December 1, 2024 • 63 mins
Mission Roll Call is the first of its kind: a non-partisan movement that gives our community an opportunity to speak on the issues that are most important to them. We partner with our network of veterans, their families, supporters, and veteran service organizations in our coalition to advocate for positive change in the lives of all veterans. Through polling, direct outreach, and media appearances, Mission Roll Call gathers and delivers the unfiltered, unbiased, and apolitical voice of veterans and their supporters across America, advocating for meaningful improvements and ensuring their concerns and ideas are heard at the highest levels of policy-making.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, awesome listeners, get ready for something amazing. Our
Black Friday campaign kicks off this Monday and runs all
week long, and we're giving you an incredible deal, a
full year of soft Reap for just a dollar ninety nine.
That's ninety percent off. But here's the best part. Every
purchase also gives a membership to an active duty service
(00:21):
member or an emergency responder, so it's a win win.
To grab this deal, head over to soft rep dot
com forward slash Black Friday or find the link in
the description. Stay tuned and happy Black Friday shopping from
all of us here at soft Rep. Awesome episode of
soft Rep Radio, and you know it's kind of you know,
(00:43):
veterans time, holiday time. Right now, I'm recording with my
guests and let me introduce you to the Merch store
if you're a new time listener. Okay, so soft rep
dot com forward slash Merch go check that out, pick
up some branded goods. Thank you for the support. It
means a ton, it really does. I can't explain enough.
I have to pander for you to buy it, but
thank you so much. Number two is the book Club.
(01:06):
All right, soft Reap has put a lot of effort
into you know, curating this book club with guys from
the special operations community thinking this is what you would
like to read. So go check out softwap dot com
Forward slash book Hyphened Club. And I have retired Lieutenant
Colonel Army Jim Waalia with us today and he is
(01:26):
in charge of Mission roll Call, which is an app
a website that you can go check out. And I'm
going to say mission roll Call? Is it? Dot org?
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Dot org?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Dot org? Mission roll Call? And some of you may
have already checked out Mission roll call dot org or
you may have sawt a previous episode with Jim on
and he's always a welcome guest back to the show
with a lot of positive thoughts. So welcome Jim to
SOFTWAREP Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh my pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Oh yeah, you're great. Always always a pleasure to have you.
So let's talk a little bit about your background quick,
Army Lieutenant colonel Yeah, yeah? Why why? Why? Why?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well? I was one of those guys that went to
college and really didn't have a plan to pay for it,
to be honest with you. And while I was at college,
I got introduced to some RTC guys via the track
team I was on at the time and at lock Haven, Pennsylvania,
small state college in Central PA UH and ended up
(02:30):
receiving scholarship where they paid for my tuition and my
room and board and and made the whole process of
paying for college a heck of a lot simpler. And
all I owed was four years back to which to
me seemed like it was going to be fun. I
do four years, I would I thought I would do
four years and get out and then pursue a career
(02:50):
doing something else. And I just fell in love with
what I was doing. I loved serving with people from
all walks of life. I loved flying helicopters. I loved
every bit of it. And don't get me wrong, there
are some times in the army where it's that there
is a suckfest associated with it, right, I mean, the
Army can make you suffer on the industrial scale. They
(03:12):
know how to do it at scale, so there are
times where it's difficult. But I enjoyed it immensely. Met
my wife in the military and then we served all
I think out of twenty years, ten was overseas, and
that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted to see the world,
I wanted to do fun things, I wanted to do
important things. In the military was the right fit.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
For me, and so the helicopter of choice.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I started off. Yes, it was a choice. I wanted
to go at aviation and luckily I was fortunate to
receive that billet. And my wife was a Shook pilot
and I met her later in my career, and so
that was cool.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, Like the movie Firebirds, Stop bro, all gone bye bye,
It's like, whatever you want, keep your keep your radar
below the mountains so you don't get shot, babe.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
She's like, I'm fine, I got this.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Let me show you.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
How Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah. So I had did that for twenty years and
had a wonderful time and served all over the world
and like I said, some places better than others. Built
a family along the way. One was born when I
was in Panama, and the other one was born when
I was in Germany. The last was born when we're
at West Point, and she ended up graduating West Point
(04:41):
on her birthday. She's the only person that graduate that
was born at west Point and graduated West Point on
her birthday. When you think of the long history of
that storied institution.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Also, your wife taking time out of her life career, yeah, yeah,
incubate and to curate these shoulder We didn't and you know,
we didn't have to stop our life, did we know?
We kept going, how you got to go? And she
had kind of had a halt back a little bit, Yeah,
(05:17):
and pull her career back for a huge sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Huge sacrifice. And I have nothing but admiration for spouses
in the military. I mean, all of them put their
careers on hold because you move every few years, really
difficult to find a great job. In that process, you're
usually living in quarters that are much smaller than you
(05:44):
ever wanted to uh, and then you're moving again and
that's costly.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And she might have been on a career path, oh yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Mean, she would have had a great career in the military,
no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, you know. And so a lot of us don't
take that in consideration about the female who is serving.
All it takes is just getting pregnant to change her
whole life.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
And the army has I can only speak for the
army from my perspective, but I know they've tried, and
they certainly talk a great gain on supporting women when
they have children and are pregnant, and on paper it
looks great. In practice not so good because they leave
(06:25):
it up to local commands and so being able to
take that maternity leave is sometimes not honored. And if
it is honored, then sometimes it's not. It's it's a
detriment to your career. So we need to figure that out.
The army needs to get into modern times and figure
(06:45):
out ways to support families on a whole host of things,
which I'm happy to talk about, the whole host of things.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Like a woman tried to move in the career field
and then she gets one of us and.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I'm not, And you know, I would urge you at
some point we should have a you know, somebody who's
gone through that, right, a woman that's gone through his
career and jeopardy to try to do that. I think
your listeners would like that. But when you would like
to see that, yeah, when you think about finances right now,
And of course, we just had an election.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, we just had the presidential election here in the
US and what's his name, Donald Trump has been elected
to the White House again. Since Grover Cleveland. Let's just
call it what it is, is a felon who has
been elected to the White House.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, I think there's there's probably you know, there's many
perspectives on Donald Trump. I will say this, I'm hopeful
that the economy will get better because right now we
have twenty four percent of our active duty military with
food and financial insecurities. This is not a statistic that
(07:59):
I'm up or some think tank came up with. This
is Department of Defense numbers.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Oh well, jim, let me tell you about my dad
being a Green Beret. Okay, growing up eighties and nineties,
we went to the food pantry for the Mormon Church
more than one time. Right when my dad was laying
in the bed with my mom, they broke down his
twenty four to seven pay to be two dollars and
thirteen cents an hour while he's sleeping or not. Right,
So you know, it's not just this guy coming in
(08:25):
it's gonna change anything. He would have changed it already.
He already had a chance, right like a U.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Well, I don't want to I don't want to get put.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I always like to get judges out and put a
new judge in because that first judge had four years
of doing whatever, and now you get a new judge
who's gonna be all like I got the country. But
this guy, this guy has already had a platform of
bigotry and hate and mocking people and people with disabilities,
people that are women, people who choose to be what
(08:53):
they want to be in life. Like when my father
taught me to free the oppressed, that means freedom of choice.
Have to be mocked or make fun of or belittled
or say you can't, you know, go here or there.
When people say, like when Donald Trump says, we don't
want you know, uni sex bathrooms, it's like, well, don't
you want the little baby boy being changed by his
(09:13):
father and mother in their bathroom? Yeah? So I think
that it goes all the way to the root of
that evil. And I know that you have like a
pure result that was prior to the election that says
like you know, military personnel or you know, in favor
and all these different things. And obviously something's happened where
Donald Trump got re elected and everybody I talk to
(09:34):
in Utah is like disassociated from the US right now.
They're like, I just don't understand how so many people
could want the rhetoric out of his mouth. How do
we justify that? How does the Mormon Church here in Utah?
How does the Catholic Church justify his antics as wholesome
and Christian when he is a philandering individual who cheats
(09:59):
on his wife and with you know, no cause or
regard for anybody else by himself, And you can't deny
it's facts. These are all facts.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Well we could we let's leave it at this. We
have difference of opinion, and we are an apolitical.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Different right, You and I could have difference.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It would be it would be more beneficial for me
to talk about veterans issues and not the political landscape.
If we can do that.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Oh sure, well, I mean it is what it is.
The veterans are going to be like. You know, there's
let's say that there's veterans out there that want to
reach out to you because he's been elected and they're
depressed because of it. What happens now?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, Well, we're always here for veterans for a variety
of reasons, and we have a lot of coalition partners
that help us direct veterans to the right place. And
when you go to our website. You can see they're
really a hub for veterans. So let's say you're a
veteran getting out of the service right now and you
think about starting your business. We have webcasts UH and
(10:58):
podcasts and the nonprofits that we work with to help
you kind of find that path. How do you start
a business? We also have you know, some great podcasts
and YouTube series on getting VA benefits and understanding how
to do that. The challenge with military veterans getting out
(11:20):
of a service is that the Transition Assistant Program TAP
is really not up to speed. It is not helping
a lot of veterans really find their way. So let's
think about this. If twenty four percent of active duty
military are on food insecurity issues, which means they that's
(11:42):
a financial insecurity the DoD describes as food insecurity issues,
but the factory means if you can't pay for food,
you don't have enough money because that's the first thing
you're spending money on. So if you think about that,
and then you think about the pay that they're receiving
while they're in the military and they get out, you
(12:03):
can understand why they're behind the eight ball on making
this transition after a few years, like increasing the pay
to people like they are they should and that's what
that's one of the things we've been advocating for, and
it's one of the most important things to our veterans.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
It should be bipartisan on that, right. That should be
a simple like, oh, it's a veteran, no matter who
they believe in. I mean, Congress might say let's give
them a ten increase.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Right, And I think there needs to be a real
hard look on on why that has not happened. I
think there also needs to be a look into why
people aren't staying in the military. I mean, the fact
is is that the retention rate is really low. I'm
(12:52):
sure part of that has to do with the fact
that they're not paying soldiers, airmen, marines enough to live,
but it's also the op tempo when you have less
people to do the job. If your organization is supposed
to have twenty people and you only have ten, well
everybody's doing double the work, right, and so they need
(13:13):
to they need to figure that out. Either you reduce
what needs to get done or you need to add
the people. But I also feel that you know, at
the back end, then you see veterans struggling to get
the help they healthcare where they needed, when they needed,
how they need it from the VA. So if you
(13:33):
think of those two things as bookends, it should be
no surprise that recruitment numbers are very low and the
services are not hitting their mark. More advertising it's not
going to fix that. It's a systemic problem. We have
an army, right, so there needs to be a better
look at at.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
That versus like on a NASCAR hood for two hundred
fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, I get I get it. They need to advertise
to youth because that's who's joining the military for the
most part. But they need to be recruits for at
the local schools.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
You know, they set up a table with a banner
and some pamphlets and.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Well, yeah, some schools don't allow.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Recruiters in, well, only private schools. Yeah, so if they
get any federal funds, then the federal funds could be
pulled if they don't allow recruiters in. Yeah, so any
school that's public is allowing recruiters. It would be private
charter schools where they get vouchers that can block that
recruit from going in there, where they're actually giving a
higher education to that student who we could use in
(14:40):
the military, right right.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
But yeah, well I think they're going to need to relook.
You know what, what what what does it mean to serve?
What is it that are the incentives? I mean, right now,
the big incentive for a lot of young people to
join the military is the GI Bill, which gives you,
of course access to funding when you continue in your education.
