All across America and around the world, this
is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. And
now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Hey, good afternoon and welcome to Veterans Radio.
My name is Dale Throneberry. I was a cw2 helicopter
pilot in Vietnam 1969 I want to welcome to our
program. I've got a couple of really cool things
going on today number one we're hoping to talk
with one of the members of the MidMichigan honor
flight who talk about what they do and how they
get people from here to there It's kind of interesting.
We're waiting for a phone call from the president
of that. But I also have somebody who's gone
on one of those flights. So if we can get him,
we can take care of that if necessary. And then
I've got a pretty good interview that I did yesterday
or the day before with Rebecca Grant. Dr. Grant,
of course, is our resident foreign affairs expert.
We've had her on our program. numerous times
starting back in 2008, 2009. And she's going
to talk about what is going on in Ukraine, what's
going on with China, what's going on with this
new administration and some of the things that
are happening and some of the things that might
be upsetting to some of our listeners out there.
So make sure that you stick around for that interview.
We're hoping that I found it really interesting
anyhow. And I think that that you will too. And
before we get into that, I got to thank our sponsors
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very much in advance and we'll get right into
our program here. We are going to be talking
to, actually we're going to be talking to Brian
Graf. Brian Graf is a board member of the Veterans
Radio America and he's also gone on one of these
mid -Michigan honor flights. And so Brian, tell
me what they do. Well thank you, Dale. It was
probably the thrill of my lifetime. A quick story,
I was driving up north on US -23 and I saw a
billboard sign, electronic billboard sign, it
said honor flight. And I pulled over real quick
and wrote down the number, went home that evening,
called that number. Actually, I looked online,
to Google it online, and they do fly veterans
to Washington DC to see all the monuments. It
was a two -day affair, and I thought, well, that
was very intriguing. So I filled out an application,
emailed it in, and I thought, well, I'd never
get a call. And I did get a call one day, and
they said, we'd like to fly you to DC. And I
said, well, I can't make it. I'm down south at
our property down south. And, well, we'll put
your application back in the pile. I figure I'd
be back in the bottom of the pile, or they would
forget it. The following year, I got another
call. And I said, I'm going this time. And it
was very exciting. There was 139 veterans on
the flight going to DC. 76 of them were Vietnam
veterans. And of course, we didn't get that welcome
home, so to speak, when we came back from Vietnam.
They applaud us when we got off the plane in
Washington DC. There was about 30 or 40 people
at the airport there. I got to see all the monuments.
I went to the wall, which is very difficult for
me. When we came back, flew back that evening,
I flew out of Battle Creek, Michigan. They gave
us a large envelope and somehow I knew what was
going to be in that envelope. I did not open
it when I was on the plane. And it was exactly
what I thought it would be. It was a lot of letters
to thank you for your service. It was all from
family members and friends. And even when we
got off the plane in Battle Creek and they...
They convoyed us over to an air museum in Battle
Creek, and there were hundreds and hundreds of
people in that museum just cheering for us, clapping
for us, and thanking us for our service and welcome
home, and that brought tears to my eyes. Well,
I can only imagine. In that envelope were, again,
letters from family members. That was very exciting.
I have two of them on my desk that I look at
almost every other day, and one of them's from
a nephew. who's an Airborne Ranger and someday
he may be able to go on one of those flights
too. So I encourage people to put in an application
because you never know if you're going to be
called and it's something I would love to do
it again one day. It was really exciting. Well
you don't go by yourself on this. No you do.
You have to have a sponsor, kind of a chaperone
so to speak. So I invited my son who's been trying
to get me to go back to Vietnam to get some closure.
And I told him, I said, I've got closure. I don't
need to go back. So close my eyes every night
and I'm almost there. But my son went with me
and it was very exciting for him too. He really
enjoyed it. We met two World War II veterans
on that flight. There were five Korean veterans.
but these two World War II veterans, one was
96 and the other one was 98. The gentleman that
was 98 was a pediatric surgeon from U of M hospital
and you would think he was in his 60s. Very exciting
to talk to, very sharp and great stories to tell.
So we did hear a lot of stories and it was such
a great feeling to be the camaraderie. We took
our very large group picture in front of the
Irojima Memorial. There was hundreds of us there,
and it was pretty exciting. I would think it
would be a great trip. I know you told me I needed
to put my name on the waiting list, so I didn't
do it yet, but I will. We've been talking with
Brian Graf who got to go on one of those honor
flights, and unfortunately we're not able to
connect with the people here locally for the
mid -Michigan Honor Flight and for more information
you can go to their website it's actually midmichiganhonorflight
.org all their information is there they have
got a number of flights coming up I think they've
got four coming up this year and you just put
your name on the list on their on their website
and hopefully they'll call you and you get to
take a sort of kind of I'd like the way you put
that kind of a chaperone it's nice we're at this
point in our life now where we have to have chaperones
so we don't go wandering off Well, that's true.
