Air Force AC-130 Avaitor Reveals Raw Truth | Moonchild Interview

**Jeep Talk Show: Anthony Dreyer – “Moonchild” | AC-130 Avaiator, Combat Missions, PTSD & Recovery** In this powerful episode, we sit down with Anthony Dreyer — former U.S. Air Force Special Missions Aviator and **AC-130 Gunship Avaitor ** with over a decade in special operations aviation. Anthony flew high-risk missions around the globe as a gunner on the legendary Spectre and Spooky gunships, earning multiple accolades including the Air Force’s Jolly Green Rescue Mission of the Year in 2018. From growing up in the Appalachian Mountains of Sylva, North Carolina, to orbiting battlefields at night delivering devastating close air support, Anthony shares his raw and honest story of service, trauma, addiction, and ultimate recovery. **Topics Covered:** – Life as an AC-130 Avaitor– malfunctions, miniguns, 105mm howitzer, and combat operations – Combat search & rescue missions (including the intense June 8, 2018 mission) – PTSD, prolonged exposure therapy, and choosing better over bitter – The brotherhood of special operations and the real cost of service – Writing his memoir “Moonchild” – turning pain into purpose – Military humor, call signs, and why freedom isn’t free Anthony’s memoir **Moonchild** is a gripping, emotional look at war, family, loss, and healing — must-read for veterans, first responders, and anyone wanting to understand the invisible battles many service members face. **Grab the book here:** – Amazon → https://amzn.to/4gxVK8O – Barnes & Noble and major retailers **Connect with Anthony:** – Instagram: @marco_brolo21 – Facebook: Moonchild – Signed copies: anthonyp.direcjmo.com If you’re a veteran or struggling, remember: It’s okay not to be okay — but it’s not okay to do nothing about it. Reach out and get help. Thanks for watching Jeep Talk Show! Drop a comment below — what part of Anthony’s story hit you the hardest? 👍 Like | 🛎 Subscribe | 🛠 Turn on notifications #JeepTalkShow #Moonchild #AC130Gunner #VeteranStories #AirForce #PTSDAwareness #SpecialOperations #MilitaryMemoir Timestamps: 00:00 Show Intro and Guest Background 00:25 Anthony’s Service and Memoir Overview 01:26 First Book Discussion and Reading Level 02:03 Motivation to Write and Publishing 03:31 Moonchild Title Meaning and Symbolism 04:34 C‑130 Gunship Overview and Crew 05:34 Gunship Combat Perception and Gaming 06:11 Ethics and Rules of Engagement 06:39 Mission Purpose and Families 07:17 Civilian View and Respect 08:07 Pride in Service and Homecoming 08:48 Iran Conflict Remarks 09:41 Air Superiority and Mission Logistics 11:14 Helicopter Transition and Crew Dynamics 14:08 Training, Downtime, and Mission Frequency 15:38 Gunship Malfunction Management 18:08 Crew Decision‑Making Under Pressure 23:08 PTSD Commitment and Book Impact 24:54 Life Change, Healing, and Book 27:42 Keeping Connections and Simulators 30:35 Book Highlights and Appeal 32:05 Mental Health Advocacy and 22‑a‑Day 32:43 Therapeutic Benefits of Talking 34:16 Personal Struggles and Therapy Journey 36:24 Therapist Humor and Interaction 37:25 Comfort with Discomfort in Therapy 37:54 Resilience and Overcoming Darkness 38:46 Seeking Help and Trusting Mechanics 39:16 Maintenance Challenges and Book Audience 40:03 Pop Culture Humor: Groot 40:48 Groot Confirmation 41:16 Publishing Journey and Reflections 42:52 Writing Courage and Promotion 44:18 UFOs and Extraterrestrials Speculation 46:21 Moral Reflections on US Actions 47:21 Book Formats: Kindle and Print 47:51 Book Signings and Humor 48:39 Signing Experience and Appalachian Folklore 49:38 Closing Remarks and New Friendship 50:01 Final Thoughts and Friendship *Jeep Talk Show — Real Jeeps, Real People, Real Stories.* Hosted by Tony Muckleroy Visit our website: https://jeeptalkshow.com/ Watch/Listen on Spotify https://jeeptalkshow.com/spotify Join our Discord Server: https://jeeptalkshow.com/discord Subscribe to our newsletter: https://jeeptalkshow.com/newsletter Help Support the show via Patreon: https://jeeptalkshow.com/patreon

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00:00 – 00:00:02:12]
(Cheering)

[00:00:02:12 – 00:01:33:19]
Adios, boys and girls, it’s time for another Jeep Talk Show interview. We’re gonna be talking with Anthony Dreyer. And Anthony, all the viewers here how about I am at a, “pronunsticating things” as I like to say. So you correct me on any of this. Actually, I was gonna ask you, is it Silva, North Carolina, that I see here in the intro? Silva. Correct, he has a born and raised and spent 18 years of my life before I joined the Air Force there, so. Okay, I just didn’t wanna mess it up. It looks like Sylvia, but there’s no I. Anthony Dreyer is a former US Air Force special missions aviator with over a decade of experience in special operations aviation. He flew high risk missions around the globe earning multiple accolades, including the Air Force’s Jolly Green Rescue mission of the year in 2018. Originally from Silva, North Carolina, in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, Anthony brings the same courage and gift and grit that defined his military career to his work as an author and mental health advocate. His book and memoir, “Moonchild” often, or rather offers a raw and compelling look at war, trauma, addiction, and recovery. Shedding light on the invisible battles that many veterans and service members have, or that they face. All right, so Anthony, as you can tell, I wear reading glasses, and that’s why I chopped that up so badly, because I don’t have them on.

[00:01:35:06 – 00:01:40:18]
(Laughs) I still read on a fifth grade level, so somehow managed to put a book out. I can’t read.

