Show Notes

• The movie that would determine the course of Scott’s life
• How fighter pilot call signs are chosen
• The reality of tours of duty
• Flying with the Blue Angels
• Lessons learned in the military
• Becoming a Hollywood stunt pilot
• Top Gun: Maverick 
• The Blue Angels Foundation

Connect With Jerry Meek

✩ Website – https://scottkartvedt.com/
✩ Website – https://blueangelsfoundation.org/
✩ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/scottkartvedt/
✩ Twitter/X – https://twitter.com/sakintake
✩ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ScottKartvedt/
✩ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kartvedt

Additional Resources

✩ Book: Full Throttle: From The Blue Angels to Hollywood Stunt Pilot

Summary

Scott “Intake” Kartvedt is a retired Navy fighter pilot, keynote speaker and author of the book, “Full Throttle.” He received a Bronze Star, flew with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, and was a stunt pilot in the 2022 action movie, “Top Gun: Maverick.” “Intake” discusses the intensity of flying fighter jets, and the challenges veterans face as they transition back to the civilian community..

Full Transcript

Brian
Welcome to another episode of LifeExcellence with Brian Bartes. Join me as I talk with amazing athletes, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, and others who have achieved excellence in their chosen field so you can learn their tools, techniques and strategies for improving performance and achieving greater success.

Scott “Intake” Kartvedt is a true aviation legend. Inspired by a movie about two hotshot fighter pilots who were sent to the Navy’s elite fighter school to refine their flying skills, Scott turned his dream into a reality becoming a Navy fighter pilot. His military career included three tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, 91 combat missions and 500 combat hours. During that time he executed 658 carrier arrested landings across 11 aircraft carriers and logged over 6300 flight hours. He led combat units, received a Bronze Star, establish the Navy’s first stealth fighter squadron and flew with the US Navy Blue Angels, a flight demonstration squadron. In addition to his Navy career, Intake was also a stunt pilot in the 2022 action movie Top Gun Maverick, and supervised aviation safety for the spy action film, Mission Impossible 8. He continues to fly jets as a pilot for the Patriot Jet Team, is a board member of the Blue Angels Foundation, and is a sought-after keynote speaker as author of the book “Full Throttle: From the Blue Angels to Hollywood Stunt Pilot.” I’m so grateful Intake said yes to my invitation. It’s an honor to have him on the show. Welcome, Scott and thanks for joining us on LifeExcellence.

Scott
Brian, thanks for having me. I have to admit, that may be one of the best intros I’ve ever had. As I’m listening to it, man, I have been quite fortunate and quite blessed. So it’s great to join you here on LifeExcellence. Thanks for having me.

Brian
Well, it’s great to have you. You have an esteemed career so it was very easy to write the bio. Scott, a lot of people watch a TV show or see a movie and they think, wow, it’d be so cool to do that job. Maybe it’s becoming an FBI agent, or joining the SWAT team or maybe even joining the military. You went to a theater in San Diego, California back in 1986 – a while ago – and saw a movie that had an immediate impression on you. In fact, it would determine the direction and career of your life. Tell us about that.

Scott
I wish that it was some sort of strategic thought and something that I had thought about doing since I was a child, looking up to the skies and seeing the first airplane flying. But the original Top Gun came out my senior year in high school, my best guy friends and I went to go see it. And then we saw it again. And then we saw it again. And then we saw it again. And then we started wearing white t-shirts and leather jackets and dog tags. We were really into it. My best friend Bob and I told all of our friends – like any boisterous exaggeration of an 18-year-old – we’re going to be fighter pilots. Then my senior year in college, I thought I was going to go into real estate of some sort, as a developer or a finance broker and my buddy Bob called and said, hey, I’ve got my undergraduate pilot training slot in the Air Force. I’m doing it. We said we were going to do it and I’m doing it. I said, okay, I’ll do it too. It was really that simple. I looked in the Yellow Pages, called the Navy recruiter and said, I want to fly airplanes off of ships. He said so does everybody. I said, yeah, I think I can do it. The bio is as a result of that very simple decision and commitment that I made to my best friend in high school who, by the way, is still my best friend 40 years later. We still talk all the time.

