DAY 2 LIVE From Wiesbaden U.S. Army Airfield in Germany

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of any purchase of a hundred dollars or more, that's promo code BRIAN. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmer. I'm so glad you're there. I'm here.

Don't try to find me because you're not going to be able to get on the base. And of course, the base I'm talking about is Clay Cucerne. It's in Germany, Fiesbaden, Germany. Here for the last, I guess, two and a half days. It's hard to know with the time shift.

And we've had two fantastic days. Yesterday I was able to spend a day getting briefed, classified, unclassified, have an understanding of all the challenges this world is giving the American armed forces, find out what their lives are like. And then today, we're en route to Poland at about 4:30 in the morning. And I thought, man, this is a little further than I thought. Then I realized there's a reason because we weren't landing.

There was a lot of snow, and it was impossible to land, but it was easy to fly.

So we had to go back. But we were able to spend a great day on base, have a chance to meet the men and women who serve, find out about the community in which they formed here in Europe and the history of all of it. And I'm broadcasting from Fantastic Studios, the American Forces Network Studios.

So we appreciate everybody that is helping make that happen. And of course, we have great facilities here. And I'll tell you, there's a lot going on today. I mean, first and foremost, you talk about what's happening in Iran. The unrest is like something I haven't seen.

But now the Iranian army is beginning, or with the Revolutionary Guard, are just mowing down protesters. They have nowhere to go. They're just going to kill their way out of it. At one point, we're going to have to make a decision, and that decision might be coming soon. I understand Marco Rubio meeting with Dan Raisin Kane and Pete Eggseth, who's the Secretary of War, and they're talking about different things that they could do, including airstrikes.

And you just know the Israelis know exactly where all the civilian leadership is. They killed all the generals. Are you going to tell me they can't kill the civilians? And I basically knocked on the door of the Ayatollah and said we could come in if we want to. And of course, the risk you have if you're the U.S., if you go in, And you make a big deal, and you make the U.S.

against Iran, it overwhelms. what is really the issue. It is Iran against the Iranian people. They're standing up because they have no water, rapid inflation, horrible repression, and it's been lasting since nineteen seventy nine. The President is backing it up.

But the question is, will it lead to action? And Netanyahu happens to be the most popular. Political figure in that country. He's been addressing Iran consistently, telling them it's not his rivalry and problem is not with the Iranian people. But as I mentioned today, that I'm here in Germany, have a chance to travel and get a chance to meet people who do extraordinary things on an everyday basis and don't get the credit they deserve, one of which has spent decades in the military, although he looks like he's 27.

He's Command Sergeant Major Don Durkin, who shines at his job, has been serving this country. When did you first start coming aboard, Command Sergeant? When did you come aboard into the military? Brian, I came in the military in July of 1996. 96.

What made you join? You know, my situation and circumstances. I grew up in a not-so-good neighborhood and a not-so-good time in a city, and I didn't have very much going for me. What city is that? Haverhill, Massachusetts.

I attempted to go to college, and I realized that at that point in my life, I didn't have the structure to remain in college.

Somebody so disciplined and buttoned up. You weren't like that when you were younger? No, no, no, no. I was out on my own, hanging out with my friends, and realized. You know, where you were headed as a friend group was not in a good place, and I needed to make some very drastic.

Working class area or a bad area? Uh I would say in the middle, working class to a bad area uh of that town. It was l definitely lower income from where I had grown up. When did you realize being in the military, in the army, was going to work for you? Ah, wow, that's a strong question.

Probably at the end of my first contract, I had signed up for six years on my first contract. Because with the Army, you could do two, right? Two. Could you do two years? Could you sign up for the Army for a minimum two years?

I think it was three years. Oh, three years, okay. I think it was three years. So you said six. I said six.

That's a big jump. It is. Right? It was huge. And when did you.

So you get out of boot camp. No one loves boot camp, but. Basic training provided the structure I probably needed in my life at that time, and it taught me how I needed to structure my life in order to become better and accept what I had just taken on. It was 72 months that I had signed up for. There was no changing that.

And so, how do I best fit to fit in what I signed up to do? It's so interesting. I started at Fox filling in in 96. You started filling in in the Army in 96. And so much has changed.

You come off the Persian Gulf War, you change presidents, and Iraq is a problem. But, you know, war could happen, but we've already did it once, and it was really successful. We'll see what happens there. 9-11 happens. How many deployments did you end up having?

So at the time of 9-11, I was in Doha, Kuwait. We were on a training rotation. It was called Intrinsic Action 0103. And we were out there, and they woke us up in the middle of the night, and they said, Hey, we need to get you in front of these TVs. And a bunch of us looked around and we said, Hey, what is this new movie?

And then we said, This isn't a movie. This is actually going on in the United States right now. And that changed our entire life. They hit the Pentagon too. When they hit the Pentagon and you're in uniform, what's that like?

We were not notified of the Pentagon one because we instantly had went to our vehicles and started kind of prepping because we didn't know what was going to come next. We were in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert at the Udari range, and we were thinking, what's next? And then it changed our whole force posture and structure, is what we were thinking at that time. And then did you end up going to Afghanistan? No.

At that time, we had redeployed because we hadn't figured out who had done what yet, and we were not part of that. What about Iraq? Iraq, I deployed in 2003, in the very beginning of 2003, when OIF kicked off. Were you part of the invasion? No, we followed in closely after.

We relieved 3rd Infantry Division in place from the 1st Armored Division.

So you know that.

So, I was there a week up until the last week, and the next week there was a sense of the invasion. But we did one of the tank battles. It brought me right up to where Kuwait and Iraq had the border. And I thought, man, things are going to change when the tanks roll through. And we happened to be on the air on Fox and Friends when the tanks rolled through in 2003, and we kind of covered it.

It was bizarre to be able to have that type of access. But I don't know if it was you or not that told me it took about two miles before you started getting contact. It was about that depth. I mean, you're coming up to the Kuwaiti border and you're looking and you're seeing signs. It says you're now leaving the Kuwaiti border and you're entering Iraq.

And it was about that time when you started seeing opposition towards your vehicle movements going north into Baghdad. Right. And the wheelies realized, too, unlike the last time, they weren't in uniform.

So a lot of them.

Sometimes.

Sometimes you would encounter that, absolutely. You would encounter some that were loyal to the Iraqis. How many times would you be through Iraq? How many times did I deploy four times through Iraq? Four times.

And how would you characterize your deployments? Progressively better. You know, as we got deeper into this 20-year campaign and fixing things throughout Iraq and establishing a new government, establishing a new military, establishing schools and health and all that in that area, it got progressively better. Right. And by the way, 2008 surge worked.

Things were calm. And there was a sense that we could leave, but I knew we shouldn't. The only person who didn't agree with that was the president that ran on that. I don't get you involved in politics, but he ran on Iraq's a dumb war, which is unbelievable to me because people were fighting that war, lost their lives in that war. To say it's a dumb war, maybe it's a war that you wouldn't have supported, but I just think it diminishes the service when anyone, including if the current president came out and said that, I know he wasn't a fan of the war.

But having said that, that surge worked, you left, and ISIS comes back, and then we have to go back. And we still have 2,000 to 3,000 there today. Yeah, I think the last deployment I did was with 3rd Infantry Division. Who I'm the current Division Sergeant Major for, and that was in 2010. And it was such a great deployment out there.

Our soldiers were definitely part of the progression of where our exits today.

So, describe what you did, how you moved your way up to Command Sergeant Major. Ah, that one. I didn't, you know, when I came in the military, I was like, I didn't have an established goal of rank or position or anything like that. I was just falling in line and doing what a soldier was asked to do. And then I realized when I became a non-commissioned officer two and a half years after I had joined, I was like, this is really fun.

I really enjoy this. I really enjoy leading and training soldiers. I became a young sergeant in 1999 and then continually progressed from there. And when I became a platoon sergeant, that's when I really realized I love what I do. Because you feel, you told me on the plane today, you feel you can impact somebody's life every day.

Every single day you wake up, you get to change a soldier's life. Every single day you wake up. You know, our soldiers come. And they are amazing people. They come from all walks of life.

Some of them from the best parts of life, some of them from the worst parts of life. But you get to take some of those soldiers who may not have experienced a whole household or adversity in their life, or may not have done so well in school or in the employment world. And you get to take them, you get to mold them into what their potential really is, and they realize that. And tell me, as you moved up the ranks, you're now in a situation where if a battle breaks out, if a war happens, when you're out in the field, you're even though there you have superiors, you've been empowered to make your own decisions and because it's the battlefield that you're witnessing and it's the experience that you have, which is very unique to the American Army. You don't have to wait for the general to tell you it's okay.

How much power do you have to shape a battlefield? We operate inside of the commander's intent, the commander's vision, and the commander's mission statement. Big vision. But when it comes to making instant decisions, it's really up to you. We have commanders at all echelons.

We have non-commissioned officers at all echelons. Our senior non-commissioned officers advise our commanders at all echelons. when we think about it in the term of um Mission command, you have a pretty big leeway on how you can change your forces and shape your forces and get onto the objectives. But if I'm not mistaken, you believe one of the strengths of the American Army that you're trying to push into our other allies, especially growing armies in the Baltics and aspiring armies like Ukraine, looking to get more Western and less Soviet. Do you think that's one of the real powers of the military, empowering the people that are on the ground fighting?

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I've got to give credit where credit's due is our non-commissioned officer corps. Our non-commissioned officer corps is second to none in the entire world. You know, there are armies out there that are trying to model our non-commissioned officer corps because our non-commissioned officers are absolutely empowered to make decisions at the point of tactical advantage. And, you know, thankfully for them, they have the ground picture.

They're directing their troops onto things and they're training their troops. They're taking care of their troops. Troops every single day. Our non-commissioned officers are definitely the, as Sergeant Major of the Army, Mike Weimer, says, the asymmetrical advantage to our Army. Command Sergeant Major Don Durkins with us now.

Sergeant, how many years now? You're coming up on 30. Coming up on 30 years in July. Coming up on 30 years, and you're not 60. You look seriously.

Of course, we don't have the stream going today, but you look about 35.

So it must be really easy to serve at the military because you have great moisturizer or a skin program. But but in the big picture, you do not want to retire. No, not at all. Not at all. In the long term, like I still have so much more to give.