And that's great, and I'm not advocating in any way
(15:04):
that we reduce that. But if you think about it in
logical progression, if you're incentivizing somebody to leave to go
to school, you shouldn't be surprised that they're leaving and
going to school, right, So what else are you off
counterbalancing that? What is the incentives to stay in And
they need to take a look at that. It's a
(15:26):
dangerous world out there. We need to have a military
that's robust. We need to have a military that has
the best and brightest serving in it. It is dangerous,
it's dangerous, and you need to have you need to
educate coaches and counselors and parents on what the advantages
are of serving in the military. And right now, I
(15:47):
don't think in this emphasis is on that. But we're
really concerned at our organization of how we help veterans,
and certainly early transition veterans is part of that. You
have about two hundred thousand veterans every year getting now
in the military, so it's a lot of people. But
you have a lot of veterans in the country. There's
(16:08):
eighteen point five million veterans in our country.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I was gonna say like twenty million, but yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
That numbers declining because of the just the demographics.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Well, and the wars died down, right, we're not really
in Afghanistan, so the veterans aren't being pas dispensered out
if you will.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Ye, and you've had a lot of most World War
Two in Korea veterans passing away, and so are Vietnam veterans.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Now it's coming up to the desert storms.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Right, So you have about eighteen and a half million
veterans in the country. Half of those are not represented
by the VA, so they're not registered with the VA,
they're not served by the VA.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
So is that the veterans fault or is that the
VA's fault for not staying in touch with the veterans.
What do you think should the veteran who's listening to this,
since not registered and got out, be like, I should
go register with the VA.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I think there needs to be an education program on that.
On the importance of that. I'm reluctant to point a
finger and say it's your fault or your fault, and
I think it's an individual decision. Some people left the military,
they feel fine, they don't want to deal with that,
and they don't like to bureaucracy. They have their own
health care, so they move away and they don't need it.
(17:24):
On the other hand, I think the VA could do
a lot better job. I'm making sure they're reaching out
to veterans early on. I mean, the DD in the
VA don't talk to each other, and that has been
the case since inception. I mean, even your medical records
for many many years didn't transfer, and it's only transferred
now is when you put into forclaim or you register
(17:45):
with the VA. So if you think about a three
hundred and fifty billion dollar budget that the VA has
and you only serve half of the veterans that are
in our country, there needs to be a look at
where that money's being spent and is it being spent wisely,
(18:06):
is there a better use of that money one of
the programs that are working that you can reinforce, and
what are the programs that you probably need to relook
and maybe cut. But clearly there needs.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
To be.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Improvement in the efficiency of the VA and the ability
of the.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
VA to.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Reach veterans where they need healthcare and where they want
to get their healthcare. I mean, I mean, right now,
it's a brick and more to kind of model and
you've got to go to them. And in some cases
that's too far for a veteran or they can't get there,
or are they just they're too sick they can't right right?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
You know, you know, I got friends who are from
a Navajo nation and it's difficult for them to get
to the VA. You know, sometimes the representative will come
on to the reservation, but it's like, you know, yeah,
where is that representation at? You know for those guys
right serve.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, And then you know, I think a look at
what holistic medicine looks like. Right, rather than always treating
the symptom when it gets to the point where it
needs surgery or something, rather than getting to it earlier on.
It's something we're exploring and taking a look at with
other organization. We look at our organization as a conduit
(19:24):
for the forty thousand other veterans support organizations that make
up our country. There's about forty thousand veterans support organizations now.
The vast majority of them are very small, mom and
pop foundations. Maybe they're providing a couple of service dogs
to a local community, maybe they have a horseback therapy,
(19:46):
you know, in one community, and they're doing God's work,
and they do excellent work. But the majority of them
are quite small. The bigger organizations, the ones you think about,
they're the ones that we're working with to make sure
that people can find that path. So we, through our
(20:08):
new website, provide news to a veterans so they can
see that that that's impacting that community. We highlight organizations
that they can get involved with. You know, I'm a
firm believer in my organization is is that if we
can just do a better job on getting a veteran
when they get out of the military and plug them
in to a brotherhood, a sisterhood of other veterans and
(20:32):
other organization including ours, they're going to do much better.
If we could just make that happen. If there's one
thing I could ask the d D and the VA
to do is, you know, allow veterans when they're getting
out of the service to sign a piece of paper
and share those names with a couple vetted veteran support
organizations so we can reach out to them. So when
(20:54):
Charlie or Sally gets out of the military and they
go to Utah or to go to Salt Lake, there's
a vso that calls them up, reaches out to them, says, hey,
I understand you're in the Salt Lake region. We'd like
to take you out to lunch, find out what your
aspirations are, tell you a little bit about ourselves, and
plug you into the community, help you along the way.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I would take that job myself.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And yeah, I mean that's a great job, right, I
mean I would take.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
That job to reach out and say hey, what's up
as within the VA four the veterans.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, And I'll tell you from my transition and I
had a wonderful job. I was leaving running communications public
affairs for West Point. I just made a promotion to
six but decided to retire. Had a wonderful job working
for a fortune five or fortune fifty company, very large company,
(21:47):
had a great job, and there was something missing. I
could not believe that no one reached out to me
from the army, right, I mean here, I was gone
and no one called and checked and nobody reached out.
When months go by and you feel like you're disengaged
and the only people you're talking to your buddies and
folks that you serve with, but the institution itself completely
(22:09):
cuts off communication. As soon as you resign or retire
or whatever it is, you're gone, you're going to get right.
You'll get in your paycheck or your retirement check.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And that's not even a letter that goes to a bank.
So they could do a much better job on staying
in touch and building that alumni and directing people to
veteran support organizations. So right from the start, you have
somebody who's going to reach out to you and find out,
you know, what's needed, what can we be helpful with.
I think that would go a long way, because a
(22:44):
lot of veterans struggle with that.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Every veteran I know went through a morning period of
leaving the military, and it might be that it was
a short lived morning period, right they left and they
couldn't wait to get out, but they.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Missed aspects of it. As time went on, they kind
of forgot the bad things and they remembered the buddies,
and they remembered this and remember that, And there's a
morning period. If it was a career for you, then
it's even more so. It's like losing someone. It's that impactful.
And I think we need to understand that and we
(23:20):
need to try to mitigate that, because if you think
about it, is they have thrown millions of dollars day
to VA DoD others at suicide prevention, and still the
numbers are astronomically high, anywhere from eighteen to twenty five
a day. So obviously what you're doing is not working.
(23:40):
I think that breaking up that chain. If you think
about it, you get out of the military, maybe it
was really impactful to you. You go to your first job,
it doesn't work out, then you struggle to get your
next job, and now your circle of friends and maybe
family or it is not as tight as it was.
You've lost your folks that you served with, now you're
(24:01):
in financial straits. You can see where that spiral goes
to a deep and dark place that's hard to get
out of, and in any other number of things, substance abuse,
alcohol abuse, injury, any any number of those things, financial destitutions.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Literally just keep conversations with like a few that's just
yesterday regarding the election and their depression, like just how
they're talking and and and it's just it's interesting to
hear that. It's not just it's just like they're just
how can you stop somebody? Jim? How can I tell
you that you have to do what I say?
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Well, how can you that?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
And that means like stay alive?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
And you're like, yeah, it doesn't work, Yeah, it doesn't work.
And you can't just tell somebody depressed, hey, just be happy.
You got a lots to be happy for. How do
I It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah. That's why I said I would love that job
because I feel like I have an empathetic heart.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Yeah, and I sense that, and I'm sure your viewers
do you know listeners? I feel like if we could
just break up that chain and get to them and yeah,
And I think the great thing about all veterans I've
met and served with and work with now, they're great
at helping other people. All veterans are great.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
You give them a.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Mission and say, hey man, we need you to go
over there and help these people out there on it
will whatever they do it. But they're awful at helping themselves.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Right, Well, they won't go to the VA. They get out.
They're still like maybe in their twenties or thirties, and
they might have got out with a medical and they
got over that and they didn't want to go to
the VA because I'm good, I got this, I suck
it up. But then they're sixty and then their sweet
sixty year old wife is pushing them in the wheelchair
and she's trying to take care of herself and that
person because they didn't go sooner.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, oh, you just nailed me. I had never I
didn't file any VA claims until last year. Yeah, and
I just felt like, hey, well, I got all my
fingers and toes. I've never been severely injured me And
by the way, those guys that really need it, I'm
not one of them. Well, now you've got an fl
client yep, to address the issues that are affecting you
(26:10):
and to make a claim. And I think the VA
needs to recognize.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
That correct and make it a bit claim right now.
If somebody out there is listening to this, you know
they have not made their claim, they should just start
and say.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Hi, yeah, absolutely, And there's so many right and they
can go to our website and we have a wonderful
video that walks people through on our YouTube page that
talks about how to do that, and it's step by
step and even if you have done it, I would
urge you to go and listen to that because it's
(26:44):
a wonderful simplified process and walks you through the dus
and don'ts. It's a short video, it doesn't take a
lot of time. We could change your life, and we
ask people to do that, and they can always contact
us and we can put them in contact with other
vis that actually help with claims. And almost every county
(27:05):
has a VSO at the county Military Organization, some veterans hospitals.
There's a huge veterans hospital here in Charlote. I live
in South Carolina, so my Veterans' Hospital via Hospitals in Charlotte.
I just recently went there the first time. There is
no Veterans Support organ there's no claims officer for that
(27:28):
whole hospital. You have to go outside organization to do that.
So that's in mind boggling to me. And I saw,
you know, a huge building, hundreds and hundreds of people
working there, not one office now one office that helps
walk you through that, And it seems to me, isn't
that what you're supposed to be doing? But I think
(27:50):
it's things like that that they need to look at
and address. And if it's happening here, I'm sure it's
happening at scale in many organizations.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
On the weekend comes in and then you're an idol.
You're like, what's going on with my rating? It's the weekend.
Everybody's gone home at five o'clock, you know, And it's.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Like, I'm not taking a taking away from the great
people that do work for the VS. There are wonderful
people in every organization, but.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
If they still walk out at five, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
And and the system is not conducive. You know, I
don't know who would be the next to be a secretary.
It's a very difficult job. It's very difficult to succeed
in it.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
But bro what I said probably Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, well maybe I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
That.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I do think that you need somebody that can at
least bring people in and talk about customer service. They
need to have a customer service mindset, right, I.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Mean four more years for that.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
So we need to we need to figure out.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
The customer service brother. Yea, literally someone who's gonna care
and listen, not just say this is how it is.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah, so's hopefully to be a can. They're striving hard
to make changes, and I applaud a lot of the
things that they've done to improve. I just think like
most veterans, and we see that the access to care
is one of the top things that veterans are concerned about.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Oh. I've had the director on the show. I have
talked to him personally, especially during the time of COVID,
right when he was serving under former President Trump, who's
going to be future President Trump. So at the time
he just said, you know, rad I just looked at
it like I wore US before anything else. It was
US Army, US Marines. We all came together. We had
no political anything except just the belief of the US
(29:43):
of A basically, and I was like, Okay, cool bro.
But He's like, I still had three hundred and eight
thousand employees and I was losing like a thousand of
them to COVID and that's that's that's serious stuff, right,
Ye sitting there saying like we want, you know, adaptive
recreational therapy for veterans. Right It's like, yeah, why should
(30:04):
it be at sixty percent? Or hire to get adaptive
ski chairs for somebody? Why do you have to have
a missing limb, you know, to be considered. Oh, now
you can have the bucket to go skiing now, but
you have all your limbs and maybe you have a concussion.
To TBIs and you want to go out and enjoy
the outdoors, They're like, well you're rating forty percent.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I mean like really, yeah, and you think about you
mentioned TBIs and you just I think it was two
days ago Bernie Marcus passed away, the founder of From Depot.
Bernie Marcus did more for TBI than any living person
on this planet. He provided millions of dollars to TBI research,
built brick and mortar through the Avalon Alliance, and just
(30:46):
of awareness awareness. I mean, he did some great work.
And you know, I think it's those public private partnerships
that bring in new ideas, new skills that really can
challenge the way government thinks about the things and the
way they approach things and so.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Well, a huge has a huge veteran presence, you know,
like I think you go to the parking lot, they
even have like handicapped expecting mothers and veterans.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And Milton, yeah, yeah, and that's and that's great. And
you see that, you know, their folks will wear their
vests the chef that they're the military and pride in that,
and that's great. We should see more companies take that.
