 People are people and welcome to figments, the power of imagination. It's my geez about 40 the show 40th show on think tech why and I'm really excited about having a good friend who's been a friend for 29 years, which makes both of us old. I first met him. I'll tell you that story now before bring him on the screen and he can repeat it. I first met him when he was an assignments officer for new kernels. And he told me when in Air War college, he said, think you're going to go be the ops group commander Langley Air Force Base Virginia and I said something starts with the be alright because I thought it was baloney I wasn't a, you know, one of those kind of guys who's going to get a great job like that. I did. He was one of those guys really a shining star of our Air Force a great friend for those 29 years. So, we'll get, we'll get to Jeff in a minute, and we'll get to doing 710 miles an hour and a 55 mile an hour zone, but I have to start with my opening rants, you know a little bit of a carry over from figments on reality. That's what people, the mask mandate ends Friday, Saturday, sometime whenever people really start taking off their coven mask. And I look forward to it, not because it was a bad idea necessarily we didn't know much about coven 19. But because it'll feel good, and it will stop some of the insanity. Let me give you the latest case of insanity I witnessed when Alejandra and I were on our way to Costco on Sunday okay that's insanity in its own right going to Costco on Sunday that we were driving along and both me and my guests are added motorcycle riders. But there's a motorcyclist next to us on a sport bike and he obviously had a self image that he was a bad ass, all black, kind of tough, looking in terms of dressing demeanor. And he had a coven mask, a black coven mask on his face, and no helmet. So the virus wasn't getting in but the pavement might have. So I look forward to the that being over and not having to look at some of the ludicrous approach to virus avoidance that approaches to virus avoidance that we've seen so that's ramp number one, ramp number two is the government settlement I've finally gotten my social security payments, all of them, as far as I can tell. Thank you government for giving me back what I gave you. And then finally, I'd like to talk a little bit about China strange place because I feel like China isn't a very strange place right now. My condolences to the really tragic aircraft accident that happened there an airliner in southern China. There's some video out there, really, a horrible situation. We'll see what the investigation shows but my, my condolences there. The strange places China is now, thanks to President Xi Jinping, aligned with Putin. It's not too surprising except that Vladimir Putin has become a pariah in the world community and that's a strange loyalty to hang tightly to and it seems that they are. Maybe that'll change. And secondly is the COVID pandemic in China where I think they're first in last out they were the first of course to experience the disease whatever circumstances, it might have been under. And because they had a zero case policy tightly restricting everything. Now it seems like they're going to be the last out and they're having some significant outbreaks, as other countries are on the way and losing their mask mandates and everything else so very interesting. I wonder what it means for Taiwan's ambitions, the economic pressure that they'll feel the lessons learned or not learned from Russian the Ukraine. So, those are my rants for today. Let me welcome Lieutenant General retired Jeff Remington one time friend golfing buddy great golfer better than me by the way. Hey Jeff Aloha. Hello, big nice to be here. Hey, it was great to see you back in Hawaii a couple weeks ago and place in golf. It was always a good time. Today I want to talk from the outset about your matriculation I think that's word to becoming an Air Force Thunderbird Thunderbird smoke on ready now. But it starts with kind of story that seems likely. But as we discussed it was kind of unlikely so you were. Everything I wasn't you were the class president. You were the captain of the baseball team. Right. Have I got there right. Yeah. Yeah, there, there you are and both as the baseball player and look at that I was voted most likely to do hard time in my high school class so we weren't alike. And so it would seem like you were a shoe in to get into the Air Force Academy and zoom, if you will not referring to this system we're on right now, zoomed to the top of the Air Force but it didn't happen that way. No. No, thank you. Go ahead. No, tell me about you're the guy that I was a group in California. I played a lot of baseball in California. About halfway through my sophomore year I moved to Oregon on the coast where it rains constantly, and was hoping that we could play baseball there and I could somehow get somebody to pay for my college education by playing baseball. Well I only play 12 games a year because the rest of them get rained out and you're in a little teeny league, you don't get noticed. And no scholarships were going to happen. And, like I said, I was just looking for somebody to pay for my college education period. You found you found that. I did, I did like my dad came home and said hey, you ever heard of the Air Force Academy and I said, no sir. I've heard of West Point. Perhaps I've heard of Annapolis. No internet. Who knows. But I definitely never heard of the Air Force Academy. And he said, well, you know, you got to give it a shot. I'm talking to this guy and, you know, at work and he knows that yeah, you're going to send my president the capital football team and all that stuff. And maybe you can get in. I said, sure, let's give it a shot. So you got in and the rest is history. No, didn't