Brian
That’s great. Well, there’s definitely something to be said for decisiveness and also taking action. About Top Gun, I remember taking my girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife, to see Top Gun. I didn’t have any of the same thoughts about enlisting in the Navy or going to Top Gun school but I had never seen a movie that felt so real, especially in a fighter jet. What was it that stood out for you from that movie? What did you see in Tom Cruise’s character, Maverick, that was so appealing and caused you and Bob to say, hey, we’re going to do this and then you both did?

Scott
I think it was probably really the adrenaline of it; the music and the steam on the aircraft carrier flight deck and the sound of the jet, and then Tom and Iceman’s bravado and their competence is really what drew me in. But in fairness, I am an obscene adrenaline junkie. I get asked a lot what do you do for adrenaline after flying fighters? Anything – I have a K&M side-by-side, I’ll water ski, I still get the opportunity to fly jets, anything that gets the adrenaline going I’m all in.

Brian
It’s hard to imagine that you could replicate some of the feelings and the experiences you had in a fighter jet. But I want to ask you just a couple of really basic questions. I’ve been so excited about this interview ever since you said yes, and these are just a couple of really basic questions that I’ve wondered about since I started doing research for the show. The first one is what is it like to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier? I’ve been on an aircraft carrier and I can’t imagine landing on one. I think about like being in the dark of night out in the middle of the ocean and landing a plane on what I mean, it seems pretty big when you’re standing on the deck but it isn’t that big. I’m sure it doesn’t seem that big when you’re on a plane, kind of out there in the ocean getting ready to land on it.

Scott
Yeah, that’s absolutely true. When you stand on it, it’s four acres of sovereign US territory; it seems large. When you’re approaching it at night, at 150 miles an hour, it moves much quicker and it seems much smaller, especially because the lights are turned down. Talking about the night drops, really quick I have to brag about my oldest son, Wyatt, he just got his first night landing last night in an F-18, off the coast of San Diego. I was texting him back and forth before the podcast today just congratulating him because that is a monumental moment. So thanks for letting me have a proud dad moment. Landing on the ship during the day is a little bit like a carnival because you have all of your depth perception. And everybody assumes that the landing is the most difficult and most challenging, but you’re in control. The part that people don’t think about is the catapult, the steam catapults, it’s like getting shot out of a gun, you go from zero to 154 miles an hour end speed in less than two seconds. And you don’t know whether you’re an airplane or a refrigerator at the end. So if you have the end speed, clearly you fly away. Then think about it, at night there is a little bit of ambient light on the aircraft carrier deck. They try to keep the lights low so that your cones and rods in your eyes open up to give you the best night vision. But even then you get shot off the end at night and you go from a little bit of ambient light into just pitch black darkness. We used to say it was like being shot in the inside of a basketball. That was always exhilarating, the night stuff. As you come down and you dirty up and you’re on your approach and you’re flying your procedures, you are flying at 250 miles an hour, then you slow down to about 150 miles an hour but there’s no depth perception because it’s pitch black out over the ocean so you don’t have the relative speed. Your brain begins to think that you are standing still and you’re not moving even though you’re traveling in 150 miles an hour. Physiologically, what happens is you approach the ship and the deck of the aircraft carrier as it’s moving in front of you, you just see a light. Then eventually, as you begin to pick up the ship and you get that depth perception, your brain thinks that you have been standing still. So the illusion, and what you have to overcome, is the sense that the ship is coming up at you out of the water instead of you approaching the ship. That’s a little bit of the psychology involved in maintaining your rigorous discipline on the instruments.

Brian
That’s amazing. I have to tell you, my palms are just a little bit sweaty. I’m a little bit of an adrenaline junkie too and that kind of got me going there. I think it would take a while to get used to. Scott, the other thing that I wanted to learn more about is the fighter pilot call signs. Tell us how call signs are chosen for those of us listening and watching the show. And also what’s the origin of your call sign “Intake?”

