April 20, 2024 • 53 mins
Kevin Wilson is the author of Sully's Squad, a coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of World War II. The book follows fifteen-year-old Arty, who lies about his age to enlist, as he gets thrown into the horrors of the Sicilian campaign. Amidst the madness, he meets Angelina, a young nun-in-training, and forges a deep brotherhood with his squadmates.
Wilson also draws inspiration from real life for his characters, such as Sully the sergeant, who is based on his uncle killed in action during the Great War. The story sensitively portrays the realities of battlefield deaths, shellshock, and the emotional journey of veterans returning home.
Get a copy of Sully's Squad: https://amzn.to/49NDx01
Join the SOFREP Book Club here: https://sofrep.com/book-club
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Mute forms. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, Military Nails on
straight talk with the guys in the community.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome to another episode of soft Rep Radio. I am
your host, Rad and I am super excited today to
introduce my next guest. But first I have to kind
of plug the merch store. You guys have been kicking
butt buying our merch our branded items from softwap dot com.
Keep doing it. We really appreciate it. It keeps me
behind the camera, in front of the camera, on the
(00:57):
side of the camera. It keeps the fireplace going. And
then also we have a book club, right, We're really
passionate about our book club, and it's soft rep dot
com forward slash book hyphen Club. That's book hyphen Club.
So I want you to go check it out. We're
going to try to get our next guest and his
book in our book club so that you can get
it through the book club. And my next guest without
(01:19):
further ado, is Kevin Wilson, the author of Solely Squad.
Welcome Kevin to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Thank you, Rat, I appreciate it, Yes, thank you for
your opportunity here.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh, totally. We're excited to have you. Now, I know
this is not your first time, you know, playing around
Soft rep getting on the website. There's some articles probably
from back in the you know, twenty twenty twenty twenty
one area, where you were talking about Soli Squad, and
I want to kind of touch base on Soli Squad.
You know, it's kind of a book about someone who
I think calls you know, the just goes to the
(01:50):
call of duty for himself his country. And what is
the right thing to do with Artie who we're going
to touch base on. And then you know, it's all
happening around you know, Pearl Harbor and you know the
o Wahu, the attacks on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese.
You know, World War two is kicking off, and there
was a lot of lives lost, a lot of young
lives lost. And so with that said, Kevin, I'd like
(02:11):
to just take a moment here, you know, of silence
if you don't mind, all right, And that is in
respect of the lives lost during World War Two on
really both sides of the Aisle. Okay, there were so
(02:34):
many people who took up arms on both sides of
what they thought was justin right. You know, someone living
in a neighborhood in their country picking up a gun
and us living in our country picking up a gun.
I don't know the difference of patriotism there, because they're
both trying to do it for what they think is
the right thing. But good and evil lurks, you know,
(02:54):
and evil lurks even harder, sometimes looking like good. And
so here we are talking about your book Solely Squad,
which focus is really on, you know, the call to
action in World War two, and we follow the young
man Arty through his journey. Correct, correct, yes, he already was.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
It's funny, Brad, when when it came time to write.
And I'm not a writer, I'm not an author, you
know by trade. My background is a CPA background, and
I've been in healthcare operations for almost forty years. So
I say that because there might be people listening out
there who are afraid to take that first step, you know,
(03:35):
at writing. So for myself, I created well, I basically
wrote it in a month and learned the term rewrite
multiple times like your worst English teacher, just grading U
and F continuously. And eventually the person I was working
(03:56):
with said what do you want to say? I said, well,
I want young people, because this was probably twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen time frame, young people, to honor
those that have given so much and still give so much,
honor the flag, and have something that's fast paced, because
(04:16):
whatever I write has to compete against video games. And
so I basically came up with her said, well, you
should talk about young adults. And I go, well, what
is that? She goes, hya, it's a genre. Look it up.
So I looked it up and started writing, and I
created a character named Marty. And there were stories throughout
(04:39):
the years that I learned of young people that lied
about their age and were able to get into service,
mostly again and then World War two era, probably in
World War One maybe, So that's where I'm like, Okay,
I want someone to be the reader, have it told
through his eyes, and be attached to his hip, and
(05:00):
have already be a character who you could relate to.
You know, everybody's been fifteen sixteen, you know that that
is an older person can relate to some of that,
and as somebody who's not yet there, maybe fourteen or so,
can kind of relate to that. And basically talk about,
you know, the combination of basically a typical kid, but
(05:24):
the only difference is he's in combat and which and
then uh, but you know, simple things like you know,
you kind of have to go back in your own
self when you when you write these things. And uh,
my favorite line in the in the story, which which
which I made up, which I'm proud to say, is
after he meets the h he meets there's a there's
a girl in the story. After he meets her, he
(05:46):
says something that he's like, why did I say that?
And he goes, It's easier to fight the Nazis than
is to talk to a girl. So I think, you know,
I tried to. I think the combination of the combat
attached to his hip with this you're talking about it
just basically an innocent kid when all said and done,
that's how already kind of materialized.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Right, And I like, you know, in some of it,
you know, there's there's like in there's like an excerpt
that I was reading about and it talks about you know,
him and his family and they're getting like a Christmas
tree brought into the house, and you know, you talk
about how he takes the needle, and he likes to
floss his teeth with the needle from the pine tree.
As he's like, you know, yeah, yeah, look's get over there,
dad or mom a little bit higher. You know. He's
(06:30):
like flossing it with his tooth and he's and then
the and then all of a sudden, on the radio,
I believe, uh, you know, we interrupt this broadcast for
a news bulletin, and it's like it's a wahoo. We
are looking for Congress to declare war and give us
authorization to go to war. We have been attacked at
Pearl Harbor, and this is a blatant attack, and you
(06:51):
can expect a retaliatory tack back to you for what
you've done to us. And that's just tit for tat
right eye for an eye right now. So and then
all of a sudden, the radio goes back to you know,
drink your oval tine. Okay, yeah, and his dad walks out,
hitting his pipe like okay, we're going to war, right.
(07:12):
He slams the door, goes outside, you know, hitting his pipe.
He's like, I can just imagine. And then he's like, well,
well here I go. You know, it probably just sank
in right, there. Well, dad's hitting his pipe. Maybe I
should got hitting mine.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's absolutely and it's the interesting thing
is on at is again back to the child innocence.
Those of us that live, you know, in the north
and had school days you know, called because of snow
you could do before, you know, twenty four to seven weather.
You would look up in the clouds and see, yeah,
(07:47):
a little dark over there, a little chill in the air,
the winds will picking up. Maybe we'll have maybe we'll
have no school tomorrow. So you can see, you know,
the innocence. And then all of a sudden, as you
very well said, bam, there comes the reality of life
in your everybody your life is changing. And not only
(08:08):
his life, but that had to be one of the
most that changed so many people's lives, not only the
poor sailors who were killed at the time, but the
families and then looked for the next number of years,
and it just you know, in my lifetime, you know,
I could remember nine to eleven, and meant probably many
(08:29):
many of listeners will remember that day. You know where
you were, you know what you're doing that day. So
I kind of equate that to someone who's fifteen years
old reading this story for the first time. That is,
you know, wasn't around for nine to eleven, but maybe
has heard about it. Well, that was that generation's beyond
(08:50):
equivalent of nine to eleven, and that wake up call
and life, you know will never be the same, whether
you enlisted young or didn't.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Well, you're deep, you know, because I'm thinking, like I remember,
I was a lot. I'm okay, so I'm forty six,
not eleven, was my I guess big thing in my generation?
Would you think that? Is that your big thing in
your generation? How are you? I'm sixty two in your generation?
Is it not eleven? Also?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Probably? Well it's uh, I mean I grew up, you know.
I was one and a half when Kennedy was. Yes,
so I don't remember that, but I remember like growing
up with Vietnam because you're sitting there eating your meat
and potatoes, so to speak, and on the TV was
whether it was Walter Cronkite or whomever you want rather
(09:40):
and Dan Rather he'd be out in the field at
that time, and they were when you're sitting there eating
and you're seeing these guys, you know, at war, and
it was that's you know, and then when I was
in nineteen seventy three, I remember this in fifth grade,
celebrating the end of the war. And then then the Challenger.
(10:01):
I'm trying to the Challenger. I remember where I was there,
and then I then probably you know, I'm probably missing
a couple. But then fast forward to nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Really Challenger a desert storm, and then you know, ye eleven,
I know there's a little like you know, off skirt
skirmishes that happen all the time. But yeah, you know,
the next generation is the fifteen year old we're talking
about who will have to pick up the pieces from
where we're leaving off, if you will. And guys my
(10:32):
age are retiring or trying to stay in the military
at forty six if they're higher ranked already, you know,
but most of the guys are out and about living
a civilian life. So these youngsters should read your book.
And if you're thinking about, you know, possibly getting in
the military and you want to, you know, go check
it out, Go talk to a career counselor and see
(10:53):
if somebody can point in the right direction of what's
best suited for you. You know, you may not have
to lie about it, like already did. In World War Two.
We all saw a movie. I can't remember what it
was called, but he has a big star on his shield. Anyways,
he's like, I got to get in. I got to
get in, and they're like, you're not getting in, kid,
and he's like, finally, tenth time later, he's in, you know,
(11:14):
and the heart is bigger than anybody else's heart that
was trying to get in. And he proved that and
became the ultimate, you know, symbol of you know, Captain America.
And Artie seems to call that same vibe, you know,
as he's going after it. Now you go into a
little bit more depth with him going into combat in
the book, right, Artie.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, it starts out it takes place in the Sicilian campaign,
and it's the reason I chose Sicily is a late
uncle of mine. And the VFW post up in Granville,
New York, which is I have to give a shout
out to Granville. Well, it's it's on the border of
(11:56):
Vermont in New York and on West main Street or
East Main Street, you can stand in two states. That
was always exciting as a kid. But it's a cory town,
so a lot of slate quarries and a lot of
Italian immigrants came in and they were up sent up
the Grandville along with other nationalities. So my uncle, Salvator
(12:18):
Fringey was born and he was the oldest of five,
and my mother how I connect with him. My mother
was the youngest of the five, So that's how I
connect the Salvator. Now, my grandparents americanized his name and
called him Sullivan, and he shortened to Sully. That's how
the Sully comes out. So Sully in the story is
(12:42):
a sergeant. He's nonfiction because he actually existed. I used
a different last name, but he actually he exists as
a sergeant, and he was in World War Two in
the Big Red one as a combat engineer. But in
the story he's in the infantry scho He's a sergeant
of an infantry squad and he was in North Africa
(13:05):
and he was killed in action in Sicily. So that's
why I chose Sicily to have the story. And I
don't know about you you read. I always watched World
War Two and I still do, whether it's YouTube, World
at War, you know, World War two in color, whatever
you call it. And so the Sicilian campaign they talk
(13:26):
about it, but they never got into the weather, and
they actually landed on in July of nineteen forty three
in a gale storm in the middle of the night.
