December 22, 2019 • 20 mins
Why do some of our veterans not speak about their service experience, and how can civilians help? On the second half of this two-part episode, we explore the some racial healing 70-years post war, and how food brings veterans out of their shells. We first explore how one community event brought two Navy veterans from different worlds together. Then, Sarah Sicard of Military Times and Cindy Stephens of the Freedom Pantry for Veterans help us understand how they use conversation to get veterans out of their shell and into the light.
Find photos from this episode of Service, an episode transcription, and more at www.ServicePodcast.org, where you can also share your Service stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service. And we’re always sharing extra audio and nerdy food history on social media - we’re @servicepodcast on Instagram and Facebook. Thank you to Military Times, the Freedom Pantry for Veterans, and the Veteran’s Network Committee for connecting with us for this episode.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to part two of a special episode of Service
Stories of Hunger and War, a production from My Heart
Radio and Me your host Jacquelin Reposo. Interviewing World War
Two veterans, do you start to notice some similarities in
their stories? A simple one, how they crossed the country
from their hometowns to base camps, to deployment and back again.
(00:30):
I come home on a train five days before Christmas.
He had put me on a train at a duffel bag.
I got a troop train. Took me five days. I said,
you a troop train for a seat, and that's it.
This shared experience taking a troop train is one of
many that forms their identity as World War Two veterans.
(00:53):
But then, depending on other identifying circumstances, that experience might
not be the same for all service members. Pat the
Ambrosio describes his trip to base camp like this. We
went down on the pullman. We should have to walk
to the kitchen car and then come back pick up
up plates who go to our pullman and sit down
and me in our cheers. George Hardy remembers his pullman
(01:16):
trip with this addition. Leaving Cincinnati, you go to the
South and the loudness. I'll say, white and colored must
be separated as far as eating. So they had a
heavy curtain across with a few tables behind it for
Afro American, and the curtain was waited so that someone
went through it with smooth on the bottom. So then
different experiences between service members by race. There are also
(01:39):
unifying identities within branches too. Oh give me, I've done,
and away I'll run to join my uncle Sam. I
know the exercise whatever harmy me forever since I could go, wife,
I've been in battles all my life, and I came
them home. If they let me join the army. Let's
let military times if in the branches of the armed
(02:01):
forces for us in a way we might best understand
as candy bars. The Army, that massive group makes up
a bag of M and m's their standard, fail safe
and better in numbers. The Marines are like kit cats.
They're rough on the outside, but complex and conflicted on
the inside. The Navy, those guys are Reese's peanut butter cups,
(02:21):
pretty on the outside and salty. Within the Air Force
are the fancy lindor truffles of the group. Underneath that
pretty packaging they're kind of nuts and the Coast Guard.
Evidently there are an Almond joy. You either love them
or hate them, and nothing in between. If those definitions
don't sit right with you, head to Military Times on Instagram,
where you can see the branches as defined by fast
(02:43):
food joints and Christmas desserts. What the heck was that?
The point is, especially in this modern social media era,
bonding through identity has become a huge part of how
we move through the world. As we explored in the
first half of this episode. That works to our benefit
when trying to make empowered choices and supporting one another,
(03:04):
but it works to our disadvantage when we judge others
for labels we snap onto them, or when we set
up a system of law that defines who gets what
based on those identities. You didn't start speaking about your
military life to very reason, but the reasons whether I
and Falco bout it, because that's ill treatment was inflected
(03:25):
on from many Afro Americans. Our fortunate, but for every
little like myself, there was a hundred that we're not
freedom right. This is the way life was. That's Navy
veteran William Walker with his children Bill and Leslie. Now,
William had a good experience in the Navy. He rose
(03:47):
to chief Petty Officer first class, and having been exposed
to educated and successful African American families who encouraged him forward.
Leslie calls the military the great leveler for their family.
But his experience ins were shaped by segregation and racism,
both in the service and when he returned home to
Ohio in nine So let's compare William's story to a
(04:09):
Caucasian veteran of his branch, Robert Hansen. Now, William and
Bob could not have started out for more disparate circumstances.
