Afterburn Defense
I'm John "Rain" Waters — former F-16 fighter pilot, USAF Viper Demo Team Commander, and combat veteran with 180+ combat missions. Now a 777 pilot.
I make videos on aviation, defense, geopolitics, and the stories behind the headlines — analyzed from inside the cockpit, not outside it.
🔺 Free weekly newsletter — The Lowdown:
www.lowdownnews.us/
🎙️ Full podcast episodes on The Afterburn Podcast → youtube.com/@afterburnpodcastshow
📩 Business inquiries: TAP@seenandherd.co
Views are my own and do not reflect those of the U.S. Air Force or DoD.
Posts
Afterburn Defense
New podcast episode out on @afterburnpodcast HH-60 Pave Hawk pilot John Mangan.
Combat Search & Rescue: HH-60 Pave Hawk Into a Firefight to Save 2 Wounded Marines
https://youtu.be/QwU1WFzX_co
22 hours ago | [YT] | 12
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Afterburn Defense
New episode is live on Afterburn Podcast Channel.
How does a war actually end? Not in the movies, in reality.
"FLASH" McVay sits down with Dr. Michael Bosack of the Parley Policy Institute, a war-termination expert who spent years enforcing the armistice on the Korean DMZ and negotiating real-world flare-ups with North Korea. Together they break down the US-Iran war and why it's re-escalating, and the answer isn't the one everyone's watching for.
Inside this episode: the five ways every war ends, why formal surrender is nearly extinct, why the Strait of Hormuz is the real crux of the US-Iran conflict, and why negotiation at this level is poker, not chess.
1 week ago | [YT] | 3
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Afterburn Defense
This is the untold story of the F-16 pilots who flew deeper into Iran than any fourth-generation aircraft during Operation Midnight Hammer, the historic B-2 strike targeting Iran's nuclear sites with the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.
These were the only non-stealth jets escorting the B-2 strike package, flying over 250 nautical miles into one of the most sophisticated integrated air defense networks on Earth, well beyond the range of any personnel recovery assets. These pilots provided Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) coverage for the B-2's.
Follow for the full three-part series dropping soon.
1 month ago | [YT] | 15
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Afterburn Defense
New episode is live with "Deacon."
Col (Ret) Roy "Deacon" Qualls went from zero flight hours to undergraduate pilot training six months later. From there — OV-10s, F-15s, the Louisiana Air National Guard, and a parallel career at American Airlines flying the 777.
In this episode Deacon walks through some of the defining moments of that career — receiving the 9/11 shoot down order on an unclassified fax, scrambling toward Air Force One on the morning of September 11th, flying a night CAP over Houston with a live weapons free ROE, and leading airmen through Hurricane Katrina rescue operations out of New Orleans.
3 months ago | [YT] | 10
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Afterburn Defense
What happens with airplanes take battle damage? Hear how the USAF fixes jets with significant damage.
3 months ago | [YT] | 14
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Afterburn Defense
"Frankenstein" KC-135? Photogs spotted a KC-135 landing Sunday with "several" patches. New video: https://youtu.be/DTr9P-XWEQU
3 months ago | [YT] | 98
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Afterburn Defense
New Podcast with Maj Gen (Ret) "Trapper" Winters
3 months ago | [YT] | 21
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Afterburn Defense
3 months ago | [YT] | 152
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Afterburn Defense
Just joined @WardCarroll to try and sort through the noise as best we can with the events of yesterday with the F-15E going down in in Iran. You can find it here: youtube.com/live/5QSiJmqS6AQ?si=aHGpSfHsBKy3LJ_9
3 months ago | [YT] | 34
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Afterburn Defense
We are constantly reminded just how quickly things can turn to disaster in the world of aviation.
4 months ago | [YT] | 12
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