The Military's Leftwing Ideological Resistance: Fighting Back Against the Military Reforms of the President and SecDef

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Okay, good morning everyone.
Welcome to another STARS TownHall meeting.
On behalf of Lieutenant GeneralRod Bishop and our leadership
team, I'm honored to be yourhost today for this Town Hall
meeting To start off.
Right, cindy, if you want to goahead and display our flag and

(00:26):
if I can ask everyone to rise,please join me in the Pledge of
Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flagof the United States of America
and to the republic for whichit stands.
One nation under God,indivisible with liberty and
justice for all.
Thank you.
Indivisible with liberty andjustice for all, thank you.

(00:46):
Now a few administrativecomments here.
Those in attendance todayinclude senior and junior
officers, enlisted men and women, non-veteran patriots and
possibly our colleagues in themedia.
We are recording this sessionjust so that you know.
So we don't want to read somecomments in the paper that we

(01:08):
would have retracted.
To speak, we ask that you usethe raise the hand icon below or
just post your comments in thechat box.
We do welcome comments in thechat box and if you want
follow-up responses that wedon't get today, make sure we

(01:32):
have your contact information sowe can get back to you.
Today's lineup Introductoryremarks from our board chair,
general Bishop, a presentationby Sam call sign Shoemate, a
short follow-up by Dr ChaseSpears, an update from our STARS
Executive Vice President andnominee to serve as the
Undersecretary of the Air Force,matt Lohmeyer, a mission

(01:54):
adjustment pitch by our ViceChair, general Arbuckle, and
then we'll follow that up withthe Q&A Over to you, general
Bishop.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Hey, ron, thanks for the opportunity to welcome
everybody and thank all of youout there that have been strong
supporters of STARS over thelast several years.
Since geez, we're over intotriple digits here.
I have to assume that somefolks have never heard of STARS,
so I'm going to give you 30seconds to one minute kind of

(02:26):
summary of how we came about.
Hard to believe it was fiveyears ago next month now that
George Floyd was killed.
Unfortunately, to quote a goodfour-star friend of mine quote a

(02:50):
good four-star friend of minethat death opened the door to an
ideology that infected ourcountry but certainly our
military.
His comment was they've taken apage out of Saul Alinsky's
Rules for Radicals andbamboozled half of America.
Our football coaches at theAcademy put together a
three-minute video in which theyalmost chanted the slogan of

(03:10):
Black Lives Matter, black LivesMatter seven times in that three
minutes and we go wait a minute.
So we engaged with the soup,tried to get the video down.
We did.
It took us nine months, but wesaw from feedback from cadets
and multiple military membersacross our services that there

(03:31):
was an indoctrination takingplace the American populace on
the roots history intent, theMarxist roots history, and
intent to divide, that BlackLives Matter, that this whole

(03:52):
ideology behind critical racetheory and DEI was all about
Somewhere along the line.
We also, when military memberstold us that our own government
was breaking the law, stood upagainst the vaccine mandate,
played a role in helpingCongress overturn the mandate.
If you are one of those whothink, well, the vaccine was

(04:12):
good, yeah, maybe for somepeople probably wasn't necessary
for young military age people,but the crux of the matter for
us was our government wasbreaking the law.
The crux of the matter for uswas our government was breaking
the law and that wassubstantiated.
It has been substantiated nowby six different district courts
across our country.
So last fall, with an upcomingelection, we set about trying to

(04:43):
decide okay, you know, have weeducated America enough?
What are the possibilities ofthe election?
What are the potentialities?
Are we going to need to stickwith our mission?
And you'll see later whenGeneral Arbuckle, our vice chair
, gives you an update.
We're going to tweak it alittle bit Because, yeah, we do
believe that America has beeneducated, but we also know that
and knew then that there wasgoing to be some resistance.

(05:07):
I live right outside the NorthGate of the Air Force Academy
have a lot of interface withcadets and they tell us that you
know, dei critical race theorywas divisive identity politics
on steroids.
But they're also up front andsaying, yeah, about 20% of the
force buys into it.
So we also knew something inthe fall and that was, if there

(05:32):
was a trifecta and theRepublican Party were to win the
House, the Senate and the WhiteHouse not because we're all
Republicans, but because thatwas the party that was standing
up against this indoctrinationRepublicans, but because that
was the party that was standingup against this indoctrination

(05:53):
that our donations would go down, and they have.
But there's a mission stillahead and I think today we have
a couple of guest speakers thatare going to share with us some
truth, some of the things thatthey're seeing, that, yes,
indeed, this ideology has notdied very easily.
Our first speaker is a formerArmy intelligence specialist.
Recently, on the Sean Ryanpodcast goes by the call sign of

(06:17):
SHU, sam Shumate, shu, over toyou to help educate us all what
you're seeing.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Right, I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on Acouple of things.
I'm mostly recovered, but stillrecovering from pneumonia, so
if I cough or sniffle, just bearwith me.
Let me give you a littlebackground on myself, though,
for those of you who don't knowme.
I retired as a chief warrantofficer after 21 years in 2023
from the Army.
Like you said, I was anintelligence officer.

(06:47):
Why do I have a voice ofauthority on this?
Back in 2020, I started a socialmedia account.
It was just a humorous accountto make memes.
It was called Terminal CWO onInstagram and, along with a

(07:07):
couple other folks, we gotinvolved with exposing some of
the stuff that was going onduring the COVID era.
It was when the lockdowns hadhappened and we started seeing a
lot of bad behavior, and atfirst I didn't believe it.
I didn't think that theinstitutions as they were
designed could allow for suchthings to happen.
But there were some egregiousthings taking place early on

(07:28):
during the lockdowns, before themandate.
A lot of bad behavior by seniorleaders and troops were paying
the price for it, and I won'tregale you with that, because
that's not the reason why we'rehere, but over time, I took on
the fight for the unlawfulnesswith the COVID mandate took on
the fight for the unlawfulnesswith the COVID mandate, and the

(07:49):
reason it was unlawful wasbecause, quite clearly, there
was not an FDA-approved vaccineavailable for troops.
It was never disseminated.
We have proven that over andover, like General Bishop said,
and they forced people to takethe EUA under the guise that it
was interchangeable and youcould legally do that.
That's just not correct.
Anybody who has any kind ofmedical background whatsoever
will tell you that that's justfoolish.

(08:10):
But fast forward, talking aboutthe DEI stuff, I dealt with a
lot of this over the years.
We made numerous videos.
We exposed numerous officerswho were saying just blatantly
racist comments.
There was, top of my headseveral years ago, the
lieutenant colonel who said tohis formation that white males

(08:34):
were the problem.
He said that in a diversecompany, and he ended up getting
investigated for that, and, ofcourse, nothing happened, and
now he is on the promotion listof Colbert Colonel.
A lot of serious infractionswith this type of behavior,
though, and, as you stated,george Floyd was a catalyst for

(08:54):
this and what happened with thatand the ideology that spurned
from that, but regardless, Itend to think that this started
far before that with Obama, andI won't beat you up with
politics on that, but there's alot of things I could talk about
with the Obama era and what wasdone during that time and how

(09:16):
our senior leaders ended upmaking promotion, going from
being combat leaders to beingprogressive ideologists and
speaking eloquently enough tothat, that leftist mantra that
got them promoted.
But that's my, my personalopinion either way.
So we had I have personallytalked to thousands and

(09:38):
thousands and thousands oftroops in every branch and every
service over the years and ithas given me a vast network of
people to talk to.
Uh, hence the unfortunate SeanRyan show where I got the crazy
email.
That was a not a fun time in mylife, but regardless.
Um, that is how, that is howI've come to, you know, to

(10:01):
develop these networks of peoplethat tell me this stuff, every,
everyone from I.
I've had two general officers,active serving general officers
that have reached out to me,sent me information and all the
way down to the lowest level, soevery, every rank you can
imagine.
And, and recently we are seeinga an influx of malicious

(10:23):
compliance and lash back fromTrump's executive orders
remanding DEI policy, I think.
Several incidents that I'llbring.
I just made some notes beforewe started doing this.
Several incidents I'll call tolight was the very recent firing
of Vice Admiral ShoshanaChatfield, was the very recent
firing of Vice Admiral ShoshanaChatfield, representative to

(10:44):
NATO.
So, if the reports are to bebelieved, the reason she was
fired and I say if okay, becauseI don't know this truthfully, I
know that a lot of big accountsand this has been published in
several media outlets but shewas fired because she refused to
post the Secretary of Defense'spicture and Trump's picture and

(11:06):
then said we will wait them outfor four years and that that
idea right there, that we willwait them out, is not a singular
idea.
It is pervasive and I will I'lltalk about that in a little bit
but it is pervasive across thesenior officer spectrum, officer

(11:31):
spectrum, and we have to get anidea of where we're at with
that, because we're not beholdento the constitution in every
corner of our military anymore.
There are folks who have adoptedthis ideology, that are
beholden to DEI as almost areligion, dei as almost a
religion, and it's important tounderstand that the DEI is not

(11:51):
just a program, this is not justa thing that is codified on
websites and taught to ourtroops, but it is an ideology
and a religion that these peopleadhere to and they are extreme
about it.
This is that these peopleadhere to and they are extreme
about it.
This is, this is their world.
This is what they've adopted.
So what?
What have I seen?
I've seen dozens and I'm talkingabout field grade officers I'm

(12:14):
not talking about captains andbelow, not talking about
enlisted, because there's plentyof those too, and I've seen a
lot of those, but I'm talkingabout field grade officers and
up social media posts openlymocking and disparaging the
commander in chief on theirpersonal social media with some
very vulgar words.
If you want an idea and I'm notgoing to put it out on this

(12:36):
forum because it's some foullanguage, but if you want an
idea go to my social media pagemy ex account, which is
Thamasaur, which is like adinosaur, and just look up JAG
page, my ex account, which isSamasaur, just like a dinosaur,
and just look up JAG and go readthe go read the thread on the
JAG Corps and what some of theseofficers are saying.
It's, it's wild that they areopenly posting this stuff on
their social media accountswithout any fear.

