Aerial Recovery - The Hurricane Helene Disaster | SRS #138

Charlie Keo Jonathan Howard welcome to. the show thank you thank you so you guys. kind of popped up on my radar we've been. getting blown up with messages uh. wanting us to cover you know what's been. going on with C hurricane Helen uh up in. North Carolina and East Tennessee and um. John we saw your video go viral and uh. we got connected through uh to you.

Charlie through Mark Turner who's a good. friend of mine and so there's been all. kinds of rumors going on in the news I. don't think anybody really knows what to. believe um I'm not really one to believe. mainstream media anymore but look you. guys have been on the ground there and. um so I just want to I just kind of want. to cut right to the chase on um what you. guys are seeing down there um if any of. these rumors are true about what we're. hearing on um you know from other people.

on the ground as far as blocking Aid and. and what's actually going on and then. and then I'd like to wrap it up with you. know what what's the solution and and. what do you guys need and what can. people do and so um I'm going to give. you guys a quick introduction. Here Charlie keau you are the chief. development officer at aerial recovery. which is a nashville-based nonprofit. organization dedicated to providing. comprehensive healing to Veterans and. First Responders at aerial recovery you.

Empower these individuals with a new. mission to respond to disasters and to. combat human trafficking on a global. scale aerial recovery's mission is to. save lives and to stop evil prior to. Aerial recovery you served in the Air. Force Special Warfare for 10 years and. was a jtac for a second ranger battalion. in the early days after. 9/11 after leaving service in 2005 you. established yourself as a business. growth expert helping two companies land.

on PR on the. prestigious Inc 500 list of fastest. growing private companies in the US 5. years in a row you're the founder of the. vdar group a service disabled veteran. owned small business service provider. that provides training to classified. operation operators of the mq9 reaper. Jonathan Howard you are a master. sergeant in the Florida state guard. special missions unit created by. Governor Dan santis in current ly the.

impact operations lead at aerial. recovery you are also a former combat. controller CCT in addition to your. military service you're a successful. businessman you've sold four real estate. companies and own a title company and. own a title company across Florida you. are the principal broker for the entire. State of Florida for avancee a national. vacation man management brokerage you. own a successful lawn care company and. build luxury homes in Florida last but.

not least your happiness and passion is. for bird. photography and you sell all of your. prints for military charity you're are. both here today to share firsthand what. you're seeing take place in North. Carolina and more specifically what the. media is not saying. so where do we start how did you guys. get involved in this so we were actually. in Florida when the storm hit uh we. pre-positioned in tallah Cy um our.

organization linked up with with John's. uh Florida State guard folks we rode the. storm out in a parking garage and then. quickly moved into to Perry Florida and. then Stein Hatchy Stein. Hatchy and what were you guys seeing. there uh a pretty rundown. um you know a town of not very uh. well-built. structures mhm uh so you know no one had. Insurance you know everything they had. have is gone with that storm um we.

worked hand inand with the local law. enforcement the firefighters uh at one. point we were leapfrogging the. firefighters to clear the road to get. from Perry to Steen Hatchy um it was a. great operation down there in the fact. that everybody worked very very well. together information was shared resource. resources were shared um you know we. were we were working hand inand with the. the officials there was Dem down there.

not yet I think I heard they were going. to come like 3 days later or something. like that but down there there was no. red tape and for our unit the SMU that. was actually our very first mission to. be activated on and Dan sis and all the. floor leadership were like we don't. really know what you guys do as. operators just do whatever you do like. and that's what we did like our we have. a great commander and former PA rescue. guy and he was like we're going to go do. what others can't do and we're going to. find work and and get after it so the. main mission to get down there was just. clear trees I think my team alone we.

cleared about 46 miles a road wow just. in about 5 hour period just chainsaws. just pushing through to Perry and then. we basically hit a multiple roads linked. up with aial recovery I should say this. was actually the first time me and. Charlie actually met in person and work. together no good um we knew each other. we talked on the phone stuff we live in. the same area we're always trying to. link up together but we're just we're. just busy so our teams worked together. and then we just started pushing in um. not as bad as what we have seen in North. Carolina just because of our response.

with the state of Florida and the. resources no one was trying to take. command and control because we had. command and control established so no. one was fighting for it so law. enforcement Coast Guard everyone knew. their role no one was like I'm the. leader here and we were able all to work. together and like even with Ariel we. were able to work with them um and just. put the boats in the water and go look. for people cuz the water level in Stein. hatch was High um when we got there at. first light it's probably what at least. chest deep most places of water so we.

either were going out by foot or we're. going by boat but you can see the water. line on some of these houses it was like. 11 ft like it was really really high and. the the National Guard folks were there. they were absolutely and and God bless. them they're doing their best they're. just not trained they're not trained. they're not equipped so we actually had. to pull one of their LM TVs out of the. flood waters wow um with a Chevy yeah. and they had they had yeah they had no. equipment they're there doing their best. but uh you know ill prepared for that.

type of response yeah is the special. missions unit is that a new brand new. that's brand new when did that get. established um this year January uh. pretty much this year so they started. the state guard about two years ago and. um and then Dan sis Governor Dan sanis. basically won his own like jck unit uh. for the state um and then we did the. first selection class last October and. then the last class was in January so it.

literally just got put together. interesting um we were actually doing. our weapon qualifications the week of. the hurricane so we were rushing all. over our weapons qualifications that way. we could carry in the state and get. deputized and then like as we were doing. that we were Mission prepping for the. hurricane and that was our very very. first mission to show our capabilities. which was great CU we we were able to do. that cuz so is this all compris of. Special Operations guys or former. military all former operators or very. unique backgrounds like like K9 handlers.

stuff like that um we have one guy who. is like a fire captain so he comes in. very handy for what we're doing like. emergency missions yeah um he's also. built like a viking so his physical. capability is great but pretty much. everyone's either former seals Green. Berets uh Rangers P rescu or combat. controllers EOD as well man I hope we. stand that up here in Tennessee yeah no. I think I think Most states are going to. follow what we're doing and I mean it's. great we have um we we even have our own. fixed Wing rotary Wing like Des Santa is. just going full-blown with it.

interesting we'll have to reach out to. the uh to Bill Lee the governor of. Tennessee so what what got you guys up. north from Florida how did you get wind. up in North so John shared his position. with me on his cell phone which was a. mistake right so now I'm tracking him so. I saw that he had made it made his way. home and our team heard about the. devastation happening in North Carolina. and we set a team up there so I reached. out to John I said hey if you're home. let's let's roll up there and so he said.

let's do it so we jumped in his private. plane flew up to um uh Rutherford County. Airport and landed there and just kind. of did the soft thing once we got there. which was let's try to figure out our. next move and get creative so we started. knocking on the doors of the helicopters. as they landed hey let's go do some. rescues hey let's go do some work. literally no kidding so you guys so you. guys literally just flew out here with. the plant or you flew out here with the. plant you guys both flew out here with. the plant kind of just hey let's just.

get on the ground figure it out as we. were driving to the airport to get in. the plane I got a text from our. commander and they're like hey we're. being activated from North Carolina and. I was like no kidding like I'm going. there right now with areial recovery so. they're like perfect go there get Intel. because there wasn't really any kind of. Intel like nothing was being shared it. seemed like no one really knew what was. going on it just people were trapped and. mudslides and flood so as you said once. we land in Rutherford we would just go. up to helicopters and we' be like hey. can we get some work in with you like we. just need to get up in the air and see.

what's going on and um that's how we my. wife actually said it when we were at. dinner the night but I think an angel. actually put us in contact with this guy. um that had the helicopter cuz we were. there trying to find helicopters and. this random guy came up to us started. talking to us that no one knew and no. one has ever seen again and just. completely vanished from the from the. Earth but he went up to this guy that. owned a helicopter he was like hey I got. these two guys over here they need to. get a ride in and start doing some work. and then he came over to us and was like.

hey I heard you guys need a helicopter. ride and this guy now he's our best. friend he's amazing um he had his own. private Bell 407 uh 407 helicopter which. holds seven people and he was like yeah. I can take you guys up and that's what. we did all of our work in the entire. week was no kid he paid all out of. pocket I mean he was paying for the. Private Pilot to fly it he was paying. for all the fuel out of pocket I think. he was spending like 7 to $9,000 a day. wow yeah just like in fuel on the pilot. wow Zeb Hadley National codings out of.

