David Rutherford Show: From Living in His Car to A-10 Pilot: Dale Stark On A Warfighter’s Mindset
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
iHeartPodcasts
4.5 • 11.4K Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2026
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dale Stark was living in his car at 19. At 25 he was flying close air support over Afghanistan in an A-10 Warthog.
In episode 2 of the Idaho series, Dale sits down with David to break down how he went from rock bottom to one of the most selective pilot programs in the world — and what the training really does to you. You'll learn why the A-10 community calls themselves "cowboys and outcasts," what happens when pilot training exposes a weakness you didn't know you had, and how Dale flew MQ-9s for four years hunting insurgents during the Marjah push before earning his way back into the A-10.
David and Dale also get into the brutal reality of watching a war unfold through a sensor pod, the moment Dale's body finally broke under G-forces, and why surfing — of all things — is what keeps him grounded now.
Dale Stark is a retired U.S. Air Force A-10 pilot with combat deployments to Afghanistan and four years operating the MQ-9 Reaper during the Afghan surge.
✅ Sponsor: ☕️ Black Rifle Coffee: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/
➡️ Dale's Ranch, Belt Business & More: https://dalestark.com/
➡️ Follow Dale on X: https://x.com/DaleStarkA10
🏫 Get coaching by David Rutherford: https://www.froglogicinstitute.com/
📕 Get David's novel, The Poet Warrior: https://www.ballastbooks.com/ballast-bookstore/the-poet-warrior
📰 Sign up for David's newsletter for free coaching tips, updates, and more: https://davidrutherfordletter.substack.com/
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.3 | Now it's I have to get into pilot training. |
| 0:07.5 | So you have to compete for that. |
| 0:09.0 | So like no social life, no drinking. |
| 0:12.8 | I didn't do anything that people would consider fun for that age. |
| 0:17.8 | I had a buddy. |
| 0:19.6 | And then he called me a couple days later. He's like, hey, do you want to go |
| 0:23.2 | to Chili's? And I was like, dude, you don't get it. There's no more Chili's. There's no nothing. |
| 0:29.7 | This is all I do. If I get through this program and I don't get a pilot slot because I went to |
| 0:36.4 | Chili's one night, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life. |
| 0:39.8 | You're basically like rewiring your brain to do something kind of insane. |
| 0:44.8 | So to do that is very painful, especially in a short period of time. |
| 0:49.3 | Right. |
| 0:49.6 | So you can only do that with extreme stress. |
| 0:52.8 | It's like the iron and the fire forging it, right? |
| 1:03.0 | Dale, thank you so much for coming to Idaho and spending time with all of us. |
| 1:14.9 | One of the things that was really fascinating to me when I first reached out to Clay, |
| 1:21.1 | hey, I really am, you know, pondering, trying to figure out this dilemma of how do we properly influence |
| 1:31.6 | the next generation amidst of all the turmoil that's kind of going on that we're witnessing |
| 1:37.3 | that, you know, I think all of us are kind of walking this tightrope of trying to figure out |
| 1:43.3 | what that means. And I remember i was like all right |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

