Ep 563: The Air Force Told Her “You Can’t”

0:00One, two, three, go! Look at me like I'm crazy, but I don't care anyway. I'm just really doing what I got to do, and I got no plans to quit. So I just gotta keep rocking, I do know that's what it is. Every shot that I do not take, I am guaranteed to miss. So I better grab that rifle and start lining up the hits.

1:00What's up everybody, we're gonna hop right into this one. It is a fantastic episode with Christy K.P. Parks, one of the best combat mission support. It's called Swims Now, Special Warfare Mission Support, Personnel I've ever met in my entire life. She's just one of those people that just fix this problem. We talk about multi-capable airmen and all these other things. K.P. started off her life just in regular, old, air-cooled, air-cooled flight equipment. She was working on other planes and packing shoots, and that just wasn't enough for her story as ridiculous. From becoming, we're gonna say that she was the first female one-pop a jump master in the Air Force. She has a crazy career at a bunch of Tier 1 units. She's just absolutely fantastic. She's still doing good work 27 years in. Trent, that podcast was great. I don't know. I mean, she's like a bunch of the dudes that we talked to. She's like, well, you know, we made a lot of these things happen and we kind of worked on this. It's like, no, K.P. you were the driving force behind a ton of this change because of who you are and just being unwilling

2:02to not make things better, you know? Yeah, so fantastic. Great episode with K.P. If you guys are looking for the absolute best stuff, go over to our ones-ready page. You go down to attack them. You know, you're gonna have to do it. The absolute best stuff. Go over to our ones-ready page. You go down to attack lead. If you're looking for anything to train yourself, maybe you're getting ready to go to an operator training summit and you need the gear that you're gonna train with from the people that have actually graduated and weren't just like, you know, students their entire career from people that were actually instructors. And I shouldn't have to go through a pipeline just to work in there. Yeah, I think I'm gonna just say that a lot now. Yeah. Well, we decided to delete you from all upcoming OTSs to protect the brand. I only heard deployments not a pipeline or selection. Go over to attack lead. You can check them out from our partner's page. They're right here. You can bring up literally everything from entire packs, PJ, spec war gear, everything you got. Look, Chair, Peter has sent you 10% off. You can get all this stuff over at attack lead.com. They've been a day one. We've been with them forever. You can basically just go over there and check them out. You've got fins, goggles, everything you need from training down to bags. And it's not just app spec war, rescue swimmer,

3:03ranger, brux, all kinds of stuff. They're fantastic. We love attack lead over there. You'll get the discount if you go directly from the page. So there you go. And we're going to, without further ado, we're going to go on and we're going to check out this fantastic episode with aerial flight equipment superstar KP parts. It's a great one. Have fun. It is. I love it when we get out of podcast and all three people on throw a quick lip pillow in before we start. Welcome back to the podcast. Everybody, it's me. It's our good Fred KP. Now, I don't even know how to make an intro for the person, the single support person that I have the most love in my heart for from literally my entire career. KP Kristen Parks. She's AFE by trade. That's nowhere near the entire story behind KP. She is fantastic. We'll tell stories about Iraq and being on the best search and rescue team that ever existed. Go Yankees. Shout out to us. Yes. And all the rest. KP, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for coming on. How are you? I'm doing very well. Just super excited to be here and talk with you guys like I think for the support side of AFE,

4:06especially when it comes to aspect four, we don't get a lot of recognition, but we definitely love talking with you guys and being a part of something to get some information out there. And I don't know why you don't get more love considering you've saved my life six individual times during my career because at how many cutaways I had. So we'll talk about it. So KP, you've been in almost 27 years now. Did I have that right? Yep, 27 in May. 27 in May. So what got you into the Air Force way back before 2001? Well, I come actually from a long line of military, both my parents were in, my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles. So really, I went to college off the bat and then college just wasn't really my forte. I played basketball, but I needed something different. So I came home one day and my older brother was already in the Air Force and him and my father are sitting around the kitchen table. I come home from work one day and my dad's like, you're going into the Air Force. And I was like, threatened me with a good time.

5:06I was like, okay, he's like, you're going to go visit your brother. He was stationed out in Illinois at Scott Air Force Base at the time. Went out there for a week, talked to a ray of different AFSCs and came home, went to the recruiter. And I just looked at him, I said, where do I sign? And he was like, I haven't even given you the spill yet. I was like, I don't need it. I was like, I'm just ready to rock and roll. Little did I know job wise, though, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. So of course, you know, taking the ASFAB. My three jobs were SWAT, survival equipment and AFE. So SWAT team. Shirtwater and trash. That's a fantastic answer. Listen, guys, there's tons of resources out there so that you don't get SWAT. You can use the free ASFAB study stuff.

6:07So that's the funniest thing I probably ever had in my life. So I read the descriptions and AFE was the one that I liked that talked about being able to go do survival training, being outdoors, working on airframes. Just got, you know, the general description that you get. I'm not a kind of behind the desk kind of gal. I guess now I am as you move up. But I took that leap of faith. And nine months later, I was in basic training and then off to tech school, which was only five weeks and four days. And then at my first base. So pretty much from going to basic tech school, I was at my first base, fair child in three months. Dang. Yeah. What was, I'm curious. What was the general Air Force vibe? You know, going through training and like, you know, getting your job and what, how people describe your job and how it affects the mission. Pre-9-11, what did the Air Force feel like?

7:07The Air Force felt like a very large like business corporation. Yeah. In my mind, because I remember getting to my first base. And I'm, you know, both my parents were army. My dad was a war officer. My mom was an officer. Just the kind of like nut the butt, like how the army deals with things and that kind of, you know, was in my household as well. I was just ready for people to start yelling at me and formation and running and things like that. But the Air Force pretty much ran like a business. And I remember calling my father. I go, I don't think this is the military that I knew grew enough. Granted, I was not in. But as a, as a, as a military kid that I'm just like, holy cow, very honestly laid back, relaxed. It just, it didn't feel like what you see in the movies, or what I had kind of grown up with and seen, you know, traveling around the world with my folks and whatnot.