And so I'm thinking, you know, so it starts out
with them on the deck, so it immediately gets into
some action and then you know, maybe some of your
(13:47):
listeners did this, but I'm like, then you got ninety
pounds on you a pack you probably weigh one hundred
and forty pounds, soak and wet, and you're then having
to climb down these wet ropes or whatever they were
into this landing craft. So I start out with actually
getting to that level of detail, because I think it
(14:09):
gets lost when you watch the shows. It's like, all ofviously,
these guys land on the beach. Hey, but you know
what they went through to even survive to get to
the beach. And then, oh, by the way, there they are.
You know, the enemy on the ground, you've had the
enemy in the air, you know you've been facing. So
it's it's incredible what what these men, in my opinion,
(14:32):
went through. And then and the utmost respect that you know,
I'm hoping when a reader gets out of this is
not only entertained by the action, but also stepping back
and realizing it's a brotherhood. And I know the Band
of Brothers was tremendous. There's you know, so I'm I
(14:54):
give them the credit. I give everybody else the credit.
And the documentaries where when they would talk about out
their fellow brethren, you know, whether it was you know,
World War two, Korea, Vietnam, you know, Desert Storm, as
you mentioned, Afghanistan, you were you were protecting that guy
next to you. And that's what I hope the reader
gets out of this. Yeah, they horse around, they have
(15:15):
a little fun. I mean they're kids, you know, and
all of a sudden done their kids. But when the
light turns on and all of a sudden it happens.
You know, some are ready for the some are I
don't know how you're ever ready, but some are more
ready than others. And there's also where you got to help.
You got to help the guy next to you, you know,
simple thing like loading his gun. I mean everybody takes
(15:37):
that for granted, Oh yeah, I got loaded, but when
you under fire, having a loaded gun killed exactly. So
that's where you know, taking it through with the book
and the combat and the brotherhood. I think the other
point is it was a squad and with lashbacks you
(16:01):
try to get the characters in a short time to
be known to the reader. And I think, you know,
it was a lot of work. And the term show me,
don't tell me was something I constantly heard from the
person who edited the story, because, as I said earlier,
(16:21):
in my background is business. So businesses get to the point,
what's going on in one page? I don't have time
to read. Tell me what's going on. Well, when you
write a novel, it's the opposite. Describe everything, Describe the imagery,
what's going through the mind of the character, you know,
and it's like and for me it was rather than say,
(16:44):
you know, already walk down the street, you know, I
had to describe the street, describe his walk, what was
you know, all the you know, all your senses. That
was that was hard initially for me to do. And
that's why you get five or six rewrites because I
had to work on it.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You know, that's really good insight into what you're you know,
how you wrote the book and how you had to
you know, present it. You're just writing, you just probably
typing away, just going to town and you're you're showing,
and he wants to be shown it in his mind.
He wants his imagination to show it to him, right,
That's what he's trying to say. So if you're going
to write a book and hit there, you know, start
(17:25):
hitting the keys, you should think, you know, show in
our mind. Like I remember, my dad would go and
read so many Tom Clancy books and he was really,
you know, down with the Hunt for Red October. And
then it came out on a movie, and I remember
that back in like eighty nine nineties, and as much
as he liked the movie, he said, oh it was good,
(17:46):
but it wasn't like the book. It wasn't what I
anticipated the book to be because he was showing something
completely different when he read it, you know. And again
it's an interpretation. If I was to take your book
and get your rights and make it into a movie,
it's how I was shown it. Mm hmm. Per se
by you you're writing. I love that analogy of it.
(18:07):
So I'm gonna I'm just when I write a book,
I'm just gonna pull some of some Kevin Willson, some
of your thoughts in there. You know, no sweat, no
sweat show I love that. Is there something about possibly
getting picked up? Have you talked to any studios or
anything about Soley, Squad, I mean sounds like a good
angle of a direction of the movie of World War Two.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Well, I don't know anyone, and I've had friends that
they know someone who's in Hollywood or whomever. I said, Okay, sure,
here's a here's a copy, send it out and see
what happens. But it actually, I guess one of the
biggest compliments that I heard from someone was it reads
like a screenplay. So because of the flow, I wanted
(18:52):
to make sure you're flowing along. I mean, yeah, there's
some slower points. I mean, you can't be landing on
the beach for one hundred fifty pages, you know, there's
got to be there's got to be some you know,
creative you know, writing about the character and stuff like that,
because you know obviously that everybody doesn't live.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, Squad, every step described on each page as he
pulls the Bangalore's explained on every single page. I can
only imagine exactly one hundred and fifty pages of like
one scene. It's like the TV series twenty four with
Keifer Sutherland, where it's just constantly twenty four hours. He
has to wear the same clothes over and over and
(19:29):
over again for years and seasons.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
So I think one of the you know, the back
having to do the flashbacks and things of that nature,
which which actually that's how you build the characters, and
it kind of ties in already, like you know, like
I'm sure there's people like, well, how who would allow
a kid to just walk in?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
You know, do that? You know?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And again it's fiction. The historical part is is is
true the Sicilian campaign where they landed, the cities, they fought,
some of the battles, et cetera. But you know, the
character except for my uncle is they're all made up.
So with already it's also a coming of age movie.
(20:14):
I mean, he's fifteen years old. Him and his father
don't get along all the time. I mean, I think
we all can kind of you know, relate to that,
you know, and and you know, you you sometimes you
why does dad act like that? You know? What's going
on with him? You know? And what he didn't know
was some of the issues he had from World War One,
(20:37):
oh right, that caused him to behave in a certain way,
and it took him to be three thousand miles, so
to speak away in a letter to kind of understand
his father more than when he's like in the same house, which.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You know immediately when he hits his pipe in the
scene when I'm reading it, he hits his pipe and
he goes outside to hit his pipe, I automatically think, oh,
he's already a veteran of the previous war and he's like, great,
here we go again. I immediately think that, And I
just want you to know I'm just reading you're showing
me that by him seeing his father go outside, shutting
the back door, going to his pipe, it's just like,
(21:13):
all right, Dad's just heard that, you know, the US
has been attacked. And that's honestly, yeah, I can relate,
you know why, because my dad came up on nine
to eleven into my room and he's like, hey, you
know he's my dad was in Vietnam. And he's like, oh, hey,
Aaron turned the TV on and it was a tower
Tower one and then the second one hit right at
(21:34):
like eight something in the morning, and we were watching
it and he looked at me and he's like, we're
under attack, and he and my mom kind of just
watched for a second, he got up and he walked
away because he understands what that means. And I had
just gotten out of an air force and so I
get it, like it's like, okay, what's going on here?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
You know, like, you know, well, something interesting tying to that.
So my uncle he enlisted in nineteen thirty eight, towards
the end of nineteen thirty eight, and I had the
privilege because around that timeframe of nineteen ninety eight nineteen
ninety ninety, the Internet was very new, and I had
(22:12):
the privilege of actually communicating with men who were still
alive who knew him well. One of the things I
was always interesting with my uncle is he was due
to be discharged December eighth, nineteen forty one.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
And so I was able by, you know, one of
the few things I heard. The family never talked about it.
You know, I'd see pictures of this man on the
wall in my house. So my grandmother was still alive.
We lived with my grandmother. She's you know, I was
very young, and she said I resembled him, and that
planted because I have a cleft and I actually looked this,
(22:50):
I looked the I.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Looked very much like resemblance.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Resemblance is there, but not at sixty two. But still
some people, you know, say I could see it, you know,
I have a high school picture next to them. But
this gentleman was saying, I would ask you what was
his personality? How was he said, Well, he's pretty mild
mannered except for one day, I said. He he was discharged.
They let him go December sixth, the afternoon, so he
(23:16):
had taken off. No one knew he was in the
he was in the States because the war wasn't yet,
you know, had started. No one knew where he was going.
But he was gone. He was done with the army,
he said. On December eighth. When he came back, he
was extremely unhappy. And obviously you're a sergeant, your combat engineer,
(23:38):
he would have had to come back anyway. But but
it's it just shows the interesting that he probably wasn't
the only one that.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Was in December seven. Yeah, right, So that's that's the
that's the that's the thing that we're hitting on here,
is December seventh, he's he takes off December sixth, he's
like a mount piece out Okay, everybody, and uh, a
little as you know, the airplanes are.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
In the sky, yeah, exactly, and uh, and.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
They're launching down Reid, I believe. Like when they came
in early yeah, yeah, early morning, early early, everybody was
like kind of off.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Maybe six am, six am Hawaiian time, so probably noon
around here. And yeah, so no, it's uh, you know,
so that's kind of where the father, you know in
the story. You know, he's a World War One veteran,
and I don't want to say too much obviously, but
he has he has some you know, he's he's affected
(24:35):
by it. And my uncle, my grandfather, who came over
you know, on the boat, so to speak, from Italy.
He ended up having to serve in World War One,
you know, so he so he and he died of
a heart attack in nineteen thirty five when when Sally
(24:55):
was seventeen. Yeah, he died in the house. That kind
of that's one of the reasons that drove him into
the military, you know, into the army to make some
money so he could also he could also send money home,
you know, which he did. You know, for three years
he would send money home deal to the family because
his mother and he had four other you know, four
(25:16):
other siblings that were younger, but the father, you know,
there's some definitely some learning that already received while not
being in the same house with his father, but being
the three thousand miles away.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, and and at that time, so he got in
at fifteen, right, this is what we're talking about. So
he does get in at fifteen fifteen. Let's think my
son's fifteen right now, and he's really good at minecraft.
So somebody needs a mayor of a city, he could
probably pull that off just fine. I'm thinking what would
(25:53):
he be enlisting as you know, what I'm saying, like,
is he is he ready to do such things? And
and then there's a lot of that talk right now
going on where you know, are the kids still doing
pe in school and trying to you know, almost stay
you know fit, you know, some of the boy scouts,
you know, it kind of like dissipates away and falls
(26:15):
into the cracks, and there's still some little pockets of
boy Scouts being happening, but not like it was, you know,
not like it was you know, uh, and you know
some of those folks are still trying to keep that going,
so that there's that kind of you know, how to
start a fire, how to set up a tent, how
to just cure food, how to clean drink water, fix yourself,
(26:35):
you know, simple things, survival in the in the woods,
you know. Yeah, already wasn't soft, no, But you know, he.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Loved baseball, you know, and that was kind of the
one of the connections he made with a friend of
his called Coney. Everybody seemed to have a nickname, you know,
so I made nicknames, you know, for all of them.
