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 and welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is
Dale Throneberry and we are all covered with
snow. from I don't know how far west all the
way to the east coast and we're trying to get
a hold of our guests today and I'm hoping that
they're not uh you know inundated and igloos
and so forth so we're just going to continue
to talk. We've got two guests hopefully that
are going to be here today. Number one is Brian
DeLong and he is from the Excuse me guardian
angels medical service dogs and The reason that
I'm asking Brian to come on the program is that
he or the organization was one of the Favorite
organizations, I guess you could say of one of
our very good friends Keith King Who was the
founder of the National Veterans Development
Council? one of our major supporters who passed
away in January 1st and they asked for donations
to be made to this organization. And I also have
a good friend who has a service dog from this
organization. So that's why we're asking, hopefully,
that Brian will be able to join us in just a
little bit. And of course, the second part, the
second interview is going to be with our good
friend Rebecca Grant, who is going to be talking
about foreign policy. As you all know what's
going on. Well, maybe we don't know everything
that's going on in the world, but we're gonna
be talking about Greenland Venezuela China everything
else that's going on out there with the current
administration and Hopefully everything will
work out fine and we'll see how that goes but
the other thing I wanted to remind everybody
of is Now if you want to get in on the conversation
Today you can give us a call at seven three four
eight two two sixteen hundred seven three four
eight two two sixteen hundred the Reason I'm
giving that number out today. This is because
we normally we record our program live on Sundays
from 5 to 6 p .m. For those of you that are listening
to the pre -recorded program obviously you don't
get an opportunity to call in and ask us questions,
but if you tune in on Sundays Through our website
veteransradio .org. You can give us a call at
that number 734 -822 -1600 All right. Well, I'll
just continue to move along here with all the
things that we need to talk about While we are
waiting We kind of call I think and find out
how much snow everybody's getting and I talked
to Relatives in New Jersey today and they're
I don't know. He said they've already plowed
twice It looks like they're getting anywhere
from 12 to 18 inches. I think we're not going
to get very much where we are today. Let me thank
our sponsors before our guests show up. So number
one, of course, is Legal Help for Veterans. Legal
Help for Veterans specializes in veterans disability
claims. Call Legal Help for Veterans at 800 -693
-4800 or go to their website legalhelpforveterans
.com. The National Veterans Business Development
Council, better known as NVBDC, is the nation's
leading third -party authority for certification
of veteran -owned businesses. For more information,
go to their website, nvbdc .org, or give them
a call at 888 -237 -8433. The National Veterans
Business Development Council is kind of an unusual
organization. I know we've talked about this
before, but I wanted to let you know that if
you are a veteran -owned business and you want
to do business with the federal government or
with many corporations, you need to be certified.
And by that certification, I mean that you are
legitimately a veteran -owned business. And this
is what NVBDC does is they run you through a
certification process to verify. That you are
actually a veteran on business and some of the
other things that the federal government wants
to know about your You know your company, and
then they help you Process everything make this
you know submit all the necessary paperwork and
come back And then you can really you know put
right on all your logo and everything else that
you are a veteran owned business So check them
out it maybe you're starting out. You know many
veterans or entrepreneurs They really you know
they like to try things on their own Go to nvvdc
.org and everything is there for you. We're also
sponsored locally by our good friends at the
Erwin Presko and America Legion Post 46 and the
Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans of America
Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hey,
if you'd like to support Veterans Radio, You're
more than welcome, but you can go to our website
veteransradio .org and click on the donate button.
We do have a few costs involved to be on the
stations that we are on and everything else that
goes on with running a radio program in today's
world. So we would encourage you. if you can,
to go to our website and make that donation.
We do greatly appreciate that. We're also got
a couple of things that are coming up here on
Veterans Radio. We're in the planning stages
for Radio on the River. I can't remember which
one it is, five or six now. And we're going to
be out at Freedom River again out in Pinkney,
Michigan. And we're trying to figure out if we
want to have helicopters out there again. I know
we're working on having a static display of military
vehicles, which I think is kind of cool. We've
got a contact with the Michigan, I think it's
a Michigan National Guard. Maybe we're going
to be able to bring a Chinook out there for a
static display. No rides, unfortunately. But
I think that will be kind of fun. So Mark, look
at your calendar. It's going to be either the
last week of September or the first week of October.
We haven't really been able to finalize that
yet due to commitments by other parts of the
organization. So let me move along here as we
can. And let me tell you a little bit about what
the Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs do.
