Amber Smith - Focus on the Warfighter - podcast episode cover

Amber Smith - Focus on the Warfighter

Apr 14, 202343 min
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Episode description

Amber Smith is the best selling author of Danger Close, combat helicopter pilot, and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran.

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Transcript

Speaker 1

You're listening to The Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Buck Sexton Show. This episode, we have Amber Smith with us. She's a phenomenal, amazing lady. She was a Kiowa helicopter pilot in Afghanistan and Iraq, so combat tours in both

war zones. She was also a Deputy Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under the Trump administration, the author of the phenomenal book During about her time as a Kiowa pilot, Danger Close and Amber, You gotta tell everybody what do they need to know about the Kiowa platform, right because people people give a lot of a lot of hoopla, a lot of attention to the Apache and of the black Hawk. But tell everybody about what it is to be in a Kiowa and what kind of stuff you

were doing. Well. I was grateful enough to get to fly the most amazing, badass helicopter in the Army's inventory at the time. It's a light attack reconnaissance helicopter. It's a two seater. At the co pilot, we have a fifting gun, we have a rocket pad that carries high explicit rockets and then we can carry hell fire missiles as well. But the best part of our job was who we worked for. We worked for a ground force, so infantry, marines, special forces, NATO forces, in country forces

like the Iraqi Army or the fn National Army. And we fly extremely low level, just anywhere from fifty two hundred and fifty feet off of the ground, so well within range of the enemy's weapon systems, and it's definitely down in the fight every day we go out on a mission. So I mean there's there's flying close to the ground, you know, like like Maverick in the recent Maverick where he's all, you know, doing the obstacle course

thing or whatever. And I spoke to you an F eighteen pile who said, you got understand at that speed you're in the you're in the dirt in like two seconds if you mess up. Um, but you were not much time mistakes. Yeah, right, you were flying at a level where you could basically see like someone's you know, you see the color of someone's hair right or there. Beer if the ground high off the ground, we're very loft.

The ground intint behind that is that we do hunt for IDs on the road ahead of convoys, and um we do, like I said, get into these close combat attacks when um often we get called into an enemy firefight with friendly ground forces. So based off the range of our weapons systems, just by nature, we have to

be very close to the ground. And that does mean that it is an intense light It's an intense mission because you know, you do have the hazard of the enemy of their weapon systems, but then you have all of those other hazards that come with flying so close to the ground. You heard in Iraq fires used to be such danger toilets and unfortunately resulted in you know, multiple multiple kier crashes. So it was a pretty dangerous job.

Which like telephone wires, you're saying like you would you would actually have about telephone and comms wires, Yes, birds, telephone wires, cell phone towers, trees, yes, wow, that's remember what kind of what kind of defensive armor do you have on I mean except whenever I've seen photos of the of the Kiawa, it's um, it's an agile platform, but it doesn't look like it's not. You know, when you see like an aten ward hog, you're like that thing looks like you could kick the crap out of it.

You guys in the KaiA was I assume, yeah, you really had to avoid enemy fire. The Kaiwa could take a beating. It brought me home many times my aircraft got shut up when I was in Iraq and I had an AK forty seven bullet land about twelve inches behind my spine. M Thankfully there was an armor plate behind the back of our seat and then underneath our seat as well. But we also had an armor panel

that an engine block. But get this, because of weight purposes so we could carry more AMMO, we would actually remet AMMO plates so the engine was less protected. Right, So, Amber, you've seen the military from being a combat deployed rotary aircraft warrior, if I may say, and you've also been somebody who's dealt with the DoD at the policy communications

deputy Defense secretary level. So I think you're in a particular position to talk a bit about the concerns over a military that is increasingly concerned with d EI, social justice, and wokeness instead of being being the most effective combat

machinery for the defeative enemies and defensive America possible. What do you think of that problem, the scale of it, the reality of it, well, I think it's incredibly dangerous to our national security, to the health of the fighting force as a whole, especially when we compare it to what our adversaries look like today. We face some very real threats. We inch closer to World WARREE on a daily basis with this administration and the threats that works

those two around the world. And what do we see our military doing. We see policies that are pushed down on the force that have the intent of dividing the force instead of unifying the force. And the military works because everyone is one after basic training, everybody puts on the exact same uniform and you put the American flag on your shoulder, and you are a team. You're serving towards one purpose, and you do that by coming together.

