Rally Point 79_Final

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rally pointers fall In. Good morning everyone. Justin Ledford here
along with Paul Pletchi.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning, all right.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Our guests this morning from Southwest Florida Honor flight. Naomi Copeland,
Good morning, and along with her is Jody Hammond, who
recently went on an honor flight.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Good morning, all right.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
How are you guys doing this morning?

Speaker 4 (00:29):
One Weld?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
All right, So Naomi, what do we have going on today?

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Well, everything, Southwest Florida Honor Flight. So we just want
to share that our entire mission is to safely transport
veterans to Washington, DC, where we honor them at each
of their memorials and treat them like kings and queens

(00:57):
and VIPs for the day, and then we give them
the welcome home that they so deserve and so many
never received.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
So I went on the April on her flight and
it was an amazing experience. I'm really glad that I
had that opportunity.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
It was great.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Yeah, that was a really really special flight for us
as an Heiser Bush's. One time a year they sponsor
a hub for a fly and we had some very
very extra special treatment that day on April eighth, twenty five,

(01:41):
by having some Anheuser Busch Corporate Saint Louis office folks
along with us, including the entire creative crew from Anheiser Busch.
So think of all of the Clydesdale horse commercials and
the Super Bowl commercials that creative studio was with us

(02:02):
and capturing special moments for the day. And then we
were treated to a very nice dinner at an Heiser
Busch's Washington, DC headquarters, which included the CEO of Van
Heiser Busch being with us along with several of their

(02:23):
vice presidents. We also had the privilege of having House
representatives and US Senators being along with us, Greg Stuby
and Byron Donalds. And then I personally think for the
veterans and Jody, you can share if I'm kind of
and justin I know you can too. Incorrect Inness, but

(02:48):
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs came, took time out of
his day and came and spoke to the veterans about
what his vision is for getting our veterans more help,
more assistance, and kind of making the system better than
what it currently is. So it was just a really

(03:11):
extra special day. It was a little extra long day
for us all because of that two two and a
half hour dinner stop, which we would normally have eight
on our buses or on the airplane. But it was
just that was just a really special day.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, no, it was. It was a great day. It
was a cold day.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
I know that, it definitely was. I think what was it.
I think it was about seventy two seventy three when
we left Florida at five o'clock in the morning, and
the temperature just kept going down as we were in
the air, and I think it was thirty seven when
we landed, I believe, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Oh yeah, yeah it was. It was definitely cold.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
It was.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, it was a few hiccups, but hey, when you're
trying to do that much with that many people in such.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
A short period of time, there's going to be things
that happened.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
So yeah, I mean when I called both of you,
I said, you know, it's going to be one hundred
and eighty of your brand new best friends, veterans and
guardians for the day, and we corral one hundred and eighty.
I like to call it cats because everyone's going in
different directions even though they know what are you know,
where we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be

(04:19):
there and it's sometimes it's hard, and yeah, we had
a few hiccups, had a bus kind of have a
couple of issues, and then we had our wonderful sweet
veteran you know, take a little tumble at you Ajima,
and so kind of threw our day all off, but
we managed. And I don't think any of you had

(04:41):
any idea all of the u stress that Alex, our
vice president, and I were feelings throughout the day.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Naomi, just to interrupt you as a veteran, I cannot
tell you the seamless effort there was to help that
injured vet. I mean, you guys were start to finish
amazing and then you know that old saying no man
left behind. We did not leave that Korean vet behind.

(05:11):
You left one of your medics, one of your full
time staff, bedside with that man until his family came.
The pride, the honor, just amazing care. How seamlessly our
day went. Thank you for that.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Thanks, thank you, thank you. And Joby's story Justin is
really a kind of a cool one, but kind of
an uncool one too, because Jody was actually scheduled to
fly with us last fall in October on our flight,

(05:47):
which you know, we had those three little visitors back
to back here in Florida, a tropical depression Debbie who
reigned over us for like four days straight, and then
followed by the back to back hurricanes, you know, including Milton.
When we had to reschedule, and we won't cancel a flight,

(06:07):
we will reschedule it. We had to schedule it in November,
and there was about fifteen veterans who could not come
with us on our flight day, and so we found
other veterans to fill their spots, because I also believe
we should never have an empty aircraft with an empty

(06:27):
seat in it. That's just a veteran that's not getting
their day of honor. And we don't know what our
future holds. And I know Jody's going to talk about
that in just a little bit. But Jody was supposed
to go on the flight in the fall, and there
was a bigger reason I'm sure why why she didn't
and why she couldn't, and it made our April flight

