Our military is not the place for social experimentation . . .
AUTO-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT
00:00:01 [ALLEN WEST]
Lieutenant Colonel Allen West, and welcome to the Steadfast and Loyal podcast.
00:00:13 [MUSIC]
00:00:52 [ALLEN WEST]
Hey folks, thanks for joining us on this episode of the Steadfast Law Podcast. And I just want to take some time to kind of get some thoughts out there with you all. Recently I had the opportunity of going and seeing my nephew take command of an artillery battalion there at joint base Lewis and Mcchord, something that he watched me do 21 years ago and it was just so great to be back on an army installation and it's the exact same installation.
00:01:19 [ALLEN WEST]
Back then, it was known as Fort Lewis WA in 1982, where I went through the ROTC advanced camp and after completing that six to seven week advance camp, it's kind of like ROTC Cadet Boot camp training. I came back and I was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army, so Fort Lewis has some really deep connections with me and also my nephew.
00:01:43 [ALLEN WEST]
Lieutenant Colonel Herman Bernard West III, he went through ROTC advance camp at Fort Lewis, so it was kind of nice to drive over to North Fort Hood area, where there used to be the Old World War II barracks where we were housed when we were ROTC cadets.
Now that's where his headquarters is for his battalion, the first battalion and 94th Field Artillery Regiment, High Mars High Mobility Artillery rocket system.
And the interesting thing about him taking command of a high Mars battalion and he also commanded a high Mars battery was that as their operations.
Officer of the 18th Field Artillery Brigade airborne at Fort Bragg, NC. We filled it the very first high Mars test Platoon 3 launchers and we were very instrumental in developing the tactics, the techniques and the procedures for the implementation and the implementation of the artillery rocket system and how they would be delivered onto the battlefield and so.
It was just a great thing to be there, to see him taking command of 400 soldiers. It's just good to be around soldiers. But I just got to ask what is going on with our military? With some of our senior leaders.
00:03:02 [ALLEN WEST]
Now let me frame this in a means that you can understand. It is not a right to be a soldier, Sailor, airman, Marine, Space Force -- whatever you call them -- and Coast Guard, it is not a right. It's a privilege.
00:03:18 [ALLEN WEST]
To be able to wear the uniforms and on one side, says United States Army, United States Marine Corps, United States Air Force, United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, United States Space Force and have your last name on the other side. Although I think we should continue with referring to people as “Sir” and “Ma'am.” But understand that it is a privilege to serve in the military. We have an all-volunteer force. People raise their right hand, say I want to get some of this, but there's still standards.
00:03:48 [ALLEN WEST]
If you want to talk about a discriminatory organization, it's the United States military. I mean, you have to be a certain height. You have to be a certain weight. You cannot have any certain medical conditions, you know, asthma or flat feet.
You know, I thought I was a pretty strack troop back in the day, but I was not at the height requirement to be a member of the Third Infantry Regiment, which is known as the old guard in Washington, DC. You had to be 5 feet 11 or taller, 5 feet 11, I think to 6’1” to 6’2’. I'm only 5’9”.
00:04:27 [ALLEN WEST]
Not going to change the standard, that's just how it is. So when I see leaders in the United States military right now that really seem to be confused about what the mission of the military is. The mission of the military is to fight and win the nation's wars. Unfortunately, we haven't been doing too good here recently, especially when you think about the debacle in Afghanistan.
00:04:58 [ALLEN WEST]
We need to get back to understanding our core competencies in the military, what it means to be a soldier, what it means to be a marine, a sailor, an airman. Remember the space force? I'm still struggling with what you call them, Space Cadet. I don't know. And you know, hopefully no one's going to get upset because I said Coast Guardsman, but that means all members of the United States Coast Guard.
00:05:25 [ALLEN WEST]
But recently some of the articles that have come out about. Senior military leaders are doing especially again in this month of June. This pride thing. Let me tell you something. When you put on that uniform. That's your pride. You are part of a brotherhood, a sisterhood. The Band of Brothers. That is truly indicative of the one percenters of the United States of America.
00:06:00 [ALLEN WEST]
Those people who have taken the oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, to bear true faith and allegiance to the same that they took that obligation freely without any purpose of mental reservation. Mental evasion or reservation, purpose of evasion of mental reservation. So help me God, I got it.
00:06:23 [ALLEN WEST]
No one's coerced into doing that. No one's intimidated into doing that. We don't round people up in the streets. There's not a draft. It's a privilege to say I want some, I want to be one of those.