(12:57):
You know one of the things thatI wrote down here is I I've
talked to a number of seniorofficers that are retired that
served during the 80s and 90s,and I think some of you could
probably relate to this.
There was this idea that beingapolitical was such an important
thing that they've told me theydidn't even vote it was

(13:20):
considered like uncouth to vote,that they were so apolitical
that they wouldn't even do that.
Now, I don't know how many ofyou have lived that way, but my
point is there was this ideathat being apolitical was, above
all else, that you werebeholden to.
You know the oath you took, andthat uniform and nothing else

(13:42):
mattered.
And there's this idea now thatwe are on teams, we are divided
within our military and we areon teams and attacking these
current policies, these policieswhich are Marxist in nature,
like you said, and are meant todivide and destroy and tear us
down as not only a military buta nation.
These people are sold out tothem Malicious compliance,

(14:08):
specifically.
We've seen this in the news.
So we've seen how the executiveorders came out saying tear
down everything, dei.
Well, what did they do?
They started tearing downwebsites that had, you know,
black officers or femaleofficers that had done something
honorable.

(14:28):
They said well, you said DEI.
No, that's not what DEI is.
Dei is not, you know, attackingsomebody because, or protecting
somebody because, of their skincolor.
Dei is elevating somebodybecause of minority traits
beyond their merit.

(14:48):
That's what it is.
So that has nothing to do witha black officer such as the
Tuskegee Airmen, who servedhonorably and did something
valorous for this nation.
But they did this to bemalicious and paint the
administration as being racist,and that's another thing we've
seen a lot of.
We've seen this overwhelmingattack on Trump over the years,

(15:11):
mind you, and this is apropagated effort for years now,
and it's built into themilitary to call him a fascist,
a Nazi, and regardless of howyou feel about Trump, the fact
that people are openly espousingthis stuff on social media
about their commander in chiefand believe that they have the
right to defy his orders underthe guise of you know it's

(15:32):
racist or whatever else, isextremely scary and dangerous.
Let me talk about somethingthat's the biggest deal that
I've seen lately the JAG Corps.
I'm going to give you a coupleof examples in the JAG Corps
specifically.
So I've had a senior officer inthe JAG Corps reach out to me

(15:54):
and he started sending mescreenshots of public social
media pages of group chats thatwere taking place at the
schoolhouse of uh, of groupchats that were taking place at
the schoolhouse for, um, I'm I'munfamiliar with the schoolhouse
, but it's uh, it's for majorsand uh, I'm sure somebody you
could fill me in, but either way, it was uh.

(16:14):
It was some some chats amongthem and they were talking about
affinity groups.
They were talking aboutmalicious compliance and they
were talking about maliciouscompliance and they were talking
about how these affinity groups, specifically the LGBTQ
affinity group, was activelyworking against Trump's
executive orders as we speak.
So what are affinity groupsthat are built based on

(16:42):
somebody's cultural backgroundor whether they're a female
officer, or whether they're gayor whatever the case may be, and
they are.
They are groups of these JAGofficers that basically divide
and connect together and theyare they're openly about

(17:04):
espousing between each other asfield grade officers that they
are defying Trump's executiveorders.
So I actually had aninteresting conversation today,
just a couple hours ago.
Earl Matthews is the nominatedgeneral counsel to the DOD.
Earl Matthews is a Ful birdcolonel in the Army Reserve.

(17:28):
I want to caveat this by sayingI am not saying anything bad
about Earl Matthews at all.
I am not disparaging and I'mnot saying he's subversive.
What I'm saying is, when Iposted these groups, one of the
things that the senior officersthe senior officers and there
was multiple at this point andthe JAG Corps that I was talking

(17:50):
to told me about these affinitygroups is that they are a
stepping stone for higherleadership in the DOD.
If you want to make it up thechain, they're a stepping stone.
Now the JAG Corps has pulled allof their affinity groups off
their official page, while itwas a JAG Corps-sponsored
program and event.

(18:10):
They have since been pulleddown in light of Trump's
executive orders.
However, they are still intact.
These affinity groups stillexist and they are still seen as
the rebellion, the group thatis fighting to save America from
the fascist and evil Trumpadministration, america from the

(18:32):
fascist and evil Trumpadministration.
So in this affinity group, earlMatthews was seen on a Zoom
call with the rest of them andposted this.
And then recently I thinkyesterday or the day before
Laura Loomer came out and madesome posts about him.
That I'm not going tosubstantiate one way or the
other, but she made a pretty bigpost about Earl Matthews and so
I just added on to it that,yeah, this is who this guy is

(18:54):
and he'd been a part of theseaffinity groups and I and I put
the post in there and he engagedwith me directly and he called
me a liar and I said are, are?
Is this not you?

(19:15):
Are you?
Are you the one that was not inthese JAG Corps?
I said, okay, I didn't accuseyou of saying anything
subversive.
However, these affinity groupshave been accused of being
subversive and speaking outagainst the Trump administration
in the shadows and trying tofight back against his executive
orders.
And you have, in fact, been inattendance to these meetings.
Take that for what it is.
The fact is you were part ofthis, not saying you're evil or
you're not, I don't knowanything about you, but this is
something I try to point out topeople and say understand that

(19:37):
there are these networks, thesenetworks of people run deep
within the Department of Defenseand they advise at every
echelon.
I saw the rank of peopleattending this, the stars town
hall, and I know how many of youhave have had to hold command
and have worked at every echelon.

(19:57):
We have multiple generalofficers in here, colonels and
and officers of every rank.
I'm sure many of you have heldmultiple commands.
You know how.
You know how your JAG's voiceis in your ear when they're
saying things.
Now imagine these JAG officers,one of them who's a senior

(20:17):
advisor to the Army Secretary,the Secretary of the Army, and
the kind of things that theywould say as a legal standing.
We saw it with the COVIDmandate.
Like General Bishop said, wehave six rulings I think it was
General Bishop and maybe it wasCindy but we have six rulings

(20:40):
that state that this wasunlawful.
But we had hundreds andhundreds of JAG officers that
said that it was lawful, despitethe overwhelming evidence that
you cannot force a servicemember to take an EUA vaccine.
So we have these years longhistory of bad rulings from the
JAG Corps that is workingagainst the Trump administration

(21:09):
, working against his executiveorders and is flat out
subversive to the oath they tookand to lawful orders.
Try that on.
I mean, how far does this go?

(21:36):
We are dealing with someextremely dangerous things that
have the capability to destroyour ability to protect our
nation as a military.
And then, on top, you know,with the fallout from all that,
we have hundreds and hundreds ofexamples of lower enlisted
posting videos in uniform onTikTok, calling the commander in
chief a Nazi fascist.
These just crazy, wild videosof all sorts of stuff.
And where do you think they getthat idea from?

(21:58):
It's not worth pointing themout and crushing them and this,
and that those aren't the peoplethat are setting the tone for
this.
The people that are setting thetone for this behavior and the
subversion are these seniorofficers, all the way up to a
vice admiral, that are saying no, I'm not going to do what you
tell me, I'm not going to obeyyour lawful order and they are
lawful orders, but I'm not goingto obey them.

(22:19):
And then, when they get fired,who comes in to defend them?
Congressman, on Twitter and themedia.
This is so dangerous.
Trump is doing this dangerousthing.
He's destroying the verynetwork of our democracy.
You've heard this over and overand it's just flat out not true
.

(22:40):
Ladies and gentlemen, we have areal issue in the Department of
Defense and it's not going toget cleaned up by simply getting
rid of DEI programs and it'snot going to get cleaned up by
simply getting rid of DEIprograms.
These programs shifted in name,they shifted in scope.
Some people saw the writing onthe wall and I know factually

(23:01):
that they rolled up theirprograms, even before Trump was
elected, into other programsbecause they saw the writing on
the wall that he was going toget elected and they did not
want to get snuffed out and theydid not want to get snuffed out
.
So these are general officersat every level, every command,
that are working against whattheir commander-in-chief has

(23:21):
told them to do.
I don't think I have anythingelse to talk about beyond that,
but you know what?
Let me highlight one more thing.
This was a recent whistleblowerthat I got.
This is a substantiated andthis has made it to the
Secretary of Defense and histeam.
I know this firsthand.

