WEBVTT

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for the Swamp Fox Team . Thanks for

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what you do . Thanks for being here

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giving up your time to be part of this

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mission . Hello , I'm Brigadier General

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Evan Perez , the commander of the three

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78th Air Expeditionary Wing . And I'm

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here today with Lieutenant Colonel Trip

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bows , the commander of the one 57th

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expeditionary Fighter Squadron Trip .

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Tell me a little bit about the one 57th .

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Where's the unit from ? And what do you

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guys do ? Yes , sir . One 57th . Part

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of the one 69th Fighter Wing at

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McIntyre , Joint National Guard Base in

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Columbia south Carolina . So part of

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the south Carolina , Air National Guard .

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Okay , fantastic . So , so your Guard

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unit , which means your composition is

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a little bit different than the active

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duty units that we often see out here

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at Prince Sultan Air Base . Tell me a

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little bit about what's different about

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a Guard fighter squadron ? Well , our

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squadron in particular , 66 roughly are

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part time citizen soldiers who have

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other civilian careers there . Doctors ,

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lawyers , teachers , police officers ,

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pretty much anything in the private

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sector . We have them and then they

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come out and they're your , your

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typical weekend warrior , one weekend a

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month , two weeks a year total . Uh ,

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and then on top of that , we have about

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33 of our force is going to be a full

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time . Maybe , uh , our percent of them

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are a gr , so really no different than

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being on active duty , same benefits ,

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same requirements . And then the other

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75 of those are going to be , uh ,

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technicians who are federal civil

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employees with slightly different rules

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on top of that . We also have an active

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association . So we're total Force

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Integration Squadron . And we have

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roughly 100 active duty folks who are

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assigned to our squadron and they fit

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right in their part of the 3 16 fighter

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squadron , I think that's one of the ,

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you know , the neatest things to me

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being out here in the area of

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responsibility , you know , being in US

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Air Forces Central area is we have

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active duty units come in , reserve

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units , guard units , associate units

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that have some kind of mix . And once

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the , once the people in the iron hit

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the ground , it is very difficult to

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tell unless you just walk up and ask

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somebody , the difference , it is , the

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3/16 has their own heraldry and patches .

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But when they come to McIntyre , they

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were small fox patches , and they're

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one of us . That's right . It's really

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neat to watch the team in operation

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because , you know , it's one of the

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things I'm really proud about as an

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airman is how well all this folds

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together and what an enhancement this

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is to our capabilities that you have a

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unit of Citizens shoulders that can

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stand up like this and go forward , be

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spun up and do the job exactly like uh

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you know , as if it was a full time

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unit because you know , you're you're

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not going to come out here , not ready ,

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you're gonna train and be ready .

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What's that training like ? Yes , sir .

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Well , that's the , the reason we have

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full timers , full timers are there to

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train every single day and then when we

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get caught up on , we're going to train

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the part time force and bring them up

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to the standard many of our pilots are ,

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I'd say our average is probably about

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1500 hours in the f 16 . Whereas if you

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look at the active duty squadrons are

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probably five or 600 hours , I would

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guess as you kind of your basic guy .

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So we bring a ton of experience as

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pilots and then also our maintainers ,

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they've all been doing this for years

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and they have a lot of this core

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knowledge that they can bring and then

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we share that with the active

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associates is kind of a seasoning

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program and then we put them back out

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on active duty . Yeah , well the

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experience is evident , you know , just

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walking around the line talking to some

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of your airman , some of these guys

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have been at this for a very long time

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and it's a really impressive to watch

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him work . Do you have any messages

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you'd like to give to the team ? Well ,

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for the Swamp Fox team was really a

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family is , you know , thanks for what

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you do . Thanks for being here , giving

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up your time to be part of this mission .

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Um , We're just looking to enhance all

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the capabilities of peace that has .

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Yeah , well , you know , talking about

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capabilities , tell me a little bit

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about what you're gonna be doing while

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you're here at peace up . Well ,

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primarily going to do anything the

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centcom commander asks us to do . So ,

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projecting their power through absent

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uh and executing the missions just

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throughout the entire centcom hor . So

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just in the first week we've already

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flown some nine our missions . So it's

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a it's a long way to travel to get the

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mission done . But that's what we're

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here to do . Absolutely . I mean , your

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presence here is very reassuring to our

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partners and allies . That gives us a

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great capability to maintain stability ,

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build partnership , deter regional

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aggressors . We can't thank you enough

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for what you what you do here . And

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really , you know , I guess the one

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thing I believe is anything that you

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want to say to the families back home

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who are sacrificing without their loved

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ones . That's really the same message

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of just thank you , we can't do it

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without them . So um yeah , they're

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putting up with a lot , so we

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appreciate that . Absolutely thank you

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very much .