Former Army Helicopter Pilot Amber Smith Breaks Down the Potomac Tragedy and DEI's Impact on Military Readiness

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[00:37] I want to Dive Right into our analysis

[00:41] about the tragedy that happened over the

[00:42] pomac we have a very special guest here

[00:45] to help us understand what exactly

[00:48] happened it's Amber Smith former

[00:50] helicopter pilot author of unfit to

[00:52] fight how woke policies are destroying

[00:54] the military and former senior Pentagon

[00:57] official to break down the breaking news

[00:59] Amber thank thank you for joining the

[01:01] program thanks for having me Amber

[01:05] there's some recent news here at least

[01:07] some new video footage that shows as if

[01:09] the helicopter was almost not pursuing

[01:12] but accelerating into the airplane what

[01:15] is the latest news here and break it

[01:17] down for the audience of what your

[01:19] theory is what happened that

[01:23] evening sure so I was an Army helicopter

[01:26] pilot for almost eight years well over

[01:28] 1500 flight hours and based off

[01:32] everything that I have seen in terms of

[01:33] the audio and the video including the

[01:35] one you just mentioned that just came

[01:36] out is that the army helicopter air crew

[01:43] most likely confirmed visual

[01:45] confirmation of the incorrect aircraft

[01:48] so when Tower gave them uh the warning

[01:51] of traffic ahead uh they were looking at

[01:53] the wrong plane basically and then

[01:55] likely never even saw the aircraft that

[01:58] they ended up fing into and it's you

[02:03] know an incredibly tragic and horrific

[02:06] situation but in Army Aviation

[02:08] especially when it comes to helicopters

[02:10] things are moving a million miles an

[02:12] hour you have a lot going on in the

[02:14] helicopter we are learning a lot about

[02:17] some mismanagement of the national

[02:19] capital region airspace around Reagan

[02:22] some of the helicopter corridors and the

[02:24] altitudes involved there and very

[02:26] minimal altitude separation um

[02:29] requirement

[02:30] between these incoming Landing planes to

[02:33] Reagan and the helicopter traffic around

[02:36] them um a big red flag that I have seen

[02:39] in all of this is how common it has

[02:43] happened that the tower at Reagan is

[02:46] allowing these helicopters to fly

[02:48] underneath or behind incoming commercial

[02:52] planes as they're coming into short

[02:54] final to land at the runways that is

[02:58] extremely risky it is uh sets up unsafe

[03:02] conditions as we've seen because

[03:03] altitude deviations in a helicopter can

[03:06] happen in the blink of an eye a wind

[03:08] gust and what they have in terms of that

[03:10] separation right now is is completely

[03:14] unsafe so yeah I mean it's a very basic

[03:16] question again I I'm just a civilian

[03:19] whose idea was it to have the Army do

[03:22] military exercises even remotely close

[03:26] to the airspace of Reagan I mean there's

[03:29] plenty of other places you could do army

[03:31] training theoretically right I mean it's

[03:33] a big country a lot of rural areas not

[03:36] near Reagan

[03:37] Airport who who who made this decision

[03:39] and for what possible reason and why did

[03:42] no one ever think in the months or the

[03:44] years leading up to this hey these near

[03:46] misses are probably a good reason to

[03:47] suspend these training

[03:51] exercises yeah so my assessment off of

[03:53] this is that it is the AO the area of

[03:56] operation for this helicopter unit so

[03:59] this helicopter unit's mission is to

[04:02] conduct operations down that Corridor

[04:04] that I told you about um that flies

[04:06] basically down the bomic river and to my

[04:10] knowledge it was a check ride so this

[04:12] was not technically training although

[04:14] I'm sure the training goes on there as

[04:15] well this was a check ride so an annual

[04:18] check ride where they're doing all sorts

[04:20] of procedures and Maneuvers and I'm

[04:23] assuming this is me assuming I do not

[04:25] know if it is like a requirement I'm

[04:28] assuming that they have to be checked

[04:31] out in this location because it is their

[04:34] mission uh but that's something that I

[04:37] want to see because if that is a

[04:39] requirement of theirs uh doing these

[04:42] types of operations maybe being familiar

[04:45] with the route should be a a requirement

[04:47] but actually going out and doing

[04:49] something like a part which is an annual

[04:52] flight evaluation um should not be in

[04:56] this proximity to one of the biggest

[04:58] Metropolitan M Metropolitan airspaces

[05:02] when it comes to the combination of