(06:48):
when she was able to fly, even more special for her.
So yeah, I'll leave it like that.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Okay, So Jody, do you want to go ahead and
tell us your story of how you use.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
I will no. I it was an honor to be
on the flight. As a active member of the United
States Navy, I was stationed aboard the USS Shanandoah. My
job on the ship, I was a postal clerk, and
with that, you know, being peersided, it was nothing. It
was just an act of daily living. But once we

(07:27):
got underway and we did a med cruise, and even
when we went to Desert Storm Desert CEO, when we
were the active force over there, I was a lifeline home.
So I mean, I had thirteen hundred people on my crew,
and I can't tell you I ever remember carrying a
bag of mail because the ship would get together and
everybody would bring my mail up so I could sort

(07:47):
it and everybody could get their love from home, you know,
just a letter from mom or God forbid a bill
or whatever. But I was a lifeline back to the state.
So as we came home from our flight DC, that
was just memorable. The camaraderie with the different generations. You know,

(08:10):
there was a couple of Korean War vets that we
talked to, more women that I got to share my
stories with Vietnam hats off to the Vietnam and there
was many representation there. But on our way home, ironically,
we had a mail call. And how fun is that, right,
you know? And I was just thinking, you know, a

(08:32):
couple of letters from somebody, and here come two huge
manimbo envelopes as they call out my name, and I
remember someone saying, I'm sick of lugging these around. I've
been carrying them for six months now, but I had
missed three flights and I, you know, everybody was just
going through the mail bag, opening up letters. And one

(08:54):
of my letters came from my girlfriend. She was fifty
two years old, and she told me how proud she
was and how honored she was, you know, of me
taking care of her and keeping her securities home for
her freedoms here. And I can't wait to hear your story.
My girlfriend died the week before we flew, and I

(09:16):
never got to share my story with her. For the
whole whole circle, I know, the whole circle of the
lifeline with me being the home base of the postal clerk.
It just it hit home. But such an amazing opportunity,
and I've shared my story. There's a group of ten
girls and she was one of the ten, and I

(09:38):
shared my story with them and we just all cried together.
We just had a memorial service for her. But anyway,
that's an honor, a privilege, you know, And I encourage
every VET, you know, and I people through me that
I know, I tell them all about it, and when
they see a VET, they encourage them to, you know,

(09:59):
apply you the list, you know, just use the link
and get there. What an opportunity.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
And so when I what mail call is going on,
kind of the whole board is up throughout the aircraft
and we always are having our photographers and the creative
studios crew that happened to be on board from Anheuser
Bush that day. We always make sure that you know,
they capture different pieces and their sections of the aircraft

(10:28):
that they're in. And I'm walking up and down the
aisles and Jody and her guardian were kind of past
the midway point of the airplane and kind of I
don't want to say towards the back, but you were
kind of closer to the back than you were to
the front. And I always try to make my way
back there to see, you know, people's reactions because justin

(10:50):
we work really hard as a board of directors, and
I have one board member that specifically handles mail calls
for us. We work really hard all year long to
get cards, letters, drawings from school classes. Sunday school classes,

(11:12):
groups of women quilters will get together and have a
card writing party. We have all of the seven counties
that we serve, all of the sheriffs write a letter
to our honored veterans. We have legislators and it's not
any political influence or any political questions. It is a

(11:36):
heartfelt thank you and letter of appreciation from people who
hold elective offices. And when I got to Jody Jody's row,
I mean like everybody was crying around Jody and in
front of her and back of around. I'm like, oh
my gosh, what is going on back here? And Jody

(11:56):
had this card in her hand. And David, her guardian,
had to say, this was a letter, a card written
and I think she wrote it for the fall flight,
right Jody? He did, yeah, yeah, And we had held
onto mail from the fall flight for those veterans that
couldn't fly with us. And then Jody said she just

(12:19):
passed away last week and I don't think for you know,
five rows in front and five rows in back of Jody.
There was a dry eye because that story spread pretty
quickly on the airplane, and it just made I think
an exclamation point to Jody's day. And I know her
heart was breaking because you know, she really wanted to
share her story of the special day with her friend.

(12:41):
But your friend was there with us in spirit. She
was there with you by your side all day long.
I'm confident of that.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, that's amazing. And you know it's kind of like,
now you have that piece of her with you.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Oh yeah, good.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yeah, I hope you frame it. I hope you frame
it and keep it there reminder of my special day.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Oh it's so good. I can't think the staff enough,
so seamlessly, the pride, the amazing, what an experience.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
I still have my envelope that has everything in it.
It's uh, you know, and I'm going to keep it forever.
Of course, my wife would say that I keep everything
forever and I never throw anything away.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
So you know, yeah, And I know Amanda, who's not
able to be with us today on the show, always
does a great segue here about you know, the women
of our military and the veterans, the active duty and
the veterans. It's got a hard road that they hoe.