And that's the other thing that I think brings up
a point we need to the Department of the Fans
v A and Veterans Support organizations really need to try
to come together and educate Corporate America and business on
(31:37):
what veterans bring to the workplace. So we've heard an
awful lot about pts UH challenges veterans have suicide. If
that's all you're hearing, you're thinking that all veterans you
meet are on the brink of every of doing taking
(31:59):
their life or what have you. And the fact of
the matter is a vast majority of veterans are great employees,
bring loyalty to an organization. Our diverse thinkers have worked
in diverse organizations, had to think on their feet quickly
can be relied upon. I think there could be a
(32:23):
whole lot of benefit to having a national effort on
hiring veterans and exploring those partnerships of how I mean,
some companies do a great job of hiring veterans. I
worked for Siemens for a number of years, and back
in two thousand and four, two thousand and five CEO
(32:45):
at the time committed to hiring ten percent of all
new employees being veterans. Right, I mean, that was an
enormous undertaking in two thousand and four, two thousand and five,
and I believe they continue to do that today. So
it can be done. You just got to put some
effort behind it, and I'm sure they have reaped a
(33:07):
lot of benefits of bringing high quality people.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
In well, you know, I mean so respect to that comment.
You know, you you were the CEO and you had
transitioned out yourself, and here you are a veteran. Do
you work you know in the in the civilian sector
or the civilian world trying to you know, do.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah, I've been fortunate to have, you know, great opportunities
and a lot of luck or blessings. However, you want
to look at it. I always think of it as
a blessing. I think and I believe that I was
fortunate to have learned some great things while I was
(33:48):
in the military, and how to lead people with empathy,
how to get the job done, hold people to a
high standard. People want to be helped to a high standard,
by the way, and they want to be challenged, but
they want to know you care about it. And I
think that lesson in leadership. You could go to any
(34:08):
NBA spend tens of thousands of dollars, but the end
of the day, treating people the way you want to
be treated is what it's all about. And I feel
that the military helped me with that, helps a lot
of people with that. And so it'd be great to
see more and more companies embrace hiring veterans and putting
them into tough positions and and and and letting them thrive.
(34:35):
I mean, some of the best people I worked worked
with and four didn't have doctorates in psychology, but boy,
they knew how to motivate people. I saw some sergeants
with a high school education that were some of the
smartest people I ever met in my life.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
You know, you know what I would say, is that
a friend of mine, Jacob he served Ono today as
a a police fashion in the army. Okay, I won't
say his exact job detail, but what happened is he
told me once he was stuck over there during COVID,
He's like, rad you know, just be the kindness that
you want to see in the world today, bro, Yeah,
(35:12):
because here he is just dealing with a situation. You know,
a prison. It's not a happy place, you know, and
you got people incarcerated, but you also have to work
in the incarcerated system, so you're also in prison, you know.
And so yeah, I mean really right, it's true. So
he I just want to piggyback on the kindness thing,
you know. He here, he comes from a very tough
(35:34):
environment and he might be the kindness that you want
to see in the world today. And I'm like, I'm
gonna steal that, bro.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah. So I think I think that's important in every
rock of life. But you know, I think, you know,
when I step back and I look at what mister
Rocal is trying to do, it's a it's a big task.
I mean, we're trying to tell be the voice of
the American veteran our polling to make sure those voices
(36:02):
are heard. As they mentioned earlier, there's eighteen million veterans.
We're trying to reach all of them so their voices
can be heard. That's a powerful block of people because
it's not just the eighteen point five million people. It's
your spouse, it's your dependence, it's the caregivers. So that's
probably around forty million when you look at it, and
that's a powerful block of voters. It's a powerful block
(36:25):
of voices that need to be heard. And I think
if we can bring that together and not dissipate it
across so many other different places. That's why we do
a lot of polling with our veterans, and anybody can join.
Mister Rollcoll just go to the website does cost of
thing and you can take a poll. I'm pretty sure
pretty soon you'll be able to do.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
That live in time on our website. Oh that's cool,
And you can do it via your phone, so it's
not just text messages and you can do that. We
use that then to go to the press and talk
about the things.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
But more importantly, we then can break that down by
congressional district and then go to that congressman or congresswoman
and say, listen, this is what the veterans in your
district are saying. Cool, and we need your help here.
And in many cases we don't get pushback on that.
We get oh, I didn't know that. I mean, they're
dealing with a lot of problems too, so, but when
(37:19):
you bring that to them and say this is important
to your constituency, yes, then most of them want to
be helpful with that. You know, veterans are held in
high regard in our country, higher than you know, almost
any certainly higher than any government institution.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
You mean you think about veterans, right.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
And then you think about what if says in any
type of ninety three fashion, it is that I swear
my life right, yes, yes, yeah, so it's.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Held in high regard. And I think we need to
be more vocal as an organization, as a group of people. Yes,
And that's what's great about what separates us from any
other organization is that we do not filter any of
our responses. So let's just take another vso, a big VSO.
(38:13):
I won't tell you which one, but most of the
big ones you have chapters, you have regions, and they
come together, and they come in together and they say,
here's our three big issues for this organization in Ohio. Well,
of course that goes up to the region, and the
region says, well, yeah, but not those two, maybe this one.
(38:34):
And then it goes up to the national and they go, no, no,
none of those are important. This is what's important. We
don't do that.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
We ask our veterans important questions that affect them and
affect veteran community, and we publish those results, and then
I reach out to.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
The press and say, this is what our veterans are
telling us. So it's not my opinion, it's not my
team's opinion, it's not something that we may or may
not agree with. It's what the majority of our veterans
are telling us. And we bring it down to percentages
so that they can use that information to make those decisions.
And it's important, I think for the press to understand that.
(39:14):
I talk to a lot of press. I can count
on one hand the people that work in the press
that have had any military experience, that have served that
know somebody is who's served. Most of them have no clue.
And I don't hold that against them. I look at
that as an opportunity to educate them. But we need
(39:37):
to get the word out a little bit better. I
think as a community, we used to be given a
task and getting it done and doing it quietly and
not say look at me, so but we need to
make sure our voices are heard. And so that's what
we're doing and we've got We've had a lot of
success with that. We've increased the number of people that
(39:59):
are paying attention to us. We've been getting some advocacy
done on behalf of veterans in DC, and we're going
to continue to do that with both Democrats and Republicans.
And they value that because they know we're a political
We may have our own personal beliefs, but we don't
wear that on our sleeves, and we don't favor one
(40:21):
over the other. We just want it to be addressed
these issues and for them to work together to address
these issues.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
This sounds like you have that same US mindset. I
was interviewing a gentleman that helped transition President Bias what
he's going from Bush to Obama? And he was underneath
Bush at the time, right, And he said the same
thing as the director of the VA said, which is
rad when we had the booklet to pass over to
the next presidency. We understood that the US was on
(40:52):
our name tape.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
It was US.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
So that's who we are. And so whether we have
a belief in our own self at the end of
the day, down to the machine of the USA is
what he was putting finished, right.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Well, we always put mission first, right, that's it, and
that's the way we are and that's what we've been built.
Every branch of services like that.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
My dad was like that. He was very like a
political He always tell me, you know what aeron am
all what He's like, you don't have to tell anybody.
It was Duke Caucus and Reagan and I was like,
who are you voting for? Dad? And he's like, I
don't have to tell you. And I was his son. Yeah,
And to the day he died, I would take him
to vote and I would just guess who'd you vote for.
(41:34):
He's like, I don't have to tell you. He would never, ever, ever, ever, ever.
He kept that and I kind of do the same.
I may have opinions or I want a conversation about
a situation or things that are out there, but at
the end of the day, it's our right just to
kind of hold it to ourselves. We don't have to.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah, just because you think it doesn't mean you've got
to say it. There is And I mean sometimes people
don't think about the second and third order effects of
what they say. I mean we see that with families
and friends and all of that. Yes, you know, I
feel that it's important to recognize that the military represent
(42:12):
the fabric of our country. I think it represents the
best of our country. Anybody who raises their hand uh
and writes that blank check says I'm going to serve
my country, regardless of what they did in the military
at the FOREIGND being a Delta Force member or flying
(42:33):
an aircraft, or being an infantryman, or being a submarine,
or being a or being a pol handler or a cook.
They're all noble, noble efforts and noble profession and I
feel as a country we need to do better to
make sure that those folks that have done that are here,
(42:58):
are taken care of getting the access that they need
to healthcare, and they're being employed and recognized for the
skills that they bring to employees. I think we can
prove all those things, yes, but we're only going to
do that. If voices are heard, it's just not going
to happen on its own.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
We already talked about that. The military, the Army, the
Air Force, the Navy, the Marines, the Space Force are
not like quite reaching out to you. You have to
be that voice and reach out to them, and reach
out to Mission roll Call and go look at their
website and go watch that YouTube, Tatorial. I'm gonna watch it.
I'm going to see exactly what Jim was just talking about,
because I mean, I could go to the VA, but
(43:39):
I have health assurance.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah I do too, you know, most people do, but
it doesn't mean.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
You can say it.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah, and it's important to I think it's important that
as a community help each other. Yes, you know, and
that's what we're trying to do. I mean, in the military,
you never thought about yourself. You were thought about your
guys to your left and right, that's right, gals that
you work with, and and it was missioned first and
people always, and you took care of each other. We
(44:09):
need to continue that mindset. That's what makes us great.
And we need to continue that mindset when we get
out of the military, because that is what sets us
apart from so many other people. Is we have this
selfless service. We want to help others. One way of
doing that, I think is to have your voice heard
and reach out to other veterans and say, you need
(44:29):
to be part of this. This is important because you're
going to help the next generation. You're gonna help that
old guy down the street who's a veteran that might
have got slipped through the cracks.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
And you don't need to take yourself out. You need
to get a colonoscope.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah, yeah, and you need to you.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
With all due respect, joking, you know, I just went
and had a I see what did I have? I
had a CT scan in my heart because it's in
my family. My dad, uh suffered like stroke seizear's at
forty so full on. He was running marathons just a
few months before and then collapsed in the shower. His
medics showed up to the door that day because the
(45:09):
nine on one call from my mom. They're like, oh, radel,
let me get there. And it was his own team guy,
so he's the medic on call. So oh it's a
very yeah, especially in late in Utah. You know they're
all working different jobs, you know how Yeah, stuff guys
are so Shumway shows up. He's like, Radel, I got
to tell this to the ups, and he's like, I'm good.
My Dad's like leaning in the door, white as a ghost,
(45:31):
trying to say I'm okay, yeah, okay. And I never
saw my dad. My dad didn't drink. My dad didn't smoke.
My dad went to church every Sunday, donated his tithing
every single month, served in the bishops warehouse to get
people food. After he got out of the military, always
had some type of a serve mentality. And at sixty
three he was gone from heart issues. But I watched
(45:54):
my mom become his caregiver one hundred percent and his
VA advocate. And then when she learned everything from me
a VA advocate for him. Others that she would meet
would ask her for help, and so she would just say, well,
this is what you probably need to do for your case.
She would help get people to the one hundred percent
rating without a diet. My mother would walk like a
lawyer with a bag of stuff to these people and
(46:14):
meet with them at God bless her very much. Yeah,
she's with my dad now, but I would watch her
push that wheelchair up and down those long hallways at
Salt Lakes and VA or I would help push with
my dad. Hey, Eric, can you take dad to the dock? Yeah,
no problem, right, And I'm like, geez, mom, is this
what you're doing all the time? I'm being married and
having kids and you're pushing his dad through the wheel.
(46:36):
I took it all for granted.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Yeah, And thank God for souls like that in our
society that care about others. And you do need to
be an advocate for yourself, yes, and that's why some
organizations are important to help magnify that advocacy. And that's
really what we're trying to do. And we're advocating. You know,
there's a lot of veterans sport organizations out there, and
(47:02):
some of them, quite frankly, don't talk to each other
and are competitive with each other. Right they consider there,
you know, this is their audience. They're going after rama.
We don't look at it that way. We look at success. Well,
there's not a finite amount of success in the world.
