Mark Valentine, Retired F-16 Pilot and President of Global Government at Skydio
SOFREP Radio
iHeartPodcasts
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 July 2024
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mark Valentine is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a combat veteran F-16 pilot who served for over 25 years. Today, he is the President of Global Government at Skydio, a leading U.S. drone manufacturer. Despite his vast experience flying combat jets, Valentine admits that in today’s battlefield, drones impact results in ways that new jets or missiles cannot.
As autonomous drones become more sophisticated, they now make far fewer errors compared to their human operators. However, in actual combat where lives are on the line, the humans behind the drones must face a deeper question about the desensitization that happens when a soldier uses a drone thousands of miles away, like a video game, to take another life.
Join the SOFREP Book Club here: https://sofrep.com/book-club
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. |
| 0:05.0 | Since it was established in 1861, there have been 3,517 people awarded with the Medal. I'm Malcolm Gladwell and our new podcast from |
| 0:15.1 | Pushkin Industries and I Heart Media is about those heroes. What they did, what it |
| 0:20.6 | meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and |
| 0:25.1 | sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor stories of courage on the I Heart |
| 0:30.1 | Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. |
| 0:35.0 | My name is Michael Wolf. |
| 0:37.0 | Each week on Fire and Fury the Podcast, |
| 0:40.0 | I take you deeper into the mind of Donald Trump and his campaign than any other journalist ever goes. |
| 0:47.0 | I've written three books on Trump, but for some reason the people around him, they keep |
| 0:51.8 | on talking to me. |
| 0:54.1 | To find out what they tell me, listen to Fire and Fury the podcasts. |
| 0:58.3 | On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:05.0 | Smoky the Bears. |
| 1:08.0 | Then you know why Smoky tells you when he sees you passing through. |
| 1:12.0 | Remember, please be careful it's the least that you can do. |
| 1:16.3 | What's what you decide? Don't play with matches. Don't play with matches. Don't play with |
| 1:20.5 | fine. After 80 years of learning his wildfire prevention tips, Smoky Bear lives within us all. |
| 1:26.5 | Learn more at Smoky Bear.com and remember, |
| 1:29.5 | Only you can prevent wildfires. |
| 1:32.2 | Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service for State Forester and the Ad Council. Brut force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're listening to |
| 1:57.8 | software radio, special operations military news, and straight talk with the guys in the community. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -249 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.