High quality asphalt pavements don't just happen. They're a result of thorough preparation, good communication, and most of all, the inspector's attention to the details. In this second part of asphalt paving inspection, we'll look at mixed delivery, placement, compaction, and transverse joint construction. We'll start with delivery of the mix. The first thing to do is collect the delivery ticket from each haul truck. The ticket tells you the type of mix, the weight of the material, the time the truck left the plant, and in some cases the project number. Your job is to record the time the mix was received and where it was placed on the job. You'll need this information later to calculate the amount of material placed. You should also compare the gross vehicle weight with the weight shown on the delivery ticket to be sure that the trucks are not overloaded. Some agencies require you to reject overloaded trucks. Check the contract documents to be sure. You'll remember from Part 1 of this course that there are two ways to deposit the mix at the project. The conventional method for the haul trucks load the paver directly and the windrow method, where the trucks dump the mix in a windrow and a pickup machine feeds the paver. In both cases, it's important that you inspect the mix as it arrives. Your first concern is with temperature. Too high a temperature can damage the asphalt binder in the mix. But if the mix is too cold, as you already know, the rollers won't be able to compact the mix adequately. The mix should be about 115 degrees Celsius when it's delivered because best compaction is obtained when the rolling is completed before the mat temperature drops below 90 degrees Celsius. Check your agency's specs for the minimum mix temperature requirements in your area. Then, record the mix temperature. Inform your supervisor and the contractor if you think it's too low or too high. You should also visually inspect the mix. You can tell a lot by its appearance. Some problems will require that adjustments be made in the batching or hauling of the mix. Some problems may be serious enough to outright reject the whole truckload. Later, in Part 3, we'll look at some examples of defective mix to help you recognize such problems. In any case, tell the plant inspector, the contractor, and your supervisor immediately if something doesn't look right. Along with your visual inspection, be sure to note the stationing from time to time so you can spot check how much material is being placed throughout the day. You do this by first totaling the weight of mix placed on the road as accumulated from the delivery tickets. Next, you determine the length of roadway paved from the stationing and multiply it by the width paved to get the total area covered. Then, divide the amount of mix placed by the area paved to get the yield. Your checklist has several sample calculations. A couple more rules about delivery of the mix. The first rule is the contractor should have enough haul trucks to maintain a constant supply of material to the paver. That way, the paver moves forward continuously at the same speed. In addition, a constant supply of material means that the mix will be placed and compacted at a constant temperature, and that helps produce a good mat. Rule number two is that rule number one is nearly impossible on high-volume two-lane roads. In these situations, even the best efforts to maintain a constant supply of mix to the paver may be frustrated by haul trucks stuck in traffic. The best solution here is to stop the paver quickly when stopping is necessary, and then to reach paving speed quickly when paving resumes. This helps to avoid depth changes and matte roughness as a result of variable paving speeds. Now let's take a look at mix placement, beginning with the conventional method. First, the haul truck should stop about a half meter from the paver so that the paver can move forward to contact the truck tires with its rollers. See that this contact is made smoothly and evenly. The haul truck begins to load the paver as the paver pushes the truck. Make sure the truck and the paver work closely together to avoid dumping mix outside the hopper. If you see material spilled ahead of the paver, make sure it's shoveled up so the tractor won't run over it. Another concern during placement is mix sticking to the sides of the hopper. What we want to avoid is cold, hardened mix mingling with good mix. Some people insist that the wing should be raised and lowered after every truck load. Others maintain that the wing should never be moved. Both arguments are valid and either practice should be allowed provided that only hot mix is used in the pavement. So if the wings are raised, there must always be ample mix on the conveyors for the wing material to mix with. When the windrow method is used, one of your main concerns is that all the mix is picked up. So see that the wings and the plate rest flat on the surface. If any material isn't picked up, have the contractor shovel it away from the wheels and it won't be run over by the pickup machine or the paver. From here on, your inspection concerns are the same for both methods. Check the overall quality of the mat. It should be smooth, uniform and free of blemishes. If it's not, something is wrong with the paver or the mix. And look closely again for segregation. If the texture of the mat isn't uniform, the mix has segregated. Inform your supervisor and the contractor right away. Again, we'll look at some examples of mat problems in Part 3. Keep in mind that very few operations will run perfectly. So the important thing is for you to communicate. The depth of placement is also important. The contractor should make several loose depth checks using a depth gauge. A general rule of thumb is that the mix will compact about 20% in depth. So as an example, if the course being placed is supposed to be 60mm thick, the loose depth should be about 75mm. If changes in depth are necessary, the contractor should make the adjustment gradually. Both you and the contractor should then let the paver advance about 10 meters before rechecking the depth and making further adjustments. Where a shoulder is paved along with the adjacent travel lane, check the shoulder slope of the new mat. The typical section sheets will identify the proper slope, normally 5 to 1 or flatter. Now before an adjacent lane can be placed, both the surface and the longitudinal joint have to be tacked. Then after tacking, the second lane can be paved. The paver is lined up so that there's a slight overlap into the first lane. After the paver goes by, the joint should be ready for rolling. In some cases, however, a small amount of hand work may be necessary using a lute to bump the overlapped mix back into the joint. When hand work is required, it should be minimal. Never allow anything like this. Now the joint can be rolled. We'll cover compaction in more detail later, but for now, just remember that longitudinal joints should always be rolled before any other section of the mat. Now let's look at grade and cross slope control. You'll remember from Part 1 that the pavement grade is controlled by a sensing device with a long ski. You should watch the ski as the paver moves along. Make sure it pulls straight while remaining parallel to the longitudinal joint. If these conditions are met, the rest is automatic for grade control anyway. As for cross slope control, see that it's properly set and that the contractor checks it from time to time with a slope board. Be on the lookout for excessive cross slope. That's just a waste of material. Now let's look at compaction. Compaction makes the pavement dense, so it will maintain its shape and have the required strength for traffic loads. Different types of rollers may be used and different rolling patterns may be followed from job to job, but all rolling must achieve the desired density, smoothness and surface texture. Generally, there are three phases to rolling. Breakdown, intermediate and final or finish. Again, the equipment may vary, but a typical arrangement is for a steel-wheeled vibratory roller to perform the breakdown rolling, achieving much of the density required. Followed by a pneumatic-tired roller to do the intermediate rolling and then a static or non-vibratory steel-wheeled roller to provide the final or finish rolling. This last phase should remove all roller marks. On jobs where three or more units are not available, the rollers used should be operated to obtain full coverage and leave them at with the required density and surface quality. Now here are some tips when you inspect the rolling. First, watch each roller as it reverses directions. It should come to a stop gradually and then reverse smoothly. And that one brief stop needed to reverse direction is the only stop permitted on the new pavement. The rollers should proceed in as straight a line as possible. When turning is required, it should be done smoothly and gradually. The speed of rolling is also important. Rolling too fast can result in damage to the mat, so see that the rollers work at about walking speed. On super elevations, rolling should start on the low side. Each pass overlaps the previous pass 15 to 30 centimeters. The rolling progresses toward the high side to keep the mix from shifting to the low side. Remember though, longitudinal joints are always rolled first, regardless of their location. The density of the pavement may have to be checked too. Some agencies use nuclear density gauges similar to this one and require all gauge operators to be formally trained and in some cases certified. You should know that while it's important to roll the mat until it's dense enough, it's also possible to overroll the mat. Too many roller passes may actually begin to reduce the density. After the pavement has been compacted and is cooled sufficiently, temporary pavement markings should be placed along the center line if the pavement will be open to traffic. These markings must be placed for the full length of the area paved by the end of each paving day. Now let's look at transverse joint construction. This involves making cold construction joints across the pavement perpendicular to the roadway center line. The joints are made when the contractor stops work at the end of the day, when the paving operation is delayed, or when bad weather is imminent. The first step in constructing a transverse joint is to cut away and remove the mix to a point where the mat has the required depth and slope. Since this is the point where paving will begin again, you need to be sure that the two mats will match up when paving resumes. Now, whenever the road is to carry traffic in the meantime, such as overnight, a temporary ramp must be constructed to provide a smooth, safe transition between the new pavement and the old surface. Sheets of paper are typically used in constructing these ramps, separating the mix that will form the ramp from the existing surface and the vertical face of the joint. Enough widths of paper must be placed to hold a ramp of proper taper, usually 20 to 1. Such a taper length won't jolt motorists as they drive over the joint. Mix is then placed on the paper, up against the joint face and extending to the full taper length. The joint and the ramp must be compacted the same as the rest of the mat. Rolling across the joint and down the ramp ensures that the end of the full depth portion gets properly compacted. Before paving can resume at the joint, the mix forming the ramp must be removed and properly disposed of. Then, be sure that the surrounding pavement is clean and the face of the joint is vertical. The face of the joint and the area where the ramp was made now have to be tacked. The primary concern when paving resumes is the transition between the previously placed mat and the new mat. So the crew typically places small strips of wood under the screed to make up for the difference between compacted depth and loose depth. After the paver goes by, see that any excess material is removed. Now the joint can be compacted. In the process, check should be made with a straight edge to ensure that the transition is smooth. You should observe this check and have any higher low spots corrected. And those are the inspection points for transverse joint construction which brings us to the end of this part of the videotape. Communicating with the plant, discussing operations with the contractor and keeping your supervisor well informed are all part of good inspection procedures. This communication along with the use of the inspection procedures and ideas we discussed will result in a well constructed and acceptable project. In the third and final part of this videotape, you will see examples of problems that can and do occur with mixed quality, lay down operations and rolling.


