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RUSH: San Antonio, Texas. Joe, I’m glad you called. Nice to have you with us today.

CALLER: Sir, it’s an honor and a pleasure, from US Air Force, Apple Fanboy, Rush 24/7 dittos to you.

RUSH: You are right up my alley. You just covered it all.

CALLER: Yes, sir. I’m an Air Force officer who wanted to call you today on Veterans Day. On the day where everybody else is thanking us for what we do, I wanted to reach out to you, sir, and say thank you for all that you do for our military folks around the world. My 24/7 membership was back when you had the free membership back in the Iraq time frame. So I joined up while I was in Iraq back then, and I’ve been a 24/7 member ever since, and I appreciate that and all the other folks that support us out there through 24/7 and all your efforts.


RUSH: That’s extremely nice of you. People may not know what you’re talking about. Back during the Iraq war we offered complimentary memberships to Rush 24/7. It was a variation on a “support a veteran” program and plan, and it was an effort we all engaged in to bring home to the troops who were in Iraq during the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, didn’t matter where, but we enabled soldiers who may not have been able to sign up while there to get complimentary subscriptions to the website so that they could stay in touch with what’s happening back home via the website and the radio show. There were tens of thousands of them, and you’re one, and it’s great to hear from you to know that after you experienced it you hung in with it.

CALLER: Well, yes, sir, and it was back in the day when they were trying to get you off of AFN radio and trying to reduce your visibility out there with all of us, and it was a great opportunity for us. And I appreciate that, and you just don’t know the thrill of, like, I happen to be on the road heading home today, and all of a sudden to hear a ring and be able to talk to Bo Snerdley and you is like a thrill like I can’t even tell you. So thanks again, sir.

RUSH: I get kind of… Not speechless, but tongue-tied when I’m talking to people who do what you do. As I get older, my sense of appreciation and even awe for what you people do keeps growing, as I mature and get older. I mean, really stop and think about what you all do — what you volunteer to do — and realize that it’s something that 98 or 99% of the country wouldn’t do, doesn’t do.

That’s not to put them down. It’s to note how special and unique all of you really are. I know there are a lot of people today that are acknowledging veterans and praising them and thanking them and so forth, and I think it’s all deserved and worthwhile. Sometimes I don’t think you all get enough recognition for what you do. Sometimes it becomes just rote for people to do it. You said you’re an Apple Fanboy. What does that mean?

CALLER: Well, yes, sir. I’ve been an Apple devotee for quite a while. I’m talking on my iPhone 6 and I have a MacBook Pro 15-inch Retina — which is awesome — and I have an old iPad. It’s the original iPad from way back in the day, and I have actually one of your EIB Network iPad holders I have right now with my iPad.

RUSH: Okay, now, which iPhone 6 do you have?

CALLER: I just have the regular — not the super-size one, just the regular one — and it’s really nice. Enjoy it.

RUSH: If you would permit me, I would love to send you an iPhone 6 Plus, the iPhone big boy, and you can use ’em interchangeably. You know, with all their new features, you can use two phones as one now. There’s just one area where you can’t. You cannot fake the number you’re calling from. But who is your service with?

CALLER: It’s with AT&T, sir.

RUSH: Well, fine and dandy. What color do you want? Do you want space gray, do you want gold, or do you want silver?

CALLER: Wow, that’s definitely not expected or required.

RUSH: Well, I know it’s not. That’s why it’s fun to do.

CALLER: The space gray would be fine, sir.

RUSH: The space gray would be fine? That’s what mine is. I’m holding it right here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: It’s elegant. I have to tell you, it’s definitely not a one-handed phone. It’s definitely a two-handed phone. But I know that it’s special. In the iPhone 6, I think what you have is the perfect phone for universal usage. It’s fabulous, thin, it’s great. But the big boy, it’s a fun one to have and play around with, and the battery life is two days on the thing. It’s really cool.

If you will hang on, Joe, we’ll get an address and I’ll get this thing sent out to you today. Wherever you want it, it will be there tomorrow. That’s Joe from the Air Force in San Antonio. It is Veterans Day today, and I’m serious what I told him. When I stop and think about what members of the US military, and stop and think of how young they are…

During the program yesterday, I happened to see a public service announcement on television for Disabled American Veterans, and it featured a number of veterans who had been wounded and in some cases severely. It showed their efforts to recover and their efforts to live normal lives. It was heartwarming and touching.

You stop and think what these people volunteer to do and how they’re all doing it to be the best they can be. I went to Fort Bragg once. Delta, Special Forces. I got to see people trying out for that, and it’s just incredible. I did my troop visit to Afghanistan, and I had a chance. There were three miniature Rush to Excellence appearances, and there were a lot of Democrat troops. I met a lot of guys, a lot of the women were Democrats.

It was not universal fans out there, and there were some who just thought I was showing up to use them for my own, you know, personal PR. I said, “Do you see any cameras here? I didn’t bring any cameras with me. The only people taking pictures are you. That’s not what this is about.” Really, I said, “I’ve been after the government to let me do one of these things for a couple of years because I just have felt this compulsion to tell you how much I love you and appreciate what you do.”

It was at a time, folks, when I did this, that the troops were being maligned and impugned and ripped to shreds by the Democrat Party as they sought to undermine the war in Iraq, and I can’t tell you how that burned me up. I mean, it literally angered me. Not just the politics of it. Every time I heard anybody say about a member of the military, “Well, of course they joined the military.

“That’s the only hope they’ve got of getting out their poverty-stricken life because they live in America. It’s the only hope they’ve got of getting an education.” So they had to impugn their motives for joining the military. It wasn’t because they wanted to serve their country. It wasn’t because they wanted to defend it. No, it was the only chance they had because the country was whatever.

All of it just offended me greatly, and… (interruption) Yeah, and it was John Kerry. John Kerry’s even out saying, “Yeah, you got two choices: Go to college or go to Iraq. If you can’t get into college, you’ll end up in Iraq.” So that was an insult, and I can’t tell you how that offended me. I can’t tell you how it burned me up.

It still does when I stop to think about it, what the Democrat Party, the media and all of them were doing during the Iraq war to discredit it for their own political purposes, to try to saddle George W. Bush with a defeat in Iraq so that they could advance their election opportunities and chances — and right in the middle of the crossfire were the troops. And their commanders were being called liars and everything.

So I wanted to do a troop visit and just explain to them what they meant to me, and I wanted to convey a message from at least the people in this audience because I knew that you all had the same attitude about the military that I do. Because they weren’t seeing any love and respect. They all get cable TV over there. They were watching all this stuff and reading about how the war effort was lost and all this.

I thought it was reprehensible.

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