And you know, these American soldiers deserve every ounce of what we can give them. How many kids? I have three daughters. Three daughters. Three daughters.

And how have they dealt with the military life, which is all they've known? Yeah, uh funny story. I think I told you this on the plane this morning. I have a daughter named Cheyenne. She's seven years old, and we are in her fifth home.

And, you know, normally you would think that that would break a child's spirit, or they had friends and they don't want to move. And, you know, I have a 13-year-old and a 19-year-old, and they absolutely love moving. They absolutely love learning new cultures, or new environments, or new neighborhoods, or new cities, because they get to explore all of these things. And I think a military child is. Their resilience is absolutely like we should study that.

You know, I did notice, I went to a few uh like American uh bases and I noticed the kids are so outgoing. They're used to walking to the neighbors and introducing themselves. They have to, right? And guess what? The other kids are outgoing.

So it makes it more natural. It does. I mean, you walk into these neighborhoods. And Brian, think how many times these neighborhoods change over with movement cycles, whether it's the Elist and Manning cycle or whether it's summer transitions for officers and warrant officers. These neighborhoods shift and change every single Probably every six months.

And so you've got a new neighbor to your left, you've got a new neighbor to your right. And these cohesive teams is what makes our army what it is to us. Right. And do you like being stationed here in Germany? I'm not stationed here in Germany now, but we love to be here.

Are you just visiting? We are here on the Rotationally Alliance Forces.

Well, how long have you been here? Since September or October 5th. How long are you staying? Probably about nine months. Nine months.

So your family's not with you? No, no, no. My family's not with us. They're back in America. But do you like being here in the European country?

Absolutely. You know, the greatest thing I think for soldiers serving in this location and in this region is they're not working with just U.S.

soldiers. They're not working with just American counterparts. They're working with partners and allies, shoulder to shoulder, training with them. I was with a German Marine, a German. They love being a part of it, but they are prideful of the German way too.

But it's really important you guys go shoulder to shoulder, right? Shoulder to shoulder. And we have nothing but the best support systems from our multinational partners over here. They take care of the American soldier. You know, our towns that our soldiers go visit for leisure and everything else.

Really great relationships with those partner nations, those partner cities. And just another thing I want to bring up: you told me to. That the Poland has made it the accommodations for the American troops first class. And you also said the Baltics. They appreciate it.

They make sure the accommodations and everything that you guys need are at your fingertip. That's important. Yeah. And if a requirement develops that a soldier doesn't have something that needs something, all we do is communicate with our partners and allies. And that requirement comes right around the corner, and that soldier feels that effect right away.

They feel the care. Command Sergeant Major Don Durkin, congratulations on all your success and stay safe in those many years. I mean, normally, if you've been in 30 years, but there's nothing that reeks of retirement of you. No. So he's sticking around.

Absolutely. And if you think my skincare looks good, check out Brian Kilmade. Very nice. It's the first time a high-ranking officer is complimenting my skin. Back in a moment, Brian Kilmade from Wiesbaden, Germany.

The headlines, the stories behind them, and the people who make them only on the Brian Kill Meet Show. This is Ainslie Earhart. Thank you for joining me for the 52-episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus. A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmead. Last time America militarily intervened in Iran, the change of government was 1953. CIA overthrew a government there. Most historians would say that led to the Ayatollahs. I would love to see the Ayatollahs gone, but there's got to be a plan.

And even with as good as our military is, who are you going to bomb in Iran? Senator Mark Warner, who knows the dangers because he's been on the Intelligence Committee or Armed Services for decades, knows that this is another once in a lifetime opportunity that Barack Obama punted on, that in 2019 came and went, and now we have another opportunity to aid. I'm not saying to get militarily involved, but this regime cannot be negotiated with. I don't want to hear that we're talking to them. They have to go.

Yes, the Iranians have to be the ones to do it, but there's nothing saying that we can't help the people. And that CIA operation, no one was around back then. I have no idea what the details were on that. But it's not something you there's anything similar to what we're dealing with right now. And I'll take the shot any day of the week compared to what we have right now because it changed the makeup of the Middle East and we still have not recovered.

Here's Dan Hoffman talking about it yesterday, cut four.

So, I think we have a number of options. I think the President is going to be looking at, obviously, the military option to strike IRGC facilities. They're the ones that are bringing down the oppression on those protesters. That's certainly an option. Cyber strikes is another one.

Delivering internet to the Iranian people so that they can coordinate these protests. And of course, we've seen the sanctions increased further. And remember, the targeted countries are India, China, and Russia, those countries that do business with Iran. I'm sure that the President is going to be receiving an intelligence briefing. Yeah, and I also think he's got an option.

Ask Elon Musk to put Starlink right over that country. Let them communicate with each other. Let him take down this regime. It helps the world. Not just us, it helps the world.

I'll explain back in a moment. A talk show that's real. This is the Brian Kill Me Show. This will be a tool to free new, innovative, cutting-edge weapons and improvements from the constraints of yearly budget cycles. Here you iterate in terms of hours and days, maybe weeks.

In Washington, we talk in terms of months, years, and oftentimes multi-years. It's too slow. The CTO ecosystem will give them the supplies. Services are contributors to this ecosystem. not by standards.

They must deliver outcomes and they must deliver Overmatch.

So that is Secretary of War Pete Hags talking about the need to pick up the pace when it comes to weapons acquisition, creation, everything. A lot has to do with the fact that there doesn't seem to be much competition. And that was done in the 90s intentionally between the major arms distributors. And I saw the president late last week must have been briefed because he put on Truth Social. I'm tired of seeing these CEOs get these huge bonuses and not delivering new advanced equipment in a timely fashion, missing deadlines.

I think they should be held back until they can produce and hit their marks. It just shows the frustration, I think, from the briefings that he's getting. With me right now is a man correcting that in real time. He is Colonel Christopher Hill, Director of the U.S. Army's Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate.

And he is with me right in the studio right here in Germany. Colonel, welcome. Glad to be with you, Brian. Hey, so, Colonel, why are they leaning on you to pick up the pace when it comes to delivering weapons? You know, we have a mandate through the Secretary of War to get the acquisition process to a place where we're delivering at the speed of war.

And the acquisition process itself has done good things over the years, but we have to go faster. And not only do we need to go faster, we need to get more people under the tent. We need a bigger tent. There's a lot of ingenuity out there. How do we unleash the power of industry?

And that's part of what we're looking to do.

So you in wearing the uniform have to get involved with private business when they get the Raytheons and company, get the contracts, and they can't get the Patriots or whatever the next evolution of the Patriots is. If it can't get delivered to us, let alone to Ukraine, or we need it in Israel for a while.

So, what leverage do you use to get it done? Do you threaten to take contracts away?

So, one of the things that drives industry is competition. You know, if an industry partner believes that there are other companies that can do the work, it drives down cost, it drives up ingenuity.

So, one of the things that we're looking to do is increase the size of the tent. There are a lot of companies that may not be the size of some of the larger industry partners, but they have very smart people. They have very smart people who want to contribute to the U.S. winning in a war against any adversary. Those are the companies that we're at.

And a lot of times it's come from Silicon Valley and this new AI generation of companies. We hear a lot about Palantir. Can you give us an idea of other companies that could create maybe light a fire under the big ones?

So, one thing as an acquisition professional, I don't want to give any companies any free advertisement, but what I will say is, Brian, there are companies out there that may be less than 25 people or less than 50 people that have. An idea, and what we want to do is give them an opportunity to put that capability in the hands of soldiers. We've already done it once here in Germany as a proof of concept based upon guidance we received from General Donahue, and it took us about 30 days to go from: hey, here's a capability. To actually getting soldiers trained on that capability. And now, in both Poland and Romania, it's protecting their Eastern Fighters.

So it looks like Ukraine has been, as horrible as that war has been and horrific in terms of casualties. It has been a war-studying opportunity. Has it been for you, too? It's unfortunate that Ukraine is going through what it's going through with Russia.

However, we have to take the opportunity to learn from what they're doing. And by learning, I mean not just what's going on between the two countries, but how is Ukraine a much smaller country? How are they using ingenuity? How are they taking the things that their industry is providing from them and making it better? And they're not just fighting harder.

They always fight hard.

So, I think we have a number of options. I think the President is going to be looking at obviously. Yeah, sorry about that. That was an error on our part. But go ahead.

So you're seeing what is what is Ukraine doing that could help us?

So one of the things that they're doing is iterating capability. General Donahue is very big on: I don't need the 100% solution. Give me the 80% solution. Let's get it in the hands of soldiers and let's iterate. Because the TTPs, the techniques, tactics, and procedures that are used on the battlefield within Ukraine right now, some say change every three weeks, which means the capability that you put there on a Monday, three weeks later, it may be nullified by something that the enemies are doing.

So you have to have systems that are openly architected, that are software-driven. I don't have to change the hardware in order to increase the capability.

So we're learning. And the other reason that's so important for us to learn, the Chinese are learning. The North Koreans are learning. They're running. They're all studying this war.

They're all studying this war. So if we don't take this opportunity, not only will we be losing out on immediate effects, but also we will still be losing. Losing the battle from a long-term standpoint. What about innovation?

So, if I'm a major company, I got this product, and it's a defensive weapon or an offensive weapon, I want to go make that product. But what you want is the best version of the product that you're buying. Do you feel as though there's enough innovation built into these major companies? Because I don't know how much money it is in hiring people. I think there potentially could be a lot, but not immediate for shareholders to put a lot of money into RD and say, come up with something new.

I think what innovation is going to do for us is going to change behavior. I was at one very large company about four months ago, and they showed me a capability. And I asked them, I say, okay, what can it do right now? They said, right now, I could launch this and I could knock down an incoming one-way drone. I said, okay, when is it going to be ready for fielding?

They said, in 18 months. I said, why 18 months? Every reason that they gave me is based upon a system that's telling them there are four or five other things I need to do before it can. Befield it. What we're saying is no.

We need that right now. All those things that you need to do, you can continue to do those things, but don't deny us the capability to make it. Where are you going to get the mass manufacturing if we don't fundamentally do that here? Especially a small company with 25 to 50 people. Exactly.

