Ep 576: Harvard to F-15C Pilot to 53rd Wing Commander - Col "CAP" Gunn

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

🗓️ 10 April 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Send us Fan Mail Most people think becoming a U.S. Air Force Wing Commander is about perfect careers and flawless records. It’s not. In this episode of Ones Ready, Peaches sits down with Colonel “CAP” Gunn, Commander of the 53rd Wing, to talk about the real path to leadership in the Air Force. From a Harvard math degree to flying fighters, leading combat units, and ultimately commanding one of the most influential wings in the Air Force, his career wasn’t built on shortcuts—it was built on di...

Transcript

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0:00.0	One's ready?
0:01.0	Point a circuit!
0:03.0	Go!
0:04.0	Yeah, I wasn't born to be average.
0:09.0	I was born to be extraordinary, so I gotta pull the trigger, doing everything that's necessary.
0:14.0	Sometimes it gets scary, and sometimes it get lonely, but I still gotta push through.
0:19.0	I gotta craft and I will hone it.
0:20.0	And all the damn one I own me, but I'm craft and I will hone it and all the damn
0:21.0	wanna own me but I'm not there blade I'm an independent powerhouse and I will stare him
0:25.7	in the face and I'll take what it's mine that start to think I'm insane to look at me like
0:30.4	I'm crazy but I don't care of any way I'm just really doing what I got to do and I got no plan to quit
0:35.7	so I just gotta keep rocking and you know that's what it is every shot that I do, and I got no plan to quit, so I just gotta keep rocking, and you know, that's what it is.
0:38.3	Every shot that I do not take, I am guaranteed to miss, so I better grab that rifle and start lining up the hits. Everybody, welcome back to the Ons Ready podcast.
1:12.4	You're in the team room.
1:13.2	We have a special guest today, the 53rd Wing Commander, Colonel Cap Gun.
1:18.7	Sir, I appreciate you joining us.
1:20.7	Hey, thanks for having me, Peaches.
1:22.6	Yeah, absolutely.
1:23.8	So you have got a long career, which has placed you as the 53rd wing commander. So let's kind of start from the beginning. What made you want to join the Air Force? Especially, I mean, you've got a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard. So did you always want to join the Air Force and fly?
1:49.8	Yeah, so I think probably a bit of watching Star Wars and Top Gun too much when I was younger, made me pretty interested in it and spend most of my youth kind of wanting to join
1:54.6	the military and got away from it a little during high school.
1:58.9	And then in college, I played, I was a walk-on
	...

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