You don't sit there and focus on everyone's unique individuality and then talk about how other people may be a part of the problem. And so it's really creating this softer generation of a military that we haven't really seen before.

And I think it's incredibly dangerous when we look at the attention and the training hours and the shift of focus away from these priceless training hours to prepare for the mission, to prefare, to deter and then if necessary, fight in some of these conflicts that are now being focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, extremism training to being soldiers being told that domestic terrorism is the biggest threat, solitary,

transgender policies, double standards for physical fitness tests, and the recruiting numbers are showing the damning effects that are having on the military today. The Army missed their numbers by fifteen thousand soldiers in twenty twenty two. That's twenty five percent below what they were looking to hit. That is absolutely damaging to our nation. It silly shows the health

of the force and it's struggling right now. And when you start paying attention to some of the policies that are being forced on soldiers that are damaging moral, this is what you get. Awoke military that is absolutely drisk to recruit, movement to morale, and young Americans are saying no, thanks are for other opportunities. It's really sad when I hear people that have either gotten out recently or serve for many years. In some cases friends of mine, who

did I mean more combat employments. Then that I feel like I can even count when I try to run them all past them, I say, wait, weren't you how many times are you interact? How many times are you in Afghanistan? And they say, not only would they not want to go back in, but that if their own son or daughter I was thinking about serving, that they would try to obviously it's the you know, the person's choice, um, but that they would try to discourage them from joining

with the military as it is today. I don't know if you've had that experience. I have many friends, particularly from the heavy combat branches, who say, nope, I wouldn't want my son joining up right now. I have had so many of the exact same conversations, and it's it's terrifying for the military, the fighting force as a whole in our national security with when you when you put it in the perspective of what is our military supposed to do and how generate up to serve the country.

But for me personally, it's it's um, it's really sad to see a military that I served in for over seven and a half years. I did two combat deployments and one to Iraq, one to Afghanistan, and to see a military that is unrecognizable to the one that I served in, where we had a mission, we were focused, we were a team. We didn't nitpick each other about a part based on our differences. There was a standard and you had to meet it and didn't then guess what that wasn't the job for you too, and you

went on and did something else. Now, all of these lowered standards, it's just it's absolutely creating resentment within the ranks and it's killing morale and people are saying, maybe I should look elsewhere, Like what are these sacrifices Living a life in the military is You're missing birthdays, You're

missing kids graduations. You're like, I've talked to soldiers who are like, I'm I'm done watching my children grow up over zoom, you know, and they're missing all of these life things that you these life celebrations, that anniversary's, weddings, funerals, like these times that you don't get back, and that sacrifice was always worth it to so many people who and then they see the fall of Afghanistan, they see the no accountability, they see Secretary of Defense Austin testifying

on Capitol Hill last week that he has zero regrets for the way that the withdrawal for Afghanistan happened and how the country collapsed and fell into the hands of Afghanistan. He saw that thirteen US service members were killed as a result of a suicide attack while they were guarding

h Kaya Kabul International Airport during the withdrawal. So to hear leaders like that that creates such a distrust of the commander to subordinate relationship that is absolutely vital to the success of the relationship to get soldiers to want to fight and win on the battle field. Just that trust of their leaders which they have with senior military officials and generals, you've lost the military. We live in

extremely dangerous times right now. In those recruitment numbers, Like we'll see the next year coming up what those look like, but it's not going to look any better. Like I had lost fifteen thousand soldiers to their recruitment goals. The other branches. The only reason they made it was because they were pulling from their delayed entry programs. That means they're setting themselves up this year for an either harder recruitment goal. So it is just it is dangerous, dangerous times.