(13:49):
And with I have my niece. I you know, all
three of my parents' grandchildren have actually you know, are
serving or have served in the Navy. My sons are
both nine and ten year mayvy veterans now, and my
niece is in year fourteen up for chief and we'll
know if she makes chief in August. But I realized

(14:12):
when I became president that you know, we've only we
don't try to recruit women veterans to come on our
flight with us. We have only ever taken you know,
maybe one or none each flight. And so my intention was,
and a goal of mine, was to have an all

(14:34):
female honor flight. And that flight was in twenty twenty
three in October. I shot at filling one hundred and
eighty seats with women veterans and women guardians. We fell
just a little short with forty seven. And I think
that that's not too shabby. And we've made it a

(14:54):
stop to stop and honor our women at the Military
Women's Memorial. We've done that now every flight since and
I think we've had thirty three, we've had twenty two,
and I think on this last flight, we had sixteen
female veterans, and so if you are a female veteran
of any era, we want you to please submit an

(15:18):
application to go on your honor flight and let us
honor you at the Women's Military Memorials. I know Amanda
said to me and says on the show all of
the time, justin that she didn't keep many things, and
probably your wife Casey too, from her time into the service.

(15:40):
And when we got to the Military Women's Memorial, pretty
much the crowd in front of these sixteen women were
all men, and they I had all of the women
stand in front of all of the flags of each
state and we presented each of them with this gorgeous

(16:01):
military record of their service from the Women's Military Memorial.
And I know Amanda has said to me it and
I'm sure it is for you to Jody one of
the most memorable things of her time in the service
because it listed it all out in front of her.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Well, yes, I think it was good for all the
all the male veterans to to see that and to
get that opportunity, you know, because like my wife goes
through it still, you know, you know, if you know,
people will think me for my service, and I immediately say, oh, well, you.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Know she was in the army too, you.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Know, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Because women get overlooked a lot.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
And you know, I think that was a very special
moment and a very special occasion that that we get
to highlight and focus our our female veterans and the
men kind of took a back seat and got to
get to watch and experience that, and you know, recognize
the sisters in service for all the things that they've
done and all their accomplishments.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
So I loved how how how you read what they
did and their.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Their time and service and all those different things, and
and so the men were just like, wow, okay. You
know because a lot of times when when you see
a female veteran, a lot of times you you assume
that it's a that it's the spouse and and that
the that the man is is the veteran. And that's
definitely not always the.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
Case, right, And I know Amanda talks frequently that you know,
people just put their arm out across the wife or
the spouse and automatically go. So each of our veterans
on their honor flight day is identified by a red
sure it has our logo on the front. So anytime

(17:57):
you see a in it for Southward Florida Honor Flight,
a person in a red shirt with our Honor Flight
south with Florida Honor Flight logo on it, you know,
they were one of our honored veterans and I hope
that you will thank them for their service. But on
that day that we were up there at some of

(18:19):
the other memorials, people the tourists in town visiting the
you know the sites, said, you know, to you probably
justin and I know you were with Amanda and Brandon
together kind of I had you all on the same
bus and they just you know, automatically came to YouTube
and said thank you for your service. And Amanda was

(18:39):
standing right there, and it's like, hey, wait, I serve too.
It's just natural we just as a human, you know,
humanity kind of just automatically think only the men served,
which is why I think it's so so important to
honor our women. And I'm in the middle of reading
the book The Women right now, of the nurses that

(19:01):
served in Vietnam, and I'm telling you it wasn't a
joke any era, whether they were deployed or not deployed. Uh,
women that have served our nation are just amazing individuals.
And I look so high with such high regard to
them that have served. I did. I don't have the

(19:23):
perseverance to do that. And so I held women that
have served our country with such high high regard.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, because I mean they don't they don't catch a break.
You know, you guys don't catch a break. You know,
you still have you don't have to, but you know,
there's the expectation of you know, wife and mother and
you know, all these all these things like like I
know that that my wife, man, you know, she she

(19:54):
now that I'm retired, she holds the full time job,
but yet she's still mom and she's still you know,
and I could take my daughter to softball practice, but
she wants mom there, and you know, so like right,
like she still has to do all the like she's
definitely the head of my household for sure.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
And so yeah, being a veteran, being a mom, being
you know, having a full time job after the military,
you know, so like yep, yeah, yeah, female veterans are special,
for sure.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
They are.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
And and Jody, I had no idea that you were
basically everyone's lifeline home with the mail in your time
in the service. I had no idea about that. That
is such a good story.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
It's full circle, you know, being on a ship we
were back when I was in we were only we
were twenty percent women on my ship, so there weren't
a lot of women. So either you were liked on
my ship or you were respected on my ship, so
that there was a fine line there, and you know,