8:07So it was, I felt very like. Very relaxed and nothing, nothing crazy. And then 9-11 hit and that kind of changed. I think for a lot of folks in their perspective and really actually what we were as a force and what we brought to the fight more so than anything. Yeah, I mean, it's always interesting to me like the whole pre-9-11 thing because, you know, we have no, I have no vision on what the Air Force looked like before that. Mine is my father in like the 70s, right? But like he basically was like, yeah, they just, you just kind of hang out and do your job and all of the stuff. But like, did you find it like, was it enjoyable? And then, or were you like waiting for a 9-11? Which sounds really bad. Yeah, I think it's, I think it's enough time. I think we're allowed to, I think we're allowed to have like sort of jokes about that time frame. Yeah, I think she was like, it's only something would happen. So, I mean, yes, I'm always wanting something to happen.

9:07I think I was just honestly coming in and going, hey, I need a steady job. Let me learn a craft. And then, you know, I wasn't planning on staying in. I was going to do my four years, get some stuff under my belt. But definitely was super excited to like, can I deploy? Like, what are the things that I can do besides just being at the base? And for, you know, the monotony of your job over and over and over again, because I worked on KC 135s, loved it. But after a while, when you pack the same kit, you pack the same, you know, survival vest doing the same thing over and over. I wanted to actually see the employment of the equipment and action. And then seeing our air crew and action, that kind of gave me more of a sense of like, okay, this is what I'm talking about. Even though we worked quite in the conflict yet, but we were out in Saudi Arabia, therefore while. So, because my first appointment was six months in to my career. So, whenever Saudi Arabia for about three months did some stuff and then came back.

10:11And that was kind of the rotation. And then, but seeing the implementation and all the training and the wise behind what we did as AFE. That that's, that's what it was all about. And just trying to get out the door every chance that I could. I'm starting to see why you ended up in the places you ended up in in the air force. You know, you just wanted more. When we tell people, I didn't end up here because I'm like better than anybody else. Because you didn't quite fit. And I think for you, the day-to-day monotony, the, you know, some people really like that. They just want to do their job and go home, you know, have their barbecues and softball games on Fridays. And that's fine. But you definitely were like seeking out like the maximum potential of your experience of your career, you know what I mean? Yes, absolutely. Some crazy things that I want to pull on here, just because, you know, we kind of sped by him. But for folks that are thinking about AFE, we've had a couple AFE, you know, dudes on it. And fantastic. Again, AFE is one of those support jobs that I'm like, if you don't know what you want to do

11:12and you want to have the chance to do the most that you possibly can, AFE is that job. It's crazy to think that AFE tech school is five weeks long. Every single airframe from jumping to packing equipment, I knew AFE guys. I would just look at them and be like, I don't know how, but I have to throw this out of an airplane. And two hours later, it would be packed up, inspected and ready to go. Like the amount of things that y'all can do is crazy. And to hear that it's a five week tech school, especially when you went through is absolutely insane. So what you have to realize though, so our career field merged about 15 years ago. So when I came in, we were life support. So you had life support and survival equipment. Right. So they ended up combining them. So for life support, we were only five weeks and four days. Now that has definitely changed with the merger. So, and then we've also shredded out. So we have an A and a B shred. So you got ejection and non ejection. So for the parachuting, the personal parachuting side that falls under the non ejection B shreds. So those are a month to six weeks tech schools now.

12:14But yeah, so when I 1999 is when I came in. So we were two separate, but now what everybody knows now as as air crew flight equipment AFE. So just listen to the juveniles 400 degrees. Slim Shady LP had just dropped a young KP just out. The other crazy thing is that we talk to folks now that we're talking about. Hey, you're going to go to the recruiter. You're going to talk to them. It's going to be a year. You're going to be an development in two years worth of a pipeline. And you're going to do all this other stuff and then hope to get that deployment. You were out the door six months after you got in. You would probably only two or three months before hand talking to the recruiter. So less than a year, you already had your first deployment out of your belt. That's just wild. That's crazy. So as you get back from Saudi Arabia, you start to see no kidding how you connect to the mission. And the senior NCOs, you're supposed to be able to explain to every career field. Like this is how you actually impact a mission from finance to AFE to combat control. It doesn't matter. You're supposed to say, hey, here's how you touch the mission.

13:14You got your first little taste of that in Saudi Arabia. That had to just tweak something in your mind and be like, hey, hold on. There's more to this and I want to go do more. So as you started looking at how to grow inside the AFE career field, what opportunities were you presented to where you could start getting closer and closer and closer to that mission? So really, I chalk it up to I had really good senior NCOs that that saw. I feel my potential and kind of what I was hungry for. My first survival school was three months in. I went to Arctic survival, the gentleman's course back in the day, right? Beautiful. Number negative 50 loved every minute of it. You know, and seeing that side of the house here and really being an outdoors guy on myself. So going to do that deployment and then it was it was kind of just kept going. My leadership was like, hey, do you want to go to combat survival?

14:14Do you want to go to water survival? Hey, do you want to take over our training program and start teaching our air crew? And I was like, absolutely. The beauty of being a fair child was I partnered with I went over to the serious school and I said, hey, I got to make our training program better for our air crew. How do I do that? And can you please assist me? With any year, I was teaching over there in their facilities, utilizing everything. And this is where I got my first glimpse. And I don't know if you guys remember, but in the PLF room? Oh, yeah. It has the MFF wings and the airborne wings. And I remember I was a senior. I'm in at the time and I remember the the seer guy that I was working with. He's like, you'll never achieve that because your life support because that's what we were out time. And I was because I was like, hey, how do I do that? How do I get into this? You know, just always acquiring how to move forward or do other things. What are my opportunities? How can I make them our opportunities?