That's true. I encourage anybody from all branches
of the service, no matter when did you serve,
it's an exciting time. I think it's a great opportunity.
And, you know, there are still, it's hard to
believe that there are still many, many people
that haven't had the opportunity to get to Washington
to see all these monuments. And, you know, as
you pointed out, it's a great opportunity for
people to welcome us home. And you know as you
said we didn't get the the best welcome back
in you know 100 years ago but uh yeah i would
encourage people to check that out thanks very
much brian uh appreciate your time and telling
this story and maybe we can get the head honchos
from the organization on the next time sounds
great thanks thanks brian all right we are going
to take a real quick break and then we're going
to come straight back into our interview with
dr rebecca grant so um Stick around. I think
you're going to really enjoy this interview.
You know, she's probably one of the smartest
people I've ever met that can really explain
what's going on in the world. So you're listening
to Veterans Radio. I'll be back after she's done.
So you're listening again to Veterans Radio.
See you soon. The Medal of Honor is the highest
award for valor in combat given a member of the
Armed Forces of the United States. There had
been over 3 ,400 recipients of the nation's highest
award. This is one of them. Sergeant First Class
Stanley Adams led a 13 -man charge against the
North Korean force of 150. Details after this.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of
Veterans' Appeals, contact Legal Help for Veterans
at 1 -800 -693 -4800. They're experts in handling
cases before the U .S. Court of Appeals for Veterans
Claims. Their number again, 1 -800 -693 -4800.
Adams' platoon, holding an outpost some 200 yards
ahead of his company, came under a determined
attack by an estimated 250 enemy troops. In 10
small arms, machine gun and mortar fire from
three sides pressed the platoon back against
the main line of resistance. Observing approximately
150 hostile troops silhouetted against the skyline
advancing against his platoon Adams leaped to
his feet, urged his men to fix bayonets and with
13 members of his platoon charged the hostile
force. Within 50 yards of the enemy Adams was
knocked to the ground when pierced in the leg
by an enemy bullet. He jumped to his feet and
ignoring his wound continued on to close with
the enemy when he was knocked down four times
from the concussion of grenades which had bounced
off his body. Shouting orders, he charged enemy
positions and engaged them in hand -to -hand
combat where man after man fell before his terrific
onslaught with bayonet and rifle blood. After
nearly an hour of vicious action, Adams and his
comrades routed the fanatical foe, killing over
50 and forcing the remainder to withdraw. Upon
receiving orders that his battalion was moving
back, He provided cover fire while his men withdrew.
Adam so inspired his comrades that the enemy
attack was completely thwarted, saving his battalion
from possible disaster. The Medal of Honor series
is a production of Veterans Radio. Military veterans
touch everyone's life. I'm guessing right now
you're thinking of a veteran, a close friend,
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Line 800 -273 -8255. 800 -273 -8255. A message
from the U .S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Welcome back to Veterans Radio. Our guest today
is Dr. Rebecca Grant. She is one of the vice
presidents at the Lexington Institute. She is
a frequent contributor to Veterans Radio. In
fact, she is our most trusted source of information
for about what's going on in the world. So Dr.
Grant, welcome back. I'm glad to join Veterans
Radio again. What a pleasure. Thank you very
much. All right. Well, let's get to the I don't
know which elephant is in the room or not, but
I suppose we should probably take a look at Ukraine
right off the bat. There's a whole lot of information
out there. Some of it I think is a little misleading.
The meeting that Zelensky had with the president,
was it just last week, where it got a little
testy? Yes, it's coming up now on two weeks ago
since the most dramatic Oval office meeting that
we've ever seen, you know, we always knew that
foreign leaders and our US presidents would have
arguments behind closed doors. But when Vladimir
Zelensky met with President Trump and most of
his cabinet in the White House, it was February
28th, Zelensky had come specifically to sign
a deal about a joint venture for mining critical
minerals in Ukraine. And there was to be a press
conference and a fancy lunch with flowers and
herb chicken and whatnot. And it turned into
a brawl, a hockey match, not a fist fight, but
almost. with Trump and Vice President JD Vance
really angry at Zelensky, and Zelensky holding
his own in front of the cameras. And this was
just the first time we've seen this play out
in real time. You know, I have a PhD in international
relations, and I've done a lot of historical
archival work, and I'm telling you, sometimes
they'll keep stuff classified just because...
For example, President Eisenhower in the 1950s
said something mean about Francis President Charles
de Gaulle. 30 years of classification on that
one. Right, yes. So it was a shock to see it
play out. It took a very serious turn, and it
has been repaired. But what had to happen in
the end was that Zelensky did apologize for his
conduct. And I felt he really He really owed
it to the U .S., but also to NATO. The NATO nations
have supported Zelensky so strongly. And when
NATO Secretary -General Mark Rutz asked to get
this knitted up, that was important. But meanwhile,
the U .S. for a while paused military aid to
Ukraine. And I'd love to spend just a moment
on that if that's okay with you. No, that's fine.
