General Funk: Military Readiness & Ukraine

National Mounted Warrior Museum

In episode 15 of Ravens Radar, host Raven Harrison welcomes retired Lieutenant General Paul Funk to discuss military readiness and the situation in Ukraine. General Funk, a decorated military professional with extensive combat experience, provides valuable insights into the current state of the military and the challenges it faces.

Episode 15 Summary with General (Ret.) Funk

During the episode, General Funk highlights the importance of military readiness and the need to focus on training, budget allocation, and equipment availability. He emphasizes the significance of maintaining a strong and prepared military force, especially in the face of growing geopolitical tensions.

Transcript

Raven Harrison: Welcome Patriots! This episode of Ravens Radar is not going to disappoint. It’s going to be ready for a general admission audience. I’ll let you guys do on that one for a minute. If it’s in your sights, it’s on my radar. We’ll be airborne shortly.
[Intro Video]
Raven Harrison: Welcome Patriots to this episode of Ravens Radar. We are going to do something we haven’t done before. We are bringing real military might to the table today. I am so excited you guys. You don’t even know my military senses are all tingling because we’ve got some power coming. We’re going to be having an incredible guest today. But first I want to take you through what’s going on. A little bit of what’s going on in the world. I want to hit on what we’ve got at the top of our pecking order right now. We have the classified document scandal that just keeps growing, growing. It is basically a dumpster fire that keeps sucking the air into it.
We’re going to call it Biden Gate for those paying attention at home. So more classified documents found with President Biden. You guys don’t even realize how hard I’m working to not put President in air quotes. You know what I’m going to do anyway, with President Biden. So let’s get into it. This has started as what started as there were documents in one place. Has now been documents multiple places, but they were secure because they were next to his vintage Corvette. Hunter lived there, but only for a little bit. And he paid rent, so it’s okay. It’s just, it’s a ridiculous and it’s okay. My favorite, my personal favorite, it’s okay by the left because President Trump had more. You know, guys, this is not an, is she a little pregnant deal? You are, you aren’t. So now we found this in Wilmington, his residence in Wilmington. We found that the, the think tank in U Penn.
And here’s what it basically boils down to is right is right and wrong is wrong. And the end does not justify the means. This was a dangerous game. The left was playing with President Trump being in office where they wanted to impeach over nothing. They wanted to try him over nothing. They wanted to rail him and just highlight every single thing he did. He went to McDonald’s. So we have been through this now. You know, it’s, it shouldn’t be the turnabout is fair play, but we are basically in this section now where people have lost their humanity. They have lost their integrity to the ones that are saying, well, it’s okay because, you know, Biden had a little bit and Trump had a lot.
They only found a few documents. Okay, well, let’s address these in turn. So it doesn’t matter whether it’s a lot or a little bit. I mean, I remember, I’m old enough to remember people going crazy because they’re like, well, Trump walked out with the nuclear codes. Guys, stop, stop, stop, stop. Okay, president can declassify anything he wants to declassify. He worked with the archives on this. So people knew about the documents he had and they were in a locked safe from what I understand. Okay, Biden was not the president. He wasn’t the president. He wasn’t a little president. He wasn’t the president. He did not have the authority to declassify the documents that are in his possession. The people who found the documents in his possession are also not authorized and don’t have security clearance to be viewing those documents.
Another thing you’re hearing is, well, Trump, you know, took them and he stuffed them. I said, if you think that President Trump took nuclear codes that were on a post it note and stuff them in Melania’s underwear drawer, you’re an idiot. Just let me go on record of saying that it didn’t happen. Guys, come on. Have you ever heard of a nuclear football? Do you have any idea what the Pentagon does? I do. I had two parents who worked for it. That’s a ridiculous nonsensical story and a good time for you to turn off CNN. Okay, it didn’t happen. So what I would tell people is to remind people it’s protocol and procedure. Okay, you can’t just store classified documents. They are classified for that reason for a reason. Now, if they’ve been declassified, that’s something else. But let’s also talk about the timing. Well, you know, Trump had to be rated and Biden, he turned them in voluntarily. Bull. Okay, where’s the bull crap meter? Okay, that is wrong. False lie. Insert whatever term you like. It’s ridiculous. Guys, come on. This is gas lighting. That’s not how it works.
