scott arestars present right now.
The three of us did sometalking when this video came out
(16:24):
, and so, oh my goodness is this, is a real shock, and this,
this has got to be fixed.
And we started talking.
Then we need to get thesuperintendent to pull that
video down.
And another thing that happenedaround that time, which you're
all familiar with, was theHunter Biden laptops, which
you're all familiar with was theHunter Biden laptops and,
(16:44):
without getting into a lot ofdetail, I was highly aware very
early on that that was alegitimate laptop and it
bothered me a lot that ourgovernment was poo-pooing this.
And so all of this started toreally concern me with what's
happening at the Air ForceAcademy, what's happening in our
(17:06):
government.
And, like I say, between RodBishop and Ron Scott, we did a
lot of talking.
We talked to a few other peopleand said, OK, what can we do to
try to battle this infection?
That's happened, this infection, that's happened.
(17:27):
So that's when we startedtalking about forming some kind
of an organization to see if wecould first of all take on the
Air Force Academy, because wetried talking to the
superintendent at that time andwe were getting very, very
little response from them.
We had to start the FOIA processand even then they just
stonewalled us.
So yeah, that's what caused myconcern is watching what I felt
(17:50):
was the degradation of what washappening at the Air Force
Academy and also being thisclose to the Academy.
We were mentoring a number ofcadets and I'd go out the
Academy and I'd talk to some ofthese cadets and they would
express some real concernswhat's going on here, and I
don't think I like thisenvironment.
(18:10):
So that's kind of what causedme some real concern.
As everybody else, I mean, Ilove the Air Force Academy, I
love the military and ourcountry needs our military.
So this caused me deep concern.
So when we started talking whatdo we do, we had a lot of
meetings over a lot of coffeetalking about what can we do,
(18:34):
and that's when the idea ofSTARS was born.
Al Palmer (18:39):
And so the three of you being retired then stood up
and realized that there was aproblem.
My question would be why didn'tthe active duty side do the
same thing?
Ron Olds (18:52):
Well, and I also want to point out that there was more
than three of us I tend tothink, I can't remember the
original founders were probablyabout six or seven of us, some
locally, some not.
So we did a lot of talking andso, yes, we, as retired people,
were very, very concerned.
But don't forget, one of thebiggest voices against this on
(19:17):
the active duty side was MattLohmeyer.
And Matt Lohmeyer startedraising concerns with his
command and all the way up theline to the four-star general
who he had worked for, about hisconcerns, about the Marxism
infecting our military.
Why they wouldn't listen to him.
(19:42):
I don't know if they weregetting instructions from on
high, but they all poo-pooedMatt and Matt, because of his
integrity, said I cannot sitidly by.
And then Matt published his book, which really started raising
the awareness, and then, ofcourse, matt was fired from his
position, which is sad because,as we all know, if we know Matt
(20:05):
Lohmeyer, he's one of the finestpeople, one of the finest
officers we have ever known andhe was destined for big things
in the Air Force.
But he was fired and of coursethat made other people start to
be concerned.
If I raise my concerns I I'mgonna be kicked out of the
military.
So this was another one ofthose big things that happened
(20:29):
which made us all really shakeour heads.
And Matt, it turned out, was agood friend early on.
We spent some time together.
He's got a wonderful wife,wonderful family, and so we had
some discussions about what wasgoing on early on and we are big
(20:50):
supporters of Matt Lohmeyer andI think Matt kind of lit the
fire in the active duty.
We were pushing the academy,the Air Force Academy.
Matt was kind of lighting thefire in the active duty and then
it was sometime after that westarted meeting some of the
people from the Army and theNavy and getting West Point and
Annapolis in our sites as well.
Al Palmer (21:12):
But that's exactly the point is, it was the
dedicated people who werecommitted, you know, and you
would hope that that would bethe case in the leadership in
the Pentagon, on the active side, but somehow that sense of
accountability and being able tostand up disappeared for a
while.
We're hopeful that that'scoming back right.