Scott
I’ll start with how you get a call sign. Unless there’s some sort of play on your last name, or somebody named Winter – I’ve got a friend, Jeff Winter, his call sign is Chilly, for chilly winter – so it can be a play off of the name or more likely than not in naval aviation, you either do something not smart in an airplane or you do something not smart under the influence of alcohol; in that stupidity to just call it what it is. You get dimed out for it and you get some sort of call sign. Mine is actually neither of those. If I turned the profile for your viewers that are watching, I have a big nose and I take in more than my fair share of air just like the intake of a jet engine. So that’s how I got Intake. To be honest, Brian, at first, I didn’t like it because I thought it was kind of lame compared to other potential call signs. But as it turns out, I’ve never met another Intake, which can also be good or bad depending on what you think about intake, so yeah, the call signs are great fun.

Brian
I guess it’s all relative so maybe being assigned Intake is better than something else that could have happened after a late night in San Diego. (Scott: Yeah, that’s right.) What’s the coolest call sign you’ve encountered, somebody that that you know personally during your career?

Scott
They’re all so different. I think one of the most unique ones is a little bit of a fascinating story. We had a female in my F-18 squadron. To protect the innocent, her name is Nicole and she was having a challenge because she had a male flight suit. When you have to use the facilities in an F-18 single seat, you have basically what is a Ziploc that’s full of diaper material. They’re primarily designed for men, or at least they were 10, 15 years ago. So she was headed into combat over the North Arabian Sea in Pakistan headed into Afghanistan and she really needed to use the facilities. So she took out a pocket knife and she had to fix her flight suit to give herself some more room; she actually ended up puncturing the bag that she was going to use. She ended up having some drippings on the seat. Her call sign is Bad Dog because she got some urine on the ejection seat. [Laughter.]

Brian
I asked what the coolest call sign was, not the most embarrassing one, but that’s a great story.

Scott
That’s a pretty cool call sign actually. It’s a little bit of a long story but it’s so unique and there’s so much to it. Her dad was an F-18 pilot. And to be fair, Brian, the only way that we found out about it is she was emailing her dad this exceptionally embarrassing story from the ship and she forgot to sign out of her email account. When she left the computer one of the other junior officers read it. At that point, the call sign was for good, if you will.

Brian
Oh, that’s funny. Scott, as I mentioned in your intro, you’ve had significant combat experience. First of all, I’m so grateful to you and to all the men and women who serve today and who have served and our veterans to protect our great country. Conflict is – you know better than most – serious business and involves loss of life. You’ve experienced the death of people close to you while serving and I know you’ve you wrote about that in “Full Throttle.” You’ve obviously been involved in conflicts that have resulted in casualties. Now I realize there’s a huge price to be paid for our freedom. I hope all Americans realize that. Help us to understand that from the perspective of a career Navy fighter pilot.

Scott
That’s a really good question, Brian. I’ve never actually been asked that. As I wrote about in “Full Throttle,” I had the misfortune of having to investigate a couple of F-18 mishaps that involved fatalities. I happened to know the people that lost their lives. I had originally gone to safety school to boost my resume to be selected in the Blue Angels so that I could be a safety officer. As soon as I graduated, we lost an F-18. Doug Aguilera lost his life in the desert of southern Arizona. Because I was the newly qualified safety officer I investigated that accident and that was June of 1999. I got selected to the Blue Angels September. October of ’99 – October 28 – the Blue Angels lost an F-18 in Valdosta, Georgia and I knew both of those pilots. Again, because I was the safety officer with experience I had the misfortune of investigating that accident. That was actually, in hindsight, a very traumatic, human factors rich challenge for me. I was able to compartmentalize it and get through my tour but as I wrote about in the book, my last landing of the Blue Angels – in November of 2002 a little over three years later – I landed, I touched down, I was rolling out and I just started sobbing when I got out of the plane. Everybody thought it was because I was sad I was leaving the team, which I was, but it was actually because I had survived. I had carried the burden of Kieron O’Connor and Kevin Colling, the two that I started my Blue Angel tour with, and Doug, and I had survived that tour. It was a very emotional moment for me, and now only at 55 can I look back somewhat of in awe of myself being able to push through that six-month period of accidents. Thank you for letting me share that experience, because there’s some vulnerability in sharing that. In addition, now the question of in battle, in combat, in neutralizing an enemy or taking an enemy combatant’s life, that’s a little bit of a different ballgame; you train for it your whole life. You know that is what you are training for. But when you actually employ against the enemy and there are enemy casualties, it is generally only done to support coalition forces and save American lives or coalition lives that were in battle on the ground. So I never really grappled with neutralizing an enemy, if you will, that’s a really nice way to say it, by the way, because I had trained for it. That was oath, to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And that’s…I took that very literally. Thus far, I have been able to cope with that well. When you hear the friendlies on the other line, and you hear them through the joint tank alert controller’s radio, and they’re cheering because you’ve had a successful employment and they get to live another day, I just focus on that and the lives that we saved that day for fellow patriots on the ground.

