I feel the need.

The need.

Hey everyone, this week we're breaking from the Navy's 250th birthday celebration to catch up with an old friend of the show.

You longtime fighter pilot podcast listeners remember retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Dave Burke from the Anglico episode number 59 way back in

2019. He then co-hosted episode 61 on the F-22 and participated in our exclusive screening of

Top Gun Maverick in May 2022. Now he returns to the show to share an exciting project he's working on.

Chip, welcome back, buddy.

I can't believe it's been that long. It's good to be here. Well, it is good to be here because we're at your house. I think this is the very room where we recorded the Anglico episode. We were reminiscing the exact same spot. So true. All right, bud, so let's see if I remember correctly you were a marine F a F-A-18 pilot who flew the F-16 during your tour as a top gun instructor. Then you were a fact during the Battle of Ramadi in Iraq before returning to the States to an exchange tour flying the F-22 of the Air Force. After that, you became the first CEO of the first Marine F-35B squadron. And upon retiring from service, you joined Jocko Willings crew at Echelon Front. Did I get all that right? Nailed it, man. Exactly right. Dude, what is next on your journey to world domination? I don't know. I can't believe that looking back on those things. It was a crazy career. And now at Echon Front, we get to share a lot of those lessons with the world. So that's the path we're on, man.

Okay. And what's next? Well, it's hard to say. We as a company you're growing, and that led me to understanding that I needed to write down a lot of the lessons that I learned during those 23 years, all those experiences just talked about. And so really in the near term, I wrote a book to capture those lessons in one sense was to work with our clients, but really more than anything, to try to get out to a broader audience. The things I learn, the lessons and quite frankly, the mistakes I made during those good deals and try to share that with the world to try to help them out. Okay. So it's in a sense a calling card for you, obviously, right? It's credibility, but you're also

inspired by the people that you see and work with. I'm guessing the clients of Echlon Front to say, I have these experiences. Let me quantify them. Maybe that's the wrong word. Cotify them and something you can take home and read on your couch. I think codify is a really good word. And I think that's what's been remarkable for me is all the things I did in airplanes

and on the ground, there's a direct correlation to the people we work with that have nothing

to do with the military.

And so it was really undeniable the linkage between those two.

And I did want to codify some things.

Things that we've learned is just absolute lessons that apply to everyone.

I realized I had never really captured those or written them down and so I did.

It's not so easy though, is it?

No.

We talked about this before.

I was shocked at two things.

How bad of a writer I was naturally, I'm just not naturally a good storyteller or writer,

and then also how hard it was and how long it took. I mean, this is a process, man. It was very humbling writing this book. You know that. Oh, I do. And there were days I tell some people that I felt like I was just thumbs, like just trying to beat the keyboard to see if some words would come out. But you were kind enough to provide an advanced copy of the book. I enjoyed it immensely. I see boxes full of them here around your house.

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