And because there's no accountability because of this toxic or leadership that refuses to look internally. You keep seeing when a Pentagon is questioned about any of their failures, all they do is look outward and they place blame elsewhere. It's never like, hey, maybe we should take a look at what we are doing that is causing some of these self lifted problems, and they won't do it. Come back in a second here and talk about both Ukraine and also what it was like dealing with the press

from the DoD during the Trump years. I bet that was sometimes very illuminating about their real goals and intentions. And we'll come back to that in a second. But if you've never tried it before, folks, you've got to get the My Pillow two point zero. Michaelndal's team has done it again. The My Pillow, the thing that started it all, built at all originally, Well, now there's an update.

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Enter promo code buck. That's promo code Buck for the My Pillow two point zero promo code b uc K when you go to my pillow dot com. So Amber, let's start with Let's start with Ukraine. How do you think Biden and the DoD right now? He's commander in chief right and you've got some interesting, interesting people who are including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Millie and Lloyd Austin, Secretary Defense, who are making all kinds of decisions about this one way of putting all this, how do you

think they're doing so far? I mean, how does the picture look to you of US support for the war in Ukraine eighteen months in or fifty fifteen months in. Well. I think that the United States military industrial complex, the Pentagon, mini political leaders in Washington, DC are addicted to war. I think they're addicted to conflict. I think war has become big business and that's extremely dangerous for our nation.

If you look at the withdrawal of Afghanistan, we shifted almost immediately towards a new conflict, a proxy war in Ukraine with Russia, and really a fight that is not within vital US national security interest. This is a regional war between neighbors. The United States has already pumped in more money than it ever did in an annual amount for Afghanistan. So a war that we were fighting on the ground in Afghanistan and it's and it's just win

is enough enough? And I'm not happy with the status of how things are going with the war in Ukraine. I think that we have some more led navity interest, some real threats that base our nation, like China. Every single day that threat grows, it increases on a daily basis, and I think that the US is preoccupied with fighting

a proxy war in Ukraine with Russia right now. You know, when I think back to I was in Afghanistan in two thousand and ten, and interfacing with I was a very you know, very low man in the hierarchy, but I was interfacing with the people who were, let's just say, calling the shots in country for both the military and the intelligence agencies. And I was always, even at that stage and at that age, shocked at how everybody was repeating everybody else's lines. But everybody kind of knew that

it wasn't really true. You know, all the stuff about all we're making all these gains in this year area and we're we're consolidating what we've done in that area. But when you actually talk to people who were there were dealing with it. Like when I when I met with a couple of different odias, a couple different special Forces teams and asked them, what do you guys think is going on? They're like, oh, well, you know, the big military assessment versus what you were getting from from

door kickers who were living in combat outposts. It always felt like there was a huge disconnect, And I was there in twenty and ten, I was like, this is

just not going to work. But if you told anybody that, or if you talked about that, um, you were kind of treated like you were disloyal to the American war effort there or the NATO as we know war effort there before the Ukraine war, Right, this is what NATO existed for somehow, m do you feel like we're heading into the same trap with Ukraine, not obviously with our own forces deployed, but just with our diplomatic, economic, and material support to a war that to me looks like

it's going to go on for years, And we're talking about we better start thinking about our support for Ukraine with a T not a B as in a trillion, two trillion. Well you think it's heading that way or are you? Are you have any faith that maybe they'll cut it off before that? Well to your point about Afghanistan and people sort of saying that you're disloyal if you sort of have an opposing view to push poker to potentially start World War three with a nuclear power.

There's nothing more dangerous than a week army with nuclear power, and that's where we keep pushing this war. And so yeah, just to your point about speaking out in opposition to Hey, maybe we should be pushing a peace agreement between the two nags instead of pushing more war. It's like the thing that you know, the Pentagon on in certain leaders in Washington, DC to do they throw money at the problem. And we have a lot of old in DC that

cannot give the cold out of their heads. So you Russia into the conversation and it's nope, you know, We're going to throw absolutely anything in every at Russia. And it's like they get tunnel vision if you bring up the word Russia. Guess what. Russia is a near peer adversary in a conflict with a regional conflict right now. Who is a bigger threat to US than Russia right now? China? Who where geographically is the United States primarily focused on