Brian
I appreciate you sharing that. I know it did require vulnerability and it has to be difficult. One of the reasons I wanted to ask the question was just to remind myself, and remind those listening and viewing, that we have people in the military men and women who are putting themselves in harm’s way right now and every day, protecting our country. I don’t think we can be thankful enough that we have people like you and others who serve and have served, so I appreciate that.

Scott
Thank you, Brian. You know, another thing that’s important, just for your viewers, during that time where we lost Kieron and Kevin, October 28, 1999, my mother was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor on November 4, only six days later, and she ended up passing November 24. So there was a lot of life disruption for me during that period of time, and only through rigorous compartmentalization was I able to push through all of that.

Brian
You mentioned compartmentalization a couple of times, share more about that. Is that an intentional part of training, something that’s addressed specifically? Or is that just…I’ll call it a skill for lack of a better way to describe it. Or is that something that you learn over time as you’re going through your career in the military and facing different situations that require you to somehow deal with it or navigate through it?

Scott
Some of it, I think you, physiologically or psychologically, have the gift to compartmentalize better than others. In addition to that we spend 50% of our time in the present, 25% thinking about something that has already happened that we may have done differently, and then 25% in the future thinking about what’s going to happen. In the fighter pilot world in the intensity of carrier aviation – kind of like anything in life – if you want to be the very best that you can, you need to compartmentalize in that moment and give it all of your attention. It takes intense focus, direct focus in the moment on a particular task, or even a wider focus to maintain situational awareness so that you can maneuver through whatever you are maneuvering through. I think the generations that have used their phones – and we’re constantly looking at it, you see people bumping into light posts or glass doors – imagine if they just focused in that moment, in going forward since they are walking, instead of being distracted with what has happened or what’s going to happen. Think about what they could accomplish or how safe or how successful that they could be. So the ability to compartmentalize, I have a very unique [ability] – and maybe it was trained through aviation – when I walk to an airplane I can shut down whatever was happening and focus on the right here, right now, in the best interest of safety, employment, execution and know that when I land and the chocks are put back in the wheels, that now it’s time to look at those other things because that aviation moment has passed. We kind of train to it, I think, flying airplanes, because there’s an inherent risk.

Brian
I think that focus is certainly necessary. So if compartmentalization means blocking out things, everything besides the thing that you’re focusing on, then I think that’s constructive. I think maybe – and we’ll maybe talk about this a little later – sometimes stifling something or pushing it down into the deep recesses of our soul because it isn’t pleasant to deal with, that’s another form of compartmentalization that might not be quite as healthy. But anyway, switching to a little bit lighter note you talked about the Blue Angels and I appreciate you mentioning that you had the privilege of flying with that squadron. Tell us about that stage in your career, what it was like and the significance of being part of that flight demonstration team.

Scott
I think you join it. Flying is just so intense and it’s so unique, and you’re flying with five other pilots and you are, truly, I believe, the best in the world for the time that you are flying with that team and with the Blue Angels specifically, in the way that we fly and the way that we train. But the real take-aways were the ability to impact lives because of the influence that you had as a Blue Angel. I think about spending time with kids that were part of the Make-a-Wish Foundation that we did every Friday, talking to high school students in whatever city we were in, also on Fridays, going to veteran’s hospitals, and being able to allow someone to see what you have been able to do and inspire them. It may not inspire everybody, but I have many stories of people’s whose lives were changed because the impact we were able to have by wearing the blue suit, let alone just the pride of representing 380,000 sailors and 180,000 Marines and going all in every day to represent them. It’s humbling. You think you go into the team kind of arrogant as a fighter pilot, you definitely leave humbled with the opportunity that you have been given. And that is still not lost on me or my family.