work that way. I was, I didn't get in. I mean I got nominated the first year that because my SAT scores were not high enough. And the senator freshman from Oregon, by the name of Packwood was a guy that nominated it. So his guy his chief of staff whatever called my dad after I didn't get accepted the first time and said, Hey, there's this opportunity to go to this place called Mallard prep school. He has 72 students, 72 students are on either a Skelly Foundation or Falcon Foundation scholarship. Your son would be student number 73. And he will be on the Rimmington scholarship. And my dad said, Okay. But wait a minute, Jeff, I got to ask you because I do know this your dad was a B 29 pilot, right. And he had an airplane, Piper Cub, I think he said, Piper. So why wasn't, why wasn't he steering you and why weren't you naturally inclined to pursue this Air Force thing anyway. That's a great question. It really is a good question that I don't really know the answer to because like I told you, I went to I probably got into the academy the next year, and had my first jet aircraft ride, which was in a T 33. Now you really know how old we are now but that beat it as we and a T 33 ride and I must admit, I was hair sick. I thought, Oh my God, this is awful. And really didn't have much of a desire to go fly airplanes after that. But between my freshman and sophomore year that summer I went into operation third lieutenant. And where the Air Force Academy cadets go out into the field to bases around the world really and experience what it's what it's like what jobs they might do, right. Yeah, exactly. And I went to Luke, and I had four rides in the backseat of an F four and five rides in the backseat of an F five of the aggressors. And when I left there after three weeks I said, I will be a fight. I had more fun and managed to be allowed to act. And that really got the bug going in me. Of course, graduating with pilot training at Williams Air Force Base, probably the most fun I've ever had in my entire life pilot training why because I remember pilot training for me. That's a great experience but not the most fun. Yeah, I don't know. I think just because I was learning something new. Yeah. And it was wasn't easy. It was a lot of hard work, but it was coming to me. And, you know, Friday night at the bar, how can you not have fun as a second lieutenant with no money. Jeff, I'm going to interrupt you right there to say to folks who imagine young pilots at the bar Friday night is some kind of scandalous watch this on the newsletter it really wasn't. It was just fun. I'm kind of getting back to your right pilot train. It's a lot of these, like you can't describe. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. I didn't arrive but it brought back. But that's, that's correct. That's how I got into the flying airplanes and, you know, but you didn't go right to fighters which is interesting and when I look at your career. You were an ATC air training command, T 38 instructor the fast jet, sexy fast jet for a few years and then got into fighters but I've known you for years and this will be my what would figure at the end of it. I've known you for years, and I learned something about new about you every time we talk. You're really well as pilot, but you also got drawn into staff jobs working headquarters and they weren't, they weren't just somebody needs to fill the bill they were. I know they were the kind of jobs, I would not have it been asked to do. It's it's just interesting to me that you went back and forth successful you got into the f 16 and you were. You are pretty darn good at 16 powder they wouldn't have made you the demo pilot right. Yeah, I was at tarot on Spain. And as a captain now because I became a captain, I was like people are Yates. So, a little more senior to the other guys. I had a whole lot more hours than the other guys did because I had 1200 hours in the t 38. Wow. And by the time, by the time, you know, in three years at Toronto, Spain, I got 1000 at 16 hours so I would say probably had 500 hours of that 16 time when they asked me to be a demo pilot. Demo pilot puts on a single ship air show basically for folks. And if you've never seen one go see one f 16s a fantastic airplane. And, but it's a it's a very demanding profile, and only the very best get to do it I know it's an f 16 wing commander when I chose my demo pilot. It's going to be the best possible person do that. So now you're in sort of the hot pilot mode. Great. But then you're shipped off to the staff to be a staff officer in Germany. Right, which is, you know, to me, it's again this kind of dichotomy hot stick too good to leave in the cockpit in some ways and I'm not sucking up you because you know I would never do that. But it's interesting and that's how you wound up on the Thunderbird so it's this ping pong back and forth tell me a bit about your applying to the Thunderbirds and getting selected for the team. I really, I was contemplating was trying out for a weapon school, but I had left the cockpit, and I was sitting on the staff in the US Air Forces era as a personnel person, working rated officer assignments. And I ran into a good friend of ours. He was Dana Atkins out of the parking lot. They have was working for the instructor, the IG, as a, you know, inspection guy, and data had applied to the Thunderbirds the year prior, and he was reapplying his second year, and he was still flying the A10 I was not an applying and he said, Hey, throw your hat and ready to be a Thunderbird. I said, Hey, you know, okay, I'm going to try. And lo and behold, the two of us were selected to go to the team at the same time. And I remember the you safety commander was shocked. Why is this captain in person and all going to fly a Thunderbird. He was more surprised than anybody. Who was the