Here's William remembering food during his Great Depression childhood. My
father would work down at the market. He would befriended
by butcher, and he would bring from leftover for home.
(04:30):
My mother Lord Coquette, and we ate a variety of
food that people nowadays never heard of, like chicken feet.
And now, Bob, here was my dad, a professor at
the Harvard Business School. We had two wids. Mother was
able to kind of sit back. This was almost a
(04:51):
ferry tea life without money for college. William enlisted and
went through several schools of naval training, to first head
a PT rescue team state side, and then he oversaw
supply holds teams in the Pacific Theater. An Ivy League athlete,
Bob was recruited to ski as an officer in training
stateside before he then officered p T boats in the Pacific.
(05:12):
After the war, Bob became an assistant to a Colonel.
William returned to Ohio and took the G. I. Bill
Studental School. Now Here are some relatively mild examples of
the reception William received upon returning home that just didn't
fit into his episode. After the service, I learned a lot.
I recall go into the restaurants in Cleveland, Clark's restaurant.
(05:36):
I had washed pots and pans and Clark's restaurants and
they wouldn't serve us. And when I think about being
turned away from the athletic club because I was black,
it still hounds me. All the things that I have accomplished,
those still left the mark on me and will until
out of day because it can't eradicate that that happened,
(06:00):
that were for real. Of sixteen point five million World
War two veterans, around one million of them were African American.
Yet their stories were silenced in coming decades. For the
documentary version of Maria hans book Breath of Freedom, filmmakers
had to call hours of film to pull ten minutes
of footage of the Tan soldiers, as Black media called them.
(06:23):
It's been comparably impossible for me to find a clear
audio of African Americans during this wartime. For seventy years,
there didn't seem to be a place for William's service
story that was growing up. I never remember us ever
having any white people in the house. I never recall
my father mentioning a Caucasian friend. I remember him telling
(06:43):
me the incidents that he's related here, and the anger
and bitterness that he carried. And then something happened that
could you explain When you were on the honor flight.
The Veterans Network Committee is one of several ornizations that
takes veterans to visit hollowed grounds and war memorials. This summer,
(07:05):
Bill took William on a trip with the v n
c's on her flight to Washington, d C. Well, we
came off the plane, my son was pushing me in
a wheelchair, and I never witnessed anything like it in
my life. People were greeting us. Little white children will
come up and want to take the pictures with me,
and the fathers and their mothers wanted to shake my hands,
(07:26):
and I almost lost it. I really did almost, because
I didn't believe that there was that type of gratitude
from somebody. It were one of the greatest moments in
my life. The only other World War Two veteran on
that trip was Bob. We were being interviewed and to
congratulate it, and wherever we went, he wanted to instill
(07:48):
upon the public that LT veterans were ill treated and
did not get the service recognition that we should have gotten,
and how he apologized for everywhere we went. He and
I were holding hand. I have a friend forever now.
I glazed over William's trials and accomplishments because he tells
his story powerfully in his episode Service within the Service,
(08:11):
and I urge you to hear him out fully in that.
For now, I'll let Leslie describe the significance of what
honor Flight shifted for their family. I was flabbergasted to
see my father born in nine holding hands and crying
with a white man who would have been an officer
at that time. And would have never interacted with him.
(08:34):
And I was so thankful that he was able to
experience that kind of healing in his life, that the
military actually has gone full circle, because I used to
ask him when I was a kid. I used to say,
why is it that you grew up here and you're
the only one who made something out of himself? Nobody
else was driving cadillacs. I remember when I was ten
years old, my father got the first catalect I will
(08:56):
never forget. I was in the fourth grade. He drove
that car to pick me up from school. It was long,
it was black, and it was at a white drop
toop white interior. The kid's mouths dropped. I was like,
but I'm saying, there was no other family. He was
alone in creating this reality for us, And I did
(09:17):
not realize how important the military had been bringing him
out of his environment and then discriminated against him, and
then turn around in the end, it's also creating healing.
This guy Bob has called the house. There no white
friends calling up to speak to Bill, and he's excited
about it. And Bob is excited, but you know, it's beautiful.