This is an organization down in Florida and their
website is MedicalServiceDogs .org. The thing
about them is we all know about these service
dogs and the great things that they can do for
veterans and other people that have suffered
from post -traumatic stress or TBIs. There's
mobility challenges. There's everything that
are involved. On their website, as I mentioned
before, is MedicalServiceDogs .org. It's a 501c3
nonprofit dedicated to empowering veterans, first
responders, and individuals with disabilities
by providing highly trained service dogs that
help people regain independence and improve their
quality of life. Their service dogs are trained
to assist with a range of conditions, including
PTSD, traumatic brain injury, mobility challenges,
seizures and diabetic disorders, and hearing
impairments. They also offer lifelong support,
including a medical savings plan that covers
veterinary care, ensuring both your recipients
and their service dogs receive the highest standard
of ongoing care. Throughout partnerships with
nationally certified mental health professionals
and our VA approved college accredited apprenticeship
program, we're advancing service dog training
methods and setting a high standard of excellence
across the industry. Driven by compassion and
a commitment to lifelong support, we strive daily
to make a meaningful difference in the lives
of our recipients and their families. We love
these organizations obviously that provide these
these dogs for the For the you know for people
that need service dogs Stepping on my tongue
here myself, but this is an organization. I think
that you should check out again. It's medical
service dogs org They are as I mentioned there
are 501 c3 nonprofit organization. There's no
cost You know for the person that receives the
dogs So I think it's something that you might
want to look into. Theoretically, I'm hoping
that the person I was going to talk to, Brian,
might join us later on. If he does, I hope I
can bring him on at that time. So we're going
to skip right ahead because my good friend has
just joined us here on Zoom. And that is Dr.
Rebecca Grant. And Dr. Grant, let me read you
a good... Afternoon, I hope things are going
well in the DC area. Yes, we have a little bit
of a snowstorm, but it is just down to the freezing
rain. And wow, do we have a lot of hot air coming
out of Washington as always. That's for sure.
Let me give our audience a little background
on you. Dr. Grant is one of our favorite people
to have on Veterans Radio. She is a national
security analyst based in Washington DC, specializing
in defense and aerospace research and national
security consulting. She is a vice president
of the Lexington Institute, which is a center
-right think tank headquartered in Arlington,
Virginia that focuses mainly on defense and security
policy. I'm going to talk a little bit more about
them later on. Dr. Grant has over 20 years experience
working in the United States Air Force with the
Air Force. Air Force and Arm. The Navy and other
top aerospace clients. In addition, she has often
appeared on television as an expert on national
security from Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and is a
regular series regular on the Smithsonian's Air
Warriors. I think that's where we found you in
the first place. She also writes on China, Russia,
and other technology and national security topics
for Fox News opinion. Her military books include
75th grade Airman, B2 goes to war, battle test
of aircraft carriers in Afghanistan and Iraq.
She's graduated from Wesley College and she earned
her PhD in International Relations from the London
School of Economics. This is why we have her
on the program. She's one of our favorite guests.
She tells it like it is. All right, Dr. Grant,
where do we begin? Well, let's get your globe
and spin it around a couple times and put your
finger down, and we may land on Iran, where the
USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is approaching.
We may land on Venezuela. We may land on Greenland.
I know. And of course, Ukraine. So much to talk
about. And China there, about all of it. But
let's start at the top of the globe, at the North
Pole, if that's OK with you. That's fine with
me. We can do this. All right, so let's go look
at Greenland. What's going on there? How come
the president wants Greenland? Well, he does
have an eye for prime real estate. That's Greenland,
all right. It is. Greenland is a geologist's
treasure trove. They have some oil resources
there under that ice. They also have a lot of
critical minerals, gold and copper as well. But
you don't often think about Greenland, and I
do think a little bit for President Trump. And
you know, I don't think he'd deny this. He does
like his real estate, and it's a little bit Dale
-like that. house on your block that you drive
by and you really think, wow, I really wish I
could buy that house and it was truly not for
sale. Right. You just, you've always really wanted
it. So President Trump started talking about
Greenland, actually back during his first term,
but the reason becomes very apparent if you do
look at a globe and not just the Mercator flat
projection, but when you look at a globe starting
at the North Pole and you can see On one side
there is Russia. They've got their big bases
on the Kola Peninsula. They have nuclear bomber
bases up there. Of course they have their submarine
bases. And then you move around, there's Iceland,
Greenland, the GIUK gap where Russia runs its
submarines down into the Atlantic. And then you
look on the other side and wow, there we are,
Canada and the United States with all the routes
for Russian bombers. Russian intercontinental
ballistic missiles, Chinese submarines, Russian
submarines, Russian bombers, Chinese bombers
with Russian bombers, everything that could fly
around in that airspace comes over across Greenland.
And watching it all is our base that you will
remember as Thule. It's now called Petufik. But
it's still in the same place, up there, 900 miles.
Up from Nook up in Greenland is the space, which
is a United States space force base key to missile
warning. Also a couple of space squadrons there
who track our satellites on orbit, but they also
do a mission called space domain awareness where
they track China's 1300 satellites on orbit and
anything else that may be there. And that is
an increasingly important mission. So basically
If you want to build, if you're President Trump
and you want to build more of a missile shield
for the Western Hemisphere, for the United States
and Canada, you have got to have Greenland. And
you can't let China get their hooks into Greenland
over the long term. Several years ago, the Greenland
Prime Minister, it was different from who it
is now, went to Beijing and said, hey, We need
some new airports, some improvements in our airports.
