Don't want to be an American.
Got a full show back on seven hundred WLW on this Monday morning and cause to celebrate something we probably normally wouldn't celebrate.
And you know, you take these things as they come.
And sadly, on Friday, we heard that a plane, and this would be an F fifteen East Strike Eagle, shot down over southern Iran on Friday. That's the first US fighter jet loss to enemy fire and well over twenty years. The two crew members ejected. The pilot was recovered. However, it became a rescue operation for the weapons officer and finally he was saved, and a retired Navy seal and Army ranger breaks down the most daring rescue mission in a generation. This is stuff that books and movies will
be written about. He's Ed Gollerind. Ed's in Kentucky, former Seal Team six operator, Army ranger and now Trump endorsed congressional candidate there in the Commonwealth.
Ed, how's this morning find you?
Good morning? Well, it's a little chilli out here on the farm. So we got a general rule, and the folks up there in Ohio will second the motion on this. You don't put your cover alls up until Derby Day. Just keep them right there in the pickups drug when we need them this morning. So dreading to the listeners, thanks for having me on, Scott, gotcha.
So's it's coveralls, Derby day, plant flowers, Mother's day, got it? That is the That's the rule of thumb, exactly right, that's the rule of thumb.
Right there. Let's talk about this.
Both crew ejected and Ran says, hey, we have them in custody.
You never obviously want to believe that.
And the timeline is rather interesting, but walk us through what an airman in this case is actually trained to do in the seconds after ejecting over hostile territory.
What's the first priority?
Hey, well, thank thank you for the question. And I do want to celebrate the forces that got both those great Americans out. And here's the lens that I see this, right you are. I've served on seven seal teams and units that's sort of like a battalion. You know, it's a fighting unit. It says not just six people, it's over two hundred except for seal team. Stick that's different.
Won't go into that twice as leader. It's cloudy classified, but I see this through the lens of not only having gone through Navy Feer School, but I also went through what's called High Risk SEER. That's a whole other level up here in the US, and I'm a NATO Combat survival instructor. And the profile there was a course against the Russia, who was very, very highly technical skilled to find out our down to air crewman if they
got shot down in a hostility. So all that to say is we got to give credit to those aircrews because when they punch out, that aircraft is going several hundred miles an hour and they are basically shot out by small rocket out of that aircraft into the air at a very high altitude, typically not sure what profile they were on here, and so it is a shock to the system. And many times folks that ejected help they'll have lifelong back injuries. Now, the key thing is mindset,
so they have to keep their wits about them. Yeah, there's the mechanics that coming out of the aircraft float down on their parachute hitting the ground, and again they're not hitting a prepared drop zone. There's no telling where
they're hitting. So it's a shock to the system. All that to say credit to them because the training upstream to have the mindset to keep their wisth about them is what helps carry the day because they had to hit the ground and follow the tactics, techniques and procedures that are established so they could be rescued. So Scott, that's sort of a broad overview.
Okay, And so yeah, I think with fil'll realize always jumped out in the parachute. No, that the whole seat part of the airframe there's attached to You're basically going to chair when you land in that thing. I don't know if that's Does that cause more pain? And did they even train for that? I mean, I know that they're simulators like I did a thing whereas in the dunk tank and they upside down for a helicopter landing water, But do they simulate that?
Is there any way to practice that?
There's no way to practice The actual truth is I understand that the impact on the on the finest is north of seven g's. Yeah, and so all that to say it many times causes permanent injury, as they have found. So now let's talk about when they hit the ground and what happens next if we could, Yeah, now what I want the listeners to know is long before this, there are forces that train equipp and they are literally standing by what do we have, like ten thousand plus
targets we've hit. They're standing by to launch on a moment's notice to rescue a down aircrewman while these operations are going on. So every flight that's up there, there's a force setting there, you know, sort of like a you know, a reaction force, and they are watching and waiting for the word to go. So once that happened, that put into motion. But it's very dynamic because now you've got to adjust to the specific threat and there's a lot of technicalities that go into place that are
very classified. But the key is that aircrewman hits the ground and he's got to follow the established procedures to optimize the probability or we say recover in this case because he's not in custody yet that would be a rescue, but it's a recovery operation. So there's literally elements within the United States Air Force, augmented by other services and services and government agencies that do that. It is very,
very sophisticated. In this case, a lot of presses have been given that my old unit, STILL Team six was selected to be the force on the ground because of the threat. So the combat search and rescue element was now added to a STILL Team six to be the force on the ground to actually get the down to air crewmen. In the second case, the one that basically
evaded for a while four years rescue. So there's some pieces that went on there that even talking about in the other President want to I don't want to give away some of our capabilities to help the enemy, But a lot of credit goes to everything that happened upstream in all the development of the United States has But in the end it was also decisiveness. The commanders on the ground have got to act very quickly. You can't get behind on this or the enemy will get a
hold of you. Because it is a profit danned absolute It is a basically a winning day for Iran if they were able to get there.
Sure.