So, one of the things that, so the organization that I run, GTED, we are a part of an organization called the Pathway for Innovation and Technology. That is the arm of the Army that was created as a response to General to Secretary Hexet's mandate for moving faster in acquisition. It's not just the innovation at the edge. How do we scale that?

So we still have PMs, we still have very large organizations back stateside that have senior people, a lot of acquisition professionals.

So by bringing them forward, getting them on the ground here with us from a GTA perspective, at the same time, while we're providing that initial capability, they can start working with those companies from a producibility and a manufacturability standpoint.

Some of it may be: hey, we need to get this one company to produce more. The other part may be, we need these three companies to team, which is something that's not normal. These three companies, all you guys need to team together in order to get us the capability that we need and the numbers that we need. Do you sense that when the Secretary of War says that, does that make your job easier? Because you're going to these companies with his message.

So Colonel Christopher Hill is our guest director of the U.S. Army's Global Tactical Edge Acquisition, and he's just pointing out the fact that the war changed in real time since 2022's invasion of Russia. We didn't know how bad Russia was, how antiquated their equipment was. Sure, they've gotten better, but they're still losing between $5,000 and $7,000 a month. It's absolutely insane.

They don't care about their casualties. I can't believe we deal with it. in the in this day and age where you could lose this o a million people And it doesn't seem to matter to the population. But we're watching the technology improve to a major degree. And the thing is, if we're going to stay ahead, we have to streamline the process.

And when the Secretary of War and the President say he wants to get it done quickly, when Chris, you walk in and say, I have to wait. I'm on the mission from the Pentagon. You heard him yesterday. And now my four-star general is leaning on me to get this done. That gives you additional power, don't you think?

It absolutely does. One thing about leadership: when you know you have the backing of your leadership, and when you know your leadership has a high tolerance for risk, we're not asking you to be perfect. We want you to go fast, which means sometimes you're going to fail. But fail moving forward, fail going fast. Yes, it makes it much easier because now when I talk to an industry partner, they know not only am I going to hold you accountable, if it doesn't do what we think it needs to do, I'm going to move on to the next.

I'm not going to continue to pay you millions and millions of dollars to perfect this when they're. Other companies that can do the job. All right, so first off, just about you. Where did you grow up? Alabama?

Grew up in Alabama, small town, Clanton, Alabama, geographic center of the state. I know how patriotic and military-oriented Alabama is. Is that why you're wearing the uniform?

So, actually, you know, I joined the Army a little bit later at the age of 22. I had actually played a few years of football there at Alabama State. I know you're a sports guy. And so I played a few years of football there at Alabama State. And I joined at a time where I just needed to do something different with my life.

But the thing that I knew I was always about was team.

So I knew the Army had a team mentality. What I didn't know at the time, that it's the greatest team on earth. And, you know, this past November, I hit 30 years.

So I came in the Army. Wow. I came in the Army as a private first class and got commissioned after about four years.

So at 30 years, I can still say, you know, I'm still having fun. It is absolutely the greatest team on earth. And now I'm at the point to where I can coach, train, and mentor. Those coming behind me.

So, well, how much action did you see in Iraq and Afghanistan?

So, I've deployed twice to Afghanistan, once in 2003, four time frame, and once in 2014. And what was that like?

So, the first deployment in 2003, I was a company commander.

So, prior to becoming an acquisition officer, I was a military intelligence officer.

So, I deployed as a military intelligence company commander in 2003 during a time where we were trying to remove bad people off the battlefield.

So, my organization was responsible for creating what we call targeting packages.

So, in order to ensure we've got the right intelligence to go after the right person and to allow our soldiers to come back from that mission safely, so it was very gratifying knowing that we had an impact on a daily basis when it came to removing. Enemy off the b Where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Killmeat Show. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Killmead.

Mm. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. We've got a few more minutes here, and I'm coming from Wiesbaden, Germany. This is the Army Air Base.

And this is, we ran, we're lucky enough to get a slice of everybody's life. And you'll see this on Fox and Friends a little while, I guess maybe on Thursday or Friday, and just got a chance what life is like on this basis, so pivotal to America's security and NATO success. And with me right now to help me out through this and continue his topics, is Colonel Chris Hill. And Chris's job is to speed up the acquisition of valuable equipment. Colonel Christopher Hill is the Director of the U.S.

Army's Global Tactical Edge Acquisition. And Colonel, we just had a little technical issue because we are thousands of miles away, but we're okay now. I just want you to finish your thought, what you were saying. Yeah, so, you know, for me, coming into the Army was really more about searching for my next step in life. I had just finished playing football, had a young family at 22.

I knew the Army had a great team atmosphere. My father coached for 30 years. He's a school teacher. My mother worked within the community for years, so I had a sense of service, just not with the uniform. But once I got in the Army, I'm like, this is actually where I'm supposed to be.

And here we are 30 years later. Right. And serving, you actually served in war, now you're serving in peace, and now you're trying to pick up the pace. How would you characterize the quality of this Army here in twenty twenty six? I do notice, I've been around a lot, talking to a ton of people, the spirit seems to be great.

The execution on your operations seems to be flawless. Yeah, I'm always proud of our Army when I see operations that we execute. And when you say flawless, you know, when you're able to go in and conduct an operation and not lose any life, I mean, that's a big deal to us in uniform. Within the acquisition corps, there is absolutely a sense of pride right now. We are at a point to where we are being able to do some things we've talked about for years as far as how do we work differently with industry, how do we remove some of the red tape, you know, some of the policies potentially that slowed us down over the years.

And we are 100% backed by our leadership, starting with the president, SEC WAR, SEC ARMY, and with the Armory Acquisition Executive, Mr. Ingram. Recruitment is strong. I heard the chin is strong. Do you feel as though you're from what you could tell?

Do you the numbers feel right?

So, I don't necessarily have a sense for that. One of the things about being in the Acquisition Corps, I'm not around a ton of soldiers every day. Our organizations are largely civilian-based, a lot of engineers, as you can imagine, working with a lot of these industry partners. But when I come to, I do travel a lot, so when I come to a place like Clay Concern, you know, and I think that's right now, that's where I am right now. And it is re-energizing to be around soldiers.

So, yes, I think there's a spirit, there's a growing spirit that you can tell is pretty much. I mean, we hear about a couple of things. It's not really the Army. I hear about how long it took the Gerald R. Ford to get built and how much overpriced it ended up being over budget.

And then we hear when you try to get these new generations of fighter jets, which looks very impressive, they're way over budget. And how much are they really advanced? And so, we seem to have a problem there. And it's easy to say corrupt. It's not really corruption, but it just seems to me a sense of.

Not my money. And what are you going to do? Take the contract away from me? I'm almost done.

So it's not really this administration that commissioned the General R. Ford, but it's one when I remember when President Trump christened it, he said, What took so long? Do you feel as though we have to learn to build? You don't do the shipbuilding, but now we're trying to rebuild our shipyards and we're trying to speed up that process too.

So, do you feel as though? That Silicon Valley might hold the key, being that they're not only on the cusp of innovation, but of doing things quickly. They don't sit on the iPhone for years. They put it out. That's correct.

I think a culture change is really what was needed. I think our industry partners, and don't get me wrong, we have great industry partners. They've done some wonderful things, but they are working within a culture that has been cultivated over a number of years.

So I think to come in and change that culture, to bring in Silicon Valley, to start having somewhat of a venture capitalist mentality, bring them into the conversation. I think those things will change the culture and even have some of our persistent industry partners change the way they do business. But it's bringing in a lot of those innovative companies that have not worked with the government. Those new ideas, we're looking for those. All right, Leslie, your family proud of you?

I would say yes. I actually have in my other job, I'm going to change command here on the 30th of this month. And I talked to my mom last night, 86 years old, and she's as proud as she can be and can't wait to sit down front at the ceremony. And she should be. You're retiring?

No, so I'm leaving my command. I've been doing two jobs.

So I've been the director of GTED as well as a PM for the Patriot and IBCS systems. I'm about to end that job and be 100% the GTED director. Great. And on the Patriot, you said we have a new generation? We do.

So the Integrated Battle Command System, IBCS, is going to replace Patriot. We're already in the process of fielding it right now in Germany. We're in the process of fielding it right now in Korea. Poland has already fielded it and is operational today as we speak. Can we get some of the Patriots to our other allies?

So the IBCS system is going to enhance what Patriot currently does. But can we give some of our old stuff to people that are desperate for anything?

So I think as As we field IBCS, Patriot will start permeating to other place. Congratulations on your career, Chris. Thanks for sharing with us, Colonel Christopher Hill. Thanks so much. Thanks, Brian.

Appreciate it. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Gilmead. All right, from Clay Cucerne Army Base in beautiful Wiesbaden, Germany. I'm Brian Kilmead.

Normally, I'm from 40th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan, heard around the country, around the world. But I'm just proud to be with the men and women serving every single day. Maybe anonymously. I don't really go on too many military bases. I know you don't either, plus, it's extremely hard, especially today's security.

You know, you're not going to just say, hey, I think I'll spend the day at Fort Hood. It just doesn't happen.

So that's why when you have this opportunity, you got invited by Four-star general Chris Donahue. I said we ought to take advantage of this. And we first met at Fort Bragg, which was Fort Liberty, for a brief period of time. Then America sobered up. This hour, I'm going to be joined by Dr.

Kevin Roberts, Heritage Foundation president, great guy, fantastic conservative thinker, and a fantastic communicator, and Major Evelyn Gutierrez. She's the G3 Security Cooperations Division, a unit within the U.S. Military Command. Over here, there's so much to see, and you're going to see it on television. But one of the things you have is it's, of course, the Americans.

Then you've got this huge NATO presence, international presence, and you have countries that are at war that are here, and you have contingencies, and there's a war just 650 miles away.

So there's a lot going on in the world, too. We know about the aftermath of Venezuela. We know about the Democratic leader that legitimately won that election, meeting with President Trump today. When can she have a chance of actually running that country? She didn't win the election.

Her party did, but she's the most popular figure. She wasn't able to get back to the country. In Venezuela, because it would have had her killed.