I think it's really important. As you know, as
your listeners know, it's not just sending the
missiles or the Abrams tanks or the F -16s that
they have. There's a constant process of aid,
including things like software updates for the
F -16s. When the F -16s went over last summer,
the Air Force's 68th Electronic Warfare Squadron
tuned them all up and made them special secret
ready to deal with Russian electronic warfare.
And you know, that's a constant process of back
and forth. The same is true with maintenance,
even on something like the high Mars, there are
continual maintenance updates that go on. And
there's just this, you know, software is what
you go to war with. Now, this is the modern battlefield.
You don't fight without constant tech refresh.
So to pause U .S. assistance to Ukraine, even
for a week, as it turned out, it's been turned
back on now, was really quite dramatic. And then,
of course, there's a lot of intelligence sharing.
You know, they're pretty quiet about it, but
NATO has included Ukraine in its cyber defenses
actually since the beginning of the war and then
formally over the last two years. We also do
a lot of space systems support to Ukraine. You
know, if you know how you track Russian bombers
and incoming missiles and drones, you know, that
all works best when you have space queuing for
those systems. And then we know that from the
very beginning, some of our U .S. companies like
Microsoft and Amazon have supported Ukraine by
literally pulling Ukrainian government operations
up into the cloud before the Russians could hack
them. So when the aid was turned off, that was
a pretty strong signal. It has been renewed.
And now we're looking at a series of peace negotiations.
Right. Yeah, I saw that. They offered an agreement.
And I guess evidently right now our good friend
Putin is pushing back a little bit on that. Well,
here's another headache. I mean, what did we
really think? So for two weeks, the attention
focused on repairing the U .S.-Ukraine relationship,
and that's been done. Now, the issue is, will
Putin negotiate at all? And, you know, I see
a couple things going on here. One, there is
a lot going on behind the scenes. I note that
our CIA Director John Ratcliffe has been talking
to his counterpart in Russia. We've seen Trump's
special envoy, Stephen Witkoff, who is a longtime
friend of Donald Trump's back from their days
doing real estate in New York. He has been off
negotiating as well. There's just a multi -layered
approach going on. So I hope there's something
going on behind the scenes because out in public,
it's looking pretty tough. Zelensky and the Ukrainian
side have agreed to a temporary ceasefire. This
is just the stop the shooting for let's say a
period of 30 days and then go to another phase
that will be formal negotiations. And there's
some pretty good things in that piece of the
deal that if a ceasefire happens, it would be
obviously no shooting on the front. Also no drone
and missile attacks, mainly by Russia, but Ukraine
did launch a small drone attack into Russia a
couple days ago. And then here's the big one.
Pause operations in the Black Sea. Now, Ukraine
has been just wiping the floor with Russia's
Navy in the Black Sea. You know, that's where
Crimea juts out into that. And there used to
be a big, important Russian naval base there
at Sevastopol. But the Ukrainians have done such
a great job with unmanned surface vehicles. and
ships that are kind of remotely piloted, some
interesting coastal defenses. The US and NATO
have helped them a lot with that. But the result
is the Russians really can't use the Black Sea
for naval operations in the way they used to.
And they've even moved their fleet headquarters
out of Sevastopol and Crimea up to a safer spot.
So this ceasefire would do some really good things
for Ukraine. It would do some good things for
Russia as well. Sadly, Putin has said, well,
you know, I don't think so. You know, I'll propose
my own ceasefire. And of course, behind all of
this is the number one thing that Putin has used
to go to war. And that is the support of China.
It is China that buys Russia's energy. We believe
China also supplies some high tech components
that have helped Russia modernize its helicopters,
tanks, et cetera. And Xi Jinping in China continues
to give his friend Vladimir Putin full support
for this war in Ukraine, this illegal invasion.
And of course, under this alliance, they've gone
so far as to include North Korean troops fighting
in Russia around the Kursk region. So it is an
incredibly complicated factor to have China saying
to Putin, yeah, go on. We don't mind a bit. My
question, I guess, is, I think it was Zelensky
was saying, or somewhere I was reading, that
Putin is not known for keeping his word. And
I think that that's something that we have to
really consider. I mean, it's just crazy. when
they were trying to promote the whole idea that
Ukraine started this war? And I'm just wondering
what your thoughts on our trusting Putin or is
he becoming sort of a mini puppet of the Chinese?
Well, that is exactly right, Dale. And economically,
Russia is becoming a vassal state of China. But
your point about negotiations is so well taken.
I mean, this is Putin, even if he agrees to something.
We know that he's going to maneuver. And the
past record is that he has broken ceasefires.
