Pete Hegseth, Mike Watlz, Tulsi Gabbard, JD Vance...and an Atlantic reporter? Lt. Col. Amy McGrath and Former Congressman Denver Riggleman break down why this is SUPER problematic. About Truth in the Barrel: Amy and Denver are both military veterans, political junkies, and whiskey lovers who sit on opposite sides of the aisle but have one thing in common: they love the United States of America. Truth in the Barrel was born of Amy & Denver’s commitment to country, the Constitution, and a well-curated collection of the world’s finest bourbon. Join them weekly for deep dives into timely topics, interviews with recognizable guests, and a dose of call-in fun. Visit TruthintheBarrel.com Subscribe to Truth in the Barrel: / @truthinthebarrel
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts of Truth in the Barrel Small Batch?
Chapter 2: What is the Signal Chat debacle being discussed?
Welcome, everyone, to Truth in the Barrel Small Batch. I'm Amy McGrath with Denver Rigman, and we are going to talk about the Signal Chat debacle that you have seen in the last few days. And actually, I think this is really important, Denver, for us to talk about. talk about this because you have an intelligence background and I have an operator background.
And both of those things are being talked about right now in different ways regarding this, in my opinion, incompetency that we're seeing from the national security team of our country right now.
Chapter 3: How do Amy and Denver's military backgrounds influence their perspective?
Amy, you know, the reason I think we're paired so well together is you were a pilot. You know, I was an intelligence officer who cut my teeth on briefing pilots doing threats as an ops I.N., right, in a fighter squadron, then a bomber squadron, right? So pretty exciting. So great. I have all this experience.
But you have this special, right, sort of thing that I want to tell people about is that you're the first woman, Marine, who flew in an F-18 in combat, correct? That is correct. What's amazing when you're flying into combat, and for me, I've debriefed hundreds of missions, right, whether it's in training or real world.
So the first thing I would ask you, because, you know, me and you both know what air tasking orders are, ATOs. Both of us have done mission planning from using computers all the way to acetate and grease pencils or wet markers. I don't know if you remember those old days, right? Whatever you got in the tent. Whatever you got in the tent, right? We did it. So if I'm asking him, like, you know what?
Guess what, ma'am? I know you're flying into harm's way, but I was happy. You know, I'm on a signal chat or I'm on this other chat. I'm going to think I want to say, tell some of my buddies. It's only an hour before, you know, when time over target is, what your specific target is and the platform's actually flying.
What would you do to an intelligence officer helping you train who is even suggesting that maybe you're I would say publishing your times over target, your IPs, what you're flying, and who your specific target is about an hour before you went out over a non-secure channel. How would you think about that there?
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Chapter 4: Why is sharing mission details on Signal Chat considered a security risk?
We'd scrub the mission because... Yeah, because you have just risked the entire mission. You've risked our lives. The signal chat thing is personal to me because the pilots that are out there, look, I trained many of them while they were midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, while I taught there. they're the ones now out doing these missions. And I used to do these types of missions, right?
I had 89 combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, strike missions. The air tasking order, folks, for everybody that's listening, that is the order that has the flight times and the call signs and the strike packages, what aircraft are taking off and when. That order, I have never seen. I have never seen an air tasking order that is not
Chapter 5: What is the significance of the Air Tasking Order (ATO) in military operations?
Those launch times, those time on targets, it is classified not only in combat, but in exercises as well. back home and overseas. Why?
Because you flew a Nellis. You flew out of Red Flag, right?
Yeah, Nellis and then exercises overseas. You do not want people to know when you are launching. That is the most vulnerable time for an aircraft. And also the most vulnerable time actually is over the target, right? And so to tell people or to tell folks over an unsecure network the type of package that is going in on a strike, when it's launching, when it's gonna be over the target,
That is just my head exploded. And I have I've gotten so many calls, emails, texts from former squadron mates of mine with the WTF on this, because anybody that's in the military knows this. You are basically telling the enemy when you're going to be there on a strike that, by the way, its own existence is classified.
Chapter 6: Why is mission timing and strike package information classified?
So when Mike Waltz, the national security advisor, says, oh, no classified sources or methods was released in this, that is total bullshit. The entire operation that they were chit-chatting about over the signal chat frame, that in and of itself is classified. Why? Because you're putting pilots at risk if the enemy would know about it.
It's not an approved comms channel. They had people on there that shouldn't have been on there because they're so dumb. They invited people onto a signal chat that shouldn't have been there. They're talking about things that should be on approved comms channels at a security classification level. Was there a CAO on that signal chat?
Was there a classification authority that was actually on that signal chat that allowed that to happen pre-chat? Of course not. And was he copy-pasting from an actual op plan?
Well, we don't know. We don't know. And that's what I'm asking. The bottom line, though, is it's arrogance. Pete Hegseth has the deadly combination of being unqualified and arrogant at the same time. If you're unqualified, you can muddle through that job. You can ask for advice. You can be humble. You can listen.
But if you are unqualified and arrogant as a secretary of defense, it is a recipe for disaster. And this is a perfect example of that. These guys thought, oh, you know, the bureaucracy is so hard in the military and everything.
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Chapter 7: What are the consequences of using unapproved communication channels for sensitive information?
and on the national security establishment so we're just going to create our own signal chat because you know we're smarter than everyone else well there are reasons that we have these protocols and it's so that spillage doesn't happen we we don't even you know when you're when you're in a flight line you don't necessarily even tell the uh the the person that is is the ordinance man who's uploading your bomb he may know your launch time but he doesn't know your time on target
Why? Because he doesn't need to know. And the more people that know that stuff, the worse. You want to compartmentalize things and you don't want the whole picture to go out. What Pete Hegseth texted out to the whole world is the whole picture. We specifically don't allow that. And the only people that know that typically are our high officials who we think are smart.
You know, I was thinking about military speak and thinking about the language that we use, Amy. Whether it's our call signs, which I don't know if you want me to tell your call sign on a national show like this. But, you know, I'm Chunk, she's Krusty, and we're here for you. And, but here's the thing, when you said WTF, you know what popped in my mind?
We did WTF on a SecDef who foobarred an ATO with a TOT, right? And that actually makes complete sense to us. I know. That's actually what went through my head, right? And I feel like everybody's got to look up all this. But the thing is, is that, you know what that all equals? A blue falcon. So if you WTF the SecDef who foobarred an ATO over a TOT, he's a blue falcon.
And I think that's really what people need to take out of this whole conversation as we're going forward.
That's 100%. But to translate that to everyday people, look, Pete Hegseth is in charge of the military, and he just screwed over members of the military. He put lives at risk knowingly. And then on top of it, if that wasn't bad enough, and all those guys did too, Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, all those people should know better.
But if that wasn't bad enough, Hegseth himself turns around and lies about it.
Yeah.
He doesn't even have the guts to say, you know what? That was bad. We screwed up. Doesn't have the guts to do that. He has to lie about it. And I'm telling you what, those of us that served in the military, you may be left, you may be right. That's almost unforgivable, in my opinion.
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