Chris Carmichael takes on Ron Estes' congressional seat

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Kansas Reflector Podcast 32 min 2 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 7 hours ago

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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What is the focus of this Kansas Reflector episode and who is the guest?

Sherman Smith 0:00

Primary election season is in full swing and unlike past election cycles, there are contested races for the Democratic nomination in every congressional district. Welcome to the Kansas Reflector Podcast. I'm editor Sherman Smith. My guest today is one of those Democrats, Chris Carmichael, who is running in the fourth district, currently represented by Republican Ron Estus. Uh Mr. Carmichael, welcome to the show.

Chris Carmichael 0:22

Hey Sherman, thanks for having me on. Really appreciate it.

Sherman Smith 0:24

Yeah. Well let's start by just giving us a sense of of who who you are and uh what your background is.

Chris Carmichael 0:31

So I uh am a thirty one year retired colonel from the air force. I started off actually enlisted in the army as a E one no striper private. And because I I grew up pretty poor in in Ohio and didn't have uh any opportunities so the army it was they had the army, college fund and the GI Bill, so I it was my really only mechanism to go to college. I was working construction at the time and I was a bank teller in the bank and And it was uh um it was just a rough go uh trying to make ends meet. So I figured, you know, maybe I should get a college education. And I didn't take any college prep classes in high school, so the army seemed the best fit. And I did seven and a half years in the army and then uh got my college education, uh, graduated in uh uh a little less than three years.

Chris Carmichael 1:26

uh college and then join Where did you go to college? Flo uh Florida State University.

Sherman Smith 1:31

What did you get a degree in? Theater. Theater, wow. Yeah.

Chris Carmichael 1:38

Yeah. Not ex not exactly your normal military path, right? But that really just shows the the both sides of my uh my viewpoints really. So um 'cause I do have I I'm I'm that middle ground person, right?

How did Chris Carmichael’s early life and military career shape his leadership experience?

Chris Carmichael 1:54

And and then uh yeah, w then when I had a chance to go back active duty after the army, after college, I I picked the Air Force. I really fit my personality better and did another twenty four years after that and retired thirty one plus years in the military.

Sherman Smith 2:08

What did you do in the air force?

Chris Carmichael 2:10

I was a logistics officer and uh mostly did uh supply chain work and aerial port work, basically running in airport uh passengers and cargo movement on aircraft and and uh that's what I did in Afghanistan as well. I did two and a half years in Afghanistan, mostly uh distribution and aerial port work. So uh um

Sherman Smith 2:29

And then you spent some time at Centcom.

Chris Carmichael 2:31

I did. I spent uh four and a half years at Central Command Headquarters in uh in Florida where I and a a lot of time in Qatar and Central Command Ford headquarters, which I fear might n that building might not exist anymore. Um I know the chaos doesn't. And uh and I so I s and then a lot of time going in and out of the Afghan theater. um working on uh uh distribution problems and issues and I've worked I was the lead logistics planner for the Iran war plan at while at Central Command, amongst other war plans as well, but primarily uh um definitely got enough knowledge on the Iran war plan. between the years of two thousand fifteen and two thousand nineteen and uh um gives you unique insights very unique insight of what's is serendipitously here now we're in an unnecessary war in Iran.

Chris Carmichael 3:25

We could have told you don't start a war with Iran based on a war plan experience and here we that's exactly what happened.

Sherman Smith 3:33

We'll get into some of these issues later in the the conversation, but um I wanted to to circle by you said you grew up in Ohio, was that in uh a rural area, an urban area?

Chris Carmichael 3:42

Outskirts of Cleveland. Outskirts of Cleveland,

Sherman Smith 3:45

okay. Um and why did you end up in Kansas? How did you end up in Kansas?

Chris Carmichael 3:49

I uh I ha was vr getting out of the military at Hill Air Force Base in Utah and I was examining all the locations I could one get a job and to um where I wanted to live. And um there was I had five interviews, I narrowed it down to two jobs, loc two locations, one was in Florida and one was here. And frankly, when you're choosing between Florida and Kansas, it's no contest. Kansas wins, yeah, every time. Um the Florida's definitely got its problems. It's too hot, too much traffic, too much too many tourists.