right now? Russia? Okay, the United States military cannot is not capable of fighting a two front war right now. So when we're sending all of our ammunition, you know, brigades of our military into Poland, into Romania, in these other areas around Ukraine, helping train in Ukraine, depleting our own United States tradition stockpile that we will likely need in the very near future. It's just really not smart

decision making. I can't say I'm very surprised, but focusing on Russia when we have such a very near threat with China, which is no longer a near peer. China's a peer adversary. Everybody wants to focus on Russia and Washington, DC, everybody wants to throw hundreds of billions of dollars their way. And it's absolutely a disgrace for US leadership, who is tasked with protecting the American people, to put us in harm's way the way that they are today with how

they're handling the war with Russia. You know, Senator Lindsay Graham recently said he's definitely opened the idea of putting US troops in Taiwan, creating a US military presence on that island. What do you think about that? Does he want an immediate war with China? Because guess what, that's not going to look like the wars that he was pushing in Iraq and Afghanistan for twenty years. That's gonna look like a war to end all wars. It's gonna

get very ugly, very quickly. That is very true. I'm a little bit surprised always, and this is more of just a general political feeling that Lindsay Graham is always so he's always treated by conservatives and conservative media for the most part, with some kind of reverence. And this is a guy who I've never seen him refer to a war that other people will fight with any trepidation whatsoever. Like there's never a sense when Lindsay Graham talks about

US troops going somewhere to fight. He's not going anywhere to fight. Children aren't going anywhere to fight. He doesn't actually have any children. But you know, he's not going anywhere. And you sit there and you say, well, why is he getting reelected so many times by the people of

South Carolina? You know what has to happen here? I mean, I just I'm surprised that his constant push for more expenditure of men and materiel in conflict isn't a bigger problem for conservatives who are taking more of a here at home approach. Yeah, because it's just an interview to him, right, It's just another campaign cycle, it's just another rally cry. It's not like you said, it's not his kids, it's

not his money. He's it's not his time away. He gets to go on these congressionally sponsored trips into a war zone, take the photos, get them, you know, special treatment, and say that he's been to a war zone and he gets to see what it's really like. But that's not actually what real war is like. Politicians have got to get back to the stance where war is a

last resort. It is a very last resort. People's lives shouldn't be so loosely thrown out to fight these wars and that sort of policy stance for foreign policy and conflicts and wars that we've seen around the world that is taking a toll on our military. It's completely damaging the all volunteer force. I I mean, I think it's scary times speaking of the all volunteer Force and how long that's going to stick around for, which is seriously

going to change some things. And if a war with China breaks out, that's exactly we will be looking at. Nobody wants to talk about, but that's the reality. Yeah, I just I mean, I'm I'm down here in Florida, and you know, if if we if you had the Chinese, it was like a red dawn situation where I think it was actually North Korea on the remake, right, if they started, you know, setting up landing craft or whatever on the beaches year of South Beach, I'd be like,

all right, let's go, you know, mount up. We have to fight. But on the other side of that equation, if someone told me that I, you know, some future child of mine is eighteen years old, if my son son to be said I want to go and help out with the US war effort, assuming we deployed troops. I know we haven't at least officially deployed any troops in Ukraine, but I want to go fight for Ukrainian independence. I'd be like, do not join the military if you

want to fight for Ukrainian independence, Like I don't. I don't know what else to say to me if that's our fight. It feels like people keep bringing this up, say, well, what if a NATO country's next. We have a treaty with those countries. We have a written promise with those countries it says if X, then Y. We don't have that with Kraiza. So I don't know why these things keep getting conflated. Yeah, people seem to be missing that point of absolutely we have an obligation to NATO. Putin

is not invading a NATO country. If that should happen, of course the United States would protect our NATO alley Ally, that's not what's happening right now, and so that's why I say it's provocative that the United States wants to fight this proxy war with Russia. It's pushing the biggest nuclear power in the world, and it is not in the best interest of the security of our nation, of the safety of our nation, and too many people it's almost like Ukraine is the next you see the blue

and yellow flags waving and the sunflowers. It's like the new thing that people want to support without accepting what the reality of a war in Ukraine against Russia actually means, Like how much farther do you think we're going to go before the United States commits some sort of US ground force and then guess what. Then we're at war with Russia and it's no longer we no longer get to say, oh, we're supplying equipment, Oh we're supplying training,

