STARRS Podcast
STARRS Podcasts includes the series STARRS & Stripes which interviews military veterans, talks about their careers and military service, and their concerns about what is happening in today's military. See our website, starrs.us, for more information.
STARRS Podcast
Tribute to the Leadership and Legacy of Warfighter General Robert F. Titus, "Earthquake"
What makes a military leader truly exceptional? Brigadier General Robert F. Titus, known as "Earthquake," exemplifies the qualities of a remarkable military warfighting career, and in this episode of STARRS & Stripes, we pay tribute to his remarkable legacy. Host CDR Al Palmer, USN ret, who served under Gen. Titus, talks with Bill Scott, retired editor at Aviation Week and Space Technology and author of the book "Earthquake" about Gen. Titus, as well as Lieutenant General Tom McInerney, USAF ret, a distinguished combat pilot and senior Air Force leader who served with Gen. Titus.
We cover General Titus's journey from an 18-year-old Army paratrooper to becoming a celebrated Air Force fighter pilot. We'll explore his 101 missions in the Korean War and his critical role in testing and developing iconic fighter jets like the F-104, F-5, and F-4.
Throughout the episode, Bill, Tom and Al share first-hand accounts and rich narratives about pivotal moments in General Titus's career, including his involvement in the selection of the F-15 and his heroic actions during the Vietnam War. These stories highlight the themes of leadership, accountability, and the values that have shaped the armed forces. Throughout there is a deeper appreciation of the rigorous standards and meritocratic principles that define military success.
Delving into contemporary challenges facing the military, our discussion addresses the impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and the ideological shifts within the armed forces. Hear our guests' reflections on how these changes affect military readiness and cohesion, and why strong leadership and adherence to core values are crucial in navigating these transitions. This episode is a compelling listen for anyone passionate about military history, aviation, and the evolving landscape of military practices and policies.
Find Bill Scott's book, "Earthquake: Brigadier General Robert F. Titus" on Amazon https://a.co/d/11deD2y and other sellers. Description:
American fighter pilot and test pilot Brigadier General Robert F. "Earthquake" Titus logged more than 550 combat missions in the Korean and Vietnam wars; flight tested all Century Series fighters; flew the first nonstop trans-Polar flight in an F-100 Super Sabre; shot down three enemy MiG-21s and brought the F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter to life. Read his incredible stories in his own words, as told to author Bill Scott, who sat down with the legend for multiple interviews to learn how it really was.
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Well, hello America. This is Commander Al Palmer, United States Navy Retired, and I'm your host for SStars and Stripes. Pleasure having you back with us today as we examine some of the issues that are facing our armed forces today and what we can do to find ways to keep our forces strong, keep meritocracy at the top of our list of things we need to have for our warfighters and concentrate on solid leadership and accountability to keep our forces able to function. So to do that today, I'm proud to say on this Constitution Day, by the way that we're happy to have two really esteemed guests with us.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:The first is Bill Scott, who's an author. He's been very instrumental in being an author of over 2,500 articles that have appeared in the magazines, most notably the one that he worked for for 22 years, which was Aviation Week and Space Technology, One of my favorites when I was a young aviator. We couldn't wait for it to come out to find what was really happening in the aircraft that we were flying. And, Bill, it's a great pleasure, sir, to have you with us today.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:AnGeneral Tom McInerney. He was a great fighter pilot. He's a leader across all aspects of leadership in the Air Force and he's got an illustrious career. And so, tom sir, it's great to have you with us here today too. But I will tell you, before we even get on to any of this, we all share one thing very much in common.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:We all worked with or served under General Brigadier General Robert F Titus, known affectionately by the folks he flew with as Earthquake, and I suspect you're probably wondering where that name comes from. Well, probably because General Titus, whoever he talked to, whoever he worked with, he usually ended up shaking up in some way. Either it was positive or sometimes a little negative. But what I loved about serving with him was he always demanded that we did the best we could and he rewarded us for it when we did it. When he did it, he'd kick us in the rear end a little bit. So we're here to talk about that today in Bill's book called Earthquake. And so with that, bill, I'm going to turn it over to you to lead us into this discussion about one of America's great fighter pilots and heroes, Bob Titus.