(23:41):
There was a whistleblower at amilitary base I have to be very
careful what I say because I'mtrying to protect the
individual's identity butbasically they were notified he
works at a pediatric clinic andthey were notified that they had
a prepubescent male who'swanting to transition to female
that was coming into the clinicand they were told to respect

(24:03):
this boy's gender affirming nameand he was coming in to be seen
for puberty blockers.
And then I found out, afterposting this and talking about
this and trying to get someexposure on this, that
apparently this has beenhappening in the thousands in
the Department of Defense.
Our medical facilities arebeing used to provide transition

(24:26):
services to minors.
It's something to understandthat, once again, simply
eliminating DEI policies is notgoing to stop the infection and
the cancer that has taken rootwithin our military.
And I'll stop at that, thankyou.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Sam, that was awesome .
Thanks for sharing yourpersonal experience.
And I know it's just beginning.
It's just going to get biggerfor you, which really reinforces
what Shu was talking about interms of the JAG Corps and the
vulnerability that they havebrought to our Department of
Defense in terms of ideology.
So with that we've got MajorLieutenant Colonel Select Dr

(25:24):
Chase Spears on the line.
He's a professional publicaffairs officer.
We've had a couple of PAOcomments in the chat box, so
Chase over to you for somereflections there Great.

Speaker 4 (25:37):
Thank you so much, ron, for the invitation.
Sam, appreciate you all thework that you're doing and I'm
pretty much just going to kindof pick up a little bit from
where you left off and talk morespecifically about the public
affairs realm.
For those who don't know me,I'll also give a little bit of
where you left off and talk morespecifically about the public
affairs realm.
For those who don't know me,I'll also give a little bit of
background.
I was a 20-year PAO.
I'm kind of a unicorn.
I did that job my entire careerin the Army.

(25:59):
Usually it's a careerfunctional designation.
When you hit major I wasenlisted as public affairs.
I went to OCS and wascommissioned signal.
They made me a comm cam officerand by the time I had captain
they'd made me a PAO again.
So all 20 years this is what Ispecialized in.
This is what I studied.
I'm pretty widely published init as well and have a lot of

(26:21):
expertise in them.
Sam talked a lot about theissues among the JAG Corps and
this gets into how professionsare set up, and so you have the
legal profession, you have theengineering profession, the
ministerial profession, themilitary profession, public

(26:42):
affairs.
We're not quite a professionbut we're certainly a kind of
subset work specialty andthere's been a long march
through the institutions,through the professions, to
continue pushing social activism.
And public affairs has been noexception.
And Sam mentioned how the legalside of the house has really

(27:04):
worked to fight Trump.
And that's not surprisingbecause when you look at the
American Bar Association, thatis a very left-wing organization
and it encourages legalpractitioners to follow that
trend.
In the public affairs realm wedon't have credentialing
associations like the AmericanBar Association or American
Medical Association that we haveto get through to do our jobs.
But we do have tradeassociations like the Public

(27:26):
Relations Society of America andthey also trained very left
wing.
When you're looking at peoplewho work in public affairs, we
are a creative class andtraditionally the creative
classes do tend to be a littlemore socially progressive and
public affairs in the militaryis no exception.
I have found when I firstenlisted again keep in mind this

(27:48):
was 2003.
This is pre-Obama, this is theBush years, iraq and Afghanistan
and I was very much surprisedto find very quickly when I got
to my first unit, which was the14th Public Affairs Detachment,
that there was very much an open, boisterous approval to talk

(28:09):
about politics from a left-wingperspective.
Folks like me who held to aconservative perspective what I
would say is basically just aconstitutional perspective,
holding to our oaths.
It was very clear that we wereoutnumbered and we were less
free to speak than our left-wingcounterparts and this was
during the Bush years.
And so I thought maybe this isjust the personality of this

(28:32):
unit.
But I found, as I continuedthrough the career field, that
that was representative of themajority of the field.
Now I want to be very clear.
There are some greatAmerica-loving,
constitution-loving, god-lovingpeople in the public affairs
ranks.
I'm friends with a lot of them,but right now, even in this age

(28:57):
where we have a Republicanpresident, even when we have a
very conservative secretary ofdefense who is saying the days
of DEI are over, the days of WOCare over.
Right now, my conservativecolleagues and again we're not
talking about hard right, we'retalking about people who just
believe in the Constitutionthey're reporting to me that

(29:19):
they're still afraid to speakout, they're afraid to stand up,
to be counted, they still feelvery surrounded and that they
feel like the military is payingas much lip service as it has
to to support the administration, but secretly trying to just
carry on and wait it out, andpublic affairs has really kind

(29:41):
of been at the forefront of themilitary's left-wing move.
Of course this was directed byPresident Biden, it was directed
by Secretary of Defense Austinand on through the chain of
command.
But you have to keep in mind,every time units were out there
marching in pride parades, everytime you saw woke social media

(30:03):
posts, every time you saw ageneral officer trying to get in
a fight with Tucker Carlson,officer trying to get in a fight
with Tucker Carlson, every oneof those things has the
fingerprints of a public affairsofficer doing staff work on it,
because we were thecommunicators and we were the
ones responsible to push thatmessage.
And that's why I retired about18 months ago as a major instead

(30:26):
of staying and taking thepromotion to Lieutenant Colonel,
because it was gettingincreasingly difficult to hold
to a moral principle as an Armyspokesman and it was just, it
was very much easier than Ithought it would be to turn that
down, to leave and be able tohave my conscience intact.
But a lot of my colleagues,because they didn't have prior
enlisted time, don't have thatoption to get out and retain

(30:48):
their pensions and they arereally struggling Stories they
tell me my heart breaks for them.
There are a lot of them whotell me look, I don't agree with
this stuff, but I have to pushit.
And so the supervisors are notletting go easily, and what I've
found over the last few weeks,since the executive orders came
out, is that they're like Samtalked about the malicious

(31:10):
compliance, and there's amalicious public affairs
compliance.
Every website that comes downagain that that in some way, if
not directly, is at leastindirectly touched by a public
affairs presence.
And I I've talked to colleaguesof mine who've said look, the
EOS came out and we had limitedtime, so we just started pulling

(31:31):
everything down.
We didn't put any thought to itand they knew this would be an
issue.
Not only did they know it wouldbe an issue by pulling this
down, but I submit to you I haveno direct proof of this.
I will put that out front.
I can't take it to court, but Iknow a thing or two because
I've seen a thing or two, thingor two because I've seen a thing

(31:52):
or two.
And the Associated Pressdoesn't find out about military
webpages being pulled down,about people that the Associated
Press has not been watching forthe last 20 years without being
tipped off.
You have to keep in mind, paosare deeply embedded into the
press.
They have personalrelationships with members of
the media.
They have personalrelationships with members of
the media and I am absolutely,100% convinced from my own

(32:34):
experience and from people who Italk to, who are still in some
of them in the building, thatthere are direct, malicious
leaks being made to the media tobring up things that can be
embarrassing to Secretary HeggSeth and can be embarrassing to
the administration.
I've seen with my own eyesfield grade officers condemning
the administration and private,closed public affairs Facebook
groups condemning the EOs,saying the EOs are wrong,
they're immoral and for everyone.
I see it's kind of like roachesFor everyone.

(32:58):
You see, there are probably adozen more behind the wall that
are deliberately not coming outand voicing their antipathy
toward the administrationbecause they don't want anyone
to screen grab.
But there are some.
There are some brazen enough tocome out and risk that and that
is unfortunately not anuncommon thing.
That's why I wrote a piece thatwas in Real Clear Defense last
week, hoping to help leaders tosee that their PAOs, they need

(33:22):
to pay closer attention to that.
There's a cultural issue, atleast in the Army, and I think
the other services probably arethere too the PAOs they're the
leaf eaters, if you will, and sothey kind of get the back
burner treatment.
Don't worry about them.
Break glass in case ofemergency, but in this day and
age it really is a strategicthreat active malevolent players

(33:47):
in that field who are workingto keep the secretary of defense
and the administration in adaily knife fight if they can.
Um, and when you are leading anorganization the size of the
department of defense, uh, youneed your people working with
you and helping to get the truthout, and I'm not saying you

(34:07):
need people to lie for you byany means.
I'm a huge advocate for honestyand let's own our failures
where we make them.
But the Pentagon and the publicaffairs force around the rest
of the Department of Defense.
There isn't a problem with aleft-wing viewpoint and, like

(34:27):
Sam said, an EO doesn't make itimmediately go away.
This is deeply rooted in theculture.
This is something that's beenbuilding for decades and it will
take time and it will takefocus to fix and solve, and so I
just encourage you keep an eyeon that.

(34:48):
For those of you who have accessto senior defense leaders.
Encourage them.
You know, don't don't neglectthe fact that your communicators
need to be on the team as well.
Don't assume.
Okay, well, I've got an officeof a hundred guys over here who
work in press and they're goingto do what they're told to do.
A lot of them are going to dowhat they're told to do.
They're going to love thenation, they're going to support
you, but it only takes one ortwo.