00:06:38 [ALLEN WEST]
But when I see like the headlines here of this article. Space Force general decries anti LGBTQ plus alphabet soup mafia laws at Pentagon Pride event claims they affect hiring decisions.
Lieutenant General Deanna Burt, commanding general of the Space Force, says such laws, such as what's been passed here in Texas to protect children 18 years of age and below. She says this is dangerous for members of the military. I mean, members of the military are 18 years of age and above.
But the the thing that I'm looking at is we have the top talent in the nation.
We must enable them to perform their missions by ensuring they're not worried about the health and safety of their families.
A Pentagon official said. The Department of the Air Force recognizes the various laws and legislation to being proposed and passed in states across America that may affect LGBTQ airmen, guardians or their LGBTQ dependents in different ways.
The Mission Space Force, whatever Air Force. You're supposed to be out there defending the country.
I don't think China is worried about some LGBTQ plus IA alphabet mafia soup.
And furthermore, I mean we should not be focusing on what states are passing to protect, to protect their kids.
You're the commanding general of the Space Force. You know, maybe you should make sure we don't have Chinese spy balloons flying over.
And I don't know what level altitude space forces were about, but maybe you should be worried about cyber security so we don't have these cyber-attacks. You should not be worried about the whole LGBTQIA+ thing.
00:08:37 [ALLEN WEST]
See when was it that all of a sudden senior military leaders got involved in ideological agendas? They ain't your business. You can say that West is a bigot, West is a hater. No, I'm not. But let me tell you something about West. When he was in the military, I put people out of the military because they couldn't run fast enough. Couldn't pass PT test physical training tests. They couldn't maintain that the right type of height, weight standards. They had too many DUI's. Or even they bounce too many checks.
If you could not show fiscal results, we did not have time to deal with your personal issues, but now all of a sudden we're supposed to believe that the most important thing that that the senior military officers should be talking about in this month or any other month.
Is personal sexual behavior? Let me just be very blunt here. If you are confused about whether or not you are a little boy or a little girl, perhaps the United States military is not the place for you.
And look, I was in the army when we had the don't ask, don't tell and the Clinton administration all of a sudden that got changed. There's some issues about that, sexual harassment issues. No one wants to talk about, but it's there. And again, why are we trying to accommodate personal sexual behavior? I thought the mission of the military was to bring people in. We're making a team. We're not supposed to be worried about personal sexual behaviors or proclivities and things of this nature. So why are we talking about these things? Why do we have people in the military that are saying that?
You know they're going to protect dependent.
And provide them with quote UN quote, gender-affirming care. No. You know, all you're doing is mutilating the child.
And show me where it says that taxpayer dollars are supposed to be going to mutilating children who are dependents of military servicemen and women.
00:10:40 [ALLEN WEST]
Our taxpayer dollars are supposed to be going to making sure we had a trained, prepared and ready to deploy organization military not to have a military where we just saw a recent I think it was the Chief of Naval Operations testify before. I think the House Armed Services Committee, they don't have enough amphibious shipping to deploy marine. What is the major mission of the United States Marine Corps? To deploy and conduct amphibious operations, but we don't have enough. To enable the Marines to do their core competency, their core mission. You're telling me we need to be worried about gender mutilation, mutilation surgeries and hormonal therapies and puberty blockers for kids, dependent kids and, no, it's not me being a hater. That's not me being a bigot. That's me being a realist. That's me talking about what?
00:11:45 [ALLEN WEST]
The mission of the military is, and if that's something that's important to you, maybe you should not be in the United States military. Because again, remember I said it's not a right that you get to serve in the military as a privilege. And there's certain standards that we have. The mission is above you, the individual.
But if you think that that is upside down, that's the problem that we get into. Pentagon officials defend diversity and inclusion at a prior month's event, uniformed and Civilian Defense Department officials defended LGBTQ plus there as it is, alphabet soup mafia again, service members and diversity and inclusion efforts on Wednesday at the Pentagon's annual Pride Diversity inclusion, meanwhile, comprises much more than efforts to get people in the door of the recruiting center.
00:12:37 [ALLEN WEST]
See we've got senior military leaders like this Lieutenant General Deanna Burt and others that are saying that, you know, West, you and these other folks that are talking about these things, you're the reason why we don't have people joining the military. I don't think so. I think one of the main reasons that you are struggling with recruiting in the military cause no one wants to end up in a body bag like 13 of our service members did in Afghanistan. Because of the incompetence of the senior-level leadership in the United States military, nobody wants to be in the military, where everything is focused on equity, the equality of outcomes instead of the equality of opportunity.