15:16So after that was said, I was like, okay, how do I, how do I get that? And where do I have to go to get it? So I started inquiring about all those things. Hit a lot of roadblocks to be honest. Love my leadership, but at the time, they only know what they know, right? So they're like, I don't know how you get into that. And all of a sudden talking with some folks, they're like, hey, there's this whole other world of really wasn't AFB, but for the survival equipment side. So they're like, you could cross train, become survival equipment. And then here are the doors that open to help you because we were two different career fields. Well, like has it. I just had to wait about five years for that, that, that to happen. So I got a phone call one day and I got wrapped up under the umbrella of a data mass unit.

16:17And who we worked with, the aperture had grown and we combined it our career field with survival equipment and life support, which now opened up that opportunity to achieve those free fall and airborne wings. I still had to a little bit to go because I was working on the airframe side, but it just, it was the persistence of I feel myself and my leadership seeing something and then asking the questions and then just keep driving, even though some people didn't know, but just driving towards what I wanted to do because I seek, I seek more, I wanted to do more, I wanted to see more. I didn't want to be stagnant in one location or doing one thing. That, that power of saying yes to things going back to the beginning of this, right? Like, hey, it's your, your drive and your work ethic, but like we, we talk about this all the time, it's the willingness and sorry, it's not really my turn. But like, just, they're like, hey, do you want to do this? And you're like, yes, do you want to do this?

17:17Yes. And then like, like all great stories start, you're like, how do I do that? And somebody goes, you can't do that. And you're like, yo, dog, that's going to happen. And then it's, yeah. And it's funny because we were like, we're always like, oh, people are not just going to like call you up to like get the coolest job. And that's, that's true. Out of nowhere, they're not going to. But if your name starts running in certain circles, that's when you kind of get that, that that call to go to some of those different types of units like you did. Correct. Absolutely. And that's kind of what, what happened for me? There was a chief, because I was in AMC. I went to a conference one time and he was like, how come you don't have any medals in that stage? What? I was like, I mean, you know, young in your career, you don't really, you know, know the significance and, or what you can achieve. And I was like, I don't know. He's like, have you been on deployments? I'm like, yes. But he threw my name out there when the data machine that came calling and said, hey, do you know any pipe hitters that you got somebody that would be a good fit that can fit this realm.

18:21And these are the type of people we're looking for. And he's like, I do. So it's, it's definitely put yourself out there. I'm not saying you have to say yes to everything. But like if you want to move on and move out of the monotony, like you have to be willing to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And that's a, a chain to, to my chief of our career field. That's, that's our saying now. He says it often. But, you know, if you want to change and you want to do something, you've got to go after it because you're actually correct. Not everybody's going to come knocking and you got to put yourself out there. And it's a little bit of two things. It's a choose your own adventure. But just like you said before, sometimes even the folks in your own career field just might not be aware of how to get you there. Like it's no fault to them. They just may have never been exposed to that thing. So when you first go and ask them, we have people that hit us up all the time. They're like, oh, I want to my, you know, my chain of command. And I asked them to do this thing. And they just said, no, we're like, well, right. But that was just the first know. Right. Like that's not the end of it. Now it's not you're not going around them or doing things.

19:25But they just might not know. Like if this is a thing that you want to go do, you might have to, I don't know, actually try and continue to put yourself in the right positions to get there. So we get up to the unit that shall not be named and you just go off to the races. You finally get your shot at Airboard School. You go as a regular Air Force do that. You're just down there as an AFE chick in the army. It had to be it feel a little bit like home. You grew up in the army. So at least finally, my joke about the Air Force and you were talking about how late back it was. That's why people come to the Air Force. It's almost like being in the military, right. Right. But now you're down in Fort Benning, Georgia. You're getting ready and you're about ready as an AFE chick to go through. So you're very first like for real training with the army at Airboard School. Like how did you feel going into that court? Like, I mean Airboard School is Airboard School. It's five days of training packed into three weeks worth of time. Everybody knows this. Maybe he's got it right. Maybe he's got exactly. Yeah, the maybe does. A static line and free fall in a slick two weeks and you're cool. So how was that? How was that very first time because like, you know, getting to that unit, you had no idea what to expect.

20:31You had to go through a selection process to get there. So there's a whole lot tied to that as well. Like am I supposed to be here? And the first thing they do is like, well, here you go. Everything that we promise you, we're going to front load it and have fun. How was that that that journey that you started on? So my supervisor at the time when he was sending me to Airboard and he goes, failure is not an option. I said perfect. I go because I don't plan on failing. Honestly, I mean, I would be wrong to say I was nervous. Absolutely. It's it's it's the unknown that you don't know. I mean, you hear stories. I talked to the guys are like, hey, make sure you, you know, don't fall out of a run. Make sure that you're punctual. You're on time. You know, just all the all the ins and outs. You know, don't try to drink too much. Smoke cigarettes, things of that nature. I mean, just, you know, the the insider stuff of people that had already been through. So I was nervous. But I think that's the Army mentality is kind of what is ingrained in my brain.

21:38So it wasn't shocking to know that I was going to be yelled at for no reason. You just do as you're told, turn off your brain, get through to three weeks and then, you know, grab your wings. So I just I think really was just just be a nervous going down and then I didn't want to disappoint my teammates, my leadership, because I wanted to continue that progression. So it was a growing through weeks. Don't get me wrong. But time of my life, though, I've finally getting to jump out of an airplane, which I've wanted to do for a very long time. I'm achieving something that somebody told me I could not have. And that just made me want it more, right? It's like it just it was exhilarating. Plus, I grew up in Fayetteville, Georgia. So I was only my hometown's only about an hour and a half up the road. So actually what was really cool is my my mother got to come down and actually pen my airborne wings on me. So that was super awesome.