(35:09):
It only takes one or two tocause you an enormous amount of
headaches.
It only takes one leak toderail an entire career, to to
cause I mean, think aboutrussiagate.
Right, though, it took onerogue officer, you know alex
finman to cause all thatheadache, and so I just whether
it's through malevolent actionor inaction, there is an issue

(35:32):
specifically there.
So, as Sam has highlighted,this is in the JAG Corps.
You know, my argument to you isthat we have the the same issue
in the public affairs force andand I, it is really incumbent
upon commanders and seniorleaders to not take either of
those for granted.
So thanks for letting me sharemy concerns on that Great.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Dr Spears, thank you so much for sharing that, and we
look forward to working closelywith you as we go forward,
because we believe truth andjustice will prevail, and there
are so many narratives out therethat are just infested with
falsehoods, and so it'simportant that we educate people
on the truth, what is asopposed to what should be.

(36:13):
So, anyway, thanks for whatyou're doing.
We follow you very closely whenyou publish.
You've got a talent there andwe sincerely appreciate what you
are doing.
So with that, I'm going to handit over to our very own
Executive Vice President andnominee for Undersecretary of
the Air Force, matt Lohmeyer.

(36:33):
Matt, you're up, sir.

Speaker 5 (36:36):
Thank you, ron.
We always have an outstandingturnout at these town halls and
have outstanding speakers.
I'll just start to meet Sam inperson for the first time at an
event that we had both attendeda few weeks back and liked him
even more when I met him inperson, and we've got

(36:58):
outstanding support from peoplelike Sam and of course, also no
Chase and just.
Thank you both for your workand we need more of you out
there if we're to continue tomove the ball down the field.
I thought I'd just I'll bebrief.
I wanted to share an updateabout how my confirmation prep

(37:23):
is going.
I'll tell you a few things I'velearned along the way and I'm
going to keep it relatively highlevel for various reasons.
If you need to get up andstretch, please feel free to get
up and stretch.
I know there's a lot oflistening at these town halls
but, by way of update, theSecretary of the Air Force

(37:52):
nominee, dr Troy Mink, had hishearing a couple of weeks ago.
I was there in person for that.
It was a batched hearing.
He was one of four nomineesthat were on a panel.
He, of course, got moreattention than the other
nominees and it was a relativelybenign hearing and he's just
been voted out of committee with, I think, what was a 23 to 4
vote, which is actuallyoutstanding when compared to
some of the other DOD nominees,other cabinet picks.

(38:18):
To get that number of votesfrom the Democrat side of the
aisle was great and he's beeneasy for them to work with on
both sides of the aisle for anumber of years in the jobs that
he's had, so I would have beena bit surprised if it turned out
any other way.
The nomination, of course, nowthat it's been voted out of

(38:39):
committee, moves for a vote inthe rest of the Senate, which
unfortunately won't happen untilafter a two-week recess that
they're going on.
That ends at the end of thismonth, at which point I'll have
a hearing.
My hearing is informally andnot publicly scheduled on April
29th and mine will be a batchedhearing.

(39:02):
The Undersecretary of the Navy,presumably Hung Kau, and I will
be going.
Let me restate that becausethat wasn't clear.
Presumably the Undersecretaryof the Navy nominee, hung Kau,
and I will be going.
Let me restate that becausethat wasn't clear.
Presumably the Undersecretaryof the Navy nominee, hung Kau
and I will both be on that paneland there could potentially be
four nominees on that panel aswell.
I welcome that.

(39:23):
As much as I want to earn mykeep by having a standalone
hearing, I like the fact thatthey're going to have to pick
and choose who they want tothrow their spears at during
that two and a half hours, andso that kind of eases the stress
of anticipation that I have formy own hearing and expect that

(39:45):
a week after that hearing,sometime at the end of the first
week of May, I'll be voted outof committee and be passed off
to the rest of the Senate for aconfirmation vote and then
officially in the seat, assumingall goes well.
In the past several weeks I'vebeen in DC taking meetings on
Capitol Hill, and now this getsmore into what I'd like to share

(40:07):
with this group by way ofupdate and some of the things
I've observed and seen firsthand.
The Republican side of theSenate has been very supportive,
as you'd expect, and verywilling to take meetings with me
, and the other side of theaisle has not been willing to
take meetings with me, althougha few have scheduled but then

(40:30):
later canceled.
I did meet with Senator MarkKelly from Arizona, my own home
state, who gave me just a littlebit of time and you could tell.
Really, it seemed this is myperception.
Perhaps it's unfair, but youknow, again, I would expect this
, really was hoping for reasonsto not like me.
And then that sit down and Iwas disappointed at every turn

(40:52):
to feel like he was actuallyable to have a conversation with
me.
And I've really hoped to beable to meet with every member
of the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee in the lead up to my
hearing so as to demonstrate awillingness to genuinely work
with both sides of the politicalaisle.
It's not the nominees thataren't willing to work with in a

(41:17):
bipartisan manner, with theSenate or members of Congress.
It tends to be the other wayaround.
It's the political agenda ofthose who have been elected to
those seats who seem mostunwilling to work with President
Trump's picks.
And again, maybe that's not asurprise to you, but here's what

(41:38):
I've learned and it's what I'vechosen to want to share with
this group, because I think it'seye-opening and sobering as we
figure out ways to try andtackle the challenges that Sam
and Chase have laid out for us.

(41:58):
I've seen firsthand and I'veexperienced in my own heart and
mind, as I've gone through thisprocess, which has been very
consuming how easy it is fordecent men and women to become
victims of the system, and whatI mean by that is victims of the
apparatus, the machinery that'sin place, the administrative
state, the bureaucracy.
There's a kind of forcingfunction that one becomes

(42:28):
subjected to as they try andnavigate the apparatus.
Every day of the week I'm beingtold what I can and cannot say,
and I've grown quite accustomedover the past several years to
saying whatever I'd like.
And because integrity mattersto me, that's a bit of a shock
to the system, and so I try andplay a game nicely, on the one

(42:48):
hand, try and not jeopardize mynicely, on the one hand, try and
not jeopardize my confirmation,on the other hand, and reflect
in my evenings about how is itexactly that those who have been
appointed to positions ofimportance are to keep their
integrity intact, are able tospeak the truth and navigate

(43:11):
that space.
And I think, unless onedeliberately, wittingly, works
against the powerful forces thataim to control your thinking
and that aim to control yourspeech, you will likely
inevitably succumb to the unduepressures of the machinery, the
bureaucracy that's there in DC.
It's thick, there's tremendouspressure and it's not I'm not

(43:35):
saying it's necessarily pressurethat is political in nature
even although there's that toothere's just simply tremendous
pressure within the bureaucracyto conform to acceptable talking
points, and so I can learn agreat deal, for example, about
our nuclear modernizationefforts, in the B-21 bomber, for
example, or in our transitionaway from the Minuteman to the

(43:55):
Sentinel ICBM programs, and Ican develop a line of thinking
and a strong opinion about somethings and then be coached out
of everything I've ever thought,because it's simply not
acceptable to say publicly allthe things that I think need to
be said publicly, because it'ssimply not acceptable to say
publicly all the things that Ithink need to be said publicly.
And so the struggle for me andfor anyone else that you have

(44:21):
learned ends up in these seats,I think, is going to be the
challenge of staying true andhonest and actually being public
servants in a way that benefitsthe American people and the
warfighters.
So with that, I thought I'd Iwas reflecting on that, that
dilemma, and I was reflecting onsomething that was said in Job
that I wanted to read to you asa kind of concluding thought.

(44:43):
I share it by way ofencouragement, but I'm
appropriating the language andmisapplying it, if you will, and
applying it to myself as a wayof providing encouragement to
myself and to you.

(45:04):
There's a metaphor, if you will,in the language here that I'll
read, and I picture the war thatis in front of us.
It's not necessarily physical,it's spiritual, it's ideological
, and I picture needing to becourageous in that war and to be
a man of action and integrity.
And I read this language abouta horse that's described in Job

(45:27):
and I apply it to myself, andI'd like to invite you to apply
it to you as well, and think how, as private citizens all the
more unencumbered by theseconstraints that I've just
identified and a part of anon-profit organization like
stars, or supporters of anon-profit like stars, recognize
the importance of groups likethis because, as private
citizens who have more of ameans of participating,

(45:52):
unencumbered by pressure toconform to pre-planned talking
points and whatnot, you have away of making impact that some
of these appointees may feelsomewhat helpless at times,
whether that's right or wrong,to make impact.
So here's the language.

(46:14):
Stick with me.
It's a bit symbolic.
Again, it's a metaphor, but Ipicture riding this horse that's
described in Job off into thebattle, going headlong into the
battle without fear and knowingthat.
You know, if there's ever atime to um to charge headlong
into the conflict, it's today.

(46:34):
We've got serious challengesbefore us.
It says in at the end of jobhast thou given the horse
strength?
Hast thou clothed his neck withthunder?
Canst thou make him afraid as agrasshopper?
The glory of his nostrils isterrible.
He pawth in the valley andrejoiceth in his strength.

(46:56):
He goeth on to meet the armedmen.
He mocks at fear and is notaffrighted.
Neither turneth he back fromthe sword.
The quiver rattleth against himthe glittering spear and the
shield.
He swalloweth the ground withfierceness and rage.
Neither believeth he that it isthe sound of the trumpet.
He saith among the trumpets, ha, ha.

