VPAC Rally Point Radio Show 41 Ron Zaleski

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rally Pointers fall in once again.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Is that time today on Friday for the Rally Point
Radio show with your host Jay Thesarch having away with
Amina Makanu tag community here behind the microphone and we
have the man of course behind the behind the scoreboard
zaying the brain. How are you doing today, folks?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Good doing?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
All right, folks?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's been an interesting week for everyone. I guess we're
all watching TV watching the Shenanigans. Go on a Jane,
what's your point on that? Watching the Shenanigans on TV?
The politics stuff.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I was just gonna say, which ones?

Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yeah, it is interesting, it really is. I hope people
are able to grasp the gravity of this election coming
up and how important it is. It's it may be
the most important election in our history.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Most definitely. I personally don't believe anything on TV and
or online. That's why one I don't watch the news,
and two I like Netflix and Amazon because at least
I can count on that I can be entertained to
expect that. Hey, Matt, but the fact of the matter
is one of the things you need to get the
physical copy, read it before you speak, become knowledgeable, Like

(01:16):
Amanda said, before you comment on it because remember, folks,
we are a demographic that's easily misunderstood and ignored. Don't
add any more amber to the fire. Get informed and
protect our rights. And with that being said, who we
have on our show for today?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
So today we have Sherry Sinclair are giving us an
update on mortgages and lending as it pertains to us
as veterans. And then we also have Michail Scott from
Indelible Solutions. He's going to be talking to us about
the Rebuild Florida program and what that entails and why
it's important for us as veterans to know about it.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
There I no folks, knowledge is power. We have a
great show for you, outstanding.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
And in this segment of our show today, we have
with us Ron Zeleski from The Long Walk Home. Ron,
thanks for being on the show.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Absolutely we're really excited to have you. Your group, The
Long Walk Home has a really interesting story that we're
excited for our listeners to get to hear. So with that,
we want to say thank you for serving. You were
a marine, marine, always a marine, absolutely so.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
And you were worth it.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
See thank you very much exactly. That's I think that's
probably one of the best responses. I've heard only a
few people ever say that. And I said that one
time to somebody when they're I thank you for your service,
I'm like, well you were worth it, and they just
stop in their track and they're like, yeah, they I
don't think they expect that.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
I know they don't. I had one woman crying, Yeah,
it's better than Chris before. I used to Once in
a while, I get angry and then I say stupid things,
you know. But then when the guy told me, he says, well,
this is what I do, and then, you know, because
that's why we were in, and then you let them
deal with it if they were sincere or not exactly. Yep.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well, we're just going to jump right in. Can you
tell us about your background as far as you know,
from the time joining the Marine Corps, what you did
in the Marine Corps and kind of start us off
with that.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Okay, back in nineteen sixty nine, I won the draft lottery.
My number was thirty four, and before I was in
the Marine Corps, I was in the Merchant Marines and
they I was on a ship and we're delivering military
equipment to the a Raps and we had signed a

(03:40):
peace treaty with the Jews, and I said, how can
we do this? I'm seventeen. I even they all laughed
at me and said it's about money. So I'm like,
you know, because I had this whole concept that America
right or wrong and all that, you know. And then
you know, when I got out of Merchant Marines and
I won the draft lottery, there was I went in
the Marines on a buddy plan with the kid I

(04:02):
grew up with, and we both got in trouble, but
he got caught and the only branch that would take
him was the Marines. So we said, well, let's go,
and I'm going in the Marines. I forget. Oh, yeah,
they're all the same. Well I found out they're not.
I went with him and in boot can't be said
to me? He says, if you die, believe you were
in here, I'll never forgive myself. And I said, good,
neither will I.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, so, how did that experience in the Marine Corps
kind of help propel you toward where you are today?

Speaker 3 (04:31):
With the law what happened. I don't believe in killing.
I'm Catholic and I believe, you know, we're Polish unlike
third generation here, so it's real strict Catholic and killing.
You know, you go to hell for that. So I
believed it was wrong, and I went in the Marines
to hurt my parents because my father was World War two.

(04:55):
He said, Aschwitz when they're scraping our relatives off the
floor and he seventeen. My father was drunk. Every day
in my life, I get beat physically or verbally every day.
So I he was big, it's kind of scary, like
you smiled. My father didn't smile.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
He pointed that at Jay. For our listeners, they might
be like, oh gosh, she's scary.