Brian
I didn’t really know too much about the Blue Angels before reading your book so I really appreciated learning about them. One thing I didn’t realize is that you only serve one tour – two or three years – and then you go back to your fleet at the end of the tour. That was interesting to me.

Scott
We are combat pilots first and foremost so we come from the fleet. We happen to have a short tour where we get to serve with the Blue Angels. Every pilot will fly in the demonstration for two years; I happened to get three because I was the junior member selected. I left the team in November of 2002 and I was in shock and awe in March of 2003, deployed in the eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Cyprus going into northern Iraq only months after I left the team.

Brian
I’ve never served in the military, but it seems like everything I’ve read about it and or heard people talking about, it seems like there are so many important life lessons packed into military service. What are a couple of the most important lessons that stand out for you from your Navy career?

Scott
That’s a really great question. I think once a recruiter is – Blue Angels are part of the Recruiting Command for the Navy – I think once you’re a recruiter, you’re always a recruiter. So I’m always talking to young men and women that want to join the service. I tell them that what the service provides you certainly is discipline, but they also give you responsibility, and they will give you as much responsibility as you are willing to accept. You could leave college or high school and you may not make as much money in the first four or five, six years but the lessons that you’re going to learn in leadership, in dealing with a team that has a shared common purpose, and being accountable to show up on time and being accountable to your squadron mates, your tank mates, your infantry mates, you can never replace that. I mentioned going to veteran’s hospitals; whenever I speak with veterans, they always reflect back on the time of their lives when they served as one of the greatest times that they had because of that shared common purpose and the responsibility and accountability that you’re handed at a fairly fun, young age. I was flying F-18s off aircraft carriers at 26 and now at 55, it kind of blows my mind that I was given that kind of responsibility with an $80 million airplane, hurling myself at the back of a billion-dollar ship. That kind of sums it up right there.

Brian
It’s really a unique opportunity, isn’t it? When you talk about things like teamwork and leadership and discipline, all three of those things are really ingrained and woven throughout the fabric of the military in in a way that’s unlike really most other places. You graduate from college and you go to work for a company, they might talk about leadership or talk about teamwork or instill discipline, but not in the way that the military does.

Scott
Two of the pillars that I talk about in the book – own your errors and just ask – we’re founded during my time in the military. Owning your errors because you’re dependent on each other in training and in potential combat operations; you have to own your mistakes. When you do that in any team, whether it’s civilian or military, you actually build the trust and respect among your teammates, rather than sweeping your errors or mistakes under the rug. If you just own them you grow tighter and you trust and you have a greater bond. And then one thing that the military provides is just incredible opportunity. I asked a lot which was, hey, can I try that, can I do that? I’d like to give that a shot. I would say seven times out of ten, people would say yeah, sure, try that, yeah, go ahead. We can fill you into that job. You can take on that additional responsibility by just asking. So those are two fundamental pillars that I definitely got out of the military: own your errors and just ask for more, to do more.

Brian
The concept of just asking that was one thing that I definitely picked up in the book and I described it or thought about it as your propensity to say yes to things. It was interesting to me the number of examples where you said yes and the opportunities that resulted because of your willingness to say yes. Tell us about an opportunity – if there’s one that stands out for you – that most people would have said or did say no to, that you said yes to and what happened as a result of saying, yes. It’s a little different twist on on asking but it’s that same thing, that desire or willingness to go all in, willingness to step into something, willingness to try something. When somebody’s looking for volunteers, it seemed – at least in the few examples that you gave – that you were the guy that raised your hand and said, yeah, I’ll try that.

