Footage has gone viral of an unmarked Black Hawk helicopter blowing over tents and supplies at a Hurricane Helene aid depot in Burnsville, North Carolina. So, are the rumors true? Who piloted the helicopter? Was it just an accident? Was it meant to send a message? Is FEMA or another federal agency involved? Glenn speaks with United Cajun Navy Vice President Brian Trascher, who tells Glenn that this looks more like a “hotshot” who accidentally came in too close than governmental revenge. However, he also spoke to people who claim they saw the pilots wearing standard Department of Defense gear. Brian also addresses what the United Cajun Navy is doing to prepare for Hurricane Milton. Plus, Glenn hears from a caller who says he was a Blackhawk pilot in the military and has personal experience with these incidents …
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Brian Trascher is on, the vice president of the Cajun Navy. The United Cajun Navy. Brian, thank you for everything you guys are doing. You are absolute heroes.
BRIAN: Glenn, thanks so much for having us. And really just want to take a minute to thank you and JP, the team over at Mercury One for the tremendous support and generosity they've been giving us throughout this deployment in North Carolina. And we hope to continue to keep working together in Florida. So thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you, Glenn.
GLENN: Yeah. Please, it's the audience, not me.
BRIAN: Right.
GLENN: Please, don't let me forget, before we go, to talk about Florida, and what we have to do in Florida. But first, can you talk to me.
Are supplies meant for Hurricane Helene? Are they purposefully being thwarted?
And what happened with the helicopter?
BRIAN: So, you know, you know, I think I made the mistake of asking for new conspiracy theories for Christmas. Because all the ones I asked for last year, came true.
(laughter)
BRIAN: So, you know, we -- we were on the ground pretty early in Florida. You know, we always say that people have to understand that FEMA and the National Guard are not first responders. They're second responders. The first responders locally -- the local first responders are also victims, so they're not always fully up to speed.
So that's why we put people on the ground to get to work right away.
The good thing about the United Cajun Navy, is we don't to have ask our lawyers permission to do anything, we just ask them to show up to the bond hearing later, and we'll deal with it.
So anyhow, when we first got down there, we were hearing reports about people getting -- getting stopped. And getting, you know -- impeding the relief efforts. It didn't happen to us.
You know, we have an existing relationship with FEMA and the Red Cross and a lot of agencies.
So they know who we are, and so we weren't really experiencing it like other people were.
We were getting reports of it, for sure. But then, we were -- we started getting frantic calls and texts, and pictures, and stuff. Sent to us. From our volunteers. Over at that site.
Saying, you know, what the hell is happening?
You know, they said that -- that this Blackhawk did a little pass. Like he was going to land. He started giving us the X signs with his arms, saying it was a no land zone.
And he kept coming down. You know, look, I wasn't there myself. But I watched a video a bunch of times. I am a pilot. I'm a fixed wing pilot, not helicopter.
But it does look to me, that, first of all, he was flying too low. They have to stay 500 feet over any structure or person. That's just the day one rule.
But it looks like he does a left bank, and then aft pitch, which increased, in my opinion, the strength of the rotary wash, that you saw blowing all the materials in the tents everywhere.
And then he pitched forward and took off. So I really don't -- you know, everybody has been sending us information on the aircraft. They're saying, you know, I don't want to say, because we don't know for sure. But they think they know who it belongs to. And where it came from.
Nobody knows, including myself, what the intent was. Some people are telling me, oh, the pilot just lost situational awareness and made a mistake. I'm like, listen, Blackhawk pilots are the Top Guns of the rotary wing.
The only Blackhawk pilots that make mistakes are the dead ones. You know, these guys are some of the best helicopter pilots in the world.
Seems like, either we had just a rogue hotshot, or they were trying to send some kind of message. I hate to go down that rabbit hole. Everybody saw the video now.
I'm happy to hear what anybody thinks.
GLENN: So do -- I -- I know somebody who has a Blackhawk. Believe it or not. I didn't know you could buy them, but you can strip down apparently.
Do we know if this was private? At least.
BRIAN: That was. Okay. So my first instinct was -- because you're right. If you've got money, you can buy anything. Right? You can rent a congressman pretty cheap these days, including with inflation.
But somebody -- one of our followers was really good with video. And they were able to close up on it, and see. The two pilots in the cockpit.
It takes two pilots to fly a cockpit. And they said, they were wearing standard DOD headgear. The aircraft does -- if we think we've identified the right one, does appear to be -- does appear to be registered to the military.
It was not armed. So I thought maybe it was -- it belonged to an agency. You know, I don't know. There's so many possibilities.
GLENN: There was no marking on it?
BRIAN: Not that I'm aware of. We've looked at everything, that we could, as far as with the video and pictures available.