Speaker 5 (05:18):
Too, But.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
That's did that passive aggressive stuff you do when you
were a kid. So I went in the Marine Corps
and my parents said, what are you going in the
Marines for? You don't believe in king. I says, well,
it must be okay because the Church doesn't stop it.
And I wanted to experience what it's like to kill somebody,
and my mother sat there and cried. I regret it

(05:46):
to this day. So when I went in to my
first duty station after boot camp, I went through motivation
of boot camp, where they sent people with a stellar attitude.
And then in my first duty station and I got
into a fight with my commanding officer. Oh, and then
I had orders to go to Vietnam, and he calls

(06:06):
me in his office before then, he says, what do
you think of that? Celeski? I says, I think the
only way you're going to get me over there is
if you change me to a helicopter because I'm not going.
He says, is that right? I said, that's right. And
then you go home on leave. You know, I was
arrogant and nave and angry, you know when I go home,
and I didn't say a word to my parents because

(06:28):
I already heard him enough. And I'm scared. So I
got down on my knees and I says, God, please
help me, because I don't think I have the courage
not to shoot another man. I'm afraid and I want
to live. So I figured, you know what, I'll go
to prison for five years. I'm not going to run
to Canada. I'm going to go to prison for five
years or face a firing squad. And I hope it's

(06:48):
not a firing squad, because back.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Then, yeah, that was still serious business.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
So I go and my orders got changed. I was
supposed to go with five others. They all go, and
my orders were changing, the like, thank you God, you know.
And then a month before I get out, I mean,
one of the guys in these limping and I said,
what happened? He says, we all got shot and two died.
And then I felt, was I a coward? Did I

(07:16):
do the right thing? You know, standing up for my beliefs?
So you know, could I have saved them? Could I
have done?

Speaker 1 (07:22):
You couldn't see the plan at the time.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
No, no, I mean, you know, And so all those
emotions flooded me once. Anger, guilt, shame, all of that.
But it all just boiled down to anger. And before
I got out, I decided, you know what, I'm not
going to wear shoes. They fought for my freedom. I
can do what I want. So I stopped wearing shoes
when I get out of marines. So people would come

(07:46):
up to me and say, hey, how come you don't
wear shoes, and I'd say, I don't feel like it.
You got a problem with that, because I'd fight anybody,
I don't care how big or how many I was.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
I was angry.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
So I did that for thirty three years. And people
stopped asking me and I you know, and I was
a mess. But I had my own business, so I
created my own world. I had a scuba shop and
a health club, so I got to play all the
time and I didn't have to deal with people because

(08:23):
I'm the boss. So I'm not wearing shoes, and I'd
go through the snow and everything. It didn't matter to me.
And then what happened after nine to eleven. I didn't
watch I didn't watch the TV because I didn't want
to see it. And then what happened. I used to

(08:44):
teach little kids to swim. That was like one of
my favorite jobs. So this one little kid, he's tugging
at me like this, you know, in my paint and suit,
you know. And I looked in and he says, how
come you don't wear shoes. That's the first person I
told that thirty three years because it was like God hit,

(09:05):
we were a stick, and so what are you doing.
That's when I realized I'm the problem and I couldn't
live with it anymore because I had, I had made
my own prison. I was a victim. I blamed everybody,
blamed the government, the church, my pa, everybody was everybody's
wop of mind. The government, you do something? You know.

(09:26):
Now I've learned I am the government. I hear this
all the time. Well the government you do something, Well,
you are the government. What are you doing? So I realized,
you know, I used to say somewhat, who cares? It
doesn't matter. I realized one day when I looked in
the mirror.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
I care.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
It matters to me and I could do something. So
I did my first walk. I closed down my business
and I walked the Appalachian Trail barefoot to create awareness.
But it ended up being my penance to forgive myself.
And then I realized, you know, and I went to

(10:05):
an informal hearing and they said a lot of great things.
Are you're doing great? Keep it up. Nothing happened, you know.
I get impatient and I didn't see any change. So
I figured, well, just creating awareness isn't good enough. So
what I'll do is I had a petition and I
had people sign a petition, you know, when I walked
across the country, because that was my second pair for

(10:26):
a while. I walked across the country with a petition,
had people sign it. Then I took it to Washington
I figured now I got it. Now, I got all
these people behind me, and I got a plan. I
got it written out exactly. We want two weeks and
you know, shut down and mandatory counseling. And I went

(10:47):
to Washington and it was like, oh, are You're doing
a great job.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Keep it up.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
Then I realized, I don't go tell somebody what to do.
I do it. Then asked them for help. You know,
like if your car's in a editch and you say
help me, and you're gonna sit on the side drinking
a beer, I'm not gonna help you. But if I'm
pushing for everything worth.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
You're going to help.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
So I opened up a shelter in the keys and
they did that for two years. And I'm always on
a learning curve because of my arrogance and my thinking
I'm the brightest bulb on the tree. I mean, I
had a lesson in humility. So I opened up the shelter,
and you know, we'd help people, but I was judging them,