Hello everyone, welcome to this special CUBE Conversation. I'm John Furrier, the co-founder of SiliconANGLE Media. Co-host of theCUBE, we're here at Sundance Film Festival, the Intel Tech Lounge for one-on-one conversations with Kane Lee, who's the head of content, the Baobab Studios in California. Thanks for joining me here at the Intel Tech Lounge. Really excited to be here. Yeah, we just had a panel on the new creative here in Intel that's showing some great technology, things like volume metric, all kinds of really hardcore tech, really powering some of the VR, AR, mixed reality, all the trends that are happening around user experience. But a new creative artist is out there, a new storyteller. It could be a 12-year-old to a 50-year-old. You're in the middle of it. You're an award-winning producer. So you're building the stories, you're building the content. What's the biggest thing happening here at Sundance? I think it's really interesting because content has always been my passion. Good storytelling. And growing up, it was always like books and films and all these traditional mediums that inspired me to sort of dream. And right here in Sundance, we're in the middle of a great sea change going on because technology and art are coming together in such a fast pace to really usher in the new generation of storytelling. And we're all very fortunate to be in the middle of that. This is a very unique period in our history as humans and our culture to challenge what storytelling really means because VR, for us at Baalbap, is the next great medium. And Sundance recognizes that. Technology companies like Intel recognize that. So we're all coming together at the film festival and working together to define what that will mean. Kay, you're an Emmy Award-winning producer. Baalbap's doing some cutting edge work. Take a minute to talk about what Baalbap is doing and why is it so relevant? We know it's cool. We've interviewed the CEO and founder before. Share with the audience, what is Baalbap doing? Why is it so relevant? So we formed a couple of years ago and at the time VR was, and it still is and it's very nascent stage, one thing that we recognized was an opportunity to try to create content that would appeal for people from the ages of five to 105. There was a lot of documentaries. There was a lot of experiential, art house type of material. And there was a lot of gaming type of content for VR. For us, we're big lovers of animation and how that unites families, kids, grandparents, teenagers. And we saw an opportunity to try to create content that could appeal to all of these different types of people through animation. So that's sort of our mission is to inspire your childlike sense of wonder using two mediums that are so meant for each other, which are animation and VR. I'd like to talk about some of the work you got going on a little bit later, but I want to talk about that 12 year old in his room or the 16 year old that's got a full rig tricked out with the keyboard, they're laying down music, they're building music, they're gaming, they might be creating art. They are living, breathing, creative and they're self-learning. They're jumping on YouTube, they're jumping into VR meetups and groups, they're self-learning. How do you connect to them? What do they do? What's the playbook? How do these people go to the next level? What's the industry doing around this? I mean, I think one example I'll give is I was at Anne C Film Festival and that's one of the biggest animation focused film festivals in the world.  What was so interesting to me was I had never seen that sort of that demo, that teenage demo where young boys and girls would actually bring their parents back to the experience and say, this is what I wanna study in college, this is what I wanna do in art school. So I think that they, growing up with all this new technology, really sort of get the idea of being in real time and having storytelling in real time. And seeing that level of interest from that age group was very sort of affirming to us that we're on the right track in terms of the next generation of storytelling. Well, you guys are definitely on the right track, I can say that, but I think what your point confirms and connects the dots for people that might not be in the industry is that the old tech world was, the geeks did it, software was an art and you had to be in that CS club. The democratization is a big trend here and what you're talking about is people are humanizing. They can see real emotional practical examples. So the young guns, the young kids, they don't have baggage. They look at it with a clean slate and going, I want that. I can see myself using this. I can self actualize with this. So it really kind of tips the scales and proves the point. Absolutely, we world premiered Asteroids, our second VR experience starring Elizabeth Banks and one of the biggest millennials stars, Ingrid Nielsen, last year at Sundance, even had the first red carpet VR premiere in Sundance history. And watching the younger generation, it was our first piece where we actually used the controllers that had just come out in that past year and watching them going with no preconceived notions on what using controllers could be, to be a character in the experience, it was just fascinating because they picked it up faster than anyone and learned the language of being a character and having hand controllers as a robot so you could play fetch with an alien dog or you could mirror their actions or they might mirror yours and creating these bonds and these experiences. So that sort of fresh perspective is really exciting. Talk about the role of these experiences and how they connect people because one of the big trends also online today, in today's, I would say the peg the evolution is you're really getting at the immersive experience, I believe that, but content creates bonds between people and good experiences, great glue between relationships and forges new ones, maybe enhances existing ones. This is a big part of the media. Absolutely, for us emotional connection is the key to getting people to put on headsets and to come back to our experiences and that emotional connection for us is what we've witnessed in terms of people forming bonds with our characters. So everyone knows that VR can bring you to brand new worlds and exciting places and immerse you in places that you can never go. But the one thing that I think we learned in our experience with VR is that if you can create a bond between the user and other characters in the experience that they believe is real and we use psychology, technology, and storytelling to do that, then they wanna come back again and again. So one of the trickiest parts of VR is trying to get people to have repeat views and the feedback we've gotten from a lot of the technology platforms is people come back time and time again and it seems to be because they actually believe these characters are real and that they're friends. So talk about your journey because you're at the front end of this wave and you're participating, you're creating art, you're creating work products, you're building technology with the Bay of Ab Studios. What would you do if you were 16?  When I was 16, I had no idea what I was gonna do. When I graduated from college, I had no idea what I was gonna do. But what I will say is VR is really unique because it's so interdisciplinary. So it actually invites people from all different fabrics of society and different types of education. So I would encourage 16 year olds to just be who they are and to play. And if I talk to my 16 year old self, I would have just encouraged myself to follow my interests and pursuits more because many years later, it actually, VR has brought me back to a lot of my roots and different things I studied going up and was fascinated by. So it ignited your passion? Absolutely. Or things that you were really into that you might have forgotten, is that? Yeah, I mean, I studied something called Symbolic Systems at Stanford University and I had no idea what I was doing. It combined computer science, psychology, linguistics and philosophy. And the first thing I did after college was pursue potentially a career as a lawyer. But now it all makes sense. VR brings everything together. What could have been, you know? Absolutely. Well, I mean, I love neural networks, symbolic systems. This is the underpinnings of this complex fabric that is powering this content market, right? So I'd love to get your thoughts. Is there a success formula that you're seeing emerging? I know there's no silver bullet yet. Lot of experimentation, lot of new things happening. But as this technology and the scaffolding around it is being built, while also original content is being built, it's still evolving. What's the success formula? And what's the pitfall? What's the stay away from? I think it's about, it's really about good storytelling. And I think it's a time to be courageous and brave and put forward stories that wouldn't have otherwise been told in the more traditional mediums. Our latest project in production that I'm so personally excited about is called Legend of Crow. It starts John Legend as a beautiful bird with the most beautiful feathers and the most gorgeous voice who during dark and cold times must go on a hero's journey to bring light back to the world. Something I feel like in this day and age a lot of people can relate to. But on top of this story being based upon a beautiful Native American legend that hasn't really been exposed to the world, we've taken the opportunity to take the themes of diversity and self-sacrifice and self-acceptance to create an all-star cast of minorities and women. And that's something I feel the younger generations can really relate to because having worked a lot in Hollywood as a producer in traditional TV and film, things take a while and there's a certain way of casting and doing things that follow an older model. And I think younger audiences are excited to have a character like Moth in our experience who speaks both Spanish and English because that's the way the world is today. So I got to ask you a quick, you brought up diversity and inclusion and kind of in your comment. I got to bring this up because you guys do hit a nice demographic I think is super relevant and important in the younger generation. So I talk to a lot of young people all the time. I say things like, you don't need to be a computer scientist to get into this game. You could be super smart. You don't need to learn how to code hardcore coding to get into this. And they respond to that. And that's one kind of, I would say narrative that conventional wisdom might not be right. And the other one is the diversity. So my son, 16 year old says, dad, your generation is so politically correct. Like all this nonsense. So the younger generation is not living what we're living in in these dark times. I would say certainly with diversity, but how does VR really equalize? And will the storm pass? I mean, diversity, inclusion, all that great stuff that our core issues certainly are being worked on. But do we see hope here? Absolutely. I think disruption in the form of a new technology and a new medium is while scary to some people is actually the most exciting and fertile time to equalize. Our CEO, Marine Fan, who was a college class made of mine, always wanted to work in animation. And she finally saw the right opportunity when VR came and we put on headsets for the first time and saw how there could be a new wave of exciting animators through this disruptive technology because everyone else in more traditional animation is so focused on the old model and the old ways of doing things, of getting things off the ground, of financing, of creating certain kinds of content that have been proven over time in the old sort of studio model. What were