22:40But yeah, that's legit. There's there's a there's a very distinct time in any static line jump and at time is just after your shoot opens and before the eight seconds where you hit the ground where you're actually just floating in your in your shoot and things have gone well and you have a shoot that works. That's the best five seconds of any static line jump. The first time that you do that, you're like holy crap. Fantastic. I did it. Having your mom come down and pin on your wings is just something. Again, it's some it's one of those benefits. We would never tell anybody. We would never say like, hey, there's really cool opportunities inside the Air Force, but to have your mom pin your wings on that had to be a huge deal, right? Oh, yes. Yes, it was because I had I had just lost my father about a year prior to that. So it was a very surreal moment for our family, but it was awesome that we actually graduated on the drop zone. So she was out of the drop zone. When I came out of the plane and everything and then we did the graduation right there and she came over and and put my wings on me.

23:42Well, was she like, I thought you joined the Air Force. What are you doing here? Well, I mean, so I got two brothers. I'm in the middle. So I'm kind of the the Helen Wales kid, right? I'm the one that had the stitches and, you know, yeah, so I guess really expected for for my mom and what I was doing and where I was going. She wasn't a time that she was like, well, that's not my kid. She's like, yep, that's my kid. Yeah, makes a lot of sense. That's the fine. That's the fine. So we'll talk about the further progression on to free fall and then on to jump master. You have one of the great stories about I think you were were you the first female jump master in the Air Force? So, okay. So we have looked this up over and over again, not so not in the Air Force, but if you look at my career field for one pop is I can't find anything that says that I'm not. People people I would say I would I bet my paycheck that I am the first one pop of female free fall jump master.

24:48Okay, I tell people that all the time. I've for 20 years now, KP. I have told people for sure I know the one what we'll talk about that a second. We'll talk about the doors that open going to the data mass unit and then you start really going off and start to see exactly what AFE can do for the larger aspect or architecture. That had to be just mind blowing for you. You had to look around in certain rooms and be like, what am I doing here? Right. So, I think at the time because things were still growing for our career field with the merger and then especially being embedded in the data mass and the aspect world and it kind of seen what apertures as a support entity, not just AFE but collectively for an 846. How we were being looked at differently and what how we could be part of the team and integrating for the mission going down range. So, I think the doors open and we there's a lot of folks out there that we lead the foundation to help grow it to where it's at today and to see it full force is absolutely amazing.

25:57Just the things that everybody swims wise that they're doing and conquering with the operator is is mind blowing but it's awesome to go. Man, I remember when we didn't even have that capability and then turning it into a capability to assist the greater need for that mission for you guys going out the door. Yeah, and swims everybody special warfare mission support. That's the entire umbrella that everybody works under again. The operators are not standalone individuals. It takes 10 support people behind every operator to get them out the door and so it's time and time. There's dudes that did one enlistment that said that they did everything themselves. They didn't try to help you. No, I'm going to tell you that I didn't. I'm sure KP is metsy's people. The very first time that we had a blowout of the 321st and this is just before KP and I met you know we were on a training thing we had to come home and it was a it was a flight out to get a sick there was a sick sailor on a Filipino flag vessel right a Filipino flag vessel they were in the North Sea.

27:00This guy had appendicitis. He was like 400 miles out you know north of Ireland just in the middle of the of the North Sea unable to get to him. So we had to actually had to get up from the 321st and then I was on the helicopter. I was the medic that that hoisted down to the ship to get him. That was the first time because we got back to the unit. We were training down south. We had to stop training. It was a ropes course. We had to drive back home. And the team leader looks at me goes hey listen. It was funny to the way that it worked out is you know team leader Jay Mac looks at me goes hey bro. We're going to throw you on the helicopters. The helicopters aren't going to do anything. We've got this big Rams mission that we're going to plan. We're going to jump in. They're going to cover us to a boat. Then we're going to do all this other stuff and we're cool. Well the rescue master sergeant from up the road at Lake and Heath looked at me and he goes hey bro. Weather sucks. They're not going to be able to jump. We're going to go in and it was hilarious because that's what ended up happening. The guys that were supposed to jump in and get the hero mission had to watch the helicopters go and do it. It was pretty funny. But I'll tell you what every single person from combat mission support every single part we called him brown team at the time they had a hilarious patch.

28:02It was like a little monkey in a UPS and it said what can brown do for you. It was it was like Friday night at six o'clock at night by the time that we got back because we were going to take off pretty much immediately and fly out the next morning as soon as it got light out. Every single person was there literally lined up next to the people that were leaving like next to my cage. Somebody was like here's your flight authorization. Here's your folder. Here's your survival equipment. Here's your narks. Here's your meds. And I mean literally everybody stop what they were doing. We had kids running around the unit. They bought pizza. It was like a unit event and that team was the only reason why we get out the door and why that mission was successful. I think that that is that is something that people miss about how important special warfare mission support is. And you got to be at the very tippyest tip of the spear and do that. No, absolutely. Absolutely. It's just it definitely has involved. I actually a lot of people asked me they're like do you know where this contract kind of came from and it was when I was sitting at the unit.

29:07KP's like yeah, I'm aware. Thank you. I was actually the first because at the beginning it was combat mission support. I was the first superintendent to to build that with my teammates to go what does right look like. And how do we do this and in can it work and does it work. And at the time general slight actually came to the unit and he saw what they had built. Because that unit became you know a group. And he's like I want all my special warfare to mimic this. So it took a couple of years after that, but what you see now is that implementation from that unit across over to the other side. And you know guys have been knocking out of the park in generally that superintendent that says the swims is typically a one papa. And those guys every single one of them have been crushing it day in and day out. They're getting that exposure that I need for that leadership to move move on to the next level the next echelon right because nobody ever wants to go to a staff.