(09:37):
I got Bob on the phone to ask straight out
if this was a one off of doing the right thing.
It ends up he'd continue to spend his life fighting
to move the world forward, from pushing the Americans with
Disabilities Act into law in to his current fight for
elder care rights. Meeting Bill, I do what the hell
he had gone through and is still going. I think
(10:00):
it's disgusting and let's put this way. He was started
to break these barrier. Black service members now make up
almost seventeen percent of active duty military. Progress is being made,
yet black commissioned officers only make up eight percent of
the armed forces, and there's so much healing still to
(10:22):
be done for those of us who can. Let's keep
chipping away at these barriers, one conversation at a time.
I want a favorite final I'm proud of my friend,
and I want them to carry on and don't mean
to freed about a negative incident in your life, because
(10:44):
you can overcublic to learn more about William and the
v n C on our flight Head to Service podcast
dot org. When we return, we sit down with Cindy
Stevens of the Freedom Pantry for Veterans. Stay with us
(11:20):
Something Modern Bread, Welcome back to Service. Stories of Hunger
and War from My Heart Radio. I'm Jaqueline Opposo. Food
doesn't know demographic boundaries. Everyone eats. That's Sarah c Card,
branded content manager for Military Times and the genius behind
the military branches as Instagram posts. These food forward posts
(11:42):
get a huge response from service members, and the conversations
are a delight to witness. Food Conserve as sort of
a bridge in that civilian military divide that we talked
so much about in the military community. Now for a
podcast that focuses on war and food stories, we've taken
our time getting to how food helps vetter acclimate back
into civilian life. But honestly, with organizations that plan massive
(12:05):
memorials or fly veterans around the world, food talk is
comparatively easy. Any time a politician or an entertainer from
the USO comes to visit a base, what they tend
to be doing is either serving food or sharing a
meal with them. That's sort of a way to create
common ground for people who otherwise don't necessarily have much
in common, and the Candy posts does that too. It
(12:26):
sort of explains that the military culture in a way
that anyone could understand. For around twenty five years Cindy
Stevens has run the Freedom Pantry for Veterans in Yakima, Washington,
an all volunteered nonprofit that works to fill in the
gaps left by larger organizations. We have food, non perishable as,
we have clothing. We have blankets, cold winter gear for
(12:48):
our homeless veterans. We do Christmas and Thanksgiving boxes. She says,
the greatest challenges to our veterans largely come from two places. First,
many civilians think veteran care is entirely covered by government programs,
and so don't think to donate food, clothing, and home
items to small pantries like hers. There is some facilities
(13:09):
that are amazing, but they claim them veterans make too
much money, whether it be they're getting Social Security on
top of whatever their pension is, so they're turned down
for food stamps or anything else. Some of our veterans
can afford their medications. Then there's the sense of pride
that runs strong through many of those who have served.
(13:29):
I've had to talk a couple of veterans into getting
what is due them because they're like, no, I don't
want to take from somebody else. Veterans accepting assistance is
where it gets particularly personal for Cindy. Her grandfather was
a World War Two Navy veteran who lived with injuries
his VA told him were unrelated to his service. After that,
(13:49):
he refused to go back there for help. He then
got cancer that spread rapidly and killed him within a year,
two days before her sixteenth birthday. He was a very
strongman who for him it was all about loving this
country and helping others. I promised him then that I
would never let another VET go pass, that I would
(14:11):
turn my back on I would make sure that in
some way I would help. She found herself in a
similar challenge a few years ago when her father in
law passed from cancer only twenty four hours after being
diagnosed by a PET scan. She'd been fighting the v
A to give him for over a year. The head
guy called and said, I'm sorry, we did not do right.
(14:32):
I'm sorry. This is the kind of scene I have
had with our veterans care. Aside from the disparities and
via location quality, there are veterans denied care entirely because
they were discharged with an other than honorable label, which
is often given to those who leave the service because
of PTSD or other mental health issues. One point seven
(14:54):
percent of World War two veterans were denied via care
as such, today six point five percent are despite bipartisan
pressure to expand not only coverage but communication with the
many veterans who often lose out because of misinformation and
limited windows to accessing newly available resources. Hearing the details
of each veteran story is how Cindy discovers what they need.