This was part of what made things so hot in that
Oval Office meeting. Zelensky, who ironically
was elected in 2019, first time into politics,
he was an entertainer. He ran on the platform
of getting peace. And there have been multiple
ceasefires in Ukraine, not to go too far into
the history. So Zelensky is there saying, I had
an agreement with Germany and France and Russia
to have a ceasefire and Putin continued to break
it. So that is a real question. And I hope that
the last couple of weeks... have really shown
everybody what you just said, that this war was
Putin's idea. There's fighting in Ukraine because
Putin has a crazy, bizarre idea that he has to
destroy some so -called Nazi regime in Ukraine
and regain Russian dominance. This is just a
crazy idea here in the 21st century, and that
is the only reason. that there is a war going
on though. This is not because NATO exists. This
is not for any other reason. This is not to do
with any previous Ukrainian governments. It's
really all in Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's
mind. And sadly, he has a taste for war. This
is where the negotiations are gonna have to take
place. There's gonna have to be a leverage or
pressure on Putin that will get him to implement
a reasonable agreement and then keep it. Right.
And you hope that the, and I know this may not
happen at all, but the idea that the Russian
population themselves will say, you know, they're
getting tired of losing their men and women out
there. They are some interesting developments
as Putin has started organizing veterans groups
inside Russia. And by organizing, I really mean
starting to formalize them so that there can't
be groups of discontented veterans. You know,
the casualty lists, hard to get a clear number,
but I think the best one I've seen says 172 ,000
Russians dead, about another 610 ,000 wounded.
Putin pays a bounty to the families of the dead
soldiers, maybe he does for the wounded as well.
But you're looking at a situation where you've
got nearly a million Russian casualties of one
sort or another, and that's not including the
Russians that maybe aren't wounded, but are,
you know, it's a terrible war. Coming back into
Russian society and how will they handle the
families? This was enough when the Soviet Union
fought in Afghanistan and the casualties were
under 50 ,000, but it was enough to help bring
down the old Soviet Union. How does Putin deal
with the discontent over this truly pointless
and brutal war? So we see him, he has obviously
complete control, clamps down on the media, anything.
that goes on in Russia, he controls, and he's
obviously now seeking to get ahead of any veteran
discontent and control those veteran groups in
Russia. Kind of scary. It's very scary. We're
talking here with Dr. Rebecca Grant, our expert
of what's really going on in the world. Some
of our sources are not as trustworthy as they
used to be, I think. So you mentioned the idea
of this whole thing not being against NATO. You
know, the current administration is, you know,
blustering and, you know, threatening the idea
of pulling out of NATO, which I know in my heart
will not happen. But why do you think that I
know he's trying to get everybody to pay their
fair share. What do you think about that? It
is about getting NATO to do its part. And then
I think if you look back, the NATO alliance,
the first commander was General Dwight Eisenhower
before he was president. He came back. He was
the president of Columbia University in New York.
And he agreed to leave that job and go back and
take over NATO. And they gave him Field Marshal
Bernard Law Montgomery as his deputy. And you
will remember. Those two guys, yes. They didn't
get along all that well. But the idea was that
NATO would, I don't think anybody ever envisioned
NATO lasting as long as it has. Now, that said.
NATO was a very different alliance than it was
during the Cold War. We got, you know, 32 members
at this point with Finland and Sweden. Sweden
had not been in any alliance since the era of
Napoleon, 200 years. I thought that was really
unusual or interesting. Yeah, pretty amazing.
They sat, they've been neutral, they have, you
know, strong defense. And heck, Sweden, you know,
back in the day actually occupied Moscow about,
you know, hundreds of years ago. The threat of
Russia under Putin is so serious that Sweden
threw aside that tradition and joined NATO. So
NATO is a very strong defensive alliance. I do
not for one second hold with this idea that NATO
expansion provoked Putin. It's just an excuse.
These are democracies that have willingly joined
NATO, and they're very different from Helsinki
to Istanbul. Got some real different governments
there. What is Trump's objective? He does want
to see if we're going to continue to go forward,
you know, NATO has already passed 75 years. We're
going to go forward with this. He does want to
see the Europeans pay more. Several countries
have agreed to do that. Top of the list is Poland,
which is approaching spending five percent of
GDP on defense, which is huge. Heck, we only
spend a little under three. Great Britain has
agreed to do more. So has Finland. So have many,
many others. This is a long -standing quest from
President Obama, President Trump, President Biden,
President Trump. Again, they've all wanted NATO
to increase defense spending. Part of this, of
course, for the NATO nations is that they do
buy a lot of U .S. equipment, but they also want
to make some of their own. And it's an issue
of how to get that going. I don't see any...