(11:44):
so I didn't help them, and I didn't give them
any tools. And you know, when I walked across, you know,
and went to Washington, and then you know, gave him
that petition it just well, and that's why I said, like,
why I did the shelter. And then I did the shelter,

(12:04):
and I realized that they can't even hear me, and
I don't have any tools. I'm feeding them, I'm clothing them,
I got a TV. They don't have to do with things.
And so I didn't help them because when I closed
the shelter, they went away and they could care less
about me because they just had a break. But they're
going to still be.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
They just went right back to doing with them.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
And they're punishing themselves because what happened at the shelter
near the end, I had nine guys staying there I
was taking care of and I lived a thousand feet
away taking care of my mother before she died. I
took care of both of my parents. So I'd go
back and forth. And one day I come in in
the morning and I have these conversations with God going

(12:49):
on once in a while, and they say, God, what
are you trying to tell me? Then I realized that
guy was me, because I would have broke that shower
to show you you couldn't help. Then I realized I
hadn't helped anybody there. I judged them all like, you're
a drunk, you got to go to AA. You're you know,
you're a bum, you got to get a job. You
know what. I had to be angry for thirty three

(13:10):
years to figure it out. You know, maybe you've got
to sleep in your puke for a couple of years
to get it. But I'm here when you're ready, and
this is what I will do for you. And this
and like what I do, people would come to me.
So I need money, I said, okay, you got to
take the first word challenge. Well I can't do that, well,
then I can't help you. And when you're ready, you know,
come and see me. And then we help a lot

(13:32):
of people a little bit because most of us don't
need much help. We just need a little shift and
we're good to go. And that's what we do. When
we find somebody that needs a lot of help, then
we send them to somebody that doesn't. That's why I
like what you guys are doing here. And I network
with a lot of people, so like, hey, you know what,
you need more help than I'm able to give you,

(13:53):
I send you to somebody else. Or you need a car,
or you need housing, you go to this group, and
that's why I working, That's why I want Because I'm
walking across the country again, I'm wearing shoes, but when
I walk, I'm going to be wearing a sandwich sign
and that's going to say help us, say veterans, and

(14:15):
the other side is going to be we're walking in
honor of and we'll have the name of a veteran
that took his life after he got home. Because what
people don't realize. I don't know how many civilians are
going to listen to your station, but what civilians don't
get because they say, get over it, and I say, okay,
you raised us, you raise I was raised to be

(14:38):
good and loving my entire life. That killing is wrong.
All of these things are wrong. Now you train me
for twelve weeks to kill, and killing is all right.
So what else is off? Not off the table? I
can do anything. If I can kill, I can burn live, sheet, steel, rate,
it doesn't matter. It's all on the table for me.

(14:58):
Now I go over there and on foot and myself
I'm a non combat vet. But the ones that go
to combat now they're put in a life and desk situation.
Some of them kill, then you pull him out, leave
his weapons behind. You abandoned everybody that protected him, you
said you would protect. Then he comes home and say, oh,

(15:21):
it's about money in politics. I killed a human being
for money, and I have to live with this forever.
Now I believe I'm a monster because I went against
everything I was taught and believed my entire life. And
then you wonder why we're angry and why we kill ourselves.
We come home and people try to take advantage of

(15:42):
us and lie to us, and we were so naive
and innocent and young. Then well, you know, they look
at us now, Oh you're an old man. You know
you should know. I was a kid.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Then what did I know?

Speaker 3 (15:54):
I believed everything. If I wasn't on that freighter, I
probably would have had a whole different I probably would
have been over where they were in learned that way.
But after seeing that, to me, there's another way. I
don't know what it is, but I'm going to do
my part so that they don't have to go through that.
Because I was angry for thirty three years, destroyed every
relationship I had. We're in the prisons. We create monsters,

(16:17):
then we put them in the cage and throw them away.
And then their whole families are destroyed. What are we doing?
So I hope that people walk with us, take the challenges,
because we're all mentors, whether we think we are or not,
because how you show up, you influence your children, you

(16:38):
influence your neighbors. If you're a raging lunatic like I was,
that's not a very good mentor. But when you do this,
when you take these challenges, whether you become a mentor
for us, it helps you in your relationships with your
family because now you have some guided questions to ask
and how to look at it different. Because when I

