Civilian helicopter pilots have been the unsung heroes in helping to find survivors and deliver supplies after Hurricane Helene. In fact, for a while, they were ordered to get out of the airspace, even though the government wasn’t providing airlifted support yet. That controversy has been resolved, but a new one has taken its place.
I was talking to a helicopter pilot the other day who was regaling stories about piloting helos in combat. Indeed, Don Bentley, who has taken over writing the Vince Flynn spy thriller novels, was an Apache Helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. He was sent to find the survivors of Operation Redwings. Marcus Luttrell, you’ll recall, was the “Lone Survivor” of that op.
With the help of an Iowa Air National Guard Chinook helicopter, we successfully evacuated 34 elderly residents from Burnsville this evening. It was an absolute honor to assist these fellow Americans in their time of greatest need. A huge thank you to our first responders and… pic.twitter.com/m8YI5Nqfgs
— Pat Harrigan (@PatHarriganNC) October 2, 2024
I was talking to a helicopter pilot the other day who was regaling stories about piloting helos in combat. Indeed, Don Bentley, who has taken over writing the Vince Flynn spy thriller novels, was an Apache Helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. He was sent to find the survivors of Operation Redwings. Marcus Luttrell, you’ll recall, was the “Lone Survivor” of that op.
Helo pilots do more than just deliver “steel on target” as Bentley puts it in his first “Mitch Rapp” novel, “Capture or Kill.” They do more than deliver troops to a landing zone (LZ). These pilots can do all kinds of things; they control crowds and scare away bad guys. They can do this with rotor wash. They use it to do just that in one of the Flynn books, as a matter of fact. See the Adult in the Room Podcast conversation with Bentley below.
But you don’t do that to friendlies.
So when I saw images from the aftermath of the North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helena, I was shocked.
An unmarked Blackhawk helo hovered over a site where North Carolina relief workers were gathering life-saving supplies and bathed the site in rotor wash. Supplies went flying. Tents and popups, set up to protect the relief supplies from the elements, flew into the air like some homes went up in the storm. Reportedly, one person had to get medical attention after this display. […]
— Read More: pjmedia.com
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