commander. Oh, I think it was general rust. No, I don't think. Anyway, we'll look that up later because it's interesting dust, but I can imagine so to me you're still, you're still in my mind, the captain of the football team class president Academy graduate I was none of those. You're in the demo pilot. You're doing really well but when you found out you'd been selected for the Thunderbirds was that a moment. It was quite a surprise. Yeah, it was. How did you feel. Tell the audience how you felt. I was surprised. One, I didn't think I'd get selected because I, you know, there were a whole bunch of guys there that I knew that were, I thought more qualified than me. Yeah, but we can get into that later. Because it's not necessarily how well you fly an airplane that's important. That's not your primary responsibility you actually are walking talking recruiting poster. Right. Jeff, I've been interrupted to say if Eric could bring back the picture ahead of there. All of us have that image on the left of on the ladder of a T 38. Very few of us have that image on the right with our Thunderbird jet, but you're an ambassador you're a recruiting tool so to speak. And it's a big responsibility not just to not screw up in the air but it's a big responsibility to represent your force well. So, it was a lot of fun I can tell you that it was much more challenging than I expected it to be the flying or the other part. The flying. Really. And I will tell you that there were times that you got put in the hot seat not not intentionally but some you have to answer some question that some of it that had just happened in the news that you might not even know anything about phones back then. You might land and all of a sudden some reporters that your face and you're trying to talk about the air show and they're asking you a question about what just happened in Russia or China or North Korea. Interesting. Man, I would not have expected that sometimes you got put on spot by law enforcement and I do want to talk about that next one by favorite parts of your Thunderbird experience is this speeding ticket right here. And if you can see that folks it says 710 miles an hour in a 55 zone, and even my Mustang will go that fast Jeff score bet won't go that fast. This is a great story about the camaraderie of the team, you your crew chief, and your local close so share that if you will now we'll take a quick break. We were doing an air show in Southern California. And the California Highway Patrol on their motorcycles has escort us from the hotel to the air show because of traffic. So we got to the air show and you know, do it all standard air show stuff. And the, my crew chief had actually talked to the California Highway Patrol men that were there and they brought them out to the, to the, what we call the way well they did the air show they recorded everything on film they play the music on that stuff. So they brought them out to the trailer, and they're talking and my crew chief turned around to the California Highway Patrol men and said hey, he's going to do the sneak past and he does the sneak past he's going to come from left to right from behind the crowd. And so, and it'd be going pretty fast. Great. I've got a radar detector here let's see how it's going. Now, I was going point nine for mock, which is all. Yeah, it's critical mock on the airplane parts of the airplane or supersonic but the whole airplane is not so you don't break windows and that kind of stuff. And, but I was going point nine for when I went by an afterburner the speed breaks up because we're at sea level. Nice. Yeah. And I didn't know anything about the guy puts the radar on me takes it. Nothing said I land air shows over, we go sign autographs and now we're going to go back to the hotel. And we have a public relations event at the hotel after we get there. And that community leaders and other interest folks come in. This is that these are the kind of things where you're really the ambassador you find a great show. Now you're being thunderbird lead solo Jeff Remington. So, we got there and, and I don't know we're 15 minutes into it you know all the introductions. Did you have a beer in your hand did you have a beer in my hand, and all of a sudden here comes this California Highway Patrol on his Harley running with the siren and the lights going into the ballroom. And he gets on his microphone, you know this bullhorn, and he says, I need to see Jeff or anything. And of course the crowds laughing and clapping and everything and sure enough, he has a ticket for me, because he got me doing 710 miles an hour with his radar gun is I did the sneak pass. And I thought now nobody else has a ticket for doing 710 miles. I'm keeping that. I might have some tickets but none for 710 and the 55. I wonder what the scale finds would have been. Hey, Jeff, a great story. Let me take a very quick break. I'm going to talk about my next show and tell you what's going to be on my next show, two weeks from today on April 4, I have no idea, because the world is just crazy, it is absolutely crazy. So something will come up and we'll talk about it with ideally with a friend of mine somebody I know or find who can eliminate it. 710 miles an hour. That's, that's awesome. That's might be a record. Jeff, you and I, we took different paths, but we're basically fighter pilots to like flying jets. And, and just kept trying to plug along and I think people might think it might find this to be self deprecating but neither of us, I don't think really expected to be three star generals in the Air Force and yet we were We did a thunk it. Look at us. I look taller than you and you know that I'm not. But, but so since we were both blessed with the opportunity to lead our Air Force and our military in some pretty challenging jobs your last job was as