French Combat Fighter Pilot & DGSE Intel Officer | MIrage2000 Pilot | Author of The Frenchman | Jack Beaumont Round 1
Combat Story
Ryan Fugit
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2024
⏱️ 102 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we have round one of an incredible two part Combat Story and our first from a member of the French military and intelligence services, Jack Beaumont. Jack was an elite fighter pilot in the French Air Force flying single seat Mirage2000’s, designed for dog fighting, in combat operations.
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He would go on to fly Special Forces aircraft in unbelievable conditions (blacked out, bad weather, to unimproved runways), and then found himself running covert intel operations across the globe with the French DGSE (the French version of CIA and an incredibly capable service as I know very well!). He went on to write a spy thriller called The Frenchman that was recently picked up for a TV show by the people who delivered True Detective, The Night Manager, and A Most Wanted Man!
In this first round interview, we hear about Jack’s storied family military history that goes back to Napoleon’s generals and a member of the French resistance in WWII. Jack would carry that lineage forward by competing with 3,600 other would-be fighters pilots and becoming just one of only three men who made it through that gauntlet.
We also hear one of the most challenging experiences for any recruit during training in terms of loss that really hits home, followed by an unprecedented hazing for someone arriving at a new unit that I’ve ever heard that will leave you crying with laughter.
We end this episode when Jack wakes up in a hospital after a very hard landing with a surgeon telling him he’d never fly again. He was back in the cockpit three months later.
Stay tuned for Round 2 where Jack has to change flying roles as he moves into the secretive French Special Operations aviation community doing things in the air you can’t imagine and eventually finding his way into the French DGSE.
With that, please enjoy this very interesting and unique Combat Story from our close partners across the pond!
👇 Show Notes:
00:00 - Introduction
01:05 - Guest Profile:
02:48 - Start of Interview
04:26 - The Frenchman and Dark Arena
06:20 - Childhood
21:52 - Path to the Military
28:22 - HelloFresh Ad
29:35 - Flight School
43:18 - Tough Part of Flight Curriculum
52:11 - Induction Into First Unit
01:03:46 - Timeline of Career
01:04:29 - First Combat Flight
01:20:16 - The Crash
01:38:42 - Continuing To Fly
01:39:55 - Listener Feedback
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And so the instructor died straight away, receiving the nose of my mates playing in the canopy. |
| 0:07.5 | And my mate had all the left side of the wing rip off, so a part of the wing was strip off and the cockpit was totally twisted so he couldn't bail out and we were all on the same radio frequency flying ourselves on different training areas and so for |
| 0:24.9 | 45 seconds basically we could hear him calling on the radio and falling because |
| 0:30.0 | he had 40-45 seconds to understand that he was going to die. |
| 0:33.2 | And so he was yelling on the radio and calling his mom. |
| 0:36.4 | At 19 years old, calling his mom, saying, mom, I don't want the mom. |
| 0:39.7 | And we were all flying in different areas and listening to this on the radio. |
| 0:44.2 | And then of course the sound stop. |
| 0:46.7 | Welcome to Combat Story. |
| 0:47.9 | I'm Ryan Fuggett and I serve War Zone Tours as an Army Attack |
| 0:50.8 | Helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a 15 year career. |
| 0:54.6 | I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite in combat. |
| 0:58.0 | On this show, I interview some of the best to understand what combat felt like on their |
| 1:02.3 | front lines. |
| 1:03.2 | This is combat story. |
| 1:05.1 | Today we have round one of an incredible two-part combat story and our first from a member |
| 1:09.7 | of the French military and intel services, Jack Beaumont. |
| 1:13.0 | Jack was an elite fighter pilot in the French Air Force flying single-seat Mirage 2000s |
| 1:17.5 | designed for dog fighting in combat operations. |
| 1:20.4 | He would then go on to fly Special Forces aircraft in unbelievable conditions, |
| 1:24.4 | blacked out bad weather, unapproved runways, and then found himself running covert intel |
| 1:29.6 | operations across the picked up for a TV show by the people who deliver True Detective, the Night Manager, and a |
... |
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