This show proudly sponsored by Real American Freestyle Wrestling. Fox News Podcasts presents Great Americans with Brian Kilmead. Hi everyone, I'm Brian Kilmead and welcome back to the Great American podcast series. And nobody better person to talk to about who's great American in every way is Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney. He's founder and CEO of Folds of Honor, serving our country as a fire pilot and also an outstanding professional golfer and wonderful guy.
He has a mission. And it's unwavering. And has grown into a national organization. He's helped nearly 62,000 military and first responder families with nearly 290. million, excuse me, two hundred ninety yes, two hundred ninety million in life-changing scholarships.
Unbelievable. And you can visit Folds of Honor right now and be part of at FoldsofHonor.org. Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney, welcome back. Hey, Brian. I am super blessed to be with you as we head into the 4th of July holiday.
And thank you for being number one with me very early on in this Folds of Honor journey. It's just awesome to see what has happened. Just before we get into. What you did, how you came about it, and also you're a dual thread being a fantastic golfer. What were your thoughts about the B-2 bombers that went for 31 straight hours and dropped the bunker busters?
In Iran. Yeah, amen. Right. And here's undefeated.
So I've been a fighter pilot, still on the reserve 24 years. I was actually on with the Secretary of Defense's office this morning on something else. Um But parity breeds chaos. Brian. And that's what we've seen the last four years.
And if you don't have a strong military, Ukraine, all these things that we've seen happen, that's what happens. And I You know, it's a legacy moment to set Iran back, for sure. But in the relative global scale, a pretty small thing that resets stability across the world. And I mean, it's just so so overdue and so necessary to maintain peace. On the global landscape outside of just the grassroots things.
And the cool thing about people like, hey, we sent them back 10 years. We set them back forever because there's not a nuclear scientist. There's not a person that's going to go want to rebuild it knowing that, hey, we could work on this five years and in one night it's going to go away. And I got a better reason, Colonel. You know what?
Uh there were nine scientists assassinated. Do you want to be the tenth?
So go and grab your lab coat and head down to the office. Go ahead, I dare you. Yeah, we finished Iran's nuclear program overnight. It's very cool, too. One of my dear friends, Brian Neal.
When this happened the next morning, I texted him. He was on the first D2 mission after 9-11 that was 44 hours long, not 36 hours. And I was like, hey, brother, you're still the goat. Yeah. That's awesome.
Awesome. Yeah. So, Colonel, just tell everybody that might not be familiar how you realized that there was a real need to help out with the families of those who lose their lives in battle. Yeah, I think all of us that, you know, whether you're in the military or a first responder, your greatest fear is if something happens to you, what happens to your family? And I'm the father of five daughters.
God has a sense of humor. Fighter pilots have girls. That's a different discussion, but. Um Yeah, I mean and I've I've deployed to Iraq three times, done three combat tours, and I said the hardest thing I've ever done were the three times I kiss. my kids and my wife goodbye.
And the three times I wrote Jackie a letter in case I didn't come back and gave it to my best friend. And I can't think of a better example to demonstrate how much those who serve love you and love this country. Than that. And I returned back from my second combat tour of duty. It was actually on a commercial airliner.
And had no idea, but on that flight, as we landed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the captain announced we had the remains of Corporal Brock Buckland, who had been killed in Iraq, and his identical twin brother. Corporal Brad Buckland was his escort. In first class, and seen a, yeah, I've seen a lot of death and destruction in combat, but I'd never seen this side of war. And I watched Brock's family on the darkest night of their lives. And, you know, his parents, his wife, his four-year-old son.
And, you know, I felt a calling to. To do something. And there's a great saying I learned as a fighter pilot, just a life anthem. You get four rides in an F-16 with an instructor, and your fifth ride is solo. where you wash out of the program.
I'll never forget shutting the Setting the engine down after my solo ride, and this one lands on my solo go before you're ready. I think that's the DNA that ties greatness together. Man, that's what we did. We went before we were ready. My wife and I started Folds of Honor above the garage with nothing.
And, you know, you mentioned the stats. the impact. We'll send fifteen thousand Families to school about fifty-five million dollars of life-changing education out the door and Yeah. I watch there's lots of forms of charity, but I will tell you, education is biblical. You know, you teach someone how to fish.
and it changes their life forever. And so it's just been a awesome journey changed our lives and Brought us together with so many great Americans like you, Brian.
So it's really cool stuff.
