XVIII Airborne Corps

And I was instructed in 0H-58, UH-6, or UH-1 Huey.

And I finished up as the standardization instructor pilot for 18th Airborne Corps in a UH-60 Blackhawk.

And I've got many, many hours.

I tell people I have a long, I mean, a safe landing for every takeoff.

There was a Recon, 11 Bravo Recon kid.

I say kid, he just turned 19, and they were in 18th Airborne Corps.

So he was what was the war baby.

I missed out by, I was the second youngest, so they just left me alone.

Where, where are you on this?

Again, the, the, When I was in the 18th Airborne Corps, which was the 18th Airborne Corps is the U.S. Department of War's contingency response corps, the global response force, the GRF, that would be a joint task force headquarters in charge of elements like the 82nd Airborne as an immediate response force, etc.

And when we first went in in response to Russia going into Ukraine and we established in Poland, all of the attaboys around the table and all

look at the Russians.

The army's August 19th strategic guidance still describes air defenses for skies saturated with unmanned systems and calls for faster use of autonomy and artificial intelligence on the 18th of this month.

Um, Airborne Corps also reported evaluating layered counter UAS sensors with more than 50 companies for the September Scarlet Dragon exercise.

We've talked about that.

But organizational ownership is now unsettled.

Uh, was a combat engineer in Fourth and First Brigade, 82nd.

I worked in the division headquarters and, uh, 18th Airborne Corps staff.

Uh, been a cool ride.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, I was a combat engineer.

I've been stationed in Alaska, uh, Fort Bragg, um, Fort Leonard Wood with this guy, um, and then back at Fort Bragg, so I mean, most of our careers have been, been at Bragg.

And man, I've done everything from, uh, being a machine gun team leader to, uh, planning parachute operations for the 18th Airborne Corps headquarters.

Yeah.

And how much that's a reality, you know, I'll tell you the story.

So before deployed to Republic of Georgia, I was, uh, I was on staff, uh, 18th airborne Corps, uh, in G3, I was a captain.

I was on a G3 operations and I was tasked as a project manager to prepare, uh, uh, an air, uh, well, it's not airborne.

It was, uh, air, uh, uh, air descent, uh, basically, uh, for 101st airborne, which is, uh, uh, which is helicopter bound.

And, and it was, um, it, it-- for me, it was a very blurry time.

I was, I was a company commander of, uh, 18th Airborne Corps Long Range Reconnaissance Company.

It was my second command.

And y-I, you know, I-- for me, when you experience something like that, you know, your, your mentor, your, your dad, your, you know, your idol and all, it, it, it became numb, you know? Uh, y-y-- and, and little emotion Initially, you know, you, you, you, you, you sort it out in your head later on and, and usually it comes back around and, and, and you get to deal with it hopefully in a, in a private moment.