Ep 484: From Thunderbirds Maintainer to Netflix Star - TSgt Xavier Knapp!

Ones Ready

Aaron Love, Trent Seegmiller, and Jared "Peaches" Pietras

Education, Special Reconnaissance, Special Operations, Air Force, Pj, Combat Control, Tactical Air Control Party, Self-improvement, Fitness, Selection, Health & Fitness, Pararescue, Special Warfare, Tacp, Government, Assessment And Selection, Cct

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Send us Fan Mail Let’s get one thing straight—this ain’t your typical Air Force hype-fest. Xavier Knapp went from "please God, not F-16s" to becoming the standout maintainer in Netflix’s Thunderbirds documentary. In this episode, we pull the curtain all the way back on what it really means to be a top-tier wrench-turner in the Air Force. Xavier shares the unfiltered truth about failing out of EOD, getting slapped in the face (literally) by maintenance, and grinding through 120° days and freez...

Transcript

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0:00.0	One's ready.
0:01.0	Go!
0:07.2	Hello, everybody.
0:08.3	Welcome back to the Ones Ready podcast.
0:09.6	It's me. It's Trent.
0:10.2	We got a great one for you this time.
0:11.7	I'm sure you've seen the Netflix documentary.
0:13.3	Hopefully you went on and watched the Live React that Peaches and I did.
0:17.3	Trent is a big fan.
0:18.4	I'm a fan.
0:19.1	I don't know how we got to this place, but I love you,
0:20.9	Air Force Thunderbirds. You guys got me. Yeah. And on this episode, I actually just had to clean
0:25.6	off my face because I had tears of inspiration streaming down my face by the end of it. Like,
0:29.6	and I'm not happy about it. But yeah, it is what it is now. A little bit behind the curtain, Trent literally texted me this a hole about this guy because Xavier Nap is who we have on.
0:39.6	Xavier was, he's a maintainer by trade. He was in the Thunderbirds. You've recognized him from the
0:44.2	documentary. We gave him a shout out through that shout out. When we were talking on that episode,
0:48.0	he was willing to come on and this guy absolutely crushed it. He is doing everything the exact right
0:52.3	way. We talk about maintaining high standards, good teamwork, all of these things that you actually care about getting in.
0:58.3	Xavier absolutely crushes it.
1:00.0	We're excited for you to hear this one.
1:01.6	Before you do, go over to the Ones ready page.
1:03.2	Check out all of our partners.
	...

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