Wilmington North Carolina uh and Mark. Roseman was our pilot yeah amazing yeah. like without those two we couldn't have. done what we did so what we so I saw a. video of you uh I believe it went viral. about you know about some of the. frustrations you were seeing on the. ground and and and it sounded like uh. correct me if I'm wrong but it sounded. like different government organizations. were trying to take credit for for. saving an 11-day old baby that you.

gentlemen actually saved so what is yeah. I'm going to play that video right now. overlay it on the on the episode I. really don't want to make this video but. it is literally a matter of life and. death for the people of North Carolina. so my name is Jonathan Howard I'm a. member of the fla State guard special. missions unit and I'm also up here with. aerial recovery a nonprofit I came up. here on Sunday with aerial recovery. before we even got active ated we flew.

up here and then we got activated which. is great I have my team up here working. as well here's the problem I'm going to. tell you everything that's happening. from the ground what I'm actually seeing. because what they're telling you is. complete [ __ ] on the news and these. politicians don't have to [ __ ] flu. and they're lying I'll say this now I'll. say at the end of the video the only. thing I need from this video is. helicopters if I have helicopters I can. save lives without helicopters I can't. reach these people it doesn't matter how. how many chainsaws and trucks I got I.

can't get to them they're 10 mi in 20 mi. 40 mi in the mountains there's no way to. get with them or even communicate with. them I am literally flying around in a. civilian helicopter looking for SOS. messages carved in the mud or painted on. the ground and we're dropping down and. saving them what got me fired up about. this was yesterday me and my team did. the rescue of that 11-day year old baby. and all these government officials and. social media they're showing that video. that pictures and video of that rescue.

and. claiming that like they have some like. government helped with that. and I mean it even USA I think it was. USA Today wrote an article about it. saying it was a Florida National Guard. that went and got it like what a. helicopter no it was me my buddy Charlie. and a civilian named Zeb with his own. personal helicopter out of Wilmington. North Carolina like without that. civilian that baby would be dead and. lady we went and rescued after that.

she'd be dead too cuz she had one day. left of. oxygen there no one was going to go get. them I will tell you when we go up in. the air I probably see 40 civilian. helicopters and I might see two. Blackhawks National Guard military. whatever they are that's it no one's out. there doing rescues I have my entire. team up here from Florida right now and. they have no ability to go rescue these. people other than what they can drive to. the people that are in dire need they're. out in the mountains they are completely.

cut off now I will say I spoke to my. congresswoman down in Florida and she's. a badass and she made a bunch of phone. calls and now we got two contracted 60s. coming up here tomorrow which is great I. love that but like I still don't. understand why we don't have more. helicopters like we'll get a lot of work. done with that but there's no o there's. no military there's no go no one's doing. nothing I just it it blows my mind and. they're not even allowing people to see. what's really going on one of our. friends yesterday they were actually.

escorting CNN down at Lake lore and they. wouldn't even let CNN the sheriff. department would not let them go. videotape the bad areas of how. destructive it is I don't know why they. don't want to show you all that but I. mean it is bad I should also say when I. flew here on. Sunday they actually stopped us from. going in the sheriff department and it. was because of a bunch of politics that. they were claiming was a Speaker of the. House of North Carolina that was. preventing us from even going in and. trying to kick us out which I have.

clarified today with North Carolina. politicians that reached out to me good. on them and they were like that's. complete [ __ ] speaker of the house. has nothing he wants you guys there but. this is the kind of political BS that is. happening here right now like everyone's. trying to be in charge without taking. any type of action nobody wants to. coordinate with anybody everybody wants. to pretend like they're being the hero. while these people are literally [ __ ]. dying in the mountains and these people. like I'm saying these people are limited. medication they're running out of oxy. oen and there's no one going to get them.

the most effective way I have found to. go find these people is by getting in a. helicopter and flying down the Rivers. and Roads and looking for SOS messages. or people waving us down and then we. drop down and get them we have all these. people here we have law enforcement we. have state guard National Guard they. have no way to go get these people. yesterday when I was at the Asheville. Airport refueling which by the way the. civilian is paying all this out of his. own pocket he's not even looking for a. reimbursement I think we did four.

refilling yesterday and that was like. just in half a day of work we're in. Nashville and I saw two Air Force. helicopter 60s and I knew there were PJs. just looking at them and I went up to. him like Hey guys like what are y'all. doing and like this is what you need to. be doing this this this this how I'm. finding people and they're like we can't. go we're waiting on title 10 orders and. I'm like what they just they can't get. any Authority there's military. helicopters all over here sitting on the. ground and they can't do nothing even my. J boy Boys in fville they can't get.

orders to come out here it is just the. most disgusting thing and they're. killing these people and I don't know. why they're doing it I don't know what. kind of conspiracy I've heard so many. things whatever you want to come up with. but they are literally allowing these. people to [ __ ] die in the mountains. right now because we can't get. helicopters they got money for. everything else in the [ __ ] world. right now but if they could just get us. helicopters we could fly out there and. rescue these people so I hope this video. goes viral I hope these politicians get. fired I hope people get get pissed off. they'll probably kick me out of the.

state of North Carolina for doing this. but you know what I don't care cuz if I. can save walm more life for it it's. [ __ ] worth it to me yeah so um who. got that mission so we got that lead. from save our allies that's right okay. right I'm sure you're familiar with. those guys that's Chad robach's guy. right that's right so we're in contact. with those guys Sean actually sent us. the mission from save our allies and it. actually said a one-year-old baby uh. life or death situation so we jumped in. the helicopter we were in Rutherford. County Airport which is about 15 minutes.

away um the notice had the phone number. on it so I was able to call the grandma. Lisa get her on the phone find out if. the if the request was still active. because we had by this time we'd already. been on multiple missions that were you. know dry holes yeah and so um spoke to. Lisa on the phone she gave us the. situation um meanwhile John's calling. his counterparts on the ground and was. able to get a PJ there within about five. minutes so again you talk about the God.

moment of of the Angel connecting us. there at the airport his team just. happened to be same town in the same. town at the same time five minutes away. everything worked out the way it should. have like actually they were flying in. with the helicopter to come grab me and. him at the Rutherford airport and the. people that run the airport um awesome I. forgot the dad's name but Devin and his. son Tristan his son's 13 he's been. helping us out so much his dad was in. the fuel truck and um I wanted to hot. refu the helicopter opter cuz like I.

said the message we got it said life or. death and so that was basically all the. Intel we had on it so I asked the his. son uh Tristan I was like hey can you. radio your dad can you do a hot refuel. he was like I don't think he's allowed. to but let me see so his dad came over. and he was like yeah we can't hot refuel. that's not allowed to do it and I was. like I have to get this helicopter hot. refueled and he was like what's the. situation I was like this one-year-old. baby's going to die and he was like done. and he literally just backed up this. fuel truck and just started refilling. the helicopter Me and Charlie got in it.

as I was coordinating with my my pj Paul. on the ground and then he I sent him the. address and then like two minutes later. he's calling me he's like I'm here and I. was like how are you there that quick. and he was like I was here like. literally in the neighborhood just. randomly which on the map when we were. looking at it all the roads were cut off. to it the updated Maps were saying it. was completely just cut from The Rivers. so I don't know how he was even there. but he was able to stabilize the baby. get on oxygen and just getting the vital. stable so as we're flying in um the.

state guard SMU guys were there they. started the PJs started making a hlz we. found a a field I'm looking at imagery. on my phone like we can land there but I. mean there's power lines all around and. as we're coming in there I mean Mark. Roseman are awesome pilot I mean this. isn't what he does I me he flies you. know Gulf streams around the world and. he's like putting it down the field for. the very first time the middle of the. field you you have a you have a fixed. Wing Pilot Flying ring aircraft. know this guy had I think he said over.

22,000 flight hours wow so very very. very experienced and he's been flying. helicopters all over but he's not used. to doing like a 160th Mission you know. he's not dropping down in fields and. laying on rooftops so he dropped down in. that field and uh we had a bunch of our. SMU guys there with the baby my buddy. Byron come running out with the little I. forgot baby crib or holder oxygen car. seat car seat yeah and we basically just. loaded them into the helicopter. um took off and we flew right to Mission.