(15:17):
But she says, veterans and service members are used to
being somewhat at attention at official events and don't want
to open up. They've been bold. People don't want to listen,
so they don't give off too much information. At a table,
it's more of a family setting. It breaks down those walls,
and so the pantry hosts veteran thank you dinners and
(15:39):
summer cookouts where Cindy will smoke up a bunch of
meat and they'll all sit together. Food can remind them
of their time in where they're talking with their battle buddies.
Because when they're serving there on watch, they're on the ball.
They have to keep their senses heightened. When they're eating
it's calmorado. That's where they let down the guard and
(16:03):
other circumstances. Just talking about food has helped her to
dissipate dangerous situations. This veteran was on the verge of jocide.
He was isolated. He just felt no one wanted to help,
nobody wanted to listen. You know, it was Christmas time
and it was to the point where he was ready
(16:24):
to go. I was talking to him on the phone.
I spent the entire time cooking, getting his mind off
of where he was at. He's like, you need to
go take care of your family. It's Christmas. I said, no,
I am here to listen to you. You are important
to me. We were talking about food and he was
asking questions and he started feeling comfortable and letting me
(16:45):
know of some of the things that he had gone through.
He said, you know, we're trained to follow orders, what
to do, what not to do, a little distract in
n military tallos crrisive only in now take off your
uniform and just get out of here. And then when
we were come back, were discarded like use combat boots
(17:08):
on the side of the road. There was no mention
of your mental status. We're told to just go on
with life, but we're not trained on how to similate
back into society, and you drank until your pass out.
I ended up learning that some of these guys feel
safer if you're giving them directions. And so we got
(17:33):
him into a hospital and I tell her, I promise
you you'll be taken care of, and I'll take care
of your mother. Because his mother lived by herself and
he was worried that she wouldn't be taken care of.
We had food delivered to her, whatever it could take.
I was taken care of her. He's doing really well today.
He went back to school to become a counselor in
the hospital that he was at to help others. It
(17:56):
happened over Christmas dinner while I was preparing it over
the phone in another state because someone took the time
to listen. But we almost lost him. Of course, not
all of us are equipped to do such work. But
to get conversation started, Cindy offers a simple invitation. If
(18:19):
you just tell someone thank you for your service, and
I appreciate your service, that automatically lets them know that
you care. It's on a day to day basis. They
don't get that. If they say you're welcome, or if
they light up you can say I would love to
know more, so don't want to talk because the experience
(18:41):
was too harsh to talk. And you can tell the difference.
Just saying I'm here, I would listen would be a
big door opener. Or take a page out of Sarah's
playbook and try food humor. The army, that massive group
makes up a bag of eminece that's gentle. Ridding between
the branches is a huge part of military culture with
(19:02):
like sibling rival rates, and so you're coming in on
some of the major character which of every branch, but
you're pursuing it in a way that is extremely humorous,
very accessible, and it encourages a laugh and it encourages
that sort of rivalry to can you've been in a
fun pacity no matter which angle you aim from on
Instagram and a phone call or over something delicious. We
urge you to invite your loved ones to the table
(19:24):
to share their service stories. If you are comfortable enough
to listen, they will talk. They have wonderful stories, stories
you will not see in history books. Especially this time
of year. The Freedom Pantry for Veterans relies on donations
of holiday items like turkeys and hams, toys for veterans children,
warm blankets, and the items they supply year round, like
(19:47):
canned and packaged goods, hygiene items, and pet food. You
can make monetary donations or order directly from their Amazon
list at a link at service podcast dot org. We
thank Cindy, the Livingstone County Veterans Association, the Tuskegee Airman
Military Times, the Japanese American Veterans Association, the Greatest Generations Foundation,
and the Veterans Network Committee for connecting us with veterans
(20:09):
this season. Find more details and photos from this episode
and here extra audio clips at our Instagram and Facebook.
We're at Service podcast and at service podcast dot org,
where you can also send a message to our featured
veterans service. As a production of I Heart Radio, this
episode was produced and edited by me Jack will ever Poso.