And baseball was his was his first, his first love.
But you know, he wasn't. He wasn't, you know, like
(27:05):
most of us. You know, thank oh, we're going to
make it to the major leagues or whether it's in
baseball or whatever, sport or acting or music. And the
reality sets in when you get a certain age, bro,
others are better than ye or you're yeah, you're just
I think you need to find something else.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
I still think I can go pro in something. So
if it's baseball, that would be my first love. And
I think that's why I liked Arty so much, now
that you say that, you know, because I love baseball.
First base is my position, and uh, you know, for
sixteen years I played thinking I'm college pro. All this
stuff that all by my own choice, though I know
(27:46):
the steps that I could have kept going, and I
took other steps, and that was my own fault.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yep. Geez, yeah, me too, not necessarily to make pro
but college or something. Sure, definitely, you know didn't didn't.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
It's kind of like, you know, when you got to
get dust yourself up, get back up again. You know,
you get cut, you're not used to being cut. Well,
put your big boy pants on, get back out there,
work harder, you know, make them regret. But you know,
you don't. You don't think about that, you know, when
you're that age and that's where already you know, it's
(28:20):
kind of like some some some of the mistakes I made,
he's you know, he doesn't make those mistakes.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Because because I made him up, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
And but uh, but no, and then uh, there is
you know, there is a girl in the story about
the same age, Angelina, and uh, she's a postulant. I
didn't want to do a nurse because it seems like
there's a lot of you know, the soldier and the
nurse that kind of stories. So she's postulant. I'm sorry,
(28:50):
it's I I call in the book and it's it's
probably the easiest way. It's a nun in training. Yeah,
you're kinda I mean, I'm sorry, my religious my religious
training and from Catechism and stuff. But but it's the
easiest way to describe it. It's someone who's interested and
(29:11):
possibly uh, you know, the religious life. And you start
you're young, and you start as a as apostles to see,
you know, to see if it's for you, until you,
you know, commit further. So she's at an orphanage which
is part of a church in one of the towns,
and and that's how they meet and and he ends
up you know, in some manner, and through the combat,
(29:35):
through the fighting to find his way back every now
and then because she's you know, she also supports a
mobile hospice kind of like a mash units kind of thing,
because she's she's a postulant, you know, so they do
whatever they do, not a nurse, but they can, you know.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Everything, help prep get it all squared away, help be
right there the right hand for somebody. They could stitch
you exactly, she could.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
And it's kind of a little bantering. You know, there's
i mean, there's no sex, there's nothing, you know in
the story it's just innocence and uh, and I'll leave
it at that because again I want to tell too much,
but but it's it's just, you know, it's just again
a shy kid, she's shy, and kind of their interactions
in a in a place of that's falling apart all around.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
There is no more innocence, right exactly right? Right? War right?
Like what that changes somebody? Like I've seen it in
friends and you know, friends have gone and come home
after a year and a half and they're just hey, like,
you're moving so fast in your head still, aren't you.
That's why we're still sitting here playing the same video
(30:46):
game that you just left us a year and a
half ago. But you've moved so fast, bro. You know,
I'm thinking of a certain friend and he just sat
there and he was just kind of it's like we
stalled him in life. We were slow and ship with
us was slow. He had moved and he had gone
into the military. They had groomed him into this you know,
(31:06):
military person, and he went and did his job and
he came back and he's like, I've moved so fast.
You know, you guys are still like molasses.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah, yeah, it well, It's like when I when I
talked to you know, the gentlemen who were you know,
had served with my uncle. One of them was a lieutenant. Well,
let me let me jump back just to one.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
One.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Uh, it was nineteen ninety eight. No one ever talked
about anything rad I mean, so this was fifty five
years after he passed away, was killed in action. There
was a reunion fifty fifth anniversary at the BFW in Granville,
New York. And that was in October. So a month later,
at Thanksgiving, my aunt, who never I'd mentioned his name,
(31:53):
she started crying all of a sudden, said, well, we
started talking out of the blue about her brother. And
she said, I think so and so was with him
when he died. And I said, so and so is
that I think I know his son. So fast forward,
I contacted his son. I go, it's kind of going
to be kind of weird. I think your father was
(32:14):
with my uncle when he was killed. And so he
talks to his father, brings him. We go to a
restaurant and as well as restaurants for lunch, they have
like fifty five items in the menu. He can't figure
out the menu. You know, he's probably in his eighties,
early eighties. I had my little questions written down. He
looks me in the eye, goes, I'm sure you want
(32:35):
to know how he died, you know, right to the chase,
and how how my uncle was killed is in the story.
He doesn't die in the story. I told my aunt
he'll never die again, you know, when I was writing it.
But he went right back to that period of time,
(32:57):
and then he was described what was going on, and
then he went back and they ended up. You know,
they they would bury anybody who was who was killed.
They would marry you in a shallow grave and move on.
And so that was say July twenty first, nineteen forty three.
(33:20):
His remains didn't come back to nineteen forty eight. So,
you know, five years later when you think of all
because again you're in a shallow grave somewhere in Sicily
or you know, and you think of how many. And
so I talked to this lieutenant who was the lieutenant
for the squad like for my uncle was in and
(33:42):
he said, uh.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
And he was.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
I could feel him like getting a you know, a
lump in his throat. And this is again we're talking
fifty five, fifty almost sixty years.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Later, Yeah, he's eighty two, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And then so this next gentleman I was talking to,
you know, the lieutenant. It was on the phone, and
I could feel them like kind of like almost you know, tearful,
and he goes, please tell your family that you know,
we neutralized the battery that killed your all. So back
to the war comment, you know that you made rad
(34:17):
you know, And I say this, you know when I
speak to schools, no one wins who won in that
story you said earlier, on both sides, we prayed for
both sides. I'm not talking the s s. I'm not
talking to fanaticals. The average German soldier, just like the
average American soldier, was just doing their for.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
What they believed in the the what.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
They yes, and they paid their you know, they paid their.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
They died the ultimate sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
They were doing their job. My uncle was doing his
and no one want, No one came out alive. And
that example and you other guys like.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You touched on earlier, they're fighting for their friend on
their side too, just like we're fighting for our friend
on our side. And it's like, you know, there was
that time where where it got all quiet, you know,
for Christmas. During the war, everybody kind of had like
a little bit of a makeshift armistice right there. They're like, yeah,
are we cool? Can we have a smoke? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Yeah, yeah. I mean the stories, the World War One
stories where they you know, they they bring out the
soccer balls, you know, the British and the Germans, and
and like you said, they had an armistice, they had,
you know, a cat that came between both lines, and
they they each had different names for the cat.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
You know, and it's like the cats just walking around
and they're just trying not to shoot the cat. Don't
shoot the cat exactly, you know, because there's still a
heart inside. So I wanted to not shoot the cat
because it's a cat, right, yeah. Man, I just you know,
I understand that we need to be built up to fight,
but be built up so much that we could be
(36:03):
humble to not have to fight if we don't have
to fight, you know, like train up to be humble.
So you could go, hey, I'm right here, don't don't
don't don't poke the bear. You know, it's a bear. Yeah,
but people want to poke it, right And then and
then we got to have to have like we don't
have just this just in radio coming back to you
(36:25):
in five seconds with more information. Now it's just funneled
into your cerebral cortex. We have nothing but this channel
and soft rep Media channel and all of our channels
are out there just running into your brain with a
supercomputer facing your eye telling you everything going on in
the world of everything today. It's not like then, and
so today it's like it just it gets so I
(36:49):
don't know, there's just so much more propaganda.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Oh yes, well, and that's one of the why I
wind also in the story to make the importance of
the letters, the letters that were sent to the guys
in the front and the guys that were supposed to
write letters and sending them back home. But it's kind
of like I saw some communication between my uncle and
(37:18):
family members, and my grandmother was a very she was
a tough lady, and she she would like, why aren't
you writing more? And he's like, well, I'm a little busy, mom, I.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Kind of a little busy.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
But I think you know what I included in the
book too, to your point, exactly, rad is I want
the person to read it. Obviously, the older people know,
but the younger people you know, you didn't know where
your son was or your daughter, you know, if she
was a nurse, an army nurse or what. You didn't
know where they were. There was no Hey, i'm gonna
(37:57):
I'm gonna call you on, little face, I'm here. You know, Hey,
let's see, you had no clue where they were. And
that now people bombarded. They're at a dinner table, out
to dinner. There, they're each on there on a phone.
They're not even talking to each other, you know. So
so the people need, you know that the youth need
(38:19):
to understand that they didn't know where their son was.
So youth and in the book, I kind of say
where you know, they would go to a movie and
back in that time, the movies would show some clips
of some of the fighting on the front, and you know,
the parents trying to see if they could see their
their son. You know that. I'm sure everybody did that.
(38:40):
You know, that would.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Go you know, I saw a movie, I want to say,
movie where the guy had written the soldier had written
a bunch of letters home, just writing home. How come
no one writes back? You know, hey, how come? And
then all of a sudden he gets them all back
to him. They never even got home because lettersn't even
even got out to you know, and that just psychologically
(39:02):
was like, oh, no one even knew the letters. They
like moved or the house, and he doesn't know what's
going on at home. Letters just came back, you know exactly,
he doesn't. It's like a mail call Carl Jones, here's
your mail. And it was like return mail.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
You know, everybody who's bite envious and it's like, wow,
look all the letters you get back. It's like you
said return there, but it's you know, And then they
had to be careful because there's like some templates that
are in the book because if you're in North Africa
or if you're in Sicily, or if you're in training,
you know, amphibious training or something, you can't be you
(39:38):
got to be careful what you're right, So they would
they would have like these little templates, but you would
like check a box, you know, rather than say you know,
love blah blah blah, rather than say much because you know,
from a censor standpoint, you could be given away, you know,
the loose lips think yes, the scenario.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Right, and like what if the guy carrying the mail
got taken out and got his mail and you're like, mom,
I'm behind a bunker right now, like, oh, this is
a fresh letter.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
I mean, And to your point, where the twenty four
to seven News, twenty four to seven Sports, twenty four
seven weather, everything is a you know, all big news.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Bitch stop tops, yes, flashes.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
I mean, you know, I remember, I'm you know, old
enough to remember when when the programming stopped. This is
a special news report and like all of a sudden
you saw that the program stop, chills or go down
here because something major happened. Now to your point, it's
(40:41):
like breaking news and you're reading it. What what's that?
