Nicole Malachowski
Appearances
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And that that idea that representation matters is so fact space. I spent the first half of my career, Krusty, and I don't know if you felt this way. I hated nothing more than being called bad. the woman fighter pilot. I couldn't stand being called the first Thunderbird pilot.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I wanted to just take that woman qualifier and just throw it away because I just wanted to be known as a great fighter pilot or a good Thunderbird pilot. And then I went to my very first air show. So I'm mid-career now, 30 years old, senior captain. I go to my first air show and I'm on the autograph line for the first time. First of all, I'm exhausted. because I worked hard on that air show.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
You know, second of all, you know, I'm just, I'm dripping sweat. I was sitting there thinking, hey, that went well, like nothing bad happened. I was, you know, it was just an adrenaline dump. And now I've got to go to the autograph line and interact with people and be energetic and happy.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And I remember being on that autograph line and there was all sorts of media there because first woman done a real pilot, right? And I'm looking down at the other male pilots, great teammates, fantastic, fantastic men, fantastic friends. They've got like 10, 20 people standing in front of them. And all of a sudden, it was like slow motion, you guys.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I looked up and in front of me, there was a line easily 100 deep. This was in Fort Smith, Arkansas. And what do you think the demographic of that line looked like? All girls. Women. Young women, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
You know, from the ages of about 10 to 16. And they were looking at me as if I had hung the moon, right? And it was in that moment that I realized it means something to see someone who looks like you 16. And it wasn't about me or my name. It's that my presence... you know, my presence allowed them to believe in their own dreams, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
That whether it was flying aircraft or joining the military or not, that these things were possible. And so for you to say we're very lucky is so true, right? Talk about being born in the right country at the right time.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
My successes that are on that, you know, resume or whatever are the result of TLC, timing, luck, and circumstance, and a heck of a lot of hard work by other people who invested and mentored me.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
You know, I appreciate what you're saying and I hope you are hearing in that story on that day at age 30, I evolved, right? That day I realized it does mean something. And now it's on me. It's my responsibility now, you know, to live up to this and that I need to be accountable to these young faces, you know, that are looking up to me. And over the last 20 years, I've lived my life differently.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
being very proud to be the first woman Thunderbird pilot, being very proud to be one of the first women fighter pilots. And getting back to Secretary Hegseth and the current president, I think what they've done is they're kind of conflating this idea of DEI, which apparently my definition of it and theirs must be quite different.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
The definition of DEI, they're conflating it with this idea of quotas, right? And they're saying quotas for everything, quotas and DEI are the same thing, and they're absolutely not. Look, I think there are reasonable critiques of quota systems. I also know that there are times, look at corporate America. I work in corporate America now, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
A company, maybe based on its company values or cultures, wants to set a standard or a quota to say, hey, we want 50% of our board to be women. They are absolutely entitled to do that. I can see how people would be like, well, I don't want quotas in the military for promotions or for certain duty assignments. I think both of you would agree with that.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
But what they're doing is they're equating DEI with quotas. I always tell people DEI is not stopping meritocracy. DEI, when done well and when executed as intended, is what enables meritocracy.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And we need our military to reflect the face of the country that it represents. There's foundational good, right, in that. And Secretary Hexeth, I think, needs to be concerned with the ramifications of this kind of censorship, right, and the book bannings that we have at the war colleges and the academies. Look, it's a recruitment and retention issue.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Like you, Krusty, I'm sure that you are mentoring lots of people who want to learn to fly or young gals, young boys who want to join the military. You know, when this all started going down in March, which ironically, right, was Women's History Month,
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
You know, I got I had been mentoring a young a young black man from in high school from Chicago who was wanting to join the military and become a fighter pilot. You know, who does he look up to? The Tuskegee Airmen, Chappie James, all those things. Right. And all of a sudden he is sending me emails going, is this really happening?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I can't believe that the Air Force I want to join is censoring the Tuskegee Airmen. I'm not sure I want to join an Air Force that does that. That's a recruitment issue. Also, like you, I am consistently mentoring women who are still currently in the military.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I have had several, and I'm talking close to 10 at least, and I'm not exaggerating, over the last three months, write to me and say, I'm not sure I want to reenlist anymore.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Women officers who are like, you know what, I'm not sure I'm going to put my name in for the command board because, you know, it's clear that we're not wanted here or people are going to turn around and say it's DEI and woke and I don't want to live with that specter over my shoulder.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