Mr Boddiger was the associate producer for this episode. Kobe
(20:31):
McDonald and Andrew Stelzer engineered our interviews with lawson Elizabeth
Emery with William and Junie Ramikin with John. Our supervising
producer is Gabrielle Collins. Our executive producer, Christopher hassiotis. Thank
you for listening. Most of all, thank you to those
serving and those who have served.
Welcome to part two of a special episode of Service
Stories of Hunger and War, a production from My Heart
Radio and Me your host Jacquelin Reposo. Interviewing World War
Two veterans, do you start to notice some similarities in
their stories? A simple one, how they crossed the country
from their hometowns to base camps, to deployment and back again.
(00:30):
I come home on a train five days before Christmas.
He had put me on a train at a duffel bag.
I got a troop train. Took me five days. I said,
you a troop train for a seat, and that's it.
This shared experience taking a troop train is one of
many that forms their identity as World War Two veterans.
(00:53):
But then, depending on other identifying circumstances, that experience might
not be the same for all service members. Pat the
Ambrosio describes his trip to base camp like this. We
went down on the pullman. We should have to walk
to the kitchen car and then come back pick up
up plates who go to our pullman and sit down
and me in our cheers. George Hardy remembers his pullman
(01:16):
trip with this addition. Leaving Cincinnati, you go to the
South and the loudness. I'll say, white and colored must
be separated as far as eating. So they had a
heavy curtain across with a few tables behind it for
Afro American, and the curtain was waited so that someone
went through it with smooth on the bottom. So then
different experiences between service members by race. There are also
(01:39):
unifying identities within branches too. Oh give me, I've done,
and away I'll run to join my uncle Sam. I
know the exercise whatever harmy me forever since I could go, wife,
I've been in battles all my life, and I came
them home. If they let me join the army. Let's
let military times if in the branches of the armed
(02:01):
forces for us in a way we might best understand
as candy bars. The Army, that massive group makes up
a bag of M and m's their standard, fail safe
and better in numbers. The Marines are like kit cats.
They're rough on the outside, but complex and conflicted on
the inside. The Navy, those guys are Reese's peanut butter cups,
(02:21):
pretty on the outside and salty. Within the Air Force
are the fancy lindor truffles of the group. Underneath that
pretty packaging they're kind of nuts and the Coast Guard.
Evidently there are an Almond joy. You either love them
or hate them, and nothing in between. If those definitions
don't sit right with you, head to Military Times on Instagram,
where you can see the branches as defined by fast
(02:43):
food joints and Christmas desserts. What the heck was that?
The point is, especially in this modern social media era,
bonding through identity has become a huge part of how
we move through the world. As we explored in the
first half of this episode. That works to our benefit
when trying to make empowered choices and supporting one another,
(03:04):
but it works to our disadvantage when we judge others
for labels we snap onto them, or when we set
up a system of law that defines who gets what
based on those identities. You didn't start speaking about your
military life to very reason, but the reasons whether I
and Falco bout it, because that's ill treatment was inflected
(03:25):
on from many Afro Americans. Our fortunate, but for every
little like myself, there was a hundred that we're not
freedom right. This is the way life was. That's Navy
veteran William Walker with his children Bill and Leslie. Now,
William had a good experience in the Navy. He rose
(03:47):
to chief Petty Officer first class, and having been exposed
to educated and successful African American families who encouraged him forward.
Leslie calls the military the great leveler for their family.
But his experience ins were shaped by segregation and racism,
both in the service and when he returned home to
Ohio in nine So let's compare William's story to a
(04:09):
Caucasian veteran of his branch, Robert Hansen. Now, William and
Bob could not have started out for more disparate circumstances.
Here's William remembering food during his Great Depression childhood. My
father would work down at the market. He would befriended
by butcher, and he would bring from leftover for home.
(04:30):
My mother Lord Coquette, and we ate a variety of
food that people nowadays never heard of, like chicken feet.