So also in Iran, thousands are dead, just as the President said, you better not shoot the people. But every province, rich neighborhoods, poor neighborhoods, are riding in the streets demanding the end of that horrendous government that has plagued the Middle East and around the world, put bounties on our President's head for decades. This has got to end. Kevin Roberts joins us now. Kevin, we've always talked about Iran, always been a problem.

Three or four times we see massive unrest. I get the sense this is different now.

Okay. It looks very different to us. In fact, you know my defense and national security colleagues well, Dr. Victoria Coates and Rob Greenway, who are real specialists in the Middle East. And talking with them the last couple of days, they believe this could be the beginning of the end of this regime that, obviously, evidenced by all of the people they're massacring in the protests, but also evidence of their nearly half century in power, might be on the brink.

And the real question for us who advise policymakers on policy is how far should the United States government go in helping to topple them? We obviously at Heritage don't believe in regime change, but this would be a massive blow to all of the evil in the Middle East. We would look forward to it.

So here's the president yesterday, Cut One. Iran's in big trouble. It looks to me that the people are Taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago. We're watching the situation very carefully. I've made the statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved.

We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn't mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts.

So, and you know, I'm not sure why the President has Steve Witkoff talking to him. I don't want to do any deal with Iran. They cannot be trusted. The nuclear program we took care of for now.

So, I hope we don't continue down that road. But evidently, the State Department has urged U.S. citizens to leave, no kidding. And they say that Steve Witkoff is now meeting with, because he has contacts over there, some Iranian officials. I don't want to give them a life raft.

I suspect, I ultimately don't know, but I suspect Mr. Witkoff is there not to give them a life raft, but to do something similar to what happened in Venezuela, where we realized after the fact, after we were able to extract Maduro and his wife to New York, that the administration had been in some kind of conversation with the temporary successor. I suspect it's something like that. But I think probably the most helpful thing to consider, which you know well, Brian, is that the administration is looking at this or using the approach as a ratchet. And each day, even a few times each day, that ratchet, of course, clicks a couple of times.

We saw that last night with the announcement the President made about the 25 percent additional tariff on any country still doing business with Iran. I would expect that over the next few days, probably by the end of this week, we'll have some clarity on the future of this regime. I think that some kind of American involvement beyond Mr. Witkoff having conversations seems imminent. Yeah, I hope so.

Wall Street Journal points out that Barack Obama let those people down. He wanted to deal with that government. He wanted to get that horrible deal signed. And this president wants to be different at the same time. He doesn't really want to get involved in a war if he doesn't have to.

I know the Israelis probably know the addresses of all the civilian leadership. That must be tempting. It's got to be. And it's something for us in the United States, right? Because this Iran, Russia, China, these are North Korea, these are the big evil four.

And to think that Venezuela probably changing for the long term might put pressure on the Fifth Member of that crowd, Cuba and Iran might as well fall, might topple. It is very tempting. It's very important that people understand that this is the genius. Of America first conservative foreign policy. You don't have to have boots on the ground, or very many, in order to effect change, not just for other people, but first and foremost, for the benefit and security of the American people.

What about Venezuela as you look at it right now? I know that we're using oil as a lever in order to make sure that Venezuela Doesn't continue to give discounted oil to China. I think we stopped a few ghost tankers once to Russia to China. And I think we're also demanding they release political prisoners. They have.

We're also saying that they should kick out China, Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah. And I believe that that is still unfinished business. It's not easy to do what the President's done already. What would you advise him from here on in? I would advise them, as it relates to Venezuela, to keep doing what they're doing.

It's been brilliant. And I would keep this particular course until we see greater evidence that the regime in Cuba is going to fall. Not because of our own direct intervention there, but because of the economic and geopolitical pressure that we put on them. I believe that this president will be at the beginning of his second year in office, and we will see the regimes of Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran gone. It's really important to get to the second piece of advice that I would respectfully pass along to our friends in the administration.

Please Please do not get Americans involved in the kind of wholesale regime change that we attempted in Afghanistan and Iraq. The president has been brilliant, historically brilliant, Brian, in threading the needle in each of these situations. And that's why this has been such a rousing success. Heritage stands behind this administration if he keeps that course. See, Kevin, you could be America first, but our security does not end at our borders.

It never has. Maybe in 17, you know, when George Washington had similar statements in 1793, though we were protected by the oceans, those days are gone. No, and you and I have talked about that for years, and we're seeing the clarity, the strategic focus of that truth, which is that to be America first does not mean that you're an isolationist. You've heard me say that on your show for years now. What we've said at Heritage is there's a lot of space between being a neoconservative adventurous, where you're getting into nations you shouldn't, and an isolationist.

How about a middle path that's very common sense? It's actually where a vast majority of the American people are, and that's where Trump is. And I think that's why this isn't important just for us in 2026. This is important for posterity, Brian. History is in the making because of the strategic genius of this administration.

So we're watching organized groups, whether it's being anti-Semitic one minute, anti-Tesla the next minute, or poor George Floyd the next. And now we have, we're anti-ICE, the organization put together to crack down on illegal immigrants, mostly criminals.

Now, Minneapolis, one of the biggest embarrassments of a city that I can imagine, who continues to embarrass themselves every day and elect idiots like Keith Ellison, this Attorney General decides he's going to sue the federal government because they're using ICE, Cut 17. We're here to announce a lawsuit we're filing against the United States Department of Homeland Security to end the unlawful, unprecedented surge of the federal law enforcement agents into Minnesota because this has to stop. And we ask that the courts Will end the surge of thousands of DHS agents into Minnesota. We asked the courts to end the DHS unlawful behavior in our state. The intimidation.

The threats, the violence.

So he's suing to get ice out. All ICE has done is they arrested a guy the other day from Laos.

Sodomy, sodomy of a girl. Another aggravated sex offense. They took out another guy. This is in Minneapolis, aggravated assault with a weapon, an additional sex offense, domestic violence, also from Laos. They also found an illegal alien from Guatemala convicted of negligent homicide with a vehicle and DUI.

They found someone from Sudan in Minneapolis, which was homicide and assault. Another one from Burma, negligent homicide with a weapon. I could go on Sierra Leone, two counts of homicide, four DUIs, three counts of larceny and burglary. I ask you. The people of Minneapolis, would you prefer they remain on the streets?

Would you prefer you wouldn't have people laying their lives on the line because you won't allow the local police to cooperate and have to take down these killers and rapists in greater numbers in sub-zero weather? But they're protest these people are actually protesting, so these criminals get to stay. It's that simple. And this is why, for years at Heritage, we've warned about the policy real-life consequences of people like the voters in Minnesota electing true radicals, not just like the governor, but Keith Ellison in particular. And so, I mean, just think about how absurd this is.

We get at least 11.5 million illegal aliens coming into this country in a four-year period. Our colleagues at Heritage think it's a larger number. Many of them are in Minnesota. They've already broken the law. Then, to your point about the litany of horribles you mentioned, Brian, some of them are violent felons.

And the Attorney General, the lead law enforcement officer in the state of Minnesota says that a federal law enforcement agency doesn't have jurisdiction to do what? To enforce federal law. These radicals are standing not only against the rule of law, but very much to your key point, they're standing between people, regular Americans, and their public safety. It really is nefarious. Yeah.

Kevin, as you look right now at the Republican Party, I know the President's making a speech today in Michigan focusing on the economy. I think that's great. I also think you have to have a foreign policy and domestic policy. People should realize that. I think if you talk foreign policy, they think you're ignoring their economy.

But do you realize the numbers are looking better and better? for the party in power right now. Have you ever seen such a disconnect between what the people are feeling and the momentum that the numbers say that the Republicans seem to be uh seem to have I guess earned. Do you think both are going to come together? I do think that there's time.

In fact, I was meeting with a member of Congress this morning about this exact thing, this dissonance, this disparity between what seems to be a very robust economy that is poised to Practically have a boom this year, and consumer sentiment, driven obviously by some voices in the media. But I'd have to go all the way back to 1992, Brian, to think about a time when the economy was recovering. You know, the media was trying to say that the recession, the Bush recession, was continuing. Why? Because he had spent too much time in foreign policy.

That was the argument to underscore the claim you're making. And obviously, Clinton benefited from that. But I do think the good news here is that the regular Americans by the end of the first quarter are going to feel the benefits of this economy that hasn't just recovered, but I really do believe is on the brink of a boom. And then that's enough time for the president, who obviously is a great messenger, Speaker Johnson, Leader Thune, to be hammering home that reality in the subsequent months. How do you handle these insurrection, organized insurrections in New York, in Minneapolis, in Portland, and in Austin, Texas?

They just seem to be anti-ICE. They're dangerous. A lot of them leading with women, angry women up on top who have strategies and organizations to cut them off. How do you. How do you stop this?

Well, we've had to deal with that for a year here at Heritage. And so, you know, in talking to experts on this, you've got to draw a very bright line between what is a peaceful protest and fully within the rights of free speech and demonstration and what, to think about the examples you've offered, is violent. I mean, when a lot of these protesters are not just physically assaulting these officers, but yelling into these megaphones at over 100 decibels, this is assault. And so we have for a year been clamoring at Heritage, not just for our sake, but for the American people, that law enforcement agencies be very stringent about how they're handling these protests. It's vital.

So I have a few proactive policies out, many, but a few that you're also putting out there. You talk about the fact that many married families feel there's a punishment there, and it's time to eliminate these marriage penalties. What marriage and welfare programs are you talking about?

Well, we're talking about the tax code, which in a few major ways disincentivize marriage, but even bigger in terms of a bigger impact on behavior of Americans, Brian, are the safety net welfare programs, which since the so-called war on poverty in the 1960s have disincentivized marriage. What we're saying at Heritage in this landmark paper we published a few days ago is let's turn those policies on their head. And if we're going to have policies about marriage and hopefully policies that incentivize more American children being born, let's make sure that our federal and state policies reflect that.

So, in particular, to make one precise point here, we argue for an expansion of the child tax credit and also using the adoption credit for married couples who are having children. The reason we argue for this, the bottom line, is that our fertility rate is at a historic low, 1.59 children per childbearing woman. We have to increase that to well over 2.1 if in fact we're going to have an American civilization. Absolutely. Support the marriage with the $2,500 initial deposit into a new investment account.