[05:04] helicopter and Commercial

[05:08] Aviation so so I I want to broaden this

[05:11] you you wrote the book that was um that

[05:15] really addressed this unfit to fight how

[05:16] woke policies are destroying our

[05:18] military and so I don't want to blame

[05:23] any sort of particulars on this incident

[05:25] but can you give us more examples on how

[05:27] these woke policies have weakened

[05:29] America's mil military

[05:33] preparedness absolutely so the opposite

[05:36] of Dei which we have heard the president

[05:38] talk about since he since inauguration

[05:40] day even before uh is merits so what

[05:45] we've seen in the in the Biden

[05:46] Administration they pushed all of this

[05:48] diversity Equity inclusion into all of

[05:51] the federal government not just the

[05:53] military my books focused on the

[05:54] military but so the opposite of Dei is

[05:58] Merit Merit means you are the best

[06:02] person for the job you have the best uh

[06:04] test scores you have the best you do the

[06:07] best interview you you have the best

[06:08] experience the best physical fitness

[06:11] whatever the standard may be you're

[06:13] there and that's how they you get

[06:15] promoted that's how you get the job

[06:17] that's how you get selected for Flight

[06:18] Training so when you bring in this Dei

[06:21] obviously in order to get people who are

[06:23] not qualified into those positions you

[06:27] have to lower the standard you have to

[06:29] to ensure that uh the people who are not

[06:32] qualified are able to somehow you know

[06:36] pass the bar and therefore they do that

[06:38] by quotas or targets and lowering the

[06:41] standards when you lower the standards

[06:43] someone else along the line is having to

[06:47] pick up the slack it weakens the chain

[06:50] it weakens the unit and the mission as a

[06:52] whole and it it sets it up for Dangerous

[06:57] operations and so what how would you

[07:00] recommend going about fixing it I know

[07:02] the president has issued some orders

[07:03] already to fix this problem in our

[07:07] military give us some specifics further

[07:10] action items that you'd like to see the

[07:12] president uh

[07:14] undertake yeah so this is a big

[07:17] challenge the the Department of Defense

[07:19] and this is not just a DOD issue this is

[07:21] government-wide where I'm sure they're

[07:22] going to be looking into the FAA and

[07:24] what's going on with ATC the air traffic

[07:26] controllers and um see why they're you

[07:30] know underman and still allowing full

[07:32] Aviation operations to proceed so what

[07:36] there's a couple things that need to

[07:37] happen one you've already seen the

[07:39] executive orders going out that sort of

[07:41] squash what can be squashed with an

[07:43] executive order removing some of the

[07:45] policies that were put in place for the

[07:47] Biden Administration the implement the

[07:49] implementation of that is ongoing uh you

[07:54] need to change things immediately

[07:57] culturally to merit-based

[07:59] and that needs to be from the top down

[08:01] from president we're seeing it SE Def

[08:04] and then through the commands all the

[08:06] way down that Dei will no longer be

[08:10] tolerated this is going to be a

[08:13] significant task the work is just

[08:16] getting started so you can issue the

[08:19] executive order but now you need to

[08:21] ensure that it's going to be implemented

[08:23] all the way through the ranks all the

[08:25] way down to the rank and file through

[08:27] all the commanders that chose to

[08:29] Implement and enforce uh you know the

[08:33] vaccine mandates the ones who chose to

[08:35] kick out you know the 8,000 troops that

[08:38] were um combat proven so you're going to

[08:41] have to get through all of those people

[08:43] to ensure there's not sabotage going in

[08:46] along the ranks that's going to be that

[08:48] cultural aspect that I talked about that

[08:51] is what is going to be incredibly

[08:52] challenging the other part that needs to

[08:55] be done um is

[08:57] accountability when there is no

[08:59] accountability in a culture that is

[09:01] running rampant with Dei and lawlessness

[09:05] uh no one is going to change so and

[09:07] still there's some accountability for

[09:09] the leaders who have created the damage

[09:11] have fostered this environment that has

[09:13] hurt the military and weakened the

[09:15] military and damaged our national

[09:17] security because of it that

[09:19] accountability is essential to than

[09:22] making the military hole again great

[09:25] analysis Amber thank you so much

[09:26] everyone should check out your book

[09:27] unfit to fight thank you so much