The Real Top Gun: Navy Fighter Pilot Who Made Aviation History - Captain Kevin Smith

Sonic Warrior, of course, is a fighter pilot who performs air combat operations at or above the speed of sound. This has never been done before. Humans had never operated in that area, in that dimension. What is the motto of the Sonic Warrior? Shed doubt and soar. We have the capability if only we believe it. The first order of business is that they have to recognize that they are afraid, but that's not going to stop them. He said, everybody gets nervous, just what you do with it. Was I afraid on my first approach? I was scared, you know, yeah, sure. But I worked through it. You don't hear anything. Once you get a supersonic, the sounds behind you and the cockpit becomes eerily quiet. You cannot hear the airplane. You cannot hear anything. I'm older than this airplane, actually quite a bit older. It's cold. It feels like 10,000 pounds are pressing against your body and you can't breathe. You simply don't know which side is up and which side is down and you are dizzy and you are blacking out and you've got to do something because if you don't eject you're going to die. It's one thing to have these wonderful machines that can fly supersonically. The other thing is How do we find, train, encourage and foster the human that gets into these machines and goes out into the unknown? That is what I call a true hero. Captain Kevin M. Smith, USN retired former United States Navy pilot with tens of thousands of hours flying aircrafts for military and civilian purposes. He was the commander of the first deployed Top Gun unit aboard the USS Constellation. Captain Smith, as a pilot with deep experience flying the F-8 Crusader, was uniquely equipped to provide the F-14 Tomcat pilots of the first ever deployed Top Gun unit for close in-air combat training. Unbelievable. This is the counterculture mom show. I'm your host, Tina Griffin. Veterans Day is rightfully the theme of the week. I'm with Captain Kevin Smith, fighter pilot, instructor pilot, squadron commander, and airline pilot. Unbelievable. Captain Smith, do tell how old were you when you first got involved or interest in flying? And thank you once again for your service over the years. I understand you have, you're one of the top pilots with the most hours ever flown and First supersonic airplane that was flown was by you. That's unbelievable. Give us a history of when did your love for flying start and how did it evolve into where you are today? I was 12 years old. So yeah, yeah, I was 12 years old. And this was the era of the twin engine transport, the DC-6s and the super constellations and stuff like that. And I used to see them fly over. Where I lived, I'm a farm boy off the farm, which we can get into later. That was setting me up for success. Anyway, I was 12 years old, and I would look up and watch these airplanes fly over and just wonder about what it would be like to fly airplanes. And fly them for a living. And lo and behold, the recruiters came to my college and offered, Navy recruiters offered me a flying job with the United States Navy. And I took them up on it. And the rest is history. Great. You know, 20,000 plus hours checked out in 15 different airplanes. I flew the world's first supersonic airplane and then went into my second airplane was the world's fastest airplane. So the first one was the first supersonic and then the second airplane I flew for the Navy, the fighter now, this is after training, the fighter was the world's. At one time, it was the world's fastest airplane. Okay, I got to dive into that for three seconds. What was it like when you were asked to do the assignment? Did you jump in two feet first? Were you excited? Were you a little bit hesitant, scared? And then when you were in that plane about to take off, were you like, what am I doing? Should I have thought about this a little bit more? Give us... Kind of a scenario of what was going on in your head and heart when you were offered and when you were actually experiencing both of those, the supersonic and the fastest plane. That's crazy. Okay, yeah. Well, it gets down to the motto of the Sonic Warriors, shed down and soar. And that's what we have to do. All right? So life gives us challenges. Life is about challenges. And that's great. Because if it was easy, what are we going to learn? Right. Nothing. So we learn because we are challenged and we rise to the occasion. Notice that we rise to the occasion. We don't give up. The greatest tragedy that I have seen on the human side is people giving up too early. They just give up. I never gave up. I think it had a lot to do with my upbringing. It had a lot to do with early responsibility. It had a lot to do with my willingness to dream and to imagine and to go beyond the ordinary. And along the way, I had some great mentors as well. I think Uh, the top of my list would be my, uh, my soccer coach in college, uh, one