Apply the $17,280 adoption tax credit to married parents for each of their newborns, mortins, and make the value of every credit program and tax benefit benefit for paid child care available at home. Parental child raising.

So there's a plan out there. Look it up on the Heritage Foundation website. Dr. Kevin Roberts, always great. Thanks so much.

Always a pleasure, my friend. Take care. All right. Go get him, Kevin. He inspected Brian Killmade.

The more you listen, the more you'll know. It's Brian Kilmead. Come each o. I come to you from Wiesbaden, Germany. It's my privilege to be here thanks to the Armed, the American Forces Network over in Europe.

And we're having a great time going up close and personal with some of the best and brightest who are serving our country in real time.

Next up will be Major Evelyn Gutiérrez. She's going to be talking about her journey, what she's doing now, and where we're going, what's it like on the base to give you an idea? Because let's be candid: how many people have actually been to an army base and aren't in the military? It's very hard to get on, very hard to secure. And there's a reason for that because people are concerned about security.

We are following a bunch of stories, and that is the suing of Minneapolis and Chicago of the federal government for getting this, putting ice on the streets. You know, those groups of people that put their lives on the line in order to take illegal immigrant criminals out of here, or people that have overstayed their visa, no longer belong here. You've been using social services and other things. That's their job. The previous administration let 11 million minimum in illegally.

Now, this administration has to hoover up that mess, and these people, and most of them are getting paid, it turns out, are showing up to protest in Portland, showing up to protest in Seattle, in New York City, in places like Austin, Texas, and especially in Minneapolis. And now they're suing because of the president's law enforcement. That should eliminate you for running for public office. Can't come out against all these cops and decide that you know better when nobody does. You got to at least go to an academy.

If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmead. Hey, welcome back to Clay Cucern Air Army Base. And it's a privilege for us to be here for the last two or three days. We're going to be taking off tomorrow, but we'll have a chance to meet a lot of men and women who serve.

A lot of times, you meet the generals, you meet the commanding officers. You don't meet the people that are doing this thing, rising up at the ranks like we've had a chance to do over the last few days, thanks to the American Forces Network. And with me right now, to talk about her career that is just getting started, Major Evelyn Gutierrez. She's a security cooperation person. She's a foreign officers officer, currently assigned as a regional desk officer in the U.S.

Army, Europe, in Africa. And she's already had a great career and she loves the international stuff. And that's why we're so great for you being here in Germany. Major, thanks so much for coming over. Thanks.

I appreciate it.

So, what made you want to join?

Well, so that was a long time ago. How many years? It's been about 18 years, I think.

So I started off in the Tennessee National Guard in 2007, and then I commissioned in 2011. And honestly, there's two reasons I joined the Army. The first one was I wanted to challenge myself. I was 19 at the time. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, go to basic training, do all that.

I was an Army brat. My dad was in the Army. And the second reason was I felt like it was my turn. I wanted my opportunity to serve my country and do it in my own right. Right.

And what has it been like for you? It has been a whirlwind. It has gone so fast. It's been challenging. It's been exciting.

And I wouldn't trade it for anything. You have a chance to visit other countries, get a sense of what operates them. What countries have you been to? What have you learned? I've visited a lot of countries in Europe.

So as you mentioned, I'm a foreign area officer, and I've had a pretty long career, but I'm new to the foreign area officer portion of my career. And so about a year ago, I did my in-region training. I was stationed out of the U.S. Embassy in Paris. Every time I tell people, they're like, oh, I hate you.

What was that like? That was amazing and really busy. I was privileged to be there during Liberation 80, so during D-Day, which is the 80th anniversary, which is really big. And then also Mm. I was able to work with the State Department there and then travel around the region because the whole point of that year, when you do your in-region training, you're supposed to become a subject matter expert in your region and understand the cultural nuances about your region so that you can then translate that when you have a general officer that comes to one of your countries.

And so I visited, let's see, I visited all of the Nordics, which works out really great considering now I'm a desk officer at USERAF and my portfolio is the Nordic countries. I went as far as NATO. Yeah, it's a really interesting dynamic because you've got two founding members with Denmark and Norway, and then the two newest members with Sweden and Finland.

So what have you picked up? Number one, there are certain force structures they have to have, there's certain things you have to do to NATO. Are you playing a role in that? Also, letting them know that the American military could be available in terms of weapon acquisitions. Yeah, absolutely.

So one of the The privileges that I have being a FAO is sometimes I get to be a fly in the room at some of these events, some of these NATO-focused events, especially with our commanding general being two-hatted, right? He's also the multi-corps land component commander for the center. And so I've sat in some of these meetings where he's had hard conversations with the Allies. And honestly, I've seen the Allies have really been stepping up and they understand that this is like. They have a change attitude because Ukraine is not an American concoction.

It's on their doorstep. They see the Russians. And our characterization of what Russia was up to was given the Heisman by a lot of our European allies, right? Yeah. So what I can tell you is the my piece of it, and I can tell you that the Nordics, they've it's been like especially Finland, yeah, they get it.

It's been at their doorstep. Forever.

So for Finland since the Winter Wars.

So they understand they've been prepping and they're fully on board. And then as far as Ukraine, they're like leading supporters of Ukraine when it comes to military spending in the Nordics. For example, Denmark, they spend over 3% of their GDP in support to Ukraine. And they're like the sixth largest donor, and in terms of GDP, the largest. Wow.

So I know that makes this President happy because he wanted to get everyone to 2%.

Now it's to get people to 5%. Very few are over 3%, but he's actually doing it. We're talking to Major Evelyn Gutierrez. Her position is a U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer.

And basically, she's focusing on the Nordic countries. But I guess it's hard not to think about your family in Cuba. That's where your parents are from. You were born there. And the President of the United States just called them out, basically, either make a deal or we're going to starve you.

If I can paraphrase, no more oil, no more material. We understand there's power outages for 15 hours a day. If your pension is $7, to give you an idea how far that goes, eggs are eight.

So What do you what do your parents tell you about what's going on there? Anything? And how do you feel about it? Having such a long career in the Army and being an Army brat, it's hard for me to speak on political things, but I will tell you that it is a conversation at home with my family. It's really important.

And really, what you're saying, I actually talked to my dad just yesterday, and he said they don't have food. They don't have electricity and they don't have dignity. And I think it's I would say for m my family and uh It would be great to see democratization finally in Cuba, but um Yeah.

So it's tough. Yeah, it is. Yeah. And then but this has been an issue in America since the 60s, since the late 50s, right?

So and the thing is, right now the President has redirected tankers that were going there for oil.

So you have a family there that's bad, but if things got to change, they maybe have to get worse. Yeah, and that's unfortunate. I think that's the reality of the world that we live in. And I think that they're already dealing with that. I'd say the worst part for them is that they're trapped, right?

It's a situation they can't get out of right now. And I'm just grateful to my parents for having the hell out of there. Yeah, being brave and figuring it out and giving us better opportunities. Little Havana is one of the most successful immigration groups ever. I mean, the the immigration success stories ever.

Why do you think it thrives? Why does it thrive? Cubans are stubborn and loud. Skilled. Yeah, um, very, very smart.

Appreciate freedom. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I mean, my my father certainly does. Smart man.

Yeah, something to compare it to. Yeah. I think that's awesome. Do you l what did you learn personally visiting these other countries? Because it's hard to get a perspective in America of America.

But when you go out and listen to people, whether they're complaints or compliments, how has that affected how you how you view our country? You know, I've had nothing but positive experiences everywhere I've gone, all throughout Europe, and even before that, as a U.S.

soldier.

So I've been stationed in Korea. The people there were amazing and very gracious. I've been on through deployments. And I have to say that. The one thing I'm most grateful for, because you know, we always talk about freedoms and opportunities and.

I think we're very fortunate. And we have the ability to not only, you know, have freedom of speech, say what we want, and also we can They're Let's say no boundaries. You can if you want to make something of yourself, you can. And some countries are like that, not not all. And so, yeah, it's It's not common everywhere.

No, I understand that.

So, what's next for you? How long do you think you'll stay? In the Army? Yes. As long as they'll keep me.

Wow. So you, Major, you want to do this for a while? I do. Right. I do.

And what about the what kind of sense of mission does it give you being in uniform? People say it gives purpose, gives a sense of mission, completion. What is it about? Is it the jobs you have, or is it the army that you love?

Okay. The jobs are different, and they're always changing. It's definitely the Army, and what I would say is it's the people, it's the men and women that are serving. I move around every two to three years, and everywhere I go, I meet amazing people that are working hard. They're mission-focused, they're smart, they're great friends.

I have amazing friends all over the world, and that's something I'm definitely grateful for. Wow. And so you're going past 20, going past 30, maybe? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great.

I want to be an 06 SDO deck. All right. That's fantastic.

Well, stay safe, and I would just say, with that resume of yours, I think we would be very welcome in Marco Rubio's State Department. Absolutely. I'm sure, as you know, he loves Center of South America. Major Evelyn Gutierrez, thanks so much. Thanks for all your service, and the best is yet to come.

Thank you. Back in a moment. Where big stories meet bigger conversations. Stay informed and energized with the Brian Kilmeat Show. Radio that makes you think.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show. We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not. I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way, but if we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way. And why do we even need Greenland? We need cranelins very badly.

Why? And why do we suddenly need all of Venezuela's oil? and whatever is buried under Greenland. What is Can I ask a question? Are we broke?

No, no, no, I get it, I get it, I get it. We don't want Russia or China to take over Greenland. Oh, you know what we could do to deter it? Not through arrogance or conquest, but What if we formed like kind of an alliance with Denmark and Greenland? We could include all the North Atlantic nations.

What? What would we call this? almost like a North Atlantic treaty organization that we, I don't know what we could, I guess we'll never know.

So that was Jon Stewart having some funny about having some fun with the president's quest to get Greenland. I think there's a deal going to get done. I think it starts today. Laos. We have Marco Rubio.

He's going to be meeting with the foreign minister of Denmark. I think he's meeting now. And they're going to work out some type of deal because Denmark's been flat out ignoring Greenland. If you even listen to the people and leaders, they've been just taking it.

Well, we don't like dealing with them. They're hard to deal with. And they have their own economy. Yes. So why do you have it?

It dates back hundreds of years.

