AI Summary
5 min readFrom Fighter Pilot to Family Guardian
Retired Air Force Colonel Nick Nichols spent nearly three decades flying F-16s over Iraq and Afghanistan, logging 104 combat missions. But the mission that defines him now began when a JTAC (joint terminal attack controller) died on the radio while talking to him. That moment collapsed his identity as a hardened combat pilot into the 15-year-old boy he once was—the one who got the knock on the door when his father died. Today Nichols runs Folds of Honor, a foundation that has awarded over 73,000 scholarships worth $240 million to the spouses and children of fallen or disabled military members and first responders. And he has a new problem: too much donor money earmarked for trade schools, and too few scholarship recipients choosing them.
The Foundation That Says "You're Still Seen"
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:03) **Introduction to Nick Nichols** - Mike Rowe introduces retired Air Force Colonel Nick Nichols, highlighting his combat career and his current role running the Folds of Honor foundation.
- 2 (06:14) **The John Rich Connection** - Nick and Mike bond over their mutual friend, country singer John Rich, who introduced them.
- 3 (10:00) **What Makes Folds of Honor Unique** - Nick explains the foundation's focus on the families of fallen heroes, a mission he connects to personally.
- 4 (16:00) **The Scale of the Mission** - Nick details the massive scope of Folds of Honor's work and the specific qualifications for a scholarship.
- 5 (22:51) **Running a Foundation and the Unifying Message** - Nick describes his daily work and the unique appeal of Folds of Honor to corporate partners.
- 6 (25:32) **Why Nick Reached Out to Mike Rowe** - Nick explains the specific problem he wanted to solve: getting more scholarship recipients into the skilled trades.
- 7 (29:57) **Partnering for the Skilled Trades** - Mike and Nick outline their plan to combine forces to promote trade careers.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
What does it really feel like to fly into combat knowing you may not come home? Colonel Nick Nichols knows the answer. A 30-year Air Force veteran, F-16 pilot, and seven-time combat veteran, Nick now leads Folds of Honor, providing scholarships to the families of fallen and disabled service members and first responders.
Nick joins Mike to pull back the curtain on life in the cockpit, what deployment is really like, and the unlikely path that led him from the cockpit of an F-16 to a new mission with Folds of Honor. Then he tells Mike a deeply personal account of the one combat mission that still haunts him to this day
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