Bill Scott:Thank you, al. I was sort of drafted about a year ago to capture Bob Titus's story and it was an honor to do so, believe me, because he did have quite an illustrious career. 32 years he served in uniform and he started in the Army of all things and retired from the Air Force 32 years later. But on his 18th birthday he joined the Army, became a paratrooper, got his wings and he was ready to jump into Japan when World War II ended. Well, the army didn't need quite as many people at that point. So he and many others mustered out and he went back to school at Virginia Tech. So he was there for about two years and in the spring of 1948, he was walking across campus and there was an Air Force recruiter who had a table set up and this guy said hey, you can go fly airplanes. So he decided that was going to be a lot more attractive career move than being a mining engineer. So he left Virginia Tech, joined the new Air Force there and went to pilot training. He really wanted to fly at that time P-51 Mustangs. But when he got through pilot training did well there they said he was too tall and if you were too tall to fly fighters, you had to go to bombers, so he did.
Bill Scott:He was checked out in the B-25 Mitchell but eventually wrangled his way into the then called F-51 Mustang and about the time the Korean War broke out he had enough time. He was sent right over there and became a fighter pilot flying missions in the P-51. And he flew 101 missions in the Korean War both in the F-51 and the F-86 jet. And at one point he did get shot down and he had to bail out of that F-51 at a very low altitude. Thankfully he had that parachute, training didn't get hurt. Hit the ground in no man's land between the two warring forces here. Well, as soon as he hit the ground he sees, in his words, guys in quilted pajamas coming at him and those guys had semi-automatic weapons or fully automatic. He had a little pea shooter revolver. He jumped into a crater there and said, oh, this is not going to work out well. Then he hears an American voice say keep your head down and crawl this way. He was close to a Marine bunker. So he did exactly that. The Marines chased off the bad guy and he lived to fight another day.
Bill Scott:So if we fast forward, after he left Korea he was assigned to a unit ferrying jets, f-86s and F-84s across the North Atlantic to NATO bases in Europe, and it wasn't trivial in those days. They lost enough pilots and it was considered a hazardous enough mission that after 10 of those crossings the pilots were given an air medal. Well, after that he was assigned to Edwards Air Force Base, went through Air Force test pilot school there and then graduated the class 54B and then moved down the street and joined the cadre of you know, soon to be legendary test pilots that brought the Century Series fighters online and he flight tested every single one of them F-100, the F-102 Delta Dart or Delta Dagger, the F-104 Starfighter, f-105 Thunder Chief and and F-106 Delta Dart, plus a host of other ones. But one of his most unique test programs was called the F-100 Zero Launch System. And here they put a fighter like you see there the F-100, on a rail, mounted on a trailer, on a rail, mounted on a trailer, and they would tip this thing up about 20 degrees and then they'd put a 130,000-pound rocket booster. They'd mount it right there on the center line and, in Bob's terms, you would crawl into the cockpit, crank it up, go to afterburnerer, pull a switch. It was on the front edge of the throttle and off you go. In his words he said, you accelerate from zero to 275 miles per hour in four seconds and the rocket booster falls off where it was supposed to be.
Bill Scott:And the whole concept at the time was being able to disperse American fighters around the country, launch them from about anywhere. The program really didn't go anywhere for a number of good logistical reasons. Well, after that program ended, bob was tasked with finding a mission for a couple of two-seat F-100s and he came up with what they call Operation Julius Caesar and that was to demonstrate that fighters could be flown non-stop or the North Pole. So he, with Brigadier General Charles Blair and two backseat pilots, flew a couple of two-seat F-100s from England to Alaska. Nine hours, three in-flight refuelings, and that was where he picked up yet another distinguished flying cross. Then the Air Force sent him to the University of Chicago to get a master's in business administration degree and he subsequently flew F-105 Thunder Chief fighters or thuds in Europe. That was a tactical nuclear mission. They were setting alert with a small nuke strapped to their 105.
Bill Scott:He came back to the States, was assigned to Air Force Tactical Air Command and General Gordon Graham at the time gave him the task to formulate the general operational requirement for what became the FX program and that evolved into the F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter, into the F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter and to Al's point during that period Gordy Graham yelled across the hallway one time send earthquake over here. And that spontaneous reference stuck. That became Bob Titus's call sign. He never did like it much but it was definitely appropriate for a guy that anybody that knew that deep voice brash officer. So he can continue to advance rapidly through ranks and commanded various units and eventually when the Vietnam War started he headed up the 10th Fighter Commando Squadron at Ben Hoa in Vietnam. They were called the Scoti Tigers. They flew the F-5 Freedom Fighter before those airplanes were turned over to the South Vietnamese. He flew 350 air combat missions in that airplane and he did admit that he somehow forgot to log maybe 50 more missions, so we don't know exactly how many he did fly.