Okay, it’s they didn’t turn it in when they found it. Okay, they are turning it in after the midterms when it wasn’t anymore of a disaster, but it is a disaster. This is gas lighting and quite frankly, it’s treason. He this is unacceptable and we need to be held accountable. There is a reason those documents are classified. There’s a reason that they’re supposed to be handled and stored in a certain way. And with 47 years in office, Biden should know that. So let’s get back to the real problem of seeing if the Justice Department is actually going to do this or if they’ve made us listen to a bunch of nonsense. Well, you know what better than that?
Why don’t we get on right to the front line? So instead of just talking about what people on the front line and security and high level, you know, ranking officials do, why don’t we just get to it? We are going to be bringing on the one and only three star general general Paul Funk. I am a huge personal fan of General Funk and he’s going to be coming. He’s going to be giving us some frontline. You want to know what the frontline war from a general perspective looks like? I’m about to tell you. Stay with us.
[thetweeterofthefreeworld.com spot]
Raven Harrison: Welcome patriots to this episode of Ravens Radar. Did I tell you was going to be epic? This podcast is good for general audiences. I’m going to let you guys get for that today on our show we have a real treat as a military brat, the daughter of two retired Air Force Lieutenant colonels and the wife of a retired Air Force major. I’m telling you this is special because there’s a breed that we don’t have anymore. They just don’t make them like this anymore. And I want to give patriots some real hope and some real information from what it was like from somebody who really was on the front line. So it is my pleasure to welcome to Ravens Radar Lieutenant General Paul Funk.
General Funk: Thank you very much, Raven. Great to be here.
Raven Harrison: Great to have you sir. I am super excited. So for the people who are non military, we’re going to get them up to speed really quick. You are a Lieutenant General, which is a three star general in the retired United States Army.
General Funk: You bet. And you have a son not to be confused with General Paul Funk, who is
General Funk: my son.
Raven Harrison: Your son is a four star general
General Funk: takes after his mother.
Raven Harrison: Obviously. So it is. So that is a legacy and a tradition. I guess we have that in common, don’t we sir. But I really want to tell you people don’t have an idea of what this actually means. So general from the front line and you were in a few wars, you are military bred. So give us a little insight into your military career.
General Funk: Sure. The two combat services that I had first in Vietnam. It’s an air cavalry troop commander, 248 soldiers, 27 helicopters of three different kinds. And we fought in war zone C where there weren’t any villages there weren’t any friendlies. That was all NVA country and we fought them almost every day. And by the way, at the end of that war, we almost lost our army. That was a tough, tough time. We rebuilt that army. It took us 15 years.
My second combat tour was in Desert Storm, where I was privileged command, this third armored division spearhead division as it was known from World War two days and armored division, the most powerful formation in the world is a US Army armored division, more combat power, 360 main battle tanks, 300 Bradley fighting vehicles, 120, 155 howitzers, two troops, I’m sorry, squadrons of attack helicopters, apaches in those days.
Raven Harrison: Yes.
General Funk: So we had lots of combat power, 22,533 soldiers, 13% were women. And by the way, yep.
Raven Harrison: 13% were women.
General Funk: Absolutely. And when we marched into that desert, we crossed the line of departure into Iraq through that berm from Saudi Arabia. Every soldier marched.
Raven Harrison: And that’s what we’re going to get it because right now you’re given kryptonite to the guys out there. This is the and the military might in there. What does that mean? Because people say right now you hear those terms a lot. We’re headed for uprising and about what is battle really look like. So our patriots what it looked like from the general’s perspective going into hostile territory.
General Funk: Well, the first thing is from the general’s standpoint. I’ll not forget I’d been told this I’d read this. I’m thinking the night before that we attacked. If we haven’t done our job we the senior guys, the generals three of us in the division, and the colonels who commanded the brigades. If we haven’t done our job, it’s too late because our job is to help ready the division, do the planning, set the orders and then launch the division but the real fighters are down at the platoon company squad level.
These are the guys the young people with the short swords as we say, who are doing close up fight. If we didn’t do that right, it’s too late to general now we could still screw it up. Believe me the generals could, but not the soldiers and they were magnificent. Nobody has seen a fight. That’s the greatest first battle US Army has ever fought. There’s a book called America’s First Battles for our army 13 of those battles on 11 of them we lost them. The other two were bloody victories. This was the most overwhelming victory we’d ever had and because there was only because we were so dominant that first battle was the only battle of that war.