Ron Olds (21:35):
Well, I hope so and I don't mind telling you I was
extremely disappointed in thehigh level leadership and one of
the things we found early on inour formation of stars is three
and four star generals didn'twant to talk to us.
I don't know what they wereafraid of, but they just, you
(21:57):
know, we were called an awfullot of names and told to go away
.
And we're just causing troubleand quit blaming the Air Force
Academy for everything.
And so, yeah, I was highly,highly disappointed in senior
leadership, in not only activeduty but retired, because we
(22:20):
were fighting significantheadwinds early on and I think
you've heard some of the thingssome of the people at the
Academy didn't want us aroundand wouldn't talk to us, but
again, we just kept our headsdown and plowed ahead.
Al Palmer (22:39):
And so some of that even spread into the Associate
of Graduates of the the academy,who are the alumni who, now
that they're out of the academy,ought to have a pretty good
voice about things that they cansee and sense are happening and
report that back to the headshed, if you will, the
(23:01):
leadership of the academies.
They got dismissed in somecases or have been downright
ignored, which they shouldn't be.
I mean, that's a very positiveresource that the academies each
of the academies has, and yetthat seems to have been sort of
dismissed by the previousadministration.
(23:21):
How do you feel about that?
Ron Olds (23:24):
Well, this was exactly right, Of course, over the
years I've been a member of theAssociation of Graduates for
many, many years I know a lot ofpeople and there was a lot of
discontent with grads about whatwas going on at the Air Force
Academy.
They were of the opinion thatthe Association of Graduates
wanted our money but not ouropinions and our knowledge.
(23:48):
And what a lot of thediscussions were is hey, we want
a voice.
You know, we've got what?
50,000 graduates out there andthere's a little bit of
experience out there and wethought we should at least be
able to get our voice?
Yeah, just a little bit.
I mean, we know we don't.
We don't run the Air ForceAcademy, but again, there are
(24:09):
things we observe and we allinterface with a lot of cadets
that are out there and a lot of,a lot of our parents of cadets.
So we get some real honestfeedback about what's going on
at the Air Force Academy and wewant it to be successful.
So we wanted to at least have avoice.
(24:31):
And the other thing we wantedfrom the AOG was transparency.
When you publish, we'd like tobe aware of what's going on and
we want balance and we want theAOG to be able and there were
some articles being published inthe AOG quarterly magazine
called Points, which seemed tofavor DEI but didn't offer any
(24:53):
balanced points as well.
So that was another thing westarted to push on, and I think
that was the biggie.
We just want transparency andwe want to have a voice.
We're not trying to run theplace, we just like to have a
voice.
Al Palmer (25:12):
But that kind of seems to me to be something that
keeps them from being isolatedand insulated in leadership If
they're out there getting thatopinion from the larger group of
graduates and also, you know,being able to talk to the cadets
and you know there's someinterface there that needs to
occur too to keep them up withwhat's happening.
(25:34):
Do you think that's been aproblem a little bit with the
leadership being unfocused?
Ron Olds (25:40):
Well, I think there's two people I really need to
compliment.
Mark Hilly is the CEO of theAOG.
Mark, I think, has been doing avery, very fine job since he
was appointed to that position.
I've met with him on a numberof occasions and he listens.
I've been able to tell him somethings.
(26:02):
He listens and I know he for afact meets regularly with the
superintendent at the academy.
Now I don't know what they talkabout, but I trust Mark that
he's sharing things.
The second person I have tocompliment is the superintendent
.
I may butcher his name,lieutenant General Bauerfein,
(26:22):
and I have talked with him on anumber of occasions and he has
been very open and say I welcomegraduate feedback, be it
positive or negative.
So I think we have twosignificant people here which I
think are representing what wewant, and I'd like to say I
think we've kind of turned acorner in that regard from
(26:45):
previous leadership out at theAcademy.
So I feel quite good about thatand I think we're going in a
good direction.