30:12I didn't was terrified of it. But you know, yeah, that whole construct developed there and then to see where it's at today and people are continually evolving it and improving it. And it is done great things I think across the board for aspect war. KP, I got asked a question because some you know our community and sometimes we want to do things when nobody's asking for it and for no reason. I got I got to ask like what what was the impetus what was the forcing function for you to to push this initiative. And and you know squeeze the talent out of your team to make things better. So I got to be honest when they first came online as between me and another master and I was like I don't want to do that because I wanted to stay in AFB. And and jump out of airplanes I was actually tasting trying to be a tandem master. But then they were like, KP, you got to go over there and I was like, all right, I got this.

31:12I didn't I didn't we didn't have a roadmap. We had to build it. And that took a lot of time with the team that I had sitting out at that location and also working with the ops team and going, OK, what is it that we need? We basically had to start mapping out. What's the most important? What can we build first? If we don't do one thing, isn't going to break the system? Nope. OK, we can push that kind of down the road. It would honestly was a lot of trial and error. We did not get it right. Like that first year of doing it. Lot of late nights, a lot of trying to figure out, OK, not trying to stretch our guys to thin. But then also educating to be honest, educating the operator force of you just you just can't shove us in a hole or like we got to sleep. We got it. We got to be able to pee. We've got to be able to eat at some point in time. I mean, we are your machine. Don't get me wrong.

32:13We want to get the job done. You have a lot of motivated people, but it's keeping them motivated. But then also it's the educational piece of having everybody understanding the dynamics and what it's going to take to get to said point that we need to get to. And then how do we do that the best way possible without breaking our folks? And that was the hardest challenge. If I don't see how it happens, it's magic. It just happened right. I love being able to connect, you know, history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. And it sure doesn't form us on where we go. And what you're talking about here is a multi capable airman getting together with an entire suite of AFSC. Something like 25 separate AFSCs were an aspect war in order to make the mission happen. You guys were on the ground level of that. And when KP says that there was a lot of late nights that they're just trying to figure it out. That means they were sitting in the bar arguing and somebody had a whiteboard or a napkin and you're like, well, wait a second. If we do this, can we do this? And then there's fights that happen, but that's how we make the sausage folks. That's how it works.

33:15Correct. But when you have those professionals and all of those subject matter experts in the room, that's where the magic happens. And then somebody brands it and they call it multi capable airman and they're like, oh, I came up with this brand new scheme. And you're like, wait a second. You're right. You're right, sir. Great job. You know what? Good job. You did it. So pay submission up there cannot be understated. You guys, everybody in GWAT was just jobin out, but especially at that unit, you guys were just gone. So tell us about the deployments that you don't have, I mean, obviously you can't tell us about the deployments. But you can tell us, I don't know, maybe about your favorite deployment with somebody that's on the podcast here today that isn't any trend. And basically all the stuff, all the opportunities that you were able to do. Oh, boy. So that is actually one of my favorites. Just because that was all the time. It's one of my favorites. I had just graduated actually free fall school.

34:16I graduated and three days later, I was on an airplane coming out there. I didn't know who I was going to get. It was my first aspect war deployment as the lead, sitting with Mr. Commander as being the, you know, the stock chief. So, you know, I'll never forget by losing the key to the changed the radios. Well, I didn't delete it. But we know who did. Love that guy. But running around, I think I grew up a lot that deployment. And I think it was just, it goes back to kind of what I've already alluded to, you know, you don't know what you don't know. And then being thrusted into the environment, being comfortable with being uncomfortable, finding a way to yes, figuring it out, asking questions.

35:17You know, I remember sitting there with TX. He is actually up at the Pentagon with me now, believe it or not. But go through some of the trials and tribulations with him when he came in, he didn't realize we had the rescue unit that had a bad parachute. So, I found somebody on the other side, because it's a two person concept that had to pack reserve. And I'm in the, in the talk, packing this early one morning. And he comes in and he's like, I didn't realize that's how long it took to pack reserve and everything that you guys have to do. But some of the fun, fun parts were watching you guys run out the door because I got that butterflies in my stomach that some excited is happening. And to be a part of something like that, hearing the rotors go, you know, just, just being in that environment and seeing things happen. That's where I actually ran my, the Army 10 mileer.

36:19You guys were going to run with me, but other things happened. We didn't go to work instead of running. We just all had everything. Now, one of the funniest parts was our Ranger partners that were in there with us. They were, they were quite interesting. But I had a lot of fun with them. I remember going through their, their little barracks there that we had in. The first time, and last time I ever got the yellow Rangers to clean up their stuff because they, they weren't very clean in a sense. And the one guy that left his rightful on the, on the bird and had to carry it around. My favorite story from there is the same guy. So these Rangers were the most Rangers of Rangers. Like no shot to them. However, the Army was busy. So I don't know if we got the A team for who we got for the Rangers that time.

37:19They were good dudes. They tried our same guy that left his rightful. My favorite, we had the same battle rather than every single night. The A and B would happen. I would take the Rangers and we would go for two hours of flat range and two hours of CQC. That's what we did every single night. Not everybody else would come over and join us. And then we had our team, you know, as midnight chow, we were, we were daywalkers, you know, or, we were not daywalkers. We lived and worked at night exclusively. But, you know, about midnight, you'd have your chow and then we get into our training cycle. The same dude. We set up kind of like a tricky scenario for them. We walked in and it was all civilian no shoot target. So it was not a live fire shoot house. It was all no shoot targets. There was one live person in the room that you were supposed to do. The trick was you walk in and you don't shoot anybody. And then you get the hostage and you walk out. I happened to be the hostage. I walk out of this training event and I look and it was Vic and Vic and TX are standing there and their eyes are like this wide. Because all four of them, all you heard was reports from the Sims going off.