[00:01:42:00 – 00:01:44:25]
I wanna read books and pictures in them, you know? I can barely talk,

[00:01:44:25 – 00:01:52:04]
it, then I gotta read too. All right, Anthony, so this is cool. Is this your first book that you’ve written? It is,

[00:01:52:04 – 00:01:55:00]
(Music)

[00:01:55:00 – 00:03:39:23]
through all the emotions in two hours, is what I like to tell people, so at least what I’ve heard from it. I got a dear friend that’s written a few books, and a different subject from yours, of course, but it’s funny, this learning the process that I’ve heard from her, it really almost is just something that you gotta get out, the story that you have to get out, because unless there’s a movie deal, you ain’t making no money off of books. Oh yeah, yeah, that’s what people, there is this sort of, you know, people believe that there’s thousands and thousands of dollars, and unless you’re big time, big time, at least for me, it didn’t happen like that, but it does okay, you know, and really, I tell people that every sort of veteran and first responder in these uncommon type jobs, man, very just normal men and women doing these very uncommon, unnatural things, so it’s good to get that stuff out, and if writing that down is a good way to do that, and somebody may benefit from your words, you know? Oh, absolutely, and you never know, and I think a lot of people, and this is true for podcasting as well, a lot of people go, who am I to do something like this? Who am I that, you know, people that have known me for years barely listen to me, or are they gonna get a book and read what I had to say or listen to me on a podcast, but you should do it, you know, because you don’t know, if you don’t do it, you don’t know, so. Let me ask you about the title of the book without giving it away too much, because we do want people to purchase the book and get it, I’m assuming it’s available on Amazon, and you can get it on Kindle and stuff? Yes, sir, you can get it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, basically anywhere they sell books, and then trademarker media.

[00:03:41:08 – 00:03:47:25]
So the name of the book is Moon Child, what’s the reason for the name?

[00:03:49:05 – 00:05:38:29]
So, I was born on a full moon there in Appalachia, you know, in North Carolina, in the mountains, and then basically that was April 7th of 82, and then, you know, flying around in the gunship, you’re doing this left hand turn all night, mostly during the night, you know, there’s parts in the orbit, you know, where you can sort of get lost in time and space. Oh, I bet. But, you know, you’ll remember where the moon’s at, you know, sort of my get-well point, like almost like a lighthouse for me, you know, and it’s always been symbolic, you know, about like, you know, there are those darkest nights, man, that’s when the moon needs to burn the bright ice, and you find those moments of light, you know, to get you and your fellow airmen, brother, sister, through all that, you know, so it’s definitely like a, almost like a lighthouse to me, you know, and it made flying air-frulless with the terrain easier to pick up tracer, fire on MBGs and stuff like that, you know. So would this be the same, is it a C-130 gunship? Is that what it is, or do they have others, the other gunships? Yeah, so it’s only a C-130, the A would be attack and the C would be cargo, and then a C-130 without the, not being a gunship without guns would be just a C-130 for cargo. But yeah, there’s a, you know, back then when I first started flying, we had the H-model Spectre gunship, which, you know, it had tell numbers like 6-9 and 7-2, like Vietnam, so you’re flying on the same skeletal structure of the same ones that flew over the whole human trail. So there’s always a lot of pride in that, you know, being a part of that unit, and it really was sort of built on giants, you know, and we have a saying in, you know, special operations is, humans are more important in hardware, you know, so it’s really about the men and women that provide that close air support for those super ninjas on the ground, as I like to call them. Then you had the U-model, the Spooky, which was at Herbert Field, which is, you know, still at Herbert Field, that squadron. So I did hear right, this is a gunship that you were on, so you were on the attack. Okay. Yeah. So, and I don’t mean to be offensive about this, but my only,

[00:05:40:05 – 00:05:57:20]
my only straight hand information from a gunship that orbits and you shoot stuff is from a game. I think it was called a duty. And what a wonderful, what a wonderful segment that was to take on those guns and be at the gunship, shooting shit

[00:05:57:20 – 00:06:22:24]
the ground. And what do you call it? Not the nightlight, where you can see the little glowing people running around. Like the Iron So it’s so horrible to actually be killing people, but these weren’t real people, but you were in a situation where, I mean, they weren’t shooting at the gunship that I was in, in the game, but you guys could get shot at

[00:06:25:21 – 00:07:24:25]
it’s something that people is, it’s a funny thing. People don’t want to die. So they may shoot back. (Laughs) Oh yeah. Yeah. That’s actually one of the, they’ll tell you one of the golden rules in gunship, and you know, is when shooting expect to be fired upon, you know, and there’s, you know, there has been some lessons learned, you know, Desert Storm had the Spirit Zero three, you know, the gunship, they got shot down by a surface air missile. This is reason that we usually mostly fly at night. But yeah, I mean, your whole reason for shooting would be, you know, basically there’s these guys and girls on the ground, right? Like our nation’s very best man. And, you know, there’s letters on that squadron where like my, my, my wife behind, I guess the mission was like, there was this Ranger holding his baby girl, you know, and he’s basically thinking the squadron for the rounds. He’s able to go home and see his baby girl. And to me, that was the why, you know, people get caught up on the, you know, the enemy killed in action, but, but really it’s about making sure those guys get home to their family, you know? I tell you what, I was never in the military. I’m, as I’ve said before, I’m pretty sure that had I joined, I would have been killed by friendly fire.

[00:07:25:27 – 00:07:27:06]
This, I’m just too much of a smart

[00:07:29:18 – 00:07:29:25]
(Laughs) So,

[00:07:32:02 – 00:07:51:22]
but I would, I would have a lot of respect for those men that get on the ground and their elbow to elbow with people trying to kill them. Now I think the, the, the military does a really good job. I mean, obviously air support that you guys were doing, but just the idea of them running around the ground. I mean, you have to be a certain type of a

[00:07:51:22 – 00:08:06:04]
and, and the PTSD is completely understandable when you’re ready to be killed at any second. You never know when that bullet might be coming from, from a direct one direction or another. So, and I think you kind of go over this in your book, don’t you?

[00:08:07:06 – 00:08:50:14]
Yeah, definitely. And you know, when we were in Afghanistan, the surface to air threat wasn’t like at that point that high, you know, but when the ISIS conflict started, that’s when they really had some stuff that could sort of reach out and touch us, you know? And I remember flying man and, and the night you’d be scanning with your MBGs and there’s, these like, you know, beach ball size air bursts that you’re six o’clock. So they could hear the, and they knew about the gunship and the props, what we call the four fans of freedom, you know? And so they’re basically trying to, to get a lucky shot on us. But once they did that, you know, it was self-defense at that point and we would, you know, take care of them and stuff. But yeah, it was a, but the real, you know, I guess people that are really in harm’s way, man, as those guys breaching that door and, and they’re going in there to get a heavy hitter, if you will, you know what I mean? And, and again, you know, it’s,

[00:08:51:15 – 00:08:57:21]
you take a lot of basically pride, man, and getting that those guys, you know, the, the one in the 100, Harry Cleeds talks about home to their families. So,

[00:08:59:05 – 00:09:31:24]
I think it’s great that here in this recent conflict that we were involved in with Iran, at least not publicized any boots on the ground. I suspect that we probably had some boots on the ground, if not ours, the Israelis or from one of the others. But I’m glad that we didn’t have US soldiers put in arms, right? More, more so than what they were flying over it. And everybody did a stellar job. Are you, are you happy or sad that you weren’t involved in this one?