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, it's like it's like just the same, it's the
same step. They're like, it's just pumping it. It's so today,
like everything is just happening right now, and you can
just say, oh, what's going on in Gaza today, What's
going on in Ukraine today? What's going on? And to
that point, I remember, like back in two thousand and nine,
I think it was like MSN Messenger was a little
pop up window we had. It would pop up you
(41:07):
could talk to your friends, you know, and communicate back
and forth through the laptops. Etc. Through that program and
my friend in Afghanistan, it was like two in the
morning here and he reaches out to me, Hey, you awake.
I was like, I sure am. He's like, man, I
was as home and playing war games with you guys.
I see more action in wargames than I do here.
(41:28):
But then when he came home, that's not true. But
he was just saying, I miss you guys. You know,
but just right there, it was like instantaneous, and he
was probably bummed out, thinking I miss home. I'm gonna
try to get online and see he was online, and
here's Rad. He's like, hey, Rad, tell me how things
are back in Utah right now? And I'm like, oh, well,
what's going on? Solid? You know? A call sign?
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Yeah? I mean, and you know, there have been some
good movies that have dealt with that. I forget the
name of it, but I remember it was like a nineteen.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Forty sixth movie.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
And you know when when people came back, you know,
because like people come back, everybody else is like, Okay,
the war's over, great, Okay, Joe's back. Okay, you got
you're the same guy that left, right, you know. And
Joe wants to meet with Jim, who he never knew Jim,
(42:21):
but they both were over there, so there's a connection
they have where others don't, you know. And then the wives.
The wife's like, you know, why are you drinking so much?
Or why are you so they they you know now
that we what people know today and there's still more
(42:41):
to do. Back then, it was like, what's wrong with
about it? They saw the Yeah, they saw the physical aspect,
like he lost his hands or he'll but why is
he like crying in the middle of the night, Why
is he screaming? What's he yelling? What's wrong with my son?
You know? I mean, I mean that's.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
With us, right, and maybe nothing is wrong. It's just
emotions of a situation that I'm not coping with. You're
not coping with he's coping with and so he is
going to have the emotional tears and it's not what's
wrong with you. It's like, no, there's a normal. If
you saw what I saw, you would too. I feel like, yeah, exactly,
(43:21):
you know. So and those men, those.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Men never talked about it, you know, friends of mine,
you know, and we talked about in Granville. We grew
up in a street full of you know, today they'd
call him heroes. Well they were heroes back then. There
were guys that survived the war. But you know they'd
be walking around working a gas station, work on a farm,
you know, regular people.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
But they never talked about it, but as they obviously
saw things that affected them, and and and in fine,
I think that beautiful. The great thing with the band
of brothers move and shows like that. Towards the end
of their lives, they hope they started to open on
and get some of that out. And even their kids
didn't know, you know, you know, their kids could have been.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Saving private saving private running. You know, it starts out, Yeah,
he's old at the cemetery and his kids are with
him and they're like, g dad, are you okay? As
he takes a knee, starts crying, and then it takes
us right back into he's storming the beach and you know,
they're puking on the patrol boats and or landing craft
and his homie scooping up sand and putting it in
(44:27):
the thing. And it had Sicily and France and now
he has Normandy like what you were talking about. You
know that guy, you know, he's been all over those beaches, bro,
how many? And he was, he sure was, He sure was.
And he just was like, where's my shoe, where's my gun?
And where's the sand cans? And I got to carry
all through this mission, man, geez, you know, and and
(44:51):
and it's it's it's things like this movie called The
hurt Locker Jeremy Renner I believe was his name. He
got injured by a SnowCat recently. But he plays an
flosive ordinance disposal guy who's been in Iraq and all
these other places just defusing bombs and his life set risk.
He just walks up to it, flicks a cigarette, and
just starts going to work on the wires. Everybody else
(45:11):
will be like, ah, he's just like takes the suit off.
He doesn't even care. And then he comes home and
he's in the grocery store and they pan on him
and he's just like holding a box of like lucky
charms and his legs, but no one's around him. He's
just like staring like everything, like, really, do you know
what's going on? Where I just came from? And here
we are, you know, And so that's that same kind
(45:34):
of shell shock you're talking about. He gets out. He
comes back and he's like, everyone's like, what's wrong with you?
But as soon as he goes back, he re enlists
and he goes back to his job. He's like, hey,
let's take these wires apart. You know, born and bred
for that kind of lifestyle. Man, there are those out there.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yes, there are, And you know it's you're talking earlier about,
you know, growing up through the years. There used to
be and you can still see it on YouTube. There
used to be a show called Combat. It was like
every week it was a squad you know that fought
in France. It started initially, I believe it started with
the D Day invasion and then went into France. But
(46:16):
that was an interesting show, you know because it kind
of you get different characters and you got connected to
the characters, and I think, you know that's where Sully's squad.
Not everybody comes out alive. You know, it would be
ridiculous to think that would different personalities as we as
(46:37):
we've talked a couple of times, and I'll bring it
up a third time because I think it's very important
both sides were except for the fanatics, we're thinking they
were doing there what was best and right and one
of the characters in Sully Squad is Jewish and his
family left Germany because of of what was taking place.
(47:01):
And it's not trying to be annoying when I when
I wrote it, but he would if he saw somebody German,
like a German soldier, he would ask, Hey, anybody know
anybody from Munich or something like, you know, or something
like that, because again, you're you're those people had to
(47:22):
leave home. You know, it affected us here at Pearl Harbor.
But you think about that. You know, in the mid
thirties you had people leaving Germany, leaving wherever who didn't
like what was going on, or then had to leave
because their businesses were destroyed, or you know, so they've
been going through something several years that we just started
(47:47):
at the end of nineteen forty one. So it's kind
of like, you know, having that it was more to
have you know, how much you think about if all
of a sudden you had to in the middle of
the night leave your home, flee you know. And that's
again I wrote it too for history purposes, you know,
(48:09):
you know, it's kind of a it's in three schools.
I'm trying to get more, but it's you know, it
doesn't necessarily fit some of the narrative that's out there today.
It's a book, you know, but just read it. It's
fast paced, it's uh but yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
It's a show and tell book because like I said,
I already felt just from what I read about his
father and just how he plucked his teeth with the
pine needle in it, and he just got the minty
taste of it and his teeth. I just know that,
you know, solely is doing what his heart tells him
to do.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
Yeah, yeah, and excuse me, yea. But also, and I'm
sure there's people listening. I tried to also, when you
give a command and you you know, like these guys said,
he had to give a command as a sergeant, but
he was there with him, you know, and sometimes guys
(49:15):
don't make it back. There has to be a part
of you that goes away. There has to be something
you know, you can't up casarasa. That's the way it goes. No,
you don't have that. I mean, some characters and movies
in World War two, you know, if that were focused
on power, you know, maybe them, but the average guy
(49:38):
who's you know, the whether it's army, you know, Navy, marines,
if you name it. Didn't want to see any of
those under his command get hurt, not to mention, you know,
die and then if you make a decision, which already
actually as a private, had to make a decision one
time or under combat. And uh, I'll let the reader
(50:01):
read that part of it. Yes, but I think that's
the other part too. We talk about people that come
back the memories and like one older gentleman said, they
never had a chance for a family. You know, he
was like eighty ninety years old at the time, you know,
tire he walled up, sure, said, they're still their kid.
I still see John as John at age eighteen, you know.
(50:25):
And now look at me. I'm eighty years old, you know,
and I've had a chance to live my life John.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Never know, the memory is always that of that person
at that age percent one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Man.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Yeah, what a great book, and what a what a
good time for you to put it on paper and
still stay in the healthcare business and not give up
your daytime job. I know a little bit about a
thing or two with you, So don't you worry. So
that's good.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Yeah, I don't want to give up. Yeah, not giving
up the daytime job.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
No, No. But hey, if you're out there and you're
thinking about you know, and you're trying to brainstorm something
at your studio or your production crew, reach out to
Kevin and you know, go read his book and see
if it's a book that will make a great screenplay
and reach out to him and you know, hey, that's
how it happens, right, It just takes one person to
get involved. And so we can find your book everywhere, right,
(51:14):
it's all over. It's at all the major places and online. Correct.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
Yeah, it's on you know, with yourselves, and it's on
you know, beyond Amazon, yourselves.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
It's a book.
Speaker 3 (51:25):
And yeah, and also the it's got a kindle version.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Is there an audible No?
Speaker 3 (51:33):
But I but I'm hoping one of one of the
outcomes of this would would we could do an audible
version of it?
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Oh, yeah, that'd be cool.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
And I'm also working on a second. I'm also working
on a second. Kind of got stalled a little bit because, uh,
you know, the you're you're you're doing this at night
or maybe on weekends, and sometimes your mind isn't creative,
you know, you know, you're thinking of work, and it's
not like a nine to five job, so sometimes it
carries it carries over and and also you know when
(52:03):
you think of the second what are you gonna talk about?
Speaker 2 (52:06):
You know?
Speaker 3 (52:06):
So I got to a certain point and I kind
of hit a hit a wall, and I'm gonna resume that,
resume that, break the all down, and.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
Resume, rewrite, rewrite. Yeah, I'm rewriting myself, That's what I'm saying.
Rewrite me. That makes no sense, No way, I need
to stay here, not delete me, just delete start over. Well, listen,
(52:36):
I want to thank Guy. Right, we have our friend
Guy at soft Rep. He's our editor. He's like, hey, Rad,
you guys need to meet, and he brought us together
and I want to give a shout out to Guy.
And I also want to give a shout out to
Brandon Webb, who keeps soft Rep, you know, just going
with all of us, rolling along with him on this ship.
So we really appreciate being on board. And I'm grateful
to have this position to talk to you know, authors
(52:57):
and rock stars like yourself, Kevin everybody. He just has
such a cool story and I love talking about it.
Thank you for sharing your story and talking about solely Squad,
which you can find at Amazon. Thanks for allowing me
to be introduced to Artie and his father with his pipe.
