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Former F-15E Strike Eagle combat pilot and U.S. Air Force Thunderbird number two Ryan Bodenheimer — founder and host of Max Afterburner — joins me exactly 25 years after 9/11, the day that sparked his entire career. We cover his 70 combat missions and 300 combat hours in Afghanistan, a near air-to-air engagement with an Iranian jet, losing his best friend in pilot training, a hypoxia incident that nearly killed him on the Thunderbirds, and multiple unexplained UAP encounters. Then we get into Iran — Ryan spent years building actual U.S. war plans against the IRGC, and now he's watching that exact scenario unfold in real time.
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Chapters
0:00 - Seal Rescue Cold Open
1:45 - Guest Intro
2:34 - 9/11 Memories
14:04 - Deciding on Military
17:53 - OCS Selection
19:14 - NATO Pilot Training
23:52 - Friend's Fatal Crash
32:10 - Getting the F-15
36:44 - Ad: Helix Sleep
39:19 - First Deployment
46:38 - Max F-15 Loadout
59:58 - Ad: AG1
1:01:09 - Low-Level Flyby Story
1:08:20 - Decompression Emergency
1:16:48 - Questioning Iraq/Afghanistan Strategy
1:20:53 - Aborted Strike on Kids
1:24:23 - Ad: Mars Men
1:27:51 - A Mission Gone Wrong
1:35:47 - Thunderbirds Transition
1:39:12 - Tryouts & Selection
1:44:04 - Formation Distances
1:45:52 - Ad: True Nutrition
1:50:03 - Old Guard vs New
1:54:20 - Thunderbird Schedule
1:56:41 - Decompression Emergency Landing
2:00:38 - Ad: Bubs Naturals
2:02:24 - Close Calls
2:09:33 - Promoted Mid-Flight
2:12:00 - F-15 vs F-16 vs F-35
2:13:00 - UAP Encounters
2:22:52 - UAP Theories
2:25:57 - War Planning Career
2:32:16 - China as Top Threat
2:32:45 - Iran War Predictions
2:36:00 - IRGC's Resilience
2:46:16 - Length of Conflict
2:49:26 - Air Campaign Surprises
2:55:37 - Gen 5 vs Gen 4 Jets
2:59:44 - Drone Swarm Fears
3:00:37 - AI vs Human Pilots
3:07:18 - F-15 Shootdown
3:11:13 - Escape & Evasion Kit
3:15:21 - Iran Endgame
3:18:44 - Would You Invade?
3:26:41 - Litmus Test for Intervention
3:42:04 - Leaving the Air Force
3:46:20 - Starting YouTube Channel
3:51:00 - Writing "Take Command"
3:53:10 - Top Gun Maverick Plot Hole
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