Raven Harrison: Well, I got to ask you this so you had these and 13% were women you had this battle ready they did their job. But anybody there care about whether it was a man or woman guarding your back anybody care about wokeness and political correctness when you were going into the enemy.
General Funk: No ma’am, absolutely not in fact. And today, of course, you know we have women in the combat arms. My grandson in about three weeks in February takes command of the cavalry troop in the first cavalry division. So it’s our third generation, me, my son, my oldest son, and then my grandson.
Raven Harrison: Oh, Patriots, are you paying attention? If something breaks out, we need to be with general thought. It’s going on in that family.
General Funk: They maybe can come rescue us. But what I was going to say is I said was talking to him about his tank platoon leader there and he said she did this. She I said, okay, you got a woman as a tank platoon leader. Yeah, she’s doing great. There you go. All right, that proves it.
So I really believe that that’s correct. And we’ve come a long ways in that regard. It’s a tough racket, a tough business. And you were talking about your mom earlier, who’s a retired Air Force officer and how tough it was for her. And the people that worked for her and what she expected of those kind of standards is what made our army great at desert storm time.
Raven Harrison: And that’s what we need now. And I would like to roll into that into our overall military readiness. Because this is what we’re talking about here of we have a lot of conflicting information in the news right now. The information we have is if Chinese, China and Russia, all these people are building up their armies while ours seem to be depleted, demoralized. What does military readiness mean to us in this country?
General Funk: Okay, good. First of all, I will tell you that we were probably never as ready as we were at that time, but we put five armored divisions into that fight. We don’t even come close to having that many anymore. Because of the wars we fought in the Middle East, we’ve continued to downsize the force in terms of what we call heavy forces, lots of combat power and so on. So for instance, we had about 7000 main battle tanks in the US Army at the time of Desert Storm. Today, we have less than 1400 in the active force.
Raven Harrison: Are you guys patriots you getting this 7000 at the time that we went into Iraq for Desert Storm and Desert Shield. We have less than 1400 now, right now today in 2023.
General Funk: In the active force now we didn’t have 7000 tanks in the we had a hell of a lot in the in the forward we had the guard units that were armored divisions to then see. So what the point I would make is is that this stuff kind of slips away from you. Now, the second point I’d make is, instead of worrying too much about, I think we all find keep an eye on critical race theory things like that that may be being taught.
But really the focus ought to be what’s the budget, how many training dollars do we have, what about ammunition, what about all the missiles that they’re firing in the Ukraine now that came from the heart of the US Army and the other services. And when you start adding that up, you say, well, okay, we’re going to cut the defense budget. I don’t think so. If you do, you’re not going to be able to replenish those arms. We need to do that. Second thing we need to do in that regard is to make sure you you mentioned earlier in our discussions that we’re having a problem meeting recruiting goals.
Raven Harrison: Yes.
General Funk: Okay. The major reason we have a problem recruiting is we got too many fat kids. We have young people that are not fit enough to even come in the army. We also spent two years without those kids going to school.
Raven Harrison: Yes,
General Funk: I think they can pass the, the arm, the AFT or any of those kinds of tests. A lot of them cannot. We’d not had that problem before we have it now. So we’re going to have to really focus. I know the army has taken some steps to try to correct that by bringing people in without signing them up until they can make certain standards, including intellectual standards.
Raven Harrison: And standards are good. For the ones who are going crazy, you know, about, listen to what he’s saying. It’s like anything else when you apply for a job, you need to be ready for that job and prepared for that job. There was a time, I mean, I have enough to remember when you used to dress up the fly, you know, that you didn’t get on an airplane in your underwear. And so,
General Funk: or your pajamas.
Raven Harrison: So now just let’s look at it in terms of that. We used to have the best and the brightest, the men who were clean shaven, clean cut, educated, fierce, ferocious and ready with a sense of patriotism to defend this wonderful nation. And now we just have people kind of rolling out of bed and, you know, does this pay for the college I’m not going to do so I can get a degree in Taylor Swift, you know, and these kinds of, we have to, to be able to have these discussions guys and our military rediness has to do with each and every one of these soldiers who wears this uniform.