some of those things that were instrumental in this breakout to forge this new ground? I think a lot of it is the technology being ready, finally being ready. Our CTO, Larry Cutler, actually studied virtual reality at Stanford a decade before Marine and I were there. And he had always been waiting for the right time to go into VR. He preached down, hey kids, I used to walk in the snow with bare feet to you guys or is he, what's his role? How's he doing? He's amazing. He was the head of global character tech for all of DreamWorks Animation. And like I said, I think one thing that distinguishes us from some of the other people in VR is that we're so focused on characters, so focused on them making eye contact with you, with their facial features, reacting in real time and being very believable and forging that bond between you and that character. So for us, that character technology and having the top people in that space work with us is the long-term thing that is gonna differentiate us from the crowd. I'd like to get your reaction to my comment about the computer science and that's mainly mostly a Silicon Valley thing living in Palo Alto. People are struggling when they go to college. What should I major in? And this is a narrative right now. Oh, you gotta learn how to code, you gotta be a computer science major. You don't, you don't have to be a CS major. Some of the most creative and technical brilliance can also come from other disciplines. What's your reaction to that and what's your advice? I mean, I think people should just follow their effort because if you follow what naturally comes to you, what you're good at, and that also has meaning and interest to you and something that you can get feedback along the way, which is the great thing about being in a growing space.  And I think we're in a very DIY time in VR. No one knows anything. We're constantly making mistakes, but then learning from them. And that's like the most exciting process of being where we are. So, you know, to people who are of college age, I would just tell them like follow your effort. If you're interested in VR, it's an exciting time to just do it yourself, learn from your mistakes, and then, you know, and try to create something new. What does the new creative mean to you? When you hear that new creative, what does that mean to you? You know, it's interesting being at these talks and panels and at all these festivals, because I feel like a lot of people are looking for that new innovator who comes out of nowhere and sort of just redefines the industry. And that could very well happen. But I actually think what's really exciting about right now is it's more about understanding the bridge between all the different mediums and disciplines. I think new things are created when you combine areas that have not been traditionally aligned. So, for example, Orson Welles arguably created one of the first great cinematic masterpieces in Citizen Kane. And he came, but he was able to do so by bringing values from theater and from radio and areas where he sort of learned the art of storytelling and he was able to combine them in new and interesting ways that people hadn't seen before. So, for me, it's less about looking for that sort of silver bullet of a creative person who comes out of nowhere, but these younger generations who understand these different mediums, combining them and creating connections with them in an exciting way. Brooks Brown from Starbury Studio set on the panel, that's breakout star is gonna be the kid in the basement that no one's ever heard of. Very possibly, but that kid in the basement, he needs to be passionate about a lot of different disciplines. So, what we've tried to emulate in doing so is bringing the best people in gaming, bringing the best people from traditional film, bringing people who had interests in a lot of different areas, different art forms, and letting them kind of play together and learn from each other, argue with each other, you know, and then come up with something that no one's seen before. We're gonna have to come up with cameras, that could be like an experiment, like it's just a reality show in and of itself, all that talent, multi-disciplined together. Absolutely. Dynamite ready to explode. It's the challenge, it's the blessing, it's the curse and the blessing of our medium right now because there's so much more to discover, but if people come in and have an open mind and are willing, you know, if the people from Hollywood are willing to learn from the people who do gaming in Silicon Valley, who are open to learning from the people in New York who grew up on live theater, you know, I feel those, finding that intersection, finding those beautiful intersections are where we're gonna thrive. Well, you guys highlight that multi-discipline everything, but also highlights why diversity is so important. Diversity brings the most perspectives to the table, the most data, most contribution. It might be a little bit longer to work through the arguments, right? I mean, you gotta be patient.  You know, we're really lucky to be working with John Legend on our VR piece. He had actually been looking for several years to find wanting to be in play in the space, but not wanting to do it with the wrong partner at the wrong time. So it's, you know, there's an art to timing in everything that we do right now. And when we presented to him the story we're doing with the Legend of Crow, you know, it felt like the perfect sort of match. Legend of Crow coming out ahead of content. Cain Lee here at Baobab Studios. Thanks for spending the time here in the CUBE Conversation. What's the timing of the release of the program? Probably late spring, but we're going to be announcing some news around that soon. And we have some more exciting updates about it that I can't wait to share. All right, we are here at the Intel Tech Lounge as the CUBE Conversation Sundance Film Festival part of our coverage of Sundance 2018. I'm John Furrier. Thanks for watching. Thanks.


Al-Rahim, Al-Hamdullillah, Rabb Al-Alamin, Thumma Salatu, As-Salamu Alaa Ashraf Al-Anbiyaa Wa Al-Mursaleen, Habib Al-Alamin, Al-Qasim Al-Mustafa, Muhammadin, Al-Alayhi Al-Tayyibin Al-Tahireen. Allahumma, Salli Al-Alam, Muhammad, Al-Alam, Muhammad. The viewers, As-Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh. Al-Hamdullillah, thanks all to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that I have this blessing to be amongst you. Discussing the holy verses of Quran and the narrations of Ahl al-Bait, Al-Alihum Al-Salam. And asking Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala by the blessing of the shrines of Imam Al-Husayn, Al-Salam, Al-Fadr Al-Abbas, Al-Alihum Al-Salam, and the holy land of Karbala, to hasten the opinions of our beloved Imam Mahdi, Al-Alihum Al-Salam, Faraj Al-Sharif, and for us, inshallah, to understand these holy verses and to be able to apply them to our daily lives. If you have followed us, we have started Surat Al-Baqarah. Al-Hamdullillah, we were blessed to finish Surat Al-Hamd. We started Surat Al-Baqarah. We discussed the first ayah, which was Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim already, when we started Surat Al-Hamd. And then we talked about Alif, Lam, Meem. That is the book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, its guidance for those who are pious. And the verses after come and they explain the meaning and they elaborate who are those pious people. What are their characteristics? Because we want to be amongst the pious people in order for the Holy Qur'an to, inshallah, guide us. We started with the first characteristic, which was, pious people who are being guided by the Holy Qur'an are those people who believe in unseen, who believe in the unseen, number one. They maintain the prayer and they spend out of what we have provided for them. Believing in unseen, it's one of the most important elements that divides and differentiates between the believer and the non-believer. A believer doesn't have a myopic vision and view to this life. And they don't see this world to be complete without believing in something else. They're not limited to this world, to this globe, to this universe that we are living in. They see beyond and they believe in beyond this globe. Which makes them different than those who don't believe in unseen. And the only thing that they believe are those that they can feel, taste, hear, or see, basically, where their five senses are involved. So the believers, they are connected to infinite. They're not limited, as we said, to this world, rather. There are different worlds. This is the world of the martyrs. We can see and witness. And then we have the world of Barzakh. After we die, we enter into another world. Before this world, we were in our mother's womb. Before that, we were in the world of the Dhar. There are different worlds that we are traveling to. One after one from and to. One after one after one after one. But the believer believes that after death, there is A'lam, which is called Barzakh. After that A'lam, it's another A'lam which comes the day of Qiyamah, the day of judgment, A'lam al Qiyamah, where all the creations of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, will be there. And they will go through judgment. And inshallah, all of us will be from those people who will receive our book of, our deeds in our right hand, and we will be happy. And inshallah, we'll enter heaven. And not amongst those people who will receive their book of deeds by their left hands from their back, and they will be thrown into the hellfire. So there is no believer, doesn't believe that came to this world, just to live this world and have fun and to be entertained, reproduce, eat, work, gain, and by the time of death, everything finishes. No, believer has much higher goal and much higher purpose in this life. They see beyond this world, and they are not limited to this world and to this world, the affairs. That's why their price, we can't put a price on a believer. People who are really dedicated, they are dedicating their lives to the world, the affairs, well, that's how much they worth, no matter how much money they have. Well, that's how much they worth, billions of dollars, 100 billions of dollars, 200 billions, well, that's how much they worth. But a believer who believes in the unseen and who believes in the heaven and the infinite rewards and the blessings that Allah will give to a believer in heaven, well, that connection will inspire the believer to do right and to avoid falsehood and bad doing. Within Muttaqeen, there's a beautiful ceremony by the commander of the faithful, Ali ibn Abi Talib, with the Nehj Al-Balaghah, which I really recommend. That would be, insha'Allah, our action plan for this episode, that if you get a chance amongst narrations of Ahl al-Bayt, that you are reading, if you remember, let us remind ourselves that our action plans from the previous early episodes was that, insha'Allah, on a daily basis, we have the Quran next to us and a book of Hadith, either Nehj Al-Balaghah or Tuhaf al-Ukul that we have introduced. We read a 50 verses of the Holy Quran and then we read a translation of those 50 verses and then we take one verse and we think and ponder about it, insha'Allah, by the end of the year, 365 verses of the Holy Quran we have read, we have understood, and we have comprehended, and we have brought into our lives and we'll see how much it changes our lives. And the second was, after that we read one narration from the lives of Ahl al-Bayt, and we think and ponder of how to bring that narration into our lives. Amongst those narrations that we read is a good sermon to read, Sermon of Muttaqeen, Khutbatul Muttaqeen, by the commander of the faithful Amir al-Mu'minia, Ali Ibn Abi Talab, where his companion comes to him, Hamam, and tells him, O Imam, describe for me a pious individual. So I describe it in a way that I can see it basically, that I can completely imagine that this is a pious person, where Allah wants us to be that. That by itself, that sermon needs at least 30 to 45 episodes, elaborating it, discussing it, and basically, of that takes a long time, but I have took a segment from it that it's very beautiful. Imam mentions that a pious individual, the way he clothes himself, the way he talks, the way he walks, and so on and so forth, he gives a very, very specific characteristics and the demeanor of the pious individual. Amongst them are two that I have brought it, which relates to al-Ladheena yu-Uminuna bil-Ghay, because we want to understand what would really mean we have to be a believer in unseen, in order for us to be pious, in order for the Qur'an, to guide us. Imam says, Imam says, pious individual, a pious believer, as a person, everything good that he does, within the interpretation of it, basically we're elaborating it, everything that he does, good, he sees the heaven in front of him, and that's what pushes him forward in doing good deeds, because good deeds sometimes becomes very difficult to apply into our lives. When a person, it's making us angry for us to be able to control our anger, that is a good deed.  