of the best mentors, uh, maybe the best I've ever had. And, and he, he basically said, uh, you know, when, uh, when times got really rough, he said, um, you can do it, Kevin. Right. You can do it. I'm going to put you in the game now and you can do it. And I know you can do it. So he had confidence in me. And that played huge when I went through the Naval Air Academy, Naval Air Academy, watched the movie An Officer and a Gentleman. You'll know what the... The, uh... The pre-flight portion of that was three months long, grueling, grueling to the extreme. Watch that movie and then watch the Top Gun Maverick movie. We just watched that. I love it. Yeah, watch that too. Watch it really close because there's some really fascinating scenes there in terms of how we learned how to think. At these enormous speeds. And we had to change the way we thought. So I got involved and went through the supersonic pipeline, which wasn't available for everybody. But I went through the supersonic pipeline and amazingly did quite well going through the supersonic pipeline. And I had the top gun score. When I say gun score, we actually do live fire training exercises, right? And we were trained to shoot down enemy bombers. This was before missiles were invented. Wow. The only way we're going to survive is to shoot down the enemy bombers coming over. And we were trained to do that. And we were trained to do that at a very high velocity. So we had to learn. How to perform well at the high end of the velocity spectrum. Now, that sounds like Kevin speak, and I'm sure it is, but that's the way I speak, and that's the way I think. I was trained to fight at the high end of the velocity spectrum, and it dawned on me that I was a Sonic Warrior. I was the first generation Sonic Warrior. And we had to fight at speeds near at or above the speed of sound. We had to learn how to fight and win at those enormous speeds. Now, that's a whole brand new world up there at these speeds. A whole brand new world. We had to learn how to think differently. So. I have a book. It's actually a project. So, the Sonic Warrior is, in fact, a project as well as the name of my latest book. I have a whole bunch of books in publication because I'm an author and speaker right now. And I've been writing most of my life. Uh, you, uh... When you get... When you get to be fairly senior in the United States Navy, you better be able to write well, okay, because writing was key to, one of the keys to my success as a naval officer, to be able to express myself in writing was extremely important. And so that's what I'm doing now in my Uh, in my semi retirement, you're not going to be retiring. And I just want to give you a quick shout out. Thank you for your service. Once again, you're the one that is kicking off our Veterans Day series because you deserve to be recognized. I mean, so many people today take our freedom for granted in America and we are the greatest nation on the earth for what we're still allowed to do, even though we got some evil doers trying to wipe us out. Even our freedom of speech and everything else today, we have to absolutely use the tools that we still have in America. And you are the reason we have the freedoms we have. So thank you for that. Secondly, thank you for taking the time to talk in detail about your history with my son, Jake, before we started recording. That meant a lot to him. He's currently taking private pilot license. He is not sure if he wants to do Coast Guard with the search and rescue. Or if he's going to be leaning more towards commercial, but because of the fighter in him, I think it might be seriously military based because he wants to save lives. He just has that giving deal. So thank you so much for connecting with him on that. We're going to go to a commercial break. Everybody out there, support our sponsors. They allow us to find fantastic captains like Captain Smith here to talk with on the show to help encourage parents out there tuning in to have their kids also tune in so they can learn encouragement, leadership, the never giving up attitude and be able to make counterculture warriors in the home. These parents love the critical information you're giving, Kevin. So thank you so much. For over six years, I've been sounding the alarm regarding the dangers of EMF exposure, primarily coming from the towers that were implemented during the pandemic. I've interviewed countless experts on the show that confirmed my research. Besides harmful 5G radiation, we are constantly bombarded with EMF exposure from Wi-Fi routers, smartphones, laptops, smart appliances, all contributing to massive sleep issues, headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, brain fog, heart palpitations, and even increased cancer risk. I've been using two WaveGuard devices for over six years. I have the Key Home, which gives me whole home protection, and the Key Shield when I'm on the go. WaveGuard uses