So I think Trump is going to be really hard on
them. And at the same time... There's some pretty,
if you look at the tariffs with Europe, there's
some things that would really surprise you. Germany
has super high tariffs on U .S. cars, and yet,
you know, obviously we see a lot of German cars
in the United States. There's some very uneven
things. And he's kind of setting out to redo
all that, and it's a big shock. We haven't seen
this type of diplomacy on the security or the
economic side at all. But the U .S. remains incredibly
important to NATO, and I like to look at NATO's
new operational concept, which is really about
how to defend against Russia for the long term.
You know, our European NATO partners are really
scared, especially on the eastern front. You're
talking in the Baltic states, Poland, and so
many others. That really is the new front line.
Don't forget, we have 10 ,000 U .S. Army forces
permanently stationed in Poland at this point.
It was rotational, but the garrison's becoming
permanent. And so I think that the commitment
remains very strong on the military side. NATO
is very interlaced. And one thing we want to
see out of Ukraine is an ability to continue
to have NATO step up in defending all of Europe,
because the Russian threat is not going away.
There could be a ceasefire tomorrow, and we'd
still have a problem with Russia's rearmament.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's just, as you say,
just a threat. It's always there. And I, you
know, you think we're, you know, we're nervous
about what's going on here locally. Imagine if
you had, you know, you bordered Russia, you know,
as you mentioned, like the Baltic States and,
you know, the Estonias and all that other thing.
And, oh man, I'd be nervous all the time. Let's
kind of move a little bit away from, at least
away from the Ukraine to what's going on a little
bit more with China and how they're getting them.
more involved in the world out there. You mentioned
in a note to me about that they're having some
naval exercises themselves in the Middle East.
Yes. I mean, what a surprise, right? We've actually
done this for five years in a row, but earlier
this week we had naval exercises between China,
Russia, and Iran. What a trio, yes. What a happy
trio and they pick the most obvious public spot
in the Middle East to run these exercises and
that is the Gulf of Oman This is the body of
water at the top of the of the Arabian Sea that
goes into the Strait of Hormuz Which is that
super super tiny narrow area? That is is so contested
right the shipping traffic through there. It's
it's incredible. It's like if you pick the most
Trendy popular spot in your neighborhood with
all the restaurants and shops. This is what the
Gulf of Oman is like So everybody was watching
we do of course have us naval forces there our
aircraft carrier right now It's the Harry S Truman
that is there with carrier one accompanying destroyers
and there are also other NATO Navy's there Several
of them, but it'd be always usually have someone
from Britain France the South Koreans You just
don't know who might be there So this was a relatively
small exercise, a couple of Russian ships because
of the Russian Navy. Not what it once was. The
Iranians were there. They did a great big night
fire exercise because naval gunfire looks prettiest
at night. Yes, it does. It's pretty impressive.
Pretty impressive. And then the Chinese sent
a very interesting ship. They sent one destroyer
and a supply ship with it. And so why is this
relevant? Just two weeks ago, China had done
a big naval exercise right by Australia. Boy
were the Australians mad. You know Australia
and China are big trading partners, but Australia,
what a staunch ally. So China's Navy plans this
out. The US Navy plans its exercises months in
advance. So does China's Navy. So this is part
of a planned display of military power. And back
to this exact Chinese Type 052D destroyer that
turned up in the Gulf of Oman. This is a destroyer.
It's only about three years old. China has built
more than 30 of this Type 052D in the last 10
years. Huge increase in naval power. This one
It's called the Baotu, named after a city in
China. And it's the stretch deck version. It's
got about a four meter longer deck to accommodate
helicopters. Lots of VLS, vertical launch system
tubes. You know, a pretty powerhouse destroyer,
and just kind of a symbol in a way. of the expansion
of Chinese maritime power. And to have it down
there operating in the Gulf of Oman, I mean,
China is no match for the US Navy and some of
our allies in global force projection. But just
the fact that now this is year five of a routine
operation down there, they operated also in part
out of a port in Pakistan, you know, around Karachi.
They've long invested in the port structure there.
And then I'm going to put another layer on top
of it and tell you there was a huge list of observers.
It included members of a group called the BRICS,
which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China.
This is an alternative group to the G7 run by
China, trying to do a lot of currency reform.
So they invited all the BRICS partners down to
watch this big exercise. And it includes countries
like Saudi Arabia, UAE. and others in the region.