(47:18):
And he smelleth the battle afaroff, the thunder of the
captains and the shouting.
I love the imagery of this bold,strong horse that you can ride
off into the battle with no fear.
This bold, strong horse thatyou can ride off into the battle
with no fear, taking the blowsthat come, because there's truly
a war that needs to be waged.
And I think there's a way to dothat and be a lovely human and

(47:43):
keep your values intact and tobe genuinely you, be genuinely
Sam Shoemake, be genuinely Chaseand to be genuinely.
You be genuinely Sam Shoemake,be genuinely Chase, and it's in
fact in that authenticity that Ithink will make great strides
in combating the difficultiesthat we're still identifying.

(48:03):
And I think it's one of thegreat strengths that STARS as an
organization and its supportershave at this juncture is that
you don't need to be fearful ofthose that are caught up in the
machinery of DC or anywhere elsein choosing how to think or how
to speak, because you'retotally unencumbered except for
legal concerns that maybe anonprofit like stars has to not
become politically partisan butyou're unencumbered, you're free

(48:25):
, you can speak freely, you canbe true to yourselves, and that
kind of support coming from theprivate citizen will help those
who end up in the seats asdecision makers to be all the
more effective in confidentlypursuing good solutions to the
problems that we face.
Those problems aren't justcultural.
Although as an organizationwe've tended to focus on the

(48:47):
cultural, we've got otherpriorities as well that don't
necessarily have anything to dowith culture, but one of my
priorities is in fact verycultural and it very much aligns
with our priorities here atSTARS.
So just wanted to share thosethoughts and lessons learned.
It's a bit of rambling, but Ithink you'll get the picture.

(49:08):
We've got an uphill battle.
We've got a tremendousopportunity for success right
now, but we've got many, manychallenges.
And so I'd say that to thankyou for your support and for the
support of STARS, and we'vedone tremendous work over the
last five years, as GeneralBishop indicated at the very
beginning of this meeting, and Ithink that in whatever ways, as

(49:28):
General Arbuckle willarticulate, that mission
continues.
We've got a lot of work aheadof us.
So thanks, ron, for allowing methe opportunity to give that
update.
I'm humbled by the process, butthere's a lot of exciting
things on the horizon and onceI'm confirmed and I assume that
that will in fact soon be thecase then I'll look forward to

(49:49):
speaking very candidly aboutsome of what I'm doing in the
Department of the Air Force andworking with the other
undersecretaries to do acrossthe entire joint force.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
If I may be so bold.
Mr Secretary, thank you forsharing those thoughts with us.
I know they came from yourheart and an individual who is
extremely well-read andreflective.
And I'll tell you, I only knowtwo Lieutenant Generals that
have read your book twice, so ittook a lot of courage to do

(50:25):
that when you did it.
And we know that you're goingto bring in a breath of fresh
air to the Department of Defense, and so Matt can't tell you how
honored we are to be part ofthe same team here, and we wish
you all the best with theconfirmation hearing up ahead.

Speaker 5 (50:41):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Ron.
Thanks, matt.
So at this time I'm going toask General Arbuckle if he could
update us on where we're headed.
Let me bring up a slide for himto talk from.

Speaker 6 (50:55):
Okay, while you're doing that, Ron thank you First,
matt, back to you and thescripture.
Thanks for that.
We've talked about this issueamong stars many times and, at
its root cause, dei is a fightof good versus evil.
We know what we're up against.
That's the bottom line.
Shifting to Sam and Chasethanks for your comments.

(51:15):
They were sobering, not asurprise, but they do reinforce
what's on this chart I'm aboutto go through.
As General Bishop mentioned,we've been brainstorming our top
leadership and stars here whatto do about the future in view
of the executive orders and thememos that have been issued.
Because we've had two strategicgoals in STARS for years and
that is, as was mentioned, toget rid of DEI out of the

(51:38):
Department of Defense and alsodeal with those now harmed by
the mandatory vax policy.
Well, it's largely beenaccomplished.
So the question we askourselves is do we declare
mission success and pack ourtents and go home?
And no, we don't.
We modify our mission.
Let's get into that.
What's missing right now fromthose EOs and memos are a couple

(52:01):
of big things.
One is national defense reform.
That's not been mentioned sofar.
It's badly needed.
We have to basically take alook at the threats that we are
facing over the rest of thiscentury not only external but
internal, which is what we'vebeen talking about a bit this
morning and come up with how toreorganize our entire defense

(52:22):
structure to address thosethreats.
And we've written a positionpaper and some legislation to do
that.
And we've established what'scalled a compact right there.
That gets into the VaxHarmremedies.
It stands for a commission onmilitary COVID and anthrax
policies.
We've included anthrax becausethere's so much commonality
between what happened betweenthose two illegal vaccinations,

(52:45):
as you all know.
In addition, we've written 12position papers, distributed
those on the Hill.
General Bishop and others wentthere early February and passed
those around during 25 differentmeetings with staffers and
members of Congress.
And to reinforce that, we knowthat we need legislation to
codify what's in those, and sowe've written 10 pieces of draft

(53:08):
legislation and provided thoseto various members of Congress,
hoping that they're going to getthose put into the 2026 NDAA.
So, moving on, we recognize thatyou know the D is in a
transition phase.
It's easy to issue orders andsay let's go out and do this, as
has been done.
It's another thing to make surethat they're executed, and you

(53:31):
guys were talking about thatthis morning.
So it's easy, we know, to takedown all these physical aspects
of DEI, get rid of the people,the offices, the posters, some
of the websites etc.
But again, the culture andchanging the mindsets that we've
been touching on here is thechallenge and we put in there.
Expect some resistance.
Well, some might be anunderstatement, it might be a

(53:54):
lot of resistance based on whatyou're telling us.
We've been working and willcontinue to work with the
MacArthur Society, a group ofprimarily West Point graduates,
and also the Calvert Task Group,same there, only Naval Academy.
Raf-t is an interesting thingand we think that's the
touchpoint for stars in thefuture.
If we can get some kind of anofficial role with this

(54:16):
Restoring America's FightingForce Task Force that Pete
Hegseth has set up, that willgive us a lot more leverage to
assist in ensuring that theseEOs and memos are in fact
executed and monitor those,especially at the service
academies, through the twoorganizations we have and here
at the Air Force Academy.
Education will continue to be apart of our mission, letting

(54:38):
people know that DEI is reallytoxic.
It's terrible for not only ourmilitary but our society at
large and the Marxist rootsthere that go with it.
We do that through multiplemechanisms such as briefings,
articles, etc.
Right there, Website is great.
Cindy does a wonderful job withthat.
It's a major educational tool.

(54:59):
We're going to continue withthat and focus on success
stories as well as stories thatwe pick up where the executive
orders are being resisted inways that you two guys have
illustrated already.
And also we have a big outreacheffort going on.
We have leaders in about 29different states, volunteers

(55:22):
they cover actually 40 statesbecause some do more than one
state and within those 29volunteers we've got about 128
people that are working withthose state leaders.
Their mission is education.
Get out in the localcommunities, talk about DEI,
talk about what STARS is doingDepartment of Defense at
whatever forum they can find inchurches, town hall meetings,

(55:44):
whatever it may be.
So that's ongoing.
Legal is interesting.
We have a great general counsel, mike Rose, and he's been able
to reach out to at least twoother legal organizations
service members or veterans whohave been harmed by the illegal

(56:12):
vaccination policies and alsoDEI being imposed on them in
proper manners.
So that's a great initiativethat Mike is leading right now.
And finally, our limitationwe've got about four or five of
us at the senior leadershiplevel in STARS.
I think our youngest is 73years old, our oldest is 79, one

(56:34):
old fart in that group andwe're hoping to get relief with
some younger blood coming inwith Matt, but unfortunately the
president had different ideasfor Matt's future so we've lost
him.
We're still out therescratching around trying to find
some young blood to come in andhelp fill us in.
So that's basically where we'reat in STARS and I'll turn it
back to you, ron.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Great.
Thank you, sir.
Wow, we're right up on the hourand we've had a jam-packed
series of presentations seriesof presentations so at this time
we can go to 1130 Mountain Timeto answer any questions that

(57:18):
you might have.
So if you have a question,please raise your hand and we'll
call on you in order.
Sam, you're up.

Speaker 7 (57:27):
Yeah, Ron, I don't want to take up much time, but I
do want to ask you and MikeRose, you know, if it's worth
just briefly covering thepresentation that Mike has given
already and that you and heplan to give in Southern
California regarding theAmerican creed.
I think it's absolutelyoutstanding and maybe you or

(57:52):
Mike can cover it just a bit.
But again, I don't want tomonopolize this half hour.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Yeah, great question, sam.
I'll start off and then hand itoff to Mike, because we're
shifting towards a moreaggressive educational platform.
Because we're shifting towardsa more aggressive educational
platform, the speech that Sam istalking about, which can be
presented in a lot of differentvariations, really has some very
key central themes.
The first is the American creed.

(58:21):
You know what is it?
There are so many olderAmericans that were exposed to
the American creed and haveforgotten it, or a lot of
younger generations that werenever exposed to the American
creed.
It's basically captured in ourDeclaration of Independence, the
Constitution and the Bill ofRights.
That's it.
That's simply.

