For Rep. Kevin Hern (R., Okla.), “Hern Works” is more than just empty words.

The lawmaker, an avid pilot himself, recently embarked on a flight like he’s never done before: bringing recently-rescued constituents from Florida back home to Oklahoma on a Gulfstream Five that he paid for out of pocket.

The group of constituents was mostly from several Oklahoma churches who were stranded in Israel amidst an unprecedented level of Iranian ballistic missile fire that left the faithful in need of rescue.

Fortunately, a wife of one of the pastors on the trip contacted Hern’s staff, and the work commenced accordingly, culminating in “the most rewarding” flight in the 43 years Hern has been piloting.

“We leveraged every conversation we could have between the [Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)], [Transportation Security Administration (TSA)], [U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)], Department of Homeland Security (DHS), my contacts at the White House on Saturday, when I was in D.C. for the Army parade, talking to people in the White House directly to alert them to this situation, what was going on,” Hern told the Washington Reporter in an interview shortly after he landed the plane.

The mission to rescue the Americans cost “well over a million dollars,” Hern estimated. Most of those costs went to Grey Bull, a firm loaded with American Special Forces veterans known for rescuing Americans stranded in war zones across the world.

Hern said he paid about $60,000 and that he is not looking for a GoFundMe to recoup the costs, because embarking on the congressional rescue mission was simply “the right thing to do.”

“I'm just fortunate,” he said. “I've been blessed in my life to have [a] successful business career.”

“You're blessed to be in this country for the opportunities it brings,” Hern continued. “And to be able to pay back to the greatest nation that’s ever existed is quite an honor.”

Both Hern and his constituents were lucky that the Biden administration was out of power while the Iranian ballistic missiles were flying.

“The federal government did a lot of work,” Hern said. “There were no pushbacks from anybody at State or DHS or CPB or TSA or FAA. Every particular person that I called in each of those particular areas, I would call up and I'd say, ‘how can I help you?’”

“And they’d say ‘call this person at this agency’ and I would do that, get them on a conference call, and we would get that clarified, and they moved very quickly,” he added.

Hern’s task included running the traps that aren’t necessary for standard return trips from Israel, saying he and his team “had to guard against any kind of terrorist trying to hop on a flight to the United States.”

Hern noted that he worked “through the State Department desk in Cyprus, with the embassies in Israel, Jordan, and in Cyprus, and also [made] sure that Department of Homeland Security knew that we had a plane that could come the United States.”

In contrast with the Trump administration’s steadfast support for Israel, Hern noted that “we certainly didn't know if the Biden administration cared about Israel at all.”

“Look at all of the anti-Semitic movements that were really never put down by the Biden administration, and we've seen what President Trump has done with the universities that have allowed pro-Palestinian protests,” Hern said.

“We know what President Trump has said: he's not willing to get into the war,” Hern explained. “But he’s said for his entire career, even before he got into politics, that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

“Every single person that was on the planes came up to me and said, ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your tremendous support for Israel,’” the Oklahoma Republican continued. And that would also be what they would say to Donald Trump, if he were standing there: ‘thank you for your support of Israel.’”

While the group of dozens of Americans were fortunate to have Hern working for them around the clock, he noted that he had some help from up above as well.

“This group had the greatest protector of all, which is God,” Hern said.

Below is a transcript of our interview with Rep. Kevin Hern (R., Okla.), lightly edited for clarity.

Washington Reporter:

Congressman, I got back to America a couple days ago, but I had the misfortune of not flying with you. First off, amazing work. Hopefully these are Hern voters for life now. You’ve been flying planes for years. How did this flight compare?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

I've been flying for 43 years now. This was a different plane. This was a much larger plane, giving us the ability to get more people home from Tampa.

Washington Reporter:

In your 43 years of flying, was this the craziest flight?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

This was the most rewarding.

Washington Reporter:

You were in America watching as all of this was going down in the Middle East. What were your initial thoughts about watching this, and then how did that change once you started realizing ‘there are Oklahomans, there are constituents of mine who are probably going to need to get out’?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

All of us as Americans, we're pretty isolated from wars around the world as we go about our daily lives. We watch the news being reported, and ‘we think, wow, that's tough spot.’ And we take our families out to dinner, and we go about our daily lives. As I boarded the flight in Washington, D.C. last Thursday coming home, I got notified by my Chief of Staff in D.C. that we had an issue in Israel that we needed to address. As soon as I landed, which was around 10 o'clock Thursday night, I got on the phone and started getting an update that a spouse of one of the pastors in Israel who was in Jerusalem, they were in a bomb shelter in a hotel, and she wanted to know if we could help. And so we went to work, and we spent the next hour as I drove home, working on seeing what we needed to do. I called the pastor in Jerusalem because they were eight hours ahead and got the situation, what was going on, and told him that we will do everything we could to get them out safe and as quickly as possible. And that's what started last Thursday. Eight days later they're home and they're with their families, and everybody is happy to be here and to be home and to be out of that area.