(21:01):
you really didn't want to be liked. I mean you
it's you can't explain it any other way. But you
have to prove yourself a woman veteran men. You know,
it's always even today, you know, you you have to
work a little bit harder and you know, push a
little bit more. But the military, it's just an amazing

(21:24):
organization if you can call it that. You know, the pride,
the professionalism that it instills. The I most foreign legions, Turkey, Greece, Italy,
all the places that I went, all of their young
kids out of high school have to be in their
foreign legions for two years. I so believe you know

(21:47):
that our I wish that we would do that, you know,
as the United States, that our kids go through it
and learn the discipline, learn their self control, learn their
strengths and their weaknesses.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Just get a little taste like this. This is what
adulting looks like.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
Yeah, there's a large segment that of my era that
I want to bring back the draft, not for war,
but for the experience.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, it.

Speaker 5 (22:18):
Does make children into men and women for sure.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Ye, you definitely learn how to grow up pretty quick. Jody,
did you come in the Navy straight.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Out of high school?

Speaker 3 (22:32):
I did? I did? Yeah, and you know there again,
I mean there was I was with trauma. You know,
there's a lot of women one night and that you know,
the garbage can down the middle of the barracks, and
you know, I told my mom I was eighteen, and
I said, you know what, I'm going to go in
the Navy. If I get stationed on the ship, I'm
going to get pregnant. And my mom says, well, how

(22:53):
would you do that? You don't even have a boyfriend.
I'm like, Mom, I'm in the Navy, Are you kidding me? Right?
I got stationed on my ship the day after Thanksgiving
and I remember walking down the pier in Norfolk, Virginia,
and it was rainy and I looked up at that
big gray pig, and I thought, what that I get
myself into? And I crossed the ship's brow and I

(23:15):
didn't salute the ensign, So you got in trouble for that.
And I get across and it, oh, it was you know,
you didn't know, you were just a kid. You get across,
and I thought, oh my lord. I walked around the
ship all weekend. There was nobody there. And the next
morning I remember looking out on the pier and all

(23:37):
these people were coming because they were off. There's holidays,
stand down. And I kept watching these cranes lift all
these big lines onto the ship, which were water lines
and the power lines. And I said, what's going on?
And they said, oh, we're getting under the way to
the Bahamas. I hurried up and I called my mom.
I said, hey, hold off on the baby thing. I'm

(23:59):
going to go to the Bahama. It was the turning
point of my navy career, you know, but I was
It was very, very active. I Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break, Halifax, Nova, Scotia.
I've been to Cuba, all over Europe. But then my
second tour, I spent nine months in Egypt for Got

(24:20):
Egypt for Desert Storm, Desert Shield. And that was a
lot because there I seen you know, our infantry, you know,
it was it was a lot to see. But I'm
honored and proud to have served. But so many men
seem so much more than what I did. The Vietnam

(24:41):
vets had thought to them that welcome home, Naomi, that
we received was the welcome home, like you said, like
they've never received no men or you know, no sailors
or dogs on the grass. Is what they got when
they came home. When I see a Vietnam that, I
always thank them. You know, some never really returned mentally,

(25:05):
and you know some really never returned, so it's just
an uh yeah, yeah, that is you.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
You have a really cool story, Jody, And that's so cool,
and thank you for sharing what you just shared. That
the welcome home is also something that we work really
really hard at making sure our communities are aware that, hey,
we've got an on our flight landing. They are so
so kind and patient. Alex and I look at each

(25:36):
other most of the time and we laugh because we
have the best plans to be you know, within fifteen
minutes of landing throughout the day and making it back
on time at night. And you know, first couple of
trips we had bus drivers that took us you know,
wrong turns and wrong ways. We've had a couple of
trips where we've had buses breakdown and we've had been

(26:00):
delayed because of that, and that just we're not gonna
miss Memorials because of that. And then you know, we've
had a couple of medical emergencies now on two flights
that have delayed us sometime and we can't forecast those
or foresee those, and we you know, want to make
sure everyone experiences their day, and so we work really

(26:22):
really hard, and the community is so amazing and patient
and kind to stick around and stay and make sure
that they all say thank you and welcome home. And
our next flight coming up, it will be on October fourteenth.
It is going to be a first for us. We

(26:43):
do cover seven counties. It is a vast swath of
southwest Florida that we cover. So we cover Charlotte County, DeSoto, Hardy,
Hendry Highlands, Manatee, and Sarasota County. And I believe in

(27:05):
those seven counties there's actually over one hundred thousand veterans
that live in those counties. To date, we've flown twenty
three hundred veterans, so we've got a lot of work
still to do, and we have a very passionate board
of directors, and the veterans that we've flown on the

(27:29):
last five flights since COVID are very enthusiastic and know
that we've got a lot of work still to do.
But our October fourteenth flight will be from Sarasota International Airport.
So we're super excited to be flying out of Sarasota
for this flight, and it's going to be new for us.