Scott
Through that I have gained a wide aperture of experience and not all of it successful, I have had my fair share of failures and shortcomings. But the depth of my experience from having said yes, is, I think, significant at this point. Every job that I took in the military, you rotate every two to three years. There are hard jobs or easier jobs in the military and a seat ashore rotation. I just kept taking what people considered hard jobs, but I saw them as incredible opportunities. I went straight from being an F-18 instructor into the Blue Angels right into my compartmented tour and then I took an aide job for a four star admiral, and then I had command. People [would] say, gosh, you’re never taking a break. I never saw a break needed because I kept wanting to have these remarkable experiences. The simplest chain of events in “yes” that will provide you is this; because of my time at the Blue Angels, United Airlines…I got asked to run United Airlines’ flight demonstration team. I said, yes, I’d be happy to do that. I’ve been involved in air shows my whole life. So I trained those pilots and got involved. Then that same year that I had said yes to that I bumped into the Patriot Jet Team where a former Blue Angel was flying and he said, hey, we’re looking for a guy, are you interested? I said, yes, sir, sure I’m interested in flying for the Patriot Jet Team. That was a volunteer job and I got picked up for that. Then the Patriot Jet Team or Cinajet, a subsidiary of the Patriot Jet team got the cinematography contract for Maverick. They asked me to train the actors and actresses, I said, yes. Then they needed a stunt pilot and they asked me and I said, yes. And there, I was asking too, hey, I know you’ve got the contract to Top Gun Maverick, I’d love to do anything that would have me involved in that movie, because it was so significant. So I went from running United Airlines Triple Seven demonstration team, to flying as a stunt pilot in Maverick, which got me into the aviation safety supervisor for Mission Impossible 8. All of those were just a matter of saying yes to those opportunities, that chain of events. That’s just in the last five years that that has happened.

Brian
You’ve had incredible opportunities, not just in the military as you described, but of course now in Hollywood and the Patriot Team and other opportunities too. I thought that it was so incredible that it came full circle, that this career path that started for you in 1986 as a high school kid, came full circle about 32 years later when you were approached and said yes to teach actors about flying the sequel to Top Gun. Amazing. What did you think when that opportunity presented itself?

Scott
Absolutely surreal, actually. When they originally asked and said, hey, Scott, will you train the actors and actresses? Come out to LA for two days, fly them in a jet, teach them the Anti-G straining maneuver. Ah, unbelievable, of course. That was December of 2018 and then in June of 2019, when Randy Howell, the owner of the Patriot Jet team called and said, hey, we need another stunt pilot – he and I have a very trusted bond and friendship having flown together on the Patriots – would you come do this? I said, absolutely. Then when I went to United and said, look, I’ve got this incredible opportunity, here’s what it is, they supported it entirely [for me] to go and have that experience to fly in the movie, which was just remarkable.

Brian
Wow, that is a great experience. I mean, just working on the movie would have been gratifying enough probably for you coming full circle. But the fact that you got to be one of two pilots flying in the final scene of the movie had to be amazing. I have to tell you, I saw the movie when it came out and it was great. I loved it. In preparation for this show I actually watched bits and pieces of the movie. I watched that final scene – and without spoiling it for our listeners and viewers who haven’t seen the movie – I have to tell you that scene at the end, where you’re flying through the canyon, was one of the most intense movie scenes I’ve ever watched, certainly the most intense involving fighter jets. Can you share a little bit about how that scene was shot? What was it like from your perspective? I don’t know what it was like from your perspective, but watching it was just truly amazing. I don’t know if you were actually flying that low, if you were that close to the mountains, but if any of that was even remotely real…it had to have been…well, maybe for you it’s exciting. You’re an adrenaline junkie. I was going to say it had to be terrifying.

Scott
It wasn’t terrifying. It was intense, for sure. And it was that low and it was that fast. We were that close to both the mountains, the water, the granite wall, to each other. The easiest way to explain it is in order to get that footage, you have to be low, you have to be fast, you have to be close. The trailer playing – I’ll show it to the viewers that are watching – the chase airplane is always lower because they’re filming this way. It makes it look right. But the trail airplane is the one that’s trying not to hit the mountains, hit the airplane in front of it and then that’s the one flying form. And then you do this very aggressively because it looks good on camera. There is footage where there are 40 foot pine trees that are ten feet off the wing as we go by. We are flying under helicopters that were 100 feet…the simplest way to to drive the point home on how intense it was, is with 750 air shows that I have flown with the Blue Angels and the Patriots, 91 combat missions, 500 hours over the skies of Iraq and Afghanistan; filming that movie was the most intense flying that I have done because of the proximity to the ground. We were under 100 feet the majority of the time except where we are turning around. Like I said, the helicopters we were flying under were below 100 feet and out over the water where there’s no depth perception. There’s a funny story, I was chasing Randy out over the water and we were off the coast of Southern California near the Channel Islands and a blue whale breached. I was chasing Randy and he said, hey, Intake, did you see the whale? I said, I see it. I almost hit it. And the joke was, hey, how did Intake die? Ah, he hit a whale. I didn’t know he had a boat? No, he was in a plane. It wasn’t that close, for the conservationists [out there] but it was close enough to have a laugh over that the whale breached. You could clearly see that it was a blue whale off the coast and we were pretty close.