Hospital in Asheville at the same time. we had to communicate with the hospitals. let them let them know we were coming. yeah uh we found the radio frequency uh. our aircraft radio was not compatible so. we had a guy from the rear on our team. actually make a phone call to the. hospital let them know that we were. coming have the doctors and nurses on. standby on the rooftop waiting for us so. as we were coming to that rooftop uh. Mark was like find me a place on the. ground I was spot in the front seat. looking for hlz and there was two.

helicopters parked on the hlz so we. couldn't L on the ground and there was. one on top of the roof and it was a. little bit uh windy oh I say it was very. windy a little bit of rain and he was. like I was like Mark the only place he. can go is on that roof I was like it's. pretty big like you should be able to. put it down he goes I've never landed on. a roof and I was looking at the wind. sock up there and it was a direct. crosswind and that that crosswind was. like the top of the building for the. hospital so he was kind of nervous about. I was like you you just got to get it. down and as we were coming in then about. 10 ft above the winds were just like I.

mean it was pushing us like it was real. real strong but he got it down Me and. Charlie hopped out with the baby grandma. and mom rushed them inside and they had. a full staff there I mean they had. probably I think two doctors three. nurses nice and they just grabbed that. baby and um took it and then we actually. went immediately out to another mission. but a few days later um they got a hold. to Charlie and they sent us photos of. the baby and the mom and so the baby was. was alive and then at some point we're. going to go uh visit them and just kind. of like follow up with them and stuff. man that's amazing yeah I'm not a very.

big emotional guy but like my emotions. were like running very high in that. mission and then like once we actually. got that baby in that doctor's hand like. I actually like wanted to cry like I. just never like I just I it was hard to. describe but like it just it was I don't. know it was just talking on my heart man. that is. uh you guys are [ __ ] awesome yeah but. yeah at the time we didn't know it but. it was 11 day year old premature baby. with riddle bone disease. uh low iron and something else that it.

it had already been like diagnosed with. do you know the baby's name Mason Mason. Mason yeah. man I love hearing that man yeah you. guys are a. godsend who what government. organizations are taking credit for your. guys' work it was some sort of again the. daily the daily updates that the the. guard folks were putting out because I. actually reached out to the the author. of the article in USA Today like you.

write something bad I will I will hunt. you down and send you a nasty email I. learned that from my mom they were. saying it was like North Carolina. National Guard nothing not trying to. discredit them those guys are doing. their part but like in the video you can. clearly see it's a red and gold. helicopter it's a Bell Helicopter it's. not a National Guard and they're like oh. National Guard saves 11-day year old. premature baby and I kind of saw it. being spread all over it social media. and I was just like y disgusting like. literally these people out here dying. and I should say right after that day. year old baby we went and saved an.

elderly lady who had a day left to live. on oxygen she was cut off in the middle. of nowhere we're the first people to. reach them so how are these how are how. is everybody getting in touch with you. guys cuz everything we're hearing is. there's no Communications there's no. starlink there's no nothing Facebook um. messages direct to people like ourselves. so that particular one the son who was. probably in his early 30s hiked over the. mountain to check on his family like. five miles and then went back to get. cell phone signal to put out a request.

wow and so all it was was Bent Creek uh. I think there was an address I think. there was a a grid or an address it just. said like people here need help and so. we just flew flew into that area found. the river followed the river looked for. houses and then spotted in the mud and. on the road SOS SYM that's how you guys. are IDE so the the the cloud layer was. pretty low it was a little bit foggy a. little bit rainy and we're looking and. all the roads to this area I'm G to say.

it was probably 10 miles in were just. completely washed away like just. completely eroded so there's no way to. get in there I mean can you even tell. there is a road there. was there's remnant of it there might be. a little bit of it here but it's all. washed away and as we were flying over I. actually didn't see it the first time. and then I caught my eye I saw big white. letters painted on the road that was. washed out said SOS and then probably 30. yards away from that it was carved in. the mud probably about foot wide SOS so. I was like hey Mark like let's go down.

there but it was like on a valley the. road was washed out and I'm trying to. find an hlz we actually didn't see it. when we were coming in but we crossed. two power lines that we almost hit on. the way out but we literally dropped in. basically like on this little small. piece of concrete next to a house and a. hill and then a washed out road which we. couldn't land there because we were. afraid it would collapse into the river. and then we shut down got out started. talking to him that's usually how we get. our Intel we start talking to him like. Hey like what's going on who needs help. and they're like oh this guy's low on.

insulin but there was a lady there and. she only had about enough fuel in her. generator to run her oxygen machine for. about a day left and they said they said. she won't leave she's not going to leave. wow cuz her whole her whole family was. there and like emotions are high when. when they first see you and we're the. first people to reach them I think that. was like day four like they're just like. you can see the kind of the color come. back to their face but they were. everyone we kept running into like them. they didn't want to leave because they. thought the government would be there in.

a week so they're like oh like. everything's going to be okay in a. couple days right like it's day four. already and I'm like y'all don't know. how bad this is cuz they're thinking. it's just their River that's washed out. not the entire like North Carolina. Tennessee Georgia and we show them. videos and they're just like oh I'm like. you're probably not going to have a road. for two to four months and that would. kind of change their opinion on them. wanting to leave but that lady yeah go. back to her low oxygen about a day left. we convinced her to get in the. helicopter cuz we could take her son who. hiped over the mountains with his.

daughter as well and then we flew him. out but I mean again like great you know. if it wasn't for Mark we wouldn't have. been able to do that or Zeb but as we. were taken off I just Mark he was like. basic like oh God he just yanked the. power up and there was a power line like. right in front of us we didn't see it. and then I was like okay I'm like. looking out and then there was another. one right in front of that so that was. kind of like a big eye opener like okay. like we really got to be switched on. here cuz this is not a normal HL he. landing and then even as we landed to.

bring them back to their house we had to. land on a slope like this which is. something he's never done before and um. and we we actually had some issues on. that one as well we actually thought we. put the tail in the dirt cuz it started. like vibrating real hard and we were. just like oh man we're stuck here in the. middle of nowhere but it was just kind. of the way the angle was and it was fine. but then we had to go back and grab them. um cuz we couldn't carry all the weight. but that's literally the kind of. situations that were that were going on. and that oh sorry we actually went and. checked on that that area about 3 days.

later yeah really and because we had to. leave the husband of the woman he wanted. to to stay and prepare the house to. prevent mold um and so we came back in. and checked in them a couple days later. and you could start to see the signs of. um the community turning on themselves. is it is sooting is starting to happen. that kind of stuff. desperation yeah yeah trying to control. the food for for resources you could see.

that happening then you could smell the. death in that site pretty you smell it. you smell the death out there and stuff. like in the log cuz the log piles are. just there's so many just washed up in. the rivers and they tell us like yeah. people are in there they have like eight. we have eight people missing from the. community we know they're in there and. you can can smell it you can you can. smell the bodies but to kind of go back. to your original question on that so we. did that baby rescue we did that elderly. lady and then um I started seeing those. videos kind of going out and it was the. very next day day three and that's I.

that's why I we were told as as our unit. we were going to have like support. helicopters and I actually I was told I. was going to have like nine helicopters. like Fort nukes 360s 272s and we're. supposed to have all the support for our. unit to go out there and we weren't. getting that and then just talking to. everybody else they weren't getting it. and we were basically told like you can. get a helicopter if it's like life or. death and I'm just like well we can't go. rescue these people they're literally. like a day left of oxygen they're going. to die so I was getting just like super.

frustrated cuz I had actually. coordinated like 140 person evacuation. the next day um out of this like nursing. home and I had no helicopters to do it. who is they that's telling you it has to. be life or death it was coming through. like our um liaison officer of North. Carolina I don't know exactly who it was. but some government official yeah some. government official coming down through. our commander so I obviously completely. jumped the chain of command and uh but I. don't wait around for things to happen. and I was I was super mad and I actually.

got off the phone um with my my titled. business partner who's an attorney uh. Jim bman I go to him for a lot of wisdom. he's very good godly man he's you know. he's a little bit older than me and if I. need something he's usually the one to. tell me like don't say those things you. know watch what you're saying don't. curse things like that and um he's like. you got to make a video John he's like. you got to do it he was like if these. people are really like it's life or. death he's like make a video and post it. and I was like all right so I literally. went out there to where our hlz was and. I made that video pretty angrily and cuz.

