Sacked from Space Force protest drag queens recruitment

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Matt Lomaia and he’s a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, a decorated individual flu T thirty eight F fifteen’s and in October of twenty twenty, I understand he got promoted into the United States Space Force. Well, welcome to our show, Matt. Tell us all more about yourself. I mean, I always wanted

0:28 to go to the Air Force Academy. How was it exciting? Was it beautiful?

0:34 Speaker 2 Yeah, you know, I didn’t always want to go to the Air Force Academy, in fact, but I was recruited to play basketball, which I only did for one year there. And it is beautiful. That’s a lovely campus setting just north of Colorado Springs, up against the slope of the mountains. There, lovely setting. It was a terrific education. I was a

0:56 graduate in two thousand and six, and as you stated, after leaving there, I flew jets for the Air Force, ended up doing space based missile warning for the Space Force, and was in command in Colorado. It was like the fourth time I’ve been stationed there since my or third time since my academy time. But I was in charge

1:17 of the nation’s space based missile warning as of twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, when a series of other events unfolded that we might talk about.

1:33 Speaker 1 I must tell you I always wanted to go to the Air Force Academy. I had the congressional nomination for West Point, but I didn’t go. I was an only child, and my parents yelled and scream. I ended up going to New York University, different life, But I ended up flying jets. But me and a partner of mine, we

1:57 were the beginning of of the company that eventually became net Jets. Now tell us you have tell us about First of all, a lot of people don’t know much about the Space Force. It was founded in twenty twenty under President Trump. Was it and tell us exactly is it?

2:28 Is it becoming one of our big military organizations or is it still very small?

2:38 Speaker 2 It is a very small organization, although it’s every bit as legitimate a branch of the military as our other branches of the military. An easy way to think of the relationship that the Space Force has with the rest of the Defense Department is the relationship that the Marine Corps has to its umbrella a parent organization, the US Navy.

3:01 The Department of the Air Force now consists of two branches of the military. The Department of the Air Force itself is led a civilian leader, as all the partments are, and within the Department of Air Force you have the United States Air Force and the United States Space Force.

3:20 Both of those branches of the military have a four star general that sits on the Joint chiefs and ideally has the opportunity to provide equal input on behalf of their branch at that table and both discuss budgetary constraints and needs as well as how it is that those branches will organize and train and equip service members men

3:55 and women in uniform to fight and win our nations wars. And so, yes, you’re correct, that branch that we call now Space Force. It’s not just a Netflix documentary with Steve Carell, but it is a legitimate branch of the military that was set up. It was actually December of twenty nineteen, and it’s been derisively in fact, referred to

4:18 as Trump’s Space Force. He gets credit for making it happen, But any branch of the military, by law can’t be written into law by the executive by the commander in chief of the President of the United States that has to receive a bipartisan supporting vote from the Congress, And in fact that’s what happened with this. Trump championed the idea.

4:42 It had been an idea that had been in existence for a couple of decades at least, and in fact had bipartisan support from some members of Congress, and when he insisted that it happened, it took a vote of the Congress, and it has in fact been written into Title ten of the US Code. Is is officially a branch,

5:01 but it’s very small now.

5:04 Speaker 1 So Secretary, to you, you’re still under the Secretary of the Air Force. Secretary Air Force runs the Air Force and the Space Force. Is that correct?

5:17 Speaker 2 Yeah, I’m not presently under either of those because I separated in the fall of twenty twenty one, But yes, that’s correct. The Space Force, just like the Air Force, all falls under the umbrella of the Secretary of the Air Force, which is a civilian position, and we retained civilian control of the Defense Department, and the four star

5:42 generals worked directly for that civilian Secretary of the Air Force and also for the civilian Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.

5:52 Speaker 1 You went into some controversy or was it a year ago, a year and a half ago, or and tell all America about the controversy you ran into.

6:06 Speaker 2 In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. There began. Americans saw this on the streets in America, in big cities especially, but it was also happening in the United States military. There was social justice activism that paraded under the mask or name of organizations like Black Lives Matter that had a particular agenda at undermining cultural integrity in this country

6:30 and overthrowing the established government and cultural structure, the destruction of the nuclear family, and so forth. Those are their stated aims, not mine, and they were as far as Black Lives Matter goes, that was an organized Marxist organization and movement. And that’s again in their own words, not mine. Now, that kind of social justice activism, which likes to pit

6:53 people against one another and divide them based on race identity politics, was also running rampant in the military. Happened to be situated at the base in Denver, Colorado while I was in command that had a particularly activist base commander, and instead of focus on the mission that we had at hand and at our base. It was largely a

7:15 space related mission. He was interested in divesting himself of all obligations to lead his troops for the purposes of the mission. He gave that over to his deputy commander and instead became a social justice warrior and political activist.