(16:59):
keep looking at everything the same way with my mind alone,
nothing changes. But you know, if I have a conversation
with you on a certain topic, and then I'll go, wow,
I never looked at it that way. I still learn.
I still take the challenges and I still learn, Oh
my god, I never looked at it that way, And
it helps me go deeper. And one of the biggest

(17:22):
things that I had done that God forgive me, was
I judged you're this, you're that, and then when I'd
find out why a person did it, I'm like, God,
forgive me. I would have done the same thing. So
when I stopped judging and start listening to people and
ask questions. Then I build a relationship with another person,
and then that's that's what heals, that's what's real. Everything

(17:44):
else is made believe. We make up these stories. Oh
they're the enemy, They were a person just like you.
This verbiage they have and you know about you know,
their tyrants or their traitors. No, he's in America with
a different point of view than you. We all want
the same thing. We all want our families to be

(18:04):
taken care. We all want to live in peace. We
all want the same thing, so we do it a
little different, so we compromise. Well, I love this country.
It just bothers me when I see these things going on,
and I know I allowed it to happen because I
set on my hands for thirty three years and blamed
everybody else. So this is my way trying to help

(18:26):
these younger kids, because now that I have a longer view,
I see what happens, and then I can help them
so they don't have to destroy their families and they
can get over their anger. Because we work on gratitude,
We work to create a new mission in life. We
work to heal relationships because we destroy relationships. The divorce
rate of military is like I believe it's in the

(18:49):
ninety percentile. I know it's huge, but we're such a
small part of the population that I think sometimes they
used to use the word phrase. They don't use it anymore.
But we're acceptable collateral damage. If they lost the whole military,
so what because we're like half a percent of the population,
So they could live without us. But they don't realize

(19:10):
we impact the entire population because we affect twenty five
people around us, and our families are in the impacts
child abuse, spousal abuse, drug alcohol abuse, incarceration. I mean,
our numbers are not good. And the suicide rate ten
times as many guys kill themselves as opposed to dye

(19:32):
in combat a sure, and that is unacceptable to me.
I mean to the day that we can learn to
negotiate and prove that we're the smartest creature on the planet,
you know, But until that time, this works. I've seen
it work. It changes lives quick. You can do it
in four hours, and you do it with a person,

(19:53):
it makes a huge shift.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
I have to agree. First of all, thank you for
your sacrifice.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
You welcome old headed giant. Did I say that? Right?
She did?

Speaker 2 (20:09):
I will say that one of the things that we
don't look at and I remember distinctly in the army,
and a little background about myself, I used to go
around the classes of I believe it was let me
get my numbers right here, eight and above, to teach
them what to look for in their companies for potential
suicide signs. And one of the things that we focused

(20:31):
on is language. And you can be judgmental without trying
to be judgmental. For example, what's wrong with you versus
what's going on with you? What's wrong implies you're messed up.
What's going on means you're actually inquisitive, non judgmental. Please
open up and share something. A person's less lucky to
tell what's going on. When they think something, you give
the prejudice perception of something for you doing something wrong

(20:55):
and now you're going to be punished for it that
I can open up. So language is everything. And I
have to agree that when we start labeling our own
enemies and traders, words carry meaning and I and again
I go back to the histories of like I think
I hear a trade, I'm thinking about you know, Donald,

(21:16):
am I going, that's a Judas in the half right there, folks,
And that is a perception. And I'm from a biblical person. Judas.
You think about betrayal and those words carry hurtful meanings
and it creates hateful attitudes without saying much. And when

(21:36):
we talk about veterans as a whole, I agree. I
I always believed I was an MP the weapons that
the weapon is not the firearm, the weapons, the person
holding the firearm, what's going on in their head for
for the situation to go down? And right now you're
racing to de escalate the situation of going, okay, buddy,

(21:57):
what did I miss? And then the minutes, hour and
a half, three hours, whoever it takes for him to
put that down and trust you enough you're not trying
to screw him over and tell him he needs help.
Then I, as a law enforcement and individual, I am
abide by duty to find you help, not going to
incarcerate you. First, We're going to take it to the hospital,

(22:17):
then going to attach to the journey, and then we'll
take from there for the counselors. But again, I'm appreciative
of your your perception of how language and communication can
be implied by what we do and what we've done,
and having the courage to do what you've done and
acknowledging your self anger. That's the part of healing. That's

(22:39):
when healing begins, when you say I'm there with this,
and hopefully after this interview, your message goes out to
other veterans and their families. And I will say that
although civilians won't be kindly to listen to our radio show,
but they will know somebody who's been affected by it.