I love it. And to your VFW friends that are
(53:18):
on Main Street in Vermont and on the border of
New York, thank you for your service. And on behalf
of Kevin, this is rad saying thank you for tuning
into soft Rep. Check out our book club where you
can find solely Squad at soft reap dot com, Forward
slash Book, hyphen Club. And this is rap saying thanks
(53:40):
to everybody behind the scenes that helped me make me
look good. So thank you and your peace.
Speaker 1 (53:48):
You've been listening to a self rep Radia
Mute forms. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, Military Nails on
straight talk with the guys in the community.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome to another episode of soft Rep Radio. I am
your host, Rad and I am super excited today to
introduce my next guest. But first I have to kind
of plug the merch store. You guys have been kicking
butt buying our merch our branded items from softwap dot com.
Keep doing it. We really appreciate it. It keeps me
behind the camera, in front of the camera, on the
(00:57):
side of the camera. It keeps the fireplace going. And
then also we have a book club, right, We're really
passionate about our book club, and it's soft rep dot
com forward slash book hyphen Club. That's book hyphen Club.
So I want you to go check it out. We're
going to try to get our next guest and his
book in our book club so that you can get
it through the book club. And my next guest without
(01:19):
further ado, is Kevin Wilson, the author of Solely Squad.
Welcome Kevin to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Thank you, Rat, I appreciate it, Yes, thank you for
your opportunity here.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh, totally. We're excited to have you. Now, I know
this is not your first time, you know, playing around
Soft rep getting on the website. There's some articles probably
from back in the you know, twenty twenty twenty twenty
one area, where you were talking about Soli Squad, and
I want to kind of touch base on Soli Squad.
You know, it's kind of a book about someone who
I think calls you know, the just goes to the
(01:50):
call of duty for himself his country. And what is
the right thing to do with Artie who we're going
to touch base on. And then you know, it's all
happening around you know, Pearl Harbor and you know the
o Wahu, the attacks on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese.
You know, World War two is kicking off, and there
was a lot of lives lost, a lot of young
lives lost. And so with that said, Kevin, I'd like
(02:11):
to just take a moment here, you know, of silence
if you don't mind, all right, And that is in
respect of the lives lost during World War Two on
really both sides of the Aisle. Okay, there were so
(02:34):
many people who took up arms on both sides of
what they thought was justin right. You know, someone living
in a neighborhood in their country picking up a gun
and us living in our country picking up a gun.
I don't know the difference of patriotism there, because they're
both trying to do it for what they think is
the right thing. But good and evil lurks, you know,
(02:54):
and evil lurks even harder, sometimes looking like good. And
so here we are talking about your book Solely Squad,
which focus is really on, you know, the call to
action in World War two, and we follow the young
man Arty through his journey. Correct, correct, yes, he already was.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
It's funny, Brad, when when it came time to write.
And I'm not a writer, I'm not an author, you
know by trade. My background is a CPA background, and
I've been in healthcare operations for almost forty years. So
I say that because there might be people listening out
there who are afraid to take that first step, you know,
(03:35):
at writing. So for myself, I created well, I basically
wrote it in a month and learned the term rewrite
multiple times like your worst English teacher, just grading U
and F continuously. And eventually the person I was working
(03:56):
with said what do you want to say? I said, well,
I want young people, because this was probably twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen time frame, young people, to honor
those that have given so much and still give so much,
honor the flag, and have something that's fast paced, because
(04:16):
whatever I write has to compete against video games. And
so I basically came up with her said, well, you
should talk about young adults. And I go, well, what
is that? She goes, hya, it's a genre. Look it up.
So I looked it up and started writing, and I
created a character named Marty. And there were stories throughout
(04:39):
the years that I learned of young people that lied
about their age and were able to get into service,
mostly again and then World War two era, probably in
World War One maybe, So that's where I'm like, Okay,
I want someone to be the reader, have it told
through his eyes, and be attached to his hip, and
(05:00):
have already be a character who you could relate to.
You know, everybody's been fifteen sixteen, you know that that
is an older person can relate to some of that,
and as somebody who's not yet there, maybe fourteen or so,
can kind of relate to that. And basically talk about,
you know, the combination of basically a typical kid, but
(05:24):
the only difference is he's in combat and which and
then uh, but you know, simple things like you know,
you kind of have to go back in your own
self when you when you write these things. And uh,
my favorite line in the in the story, which which
which I made up, which I'm proud to say, is
after he meets the h he meets there's a there's
a girl in the story. After he meets her, he
(05:46):
says something that he's like, why did I say that?
And he goes, It's easier to fight the Nazis than
is to talk to a girl. So I think, you know,
I tried to. I think the combination of the combat
attached to his hip with this you're talking about it
just basically an innocent kid when all said and done,
that's how already kind of materialized.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Right, And I like, you know, in some of it,
you know, there's there's like in there's like an excerpt
that I was reading about and it talks about you know,
him and his family and they're getting like a Christmas
tree brought into the house, and you know, you talk
about how he takes the needle, and he likes to
floss his teeth with the needle from the pine tree.
As he's like, you know, yeah, yeah, look's get over there,
dad or mom a little bit higher. You know. He's
(06:30):
like flossing it with his tooth and he's and then
the and then all of a sudden, on the radio,
I believe, uh, you know, we interrupt this broadcast for
a news bulletin, and it's like it's a wahoo. We
are looking for Congress to declare war and give us
authorization to go to war. We have been attacked at
Pearl Harbor, and this is a blatant attack, and you
(06:51):
can expect a retaliatory tack back to you for what
you've done to us. And that's just tit for tat
right eye for an eye right now. So and then
all of a sudden, the radio goes back to you know,
drink your oval tine. Okay, yeah, and his dad walks out,
hitting his pipe like okay, we're going to war, right.
(07:12):
He slams the door, goes outside, you know, hitting his pipe.
He's like, I can just imagine. And then he's like, well,
well here I go. You know, it probably just sank
in right, there. Well, dad's hitting his pipe. Maybe I
should got hitting mine.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's absolutely and it's the interesting thing
is on at is again back to the child innocence.
Those of us that live, you know, in the north
and had school days you know, called because of snow
you could do before, you know, twenty four to seven weather.
You would look up in the clouds and see, yeah,
(07:47):
a little dark over there, a little chill in the air,
the winds will picking up. Maybe we'll have maybe we'll
have no school tomorrow. So you can see, you know,
the innocence. And then all of a sudden, as you
very well said, bam, there comes the reality of life
in your everybody your life is changing. And not only
(08:08):
his life, but that had to be one of the
most that changed so many people's lives, not only the
poor sailors who were killed at the time, but the
families and then looked for the next number of years,
and it just you know, in my lifetime, you know,
I could remember nine to eleven, and meant probably many
(08:29):
many of listeners will remember that day. You know where
you were, you know what you're doing that day. So
I kind of equate that to someone who's fifteen years
old reading this story for the first time. That is,
you know, wasn't around for nine to eleven, but maybe
has heard about it. Well, that was that generation's beyond
(08:50):
equivalent of nine to eleven, and that wake up call
and life, you know will never be the same, whether
you enlisted young or didn't.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Well, you're deep, you know, because I'm thinking, like I remember,
I was a lot. I'm okay, so I'm forty six,
not eleven, was my I guess big thing in my generation?
Would you think that? Is that your big thing in
your generation? How are you? I'm sixty two in your generation?
Is it not eleven? Also?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Probably? Well it's uh, I mean I grew up, you know.
I was one and a half when Kennedy was. Yes,
so I don't remember that, but I remember like growing
up with Vietnam because you're sitting there eating your meat
and potatoes, so to speak, and on the TV was
whether it was Walter Cronkite or whomever you want rather
(09:40):
and Dan Rather he'd be out in the field at
that time, and they were when you're sitting there eating
and you're seeing these guys, you know, at war, and
it was that's you know, and then when I was
in nineteen seventy three, I remember this in fifth grade,
celebrating the end of the war. And then then the Challenger.
(10:01):
I'm trying to the Challenger. I remember where I was there,
and then I then probably you know, I'm probably missing
a couple. But then fast forward to nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Really Challenger a desert storm, and then you know, ye eleven,
I know there's a little like you know, off skirt
skirmishes that happen all the time. But yeah, you know,
the next generation is the fifteen year old we're talking
about who will have to pick up the pieces from
where we're leaving off, if you will. And guys my
(10:32):
age are retiring or trying to stay in the military
at forty six if they're higher ranked already, you know,
but most of the guys are out and about living
a civilian life. So these youngsters should read your book.
And if you're thinking about, you know, possibly getting in
the military and you want to, you know, go check
it out, Go talk to a career counselor and see
(10:53):
if somebody can point in the right direction of what's
best suited for you. You know, you may not have
to lie about it, like already did. In World War Two.
We all saw a movie. I can't remember what it
was called, but he has a big star on his shield. Anyways,
he's like, I got to get in. I got to
get in, and they're like, you're not getting in, kid,
and he's like, finally, tenth time later, he's in, you know,
(11:14):
and the heart is bigger than anybody else's heart that
was trying to get in. And he proved that and
became the ultimate, you know, symbol of you know, Captain America.
And Artie seems to call that same vibe, you know,
as he's going after it. Now you go into a
little bit more depth with him going into combat in
the book, right, Artie.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, it starts out it takes place in the Sicilian campaign,
and it's the reason I chose Sicily is a late
uncle of mine. And the VFW post up in Granville,
New York, which is I have to give a shout
out to Granville. Well, it's it's on the border of
(11:56):
Vermont in New York and on West main Street or
East Main Street, you can stand in two states. That
was always exciting as a kid. But it's a cory town,
so a lot of slate quarries and a lot of
Italian immigrants came in and they were up sent up
the Grandville along with other nationalities. So my uncle, Salvator
(12:18):
Fringey was born and he was the oldest of five,
and my mother how I connect with him. My mother
was the youngest of the five, So that's how I
connect the Salvator. Now, my grandparents americanized his name and
called him Sullivan, and he shortened to Sully. That's how
the Sully comes out. So Sully in the story is
(12:42):
a sergeant. He's nonfiction because he actually existed. I used
a different last name, but he actually he exists as
a sergeant, and he was in World War Two in
the Big Red one as a combat engineer. But in
the story he's in the infantry scho He's a sergeant
of an infantry squad and he was in North Africa
(13:05):
and he was killed in action in Sicily. So that's
why I chose Sicily to have the story. And I
don't know about you you read. I always watched World
War Two and I still do, whether it's YouTube, World
at War, you know, World War two in color, whatever
you call it. And so the Sicilian campaign they talk
(13:26):
about it, but they never got into the weather, and
they actually landed on in July of nineteen forty three
in a gale storm in the middle of the night.