7:34 And it instantly began to divide the workplace because he used He didn’t call it this, but I know precisely what it was. It’s critical race theory. It was it was blacks versus whites, oppressor. This was a colonel base commander who I worked under at Buckley Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. And so that that was the controversy.

8:00 It was political activism in the military workplace.

8:04 Speaker 1 And was he a recent promotion or was he just took the decided to take the lead on this new controversy.

8:14 Speaker 2 Well, he found himself in the perfect position to use his platform as the commander of a base to push a political ideology and a certain view of Western civilization and the founding of the United States, in particular to demonize it. That is, he was able to use a.

8:34 Speaker 1 Career military person. Was he go to West Point?

8:40 Speaker 2 Yeah, he was a career military man. He’d been in for well over twenty years and was a colonel and he’s now a one star general.

8:48 Speaker 1 And they promoted him, and you had a difference of opinion with him, and you went on I understand a somebody’s podcast and you talked about you were you were annoyed that the military who was taking a position of I forget what it was that they were promoting.

9:15 Speaker 2 Tell us, yeah, well, I want to revisit something you just said. I had a difference of opinion from him. That matters very little. He’s entitled to his opinions. I’m entitled to mine. What mattered to me was that he was doing illegal politicization of the military workplace. He was publicly criticizing the sitting commander in chief and racially politicizing

9:37 the workplace, and that’s illegal. He should have been fired. And so I filed a written formal complaint to the Space Force Inspector General’s office detailing allegations of this illegal political activity. For example, fear tactics in the lead up to the presidential election, telling commanders and senior enlisted leaders on the base that he better not see any director

10:07 overt support for the sitting commander in chief, Donald Trump, and the lead up to an election. It’s illegal. You can’t do that. So I thought a written complaint, and we.

10:17 Speaker 1 Only have two minutes left.

10:21 Speaker 2 Let me give you the fifteen second version on this question. I submitted a written complaint that went up right at the time of the presidential election, and they sat on it for November, December, and January, and then January sixth happened and my complaint was dismissed because they saw the political writing on the wall. Biden would become the commander

10:40 in chief. So I was in a position where I wrote a book. I published that book because I needed to get Congress and the American people involved, because clearly I couldn’t solve these issues, these problems that we were facing in the military using my chain of command. And I was fired from my command for writing and publishing

10:58 that book and speaking about at Although I never wanted to be partisan, I wanted partisan politics out of the military workplace. So that’s kind of the that’s the controversy that began at my base and what led to me being fired. Now speaking around the country.

11:14 Speaker 1 Now, are you are you out of the military.

11:17 Speaker 2 Now, yes, yes, see I am. I left in September of twenty twenty one.

11:22 Speaker 1 Now you left voluntarily or they fired you.

11:25 Speaker 2 I was fired from my command, and after a three month investigation, I voluntarily separated, requesting that I received an early approved pension package which I was entitled to, is my understanding, and that was denied me. So I separated without my pension in September twenty one.

11:43 Speaker 1 So how many years were did you serve?

11:47 Speaker 2 About fifteen and a half.

11:49 Speaker 1 And you’re entitled to a pension.

11:51 Speaker 2 It’s called the Early retirement program. It’s called TERRA, and Congress occasionally approves an early retirement for certain circumstances, and my attorneys and I requested that, but it was denied by the Secretary of the Air Force.

12:08 Speaker 1 Wow, well, I guess, and he’s a political appointee.

12:14 Speaker 2 Well they yeah, they all are when they get up to those positions, and they’ve got a political role, undoubtedly, But it shouldn’t be the politicisation of the military work environment. That’s not what our young men and women sign up for when they join.

12:27 Speaker 1 Well, Matt said again, Matt, Lomaia, is that? I said, right?

12:36 Speaker 2 It’s lomyer Lomya.

12:38 Speaker 1 Thank you for coming on telling your story to you the American people and I hope there’s some justice somewhere in the future for you.

12:45 Speaker 2 Well, I hope there’s justice for all of our troops. There’s a lot of firing going on right now, and a lot of promotion of political agendas and that which is unappealing to both service members and the American people.

12:57 Speaker 1 Thank you, thank you so much.