00:13:24 [ALLEN WEST]
See, when I was a young Lieutenant and I made the commandants list of the Field Artillery Officer basic course at Fort Sill I was selected to go to one of the premier units in the United States Army, it was the 509 Parachute Infantry Regiment Airborne Battalion combat team at that time of essence Italy. It ended up becoming the 4th Battalion, 300 and 25th Airborne Battalion Combat Team. But it was the only airborne unit located. And so I had to go, not just the airborne school. But in order to be an officer in that unit I had to go to jump master school right after airborne school.
00:14:10 [ALLEN WEST]
I want to understand something.
I only have five jumps, five, 12345. And I had to go to jump master school in order to meet the standard to deploy and be in this unit, even though that was my assignment, if I didn't pass Jump Master School, I was not going to get the assignment. And I'm in a class with guys that have, you know, 200 jumps, special forces, captains, guys from the Ranger Regiment. All all these guys have been in airborne units and I show up a five jump jump. That's what they call me. They didn't change the standards. There was no talk about equity. There was no talk about hey, you know, he's black and we probably need to make sure he passes because they need a Black Lieutenant over there in the airborne battalion and Vicenza, Italy.
00:15:05 [ALLEN WEST]
I had to meet all the standards. I had to go through and conduct what is called a JMP.
I jumpmaster personnel inspection of three paratroopers, one in in in just straight parachute, then the other who had combat gear with their parachute equipment and had to do all of those jumpers.
I believe in 3 minutes and 30 seconds and I had to find out all of the gigs that were wired into their jump master jump equipment and their parachutes. I had to call them out by the right nomenclature.
When I saw those deficiencies and I had to follow the right sequence of the inspection, or else I was done. I remember coming home with a parachute harness and everything and putting it on my little brother in Atlanta, GA, and just rehearse and rehearse and rehearse and rehearsing because it wasn't about equity. It was about equality of opportunity.
00:16:02 [ALLEN WEST]
And now all of a sudden, you know, the whole thing is about diversity and inclusion, that the Pride Month event that Pentagon officials are talking about that Navy commander Emily Schilling, one of the highest ranking openly transgender officers in the military, came out two days.
After then President Donald Trump's ban on transgender troops went into effect for shilling inclusion for transgender service members is a matter of life and death. Schilling is talking about. Well, if you don't allow us to serve, we're going to commit suicide.
That's what she said, Shilling told the audience Wednesday that over the course of the two years that the transgender ban was in place, 31 transgender service members died by suicide. In the two years after the the ban was revoked, the number dropped to 2.
00:16:46 [ALLEN WEST]
They didn't die of suicide because of a ban. They died of suicide because they suffer from a mental condition. Now if we are putting members of the military out because they are overweight or they can't come in because they have flat feet or whatever, then why are we having people in with a mental condition?
If they are confused about whether that their little boy, little girl, and why then that we turn around and telling the American taxpayer that you got to fund their medical condition, their mental condition which no one forced them to have.
00:17:23 [ALLEN WEST]
I mean, I I I look. I mean, we all remember Corporal Klinger from M*A*S*H, and Corporal Kinger dressed up that way because he wanted to try to show he was crazy so he could get sent back home. Ohh Colonel West, come on, let them serve. A standard is a standard is a standard. Not everyone is supposed to be able to serve, you know they're the other things you can do. The Peace Corps you can do to forest your service. There are many things I want the best of the best of the best of the best in the United States military. I've been a commander. Commanders don't have time to worry about individual sexual proclivities and problems and issues. They need to be focused on training the men and women under their command.
00:18:16 [ALLEN WEST]
Sergeant Major of the Army, the top enlisted leader, shot back at criticism of a post from the 82nd Airborne Division. 82nd Airborne Division, I mean.
Jumping Jim Gavin and and Matthew Ridgway probably freaking out in their grades. But the 82nd Airborne Division celebrating here, we're going LGBTQ plus IA. Alphabet soup Mafia members, and the two day Twitter battle enlisted man in the United States military. The top dog command Sergeant Major of the army is going back and forth on Twitter. For two days.