Al Palmer (26:53):
You know I think back a little bit to you and I when
you were putting on a reunion ofour fighter squadron there in
Colorado.
We went out to the Academy oneday and we were being briefed by
one of the senior officersthere and I think the question
came up what about war fighting?
Are you teaching that still?
And as I recall, the responsewas not very enthusiastic.
(27:17):
Do you think that was a problemthat it developed that now may
be switching back?
Ron Olds (27:24):
Absolutely.
I think as this woke philosophy, the Marxism philosophy,
started to sneak in, there wasso much attention being given to
social things.
I remember I got a notice oneday of a cadet telling me that
oh, there was a transgenderbriefing going on out at the
(27:49):
academy at a given time in alecture hall, and the first 50
people to sign up would get afree lunch.
So there was some enticement intrying to, you know, address
some of these things and we saidwait a minute, what's going on?
We're having trans briefings,the Air Force Academy, and of
(28:11):
course we're all familiar, Ithink, with the purple rope
thing that came along wherethere were DEI, represented
squadron that wore a purplearmband or a purple rope and
they reported through a separatechain of command, which almost
like a Gestapo kind of asituation.
So that really bothered usquite a bit.
But one of the big events thathappens every year at the Air
(28:34):
Force Academy is the NationalCharacter and Leadership
Symposium, ncls.
They invite war heroes fromaround the world.
Some of the things I've heardin years past Navy Seals, and
some of the things that theseyoung people have done Medal of
Honor winners just warms yourheart.
But over a few years ago thoseconferences or symposiums
(28:59):
started to trend to bringing inIvy League professors that were
left-leaning and a lot of youknow.
I attended one that was a transColonel in the Air Force and a
lot of these social so neverthat works of trends.
(29:20):
well, I just went to the onelast month in February of this
year.
The theme was warrior ethos andI'm thrilled to be able to say
I attended a number of thepresentations.
They were all wonderful.
The superintendent gave awonderful introduction to kick
(29:41):
things off.
I talked to him several timesone-on-one throughout the
conference and keptcomplimenting him on various
presentations.
So this year, in my opinion andI've talked to a lot of other
friends that were at thesymposium as well it seems like
a watershed event this year thatthings really seem to be
trending back to the warriorethos, the focus on fly, fight,
(30:06):
win, that mentality, and I wasvery, very pleased with what I
heard last month at thisconference.
Al Palmer (30:18):
Well, and to show you how that, I think, is trending
right now, about a week ago now,about a week ago I was invited
to be the keynote speaker at abig military service ball of all
the services up in MilwaukeeI'm sorry, minneapolis and when
I was there the theme was thatwas the warrior ethos.
(30:40):
What did you guys do in the past, how did you do it, what was
combat like, and all of that.
They're now more interested inthat coming back.
And at the end of that, thisLieutenant Colonel pulled me
aside and he said he said, sir,he says look, you know, I'm
happy to hear what you have tosay, because my son is at the
Air Force Academy right now andhe's got another year to go, but
(31:03):
he's been talking about notstaying in.
He'll do his time, do his five,get out, and he's gone.
But I talked to him the othernight and he says daddy says I
think I'm going to stay nowbecause things are changing, and
that was that's real timefeedback and I was kind of happy
to hear that.
But he wasn't the only onesaying it.
Ron Olds (31:28):
And I was kind of happy to hear that, but he
wasn't the only one saying it.
Well, I agree with you and Iwill say, over the past couple
of years I talked a lot ofcadets and the theme was five
and dive.
You know, I'm getting out ofhere as soon as I can.
I don't like this.
And I have a nice opportunitysince the chapel has been closed
, a number of cadets attend ourchurch, so I have the chance
(31:58):
almost every Sunday to talk to acurrent cadet out at the Air
Force Academy and how things aregoing and just the feeling you
get is definitely improving.
Feeling you get is definitelyimproving and I see some of
these young cadets and greatyoung people feeling more and
more positive about militaryservice.