Brian
The fact that you describe it as the most intense flying you’ve ever done is really saying a lot. I mean, you were making a movie, you weren’t in combat and yet it really seemed like combat in the movie. I strongly recommend the movie for people who haven’t seen it. It is very good and the end is very intense. Thanks for choosing intense versus terrifying. I would hope that you weren’t terrified, but I can see where you certainly felt that level of intensity. Scott, what’s the most rewarding part of your career in the Navy? What are you most proud of?

Scott
That both of our boys are fighter pilots, to be perfectly honest. I am so proud of our oldest, Wyatt, and our youngest, Nick. The reason that I attribute it to the time in the Navy is because I was deployed a lot, I was gone on trips, on detachments, on deployments and my wife, Lisa, held the operation together, she held the house together and the home together. She did such a remarkable job. Together, that both boys would go to the Naval Academy, succeed their go-to flight training, select jets, and are now flying just because they want to – not because we want them to -but because they had such an incredible experience as Navy children. That is very emotional for me that they would…I’ll try not to cry right now, I’m really, really proud of both of them and what they are doing.

Brian
Well, that must be extremely gratifying for both you and Lisa. We certainly appreciate their service as well. Scott, one of the topics that you write in your book, and I know you speak about too, is achieving a Blue Angel culture of excellence. As you know, our show is called LifeExcellence and I wonder what does excellence mean to you?

Scott
I think primarily it means trying, and then trying to be above average, and put an effort in that at least meets expectations, if not exceeds them, for your team and others. The culture of excellence that the Blue Angels establish starts just with the simplest of discipline. I mean, you’ll never see a Blue Angel talking to somebody in the crowd with their sunglasses on because we want to make eye contact with them. We have specific pins that are in specific areas and when you first join the team, you think, this ridiculous, but you realize that it’s that discipline and commitment to meeting the high standards. That the team has said that when everybody does that, you achieve excellent standards and you can hold each other accountable to those standards. And you want to be held to those standards, which goes back to the trust and respect piece. We acknowledge our mistakes or deviations from the standard – we call them safeties in the Blue Angels – so that drives the culture of excellence. Can I tell a really quick story about not making the Blue Angels and then making it the second year? This kind of defines that excellence piece. I applied in 1998, I was selected as a finalist, six pilots go down to an intense interview with 16 Blue Angel officers, you’re on one end. It’s a three-day event. I got asked what’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever done an airplane, and I thought, oh, gosh, they’re going to want me to be really good on an airplane. So I made up something, I was 50 feet off altitude in training. I didn’t own the errors that I had made. I tried to make me sound better than I was. And they said, really, that’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done? And I said, oh, yeah, definitely the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Then fast forward to 1999. I was selected again as a finalist, and they asked the same question, dumbest thing you’ve ever done on an airplane? And I said, well, let me tell you a story. We were off the coast of Japan on the USS Independence, the Japanese Chief of Naval Operations was being hosted with his contingent on the aircraft carrier. We were doing an air power demonstration. I was part of a section of F-18 teams. Two F-18 teams were going to drop 500 pound bombs and create what we call a wall of water in this air powered demonstration to impress our allies. But we were too close to the aircraft carrier when we released our ordinance and there were bomb fragments that went onto the deck of the aircraft carrier. One piece went through a C-2 Greyhound, the Japanese CNO in his whites dove on the ground because the bomb had gone off too close to the carrier. It was a big deal. One of the Blue Angels at the time, in the interview, said that was you? I said yeah, it was but let me tell you what I learned about being an advocate for safety and leadership effectiveness. I thought that we were too close but I didn’t say anything. I needed to speak up even though I may have been the junior. I talked about all of the things that I learned from that event because I owned it and the errors that I had made. What I proved to them is that I was willing to improve and that was the year that I got accepted to the team.