Would you all like to invest? And, you know,
you can lease the runways and all that. Well,
Denmark came in and said, hold on a minute. You
can't do that. Not so fast. We're not going to
have that happen. But the long term, the kind
of the decades long threat is the combination
of China really getting a foothold in that area.
And then, of course, the need to keep up this
space surveillance. So, we only have one base
in Greenland. I know it was very important during
World War II. Oh, it was enormously important
during World War II. That was the route that
aircraft flew over to England. B -17s, P -38s,
the fighters, all that would go up across that
route. And there were several airfields there
at the time. A couple harrowing stories of a
B -17 that was lost there in 1942. and our norwegian
who was an air force colonel ended up going and
rescuing them incredible story of all the the
airmen that went through greenland but at this
point our main facility is uh... is the surveillance
station at the defeat which was put there initially
for the uh... distant early warning radars it's
it's been massively upgraded and it's it's right
up in that the arctic circle now you know nato
understands the importance of the high north
and the arctic so it's possible to get everything
done that needs to be done for Greenland within
the NATO framework. What President Trump has
done is he kind of just skipped about 29 steps
and moved. You know, he put this on the top of
the international agenda real fast, okay? And
the good part of that is, you know, if you're
at the State Department, Department of War, you
could have spent a long time trying to get meetings
with Denmark and NATO and work this through the
process, or you can just have Trump go in and
bulldoze it, and they're actually negotiating
now for an agreement. We don't know any of the
details of this agreement. Remember, Trump threatened
to put tariffs on just about everybody, Denmark,
England, you name it. So NATO's fantastic secretary
-general, Mark Rutte, who he's from the Netherlands.
He actually used to be their prime minister.
He's a smart fellow. He has a negotiation underway.
And Trump has said that that will give the U
.S. infinite access. So, you know, Dale, it may
turn out to be a little bit like that British
base at Akrotiri on Cyprus down in the Mediterranean
where Cyprus is its own country, but there's
actually a sovereign British base there. So we'll
see what comes out of this deal. It is massive
wheeling and dealing, just like if you had a
New York real estate developer running foreign
policy, this is what it would look like. I think
so. I can't imagine it. I mean, I've heard about,
I guess it was Iceland more than Greenland, you
know, as far as tourism is concerned. But, you
know, I don't want to see. condos going up on,
you know, the Arctic Ocean. That might be, that's
going to be a little bit of a stretch. As long
as they aren't Chinese condos, okay? Well, that's
true. That's true. I think, you know, I think
you put it right, you know, that kind of bulldozes
way in there and because, you know, it keeps...
He continually seems to upset people by bulldozing
his way into things. I understand what he's trying
to do, but I think he kind of must have skipped
the diplomacy courses that were available that
maybe you took. Well, I tell you one thing. I
think behind all this is he has received, I'm
sure, some pretty scary -looking briefings from
the Pentagon. looking at the recent Chinese and
Russian activity there. You know, the Chinese
put a submarine under the Arctic ice cap. They
don't have, they have nuclear submarine, they
have nuclear -powered nuclear -armed submarines,
but they aren't as big a submarine power as Russia,
and certainly not as we are. So for them to be
up there prowling around, very interesting. There
is a lot of melting sea ice, and that has changed
the commercial routes. China ran a ship from
China up across the Arctic Circle and down into
Great Britain over the summer. So I think Trump
is looking at briefings saying, oh my gosh, if
I don't have the outpost of Greenland, the outlook
from Greenland, and if China gets control of
that, we're toast. I mean, I think they really
are some... Pretty scary briefings at that level.
And then when you add in the Space Force piece,
you know, again, you got to look at it from the
perspective of your globe. You know, I still
have my father's globe from the 1920s. And you
just look at this and you're like, I get it.
I get it. And then now, but now don't just look
at the land, but look up to low Earth orbit and
geosynchronous orbit. where we have Elon Musk
putting the Starlink satellites, we have Amazon
putting up a low -Earth orbit constellation,
all to do internet broadband. It's kind of the
new domain. China just said they want to put
200 ,000 satellites in low -Earth orbit, and
that's going to take a long time. But you get
the point. And so, Greenland and Pitufik, because
of the geometry, let's say, the geometry, is
really essential for on -orbit management and
orbital defense. So you just put all that together
and he's like, that's it. I'm done. We have to
have Greenland We have to have everything we
need and I'm gonna go get it done So I think
that's that's the that the national security
is really truly is his primary motivation Well,
you know, I think if you explained it as thoroughly
as you just did people wouldn't be so upset if
they understood the background a little bit more
I know, right? It's just a completely different
style. But the NATO, the NATO, the top NATO allies,
there's a group of about nine of them that are
either up along the archipelago or along the
Baltics, and they exercise together quite a bit.
It's just who you think. Norway, Sweden, and
Finland now. Iceland, of course, which is a really
important NATO base there. A lot of rotational
presence. The Baltic republics. They all really
understand the importance of the high north.
It's just that people have ignored the Arctic
for a long time and then get a little bit caught
up in the climate change. Do you believe or not
a believer? But you know, that's irrelevant.