Washington Reporter:

And the people that you flew from Tampa to Tulsa are all Oklahomans, right?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

So there were 21 who were Oklahomans. There was a total of 40 in the group that were from the broader region. Of the other 19, 16 of those that were from Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and then the rest of them were a couple of others who had joined the group who were in the bomb shelter: a couple from India, and another person who was there on a student visa. And the three of them kind of went the other way. So we ended up with 37 who were in our group. Regarding the other three, we’re not sure what their status is. With the group I dealt with, we started working, and we worked with the group Grey Bull out of Florida, which has done a lot of extractions. And our connection there was an Admiral Pybus, who is retired admiral in charge of special forces, who is an Oklahoman, and a good friend of mine; he constructed his company to see how we can get these folks out. The CEO of the company personally went in-country and started assembling a large group, and it took a couple of days to figure out a path out of there, because as you were keenly aware, there were a lot of ballistic missiles being fired from Iran into Israel. We weren't sure what was going to be hit or not hit. And I was on the phone, just because of the way the time zone works, we were basically talking about 24 hours a day to keep up with them, and we found a route out. The first route, I advised them, based on my contacts in the area and with the State Department and with the folks in Israel, that was not the safe route to go. We looked at another route that was not the safe route. We were working with Grey Bull to find a safe route. We did. They ended up getting roughly 220 out on that particular track, which is the first mass group out of Israel. And they found a land route to get to a place where they could fly out, fly to Cyprus, and then fly home. And that said, that took seven days to do that trek. They landed in Tampa this morning about 4am, and Grey Bull found them a hotel so they could get cleaned up we departed Tampa around 10:30 this morning.

Washington Reporter:

Tell me about that plane ride. Did it have any extra significance for you, as the representative in Congress of some of these people, and as their pilot?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

We leveraged every conversation we could have between the FAA, TSA, CBP, Department of Homeland Security, my contacts at the White House on Saturday, when I was in D.C. for the Army parade, talking to people in the White House directly to alert them to this situation, what was going on. And Grey Bull has a lot of retired military — Special Forces particularly. So we were leveraging all that. They would tell me what they needed, I would make the contacts and we had to guard against any kind of terrorist trying to hop on a flight to the United States, instead of working through that process, with the manifest of our group, and working through state working through the State Department desk in Cyprus, with the embassies in both Israel and Jordan, also in Cyprus, and also making sure that Department of Homeland Security knew that we had a plane that could come the United States.

Washington Reporter:

What type of plane were you flying from Tampa to Tulsa with these people?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

A Gulfstream five.

Washington Reporter:

Were you able to talk with your passengers about their experience getting out?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

Well, certainly we spoke on the ground. We were scheduled to leave at 11. There actually were there at 10. They were anxious to come home and see their families, because their families were fairly worried about them. They were running on very few hours of sleep over the last week, and they were anxious to get home to talk about their experiences. Many thanked me for advising them not to take the other routes that they originally thought were safe based on history. They realized after being there for a few days that it was much better to stay together, stay in Jerusalem, stay with one unit so we could find them to get them out together, and they were very thankful. Certainly when we got on the ground, many family members were there. All the press was there. One of the family members or friends of the passengers had notified the press, and all the press was there, but more importantly, they're all home safely, and they're going to use these experiences to affect their lives going forward. And hopefully, the things that we learned on this trip with Grey Bull and others will help many people get out of Israel safe, or all over the world. The CEO of Grey Bull is still in Jerusalem as of about five hours ago, and he was actually in the bunker in this particular area, because the ballistic missiles now are falling on many other cities other than just Tel Aviv; Iran's become more indiscriminate of where it fires its ballistic missiles. And so a lot of people are very concerned. What's coming across Jordan is that the Iranians are being more loose with how they're sending their missiles, and so Jordan now is starting to close more airspace so you can’t even get a lot of evacuations out through Jordan.

Washington Reporter:

How does your own personal faith fit into this? You flew a Christian group home from the Holy Land, that has to be special.

Rep. Kevin Hern:

This group had the greatest protector of all, which is God. They prayed profusely to get home safely, and there is no better place to do that than Jerusalem. Early in the ballistic missile fires, most of the interceptions of the ballistic missiles by the Iron Dome were over Jerusalem in that area. We heard that some of the shrapnel would shatter windows from people like Ambassador Mike Huckabee. If you're going to be stranded in a country where there is a religious war going on, and we know in that part of the world there has been one going on for thousands of years, you want to be around people of faith. I don't know about the other 90 or so who were in the group, but certainly they were surrounded with the protection of God.

Washington Reporter:

I understand that you had to pay for this out of your own pocket. Is there no way that the government can reimburse people who are doing things like what you just did? Is there a GoFundMe for Kevin Hern’s plane expenses? You're doing the job that the federal government should be doing in a very different way than you do with your normal Hern Works day to day job here.