And the big picture message here is China's trying
to say, hey, you don't just have to be allies
with the US or the West. Here's a choice. China,
we're becoming more dominant with our sea power,
more dominant with our economic power. And we're
a big power, too. So that's the kind of big picture
of what we're dealing with as we think about
Ukraine and other situations. But the truth is,
China is really trying to make inroads in the
Middle East. And of course, this ties down a
lot of our forces. We still have about 35 ,000
U .S. forces of all types deployed in the Central
Command region. And China just loves to stir
the pot over there. I was just saying, while
you were talking, I was just thinking about the...
prodding with a stick and I like okay, we're
gonna stick Stick it over here on you, you know,
and then oh by the way in the Pacific We're also
gonna be doing it over here all these things
just as almost to not only divert our attention
But to just annoy us You know, I'm afraid when
you were talking about all those ships and that
that golf there, you know somebody's gonna run
into somebody and something will happen and You
know, bullets will start flying and rockets will
start flying. And the next thing you know, we've
got our little battleship battle going on out
there. Everything seems to be very tense around
the world, I think. Maybe I'm just exaggerating
that myself. But I am concerned about, you know,
this is kind of a transition over, about the
reducing of the USAID to all these various countries
around the world. And I'm wondering what that
message is that we're sending. And, you know,
is China just going to jump in and fill the void
that we're leaving? Well, perfect point, because,
you know, in looking just at USAID, the US Agency
for International Development, which dates back,
I think, to the 1960s, I'm sure that we would
all say It's a government agency. Of course,
there's some waste and some things that need
to be overlooked. Overall, I think it probably
wasn't about time for someone to come along and
really shake up the US federal government and
see, does it have to be as big as it is? I think
a lot of us agree, maybe not with the specifics
of every case, but with the principle. But USAID
did certainly execute a mission, particularly
in Africa. And OK, you can argue whether you
think Africa is of vital interest or not. But
a lot of what they did was work that would counter
Chinese investments. So sometimes just really
specific, like the production of solar energy.
Now I have a lot of pros and cons personally
about solar. But USAID would go and make investments
in specific countries kind of trying to get ahead
of where China was investing. As we know, China
with its Belt and Road Initiative has done a
lot of investments in Africa and throughout what
we used to call the Third World. Oftentimes these
investments aren't such a great deal. You know,
they'll come in and build a road or a soccer
stadium or something to do with water or power.
And then the country owes them a lot of debt.
And it's not always such a great thing. But in
this case USAID did certainly part of its mission
was very strategic and I wouldn't want to see
that get lost. I'm told another thing that has
changed a little bit here is there's been a new
directive to be careful not to get rid of the
cyber security components within the various
departments. And then back on countering China's
influence, I really got to give Secretary of
State Marco Rubio immense credit because he scored
an early victory really back in January in negotiating
with Panama over the canal and the big win there
was that Panama said they would not renew their
membership in China's Belt and Road program.
So Rubio basically picked off Panama, which was
fantastic. I'd like to see that happen in more
cases because China does use a very effective
form of economic influence, economic warfare,
it looks like to me, in order to gain a foothold
around the world. They have a vast requirement
for resources, whether that's all the fish from
the coast off South America or oil that they
import. And they're really after the resources
and then they are after world domination. There's
just, they make that so clear. They just had
one of their big political meetings and made
it clear again. And because of that, at this
point in time, we do see a higher pace of Chinese
military activity and Chinese military threat.
It's a wonder any of us sleep at night. It's
just. Anyway, all right, so let's let's kind
of move on In your in your note yesterday you
asked to ask about Trump's idea of a golden dome
missile defense for the United States Would you
like to kind of talk to our audience about that?
Yes, this is a major project so it started out
as The idea of having an iron dome over the United
States an iron dome comes from us one of Israel's
missile defense systems. As we know from watching
the conflict with Gaza and the attacks coming
in from Gaza, from Hezbollah in the north, and
sometimes even from the Houthis, Israel has an
extremely effective missile defense shield. A
lot of it is super short -range because obviously
the rockets coming up out of Gaza or incoming
from southern Lebanon is very, very, very close.
So part of their system is called Iron Dome.
And President Trump liked it so much that he
said, I want an iron dome for America. And the
people in charge of this would be our U .S. Northern
Command, which does all the defense, kind of
dating back to the Cold War with our defense
with Canada in North American Air Defense Command,
what used to be the control center at Cheyenne
Mountain, all that. It's now Northern Command,
and they had been saying for a couple of years
at Northern Command that they would really like
to do more with missile defense, drone defense.
I mean, you know, we have a thousand drones a
month coming across the southern border. Anyway,
put all this together, and Trump gave Secretary
of Defense Pete Hegseth a 60 -day tasking to
put together a proposal for Iron Dome for the
USA. About two weeks into it, they started calling
it the Golden Dome. And to be clear, it's not
exactly the same Iron Dome because while Israel
faces short -range threats, the U .S. faces much
longer -range threats coming from over the ocean.
