Sep 30, 2026 · 1 hr 6 min · 15 segments
In this episode of **Camo & Crayons**, Laurie, Annika, and Sherry sit down with **Vet on the Mic** — a 23-year retired **U.S. Air Force veteran** and one of TikTok's most motivational voices. From…
Well, you answered my first question I was going to ask you about why did you choose the Air Force? So you already got that down.
That was awesome.
Sorry.
No, I'm glad.
It was really good.
It was really good.
So let me let me ask you this one.
You are in the aerospace ground equipment.
For those of us who immediately think pilot when we hear Air Force, what exactly did your job involve and how important is ground support when keeping aircrafts flying?
That's a great question.
It's important to them and the way it's sold to them is everything else revolves around them.
So, and that's sarcasm, but there's a little bit of truth to that.
Aerospace ground equipment, we had a slogan, no air power without ground power.
And the crew chiefs would push back on that so hard.
It's like, well, we're the pointy end of the spear.
No, technically, you're still the shaft.
Just like us, the pointy spear is the dudes in the cockpit, dudes and dudettes going out and doing good things to bad people.
And without aerospace ground equipment, airplanes do not fly.
They just don't.
They may go for a little while, but eventually you're going to have to fix them.
And you can't do that without putting power on the aircraft, putting air conditioning on the aircraft, putting hydraulics on the aircraft, or maintenance stands to whenever you get battle damage coming back from your AOR, your area of responsibility.
And all of that equipment was vital to the success of the mission.
One senior, he was a pararescueman.
I was discouraged in my role as an aerospace ground equipment craftsman because we rarely got the attaboy.
Well, you answered my first question I was going to ask you about why did you choose the Air Force? So you already got that down.
That was awesome.
Sorry.
No, I'm glad.
It was really good.
It was really good.
So let me let me ask you this one.
You are in the aerospace ground equipment.
For those of us who immediately think pilot when we hear Air Force, what exactly did your job involve and how important is ground support when keeping aircrafts flying?
That's a great question.
It's important to them and the way it's sold to them is everything else revolves around them.
So, and that's sarcasm, but there's a little bit of truth to that.
Aerospace ground equipment, we had a slogan, no air power without ground power.
And the crew chiefs would push back on that so hard.
It's like, well, we're the pointy end of the spear.
No, technically, you're still the shaft.
Just like us, the pointy spear is the dudes in the cockpit, dudes and dudettes going out and doing good things to bad people.
And without aerospace ground equipment, airplanes do not fly.
They just don't.
They may go for a little while, but eventually you're going to have to fix them.
And you can't do that without putting power on the aircraft, putting air conditioning on the aircraft, putting hydraulics on the aircraft, or maintenance stands to whenever you get battle damage coming back from your AOR, your area of responsibility.
And all of that equipment was vital to the success of the mission.
One senior, he was a pararescueman.
I was discouraged in my role as an aerospace ground equipment craftsman because we rarely got the attaboy.
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