38:20And I walk out and I had had my arms up and on my sweet tattoo here. There was like four separate marks of where I caught sim rounds underneath my arm, which hurt pretty bad. That means you were never mind. Well, yeah, Trent, that was a learning event that we had to have. And I looked at him and I said to his face, I said, buddy, we said that you couldn't shoot any civilians. I said, no shooting, you know, no shoot targets. And he was like, oh, I thought that meant we could shoot everything. And I was like, you know me. You looked me in the face and then went, clack clack clack and shot me four times. Well, he was, he knows you. Yeah, yeah. So that was good. There was a lot of good source from them, but they learned and they ended up being super good as well. They ended up being at least for what we needed them to be. But the stories about those ranges, I tell nobody believes me. So I'm glad that finally somebody brought it up. Well, and then honestly, the best part of the employment, because I'm a football girl.

39:24And I think you and I definitely just, I'm an Irish fan. You're welcome. There you go. Oh, so you're the one. Yes. I remember many conversations with you. Yeah. But like just the camaraderie, I think the things that the conversations we had going out the midnight chals, you know, live and life and in our team and I was listening the other day. I still have a playlist from the deployment. So if I, my mind starts me correctly. Or go miss song for you guys before you stepped. Was hurt myself today. Johnny Cash is hurt. I can't even think of the name. It's hurt. The nine inch nails. Yeah. Yeah, nine inch nails. There you go. And I think I played that song. Because I remember coming home because came home in November.

40:25And I went home to spend Christmas and whatnot. And I was like, wait. Got to put on the mission song. Put on the prohibition song. Yes. We would do every single time. And I'm telling you for pre-mission songs. Everybody has to have one. You got to get one to get you that in Montse. I'm telling you that very calm Johnny Cash. Just like it is perfect. I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it now because I've listened to that song. It's on my place. Well, just putting the kid on getting ready to go to work. You don't know what's going to happen. Man, that was, that was perfect. What a callback. Yes. So God bless the Yankees. The only, the only Cesar deployment that turned into a selection course. Because you, Vic and I were the only three. They came back from that deployment that actually left the deploy. The team cycle. So many people for that. I think we had like four mission commanders at one point. We did. It was crazy. It was good. You got back to the data mass unit. And then you're just off to the races. We got a little bit of rank under your belt. Now now you're, you're vetting your validate.

41:25You're hitting that deployment cycle that is just, you know, that wasn't, that was your first one as lead. It certainly wasn't your last one. No. But how did things change as we went through GW? So for me, just because I was at, I was at the unit for almost 10 years. So a couple more deployments doing the same, same thing. But then when I became that, that CMS or Swim Super Intenant, that opened the aperture to really start getting my feet wet in kind of a logistics realm. So a, you know, J4, I started doing some deployments with that. So actually sitting in a jock at a O5 or O6 headquarters and being the lead for an AOR to either, you know, move equipment. Whatever the guys needed in their location that I was responsible for disassembling, getting new missions,

42:26airframes, trying to figure out what transcom and, and all those things of how do I get my guys, what they need in the time of the matter, they need to continue to be efficient and effective, which was challenging. I remember talking to a lot of different liaisons in different countries because trying to, if you're going to fly munitions, you got to have clearance, believe it or not, and know if it's in an aircraft. So opening up my aperture to learn that aspect, and then also working with both the different branches, you know, between the Navy and the Army, and how those guys work. And if you're working under them, the different processes and procedures, which are different for than the Air Force, especially because you got to know who the boss is. You got to know who oversees, who's flying the flag, who's where you're getting your hominist, dominist, bless off. Yes, you can do this. You can't do that. Who's going to yell at you when you inevitably screw it up? And you're just like, sorry, I'm in the Air Force.

43:27Exactly. So doing that, that definitely started really broadening my perspective and understanding, and I think helping me become a better leader, so that when I have other folks that I'm working with or as they're coming up, and that goes back to the same thing of opportunities, right? I was, honestly, I was nervous for that, because it is an O3 position, and I was sitting in it as an E7. So I have some trials and tribulations, I did get yelled at, which is not uncommon, but you take that, and then you're either going to do something with it, or you're not. But it was definitely a learning curve, but one of that was probably my second best deployment. I think I grew as a senior in CO. I also grew in knowledge to understand not just the Air Force piece, even though being in that joint environment for, you know, eight years already, nine years already, but it just, it kept the train moving, and just, and there are opportunities to seek out of that as well.

44:29Believe it or not, we were trying to move a piece of equipment very small. It would have fit in a box like this. Unfortunately, we missed the time to get it to the boat, and they're like, well, how do we, how do we get it there? Because the aircraft or the airframe on the boat can't operate if it doesn't have this, and I said, well, it's a good thing, I'm junk qualified. So actually, TX was my mission commander at the time, and I said, I'll jump it in. Get out of here. I got shoes and everything, the captain from the boat called me personally, and he was like, can we make this happen? I said, sir, I can make anything happen. I go, just give us a day. We're going to talk through this. I already got parachutes coming over. I had already called back. I'm like, send me a parachute. I already talked to the Army rigging team who I worked very closely with at the unit. I'm like, this is what I need to be able to do. Can we do this?

45:31And can you come, check me out, give me my JMPI, all that stuff. I'm going to jump apart into the water, and the boat's going to come. Get me the ribboat, and boom, going to get all the big boat. And then I'm going to hang out on the big boat for three weeks until it pulls in the port again to get more supplies. We worked a full con up for it. And then, unfortunately, they were like, well, we can, we can do without the plane for right now. And I was like, oh, come on. Give him a joke. The captain called, and I was just like, I said, sir, just give us a day. I go, I will find a way to yes to get you your part if it comes down to it. And I go, if I've got to jump it in, I'm your girl. And he was just, he was all smiles. Even though it was a phone call, but you could just tell he was super excited that someone was like, yep, I'm bringing you your part. You were insane, KP. He was like, he was like, wait, I'm talking to him. He probably has a boat. He's like, some chick says she's going to jump it in.