or we're supplying medical care. No we're not. We're at war with Russia. And the devastating effects of that if the war were to expand because Russia would obviously feel that it's an exit now it faces a true existential threat. The Russians also view Ukraine as existential to their long term survival. We don't really get that part of it. This is not a justification of the aggression, it's just

the understanding of the Russian perception of the issue. Right, So the Russians view a Ukraine that is de facto or you know, close, basically de facto, and NATO were actually in NATO, which some people talked about as something that's completely unacceptable for their long term strategic interest in the survival of the Russian Federation. Point being, they'll keep fighting this out as long as they have to, and they don't see this as a you know, we're just

going to give up because this is too costly for us. Now, there might be a negotiation that could end this, and that's what I think should be pursued. But there seems to be very little interest in even talking about these days. And I think that from the administration of people in Washington. It's really disconcerting. After twenty years of war, where it was very clear to people you were there, I was there, very clear that this wasn't going to be the thing

that they thought it was going to be. It's like we haven't learned a lesson. But I want to come back and actually ask you about some trans agenda issues here in just a second. But I've got to ask everybody at home, how are your energy levels these days? Because you got to check out Chalk. Chalk is an amazing supplement company that brings your energy levels back to optimum.

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Websites very simple, Chalk cchoq dot com. Use my name Buck when you make your first purchase in the site, get thirty five percent off any Chalk subscription for life that's for life, thirty five percent off. Go to chalkchoq dot com, use my name Buck as your promo code. Subscription gonna be canceled at any time. But people try this product, they love it. You're not gonna want to cancel it. Check out chalk choq dot com. Okay, I gotta ask this before we want to talk about some fun,

happy things too. Amber, Um, I'm gonna have you weigh in with wayn As. You know, I'm newly married, and one thing that we keep talking about is what kind of dog we can get. And I know your team Bulldog, which is amazing, So we're gonna have to talk about yeah, yeah, team Bulldogs. We're gonna have a bulldog discussion a second. And also just want to ask what your plans are here going forward and other things of the projects you're

gonna be involved in. But you know, there's so much attention now to trans stuff in sports, the trans community in sports. And you've seen him recently. Megan Rapino, for example, of very left wing, became kind of famous for being a really a left wing voice in the women's national soccer team and saying that like they don't make enough money even though they're actually paid disproportionately to what they bring in in terms of revenue. But you know who

cares about things like math? She thinks that trans men should be able to compete against women now in soccer, to which I say, like, I'm a guy who spent way too much time at a desk last ten years, I would toss around members of the women's national soccer team on a soccer field still to this day, having played at like a reasonable high school level, like a long time ago. It's crazy. We all know it's crazy in sports. What is the situation now in the military though,

for how the issue is is handled? I mean, because if you're a if you're a man who becomes a trans female, are you still in it? Are you kept in a male unit in male barracks? Like? How do they handle that? What's policy? So the policy, the Department of Defense policy for transgenders is that they can serve in their preferred gender. So once they go through the transition process and they then are allowed to put their

preferred gender on their military ID card. Once they have that ID card, they are allowed to shower in Like a man that now says he's a transgender woman, I said that right is now allowed to shower in the women's locker room, They're allowed to use the women's bathroom, sleep in women's quarters, they are treated as though they are a woman. That is the policy, and then they have to meet whatever female versus male standards exist. Wait, I gotta ask, Yeah, I'm just processing this. How what

has to happen for them to even like qualified? Do they? Is it just a do you have to meet with a base psychologist or something you know to go? Or can you say no, I'm a woman now and therefore the military will treat me as a woman. There's a process, you have to meet with a doctor. But not every transgender that exists out there or wants to transition has

gender dysphoria. Some do, but some don't, and it does it doesn't matter like regardless of if you have it or not, you're still allowed to transition if you speak with your doctor and then you speak with your commander and you it takes away considerable amount of time a soldier who is in that process of transitioning hormones surgeries, the time it takes with all of the administration things, you're missing training, and then the team grows without you, right,

but then you have to be fully accepted back as soon as you come back. So it does not add if the military had like a litmus test for pretty much everything they do and said, does this policy make us a stronger fighting force? Does this make us more likely to win a war against China? Does this make us a more lethal, you know, more elite fighting force in the world. If the answer is no, maybe they should look twice at forcing those policies on the entire force.