GLENN: I mean, that's illegal, isn't it?
BRIAN: Yeah. We just didn't see any.
GLENN: Huh.
BRIAN: And so people have been using Flight Tracker and things like that, to see who was flying missions in that area. And, again, they have come up a few possibilities.
We're trying not to jump the gun. And even, let's say, it was military, the last thing I want people going and trying to find out who the pilots were. And start harassing them.
You know, I don't want all of that.
GLENN: Yeah. You know, and I just said on the air, anybody who is threatening any government official, is a problem.
And it should -- it should stop. However, you know, standing there, in a place, like you're at now.
I assume you're at our base camp there, by the Harley-Davidson dealer.
BRIAN: Yeah. Adam Smith, one of the baddest dudes in North Carolina.
GLENN: Yeah. And he has politely told them. Go away.
Because we have a system down. And it's been working. And it's saved a lot of lives.
And you can go do your thing.
But you're not shutting us down. There's no problem with saying, thank you. But, no, thank you. As we are the first responders.
But you cannot take it out on the people.
You can't. Please, be kind. If you --
BRIAN: And I'll tell you, Glenn. It just so happened, that the week before Helene hit. We had some prescheduled meetings in DC. And one of those meetings was at FEMA. They had us up at the Incident Command Center, which is like their war room.
And they had done a level one activation, and they were watching Helene.
And they were talking to all the local emergency managers, and making plans.
And I did not meet anybody in the entire building. When I was at FEMA. That was not a passionate, dedicated person that cares about their job. And cares about helping people in trouble.
So FEMA is -- as a -- as a entity, seems like, just another F-word.
And you can say what you want about the leadership of FEMA and the political appointee.
But the people on the ground. And there are people on the ground in North Carolina. Has been since I got there. But, yeah, don't be ugly to those people. They're just employees. Their job is to do this, and they do care about it.
GLENN: Yeah. By the way, I don't know how they can say, that they've got this covered.
As of Monday yesterday, only 9 percent of FEMA's personnel or 1200 people, were available to respond to the hurricane or other disasters.
They are having a hard time. They don't -- they say, this is the busiest year in the past decade.
And the staffing reserves, at this point, were 19 percent.
That is -- obviously, not good.
And they are -- they are having a difficult time, getting people in to help.
So I don't know how the government can have it both ways.
By the way, this is coming from the New York Times.
I don't know how they can have it both ways. Look, we don't. You know, we don't need help.
And, you know, we're here to take over.
And then at the same time, be short people, especially with Milton on its way.
BRIAN: Right. And what's worse having being short people.
And this was something that was intimated to me, from some FEMA management people.
That obviously won't be named. But it's not just not having the bodies, again.
They are more experienced staff elsewhere.
And you know where I'm talking about. And so they have people, but they're kind of fairly new hires, still carrying around the employee handbook, trying to figure out what is going on. So they've requested it, to their credit. These people have requested from their higher-ups, to bring in some of these more senior experienced people and my understanding is that hasn't happened yet.
GLENN: I -- I can't thank you and every single veteran, that is on the ground.
I mean, the American people are really good people.
But we don't have the experience, per se, that you guys do.
The veterans.
And especially, Special Forces guys.
You guys sprung into action. And set these systems up.
Like only really military can do.
You just -- you had what you had. And you made good with that.
And you set it up. And you organize. And I think you made the difference between life and death with a lot of people.
So thank you.
BRIAN: Yeah. And, well, just to be clear.
I, myself, am not a military veteran. But I am a pilot. I'm a boat captain. I'm a diver. I just did all these types of skill sets on my own. And it turned out to be useful. But, yeah, you're right. We have a ton of veterans. And they do make the best volunteers.
And they just -- you can't freak them out. You can't make them. You can't make them woozy.
GLENN: I know.
BRIAN: They can handle anything. And I think one of the things that helped us out, as an organization. With regards to local. Or local or federal officials trying to stop relief efforts. That we put it really early. Anybody getting in our way, we're offering an all-expense paid free swamp tour back in Louisiana. So sign up, please.
GLENN: All right. Thank you so much. Before you go, talk to me about Milton.
BRIAN: We are. So Milton is -- you know, one of the lowest center of pressure in terms of millibars that we've seen in the last century. We have our own meteorologist on staff, the Navy that are making sure that we are putting out accurate information.
And it's -- it's bearing down. The NHC track, looking to stay right in that Tampa area. Unfortunately, it will hit. It's a very strong hurricane. We are prepositioned.
We have assets in Destin and Ocala.