Bill Scott:In january 67 he took command of an f4c phantom squadron at denang air base in south vietnam and he kind of whipped that outfit into shape and that's when they were starting to fly north into North Vietnam and some pretty good stories there. But he eventually shot down three MiG-21 fighters within two days and the one he got first day got him a silver star. And then, downing two MiGs, two days later, he was awarded the Air Force Cross. Then he came back to the States and was assigned to Air Force headquarters and put in charge of the F-15 program. So he and some stellar guys actually put together what became the Eagle, the F-15 Eagle program, and brought it into the inventory.
Bill Scott:During that time we talk about in the book, about the so-called gunfights that he had to go through, because he, having shot down one MiG with a 20-millimeter cannon in a gun pod pod mounted on the center line of his Phantom, he knew very well the value of a cannon or a gun in these fighters.
Bill Scott:But at the time senior leadership in the Air Force was convinced you didn't need a gun, all you needed was missiles. But he fought long and hard and managed to get the gun 20 millimeter, 20 millimeter cannon mounted internal to the f-15. However, those gunfights probably cost him a couple of stars because he irritated the wrong people, but he always smiled and he would say, yeah, but every air force fighter since the 70s has had a gun in it. So he later commanded the 18th Tactical Fighter Wing in Okinawa, which Tom can talk about, served any number of staff assignments, received one star any number of them that played on the football team there and they all learned from him how to lead by example, and he, as one of the Air Force's preeminent commanders, was the right guy to do exactly that. Unfortunately, we lost Earthquake Titus just recently, on September 8th. He flew west and left quite a legacy Over to you, al and Tom.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:Well, indeed he did, and Tom, I know, flew with him. Tom, I think you started out with him in 104s, is that right?
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Tom Bilyeu MD. No, I was in a 104 squadron during the Berlin crisis. When Earthquake was the ops officer of the 53rd squadron at Bitburg and I was over at Hahn TDY and I was over at Hahn TDY and and earthquake, as I recall, was never in a 104 squadron. He just tested them at Edwards. He tested everything and he was a legend in his lifetime.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:I was telling earthquake. You know earthquake. The first time I met you were the ops officer of the 53rd Squadron at Bitburg and the wing commander. There was a chap by the name of General Bob Dellashaw, a big brigadier general In my 104 Squadron. His nephew was my flight commander, tom Dellashaw, and really taught me so many things as a young fighter pilot because the 104s were my first squadron, operational squadron. I went through F-100s after flying school, but that's the first time I met Earthquake. The 105s were the only thuds, as we call them in Europe at the time, so it was brand new.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:They were D models.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:And he played a major role in their development. My next run-in with Earthquake was when he became the commander of the Scotchie Tigers and that was bringing the f5s over to to Vietnam. Now I'd come back for my first tour in Vietnam in 64, going from 104s to a Ford air controller in Vietnam, 63 to 64. And I was in the first F-4 fighter weapons well, first F-4 wing except I was in a detachment up at Eglin Air Force Base testing the F-4 and dropping bombs and doing all the early testing in the F-4Cs. Bob brought his group in and they were doing the test of the F-5. And he was using our squadron as an administrative facility and so I got to know him a lot better in the work that he was doing. I subsequently went from the F4C squadron to the weapons school at Nellis, the first F4 weapons school, and then I stayed on as an instructor. So I left Eglin and doing the testing and that's where I ran into Bob again, but he was now developing the.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:FX, as we call it in those days, and I was the F4D category 3 project officer, and then the F4E category 3, which was the F4D Category 3 Project Officer, and then the F4E Category 3, which was the first F4 that had an internal gun. Now the connection was I was a strong proponent, but Bob by then was a full colonel, I think no, he was still a lieutenant colonel in the.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Pentagon and he was pushing on the F-15 to have an internal gun and so we were putting it in the F-4, and I'd get a lot of visitors, the studies and analysis, people from the Pentagon that would come out and they would, you know, ask us young fighter pilots. I was a captain, you know what we thought about it and of course I was a very strong proponent. Then the interesting thing was, bob made the selection of the F-15. Then he went. I gotta think of the timing He'd gone back to Southeast Asia with these Scotsie Tigers, the F-5. And then he went up to, as Bill said, went up to Da Nang. He was flying the F-5s out of Benoit. Then he went up to Da Nang and took over an F-4E squadron.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:They had.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:E's there, and I'm pretty sure they were E's. No, they were not. They had not yet gotten the E yet, because I know I brought the first E's in.