My guest today is a former Marine attack helicopter pilot who flew hundreds of missions throughout the most war-torn and dangerous areas of the Middle East.

He served on the staff of the Joint Chiefs. He was an associate professor of national security

strategy and policy at the National War College and was special advisor to the commander

of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. His book is called Ghosts of Baghdad. Colonel Eric Bure,

welcome to Can You Survive this podcast?

Hey, thanks for having me.

I appreciate it.

Absolutely.

So let's jump right in.

Can you tell the audience a little bit about your military history, like when did you get into the military and what inspired you to join?

Can you tell us a little bit about that? Sure. So I, you know, I found the military and what inspired you to join. You tell us a little bit about that.

Sure. So I, uh, you know, I found the military kind of like most young men and women do.

In my case, I was a, I was a freshman in college and I was just thinking about what I wanted to

kind of do already, not the college anywhere close to being over. So I walked in a recruiter's office and

found my way into a Marine and those those silver tongue devils have a way of telling you they can

promise you everything. But actually I learned a lot and he talked me about becoming an officer,

talking about the ability to go fly and flight training. And so I signed up and, you know, it was a little

of a culture shock for me. The Marine Corps does things a little bit different than, than you

would expect. But it was a great fit. It's a team organization. They're very, they're team focused.

And so I got a chance to go to flight training.

And then time just kind of went by for me.

So I graduated from college in 1988, you know, decades ago now.

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