Look look what happened with President Carter, right. I mean when your capture, when you shoot down aircraft and capture airman, then it becomes a nightmare at this point and the optics are terrible. But we pulled a miracle off. And this is something I say a miracle from this side
of it, I guess. But in your line of work, ED, when you're a Seal Team six operator, you guys go, it's just what we do at gall right on the show this morning on Scott's Loan here starting us off with some good news about what's happening, and that was a crew members shot down on Friday. The second one was rescued just a few while I can almost say a few hours ago. It feels like it was pretty intense. The colonel, by the way, so this is the weapons officer.
He moved away from his ejection point before he activated his rescue beacon and then he hiked I think a seven thousand foot ridge line and wedged himself into crevis. One of the reasons why we would do that, I guess, activating the beacon after you've scaled a seven thousand foot climb and then was able to wedge yourself in a crevice to hide.
What are the tactics of that, well.
Because of the adversary capability, because remember I ran as being assisted as it is being told on the press. I can't go in any further detail, but it appears China and Russia and North three are assisting them. Even though those are highly sophisticated beacons tracking devices, you have to be worried that the adversary can locate that. So
getting out of the key thing. Back to that mindset as for he went through the shock of ejection, and again credit to him and the training that went upstream. You know before this ever happened. He's got to get out of that area rapidly because the local populace, some of them may report it. That's where the Iranian forces are going to flow to. So he's got to get moving quit to get out of that particular zone. So
to make it more difficult. So to your point that beacon is going to be based on again tactics, techniques and procedures, is it is going to be activated when the circumstances are optimal for us to track him and find him using all the capabilities of the US military and government agency. And something else I want to add here is just think about it. To the credit you gave the Field Team six in our sister unit Delta, that is not regular special operations units in the right term, Scott,
thank you for using it. This was a special operation. Special Forces of specifically Screenbery are this is the element went in there. I want the listeners to remember this. Every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year. These units set alert to conduct these kind of sensitive activities and operations all over the world, and just think about it. They do not I know, it's going to bust your bubble. They do not always make the media, fortunately, and that's
the world they live in. And I want to give you sort of a sort of a framework. They live in the world between peace and war, in a gap where you're always at war. But it's in the shadows. That is not hype, it's not bravado. It's what our nations asked us to do. It is a very high commitment that they have and a higher level of performance. But there's a lot to celebrate here. It's not just
guys with guns. These guys are smart. They helped plan to conduct this operation and they prevailed against all odds. A lot to celebrate.
Yeah, yeah, it was Seal Team six, as you mentioned, Delta Force and Rangers are on standby for this mission.
But also we got to credit the CIA.
They ran a disinformation campaign simultaneously with the military operation. How tightly coordinate does it have to be? And and how does that? How do you how do you coordinate that? And and by the way, with it's not like you knew this was going to happen, as they didn't have this in the in their pocket to pull out. I mean, you guys planning and you make it up on the fly. There's no, there's not much intel.
No, no, no, I want to know, I want to slightly. No, we have the contingent. We always plan in these most dangerous course of action. So right there on a dry race board, and I've been there a thousand times. We have in these most dangerous course of action shot down air crew behind enemy line, unlocated. We've been't We've already got the contingency. We we've got to play just like
a football team. But the dynamics to your point of putting it in play and when it happened, because now you've got to adjust there really what's going on on the ground, right and you have the least empowered as opposed to the previous administration because you time is against you. But you know you just mentioned something with respect to you know, those particular units uh working with our I'm
gonna just say generally our agency brothers. And I'll tell you the best chow at the cafeterias in the Washington, DC area is at the CIA headquarters, at the food course there. I can vouch for that. I can say no more. I can say no more. But they have pretty good eating right there. Right. But but we worked with them. Remember I just I just mentioned there's that band between peace and war. This isn't hype, this isn't bravado. It exists, so our nation complete safety in their bed
at night. We work with our agency partners all over the world. It isn't new to us. So hats off to the agency. Because you hit, you hit a key point. There was a bit of a diversion, a distraction. Oh we found him. Now, you remember, Scott. I've said on the radio station before, things are not always what they seen. So purposely we use this information and misinformation on the battlefield to confuse our enemies. They do the same to
ut But you're right, it was very clever. It's not just guys with guns that show up and do bad things to bad people who deserve it. There's a lot of intellectual activity. That's what I'll say about Seal Team six and Delta. Those guys are.
Smart at gal Ryan take us to the pilot's PERCEPTI thirty six hours, he's injured by the way, hikes to a seven thousand foot ridge line, wedges in a crevice of automates, his beacon. What is a pilot carrying on him or her at that time? What equipment do they have ready to go on their person? And how long can they survive?