46:32And then he like gets back all the love. But yeah, so. And then that's where I met my super seal. God bless him. You couldn't drive a stick, which was hilarious. And I was like, well, what happens if you're out and about and. You got to get in the vehicle. I go places we go. They're all stick because he was supposed to go pick up his boss from the airport. And he comes in one day and he's like, I can't do it. And I was like, well, I was like, you watch all this. I'll go get the boss. Yeah. Oh, yes. Is the Air Force saving the Navy again? Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But that was a great deployment and granted. Stu Garce, not a deployment, but that's where I was at. So. But no, it definitely helped shape me. And I think the leader I am today. And that kind of set me on my trajectory. I think we're.

47:32Having that knowledge under my belt. And then, you know, being in an afsock for 20 out of my 27 years. Really drove to that that next step of. Going to the next echelon, right? Maybe looking at a match comp staff, whether it was afsock or not. But I think that kind of. Started paying to my resume, if you will, to start looking in and seeking after different. Things besides being at a unit or group level to help impact the enterprise. And then move it forward with the experiences in knowledge base. And then letting folks know, hey, this is what's out there. You get there. And this is what you need to do. It sounds like something happened at some point in your career. And I'm wondering if you could nail this down for me. Like, when did you. When was it obvious that you were no longer viewed as just the AFE person. And you were just viewed as a high level problem solver with talents that they could utilize to get anything done.

48:32I think that was my second year into being the CMS super internet. Is real that where that really started. People started looking at me looking at me in a different light. Just with the things that I was going out and doing. Things we were able to achieve with the team. And just that's when they were like, okay, we know you're a good rigor. But while you've completely developed into this strategic mind, you know, operational at the time, mine leader to drive the force forward. So I think it was really my second year into being a CMS super internet that I started being looked at. A lot differently from my leadership level and in opportunities and things that were being considered or passed my way. We have this widget. But like I noticed that this widget can do all kinds of things. It's not just what. And I think it's important for people to understand when you talk about AFSOC or the higher level unit and all that other stuff. Talent like that the people are scarce.

49:32It's not huge groups of people. So if you see talent like that, like we're going to we're going to manage it and squeeze everything out of it before doing everything right. You know, and I don't want to keep beating the dog about how the support folks make everything happen. But like they make everything happen. And when we find those people and before all the systems were set up to try to keep these people in the community. Now that we find there's nothing more frustrating than finding that person that is your teammate. Regardless if they have a bra or not. And then it's like, oh no, I have to go back to the regular air force now. And I can't stay in this community. And it was it's super frustrating because like I get it for your career. You have to do that. But it's like no, you're one of us. Right. We can't just replace you. Like the next person it's going to take four years to find out if they're your this type of person. You know what I mean? Right. So and I think we've also honestly come lead some balance for managing that talent across the board support wise. There's a lot of things in conversations I've been a part of in the last couple of years is. How do we keep the talent in the program but still making sure that the opportunities and promotions and things of that nature.

50:38Because I'm a little bit of an anomaly being able to stay underneath that umbrella for so long. It took it took a lot of work. Now don't get me wrong. But it's it's those people and those caliber of people that chase after that that don't that can because at one time we have the highest promotion. Inside and under that umbrella of aspect war because you have those go getters is not that they don't exist anywhere else. Don't get me wrong. Yeah. There's tons of them out there. But you know, you got to know what you want. You got to go forward and there's tons of people out there to help you to drive you towards that to get you where you want to be. You got to be hungry for it. And if you're not hungry for it, it's just not going to fall in your lap. You know, I don't think any one roads easier than the other. It really I feel is it's the person that drives themselves to achieve those things with the help of the teammates, right? We all find those people that we have niches with that go, hey, here's what you need to do if you're looking to do this.

51:38This is what I did. And it's not meaning that it's a road map that if you do all these things, you're going to get it. But it points you in the right direction and gets you where you need to be and put your compass on heading to achieve it. Yeah. So you've done all these things. You pushed yourself. You you become this person, right? That's highly valuable and like a pretty kinetic environment. Even if you're in StuGar, like it's a kinetic environment type thing. Yes. And you said you ended up coming kind of back to like regular Air Force staff positions. What what was that like? Oh boy. So oh boy. I thought I was going to stay at the unit forever. Honestly, I was finding on that was right around my 20 year mark. And I was like, you know, this is my niche. This is what I'm just I love everything about it. And then it was like, well, we can't do another extension. You got to go back out into the Air Force. So fun fact was I got orders. And I got orders to die as Air Force base to work on B1s.

52:41So and I was like, this doesn't make any sense. I have been under this umbrella for 14 years. 10 of it. I've been a rigor. What am I what am I going to be able to provide a flying unit again? I hadn't really touched an aircraft in a long time. So I was angry. I went home and I talked to my wife and I was like, I go, well, I go. We can press a button. I can go ahead and retire or we could go to die as Air Force base had to pull it up on the map. It's forced out in Mill and nowhere. I said, I'll just promote myself out of a job if we decide to go. So we had come to the conclusion that, hey, we're just going to go. I'll promote myself out of a job and we'll move on. I was like, I can do this. I go with anything. It's an opportunity to learn and still grow. So I get two hours later, I get a text from my, my chief and he's like, yeah, your orders will be turned off next week.