depolarization technology to significantly reduce EMF radiation without blocking your Wi-Fi or cell signal. Protect your family now. Use code TINA at checkout to save 20% off all devices at WaveGuard.com. That's WaveGuard.com, code TINA. I just learned that at birth, we have peak levels of IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor 1, which assists in muscle development, tissue repair, and recovery. Over time, IGF-1 levels naturally decline, contributing to the aging process. Women who want to stay young usually take the synthetic HGH, human growth hormone, but it's expensive, not safe, and there's a much better natural option. Through scientific research, deer antler velvet has been identified as a top method of increasing and maintaining IGF-1 levels. Neutronics Labs developed IGF-1 supplements made from premium deer antler velvet. Get a powerful immune system, support regular heart and joint function, build lean muscle, burn fat, grow great hair, skin, and nails, and sleep like a baby. Use code Tina to get half off with auto shipping at getigf1.com. A free bottle of Sleep Miracle, $95 value and a free bottle of 300K IGF-1+, A $350 value is included. Just use code Tina at getigf1, the number one dot com. Kevin, I want everybody to know how they can find your book. And the name of your book, once again, is The Sonic Warrior Chronicles of a Top Gun Pioneer. The real Top Gun, everybody. Oh, yeah. And we can find that right here on Amazon. Great ratings right here on Amazon. The Sonic Warrior by Captain Kevin M. Smith. Get a copy for yourself for Christmas and get a bunch of copies for your kids and grandkids and have them read this about being a hero. Any more one-two punches about what we can find in this fantastic read? The book is unusual. Thank And I do have a warning. I do have a warning on the inside cover to the reader, a warning to the reader. This is not a normal book. It is not a memoir. you. Okay. But it does, it is first person account. So everything in the book is first person. It is not, it's not a, I'm not a historian, so it's not a history book, but it's a first person account of what it was like. So I actually bring the reader along and put the reader in the cockpit with me. So cool. So you can think of this as the return of the storyteller. We desperately need to get back to storytelling. That's a very important part of any human culture is storytelling. And so this is my attempt to get back to storytelling. Each, we don't have chapters, we have episodes. Each episode is a standalone. You can go from the back of the book forward. You can go to the center. You can choose a episode and join your family. Out on the back deck or around the fire pit and read it out loud. We also have an audio book so you can listen. Okay. And these are stories, right? This is Return of the Storyteller. So you could say, what is Captain Smith? Captain Smith is a storyteller. He's going to tell some stories. They're all true. They're amazing. It's an amazing time. Um, for this amazing country that we live in, I, these are, these are all about the times during which innovation in America was on full display. Everything about what was going on, uh, comes from innovation and creativity. We had no idea how to fly airplanes at supersonic speeds, none, zero. A completely foreign environment, we had to learn from the ground up. My job was to learn how to fly supersonically from the ground up and protect this country. If we don't win the air war, we do not win the war. We learned that during World War II. The P-51 started that trajectory. Why is it featured in both Top Gun movies? For a very important reason, because the P-51 was the breakthrough. Wow. Then we got into the turbojet era and the F-11 Tiger, which I feature in my book, that was the world's first supersonic airplane. I flew that in a live fire combat training exercises. As learning how to become Sonic Warrior, and then I flew the F.A. Crusader, which is probably the finest fighter ever built. That one time, that was the fastest airplane in the world. Unreal. I flew that through most of my Navy career, and so I went up through the ranks in the Navy. And became an instructor pilot, top gun pilot, and stuff like that. Uh... And we were at the tip of the spear. So we actually had to get, at one point in time, we had to get the F-14 up to speed on close-in air combat. And that was a huge undertaking. And my air wing commander came to me and said, Kevin, we need to do this. Can you put together a top gun program? While we were embarked aboard the USS Constellation, and I said, yes, I can, but Kevin's a little tricky. So I said, yes, I can, but I need some concessions and some help. So you see where I'm going with this, right? So, yeah, I did, but you kind of have to meet me halfway. So I need tanking, all right? I need priority launch and recovery and all of that stuff, which I got. You fight every single day for your kids, for