506: Nick Nichols—Folds of Honor

Mike Rowe (0:04)

Mike Rowe here, it's The Way I Heard It. Man, do I like talking to people who are doing exactly what they were put on the planet to do, Chuck. You know what I'm talking about?

Chuck (0:12)

I know exactly what you're talking about, yeah.

Mike Rowe (0:14)

Yeah, well, right now I'm talking about a retired colonel from the Air Force named Nick Nichols.

And aside from the fact that he's stuck with the same name twice, he's done some pretty great things for our country. He's flown dozens of missions, gosh, over 100 missions.

Chuck (0:32)

Yeah, yeah.

Mike Rowe (0:33)

And yes, he was in Iraq. Yes, he was in Afghanistan. Yes, he's been shot at a lot. And yes, he's shot back quite a bit with extraordinary consequences. And so on the human side, you know, what do you do after nearly 30 years of flying an F-18? F-16 into harm's way. 16 F-16.

One of those Fs.

Chuck (0:58)

One of those teens.

Mike Rowe (0:59)

You know, it's funny too. One of the things you learn in listening to Nick is that it's not like you can pick which aircraft you want to fly. You don't even really know until you've gone through the entire thing. You could wind up on an A-10 Warthog. You could find up flying a Stratotanker.

You could find up, wind up in, what was it, a 16, an F-16.

Chuck (1:20)

F-16, yeah. Yeah, that's the same one that the, what's the elite group? The Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds are F-16s. Yeah.

Mike Rowe (1:29)

Now, the Blue Angels, they were Navy.

Chuck (1:31)

That's correct.

Mike Rowe (1:31)

I think they flew 18s.

Chuck (1:33)

Could be. You should Google it.

Mike Rowe (1:35)

While you do that, I'll tell you why I want you to meet Nick Nichols. I mean, if it was nothing but a conversation about his extraordinary resume, that would more than justify your time. But after he did all that, Nick went on to run a foundation or help run a foundation called Folds of Honor. Folds of Honor, you may have heard me talk about before because they are, well, they're micro works on steroids. They have a slightly different mission at Folds. They help with scholarships, primarily the sons and daughters and spouses of first responders and service people who don't make it home.

And they are huge, man. It's like tens of thousands, over 70,000 scholarships have been awarded, something like $240 million.

Chuck (2:28)

They're getting it done.

Mike Rowe (2:29)

Yeah. And Nick called me about a year ago.

We have a mutual friend named John Rich who we'll discuss momentarily. But Nick was getting a little frustrated because in spite of the extraordinary number of people he was able to assist through this foundation, the number of people who were entering the trades were not quite where he wanted.

Chuck (2:53)

Yeah.

Mike Rowe (2:54)

So I just wanted to talk about ways that our two foundations might combine forces to help make a more persuasive case for the opportunities that are in the trades. Obviously, I said, yes, we've been chatting and now it's happening.

Chuck (3:09)

And I just want to say, he's kind of a cool dude, isn't he?

Mike Rowe (3:13)

I mean, full disclosure, I was kind of expecting a kind of comfortably retired Air Force guy.

Chuck (3:20)

A little buttoned up, you know?

Mike Rowe (3:22)

Maybe put on an extra 10 pounds or maybe more, and it's just kind of enjoying his retirement.

Chuck (3:27)

He's ripped. He looks like he could drive up in a VW bus, you know, and say, hey, man, you want to stay on the beach for a couple of days?

Mike Rowe (3:36)

I was not going to go there, but I wouldn't be shocked. Yeah, he's got kind of a Bohemian feel about him. He's all tatted up the way you would expect, but he's just, you know, he's about to turn 60 and he looks fantastic and he runs a ranch in Tulsa and he hunts and he gathers and he's an emissary for the armed forces. But he is also in love with this foundation and he should be. So he's doing what he's supposed to do and our conversation touches on a lot of stuff and I think you're gonna love getting to know him. And more importantly, I think you're gonna love his foundation, which I hope you'll check out and support. It's called Folds of Honor.

This guy, he's called Colonel Nick Nichols. You'll meet him right after this.

SPEAKER_4 (4:22)

Do do do do do do do do do do do.

Mike Rowe (4:26)