Maybe he's trying to defend something that shouldn't be defended anyhow, Twitter users, many of whom describe themselves as veterans in their account BIOS, mocked the 82nd airborne divisions Friday morning. Posts kickstarted the units observance of Pride Month.
And let me tell you something. When I was a paratrooper, my pride came and putting on that maroon beret because that said I was a cut above. I was the United States Army paratrooper. Pride didn't come in with who you slept with. The Pride didn't come from your gender confusion. Pride came in the fact that I met the standard, I exceeded the standard and I will serve in my country.
00:19:43 [ALLEN WEST]
Sergeant Major Michael Grinston, the Army's top enlisted leader responsible for morale and discipline issues in the service, condemned the criticism as harassment and shot back at tweets through Saturday morning as senior military leaders have not shot away from wearing in, weighing in on America's cultural controversies.
Our senior military leaders should not be weighing in on cultural controversies.
Our senior military leaders should be making sure that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, space force, ease. They're ready to deploy, to fight, to win.
You know the 82nd Airborne Division tweet recommended Army families get this.
82nd Airborne Division All American recommended Army families check out a book called a Survival Guide for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning teens, as well as another that describes how parents can learn to support their LGBTQIA+ child from the on-base library.
These titles are intended for ages 13 and up. I raised two daughters in the military. They didn't think about any of this stuff. None of the kids I remember playing thought about any of this stuff. They were just out there playing, you know, what was the greatest amount of pride that I had? For the kids, my two daughters especially, but when at 1700 hours, 1730, 1800 hours, end of the day. When you hear colors. And they knew where the center of the installation. I'll never forget in Fort Hood, TX. And they faced to the center and they stood quiet at attention knowing that the flag was being lowered. That's something to take pride in were your children. Not telling your children they need to go and get a book called a survival Guide for LGBTQ whatever.
Why is the United States military pushing an ideological agenda and using taxpayer funds to do that? So to all of these senior military leaders, to the Department of Defense and to Navy Commander Emily Schilling, who I don't know what you were, but you're still a guy because that's what your DNA will say.
If you were to pass out or lose your life, the medical examiner is going to announce she was a male or female. Years from now, when you're someone digs up your bones, it's going to be male or female. So we're just making stuff up in our military. Service members did not die because the service shows pride, love and rainbows.
00:23:04 [ALLEN WEST]
Shilling said “pride saves lives.” And Pride is a testament that the LGBTQIA+ community endures and will endure. Pride in who you are as an American, as a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Coast Guardsman, space force. That's what saves lives. Training saves lives.
00:23:29 [ALLEN WEST]
We had a motto, of the 18 Field Artillery Brigade airborne, it was sweat saves blood. Not silly ideological agendas, which is what this whole thing is. Five or so years ago, none of this was happening in the United States military. All of a sudden, is it happening now? The Progressive Socialist left has always wanted to undermine and to break down what they saw was the last great bastion of traditional values, the United States military. And thanks to the useful idiots who wear uniforms and have stars on their shoulders they're being enabled to do just that. That's not going to stop a bullet, that's not going to deter our #1 geopolitical foe who's not focused on ideological agendas or individual sexual behaviors or proclivities. I don't think a single Chinese command Sergeant Major General officer or Admiral, or naval commander is that they're talking about some LGBTQIA+. They're training to kick our ***.
They're not worrying about calling people Sir or ma'am. They're not worrying about the right type of pronouns. They're not worried about gender dysphoric drag queen recruiters for global hegemonic dominance.
00:25:28 [ALLEN WEST]
Which is why China is looking at putting a military installation ust about 100 miles off the coast of the United States of America. They already have port facilities that they built in Jamaica and the Bahamas. They're already buying up land all across the United States of America. Some of the places, such as here in Texas, they bought land right next to Laughlin Air Force Base, which is one of the premier training bases for Air Force fighter pilots. That's what they're doing. But what are we doing? We're talking about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and alphabet soup mafia, ideological agendas.
00:26:30 [ALLEN WEST]
One of the most important things that the next Commander-in-Chief of the United States military forces has to do is to get our military back focused on what their core mission and competencies, capability and capacity truly is to be. It ain't fair to be in the military, it's discriminatory. But that's what standards mean. And that's why, as George Orwell said, “A nation sleeps peacefully at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on her behalf.” And some rough women. Not no non-binary and all this other nonsense that this current administration, and senior military leaders. Need to get back to old school.
Steadfast and Loyal.
00:27:51 [MUSIC]
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