So for Secretary Hegseth, if he can't get behind the fundamental, I think, wrongness of the censorship, can we at least get behind the pragmatic impact it's having on recruitment and retention?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
No, I don't. And here's why. Because I've been, without giving away names, because I fear of retribution for them, I've been talking to people on the inside at the highest levels of public affairs. If you look at the memo that was signed and written directing this, I think it was dated 26 February 2025, titled Digital Content Refresh. You're welcome to go look at that.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
It's very clear on what it was directed. Following that memo, internal emails went out with a list, a complete list of the terms. And those terms included things like woman, right, or diversity. And so those things were pulled. Now, here's the question, right? So critics will say to me, well, this wasn't what President Trump and Secretary Hegseth intended, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
It was what malicious intent or malicious compliance, I think, is what people have said. Let me say, let me let me give that to some people. Let's say there was malicious compliance. We also have something in the military called commander's intent. Right, Chris? You guys both from. Right. When.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Friction of war. It doesn't meet the rules of engagement or the special instructions. We fall back on what is the commander's intent before I take action. And if commander's intent is misinterpreted or misimplied, whose responsibility is it to fix it? And so the Trump administration absolutely has even an out here right now to go and say, I am the commander in chief.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
This was not my commander's intent. Let's fix this.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Which one did you like to fly better? I get asked this question a lot and it's a totally reasonable question. I often say it's a little bit like apples and oranges though because the F-15E Strike Eagle is the jet I began my career in. That's the jet that I flew operationally. I led my peers in combat in that jet. It's always going to be, if you will, my first love
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Right, the books. I mean, and to get back to Denver really quickly, like, you know, Chunk, when I found out they had removed articles on me, I kind of was just scoffing because These were articles. Look, I've been retired seven years. These articles were 10, 20 years old.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
We're going back and deleting. It's nothing more than a modern day electronic book burning. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Yes. So to your point, I served as a White House fellow under George Bush and then President Obama when he came in. So six months under each administration, which was fascinating in and of itself to watch a presidential transition from literally the inside. Came back in 2015 under the end of the Obama administration.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
So I was working as the director of the White House's Joining Forces Initiative, directly advising then First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden on all issues. Everything related to service members, veterans and military families, you know, education, spouse, employment, veterans, homelessness, literally the entire gamut, you know, I don't see joining forces in the current administration.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
It would have been nice to have them continue with that initiative. I mean, I don't know that many people can throw spears at what the joining forces mission and purpose was. But during that time when I was in the White House, I mean, service members, veterans, the military were on the docket to talk about every single day.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
There wasn't a day that went by that the first lady, then Michelle Obama, wasn't asking and inquiring what needs to be done. Where are the challenges? Where can we take away bottlenecks? Where can we put the power and the prestige of the White House behind to influence good behavior in the veteran hiring space? I mean, it happened every single day.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
The only thing I hear coming out of the White House nowadays is we're removing people's stories. I mean, it was to the point that there was a friend of mine outside of Phoenix, Arizona. They were having their annual veterans kind of event, honoring women veterans. And they asked the local base, as they had done for decades. And keep in mind, local electric officials were there. This was the mayor.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
This was the full thing. They'd been doing this for decades. They wrote to the local base and said, hey, can you please send out, as you always do, you know, your national anthem singer. We would love to have a military person in uniform sing the national anthem, as we do through public affairs. They were turned down and told, we're really sorry. We know we've done this for decades.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
The F-16 itself was certainly a heck of a lot of fun to fly, but I only flew that during the air show season with the Thunderbirds. So I never really knew how to fly the F-16 as a complete weapon system. So at the end of the day, I'm always going to say the F-15E Strike Eagle. Also, you know, my husband was a weapons systems officer, so if I hadn't flown Strike Eagles, I wouldn't have met him.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