(27:51):
It's a new you know kind of when we started
flying out upon a Goorda airport, we had you know
to work some kinks out and just you know, working
with a new airport. They actually, we had some representatives
from SRQ fly with us on that April eighth flight
and so they've got you know, some knowledge of you know,

(28:12):
here's what the day looks like, and so they're not
caught off guard. But we're super excited and I need
you know, Sarasota, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, Venice, Inglewood, I need
everyone in you know, Anna, Maria Island, Longboat Key, Saint Armine,
bird Key. We hope you will all come out to
Sarasota Airport around eight thirty on Tuesday, October fourteenth and

(28:36):
help us give our veterans a welcome home that they deserve.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
And have there been any veterans sign up yet? So
going back to yeah, to women veterans, do you encounter
a lot of Vietnam women veterans?

Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah? And I and thanks for that question, because I
was gonna mention something about that. So fundraising is always hard,
you know, it's always it's always a challenge to raise
funds for every single flight. One flight is one hundred
and eighteen thousand dollars in expenses. We charter an aircraft,

(29:16):
We charter four buses when we land, We cater food
throughout the day. We have special shirts that denote our
veterans and our guardians, and just a whole lot of
extra stuff and that are going to that day, you know,
envelopes for the mail call, just there's a lot of
behind the scenes things that make one flight go off.

(29:39):
And while you know, it's not an easy task to
raise funds, the hardest thing about filling a flight is
finding the veterans and then convincing them that they should
come with us and let us honor them. Because what
I have found is my experience, is we our veterans

(30:04):
are very, very humble, and they never feel that they
are personally worthy of being honored on the honor flight.
They think my comrade deserves it more than me. And
so what I want our veterans to hear is please
submit an application. We go on a couple of different

(30:28):
criteria when we are filling a flight, and first and foremost,
the greatest generation are World War Two veterans. They're the
whole reason Honor Flight was birthed. Twenty years ago, in
May twenty five, Honor Flight was born. And the greatest
generation is the whole entire reason. And there are still

(30:53):
World War Two veterans. While there are fewer and fewer
every day, there are still some of them still and
they are still here in Southwest Florida. I believe in
total Florida has over nine hundred World War Two veterans alive.
So we are looking for World War two veterans to come.

(31:13):
Let us honor you on your Honor Flight day. You
get top priority. The next priority is Korean veterans because
they too were losing them every day. And I just
know my father served in the Army infantry in Korea,
and as involved as I am in honor flight, I

(31:36):
could personally never get my dad to go on an
honor flight and that was because of his flight to
Korea in the army and then back home. And when
he came back home, he landed at his base, got
on a train and came back. I'm from the Illinois,
Iowa Mississippi River area called the Klatt Cities. Came back

(31:59):
to the Klatt City these got off the train and
went to work for the power company the very next day.
Only his mom and dad were at the train station
to welcome him home, and he wore his uniform homes
and then went.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
To work the next day.

Speaker 4 (32:12):
So personally, I have a passion for Korean veterans because
they're the tough cookies to get to come on to
the honor flight. But we wanted to honor them and
bring them along the Korean Memorial many of them have
never seen in DC, and it is absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous,
gorgeous memorial.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
All the memorials, it's amazing, it's wow. It's like a
platoon of statues, like going through the field and it's.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
Yeah, it's great, bigger than life, bigger than life, right,
justin and Jody amazing and then the rice Patty little
plants in front of him. I mean, it is so cool.
And a couple of times that I've been there, there's
been just a slight mist and fog and hayes. And
I was with my dad in DC touring one year

(33:04):
and my dad was like, this is exactly what it
looked like in Korea, and I'm like wow. And then
our Vietnam veterans, they're hard cookies to crumble too, and
we want to honor them. They're the next on the list.
But also anyone with a chronic a terminal life limiting

(33:24):
illness that we're going to prioritize them and get them
on their flight. So we go through kind of a
whole algorithm, if you will, of how we still a flight.
But we want you to submit your applications and you're
going to go on our waiting list. We have a
couple of hundred veteran applications on our wait list, and

(33:45):
so we're going to continue to raise funds to get
you on your flight. And we need guardians. So guardians
pay a small portion of the flight day expenses. It's
five hundred and fifty dollars to pay to be a guardian.
And April's flight personally was my twenty fourth Honor flight.