I was just I was disgusted with what I. was seeing I was I was mad that they. weren't giving us support they're. pretending like everyone there's getting. support but then when the 11-day baby. premature video comes out of us. rescueing it they're like look at us. we're doing everything we can you know. now they're trying to like pretend like. they're helping and like oh it was the. National Guard that did this and I was. just like yall have time to post on. social media about what we're doing but. like literally if it wasn't for that. civilian with his helicopter that baby.

was dead that old lady was dead and. that's when I made that video and I was. like you know what whatever's going to. happen to me is going to happen to me. like you know you guys want to kick me. out North Carolina whatever I even. thought like I was going to get a lot of. backlash on that from my leadership but. they were just like I mean that was like. that needed to happen CU we just weren't. getting the support that we needed and. um and I can't tell you how much when I. made that video that day and posted it. from the very next day I think I. probably had access to about 15. helicopters we had Congress people. reaching out to us like texting us at.

12:30 at night I had all these civilians. like I'm bringing 18 wheelers of. truckload supplies I mean just night and. day difference even just people like. within the area of North Carolina like. Charlotte Wilmington they're just like I. cannot believe what's going on we. thought it was being handled and they. just started rushing up there so like. the people that were actually living. there they started like Thanking us like. thank you for that video and we were. just kind of like we didn't realize how. big of a deal it was going to be wow and. we ran into so many people people on. those hzs that were there helping and.

they said we're here helping because we. saw we saw what you guys are doing we. saw we saw John's video we saw all the. things that you guys are doing and the. and the impact you're having so we. dropped what we had and came up here to. help join me and my special guests for. the next behindth scenes experience. exclusively available on vigilance lead. patreon the behind the-scenes footage is. raw and uncut this is as close to the. set as you can possibly get you can.

expect anything from off topic. conversations Studio tours the final. moments before the interview starts and. everything in between the behind thes. scenes content is constantly evolving. and will continue to bring you more as. we grow you can gain access for just $15. a month exclusively at vigilance Elite. patreon the day Joe Biden flew in to. Asheville they had to put up another. temporary flight restriction over like. the entire airspace there um there.

wasn't an exact time it just kind of. said from like I think 11: to like 4 400. p.m. or something and it wind up being I. think from 11:30 to about 3:30 or. something but by him coming there he. actually never landed he just flew. around viewing but because of that TFR. all rescues were shut down we couldn't. go do work and that was the very first. day we had like no fog no clouds no rain. and we were like oh we're going to go. get all these rescues in and this was.

still early in the week I think it was. Wednesday uh when people were still very. very desperate. so I ran to a senator from North. Carolina the day before at the Asheville. Airport and he was telling me about it. uh he was like we're trying to stop him. from coming here and they were telling. him if you come here they're not going. to be able to do their job can you tell. me what Senator I don't remember his. name um I don't remember his name at all. just it was just old he was an older guy. and I I know I I was told he was a. republican had no idea who he was but he.

was like we're trying to stop him from. coming here so it doesn't Slow Down. Rescue operations CU at this point it. was still life or death but he came. anyways shut us down and we were lit me. and him were literally just sitting. there with our helicopter right in front. of us for like three three and a half. hours and we couldn't go do one Mission. during that time and then by the time we. got done I think we only got maybe two. missions in before it got dark but it. was just that's the kind of it's like. that's the kind of political nonsense. that was happening and then I think the.

next day we had fog again did anything. come of of the president flying over. well he didn't even remember that he. flew over yeah he didn't remember what. do you mean He got interviewed after he. landed and they said Mr President what. are the people in the storm States. need and his response was what storm or. what he said I'm trying to remember what. storm you're talking about are you. serious and then he said oh they have. everything they need we're very Happ. happy they they have everything they.

need quote word for word they everything. it's all over the media right now I mean. it's everywhere but yeah it was just. we'll pull that clip and insert it as. well yeah but it's just it was just the. nonsense where it was like all Crews. just got shut down what do the states of. the storm Zone need Mr. presidence what do the states of the. storm Zone what do they need that what. you saw. today oh in the storm Zone yes sir what. storm is talking about the uh they said. everything they need we're very happy.

it's just a non-functioning government. just like we just said Secret Service. isn't functioning the Border isn't. functioning Chinese are coming in. there's a fentanyl crisis I mean the. outrageous spending I mean the only. thing that seems to be functioning in. this country is the IRS and. um hopefully that changes some it it. that's the kind of stuff that was. happening I had another it was a coast. guard um squadron commander of a a. Seahawk Unit A Blackhawk and I can't.

remember if it was South Carolina or. North Carolina he's like I have been. requesting to go there every day and I. get denied like they wouldn't send them. and even why don't they send in the. eight all my jsaw buddies all my boys at. the 24 PJs and all that they're. literally right there in feville they. could not get authorization to come like. they' be messaging me they're like dude. we want to come my old unit 2 three they. want to come just nonsense what's. frustrating is we just fought a 20 year. War mhm in Afghanistan we have the.

people we have the equipment we have the. experience to get things and resources. into hard places every military crew. that we saw we would ask them do you. have a sling load. kit no sling load kit I think we heard. of one sling load operation sling Lo kit. no there's chukes there there's chukes. there yeah like and they just they're. not doing it so if you have if you have. the people the equipment and the. experience to go do it yeah why aren't. you doing it because someone has to make.

that decision tell them what the guy. told us yesterday from Fort Brag the. unit yeah so we ran into a 8C Airborne. guy and we were excited like oh the 80. Seconds finally here this is awesome. what are you doing and he he at first. was very you know uh standoffish and. then we built some rapport with the guy. and uh well we told him like Hey CCT TP. here he's like okay like we kind of like. relax and he goes we're just here flying. 06s around that their only their only. Mission the entire week is to fly.

chronal and VIPs around cuz that's why. they didn't have sling Lo capability. they they literally took it off and in. Zeb zeb's helicopter was used to fly. County officials over their County to do. a damage assessment multiple times yeah. the lieutenant governor of North. Carolina Mark Robinson he has a a. relationship with Zeb the owner of the. aircraft and he would be texting him to. go do missions and I remember I think it. was like day two I was like why is the. lieutenant governor the second highest. powerful Guy having you as a civilian.

fly officials around and he was like he. can't get any support he has no. authority to do anything because the. governor of North Carolina won't do. anything apparently he they he said he. was awall for three days I think that. was like maybe Wednesday or something. like that but like it you know it's bad. when the second highest powerful guy in. North Carolina came and get his own. helicopter to fly people. around let's let's um let's put a pause. on the failed government for a minute. and talk about what you guys are seeing.

so what we will'll dive back into that. but what you know what from what we're. hearing over here there are entire. Villages and towns just. completely yeah gone as in like they. never existed is that is that this is a. storm that this has never happened. before like in Florida when we get a. storm the water rises equally and then. it goes away in the mountains it goes. where it goes and the people who make.

the roads evidently follow that same. plan because the roads are right next to. the rivers so as the rivers rise and the. water starts flowing and a bridge gets. washed out that bridge hits the next. bridge now you have two Bridges floating. down the river they hit the next Bridge. so you have this big Snowball Effect of. debris taking out all the roads and what. do we say that that one River was. supposed to be yeah 6 in wide and now. it's like 60 M wide it was outside Maran. the the county survey guy he said that. that River originally was only 6 in deep.

and about a foot wide and then when we. flew over it I think it was probably at. least 60 M wide so all the houses that. were near there literally just got. completely demolished and flushed cuz it. was like a Mudslide and just the River. overflowed so this whole area was. cleared about 60 M wide Vehicles just. tumbled into it I think he told us at. that location about 15 deaths at that. one location about 15 people were killed. there and so if the roads are gone and. you know these people think I think when. the power goes out it'll be back on in. in a week tops right but the roads are.

gone yeah and it doesn't you can't build. a road overnight it's going to take. months and months and months and a. bridge is even longer right yeah I mean. so that the lady with no auction that we. went to go rescue on the way over there. we've passed Four Bridges that were just. completely demolished Four Bridges like. big concrete Bridges just gone so any. any logical thinker would see that in. that scenario and go well we need. helicopters or pack mules right I mean. that's the only way to do it yeah yeah.

and so you have all these supplies. coming in to distribution points and. then the people that can drive to those. distribution points get what they need. and that's great but you can't get those. resources out to the hilltops without. helicopters and in most places you can't. land so you have to lower things down. which is why we're asking about the. sling. loads. so there's there's just no plan that's. that's the the bottom line yeah. how many people have you guys.

saved do you. know um or rescued we the first three or. four days we had um it's kind of we P we. picked up a lot of people the two that. really stand out to me was was just that. baby and then cuz those were just like. actual life or death but uh we picked up. a we picked up a lot of people I can't. remember how many but it was it was a. lot do you have an. estimation 50 no we didn't we didn't do. that many no no we didn't do that many. um I'd probably say good 10 15 10 or 15.