There's not a finite amount of love in the world.
So we're helping organizations advocate on their behalf for them
(47:23):
because we have a we have two guys that are
in DC that are reaching out to elected officials. So
we'll we'll help other veterans support organizations do that, and
then I'll talk about other veterans support organizations when I
do media interviews, like before the election, I talked about
VET the Vote a lot. I mean that was a
that's a nonprofit that we're putting veterans in Poland stations
(47:46):
across the country. I mean making sure that the voting
system worked and sure that.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Right you could be in charge of the VA. No,
thank you, Listen, listen, don't say hey, hey, just say well,
why not me? Okay? Every time my dad said why
you're not wanting to do it, and I said, well,
I don't know, and he's like, well why don't you know?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah, I think I can better serve what I'm doing now,
all right, this organization. But I will absolutely help who's
ever in there to help tell their story, to help
them reach veterans again, help them, you know, tap into
the sediment, sentiment of what veterans are feeling, so that
they can mean Because if you're if you're leading any
(48:29):
organization and you're just listening to the people that you
have hired, you're not getting the story. You have got
to get out of your office and go and talk
to somebody you never met before it's going through the
system and say what's working, what isn't working? What can
I help you with? And finding out.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Those things like undercover boss dude.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of benefits of managing
walking around and if you're just looking at stats and
numbers and performance indicators and all those sort of things,
you're not getting the real you're not getting ahead.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
Of KPI on you know, the suicide. You know, it's like, well,
you know, we're uh, you know, I want to keep
my job, so it's down.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Yeah, And I feel like they need to make sure
that happens. And they certainly have a number of I mean,
the huge organization and getting bigger the VA all of
them should be ambassadors of that program and making sure
they're reaching out to veterans on their own.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
I mean they should have the higher ups kind of
how about processed veterans that are getting into the system exactly,
and then go back to your desk and say, hey,
you know what, I did this for two weeks. Yeah,
I sat down there and the same issue of like
this checkbox doesn't even matter, why are we making them
fill out this checkbox right?
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Exactly right? You can you can be or or just
as simple of how far is the parking lot from
the front door? Seriously, do we not have a valet
that can come? And like you know what, guy out,
I mean, all you see these four bad later it's
walking with you know, the tennis ball thing on the
front of their walk and they got walking a quarter
of a mile to get to the damn place.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Yes, or you're exactly right. Why is there not a valet?
Speaker 2 (50:12):
I mean, just make it easy and and and let's
be honest. Everybody wants to direct you to your website.
You got a problem, go to the website. Well, if
you're seventy five years old, yeah, exactly, you know that's
you might as well, you know, ask them to do
algebra for you.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
And you know, the last thing someone getting stints put
into them needs to do is walk across the parking lot. Okay,
I'm laughing, but you know I've laughed with Well, my
dad had like four or five stints and open heart surgery.
I mean, I can talk about it. Bro I am
the son of the SF and I have seen my
father go from one hundred percent marathon runner Green Beret too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Well, life's a fickle thing, right though. It is.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
Actually, and then my friend's dad, I'm not going to
say his name, smoking, drinking, doing all sorts of things,
still seventy something years old, playing cards, playing in a band,
not not.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, life sometimes does. It's so fair, and you wonder
what God thinks.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
But my friend's dad, son was my friend's dad, sound
was like, dude, radl Like, my dad drinks and smokes
and stuff, and your dad didn't even I'm like, hey, man,
we have to just embrace what we have every single day.
And we're above this ground because we've been a billion
years locked in our mind for a long time and
then all of a sudden, here we are. Yeah, and
we're going to go back for a billion more. So
(51:31):
make the most of what you're here for. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
I think, as you know, veterans, I think is a
community want to take care of each other. They want
to get involved in the community. They want to continue
to grow and flourish. They just need a tribe. I mean,
most veterans need two things. A tribe in a hill top.
(51:56):
They need a group of people that are gonna take
care of each other and they need and they need
a mission. They need something to do purpose, a purpose, yes,
and a calling. That's the hill. Defend the hill or
take the hill. And if you keep that in mindset
(52:16):
and you can get veterans involved with something in the
local community. So I would urge any small company or
a large company reach out to us if you have
veterans in your organization and you're trying to figure out
how to retain them or how to mobilize them, because
I'll tell you I've worked in two fortune five hundred companies.
In each case I always led the Veterans support group,
(52:41):
and some of them were thousands in number, where I
would get all of them to volunteer. Either they were active,
they were a veteran, or they just wanted to be
involved in veterans causes because the husband was a veteran
or their son was.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
They had asthma and they could never serve right.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Whatever their hardest pure of why they want to do it,
we let them do it. And sometimes they're the best
volunteers and just unleash them in their local communities as
an organization. They'll set up five ks and raise money
for an organization. They'll go to a food bank and
(53:21):
represent your company, and that's the best advertising you can buy.
That's the best marketing you could ever ask for. And
never under never take your employees for granted. You want
to keep them engaged and you want to have them
be proud of the company they work with, because as
soon as you lose, you're excited about what you're doing.
(53:42):
You like the company that you're working for, the organization
you're part of. Once that starts to go away, you're
looking for something else unless you're locked into that job
because that's the only thing you can do. Most people
want to be part of something bigger than themselves, absolutely on.
Veterans want to be like that.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
It just reminds me of like a soup kitchen, you know,
when you work in the soup kitchen and you're handing
out the food to those that are in the need
of that food, right, or you've been on the other
side of that where you've received the food and all
you want to do is just give back to those
who had given you that food to keep you going. Yeah,
that changed me. When I was younger, I went to
(54:24):
do that, you know, and serve food, and we were like,
are we really giving them the old popcorn balls to
eat on their food tray. You always had food that
was given to the food bay.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
Yeah, and you and you learn a lot.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
You learn a lot, yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
Doing that, and you learn humility and you lose, and
you learn gratitude for what you do have. All those
things are so important as a young person and certainly
as an older person as well. And we're materialistic society, right,
It's about giving gifts and now over the holiday season,
(54:58):
that's what we're all focused on, and maybe one less
gift and maybe donating to a food bank or to
I drink powdered milk bright Yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
Well tell you yeah, I drinking that.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Oh it's awful.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
So I know, ire if my dad was SS and
I still had he's like a lot of kids eat
cheerios with water. Aaron. I was like really and he's
like yes and yeah, and we were just eating cheerios
with water. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
Is that something? And you know that there's when you
look at like I mentioned the stat earlier, you know,
twenty four percent of active duty struggling to make endst
met and have food insecurity issues. To me, that's amporrent
as a as a country to me that is that
there is something significantly wrong with that, and I would
(55:50):
have liked to have seen. And I think we're all happy,
regardless of political background, that election's over. We're happy with
that because you're not getting text messages and all these
other sort of things, commercials and all that. But it
would have been great to have more of a discussion
on veterans issues in one of the debates.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
It really wasn't any of that.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
It wasn't any of it, And to me, that only
that only so I could you could approach that from
two distances. You can be very disappointed and we are
as a veteran community, or you could be energized by
that to say, we need to do a better job
of making sure we're in the forefront of elected officials
and campaigns. And so that's what we need to do.
(56:34):
And the only way we're going to do that is
that if you're interested in veterans causes, if you're interested
in veterans, maybe you have a son, a daughter, your
grandfather served, whatever, go to our website. Join. We'll send
(56:55):
you updates as you want. We're not sharing that information
with anybody. We're not asking for money, but it's important
for us to build those numbers. So that's because it's
a different situation when I walk into a senator's office
and I'm representing two million veterans versus ten million veterans.
That's a different conversation.
Speaker 1 (57:15):
Oh yeah, and you have data. You have that, you
have the metrics, and we.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
Have the metrics, and we're approaching it from a political perspective,
and they know that that's going to help opening the
door because we're representing what veterans families are telling us. Yes,
not something that I think is a great idea or
my think ting things is a good idea, or something
that's going to help promote mission roll call. We're funded.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
You're aggregating all of these votes and polls from whoever's
using mission roll calls voting mechanisms, and you're taking that
and trying to sit in front of these people to
lobby them for veterans benefits on a whole.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
Yeah, and educate them as well. You can't. You can't expect,
you know, freshman, congressman or senator, you know everything about
veteran causes. They need to be educated by that. And
it's it's the case with a number of different subjects uh,
and there's and there's complex issues with veterans' health care,
with education, with assistance with finding a job and all that.
(58:21):
I mean, you think about it. The military does a
wonderful job and taking a group of people, this kid
from Chicago, this guy from rural uh you know, Utah,
this dude who was surfing last week in California. We
put them all together and in a couple of weeks
they are an organization.
Speaker 1 (58:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
They look different, they walk taller, they are military. Now,
they're part of something bigger than themselves. They're working together
whole different worlds. Right, we can transform people in a
matter of weeks. Think about if we had that same
is when they got out of the military, to transform
them to the civilian world. But we don't do that.
Speaker 1 (59:05):
No, there's a guy that when I got out, he
was like, you're gonna get this booklet read it. These
are your benefits if you have any questions.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah right, just like the same guy
that gave you a brief game my brief and it
was just a waste my time.
Speaker 1 (59:20):
It was just like, okay, cool. I held on to
some of those thoughts and I if it wasn't for
the let's just say if I hadn't enlisted, and if
I hadn't gone through what I had gone through, I
wouldn't have my home, my VA home loan, I wouldn't
have all these things that were afforded. You threw the
VA benefits and someone out there thinking about joining, you know,
the next step is just to go talk to a
career count for like a military branch that you want
(59:42):
to serve in, and ask them if they can help you.
That's all you got to do. You don't have to
commit unless you choose to commit.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
Yeah. Yeah, So that there's just some basic things black
and and tackling that we need to do as organizations.
And I hope, I hope we can improve quality of
life veterans, improve their access. More importantly, just improve the
ability of us telling the story to the press, to
(01:00:13):
the media, to elected officials into the general American public
and what veterans do bring to our society, how important
they are. What you can do.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
In Chicago and you say depress it sounds like depression. Yeah, duppress,
dump airs, press, press.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
It's great. So we just we had a lot of
work to do. Have a passionate team on it, great
group of people, and.
Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
We're passionate with you. Okay here at SOFTWAREP. I just
want you to know that you have us as a conduit.
Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Yeah, and I appreciate your time today and I have
to call and I appreciate what you're doing to tell
a story of what veterans do for us society, what
they continue to do. I mean, and we and we
need to take care of our own, our mother and
this is one way to do that. So thanks again
(01:01:19):
for having me today.
Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Well, thanks for keeping me straight on the path with
our conversation. I was looking to go boxing today, but
you're like Radam's gonna like not boxing.
Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Yeah, I just try to pivot there a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
I got you, sir, I got you, and I can
respect that I got an opponent somewhere out there that
will do.
Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
I'm sure you'll find somebody today you can.
Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Yell, but I hope you know where I come from.
And my whole heart is like I just want to
just be the kindness that I see in the world today.
So if if I can just steal Jacob's staying right there,
that's all we all.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Can work and being more kind, more empathetic and and
and more giving of ourselves and our assets to others.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
It never goes out of style, yes, sever never never.
So on behalf of retire Lieutenant Colonel Jim Whaley with
Mission roll Call, a veterans afficacy group where you can
go and check out all you need to learn about,
you know, veterans benefits and reaching out to somebody who
can give you an answer. Reach out to Mission roll
(01:02:17):
call dot Org. They're not in it for any other
reason except for you, the veteran to find your way
in a sea of un navigatable waters that you're in. Bro.
If you're out there and you're like, which way do
I go? Where am I going? Mission roll Call can
be your compass, okay, and they can help point you
in the right direction. So love it. I love it too.
And if you've got nods, drop them down even better
(01:02:40):
because that looks cool. Come on now, come on now,
let's see what do I have to mention? Oh yeah,
the book club soft rep dot com Forward slash Book
hyphen Club, our merch store with all of the branded goods.
And again Mission roll Call with Jim a regular here
at soft Rep and always welcome to uh keep me
(01:03:01):
in check.
Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
I really appreciate you sir.
Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Yes, and thank you to my listener and my viewer
and Brandon Web what's up bro? All Right, this is
Rad saying peace. Alright, you've been listening to Self Red
(01:03:28):
Ladia
All right, awesome listeners, get ready for something amazing. Our
Black Friday campaign kicks off this Monday and runs all
week long, and we're giving you an incredible deal, a
full year of soft Reap for just a dollar ninety nine.
That's ninety percent off. But here's the best part. Every
purchase also gives a membership to an active duty service
(00:21):
member or an emergency responder, so it's a win win.
To grab this deal, head over to soft rep dot
com forward slash Black Friday or find the link in
the description. Stay tuned and happy Black Friday shopping from
all of us here at soft Rep. Awesome episode of
soft Rep Radio, and you know it's kind of you know,
(00:43):
veterans time, holiday time. Right now, I'm recording with my
guests and let me introduce you to the Merch store
if you're a new time listener. Okay, so soft rep
dot com forward slash Merch go check that out, pick
up some branded goods. Thank you for the support. It
means a ton, it really does. I can't explain enough.
I have to pander for you to buy it, but
thank you so much. Number two is the book Club.
(01:06):
All right, soft Reap has put a lot of effort
into you know, curating this book club with guys from
the special operations community thinking this is what you would
like to read. So go check out softwap dot com
Forward slash book Hyphened Club. And I have retired Lieutenant
Colonel Army Jim Waalia with us today and he is
(01:26):
in charge of Mission roll Call, which is an app
a website that you can go check out. And I'm
going to say mission roll Call? Is it? Dot org?
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Dot org?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Dot org? Mission roll Call? And some of you may
have already checked out Mission roll call dot org or
you may have sawt a previous episode with Jim on
and he's always a welcome guest back to the show
with a lot of positive thoughts. So welcome Jim to
SOFTWAREP Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh my pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Oh yeah, you're great. Always always a pleasure to have you.
So let's talk a little bit about your background quick,
Army Lieutenant colonel Yeah, yeah? Why why? Why? Why?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well? I was one of those guys that went to
college and really didn't have a plan to pay for it,
to be honest with you. And while I was at college,
I got introduced to some RTC guys via the track
team I was on at the time and at lock Haven, Pennsylvania,
small state college in Central PA UH and ended up
(02:30):
receiving scholarship where they paid for my tuition and my
room and board and and made the whole process of
paying for college a heck of a lot simpler. And
all I owed was four years back to which to
me seemed like it was going to be fun. I
do four years, I would I thought I would do
four years and get out and then pursue a career
(02:50):
doing something else. And I just fell in love with
what I was doing. I loved serving with people from
all walks of life. I loved flying helicopters. I loved
every bit of it. And don't get me wrong, there
are some times in the army where it's that there
is a suckfest associated with it, right, I mean, the
Army can make you suffer on the industrial scale. They
(03:12):
know how to do it at scale, so there are
times where it's difficult. But I enjoyed it immensely. Met
my wife in the military and then we served all
I think out of twenty years, ten was overseas, and
that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted to see the world,
I wanted to do fun things, I wanted to do
important things. In the military was the right fit.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
For me, and so the helicopter of choice.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I started off. Yes, it was a choice. I wanted
to go at aviation and luckily I was fortunate to
receive that billet. And my wife was a Shook pilot
and I met her later in my career, and so
that was cool.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, Like the movie Firebirds, Stop bro, all gone bye bye,
It's like, whatever you want, keep your keep your radar
below the mountains so you don't get shot, babe.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
She's like, I'm fine, I got this.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Let me show you.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
How Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah. So I had did that for twenty years and
had a wonderful time and served all over the world
and like I said, some places better than others. Built
a family along the way. One was born when I
was in Panama, and the other one was born when
I was in Germany. The last was born when we're
at West Point, and she ended up graduating West Point
(04:41):
on her birthday. She's the only person that graduate that
was born at west Point and graduated West Point on
her birthday. When you think of the long history of
that storied institution.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Also, your wife taking time out of her life career, yeah, yeah,
incubate and to curate these shoulder We didn't and you know,
we didn't have to stop our life, did we know?
We kept going, how you got to go? And she
had kind of had a halt back a little bit, Yeah,
(05:17):
and pull her career back for a huge sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Huge sacrifice. And I have nothing but admiration for spouses
in the military. I mean, all of them put their
careers on hold because you move every few years, really
difficult to find a great job. In that process, you're
usually living in quarters that are much smaller than you
(05:44):
ever wanted to uh, and then you're moving again and
that's costly.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And she might have been on a career path, oh yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Mean, she would have had a great career in the military,
no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, you know. And so a lot of us don't
take that in consideration about the female who is serving.
All it takes is just getting pregnant to change her
whole life.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
And the army has I can only speak for the
army from my perspective, but I know they've tried, and
they certainly talk a great gain on supporting women when
they have children and are pregnant, and on paper it
looks great. In practice not so good because they leave
(06:25):
it up to local commands and so being able to
take that maternity leave is sometimes not honored. And if
it is honored, then sometimes it's not. It's it's a
detriment to your career. So we need to figure that out.
The army needs to get into modern times and figure
(06:45):
out ways to support families on a whole host of things,
which I'm happy to talk about, the whole host of things.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Like a woman tried to move in the career field
and then she gets one of us and.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I'm not, And you know, I would urge you at
some point we should have a you know, somebody who's
gone through that, right, a woman that's gone through his
career and jeopardy to try to do that. I think
your listeners would like that. But when you would like
to see that, yeah, when you think about finances right now,
And of course, we just had an election.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, we just had the presidential election here in the
US and what's his name, Donald Trump has been elected
to the White House again. Since Grover Cleveland. Let's just
call it what it is, is a felon who has
been elected to the White House.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, I think there's there's probably you know, there's many
perspectives on Donald Trump. I will say this, I'm hopeful
that the economy will get better because right now we
have twenty four percent of our active duty military with
food and financial insecurities. This is not a statistic that
(07:59):
I'm up or some think tank came up with. This
is Department of Defense numbers.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Oh well, jim, let me tell you about my dad
being a Green Beret. Okay, growing up eighties and nineties,
we went to the food pantry for the Mormon Church
more than one time. Right when my dad was laying
in the bed with my mom, they broke down his
twenty four to seven pay to be two dollars and
thirteen cents an hour while he's sleeping or not. Right,
So you know, it's not just this guy coming in
(08:25):
it's gonna change anything. He would have changed it already.
He already had a chance, right like a U.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Well, I don't want to I don't want to get put.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I always like to get judges out and put a
new judge in because that first judge had four years
of doing whatever, and now you get a new judge
who's gonna be all like I got the country. But
this guy, this guy has already had a platform of
bigotry and hate and mocking people and people with disabilities,
people that are women, people who choose to be what
(08:53):
they want to be in life. Like when my father
taught me to free the oppressed, that means freedom of choice.
Have to be mocked or make fun of or belittled
or say you can't, you know, go here or there.
When people say, like when Donald Trump says, we don't
want you know, uni sex bathrooms, it's like, well, don't
you want the little baby boy being changed by his
(09:13):
father and mother in their bathroom? Yeah? So I think
that it goes all the way to the root of
that evil. And I know that you have like a
pure result that was prior to the election that says
like you know, military personnel or you know, in favor
and all these different things. And obviously something's happened where
Donald Trump got re elected and everybody I talk to
(09:34):
in Utah is like disassociated from the US right now.
They're like, I just don't understand how so many people
could want the rhetoric out of his mouth. How do
we justify that? How does the Mormon Church here in Utah?
How does the Catholic Church justify his antics as wholesome
and Christian when he is a philandering individual who cheats
(09:59):
on his wife and with you know, no cause or
regard for anybody else by himself, And you can't deny
it's facts. These are all facts.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Well we could we let's leave it at this. We
have difference of opinion, and we are an apolitical.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Different right, You and I could have difference.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It would be it would be more beneficial for me
to talk about veterans issues and not the political landscape.
If we can do that.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Oh sure, well, I mean it is what it is.
The veterans are going to be like. You know, there's
let's say that there's veterans out there that want to
reach out to you because he's been elected and they're
depressed because of it. What happens now?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, Well, we're always here for veterans for a variety
of reasons, and we have a lot of coalition partners
that help us direct veterans to the right place. And
when you go to our website. You can see they're
really a hub for veterans. So let's say you're a
veteran getting out of the service right now and you
think about starting your business. We have webcasts UH and
(10:58):
podcasts and the nonprofits that we work with to help
you kind of find that path. How do you start
a business? We also have you know, some great podcasts
and YouTube series on getting VA benefits and understanding how
to do that. The challenge with military veterans getting out
(11:20):
of a service is that the Transition Assistant Program TAP
is really not up to speed. It is not helping
a lot of veterans really find their way. So let's
think about this. If twenty four percent of active duty
military are on food insecurity issues, which means they that's
(11:42):
a financial insecurity the DoD describes as food insecurity issues,
but the factory means if you can't pay for food,
you don't have enough money because that's the first thing
you're spending money on. So if you think about that,
and then you think about the pay that they're receiving
while they're in the military and they get out, you
(12:03):
can understand why they're behind the eight ball on making
this transition after a few years, like increasing the pay
to people like they are they should and that's what
that's one of the things we've been advocating for, and
it's one of the most important things to our veterans.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
It should be bipartisan on that, right. That should be
a simple like, oh, it's a veteran, no matter who
they believe in. I mean, Congress might say let's give
them a ten increase.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Right, And I think there needs to be a real
hard look on on why that has not happened. I
think there also needs to be a look into why
people aren't staying in the military. I mean, the fact
is is that the retention rate is really low. I'm
(12:52):
sure part of that has to do with the fact
that they're not paying soldiers, airmen, marines enough to live,
but it's also the op tempo when you have less
people to do the job. If your organization is supposed
to have twenty people and you only have ten, well
everybody's doing double the work, right, and so they need
(13:13):
to they need to figure that out. Either you reduce
what needs to get done or you need to add
the people. But I also feel that you know, at
the back end, then you see veterans struggling to get
the help they healthcare where they needed, when they needed,
how they need it from the VA. So if you
(13:33):
think of those two things as bookends, it should be
no surprise that recruitment numbers are very low and the
services are not hitting their mark. More advertising it's not
going to fix that. It's a systemic problem. We have
an army, right, so there needs to be a better
look at at.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
That versus like on a NASCAR hood for two hundred
fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, I get I get it. They need to advertise
to youth because that's who's joining the military for the
most part. But they need to be recruits for at
the local schools.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
You know, they set up a table with a banner
and some pamphlets and.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Well, yeah, some schools don't allow.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Recruiters in, well, only private schools. Yeah, so if they
get any federal funds, then the federal funds could be
pulled if they don't allow recruiters in. Yeah, so any
school that's public is allowing recruiters. It would be private
charter schools where they get vouchers that can block that
recruit from going in there, where they're actually giving a
higher education to that student who we could use in
(14:40):
the military, right right.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
But yeah, well I think they're going to need to relook.
You know what, what what what does it mean to serve?
What is it that are the incentives? I mean, right now,
the big incentive for a lot of young people to
join the military is the GI Bill, which gives you,
of course access to funding when you continue in your education.
And that's great, and I'm not advocating in any way
(15:04):
that we reduce that. But if you think about it in
logical progression, if you're incentivizing somebody to leave to go
to school, you shouldn't be surprised that they're leaving and
going to school, right, So what else are you off
counterbalancing that? What is the incentives to stay in And
they need to take a look at that. It's a
(15:26):
dangerous world out there. We need to have a military
that's robust. We need to have a military that has
the best and brightest serving in it. It is dangerous,
it's dangerous, and you need to have you need to
educate coaches and counselors and parents on what the advantages
are of serving in the military. And right now, I
(15:47):
don't think in this emphasis is on that. But we're
really concerned at our organization of how we help veterans,
and certainly early transition veterans is part of that. You
have about two hundred thousand veterans every year getting now
in the military, so it's a lot of people. But
you have a lot of veterans in the country. There's
(16:08):
eighteen point five million veterans in our country.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I was gonna say like twenty million, but yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
That numbers declining because of the just the demographics.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Well, and the wars died down, right, we're not really
in Afghanistan, so the veterans aren't being pas dispensered out
if you will.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Ye, and you've had a lot of most World War
Two in Korea veterans passing away, and so are Vietnam veterans.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Now it's coming up to the desert storms.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Right, So you have about eighteen and a half million
veterans in the country. Half of those are not represented
by the VA, so they're not registered with the VA,
they're not served by the VA.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
So is that the veterans fault or is that the
VA's fault for not staying in touch with the veterans.