[00:09:32:29 – 00:10:37:05]
I mean, you know, I’m sad because like, you know, it’s in a way I have to get over myself with stuff like this, you know, and realize this machine keeps turning right. Like, you know, and you know, there’s, you see the air power, right? And air superiority and stuff like that. And then you had the, you know, basically air superiority. People talk about just the presence of American air power over a certain area, right? And a lot of times they forget about the present, the promise to that presence, I tell people. And that’s when you saw on Easter Sunday, you know, ironically that F-15, you know, Wizzo went down and you saw those mighty jolly greens going behind enemy lines, like putting it all out there, man. And those, those guys really do put it all out there to, you know, to make sure someone’s worst day is not their last. So yeah, I miss the camaraderie and I miss the brotherhood and sisterhood part of that, man. But yeah, you know, anybody that’s ever been in the war, I’ll tell you they don’t want to be in another one, you know? So, you know, hindsight, I wish we could do diplomacy 10 out of 10 times, right? But it’s not always the case. And, you know, people a lot smarter than me make those decisions, but yeah, I do miss being actually in the aircraft for my family, you know? Right.

[00:10:38:07 – 00:10:49:29]
So you mentioned ISIS and the battle that you were in. There was a president prior to this one that left a few billion dollars worth of equipment

[00:10:51:19 – 00:10:56:24]
for, you know, anybody to pick up. I mean, I’m surprised that it hasn’t been on eBay yet.

[00:10:57:26 – 00:11:08:00]
Can people that are not trained using that equipment figure it out if given enough time and I guess enough people to throw at it that get killed in the process?

[00:11:09:04 – 00:12:05:06]
Yeah, so I would say it would take time, you know, a lot of time, I guess, if you’ve never like, you look at a helicopter, the first time I saw one, I was like, man, how does this thing hover? How does this thing fly, you know? And I mean, just, you know, then there’s checklists. We’re very much creatures of habit. So we’ve been trained to– There’s a lot of mainnets to keep these things going too. Yeah, you know, mainnets and everything that, even though logistics for the mainnet, all that stuff. And yeah, I think it would be a lot of time and a lot of money that they could eventually get it, but nothing in the near future where they could just, you know, pick up something and know how to use it, Well, I think it sounds bad whenever you hear that you left 7 billion or whatever it was, all that equipment over there. I mean, you could at least blow it up. I think it’s better than leaving it operational. And I think that’s what the standard is, is to destroy the equipment or it can’t be used against you. But I don’t know that it’s, you think about it,

[00:12:06:14 – 00:12:13:25]
they’re not easy machines for the most part. I think a tank probably would be the easiest thing,

[00:12:15:01 – 00:14:19:18]
but I don’t know. Anyway, I think it’d be fun figuring it out, but I could well imagine it could really, several people could lose their lives, especially whenever you’re trying to learn how to drive the tank and you run over your buddy that’s out there next to the tracks by spinning it. Yeah, I think there’s some interesting videos of those guys trying to fly a 60 after we left the stuff like that. Oh, good Lord, that would be the, I would dearly love to fly a helicopter, but I’ve heard that flying helicopters, hovering a helicopter is so difficult. Oh yeah, yeah, you know, it’s basically, and there was a point in my career I went from fixed wing to rotary wing, man. And I really struggled, man, like having to like forget everything I thought I knew about flying an aerogunnery coming from this fixed wing platform, right? To a rotary wing platform. And I think there’s a moment in the book, man, we’re doing these minigun patterns and the racetrack type patterns in the helicopter in August, July or August in Albuquerque, man. And I didn’t eat right. I was sitting on the left for the first side and I was getting malfunctioned after malfunctioned after malfunctioned. I mean, there’s this moment to where like, man, I was like, I’m going to be sick for the first time ever in there, right? And so I was like, okay, well, if I leave my head this much out the door, when I puke, it won’t come back in the aircraft. Lo and behold, we had both doors in my instructor, my actually evaluator was in the back. And so I was like, right, and it came back and just boom, just fragged him in the back. (Laughing) He gives me one of these numbers, but yeah, we’re really good friends. We joke about it today, but yeah, but there’s definitely no, with rotor wing faking it to make it, man. Like I said, those guys are really, they put it out there, man, for they are the brothers keepers, you know? So I know in civilian flying, at least I think I know it’s been a while now, but the pilot command in a fixed wing is on the left and it’s on the right in a helicopter, a rotary blade. Right. I don’t know why that is. But is it the same in the military where your pilot command on the right or the left? Yeah, exactly. So when I went from gunships, the aircraft commander’s on the front left, right?

[00:14:20:24 – 00:14:55:12]
The left, and like you said, in helicopters he was on the right. And what I could gather, so if we’re doing a hoist on the right side of the aircraft because the hoist is on the 60, the right side, so he can just poke his head out and sort of see what’s going on. And we do practice to do cross cockpit, what we call crew resource management, and you’re doing all these different comms and it’s a very back-end enlisted driven thing like a hoist or something like that, or like one wheel hovers, for example. A lot of coordination, man, so. So when you were learning to be a helicopter pilot, you had to do an auto rotator, right?

[00:14:56:13 – 00:15:38:28]
Yeah, and I was traditionally a gunner and what they did was they combined the gunner with the flight engineer and low master crew foot on the gunship, and then for the helicopters it was a gunner and flight engineer. But yeah, you would actually train, they would decouple from the freewheeling unit, and then you would auto rotate starting about 1,000 feet. And the first time I did that, man, my stick buddy was laughing because my eyes were like huge, you know what I mean? But it was, I was like, man, what a pleasure and honor it is to get paid to do this, man. Oh yeah, and the top of the line equipment. It’s just, you’re cutting edge on things there. From that aspect of it, I think it would have been very interesting to me to be involved in the military. But there’s a lot of boring downtime as well, right?

[00:15:40:03 – 00:16:01:20]
Oh yeah, yeah, there’s a lot of a hurry up and wait, as they call it, you know. You know, it’s, the gunship mission was more like every, almost every night you’re going out there and you’re doing these missions. You may shoot once a week, you may shoot once a month, depending on the situation. But you know, 60s and the rescue side of things, and I get it now, that’s definitely a job you never want to have to do, right? Right.

[00:16:02:23 – 00:16:07:00]
But it does happen, and it’s usually after a long waiting period, you know.