They don't lie, they don't cheat, they don't use bad language, they don't listen to music, they control their ears, and their eyes, and their body parts, everything wajibad that they have to do, they do act upon those wajibad, and all the muharramat and forbidden acts, they distance themselves from those acts, because they can see the reward of abstaining themselves from sin. So that's how they are motivated, like with their eyes, that's how what they see. And as soon as it comes to a sin, and they're about to commit a sin, they see the hellfire, and they see the flame of hellfire, and that's how much they fear the flame of hellfire, and they abstain themselves from committing the sin. This is a characteristic of a pious individual, which is very, very important, it needs practice. Everything that we talk, it needs practice, and without practice, it won't happen basically. So that needs for us to keep on a daily basis, to remind ourselves of where we are within this life. Are we proceeding forward? Are we on the path that we truly believe in unseen? Or no, we do say that we believe in unseen, but when it comes into our action, we have some difficulties. For example, believing in unseen. We all understand, this is not a disfigurative talk. It's not haqiqiz, not the true meaning that, okay, pray because we cannot see Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That is obvious. Pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, abudullah, as you see him. Of course, we don't see Allah again, but if we were able to see Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, let's make it tangible. If the representative of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is here, and we can see him, the Imam of our time, Imam Mehdi, Ma'Allah, Hastin, his reappearance, if we can see this Imam of ours, and he's here, basically, how do I will pray? Will my pray will be different or not? Of course. I will make sure that my pronunciation of every word is right. I make sure that my wudhu is right. I make sure that everything that I do is right because the Imam is seeing me. Bring it a little bit lower, the representative of the Imam, our Maraja, Maraja At-Taqlid.  How I will pray? How I will control my anger? And so on and so forth. Every all the obligatory acts we're discussing, we're just bringing some examples, and all the Muharramat and forbidden acts. So, If you are unable to see him, he is seeing you. So, that leads a reminder, how I worship Allah SWT, my prayer, my respect to others, my respect to parents, my respect to brothers and sisters, to community members, to co-workers, classmates, and so on and so forth.  If my intention was sincerely for him or other, it would be a completely different scenario. That believing unseen will really change our perspective to this world. For example, believing in unseen, we go unseen Allah SWT, and his attributes. For example, we need the nine and nine names and attributes of Allah SWT. Al-Azeez, the mighty one, the strong that the feeder, the feeder who is not defeated. Well, Al-Azeez, the one who gives honor and mighty, it's Allah SWT. He has all mighty belongs to Allah SWT. So, I am within my community. If I believe truly unseen, I shouldn't think that money, wealth, position will give me honor and mighty. Rather, it is Allah SWT that gives me mighty and honor. How will that change my perspective in life? How that will change my characteristic in life? If I believe that Allah SWT makes me Aziz, makes me mighty and honorable and dignifies me and that dignity comes from Allah SWT I will respect people because with respecting people, I will gain dignity, not with showing arrogance that I have these belongings. That is very, that's what believing in unseen changes in our perspective. Al-Razaq, the total provider. If I believe again, remember our previous episode, that belief is in heart and then it comes into our action, in our verbally tongue and then our action. That if I truly and genuinely and sincerely believe that Allah SWT is the provider, I won't steal. I won't have usury within my day-to-day transaction at work. I won't be trying to mix halal, haram, money together for me to have more risk. I won't look at the other people's sustenance that they have received. I won't be envying them because I truly believe in the unseen, which is Allah SWT and attributes of Allah SWT as Al-Razaq. He's the provider. The same Allah that he provided for the other person, he will provide for me. Why should I need to be envying that person? I won't. When I see somebody has something that I don't have, I say Alhamdulillah, O Allah, the same way that you gave him, also give me. Allah is the provider. He is the provider. When I do something for other people, I will do it for the sake of Allah SWT and Allah will provide. And the rest of the 99 names and attributes of Allah SWT that would be another action plan. Go through them, the 99 attributes. Read them, ponder and think about them. How should I bring those 99 names into my life? My life that I should not envy other people, that I should truly believe that Allah has all the provider and he will provide for me. That will definitely change my life, insha'Allah. We conclude our episode, this episode by reciting the du'a, du'a al-Faraj, asking Allah SWT to hasten the opinions of our beloved Imam Mahdi Aajal Allah, ta'ala Faraj Al-Shari, which is the most important du'a. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.


Like there's always something that you can be better at. There's always a new and emerging technology that we can integrate into the teams. There's always, you know, something that you can be better at. Welcome back to another Airman Vision video. Today we're interviewing Trent, who is special reconnaissance in the United States Air Force, and he's also a co-host of the podcast, One's Ready. Now here at Airman Vision, we don't just have this YouTube channel. We also have a website, airmanvision.com, with a ton of other Air Force information to help you prepare for joining the Air Force. We have a BMT fitness prep guide, a BMT prep guide and an Air Force prep course, plus tons more. So be sure to head over to our website and check that stuff out. But with that being said, let's go ahead and jump right into the interview. So Trent, what is the name of your job and its AFSC? The name of the job is Special Reconnaissance. The AFSC is one Zulu 4X1. The X is your level of training, you know, three, five, seven or whatever else. So that's what the X stands for. Why did you specifically join the Air Force? Now, why does everybody else join? But why did you join the Air Force? So this is, I don't want to go too far down story, storybook lane. I didn't have a lot of options left.  College wasn't for me. I tried it out. I went to all of the great parties and skipped all the classes. It just wasn't my thing. And then, you know, I was living in like a duplex and not a good part of town. Selling cars and doing a couple other jobs. I had multiple jobs at a time, trying to do all these things. And at a certain point I was just like, hey, I'm going to join the military. My older brother had just joined the Air Force. And I was like, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to just join the Marine Corps, right? Because because I'm a I'm a hard dude to join the Marine Corps. You're going to be way cooler. Yeah. Yeah, my old man was in the Air Force too. So I was like, no, I'm going to check the Marines out. So I checked the Marines out and, you know, I was on my way to sign the paperwork with them. And I drove past the recruiting office where my brother had signed up for the Air Force and he was about to ship. So I called my brother and I'm like, hey, man, why'd you join the Air Force? He says, just go talk to them. You know, so I did. They didn't, you know, they weren't excited to see me. They didn't really want me to join the Air Force, which of course, precipitated my, my desire to join the Air Force. I think that story can relate with a lot of people where you're just like, I don't know what path my life is going down. And you're like, the military is kind of stable or so I've heard. So let's give that a shot. Cause I kind of felt the same way I was going to college. I was going to parties too. I wasn't drinking or partaking. I just showed up to the parties, skipped school. I wasn't doing so hot. And I was like, man, school just isn't for me. And so yeah, it's like, uh, I think there's a lot of people that are at that point in life where they're like, what am I doing?  Like three years from now, am I going to be in the same spot? I don't want to be here. Yeah. So yeah, definitely relatable. I didn't add the itch for a long time too. Cause I, I think I was new. I wanted to be in the military or do something kind of like what I fell into. But you know, I denied it and denied it and denied it. Like I'm going to, I'm going to go to college and make something to myself or do something like I'm a very prescribed path. And that's just not who I am. And once I came to terms with it, everything got a lot easier.  So how long have you been in to this point? 20 years, 20 years. And like a less than a month ago, I hit my 20 year mark. So I made it is retirement in the future than your future. Yeah.  Oh, congratulations. You, you did it. You're like one of the 17% that actually did the full 20. Yeah. So if you're thinking about joining the Air Force is about to get a lot better because I'm going to be gone. That's funny. So when you went and talked to the Air Force recruiter, right?  My brother had served or was about to my dad serve. So when you went to the recruiter, were you like, I want to be special reconnaissance or were you like, I want to be special operations or you're like, yo, I don't care what it is, just open general. Let's go. Well, like, what did your list look like? And how did you end up being special reconnaissance? So I actually joined to be a linguist. So I went in there, I took the ASVAB and then I took the D lab, uh, which is the language assessment or whatever.  Like, I wasn't like off the charts or anything. I'm not like super smart, but I did well enough that I was going to be a linguist. However, like I said, my, my, my life was dumps, dumpster fires. I wasn't making good decisions.  