What do you think should the veteran who's listening to this,
since not registered and got out, be like, I should
go register with the VA.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I think there needs to be an education program on that.
On the importance of that. I'm reluctant to point a
finger and say it's your fault or your fault, and
I think it's an individual decision. Some people left the military,
they feel fine, they don't want to deal with that,
and they don't like to bureaucracy. They have their own
health care, so they move away and they don't need it.
(17:24):
On the other hand, I think the VA could do
a lot better job. I'm making sure they're reaching out
to veterans early on. I mean, the DD in the
VA don't talk to each other, and that has been
the case since inception. I mean, even your medical records
for many many years didn't transfer, and it's only transferred
now is when you put into forclaim or you register
(17:45):
with the VA. So if you think about a three
hundred and fifty billion dollar budget that the VA has
and you only serve half of the veterans that are
in our country, there needs to be a look at
where that money's being spent and is it being spent wisely,
(18:06):
is there a better use of that money one of
the programs that are working that you can reinforce, and
what are the programs that you probably need to relook
and maybe cut. But clearly there needs.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
To be.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Improvement in the efficiency of the VA and the ability
of the.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
VA to.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Reach veterans where they need healthcare and where they want
to get their healthcare. I mean, I mean, right now,
it's a brick and more to kind of model and
you've got to go to them. And in some cases
that's too far for a veteran or they can't get there,
or are they just they're too sick they can't right right?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
You know, you know, I got friends who are from
a Navajo nation and it's difficult for them to get
to the VA. You know, sometimes the representative will come
on to the reservation, but it's like, you know, yeah,
where is that representation at? You know for those guys
right serve.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, And then you know, I think a look at
what holistic medicine looks like. Right, rather than always treating
the symptom when it gets to the point where it
needs surgery or something, rather than getting to it earlier on.
It's something we're exploring and taking a look at with
other organization. We look at our organization as a conduit
(19:24):
for the forty thousand other veterans support organizations that make
up our country. There's about forty thousand veterans support organizations now.
The vast majority of them are very small, mom and
pop foundations. Maybe they're providing a couple of service dogs
to a local community, maybe they have a horseback therapy,
(19:46):
you know, in one community, and they're doing God's work,
and they do excellent work. But the majority of them
are quite small. The bigger organizations, the ones you think about,
they're the ones that we're working with to make sure
that people can find that path. So we, through our
(20:08):
new website, provide news to a veterans so they can
see that that that's impacting that community. We highlight organizations
that they can get involved with. You know, I'm a
firm believer in my organization is is that if we
can just do a better job on getting a veteran
when they get out of the military and plug them
in to a brotherhood, a sisterhood of other veterans and
(20:32):
other organization including ours, they're going to do much better.
If we could just make that happen. If there's one
thing I could ask the d D and the VA
to do is, you know, allow veterans when they're getting
out of the service to sign a piece of paper
and share those names with a couple vetted veteran support
organizations so we can reach out to them. So when
(20:54):
Charlie or Sally gets out of the military and they
go to Utah or to go to Salt Lake, there's
a vso that calls them up, reaches out to them, says, hey,
I understand you're in the Salt Lake region. We'd like
to take you out to lunch, find out what your
aspirations are, tell you a little bit about ourselves, and
plug you into the community, help you along the way.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I would take that job myself.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And yeah, I mean that's a great job, right, I
mean I would take.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
That job to reach out and say hey, what's up
as within the VA four the veterans.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, And I'll tell you from my transition and I
had a wonderful job. I was leaving running communications public
affairs for West Point. I just made a promotion to
six but decided to retire. Had a wonderful job working
for a fortune five or fortune fifty company, very large company,
(21:47):
had a great job, and there was something missing. I
could not believe that no one reached out to me
from the army, right, I mean here, I was gone
and no one called and checked and nobody reached out.
When months go by and you feel like you're disengaged
and the only people you're talking to your buddies and
folks that you serve with, but the institution itself completely
(22:09):
cuts off communication. As soon as you resign or retire
or whatever it is, you're gone, you're going to get right.
You'll get in your paycheck or your retirement check.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And that's not even a letter that goes to a bank.
So they could do a much better job on staying
in touch and building that alumni and directing people to
veteran support organizations. So right from the start, you have
somebody who's going to reach out to you and find out,
you know, what's needed, what can we be helpful with.
I think that would go a long way, because a
(22:44):
lot of veterans struggle with that.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Every veteran I know went through a morning period of
leaving the military, and it might be that it was
a short lived morning period, right they left and they
couldn't wait to get out, but they.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Missed aspects of it. As time went on, they kind
of forgot the bad things and they remembered the buddies,
and they remembered this and remember that, And there's a
morning period. If it was a career for you, then
it's even more so. It's like losing someone. It's that impactful.
And I think we need to understand that and we
(23:20):
need to try to mitigate that, because if you think
about it, is they have thrown millions of dollars day
to VA DoD others at suicide prevention, and still the
numbers are astronomically high, anywhere from eighteen to twenty five
a day. So obviously what you're doing is not working.
(23:40):
I think that breaking up that chain. If you think
about it, you get out of the military, maybe it
was really impactful to you. You go to your first job,
it doesn't work out, then you struggle to get your
next job, and now your circle of friends and maybe
family or it is not as tight as it was.
You've lost your folks that you served with, now you're
(24:01):
in financial straits. You can see where that spiral goes
to a deep and dark place that's hard to get
out of, and in any other number of things, substance abuse,
alcohol abuse, injury, any any number of those things, financial destitutions.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Literally just keep conversations with like a few that's just
yesterday regarding the election and their depression, like just how
they're talking and and and it's just it's interesting to
hear that. It's not just it's just like they're just
how can you stop somebody? Jim? How can I tell
you that you have to do what I say?
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Well, how can you that?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
And that means like stay alive?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
And you're like, yeah, it doesn't work, Yeah, it doesn't work.
And you can't just tell somebody depressed, hey, just be happy.
You got a lots to be happy for. How do
I It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah. That's why I said I would love that job
because I feel like I have an empathetic heart.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Yeah, and I sense that, and I'm sure your viewers
do you know listeners? I feel like if we could
just break up that chain and get to them and yeah,
And I think the great thing about all veterans I've
met and served with and work with now, they're great
at helping other people. All veterans are great.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
You give them a.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Mission and say, hey man, we need you to go
over there and help these people out there on it
will whatever they do it. But they're awful at helping themselves.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Right, Well, they won't go to the VA. They get out.
They're still like maybe in their twenties or thirties, and
they might have got out with a medical and they
got over that and they didn't want to go to
the VA because I'm good, I got this, I suck
it up. But then they're sixty and then their sweet
sixty year old wife is pushing them in the wheelchair
and she's trying to take care of herself and that
person because they didn't go sooner.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, oh, you just nailed me. I had never I
didn't file any VA claims until last year. Yeah, and
I just felt like, hey, well, I got all my
fingers and toes. I've never been severely injured me And
by the way, those guys that really need it, I'm
not one of them. Well, now you've got an fl
client yep, to address the issues that are affecting you
(26:10):
and to make a claim. And I think the VA
needs to recognize.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
That correct and make it a bit claim right now.
If somebody out there is listening to this, you know
they have not made their claim, they should just start
and say.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Hi, yeah, absolutely, And there's so many right and they
can go to our website and we have a wonderful
video that walks people through on our YouTube page that
talks about how to do that, and it's step by
step and even if you have done it, I would
urge you to go and listen to that because it's
(26:44):
a wonderful simplified process and walks you through the dus
and don'ts. It's a short video, it doesn't take a
lot of time. We could change your life, and we
ask people to do that, and they can always contact
us and we can put them in contact with other
vis that actually help with claims. And almost every county
(27:05):
has a VSO at the county Military Organization, some veterans hospitals.
There's a huge veterans hospital here in Charlote. I live
in South Carolina, so my Veterans' Hospital via Hospitals in Charlotte.
I just recently went there the first time. There is
no Veterans Support organ there's no claims officer for that
(27:28):
whole hospital. You have to go outside organization to do that.
So that's in mind boggling to me. And I saw,
you know, a huge building, hundreds and hundreds of people
working there, not one office now one office that helps
walk you through that, And it seems to me, isn't
that what you're supposed to be doing? But I think
(27:50):
it's things like that that they need to look at
and address. And if it's happening here, I'm sure it's
happening at scale in many organizations.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
On the weekend comes in and then you're an idol.
You're like, what's going on with my rating? It's the weekend.
Everybody's gone home at five o'clock, you know, And it's.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Like, I'm not taking a taking away from the great
people that do work for the VS. There are wonderful
people in every organization, but.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
If they still walk out at five, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
And and the system is not conducive. You know, I
don't know who would be the next to be a secretary.
It's a very difficult job. It's very difficult to succeed
in it.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
But bro what I said probably Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, well maybe I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
That.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I do think that you need somebody that can at
least bring people in and talk about customer service. They
need to have a customer service mindset, right, I.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Mean four more years for that.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
So we need to we need to figure out.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
The customer service brother. Yea, literally someone who's gonna care
and listen, not just say this is how it is.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah, so's hopefully to be a can. They're striving hard
to make changes, and I applaud a lot of the
things that they've done to improve. I just think like
most veterans, and we see that the access to care
is one of the top things that veterans are concerned about.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Oh. I've had the director on the show. I have
talked to him personally, especially during the time of COVID,
right when he was serving under former President Trump, who's
going to be future President Trump. So at the time
he just said, you know, rad I just looked at
it like I wore US before anything else. It was
US Army, US Marines. We all came together. We had
no political anything except just the belief of the US
(29:43):
of A basically, and I was like, Okay, cool bro.
But He's like, I still had three hundred and eight
thousand employees and I was losing like a thousand of
them to COVID and that's that's that's serious stuff, right,
Ye sitting there saying like we want, you know, adaptive
recreational therapy for veterans. Right It's like, yeah, why should
(30:04):
it be at sixty percent? Or hire to get adaptive
ski chairs for somebody? Why do you have to have
a missing limb, you know, to be considered. Oh, now
you can have the bucket to go skiing now, but
you have all your limbs and maybe you have a concussion.
To TBIs and you want to go out and enjoy
the outdoors, They're like, well you're rating forty percent.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I mean like really, yeah, and you think about you
mentioned TBIs and you just I think it was two
days ago Bernie Marcus passed away, the founder of From Depot.
Bernie Marcus did more for TBI than any living person
on this planet. He provided millions of dollars to TBI research,
built brick and mortar through the Avalon Alliance, and just
(30:46):
of awareness awareness. I mean, he did some great work.
And you know, I think it's those public private partnerships
that bring in new ideas, new skills that really can
challenge the way government thinks about the things and the
way they approach things and so.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Well, a huge has a huge veteran presence, you know,
like I think you go to the parking lot, they
even have like handicapped expecting mothers and veterans.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And Milton, yeah, yeah, and that's and that's great. And
you see that, you know, their folks will wear their
vests the chef that they're the military and pride in that,
and that's great. We should see more companies take that.