[00:16:08:06 – 00:16:44:24]
Like I said, there’s things in the Air Force like one– Well, they’re waiting for you too, right? I mean, if you’re doing a rescue mission, they may not know where the down pilot or crew member is, but they general vicinity, and all they have to do is follow the helicopter to pinpoint the area. So it’s a very dangerous mission. On the 130 stuff that you did, did that ever get routine to you? Or you were like, “Oh, another day, another 50 cents. Let’s go out there and get it done.” Because it would be really exciting to me at first and also too terrifying. But after a while, did you kind of, does that kind of get used to it?

[00:16:45:29 – 00:17:21:14]
So I definitely like always chase that feeling of like, you know, that moment to where like, it’s a troops in contact and they call us in overhead and you see the enemy through the flare, just see them start running like bees. Like I chased that moment as, I don’t know, as vain or bad as that sounds, you know what I mean? But the bigger picture was we’re getting our guys home because of our rounds, you know? So, but yeah, I think it was a sense of relevance thing that I never always loved, you know, hearing those words clear to engage, you know? And definitely knew it was game time at that point. Well, you’re out there, you’re doing a job. And when you’re clear to engage, you’re doing that job. I mean, as distasteful as it may be,

[00:17:22:16 – 00:17:25:21]
you don’t have to be in that situation if countries got along.

[00:17:27:02 – 00:18:12:11]
You know, so yeah, you got to get the job done and you can’t just say, well, I don’t, I’ve found religion and I can’t do this tonight, you know? Definitely, yeah. It’s definitely, like I said, I loved being a close air support platform for those guys, you know? Now, did you ever get to fire the weapons from the gunship or was that something that you did? Or I don’t know, what was your job? Or I guess maybe it was different jobs inside the gunship. Yeah, so on the AC-130 gunship, the traditional gunner or Smiley calls now, but you’re basically, your meat potatoes, where you really make your money is malfunction analysis. You’re loading, basically you’re clearing out malfunctions. And a lot of times you have seconds to get this gun back online, right? And you know, I know that sounds simple, but you could imagine this is doing

[00:18:12:11 – 00:19:15:27]
Well, it’s a high pressure situation. Oh yeah. And you’re not the only one looking at it. Everybody else is looking at you. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, and you can hear the, you know, the comms and the guys on the ground when they’re getting shot at and like, come on, get that gun back online. And so there’s this, it’s a very like, you find a lot about yourself in those moments, man. And definitely the only like pulling the trigger as people like to say, for the 105 millimeter, which, you know, that thing’s basically like, if you were to put a tank on the side of this cargo aircraft, right? There would be moments where the firing cylinder would go out and we would take parachute cord, 550 cord, and you know, engine doing itself and basically tie it to the firing pole and almost turn into a flying artillery guy and you’d get the red or red fire call and you would quote unquote pull the trigger at that point. But on 60s, you’re definitely in point weapons as the smaller gunner, you know, with a minigun and or the 50 cal so. Oh yeah, I was actually, I just saw a thing about the 130 attack aircraft that we were talking about on TikTok earlier. And they were talking about the various guns and the 105.

[00:19:17:05 – 00:19:30:21]
So this one also had the, what was it? 20 millimeter minigun and a 30 millimeter. I wouldn’t say it was rapid fire because it’s kind of a boof, boof, boof, boof. Oh yeah. But 30 millimeters, I mean, how many of those do you have to fire quickly?

[00:19:31:25 – 00:20:15:23]
Yeah, so, and that’s a very good question, man. So the H model guns here, right? The traditional, like the one I was talking about, six, nine, seven, two, when I flown them, we had the 40 mil Beau Force cannon, which actually Chrysler Corporation, if you look at the back of it, if you look at the back of it, it’s like CC for Chrysler Corporation. I could ask you that sometimes as a gunner. And then the 105 millimeter was like, I’m saying like this tank that– Well, it’s a World War II, a palitzer one day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it recodes up to 49 inches before we have to shut it down. But at one point, they had the 220 mils up front. And then the U model back then, the gunship was the 40 mil 105 and the 25 millimeter Gatlin gun, sort of what I think he’s talking about. And then nowadays, yeah, that’s when you got the 30 mil Bushmaster, basically it’s a literally driven air school champion.

[00:20:16:25 – 00:20:55:23]
Yeah, and it’s 200 rounds per minute, man. And I got a pretty gnarly video of that, but yeah, I think heats up quick too. So it’s definitely turned into sort of like a bomb truck now with SDBs and the wings and griffins on the back. And so not a traditional like gunship, like I started out on, but I was biased at first to be honest with you. And I was like, man, I don’t want to be on a bomb truck. I want to be on a gun ship. I’m a gunner, right? And by the first time you see what those weapons could do, man, to our enemies, you’re like, all right, man, this is where it’s at, right? It’s insane. I often talk about if you don’t want to get anything done, you don’t want to have a meeting, where you have a big meeting and everybody sitting around the table. But I can see, I could kind of go for this kind of meeting, like, well, we’ve got a big plane. What kind of

[00:20:55:23 – 00:21:07:08]
can we put on it that just beat the hell out of people on the ground? Well, we got these 105s that we’re not doing anything with. Can we fit one in there? So I can just imagine, because there were some sick

[00:21:07:08 – 00:21:08:14]
coming up with what,

[00:21:09:18 – 00:21:38:10]
and not just one gun, there’s like the three big honking guns on this thing. Do you guys have any kind of air support whenever you’re flying your mission? Do the A-10s or F-16s come and go, F-18s come and go? So in Afghanistan and the ISIS conflict, we didn’t have like a, what we would call like, someone like a Sandy fighter or something like that, like supporting us, like the air to air type stuff, right? But sort of on your own at that point,

[00:21:39:12 – 00:22:08:05]
this new day and age, I don’t know how they’re doing things now over there, or if they’re even over there, but it’s definitely, we’d had nobody but us besides getting a tank or getting gas. Oh yeah, of course, you’re there all night. So how many times would you have to fill up during the night? And I would think that you’re not doing any evasive, really any evasive, you’re just flying in a circle. So I would imagine the fuel consumption is pretty much the same. I guess it all depends on the weather and the wind, but.

[00:22:09:10 – 00:22:24:15]
Yeah, and that’s another thing as a smother, especially as a, you’re calculating, okay, about this point in the flight, what is my fuel gonna be at, you know, 5,000 pounds per hour with fuel? So does the pilot do anything else? Does some of these pilots become NASCAR drivers because they’re always driving in a turn?