So we don't know you. You have paperwork and stuff in your history. Uh, you can't get a top secret clearance. So I wanted to be a linguist because it sounded cool. There was flying involved. I like, I didn't think I was a special operations guy. And honestly, I didn't know that these, uh, these jobs existed. Yeah, there was flying. There was survival school and all that other stuff that I was going to be an airborne, you know, crypto linguist. So after that got taken away and I ended up in weather, I got like the choice of five jobs and weather looked interesting. So I joined weather and then I was like, this is miserable.  And you know what? Through basic training and at tech school, like I'm not the most physically fit person, but I was in that like top percentage. And I like working out a fair bit and I like challenges.  I was like, yes, count me in. What do I got to do? And they laid out the path and I started running down it. That's awesome. So you were actually, how long were you in weather then? I was at my first duty station about a year and a half close to two years actually. So you have to go through like airborne and sear. Well, this is a long time ago. So you had to change the name of your career field, right? Cause it wasn't initially special reconnaissance, right? So it was special operations weather. And then now like a few years ago, some folks of the Pentagon are like, Hey, we need these additional capabilities and just build out a new career field. And so the new career field is called special reconnaissance. Okay. So they took the, the previous career field and they just added a little bit to it and changed the name. Yeah. Well, so it was a brand new career field. So we used to be one whiskey zero X two. And we went from that to one Zulu four. So it's a brand new career field. We use the existing manpower and transferred them over because the way that special operations weather was going, we were moving in that direction anyway towards like the more reconnaissance heavy role. But there was a lot of stuff that happened in the background that it's probably very uninteresting. That led to the decision for us to, to switch over. So a few of us got together. We got the career field education and training plan.   So it's a little bit more than just, you know, sprinkling some reconnaissance on top and changing the name. So it was a, it was a pretty big change. And you mentioned earlier, you were miserable in weather, but I want to state, I have met several weather people. I was in ALS, my ALS instructor, my airman leadership school instructor for when I was putting on E5. He was weather. Absolutely loved his job. And then I had another kid in my ALS class, it was weather, loved his job. Like you were being like, oh, it wasn't for me. But obviously, like special operations, isn't for most people. And you've made that work. So it's like, maybe there's a bit of a difference there, too, is because for, you know, somebody that can fit into those normal jobs, you know, weather might be a good fit, but I think you wanted more of a challenge, probably, than what you were getting in weather. Yeah. And well, and it's just one of those things. Like I'm not, it's like the accidental elitism. Like when I say that weather wasn't for me, it doesn't mean I'm too good for it. But like sitting behind a desk and doing that stuff over and over and over again, it just wasn't going to keep me occupied for the long term. You know what I mean? I needed that. It didn't hit the spot. Yeah. Right. And so I don't think I'm better than, you know, regular weather folks. I don't think I'm better than anybody in the Air Force. I just have a different job that I vibe with, you know, like that that was calling me and that pulled me in. And then that's where I fit. It's not anything else. We're all just puzzle pieces and misfit toys. And this is where I landed and it worked out. Did you sign a four or six year contract? I know with Crypto Lake Wisp, I believe you have to sign six anyways because training is so long anyways that they don't want you in training for like three years. And then you just like dip out right away. I don't know if you have to, but I know it was highly encouraged. Just like with our jobs, I think six years is highly encouraged because of the amount of training. There was a bonus for linguists at the time, you know, back in 2003. And so I did sign the six year contract because it was a bigger bonus or whatever. Yeah, the bonuses I think are only for six year contracts. I don't even think they offer them for four.  And I think my older brother had done a six year contract as well. So I was just like, yeah, whatever, fine. I'll do six years. I've talked to Peaches and Aaron about combat control and para-rescue. And they kind of have similar pipelines for their training because you guys are special operations. You go all over the place and do all this stuff. So I'm not sure, because I don't really know anything about special reconnaissance. So like how long is your tech school? So combat control and special reconnaissance folks will go to the exact same places for training.  And then the combat controllers, I'm the special reconnaissance guys, both go to, or folks, both go to Pope Armier Field for their PURNUS course, their three level awarding course. It's different when they get there though, because the combat controllers have to go through their air traffic control school, which is up there now. And my folks just go through their reconnaissance courses and then they all meet up, you know, and do a lot of the training together, all the shoot move, communicate, all the stuff that's crossover. And then at the end they do their big exercises together in the long walkout. So, and then they have the graduation ceremony, I'll get their braids at the same time. So it's pretty lined up. I think ours is probably a couple weeks shorter than combat control. We're looking at like a year, year and a half, depending on how your pipeline lays out. So logistically, it's a logistically challenging pipeline for everybody. There's just a lot of moving pieces. So that's the thing, it's like, you've got to hit your courses just perfectly to get through in about a year, I think, technically. But most folks spend a little bit longer than that in the pipeline. How was your tech school, your personal experience? Did you enjoy tech school? Was it a good time? Was it a bad time? Why was it something that you enjoyed or didn't enjoy? So when I came through, we had to be weather first, right? And weather school was like seven months long. They had just increased the length of the weather school when I got there. And so we were, and I was just, I was a regular Air Force, you know, tech school student. So probably just like your experiences, it's just you wake up, march to school, which is whatever the weather is as long as there's not lightning actually hitting students, you're marching to school, sit there all nine hours at a time and you're wet clothes and then you march on home. So the weekends are a lot of fun. Like it's just like everything else in the Air Force, right?  Like you're out of basic training, so things are better, but like it's, it's just not that much fun. But with like a seven month test school, tired of tech school by the time you graduate, but you know, you live the life and like your weekends are free and you have a lot of liberty and all these other things. And so yeah, we had, there were shenanigans, just like anything else, like if it's hard, that's good.  And it can be a good time. And then you graduate and you're happy it's over. So then when it came to special operations training, how was that for you? Cause you went through a normal tech school, normal Air Force job, then later you cross-trained. It's complicated. Okay, so. Well, because weather is like kind of, it was kind of similar, I guess. So special operations weather was a special duty assignment within the weather career field. And so when I crossed over, it was a weird thing where you had to be a five level weather person and then you could cross over on the special operations side. And all you had to do to get to the special operations side, just to get there assigned there was airborne and your survival courses. So you didn't have to go through SWIC or like selection. You didn't have to go through any of that. Yeah, so we did a lot of our training in-house. So I got over to Fort Bragg and I was there about two weeks, went to a week long shooting school, did six weeks of training up at Fort Campbell.  So I was gonna get that before they're gonna do anything with me. But one of our guys got shot down range and they needed a replacement. So after I'd done a grand total of seven weeks of special operations training outside of airborne and sear, I got deployed. And then when I came back from my first deployment and had like some legit experience, then I did technically the end of the pipeline to be qualified to be doing the job. That's brutal. We've made a lot of progress. That's kind of crazy actually to think about. So what bases can special reconnaissance be stationed at? I'm assuming it's like most other special operations jobs where it's very limited to the locations that you guys are able to go to. Yeah, it's all the two series units. So we have the STS, the Special Tactical Squadron in Japan, one in England. And then we have two in North Carolina. One of them requires an additional assessment. And then Hurlbert, Cannon, and then up there in Washington State, at the McCord, I believe. There's not that many. And then there's the AOTC training bases, Pope, and then down here in Texas and a couple of other places. But those are pretty limited on the numbers. And the AOTC stuff is if you're an instructor? Yes. Okay. So that's if they move you, cause then that's like another special duty within the career field where you'll go and then you'll teach the next generation coming through. Right. I mean, it's just like the rest of the Air Force. You know, all the AFSCs teach themselves, take the manpower to do it. So that's what we do too. So I know this is probably going to be impossible to actually answer. Most questions don't have cookie cutter answers. So on average, you know, like when, cause right now you said you're in an instructor location, but like at your normal duty station, like how many hours you guys work in a week? What's that kind of look like? Well, so I'm a, I'm a Magcom functional. So like I oversee all of my career field stuff in AOTC. So I'm, I ride a desk, I'm up at headquarters, yada, yada. And so like the numbers of hours I week, like in the office, so to speak, some of its remote is like, it's like a 40 hour week. It's, it's pretty office-like. I do get a lot of phone calls, like put my, my cell phone on all my emails. And so like when we're talking about retraining and assignments and all that other stuff, like, you know, work life and personal life bleed over a fair bit. But my instructors on the AOTC side, depending on where they're at, they actually put in a lot of hours cause they're, they're wholly dedicated to making the next generation better. And you know, making sure we get the right people in the career field. And so while most of the time it's probably not crazy, like 50, 60 hour weeks are probably, you know, especially when they're surging with students and getting stuff done, probably not unheard of. And then on team, like if you're gonna, you'd have to do that average over like a two month period or like a year long period, right? Like cause you're gonna have days where like the rest of the Air Force doesn't have a day off, but like you just came off of, you know, 10, 15 days straight of, of just training.  And so like it's a lot of hours. It's gonna take a lot. So like, you know, like, but like it doesn't feel like work all the time when you're on team. So it's hard, like when do you stop working and when do you start working is not always clear cut. You know what I mean? Like, so it's, well, it takes a lot of dedication probably for what you guys, the training that you guys have to keep up with and the requirements that you guys have to stay current.  