So, what role did President Bush play in this as a mentor and an inspiration? Besides making fun of you when you hit the T-shot and heard around the world when we got to play golf with him? Let me ask you something. Was that in the light or in the dark? Because there's some dispute on that.
Because I have had two drives on television which were really good. And someone said to me, Well, you look like you hit it good, but we couldn't see it. Do you remember? Yeah. All right, we'll have to look at the tape again.
Uh Yeah, you have to go back and and verify on the tape on on that one. But no, it's like, you know, what and again, like, what are the chances that President Bush forty three believes in a guy above his garage? You know, who was serving as an F-16 pilot for him? And that, you know, we end up on Fox News with Brian Kilmead and our great buddy Gavin Hatton. Who was there?
And yeah, it's just been extraordinary. I think most of us, when you're on a journey in life, Brian, you can probably look back. Key people that believe in you. in moments where often it's hard to believe in yourself. And the world is full of people that will tell you why it won't work and can't work.
Look at our mainstream media right now, they're just in the business of tearing things down. Unfortunate part. But when people come alongside of you and believe in you and say, hey man, this is worthy, you can do this, and President Bush 43 is. at the top of the list of people. How did he do it, Dan?
We're telling Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney about he's the founder and CEO of Folds of Honor, fighter, pilot, professional golfer. But how did he do it? Like what did he say to you that you thought to yourself? And what advice did he give you that was valuable?
So, number one, so he stopped through the great state of Oklahoma where I live. on the way back from California when he was President of the United States, And they call me on my cell phone. And he was coming back from California going to DC, and he stopped in Oklahoma City. And he had a little a very small under-the-radar thing that he did. It was called the Call to Service Award that he gave to people just making America better.
And he stopped and he gave me that and uh That was the first time anybody like recognized Me and in the belief of doing something bigger than yourself. And that was just a huge moment. And it's so often not what you say to someone, but your actions. And that moment made me believe in myself. And then obviously, when he finished being president, he stepped up and was one of the very early supporters of Folds of Honor as the chairman of Patriot Golf Days.
And that's what brought us together on that journey. And it stayed a dear friend. I mean, golf continues to be our bond, and we've teed it up many, many times since those days. Uh but yeah, it's um Yeah, one of one of many. And I would say, you know, on a personal level, And the only thing I'm proud of is that over seventeen years, the thousands of times I wanted to quit.
I didn't quit, and it's because almost always somebody entered the scene that helped me make it to one more day, which is, man, what a metaphor for life. Yeah. And finally, thankfully, we're not in a hot war. We were for 20 years at one or the other. Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.
One surge, one doesn't, whatever.
So, how does that affect? Does that allow you to play catch-up a little bit to some of the cases you normally would be overwhelmed by? Because, you know, no matter how many come through, you always need more. Yeah, so I'm so glad you asked that question. And because people forget.
So right now at Folds of Honor, we are overwhelmed. We'll award about fifteen thousand scholarships. There are eight thousand qualified unfunded families. And people listening were like, I don't understand. We haven't been in major combat.
for several years.
So we remember the surge. that happened, four, five, six, seven Give or take. All of these kids That had a parent killed or critically wounded during the surge are now it's time for them to go to college.
So for the next ten years, I mean, we are being overwhelmed by the consequence of that major operation in Iraq and to some extent in Afghanistan.
So contrary to like catching up and we got to moment to take a deep breath, it's just the opposite. The need has never been greater. And you mentioned it before, people want to donate to send a heroic military or first responder family to school, they can visit Foldsofhonor.org and make a donation, which you have done many times What? On a personal level, so thank you. And we're proud too, 91 cents of every dollar we raise going straight to scholarship programming.
And I'm going to do it right after we're done with this interview. Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney, thanks for everything you're doing for the country. And you continue in the reserves. And you're doing it for Pete Hayseth now as Secretary of Defense, your good friend. He's the CEO.
It's so cool. He's your buddy. And now he's running the Defense Department.
So why would you quit now? The CEO of Pones of Honor. Go get him. Everybody. Especially on the 4th of July.
Guys, this is the perfect time. This is the season to celebrate 250, but we've got to get through 249 first. Thanks so much, Dan. Brian, you are a man. Very blessed that we got put together on this journey of life.
Thanks for being a great American and supporting Folds of Honor, and happy Fourth of July. Thanks so much, but I remain a terrible golfer. Thanks so much, Dan. For more interviews highlighting great Americans, go to FoxnewsPodcasts.com. It is time to take the quiz.
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