5-30-25

I was down at Fort Benning recently…..and I was standing near the grounds of the

Airborne Schools Tower Branch training site with my two grandkids…..and I was

showing them where their Daddy and I had both trained to be paratroopers…..the

towers we jumped out of….the sawdust pits where we learned how to roll in a

perfect PLF, or parachute landing fall……I told them how we spent weeks learning

how to jump out of airplanes….and my 3-year old granddaughter looked at me

with as serious a face as her 3-year old self could make and said very matter of

factly….. “when I get big I’ll jump out of airplanes too”…..and you know what, I

believe her……

OK, knowing this audience I’m going to bet that I’ve got some Rightside Ruffians

out there who were paratroopers…….graduates of the Airborne School at Fort

Benning GA…..the place where they take those individuals who have gone

through life as what paratroopers derisively call “dirty nasty legs” and turn them

into bona fide sky soldiers!.......bear with me hear…..its a whole thing you

understand……and jumping out of a perfectly good airplane is by no means a

relaxing endeavor the way the US military does it…..no sir…..everything is harder,

noisier, less comfortable, and pure-D awesome……I don’t care how many skydives

you’ve got…..until you’ve strapped on 60 pounds of combat equipment and

another 35 pounds of parachute harness and gear…..tied down your

weapon…..responded to the calls of the Jumpmaster to stand up, hook up, and

shuffle to the door and on the green light and command of “go(!)” you throw

yourself into the dark of night …..knees to the breeze, eyes on the faint horizon,

feeling for the ground from 1000 feet AGL…..You. Have. Not. Lived!.......grunt

grunt….

Ok…..so my testosterone levels just spiked by talking about it …..but really….what

does it take to become a paratrooper?.....I mean it’s just gravity right?....how hard

can it be?….the laws of nature are going to suck you out of that big steel bird and

gravity does the rest, right?.....wrong…..anyone can jump out of a perfectly good

airplane…..but not everyone lands well…..it’s the landing that makes all the

difference…..but it takes training to land correctly…..lots of training…..the whole

jump itself from the time you exit the aircraft is maybe a couple of minutes…..but

the Airborne instructors…..we call them the Blackhats……they spend 3 weeks

training you……there’s a great deal of time spent on actions in the aircraft, taking

control of your canopy, familiarization and use of equipment…..but the bulk of the

time you spend at Airborne school you are learning how to land in what is

referred to as a PLF….a parachute landing fall…..feet and knees together, knees

slightly bent toes slightly pointed, turn your chute into the wind to slow your

descent, look out for fellow jumpers, lower your combat equipment at treetop

level, eyes on the horizon, relax, roll from the balls of the feet, calves, thighs,

buttock, side muscle, kick over and dig heels in the ground, activate your canopy

release to avoid being dragged……and do it over and over and over and over until

you can do it in your sleep……it’s muscle memory….because every paratrooper

who’s ever jumped will tell you that (especially) on those first few jumps you’re in

a mental fog…..a combination of hyped up and scared to death…..it’s the muscle

memory that saves your hide when you make contact with the ground…..and a

paratrooper who jumps into a combat zone…..and I’ve known a few….they can be

rendered combat ineffective by not landing correctly….they may not get shot by

the enemy….just a bad landing and they suddenly become a liability to unit

effectiveness…..that’s why every single military jump has a specific pre-jump

training you have to conduct, which includes practicing your PLF’s before you ever

put on the chute and get on the plane…….and I’ve had some good landings….and

I’ve got 3 fused vertebrae in my neck to prove I’ve had some bad landings…..but I

can distinctly remember some of them…..times when the drop zone was so dark I

couldn’t see the ground I was about to land on…..what did I do? I relied on my

training…..that time the jumpmaster put us out over the trees and not over the

drop zone….what did I do? I relied on my training…..that time the wind picked up

in hard gusts, or that time I was drifting too close to an obstacle, or that time

another jumper was getting too close to me in the air…..what did I do? In each

and every case it was about drawing from the overly repetitious, sometimes

mundane, but absolutely necessary preparations I had made well before that

jump……that’s what made all the difference….knowing what to do before I had to

do it……

Here’s my point…..because there’s always a point to these commentaries….we

conservatives have got to get ready for the day…..it is not enough to simply look

at the ballot on election day and decide who you’re voting for…..we have got to

recruit good candidates for office….we have got to know the issues…..we have got

to be conversant in the latest news of the day….we have to know why we say that

we are a conservative…..we have to know the right questions to ask, and the right

resources to review, and the right means of conveying it…..

If we as conservatives wait for someone to do it for us…..guess what….they will…

and it may not be what we would have wanted…..

We have got to have our ideological muscle memory in check…..you heard me,

our ideological muscle memory…..the ability to see something and know whether

it fits within our belief system……more than just sound bite knowledge mind

you….I’m talking about being a student of those things that you care about…..

And you don’t have to know everything about everything…..you can be well

rounded, sure….but you may have a certain niche that you want to focus

on….maybe your passion is pro-life issues…..maybe your priority is

education…..maybe you’re a fiscal conservative and you have issues with

government spending and taxation…..or foreign policy, national defense, civil

liberties, constitutional law…..you pick…..if it jazzes you then become a student of

that topic and how to advance the cause in a conservative manner……

But do not think for a minute that if you don’t that it will just work out…..I mean

gravity will always take a paratrooper down to the ground…..but again, its how

you land that makes the difference…..

So how well you know what you believe…..and how well you’ve prepared to

engage what you believe…..all of that comes together because of what you do

well in advance……all of that focus in advance is what prepares you for the day

that you actually get to put it into motion….or speak it unexpectedly…..or to

vote…..or to run for office yourself…..

If you listen to this show then you already care more than the average

citizen…..shoot, you could be listening to a music formatted channel, or sports,

but no…..your tuned in right now to conservative news talk…..because you

care…..because you have a desire to see or do more on issues of the day……

It is that preparedness in what you believe, and what you care about, that will

help you later….You think it through now, study it now, ingrain the muscle

memory now, win the fight later…...George Patton used to say, “sweat more in

training, bleed less in battle”……John F. Kennedy once said, “Things do not

happen. Things are made to happen.”……and then that great pontificator of

wisdom, Dr. Seuss, said “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your

shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”……it’s true….what you do

today will help you set the stage for success for tomorrow and that’s not just

about work, and family, and finances….it’s also about your ability to impact

culture….to shape your community…..to make a difference in your own sphere of

influence……

So prepare yourself my friends….bunch of Rightside Ruffians…..learn the

issues…..study the topics…..stay abreast of the news…..meet the

candidates…..don’t wait to the last minute and hope for the best……there’s a

school board meeting with your name on it….or a conversation at work…..or with

a friend…..and you are far more likely to hit that drop zone and be an effective

member of the team in the fray if you’ve worked that ideological muscle memory

long before you actually put your knees to breeze……

We need you…..so be ready for the day

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!