F-15E Weapons System Officer | Distinguished Flying Cross Recipient | Mike “Pako” Benitez (Round 2)
Combat Story
Ryan Fugit
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2024
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this second round interview with Mike “Pako” Benitez, we dig deep into a series of combat experiences in the air that you won’t believe, including a low pass to danger close strafing run covering two troops-in-contact almost simultaneously to Pako’s description of the operation where he earned his Distinguished Flying Cross (you’ll feel like you were in the cockpit with him).
Mike now creates and distributes The Merge (themerge.co) newsletter - which has 20K subscribers - and podcast - which has 40 episodes as of this airing. The Merge brings defense and tech news and insights in a more lighthearted and interesting approach that I’m confident most listeners of Combat Story will appreciate!
We only found Pako thanks to former guest Ryan “Stinger” Fishel who was a beneficiary of the tough love and tutelage of Pako (listen to the end to hear Pako’s commentary on Stinger - it will come as no surprise to those who listened to Stinger’s interview). Stay tuned for a follow-on episode next week with Pako and Tom “Gunny” Moser interviewed together about their experiences in Afghanistan and Syria leading units.
Join hundreds of others with our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan each week about the show, life, and the military.
This episode was sponsored by Give Legacy.
Listeners can use the code COMBATSTORY to get 10% off everything on the site
You can find out more by going to www.givelegacy.com. That’s givelegacy.com.
🔗 Find Mike Online:
- The Merge https://themerge.co/
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- Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
Join hundreds of others with our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan each week about the show, life, and the military.
👇 Show Notes:
00:00 - Introduction
00:55 - Guest Profile: Mike Benitez
01:52 - First Fatality During Deployment
13:20 - Tough on New Recruits
20:47 - Harrowing Flights
28:23 - Give Legacy Ad
29:45 - Earning The DFC
01:00:57 - Time in Syria
01:09:54 - The Merge Newsletter and Podcast
01:15:10 - Sentimental Items
01:16:32 - Would You Do It All Again?
01:16:55 - Story About Ryan Fishel
01:18:20 - Closing Thoughts
01:18:49 - Listener Feedback
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Front Cedar has to use a little bit of after burner which is like burning even more gas to get us into the release staple. |
| 0:07.0 | We dropped the second bomb, the third attempt. It goes off and it just fuses like in the middle of the crevice and it just sends a shockwave |
| 0:14.4 | through the whole valley and while the weapons in flight it's like it's in the air for |
| 0:18.7 | 30 seconds it's gonna fly for like four miles or something like that and so so as soon as you go, it goes to do weapons away, |
| 0:24.7 | you always do a wing up, make sure that the bomb didn't wobble when it came off or have a battery failure. You can see it immediately. |
| 0:30.0 | The weapon comes down, hits exactly, and the J-Tack is like a stag. |
| 0:34.0 | He's like, beautiful. |
| 0:37.0 | Welcome to Combat Story. I'm Ryan Fugit, and I serve Warzone Tours as an Army |
| 0:41.0 | Attack helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a 15-year career. |
| 0:45.2 | I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite in combat. |
| 0:48.7 | On this show, I interview some of the best to understand what combat felt like on their front lines. This is |
| 0:54.6 | combat story. Today we have the second round interview with Mike Paco Benitez |
| 0:58.8 | where we dig deep into a series of combat experiences in the air that you will not believe, |
| 1:03.6 | including a low pass to danger close strafing run, |
| 1:06.4 | covering two troops in contact almost simultaneously. |
| 1:09.7 | Paco's description of the operation where he earned his distinguished flying cross, you'll feel like you're in the cockpit with him. |
| 1:15.2 | Mike now creates and distributes the merge, the merge.co newsletter, which has 20,000 subscribers and |
| 1:21.2 | podcast, which has 40 episodes as of this airing. |
| 1:24.3 | The merge brings defense and tech news and insights in a more light-hearted and |
| 1:27.8 | interesting approach that I'm confident listeners of combat story will appreciate. |
| 1:31.9 | We only found Paco thanks to former guest Ryan Stinger |
| 1:34.4 | Fisher who is a beneficiary of the tough love and tutelage of Paco |
... |
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