10 or 15 people like that cuz we can. only get to give you an idea we can only. do about one Mission every about hour. and a half to two hours wow U because of. weight and fuel yeah so we would you. know fly out 20 to 30 minutes land there. rescue them fly them back to where they. needed to go then we have to go refuel. get the next mission so at that point. it's usually about 2 hours what about. what the when you guys started getting. more access ACC to helicopters that's. when we started just spreading them.

everywhere and then they were able to go. I mean I don't know what each person did. but they were able to go do a lot of. rescues so you guys aren't even keeping. track you're just 100% go no 24 hours a. day there was no downtime and this the. service is so bad the only time I'd ever. even get service was just when we're up. in the air for a little bit for a few. minutes here and there and then we're. back on the ground me literally we hit. the ground we refuel we grab a mission. and we just go and then we would do that. basically from about. we usually couldn't get started till. about 9:30 because of fog so you know.

about 9:30 we would go and then we. usually had to stop about 6:30 so it. would just be go go go that entire time. damn and we would just grab food when we. could you grab Fel food and fuel where. we could and just just make it happen so. it was it was either personal recovery. or food and and water delivery medicine. medicine a lot of medicine starlink star. starink star started the week yeah. mainly so it started basically with like. Personnel recovery the first couple. couple days and then it seemed probably. around maybe Thursday the personel.

recovery kind of slowed down everyone. that basically got out that needed to. get out and then it went more to like. insulin medical supplies epip pins and. then once we got a pretty good hold of. that it kind of went more to like. starlinks like that way they could just. message us and be like we have an. emergency you know this person needs. this even the firefighters we did a lot. of firefighter drops we so we would. actually in a civilian helicopter be. picking up search and uh rescue crews. mainly fire Fighters and flying them to. their locations cuz they couldn't get.

any kind of helicopter. support so we would we these states that. got paid to send task forces to help we. were picking them up and moving them to. different locations I actually posted a. video we had two civilian helicopters we. landed them in the field to pick up I. think it was eight firefighters and. these are big old boys so we had like. really balance the weight but that's. what I'm saying like people are like oh. why are you guys there you don't need to. be there there's military there's. government and I'm like then why are we. doing these. missions like if there wasn't a need for.

us we wouldn't be doing these missions. yeah so yeah we were moving a lot of. people County officials State officials. um search and Recovery Crews like we'd. even drop our we take our search and. Recovery guys from aiel with a bunch of. chainsaws and literally fly them to the. top of a mountain drop them off and have. them work their way down just going. looking and. clearing how are you guys delivering. fuel for the chainsaws and all that. stuff are you with them yeah yeah we. literally load the hel opter up got I. mean a little sketchy sometimes like.

carrying propane tanks inside the. helicopter and stuff like that highly. flammable but I mean we would load up. like five six propane tanks and then. just go up there and drop it off to. people damn do you have any estimation. of how many people are in. distress somebody should you guys I. doubt anybody does thousands thousands I. mean a lot of these people are just it's. so remote and I said the road might be. washed out for 10 to 20 miles and the. train is impassible really even by foot.

or even by Pac Mill cuz it's just so. Steep and so wooded you're only getting. there by helicopter um I mean it's just. yeah there's a lot of there's a lot of. people stra and that's just in the area. of Western North Carolina where we are I. know it's even more widespread than that. have you guys done anything in Tennessee. nope not there not yet not for this. storm. yet what you know what are some of the. where are you guys getting the starlink. from. uh donated so we we work a lot with.

global empowerment Mission it's a Glo. you know obviously a global nonprofit. and they had a lot donated and then we. would take their supplies that were. donated to them and then go. uh you know deploy them out into the. field and and how long you know we talk. about we talk about when desperation. kicks in a lot on the show and uh it's. really hard for people to kind of fathom. what that's like when the community. starts looking inward so what what but.

you know that's what happens when people. get desperate starve you know they're. starving they're they're dying a thirst. they don't have medicine I mean you guys. know all this stuff a lot of people. don't but what you know when did you. what are some of the things you started. noticing when did that start happening. that was about day day two or three went. back into Bent Creek Bent Creek yeah you. know they would they would come up to us. individually and say hey I don't I don't. trust that guy over there yeah they. really would okay it was getting kind of. they' be like watch that guy he's kind.

of sh that guy over there by your. helicopter keep an eye on him yeah and I. look over and he's grabbing the the prop. the rotor blade pulling on it I'm like. don't touch the helicopter. bro are. they stealing each other's supplies or. anything like is anything like that. happen they were saying that I know when. we Tred to offload that day at the. helicopter like this as we started. unloading this lady and her boyfriend. just kind of randomly came out of. nowhere and they were trying to control. the supplies for like the whole. community and they were like we're like. no no no like everyone's getting their.

fair share of this but they they were. trying to do a lot of control stuff like. that um they were even they even told us. that there was actually a bunch of. illegal immigrants living there in the. mountains and they would come out at. night time and steal their stuff um one. of them said that um they surrounded. this was somewhere out there but they. the guy hyped in to be with his family. and he said where he was they were. actually surrounding cars at night time. with guns and taking people people stuff. and then just and leaving so damn are.

you seeing communities stand together at. all oh yeah oh yeah yeah definitely yeah. they're they're they're being very. protective most people out there were. especially in the rural places they were. all very open caring caring yeah yeah so. they are so a lot of them are supporting. each other oh yeah and and that's what. needs to happen like you can sit at home. and wait for the government to show up. all you want in the military to show up. all you. want they're probably not going to yeah. and so these towns and these families. they should all have contingency plans. like the government's bad at business.

they're just not good at business they. don't protect their resources they don't. they don't use their resources uh we. know the power grid is vulnerable have. you been to a a power station oh yeah. you could just drive to it right now and. Chuck rocks at it yeah they're they're. guarded by a chain link fence right. right so so you've got a government. that's bad at business doesn't protect. their resources doesn't use the. resources they have why on Earth would. you think that they're going to come. save you you know it's I mean. I've been talking about it for a long. time you know the government it we don't.

have a functioning government right now. we have a border that's wide open we. have runaway money going to every other. country out there except ours it sounds. very similar to the situation in Hawaii. not too long ago it doesn't sound like. these people are getting Aid I mean you. know and um you know NBC actually put an. article out saying that this is all a. big conspiracy theory so I my uh ass. many of my team sent this to me but you. know this is part of the article FEMA.

administrator Deanna or deian chriswell. told ABC news this week on Sunday that. the agency absolutely has all the. resources it needs and that claims that. the agency has been delivering funds to. migrants are just plain false and you. know here's ABC News my orcus Wars FEMA. doesn't have enough funding to last. through the hurricane season home. Homeland Security uh. secretary alandro mayorcas says the.

agency tests with helping communities. recover from Hurricane Helen and other. natural disasters does not have enough. money to make it through hurricane. season so I don't you know once again. mainstream media is you know. contradicting itself and likely is. completely full of [ __ ] so FEA is. running out of money that's what it. that's what well according to the. Secretary of FEMA they're not running. out of money but you know May orcus is. saying they're running out of money both. with the federal government who the [ __ ].