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:They were D's and I'd done the D test. But the important thing was I flew with Bob's squadron and one of his weapons officer was a chap by the name of Bob Dilger and Bob had been a student of mine at Nellis in the weapons school and I was over there at TDY. Nellis would keep a chap in Europe and in Vietnam all the time Southeast Asia keeping up to date on the latest tactics and they'd feed them back to Nellis and I was on one of those tours. I had two of those tours in addition to the one I had, and then I went back for a fourth tour on my own in the first F-4E squadron that I'd done the testing at Karat, in the first F4E squadron that I'd done the testing at Karat.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:But in any case, dilge was a very aggressive guy and so I was flying with him. He said, tom, I want to go into Route Package 6, which was the Hanoi area, hanoi Haiphong area, and we'll go in low level in the daytime. And of course I was, you know, a little bit stunned by it. But I was a fighter pilot and he was doing some tactics over there. I wanted to be part of it. I said, okay, dilge and he was doing some tactics over there. I wanted to be part of it. I said, okay, dilge, but the word got out to ba to earthquake. They didn't call them earthquake in the squadron in those days. No, we didn't use call signs in those days bill didn't like.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:So Earthquake found out about it and Earthquake said no, you're not going to do that. And we of course saluted yes, sir, we're not going to do that. I believe because we did not do that, I am still here Now. I've had a lot of problems between then and but I would not have made it through that tour in the daylight in route package six, no matter how fast you were going.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:He saved my life he saved my life and Bill put that particular story in his book on earthquake, but I'm immensely grateful to him for it. But he was an extraordinary commander and when actually when he when he returned from being squadron commander there and with the three MiGs, is when they sent him to the Pentagon and assigned him as a source selection for the FX and he had Gary Willard and a bunch of outstanding fighter pilots. You may have remembered Gary.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:Yes indeed.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Because he started the Wild Weasel for the US, us Air Force in the F-100s. Yep he sure did so. Earthquakes surrounded himself with good people, and they selected the F-15, mcdonnell Douglas version. The biggest competitor was a version from Northrop Grumman. That well, it was just Northrop in those days, and Grumman hadn't bought them yet but, they got the right airplane.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:The Northrop was a good airplane, don't misunderstand me. It was a high flyer and it could boom out to well past Mach 2, but it didn't turn as well and didn't do the things at the F-15. So I spent a lot of time in the F-15 once it became operational. Well, because when I left Nellis I went back to Staff College and then to the Pentagon. I was the F-15 project officer in requirements.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Once they selected it and named it the F-15, it hadn't flown, I was working on it, they dispersed, earthquake, went to National War and then I first flight and then I got assigned to Luke as a 104 F-5 DO. I had German students for F-4s and I had a lot of Saudis and the like for F-5s over at Woolley, saudis and the like for F-5s over at Woolley. And then I went to the Pentagon and I became the F-15 project officer. No, excuse me, I'd already had that job, but I got to fly the F-15 when I was in London Once it flew and I went from Luke to London as the air attache and I left Luke three months before the F-15s came in for the first base for F-15s, which disappointed me. But I wasn't given a choice. The chief of staff fired the air attache and so they I got selected to go. But the beauty was at Farnborough.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:They brought the F-15s over and the test pilots knew me and so I got to fly the F-15 in England and, excuse me, the, which was, which was a great experience because then the chief of the air staff, sir Andrew Humphrey. I went back to the United States with him and he visited all of the chief and all the four stars and he was the last chief of air staff to fly the Comet. You may all remember the Comet was the first passenger jet and the RAF still was flying it for the chief of air staff. So I flew around the United States, over and around the United States, in a British Comet with the chief of the air staff and of course I was telling him a lot about the F-15, because I was bound and determined, lot about the F-15 because I was bound and determined to sell the F-15 to the Royal Air Force. And Sir Andrew and I got along very well because when we came back from that trip he said all right, tom, I want you to fly every fighter.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:The Royal Air Force has. Every airplane. The Royal Air Force has every airplane. The Royal Air Force has Of course.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:I went through all the fighters but I wasn't much for the airlift. No offense.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:You got to fly the Vulcan.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:I turned the Vulcan down, and I turned it down because they wouldn't let me go to the pilot seat. Well, it turns out the Vulcan wasn't like most bombers. It didn't have a pilot, co-pilot seat, it only had a pilot seat, and so they were not going to let me fly in that seat and be the only one in control of the airplane. I should have done it, because a Vulcan is just a fantastic airplane.