And I can also tell you, as youknow, we all know a number of
people that have, unfortunatelyat our point in life, grandkids
(32:21):
and you know before here, twoyears ago, the last thing they
wanted their grandkids to do wasgo into the military.
I'm starting to get a littlebit better feeling of people
like you and I that saying youknow what, maybe that wouldn't
be a bad path for my grandson orgranddaughter to take.
So I'm seeing some trends andbeing out here, where we're
(32:47):
completely immersed in themilitary, as you are down there
in the San Antonio area, I thinkwe're starting to feel some
things turning and I think PeteHegseth is going to make some
big changes, and I'm quiteanxious to get Matt Lohmeyer
sworn in as the Undersecretaryof the Air Force and I think
(33:08):
he's going to have some bigimpacts as well.
So I think we're getting goodleadership in Washington.
I'm happy to see some of theattitude changes from some of
the cadets, so I think a lot ofthat is feeding down right now
and, like I say, thesuperintendent out at the
academy seems to be a realsupporter of this warrior ethos.
Al Palmer (33:32):
So, given that that's now a big change that is
occurring and we're all kind ofhopeful that that will continue
to expand, do you think thefight's over with the embedded
DEI and Marxism?
Is that now a done deal?
Is it dead?
Ron Olds (33:49):
Not at all.
We've had a lot of discussionswithin STARS, as now with what's
just happened in November.
How does that affect ourmission and what we need to do?
We've had a number ofdiscussions about this and I
think we're all pretty much inlockstep here.
No, the battle is not over.
The war is not over.
(34:11):
We've won some battles, the waris not over, but a lot of this
Marxist indoctrination is inplace.
I worry about our K through 12schools.
You know I have two grandsonshere locally in the school
system and I try to payattention and talk to them.
You know what's being taught inschool and I think that's a
(34:33):
battleground what's being taughtin DOD schools?
A lot of this DEI stuff wasembedded in the DEI schools
around the world with theteachers.
So I think there's some workthat still needs to be done, and
not only that.
We've got to make sure thatit's embedded and doesn't go
(34:54):
away in three or four more years, depending on what happens in
the administration.
So I think that's still a majoreffort.
We need to make sure that ouryoung recruits are focused on
the mission and readiness andnot on all of these social
things.
As you and I know, al, themilitary cannot be a social
(35:18):
experiment.
It's sad.
We have a mission, we breakthings, we kill people,
unfortunately.
I hope we don't have to come tothat, but that's what we have
to do and that's our job, and wedon't have time for a lot of
this social activity.
But another thing that hasconcerned a number of my academy
(35:40):
friends is the amount ofcivilian instructors at our
academies not just the Air ForceAcademy, but, I think,
annapolis has more civilianinstructors than others, and so
I mean we've got there's someweeding out that I think needs
to be done in these militaryacademies on the side of a lot
(36:04):
of these professors, because Ithink a lot of them are very
left-leaning, Some of them camefrom a lot of the Northeastern
schools, and I think we need tofigure out how we're going to
handle that.
I know, when I was at theacademy, almost all my
instructors and I think I wouldsay mainly all of them were
military, so not only and ofcourse, coming out of Vietnam,
(36:27):
they were all war fighters andso we were indoctrinated with
wonderful heroes and stories andit made us want to be like them
.
Al Palmer (36:37):
And I'm afraid we've got so many civilian instructors
now that this warrior ethos isnot being passed on from those
instructors, and you know, we'vetalked about that a lot on this
program, this podcast, in thepast, about that very issue of
the ability of young people tobe inspired, so they want to be
(37:01):
war fighters instead of justbudgeteers or something.
But, as you say, it's a bit of amore broadly based thing
because it spreads not just fromthe warfighters and the active
and reserve forces.
It's also an issue that spreadsinto the defense industry base,
because they're the people thatare building the ships, the
(37:23):
aircraft, the weapons and allthe things that go with it, all
the weapon systems, and they'rein trouble now too because they
don't have the technical talentto do that the way they used to.