are we supposed to believe here it's. like anything you know you have money. for what you prioritize and and and then. you know that's another reason why I. wanted to bring you guys in is because. yeah great thank you NBC do you have. anybody on the [ __ ] ground over there. probably not cool do there any. government officials on the ground over. there probably it sounds like they're. all flying around in [ __ ] helicopters. getting little photo shoots and. um I'm getting [ __ ] pissed just. talking about it but um you should make.

a video and go viral well that's what. we're doing right now there you so. um but you know there are there have. been reports that FEMA's blocking Aid. and and blocking supplies do you think. you know I don't want to just jump on. the bandwagon do you think there's any. do you think they might be if they are. blocking Aid and supplies do you think. that they there is a bigger plan and. maybe they just don't they don't want. people looting and and I know on the. last hurricane down in uh last was it.

last year when santelle Fort Meers got. hit you know I know they were keeping. people from this is from Mark Turner. they were keeping people from going to. Santa Belle to do Aid because they. didn't want people looting is there do. you think that could be I I don't think. they have a plan I think it's complete. incompetence is the problem okay so. there's not some big grand scheme it's. like the Secret Service yeah yeah. failure I I personally never saw one. FEMA person the entire time I I saw I.

never saw one the only one I the only. one I saw I said was that like. Protection security team they brought in. from California it was like a FBI like. like a raid team they're just sitting. there where the food supply was where we. would usually stop to get food and. they're just sitting there in plates. like full plates long guns suppressors. and they were cool like we went and. talked to them most of them were former. soft guys but I was like what why are. you I was like what are you guys doing. and they're like oh we're just here on. behalf of FEMA and they're like ever. since Katrina they always have like a. security team but I never saw like a. FEMA official they were just sitting. there literally like plates on just.

waiting for something and I don't think. they ever did anything but um a couple. guys we said the guy at the airport. ruford uh is it Dean whatever the guy. Devon um he had FEMA like contractors. they were they were contracted on behalf. of FEMA come talk to him about how they. kind of wanted him to like start running. operations there but no actual FEMA. officials so I I personally never saw. any female officials the only I think.

politician I ever actually saw was. lieutenant. governor um who else I saw Pat herrian. he's a buddy running for congress up. there he's a former Green Beret um I. think that's it I want to say yeah like. there was like no actual like officials. other than like Fire Chiefs and and. stuff like that like there was no I I. don't think FEMA is evil mhm like the. people who work at FEMA are not evil I. think they're just a part of a big. bureaucratic system. yeah that is so large they're not. efficient to get the job done yeah you.

know I don't want to I don't want. to I don't want to demoralize anybody. that is working for FEMA for National. Guard for government organizations who. is who is legitimately just trying to. help this is a this is an issue at at. the highest level and um and once again. those folks you know hopefully one day. are held accountable you know for for. incompetence or malicious activity but. what are is there anything else when it.

comes to you know the government's. response that you guys want to cover. well like I said I think I think waiting. for a government response should never. be your first plan you know a aerial. recovery would love to work with towns. to come up you know pick a town let's. make a town uh the model for self-. sustainment and. survivability come up with a. communication plan come up with a a. distribution plan of supplies come up. with an accountability plan for who's. where who's missing um and really build.

a a a model for other towns to to build. off of that would be that would be. genius what what what can people help. with what do these gu what is what do. the people need the most is it money is. it chainsaws food water medicine not. money CU they're getting $750 they're. good they 750 bucks they got nowhere to. go spend it on you know like they can't. buy anything online they live out the. mountains can be delivered to them you. didn't hear that no they're getting oh.

yeah the government's giving everybody. $750 they can't go to an ATM to get the. money out because there's no power yeah. they can't use their cell phones to pay. with. anything via phone because their phones. are probably dead and you can't buy. anything from businesses because they. don't have power so yeah money money for. the people doesn't really help them in. this moment no all really what they need. is is food there's also a concern right. now for cold weather gear since since. winners coming up and these people. aren't going to have power some of them. probably maybe till the end of the year.

so cold weather gear things like that um. I mean people just bringing their their. hands up there to put work in a lot. where do they bring it to uh. Harley-Davidson in Asheville is being. ran by a former soft guy and he is doing. an amazing he's running that as a soft. Mission they even they even have I ran. to one of my CCT friends who's running. the hlz out there um they're Landing. about six helicopters deep out there. he's controlling it they're doing refuel. I mean they have chainsaws generators. everything they're doing probably the. best we've seen 100% And then at Hickory.

uh operation airdrop they're doing a. really good job over there uh. controlling all these air missions and. then aerial recovery they're out there. doing you know we're out there doing our. part as well um but I mean really just. anywhere just bring working in the food. kitchens over there um by the airports. and resupply drops it's huge um I had a. we had a two ladies from Charlotte reach. out to us and they were like we're just. going to bring you guys meals and like. just having a hot meal and hot hot.

coffee for First Responders going out. first day in the morning like just. changes your mental mood just even going. out made a huge difference so just I. mean there's work for anyone to get out. there and help but I don't really I. don't want to say right now it's a. financial situation it probably will. become later on when they can actually. use funds but a lot of these places they. just the money it's useless there's. nothing for them to use it I I would say. the biggest need right now is heavy. equipment you got to get these roads. you got to get the communication or the. uh the transportation system resolved or.

these people are going to starve like. the people that we talk to um they. probably have about a month damn before. they're going to be the ones calling for. neac if they can even get a call out you. know a lot of people didn't want to. leave it was their uh their life savings. to come into the hills of North Carolina. and build a. property without insurance you know um. everything they have is there they're. not going to leave but you know the the. Evac business is going to be uh a lot.

more active as it gets colder and as the. the time goes on I mean are you guys. going to need financial support uh we've. got a fundraiser set up um I think it's. raised about. $800,000 um so the people have been very. very generous we just started another. fundraiser for Hurricane Milton um I can. tell you in the past we know we. responded to to the Hawaii wildfires we. had people in Ukraine we had people in. Morocco uh we do things globally and in. most of those cases we do it out of our.

own pocket wow our Founders are very. very generous people um and they their. mentality is you know God will. provide wow we've got a program where we. take veterans and put them through a. 12-month program to heal them um and. then train them and give them purpose uh. a new Mission so we're preventing. veteran suicide in that regard because. we're giving them a new Mission and. giving them hope uh and then we're using. them as humanitarian special operators. to go around the world and help people.

that are in their in their darkest. moments what are you guys expecting in. this next. hurricane oh yeah the one that's coming. to Florida what's the name of it Milton. I mean we're literally leaving from this. show to get in the plane and go right. back down there and link up with the. with the team uh to push out tomorrow. morning for it but uh I think it's going. to be a bad one just cuz um they're. still cleaning up there's a lot of. debris and those are going to be flying. missiles I know they're trying to get it. all and they're doing a good job of. getting it all but I mean that I mean.

that hurricane just hit a week ago yeah. so there's still a lot of damage but. that storm surge into the Tampa area. Tampa floods really bad so people just. need to get out they just got to they. got to push Inland get safe and then you. know the good thing with Florida though. we're very good at handling emergencies. we have good leadership we have a strong. C2 command and control so Florida will. be established very quickly but there's. just going be that downtime of you know. get the roads back up the power lines. getting the Water Systems up so it's.

it's going to be a bad one but Florida's. definitely prepared for it and what are. the what are the links what are the so. do you when you guys is this um how do I. say this is this compartmentalized for. fundraising for each disaster like it is. it is uh so we have the fundraiser 4. hurricane Helen the fundraiser 4. hurricane Milton um and those are posted. on our our Instagram aerial Recovery. Group okay in the Bio Section you can. find those what can so I know you guys.

are asking for heavy equipment you. brought up. volunteers what can the what can the the. everyday. person do who who can't travel across. the country to go work in a. kitchen they don't have the means to. send an excavator or a steamroller out. there what what can they do they can. donate or they can they can do their own. uh Supply drive you know we had several. folks uh set them up putting together. packages of uh of care items and then.

