Episode 412 - Dave Berke - From fighter pilot to fighting on the ground in Ramadi

Cleared Hot

Society & Culture

4.9 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 153 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dave Berke is a retired US Marine Corps Officer, TOPGUN Instructor, and now a leadership instructor and speaker with Echelon Front, where he serves as Chief Development Officer. As a F/A-18 pilot, he deployed twice from the USS John C Stennis in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He spent three years as an Instructor Pilot at TOPGUN where he served as the Training Officer, the senior staff pilot responsible for the conduct of the TOPGUN course.

The Need to Lead: https://echelonfront.com/leadership-books/the-need-to-lead/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Okay, got the red smoke.
0:03.1	Gun runs, north and south, west of the smoke.
0:07.4	West of the smoke.
0:09.1	Okay, copy, west of the smoke.
0:11.2	I'm looking at danger close now.
0:13.6	Come on winter, baby.
0:14.5	Give it to me.
0:15.0	I need it.
0:16.0	You're cleared hot.
0:17.2	Copy, cleared hot.
0:19.0	Okay, there's only one place to start this.
0:21.0	Of all the things you can do in an F-18, what's the coolest?
0:27.2	Actually, so coolest, which I'm going to give, that one's obviously going to be subjective.
0:32.7	What's the most technically complex thing you can do in an F-18?
0:37.3	Oh, man.
0:38.2	You like setting me up for what to say,
0:39.8	not what to say,
0:40.5	what to think about,
0:41.1	you can ask that during the podcast?
0:42.2	We're already going.
0:42.9	That's a hard question, man.
0:44.0	There are already a lot.
	...

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