And that's what it seems like with the other special operations too. You guys will go and use long stints.  But it's just, it's just normal.  And I put that in quotes, but like that's what everybody else is doing.  And a lot of it's a lot of fun even though it's challenging and you know, you might not be eating enough or sleeping enough. And it might be, it might be difficult, but it's always a good time. Not maybe, okay. It's not always a good time but in hindsight, it's a good time. It's like the most fun you never want to have again, you know? Exactly.  So like everybody that's there, they didn't just stumble upon that path, right? Like it wasn't like a two month tech school where you just kind of like, you could sleep half the time and make it through barely. Like you're literally like, no, we had to be on top of it. And like we chose to be here. And so like once you guys get to that, when you guys are actually doing your actual training missions, you guys are all pretty committed at that point. So when you're with a bunch of guys that are motivated, you know, that really want to be out there, I think that just adds to the experience. So you might work a lot of hours, but it may not feel like it at times just because you're, you have the camaraderie in your guys' organization. Yeah. But like there's still complaining. I don't want to make it sound like we're all like gung-ho all the time. Like sometimes, you know, like the teams aren't walking and be like, Hey guys, there's what we're doing.  So it's like one of those things where you, at the beginning you're like black. And then at the end you're like, yeah, we crushed that. Let's go. Yeah.  Yep. All right. So what do you do in your job?  So in general, like when you're on team, that's at your normal stations, like not the instructors. So when you're at a normal duty station, saying somebody in their first 10 years, what is, we'll just go with like a year long cycle. Like what is in general kind of, what does that look like? Like what do you guys even do to work every day or every month in special reconnaissance? So everything is to get ready to deploy. So like unlike a lot of the Air Force, we're more like a lot of the Army jobs where for the most part, we don't have like a state side job. Like we're not allowed to do things state side. So you have like your downtime, like if you get home from a deployment, you're going to have like three to five months or whatever. I can forget the numbers, Aaron's a lot better at this than I am because he has it all memorized because he's still at an STS. But you're going to have your downtime where, you know, rest and recovery, take care of a lot of your Air Force stuff, like going through your ALS, your NCOAs, your professional development schools, all those kinds of things and getting all your paperwork done and all that other stuff. And then you're going to have like your train up cycle or you're getting ready to train up cycle where you start knocking out your shooting schools and all those other things. And then you're going to have like your, no kidding, get ready for deployment cycle. I think it's three different cycles before you deploy.  So like everything just like culminates in an appointment. So depending on what you're doing and where you're at, if you're on station, all the STS is like the good parts about the job, right? Like we have gyms, we have physical trainers, we have coaches and all those other things now. We have a lot of really good programs.  And a lot of that is, you know, doing paperwork, getting ready for the next TDY because a lot of it's TDY training. And then, you know, prepping your gear for the next TDY, cleaning your gear from the last TDY, like checking out the weapons, checking out the radios, talking to all the people in the shops, and you're going to start doing this at a very young age. Like as soon as you get on team, like you're going to be handed these responsibilities, showing all the people you need to talk to, emailing people outside of your organization.  So, you know, it's a lot of prep, it's a lot of logistics, a lot of coordination, a lot of going TDY to do stuff.  So then you got to do all the, you're jumping and you're, all the other stuff that you got to do, so. So you had mentioned like TDYs, so that would be like a temporary do this, like really short stints, where like you have deployments, which will be longer, but then TDYs are like short training stints. Cause Aaron and Peach has both had talked about in theirs with combat control and their rescue that they can't do all their training in one location cause sometimes they need to go into the mountains, sometimes they need to go to the ocean, sometimes they need to go to the desert, right? And so you can't, there's no place that has it all. And so there's a lot of times where they'll travel to go and do specific training, like if you guys need to be practicing stuff in the mountains or in the desert, you guys are going to go to those locations. So you're going to be there, so you're actually stationed in, you know, like North Carolina, did you say it was? Yeah. So you could be stationed there, but you guys are going to come to New Mexico to train out in the desert. And then you guys will go back like two weeks later. So that's where you were like, we got to pack all our stuff up. You guys got to take it all the way to New Mexico.  And then you're like, and back, let's pack up for the next trip to go somewhere unless you can do the training at home station. What are those training missions look like? So it's weird now that the career field has changed, right? So like my personal experiences are a little bit different than a lot of the other guys' experiences, but like, you know, a lot of the shooting schools were really good. Like everybody talks about Darcy, D-A-R-C.  But like a unique one I was able to do was there's like a pavement course that you can go through. So like when I got to a two-series unit, because we used to be separate and we ended up together, don't worry anyway.  So I need to be able to like do their job and do my job at the same time. I was like a tech sergeant moving into like the team sergeant role. And so I went to this course where you have to graduate from this course to drill into runways overseas, to do your assessments, to figure out how many times and what kind of planes can land on these runways, right?  You know what I mean? So that course was super, super weird. You know, like there was this old Vietnam vet guy that was running it and like he didn't care. Like he was like the gatekeeper. If you did not, you know, meet his standards, you're gone. You're not gonna graduate. You're not gonna have the certificate.  And it was one of the higher attrition like courses I've ever been through. But it was super interesting. And yeah, like so I got the cert. And so on my last rotation, I was like the team sergeant and I was the weather guy and I was also the pavement guy. And so when we were like bumping around all over the Middle East getting ready for the Syrian invasion and making sure like all the airfields and everything was good, you know, and also going to Iraq for some political stuff to make sure that airfields were good for some of the birds that were gonna give the Iraqis.  So it was actually really rewarding to like have like the weather stuff and also that but also be the team sergeant. So it was busy and was stressful but it was cool to have like an additional capability. And those are the types of things that you really get to do. So like my guys get to do like a sniper. You have to be a qualified sniper to be a seven level now. And so like those types of opportunities and like the electronic warfare and a lot of the other stuff that we're getting into there's a lot of different courses and places you can go and work with people. That's super unique, you know, like so like you can expand your skill set almost as much as you want to. And so like I had that problem when I was on team, I was never home, which really worked out for my marriage. My wife was never really happy about that. And then, because you're gone all the time and then you deploy, right? So like, but there's always another school, another skill set that you can get to and you know, and being TDY with the guys is always a good time. So I think the TDY has served two purposes. It's the training that you need, where you need it. But even if you can't get it home station, it's not always the best place to get it.  And then just all you do is train. Seems like there's more to special reconnaissance too than a lot of people would think. Cause like, even me, I'm like, well, what would like special reconnaissance do? And it almost was like, kind of seems like sear. But I was like, no, it seems like you guys are, like there's a lot that you guys do and you guys intermix. I think now too, a lot of the special operations sounds like they intermix a lot of things. You want to be able to cohesively work together. And so you guys kind of have to overlap a tiny bit. So there's no issues with that. Yeah, there's always going to be overlap, right? Between all the different career fields and the different SOF units and all that other stuff. But the way special reconnaissance works is there's, A, we work for the Air Force, right? So like we get a lot of questions, like, hey, why do we need reconnaissance guys? Why do we have range reconnaissance? Why do we have Marine reconnaissance? And then Marsock and then the SEALs and then the Green Berets and then us. You know, like there's a lot of different folks running around out there, but we work for the Air Force. And one of the reasons we developed this career field is there's phases of warfare. And in phase zero, you need to gather data and figure out weak points, strong points, all those other things, how you defeat certain systems, how you're going to create problems for your adversary, how you're going to solve the problems for your customer, right? Which for us is first and foremost, the Air Force. And so everybody's really worried about that near peer environment where we're going up against an adversary that is technologically at a similar level as the United States. And so they've worked out a lot of different things, the same things that we've worked out, like how to shoot down a plane with a system that's not plugged into the internet or into a computer system, right? You have your air gap systems, but everything has electromagnetic emissions. And so like that's how you gather a lot of data on that type of stuff and how you can do certain things with those systems, with different systems that we have to, you know, like cause a problem for them, bring a system down or whatever it is, or either go in there, create space, create an airhead that's safe enough to get other birds in there.  