Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's The WallBuilders Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical historical, a constitutional perspective. We appreciate you joining us today. Chad Robichaux will be with us later in the program. David and Tim Barton here right now. And I'm Rick Green. Guys, of course, Chad, great friend of all three of ours and just a phenomenal warrior and communicator and man of God and and always good to have him on and kind of hard to get him on now, man. He's got this huge podcast going and, you know, I mean, I guess I guess it's so big, Tim, that he could have David out on the program, but you and I haven't had a chance to because maybe we'll have to hit him up for that today. 

Tim Barton [00:00:42] Yeah. You know, I don't know if it was like so big. He's like, we can't take, you know, the J.V. kids with us. We're going to take varsity only yet. So David got the call and we did. And and, you know, honestly, I. I love Chad. I really enjoy spending time together. What I'm most salty about is he gave my dad guns for being on the show. And I'm like, hang on, bro. You even runs away, right? Come on now. 

Rick Green [00:01:08] I'm really missing the invite. No day. David, how cool was that? Man? 

Tim Barton [00:01:13] It was really good. It's it's out in the middle of the country. Just, you know, kind of like you would expect. And he has such a good facility out there. They're such good sponsors and I think he's still in the top ten and Apple so I think he's just just absolutely knocking it out of the park but it's really good and it's it's that kind of Joe Rogan thing. I think we went 3.5 hours. It's that long podcast that really has has become so popular and it's gives you time to get into stuff and dig into stuff and, and it's a great podcast. 

Rick Green [00:01:41] Well, you know, we're going to ask him about Pete Hegseth and the nominations and SecDef and kind of nature of the military right now. But why do you think Chad is is the right guy to have on for this? 

Tim Barton [00:01:54] Well Chad is a guy who has been very active and involved in the military in lots of ways. Of course, his background being a force recon Marine being downrange multiple times. But then after he had all kinds of what's I'm trying to think the right way to say because it wasn't like some kind of like traumatic brain, something where he was the way I remember him telling the story. He was on a mission. He was in the back of a armored vehicle and he, like, woke up and didn't know where he was. And he's the guy beside him is like, Hey, what's our mission? And they were like, Bro, you've been around too many explosions. Like you've got, you know, whatever blackouts going on. And so he was forced to medically retire. He goes searching and. Right. I mean, we're not a family with his whole narrative of MMA and finding God and God, restoring his wife and his kids back to him. So many incredible things. But when he starts a nonprofit working with veterans and what he sees and even active duty military, so he does stuff with active duty military and veterans, He's done that now for more than a decade plus, Whatever this is, he knows exactly what the challenges are that he's hearing firsthand from active duty military, that he's hearing from veterans as they're getting out. And so he knows maybe better than almost anybody else. We personally know the challenges in the military, the challenges from leadership. He has a very unique perspective of somebody who's been there at the highest level, and he happens to know Pete Hegseth. So he's able to give us insight on so many levels. And he's such a good friend. And I think he's even traveled right now. But he said he would take a phone call from us so we could talk to him. So he really is the guy that can give us insight on so many levels to what our military needs, what we're lacking, and the kind of guy that Pete Hegseth actually is. 

Rick Green [00:03:49] And David, you've been pouring in a chat actually for quite some time. And I remember actually the turning point for me in 2016 and thinking, you know what, this guy, this President Trump or this does Donald Trump guy could end up being a good president was when Chad asked the question at that at that chaplain breakfast. And and and I recognized his voice. And whenever he asked the question, as I'm as I'm watching this thing, but he knew the right questions to ask about faith in the military and for our chaplains and all of these different things. So, you know, just a great guy that you've been able to mentor as well. 

Tim Barton [00:04:22] Yeah, he is a great guy. But as Tim pointed out, he's got just extensive experience. And because of that, he's got real clarity. He is a Christian guy, and so he's got biblical clarity and he applies that to where we are militarily. And he does understand what the military is for. And it's not a social experiment. And so he's one of those guys that understands that the more prepared you are, the less you have to fight. But that's only if you're really good prepared and only if you're really well prepared and only if you're a good fighter, as our head says, have been one of the more contentious nominations that Trump has. And yet what we saw in those hearings yesterday, it really kind of back down. And he has some great congressional sponsors. Roger Wicker, senator out of Mississippi, stepped up for him. Some other folks did as well. So I think he's going to get through and I think it'll be really good, but it's going to be really good to get to get the perspective of a warrior and a fighter who would be under someone like that. And and certainly that's what Chad has been. 