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:Oh yeah, so you told them, forget that one right.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Yeah, but I got the P-1 Lightning and you may have remembered that that had the engines one on top of another. It stayed up less time than a 104, but boy did it have smash and it could boom off and great airplane, but in any case.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:So earthquake had established for me some very vital things. I came back and went to was a wing commander in the Philippines and took the air division over in Okinawa that Bob had had. They converted the wing to an air division. I had a wing underneath me, but that was a marvelous assignment. We had F-15s then, so I got a lot of F-15s then, so I got a lot of 15 time there and I remember the last flight out. I got promoted to two stars out of there and so I went back as the DCS operations and Intel for PACAF, pacific Air Forces.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:I launched 55 F-15s come out and four squadrons, the squadron commanders leading each one of their squadrons, and the first time anybody said anything was when we came back. We went out and we did had a wall of eagles, 55 eagles coming across the training area. We're using our F4s as targets and it was beautiful to do, took them all out and then headed home and in the break I was blue lead. I said blue lead, gear down and check, and that was the first time we talked. Now the reason I point this out was because I didn't care where, what the kid's last pilot's last name was where he went to school, who he was married to, who his mommy and daddy were. Any of that Everything was based on merit and you're talking a single-seat fighter, which I grew up in most of the time, except all the F-4 time and the 111 time I had.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:But we now are facing and, with STARS is doing a magnificent job. We are now facing critical race theory and DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, and these are Marxist ideologies, al Bill. We are faced with something I never thought could happen. Now, of course, I went through my career in the Air Force and ended up in Washington and got in television by accident because of a non-profit. I'm only saying this because when 9-11 happened, I then ended up working for Fox News for 16 and a half years.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:But my point is I never thought anybody could penetrate the US military. They have. I just never believed it could happen, and I was going, before COVID-19, into the Pentagon four days a week because I had a running edge cloud company and we can ingest every sensor on the battle space. Now it's changed in our day because you've got all these UAVs. They're pumping lots of data back in. You've got the F-35 is just is our most fantastic sensor and the guys at Langley still haven't figured it out. What they don't really want is the A-2 running the air tasking order, the FRAG A2 running the air tasking order, the FRAG because the F-35 ingests every sensor it sees. But when you fuse all this data and we had a pod over in Bagram and we were ingesting from a UAV and a normal UAV, as you know, has got a very narrow field of view maybe 50 yards depending on your altitude, maybe 30 depending on your altitude this had 8 kilometers, so it is ingesting far more data and they would land it. And the reason I'm getting into this is because we have got a military that is changing.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:But I was heavily involved up till COVID-19 with the military. I still am, but I'm not in the Pentagon four days a week and I know that earthquake. I have gotten very aggressive. I do four radio shows a week. I don't do Fox News anymore because they fired me. They fired me because I called John McCain Songbird John. They really wanted to fire me because I was one of the first general officers to support President Trump and so for those years when they'd introduce me, they'd say that and, as it turns out, I don't want to get into it too much now, but the fact is I've been heavily involved with this critical race theory with DEI, what it's doing to our military, what has happened to our nation, and STARS has been an absolute superb leader in trying to turn this around and get the Air Force Academy. I'm involved with the Lincoln Group for West Point and there's a Calvert Group for Annapolis, but they are trying to change our military. They're trying to change our military.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:They're trying to change our country. They indeed are General, and we're so happy to have you on our side on that argument, because it is one that we're facing today. As you say, we didn't have when we were younger, going out and flying every day. I remember my biggest concern was am I gonna get enough sleep here before I have to turn around and go back and fly over the North again and, as you know, getting up every day to do that? You know you can't be weak, you can't have doubts, you can't hesitate, you can't not be there and also, you can't not be really good at what you do right and I worry that we're losing some of that now.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:Do right, and I worry that we're losing some of that now and if we're not careful, that's a very delicate commodity to have today. So what do you think, both of you? What do you think Earthquake would say if he was faced with that today?