General Funk: Yeah. And the army won’t take them if they can’t get close so that we can bring them along and qualify. So, like I said, we almost lost the army at the end of Vietnam. We’re not. This is a really fine army, the people that are in there now are darn good. And they meet these standards. And so we put them through a lot over this COVID period, just like everybody has been through a lot. So we ought to take a deep breath, get back to focus on train if you drive by Fort Hood, stay in a motel and you don’t hear the gun shooting out there. Then you ought to be worried.
Raven Harrison: Correct.
General Funk: And that worries me I live close to there now on a cattle ranch. And so I’m, I’m very cognizant of that. We really need to focus on what the army is supposed to do, what the Air Force, Marines, the Navy, let them focus on the things that they need to do. And let’s not let them get wrapped around the axle on some of these other things.
Raven Harrison: Correct, including the social. So in that vein, I just want to hit on a point that you were so graciously point out the downsizing any demoralizing the changes that have come that are not good to our military forces. Have been coming from bureaucrats. They’re coming from politicians are not coming from people who are uniform suited up, ready to defend this country they’re coming from politicians who are out there, you know, making backdoor deals.
And have you ever had military people that want to cut military budgets it’s always the politicians who don’t see the benefit in having a robust and strong and prepared military because no one’s going to be able to do that. Military because nobody seems to appreciate the military more except for when the communism shows up.
General Funk: Yep. You know, and it’s too late. And particularly in this day and age. And so what what you’ve said is exactly right. Let’s let’s get focused on what it is it’s training readiness of the systems that you have, and all your airplanes fly and all your helicopters. What about the guns will they shoot. That sounds simple. It’s not. And it’s expensive. Don’t get me wrong. But I believe, I believe this in my heart, you can have a sort of mediocre army for about the same price as you can have an outstanding army. I don’t think it costs that much more. You mentioned around very important. Do we think we’re the best in the world don’t go around beating your chest. Just prove it. I have a little saying in the third Armored Division talking ain’t fighting.
Raven Harrison: That’s right.
General Funk: And you know what, after it was over a couple of guys said something I said yep, can talk now. If you can do it, you can brag, but don’t wait too long. I think we got about three weeks. And then we better get after it again, because somebody else is going to be looking at us to maybe fight us but certainly the challenges. Don’t let down.
Raven Harrison: That’s right. Don’t get they need to hear that Patriots need to hear it now. So I want to ask you in that vein we’re going to we’re going to get to it so far our second amendment people out there which should be everybody the Constitution protects and I’m one of those people, you know, they’re saying right now that Biden is calling for he just this morning calling for a ban on assault weapons to say this with a straight face we need a ban on Joe Biden. Okay, but they want a ban on assault. Can you please I would like to say but I want people to hear this from a decorated military professional. What is an assault weapon.
General Funk: An assault weapon is something like you would arm your soldiers with at the squad level in an infantry unit in the US Army. Those weapons can either fire semi automatic or full automatic. People are trained to use them in both cases and both ways. And so an automatic weapon is sort of basic to an assault weapon. I don’t think that that the rifles you see people carry to deer hunt today and that sort of thing that are not automatic. Those are not assault weapons in that in the definition of it.
Raven Harrison: It’s a terminology they like to rope. It can we also clarify that when the these rights the second amendment was written we didn’t hadn’t just finished deer hunting. We finished liberating a country and can you just confirm with all your experience if the bullets come out slower from a pistol than they do from a rifle.
General Funk: Well in fact they do.
Raven Harrison: That’s exactly that makes the left that makes the left feel better but at the end of the day
General Funk: I didn’t know that
Raven Harrison: it makes it feel better because they come out. But and Joe Biden more time for the ice cream less time for the bullet. So we have to but the end of the day. The second amendment is absolute. It says shall not be infringed. It says not if it’s 2023. Not if the left says it’s a bad idea. Not if Joe Biden got irritated before his diaper change. They are saying that the second amendment is absolute. That is and those are rights that you fought for. Sir.
General Funk: I would point that out that we did in fact fight for those rights as written from the beginning. And in the end a soldier fights really for his left and right for one another. And so we we we set a standard of performance and I’m proud to say in the first squadron ninth Cavalry in Vietnam I was the A troop commander as well as in the spearhead division and Desert Storm. We fight. Though ultimately for one another.