I mean, the sea ice is melting. Low Earth orbit
is important and they're really scary Russian
and Chinese missile systems. So that's sort of
the bottom line on Greenland. We'll see how it
turns out. I hope it'll be something good for
the Greenlanders. I don't think we're going to
be adding Greenland to the United States. flag
anytime soon, unless they make a terrible mistake
and let China in, then there will be a U .S.
flag on Greenland faster than you would believe.
That's true. That's true. They let China in there.
That's it. Forget it. Yeah. I mean, so Greenland
kind of falls in underneath the idea of this
Golden Dome, correct? Correct. It's all about
Golden Dome. And you hear Golden Dome talked
about a lot in the press. We know that the Pentagon
has moved out quite smartly they've started to
open up some contract vehicles for Golden Dome
and Just about everybody that you know among
the big defense companies and the new innovative
companies are going to be playing a part in this
What we don't know is exactly what this missile
shield will look like now I'm going to tell you
that the the public relations campaign on it
is that it is to protect the continental united
states and against uh... obviously russian chinese
and other rogue missiles north korea and if they
ever get to that point all of that what exactly
it will do we have not been informed from the
pentagon i think top of their priority list will
actually be the i c b m bases intercontinental
ballistic missile bases uh... some of the other
what would have been the old strategic air command
bases key bomber bases things like that, you're
going to have to protect that nuclear deterrent,
have to protect bases like Pitufik first, right?
Then I think there'll be a great deal more protection.
You know, because what we have now is a missile
defense system that's set up for the West Coast
to intercept what they call rogue missiles, and
that means one or two or three. Okay, a small
number. There are interceptors up in Alaska,
Fort Greely, I think 44 interceptors there. Another
four down at Vandenberg on the California coast.
And that system is operational ground -based
interceptor. It's a fabulous hit -to -kill missile
system. They can take out incoming intercontinental
ballistic missiles if they can do them from a
place like North Korea and take them out in the
exo atmosphere way up above 65 ,000 feet. But
the rest of the country is not protected by that
system. So the main hope for Golden Dome is to
greatly improve our missile defenses, particularly
against that type of threat. I think if you go
back to your analogy of actually a globe, you
know, you can see that things are much closer
than most of us realize for sure. You just got
to go over the North Pole and you're right here.
That's right. And the other thing about Golden
Dome is from the whole Cold War on, and you talked
about the importance of Greenland in World War
II and of course the early Cold War, we kind
of knew everything was going to come out of Russia.
At this point, China and others have this sort
of fractional orbital system where you can put
something in orbit and then plunk it down from
a different direction. meaning that while the
vast majority would come across that path that
Greenland watches, there's also a possibility
now to come up from the south. And so that means
more surveillance. The good news here is that
our missile defense technology has improved out
of all recognition. If anybody's old enough to
remember Star Wars of the 1980s, well, it was
a good idea, but the technology really wasn't
there. Now we have the technology. Three main
components are the hit -to -kill interceptors
like we have with the ground -based system, and
frankly, like we use with our standard missile
family, the SM -31Bs that hit Iran's missiles
coming towards Israel back in 2024. Anyway, the
whole hit -to -kill technology is very, very
good, so that's part one. Part two is greatly
improved surveillance of all types, radars, et
cetera. And then part three is we've got a great
Space Force constellation now and it's shifting
away from just a few big satellites that watch
for missile warning Shifting down into what they
call. It's a big long name the proliferated warfighting
architecture Means a lot of little satellites
all doing the job that one big satellite used
to do and that makes it more resilient in case
of an attack So you put those three pieces together
and probably some other cool stuff that we don't
even know about And you've got the ability to
create more of a missile shield over the U .S.
Of course, I think President Trump thinks a lot
about the Iron Dome missile shield over Israel.
It's a different tactical problem, but he'd like
to see a shield that's more effective, and we
do need it to protect at least our critical infrastructure.
Yeah, I can understand him, but that Iron Dome
is, you know, much smaller. than this golden
dome is going to have to be. While you were talking,
and I don't want to upset or put any fear in
anybody, but with all these satellites roaming
around up there, are there satellites now that
have the ability to rain terror down on everybody?
Well, the first thing that satellites have the
ability to do is to rain terror on each other.
So both China and Russia have tested orbital
maneuvers with satellites, and that's basically,
it's kind of like bumper cars, where one satellite
goes up to another one, you know, they're pretty
fragile, and bumps it out of orbit or bumps it
into a graveyard orbit or puts out a grappling
hook or laser blinds its optics or spray paints
it. And so there's a real ability of one satellite
to get in the way of another. And that is, we
watch that through this mission called Space
Domain Awareness that Pidufik and some other
bases are involved in. It's a big part of what
the Space Force does. And that applies to military
satellites, but also to commercial satellites.
And you know how dependent we are on GPS and
increasingly on the low Earth orbit satellites
like those that host Starlink. So we actually
have commercial companies that work with our
Space Force to, you know, keep everything in
order. But there is that potential. And is there,
you know, China has a space plane. It's been
up three times. We don't know what it does. But
anything that you launch from orbit is going
to come down at a very, very high ballistic multiple
mock rate. So is there a threat? Yeah. And it
means we have to be aware of what's going on
up there. Now we are still number one in space.
