1-15-25
Monologue:
Boots on the Ground
Triple Dipper:
1. Modern Suffrage
2. Live Free or Die
3. Relief!
Guests
3:30: Emily Jones
4pm: Grand Council w/ Jeff Poor and Dale Jackson
Resources
1. Modern Suffrage
https://www.thehill.com/homenews/senate/5084717-hegseth-backs-women-in-combat/amp/
2. Live Free or Die
https://www.yahoo.com/news/gun-laws-rolling-multiple-states-103026178.html
3. Relief!
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna184606
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/helene-milton-losses-50-billion-each-hurricanes-rare/
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article295727399.html
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-09/biden-to-address-the-nation-about-la-fires
Rightside Way Monologue
Yesterday we spent a great deal of time focusing on the status of the US military
and the confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, Trumps nominee to be the
Secretary of Defense……if you missed the show let me just recap by telling you
that Hegseth knocked it out of the park!....literally, he had the leftwing members
of the Senate Armed Services Committee tongue tied as he kept his composure,
evidenced a grasp of the facts and laid out the foundation for the restoration of
peace through strength by rebuilding a military that can both deter and defeat
our enemies…..he heralded the end of wokeness, DEI, and the streamlining of the
bloated Defense bureaucracy…..but most importantly, Hegseth said that his focus
would be on the individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that would serve
under him…..it was a breath of fresh air……
Those young men and women who serve our nation in uniform…..who volunteer
to go to hard places and do hard things….they deserve a leadership that has their
back, a leadership that takes responsibility and will be accountable for mistakes
and give credit to the actual warfighters when it goes well…..but as I thought
about all of this I couldn’t help but reflect in a personal way……I’ve been
downrange and had times when it felt like no one in the rear knew what you were
going through….. asinine orders and directives that made someone at
headquarters feel good about themselves fell flat when they were sent out to the
front lines….. As the war in Afghanistan started I found myself deploying
immediately…..9/11 happened and 90 days later I was headed out to take a team
to the far reaches of the Afghan theater where we lived among the Afghan people
for nearly a year…..just before I left to mob out of Fort Bragg I had a visitor…..A
legendary Green Beret….an awardee of the Medal of Honor….named Ola Lee Mize
came to see me…..he walked into my office unannounced….he wanted to see
me…..When Colonel Mize wanted to see you everything stopped and you saw
him….the man had fought in Korea and three tours in Vietnam and was one of the
founders of the Special Forces School and the Combat Diver School…..Besides the
Medal of Honor he also had the Silver Star, 5 Bronze Stars for Valor and the
Purple Heart…..but what got me was how anyone who had ever served under him
revered him…..I once attended a special ceremony for him where men came from
all over the nation to honor him….men who said they owed him their lives, and
would follow him anywhere…..Colonel Mize walked into my office that day in
December of 2001 and sized me up for a minute…..he shut the door to my office
and stood there a few seconds and then he said, “Williams, I hear you’re going to
the war”…..I said “yes sir”…. He nodded and asked, “Where are you going to
be?”…..I told him I didn’t have my assignment yet but I understood I was going to
be out on a remote team……he nodded again and then got real serious and said,
“Let me tell you something. Gonna come the day that you’re going to be out
there with your men and some blankety-blank in the rear is going to tell you what
to do and you’re going to know it ain’t right. You tell him to go to Hell….you take
care of your men.”……what do you say to that?......I just said, “Yes sir”…..and then
he shook my hand and said, “alright, you do good now.” And then he turned and
walked out…..I have never forgotten that….and I leaned on that advice several
times since then…..that’s why I listened so avidly to Pete Hegseth’s opening
statements yesterday……you see, I am a third generation Army Officer…..my
father, grandfather and I…….but my son is on active duty now……and the fact that
the man who wants to lead the Department of Defense spoke so avidly, so
passionately, about being there for the troops, and restoring morale, and
rebuilding capabilities, and removing obstacles, and awarding actual merit……it
was more than just refreshing…..it was even a bit emotional…..I served in part
under Reagan and I retired under Trump…..but I also served under Clinton and
Obama……I want for this current generation, to include my son, to have the
best…..to have the best weapons, the best choices, the best training, the best
leaders and the best experiences……
My hope is that this morale and leadership will pour over into our society….by
and large I believe that America stills loves its troops…..we do…..and they deserve
it…..but leadership from DC makes a difference……my sincere hope is that
returning a policy of peace through strength will mean that society follows
suit…..in a strong way…..sitting here on my desk in the Rightside Studio I have Ted
Nugent’s autograph that I got in Baghdad in 2004 when he and the late Toby Keith
came over to play for the troops……that was a crazy day with a crazy story that I
might tell you later……there are still those stars and celebrities who will go where
the troops are to bring them some relief and entertainment when their far from
their homes…..but how many really do what they can to honor them…..to really
honor them…..leadership in DC can actually ask for them to do so…..leadership
that cares about the troops will actually reach out to celebrities and ask them to
please go over there and do what you do and tell the young men and women that
they are important and they are not forgotten……I don’t believe that kind of focus
on troops has been there the past four years……no one has been pressing
Hollywood to go see soldiers……but there was time…..a time when they lined up
to do it…..Bob Hope spearheaded the USO shows…..troop knew that when they
were over there that America would come to see them and remind them of
home…..and one of the best was John Wayne…..when I got back from my first
tour in Afghanistan I was demobing at Fort Bragg…..On one of those Sunday
mornings I decided I was going to church and took a short walk over to what is
known as the Special Warfare Chapel…..if you’re ever at Fort Bragg (which is
currently called “Fort Liberty”) I encourage you to check out the SWC Chapel…..its
a full sized church…..the stain glassed windows depict soldiers kneeling in prayer
on the battlefield……but standing in front of the Chapel is a granite monument
that says, “in tribute to the men of the Green Berets. US Army Special Forces,
whose valiant exploits will inspire mankind”….and in very small script at the
bottom of the base it says, “presented by John Wayne, July 4, 1968”…..you gotta
love that…..Green Beret’s, John Wayne and Jesus……But John Wayne loved
troops…..the year before that monument Wayne had released his epic film called
“The Green Berets”…..critics hated ity…..Roger Ebert said the film was “cruel and
dishonest”….the New York Times said it was “rotten and false”……war protests
were underway back in the states but troops were overseas fighting and dying
and John Wayne wasn’t going to make a anti-war movie…..he told a story that the
troops loved….it made them proud….it did honor to their sacrifices…..but he
didn’t stop there….Wayne visited troops in Vietnam multiple times…..one of the
written accounts of his time with soldiers said "[The soldiers] felt this giant hand
on their soldier and a voice saying: 'Hello, soldier. I'm John Wayne and I just want
you to know a hell of a lot of folks back home appreciate what you're doing,'" and
some of them would break out in tears……Troops would write him letters
thanking him for being one of them and he would write back and tell them the
letters meant more than they could ever know…..Wayne said once, “I cannot sing
or dance, but I can certainly talk to the kids.”……
The point was that it was not about him…..it was about them…..it was about what
Pete Hegseth told the nation yesterday, and about what Colonel Mize said to
me……you take care of your men…….you make sure they know that they are more
important than anything else……that we know and appreciate the fact that all the
gee-whiz firepower in the world, all the technology, all the strategy, and all the
muckety mucks back in the Pentagon don’t mean anything more than the men or
women who put their boots on the ground……
I am hopeful…..I am ready to see it…..I want it for my son, and your sons and
daughters, and the next generation after that…..I want a return to the halcyon
days of duty, honor, country and putting the troops first….
And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way……