So I think that there could be a deal done there. In terms of Trump saying there's a battle plan to take it, I don't think you need a battle plan to take it. I just think you need a manifest. And they'll just say, where is it? Thank you.

And the 85,000 people evidently do not want to be ruled by Denmark or the United States. Here's the quote from the European Commissioner. to Reuters, Andreas Kubilis. I agree with the Danish Prime Minister that it will this it will end all of NATO, but also among people, it will be also very, very negative. It will depend on very much on Denmark, how they react what would be their position.

But definitely, there is such an ob there's such an obligation of Member States to come for mutual assistance if another Member State is facing military aggression. Yes. So France and England are going to stop us from taking Greenland, and it's the end of NATO. I mean, I'm sitting here in Germany seeing the impact of NATO and what we're doing to sustain and train NATO, urging them to protect themselves. I'm pretty sure the annexing an island that they're not paying attention to wouldn't do that, but I don't think it's necessary for us to take it.

Who wants that responsibility? It's going to be a huge. We go in there, we want to be able to mine along with Greenland, let them benefit their rare earth. I want to expand our military base. Just do it and say this is going to be more of a NATO base, an American base.

You don't need to own it. And the President's trying to ask for the moon and get happy with the stars. I love it. Also, Pete Hegset, the Secretary of War, made it clear yesterday, announced yesterday that he's making the U.S. a global leader in AI, drones, and space technology, arguing that a risk-adverse culture has slowed innovation and prevented the Pentagon from providing the best resources to service members.

Hegseth was speaking alongside SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who he's counting on, as is the president, suddenly again when it comes to Iran. And Pete came out and said with Elon Musk there, that Musk, he's depending on his company, located in Brownsville, Texas, to help out, where he unveiled a strategy to advance the Pentagon's technology. What also caught my attention is Scott Besson, one of the most respected people in America, let alone on the Trump team, came out and said the fraud is so pervasive on so many social programs, not just in Minneapolis. 10% of all uh payouts Two supposed social programs are fraudulent. Minimum ten percent.

That is hundreds of billions of dollars. And when you think about 10% in an economy our size of trillions of dollars, that to me is noteworthy. And I think that that's why Minnesota, as much as they love to be anti-American, a lot of their big pushback is because they do not want to focus on the fraud. The fraud is Meanwhile, they're suing They are suing. Donald Trump and his administration for bringing Bringing ice to his streets on the chances of that.

Cut 19, Eli Honeck. I've read both the Minnesota and Illinois lawsuits. They're really political diatribes masquerading as lawsuits. If you look at what both states are asking the courts to do, it's to kick ICE out of those states and cities and to bar ICE from carrying on federal law enforcement in Illinois and Minnesota. That's the top thing both states ask to do, and they cite zero precedent for that.

There is zero precedent for that. There is no way a judge can say, you, federal law enforcement agency, you are not allowed to execute federal law in a certain state or city. You also could have judges that issue sort of symbolic orders along the lines of ICE, you are not to violate the law, but that's already the case. It's already not allowed for ICE to violate the law.

So these lawsuits, which appear to be coordinated, they're potentially powerful political statements, but I don't give them much of a chance of achieving the legal thing that they're asking for in the courts. It's like suing not to have cops on your streets because you don't like cops. It's not up to you to pick and choose what. Law enforcement agencies, you want to have on your streets. This is an attorney general complicit in seeing the massive fraud going on predominantly in the Somali community and trying to change the subject.

Roe Conna, who did such a good job, I thought, demanding the fraud investigation go forward against Gavin Newsom in California, said it should be bipartisan. Listen to what he said about the ICE agent involved in that shooting of the 37-year-old mom, Cut23. It was a shameful act. To kill a 37-year-old mom, leaving her six-year-old boy an orphan. That's why I have called.

for the arrest and prosecution of that ICE agent. ICE has gone rogue. We need accountability. What is wrong with him? Yes, go arrest somebody.

Caught on camera, getting hit by a car, even though he was telling the woman to stop, who is a professional. Agitator, an anti-ice warrior. That was her title. That's what she was getting paid to do while her six-year-old sat. in daycare.

That's on her. Um Brian killed me, Joe. From high atop, Fox. News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division.

It's Brian Killmead. Hi everyone from Clay Cucerne Army Base in beautiful Wiesbaden, Germany. I am Brian Kilmead wrapping up two straight shows here thanks to the American Forces Network facilities over here in Europe and they're just top-notch and we're able to put on this show and we truly appreciate it. David and Patrick have helped me out over there and always appreciate them. And meanwhile Allison has made the trip over to Germany and having to deal back and forth with running around and all the security necessary and then of course it's always fun traveling internationally.

This hour we're going to hear from Chris Donahue, the four-star general who has done more for this country in his years of service than possibly anybody else in uniform and now has the African command as well as the European Command. He's going to run us through what his responsibilities are and the challenges that remain. Also we're going to talk to Dean Farrell, the chief technology officer with the U.S. Army, how AI is revolutionized the way we fight wars. But I do want to talk about right now what's happening in Iran.

I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen the number of people from all the provinces in this country. I'm talking about the rich, I'm talking about the poor. I'm talking about people bold enough on social media to roll up and rip the Iranian flag down and replace it with the old flag that was flying before 1979. It doesn't mean they want the Shah or his son back.

I get it. But what it means is they were duped in 1979. They were told they'd have a more representative government. Instead, they got the Ayatollah Khomeini, the evil personified, who reached Havit, taking our hostages, and through the Middle East.

Now he has enemies on all the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, the new government in Syria. Obviously, the primary one is Iran. The primary one is Israel.

So I don't think there's any scenario where they can stay in power and this world remains a better place. This is too much of a historic opportunity. Mashur Ajazeed, who is a former Iranian, he's an Iranian activist who used to live in Iran, and they have a bounty on her head, talked about what's happening on the ground, Cut 11. This is beyond hypocrisy. I have to say the silence of left and liberal in America, in Europe, is not an accidental silence.

It's an ideological silence because they believe that our suffering, suffering of the Iranian women, Iranian men, thousands of people being killed or injured, it's not like the thing that they can talk about it because it will expose their hypocrisy and it will expose that how they sympathize with our killers, with Islamist terrorists.

So let's bring in Dan Hoffman, former CIA Station Chief, served in Moscow, Iraq, Pakistan, South Asia, Europe. Dan, think for a second. how much better thing could possibly be with a different regime in Iran. The ripple effects of the Grand Ayatollah living the rest of his days, and I hope there's not many, in Moscow. Yeah, Brian, I would love to go there, but all the years I served in the Middle East.

uh and track the Middle East. it's super hard to be optimistic about anything. You know, uh Gosh, I remember an Iraqi intelligence officer telling me, yeah, today was a pretty rough day, but at least we know tomorrow is going to be worse.

So look, I think that the developments in Iran want they do lead to some optimism. It's extraordinary what's going on there. But if past is prologue, I'm concerned about where we're headed. I just can't help but be concerned. But there are a lot of potentially Good developments, obviously, but the regime there is brutal, and by all accounts.

we're seeing a pretty oppressive crackdown on the prop on the protesters. Killing of thousands so far? Yeah, that's what we're hearing.

So what are their options? I mean, what are our options? Obviously, we don't want to run Iran. We have no interest in picking their next leader. But to sit there on the sideline again, like we did in nineteen nineteen and two thousand nine, does not seem to be the right move either.

So look, the the past U. S. policy has been To try to change Iran's behavior. That's what the Obama administration tried to do. And that didn't work.

Now the question is when you have an opportunity for regime change, if it's legitimate, Well, that's a different story. We're concerned about Iran's nuclear program, their ballistic missile program and their support to proxy terrorists. And there are a whole lot of folks protesting now, as you pointed out in all thirty one provinces. It began with just a focus on the water shortage and a broken economy, rampant inflations. But now their protesters are demanding change And they're fighting back.

With weapons.

Now where it leads, does do elements of the IRGC that are responsible for tamping down on the protests and putting people in jail and killing people, do some of them break away possible. What follows the Ayatollah if there was regime change? I mean, it could even be worse or it could be better. That's something that the CIA, I can tell you from my experience, is looking at for President Trump. Can I just say this, Mark?

Dan, I never know what you know.

Okay, I'll never know. I get it. You're the CIA, you spent decades doing it. But it's hard to imagine it getting worse. I mean, how much worse can you be?

I couldn't even write a movie where we have a worse leader that wreaks more havoc on the West than the Grand Diatola and his predecessor. And that, I think, is exactly where President Trump is at right now. Take the Hippocratic oath of causing no harm to the protest movement. While we embark on US policy.

So you saw when Trump said, no, we're not going to negotiate with the Iranian regime. About their nuclear program. We're going to let the protests play out. That's a smart move. The fact that Iran was reaching out for negotiations with designed maybe to get some help on the sanctions, that just reflects what a bad place they're in.

So look, Iran's regime is brittle. It's super hard to determine when and if they might break. But again, as I mentioned, I think the key is the IRGC. When do they refuse to fire on protesters? When do elements of the IRGC start to break?

Do we see the domestic Protests. maybe coalesce around a specific person or a group. They need Internet. We can help with that. We might be able to help with some pinpoint cyber attacks.

And who knows, the President may be dialing up a kinetic strike or two against the IRGC. But protesters clearly want all of those things. Yes. And the thing is the bravery they're showing as they ride in all these provinces, knowing that they have an army shooting into crowds. The question is, Knowing what Israel already did in killing all these generals in their beds prior to their massive bombing, you know they know the numbers of the civilian leaders.

What would be the right thing to do with that? And we know we share things with Israel like nobody else and vice versa. I mean, do you think that there's something we can do to let them know we have their home addresses and their vacation homes? Yeah. Well, listen, Israel's already done a lot, and so have we.

Israel took the fight to Iran's proxy terrorists, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis. They decimated Iran's air defense in that twenty twenty five war. We took out the nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. Syria is no longer Iran's client state. And as you mentioned, Israel decapitated the senior IRGC leadership.

Iran is weaker now than they arguably ever have been before. And I wouldn't put it past Israel or potentially the United States to launch pinpoint. Surgical strikes against specific units of the IRGC that may be targeting the protest movement. That's certainly, I'm sure those strikes are warmed up in the bullpen, Brian. And I'm sure that the president will be talking today when he has his meetings with his cabinet officials, national security team.