And now, Bob, here was my dad, a professor at
the Harvard Business School. We had two wids. Mother was
able to kind of sit back. This was almost a
(04:51):
ferry tea life without money for college. William enlisted and
went through several schools of naval training, to first head
a PT rescue team state side, and then he oversaw
supply holds teams in the Pacific Theater. An Ivy League athlete,
Bob was recruited to ski as an officer in training
stateside before he then officered p T boats in the Pacific.
(05:12):
After the war, Bob became an assistant to a Colonel.
William returned to Ohio and took the G. I. Bill
Studental School. Now Here are some relatively mild examples of
the reception William received upon returning home that just didn't
fit into his episode. After the service, I learned a lot.
I recall go into the restaurants in Cleveland, Clark's restaurant.
(05:36):
I had washed pots and pans and Clark's restaurants and
they wouldn't serve us. And when I think about being
turned away from the athletic club because I was black,
it still hounds me. All the things that I have accomplished,
those still left the mark on me and will until
out of day because it can't eradicate that that happened,
(06:00):
that were for real. Of sixteen point five million World
War two veterans, around one million of them were African American.
Yet their stories were silenced in coming decades. For the
documentary version of Maria hans book Breath of Freedom, filmmakers
had to call hours of film to pull ten minutes
of footage of the Tan soldiers, as Black media called them.
(06:23):
It's been comparably impossible for me to find a clear
audio of African Americans during this wartime. For seventy years,
there didn't seem to be a place for William's service
story that was growing up. I never remember us ever
having any white people in the house. I never recall
my father mentioning a Caucasian friend. I remember him telling
(06:43):
me the incidents that he's related here, and the anger
and bitterness that he carried. And then something happened that
could you explain When you were on the honor flight.
The Veterans Network Committee is one of several ornizations that
takes veterans to visit hollowed grounds and war memorials. This summer,
(07:05):
Bill took William on a trip with the v n
c's on her flight to Washington, d C. Well, we
came off the plane, my son was pushing me in
a wheelchair, and I never witnessed anything like it in
my life. People were greeting us. Little white children will
come up and want to take the pictures with me,
and the fathers and their mothers wanted to shake my hands,
(07:26):
and I almost lost it. I really did almost, because
I didn't believe that there was that type of gratitude
from somebody. It were one of the greatest moments in
my life. The only other World War Two veteran on
that trip was Bob. We were being interviewed and to
congratulate it, and wherever we went, he wanted to instill
(07:48):
upon the public that LT veterans were ill treated and
did not get the service recognition that we should have gotten,
and how he apologized for everywhere we went. He and
I were holding hand. I have a friend forever now.
I glazed over William's trials and accomplishments because he tells
his story powerfully in his episode Service within the Service,
(08:11):
and I urge you to hear him out fully in that.
For now, I'll let Leslie describe the significance of what
honor Flight shifted for their family. I was flabbergasted to
see my father born in nine holding hands and crying
with a white man who would have been an officer
at that time. And would have never interacted with him.
(08:34):
And I was so thankful that he was able to
experience that kind of healing in his life, that the
military actually has gone full circle, because I used to
ask him when I was a kid. I used to say,
why is it that you grew up here and you're
the only one who made something out of himself? Nobody
else was driving cadillacs. I remember when I was ten
years old, my father got the first catalect I will
(08:56):
never forget. I was in the fourth grade. He drove
that car to pick me up from school. It was long,
it was black, and it was at a white drop
toop white interior. The kid's mouths dropped. I was like,
but I'm saying, there was no other family. He was
alone in creating this reality for us, And I did
(09:17):
not realize how important the military had been bringing him
out of his environment and then discriminated against him, and
then turn around in the end, it's also creating healing.
This guy Bob has called the house. There no white
friends calling up to speak to Bill, and he's excited
about it. And Bob is excited, but you know, it's beautiful.
(09:37):
I got Bob on the phone to ask straight out
if this was a one off of doing the right thing.
It ends up he'd continue to spend his life fighting
to move the world forward, from pushing the Americans with
Disabilities Act into law in to his current fight for
elder care rights. Meeting Bill, I do what the hell
he had gone through and is still going. I think
(10:00):
it's disgusting and let's put this way. He was started
to break these barrier. Black service members now make up
almost seventeen percent of active duty military. Progress is being made,
yet black commissioned officers only make up eight percent of
the armed forces, and there's so much healing still to
(10:22):
be done for those of us who can. Let's keep
chipping away at these barriers, one conversation at a time.