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Well, he'd say the same thing that I'm saying, but Bill can tell you what he'll say.
Bill Scott:Yeah, we talked about that a lot when I was doing interviews with him and he obviously had absolutely no patience with DEI whatsoever.
Bill Scott:He saw it as a very big cancer, as Tom said, in the military. It's literally rotting our military from the inside out and, of course, it is really hampering recruitment because a lot of guys don't want to join a military. That's all about gender, color and having the right narrative at your fingertips and and as my son, who, tom also, was a West Point graduate years before we even heard DEI, he said Dad, I don't want to go to war with these guys. And how many other young men and women feel the same way now, too, that you run into any number of veterans and probably active duty people too. That said, I am now warning my own children to not go into the military, and these were guys that served 20 and 30 years and were diehard patriots, but none of them really feel comfortable with the attitudes and leadership in almost all of our military services. I might make an exception for the Marines right now, because they seem to be the one that has resisted the DEI the most. Over to you, tom.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Well, I never talked to Earthquake about this because I'm passionate about the issue and I don't like to, and with the time I had left with Earthquake. Since this has started, it just never presented itself. But you know, I'm on the radio four days a week talking to everybody. I just did a radio show talking about the assassination second assassination of President Trump attempt and all this is related and I don't want to get back into those sides. I want to keep it focused on the starved side, on the military side. But none of what is happening is by accident. And President Trump when he comes back in and God if he doesn't come back in we're finished as a nation. If all the chiefs are going to have to go, the Marine may not, but the other chiefs which have accepted it and the chairman are going to have to go.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Now we've never had to do this and the only thing I do is encourage people knowing that hopefully we're going to win this and we need good people in the military, al and Bill. But we have never seen anything like this, that our greatest threat is from within and the military was our last bastion, and it's critical and that's why what STARS is doing for us is so vitally important. We're working in the MacArthur Society and the Calvert Group, but we're nibbling at the edges and that's why I've gone public on it and I don't want, with General Bishop and that, get stars to be where I am on the totality of it from the whole government. I want them to focus on the Air Force Academy on the military side of it, keep the focus on that. But I want everybody to understand it is bigger than the military.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:It is being driven by Marxists in our government. But STARS is leading the way on the service academies and I helped form and I'm on the board of directors of the MacArthur Society and I helped form and I'm on the board of directors of the MacArthur Society.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:And the important thing is, macarthur Society is a great sister organization, along with the Calvin group. And that's a battle that we're fighting every day, almost these days.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:But one thing that you mentioned earlier about us.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:In the past we've relied on military families particularly to be a source of our leaders, particularly our officers. And I'm no different. I'm from a generation, a three-generation family, who have all done that as aviators. And yet when my grandsons wanted to join the military, I said guys need to investigate this pretty carefully because it has changed a great deal. Two of them went in, spent a couple of years and came right back out, which disappointed me. But there are a lot of others we've had on this podcast who've had the same experience, generations of children, the same experience. Generations of children, grandchildren, relatives who have been associated and, in the military senses, dependents, like I was, who now have decided that they can't support that anymore. That is a telling problem and we've got you're right, general, we've got to fix that and fix it soon. Can I mention one other thing?