having them flown into the area you. talked about feema earlier that airplane. almost got shut off flying into. Asheville Airport we had to go back to. our buddy Devon at Hickory and get him. to allow that air aircraft to land and. offload all those supplies yesterday. another big thing is spreading awareness. that you I know everyone's hearing all. this. misinformation I get accused by people. like you're a liar you're spreading. false information you're looking for. your 15 minutes of all this like. nonsense stuff but like like I actually. have the real videos showing this stuff.

yeah and these other people online are. just lying they're reading articles. they're like well I read there's 6,000. military people there and I'm like where. they at I'm here I I don't see them so. there's a lot of misinformation but keep. spreading it I mean like my own video. got fat checked by a third party and I'm. are you serious yeah it really did my. own my own video got fat check and it's. like this is false information I'm just. like that's my own video like so there's. a lot of they're really trying to. suppress the story of what's really. happening there um actually uh Jeremy.

the the founder of Area recovery um he. was meeting with the mayor and they had. CNN there at late lure and he was. escorting CNN the biggest fake News. Network there is and they wouldn't even. let CNN videotape the disaster areas. they would only let them film areas that. weren't that bad are you serious that's. how bad it is when they don't even allow. CNN to actually film the real story. and speaking of late Lura we should. probably talk about that that was our.

our very first day of arriving so when. we arrived into Rutherford airport as. we're were making connections with. helicopter pilots on my uh my pilot app. there was a a TFR temporary flight. restriction specifically over Lake Lure. and Chimney Rock so no aircraft could. fly in and out of it so we were trying. to figure out why that was cuz we wanted. to take my plane and kind of go up and. just Recon and see what was going on so. we called. um the guy that put it up he was in. charge of like Frankie Frankie guy his.

name drop Frankie guy Frankie at. Emergency Management Services I don't. know his last name was like oh yeah we. we put it up to basically stop because. the guy that flew his helicopter in. there to drop off supplies they were mad. about it so he's kind of going viral. right now in the news um literally this. guy flew a civilian helicopter in and. bring like water and food and they. reported him to the fa FAA so they were. like you can't fly fly in there I'm like. well look I'm here State guard I'm also. here with a recovery like I need to get.

in there cuz we're we're pushing in plus. we already had um an aerial recovery. ground team there on the ground who was. actually meeting with the mayor of L. lure so Charlie asked him he goes well. what altitude can we fly at he goes I. don't know and we're like what do you. mean you put the TFR up like what can we. fly over it like what can we do he's. just like I I I don't know and then he. really started pushing them hard. and he was like okay you guys can fly in. there I'll give you like a squat code.

that'll allow you but you you can't land. in there and I'm like well yeah I know. I'm in to fix wi aircra airplane I can't. land it's not a rotor and he's just like. okay just like don't land there but you. can just tell you didn't know what was. going on. so we we didn't do the helicopter ride. that day but right after that we drove. in as we were driving into late lore. there was a Sheriff Deputy one Deputy. sitting there at like a checkpoint. blocking the road and he sees us goes oh. you guys stop I already heard about you. you can't come in here and we were like.

what do you mean you heard about us like. we we just got here he's like yeah aial. recovery you're not allowed to come in. here they're they're talking about you. all over the radio right now so he's. calling his team who's in late Lord with. the mayor and they're like we don't know. what's going on so we tell this Deputy. we're like hey man we know you're just a. messenger like get me some Authority up. here so a police captain comes up to us. nice guy he goes yeah I can't let you in. guys he goes they're blocking aerial. recovery from coming in and that's where. I'm like hey I'm with the state guard I. want to go in there and he's like I.

can't do it um he's like something about. the Speaker of the House of North. Carolina is blocking you guys from. coming in we were just like this is not. making any sense at all so he gets on. the phone again and really what it came. down to was some people didn't like the. temperament of us I'll get to that a. little bit more and then they were. telling officials to completely kick us. out from going in so at this police. captain was like like I will escort. y'all into the next checkpoint get you. through to your team he goes I can.

probably get in a lot of trouble for. this but he was like I want everyone. here to help and he's like these people. need a bat so good on that police. captain well that was after we. threatened him yeah yeah we kind of. threatened him a little bit so we so we. leave this is kind of important we leave. that checkpoint into Lake lore there's. only one road right we we leave that. checkpoint we drive through the second. checkpoint he's like all right you guys. are good to go by yourselves so we drive. in there's a third checkpoint now and. actually I should say that second. checkpoint probably had four deputies we. go to the third checkpoint there's eight.

Deputy sheriffs they're just standing. there not doing nothing and they're like. nope guys can't go any further they just. called it out on the radio we're like no. we just got eight [ __ ] deputies. sitting there doing nothing interactions. with thousands and thousands of people. starving to death dying a. [ __ ] not having medicine babies no. water and you got eight [ __ ] deputies. just sitting on their ass 15 deputies. sitting on their ass at a checkpoint had. a single Lane Road single Lane they even.

had a SWAT vehicle they had a SWAT like. up armored like like Mr RP that was. there so we it gets a little heated but. I start talking to him and I'm like hey. like what do they have you guys doing. he's like he's like I'm like are you. guys doing search and Recovery doing. welfare checks he was like we want to. all we can do is stand right here at. this checkpoint and I was like that. these guys are like in their 20s and 30s. he's like literally our only orders we. can't do anything but stand right here. and I'm just like what a waste of. Manpower so what department is this it.

was whatever County late lore is in this. is the sheriff's department of that. County so they would not let us go. through they were like hey I'm just the. messenger like I I'm going to get in. trouble by the sheriff and we're like. okay so the sheriff is denying us he's. like yes the sheriff is denying you per. the Speaker of the House of North. Carolina and we're like this is just. dumb and then we started that's when. Charlie was like you guys about to go. viral on the internet I'm going to. record you denying us to come in and. they were just like whoa whoa okay you.

know what we'll let you go up to the the. fire chief cuz he's actually in control. of this area so we roll up to it's like. kind of between Chimney Rock and late. lore and there's this Michigan task. force we're going to get to these guys. this Michigan task force who is there. for profit we find out later on and. they're there with the fire chief and. they're just they're leader I don't want. to put it on the whole team there but. their leader was just very condescending. had this just had this punch me face and. he just kept looking at us with like. disgust he just kind of sit there with. his hands on his hips and he just kind.

of like look at us just kind of like and. then one of our guys who was there on. the ground already he comes up to me and. Charlie and he's like hey these guys. they're the problem they're the ones. reporting us to get us kicked out. because they don't like us and we're. like what do you mean and he goes well I. overheard a couple of them saying he. goes look at these guys that think. they're a bunch of. badasses and he actually told him goes I. can hear what you're saying and the guy. was just kind of like oh but you look at. these guys there were a search and.

Recovery team who had no physical. capability to do this job at all they. were all very out of shape much older. they probably could barely go up 200. yards up the side of a mountain so it. kind of became this like dick measuring. contest they're looking at us we're all. former soft guys even the leader of. their group as looks over as he goes. look like a bunch of Navy SEALs I. probably wouldn't wrestle y'all just. like and we're like hey man cut all that. out like we're here to rescue people. we're here to put in work like we. literally just got here and you're over. here worrying about wrestling matches.

and who's who like just tell us where we. can go push in get work done so after we. get this little confrontation done we. shake hands seems like everything's cool. they're like okay you guys can come back. here and work and we're like great it's. done like we can finally get to work but. it was already at the evening time so. the Michigan guy in charge of this task. force calls for a 7: a.m. meeting the. next day like we be there at 7: a.m. we'll get our products and we'll push. out and do work and we stay two hours.

away right we're not going to stay in. Lake Lure and take up resources from the. people who need everything yeah so we. stay two hours away so we're you know. we're on the road at 5:00 the next. morning 5 a.m. we roll 500 a.m. like. wake up time 4:30 we're rolling 5: a.m. we're there like 15 minutes prior no. one's there 7:00 a.m. comes up fire. chief rolls up nobody else Sheriff. deputies roll up and we're like where. are these guys 7:40 they roll up 7:40. they roll up Daylight's already burning.

and they roll up just like grinning at. us just like H you know just they have. this little smuck looks on their face. they get out and their leader of this. group grabs the fire chief and the one. of the sheriff people pulls him away. from us and has a little Pow Wow for. about five minutes comes back around by. himself this guy from Michigan same. thing hands on his hips he goes where's. your authorization papers and we're like. what he's like where's your orders to be. here who authorized you to be here and I.