what they eat, what they learn, what they watch. So why would you settle for health care that doesn't fight for your family too? I'm Tina Griffin, and for over 15 years, MediShare has been one of the best decisions I've ever made for my family. I've had all four of my children with MediShare, gone through two major surgeries, and every eligible bill has been shared by this outstanding community of believers. Here's what makes MediShare stand out. Members can save up to 50% compared to other health care options. You get 24-7 telehealth access for those late-night sick kid moments, nationwide provider access, and no annual caps or lifetime limits. In addition, your dollars only go towards supporting other families who share your values. Over 320,000 members have trusted MediShare since 1993. And the best part? You can join at any time. Visit MediShare.com forward slash Tina. That's MediShare.com forward slash Tina to get your personalized pricing today. Or call 1-866-88-BIBLE. Keep standing strong. Have you ever wanted to start a charity or ministry? Launching a nonprofit can be time-consuming, expensive, and overwhelming. If you have a vision and mission, but don't know where to start or how to raise donations, Capstone Legacy Foundation is your solution. Their ministry charity project allows you to receive tax-free donations without the expense and hassle of forming your own 501c3, and in less than 48 hours. This ministry partnership fund is exactly how CounterCulture Ministries got its start. And we grew quickly. Capstone Legacy Foundation handles all your legal and accounting paperwork, allowing you time to develop the ministry and message God gave you. Call Capstone today at 610-688-8890 or check out capstonelegacy.org for more information. And tell them Tina sent you. Partner with Capstone Legacy Foundation to transform our culture for Christ and get your nonprofit started today. Kevin, thank you for your time today and blasting us with everything that you've done for America and the phenomenal determination you have flowing through your blood and never giving up. I think that's absolutely fantastic. Everybody out there, this is a perfect Christmas gift to give everybody, anybody at any age. And I'm also going to say the youth of America. Captain Kevin M. Smith's book, once again, U.S. Navy retired. It's called The Sonic Warrior Chronicles of a Top Gun Pioneer. Grab it on Amazon immediately. And then I have one last one-two punch question for you. And thank you again for your service, for your time on the program today. I have to have you back on again. There's just so much knowledge that I can tell you can offer our audience and for myself. I learned so much from you in this last 25 minutes. What was the hardest thing you can remember that you have overcome in your life? The awareness that when things started to go really badly, that there was always an opportunity to hang in there and to do the very best that you can do and to succeed. Captain Smith, thank you for jumping on the program. I have to get you on again. I literally could talk to you for four episodes in a row and not be bored because of your history, your diligence, and your never give up attitude. It exudes. And my son, once again, thank you so much for taking the time and talking with him before we even started. It was phenomenal. Everybody out there tuning in, thank you every week for being supportive, for jumping on the program, for watching, for tuning in via airwaves in the Midwest, a podcast, however you tune into our program. I just want to tell you, thank you. Our whole team loves you guys. We love doing what we do and we love the knowledge that we're learning as a team from all these phenomenal guests in the program each and every week. Share with everybody the four fantastic Veterans Day. episodes to honor our veterans. So share it with the masses, share it with your teenagers, have them watch these episodes so they know exactly the freedoms that we have and why we have them. Captain Smith, keep up the excellent work. I'm watching you. Go get them. Our ministry exists because of your prayers and donations. If you are not currently a partner with us and would love to help us reach more people through the production of the show or through live speaking events, you can give through our website, counterculturemom.com and then just click on the pink donate button at the top of the page. It's a tax write-off and covers the cost of reaching thousands of students at schools and conferences throughout America. In fact, our team received this email from staff when I spoke at a conference. Janela said, Hi, Tina. Thanks again for your awesome ministry at our Arizona Girls of Purity Conference. You are inspiring and forthright in your message. The truth sets us free. Yes, it does. We would be honored to have you join our team as a donor. Just go to counterculturemom.com to make your tax-deductible donation.