I want a favorite final I'm proud of my friend,
and I want them to carry on and don't mean
to freed about a negative incident in your life, because
(10:44):
you can overcublic to learn more about William and the
v n C on our flight Head to Service podcast
dot org. When we return, we sit down with Cindy
Stevens of the Freedom Pantry for Veterans. Stay with us
(11:20):
Something Modern Bread, Welcome back to Service. Stories of Hunger
and War from My Heart Radio. I'm Jaqueline Opposo. Food
doesn't know demographic boundaries. Everyone eats. That's Sarah c Card,
branded content manager for Military Times and the genius behind
the military branches as Instagram posts. These food forward posts
(11:42):
get a huge response from service members, and the conversations
are a delight to witness. Food Conserve as sort of
a bridge in that civilian military divide that we talked
so much about in the military community. Now for a
podcast that focuses on war and food stories, we've taken
our time getting to how food helps vetter acclimate back
into civilian life. But honestly, with organizations that plan massive
(12:05):
memorials or fly veterans around the world, food talk is
comparatively easy. Any time a politician or an entertainer from
the USO comes to visit a base, what they tend
to be doing is either serving food or sharing a
meal with them. That's sort of a way to create
common ground for people who otherwise don't necessarily have much
in common, and the Candy posts does that too. It
(12:26):
sort of explains that the military culture in a way
that anyone could understand. For around twenty five years Cindy
Stevens has run the Freedom Pantry for Veterans in Yakima, Washington,
an all volunteered nonprofit that works to fill in the
gaps left by larger organizations. We have food, non perishable as,
we have clothing. We have blankets, cold winter gear for
(12:48):
our homeless veterans. We do Christmas and Thanksgiving boxes. She says,
the greatest challenges to our veterans largely come from two places. First,
many civilians think veteran care is entirely covered by government programs,
and so don't think to donate food, clothing, and home
items to small pantries like hers. There is some facilities
(13:09):
that are amazing, but they claim them veterans make too
much money, whether it be they're getting Social Security on
top of whatever their pension is, so they're turned down
for food stamps or anything else. Some of our veterans
can afford their medications. Then there's the sense of pride
that runs strong through many of those who have served.
(13:29):
I've had to talk a couple of veterans into getting
what is due them because they're like, no, I don't
want to take from somebody else. Veterans accepting assistance is
where it gets particularly personal for Cindy. Her grandfather was
a World War Two Navy veteran who lived with injuries
his VA told him were unrelated to his service. After that,
(13:49):
he refused to go back there for help. He then
got cancer that spread rapidly and killed him within a year,
two days before her sixteenth birthday. He was a very
strongman who for him it was all about loving this
country and helping others. I promised him then that I
would never let another VET go pass, that I would
(14:11):
turn my back on I would make sure that in
some way I would help. She found herself in a
similar challenge a few years ago when her father in
law passed from cancer only twenty four hours after being
diagnosed by a PET scan. She'd been fighting the v
A to give him for over a year. The head
guy called and said, I'm sorry, we did not do right.
(14:32):
I'm sorry. This is the kind of scene I have
had with our veterans care. Aside from the disparities and
via location quality, there are veterans denied care entirely because
they were discharged with an other than honorable label, which
is often given to those who leave the service because
of PTSD or other mental health issues. One point seven
(14:54):
percent of World War two veterans were denied via care
as such, today six point five percent are despite bipartisan
pressure to expand not only coverage but communication with the
many veterans who often lose out because of misinformation and
limited windows to accessing newly available resources. Hearing the details
of each veteran story is how Cindy discovers what they need.
(15:17):
But she says, veterans and service members are used to
being somewhat at attention at official events and don't want
to open up. They've been bold. People don't want to listen,
so they don't give off too much information. At a table,
it's more of a family setting. It breaks down those walls,
and so the pantry hosts veteran thank you dinners and
(15:39):
summer cookouts where Cindy will smoke up a bunch of
meat and they'll all sit together. Food can remind them
of their time in where they're talking with their battle buddies.