(58:41):
That's the American creed, thatwe have rights endowed by a
creator, not a government, andgovernments are instituted to
protect those rights.
And that's the Constitution,how it codified it.
And then the Bill of Rightsprovides more specifics in terms
of what those rights entail.
So then we get into the factthat it's threatened by radical

(59:04):
ideology, and so that's thetitle of the speech the American
Creed Threatened by RadicalIdeology.
And so we get into the radicalideology.
And for America it reallystarted back in 1843 with a
letter between Marx and Arnold.
Ruge talks about the importanceof critical philosophy, and
that we need to confess to ourcurrent sins and whatever.

(59:25):
Five years later the CommunistManifesto was published.
Both of those occurred beforethe American Civil War, so those
seeds of ideology were alreadygetting planted in America.
And so we get into thatideology, what it consists of,
and then we get into stars whystars came about and what we've
been doing.

(59:45):
And then there's a call foraction at the end of the speech.
We've got three embedded videosOne that is the video that the
Air Force Academy footballcoaches put out chanting Black
Lives Matter.
Then we have another awesomevideo that talks about what
happened to the military, andthis is one that our webmaster,

(01:00:06):
cindy Quitchoff, put together.
It's a world-class video.
It overwhelms you with thevolume of material.
And then we wrap it up withanother video that was put
together for an affinity groupcalled E Pluribus Unum from Mini
One, and so Mike has presentedthat already in Somerville and

(01:00:27):
had a very great response tothat, and we're scheduled to
give that presentation inSouthern California to four
different groups at the end ofApril.
So, mike, over to you.

Speaker 9 (01:00:39):
Thank you, ron.
Well, I had a great response,except for the one person on the
left who stood up and startedscreaming and ran out saying we
shouldn't be talking about this.
So I guess that's an indicatorof how well received it was by
the others.
Ron has done a great jobconnecting the dots
philosophically on what ishappening to our society as a

(01:01:02):
result of these leftistideologies.
I learn from Ron myselfconstantly, and Ron has put this
information together in slidesto tell a story that makes sense
and help a lot of people whoknow things aren't right but

(01:01:26):
wondering you know what theheck's going on?
Wondering you know what theheck's going on?
One of the great things aboutthis presentation, I think, is
that it is connected or consistsof modules.
So if you're talking to a groupthat only gives you 10 minutes,
you could reduce it to a10-minute talk.
If they give you an hour and ahalf, there's enough there to go

(01:01:47):
on for an hour or an hour and ahalf.
I think my talk took an hourand five minutes with questions,
and this is a template thateverybody can use.
So if you have a group thatwill listen or watch, or even as
an individual, they couldliterally watch the talk that I
or Ron and I or anybody else hasalready given, because we
videoed it, or Ron and I oranybody else has already given

(01:02:07):
because we videoed it, or byjust watching it, you can see
yourself what you could besaying to individuals you know
or groups you know, and myvision of this is for this to
spread across the countrythrough the state leaders.

(01:02:27):
Ron and I are going to SouthernCalifornia at the end of this
month.
We'll be talking on threesuccessive days to groups.
The important thing is to getstarted.
So, like anything else, you doit once, you do it twice, it
gets better and better.
You feel more comfortable withit.
So I think this is a greatinitiative, given that our
mission is education and giventhat there's just millions of
people out there that need abetter understanding of what the
heck's going on.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Over.

Speaker 7 (01:02:49):
Great Thanks, mike Lester you're up, are you going
to be updating the brochures andother literature to reflect the
changing mission of stars?

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
The answer is yes, lester.
So, yeah, lester, we'll getthose out as quickly as possible
, and for Mike's and my trip toSouthern California, we'll want
to make sure that some of thekey brochures are updated
accordingly.
So a lot of that depends on howthe board reacts to proposals
that will be presented to themthis Friday, and so if they give

(01:03:26):
us a thumbs up and all thisstuff, then we're going to press
.
Thank you, you bet.
Thanks, lester, okay, and BSkilperort, skilperort.
Okay, you're up, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
Yes, sir, major Brennan Skilperort, I'm
currently being kicked out overthe flu vaccine mandate.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
And I wanted to ask guys has the flu shot been
brought into that conversation?

Speaker 9 (01:03:56):
with COVID and anthrax Over Mike over to you.
Well, the Religious FreedomRestoration Act, which is a
federal statute, enables peopleto seek religious exemptions
from actions by the government.
Just like the COVID vaccineexemptions were sought, I think

(01:04:18):
that a religious exemption fromtaking a flu shot could be
applied for Then the burden ison the government to prove that
it's a military necessity.
Then the burden is on thegovernment to prove that it's a
military necessity, and I wouldthink it would be easier for
them.
I don't know whether it'd beeasier for them to do that on
the flu instead of the COVIDvaccine or not.
So if you don't want to take it, you can apply for a religious

(01:04:42):
exemption.
If you have a basis for amedical exemption, you can apply
for that.
I have both All right.
Well, then you can apply forone.
Like I've known people thatapplied for the religious and
then it was denied and then theyapplied for the medical, and I
just dragged it out even longer.

(01:05:02):
So what you should do, I think,is to go to either your
personnel office or to a JAG onyour base and ask for what are
the regulations pertaining toreligious and medical exemptions
and you find out what is theprocedure for applying, and then
you go ahead and apply Now ifyou want to.

(01:05:23):
I'm saying this for the benefitof everybody listening, but if
you want to contact meafterwards and just talk about
this privately so I could helpguide you further, I'd be happy
to do so.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
And not to brag too much on Mike, but he's helped
hundreds of people, maybe eventhousands.
So anyway, if you have an issuethere, take him up on getting
in touch with him.
Gregory, you're up, sir.

Speaker 10 (01:05:51):
Yeah, General, this is, I guess, for you.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthe engagement, if any, with
STARS, with the new Board ofVisitors at the Service
Academies?
I think they might be very,very good at monitoring
compliance with the newregulations and executive orders

(01:06:14):
that have come out of thecurrent administration.
Over to you, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Is that for me?

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Yes, okay, yeah, greg , great question.
We've reached out to.
Let's see.
I think I've met so far withfour new Boards of Visitors
members and we'll continue toreach out to them all Both
Congressman Ploeger we met within DC, as well as Congressman

(01:06:42):
Crank we have a follow-upmeeting here in Colorado Springs
with Congressman Crank laterthis month.
The presidential appointeeStolle we've had shoot hour-long
Zooms with him.
So we're certainly spinningthem up on our issues and that's
one of the things, come April25th, that we hope to get the

(01:07:07):
AOG board of newly elected andnow new AOG board of directors
to commit to, and that'supdating the boards of visitors
all the time.
We think they can be a powerfulforce.
Mike and I spent literally daysno question about it, days in
the December of 2020 and Januaryof 2021, spinning up the boards

(01:07:33):
of visitors to help themunderstand the indoctrination
that was taking place at theacademy.
And then, for those of you whodon't know, as soon as the
previous administration cameinto power, within two weeks
they had suspended the board'svisitors of all the academies
and the schools and then later,three or four months later,

(01:07:55):
fired all the appointees.
So, yep, great, great avenue,great oversight you know from
where we sit.
For four years, the academy wasleft without the oversight that
Congress had enacted a statuteto make sure happened, and it
didn't.
Mike, you had your hand up.
Is that a follow-up on this one?

Speaker 9 (01:08:17):
Yes, it is.
I would just add, generalBishop, to what you said.
For those who do not know, isthat the alumni of the Air Force
Academy just passed in areferendum an amendment to their
governing documents by morethan 76 percent.
That redefined the purpose ofthe Alumni Association is to
keep the academy leadershipinformed of these 40, 50,000

(01:08:41):
graduate opinions about the AirForce Academy.
There's been 180 degree shift inattitude now from the Alumni
Association saying we can't getinvolved, we're not going to
tell the superintendent what todo and we're certainly not going
to talk with the Board ofVisitors.
And the Board of Visitorswasn't reaching out to anybody
either.
That we're aware of.

(01:09:01):
It was a dog and pony show.
Now you have these newlyelected members five of them of
the Alumni Association, withthese amendments passed, and now
the newly appointed people onthe Board of Visitors are
reaching out to and actuallyinterfacing with the Board of

(01:09:22):
Director members of the AlumniAssociation.
So now they're working togetherto find out what improvements
are needed at the Academy.
I could not be more happy aboutthe direction it's going.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
Great Thanks, Mike, and I'll add, Charlie Kirk has
already expressed an interest ingetting spun up by us and we
have a relationship withCongressman Pfluger and we hope
to have a better relationshipwith Senator Tuberville coming
up.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
I think we have a good relationship with the
superintendent too, and threetimes I've been with him he has
said man, I just want graduateinput.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Amen.
Okay, roy, you're up sir.

Speaker 11 (01:10:04):
Thank you and greetings to all star supporters
out there, especially to MattLohmeyer Congratulations on your
appointment or selection to bethe next undersecretary of the
Air Force.
My question is as we moveforward as an organization as
STARS is an organization withall the political climate that
we're facing how do we make itknown to our congressmen and

(01:10:25):
senators?
There are other organizationsout there that have a site built
where you can go in there anddo an automatic oppose or
non-support for various billsthat are being passed.
Is there something like thatthat STARS has that we can
communicate what it is that wewant to support from our

(01:10:48):
congressmen and senators andthings that we want to oppose,
where it's easy to go in there,click it and send it off to them
to communicate so that we moveas a larger voice.
And the second thing that bearson my mind is the more
supporters we have, the strongerour voices.
How do we continue to recruitnew members into STARS?