[00:22:25:20 – 00:23:03:17]
Man, you get it actually the other day, I compare that to a NASCAR with guns, man, if you put two guns on an NASCAR, but yeah. But yeah, the pilot does a lot, the aircraft commander, man, he’s got the, in the end, he has the overall responsibility, you know, for a round leaving the aircraft, but we always like to say there’s no rank on the aircraft from the aircraft commander down to the, the Dennis And the team has to be successful. Yeah. Oh yeah. And they definitely like special, the 16 special operations, they’re real good about like, you know, crew resource management. Everybody has an opinion. Everybody has a vote for this, right? So a lot of times there’s no black and white right and wrong, it’s either safe or unsafe, you know, as cliche as that sounds.

[00:23:10:02 – 00:24:40:19]
All right. So I’m having fun talking to you about middle military stuff and especially about aviation. Aviation is so much fun to me, civilian side of things, but I haven’t flown in years. I don’t want to give the illusion that I’m a regular flyer. I mean, it’s, it’s been a very long time, but it’s still a lot of fun. So this is, do you have this type of stuff in the book that we’ve been discussing or does the book go in another direction? Yeah, it, you know, it has definitely some aviation, some operations I was on from the gunship and the rescue helicopter. And then it also has grown up in Appalachia, you know, and sort of the roots part being that, you know, sort of the morals and friendships and family that molded me when I was younger, then, you know, it’s good to know where you come from, but to me, it’s always more important to know where you’re going and that’s where the wings part in the Air Force definitely gave me that opportunity, you know, to see the world and to leave somewhat of a footprint on it, you know? So did you get PTSD from your military service? I did, yes. Especially on the rescue side of things, you know, in that job. Oh, yes, of course. Yeah, you know, sometimes, man, you can see the worst thing that could happen to somebody and I don’t wish that on anybody, you know, and it was a mission, June 8th, 2018 in East Africa and, you know, and I, we saw the best side of combat search and rescue that day, right, being the saving five guys and one guy, when he died, he got back on the operating table, he died, you know, so we saw the worst side and I tell people, man, another reason why I wrote it is because this is what goes on when you’re sleeping and I want to tell America a lot and, you know, these stories dying and saying that someone’s brother, someone’s son, someone’s friend that made that sacrifice for our freedoms, you know.

[00:24:42:06 – 00:24:49:13]
So I find it interesting, you said that you miss it and you’d like to still be doing it. Even after you’ve gone through all this stuff with the PTSD,

[00:24:50:14 – 00:24:53:16]
you wouldn’t choose to not go and do it.

[00:24:54:25 – 00:24:58:23]
I mean, it’s, I mean, I’m sure it’s changed your life.

[00:24:59:28 – 00:26:43:24]
To me, it was everything, you know, actually, I’m gonna sum this up with a quote I heard the other day and it goes something like this, you know, the very definition of hell is you’re the last day on earth, the person you became meets the person you could have become, you know. And my grandfather asked me one time, he’s like, man, do you remember your great, great, great, great, great grandparents and I don’t, I should have, but I didn’t, you know. The point that he was making is like, it’s, you know, you can leave this earth, people can remember you or they won’t, you know, for something good or for something, nothing at all, you know. So definitely I wanted to be part of that fight and serve the highest capacity I could, you know. I haven’t said it, but I always do. Thank you for your service, I really appreciate it. I grew up, I was very young at the time, but I did grow up around the Vietnam War and it was horrible, horrible. I didn’t have any kind of, I mean, like I said, I was young, so much of it, I didn’t care more so than just Americans being killed and seeing it on the news. Well, they actually took film cameras out there here in Vietnam and they would report it on the news using the film that they had recovered, gosh, like 14 hours earlier. It’s amazing where we are now with our technology. But whenever the soldiers came back from Vietnam, it was insane, I don’t know why in the world, anybody that’s protecting your way of life, I mean, you can disagree with a war, that’s fine, but the people that went out there to put their lives on the line to protect us or to project our power to maybe even help a people, kind of like what just happened in Iran. I mean, supposedly the Iranian government killed 35 to 40,000 of their people because they were protesting.

[00:26:44:25 – 00:26:47:27]
I don’t like the idea of us being police, but

[00:26:47:27 – 00:27:06:22]
it, letting stuff like this go on in the world, I don’t, and when you have the ability to do something about it, I don’t think it’s right. I think you need to tell them, diplomatically first, stop that, and then if they don’t stop that, go and encourage them vigorously to stop that.

[00:27:07:23 – 00:28:14:20]
Yeah, and there’s also another quote that goes, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Exactly. And I think that’s, I definitely wanted to, again, serve the country at the highest capacity I could, just make my family proud and try to do it with as much honor as I could. And I did go through some dark times while I was in, I got a lot of help for that, and prolonged exposure on meds now, and I’m not ashamed to say that, but I think I’m a constant work in progress, but at least I could say I lived, and I got to aviate, navigate, and communicate, man, and the best squad in the world. Do you keep up with any of the old people, the teams that you were a part of? Oh yeah, actually, I do the flight simulators here on Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, so it’s rare, but I still see some of the men and women I used to fly with anywhere from pilots to gunners, stuff like that, and it’s, man, it’s just such an awesome life, man, and just flying, man, there’s something about it, and once you do it, you’re hooked, man. Once you do that first mission, I won’t do that for the rest of my life in that moment. You ever get to get any simulator time? Don’t tell me yes if you’re not supposed to.

[00:28:15:22 – 00:29:19:29]
Yeah, I mean, we definitely get in there and see if I can put it on the ground as a gunner, and stuff like that, and see what the pilots are actually going through, and my whole job now is to basically create these scenarios for the AC-130s, the MC, and the U-28, and basically, the idea is it could be emergency procedure, could be a threat, dodging the threat or something like that, and we’re in the gunship shooting actual targets, and it actually moves when we shoot the simulator, so it’s pretty crazy. Oh, that’s neat. Yeah, man, and it’s, I tell people, I’ve never been a video game guy, man, but I get to literally go play an $80 million video game every day, you know, but the beauty of the fruit and that labor would be, as you get those guys, these scenarios that maybe you’ve had, and like, when they get downrange and it happens, they take a second, and like, okay, I’ve been here before, I’ve been here 100 times in training, this is what it is. So you see that sort of, you know, that fruits from that labor, you know? Yeah, I can well imagine that there are some virtual 3D stuff going on, not in that simulator, but some virtual stuff where you put the headset on, and especially for the ground soldiers, to go into an area and study and learn that,

[00:29:21:06 – 00:30:01:00]
especially with our satellites and stuff, I imagine the detail is very, very rich. I recently got a VR headset and I was telling my wife, I bet you the military has something that’s so beyond this, because if you can go and train in the area that you’re going in, it’s so much better. I mean, it’s wonderful. It’s 100% right, 100% right on that, yeah. And the same thing with the simulators, you can go and do these scenarios that you probably will never have the, I don’t want to say the ability or to enjoy it, but it is, it’s a challenge, and then whenever you go through the challenge, you’ve learned it. World War II, that wasn’t the case. I mean, you had hours that you flew, combat missions that you flew, and that was your simulation.