Rick Green [00:05:16] Stay with us, folks. We'll be right back with our special guest, Chad Robichaux. 

Rick Green [00:06:27] Welcome back to explore. Stay with us here on The WallBuilders Show. Chad Robichaux back with us. Always good to have you, Chad. God bless you, man, for all you're doing and appreciate you taking the time to join us again. 

Chad Robichaux [00:06:36] Yeah, absolutely. It's good to be back on. 

Rick Green [00:06:39] Well, I mean, to get you on our podcast now that you're one of the biggest ones in the country. Hey, congrats on the show, bro. It's blowing up like. 

Chad Robichaux [00:06:45] This show is doing really well. It's a we have amazing audience that people that just, you know, have have loved the content and supported the, you know, the show to listen. And then we have the guest. We have we just have incredible guests. So. 

Rick Green [00:06:59] Well, you must have had you must have had a bad week because I heard you had this David Barton guy on there. So you must you couldn't find anybody else. You said, David, I need you quick. Can you get on? Was that what happened? 

Chad Robichaux [00:07:09] Exact. It jacked up our  algorithm and monetization everything, man. But. But I love him so much. We'll definitely have him back if he's very willing. It's awesome. I love it. People. People always every time we have David on any of our any of our media stuff, people love David, of course. And Tim, you know. 

Rick Green [00:07:29] Well, we put up with. Yeah, we put up with Tim. No, I'm kidding. It's awesome, man. We really appreciate your friendship. And you know, David and Tim both wanted to get you back on to to say, you know, what do you think about, you know, the Hegseth thing? And are they, you know, it seemed like the hearing went well. And, you know, finally, even some of those who had been hesitant and I don't know if his political pressure back home or they finally realized this guy can do the job. But we wanted to get your thoughts on both Hegseth himself and the political process that's going on right now. 

Chad Robichaux [00:08:00] Yeah, I mean, he's going to he's going to get confirmed. He's got he's going to have the votes and and is the right guy for the job. And, you know, I was one of the ones that early on came out and said, you know, that I thought he was the right guy for the job. And, you know, I think all of us who did who who believe he was the right guy got some initial pushback because we're like, who? You know, because he's not your typical he's not an admiral. He's not a general. He hadn't led at a strategic military level, which is typical what we see at the SecDef. So there was a lot of people like he's a Fox News like host, and it's like, no, yes, he done their job. He's also, you know, a, you know, a Princeton and Harvard educated. And I'm right that those, I think those two schools. 

Rick Green [00:08:48] Yeah, well, you're saying that like it's a positive we drew with that's the one black mark we had on his record. 

Chad Robichaux [00:08:53] Yeah it's a negative. It is a negative. But but but, you know, I think the point is, is educate it, right. 

Tim Barton [00:09:00] So yeah, no. 

Rick Green [00:09:00] And in their world that's usually a big deal, right? They're always wanting, but they just gloss over it like it's nothing. 

Chad Robichaux [00:09:06] If they gloss over like nothing is educated. He's, he's a statesman. He can speak. He can communicate. That's right. But but he has 20 years of military experience. He did. He did a you know, he did active duty. Did most of the time was the reserves. What he did to combat deployments as an infantry commander, served as, you know, platoon. And company level he has never led at the strategic level. But, I mean, you have to recognize that that's not what a SecDef does. The SecDef sits in the Situation Room and he's not in a silo making decisions by himself, right? He's he's surrounded with the Joint Chiefs and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He's got the commander in chief and the vice president. All those people sitting with the CentCom commanders, this SocCom commanders. And they all sit in a room together and they make the decision, SecDef is one vote in that decision. So he's not making that strategic military decision on his own. I, I really look at this situation like a CEO of a company. If I, if I took over a construction company tomorrow as a CEO, I am confident that I can run that company. Now, can I build a you know, can I build a building? Absolutely not the worst guy for that. But going to lead the company. Yeah. And not only do I swing your hammer or do it because I know how to lead people and know surround myself with the right people, and that's what we need in there right now. And what people need to understand is that the number one. The number one problem in our United States military and a department defense is not our strategic level at winning wars. I think and I trust that our United States military is capable of war fighting. What makes us weakened in war fighting and and our number one national security issue? Isn't that what it is what it is our is our morale, our recruiting and our retention. Those three things are the number one things, and they affect everything else because you can't have high morale and you can't have recruiting of the best and brightest in our in our nation. And you can't retain the the good people, the war fighters and the people with the experience. You can retain them then now that jeopardizes national security. And so what Pete has has really focused on is personal. He has a personal interest in what those things morale, recruitment and retention. And I mean, it's in his book, War on the War Fighters talking about the DEI and the woke ideologies and how what has made the morale bad, what has made the recruiting bad? Why has the retention been bad? These are the things that he's really focused on. And I think in order to solve those problems, you have to bring someone outside of the institution in as a disrupter, that's going to address those problems. Even a good general, even a good admiral transitioning over, they'll have been part of that process and part of that problem and are going to be less likely to make those radical changes that necessary to be made right now. And so for those reasons, I said, man, he is the right guy. We need someone from outside who is smart who sees the issues, who's willing to do the difficult things that uprooting these these indoctrinated systems and indoctrination systems that has really weakened our morale, recruitment and retention. And he's he's the guy to do it. 