Absolutely. And I think there are a lot of elements
to it that the Space Force Guardians, they do
the mission, but they do not talk about it. But
I can assure you, we are tops in that. But it's
an area that we have to defend just as carefully
as anything else these days. Actually, you know,
because I'm thinking of the, you know, drones
have gotten bigger and bigger and fly higher
and higher and farther and farther. And it doesn't
take much of an imagination to say, OK, that's
next. Right, and you know, you think of like
our biggest drone is still the Global Hawk, which
could fly for more than 24 hours, and it is a
surveillance only platform. It is not armed.
It's a very, very, very effective surveillance
platform. But when you think about something
like a space plane, then you have the ability
to conduct operations from orbit. And it's something
that we didn't used to think about much, but
it's definitely something we have to think about
now, again, so that we can deter the Russians
and the Chinese and anybody else from trying
to get into that. We are talking with our good
friend, Rebecca Grant here. We're going to take
a quick break and listen to our Medal of Honor
segment for today. It's about a soldier from
World War II. at the Battle of the Bulge. So
you're listening to Veterans Radio and we'll
be right back. The Medal of Honor is the highest
award for valor in combat given a member of the
Armed Forces of the United States. There have
been over 3 ,400 recipients of the nation's highest
award. This is one of them. First Lieutenant
John Fox called in artillery fire on his own
position. 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. On Christmas
night in 1944, enemy soldiers in civilian clothes
gradually infiltrated the town Fox and his men
were in, and by early morning, the town was largely
in hostile hands. An organized attack by uniformed
German units began at 4 a .m. Being greatly outnumbered,
most of the American forces were forced to withdraw
from the town, but Fox and other members of his
observer party voluntarily remained on the second
floor of a house to direct defensive artillery
fire. Fox reported the Germans were in the streets
and attacking in strength. He then called for
defensive artillery fire to slow the enemy advance.
As the Germans continued to press the attack
towards the area that Fox occupied, he adjusted
the artillery fire closer to his position. Finally,
he was warned that the next adjustment would
bring the deadly artillery right on top of his
position. After acknowledging the danger, Lieutenant
Fox insisted that the last adjustment be fired
as this was the only way to defeat the attacking
soldiers. Later, when a counter -attack retook
the position from the Germans, Lieutenant Fox's
body was found with the bodies of approximately
100 German soldiers. 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,
relative. Maybe it's you. Even the toughest of
us sometimes need help but don't know where to
turn for support. You don't need special training
to help a veteran in your life. We can all help
someone going through a difficult time. Learn
how you can be there for veterans. Visit veteranscrisisline
.net. Veteranscrisisline .net. A message from
the U .S. Department of Veterans Affairs. And
we are back here on Veterans Radio. And after
listening to that little segment, I was just
thinking about veterans. And I'm thinking about
this generation of veterans. They have got so
much more sophisticated weaponry and everything
else than we ever heard of or ever even thought
about during World War II or when I was in the
service of Vietnam. It is like science fiction.
So we are talking with Dr. Rebecca Grant here.
We just talked a little bit about the Golden
Dome and Greenland and everything else that's
going on over there. So let's take a look at
Ukraine because this Ukraine kind of has fallen
into the background a little bit right now Well,
it's not making the headlines but there is a
lot going on And the U .S., Russia, and Ukraine
just wrapped up three days of talks in the UAE
over the United Arab Emirates. Prior to that,
Trump's negotiators, special envoy, Ambassador
Steve Witkoff, who is a New York real estate
friend of Trump's from way back, who's been just
a really effective, super effective diplomat.
He helped get the Gaza ceasefire. And then, of
course, Trump's son -in -law, Jerry Kushner,
are working as a duo. And both Kushner and Witkoff
were in Moscow. few days ago talking with Putin
yet again. And then they all moved in. For the
first time, there were actually three -way talks
with representatives from the U .S., Russia,
and Ukraine. They're talking in the UAE. Now,
no ceasefire came out of this, but all sides,
including Zelensky, reported that they felt it
had been productive and they had made progress.
We're getting almost no indication of what the
substance of these talks are, but the word is
that they're still pivoting around the final
terrain map. And here, the problem is Putin,
well, Putin is the problem everywhere, Putin
and his relationship with China, but to be specific,
you know, Putin has been asking for for Ukraine's
forces to basically pull back out of the Donbas.