That means we’re fighting for the people of the United States and for sure the documents the flag and so on. But the truth of it is is what we want is for everyone to enjoy the rights they were given under the Constitution United States and we’ll defend that. And we give up certain rights to do that as you know as your mother knows very well speaking out for instance going political saying the kinds of things that soldiers should not say and are not allowed to say. And when you come to that protection of things like classified documents.
Raven Harrison: So yes and you have had I’m sure very top level security clearance my parents worked out of the Pentagon and had them as well. And I would just like to clarify for the people out there the number of times that you stored your classified documents that you had access to in your garage is how many approximately
General Funk: that would be zero. Absolutely none
Raven Harrison: number of times your son no classified documents in figure out anybody getting this and the number of times that I came across my parents in any classified documents in my house.
General Funk: Of course not. Yeah I this is. I mean Paul commanded all of the troops in Iraq when we finally took out ISIS. He was the at that time the commander of that element. And I think there were 71 or 72 nations in that coalition a tremendous responsibility tremendous force of folks from all over the world. None of them by the way would have done that none of them would have felt like they could take a classified document somewhere. Now people can say well yeah but they don’t really tell anybody that much individually maybe not but who cares the law is this is what you do. And if you don’t do that you’re going to be fired you’re going to be court martial you’re going to end up in jail.
Raven Harrison: But there is a security risk people are you know Trump took a little he took a lot he took a little. It’s protocol the reason that those documents are classified is because they were only supposed to be seen by certain eyes and they are supposed to be handled and disposed of. So the ends don’t justify the.
General Funk: No they don’t
Raven Harrison: is wrong is wrong is wrong. And that’s important and I’m glad to hear you say that because it’s important for we don’t get distracted keep your eyes on the call it doesn’t matter who’s doing it protocol has to be followed procedure has to be followed. And I want to say this as we kind of you know wrap up and I pick your brain but people say that we’re headed to war civil uprising many people don’t even know what that means but could you give a word look into the camera and give a word of encouragement to the Patriots who are from their general what do we need to do now to get America back on track.
General Funk: Everybody’s got his have his or her own definition of being back on track let me say that first of all that’s the privilege we have. That’s why I I’ve always believed since I was a pretty young guy that the collective wisdom of the citizens of this country is better than anything that can come from a single general or from the Congress or the president I really strongly or the Supreme Court for that matter I really believe that the collective wisdom of our people is very very sound I want to I want to say that from the beginning I would also say though that that for us to succeed we have to all be allowed to speak our minds and to disagree without violence without taking advantage of somebody else.
I just I feel that deeply and I believe now I will tell you this we had a lot tougher time in the late 60s in this country. Then we’ve had even with those stupid riots. I think that was the last year when antifa was going off with and doing the things that they were doing out and tickling on the West Coast which has always been kind of a very nice place I liked it out there was at Fort Lewis a couple times now Seattle kind of a mess now Portland kind of a mess. Because of lawlessness and a small group taking advantage of the larger group without any kind of seemingly without any kind of problem. That’s just wrong. You cannot. You cannot have that kind of anarchy and exist as a nation.
Raven Harrison: Correct.
General Funk: So OK I disagree with some people they disagree with me. If you’re in the army you give an order people march. That’s the way it is. I marched and fought with a spearhead division in the deserts of Mesopotamia as a matter of fact. And in fact that was a great victory for our soldiers. And I want to say that it’s all of our people whatever color whatever race whatever their proclivity for how people ought to be left alone to do that. But together together we have to be able to pull together for certain things. World War II, Desert Storm if you will. I think that’s the those are examples where we were successful finally but let’s not be unready next time either. General Funk: Military Readiness & Ukraine
Raven Harrison: And let’s also if for those who’ve been watching our podcast you got two people on the stage who are fighting one is fought one is fighting for your right to disagree. But right being the operative point now before we take it out I’d like to. So you are working now with. I want you to tell our listeners and our viewers about the Mounted Warfare.