Rick Green [00:12:12] You know, Chad, as a I'm not a military guy. I'm a political guy. But but in even in the circles I'm in, on the political side of things, there's a lot of excitement for exactly what you just said, the disrupter, to get in there and get rid of all the crazy stuff and get back to common sense and just, you know, being lethal and winning wars. Are you hearing the same thing among your fellow warriors? Like is the is the is the chatter out there among those who have been the boots on the ground or even currently the boots on the ground? Positive? 

Chad Robichaux [00:12:42] Yeah. Look, I, I, I've been around the military for 30 years now and in or around. Right. Whether active duty reservist or nonprofit space and, you know, humanitarian space. So I've been around the military community and I have never seen in 30 years people turn out to support the SecDef. Honestly, most people in the military rarely even know who the SecDef is. But the turnout and the wave of support that we've seen for Pete Hegseth, it was like we're cheering on one of our own. That's what this was like, as it was like the first time I seen, like, he's one of us and we to make sure we've always complained about stuff in the military. I've always complained about a top leadership level, and now we have a chance to get one of us in that's going to lead us, that's going to give us the ability to do our job and do our job well. And that just not the Pete that's the the the commander in chief as well, because President Trump, if you go back and look at the 25 plus years of war now and look at the approaches, the rules of engagement that we operated under, under even President Bush and then. Horrific under under Obama and Biden and then under Biden. The rules of engagement in a way that our military is allowed to operate compared to when President Trump was in. Not only did it, did it let us win, but it also saved lives. Our lives like my friend's life. The death toll during President Trump's administration versus two other administrations, though the wounded, the wounded in action total. I mean, we're talking like tens of thousands. It's it's insane. I have the number in my book Saving as these I list out the numbers based on rules, on engagement. And, you know, one of the things that as warfighters, I don't want to deploy and go if my family at risk, my life at risk, my friends life under. Without a goal to win in a and that's what you see and that is that other administrations Pete Heck said talked about lethality. When President Trump came in office in 2016, President Obama had said, I said it would take generations to get rid of generations within our lifetime. President Trump went into the Oval Office and told the Joint Chiefs to kill them. That was the command. Kill them. Let the military do the military's job. And in five months, ISIS was the limited limited of the planet and five months the military. Our military is capable. We just need the right leadership. And now we're going to have the right commander in chief. And we need to get SecDef to manage the personnel, the massive personnel, right. The the of the Department of Defense and make sure that we had the right attitudes, we had the right leadership downstream that we have, that we're able to recruit the best and brightest when it happened. Do we not have enough? I mean, right now we're no, He's the biggest recruiting crisis that we've been in since Vietnam. And we and we're the highest exit. So the retention is terrible. And why? Because the morale is terrible. So if we get that back in order and our military is going to come back to being the greatest fighting force on the history in the history of the of the world, again. 

Rick Green [00:15:44] Man, even the way you even the way you describe that, brother, just the whole moral clarity and decisiveness that that you need at the top. And the difference in those years under Trump versus the others is man, just gives me chills. I mean, it makes me excited about what's what's about to happen. I can only imagine what that's like for someone that's going to be ordered to go into battle. And, you know, as you know, I work with a lot of young people and they are just waiting. I mean, just literally like in a starting gate to want to go join and be our commander in chief like Trump and under a SecDef like. Right, Seth I mean, there there's a pent up desire to serve out there where people have just been waiting to get Biden out of the out of the chair and out of the out of the decision making. 