We can no longer do it because your event says women veterans and we're not allowed to do that due to the new DEI. I mean, that happened.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I mean, and that impacts recruitment and retention. If people look at the VA and go, we're not going to get what was promised to us when we rose, you know, raised our hand to the Constitution. You know, that was a compact between us and the American people.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
When we decided to put on our nation uniform and now we're not getting, you know, that whatever the end part of the contract back, they're not honoring their part of it. That's a recruitment and retention issue also.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
So I guess part of my story, that's a big part of my story, is my career came to an end very unexpectedly, very abruptly and very much overnight when I was serving in the White House that second time in the Joining Forces role. I fell severely ill like overnight. I won't get into all the details here. We could probably do a whole nother podcast on that.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
But long story short, I ended up with a major brain infection. It left me bedridden for nine months. Couldn't walk, talk, read or write. And then I had to do another year and a half in rehab in order to get back to the quality of life and function that you see today. So I lost two years of my life. During that time, I went through a medical evaluation board and I was
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
medically retired from the career I loved so much. It still hurts. But at the end of the day, this might surprise the listeners. I was medically retired. And in fact, because I was coming on here, I pulled this up to look at it because I hadn't seen it in a while. So forgive me, got to put on my, this is how you know you're a Fulford Colonel, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
You got the readers. That's right. That's how 06s go to meetings, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I know, I need to get those. My Air Force Form 356, dated 21 July 2017, found 100% quote, unfit for duty due to chronic systemic tick-borne illness. So a tick bite is what ended my career. You know, I went from this really kind of elite, high-performing, physically fit, mentally fit, spiritually fit person to just completely broken overnight. And at the end of the day, my career was gone.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And I sat there thinking, who am I if I'm not wearing my nation's uniform? What is my contribution to society if I'm not a fighter pilot? And how am I going to provide for my family? And it was in those deep and dark moments of 2017 that I really had to think about how am I going to reinvent myself? And so Long answer to your short question, Krusty.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
People always say, I'm so sorry you can't fly anymore because I still have a lot of brain damage and a lot of stuff that impacts my balance and all of that. I always tell them it's not the flying that I miss. It's being a part of high-performing teams. It's about leadership and it's about teamwork. And so I reinvented myself kind of as a leadership consultant and a professional speaker.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
So I work with Corporate America to try to hone elite team performance for them, to build teamwork, to build trust, and I think to embrace vulnerability. And so I very selfishly fill that hole in my heart by being a part of these corporate teams kind of as I make my way around their different events.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
So I didn't get full-on encephalitis. What happened was, to be very specific, the infection got into my brainstem, specifically an area at the top of the brainstem called the pons. The pons is what controls your autonomic nervous system. It's like the worst place in your brain to get an infection. So I did not advance to encephalitis, but I had infectious lesions on my brainstem.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
That's a funny story, actually. Yes, indeed. We met in my very first fighter squadron, which was at the 492nd Fighter Squadron at RAF Lake and Heath out there in the United Kingdom. And as I was going through combat mission ready, this is when I met him, I flew one I flew one sortie with him.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I actually got it when I was the commander of the 333rd in North Carolina. We were doing our annual SEER training, right? So we were out there crawling around in the woods. We didn't talk about tick bite prevention. We didn't talk about tick property removal. We never were educated at that time on what symptoms to look for.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And when I presented several months later with multi-systemic problems, my flight surgeon, my military doctor looked me in the eye and he said, we don't have Lyme disease in North Carolina. And that was the day that I became chronically ill forever. May is indeed Lyme disease and tick-borne illness awareness month. So I'm glad we are bringing this up.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
The most important thing friends is to prevent the bite. Permethrin and Picardin are your friends. And if people go to my, any of my social media, which is at real Malakowski, I have a link tree link. If you go to that link tree link and you scroll down, it's got everything you need to know about tick bite prevention.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And I think education-wise, I've been very involved in the patient advocacy space and very much a pain in the butt to the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs on tick-borne illnesses since then. I think fundamentally, Krusty, there was a difference in training because Army and Marines on the ground, rooting around.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
In all seriousness, I do take the Department of Defense and VA to task on this. I serve as an official ambassador and mentor still to this day with the official Air Force Wounded Warrior Program. In fact, I'm doing an Air Force Wounded Warrior Program event this upcoming weekend.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