General Funk: Sure. We have built a phase one of the museum called the National Mounted Warrior Museum. This is all about those kinds of young people. And some of us may be a little older but let’s talk about the real fighters. Those that carry the short swords. That’s what we’re doing building a museum right outside the gate of Fort Hood. You can. We’ll open it next summer. We’ve already got as I said phase one done.
Raven Harrison: And you’re doing bricks for so you can buy a ceremonial brick which I have done for both my parents. I encourage you to do that. We’re going to put the website up there but you’re buying a brick we’re supporting veterans were honoring their memory. We are going to do that and General Funk it is truly my honor to have you on the show today Patriots. I promised you it was going to be epic. This is how we do it straight from the front lines real generals fighting a real war that we really can win. Don’t give up. We’ve got this.
[thetweeterofthefreeworld.com spot]
Raven Harrison: Thanks again Patriots for joining us for this episode of Ravens radar. I hope you enjoyed having General Funk on there are real frontline fighter real military men they don’t make them like that anymore but we can again so it’s going to be great. Feel free to reach out to me for what’s going on and how we’re going to combat it. I’m at Raven Harrison dot com or you can reach me on social media Raven the conservative warrior. We also have a site for the podcast Ravens radar and we’ve got the book Ravens mantle coming out shortly. Go to RavenHarrison.com for details. Patriots.
We’ve got this we were made for such a time such as this and we can do it. We’ll see you next time.

Wrap-up

As the episode concludes, Raven Harrison encourages patriotic listeners to take action and support the military. She emphasizes the need to uphold the Second Amendment and defends the rights of citizens to bear arms. Additionally, Harrison discusses the importance of maintaining protocol and adherence to classified document handling procedures.

In light of the discussion, Harrison urges listeners to stay informed and involved. She encourages individuals to support initiatives like the National Mounted Warrior Museum and honor the memory of veterans by purchasing ceremonial bricks. As patriots, Harrison believes in the collective strength of the American people to overcome challenges and protect the nation.

In conclusion, the insightful conversation with General Funk sheds light on military readiness and the situation in Ukraine. Through his expertise and experience, he reminds us of the importance of maintaining a strong and prepared military force. As Americans, it is vital that we stay engaged and support initiatives that uphold our rights and honor our veterans. Let us remember that we are capable of overcoming any obstacle when we stand united.

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AVEN HARRISON

Conservative Warrior