And that's the other thing that I think brings up
a point we need to the Department of the Fans
v A and Veterans Support organizations really need to try
to come together and educate Corporate America and business on
(31:37):
what veterans bring to the workplace. So we've heard an
awful lot about pts UH challenges veterans have suicide. If
that's all you're hearing, you're thinking that all veterans you
meet are on the brink of every of doing taking
(31:59):
their life or what have you. And the fact of
the matter is a vast majority of veterans are great employees,
bring loyalty to an organization. Our diverse thinkers have worked
in diverse organizations, had to think on their feet quickly
can be relied upon. I think there could be a
(32:23):
whole lot of benefit to having a national effort on
hiring veterans and exploring those partnerships of how I mean,
some companies do a great job of hiring veterans. I
worked for Siemens for a number of years, and back
in two thousand and four, two thousand and five CEO
(32:45):
at the time committed to hiring ten percent of all
new employees being veterans. Right, I mean, that was an
enormous undertaking in two thousand and four, two thousand and five,
and I believe they continue to do that today. So
it can be done. You just got to put some
effort behind it, and I'm sure they have reaped a
(33:07):
lot of benefits of bringing high quality people.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
In well, you know, I mean so respect to that comment.
You know, you you were the CEO and you had
transitioned out yourself, and here you are a veteran. Do
you work you know in the in the civilian sector
or the civilian world trying to you know, do.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah, I've been fortunate to have, you know, great opportunities
and a lot of luck or blessings. However, you want
to look at it. I always think of it as
a blessing. I think and I believe that I was
fortunate to have learned some great things while I was
(33:48):
in the military, and how to lead people with empathy,
how to get the job done, hold people to a
high standard. People want to be helped to a high standard,
by the way, and they want to be challenged, but
they want to know you care about it. And I
think that lesson in leadership. You could go to any
(34:08):
NBA spend tens of thousands of dollars, but the end
of the day, treating people the way you want to
be treated is what it's all about. And I feel
that the military helped me with that, helps a lot
of people with that. And so it'd be great to
see more and more companies embrace hiring veterans and putting
them into tough positions and and and and letting them thrive.
(34:35):
I mean, some of the best people I worked worked
with and four didn't have doctorates in psychology, but boy,
they knew how to motivate people. I saw some sergeants
with a high school education that were some of the
smartest people I ever met in my life.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
You know, you know what I would say, is that
a friend of mine, Jacob he served Ono today as
a a police fashion in the army. Okay, I won't
say his exact job detail, but what happened is he
told me once he was stuck over there during COVID,
He's like, rad you know, just be the kindness that
you want to see in the world today, bro, Yeah,
(35:12):
because here he is just dealing with a situation. You know,
a prison. It's not a happy place, you know, and
you got people incarcerated, but you also have to work
in the incarcerated system, so you're also in prison, you know.
And so yeah, I mean really right, it's true. So
he I just want to piggyback on the kindness thing,
you know. He here, he comes from a very tough
(35:34):
environment and he might be the kindness that you want
to see in the world today. And I'm like, I'm
gonna steal that, bro.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah. So I think I think that's important in every
rock of life. But you know, I think, you know,
when I step back and I look at what mister
Rocal is trying to do, it's a it's a big task.
I mean, we're trying to tell be the voice of
the American veteran our polling to make sure those voices
(36:02):
are heard. As they mentioned earlier, there's eighteen million veterans.
We're trying to reach all of them so their voices
can be heard. That's a powerful block of people because
it's not just the eighteen point five million people. It's
your spouse, it's your dependence, it's the caregivers. So that's
probably around forty million when you look at it, and
that's a powerful block of voters. It's a powerful block
(36:25):
of voices that need to be heard. And I think
if we can bring that together and not dissipate it
across so many other different places. That's why we do
a lot of polling with our veterans, and anybody can join.
Mister Rollcoll just go to the website does cost of
thing and you can take a poll. I'm pretty sure
pretty soon you'll be able to do.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
That live in time on our website. Oh that's cool,
And you can do it via your phone, so it's
not just text messages and you can do that. We
use that then to go to the press and talk
about the things.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
But more importantly, we then can break that down by
congressional district and then go to that congressman or congresswoman
and say, listen, this is what the veterans in your
district are saying. Cool, and we need your help here.
And in many cases we don't get pushback on that.
We get oh, I didn't know that. I mean, they're
dealing with a lot of problems too, so, but when
(37:19):
you bring that to them and say this is important
to your constituency, yes, then most of them want to
be helpful with that. You know, veterans are held in
high regard in our country, higher than you know, almost
any certainly higher than any government institution.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
You mean you think about veterans, right.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
And then you think about what if says in any
type of ninety three fashion, it is that I swear
my life right, yes, yes, yeah, so it's.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Held in high regard. And I think we need to
be more vocal as an organization, as a group of people. Yes,
And that's what's great about what separates us from any
other organization is that we do not filter any of
our responses. So let's just take another vso, a big VSO.
(38:13):
I won't tell you which one, but most of the
big ones you have chapters, you have regions, and they
come together, and they come in together and they say,
here's our three big issues for this organization in Ohio. Well,
of course that goes up to the region, and the
region says, well, yeah, but not those two, maybe this one.
(38:34):
And then it goes up to the national and they go, no, no,
none of those are important. This is what's important. We
don't do that.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
We ask our veterans important questions that affect them and
affect veteran community, and we publish those results, and then
I reach out to.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
The press and say, this is what our veterans are
telling us. So it's not my opinion, it's not my
team's opinion, it's not something that we may or may
not agree with. It's what the majority of our veterans
are telling us. And we bring it down to percentages
so that they can use that information to make those decisions.
And it's important, I think for the press to understand that.
(39:14):
I talk to a lot of press. I can count
on one hand the people that work in the press
that have had any military experience, that have served that
know somebody is who's served. Most of them have no clue.
And I don't hold that against them. I look at
that as an opportunity to educate them. But we need
(39:37):
to get the word out a little bit better. I
think as a community, we used to be given a
task and getting it done and doing it quietly and
not say look at me, so but we need to
make sure our voices are heard. And so that's what
we're doing and we've got We've had a lot of
success with that. We've increased the number of people that
(39:59):
are paying attention to us. We've been getting some advocacy
done on behalf of veterans in DC, and we're going
to continue to do that with both Democrats and Republicans.
And they value that because they know we're a political
We may have our own personal beliefs, but we don't
wear that on our sleeves, and we don't favor one
(40:21):
over the other. We just want it to be addressed
these issues and for them to work together to address
these issues.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
This sounds like you have that same US mindset. I
was interviewing a gentleman that helped transition President Bias what
he's going from Bush to Obama? And he was underneath
Bush at the time, right, And he said the same
thing as the director of the VA said, which is
rad when we had the booklet to pass over to
the next presidency. We understood that the US was on
(40:52):
our name tape.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
It was US.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
So that's who we are. And so whether we have
a belief in our own self at the end of
the day, down to the machine of the USA is
what he was putting finished, right.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Well, we always put mission first, right, that's it, and
that's the way we are and that's what we've been built.
Every branch of services like that.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
My dad was like that. He was very like a
political He always tell me, you know what aeron am
all what He's like, you don't have to tell anybody.
It was Duke Caucus and Reagan and I was like,
who are you voting for? Dad? And he's like, I
don't have to tell you. And I was his son. Yeah,
And to the day he died, I would take him
to vote and I would just guess who'd you vote for.
(41:34):
He's like, I don't have to tell you. He would never, ever, ever, ever, ever.
He kept that and I kind of do the same.
I may have opinions or I want a conversation about
a situation or things that are out there, but at
the end of the day, it's our right just to
kind of hold it to ourselves. We don't have to.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah, just because you think it doesn't mean you've got
to say it. There is And I mean sometimes people
don't think about the second and third order effects of
what they say. I mean we see that with families
and friends and all of that. Yes, you know, I
feel that it's important to recognize that the military represent
(42:12):
the fabric of our country. I think it represents the
best of our country. Anybody who raises their hand uh
and writes that blank check says I'm going to serve
my country, regardless of what they did in the military
at the FOREIGND being a Delta Force member or flying
(42:33):
an aircraft, or being an infantryman, or being a submarine,
or being a or being a pol handler or a cook.
They're all noble, noble efforts and noble profession and I
feel as a country we need to do better to
make sure that those folks that have done that are here,
(42:58):
are taken care of getting the access that they need
to healthcare, and they're being employed and recognized for the
skills that they bring to employees. I think we can
prove all those things, yes, but we're only going to
do that. If voices are heard, it's just not going
to happen on its own.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
We already talked about that. The military, the Army, the
Air Force, the Navy, the Marines, the Space Force are
not like quite reaching out to you. You have to
be that voice and reach out to them, and reach
out to Mission roll Call and go look at their
website and go watch that YouTube, Tatorial. I'm gonna watch it.
I'm going to see exactly what Jim was just talking about,
because I mean, I could go to the VA, but
(43:39):
I have health assurance.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah I do too, you know, most people do, but
it doesn't mean.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
You can say it.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah, and it's important to I think it's important that
as a community help each other. Yes, you know, and
that's what we're trying to do. I mean, in the military,
you never thought about yourself. You were thought about your
guys to your left and right, that's right, gals that
you work with, and and it was missioned first and
people always, and you took care of each other. We
(44:09):
need to continue that mindset. That's what makes us great.
And we need to continue that mindset when we get
out of the military, because that is what sets us
apart from so many other people. Is we have this
selfless service. We want to help others. One way of
doing that, I think is to have your voice heard
and reach out to other veterans and say, you need
(44:29):
to be part of this. This is important because you're
going to help the next generation. You're gonna help that
old guy down the street who's a veteran that might
have got slipped through the cracks.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
And you don't need to take yourself out. You need
to get a colonoscope.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah, yeah, and you need to you.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
With all due respect, joking, you know, I just went
and had a I see what did I have? I
had a CT scan in my heart because it's in
my family. My dad, uh suffered like stroke seizear's at
forty so full on. He was running marathons just a
few months before and then collapsed in the shower. His
medics showed up to the door that day because the
(45:09):
nine on one call from my mom. They're like, oh, radel,
let me get there. And it was his own team guy,
so he's the medic on call. So oh it's a
very yeah, especially in late in Utah. You know they're
all working different jobs, you know how Yeah, stuff guys
are so Shumway shows up. He's like, Radel, I got
to tell this to the ups, and he's like, I'm good.
My Dad's like leaning in the door, white as a ghost,
(45:31):
trying to say I'm okay, yeah, okay. And I never
saw my dad. My dad didn't drink. My dad didn't smoke.
My dad went to church every Sunday, donated his tithing
every single month, served in the bishops warehouse to get
people food. After he got out of the military, always
had some type of a serve mentality. And at sixty
three he was gone from heart issues. But I watched
(45:54):
my mom become his caregiver one hundred percent and his
VA advocate. And then when she learned everything from me
a VA advocate for him. Others that she would meet
would ask her for help, and so she would just say, well,
this is what you probably need to do for your case.
She would help get people to the one hundred percent
rating without a diet. My mother would walk like a
lawyer with a bag of stuff to these people and
(46:14):
meet with them at God bless her very much. Yeah,
she's with my dad now, but I would watch her
push that wheelchair up and down those long hallways at
Salt Lakes and VA or I would help push with
my dad. Hey, Eric, can you take dad to the dock? Yeah,
no problem, right, And I'm like, geez, mom, is this
what you're doing all the time? I'm being married and
having kids and you're pushing his dad through the wheel.
(46:36):
I took it all for granted.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Yeah, And thank God for souls like that in our
society that care about others. And you do need to
be an advocate for yourself, yes, and that's why some
organizations are important to help magnify that advocacy. And that's
really what we're trying to do. And we're advocating. You know,
there's a lot of veterans sport organizations out there, and
(47:02):
some of them, quite frankly, don't talk to each other
and are competitive with each other. Right they consider there,
you know, this is their audience. They're going after rama.
We don't look at it that way. We look at success. Well,
there's not a finite amount of success in the world.
There's not a finite amount of love in the world.