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:I had the pleasure of serving under Titus when I was in the 67th Attack Fighter Squadron. We were flying F-4 Weasels there in Okinawa at the end of the war, and so Titus sent me off to fight the end of the war in Wild Weasels. He said you guys got to go end this thing. Well, we did. We went over there expecting to be there for a year or a hundred missions, and we ended the war and came home early, which was great.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:But then Titus had another task in front of him and that was to send us right back over to Taiwan to get into defending Taiwan, who unfortunately couldn't quite as well because they'd given all those Koshi Tigers to the South Vietnamese who promptly lost them to the North Vietnamese when we gave up over in Vietnam. So for about a year we were over in Taiwan, standing air defense alert and defending the Taiwanese from the Chinese defense alert and defending the Taiwanese from the Chinese. And here we are right back again in a major almost conflict that happened but Earthquake through it. All was great with that. He supported us, he took care of his people and it worked out really well and it wouldn't have happened, I don't think, without his great leadership.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:No, and he understood it. When I took the wing over at Clark, we still had nuclear forces out of my wing up at CCK, and then we moved those forces out, but, but my air did. I had an air defense identification zone. He did his responsibility as the wing commander at clark and along, and my boss, the 13th air force commander, had had that overall responsibility, but I had the assets and uh. But that's what's changed for us and that's why what's what you're doing now, al with stars, is so very, very important, uh, and and I've been a strong supporter of of uh rod bishop and the whole team you guys have done a fantastic job, and I got the MacArthur Society to use stars as the model when we started out, and so that's why what you're doing is so critically important. This election is going to determine that. This election is going to determine which way we're going to go as a nation.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Now I believe, the divine Lord is behind us, because that's the only thing that saved President Trump. If you measure the distance between your ear and your head and a bullet goes through there, you know that it wasn't looking at the view graph that did that. Once that happened, the dear Lord and Bob was a very devout guy- he knows and we're going to need his help because I've gotten very involved with how the election was done using cyber warfare and all those things.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:And so, as Bob Titus, I think, would remind all of us and it was true when we were younger the services were totally apolitical. I mean, I didn't have a political bone in my body when I was flying, and if I would have, I imagine Titus would have gotten me doing something else. But today, you're right, the challenges that we face, in the military particularly, are not so much political as they are ideological. And around here in STARS, we don't want to talk candidates and parties, but we do talk about the threats of ideologies, particularly those that are as corrosive as the ones we're facing today. And, general, you're absolutely right, we need to fight that and do it hard right now, before it gets out of control.
Bill Scott:There are marks. I did have a chance to see General Titus in action. Back on April 25th we had what we call a heritage moment at the Air Force Academy. It was designed to honor General Titus.
Bill Scott:So all of the firsties the graduating cadets class of 2024, came to the Arnold Hall Theater.
Bill Scott:I was on stage with Earthquake, I introduced him, gave a little two minute overview of the moderator, had asked me to set up and then ask General Titus, when I turned it over to him, how about telling us about shooting down those MiGs? Well, he ignored that and went ahead and spoke to the cadets and it was brilliant and it was all about duty, honor, honor, mission, which is what he stood for his entire life. And as we were coming towards the end of that, catten introduced one more time so please tell the cadets about shooting down those makes. And bob just kind of bellowed to the whole theater, says well, when I got that first one, I just yelled, I got that son of a bitch and the whole place erupted in this massive hoorah and the cadets absolutely loved it then, we did a book signing right after that and at least a hundred, probably more than a hundred cadets lined up, stood there in line for sometimes up to two hours while bob and I signed copies of the books.
Bill Scott:Because when those cadets went into the theater we gave them a thousand twenty five copies gratis of the earthquake book, thanks to people like tom mcinerney and a few others that donated to make that happen. Well, we felt, bob and I felt, that those kids that stood in line for that long, those were the leaders of tomorrow, because every single one of them thanked him for being there and they were very respectful. A lot of them didn't show up, of course, and the few cadets that I was able to say what do you think about this dei stuff? The best they could do is roll their eyes and just kind of gently shake their head. They knew what it took to get through and graduate. But I'm telling, there's a few others, probably a lot of others, that are being indoctrinated and they're eating this stuff up. So thank God for STARS working on it, but I would say the academies, tom, you may agree, from the MacArthur Society side of things, they're going to be a real challenge.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:Well, we're busy, as you say, bill, fighting that all the time, and particularly now that fight goes on. Stars is still looking for people who want to help us with that, and those watching this podcast can help with that. We're looking for volunteers. We're looking for folks who may want to help us with donations. They can go to our website and take care of that. There. There's an avenue to do that, but we're organized and our function is to now educate people and go to action, and it's time for a call to action, and that's part of what this podcast is about. And my thanks to the both of you, bill Scott and General McInerney, for being with us today to reinforce that message to the folks who might be listening to this. Our numbers are growing on the podcast. We're happy about that, but we've got a whole lot of work still to do here and I'm so glad to have had both of you with us today to talk to our STARS audience about that. And thanks again for being with us. Guys Really appreciate it.
Lt Gen. Tom McInerney, USAF ret:Thanks for having us, Phil. Thank you.
CDR Al Palmer, USN ret:Thanks to both of you and we'll see you maybe in another time here we will have more time and more room to talk about things that we went over today. And thanks again and to our audience. This is Commander Al Palmer, retired. I'm going to sign off and leave you with this one thought Today is Constitution Day. Do what you can do, as we have all done, in raising our hands to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And we'll see you for another episode next week.