(34:08):
Fifteen of those times I paid my own way to
go and be a guardian to a veteran that I
had never met before orientation. We have just such a
connection throughout life. I've had the highest of highs and
the lowest of lows with the veterans. I've had the
honor of serving as their guardian on Honor Flight four

(34:29):
and we are hoping that we can get a lot
of Sarasota Lake, Wuid Ranch, Bradenton, Anna, or Maria Island,
Venice and so forth guardians to come and be a
guardian on our October fourteenth flight. So you can find
our veteran and our guardian applications on our website, and

(34:52):
that website is s w f L Honor Flight dot org.
And if you scroll down our homepage you're going to
find them at the bottom. You can complete it online,
both of them. You can complete and submit online or
you can download them, print them out and mail them

(35:13):
the good old fashioned mail way. I really encourage you
to do it online. If you can, and if you're
a veteran that doesn't have a computer, you know you
can always go to your library. Any local library will
in our seven counties will help you get that application. Also,
I know any of your legislators, if you go to

(35:36):
their office, they will help you get that application on
their off of the computer for you. And just get
them and submit them. Because you know, we're going to
start making phone calls in July for our fall flight,
and I can't wait for that day. And it's going
to be a you know, a super cool day. I
always say every day, every other flight, I don't know

(35:58):
how one can get better and the next, and everyone
gets better and better and better. And there's just a
bunch of special people on every single flight that to
hear their stories and what they did while they were serving.
And I know, justin I always kind of call you out,
and because I had no idea what you did. I
mean making the phone calls. I just me and my

(36:22):
team make phone calls. But we get to hear your
stories on flight day, and I just think it's so cool.
You know, your time in the service.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Nail me.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
I want to take you a little time here. You
talked about Anheuser Bush. There are a lot of corporations
out there who have social programs. How can they reach
out to not necessarily fund the whole flight, but contribute
to funding a flight?

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Absolutely reach out to you. Yeah, thank you so much
Paul for that question. So you can email us at
swf L Honor Flight at gmail dot com. And it
doesn't have to be major corporations like Anheiser Busch. One
of our first sponsors was Veteran Air and they came

(37:11):
in and said, we want to partner and collaborate with you.
What can we you know, we don't have hundreds of
thousands of dollars that we can fork over, but how
can we help? And I found you know, a couple
of different sponsorship levels for them, and you know, at
fifteen hundred dollars they provided the little rain jackets for

(37:34):
our veterans on a flight. We are looking for, you know,
our buses, we charter buses. They're fifty five hundred dollars.
We're looking for T shirt sponsors and we're happy to
put your logo on our T shirt. You know, that's
a couple thousand dollars for our shirt, our T shirts,
So please reach out to us. I also know that

(37:55):
there's businesses that have employee matching funds opportunities, and.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
If you want to give.

Speaker 4 (38:02):
Through your employer, there's also a donate button on our
website and you can go to SWFL Honorflight dot org,
forward slash donate and any dollar is more than the
you know what we had. So we have people that can,
you know, give us three dollars a month and we

(38:23):
are so so appreciative you are helping us honor our
veterans on their honor Flight. And then there's also employers
that have volunteer opportunities in the community, and we hope
you you and will go and approach your employer if
you are listening and your employer offers that, go approach

(38:45):
your employer to collaborate and partner with Honor Flight. It's
there's one hundred and thirty hubs across the nation. There
are some businesses in our listening area that have that
are across the nation, and you find your local hub
and please partner up with them.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
You know.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
So I went to my employer a couple of times
and instead of happened to take a vacation day, they're like,
we're going to pay you for this day and count
it as your eight volunteer hours. It was an eighteen
hour day, make no mistake about it. But I didn't
have to take vacation time for it. I only had
to pay my own way. Or some employers will partner
and do a fifty.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
To fifty with you.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
So email us and we'll happy to reach out and
talk to you over the phone, meet you in person.
We are looking for groups and organizations to share information
about Honor Flight, and from that, we just need everyone
following our Facebook page Southwest Florida Honor Flight please like
and share our posts. You all have a whole network

(39:51):
of people that we don't know. And what happens when
you share our posts people see it and they're like,
oh my gosh, I know a female veteran, or I
know a World War Two veteran, or I know someone
that was in Vietnam. They talk to them and then
they learn, oh, wow, you haven't been on your Honor flight.
You you need to go to Southwest Florida Honor Flight
and get an application in So those are all ways

(40:13):
you can reach out to us on social media on
off of our website. Our phone numbers are on the
website also, and you know you can call and leave
a message. We are an entire volunteer organization. Many of
us on the board work full time jobs. I've got
a couple of board members that not only work a