And so I'm thinking, you know, so it starts out
with them on the deck, so it immediately gets into
some action and then you know, maybe some of your
(13:47):
listeners did this, but I'm like, then you got ninety
pounds on you a pack you probably weigh one hundred
and forty pounds, soak and wet, and you're then having
to climb down these wet ropes or whatever they were
into this landing craft. So I start out with actually
getting to that level of detail, because I think it
(14:09):
gets lost when you watch the shows. It's like, all ofviously,
these guys land on the beach. Hey, but you know
what they went through to even survive to get to
the beach. And then, oh, by the way, there they are.
You know, the enemy on the ground, you've had the
enemy in the air, you know you've been facing. So
it's it's incredible what what these men, in my opinion,
(14:32):
went through. And then and the utmost respect that you know,
I'm hoping when a reader gets out of this is
not only entertained by the action, but also stepping back
and realizing it's a brotherhood. And I know the Band
of Brothers was tremendous. There's you know, so I'm I
(14:54):
give them the credit. I give everybody else the credit.
And the documentaries where when they would talk about out
their fellow brethren, you know, whether it was you know,
World War two, Korea, Vietnam, you know, Desert Storm, as
you mentioned, Afghanistan, you were you were protecting that guy
next to you. And that's what I hope the reader
gets out of this. Yeah, they horse around, they have
(15:15):
a little fun. I mean they're kids, you know, and
all of a sudden done their kids. But when the
light turns on and all of a sudden it happens.
You know, some are ready for the some are I
don't know how you're ever ready, but some are more
ready than others. And there's also where you got to help.
You got to help the guy next to you, you know,
simple thing like loading his gun. I mean everybody takes
(15:37):
that for granted, Oh yeah, I got loaded, but when
you under fire, having a loaded gun killed exactly. So
that's where you know, taking it through with the book
and the combat and the brotherhood. I think the other
point is it was a squad and with lashbacks you
(16:01):
try to get the characters in a short time to
be known to the reader. And I think, you know,
it was a lot of work. And the term show me,
don't tell me was something I constantly heard from the
person who edited the story, because, as I said earlier,
(16:21):
in my background is business. So businesses get to the point,
what's going on in one page? I don't have time
to read. Tell me what's going on. Well, when you
write a novel, it's the opposite. Describe everything, Describe the imagery,
what's going through the mind of the character, you know,
and it's like and for me it was rather than say,
(16:44):
you know, already walk down the street, you know, I
had to describe the street, describe his walk, what was
you know, all the you know, all your senses. That
was that was hard initially for me to do. And
that's why you get five or six rewrites because I
had to work on it.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You know, that's really good insight into what you're you know,
how you wrote the book and how you had to
you know, present it. You're just writing, you just probably
typing away, just going to town and you're you're showing,
and he wants to be shown it in his mind.
He wants his imagination to show it to him, right,
That's what he's trying to say. So if you're going
to write a book and hit there, you know, start
(17:25):
hitting the keys, you should think, you know, show in
our mind. Like I remember, my dad would go and
read so many Tom Clancy books and he was really,
you know, down with the Hunt for Red October. And
then it came out on a movie, and I remember
that back in like eighty nine nineties, and as much
as he liked the movie, he said, oh it was good,
(17:46):
but it wasn't like the book. It wasn't what I
anticipated the book to be because he was showing something
completely different when he read it, you know. And again
it's an interpretation. If I was to take your book
and get your rights and make it into a movie,
it's how I was shown it. Mm hmm. Per se
by you you're writing. I love that analogy of it.
(18:07):
So I'm gonna I'm just when I write a book,
I'm just gonna pull some of some Kevin Willson, some
of your thoughts in there. You know, no sweat, no
sweat show I love that. Is there something about possibly
getting picked up? Have you talked to any studios or
anything about Soley, Squad, I mean sounds like a good
angle of a direction of the movie of World War Two.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Well, I don't know anyone, and I've had friends that
they know someone who's in Hollywood or whomever. I said, Okay, sure,
here's a here's a copy, send it out and see
what happens. But it actually, I guess one of the
biggest compliments that I heard from someone was it reads
like a screenplay. So because of the flow, I wanted
(18:52):
to make sure you're flowing along. I mean, yeah, there's
some slower points. I mean, you can't be landing on
the beach for one hundred fifty pages, you know, there's
got to be there's got to be some you know,
creative you know, writing about the character and stuff like that,
because you know obviously that everybody doesn't live.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, Squad, every step described on each page as he
pulls the Bangalore's explained on every single page. I can
only imagine exactly one hundred and fifty pages of like
one scene. It's like the TV series twenty four with
Keifer Sutherland, where it's just constantly twenty four hours. He
has to wear the same clothes over and over and
(19:29):
over again for years and seasons.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
So I think one of the you know, the back
having to do the flashbacks and things of that nature,
which which actually that's how you build the characters, and
it kind of ties in already, like you know, like
I'm sure there's people like, well, how who would allow
a kid to just walk in?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
You know, do that? You know?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And again it's fiction. The historical part is is is
true the Sicilian campaign where they landed, the cities, they fought,
some of the battles, et cetera. But you know, the
character except for my uncle is they're all made up.
So with already it's also a coming of age movie.
(20:14):
I mean, he's fifteen years old. Him and his father
don't get along all the time. I mean, I think
we all can kind of you know, relate to that,
you know, and and you know, you you sometimes you
why does dad act like that? You know? What's going
on with him? You know? And what he didn't know
was some of the issues he had from World War One,
(20:37):
oh right, that caused him to behave in a certain way,
and it took him to be three thousand miles, so
to speak away in a letter to kind of understand
his father more than when he's like in the same house, which.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
You know immediately when he hits his pipe in the
scene when I'm reading it, he hits his pipe and
he goes outside to hit his pipe, I automatically think, oh,
he's already a veteran of the previous war and he's like, great,
here we go again. I immediately think that, And I
just want you to know I'm just reading you're showing
me that by him seeing his father go outside, shutting
the back door, going to his pipe, it's just like,
(21:13):
all right, Dad's just heard that, you know, the US
has been attacked. And that's honestly, yeah, I can relate,
you know why, because my dad came up on nine
to eleven into my room and he's like, hey, you
know he's my dad was in Vietnam. And he's like, oh, hey,
Aaron turned the TV on and it was a tower
Tower one and then the second one hit right at
(21:34):
like eight something in the morning, and we were watching
it and he looked at me and he's like, we're
under attack, and he and my mom kind of just
watched for a second, he got up and he walked
away because he understands what that means. And I had
just gotten out of an air force and so I
get it, like it's like, okay, what's going on here?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
You know, like, you know, well, something interesting tying to that.
So my uncle he enlisted in nineteen thirty eight, towards
the end of nineteen thirty eight, and I had the
privilege because around that timeframe of nineteen ninety eight nineteen
ninety ninety, the Internet was very new, and I had
(22:12):
the privilege of actually communicating with men who were still
alive who knew him well. One of the things I
was always interesting with my uncle is he was due
to be discharged December eighth, nineteen forty one.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
And so I was able by, you know, one of
the few things I heard. The family never talked about it.
You know, I'd see pictures of this man on the
wall in my house. So my grandmother was still alive.
We lived with my grandmother. She's you know, I was
very young, and she said I resembled him, and that
planted because I have a cleft and I actually looked this,
(22:50):
I looked the I.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Looked very much like resemblance.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Resemblance is there, but not at sixty two. But still
some people, you know, say I could see it, you know,
I have a high school picture next to them. But
this gentleman was saying, I would ask you what was
his personality? How was he said, Well, he's pretty mild
mannered except for one day, I said. He he was discharged.
They let him go December sixth, the afternoon, so he
(23:16):
had taken off. No one knew he was in the
he was in the States because the war wasn't yet,
you know, had started. No one knew where he was going.
But he was gone. He was done with the army,
he said. On December eighth. When he came back, he
was extremely unhappy. And obviously you're a sergeant, your combat engineer,
(23:38):
he would have had to come back anyway. But but
it's it just shows the interesting that he probably wasn't
the only one that.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Was in December seven. Yeah, right, So that's that's the
that's the that's the thing that we're hitting on here,
is December seventh, he's he takes off December sixth, he's
like a mount piece out Okay, everybody, and uh, a
little as you know, the airplanes are.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
In the sky, yeah, exactly, and uh, and.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
They're launching down Reid, I believe. Like when they came
in early yeah, yeah, early morning, early early, everybody was
like kind of off.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Maybe six am, six am Hawaiian time, so probably noon
around here. And yeah, so no, it's uh, you know,
so that's kind of where the father, you know in
the story. You know, he's a World War One veteran,
and I don't want to say too much obviously, but
he has he has some you know, he's he's affected
(24:35):
by it. And my uncle, my grandfather, who came over
you know, on the boat, so to speak, from Italy.
He ended up having to serve in World War One,
you know, so he so he and he died of
a heart attack in nineteen thirty five when when Sally
(24:55):
was seventeen. Yeah, he died in the house. That kind
of that's one of the reasons that drove him into
the military, you know, into the army to make some
money so he could also he could also send money home,
you know, which he did. You know, for three years
he would send money home deal to the family because
his mother and he had four other you know, four
(25:16):
other siblings that were younger, but the father, you know,
there's some definitely some learning that already received while not
being in the same house with his father, but being
the three thousand miles away.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, and and at that time, so he got in
at fifteen, right, this is what we're talking about. So
he does get in at fifteen fifteen. Let's think my
son's fifteen right now, and he's really good at minecraft.
So somebody needs a mayor of a city, he could
probably pull that off just fine. I'm thinking what would
(25:53):
he be enlisting as you know, what I'm saying, like,
is he is he ready to do such things? And
and then there's a lot of that talk right now
going on where you know, are the kids still doing
pe in school and trying to you know, almost stay
you know fit, you know, some of the boy scouts,
you know, it kind of like dissipates away and falls
(26:15):
into the cracks, and there's still some little pockets of
boy Scouts being happening, but not like it was, you know,
not like it was you know, uh, and you know
some of those folks are still trying to keep that going,
so that there's that kind of you know, how to
start a fire, how to set up a tent, how
to just cure food, how to clean drink water, fix yourself,
(26:35):
you know, simple things, survival in the in the woods,
you know. Yeah, already wasn't soft, no, But you know, he.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Loved baseball, you know, and that was kind of the
one of the connections he made with a friend of
his called Coney. Everybody seemed to have a nickname, you know,
so I made nicknames, you know, for all of them.