He'll be looking at those options. Yes, but negotiating with them on the nuclear weapons should not be one of them. That scared me for a second. I hope that wasn't serious. Dan Hoffman, always great.

I hope this time we can talk about regime change in the aftermath, the post-game show instead of the pre-game show. Thanks, Dan. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show.

Well, when you talk about Christopher Donyu, the general, four-star general, running the Clay Cucerne Army base, he might be the most respected military officer, retired, or active in our country that I've had a chance to talk to and see in action. I asked him to come in and talk generally about his command, about what is his responsibility.

Now he had to run to Washington, D.C. today, so I asked him to do it earlier. Here's what's on his docket, on his things to do list on a daily basis, and what his commission is. And when we talk about Africa and we talk about Europe, we talk about General Donahue.

So you can't come to Europe, you can't come to Germany and Wiesbaden in particular and talk to the command in charge of Europe and Africa without finding out exactly what that responsibility is like.

So that's why we have four-star General Chris Donahue with us. That is his portfolio. That's what he gets up thinking about every day. General, thanks so much. In a very simple map, I know it's an unclassified situation.

Could you give everybody at home a sense of what the type of responsibility is on your shoulders? First off, where are we now? Point out.

So right now we're in Wiesbaden, Germany, right about here. And that's the command of U.S. Army, Europe, and Africa. Right. Also NATO land forces.

So this command right here basically controls all the land forces for Europe and Africa. And you're telling what numbers? How much would you do?

So on the U.S. side to include all of our rotational forces, we have about 60,000 forces out here. And then on the NATO side, any of the European 32 members of NATO that give forces over to NATO to fight, we control those. That's seven cores.

So when a country like Finland sees what happened in Ukraine and Sweden, sees what happens in Ukraine, they no longer want to be neutral when it comes to NATO. What do they add? Unbelievable capability in both the fins You know, their land force commander and the Swedish land force commander is two very good friends of mine that I've served with for many years, but also two incredibly capable militaries, by the way. Mm-hmm. Tough, tough people.

Right. And motivated, well financed with strong economies. The problem and the challenge is right here with Russia. An expansionist power? People say, no, not really.

The answer is yes. And first signs of that was Georgia. What's happened since the Georgia incursion? Yeah, so I mean, I think to. I won't go back and replay everything, but let's just fast forward to where we are today.

So you have. NATO on that side of it, where the administration, Ambassador Whitaker, and others have gotten the 5%.

So, what that has allowed us to do is to allow to establish a concept, the eastern flank deterrence line, a capability that will hold any adversary's capability at risk. And also have the offensive and defensive capability to ensure deterrence works out here.

So obviously Switzerland's neutral, but you have obviously Germany, they seem to be motivated. Belgium, Luxembourg, small and big countries, all the Baltic nations, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. And now we have, you can't just say, well, Russia has a problem with the Ukraine. When you see drones landing in Poland and in Romania, Do you believe that Russia made a mistake with that, or do you think they're letting them know that they have expansionist goals? I guess you've heard what the Intel community has said, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.

We have to make sure that none of any nation's capability. can come in here. What we've been able to do is the capability that Ukraine has developed We have now taken the U.S. company, developed it, and that capability is now in Poland and in Romania, and ultimately it's going to go along the entire Eastern Flank. That capability has shot down over 2,000 Shahids, Karantus, is no matter what you want to call them.

But that capability is now in the U.S. We use it. and other NATO nations are now buying it from a US company. And the coordination with these countries is stronger. I guess one of the biggest worries is Moldova.

They're trying to have their info their elections have been infiltrated before. And now you have Ukraine. The objective is to stop the fighting in Ukraine, but how it stops will decide if we're going to have fighting again in Ukraine. What are some of the intangibles or the tangibles that have to be in any agreement? Yeah, I think you know, I'm not going to get into how the negotiations are going right now, but clearly, as you've heard in the news, things are trending in a good direction.

You still have to get done. But we are postured, whatever ultimately comes out of that agreement, we are ready to go and implement that right away. General, when this war starts in 2022, How surprised are you we're still Covering it, dealing with it. They're still fighting in 2026. Yeah, I think.

Anyone who's been watching this is not surprised by it. If you look at in particular on the Ukrainian side, clearly Very tough, capable people who aren't going to quit. And obviously, on the other side, they're determined as well.

So I don't think anybody's surprised by how this is playing out right now. Although, when they initially started, we had a ton of experts saying they're not going to last 10 days. And man, is it still lasting? Also, with the Ukrainians that old adage in war, They got nowhere else to go. Where other the invading force does, they have nowhere else to go.

This is their home. Absolutely. I mean, they're. This is existential, fighting for their life. They're not going to quit.

And you always pointed out. that if this is the biggest army. And this is the second biggest army. The last thing you want in them to be one army. That would be a challenge to all of Europe and all of NATO, which means a lot more resources and a lot more money, and you have Russia with a lot of momentum.

Absolutely. And also, clearly, the administration understands this, and they're trying to get to a peace agreement. We all know we need that. And that is the key is to get to that point.

So, that doesn't happen. We need to eliminate this as a strategic dilemma to us, but rather get this to a strategic advantage, which again, everyone's trying to do. And the one thing that's beyond opinion: if you take the biggest army with the second biggest army, if they become one army and Ukraine gets swallowed up, everybody's security is going to be challenged, and more money is going to have to pour into all those other nations to meet that challenge. Correct. And if you look at the approach that the administration is trying to take, We don't want that to happen.

And clearly, the administration understands this, and they're doing everything they can to ensure that really this is no longer a strategic dilemma, to allow us to focus on other things. And that's the whole key. It is to eliminate a strategic dilemma out here. The other area you have to worry about, I guess, maybe 20% of your time, is Africa. What are the challenges with Africa?

Is it still terrorism? And where is it? Yeah, so I mean, it's the you know, and on this case, we worked for General Dag Anderson down in Africa. I'm just came from his conference. But and I have a lot of time from my previous life in the military back when I was doing special operations.

But, you know, you have ISIS, Al-Shabaab, AQIM, you know, a couple other groups that are in there. But I think you're going to see some pretty novel approaches coming out that we mentioned during your show. That what will be able to directly ensure that these countries can defend themselves and eliminate as much as possible this threat. Right, so you get more in the training mode than the actual fighting mode. Let them fight.

Because do they recognize for the most part, these governments, that terrorism is an issue? What are they fighting for the government? Yeah, no, they all understand that and they want stability, right? And the countries that you look at? I mean, well, we look at all of them, but clearly the areas you're talking about, Mali, Niger.

Uh Naishiri uh You know, this corridor through here, Libya, over in Somalia.

So, you know, we are focused on all that. Again, the other key thing here is this is an opportunity for us to eliminate, again, a strategic dilemma, distractions, right? And do this through let train them. Let those forces take care of it. Have other nations come in and help with the funding of this, which they want to do.

And then don't forget about all the rare earns. And by the way, if we don't go, China will. And when Russia can stand up again, they will too.

So there will not be a vacuum. Correct. And a great place for us to compete and compete in a smart way that sends a message to the world of, hey, we can do this today. General Daniel has a big things to do list every single day with a lot of countries, a lot of forces, a lot of thinking, tapping all your years of experience. General, thanks so much.

Good to see you, Brian. Thank you again. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. Welcome back, everyone.

It's the Brian Kill Me Show.

So glad you're there. We've had a chance to have a fantastic time in Wiesbaden, Germany. Clay Cucern, Army base, and here with the American Forces Radio Network, giving us great facilities. And as we close out the final half hour here in Germany, it's my privilege to bring in somebody not in uniform but working for us in America. He's not in the military, but he's working in the military.

Dean Farrell. He is the chief technology officer with the U.S. Army, Europe, and Africa. He's with the United States Army of Europe and Africa right here in Wiesbaden. And he spent his life in the private sector, but now he's helping America become more lethal and And raise our defenses.

Dean, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me on the show, and thanks for coming out here. Indeed, I think it's so interesting because people say they know about contractors being hired by the military, know about contracts being hired by every federal agency. But it's not often that people understand there's a way to work on an Army base.

With the military, shoulder to shoulder, and not be in the military. They found you, right? That's right. A lot of people don't get that. And I'm glad you started out with that because one message I want to get out there is that we're working on some really interesting problems and there's room for more civilians.

Right. So first off, how did they find you?

Okay. They found me. I was working for an IoT company remotely during COVID. The worst. The worst.

Yeah. And I was. Not just the company's bad, just working at home. Right, exactly. And I was looking for something new, and somebody came to me with an opportunity.

They did not even say what it was at first. And they said they wanted to work with me. And it was Department of War. And I Thought about it, I said, Yeah, I'd love to give it a shot. And I found out as soon as I started doing that work that I really meant a lot to me in a way that my previous jobs had not quite provided a mission.

Yeah, so this is a mission rather than a job. Exactly.

And what do you think that missage, how would you describe that mission? The the Mission overall here is to establish deterrence against any adversary. which is obviously in the European theater. Russia. My personal mission Is to drive our ability to use technology so that we can leverage.

The full force of the commercial progress of all open and commercial technology. Yeah. And that that is The specific reason why people like me need to come in and work with the military because we cannot. wait for complete products to then go into our bubble. of usage.

We need to be keeping pace. With everything that the rest of the world is able to do. And you do that by getting some you know, we have the best tech companies in the world. Nobody argues with that. But how do you get that to America's defense?

And so many patriotic people work in your industry. They don't know how to give back, maybe show up on the Fourth of July and make a donation to a worthy cause. This is your service. That's right. So then your knowledge is really not come, doesn't come out of the military.

You have to have it to help the military. Yeah, most days I'm still catching up. I'm about five years in and I'm still figuring out the acronyms.

So yeah, I still get you. I have to slow everybody down. Maybe I'll just don't have that gene. I can't figure out one of them. And if I do figure it out, it's always wrong.

But Dean, in particular, what do you bring to the table now as you look and see what the military is dealing with? When did you realize you could help? I know they wanted your help, you want to help, but sometimes it's not a match. Yeah, that. That question is perfect because when I explain what I did when I first came in working for the Pentagon, it will.

