Truth in the Barrel with Amy McGrath
Sep 25, 2026 · 56 min · 15 segments
This week, Amy speaks is joined by fellow combat veteran and Cobra pilot, Jeannette Gaudry. They kick things off by having a fun putting the little men in the comments on blast before talking about…
Amy McGrathHost
Defense Secretary or Secretary of War, whatever he wants to call himself this week, Pete Hegseth, Actually, he's been doing this for months in the last couple years now.
Effectively ending the careers of a very high percentage of of women and minority officers, black officers in particular.
I still don't understand why he, a man who never rose in the ranks of the military, somehow has the secret sauce to know why these folks should get pulled.
Most Americans, Jeanette, probably don't have any idea what it takes for an officer's name to even make it to a promotion list at the level of colonel, okay, which is an 0506 level.
Yeah, I mean, and if you think about the women and people of color who were removed from those lists, we're talking about our peers, roughly, right? So we're talking, you know, within a few years, maybe a few years older for some of them, which means that they first put the uniform on like, 1993, 1994, maybe a little bit earlier for some.
And so it is now, what, 2026? So we're talking 30 plus years of service, of getting up every day and not just putting the uniform on, working out, learning your craft, becoming a warfighter in every sense of the word, right? Through multiple conflicts, through multiple operational deployments, leading at every single level.
Passing promotions, they start to get more and more competitive, right? As you go up, you go through a promotion board, you go through a selection board for command.
And at every level, these people were succeeding and emerging at the very top.
I think what stands out for me about the whole meritocracy piece is I feel that that word is covering all manner of of certain of sins and questions.
Um, you know, you've been part of, of the different processes at, at, at, at work in the military over the years and selecting and promoting people.
So you understand like these are rigorous and yes, there's, There are humans involved, so there's some fallibility in it, right? And I think the military over the years has tried very hard to make these processes better and better and to make them as objective and bias-free as possible.
And it's something that the military really worked very hard at to make them bias-free.
And so these are lists that the services of people, the services have vetted thoroughly, not just once, not just twice, but about hundreds of times over the years.
Defense Secretary or Secretary of War, whatever he wants to call himself this week, Pete Hegseth, Actually, he's been doing this for months in the last couple years now.
Effectively ending the careers of a very high percentage of of women and minority officers, black officers in particular.
I still don't understand why he, a man who never rose in the ranks of the military, somehow has the secret sauce to know why these folks should get pulled.
Most Americans, Jeanette, probably don't have any idea what it takes for an officer's name to even make it to a promotion list at the level of colonel, okay, which is an 0506 level.
Yeah, I mean, and if you think about the women and people of color who were removed from those lists, we're talking about our peers, roughly, right? So we're talking, you know, within a few years, maybe a few years older for some of them, which means that they first put the uniform on like, 1993, 1994, maybe a little bit earlier for some.
And so it is now, what, 2026? So we're talking 30 plus years of service, of getting up every day and not just putting the uniform on, working out, learning your craft, becoming a warfighter in every sense of the word, right? Through multiple conflicts, through multiple operational deployments, leading at every single level.
Passing promotions, they start to get more and more competitive, right? As you go up, you go through a promotion board, you go through a selection board for command.
And at every level, these people were succeeding and emerging at the very top.
I think what stands out for me about the whole meritocracy piece is I feel that that word is covering all manner of of certain of sins and questions.
Um, you know, you've been part of, of the different processes at, at, at, at work in the military over the years and selecting and promoting people.
So you understand like these are rigorous and yes, there's, There are humans involved, so there's some fallibility in it, right? And I think the military over the years has tried very hard to make these processes better and better and to make them as objective and bias-free as possible.
And it's something that the military really worked very hard at to make them bias-free.
And so these are lists that the services of people, the services have vetted thoroughly, not just once, not just twice, but about hundreds of times over the years.
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