So what's going on now is we are right, I think,
about 57 days into the 60 -day tasking and various
The Pentagon and industry partners have been
scrambling to put together some proposals basically
sort of for a small, medium, and large version
of how to do this defense. Again, it won't be
exactly like a complete shield, but there are
definite improvements that we can make to our
missile defense system. You know, what we have
right now is interceptors on the West Coast,
a few at Vandenberg in California. and the bulk
of them up at Fort Greely in Alaska. They are
designed really to intercept what we call the
rogue threat, that would be you, North Korea,
for anybody who's launching a small number of
missiles. As far as Russia, you know, for decades
now we've had kind of a mutually assured distraction,
okay, we're not gonna nuke each other because
we're deterred. So we don't really have a system
there. But the threat from China has increased
with maneuverable hypersonic missiles that can
come in from unusual angles, not just coming
down over the pole. And Russia has increased
that threat as well. So this also connects directly
to President Trump's passion for Greenland. Oh,
yes. from the North Pole down to where you and
I are, right? I'm in Washington. You're in the
middle of the country. You'll notice that you
see a lot of Greenland. Look at that. So we have
a really important space for space at Petufik.
We used to be called Tule. It's now called Petufik
in Greenland. So the idea is what can you put
together that would improve Missile intersect
capability. It could have a couple of we don't
know the answer yet We do know this is going
to cost quite a bit of money to do this, but
there will be some interesting features one The
the guts of this if you will is going to be space
-based We are changing from having about 75 Super
important military satellites. I'm not talking
about spy satellites run by the CIA or other
people or whoever I'm talking having about 75
military satellites that handle communications
and infrared surveillance and some other things.
That is going away from big satellites to a mesh
architecture of smaller satellites that can be
replaced more quickly and can be a self -reforming
networking case that are attacked. So the space
architecture piece that will detect missile launches
or aircraft, you know, Russian bombers, Chinese
bombers, whatever, and track them to form the
track for missile defense interception, that's
going to be space -based. So that's a huge component,
both the small satellites, so the launch, the
satellite makers, and the networks. The other
piece of this that's interesting is the interceptors.
We have already put a system on Guam. Guam is
now defended for the first time. You know, thank
heavens, right? And they tested the system in
December using a standard missile three with
basically a kind of a Navy type of radar ashore.
So what will we use for the interceptors? That's
another possibility. And one thing that we may
do is use some of our terrific U .S. Navy ships,
destroyers primarily. that have a missile defense
capability, which they all do now. And you can
take some of these and assign them certain launch
boxes around the coast in the case of a crisis,
and they can contribute. So missile defense,
it's always multi -layered. You want to have
a good ability to intercept in the exo atmosphere
that's up in cold space. The way we hit up there
is we actually, it's not an explosion. You actually
use a kinetic kill. So hit to kill, a rock hits
a rock, and that blows the missile up. the incoming
missile up enough. A couple things that we have
to do to get this right. This all works on radio
frequency spectrum. Our best military radars
operate in part of a spectrum called S -band.
We see some of our 5G wireless companies wanting
to kind of get in there to expand our coverage
so we can all have more videos. We got to make
sure we really keep clear the spectrum bands
that military radars will use to contribute to
Golden Dome improved missile defenses. So it's
a very interesting concept. I think they will,
at a minimum, come out with some good improvements.
And, you know, I'm just waiting to see, or maybe
even in the next month or so, what some of the
possibilities are for a U .S. Golden Dome. I
think that's very interesting. One last thing
before I let you go today is I wanted to talk
a little bit about those new Pentagon leaders
out there. You know, they're getting, seems like
they're getting rid of a lot of military experience,
especially military, you know, the generals and
everything else, bringing in businessmen. What
are your thoughts about that? Yeah, some pretty
exciting... some exciting good changes and some
big surprises, too. Our Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff General C .Q. Brown was relieved
a few weeks ago. He's an airman, and I think
we have to give C .Q. Brown a lot of credit for
the way he deployed air forces and Navy forces
to help defend Israel against attacks from Iran.
That really was C .Q.'s handiwork. He commanded
in the Middle East. At the same time, the Chief
of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti,
was relieved from her post. And we're waiting
to see who will next take over the Navy. Admiral
Kilby, as the Vice Chief of Naval Operations,
is currently performing that job. I'd love to
see a naval aviator. It's been 25 years since
an aviator had the top job in the Navy. And we
have a new nominee for Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. That will be Lieutenant General
Dan Raisen, call sign Raisen Kane, who is an
F -16 pilot from actually the Air National Guard
with combat experience and some entrepreneurial
experience. And then, you know, what I am seeing
in this new crop of Pentagon civilian nominees
is they all have one thing in common. They're
all innovators. Whether that is businessmen like
John Phelan nominated for the Navy. Or Steve
Feinberg, who's nominated as Deputy Secretary
of Defense. We're literally looking at people
coming from running billions of dollars of venture
capital funds to coming into the Pentagon. And
you know what? Yeah, they need some briefings
on certain systems. But these men, I think, bring
an ability to make decisions quickly. And the
Pentagon sure needs that. The Navy does. Our
nominee for Secretary of the Air Force is a little
bit different. He comes from the space world,
where he has been a director at the National
Reconnaissance Office. But remember, this is
space. I mean, this is a man who has Elon Musk
as a customer, right? And is working on some
extremely innovative use of small satellites,
changing the way that we do networking. And so
he as well, although he's a civilian and a technocrat,
brings an innovator background. This is the way
that we're looking at this. Secretary of the
Army Dan Driscoll similarly brings this experience.