They recently reported toCongress that the defense
industrial base does not havethe ability to respond to a
multi-front attack on the UnitedStates right now, like we did
(37:48):
in World War II.
So it's not just doing thatwithin the military, with
restoring patriotism and warfighting and the ability to
function in battle.
It's also spread into theindustrial base that supports
all that and makes all theequipment for it, don't you
think?
Ron Olds (38:07):
Well, absolutely, and you know, we always say like in
the military.
Our military is a reflection ofour society and I think our
military industrial base, thepeople that work there, are
certainly a reflection of oursociety and I'm not sure they're
military-focused in a lot ofcases, and there are some real
(38:30):
challenges.
I was reading things about theage of our aircraft and warships
.
It's incredible how old ourmilitary is.
We've been so focused over thelast 20-plus years on fighting
in Afghanistan and Iraq, whichis not going to serve us well in
the future.
(38:50):
I don't believe in the futureconflicts.
So I think our militaryindustrial base has got to trust
as well to what is the futureof military conflict, and I
think it's got different thanwhat we've been doing for the
last few years.
And and in this war at least,we've worn out a lot of our
(39:10):
equipment.
Our airplanes are being flown alot.
Our army, all of our militaryequipment has really been worn
out, and now we've got a problemof trying to maintain it or
replace it, which are all takinga lot of money.
And one of the things I heardyesterday which has really,
really disturbed me was ElonMusk said now our payment on our
(39:35):
debt exceeds our militarybudget.
Al Palmer (39:39):
That's a concern?
Yes, well, it really is.
Well, and more than that.
You know, some of the aircraftyou're right that we're flying
are older than the crews thatare flying them by a lot now,
like B-52s, you know.
But there are also some issueswith operational ready rates.
(40:01):
I was reading the other daythat the Navy's F-35 operational
ready rate is down around inthe 30s and for those of us who
have flown aircraft, if your ORrate was down below about 80,
you knew you were in a littlebit of a trouble.
So that's kind of a disturbingthing to find out about.
Ron Olds (40:24):
Yeah, and I think it's not only just the Navy F-35.
I mean, you look at I wasreading some things the other
day about F-16s, f-15s, a-10s,b-1s.
I mean, the ready rate frombasically our fleet, I think, is
around 60% or lower, which isthat's a lot of airplanes
(40:47):
sitting there Sitting in thehangar.
that and the other problem we'vegot is they're to the point of
robbing parts off of airplanesthat are sitting there to fix
other airplanes.
I remember a story a while backthey were taking if there were
B-1 sitting in the hangar, theywere taking nose gears off of
(41:08):
them to put on other aircraft sothey could get them
operationally in combat ready.
But that's another thing you'vegot to ask.
As well.
What about our maintenance?
Are our young maintenancepeople really excited and ready?
Are they trained well?
I think this is another thingwhere a lot of our young
(41:31):
enlisted people and active dutyAir Force and military were
complaining.
We're spending way too darnmuch time sitting in rooms
talking about social issues andnot military readiness.
But again, I'd like to thinkwe've turned that corner now,
but, like you and I talked aboutearlier in this discussion,
(41:52):
it's not over.
We still have to continue thefight to put these social issues
aside and focus on militaryreadiness, and that goes down to
training the young people towork on these airplanes so we
can get them back in the air.
Al Palmer (42:08):
Well, and that function of maintenance is
increasingly an issue.
It happened to me when I was amuseum director and it's still
going on now.
The services are sending folksout to museums to rob the
aircraft there of some of theparts that they've got that they
can use.
And I remember that with anF-14 when I was in San Diego,
(42:35):
that with an F-14 when I was inSan Diego they were taking wing
servos out, hydraulic systemsand airbags because they had to
have that for the air sweep.
But the problem is I don'tthink I want a car that's got a
whole lot of used parts in itthat have been around for 20
years.
So that's what we've got.
I've got one.
I have one in my, that's right,you got your.
You got your corvette, don'tyou?
Ron Olds (42:57):
yeah, but it's kind of interesting we talk about this
readiness.