So we're helping organizations advocate on their behalf for them
(47:23):
because we have a we have two guys that are
in DC that are reaching out to elected officials. So
we'll we'll help other veterans support organizations do that, and
then I'll talk about other veterans support organizations when I
do media interviews, like before the election, I talked about
VET the Vote a lot. I mean that was a
that's a nonprofit that we're putting veterans in Poland stations
(47:46):
across the country. I mean making sure that the voting
system worked and sure that.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Right you could be in charge of the VA. No,
thank you, Listen, listen, don't say hey, hey, just say well,
why not me? Okay? Every time my dad said why
you're not wanting to do it, and I said, well,
I don't know, and he's like, well why don't you know?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah, I think I can better serve what I'm doing now,
all right, this organization. But I will absolutely help who's
ever in there to help tell their story, to help
them reach veterans again, help them, you know, tap into
the sediment, sentiment of what veterans are feeling, so that
they can mean Because if you're if you're leading any
(48:29):
organization and you're just listening to the people that you
have hired, you're not getting the story. You have got
to get out of your office and go and talk
to somebody you never met before it's going through the
system and say what's working, what isn't working? What can
I help you with? And finding out.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Those things like undercover boss dude.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of benefits of managing
walking around and if you're just looking at stats and
numbers and performance indicators and all those sort of things,
you're not getting the real you're not getting ahead.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
Of KPI on you know, the suicide. You know, it's like, well,
you know, we're uh, you know, I want to keep
my job, so it's down.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Yeah, And I feel like they need to make sure
that happens. And they certainly have a number of I mean,
the huge organization and getting bigger the VA all of
them should be ambassadors of that program and making sure
they're reaching out to veterans on their own.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
I mean they should have the higher ups kind of
how about processed veterans that are getting into the system exactly,
and then go back to your desk and say, hey,
you know what, I did this for two weeks. Yeah,
I sat down there and the same issue of like
this checkbox doesn't even matter, why are we making them
fill out this checkbox right?
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Exactly right? You can you can be or or just
as simple of how far is the parking lot from
the front door? Seriously, do we not have a valet
that can come? And like you know what, guy out,
I mean, all you see these four bad later it's
walking with you know, the tennis ball thing on the
front of their walk and they got walking a quarter
of a mile to get to the damn place.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Yes, or you're exactly right. Why is there not a valet?
Speaker 2 (50:12):
I mean, just make it easy and and and let's
be honest. Everybody wants to direct you to your website.
You got a problem, go to the website. Well, if
you're seventy five years old, yeah, exactly, you know that's
you might as well, you know, ask them to do
algebra for you.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
And you know, the last thing someone getting stints put
into them needs to do is walk across the parking lot. Okay,
I'm laughing, but you know I've laughed with Well, my
dad had like four or five stints and open heart surgery.
I mean, I can talk about it. Bro I am
the son of the SF and I have seen my
father go from one hundred percent marathon runner Green Beret too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Well, life's a fickle thing, right though. It is.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
Actually, and then my friend's dad, I'm not going to
say his name, smoking, drinking, doing all sorts of things,
still seventy something years old, playing cards, playing in a band,
not not.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, life sometimes does. It's so fair, and you wonder
what God thinks.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
But my friend's dad, son was my friend's dad, sound
was like, dude, radl Like, my dad drinks and smokes
and stuff, and your dad didn't even I'm like, hey, man,
we have to just embrace what we have every single day.
And we're above this ground because we've been a billion
years locked in our mind for a long time and
then all of a sudden, here we are. Yeah, and
we're going to go back for a billion more. So
(51:31):
make the most of what you're here for. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
I think, as you know, veterans, I think is a
community want to take care of each other. They want
to get involved in the community. They want to continue
to grow and flourish. They just need a tribe. I mean,
most veterans need two things. A tribe in a hill top.
(51:56):
They need a group of people that are gonna take
care of each other and they need and they need
a mission. They need something to do purpose, a purpose, yes,
and a calling. That's the hill. Defend the hill or
take the hill. And if you keep that in mindset
(52:16):
and you can get veterans involved with something in the
local community. So I would urge any small company or
a large company reach out to us if you have
veterans in your organization and you're trying to figure out
how to retain them or how to mobilize them, because
I'll tell you I've worked in two fortune five hundred companies.
In each case I always led the Veterans support group,
(52:41):
and some of them were thousands in number, where I
would get all of them to volunteer. Either they were active,
they were a veteran, or they just wanted to be
involved in veterans causes because the husband was a veteran
or their son was.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
They had asthma and they could never serve right.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Whatever their hardest pure of why they want to do it,
we let them do it. And sometimes they're the best
volunteers and just unleash them in their local communities as
an organization. They'll set up five ks and raise money
for an organization. They'll go to a food bank and
(53:21):
represent your company, and that's the best advertising you can buy.
That's the best marketing you could ever ask for. And
never under never take your employees for granted. You want
to keep them engaged and you want to have them
be proud of the company they work with, because as
soon as you lose, you're excited about what you're doing.
(53:42):
You like the company that you're working for, the organization
you're part of. Once that starts to go away, you're
looking for something else unless you're locked into that job
because that's the only thing you can do. Most people
want to be part of something bigger than themselves, absolutely on.
Veterans want to be like that.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
It just reminds me of like a soup kitchen, you know,
when you work in the soup kitchen and you're handing
out the food to those that are in the need
of that food, right, or you've been on the other
side of that where you've received the food and all
you want to do is just give back to those
who had given you that food to keep you going. Yeah,
that changed me. When I was younger, I went to
(54:24):
do that, you know, and serve food, and we were like,
are we really giving them the old popcorn balls to
eat on their food tray. You always had food that
was given to the food bay.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
Yeah, and you and you learn a lot.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
You learn a lot, yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
Doing that, and you learn humility and you lose, and
you learn gratitude for what you do have. All those
things are so important as a young person and certainly
as an older person as well. And we're materialistic society, right,
It's about giving gifts and now over the holiday season,
(54:58):
that's what we're all focused on, and maybe one less
gift and maybe donating to a food bank or to
I drink powdered milk bright Yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (55:08):
Well tell you yeah, I drinking that.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Oh it's awful.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
So I know, ire if my dad was SS and
I still had he's like a lot of kids eat
cheerios with water. Aaron. I was like really and he's
like yes and yeah, and we were just eating cheerios
with water. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:27):
Is that something? And you know that there's when you
look at like I mentioned the stat earlier, you know,
twenty four percent of active duty struggling to make endst
met and have food insecurity issues. To me, that's amporrent
as a as a country to me that is that
there is something significantly wrong with that, and I would
(55:50):
have liked to have seen. And I think we're all happy,
regardless of political background, that election's over. We're happy with
that because you're not getting text messages and all these
other sort of things, commercials and all that. But it
would have been great to have more of a discussion
on veterans issues in one of the debates.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
It really wasn't any of that.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
It wasn't any of it, And to me, that only
that only so I could you could approach that from
two distances. You can be very disappointed and we are
as a veteran community, or you could be energized by
that to say, we need to do a better job
of making sure we're in the forefront of elected officials
and campaigns. And so that's what we need to do.
(56:34):
And the only way we're going to do that is
that if you're interested in veterans causes, if you're interested
in veterans, maybe you have a son, a daughter, your
grandfather served, whatever, go to our website. Join. We'll send
(56:55):
you updates as you want. We're not sharing that information
with anybody. We're not asking for money, but it's important
for us to build those numbers. So that's because it's
a different situation when I walk into a senator's office
and I'm representing two million veterans versus ten million veterans.
That's a different conversation.
Speaker 1 (57:15):
Oh yeah, and you have data. You have that, you
have the metrics, and we.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
Have the metrics, and we're approaching it from a political perspective,
and they know that that's going to help opening the
door because we're representing what veterans families are telling us. Yes,
not something that I think is a great idea or
my think ting things is a good idea, or something
that's going to help promote mission roll call. We're funded.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
You're aggregating all of these votes and polls from whoever's
using mission roll calls voting mechanisms, and you're taking that
and trying to sit in front of these people to
lobby them for veterans benefits on a whole.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
Yeah, and educate them as well. You can't. You can't expect,
you know, freshman, congressman or senator, you know everything about
veteran causes. They need to be educated by that. And
it's it's the case with a number of different subjects uh,
and there's and there's complex issues with veterans' health care,
with education, with assistance with finding a job and all that.
(58:21):
I mean, you think about it. The military does a
wonderful job and taking a group of people, this kid
from Chicago, this guy from rural uh you know, Utah,
this dude who was surfing last week in California. We
put them all together and in a couple of weeks
they are an organization.
Speaker 1 (58:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
They look different, they walk taller, they are military. Now,
they're part of something bigger than themselves. They're working together
whole different worlds. Right, we can transform people in a
matter of weeks. Think about if we had that same
is when they got out of the military, to transform
them to the civilian world. But we don't do that.
Speaker 1 (59:05):
No, there's a guy that when I got out, he
was like, you're gonna get this booklet read it. These
are your benefits if you have any questions.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah right, just like the same guy
that gave you a brief game my brief and it
was just a waste my time.
Speaker 1 (59:20):
It was just like, okay, cool. I held on to
some of those thoughts and I if it wasn't for
the let's just say if I hadn't enlisted, and if
I hadn't gone through what I had gone through, I
wouldn't have my home, my VA home loan, I wouldn't
have all these things that were afforded. You threw the
VA benefits and someone out there thinking about joining, you know,
the next step is just to go talk to a
career count for like a military branch that you want
(59:42):
to serve in, and ask them if they can help you.
That's all you got to do. You don't have to
commit unless you choose to commit.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
Yeah. Yeah, So that there's just some basic things black
and and tackling that we need to do as organizations.
And I hope, I hope we can improve quality of
life veterans, improve their access. More importantly, just improve the
ability of us telling the story to the press, to
(01:00:13):
the media, to elected officials into the general American public
and what veterans do bring to our society, how important
they are. What you can do.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
In Chicago and you say depress it sounds like depression. Yeah, duppress,
dump airs, press, press.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
It's great. So we just we had a lot of
work to do. Have a passionate team on it, great
group of people, and.
Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
We're passionate with you. Okay here at SOFTWAREP. I just
want you to know that you have us as a conduit.
Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Yeah, and I appreciate your time today and I have
to call and I appreciate what you're doing to tell
a story of what veterans do for us society, what
they continue to do. I mean, and we and we
need to take care of our own, our mother and
this is one way to do that. So thanks again
(01:01:19):
for having me today.
Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Well, thanks for keeping me straight on the path with
our conversation. I was looking to go boxing today, but
you're like Radam's gonna like not boxing.
Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Yeah, I just try to pivot there a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
I got you, sir, I got you, and I can
respect that I got an opponent somewhere out there that
will do.
Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
I'm sure you'll find somebody today you can.
Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Yell, but I hope you know where I come from.
And my whole heart is like I just want to
just be the kindness that I see in the world today.
So if if I can just steal Jacob's staying right there,
that's all we all.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Can work and being more kind, more empathetic and and
and more giving of ourselves and our assets to others.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
It never goes out of style, yes, sever never never.
So on behalf of retire Lieutenant Colonel Jim Whaley with
Mission roll Call, a veterans afficacy group where you can
go and check out all you need to learn about,
you know, veterans benefits and reaching out to somebody who
can give you an answer. Reach out to Mission roll
(01:02:17):
call dot Org. They're not in it for any other
reason except for you, the veteran to find your way
in a sea of un navigatable waters that you're in. Bro.
If you're out there and you're like, which way do
I go? Where am I going? Mission roll Call can
be your compass, okay, and they can help point you
in the right direction. So love it. I love it too.
And if you've got nods, drop them down even better
(01:02:40):
because that looks cool. Come on now, come on now,
let's see what do I have to mention? Oh yeah,
the book club soft rep dot com Forward slash Book
hyphen Club, our merch store with all of the branded goods.
And again Mission roll Call with Jim a regular here
at soft Rep and always welcome to uh keep me
(01:03:01):
in check.
Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
I really appreciate you sir.
Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Yes, and thank you to my listener and my viewer
and Brandon Web what's up bro? All Right, this is
Rad saying peace. Alright, you've been listening to Self Red
(01:03:28):
Ladia
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!