(01:11:09):
I think it's a very viableorganization, but there's also
other organizations out therethat have like-minded men and
women that support the verythings that we support.
And one example that I wouldlike to share with you there's
an organization it's the oldestveterans organization in the
nation.
It's called the Military Orderof Foreign Wars of the United

(01:11:29):
States, founded in 1894.
And part of their vision forthe next hundred years, and I
just want to read a shortportion of it.
On every hand we hear preacheddoctrines of communism,
internationalism, pacifism,fascism, socialism and other
such isms which arediametrically opposed to the
aims and purpose of this order.

(01:11:51):
Therefore, it is for us whobore arms that our country might
live and grow great In thefuture.
Companions of the Order.
What it is is.
There's other organizations.
How do we interconnect withthem?
How do we draw them in tosupporting the efforts that
STARS is promoting?
That's the questions that bearin the back of my mind.

(01:12:14):
That's all I've got.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Yeah, roy, you asked a lot of great questions and a
lot to unpack there.
A while back we did attempt touse a platform to make our voice
known with Congress and itdidn't work very well.
One of the boundaries we haveto operate within is the fact
that we are a 501c3.
And because of that we have tolimit any lobbying efforts to no

(01:12:40):
more than 20% of our annualexpenditures.
So we have a boundary therethat we have to operate within.
But I would share your ideas,send them via email to us,
because the last one inparticular that you mentioned
you know there's always a greatpotential there.
We're trying to establishinroads with the American Legion

(01:13:03):
and the Veterans of ForeignWars and we have a good
development right now.
That's playing out inCalifornia and it's going to the
national level.
If it's approved at thenational level, that's going to
be a huge entry point for us togo in and build a more
formidable relationship withthem and to animate them to do
some things.
So you mentioned some veryimportant concepts there that if

(01:13:27):
you could submit that to us sowe can more fully develop it, I
appreciate it.
Anybody want to add to that?

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
Yeah, I would.
Actually, I hate to come onsomebody else's organization's
platform and stump for somethingthat I'm doing, but I recently
took over as the chief operatingofficer of two different
organizations One of them iscalled Republic operating
officer of two differentorganizations.
One of them is called Republic.
Republic is a communityengagement platform that had a
bad start initially.

(01:13:54):
It came out in August anddidn't get the start that it
needed.
Anyways, we are coming out withan app and a lot of new features
in the next couple of months,and the reason I bring this up
specifically is because what youjust stated is what we are
doing.
So one of the biggest featureswe'll have is every single

(01:14:14):
representative out there, allthe way down to the town level,
that people can engage withthrough polls.
We're gonna have the abilityfor people to understand how to
connect, collaborate, discussbills that are going to be voted

(01:14:36):
on, and a lot of differentfeatures in that regard.
It's not there yet, but it isbeing built, so I would say that
there is a mechanism in placein the near future and I believe
in this strongly.
I just came on board inFebruary and I think this has a
real chance at overturning ourcommunities for the better from

(01:14:58):
the ground up instead offocusing on everything at
federal.
But there is a mechanism forwhat you described on its way to
three months away.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Great and.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
Sam Ron, if I can jump in there, don't be shy in
pitching.
What you have that's a strengthof STARS, I think is our
ability to reach out andcollaborate with other
organizations.
We had a spreadsheet at onetime.
I think it had 90 differentorganizations that we're trying

(01:15:31):
to collaborate with.
I know we've activelycollaborated with close to 30,
if not more.
And going back to Roy'ssuggestions, roy's great
suggestions.
Two other limitations we have,though.
One is mission creep.
I mean, we've had to kind ofhold a stiff arm against a lot
of good ideas because of.

(01:15:51):
The second limitation is wejust don't have the people we're
trying to organize our board ofadvisors into.
You know, strapping on some ofthese additional issues.
Hopefully we'll get there.
But great suggestions, keep thecards and letters coming.

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
Right, and we are big collaborators, Sam, so let's
see trying to figure out who wasnext.
Al, were you up?

Speaker 13 (01:16:17):
One of the groups I'm a part of is the Red River
Valley Fighter PilotsAssociation and also the Wild
Weasels and a bunch of otherveterans groups.
Each of those have invited me tobe a speaker somewhere just
because I knew the people whowere executive directors or
presidents of that, and they'dcall me up and say hey, we know
that you're in that neighborhood.

(01:16:37):
Would you like to come talk tous?
That happened up in Minnesotaat the 1st of March when I was
invited to be the speaker at ajoint services military ball in
Minneapolis and there was about400 or 500 people there in a
formal function and I talkedabout, you know, warrior ethos,
getting together to eliminateDEI and all those things that

(01:16:59):
we're for, and at the end of itI said if you want to know more,
go to our website.
Here's some materials, go toour web, our podcasts, and that
got tremendous response.
But that's kind of a layeringthing.
Other people will get a hold ofyou that way, ask you to come
talk as well.
So I think that's somethingthat we're going to really focus

(01:17:19):
on, particularly in Texas herewhere I'm at work.
Anyway, thanks for listening tothat.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
Great Thanks, bigfoot , former wild weasel pilot here.
So, phil, you're up, sir.

Speaker 12 (01:17:32):
Just a quick update.
I wanted to tag on to theremarks about approaching Board
of Visitors that our task grouphas engaged with several of the
nominees for the Naval AcademyBoard of Visitors and is
actively supporting them.

(01:17:52):
So those efforts arecomplementary and ongoing.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
Great Good to hear Bill, Chris and then Fred Thank
you.

Speaker 14 (01:18:04):
The idea that you all put together with regard to
sectional parts of briefings, Ithink is rock solid and tapping
into the number of organizationsthat are out there.
I was a sergeant at arms of arotary group out here in
Honolulu and they meet everyweek and they're constantly

(01:18:25):
looking for someone to presentand it's usually about a 15
minute presentation.
So as I've associated withstars more and see where we're
going, I'm really thinking thatbeing more proactive and
stepping up and getting in theirface and saying, hey, do you
have need for a presentation onthis subject?

(01:18:47):
And not only Rotary, but Qantasand Lions and others.
I think it ties into thecomment that was made earlier
about if we're involved in morethan one organization.
We may find some commonality inthe topics of interest, and I
would just suggest that you'rereally on the right track by

(01:19:10):
having those packages and for usas state leaders to go out
there and start talking about it.
In that way we might be able tobuild some new recruits.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
Great Thanks for that reinforcement, chris.
Chris gets up at early hours ofthe day to join our meetings
from Hawaii and we appreciateyour discipline.
Fred, you're up, and then BudOkay.

Speaker 15 (01:19:38):
I don't know how many people watched the Senate
hearings with the threesuperintendents.
I watched it and I wasabsolutely disgusted by what I
saw.
Absolutely disgusted by what Isaw.
I think the most transparentone of all was West Point

(01:19:58):
General Gilland.
He recited the stuff that thePublic Affairs Office put
together about how wonderfulthey're doing.
It's like the same briefingthat I'm going to get in a
couple of weeks when I go up fora class reunion and it'll be a
big briefing but it won't reallysay much.
It'll say how they're doingsuch a wonderful job about this,
that and the other.
The problem with that hearingwas that every time he said that
, if he was the first one, theNaval Academy and then the Air

(01:20:21):
Force Academy just said yeah,we're doing essentially the same
thing and they were kind ofpiggybacking off each other's
and they were kind ofpiggybacking off each other's
obfuscation and everybody'sevasion and everything else.
Not a one of them said at anytime that they were doing
positive things to actively getrid of DEI.

(01:20:42):
And so the thing that triggeredthis thought was Rod, when you
just said that you've got a goodrelationship with the Air Force
superintendent, I thought hewas the weakest of the three.
As far as his stand on DEI, hedidn't say a thing.

(01:21:03):
I was really quite shocked.
I sent out an email to severalof you guys just to see what
your reaction was, and Rodresponded and said he hadn't had
a chance to look at it yet.
But I hope that a lot of people.
If you haven't, go back andlook it up you can find it on
the Internet, you know how andtake a look at that hearing.

(01:21:23):
The other sad part about thathearing was that most of the
people there, once they madetheir own political statement,
they got up and left.
So the only people that stayedwere Tuberville and Warren, and
Tuberville talked about sportsand Warren attacked Trump and
that was about all that happenedin that thing.