Rep. Kevin Hern:

I certainly am not looking for any reimbursement. That was not what did this for. I just thought it was the right thing to do. My wife and I set up a foundation many years ago to help those who need help. This seemed like a very worthy cause to save lives, not just Oklahoma lives, but all the lives that we brought out. No one can put a cost on a life, and we are so happy to be able to do it. It was obviously very expensive. The entire maybe 200-plus people with special operators, airlines, there are so many people involved in this. The federal government did a lot of work. There were no pushbacks from anybody at State or DHS or CPB or TSA or FAA; every particular person that I called in each of those particular areas, I would call up and I'd say, ‘how can I help you?’ And they’d say ‘call this person at this agency’ and I would do that, get them on a conference call, and we would get that clarified, and they moved very quickly. And it's an honor to be able to do that. I never thought that when I ran for Congress that these moments would occur, but I'm just happy that I've been put in this position at this time to help people and get any help.

Washington Reporter:

How much the this whole operation set you back financially?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

I would say the operation itself cost Grey Bull well over a million dollars. My part was significantly less than that, but it was $50,000 or $60,000 to go get these folks from Tampa and bring them home. Again, it's the right thing to do. I'm just fortunate. I've been blessed in my life to have successful business career. You're blessed to be in this country for the opportunities it brings. And to be able to pay back to the greatest nation that’s that ever existed is quite an honor.

Washington Reporter:

Did you serve the people McDonald's when they were on this plane?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

I did not, but they ate very well on the way home.

Washington Reporter:

You were saying you didn't run for Congress expecting to be dealing with traumatized constituents, and flying them across the country. Is this the craziest thing you've done in elected

office?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

I don’t know if it’s that crazy thing, but it's certainly the most rewarding.

Washington Reporter:

There's a saying there are no atheists in a foxhole. And I felt like there were no liberals in a bomb shelter when I was in one. Whoever was with us, Americans, Israelis, Sri Lankans, I asked what they thought would be going on right now if Kamala Harris were president and basically everyone, it didn't really matter what their political ideology was, would say some iteration of ‘thank God Donald Trump is president and not Kamala Harris.’ You mentioned the administration worked well with you. Do you have any thoughts on how, based on your interaction with the Biden FAA, the Biden State Department, the Biden DOT, how things would have happened if this had happened a year ago?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

We certainly didn't know if the Biden administration cared about Israel at all. Look at all of the anti-Semitic movements that were really never put down by the Biden administration, and we've seen what President Trump has done with the universities that have allowed pro-Palestinian protests. We know what President Trump has said: he's not willing to get into the war, but he’s said for his entire career, even before he got into politics, that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon; every single person that was on planes came up to me and said, ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your tremendous support for Israel.’ And that would also be what they would say to Donald Trump, if he were standing there: ‘thank you for your support of Israel.’ These are folks who have been to Israel many times, and they know without Trump’s support of Israel, it would be a much different place there, and Israel would not be as emboldened to go and try to take out the nuclear position of Iran. It is not about regime change. He's about making sure they don't have nuclear weapons, because if they did, we'd be having a whole different conversation right now than just ballistic missiles or some rockets coming across. And this would be a concern for all civilization.

Washington Reporter:

This is something that you've been leading the way on dating back to your RSC days in Congress. Do you think that what you were just laying out is a vindication of Trump's maximum pressure executive order and policy against Iran?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

He rescinded the JCPOA in his first term. He said that was an appeasement to Iran. The president has never wavered in his pushback on Iran, and their regime that they've had that has been a religious fanatic one. He said that the Iranian people are good people, but their leadership is hell bent on destroying Israel, hell bent on destroying America. And Trump will never allow that happen while he’s president.

Washington Reporter:

Before I went to Israel on this trip, I would have been supportive of America bombing Fordow. But after almost a week in a bomb shelter, I was so much more radicalized on this than I thought was possible. Obviously, you weren't there in person, but how did hearing from your constituents affect your own policy outlook?

Rep. Kevin Hern:

I would say, more importantly, it affirmed my position of being a strong supporter of Israel, which I was even before I got into Congress. In Congress, I have worked on things like helping Israel on the Iron Dome replenishing, back five years ago when they fired some thousands of rockets. Today, again, we've not ever seen much success in a regime change, because we have the devil we know versus the devil we don’t know in many of these countries. But I think President Trump’s position is the right one in that we should eliminate their nuclear position, because there are more using it for more than for just commercial purposes. They are doing it for weaponizing their nuclear program. I am now more firm than ever and am more resolute in supporting the position of President Trump. I just appreciate that we have a president who is so strong in that position, and always has been, unlike the wavering commitment that we saw from Obama and Biden. They couldn’t determine if we should have a two-state solution, what their level of support for Palestine was, or all these different areas that are just kind of moving back and forth. This has opened the eyes of many Democrats, you’ve seen that in the polls, there were many Democrats who are supporting Trump here, and I really applaud them for standing up to their own party, which has been not so supportive of Israel at all.

Washington Reporter:

My final question is have you gone noodling yet this year? The Okie Noodling festival was this past weekend, but I know you've been busy.

Rep. Kevin Hern:

I've been busy trying to get the one big, beautiful bill passed. Maybe I’ll go noodling after that.

Washington Reporter:

If you go, I want to come with you. I know that if I get stranded in the Middle East, you'll get me out of there.

Rep. Kevin Hern:

You're going to be out, that’s for sure.