(40:34):
full time job, but they have a part time job
on top of it. We've got some retired people that
work part time. So we're all volunteers. It may take
us a day or two to get back to you,
but we will give you a callback.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, we usually We usually use Paul for things like that.
He's our resident historian, he's our Vietnam that.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
Yes, Jody, I just want you to know that the
mill that we got in Vietnam was probably the biggest
priority for us as individuals. That was really our morale booster.
So that's one of the unspoken jobs that veterans do
for our veterans. And we want to thank you for

(41:16):
what you did. I know, every letter I got, every
package I got, I know it was a drain on
some of our mail clerks, but we appreciated all the
work that was done.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Yeah, you know, it truly was my honor. In Egypt,
we were there for desert storms and I was there
with the Atlantic fleet, and all the ships would fly
helicopters to me and I would have to go back
to there. Back in the day, we use money orders,
and I was the postmaster of the fleet, so you

(41:48):
guys would bring me the money and I would give
you your mail order and you would send your money
home that way because we didn't have direct deposit way back.
Kind of makes me sound so old. And I would sell,
you know, crazy things to break. I can't tell you
all the time my male was positive. But the joy

(42:11):
that you see a baked good that ye beautiful things
that we take for granted, just a postcard from home
was uplifting and it truly, truly was a gift that
I gave to everybody every day. Male call was a
positive word heard all over the fleet.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
Yeah, yeah, that's a call.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
So I want to ask paula question. So we were
talking about women veterans and Vietnam veterans. So, Paul, did
you have any like did you ever see any female
veterans in Vietnam or The only.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
One that I ever saw because we were out in
the field was the donut dollies, And of course the
nurses were everywhere. We had a we had a an
outfit assigned to our battalion of medical personnel. So those
were the fam that we saw. But the Donut Dollies,
which people don't understand what they were. They were kind

(43:06):
of a morale organization. They were not military personnel, but
they were Red Cross personnel and they came out and
they kind of entertained us for an hour or two.
But just seeing a female that come out to visit us,
and it was a reminder of home. It was our

(43:26):
connection with home.

Speaker 4 (43:29):
And I grew up during Vietnam, so I got to watch,
you know, the nightly news and hear the stories. You know,
I won't forget. You know, there's so many news pieces
as I'm reading this book of the women that are
flashing back like wow, I kind of remember that whole
news story being on the TV. But I encourage everyone

(43:51):
to read the women. But also it's giving me, I know,
on this fall flight, it's going to give me a
whole nother perspective. The Wall. We kind of always rush
right over to the Vietnam Wall to spend time at
the wall, but I'm going to go and see these
three women veterans, the statue of them that's right there

(44:14):
by the wall, and I'm going to look at that
and think of them in a whole other level. And
I've always thought about the folks that distributed the male
because in my conversations when I'm talking to veterans and
they're like, oh, you know, I didn't I wasn't shipped out.
I was just a mail clerk, or I was just
a yeoman, or I was just the athletic director in

(44:36):
the gym. You all did jobs that our nation asked
you to do by wearing the flag of our country
and a uniform. No matter how big or how small,
you had a piece in helping those people that were
on the front lines. And so you know, a mail

(44:57):
clerk or a donut girl or the nurses in Vietnam,
they didn't have small roles either. And I think that
it's it's something that we have to constantly remind ourselves
about the people that did see the front lines there,
you know, that affected them. And then the people that
you know were the mail clerks that some of them

(45:18):
don't feel that they were even worthy enough. But you
were the lifeline, Jody, like like Paul said, you were
the lifeline to those on the front lines. And thank
you for your service, both of you and Justin.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
And so if you want to find out more information
about Honor flights, I know you guys have hub meetings.
So when are your hub meetings? What do you discussed
during your hub meetings? Is it beneficial to go?

Speaker 4 (45:46):
Well, I think it's been official to go. That's I'm
the person leading them, and I spend a lot of
hours preparing materials for our hub meetings and Justin, I'll
tell you you know, five years ago, four years ago,
three years ago, our hub meetings had twelve people at them,
and it's about an hour of time, and I, you know,

(46:07):
realize that people can't get that hour back. So I
want to make it, first of all, fund and informative.
And it's not just about Southwest Florida on our flight.
We provide information at our hub meetings about hey, I
need a DD two fourteen, how do you even go
about getting a DD two fourteen. So I have those

(46:28):
materials with me at each and every meeting. Again, it's
not a free flight. Our veterans do fly for free,
but we got to raise the funds so that we
can take that flight, and so we have a lot
of fundraisers that occur and you know, and they're fun fundraisers.
We just had a car show at Seabring International Speedway.