[00:30:02:08 – 00:30:31:03]
But these simulators, I have this vision in my head of the simulators that you run, like the ones that I’ve seen in Intercontinental Airport here in Houston. They’re huge, absolutely huge, and I can well imagine that that would just be a blast. You guys ever mess with the pilots? Let’s see what he can do with this one. Throw this one in there. Yeah, can’t confirm or deny, but you know. Yeah, exactly, good, good. Is there still fun in the military unless you can

[00:30:31:03 – 00:30:33:13]
with somebody? Oh yeah, 100% yeah.

[00:30:35:08 – 00:30:44:13]
All right, well let’s get back to the book here. So tell me more about the book. What are the highlights that you think people should look for in the book, and why they should buy it, frankly?

[00:30:45:16 – 00:30:55:14]
Yeah, definitely a kid, you know, grew up in a small town, and basically decided to leave that and serve my country, you know, and it’s got anything from some

[00:30:55:14 – 00:34:09:00]
dick and fart jokes, there’s some funny moments in there, there’s some very, the darkest moments of my life in there, man, where I decided to choose a better over bitter, you know. And basically it’s a guy who wanted to live a house money life, is the chapter I called that in the book, you know. And with life, how much more aggressively would we get before we were playing on the house’s money, man? And basically a kid decided that, you know, probably still a reasonable fifth-year level just to go get it, man, and then to try to write it down and paint a picture for one, if one person gets help reading this book, we talk about the 22 a day and stuff like that, with mental health and veterans, then that’s a blessing, that’s a win. And again, the second point to show the rest of America, hey, this is what really goes on when you’re sleeping, and you know, freedom’s definitely not free, so. So correct me if I’m wrong on this, this is for the people that don’t know about the 22 a day, the 22 a day is a mission to keep 22 military people and current or former from committing suicide. Yeah, and that was the 22 at the time when they got that average, that number, that was the amount of the veterans, believe it or not, that was taking their lives within America. And so, you know, even one is too many, I look at it like that, but you know, if I look at it this way, I can either talk about it, man, or I can actually try to help someone, you know, and I tell people like, when you’re checking on your battle buddy, wingman, even your four quarters you call friends and not your hundred pennies, right? Like, you know them and they know you, so there’s a difference between saying, how’s it going, brother? Or like, hey man, how you doing really, bro? What’s going on? You know what I mean? Yeah, it’s not just a standard greeting that you lied to everybody there, how you doing fine? Yeah. Well, do you just want the fine response or do you really wanna know, that type of thing? Yeah, and every now and then they’ll tell you what’s really going on, man, and that’s sometimes you could save someone’s life, you never know, bro. Well, just talking about it, it’s amazing how much you can get off your, out of your brain and off your shoulders, the weight by talking to somebody about it. Do you cover therapy in the book at all? Cause I think that, I think you can’t mandate therapy, but you should make it really easy for people to get therapy, to get through this stuff. Yeah, 100% I did the prolonged exposure through, USOCOM has this thing called the preservation of the force of family. So each of these types of squadrons, right? Whether it’s Air Force, Army, et cetera, you have a psychiatrist, you have a physical trainer and a physical therapist in these type of things. And she was a civilian lady and what had happened, man, was especially after the cast effect, especially after this loss of identity happens, where I realized the end’s near him at past 20 years at that point. And what was the weekend drinking habit became at least upon a night with pills, man, you name it to go to sleep, really tearing up myself, man. And my wife was a game that ultimately, hey, it’s either the bottle or me and your daughter. I tell people, I’ve been called many call signs, arrow gunner, smile, Uncle Tito, which is about drinking in itself. And the best call someone ever has when my daughter called me dad, man. And that’s when I decided to get help when I did the prolonged exposure therapy. And I tell people, man, remove that stigma. If you’re in a leadership type spot, no matter where you are, when your troops see you get help, like I saw other people get help, it’s contagious and you’ll realize it is okay to get help.

[00:34:10:05 – 00:36:07:08]
Again, it’s okay not to be okay, but it’s not okay to do nothing about that as we look at it. Well, it’s such a relief. I went through a divorce when I was in my early thirties and my now ex-wife and I went at her request to therapy and she didn’t wanna, she just stopped going because she didn’t, it wasn’t all my fault. She didn’t like that. So she stopped going, but I kept going because I didn’t wanna make the same mistake that I had made that time. And after that, I now look at it like it’s not a weakness. It’s a huge help because even though we were raised by great people and lived a great life up to the point that we lived, there’s things that you miss. There’s things that you don’t understand. And especially in your situation, you were doing things that a lot of us don’t have never done. And so who’s gonna teach you how to handle these things? So I think, I’m gonna do a Star Trek reference. So when Star Trek, the next generation came out, they had a spot on the bridge for a therapist and she was right there on the bridge and she would talk to people about their feelings and all that stuff. I think everybody should go through therapy, whether you’re having a problem or not, just so you can have some questions answered about the right and wrong and this is my belief and I know it’s right, but something doesn’t, have that validation as to me being right. And I can well imagine that some of the thoughts and feelings that you had in your military service, you were confused about and it just helps somebody guide you. I mean, they don’t tell you if you’re right or wrong, but they guide you through that reassurance that you did the right thing or so on and so forth. So I think the therapy side of things is very important. Yeah, and I think just like with your Jeep, right? Like you know when the schedule maintenance is, right? Some of those other bumps that may have threw something off course in the way, man, that’s the ones that you should,

[00:36:08:10 – 00:37:09:25]
there’s nothing wrong with taking it into the mechanic just to see, right? So I look at it as almost like a checkup type thing with a vehicle, you know? And I definitely tell people, man, it’s not if it’s winning that life where all this stuff bulls over, you hit that pulling point and it’s okay to take that tactical knee, man. And in the end, in these type of professions, we have to be able to trust you with our best friend’s life. And someone explained that to me once and that really hit home to seek help and see that it’s okay to get help. I did give the psychiatrist with a very big chip on my shoulder the cliche of like, she’s like, “Well, you know,” I was like, “Well, you wouldn’t call your dentist to fix your car or something like that.” She said, and I was like, “Well, you know, what if he’s a mechanic?” You know, and I may be an idiot, but realizing like this lady knows so much about my psyche that I never knew. So I said, “Give it a chance and you’ll be surprised what happens, man.” (Laughs) So I would imagine therapists have some very interesting things. I wonder who therapists talk to about what they go through every day.