Chad Robichaux [00:16:27] I want to sign back up now for everybody is everybody is excited though. It's a weird time to be excited because, look, this this administration is going to destroy our enemies. But what you will see is less war fighting. So those are excited. I'm going to go in and go to war like you're probably going to see less war fighting. Yeah. And this is why, if you want to know why why these people are so opposed to Pete Hegseth being a SecDef, why these these Democrats and some of the rhinos are so oppose because. Of the military industrial war complex, the neocons in Washington, DC. The millions or billions of dollars, billions of dollars they make off a war in President Trump and a strong DOD is going to shut down our adversaries and shut down wars. I mean, we just negotiated peace in the Middle East today. And President Trump was president elect, by the way. They pretty much already negotiated a ceasefire in Ukraine. They're just waiting for him to come in office. You got you got Zelenskyy praising Trump already and you got and you got Putin saying he's open to negotiate. You're going to see a ceasefire. You're going to see peace. Yeah, because we're going have a strong military and and who who in their right mind doesn't want that? 

Rick Green [00:17:46] It's I mean, yeah, and, it's everything that I mean, back to the Reagan, you know, peace through strength and that that whole mindset and and what you just as what you just brought up and I know I need to let you go because you're on the road and I said ten minutes. I apologize. But but Well, you just brought up here. All right. Well. Well, you just brought up is is so so think about all those kids that have been wanting to go in. I think the desire, at least from the ones I've talked to, the sense is it's not even so much like a blood thirst I want to go to I want to go to battle as much as I want to serve my country and defend my country. And it'll be it may be what you just described, it may end up being a season where it's like what I do with self-defense training. I love spending time on the range and in training to be able to defend my family. But I hope I don't ever have to actually engage in that moment to do it. But I'm excited to train and be ready. And I think these kids, they just want to be a part of the team that's coming in with Trump and in the military, prepared and strong so that they don't have to go fight and so that others don't have to go fight. Does that make sense? 

Chad Robichaux [00:18:43] It makes total sense. Look, everybody wants to be on a winning team.  and and and the morale in the military right now, you don't feel like you're on a winning team. I know that. I mean, like I said, I've been around this for 30 years. It's not just the morale is low. People feel embarrassed. Our service members feel embarrassed to be part of some of the stuff they're having to do. 

Rick Green [00:19:05] Man. Man 

Chad Robichaux [00:19:09] The DEI and the woke stuff. Yeah. I mean, if you needed a better example in the public right now, look at the L.A. fires and what that caused. Yeah. Which is horrible, by the way. But imagine that on the battlefield, you don't get to see that on a battlefield. Right. But you get to see it firsthand, right? You're in California, in L.A., when those cameras and stuff like that. That's what this woke ideology stuff does. And what Pete is saying is he's not saying, hey, gay people hate trans people. I hate women. What he's saying is, if it doesn't have anything to do with winning wars, then it has no place in the military. Yeah. 

Rick Green [00:19:43] Yeah. Yeah, man. 

Chad Robichaux [00:19:45] That's. That's. It's about. I mean, that's the military is not a hobby or an opportunity or a club you get to be a part of. The military has one purpose and one purpose. The purpose only to win wars in order to keep America safe and defend people around the world can't defend themselves, that's it.  And if if policy doesn't have anything to do with that, then it doesn't belong in the military. 

Rick Green [00:20:06] Yeah. That clarity and that clarity we've been missing that for so long is just beautiful. Well, I'm. I guess the last thing before I let you go. I mean, so you started off by saying you're confident he will be confirmed and and that the votes are going to be there. 

Chad Robichaux [00:20:23] Everything I'm hearing is that, you know, that he's going to he's going to be confirmed. Yeah. That he has the votes that. No, you know, if there was any hold, he won them over day. I mean, we know we know what the Democrats are going to what they're going to do. I mean. But but, you know, sounds like you're going to have a vote, so. 

Rick Green [00:20:42] Excellent. Excellent. Good stuff. All right. theresilientshow.com to go see Chad show. And Chad your next for you. You got you working on a new book. After saving Aussies what's your next book going to be? 

Chad Robichaux [00:20:54] Was it worth saving? This is like two books ago. We had a we had Mission Without Borders, which was the Ukraine. 

Rick Green [00:21:00] That's. 