And we're moving more into the area. We will have boat assets, supplies, and air assets just like we did in North Carolina. So nobody has to worry about whether we're coming, we're already there. We will help as many people as we can. The good thing about Florida is, they do such a good job with these hurricanes as a state. That usually we're just there for maybe a few days or a week. Handling the life-threatening emergency stuff. And then the state comes in and starts running their show. And, you know, they take over. And they have a tremendous game.
GLENN: Yeah. Ron DeSantis is absolutely incredible. Just incredible with the system.
BRIAN: Everybody should have a Navy SEAL as a governor. I mean, we love Jeff Landry, don't get me wrong. He's a bad dude. But they're on another level.
GLENN: Brian, is there anything you need in help?
BRIAN: If anybody wants to find out more about us, we're on all the socials. United Cajun Navy. Our website is UnitedCajunNavy.org. Sign up to volunteer. Donate.
We always say, time, talent, treasure. If you've got the time to give, the talent to offer, or the treasure to donate, we appreciate it all. One thing everybody can do for free, is go to our social media posts and share them. That helps us grow, and grow our mission. This is Mercury One and all our listeners.
So again, thank you so much. And we're very grateful.
GLENN: Thank you, Brian. We're glad to partner with you. Thank you. Brian Trascher from the Cajun Navy. He's the vice president.
STU: He's awesome.
GLENN: Yeah, he's awesome, and very funny.
GLENN: These guys, they've been through these things, over and over again.
Like he said, they're just unflappable.
And there's nothing better in an emergency, than have a group of people who say, we got it. Don't worry. We've got it. Don't worry.
Especially when they're grappling down from a helicopter, as they were over the mountains.
And, you know, pulling people up in the helicopter.
When I saw Cory Mills do that, I'm like, who does -- well, I mean, you do that. But I don't ever want to do that. I don't want to have to do that.
I don't want somebody to have to pick me up like that.
I'm just going to tie a rope around you.
We will just head on out.
No, thank you. No, thank you.
All right. More in just a second.
By the way, you can help. MercuryOne.org. Now with Milton on the way. We really need to pull together.
And know that we will be there for you.
That is kind of the thing that you learn, if you're a farmer. Or you live in a small town.
When the neighbor's farm has trouble. You go over and help.
Because you know at some point, you will have problems.
And they'll have to help you.
So it's -- it's not transactional. But it's required, that we all help each other.
We're the first responders, not the government.
GLENN: Let me go to Dallas.
And -- Dallas is -- I just looked up. I thought it was Dallas, Texas.
But Dallas is his name.
He is from Texas.
Hi, Dallas.
CALLER: Hi, how are you, Glenn. Long-time listener, first time caller.
GLENN: Thank you.
CALLER: I -- I am a retired Army aviation major. And I've got more than 1200 in Blackhawk, 1,200 hours in Blackhawks, and a couple hundred hours in Chinooks. And after hearing your conversation, I went to look at the videos of the Blackhawk dusting off your supply area.
And having done something very similar myself, more than once, it is -- I don't think it was on purpose.
GLENN: Good.
CALLER: It looked -- it looked to me, that as soon as they realized what they were doing, they were pulling away.
And I've seen more stuff than I can tell you, blown over, including one of my soldiers was blown over by an Apache. Actually sent him tumbling.
Many years ago, in Korea, a lieutenant and I were flying a Hawk, and we were tactically flying the riverbeds. And it just so happened, it was also the vacation season in Korea. And the Koreans set up these canopies, and easy ups on the river and floating in the water.
And we were following the riverbed, not going real fast. And I thought I was high enough, until I looked out and I saw canopies tumbling and flying every which direction.
GLENN: Oh, you were popular.
CALLER: Yeah, yeah, I was real popular.
GLENN: Yeah. Well, I'm glad to hear that. And I hope you don't think that we accused, because we said we didn't know. We would like to know who owned the helicopter.
You know, it didn't have a tail number on it.
And so who -- who was it?
And just to not take it out on the pilots or even the service, but just to ask the questions. What happened there? What happened there?
CALLER: I can't tell whether it's a civilian-owned Blackhawk or whether it's a government --
GLENN: No. Neither could we.
CALLER: There's a lot of agencies that have them. Once again, at Fort Hood, I got accused of flying over a neighborhood. While I was at my house, having a lunch. And I actually looked out and saw the Blackhawk. And I don't know if it was a customs or who it was. But after they found out that I was actually at my house and not flying, I got -- I got redeemed on that one.
But, no. If they had wanted to really cause some -- cause some damage, they would have come in a lot lower. It looked to me, that as soon as they realized, oh, crap.
GLENN: Yeah. That's good.
CALLER: It was light stuff. From looking at the video.
GLENN: Yeah.
CALLER: So I really -- in my heart of hearts, I don't think it was done on purpose.
GLENN: I'm glad to hear that, Dallas. Thank you so much.