[00:37:10:28 – 00:37:52:02]
That’s a good question, man. I saw this thing and it was a very real moment. I didn’t put this in the book. I didn’t know if I should say this, but you know when they’re writing something down, it was like a meme I saw the day. I did something like this. I was like, “Can I see, you know,” and this laughing moment with the therapist, but you definitely, man, that prolonged exposure therapy, you’re getting comfortable being uncomfortable, man, and it definitely made me a better father, a better husband, better airman, you know? I think that we are put here to learn how to deal with fear, because fear will stop you from thinking correctly and you’ll make wrong decisions. So I think that is our reason, dealing with fear and just knowing it’s gonna be okay.

[00:37:53:05 – 00:38:14:13]
It’s a problem, it sucks. I don’t like being in this, but I’ll just step through it like I always do and I’ll be a success having that confidence to complete what you need to do. So yeah, and I think that your book probably helps people with that and also too gives people that have no idea, has never experienced what you experienced, just a taste of that.

[00:38:15:23 – 00:40:02:22]
Oh yeah, and it definitely takes you through to all the emotions within a couple of hours is the most common feedback I get on it. You know, and it’s got some of the, again, the funniest moments of my life, the happiest and then the darkest man. And there’s a saying in the book that I quoted Henry Ford, right? When you’re going through something, you’re going through the worst moments of your life, man, that he says that aircraft takes off against someone not with it, right? So we can’t have lift without some drag, as per a city drag, right? So I think that’s part of life, man, that’s part of being human and it’s part of getting on the other side of that dark tunnel, man, to that light, man. So it’s a get help if you need it and you’ll be glad you did, so. You know, you mentioned the Jeep taking it to somebody to be repaired. I don’t mind taking it to be repaired on some things that I’m questionable about doing, but I’m standing there watching them and then it dawned on me, you’re getting in a plane every night that somebody else has worked on. Did you, were I ever nervous about the mechanics that were maintaining that plane? I mean, after a while you kind of get used to it, but they could have a bad day, they could have a bad night and they could miss something. I mean, I guess the worst case is, the plane doesn’t fall out of the air, you can always fly back and tell them to get it right this time. Yeah, I will say, from what I experienced, our maintainers are the best in the world at what they do in Air Force Special Operations Command. They’re, man, they burn them in at all, you name it, whatever they gotta do to get that bird ready, and I trust them with my life, I’m sure they trust us with theirs, you know? So definitely it’s, you see the big picture between the mechanics, between the logistics people, between the intel people, and this big beautiful thing called air power comes together, man, so it’s an awesome thing to see. So would you say your book is for military people or civilians or yes?

[00:40:04:12 – 00:40:09:12]
Yeah, I would say both, yeah, and definitely for people in uncommon type jobs, I would say.

[00:40:11:14 – 00:40:12:25]
Any plans for an audio book?

[00:40:14:10 – 00:40:35:12]
Yeah, yeah, man, I’ve heard that a few times. I wouldn’t know how to do that, I don’t want to talk to my publisher about that, but it would sound very Appalachian if I did it, man. Like I said, I was telling you earlier, man, I probably still read in the fifth grade level that twang was coming out. I would get Vin Diesel, personally, I would get Vin Diesel, and instead of him actually speaking every word, he just says Groot, so over and over and over again.

[00:40:37:15 – 00:40:41:16]
(Laughing) Something Groot. I’m gonna call me Groot one time, man. The Groot Special Edition.

[00:40:42:28 – 00:41:03:04]
What was that rock from Guardians of the Galaxy, the rock sort of structure guy? Not Groot, what was his name? I know there was one that had the Australian accent that was from Marvel that was with the– Was it Korgers or, yeah, the rock guy, I mean, somebody called me that guy one time and said, I was like, do I sound nothing like that guy? He was funny, he was really funny.

[00:41:05:05 – 00:41:37:05]
(Laughing) So, all right, so the books for everyone, you can get it at Amazon, what did you say, Environments of Noble, pretty much any place you can get a regular book, right? Yeah, exactly, yeah. Oh, congratulations on getting somebody to help you publish your book because that’s an ordeal as well, isn’t it? Oh yeah, because what had happened, I had at least what I thought was enough for a book and on LinkedIn of all things, I reached out– Then they corrected you. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I reached out to a war journalist on LinkedIn and I think I searched something like,

[00:41:38:16 – 00:42:37:12]
editors for military stories or something like that and she responded with him in, it’s Holly McKay, the war journalist and man, she did a really good job, man, because about like, there’s a word document going back and forth, man, she’s like, hey, what are you really trying to say here? What does acting mean here? Like getting everything out of me, man, that I didn’t think I had in me, you know what I mean? And give my work seat. It was then she recommended a publisher, which is the hardware of your book, you know, the cover page and stuff like that. Oh, I know you have a copy of the book, show that for the folks that are here watching us on YouTube and Spotify. Yeah, so it’s Moonchild, it’s me and the H Model Gunsuit, you see the cheeks on it right there, it’s how you recognize it and then it’s got me and my mask in the back, was sort of mixed in with a moon. I probably had many craters on my face real, but you know, so, awesome experience to get to write a book, you know? Yeah, oh, I imagine and that’s kind of a therapy thing as well, right, because it’s like talking it out, but you’re putting it on paper and then you have the wonderful position to be in where everybody’s correcting you.