Chad Robichaux [00:21:01] Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you're familiar with that, but we have a fiction one coming up. We have. And you can preorder it now. It's called Silent Horizons. It's the three book fiction series under ten Days. And yeah, preorders right now. So if anybody wants to support it, it's been a lot of fun. It's a real fun reading and a book one comes out in May. So go ahead, preorder it now. By the way, if I think a lot of your listeners really like my current episode on the resiliant show with Tommy Waller is a former force recon commander, but he's also the president of the Center for Security Policy. And the episode is on the grid going down. He is probably one of the foremost experts in the grid about the US power grid. 

Rick Green [00:21:38] And I love Tommy. 

Chad Robichaux [00:21:41]  Tommy's awesome. 

Rick Green [00:21:43] Yeah, I'm telling you, man, he's with Frank Gaffney over there. Frank actually taught me 25 years ago when I. When I first started studying to run for office. Those guys do a phenomenal job. I didn't realize you had Tommy on. That's fantastic. And that one's out now. Or about to come out. 

Chad Robichaux [00:21:58] Yeah. I thought it dropped yesterday. It is. The episode is so good. It's so informative. But it's also terrifying. But it's. It's terrifying in a way. You have to know, like, every American should go listen an episode. Not because it's my show, because it is that if one if it's in for you, you you got to go listen to it. It's so good. Tommy brought he overlly. He really prepared for it. I mean, he briefed President Trump on the grid. So, I mean, he's the guy talking about the grid. And and we have a real vulnerability our country. And, yeah, so you can see two clips on it on my Instagram, but the episodes out now. Awesome. Check it out. 

Rick Green [00:22:37] Love it. Chad. Always a pleasure, man. God bless you. Keep up all the great work to do. I don't know how you do all that you're doing. You do. You got so many amazing things going and they're making a big difference out there in the culture. And Dave and Tim Barton and I, all three of us, we really appreciate you, man. Thanks for your time today. 

Chad Robichaux [00:22:52] Man. Love you guys. All right. God bless. 

Rick Green [00:22:54] God bless. All right, folks, stay with us. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton. 

Rick Green [00:24:05] Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders. And thanks to Chad Robichaux  for joining us. I always say Robocacha and then Robichou and I get into our prefer to call him Robo, but that's what fellowMMA fighter guys call him anyway. So guys, 

Tim Barton [00:24:19] You can call him Chad 

Rick Green [00:24:20] Yeah, that's simple enough. Yeah. 

Tim Barton [00:24:22] You don't want to offend the guy who has an MMA title belt, right? Who's right? What? I haven't any stripes yet on a jujitsu belt, but he's not the guy you want to offend. You're like, Hey, incredibly handsome, wonderful human being. How are you? 

Rick Green [00:24:36] You said something ealier about him waking up on the mission and going, you know, what's the mission? That's what I would be doing if I offended him wrong. I'd be waking up going, What's my name and where? Where am I? 

Tim Barton [00:24:46] Well, along those lines, one of the things from the interview that I think is such a good point when he talked about that would help restore some of the military readiness. Like that's exactly what you want the enemy to be like. Wake up and go, what just happened? That's what we've been lacking in our military. And as Chad pointed out, Pete is the kind of guy who in I watch so much of the deposition, as I'm going to call it. Right. The interrogation as it might have been from some of these these Democrats who are just blistering him with at times these nonsensical things. And he handled so many of them with brilliance. And really, I think one of the takeaways for me is he didn't say anything or do anything that in my mind would cause any Republican senator to be disinclined to want to support him. So I definitely think, as Chad pointed out, he's going to be our next SecDef. And to have a guy like that with the moral clarity, to recognize what the role of the military is, it's not some social experiment program, it's lethality, it's defense, etc.. Guys, it's it's really exciting to me the kind of people Trump's nominating, especially with Pete Hegseth. 

[00:25:55] And this has been a busy week and it's going to continue to be next couple of weeks. I mean, all these nominations and to the credit of the Senate, they're really working to get these guys in because we need them on the ground on the job. As Chad talked about earlier, it looks like wars are ending just because Trump is about to get in office. So if these guys can be there on the ground with Trump, it's just going to be really good, not only for America. It's going to be good for the whole world. 

Rick Green [00:26:17] Yeah, Seems like, man, they're moving fast and everybody I don't know if it's everybody's fallen in line, but things are getting done. They need to get done so that they're ready for the inauguration next week and they hit the ground running next week. Really, really exciting to see. And hopefully we're going to have ways for everybody to get involved. So it's not just an inauguration of our president. We're going to be giving you action steps in your community as well. So make sure you're tuning into WallBuilders every day of the week. Thanks for listening today. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.