53:42And I was like, oh, okay. And then I get a text week later and they're like, look, you're going to Herberfield. And they don't know where you're going to put your, my MFM call being. He's like, you just might come set up at headquarters with me. The 720th position was opening enough because the superintendents were tiring. So what ended up happening is they ended up PC SME there. So I stayed under the aspect Warren Brella, doing what I love, got there, hit the ground, run in. The first thing they dropped in my lap was a QTP qualification training plan because that's right when we were transitioning to the BOC. Yeah, perfect. Yeah. And they're like, you have the most experience and jumping. They're like, look at this. And oh, by the way, we're going to start executing it up at Paraclete here like two months. Oh, and by the way, you're going to run it. So you're also the instructor. You also have to make the plan and then make the plan happen. So. So the guys put it together.

54:44We looked over it. We had two from each aspect war unit for the Afsox side of the house because ACC had already, three, we actually mirrored their training plan, which was put together very, very well. So we went up there and ran it. I had two jump masters from each Afsox unit. We started executing things. We made some changes. I came back and basically told at the time, Colonel Allen, who's now. The Matt Allen. The Matt Allen. The Matt Allen. Yeah, I just saw him the other day. Awesome. But I was like, hey, we need to we're shutting this down until these things get corrected. And then we can implement it. So no, the whole team and the jump masters I have from each unit were great. I thought we put together a great plan and then started executing it. So calm actually liked it enough that they adopted it as well. So there was a lot of goodness that that came together with all the SMEs for that program.

55:46So really when I got there, I started getting really heavily into the jumping side just from my experience. And then developing our rigor side even more. We actually ended up getting the entirety of all of AFB or the rigor side of the house in Afsox. They are 100% jump coded along with the match pound staff. So and that all started from also one of the chiefs that I worked with. But we started moving in a different direction and trying to get stuff based kind of like the army has it for the rigors. Because I think that's important. I think they they do have something with that. It's not just knowing I know how to pack a parachute. I understand how it operates and I know I can talk to my guys. When they tell me, hey, I've got an issue. They understand it from tip to tail at the end of the day to move forward. And that was such a long time coming.

56:47I mean, that was we'd been trying to do that for years. So the fact that when I finally saw it happen and I knew that your name was attached to it. It was one of those things. I was like, yeah, of course, KP. There's a lot of people that finally got these people to realize that if you pack the shoot, you should probably qualify and jumping it as well. It was common sense things that just wasn't we just lost it somewhere and we figured it out. And that leads you to where you are today. You are the object matter expert for jumping in the Air Force. You got to ask Kristin if you're going to go jump out of an airplane, everybody. Well, I've got the rigging aspect that that would be a Mr. Josh Lewis who's the half-trigger PM. Oh boy. Well, I know J.U. As soon as you saw him with J.U. I was like, you tell him I said hi. Yeah. No, we work very, very well together. No, being up here at the Pentagon has been amazing. They actually, so they made a rigor position. A lead rigor for the Air Force. It came out of an half-sasked right up. So having that opportunity to follow one of my counterparts that came up here for a year.

57:49Force made chief had to move on. But luckily the Air Force decided to do the two year extension during my, my tenure. So I took the two year extension to be able to come up here to help develop that process a lot better and more to where. I mean, because it was non-existent, right? So working with the Army, really working with the Navy. Just getting everything tied together for our program to grow and to be better. Not that it's a solid program. There's just things I think that we had missing in bridging that gap to be able to move it forward. Has, has leaves some balance. So this position's been to you at a half years now. So we're, we're definitely growing in the right manner and then getting, you know, working with our triple PMs and getting them to understand. Hey, you know, a little bit more the, the rigor side, but closing those gaps at, at each level.

58:49We just wrote policy to where kind of like the triple PMs do. They have one at the matchcom. They have, you know, a parachuting POC at the unit level group wing. So we just wrote into policy that will be coming out here soon. We're, I did the same thing on the rigor side that way they intertwine with the triple PM and we get more of a consensus for the entirety of the parachuting program. Not just from the jumping side and rigging side, but actually fusing that together to make things go a lot smoother in a better understanding to get what we need to get after collectively. Well, at the end of your 27 years, you've seen the career field evolve, you've allowed yourself. We always end with some sort of advice. You have probably one of the most interesting careers and all of aspect worth for sure, but probably in the Air Force. If you had advice to somebody looking to get in today, whether it's AFD aspect or anything, what advice would you give those people to prepare themselves for the crazy ride that they're about to take? So I would definitely say get out of your comfort zone, be willing to try new things, different things, be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

59:57And there's nothing wrong with asking questions and asking the why behind it. Because all that's going to end up doing for you or that individual is it's going to make you more self-aware understanding. And then you can make that decision, hey, is this world for me or is it not? It'll push you, I think, in the right direction. And then when you ask those questions at the person you're asking them to doesn't know them, they people know people, right? They're going to get you where you need to be to get those questions answered. And then everybody's got a fire inside of them. Keep that fire lit and keep driving forward with what you want to do. You're the only person that's going to be able to make yourself happy. Nobody else is. You annoy me the way that I know that's other person annoys me that's other unit and you remind me of them. So I'm going to call this other person that they're just go like, why can't you just be happy here? So I'm going to call them and be like, I got another one of you. Right. How dare you? How dare you give motivational in, but it makes Trent feels things. That's not good.

1:01:00We don't like what Trent feels. Thanks for coming on. You're an awesome leader. You're one of the best senior NCOs. I can't wait to see that name come out on that E9 list. I know it's coming. I know it's coming. I feel in my heart. Well, if it doesn't, then we're done may have next year, but that's okay. Well, you've given everything that you possibly could not only for the Air Force, but for this great country. And for that, we appreciate it. So from one savage, one Yankee to another. Thank you for coming on. We appreciate it. Everybody else. We'll see you next time. We're done. Absolutely. Thank you, guys.