And as I know your listeners know, Russia has
not taken all of the Donbas. After all this time,
they are making inch by inch progress, but Ukraine
is pretty much holding them on the ground. So
it's a really bitter thing to have to have Ukraine's
forces pull back. It may be, however, that Zelensky
is agreeable to that in principle. And they're
going to use sort of a legal dodge by saying
the borders haven't changed in law de jure, but
the borders will change de facto. OK. So I would
like to see every last Russian out of Ukraine,
but most likely Russia will hold some territory
in the Donbass. The key is Zelensky, understandably,
does not want to pull back the forces before
a ceasefire. Right. On top of that. terrible
attacks continue, including during the talks
in the UAE. Putin was attacking, you know, 375
drones, about 20 missiles mixed in, which is
their standard tactics. It makes it harder for
the air defenses, although Ukraine's air defenses
have done a tremendous job. But the last barrage
had six Iskanders. That's a dual nuclear conventional
capable intermediate -range missile. Two of the
Zircon hypersonics, 12 cruise missiles, three
of sentinels, some from the S -300 air defense
system, all mixed in with these drones and headed
towards basically Kharkiv, Kiev, and big attacks
on Ukraine's energy grid. You know, we often
hear about the nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia,
which is Europe's biggest plant. It has been
offline for quite a while. It's in Russian hands.
There are a couple of other nuclear plants out
towards the south and the west in Ukraine, but
the Russians have been, this is so awful, they
have been targeting the backup power, you know,
the generator literally that goes into the new
plant so you can restart it if you need to or
you can pump cold water to keep the reactor at
the right temperature. So these horrible attacks
continue. So, actually, there is a lot going
on in Ukraine. We just aren't hearing as much
about it just at the moment. And I think, in
a way, this may be a good sign. My view is that
Trump is not going to give up until he gets this
war settled. And he's gotten Zelensky being agreed
to really just about everything. The reason is,
at the end of this, there is an excellent economic
opportunity for Ukraine, access to the EU, which
they've wanted for so long to be in that common
market, strong security guarantees. And believe
me, Dale, that will include a lot of equipment,
a lot of American equipment, Abrams tanks, air
defenses, air power, all up and down through
Europe to make sure that's there. So there's
a way for Ukraine to really thrive if they can
get a ceasefire. And I think that's why Zelensky
has continued to stay in this process. My heart
goes out to all of them. I hope that They're
getting close. The trouble, of course, is Putin
loves the war. He's he's nuts. And China backs
him up. And he's not he's not trustworthy. He
has not kept his word on anything. And he hasn't
even actually you're quite right. He hasn't even
agreed to anything. They get close and they'll
talk about this and that. And they have made
some progress. But you know, Trump a year ago
thought that if he could just find the right
economic deal, you know, offer investment and
take up some of the sanctions off Russia, that
any reasonable person would agree to ceasefire.
Well, and that's true, but Putin is not reasonable.
He and he alone, Putin and Putin alone, is the
reason for this terrible situation in Ukraine.
He's got Xi Jinping of China backing him up and
with those oil purchases and China supplying
some defense electronics components into Russia.
And of course, Iran set up a whole factory in
Russia to make those shot head drones. With all
that going, you know, Putin just keeps it going.
He likes the war. He has a taste for the war.
And it's all nonsense. It's not NATO expansion.
It is nothing other than Putin's ambition that
has driven that war. It's just horrible. It is.
I can't imagine trying to even talk with the
guy and try to compromise on anything, you know,
because he only doesn't do it. So you mentioned
an important addition here, and that was China
getting, you know, being involved in supporting
Russia and Ukraine. So China's got their little
tentacles out all over the world. Let's talk
a little bit about what's going on with them.
Tentacles all over the world is exactly right.
Although a couple of those got singed, and here
I'm talking Venezuela, of course. It seems now,
it's been a few weeks since that stunning abduction
of an apprehension of Nicolas Maduro. But you
know what Maduro did the last night that he was
in Venezuela? He hosted a cocktail party. for
a special Chinese delegation that had been sent
by China's president and dictator Xi Jinping,
you know, to go see what's going on. China had
about $67 billion invested in Venezuela. They
bought a lot of Venezuela's oil. And then, of
course, China has built road projects all over
Central and South America. So in that sense,
the apprehension of Maduro was a blow to China
as well. I mean, Maduro was sort of a pawn of
China and of Russia in some ways. And this is
a blow to him. And I think it's another case
of President Trump, just like with Greenland,
putting a big emphasis on Western hemisphere
security. And that is really all about trying
to make sure that China does not gain more inroads
here in our own hemisphere. And that's really
important over the next couple of decades. Well,
yeah, it certainly is. I don't know. Have they
actually moved China out of the Panama Canal
area? That's right. That was one of Secretary
of State Marco Rubio's first moves was to get
Panama to agree not to renew their belt and road.
deals with China and there were two Chinese companies
that were controlling access to the Panama Canal
and Those contracts have been changed. Yeah Rubio
managed to pull that off like within the second
week of the administration about a year ago That's
been very positive. But you know, like we were
talking earlier about World War two and Greenland
and how we used to ferry bombers and fighters
over there. And you just realize that the Western
Hemisphere just looks so different. Even our
leaders in World War II had to go and make sure
that the Nazis couldn't get into South America
and Central America. Heck, the Germans were on
Greenland. Not very many of them, but they were
bombed and off they went. So just as we once
secured the Western Hemisphere against Hitler
and Nazi Germany, Now we are trying to secure
it against the inroads of China. It's just a
much more complicated task because of the economic
power of China and because they've been after
these deals for so long. There's a lot of things
going on and we don't have enough time to cover
all of them But I let's get into to in the last
portion here Let's talk about some new US technology
because we have the Detroit Auto Show going on
right now and I I did see things on the news
about a new Abrams tank that they were only rolling
through the Huntington Center Yes, this is very
exciting news that I've got to tell you Army
Chief of Staff General George and the Army Secretary
Dan Driscoll are a really effective team. Driscoll's
served in the Army, but he's a very young man.