So that's what we do. So we have a lot of different skill sets that our folks acquire. And so we have like that sniper seven level skill set as the, it's a lot of team leader stuff and also being good on the glass, understanding your environment. And then if you have to like solve a problem kinetically from a distance, that's something that we really need to have in certain situations. I know this is gonna be another tough question here. So what certifications are trained, you receive through this job, they can be used to land a job on the outside. Because that's one of the big things I think with the new generation too is they're like, how can I use this experience to help me later on? Because I think a lot of people now are understanding more and more that, hey, there's gonna be a life after my military service. So I might do four, six, 10 years, whatever. So, or even 20 and you could get out, you know, in your 40s and be like, I'm gonna start a second career. How does, how does special reconnaissance kind of help you leapfrog into the civilian side? I know there might not be any specific certifications. Aaron and Peaches both had said that there was really nothing specific. Like, yeah, you can go and do like EMT if you're a peer rescue, but they said more so just the mindset of special operations really helps people with like pushing to get any job that they want or like them buckling down and be able to knock out their education or being able to start their own company. So for you, what's your mindset with special reconnaissance and how you guys transition into the civilian world? I think it's the same thing as the other guys. I wanna say like, if you read like Forbes and all those other magazines, the big companies more and more are looking for the right people instead of the right degrees. You know, degrees are becoming less and less valuable depending on the degree, obviously, but like what we're missing out in the greater marketplace are the people that can just get stuff done, the problem solvers, right? And that is a skill set that you might not think is a unique skill set, but to be able to think on your feet and solve a problem and find a way to solve the problem no matter what is the job. That's all of our jobs, you know? Well, we talk about day to day, but like what we plan for is like the worst possible scenario. And that's what we do. We try to see problems coming down, that the pipe, we try to solve those problems before they even get to us. And so those are the things and to be able to overcome the odds to deal with levels of discomfort that are unusual for most people, I think you learn a lot about yourself and the more you learn about yourself, the more you learn about other people. So I think that's why we have a lot of really strong like enlisted leadership from our career fields is because once you know you and you can look at your teammates and you start to understand that everybody's different, you're like, oh, I can maximize the talent on my team to accomplish any mission. And everybody's not the same and that's okay. But as a team, we're gonna be unstoppable and we're gonna make this happen. And so I think those are the kind of skill sets that are really gonna translate into doing really whatever it is that you wanna do.  I think partnerships and collaborations are some of the best ways or easiest ways to be successful and you pretty much ingrain that like, I can't do my mission without everybody else working together. And so you having ingrained this idea that like teamwork literally makes the dream work, right? And so when you get out, you have a team mentality where you're like, I can one be a part of a team, because that's another big thing. Like you said, getting hired is like, companies wanna hire people that can work with a team, right? They wanna hire people that can take orders, that can listen, they can work with others in the group and get stuff done. And you get some employees that don't like listening or they don't work well with other people. You guys have a different mentality where you're like, no, like that's literally like first and foremost, like we rely on each other. Like that's like I, I think you guys are really bought into the team mindset. And so I think that possibly would be huge because people, employers want people that can work in teams. Because employers have learned that teams create the best results. Absolutely. And one of the unique things about the Air Force site is not only do we, so we train as teams and sometimes we deploy as teams, but oftentimes we're deploying as individuals to attach to other teams, like your green beret teams, your seal teams or whatever. And so our folks are really good at being, I think one of the commanders calls it like social chameleons because you're a guy and you ship out to a forward operating base and you drop in, there's 12 other dudes there. They don't know you, you don't know them, but you have a job to do. And you have to like rely on them to get the job done. They got to rely on you to do your job. And you have to get, you know, you have to become a part of that team as fast as you can to be successful. You can't wait months to blend in and fit. Like you got to find a way to fit in day one. And that everybody has like a different strategy.  So what are you going to do? You're going to go to the gym and start talking to everybody because you're really good at working out. You all got to get on the range to prove that you're competent and capable to go shoot with them and do all these other things. And so yeah, that's something unique about us.   It's pretty wild. That's a huge life skill is being able to fit into any team that you're thrown into. Cause it just, it proves that you understand teamwork and how to like mesh cohesively with a group. I know we've talked multiple times where you said, Hey, this is a, you're pretty much training for deployment, right? Like everything we do is not, we don't have like an at home job or just preparing for deployments. So you guys have a cycle. What does that look like? What does that deployment tempo cycle look like? I think it's every 15 months or more now. Since we stood up the new two series unit, it takes a little bit longer to get deployed. And, you know, now that the global war on terror is over-ish, everybody's not going on every deployment. So it's a little more like pre-9-11, but like you're going to go do something. You're going to do a joint exercise or some of these other things that you're going to go deploy with. And so it's pretty regular right now.  And so like during GWAT, it was like once every, maybe that was once every 15 months. And now it's once every like 19 months, almost two years that your deployment, your actual deployment cycle is up from the time that you get home. So it's really not that bad. But, you know, once you're out there, it's you're expected to be going the whole time. And so if you look at like GWAT, like the Army infantry folks would do like 12 month rotations, which are crazy, 12 to 18 months at certain times during the war, where all your soft units are doing slightly shorter rotations. I think it started out at seven months for the Green Berets and ended up down closer to six or five months. And I think that's what we're doing most of the time is five month rotations.  That's just not how we work. You're expected to go out there and push and push and push and push the whole time you're there. So it should be pretty exhausted by the time you get home. So basically like a year and a half, two years is kind of how often you can expect to deploy, but in between that's where it goes back to what is your typical, you know, work week look like. And that's where you're like, that whole year and a half is dedicated for getting ready for that deployment. Like you're just, here's all these things we got to be qualified on, trained on, understand, be able to jump into a team as soon as we get there. So you're still like constantly training just you're not fully putting that into motion actively until that deployment, but the whole time the year and a half you're preparing, you're getting ready and building those skills. So even though you're not on deployment all the time, it seems like you guys still say pretty active and super busy. Yes. And the best part about the job is you can never, you can never get every single qualification, you know, like you can never be done. Like there's always something that you can be better at. There's always a new and emerging technology that we can integrate into the teams. There's always, you know, something that you can be better at. So a lot of folks on team gravitate towards different things, right?    And so like you can never be done. So as long as you stay motivated and you just keep asking to go do more stuff or like you show the competence in a certain area, like you're going to be busy. And that's on top of like the core skill sets, right? What advice do you have for somebody who's interested in special reconnaissance specifically? Like if you were talking to, kind of like you guys already do on ones ready, right? You're talking to some 17, 18, 19 year olds, maybe a 25 year old. And they're like, hey, I saw something about special reconnaissance. I'm interested in that job. What is your advice for those people that are possibly picking that path to go down? First I would ask them, I would want to know if you're actually interested. You know, like there's interest and then there's people and most of the people that we find that are successful, they express it as more than an interest. They're like, I heard about this job or I heard about this community and I felt that I needed to do it.  I had something that, you know, like when I was in weather school, right? And these guys came and talked to us. Like I never questioned my decision after that day.  Like I have to do that. That's what's gonna get you through. So like if you're just interested, it's like just do your research and start building capacity, you know?  But like if you have that itch, if you have that calling, so to speak, I would say don't question it. Just get after it. And you might find that once you join the Air Force because you come in like open, you know, special warfare general off the street, you might find that once you get there, you actually vibe with like combat control more than you do with special reconnaissance. And I'm here to tell you like, I don't care what you do, as long as you end up doing something that you value and that makes you happy and makes you a better person and gives you a better life, that's the most important thing. So go with what you wanna do and don't listen to anybody else that hasn't been there for the most part. Obviously like people will give great advice, but like if people are naysaying or whatever, you know, it is what it is. It's like listening to a skinny guy at a gym. Like, why would you do that? So like what you're saying is basically when you know what you wanna do or say, you know, because you come into special operations, people are a better asset to the Air Force when they're where they want to be or where they know they should be versus just like them being like, well, I wanted to be special reconnaissance, but then as they're going through and they're understanding training, they're going through in doc everything, they're like, yo, like, you know, PJ or CCT is really calling me. Like if that's what, because you're probably gonna regret going down the wrong path at that point.  But on top of that, you're a better asset to the Air Force and your amount of money that the Air Force is putting into you guys, like you need to be where do you want to be? You don't wanna be stuck in a job for several years where you're like, man, I wish you would have done that.  Like when you think of special operations in the Air Force, it's like para rescue. Like that's just, you know, that's what crosses most people's mind. And so when you realize when you're going through that training, if it's like, hey, special reconnaissance is something like not many people know about. It's a semi newer compared to the other special operations. So then it's like, well, it's not as cool, right? You know, nobody knows about it, but it's like, but if that's what you feel called to, it doesn't matter if it's cool to other people, it just matters. Like you said, don't listen to other people.  Right? No, no, there's two things I wanna touch. Like the first thing is the PJ thing is I think one of the reasons we have so many people joining to be a PJ is it's easier to sell to like your parents, your teachers, your friends back. Right? Like I'm not joining. I'm gonna save people. Yeah, I'm not a sociopath. I'm gonna save people. Yeah. And once you get over here, it's like, we're like, man, it's like, you know, like you can save people by dropping bombs on other people. Like that's how this works.  