It looks to me like President Trump has primarily
selected a group of innovators that can really
shake up the way things get done in the Pentagon.
And it could be very good. I mean, I think we
need that ability to get the priorities straight
and make some rapid decisions. This is coming
at a time when Congress, despite all the back
and forth, is very interested in increasing the
defense budget to fix. shipbuilding, bring some
new aircraft programs in, and of course to carry
out the Golden Dome if the Pentagon decides to
go forward. So it's going to be a very interesting
time with a totally new and different team running
the Pentagon. I think that one of the questions
I guess is that, you know, I agree, many of these
things all need to be fixed and changed and modified
and so forth. It's just I think that many of
us out here are just a little bit worried that,
you know, that they're coming in with, you know,
baseball bats instead of something a little bit
more modified. And I think that's the thing that's
got everybody concerned about what's, you know,
what is happening currently in the administration
and, you know, around the country and why people
get so upset about certain things. But I have
to give the, you know, this administration, I
have to give them a chance. to implement some
of the things. Some of the ideas are really great.
I just wish there would be a little bit more
finesse in promoting them to the American people.
I think the American people right now, many of
them, at least half of them, are just concerned.
What do you think about that? Oh, I understand.
What's the old phrase? You can't make an omelet
without breaking a lot of eggs. Yeah. But we
are seeing a level of change and disruption that's
very unfamiliar. And you know what? If it is
effective, we will all say, OK, great. That worked
out. But they have to be able to deliver the
results. And that means the right budgets, program
stability. uh... having the right people in place
like i said the decision to go back and not fire
some of the cyber security specialist departments
was a good one so i think there will be uh...
you know there's a lot of of acts work going
on they will have to deliver the results uh...
and it'll be a little while so we see that i
think you also need to remember that in the end
this is truly congress's responsibility congress
appropriates funds and it will be congress that
has the same on the major programs. I do see
the military working extremely hard to stay on
top of executive orders and comply with those
as they come along. And then, of course, this
administration, at least on the defense side,
has really fenced off some areas. They aren't
going to tamper with the nuclear deterrence programs.
They aren't going to tamper with shipbuilding.
So I think as they learn their way, they may
acquire a little bit more finesse. But wow, it
is interesting times. I just want to make sure
we see real results for the American people.
That's the goal, and that's what I really would
like to see. And I would really like to have
you back on in, say, three months or so to give
us an update of what's happening and if they
are meeting some of their goals. How do you think
about that? That sounds great. I tell you, ever
since Secretary of Defense Hegseth started doing
pushups, I've started to. I've done five. So
maybe in three months, I'll be able to build
up to a few more There you go. So anyway, so
we've been talking with dr. Rebecca grant she
was a vice president of the Lexington Foundation
Our Lexington Institute, excuse me, and also
she has her own Iris research group that kind
of looks at what's going on in the world from
a military standpoint. We didn't even get into
all the aircraft and stuff today, but we'll do
that in a couple of months, all right? Thank
you, Dale. Thank you very much for being here.
Okay, we're back here on Veterans Radio. That
was Dr. Rebecca Grant, who's one of my favorite,
favorite people to talk to about what's going
on in the world of military aircraft and also
foreign policy. I do have a couple of announcements
today, and I just wanted to get out a couple
of fundraisers that are going on. Number one
is Fisher House in Michigan is presenting songs
of service this year. This is our big annual
fundraiser. It's going to be Saturday, April
5th, and it's at the Book Tower in Detroit, Michigan.
It begins at 8, 430. It's going to, the guest
speaker is A good friend of veterans radio and
that is Doug Bradley Doug is a Vietnam veteran
and music historian and he's going to be talking
about About what's you know, what the music of
Vietnam was all about you can still get tickets
are available so you can go to Fisher House,
Michigan and Pick up a ticket and maybe we'll
see you there. The other thing is that there
is a Where they go recruiting Recruiting. The
DAV and recruitmilitary .com has a virtual recruiting
program going on this Tuesday, the 18th, and
you just need to go to recruitmilitary .com.
It's on Tuesday from 11 till three central time.
It's all online. 80 employers are looking for
people. This is your opportunity, ladies and
gentlemen. if you just got out of the military.
So that's it for today. Rebecca Grant, our heroine
here in this case. Until next week, this is Dale
Throneberry. You are dismissed. WAAM Ann Arbor
our First Amendment at work real public radio
unbiased open and honest discussion 24 hours
a day wham radio Talk 1600 news this hour from
townhall .com. I'm Jason Walker officials now
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