I think he may be just 39 or 40 years old. He
came into this job from the business world, and
he has been very effective. One of the first
things they did was they cut some programs. They
decided to accelerate a few other programs, and
the Abrams Tank upgrade is one of those programs.
So rolled out at the Detroit Auto Show. is the
new Abrams. Now, there are a lot of variants
of Abrams. I know your listeners know all about
this. Tank's been around a long time. So just
bear with me. This one's going to be called the
M1E3E for the engineering change. So this is
quite an upgrade. And one of the most important
pieces is that this is going to be a hybrid electric
tank. Can you believe it? the long extension
cord. Well, it's interesting. They are indeed
looking for a battery, but they're replacing,
I guess the old Ravens, they're replacing that
engine. They'll have a Caterpillar diesel engine,
which a good thing there is the Caterpillar can
be serviced all around the world. So that will
be very good. They're looking for a battery,
but it will have a hybrid electric drivetrain
as well. And so what the army says is that is
one going to make the tank lighter, about 20
to 30 % lighter. And you know that that current
Abrams, we're talking about 80 tons. So if we
can go down, I mean, 80 tons, right? Down to
60 tons would be great. And then they're looking
for some fuel efficiency, which again, I know
your listeners understand that that's a really
major tactical advantage. The Army's talking
about fuel efficiency improvements for the M1E3
of up to 50%. So that's great, but I guess all
the really cool stuff is not only under the hood
But down in the cockpit and that is the software
a new system like this is usually built around
almost a plug -and -play open systems architecture
that Soldiers now and in the future can use this
to install new apps and upgrade capabilities
without having to go through all the rigorous
and extensive testing You plug it in at a point
in the vehicle software where all the things
that make the vehicle run are protected, but
the new app can come in. So the Army thinks this
is going to have just some great connectivity.
And it will have a crew of three, but they are
not alone. They're going to be very connected
to a far more networked battle space and still
have the massive, fantastic firepower that the
Abrams is known for. And I think the Army is
taking very careful notes. from the Ukraine war,
looking at anti -drone systems, drone protection,
and all the other things. Because the Army says,
look, we've got the best tanks now. We want to
have the best tanks in 2030, the best tanks in
2040. We always want the American Abrams to be
the best tank. Right. Absolutely. Do you know
anything about Russia developing new tanks or
China that are comparable at all? Well, you know,
Russia is doing a lot of manufacturing, but they
aren't able to innovate in the same way. They've
lost thousands of tanks in Ukraine, and yet they
are still able to produce. But this is going
to be just far and away an improvement. And you
know why this is important? You still really
need the tank in Europe. You know, the Europeans
are scared to death of Putin, understandably.
And when you look at the key points in the Baltics,
the gap around Kaliningrad, the Slovakia gap,
you know, if you're Romania, if you're Poland
and you're going to look at Russia for the next
several generations, knowing what they've done
in Ukraine, you want a lot of tanks. And then
Dale, when we get a ceasefire in Ukraine, you're
looking at an 800 mile front to defend. And that
is going to, again, require tanks, not necessarily
U .S. tanks. I mean, we have a lot of U .S. tanks
in Poland, as well as Poland buying their own,
and Romania too. But Ukraine is going to need
advanced tanks so that there is never a possibility
for Putin to change his mind and go back in.
Right. Whoever the next guy is. Or whoever the
next guy is exactly it's gonna be a generational
defense And while you've got to have the whole
joint force air power very key to this to missile
defense But in the end it really is the tanks
that are able to deter The taking of territory
and we are gonna see top -line tanks in NATO
like this m1e3 I think for a very long time,
so I'm glad to see it rolling out the cool thing
about it, too They are actually going to try
to accelerate this program and deliver it five
years early. Yes, five years early. The Army
is really ambitious. They're doing this with
the MV -75 as well, which is their future long
range assault aircraft. It's the tilt rotor.
They're going to have that delivered a little
bit early and they want to have the Abrams come
early as well. Well, let's talk about President
Trump's battleships. uh... right here uh... i
think the uh... one of the navy surface warfare
admirals put it really well what two weeks ago
when he said well i never thought i would be
tasked to build a battleship but sure enough
president ron made this announcement and it he
says is going to be called the trump class that
will see will see so what There is, he's got
the Navy and the shipbuilders working on actually
a whole golden fleet. So there are a lot of other
things. Of course, we're getting our nuclear
-powered aircraft carriers. There will be a Navy
frigate, which is a smaller type of surface combatant.
They canceled one program and started another
one. There will be some unmanned surface vessels
for the Navy as well. They have some already.