A great question the listeners can basically do you know a quick search of normal Air Force aircrew combat equipment survival VEST He's going to have his deacon, He's going to have his pistol. He's going to have fire starting equipment. He's gonna have also the ability to catch game if necessary, if it's a long term survival. He's going to have signaling devices some that I can't go into that are classified with respect to can only be seen with certain
source of optics. So that VEST is going to be under all his other equipment. But he's the key thing I want to emphasize here is his mindset of maturity. That in his mindset, it's like running a football player taking that three point shot. He's got to have the ability to act because what we've seen in the past is is they get on the ground, they get disoriented, they you know, they become overcome by the dramatic impact
of the ejection. So credit to him. And also I want to point out I don't know if he's a full bird colonel, not likely, probably a lieutenant colonel. At his senior leadership level he was. Probably he might have been the squadron commander or the number two. He would have been a gold mine for the operations that have gotten this, not only for propaganda, but the interrogation he would have gone through to try to get, you know, capabilities that the US has. Because a good thing to
celebrate here for the listeners. We are fighting a twenty first century plus war. The key thing about what's going on in Iran, in addition to taking one of the full horsemen of apocalypse off the table and their ability to get a nuclear weapon i e. The Aatola was a suicide bomber looking for a new full stop. Kevn said, that is we're pushing to terrence poker chips back on the table with China, with Russia and with North Korea.
That is one of the major outcomes of what's going on in Iran, and again we're north of ten thousand targets hit. I mean, this is the likelihood of a bird strike when you start doing the statistical probabilities of what it could occur, when you have that many aircraft mine and that many capabilities put you at risk. So a lot to celebrate here in our great nation this week as crews the recovered, but continue to pray for them.
They're in harms way and they are doing things to make our nation safer as a result of these Operation Scott, thank you.
Yeah.
I think the one of the more fascinating things to me at Gal Ryan is that they launched this rescue operation launch from a airstrip twenty five miles inside of Iran. That was, as you mentioned, pre position for contingencies.
How's that?
How long's take something like that, an asset like that to develop and there could all be not that many people know it exists, and certainly not the Iranians.
Well again I can't, I won't the bullet anything classified, but I wanted you to think about it like a football team and they've got Hey, we've got this one hell Mary path. We're going to practice that practice that practice. It We're not exactly sure what yard line will be on, we're not exactly sure of the weather conditions, we're not exactly sure the defense they'll be running. But here's our base play. So you have the base play and I'm sure that makes sense to you, or like the three
point shots from the corner. You've got your base play, but you make some final adjustments right there at the last puddle and then out you go. But what this relies on is is the is the intellectual ability of these warriors to do this. And I'll say it again, Yeah, these guys are good in the weight rooms. Yeah they can. They can run fast, they can swim far, and they're very strong and sick. But their mindset and their intelligence is what carries the day because you've got to keep
your wits about this. Does that make sense?
Yeah, yeah, totally.
I mean, you know, we tend to get tunnel vision and are you know, breathe differently and our heart race is under pressure and yeah, if you're at that level of elite operator, you've got to be able to control all that stuff. The President called this one of the most daring rescue operations in US history. You've done this in real time, ed Gil Ryan, how far up the list is a rank.
Well, it'll be it'll be way up there. When the books of movies coming about about this, it's going to be a patriotic explosion because of all the things that had to happen, because there's there's so many unknowns in this.
And you're exactly right. I spent my career planning these contingencies and conduct in what you would call very sensitive activities, not exactly like this, but the same kind of high stakes, high risk scenarios in that band between peace and war where you're at war all the time, when you're at Steel King six or Delta or some other select units and activity in our nation so we can stay safe. Oh, it'll be very high up there, and it's going to
be jaw dropping. It is going to be absolutely jaw dropping. And this is gonna be one of the families you're gonna want it to go to. And I guarantee you will increase recruiting for both officer and listed again one of this movie in this book comes out.
Guarantee, Yeah, I get it.
Ed gll Ryan running against Thomas Massey in Kentucky for that Concresdal seat with some of the most bizarre ads I've ever seen. Talk about a disinformation campaign. Ed you just laid out killing the enemies and airstrikes and every you don't sound very woke.
Well, I'll say you that the veteran community has basically told me, I guess I should have got three Bronze Star medals and two combat jump badges with bronze stars based.
On that ai AD he's running that.
I've got lack of courage running all veterans for clarity, it is an insult that anyone has has put their life on the line to include leading others in combat.
So all that to say, that's all the Liz Cheney of Kentucky.
Has after fourteen years in Congress, That's all he has is an ai AD to attack the only retired Navy seal officer that serves our nation.
On seven seal teams in units include quite the Steal Team six. So all that to say, his desperation is only exceeded by this honesty. And again it's an insult to anyone to serve.
He is Ed Gollryan seeking your vote for this congressional race, and the Commonwealth Retired Seal Team six Army ranger and could go on for probably another five ten minutes about all the awards and decorations he received. Serve our country honorably, Ed, thanks for jumping on the show and laying this out this morning. It's absolutely fascinating and some good news finally in a world it seems like we're lacking good news, all the best.
And good luck.
Yes, thank you so much. I gotta get some farm work done. Thank you a little listeners, God bless them.
Yes, sir, thank you, Ed, appreciate it. Let me get news in the picture here in just seconds. It's going to be a hell of a movie. Can't wait for it be on Netflix at about two hours seven hundred Wow.