[00:42:38:25 – 00:44:37:08]
(Laughing) What the hell does this mean? Do more of this, do less of this, yeah. Yeah, it was an awesome experience, but I will say what I found out, what writing works for me, and I’m not this huge famous author, probably never will be, probably never be, I mean, I’m never from writing books, but what I will say, what has worked a little bit for me is the thing you’re afraid to say the most, man, throw that on paper and just see how far would your words travel, bro. Exactly, so Moonchild is the name of the book and I gotta ask you before we wrap up, tell us about all the UFOs and UAPs, especially that one that you flew. Yeah, I wish I’d have the opportunity and somebody like me would probably– That’d be a different book, right? You wouldn’t even talk about it, you’d say, well, I’ll tell you about it in my next book, that’s a good teaser. Yeah, I mean, I wish, I mean, I think that it is what they call the age of disclosure now, right? And you’re seeing this stuff starting to come out and since the beginning of time, we’ve always wondered if we’re alone in the universe and I think it’s very probable and possible for us not to be the only intelligent life and there’s so much to it, the universe, that we’re learning about, how in the hell, what kind of mathematical idiot would be that there would be one intelligent life form? It just doesn’t make any sense. Yeah, because I thought about the idea, I can’t even in my mind process how big this universe is, it’s still growing, right? Or how old this universe really is, man. And I think that, yeah, there’s a very good likelihood, especially with all this smoke now, right? There has to be somewhat of a fire. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you got some decorated aviators in Senate hearings, man, like, seeing some stuff. I personally never seen anything I couldn’t explain, I always wanted to, right? But yeah, I mean, I think we’re not alone if I would have to put money on it. So this is so funny, I’ve got a good friend, fellow jeeper, came out to one of the Jeep talk show events that is a Naval aviator, used to be, he’s a pilot, commercial pilot now for many years. But he actually flew with and trained with

[00:44:38:22 – 00:44:44:16]
Captain Farber, the guy that actually had the TikTok video and was in front of Congress and stuff.

[00:44:45:20 – 00:45:55:10]
And you’ll love this, because you’re military. He told me, you know how they put the call sign or the name on the pilot’s canopy, F18, side of the canopy? He was sexual Farber. So they were doing a little twist, but they never talked about that. They were talking about that in front of the Congressman and stuff. Oh yeah, yeah, you know what’s funny about the gunship, I actually got a picture, I may send it to you, but it’s aircraft number seven three. And you know the Tyree scene in Transformers, right? Where he’s like bringing the rain, you know? And they actually put a Decepticon on the side of the gunship. Because, you know, sometimes the guys for tradition, they would put a stick man on the side of the gunship and a certain one meant so many enemy killed in action. But yeah, somebody went ahead and threw a Decepticon on there, man, I always get a kick out of that picture. Oh yeah, that’s really cool. So, and I’ll just wrap up with this, we laugh and enjoy the idea that we’re taking care of the enemy. Of course, they’re people. I don’t think anybody really wants to kill people, but like I said earlier, if countries got together and did what was best for them and the rest of the world, then we wouldn’t have this situation. I’m not saying the US is always right, but

[00:45:55:10 – 00:46:18:27]
damn it, we don’t have to be because we got the firepower. Yeah, I mean, we got, what is it, the richest, most powerful, probably most feared country in the world, man. I think it took a lot of, you know, a lot of spilled blood for that freedom, you know, for that flag, so. And I really appreciate everybody putting together all these amazing machines and training the amazing people, our soldiers.

[00:46:20:08 – 00:46:25:22]
I just don’t know. I just don’t know if I was in charge in another country that I’d want to do anything to

[00:46:25:22 – 00:47:38:17]
the United States off. I mean, I think we’re slow to act, but when we act, we do it and get it done. At least that’s the way I like seeing it as an American. Oh yeah, you know, and if I could, to tie it to some Jeep stuff here, man, you know, I talk about ingenuity. There’s something about Americans, man, where when we have to do something, we do it. If you ever notice, like our greatest generation, like World War II, right? So Eisenhower himself said that the Jeep and the C-47 aircraft was two of the primary things that won us that war, you know? Absolutely. And I think, you know what I mean? And I think that level of awesomeness in the country and togetherness and the ingenuity and just again, just living bold, you know? And it’s still there. It hasn’t changed. That ingenuity and the honor of being American is still there, just like it was in World War II. Yeah, like I said, that spirit was freedom, and so. Very, very good. Anthony, I certainly appreciate you being here with us today. Good luck with the book. I’ll have to go over to Amazon and check it out, especially look for the Kindle version. Kindle’s so nice. I mean, if you get the physical book, that’s cool too, but really all it winds up doing is, you know, it goes in the shelf in the background. You got all these books.

[00:47:39:17 – 00:47:54:28]
(Laughing) Yeah, but the book Kindle sold is instantly available and it’s a– It’s with you. It’s on your phone, it’s in a tablet, it’s on your computer. So yeah, I think I really like that. Actually get both, get a Kindle and a regular book. Are you doing, are you having any plans on doing autographs on the book?

[00:47:56:09 – 00:48:24:06]
Yeah, every now and then I’ll send a signed one. Somebody emails me at anthonyp.direcjmo.com. I do my best to try to, you know, within my financial means, get them a copy that’s signed and everything like that. Yeah, and also I did one book signing back home last July in my City Lights bookstore in Silver, North Carolina, and that was an awesome experience, man. So are you on the social media? Yeah, yeah, so Instagram would be all lowercase marco_brolo21, and then

[00:48:25:21 – 00:48:48:10]
Facebook versus Moonchild is me looking out the window with some NPGs on and the Moon, so. So just, I think it would be fun to do. It’s not good PR, I think it’s just funny. Self-deprecating humor, I think it’s funny. You go to a book signing and you set up to sign the books 30 minutes prior to the event time, and you just sit there waiting to sign books.

[00:48:50:05 – 00:49:40:14]
(Laughing) Somebody, somebody. I’ve been looking at a few people here. Come here, help me, I’m all alone. I just, I think people would find that funny. Yeah, and look, I was so nervous for that team, man, because people, it was people I hadn’t seen in like, I don’t know, 30 years or so, man, you know, and it was just very emotional, very overwhelming, man, but they showed up, man, and I went to trade my little small town there and nestled in Appalachia for nothing, man, so. Oh, why do you not whistle in the woods in Appalachia? Because it invites, basically when you’re in one of the woods and you whistle, it invites whatever entity that is. There’s mountain hanks, there’s the Appalachia skinwalkers, and basically you’re inviting that spirit in as the tail behind it, you know? So people still have stills and drink a lot of booze that is questionable in that area, right? So that’s probably the reason for the whistling.

[00:49:41:16 – 00:49:44:27]
Yeah, probably, probably let them know the feds are coming, you know? Oh, yeah.

[00:49:46:00 – 00:49:59:21]
Like that’s really where NASCAR started, you know, was– Oh, yeah, driving the booze. Yeah, that’s really cool. All right, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so much, and I’m glad that you go by Anthony and not Tony, because having another Tony on here would just be rough.

[00:50:01:00 – 00:50:13:08]
Yeah, I was actually thinking about that too, man. But yeah, it was honestly a pleasure and honor to be here, Tony, and I appreciate, you know, your platform and letting me get on here and speak to some of these things, so thank you. Sure, absolutely. You have a great day.

[00:50:15:12 – 00:50:17:09]
You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.