But here is the kicker of equality rights, which is what the Biden administration is trying to do with this executive order that they pushed down to the Department Offense when they then allowed transgenders to serve openly, so they fully you know, have are on board with everything transgender. The Selective Service what all men eighteen to twenty five in this country have to sign up for within thirty days of their eighteenth birthday. Men men have to sign

up for the Selective Service. Now, the Selective Service only says your birth sex, so only men born in their bogic biological sex as a man have to sign up for the draft. So women who transition and become men they do not have to sign up for the draft, but men who become women are still required to sign up to for the draft. So it's like which one

do they see? So are they saying that, like transgender women are really men according to the Selective Service if a draft was ever to happen, or there's just this like complete double standard there, which happens a lot when some of these policies are shoved down. They don't think in third order effects of the decisions. But it's like as a society, it's like, when are we going to

accept reality? Just like what we were talking about with Ukraine Afghanistan, generals everybody went and testify it up on Capitol Hill, like through the lens of these rose colored glasses. They painted this pretty picture of what Afghanistan looked like, but in reality, we all knew Afghanistan wasn't gonna stand on a stew feet without the United States military and the US dollar. Ukraine, everybody knows what happens as soon as the United States leaves and quit standing up Ukraine.

You can know that Russia is the enemy and wish that this was not happening to Ukraine, but you can also live in the reality of the situation. And it's the same thing with transgenders. The military is focusing so much money, so much time and training, taking away training to focus and give special treatment to the transgender demographic for the military, and they do so by saying, well, we want to make sure that we are recruiting to

one hundred percent of the population. The military has never been able to recruit to one hundred percent of the population. They're at about, you know, less than twenty five percent of young Americans who are eligible to serve today. So it's like, how about we focus on the problems that exist in the military today on fixing those instead of contributing more problems to the military. Yes, I think that would make a whole lot of sense. I want to

come back. We'll talk with the Amber here in a second about just some some more general some more general topics, you know, maybe'll take a little trip down memory lane too. We'll get to that in just a moment. I want to tell everybody but the Tunnel of the Towers Foundation. The foundation honors fallen and severely injured heroes and their

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Join me in doing any eleven dollars a month the TNT of Towers at t twot dot org. That's t the number two t dot org. All right, Ever, so I gotta ask your Your husband is a fighter pilot. What is he? What is he flying? What was he flying? Is he an FA team guy? Oh? He fives the best thing out there a helicopter. He's not a fire pilot.

He's a helicopter pilot. Oh he's also ye see I and all these jokes worth like if you know, if you like did a lane change and almost caused an accident, Like, ah, yeah, just like a fixed wing guy, you know, too fast for everybody. You're both you are married to a rotary military rotary aircraft military pilot. I don't know why I thought. I thought twenty two guy. Pardon me, I'm way off. Yeah, he is a helicopter pilot like me. He's a cab guys got a stetson, so yeah, oh wow, very cool.

I was unaware. I was wondering if they're like any jokes you make. But since you're both rotary, but do you make jokes about fixed wing aircraft people? You know? Are you kind of just like yeah, couldn't make it in rotary aircraft school, Like I feel like helicopter pilot. You guys are different, right, You guys are like a different bunch because you're flying. I've seen the videos like little birds and stuff, and uh um, you know the

night Stalkers. I mean they're like practically flying these things upside down beneath the bridge, smoking a cigar MP five in one hand, and you know they're just going crazy out there doing amazing stuff. Yeah. When I was in flight school, we would have instructor pilots who this didn't happen in I cockpit. But students within my class, they would have stories because a lot of the instructor pilots

were old Vietnam pilots. So then you know, after they get out the military, their helicopter pilots, they come and they teach like the newer generation of pilot military pilots, and they would they Vietnam pilots were the absolute best guys in the world. They had the most amazing stories. And yeah, one guy was even like I didn't know what to do. I got in my car, I got in the helicopter and like once we got up to altitude, like you just started smoking and we just are laughing