the commander of seventh Air Force in Korea and the deputy commander yes forces Korean my last job was as a deputy commander, we should know things right. We should know things. So let's talk about a couple of the areas we should know things about very quickly we've got a few minutes left. One obviously is North Korea. And while everything else has been swirling. Russia Ukraine the pandemic the environment, the economy. The North Koreans have embarked on a bunch of missile tests and I showed this slide last week but I created this slide and therefore I like it. It's something I put together back as the summits between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump were approaching that shows the progression of texts tests up to 2019. I was convinced that North Korea was specifically seeking military capability that it wasn't a provocation different at whatever sort of a thing. Now they've got a new very aggressive test program that included one failure recently. What do you think about what North Korea is doing are you concerned is it just more the same. Yeah, I'm concerned. It is more the same, in my opinion, and we've had these philosophical discussions over more than we have one one beverage. And I just, I don't think that any administration from 1992 forward has gotten it right. So I maintain that there is a way to monitor closely the official material that he has, and monitor closely the new weapons that he has. And to do that, with two basic assumptions that are going to be counterintuitive to counter it is probably not the right word but any administration want to agree. Nobody dies that's that's right. That's the number one assumption. Nobody dies on either side on either side. Okay, because we don't need loss of life. Number two, he will never ever give up his nuclear weapons. Now you think they spent too much national treasure. There's internally he spent too much. All his, you know, his grandfather his father and all Kim dynasty has put too much emphasis never going to get rid of. So can we accept that and say it's fine that you have notes or do we have to maintain a facade that that we still want you to denuclearize but in our hearts we know you won't. Well, let's say it out loud. Because I think it's more important that we have a international atomic energy agency inspectors, which is a world organization that's not just us. It's an international organization has us people on it. That are in North Korea, that can inspect have full access. They have to give us full access that could pro quo is you're going to keep your nukes. But we have to have full access. And we have to see physical material and inventory nuclear weapons. Go ahead why why no don't go ahead let me go ahead to what end. So if we're letting them have news but we're monitoring the daylight so then having news. What have we accomplished. We won't risk. Physical material and the hands of terrorist organizations, or nuclear weapons and the hands of terrorist organizations. We will. Counter proliferation issue and then I'm going to add to that because we're running out of time that will also ensure in the event of significant change in the North Korean government will have some accountability because I know one of the you and I both worry about our loose nukes nukes in the hands of a non governmental organization and and if a regime collapses or there's a big people in North Korea we don't want that to go crazy. Okay, we've got about 30 seconds for you to solve the Ukraine problem do it. You're on. Boy, let me let me give you a break and say what worries you about Russia Ukraine. Anything. escalation escalation beyond Ukraine into NATO countries which then draws us in and and yes we could face World War three. We could face no third World War three. We good. That's very, very possible. And I'm, I'm concerned about what put may do me if and when he's back into a corner where it be chemical biological. Yeah, who knows. So how do you and the question to myself is how do you avoid it appeasement and escalation simultaneously and I don't have an answer to that. Maybe that'll be another show. Jeff I wish we had more time. That's the goal of my shows is to get to the ending of dammit I wish we had more time. I appreciate you being on. We'll see you and Michelle sometime soon I hope I'm going to ask you first. Do you have a figment now do you have a dream a goal something you haven't done yet in your life that you really like to do. I'm good. You know, if I've had a, I've had a, I've had a great life I've had great friends I've been all over the world. And I just wish I could, you know, break par. If I break par on one hole. I'm happy. So yeah, shop. I played pretty well Saturday you would have been shocked. Hey Jeff thanks for thanks for joining me. It's always a pleasure. I'll close with what would fig do because that's something fingers gold being asked me and do. What would fig do so every time I talked to Jeff Remington. I learned something more about him so we all have great friends who make our life better, but we only know a bit about them. And so my what would fig do is I'll continue trying to learn more about my friends and appreciate their lives better. Everything I do is donate to Spirit of America I mentioned that last week and two weeks ago and talking about their work in Ukraine and elsewhere around the world. So take a look at them Google it. I'd like to say thanks to think tech but before I do I got to show you my qr code here so take a happy snap of that and look at the playlist or figments the power of imagination figments on reality, both of which I brought to you by think tech by a wonderful nonprofit corporation, and they deserve your support as well. So Mahalo for joining me thank you that's what that means. I will see you in two weeks on April 4, aloha.