There will be more. But the pièce de résistance
is the battleship. You really have to think of
it as like our current fantastic DDG -51 Arleigh
Burke class destroyers, but three times bigger.
Why would you want that? Well, it's simple. It's
to carry more missiles and more armament in those
vertical launch tubes. They want to have some
hypersonic capable, well, all missiles are hypersonic
in certain flight profiles, but they want some
new hypersonic missiles. And I gotta tell you
something, they're very big. So you need, they're
big. They're big, okay. You need the space and
they want to have more missile tubes present
in an area like Indo -Pacom. And that's the initiative
behind the battleship. But this is like a clean
sheet, new start. They will... They will take
the research they were doing on the next destroyer
class called DDGX, of course, experimental research
there to see what the new destroyer could look
like. They'll take that and run with it for the
battleship. We're still waiting to see what costs
might look like. But you know what's driving
all of this, Dale, is the president has said
that the defense budget next year will go from
about 900 billion this year, 897 billion, something
like that. It's going to be 1 .5. trillion dollars.
That's a lot of dollars. That's the bill to pay.
And you think, well, Congress isn't going to
go for this. And then look back, it's actually
Congress's idea. Senator Roger Wicker leading
the way on shipbuilding and several others as
well. When you look at the threats around the
world, you know, this is Trump thinking big again,
but that it's this possible $1 .5 trillion defense
budget. that could be driving the battleship,
the acceleration of the Abrams tank, and maybe
some more B -21 bombers, which that's rolling
off the line now, and that program's doing very
well too. But that is just what the Trump administration
thinks is the money that we need to put in at
this point, given the global threats from China
and Russia and others. Wow, that's a lot. We
run out of time again, almost. I want to thank
you so much, Dr. Grant, for being on the program.
We've got a couple of minutes left. Is there
any one last little message you'd like to leave
our audience? Well, I, again, just really want
to thank all our service members who are out
there today. We've been keeping a careful eye
on Iran as we watch the USS Abraham Lincoln being
called from Indo -Pacom back into the Middle
East. We've seen airstrikes against ISIS targets.
There's a lot brewing there and around the world.
And America would not be a superpower, would
not be the leader that we are today without the
service of our men and women in uniform. And
I just want to say thank you to those who have
served and those who are serving right now. That's
a good line to end on. Well, thank you again
so much. We're going to have to have you back
on a little bit sooner. Have you thought about
going into podcasting yourself? Well, hey, there's
something to think about stronger in 2026. There
you go. If you're not running for office, I'll
definitely take podcasting over politics. Yeah,
I know. I know what you mean. I know what you
mean. All right. Well, that was Dr. Rebecca Grant.
You know, she's our national security expert.
And, you know, if you want to know what's going
on, you can read more. about Dr. Grant by going
to the Lexington Institute's website. She has
published quite a few articles on there. We'll
kind of, you know, recap what we talked about
today, but I think that they're really interesting.
I read some of them yesterday and today. In addition
to being a great guest on Veterans Radio, she's
also a really good writer. So I would encourage
you to go to the Lexington Institute's website
and check them out. There's a lot of good info
there. I lean more to the left than I do to the
right, but I'm learning a whole lot. It makes
a whole lot more sense when the information that
you get is trustworthy and that you know there's
no partisan things behind it. I think that's
what's a problem right now, to put it that way.
So we are going to go out on a kind of a different
song today. With everything that's going on in
America right now, I just, you know, God bless
America is my favorite song, but I'm going to
go out today on Woody Guthrie's This Land is
Your Land, because I want everybody to think
about, before we start getting all flustered
and, you know, just kind of going at each other
without thinking about it, I think it's important
that we sit back and, you know, figure out a
way that we can all Talk about some things because
there's a lot of things going on out there that
we have to be able to discuss without You know
without just getting in each other's faces a
little compromise a little understanding a little
empathy I think would be very helpful to you
know de -escalate some of the things that are
going on across the country and It's very difficult
not to react to some of the things that we're
seeing on you know, on various television stations
across country in various areas because we all
know some people that live in those areas and,
you know, when you start worrying about your
neighbor, we got to be careful. So, yeah, so
I'm really excited to have you listen to this
song when I was thinking about what I wanted
to go out on today. I said, here's one for you.
So here's Woody Guthrie with This Land is Your
Land, and until next week, this is Dale Thromery.
For all of us, you are dismissed. This land was
made for you and me As I went a walk in that
ribbon of highway I saw above me that endless
skyway Saw below me that golden valley This land
was made for you and me I roamed and rambled
and I followed my footsteps To the sparkling
sands of her diamond deserts All around me a
voice was sounding This land was made for you
and me When the sun comes shining then I was
strolling And the wheat fields waving and the
dust clouds rolling The voice was chanting as
the fog was lifting This land was made for you
and me This land is your land and this land is
my land From California to the New York Island
From Redwood Forest The gulf stream waters, this
land was made for you and me When the sun comes
shining, and I was strolling The wheat fields
waving, the dust clouds rolling The voice coming
chanting, and the fog was lifting This land was
made for you and me