Like I can, it's fun to kick indoors and do things. That's a good time. And the other thing is doing things for the wrong reason. I remember I was an instructor a long time ago at Keesler and I would go to lunch with my students every once in a while and I'd sit down and talk to them. And I would tell them, like, especially in like my career field, the odds of anybody A, knowing what you do and B, having you like caring, right? Like no one knows what we do. Like, and generally the Air Force is the only people there's a small group of people that probably understand what we're doing and think it's cool.  Right, right.  I'm like, that's not what we do. Like if you don't have like, I did a good job and that's enough. If that's not who you are, then like this isn't for you.  Like much love to the SEALs. I know that they take a lot of crap, but no one knows about us. And it's to me like that's awesome. But like to some people, I remember I went to lunch one day and I talked to these kids and like three of those kids quit like the next morning. They're like, yeah, this isn't for me. I was like, okay, bye. They needed extrinsic motivation. Right. And like it's more of an intrinsic motivator is what you need to have in order to keep pushing in your crew because you're not going to get a lot of that. Like people being like, oh, you know, I respect you so much for what you do. They're like, what do you do? Like why is that important?  Cause it's all, you know, like no, no. And they're like, I don't care. But like Peaches has done some wild stuff and you have to like drag those stories out of him.   People in my career field respect me, which is the only important thing. I have a good reputation. There it is. That's what he said.  Like, you know, and it's like, cause he's like, you know, just PJs in general get way more recognition. Yeah. It's just like some of the other special operations career fields don't get that. And so yeah, if you're looking for that praise and that recognition and people to actually understand when you tell them that you're special operations to like care, you're probably not in the right career field if you're going special like reconnaissance at that point. Because people aren't going to know what you do. And people are just going to be like, sure. No, come over here to disappear. You know, and to the, a lot of people in the career feel like that's, that's what they were looking for. It's like, oh, I'm just going to go out there, do my job and it's going to be awesome. I'm going to get these experiences for me and for my teammates. What advice do you have for people who are just now starting this job? How can they have a successful career? So this is probably good for you because you said you were an instructor. So you used to go and talk with your, your troops, right? So those guys that are just, they just finished their pipeline. They're like to the people that have just got in, what's that experience and information that you want to give on to them for how they can set themselves up? I mean, it's hard because you just went through like a really long pipeline and you're feeling pretty good about yourself, you know? And you have to start over when you get to team. They're the new guy again. They're starting back at step zero. So be humble and then be patient. Like not everything is going to be like the movies right away. You got to wait for your opportunities. You got to work hard for your opportunities. Like nothing changed. Like all the lessons you learn in the pipeline, you don't get to like throw them away just because you're on team. You know, like keep working hard, keep moving forward.  Be ready for the call. Be ready to go out on that TDY or that deployment or whatever it is that you're trying to get to and keep soaking up training because it's awesome. Cause like there's a weird place where we kind of all the career fields all kind of meet together. You know, like I'm not a PJ, but like all my guys are going to get a lot of medical training. You know, like I'm not a combat controller, but like I've done a lot of their type of training and like same goes for them.  There is no limit to how far you can go in any of these career fields. So it's going to take a little bit of time, but don't doubt yourself, take the opportunities.  What are your biggest things of advice for somebody joining the Air Force in general, right? So we're talking, you're talking to the future generation here, not just people that are trying to go special operations, but we're talking about anybody that wants to wear the US Air Force tape on their chest. What's your advice to those people? Take your name seriously. You know, it's a lot of the same stuff, like humility, patience, right? But like for me anyway, the first time that I put on a uniform and I had my last name on it, I was responsible for more than just myself, you know? And also I had US Air Force on it, which meant I was more, I was responsible for more than just myself and it's cheesy and it can, it sounds dramatic, right?   It's a weird thing that happens and I'm on my soapbox a little bit, but like before everybody joins the Air Force and you've seen these people, what do you do when you go to the recruiter after you sign up for the Air Force and you have a ship date? Like what does everybody do? We're all Air Force stuff and they're like super motivated, like- They tell everybody, right? I'm joining the Air Force, I'm gonna do this cool job, yada, yada, yada.  And like, so something happens in basic training where everybody goes from being this is something I'm doing to something that's happening to me. Like if you stay in the mindset of this is something that I am doing, I am happening to the process and the process is not happening to me and you never adopt that victim mentality. Like the amount of opportunity in the Air Force, the amount of goodness, the amount of change you can make, the amount of things that you can affect, it's almost unlimited. And it's a fascinating thing to be able to look back on and see it all. And obviously from like my standpoint, it's a little easier to see it all.  I'm like, does it? Does it suck? Because we have a lot of opportunity in security forces. You can be a dog handler, you can be catam. You can be one of the guys out of Moody. You can be a nuke cop. Like there's eight million things you can do if you're motivated and you don't get sucked into the crowd of naysayers and victims.  I think too on top of that where you said it's gonna take patience, like not every job when you first start out is good. But I think one of the most rewarding aspects of any job is being able to move up to become a leader for the next generation, for the guys below you.  And I think that's when a job really, because a lot of people think like, oh, I'm joining this job to do this job. And like they think that's gonna be like the most satisfying part of that career. But I think a lot of people start to realize that's actually not the most satisfying thing. Yeah, that like they're gonna go through and you're gonna have a lot of good memories. But some of the best satisfaction that you have is like, you're like, I trained these guys that then I trained these 10 guys and they went out and they did all these achievements, right? And you're like, I have 10 guys that achieved 10 times more stuff than I did. Like that's way more rewarding, I think, than just like the stuff that you do.  But if you can have a good attitude about it and you can promote and move up and get in a position where you can mentor that next generation to have that same mindset, right? You can coach those guys to then be successful.  And I think that maybe is like one of the more rewarding aspects is like, that's why I do what I do is like, I'm trying to help the younger generation. I think that's a big reason for you guys with ones ready is like, you guys are focused on the next generation. Like how can we prepare them? But that's not something that like when you typically come in as a brand new airman, right? You don't have much experience. It's kind of hard to coach somebody because you're literally the new guy, right? Like so you're gonna be the one taking out the trash. So yeah, I think that's great advice though. Like yeah, have patience and know that it's not always gonna be glamorous. Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with taking out the trash. I don't know why that seems like a bad thing. But also like you enjoy coaching, mentoring and all that other stuff. Just be yourself too. Like I know lots of guys that are great, like fantastic. They're good people. They're good on team guys. They're good at all those other things. Probably not gonna be the best instructors. And maybe not even like the best like E-8s or E-9s or if they commissioned or whatever. Like if that leadership roles, like they could be great E-8s and E-9s but like depending on what they're doing. But it's like some guys just wanna do the job. And that's also okay. Like not everybody has to be a leader, you know, quote unquote or whatever. Like trust yourself a little bit. It's whatever you have that itch for like you said, you know? Like you get that itch and you're like, go that path. Like if you don't have that itch to be a leader, then like don't try to force yourself into that role. Like really push yourself into where you're gonna be the best fit and where you feel the most comfortable.  And that's gonna change over time as well. But like if you're just being authentic, then you're gonna have a way better impact not only on your own life, but on the Air Force as a whole. I think that comes with being like, well authentic, just being honest with yourself and with the people around you, right?  So I think that's a big thing.  We're gonna go ahead and wrap this up. Where can people find you Trent? You guys obviously have ones ready. So what is ones ready and where can they find you and what do you guys do? So ones ready is a little project, you know that we threw together myself and Aaron and Jared or Peaches as we call them. So there's myself, special reconnaissance combat control and the power rescue guy on this podcast. And what we're doing is we're trying to fill the void of information that was out there about these career fields and some of the misnumbers and all these other things. So we have a podcast about it. It's tailored towards people that are interested or think they're interested in the Air Force Special Warfare stuff, also TACP. And then we'll talk about Sierra and EOD and all those other things and, you know, off topic subjects often as well. But there's a lot of content on there specifically for the Air Force Special Warfare folks. And then, yeah, you can find us Instagram, everything ones ready, right? Like the podcast is on all streaming platforms and audio and video on YouTube. And then ones ready, at ones ready on Instagram is probably the easiest way to find us. I appreciate you jumping on and sharing a little bit more about special reconnaissance because like you said, you guys are kind of in the background a lot of times. So there's not a whole lot of info out there about you guys. This should hopefully open some people's eyes to what you guys do. Yeah, it's hard too, because like I know what's happening out there to a certain extent. And I'll tell you, like my guys are making a difference. They're jobbing it. So that's about all I can say. But also, man, like thanks for having me on. I hope you can't cut this out of the, don't edit this out. I've been watching your videos for a long time. I saw you way back in the day and that you're doing great work. So don't ever let anybody tell you you're not doing great work. Thanks for the opportunity. Yeah, I appreciate it, Trent.