because obviously that's like no longer allowed. But back in Vietnam days, like that's what they did. Well, that is kind of amazing having having been you know, I remember when I was in a rocket Afghanistan because you watch some of these movies and like every American Vietnam movie, for example, everyone's walking around shirtless, smoking drinking beer on base all the time. Right, that's when they're back on base,

you're smoking cigarettes, you're drinking beer. Not a lot of I didn't see a lot of beer drinking in theater or are they They definitely got rid the British would do it though the British were always you know, able to which I thought was interesting. Yes, yes, they got rid of um all of that uh in today's military. One of my fly instructors, though, he was I actually write about this in my book Danger Clothes when he uh, he didn't drink alcohol, He never drank alcohol, but everybody

else in his company drank alcohol. And he said he was so sick wherever they were in Vietnam. He was so sick of never getting any mail runs that everybody was too hungover to like work or fly the next day. So he literally like took a helicopter, didn't tell anybody, flew to whatever base has the mail, loaded up the helicopter with all of their mail, and then flew it back to everybody because he was so sick of waiting around. Well,

I'm sure he was. I'm sure he was a hero and everybody who wanted to get some mail from back home. Very very good speaking. I'm gonna have you help settle this bet, which is not really a bet. A debate in the in the Sexton Household between mister and Missus Sexton and I keep my voice down because when I'm recording that, she might be able to hear me. So I'm like, I'm like, I don't want anyone to know I love bulldogs. You and your husband, right, you are

English bulldog people. And people give me all this stuff. They say, oh there they have all the health issues and they snore and all that stuff. But I try to tell them I will find the snoring adorable because it's English bulldog snoring. It's not gross human snoring. Help sell right now, she'll listen to this. I'll tell her about this. Help sell missus Sexton on the English bulldog

which you have as a breed. So I have been obsessed since I saw one on like gift card when I was probably like twelve years old, and that was my dream. I wanted to get a bulldog ever since then. When my husband got in gauged and you know we were gonna get married, I started sending him photos and videos on a daily basis of bulldog puppies interacting. They're

like everywhere on Instagram. Um so just start tagging her, Start tagging her on like every single cute video that you see and get it in her brain and she's gonna come around. She's gonna wrinkly and smushy and how cuddly. And there's nothing like a bulldog personality out there. They're stubborn but hilarious, and they're the most loyal dogs, the best cuddlers, and if you snor, they're a little stinky every now and then. But I mean, is there a

dog that isn't say, you know what I mean? Come back? You know, humans, we come back from the gym or whatever. It can be a little rough. Sometimes you gotta lead the shoes out the back door, like you know. It's not I don't. I don't see that as such a big issue. Um I told you I'm already doing the bulldog propaganda from instagram, sending her a little bulldog photos of puppies and things. So we'll see. But she likes she's a big dog person. This is the thing we

keep coming. She wants a big dog, like you know, eighty pounds. Are you guys looking at a frenchie or English? I want to I mean, I want an English If I'm just gonna get one, I'm gonna English bulldog. So yeah, that's the plan. So maybe you might have a lot of people think that English aren't very athletic. But if you do have a bulldog and you train them when they're young, they will. They're like good walking dogs if you get the right harness um, but you gotta start

them young. And they're also very like fast sprinters and they can jump extremely high, so throwing frisbees, throwing a ball. Like they are outdoor dogs, Like you can get them out there. It's kind of like up to the owner if you want them to be like lazy couch dogs and that's all they do from when they're puppies, that's all they do. But like you want to get them outside and like have them go play at the park like they love that too. Amber. Your book Danger Clothes,

people should get a copy of they don't already. I know you're working on another book which will have you back when that is published to talk about obviously, but anything else anywhere else. People should look for your work, your commentary, all that good stuff. Yeah. You can always see what I am up to lately on official Amber Smith dot com and then you can follow along on Instagram or Twitter at Amber Smith USA. Awesome, Amber, thank you so much. We'll talk to you again soon. Thanks back.

Great to see you

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