(01:21:46):
To say that there was a hearingthat investigated what's
happening at the serviceacademies was absolutely false.
No truth in it whatsoever frommy perspective.
I'd like to just quicklymention one other thing.
Rod, I'd like to congratulateyou and your Unity slate that
you got elected to the AOG atthe Air Force Academy, and I'd

(01:22:08):
like to remind people I don'tknow what the Naval Academy's
structure is, but I do know thatthe structure, the way they
elect their boards at West Pointis a little bit different.
So there's not a one size fitsall Air Force.
You are able to put a grouptogether.
That's at large, I presume.
At West Point they have threedifferent types of groups that

(01:22:32):
they elect from.
They have one by class and thethree classes that are coming up
toward their upcoming reunion.
They are the three classes thatare serving.
Then they have area.
They're divided into six areasaround the country and they
elect three each year from eachof those areas of the country

(01:22:54):
and then they have at large andthose are the advisors that
advise the smaller board ofdirectors.
So to do what you did is notvery possible at West Point.
The same way and I'm just kindof alerting those who might say
let's do the same thing everyplace else I think it's

(01:23:15):
important that something be done, but you're not going to do it
by invading the association ofgraduates with a significant
number of like-minded people.
It just can't happen.
The way it's structured andit's intentionally structured to
make it highly represented.
I'm going up there in a coupleof weeks and if I can get a hold

(01:23:36):
of Mark Bigger, the head of theAOG, I'm just going to try and
slip a quiet word into his earthat you know it would really be
nice if you had some kind of amechanism up here to listen to
concerns that graduates have andfilter them and determine
whether something should be done, whether that should be passed

(01:23:57):
on or not.
I'm going to try a soft sell onhim if I get a chance to do
that, but again, rod,congratulations to you and the
group that got elected at theAir Force Academy.
I think you've got a good,solid head start on that and I
wish you good luck on it.
Well thanks for the note.

Speaker 2 (01:24:13):
Congratulations, fred .
And regarding your commentsabout the Senate hearing, I sent
a note to General Bauerfeinafter the hearing saying that
you know, the input I got, quitehonestly, from other grads is
everyone seemed to think thatGeneral Bauerfein seemed to do
the best job, with the exceptionof you, I mean, I didn't go out

(01:24:37):
and seek input and it wasrandom and it's a small sample
size, maybe seven or eightpeople.
That said, I communicated tohim that we were all
disappointed in the too muchgrandstanding and the lack of
clarity in the questions.
We thought they could have madea lot more progress.
Since then, though, we've beenback and forth, and just to tell

(01:25:00):
you about our superintendent,if you ever hear him speak, he
can't say I'm trying toreinstill a warfighting focus at
the Air Force Academy more inone sentence.
He does it two or three timesevery time.
I mean, every sentence seems tohave the word warfighting in it
, so we see that as good news.
His requests of the AOG and thefoundation is for equipment to

(01:25:27):
put him under more stress so hecan have more actual exercises.
So he's going along the sameroute.
Just this weekend we wereengaged with him on trying to
dispel some of the social mediaposts that were out there saying
oh, woe is me, we're going tolose all civilian instructors at

(01:25:50):
the academy.
So yeah, we just need to keepthe communication and
cooperation going.
On a positive note, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:25:58):
Great.
Thank you, sir, and thanks Fred, for the inputs there.
One more question, and thenwe'll ask General Bishop for
some closing comments, and thenChaplain Baldwin will close it
with a blessing.

Speaker 16 (01:26:18):
Bud, you're up.
Okay, Ron, thank you, you canhear me, okay.
Yes, loud and clear.
Good, well, I just really justwanted to make a comment.
I'm actually here from NorthCarolina, retired Brigadier
General, and I'm one of theCASAs here in North Carolina and
I actually it's only been aboutthree months since I learned
about STARS and I just want tosay it's great to see an
organization like this, becauseeven in my role as CASAs I've

(01:26:40):
been quite concerned about whatI was observing from the DEI
point of view, and I'm outobviously a lot out in the
community point of view, and I'mout obviously a lot out in the
community, and so many veteransyou know and I can confirm this
even with our adjunct generalhere that the people out there
would say you know, I love theArmy but I don't want my

(01:27:06):
grandson to join with the way itis now, and so I don't have any
doubt even though in some casesI don't think they would admit
it, and I made the point severaltimes that our recruiting in
the Army was hurt by the DEIbecause people saw that out here
in the community.
So anyway, I just wanted to kindof introduce myself and let you
know I've learned about you.
I'm getting your website out topeople because I'm out in the

(01:27:32):
communities.
In fact, we just had abreakfast this morning with over
700 veterans and I can tell youmost veterans saw what was
going on in our Army and theyknew it had to change.
So I just want to thank you allfor what you're doing and I'm
going to stay a little bit moreup to date and engage with you

(01:27:52):
all.
So that's just kind of mycomment.
I appreciate you giving me theopportunity.

Speaker 15 (01:27:58):
Great Thanks, general, but where are you
located in North Carolina?
I'm in Cary.

Speaker 16 (01:28:04):
I'm in Winston-Salem , so I'm the civilian aid
secretary for the central areaof North Carolina, so I cover
Salisbury to basically Raleigh.

Speaker 15 (01:28:15):
We'll have to get together sometime.

Speaker 16 (01:28:17):
We'll do that.

Speaker 11 (01:28:19):
And.
I'm over at Flat Rock nearHendersonville.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
Okay, good Thanks, general.
We look forward to working withyou.
Good, what we discovered is,from day one, things just
continue to emerge in verypositive ways and the talent
that's come together is justawesome.
I don't think it can be matchedanywhere.
So with that, I just wanted toshare one slide from the

(01:28:47):
American Creed presentation.
This is towards the very endand it kind of wraps it all up,
and it's got a picture ofAntonio Gramsci, and the bullets
on the slide for observationsare the Marxist ideological
infiltration has affected Kthrough 12 universities, media
and the courts.
The long march through theinstitutions, which I'm sure you

(01:29:09):
all heard of before.
That was from Gramsci, buthere's what he said in 1915.
Socialism is precisely thereligion that must overwhelm
Christianity.
In the new order, socialismwill triumph by first capturing
the culture via infiltration ofschools, universities, churches

(01:29:30):
and the media, by transformingthe consciousness of society.
And earlier in the brief wetalk about, the Military
Leadership Diversity Commissioncriticized the concept of
colorblindness.
It's far better to be colorconscious is what they were
promoting and it was purelyMarxist.
And the other quote fromGramsci the civilized world has

(01:29:50):
been thoroughly saturated withChristianity for 2,000 years.
Any country grounded inJudeo-Christian values cannot be
overthrown until those rootsare cut.
But to cut the roots, to changeculture, a long march through
the institutions is necessary,and that's what we've been up
against.

(01:30:10):
And I'll tell you what we'rehaving an impact in terms of
stemming it and we're going todefeat it, no doubt in my mind.
So with that, I'm going to askGeneral Bishop for some closing
remarks, and then ChaplainBaldwin to close it out.

Speaker 2 (01:30:22):
Well, Ron, I'm glad you put the chaplain after me
because I'm not sure I can topwhat you just said.
But yeah, let me thankeverybody for attending once
again, and for Shu and Chase.
I see Matt had to leave us, Joe, for your talks.
As I was listening to you,Churchill popped into my head

(01:30:43):
and his quote this is not theend, not even the beginning of
the end, and I think that's themessage that was sent to all of
us today, especially by Shue andChase.
At STARS we have a number oflittle acronyms.
They're not acronyms, butsayings we often use Listen to
your people, Engage, engage,engage.

(01:31:05):
Don't put off to tomorrow,until what you can do today.
It's pretty clear to all of ussitting through this.
I think, that the DEI monsteris not dead.
As Matt said at that town hall,with then candidate Trump, that
monster's head will probablyraise again.

(01:31:25):
And what do we do to keep itfrom ever entering our
Department of Defense again?
And the way we do it is justengagement from all of us.
As you can see, we're moving ourmission a little bit from
education yes, education stillhas to be a part because, shoot,
I just ran into people thisweek that said what's DEI?

(01:31:46):
I mean people don't understandwhat has happened to our society
and certainly to our military,and I've expressed it lately
that maybe we are seeing thebeginning of the end of DEI in
these executive orders, but itcertainly isn't eradicated yet.

(01:32:09):
And if the collective, we aregoing to take a part in that
eradication mission, I maintainthat we have to be asked, and so
far we haven't been asked.
Otherwise we're kind of likethe East German Stasi, looking
around spying and you knowsending stuff up hoping somebody
will grab a hold of it, and youknow sending stuff up hoping

(01:32:31):
somebody will grab a hold of it.
We got where we are today, Ithink, by very good
communication with our nowSecretary of Defense, through
Matt and through us, Mike Waltz,members of Congress.
They all got it.
But going forward, there's morethat we can do.
Again, we just have to be askedand I think we're going to need

(01:32:53):
some resources.
So with that I'll say thanksagain for attending, Thanks
again for what you'll do for themission in the future and,
Chaplain Baldwin, we're so proudto have you as our STARS.
Chaplain, Please close us out.

Speaker 8 (01:33:10):
Thank you, general Bishop.
Let us pray Almighty God,you're great and greatly to be
praised.
We live in challenging days andwe need your help and we need
your guidance.
We thank you for this holyseason of Passover and Easter.
We celebrate with great joy andthankfulness that we live in a
country that we can standunashamed and proclaim the truth

(01:33:33):
.
We thank you for the privilegeof blessing living in America.
We thank you for our presidentand the national leadership.
Guide them, give them yourwisdom.
We thank you for stars.
Keep us vigilant.
Thank you for stars, keep usvigilant.
We pray especially for MattLohmeyer, that you will give him
wisdom and bless his family andprotect them and use them for

(01:33:56):
your glory.
Help us always to wake up,stand up, speak up and never
give up, for yours is thekingdom and the power and the
glory forever.
Amen.

Speaker 1 (01:34:10):
Amen.
Thank you everyone.

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