And baseball was his was his first, his first love.
But you know, he wasn't. He wasn't, you know, like
(27:05):
most of us. You know, thank oh, we're going to
make it to the major leagues or whether it's in
baseball or whatever, sport or acting or music. And the
reality sets in when you get a certain age, bro,
others are better than ye or you're yeah, you're just
I think you need to find something else.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
I still think I can go pro in something. So
if it's baseball, that would be my first love. And
I think that's why I liked Arty so much, now
that you say that, you know, because I love baseball.
First base is my position, and uh, you know, for
sixteen years I played thinking I'm college pro. All this
stuff that all by my own choice, though I know
(27:46):
the steps that I could have kept going, and I
took other steps, and that was my own fault.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yep. Geez, yeah, me too, not necessarily to make pro
but college or something. Sure, definitely, you know didn't didn't.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
It's kind of like, you know, when you got to
get dust yourself up, get back up again. You know,
you get cut, you're not used to being cut. Well,
put your big boy pants on, get back out there,
work harder, you know, make them regret. But you know,
you don't. You don't think about that, you know, when
you're that age and that's where already you know, it's
(28:20):
kind of like some some some of the mistakes I made,
he's you know, he doesn't make those mistakes.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Because because I made him up, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
And but uh, but no, and then uh, there is
you know, there is a girl in the story about
the same age, Angelina, and uh, she's a postulant. I
didn't want to do a nurse because it seems like
there's a lot of you know, the soldier and the
nurse that kind of stories. So she's postulant. I'm sorry,
(28:50):
it's I I call in the book and it's it's
probably the easiest way. It's a nun in training. Yeah,
you're kinda I mean, I'm sorry, my religious my religious
training and from Catechism and stuff. But but it's the
easiest way to describe it. It's someone who's interested and
(29:11):
possibly uh, you know, the religious life. And you start
you're young, and you start as a as apostles to see,
you know, to see if it's for you, until you,
you know, commit further. So she's at an orphanage which
is part of a church in one of the towns,
and and that's how they meet and and he ends
up you know, in some manner, and through the combat,
(29:35):
through the fighting to find his way back every now
and then because she's you know, she also supports a
mobile hospice kind of like a mash units kind of thing,
because she's she's a postulant, you know, so they do
whatever they do, not a nurse, but they can, you know.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Everything, help prep get it all squared away, help be
right there the right hand for somebody. They could stitch
you exactly, she could.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
And it's kind of a little bantering. You know, there's
i mean, there's no sex, there's nothing, you know in
the story it's just innocence and uh, and I'll leave
it at that because again I want to tell too much,
but but it's it's just, you know, it's just again
a shy kid, she's shy, and kind of their interactions
in a in a place of that's falling apart all around.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
There is no more innocence, right exactly right? Right? War right?
Like what that changes somebody? Like I've seen it in
friends and you know, friends have gone and come home
after a year and a half and they're just hey, like,
you're moving so fast in your head still, aren't you.
That's why we're still sitting here playing the same video
(30:46):
game that you just left us a year and a
half ago. But you've moved so fast, bro. You know,
I'm thinking of a certain friend and he just sat
there and he was just kind of it's like we
stalled him in life. We were slow and ship with
us was slow. He had moved and he had gone
into the military. They had groomed him into this you know,
(31:06):
military person, and he went and did his job and
he came back and he's like, I've moved so fast.
You know, you guys are still like molasses.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah, yeah, it well, It's like when I when I
talked to you know, the gentlemen who were you know,
had served with my uncle. One of them was a lieutenant. Well,
let me let me jump back just to one.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
One.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Uh, it was nineteen ninety eight. No one ever talked
about anything rad I mean, so this was fifty five
years after he passed away, was killed in action. There
was a reunion fifty fifth anniversary at the BFW in Granville,
New York. And that was in October. So a month later,
at Thanksgiving, my aunt, who never I'd mentioned his name,
(31:53):
she started crying all of a sudden, said, well, we
started talking out of the blue about her brother. And
she said, I think so and so was with him
when he died. And I said, so and so is
that I think I know his son. So fast forward,
I contacted his son. I go, it's kind of going
to be kind of weird. I think your father was
(32:14):
with my uncle when he was killed. And so he
talks to his father, brings him. We go to a
restaurant and as well as restaurants for lunch, they have
like fifty five items in the menu. He can't figure
out the menu. You know, he's probably in his eighties,
early eighties. I had my little questions written down. He
looks me in the eye, goes, I'm sure you want
(32:35):
to know how he died, you know, right to the chase,
and how how my uncle was killed is in the story.
He doesn't die in the story. I told my aunt
he'll never die again, you know, when I was writing it.
But he went right back to that period of time,
(32:57):
and then he was described what was going on, and
then he went back and they ended up. You know,
they they would bury anybody who was who was killed.
They would marry you in a shallow grave and move on.
And so that was say July twenty first, nineteen forty three.
(33:20):
His remains didn't come back to nineteen forty eight. So,
you know, five years later when you think of all
because again you're in a shallow grave somewhere in Sicily
or you know, and you think of how many. And
so I talked to this lieutenant who was the lieutenant
for the squad like for my uncle was in and
(33:42):
he said, uh.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
And he was.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
I could feel him like getting a you know, a
lump in his throat. And this is again we're talking
fifty five, fifty almost sixty years.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Later, Yeah, he's eighty two, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And then so this next gentleman I was talking to,
you know, the lieutenant. It was on the phone, and
I could feel them like kind of like almost you know, tearful,
and he goes, please tell your family that you know,
we neutralized the battery that killed your all. So back
to the war comment, you know that you made rad
(34:17):
you know, And I say this, you know when I
speak to schools, no one wins who won in that
story you said earlier, on both sides, we prayed for
both sides. I'm not talking the s s. I'm not
talking to fanaticals. The average German soldier, just like the
average American soldier, was just doing their for.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
What they believed in the the what.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
They yes, and they paid their you know, they paid their.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
They died the ultimate sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
They were doing their job. My uncle was doing his
and no one want, No one came out alive. And
that example and you other guys like.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You touched on earlier, they're fighting for their friend on
their side too, just like we're fighting for our friend
on our side. And it's like, you know, there was
that time where where it got all quiet, you know,
for Christmas. During the war, everybody kind of had like
a little bit of a makeshift armistice right there. They're like, yeah,
are we cool? Can we have a smoke? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Yeah, yeah. I mean the stories, the World War One
stories where they you know, they they bring out the
soccer balls, you know, the British and the Germans, and
and like you said, they had an armistice, they had,
you know, a cat that came between both lines, and
they they each had different names for the cat.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
You know, and it's like the cats just walking around
and they're just trying not to shoot the cat. Don't
shoot the cat exactly, you know, because there's still a
heart inside. So I wanted to not shoot the cat
because it's a cat, right, yeah. Man, I just you know,
I understand that we need to be built up to fight,
but be built up so much that we could be
(36:03):
humble to not have to fight if we don't have
to fight, you know, like train up to be humble.
So you could go, hey, I'm right here, don't don't
don't don't poke the bear. You know, it's a bear. Yeah,
but people want to poke it, right And then and
then we got to have to have like we don't
have just this just in radio coming back to you
(36:25):
in five seconds with more information. Now it's just funneled
into your cerebral cortex. We have nothing but this channel
and soft rep Media channel and all of our channels
are out there just running into your brain with a
supercomputer facing your eye telling you everything going on in
the world of everything today. It's not like then, and
so today it's like it just it gets so I
(36:49):
don't know, there's just so much more propaganda.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Oh yes, well, and that's one of the why I
wind also in the story to make the importance of
the letters, the letters that were sent to the guys
in the front and the guys that were supposed to
write letters and sending them back home. But it's kind
of like I saw some communication between my uncle and
(37:18):
family members, and my grandmother was a very she was
a tough lady, and she she would like, why aren't
you writing more? And he's like, well, I'm a little busy, mom, I.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Kind of a little busy.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
But I think you know what I included in the
book too, to your point, exactly, rad is I want
the person to read it. Obviously, the older people know,
but the younger people you know, you didn't know where
your son was or your daughter, you know, if she
was a nurse, an army nurse or what. You didn't
know where they were. There was no Hey, i'm gonna
(37:57):
I'm gonna call you on, little face, I'm here. You know, Hey,
let's see, you had no clue where they were. And
that now people bombarded. They're at a dinner table, out
to dinner. There, they're each on there on a phone.
They're not even talking to each other, you know. So
so the people need, you know that the youth need
(38:19):
to understand that they didn't know where their son was.
So youth and in the book, I kind of say
where you know, they would go to a movie and
back in that time, the movies would show some clips
of some of the fighting on the front, and you know,
the parents trying to see if they could see their
their son. You know that. I'm sure everybody did that.
(38:40):
You know, that would.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Go you know, I saw a movie, I want to say,
movie where the guy had written the soldier had written
a bunch of letters home, just writing home. How come
no one writes back? You know, hey, how come? And
then all of a sudden he gets them all back
to him. They never even got home because lettersn't even
even got out to you know, and that just psychologically
(39:02):
was like, oh, no one even knew the letters. They
like moved or the house, and he doesn't know what's
going on at home. Letters just came back, you know exactly,
he doesn't. It's like a mail call Carl Jones, here's
your mail. And it was like return mail.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
You know, everybody who's bite envious and it's like, wow,
look all the letters you get back. It's like you
said return there, but it's you know, And then they
had to be careful because there's like some templates that
are in the book because if you're in North Africa
or if you're in Sicily, or if you're in training,
you know, amphibious training or something, you can't be you
(39:38):
got to be careful what you're right, So they would
they would have like these little templates, but you would
like check a box, you know, rather than say you know,
love blah blah blah, rather than say much because you know,
from a censor standpoint, you could be given away, you know,
the loose lips think yes, the scenario.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Right, and like what if the guy carrying the mail
got taken out and got his mail and you're like, mom,
I'm behind a bunker right now, like, oh, this is
a fresh letter.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
I mean, And to your point, where the twenty four
to seven News, twenty four to seven Sports, twenty four
seven weather, everything is a you know, all big news.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Bitch stop tops, yes, flashes.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
I mean, you know, I remember, I'm you know, old
enough to remember when when the programming stopped. This is
a special news report and like all of a sudden
you saw that the program stop, chills or go down
here because something major happened. Now to your point, it's
(40:41):
like breaking news and you're reading it. What what's that?