Brian
That’s a great story. I appreciate you sharing it. In the book you write about a question that you were asked that second time about whether you would apply a third time if you weren’t accepted. Can you share that because I thought that was a good extension of the story as well.

Scott
I think it’s one of my greatest answers to a question ever. Myself, Kevin Colling and another applicant, Mike, we were all finalists in 1998 and weren’t selected. We all came back in 1999. The assumption was that they were going to pick two of us and I was the junior pilot. So the assumption was that I could apply a third year to get picked up. We were in the interview and one of the final questions that they asked was would you apply again for a third year to rush the team? I said, that is an unanswerable question because if I say no, I’m telling you that I’m not that interested in the team to try again for a third year. And if I say yes, I give you the opportunity to not select me this year, and push me off to a third year. It’s unanswerable but let me make it as clear as I possibly can that I am here right now because I want to be selected for the 2000 team. I’d like to be selected as a member this year and serve the team starting in 2000. I don’t know whether that helped but I was really happy with that answer because it’s really what I thought was my truth in that moment. I shared that with them, which is just being my true authentic self and being vulnerable to what that answer was, whether it makes you look good or look bad. I was very truthful in that interview process that year and that was the year I was successful.

Brian
Well, I’m sure those answers definitely helped. For our listeners and viewers – just so you know – Scott’s been very gracious and willing to share a lot of the content of his book “Full Throttle.” We’ve barely scratched the surface. There are a lot more stories and a lot more about his illustrative career so I definitely recommend the book “Full Throttle” and I hope that you’ll all go out and purchase it. Scott, I know you’re deeply committed to the Blue Angels Foundation and its mission to support wounded veterans by providing funding and access for critical services and the best care available as veterans transition back into the civilian community. Share more, if you would, about the work that you’re doing with the foundation and also about your particular focus on the prevention of veteran suicide, which is obviously a huge issue.

Scott
I appreciate you asking, Brian. That is my passion now, to continue to serve our veterans. I’m able to do that through the Blue Angels Foundation. Everybody in their life can think back to pivotal moments where their life shifted in a certain direction. I lost a good friend to suicide, Spencer Rabbit. We went to shock and awe together in 2003, in 2005, serving in Iraq. He took his own life in 2015. Then November 5, 2021, we were at the 75th anniversary of the Blue Angels and my oldest son, Wyatt, his roommate, Vaughn Solomon, took his life that morning. We found out that afternoon when my son got the call, and that was a pivotal moment for me, where I realized that I had a platform, and I had a voice in that, that’s what I wanted to commit this chapter of my life to, which was giving back. There are so many soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines, that are carrying the burden of their service and the sacrifices that their families are making. For many, it is overwhelming to the tune of 16 veterans a day and five, six to seven active duty members every day. If we bring awareness to it, then at least people that are feeling suicidal ideation may feel as though they can speak out. So if there’s anybody on the podcast that is feeling a little lost or a little alone, by all means, reach out, seek help, because you are loved and people care about you and they want you in their lives. Through the Blue Angels Foundation, a trusted brand for our charitable donors, trusting us to use their dollars for good and also for veterans that trust the Blue Angels and the brand can seek support through us to get PTSD, inpatient and outpatient treatment. We provide a continuum of care for them. If you want to read more: The BlueAngelsFoundation.org. Any support that your listeners are willing to give we are certainly willing to take and I know in my heart that our armed forces service members deserve the very best that we can give. And that’s what I want to give to them.

Brian
Thank you for sharing that. We’ll definitely include some information about that too in the show notes. Scott, thank you again, for your service to our country. Thank you for the great work that you continue to do and thank you for being on LifeExcellence today. You’re an inspiration and it’s been great getting to know you. I really appreciate the lessons you’ve shared from your career in the Navy and from your life.

Scott
Thank you, Brian. I appreciate it. Great to be here on LifeExcellence with you and thanks for asking.

Brian
I appreciate you. Thanks for tuning in to LifeExcellence. Please support the show by subscribing, sharing it with others, posting about today’s show on social media and leaving a rating and review. You can learn more about Scott at ScottKartvedt.com You can learn more about me at BrianBartes.com. Until next time, dream big dreams and make each day your masterpiece.