He was a brand new instructor and this was well before we started dating, but it's kind of funny because I remember looking at his last name and I couldn't pronounce it. I'm like Malachowski, Malachowski. And I used to make fun of his last name. Little did I know I would take that name and I've been living with it for 24 years as Malachowski.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And there isn't a month that goes by that I am not helping an airman who is being medically retired or evaluated for tick-borne illness.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Wow. What cohort of the American public... is exposed to more global vectors than our service members, you know, by nature, by default, the veterans they become, and the military family station around the world.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
There is absolutely no excuse for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense to not be leaders in this space as far as education, awareness, diagnostics, and treatment. And in fact, when I was, I just read you my form, 100% unfit for duty due to chronic systemic tick-borne illness, It took me four years of fighting. Yeah, it's going to get me emotional.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Four years for the VA to recognize the very thing that I was found 100 percent unfit for duty for to the point that they didn't have a code for what I had. So I was medically retired with a code that the VA wasn't prepared to receive. Unacceptable. Unacceptable. I can say I took that to task. And with the Wounded Warrior Program out of Florida, we were able to get Congress to add in those codes.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And so now at least it's so important.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
America's promise. It's the fundamental promise when we I was 17 years old when I took that first oath to the Constitution. And if we don't follow through on America's promise, we have no moral standing or ethical standing, you know, to back us up as Americans. And at the end of the day, it is fundamentally wrong and it impacts recruitment and retention.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I agree with you. It is frustrating. It's exhausting. It's tiring. And it's completely unnecessary.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
But also I actually failed the ride for going supersonic over Land's End. So my husband-
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I appreciate your kind compliment. I will tell you that, you know, with my complex chronic illness, which you guys can't see today and your viewers and listeners, you know, aren't recognizing it. It makes it hard at this point, but I have belief that I'm going to continue to heal and get better. And so maybe running for office is an opportunity in the future.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
It was embarrassing and an embarrassing story to tell. But at the end of the day, it's kind of funny. My maiden name was Ellingwood. Married name is Malachowski. And so on that grade sheet, there's an Ellingwood and a Malachowski and a grade in red ink. So I did that sortie again.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Well, I didn't get a call sign from that specific event. But as you know, call signs are an amazing fighter pilot tradition, right? You get those when your squadron is ready to fly with you in war. And, of course, there's no higher compliment than someone saying, I want you to be my wingman. The other thing call signs do is they're always making fun of somebody, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Well, good morning, everybody. Thanks so much for having me. It's a joy to be here.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
A mistake you made, a personality quirk, something like that. And my call sign, which, of course, striked fear in the hearts of enemies everywhere, was Fifi. F.I.F.I. And I'll be honest, the full story is certainly not safe for work. So I'm going to spare spare the podcast here. I promise someday I'll write the full story in my book.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
But as Amy can probably recall, you know, when you start flying as a woman in the fighter squadron in the 90s, right, I was 23 years old, 23 pounds lighter. I walked into that squadron and the guys were like, what the heck is this? Is she strong enough? Is she confident enough? Is she going to mess up the bro culture?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And so during that year that I was getting combat mission ready, I just was really hard on myself, was trying really hard to fit in, I think, and to be the best wingman that I could be. And essentially at the end of it, the guys were like, you're kind of like this cute little Fifi poodle, but if people bend down to pet you, they'll attack. You'll attack. Yeah. That's great. Side story.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
The actual details are a little more off color.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
That's great. And what's the name of your book? I don't have my book right now. I'm working on it. I don't have it yet. But I will tell you, I am working on a book that's very important to me that is not about me. It's about the Women Air Force Service Pilots of World War II and specifically the pursuit of the Congressional Gold Medal.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And so after 15, it's been 15 years since they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. I'm going back and writing about the small team that worked together to make that happen, especially just to keep the lost memory alive, especially in light of what we're seeing today. Right. Which is this and the removal. you know, of servicemember and veteran stories.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Well, there was indeed a small team of us that made that happen. I was proud to be a part of that team. I can tell you that by being a White House fellow at the time, I had access to doors that I could finally walk through. You know, there were people who were working on this or had ideas like this for quite some time, but people just didn't have the access.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