A few years ago I had lunchwith the ceo of delta and and I
asked him straight out.
I said uh, other than giving youfree tires, what?
What can we at Michelin do toimprove your operation?
And of course, the first thinghe said was I've got to have a
(43:18):
safe product which applies tothe military.
We need safe products.
But he said, secondly, I haveto have tires on time where I
need them, when I need them.
Because he said, if myairplanes aren't in the air, we
don't make money.
And that's my feeling about weneed military aircraft in the
(43:39):
air or ready to get in the air.
Yeah, because you know withoutthat you and I know, when you're
(44:00):
flying a fighter aircraft at500 feet per second, you need to
be sharp and you need to beflying to maintain your
readiness.
So it's not just having anairplane ready to fly.
You've got to have the abilityto train your flyers, because
(44:21):
there's no room for error whenyou're doing 500 feet a second.
You've got to be sharp, You'vegot to be on top of your game
and that requires training and,as much as we like to think
simulator training will do it.
There's nothing like being inthe air pulling Gs at high speed
.
You need that training soyou're ready to go into combat.
Al Palmer (44:45):
And you know that's one of the things that was one
of the failures of the recentadministration not to pick on
administrations, but they triedthat here at Randolph Air Force
Base in Texas, near where I live, the pilot training classes
there.
They decided to have one classthat was structured with DEI,
(45:05):
basically they were going to putminorities in their categories
based on population samples, andthey did that, thinking that
that was going to be a great wayto balance it and they'd have a
more diverse set of pilots.
That came out of it.
It failed miserably.
They washed out half the classand it failed because, again, it
(45:27):
had nothing to do with externalfactors.
It had everything to do withability and commitment to doing
it and working hard at it.
And so I think that lesson isstill even there today in the
private airlines.
You know, I think United wantedto do this for the same kind of
thing.
That's not going to work outwell.
Ron Olds (45:50):
Well, I agree.
You know you can't take metoday and say, hey, we need a
certain number of old peopleflying fighters and put me in
the cockpit instead of someyoung 30-year-old gun.
That's best of the best, and Ithink to me to try to shorten
(46:16):
the circuit and put someone inthat's not qualified results in
deaths.
And I think the focus needs tobe we need to start, and this is
something else that I think isimportant.
We've got to start back atbasic levels of education for
our young people.
I don't care kindergarten,first grade, third grade, fifth
grade this is where it starts tohave the merit of somebody to
(46:40):
fly a jet fighter.
You can't wait until they'reout of high school and say, okay
, I'm going to put you in thatand it isn't going to work.
So I would like to see somefocus on our education.
That's the basis for everything.
You know.
I mentioned early on mypersonal experience.
I came, I came from a familywithout, without very much, but
(47:02):
through some work I was able toachieve, get some good grades,
get some good, good resumesbuilt.
So I had an opportunity to gothrough a certain door and I
want these young people to haveopportunities to enter through
several doors and continue toadvance.
But again it takes someone thatsays I want to do this, I'm
(47:26):
prepared to do this, and wecan't short circuit, not in the
military.
Al Palmer (47:32):
You know the other thing in my discussions with
people recently, the one wordthat's come up, which I think is
a little different than I'mhearing these days.
The word is commitment.
It's not just being there forthe job, it's not just having
something that's exciting to doand then going off to do
something else.
It is a commitment to do yourbest to stay there and to make
(47:56):
sure that the country is safe,and that's a bigger thing than
just yourself.
But that's a tough commitmentand, as you know, it's even
worse when you're talking aboutgetting shot at and the dangers
that go with what you're doing.
That takes a real commitmentthat you can't find in the
outside world.
If you're doing that takes areal commitment that you can't
find, you know, in the outsideworld.
If you're working for Amazon,or or Boeing, or or or anybody
(48:19):
else, you know that's a toughthing to get people to do, to
commit their, their lives, theirenergies completely to
something in the military where,if you do it, you're actually
exceptional.