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, it's like it's like just the same, it's the
same step. They're like, it's just pumping it. It's so today,
like everything is just happening right now, and you can
just say, oh, what's going on in Gaza today, What's
going on in Ukraine today? What's going on? And to
that point, I remember, like back in two thousand and nine,
I think it was like MSN Messenger was a little
pop up window we had. It would pop up you
(41:07):
could talk to your friends, you know, and communicate back
and forth through the laptops. Etc. Through that program and
my friend in Afghanistan, it was like two in the
morning here and he reaches out to me, Hey, you awake.
I was like, I sure am. He's like, man, I
was as home and playing war games with you guys.
I see more action in wargames than I do here.
(41:28):
But then when he came home, that's not true. But
he was just saying, I miss you guys. You know,
but just right there, it was like instantaneous, and he
was probably bummed out, thinking I miss home. I'm gonna
try to get online and see he was online, and
here's Rad. He's like, hey, Rad, tell me how things
are back in Utah right now? And I'm like, oh, well,
what's going on? Solid? You know? A call sign?
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Yeah? I mean, and you know, there have been some
good movies that have dealt with that. I forget the
name of it, but I remember it was like a nineteen.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Forty sixth movie.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
And you know when when people came back, you know,
because like people come back, everybody else is like, Okay,
the war's over, great, Okay, Joe's back. Okay, you got
you're the same guy that left, right, you know. And
Joe wants to meet with Jim, who he never knew Jim,
(42:21):
but they both were over there, so there's a connection
they have where others don't, you know. And then the wives.
The wife's like, you know, why are you drinking so much?
Or why are you so they they you know now
that we what people know today and there's still more
(42:41):
to do. Back then, it was like, what's wrong with
about it? They saw the Yeah, they saw the physical aspect,
like he lost his hands or he'll but why is
he like crying in the middle of the night, Why
is he screaming? What's he yelling? What's wrong with my son?
You know? I mean, I mean that's.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
With us, right, and maybe nothing is wrong. It's just
emotions of a situation that I'm not coping with. You're
not coping with he's coping with and so he is
going to have the emotional tears and it's not what's
wrong with you. It's like, no, there's a normal. If
you saw what I saw, you would too. I feel like, yeah, exactly,
(43:21):
you know. So and those men, those.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Men never talked about it, you know, friends of mine,
you know, and we talked about in Granville. We grew
up in a street full of you know, today they'd
call him heroes. Well they were heroes back then. There
were guys that survived the war. But you know they'd
be walking around working a gas station, work on a farm,
you know, regular people.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
But they never talked about it, but as they obviously
saw things that affected them, and and and in fine,
I think that beautiful. The great thing with the band
of brothers move and shows like that. Towards the end
of their lives, they hope they started to open on
and get some of that out. And even their kids
didn't know, you know, you know, their kids could have been.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Saving private saving private running. You know, it starts out, Yeah,
he's old at the cemetery and his kids are with
him and they're like, g dad, are you okay? As
he takes a knee, starts crying, and then it takes
us right back into he's storming the beach and you know,
they're puking on the patrol boats and or landing craft
and his homie scooping up sand and putting it in
(44:27):
the thing. And it had Sicily and France and now
he has Normandy like what you were talking about. You
know that guy, you know, he's been all over those beaches, bro,
how many? And he was, he sure was, He sure was.
And he just was like, where's my shoe, where's my gun?
And where's the sand cans? And I got to carry
all through this mission, man, geez, you know, and and
(44:51):
and it's it's it's things like this movie called The
hurt Locker Jeremy Renner I believe was his name. He
got injured by a SnowCat recently. But he plays an
flosive ordinance disposal guy who's been in Iraq and all
these other places just defusing bombs and his life set risk.
He just walks up to it, flicks a cigarette, and
just starts going to work on the wires. Everybody else
(45:11):
will be like, ah, he's just like takes the suit off.
He doesn't even care. And then he comes home and
he's in the grocery store and they pan on him
and he's just like holding a box of like lucky
charms and his legs, but no one's around him. He's
just like staring like everything, like, really, do you know
what's going on? Where I just came from? And here
we are, you know, And so that's that same kind
(45:34):
of shell shock you're talking about. He gets out. He
comes back and he's like, everyone's like, what's wrong with you?
But as soon as he goes back, he re enlists
and he goes back to his job. He's like, hey,
let's take these wires apart. You know, born and bred
for that kind of lifestyle. Man, there are those out there.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yes, there are, And you know it's you're talking earlier about,
you know, growing up through the years. There used to
be and you can still see it on YouTube. There
used to be a show called Combat. It was like
every week it was a squad you know that fought
in France. It started initially, I believe it started with
the D Day invasion and then went into France. But
(46:16):
that was an interesting show, you know because it kind
of you get different characters and you got connected to
the characters, and I think, you know that's where Sully's squad.
Not everybody comes out alive. You know, it would be
ridiculous to think that would different personalities as we as
(46:37):
we've talked a couple of times, and I'll bring it
up a third time because I think it's very important
both sides were except for the fanatics, we're thinking they
were doing there what was best and right and one
of the characters in Sully Squad is Jewish and his
family left Germany because of of what was taking place.
(47:01):
And it's not trying to be annoying when I when
I wrote it, but he would if he saw somebody German,
like a German soldier, he would ask, Hey, anybody know
anybody from Munich or something like, you know, or something
like that, because again, you're you're those people had to
(47:22):
leave home. You know, it affected us here at Pearl Harbor.
But you think about that. You know, in the mid
thirties you had people leaving Germany, leaving wherever who didn't
like what was going on, or then had to leave
because their businesses were destroyed, or you know, so they've
been going through something several years that we just started
(47:47):
at the end of nineteen forty one. So it's kind
of like, you know, having that it was more to
have you know, how much you think about if all
of a sudden you had to in the middle of
the night leave your home, flee you know. And that's
again I wrote it too for history purposes, you know,
(48:09):
you know, it's kind of a it's in three schools.
I'm trying to get more, but it's you know, it
doesn't necessarily fit some of the narrative that's out there today.
It's a book, you know, but just read it. It's
fast paced, it's uh but yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
It's a show and tell book because like I said,
I already felt just from what I read about his
father and just how he plucked his teeth with the
pine needle in it, and he just got the minty
taste of it and his teeth. I just know that,
you know, solely is doing what his heart tells him
to do.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
Yeah, yeah, and excuse me, yea. But also, and I'm
sure there's people listening. I tried to also, when you
give a command and you you know, like these guys said,
he had to give a command as a sergeant, but
he was there with him, you know, and sometimes guys
(49:15):
don't make it back. There has to be a part
of you that goes away. There has to be something
you know, you can't up casarasa. That's the way it goes. No,
you don't have that. I mean, some characters and movies
in World War two, you know, if that were focused
on power, you know, maybe them, but the average guy
(49:38):
who's you know, the whether it's army, you know, Navy, marines,
if you name it. Didn't want to see any of
those under his command get hurt, not to mention, you know,
die and then if you make a decision, which already
actually as a private, had to make a decision one
time or under combat. And uh, I'll let the reader
(50:01):
read that part of it. Yes, but I think that's
the other part too. We talk about people that come
back the memories and like one older gentleman said, they
never had a chance for a family. You know, he
was like eighty ninety years old at the time, you know,
tire he walled up, sure, said, they're still their kid.
I still see John as John at age eighteen, you know.
(50:25):
And now look at me. I'm eighty years old, you know,
and I've had a chance to live my life John.
Speaker 2 (50:30):
Never know, the memory is always that of that person
at that age percent one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Man.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Yeah, what a great book, and what a what a
good time for you to put it on paper and
still stay in the healthcare business and not give up
your daytime job. I know a little bit about a
thing or two with you, So don't you worry. So
that's good.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Yeah, I don't want to give up. Yeah, not giving
up the daytime job.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
No, No. But hey, if you're out there and you're
thinking about you know, and you're trying to brainstorm something
at your studio or your production crew, reach out to
Kevin and you know, go read his book and see
if it's a book that will make a great screenplay
and reach out to him and you know, hey, that's
how it happens, right, It just takes one person to
get involved. And so we can find your book everywhere, right,
(51:14):
it's all over. It's at all the major places and online. Correct.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
Yeah, it's on you know, with yourselves, and it's on
you know, beyond Amazon, yourselves.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
It's a book.
Speaker 3 (51:25):
And yeah, and also the it's got a kindle version.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Is there an audible No?
Speaker 3 (51:33):
But I but I'm hoping one of one of the
outcomes of this would would we could do an audible
version of it?
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Oh, yeah, that'd be cool.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
And I'm also working on a second. I'm also working
on a second. Kind of got stalled a little bit because, uh,
you know, the you're you're you're doing this at night
or maybe on weekends, and sometimes your mind isn't creative,
you know, you know, you're thinking of work, and it's
not like a nine to five job, so sometimes it
carries it carries over and and also you know when
(52:03):
you think of the second what are you gonna talk about?
Speaker 2 (52:06):
You know?
Speaker 3 (52:06):
So I got to a certain point and I kind
of hit a hit a wall, and I'm gonna resume that,
resume that, break the all down, and.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
Resume, rewrite, rewrite. Yeah, I'm rewriting myself, That's what I'm saying.
Rewrite me. That makes no sense, No way, I need
to stay here, not delete me, just delete start over. Well, listen,
(52:36):
I want to thank Guy. Right, we have our friend
Guy at soft Rep. He's our editor. He's like, hey, Rad,
you guys need to meet, and he brought us together
and I want to give a shout out to Guy.
And I also want to give a shout out to
Brandon Webb, who keeps soft Rep, you know, just going
with all of us, rolling along with him on this ship.
So we really appreciate being on board. And I'm grateful
to have this position to talk to you know, authors
(52:57):
and rock stars like yourself, Kevin everybody. He just has
such a cool story and I love talking about it.
Thank you for sharing your story and talking about solely Squad,
which you can find at Amazon. Thanks for allowing me
to be introduced to Artie and his father with his pipe.
I love it. And to your VFW friends that are
(53:18):
on Main Street in Vermont and on the border of
New York, thank you for your service. And on behalf
of Kevin, this is rad saying thank you for tuning
into soft Rep. Check out our book club where you
can find solely Squad at soft reap dot com, Forward
slash Book, hyphen Club. And this is rap saying thanks
(53:40):
to everybody behind the scenes that helped me make me
look good. So thank you and your peace.
Speaker 1 (53:48):
You've been listening to a self rep Radia
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