So when I found myself in a position to utilize that, you know, for good, then I teamed up with these other folks who hopefully everyone will read about in the book. And we were able to get that congressional gold medal through.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Yeah. You know, you got to go home and talk about the days flying with someone who understands it.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Yeah. So in 2011, I commanded the 333rd Fighter Squadron, which was actually the FT or the Flying Training Unit. So I had a cadre of like the most elite instructor pilots in the world. And we were putting through several classes, you know, at a time of F-15E students. We did have two operational squadrons on base there that were deploying as part of the air expeditionary wing.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And sometimes, interestingly, instructor pilots from the FTU, from my squadron, would actually augment the squadrons that were deploying operationally. So that was interesting to see.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Oh, you got that qualifier just.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Well, the same right back to you. I've been obviously following your career and I think our military careers were indeed were very parallel.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Remember, that's the aircraft I could employ fully as a complete weapon system.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Oh, it was a heck of a lot of fun. Look, the F-16 is highly maneuverable, super agile, much more so than the F-15E Strike Eagle, right? It's perfectly suited for the things that you do, of course, in an air show. And I would be lying if I said it wasn't an absolute hoot to fly the F-16. I mean, it's like a little sports car.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And, you know, when you're five foot four like me, it fits you like a glove, right? I mean, you know, in an F-15E, you can play tennis in the cockpit, but in an F-16, it fit me like a glove. I really felt like I was, you know, part of the aircraft, though.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
How many G's did you get up to?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And now... But hey, look, I flew the F-15U, the F-16, like not bad for a gal that, you know, went to high school in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And, you know, like what a great country I was born into, right, as a woman, you know, to be born into a country where I was afforded these kinds of opportunities, where we have this kind of technology, you know, where I was able to get over a thousand hours in two of the world's greatest fighters. So I remain very grateful.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
I mean, it's absolutely, I think, appalling. I think it's completely shameful. The idea that our federal government is willing to go back and selectively delete and selectively edit out, you know, specific service member and veteran stories is mind blowing to me. And keep in mind, they weren't they're not removing, deleting or editing out, you know,
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
things that were misinformation or were factually incorrect. They're literally taking away stories of facts-based honorable service. And I literally still haven't been able to get my arms around it. It's ridiculous.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
So I don't know about I don't know about much older Denver.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
You can either do it or you can't. So exactly. Yeah.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
Well, I mean, when you look at, you know, former secretary of defenses and their qualifications, there's certainly a major gap there. I always want to honor anybody who is willing to serve their country. But the fact of the matter is he never really reached the levels of, if you will, executive or strategic leadership to have, I think, the experience or the wisdom.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
to make, I think, more informed decisions, if I'm putting it nicely. There's a couple of things I think going on here, right? Three things that I can think of. There's the censorship, which just fundamentally stifles critical thinking, right? It goes against free speech and it erodes democracy. I think there's this idea that you touched on, which is
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
why we need to, I think, shine a light on firsts and when barriers are broken, right?
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
It's so that we remember that there was a time when there weren't women flying fighter aircraft, when there was a time when we had a segregated military, you know, that we honored those firsts so that we never go back and so that we keep the door open so that there can be another Krusty and another Fifi and another Chunk, right, to come along as second, thirds, and fourths.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
But you're hitting on a third point, which is important, which is the inspirational aspect of it. Just like you, Man, I looked up to the women Air Force service pilots of World War II, right? Knowing their story in middle school meant something to me. I mean, I remember reading about Robin Olds, right? And Jappy James, right? The greatest, one of the greatest fighter pilots of all time.
Truth in the Barrel
Devil's Cut | In Conversation With Nicole Malachowski
And those stories inspired me. And then I find myself going to the Air Force Academy the very, you know, right at the time that they're lifting the ban on women to be fighter pilots and Jeannie Leavitt, right? Right. America's first woman fighter pilot as a lieutenant is all over the news. And I'm thinking, man, you know, she's doing it. And that means I can do it.