was just like I cannot believe this is. happening right now and Charlie's like. we're a nonprofit we don't need. authorization like we're here to like. rescue people so I actually have. authorization orders and I'm like well. here's my authorization like I'm from. the state guard and I hand him my phone. and he looks at he goes this is useless. didn't literally didn't look at it I was. like no those are my orders I'm like I'm. here on behalf of my Governor to be here. he was like I don't even know your. capabilities and I'm just like are you. kidding me right now wow so he gets in.

this whole like I can't work with you. and then Charlie's like oh why don't you. just tell us where you're going to be so. we don't cross path we'll work over here. you guys work here let's just kind of. like set out our grids nope I can't even. discuss nothing with you and I'm just. like who is this guy you know like the. fire chief's not not even talking to us. so we started questioning him like who's. your Authority who has giving you your. authority to be in control of this area. right now he goes my authority comes. from Michigan state which comes from. North Carolina I'm like okay well who. he's like well it comes from Michigan on.

behalf of North Carolina because they. request for us to be here and I'm in. control here so he's like literally. saying like I'm like this is my place. wow so as he pulls off he goes and talks. to the fire chief a little bit more I. overhear him saying he needs a. helicopter he's like I need a helicopter. the fire chief and he's like he's. literally like like pointing I need I. need this helicopter so I'm like you. know what I'm going to be cool like you. know I'm doing the I'm doing what's good. for the people in North Carolina I'm not. I don't care about who's in charge so I. go up to him I'm like hey I got a. helicopter like where do you need to go. what do you need to do he's like I can't.

work with you I already told you this. like I don't I don't know your. capabilities or authorizations so I. start trying to explain to him like Hey. I'm a combat controller like I'm also an. FAA air traffic controller I can this is. like what I do is literally set up AER. airfields and hzs like I can land these. helicopters out here for you put your. guys in it and go do the work you need. to do he's like no you can't do that. like I was like well I'm bringing in at. that time my state Guard unit was. driving up and they had helicopters I. was like I'm bringing in helicopters in. here he's like no you're not and I was.

like well you're not going to stop me. he's like why I put up the TFR and. that's when I found out he was the one. that told the Frankie at EMS to put up. the TFR because he started telling me. that he was so proud of himself about. the guy that flew in supplies and he was. so mad about it he's like this guy flew. in with supplies without my. authorization and just landed in the. field I can't be having people out here. Landing helicopters bringing supplies. without talking to me first so he's like. yeah I report him to the FAA and he was. just like so proud of himself for that.

wow they were going the next day by the. way they were they were there for two. days and they were gone I got that from. the from the fire chief so as we started. talking to their crew that's when we. found out they were there for profit and. we're like how' you guys get here and. he's like oh we bid on the job we're. like you bid on the job he's like yeah. they North Carolina put out like. requests for like Crews to show up and. you get paid I was just like and that's. when I started it making sense he didn't. want a state guard unit and a nonprofit. there that would outshine him and his.

crew while they're there for profit and. I think that's really what it was that's. sad man yeah meanwhile these people are. literally trapped they're dying up there. yeah and they're not getting the help. cuz everybody wants to you know they. want their little Fame and want to be in. charge of everything so that. wasn't so correct me if I'm wrong but. that that wasn't the government that was. just a that was just on the Shag that it. was on the politics trying to trying to. make money off of as nice as the fire.

chief was being nice is getting people. killed yeah and I should say he was. already retired he retired in January in. January and he even told us they called. him back on Sunday they're like hey will. you come back so he literally. volunteered to go back and he was like. making a little J I mean he's a nice guy. but he's like well they can't fire me I. already retired you know and he was just. getting walked like a dog by this guy. from Michigan and just controlling the. whole situation and then apparently. actually the sheriff I I do want to. clarify this speaker of the house did. not deny us um he personally reached out.

to us at 12:30 at night uh after my. video he actually text a guy on our team. my Instagram video he's like this was. not me and was apologizing you have like. full help and even his I think it was. his chief of staff or right hand. whatever it was I think a guy named Phil. he called me he was like we did not do. that he was like who was telling you. that so we kind of gave him the. specifics and then um even the sheriff. reached out and was like I did not do. that like hey well you need to talk to. your deputies cuz your deputies are the. ones telling us that so you need you you.

need to clean your own house up yeah on. what's going on damn but so I should say. this it was such nonsense my commander. and Area recovery were like you know. we're just done with it so we actually. left late lure in Chimney Rock we just. abandoned it and went and found other. places to go work because we couldn't. get any work done on the ground we did. several several missions in Lake Lure. and Chimney Rock via air okay yeah yeah. but we had to pull the ground Cruise out. because it was just too much drama we. couldn't get no work done yeah like.

nothing man that's sad for those people. yeah that is really sad for those. people well I want to wrap this up I. just wanted to get you know I wanted to. get you guys in here get what you're. doing how we can help these people. what's actually going on on the ground I. really appreciate you guys uh coming in. here to to get the word out and uh I. know time is of the essence and you got. to get back down to Florida but I do um. you know we here at SRS want to make a.

donation and so I'm I'm going to leave. it up to you guys we can donate. $10,000 or we can give you $10,000 worth. of supplies to go back with you awesome. it's up to you no that sounds good thank. you so much you're welcome you're. welcome are we wrapping up right now. yeah you got something else I do got. something else for you let's hear it um. I know you always like to do gifts and. obviously this was not prepared at all. but my my wife came up here a couple. days ago she brought a couple stuff for.

me to um before we even know we were. coming on the show just like hand out so. I actually got you a gift oh I got you. guys a gift too. oh forgot to do this at the beginning. aome thank you I've always wanted these. gummy bears yeah I've always wanted. these there you go well I got a gift for. you as well um so I I really do do bur. photography and people don't believe me. just cuz my appearance um like you don't. like a photographer I'm like I know but. like this is like I took this photo in. Chile in May damn that's cool and um.

this is you know the bag and bag I'll. hold this up I don't know if you guys. can see it but um so photography I I. really like being out in nature nature. is like my my happiness and stuff like. that and it's I always say it's where I. kind of like healed myself coming out of. the military and just everything else. just being out in nature um so I got. into photography and I didn't want to. become about money or anything like that. so any dollar the business makes I just. give to military. Charities um and the prints usually when. there's like something bad happens I'll.

take a certain print I'll sign it and. I'll auction it off and do things like. that so I know you're a very uh big. Christian um and I took this photo. earlier this year down in Bonita Springs. um at a church near my house and I. thought this would be a perfect one I I. I want to I want to send you the print. obviously didn't have it cuz we were. working in North Carolina but I thought. thought you would really appreciate this. it is a bald eagle oh man uh landing on.

top of the the steeple on top of the the. cross on top of the church in Bonita. Springs Florida that's awesome man thank. you it just worked out that my wife. literally randomly grabbed this shirt. out of my uh out of my office and then. uh I won't go through them all but we. had a bunch of like kids shirts cuz. that's what my wife brought a lot of. these just to hand out to kids so they. had like t-shirts and birds and stuff. like that but I figur your little kiddos. are someone you know could could use it. in a little bird bag so than you that's. my uh that's my my gift to you man thank.

you that's awesome and uh if that print. shows up it will show up can you sign it. I will sign it and I'll send it to you. it'll be hanging in the studio man thank. you what I've got for you Sean here is a. uh a bracelet that we give our Our. Heroes we have a heal the heroes program. it's a 12-month program I was telling. you about yeah um and this it says Force. for good so what it what it is is it's a. reminder that all your experiences all. your military time all the things that. you've done and seen in your life can be.

used as a Force for good um you know and. our program takes people out of alcohol. addiction out of drug addiction out of. uh. depression um but this is the reminder. that we give those guys to look at every. day so and that's for you to either keep. or to give to someone that you know that. that might need it Force for good thank. you gentlemen well I just want to say. you know it's an honor to be. interviewing you guys and and um it's.

amazing what you guys are doing and. especially you know with the fact that. that we do have a failing government. right now and um and um I'm just really. thankful for you and and I know. everybody else is too so God bless you. and uh God speed in the next disaster so. thank you. [Music].

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