You're not just the regularkind of a guy or gal.
Ron Olds (48:37):
Oh no, I absolutely agree.
We need a commitment of youngpeople that want to serve.
And again, it's serve.
It's not about me when I joinedthe military, it's about unity,
and I think this is where wedid a lot of talking and stars
in the past, when we hadgenerals and leaders saying, oh,
(48:59):
diversity is our strength, andwe're saying, well, no, unity is
our strength, perhaps enhancedby diversity, but unity is the
strength, not diversity, butcommitment.
And I don't care where it is Al, I don't care if it's the
(49:20):
military, a civilian community,it's the commitment.
I used to drive 110 miles towork on Monday morning when I
was at Michelin and one personbeat me in the office.
It was my secretary, andwhenever we had any snow in
South Carolina, I could writeyou a list of who would be in
the office this morning and whowouldn't.
(49:41):
That's commitment.
But again, military requires acommitment way beyond what
civilian business requires,because it's not just a
commitment of you, it's acommitment of your family,
because the bell ring you and Iknow we set a lot of alert that
(50:02):
bell rings and you're off, and alot of times you don't know
when you're coming back.
So it requires a realcommitment of you and your
family.
And again, you and I know youneed to recognize the families,
the spouses of a military personhas to be committed and is a
(50:23):
real backbone.
Al Palmer (50:25):
You know, that's kind of funny because just recently
I had one of our folks we hangout with a lot tell my wife that
well, yeah, you were married toa guy in the military, but you
really weren't in the militaryand that got her a little bit.
That got her kind of excited,as you might imagine.
Ron Olds (50:42):
That fired up Susan.
Al Palmer (50:44):
Yeah, yeah.
So but again, this militaryball I was at just recently, all
the wives that were there hadwe talked about that and they
were very excited about being apart of what their spouse was
doing, whether it was male orfemale, and and that's something
that sometimes is notoverlooked but kind of takes a
(51:07):
back seat Sometimes we've got tomake sure that the families are
included and they understandthe, the, the critical role
that's played, because I don'tknow about you, but when I was
overseas and away from home, youknow, the one thing I was
always thinking about was what'shappening back there and, geez,
if it's not going right, I'mgoing to be in trouble.
Ron Olds (51:31):
Well, you and I know, when we were there in Okinawa 71
through 73, we were pullingsignificant temporary duty.
I mean we were gone All thetime I remember I was gone like
313 days in 12 months temporaryduty and then when we were in
Okinawa we sat nuclear alert inthe hole so we still couldn't go
(51:54):
home yeah we clearly understoodduring that time, as did our
families, this this is a familycommitment and you're exactly
right, we need to make sure wetreat and that's another thing
in today's military we need tothink about the families.
We need to get these young,young people in, we need them
committed, but we need to makeabout the families.
We need to get these youngpeople in, we need them
(52:14):
committed, but we need to makesure we're providing decent
housing for their families, makesure their families are taken
care of and make sure theirfamily you know, we always
talked about DEI inclusion, forinstance.
My goodness, we sure includedour families in so many things,
and it's not just inclusion ofthe individual military, but I
(52:35):
think we need to included ourfamilies in so many things.
And it's not just inclusion ofthe individual military, but I
think we need to include ourfamilies because, again, they're
the backbone and they're thesupport of you being at the tip
of the spear.
Al Palmer (52:48):
Well, you know, and maybe as a kind of a closing
thought here, I know when youheaded off to the Air Force
Academy, you kind of had toleave a lot of things behind and
start kind of a new journeythat took you someplace that you
probably didn't have a clue onwhat was actually going to
happen at the time right.
Ron Olds (53:09):
Oh, I'm telling you it was a rude awakening.
Oh, I'm telling you it was arude awakening.
My aunt and uncle were drivingfrom Illinois to California so I
rode with them.
They dropped me off under theBring Me Men sign at the Air
Force Academy.
The sign said walk up thisstairwell.
And I walked up that stairwelland life as I knew it changed
(53:30):
significantly.