Because when they're serving there on watch, they're on the ball.
They have to keep their senses heightened. When they're eating
it's calmorado. That's where they let down the guard and
(16:03):
other circumstances. Just talking about food has helped her to
dissipate dangerous situations. This veteran was on the verge of jocide.
He was isolated. He just felt no one wanted to help,
nobody wanted to listen. You know, it was Christmas time
and it was to the point where he was ready
(16:24):
to go. I was talking to him on the phone.
I spent the entire time cooking, getting his mind off
of where he was at. He's like, you need to
go take care of your family. It's Christmas. I said, no,
I am here to listen to you. You are important
to me. We were talking about food and he was
asking questions and he started feeling comfortable and letting me
(16:45):
know of some of the things that he had gone through.
He said, you know, we're trained to follow orders, what
to do, what not to do, a little distract in
n military tallos crrisive only in now take off your
uniform and just get out of here. And then when
we were come back, were discarded like use combat boots
(17:08):
on the side of the road. There was no mention
of your mental status. We're told to just go on
with life, but we're not trained on how to similate
back into society, and you drank until your pass out.
I ended up learning that some of these guys feel
safer if you're giving them directions. And so we got
(17:33):
him into a hospital and I tell her, I promise
you you'll be taken care of, and I'll take care
of your mother. Because his mother lived by herself and
he was worried that she wouldn't be taken care of.
We had food delivered to her, whatever it could take.
I was taken care of her. He's doing really well today.
He went back to school to become a counselor in
the hospital that he was at to help others. It
(17:56):
happened over Christmas dinner while I was preparing it over
the phone in another state because someone took the time
to listen. But we almost lost him. Of course, not
all of us are equipped to do such work. But
to get conversation started, Cindy offers a simple invitation. If
(18:19):
you just tell someone thank you for your service, and
I appreciate your service, that automatically lets them know that
you care. It's on a day to day basis. They
don't get that. If they say you're welcome, or if
they light up you can say I would love to
know more, so don't want to talk because the experience
(18:41):
was too harsh to talk. And you can tell the difference.
Just saying I'm here, I would listen would be a
big door opener. Or take a page out of Sarah's
playbook and try food humor. The army, that massive group
makes up a bag of eminece that's gentle. Ridding between
the branches is a huge part of military culture with
(19:02):
like sibling rival rates, and so you're coming in on
some of the major character which of every branch, but
you're pursuing it in a way that is extremely humorous,
very accessible, and it encourages a laugh and it encourages
that sort of rivalry to can you've been in a
fun pacity no matter which angle you aim from on
Instagram and a phone call or over something delicious. We
urge you to invite your loved ones to the table
(19:24):
to share their service stories. If you are comfortable enough
to listen, they will talk. They have wonderful stories, stories
you will not see in history books. Especially this time
of year. The Freedom Pantry for Veterans relies on donations
of holiday items like turkeys and hams, toys for veterans children,
warm blankets, and the items they supply year round, like
(19:47):
canned and packaged goods, hygiene items, and pet food. You
can make monetary donations or order directly from their Amazon
list at a link at service podcast dot org. We
thank Cindy, the Livingstone County Veterans Association, the Tuskegee Airman
Military Times, the Japanese American Veterans Association, the Greatest Generations Foundation,
and the Veterans Network Committee for connecting us with veterans
(20:09):
this season. Find more details and photos from this episode
and here extra audio clips at our Instagram and Facebook.
We're at Service podcast and at service podcast dot org,
where you can also send a message to our featured
veterans service. As a production of I Heart Radio, this
episode was produced and edited by me Jack will ever Poso.
Mr Boddiger was the associate producer for this episode. Kobe
(20:31):
McDonald and Andrew Stelzer engineered our interviews with lawson Elizabeth
Emery with William and Junie Ramikin with John. Our supervising
producer is Gabrielle Collins. Our executive producer, Christopher hassiotis. Thank
you for listening. Most of all, thank you to those
serving and those who have served.
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