It will relate exactly to what I'm doing now.

So when I first came in, I was asked to work on data distribution problems, specifically related to sensors and counter UAS. This was after we knew that counter UAS was a big problem, but it was before it was Big news. We had many segmented systems. that could not share data. And I basically I was hired in.

They said, what's your plan? They gave me like a week, and I pretty much used my previous plans that I had used in industry to manage data for counter UAS systems to protect warfighters. They liked it, and that's how I ended up getting a long-term job originally.

So I'm doing a very similar thing. We are doing a very similar thing out here. And when I say we, I'm including USER EURAF, I'm including NATO, I'm including coalition and even partners, I'm including Ukraine. But it's going beyond just enhancing counter-UAS. It's creating the ability for all systems to share data in a common pattern.

and for us to be able to share it across sovereigns across countries and across regions. It's creating a baseline that will scale into a constant capability. And I can explain even the long term vision.

So the the short term is can we just see the same thing in two different places? Can we share data? That's the initial point of whether or not we're successful. Long term, what we're trying to do here is manage Unmanned systems and autonomous systems. With manned forces across an entire theater, but put the unmanned systems out front.

So we are trading metal for blood. In first contact. And that is where technology can actually save lives. Long-term vision, again, where we're starting out with is we just need to be able to share data across NATO and across partners. And I know that's not your thing being mass produced.

You come up with a brand new Patriot missile.

Well, do you have manufacturing?

Well, I don't do that. Do a lot of these smaller companies, they don't have the manufacturing base to basically maybe mass produce their product, or does 3D printing give them that ability? It doesn't give us the ability to really scale up into the millions. But it does give you the ability to start iterating. And you're hitting on another really important point here.

We've previously focused on getting things perfect. it's got to meet the requirement. That's been what we focus on for technology and capabilities. There's a new requirement that's more important than any of the static ones. It's how fast can you adapt.

And when you talk about being able to 3D print something, what you've done is you've loosened the design. You've turned it into something that you're changing every single time that you do that 3D printing. If you have the guy who makes the specs there as well, and that is the main theme of what we need to get better at, of what you're seeing in Ukraine. They are fantastic at some things. They don't do everything exactly the way that we would do it, but that is one thing that we have to do.

And we've got to find a way to knock down those drones, right? We used to worry about knocking down rockets, missiles, tomahawks, or whatever other country has. And is that one of your focuses? Because a lot of times people say it's technology that made the drones so lethal, first for surveillance and now for attack, but could be technology that hacks them and brings them down. Yeah, that's a really good aspect of it.

There's multiple aspects.

So you're talking about. The electronic warfare, mostly there is a cyber aspect where maybe you actually hack into the computing side of the system, but mostly can you fry it or remove its ability to navigate? That absolutely is a large area of this. But I would say, even more important than that, Is our ability to shoot them down at a cost that is cheaper than the ability to produce them? There is a very close tethering between the economic drive and the appetite for someone to actually use something against you.

So if you have taken the asymmetry in your advantage so that it costs them more money than it does for you to shoot it down, then they'll be less in i in touch. They'll be less um Pushed to actually use that type of resource. And so it's really important that we shoot things down with bullets. And cheaper drones, right? Dean Farrells is with us, the Chief Technology Officer of the United States Army, Europe, and Africa.

So, Dean, first you take the job in the military, not something you were looking for, but you took it. When do you realize you have to do it in another Country. Um Yeah. As soon as I realized that it was important to me, I was happy to uh to go into other places. Um It it it happened pretty quickly.

After I I started working For the Pentagon. They then sent me to other units that required help, and the help. It needed to be delivered at the point of need. That was the very first lesson that I learned: if you sit in the office, you don't appreciate what the actual risk and problem is for the warfighter. And also, you can't actually truly understand how to solve that problem.

So, as soon as I started getting out and seeing the closer that I got to the actual operational environment, the closer I got to the truth. That that was That just kind of took off and it didn't stop. Wow. Uh and how long do you expect to be here? That's a good question.

I don't know. I actually love this job, so I have no. And end zone in view. Right. So you're a young guy.

You're not even 30, are you? No, I'm 42, actually. I appreciate that, though. I don't even think you look 30. This is kind of incredible.

So. You remember there was a time when Google and all these companies did not want to have anything to do with the military. If they found out that their product was being used, they would go off, and there was a huge controversy. That's right. There was a big protest when Google was the first company to work with NGA on the MAVEN program.

There was, I think it was maybe about 12 years ago or something like that. And other companies kind of joined in. That's changed.

Now it seems like there's a patriotic streak through a lot of these companies, or at least among the management. I'm not sure about The members or the workers. That's right. You notice when you meet with these new companies, especially the AI companies? Yeah.

It's changed in two ways. One is that the big players that used to be only commercial now see themselves as part of this sphere. I think. I don't know. I couldn't tell you the internal mechanisms, but maybe they see that everything is related and they're responsible for more than just providing commercial services.

The second way that things have changed is that companies like Palantir and Angel are having an easier time finding talent. And both of those dynamics are really important. We need to have a defense industrial base, and we need to have these modern companies working with us in order to build this collective capability. And our audience can safely say the answer is yes, they are willing and they are contributing. Yes.

Awesome. Dean, congratulations. I'm so glad you made the move. I'm so glad you went on LinkedIn. And I see so is uh so is America.

Yeah, I'm really glad to be here. All right. Back in a moment to wrap up the area. Listen, the brain kill me, Joe. Yeah.

Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say. Stay with Brian Kilmead. Uh The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Did you know Fox and Francis Brian Killme took German in high school? Ombre, translated, simply means man.

Well, he's talking about the border. Why not?

So I understand. And Steve, my choice to take German has hurt me again. Because I did not know what Ombre, I took German in high school. We don't know Spanish. I took German in high school.

If I didn't have subtitles, because I focused on German in high school, Gutenstadt to my German fans, I took German in high school. I took German in high school. How come I didn't know they didn't have drones?

Now it's time for you to German election results. I took German in high school, so I'll take this story. In Der Spiegel, which is a magazine I don't get, but it's German, even though I took three years of German. If I paid more attention in school, I took three years of German. I took three years of German.

It's like my second language. I know you took German in seventh grade. Because I took German in high school? Yes. Perfect.

Okay, in what country did the custom of putting up a Christmas tree originate? United States, Germany. Oh, I know that. Or France. Brian, you have your chance.

You know what country that is? We're paying attention to it. Germany Deutschland. Germany Deutschland is correct.

So that was on John Oliver's show on HBO, and that was ironic because I took Sherman in high school. I did not realize I said that, although I'm having fun, but I did not realize I said that a lot more than that. John Oliver, I've only met him once. They also think I say sharks, I'm obsessed with sharks. I was going to say they're borderline obsessed with you.

Like, those are impressive montages. But then here we are in Germany. We are. And how much has your German helped you while we're here? It really.

It's about to, I'm sure. It's about to. It would help translate. Because you know what? I'm hanging out with people that speak English.

I couldn't call on my I didn't even take my senior year. If I took my senior year, I would have really locked in all my knowledge. And you would have gotten us out of the airport without any issues. That would be very it's so interesting because I like to thank the German people for speaking English. It really helps.

But that why would he do like that show out of that show is not a friendly show to our network. No. But yet that is somewhat fun. It's very fun, and he has so much fun with you because, again, that was excellent. We have the shark montage.

I'm not sure if we have time for it here, and Eric is super quick with it. But at another time, he did an epic montage of Brian just talking about how he's terrified of sharks. Right. The other thing is, I think we have a do we have any Bill Moore? From last night?

Because he pointed out in the Golden Globes. I don't know if I pulled it. Yeah, he pointed out in the Golden Globes how ridiculous it is that people are wearing the woman who lost her life in Minneapolis to be good. Are you kidding me? Do you realize how abhorrent this woman was acting prior to being shot?

They're going to do an investigation and find out who's wrong. I have a great idea who's wrong. When you hit a guy who's an ICE official, I'm leaning towards you being wrong. But you know, you want to talk about being shocked, go ahead. But this was what she did for a living.

They lied to us and said she was a kind poet from Colorado. Her mom was paying all her bills. She had two other kids, and she has a six-year-old. At school or at home or at daycare, well, she created havoc in zero degree weather in Minneapolis against law enforcement, mocking it with that with her partner. Uh I mean, I don't think any of this video that we just heard of her make her look good.

But I mean, all of that being said, just. It's tragic all around, but how deranged, like with Trump derangement syndrome, that you're putting. Politics and chasing ICE officers above your children. That one, one of her kids I was reading, his father, the father died in 2003.

So that kid is now an orphan because she was thinking, let me pester ICE agents instead of making sure my child has a mother. It's insane. Right. He died. In fact.

Uh, some people who I know do stand-up know him. He was doing stand-up comedy, died tragically. They didn't mention how, but he died in his 30s.

So she married a woman, she switched. Uh and she ends up Yeah, they went to Canada after Trump won, and she hated the country. And she came back to Minneapolis, so she realized Minneapolis is barely in this country, and she became an activist. She put her kid in a school known for activism. They went to George Floyd Plaza.

When you have a school that's into activism, they're not out there trying to make the country better, they're trying to run it down. And Elon Omar, going out there, trying to forget that her district and her community perpetrated fraud all over Minneapolis, is now inviting criticism by going out there. By the way, a daughter came public and said she has no money and is homeless in New York because she got pushed out of Columbia for being a radical on those anti-Semitic protests. And you know, if you're getting pushed out of Columbia, I mean, you're. Extreme.

Yeah, you're extreme. Because she was organizing protests.

So she's somebody taken right after her mother.

So we'll see about her. I think there's going to be a lot of pressure. The lawsuits from Chicago, the lawsuits from Minneapolis on the federal government, now the suing of Jerome Powell, I think, is not a great move. Let him go. I mean, they're suing Jerome Powell for For uh the f he's chairman of Fed for Putting on place spending $11 billion to improve the Fed facilities.

And all past Fed chairs came out and said that was a terrible idea to sue him. Right. It is. Just let him go. Just let him go.

Now, I think it's a big distraction. Listen to the Brian, kill me, Charles. See you in America. Thanks so much for everybody in Wiesbaden, Germany, for making this so special, especially the Army.