Al Palmer (53:33):
I remember when I went to officer training school
here in San Antonio and I droveout in my MGB with my golf clubs
and tennis rackets and someother sports equipment stuck in
the trunk, thinking I was goingto have a great time at the
country club.
That didn't occur.
They never got out of the trunkwhile I was there.
What I did, though, was I foundmyself on all fours cleaning
(53:57):
toilets with a toothbrush,character, building right ways
of doing things and adapt tomilitary life, and I found it
it's so great to see youngpeople, who have some of them
(54:19):
have real problems when they getin the military.
They find out it is now afamily, there is a way of doing
business.
You have to get up everymorning, you have to make your
bed, and you have to be tuned into what people are telling you,
and it does work.
It builds character, it buildspeople, and I'd love to see us
get back to that.
Ron Olds (54:41):
Well, I agree, I was in charge of the parents club
for the Air Force Academy inDetroit when I was there and
mothers used to say, oh, why didthey do that to Johnny in basic
training?
And I said I hope Johnny neverknows, but the story I relate to
a lot of people.
When I was in Vietnam mywingman was killed and we spent
(55:04):
a lot of time trying to get asearch and rescue up to try to
rescue them and two in-flightrefuelings to try to conduct the
operation.
They brought other search andrescue people in.
We tried to get a thirdrefueling and they said no
return to base.
We've got a commander on site,they'll take care of this rescue
(55:24):
effort.
Well, when I got back to thebase in Taklea, walked down the
ladder, I couldn't stand anymore.
I collapsed right there underthe wing.
That was the military trainingI had had, that you do the job
you got to do to save yourselfand others.
And then you, you save any ofyour emotional uh, uh, um
(55:46):
distress till a time when itdoesn't threaten your life or
others.
So that to me was a real lessonin what all of that basic
training does.
It trains you to be ready to dowhat you got to do to protect
your life and the life of others.
So, yeah, I agree with you, weneed to get back to that, and
it's sad today that only 25% ofour young people 18 to 25, meet
(56:10):
the requirements to enter themilitary.
Neither obesity, drugs, crime,a lot of things like that.
So there's another effort thatneeds to be done in our school
system and our health system toget these young people able to
enter into the military.
Al Palmer (56:28):
Well, I think, as you said so accurately, it's bigger
than just the military.
It spreads throughout thesociety.
We've got to get peoplereoriented again and it's not
anything that's unusual.
I mean civics.
Knowing about civics, how ourgovernment works, how our people
have built a history of thecountry, is important, and if
(56:50):
you're going to defend theConstitution, first thing is you
got to know what it is and whatit means.
So there's lots of work to bedone there.
Ron, listen, it's so greattalking to you, my friend, and a
lot of wisdom passed today, Ithink, between us and I'm so
grateful for you being one ofthe great forces and stars.
(57:11):
It's a great mission and it's agreat purpose that we serve,
and hopefully our friends thatare tuned in listening to this
can pick up some of that.
Ron Olds (57:22):
Well, Al, I hope it's beneficial to some people.
Again, I want to thank you.
I really thank you for being soactive in the STARS effort and
getting all of these podcastsdone, not to mention your talk
around the.
You interface with a lot ofpeople in a lot of communities
and I thank you for not onlyyour service, your friendship,
(57:46):
but thanks for all you're doingto help further this STARS
mission, and we'll keep at it.
Al Palmer (57:52):
Well, it's important and for our viewers.
Just to give you a little teasefor next week we're going to
have a judge and a JAG advocategeneral from the Air Force on,
and he's also an Academygraduate and his name is Bruce
Smith.
He's going to be here to talkabout what the issues are with
(58:15):
law and the military, how it'sworking, how it's not, and
that's going to be a prettyexciting one.
So stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, we'll sign offhere.
Ron, thanks again for beinghere and to our audience.
Ron Olds (58:35):
We'll look forward to seeing you next time around.
Thank you, al.
Stay safe.
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