(46:50):
We're going to have another one. We just had a
poker run in May. We're going to have another one
in the winter. We have a golf tournament coming up
at a very excl elusive desired golf course in November.
So we have these fundraising opportunities that we're going to
talk about. We also have some just general events that

(47:10):
are fun. I've got a tour at Patriot Plaza scheduled
for Sarasota National Cemetery in July. And so our Hub
meetings are the fourth Wednesday of every month, with the
exception of November and December. They are at seven pm

(47:31):
and they are at Kingsgate Golf Club in the clubhouse.
There's a meeting room up in the front. Anyone in
everyone is welcome to attend. If you want to learn
more information about on a flight and how to get
on a flight, we'll have applications there too. You can
take applications to your group of buddies. So we our

(47:52):
next meeting, I believe is June. It's not this week,
it's next week. I think it's the got the twenty
fifth next one Wednesday. I don't have my calendar in
front of me, but it's the fourth Wednesday of every
month at seven pm. We hope you come. There's one
hundred ish people that now come to every single HUB
meeting because they are informative, they are fun, and we

(48:14):
share a lot of information. We're going to be talking
about our October flight so you can learn there and
lots of volunteer opportunities, so we need volunteers to help
also make these flight days of reality for our veterans.
So fourth Wednesday of every month, seven pm, Kingcate Golf
Club in Port Charlotte.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
All right, yeah, and I saw you guys doing a
fundraiser out at Charlie Foxtrott a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
That was fun, That was a blast.

Speaker 4 (48:42):
So I was a guest bartender there and my vice
president was supposed to be there with me, but he
got called into work. He's a firefighter, a lieutenant in
a fire department. So that is number one priority. But
we're going to do a couple more of those. With
Charlie Foxtrott a blast. I think they had a blast.

(49:04):
And so also if you're a business and you you know,
have a brewery or you know a place that you
want to, you know, help us promote on our flight
get some visibility. We love those I call them dine
and dashes, where a portion of the dinner receipts for
the evening will help us with our flight day expenses.

(49:25):
So we've got a couple of those coming up to
We're looking for our community members and businesses to collaborate
and partner with us. It's a win win we have,
you know, in the five flights that we've taken since
I've been president since twenty twenty two. You know, if
you think one hundred and eighty times five, that's a

(49:47):
lot of people that I have a lot of access to.
We send out an email once a month promoting the
things that we've got coming up, and you know, different
people come to different things. We try to, you know,
make it a variety of ways to get out into
our communities and get exposure and customers for your businesses too.
So consider collaborating with us too.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Absolutely, And we actually had an event for Army's birthday
a couple days ago at Charlie Fox Trott and I
saw a few of your folks out there. I had
the honor and privilege of presenting a shadow box for
a World War Two veteran.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
His wife came to me.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
She had his World War Two trench coat in her
garage and she asked me if I knew somewhere that
she could donate it. Long story short, I was like,
just give it to me and I'm gonna find I'm
going to take care of it. So I got a
shadow box, hung it on the wall. I pulled up
all this information, give a little speech on Saturday in

(50:50):
honor of him, in honor of the Army's birthday. So
that's on display at Charlie Foxtrott too, So if you
haven't been to Charlie Foxtrott, come check it out.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
That's a great little place.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
Yeah, yeah, super cool. And what I think is super
cool is the ceiling tiles that you can give to
honor a service member and the ceiling has super cool stories.
So try to Fox Brewing is super cool. We're hoping

(51:21):
to collaborate and do a couple more. Uh, celebrity, it's
we're not celebrities by any means. Bartending opportunities, guest bartending, Yeah,
I know.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Nick would really appreciate that. It's a Yeah, it's a
great spot. It's a great owner, veteran owned.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
Tap house in Port Charlotte, so love it all.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
Right, So, uh we're about to wrap up, so uh hey, Jody,
I want to really thank you for your story.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Thank you for your time.

Speaker 5 (51:48):
Yeah, Jodi, thanks for being on with us.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
Thanks you allowing me to share. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Absolutely, and Naomi, it's always fun. It's always uh, as
you can tell, we got we got the squad here today.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Amanda and Jay aren't here, so it's always great to
have you lead in the conversation.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
Well, thank you very much. You know we love collaborating
with you all and rally point and sharing information. I
know this is maybe heard across the country. We're Southwest
Florida Honor Flight SWFL honorflight dot org. There are one
hundred and thirty hubs total across the country. If you

(52:29):
need help finding your local hub, we're more than happy
to help you. There are ten hubs in total in
the state of Florida and we cover seven counties Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardy,
Henry Highlands, Manatee and Sarasota County and so Go to
our website. We're going to have a flight October fourteenth
from Sarasota International Airport and we'd love to have you

(52:53):
guys hang out with us and learn more by going
to our website.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
All right, okay, So for Naomi Copeland and Jody Hammond
along with Paul Pelecchi and producer z Ain't over there.
This is justin Letford Rally Pointers fall out