(22:59):
There's no question, and especially where we're located in southern
southwest Florida, there's no question that our community in Charlotte
County were almost forty thousand veterans individuals strong. And I'm
the factor. Before you came in, I said, that's one
that's one veteran, and usually it's either a spouse or

(23:20):
children attached to that number. So then those numbers are
definitely larger than forty thousand that will be impacted by
one single veteran. And I think it's honorable what you've
done with the whole walking from the keys all the
way to where you walking give San Diego, San Diego
to raise awareness because I will guarantee you where every state,

(23:40):
wherever place you walk through will have been impacted one
way or another with suicide from a veteran.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
The most so crushing thing that happened. And this is
what I'm not looking forward to, but it's going to
happen every day. I'd meet a parent that lost a
child to suicide and they took full responsibility for it.
They did not blame they They blame themselves, and that
is unacceptable to me. I want America to see that
because we're gonna have live coverage every day, because I

(24:09):
want them to see the impact of wars, because they
don't know the cost of war. We know the cost.
We would do anything to avoid a war where somebody
else who doesn't send their kid over on the front.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Line, people who are in it for politics and money,
think nothing of it. Were pawns, So they send us
because we're expendable, where like you said earlier, acceptable collateral damage.
And so I think it's wonderful that you're it's heartbreaking,
but it's wonderful in the sense that people need to
see the ugly side of war and the fallout of it, because,

(24:46):
like you're saying, you know these veterans they've committed suicide.
That's egregious and awful enough, but on top of that,
now you have families who are hurting. You have parents, siblings,
significant others who are left behind, who are trying to
pick up pieces. And in the immediate people you know,

(25:08):
seem to kind of come around them and you know,
circle around them and try to take care of them.
But then you know, a month later, a year later,
five years later, ten years later, what support is there
for them? And that's I think so important that you're
bringing visibility to that and that you are putting that

(25:31):
on the national conscience and putting that in the front
of people's minds to see that this is what is happening,
and this is the truth. This is the reality of
where we're at with trying to combat veterans suicide for
not just the veteran to preserve their life, but for
the families, for those that would potentially be left behind.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
One of the places we have the biggest impact is
in the prison system because it's not like the movies.
You know, I've been going for a while over a
year now and have been to death roll a bunch
of times, and how some of these because you'd have

(26:15):
to go to experience it. But this is where we
have the biggest impact because you go to a group
that hardly has any hope and we give them hope,
and you know, they think, oh, well, they're in prison.
They don't have an impact. They communicate with their families
on the outside. We had a woman that was crying
to me because her son is fifteen on the outside

(26:38):
talking suicide. She's in here. I couldn't you couldn't torture
me worse than that. We helped her so that she
knew what to say to her son. The next time
I saw her, she was happy as a clan because
she talked to her son and she used the program
and worked with him with some of the the challenges

(27:00):
we taught her. It's amazing. And then you know, these
people are going to get out, and if you don't
give them some tools when they get out, they're going
to end up coming right back in because they're going
to deal with it. They're going to go right back
to the way they did it, and they don't have
a safety net, most of them. You know, we have
a safety net because we have a family, somebody who

(27:21):
loves us. So if you get screwed up there. You know,
you've got a place to sleep and you might have
somebody to'll help you get a lawyer. These guys don't
have that. They get thrown under the bus and thrown away.
And this is where we have the hugest impact because
it's like putting water on the desert with these people,
and it impacts from.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
There on out.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
We're working, we're now in the process. They're given this
program to the guards in the prison.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Oh yeah, definitely, no question.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, and that is you. You're in jail too, Yeah,
and they're angry and they take it out on the prisoners.
And once we get this because I told them and
they came up with this, the prisoners, they said, you
know what, she says, I'm not a prisoner, I'm a hostage.
And I says, you know what, you're a hostage, being

(28:15):
a hostage as a consequence of your actions. But yeah,
you were a hostage, and hostages work together to get
out or prisoner fights everybody. Yes, So they're looking at
it like this, and they're also looking at it like
this is their monastery to change, to be better when
they get out, to make the world a better place

(28:37):
instead of destroy it.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
And like we had mentioned here earlier, I don't expect
civilians to fix our problems. That's that's a pipe dream.
And I will say, excuse me for seeing politicians or
in that category, they make promises when they need votes.
When they get the votes, they may get very short.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
You know, I'm going to just I've been to Washington
a couple times. I do not want to go back.
I'll tell you that right now. But when I went
there and first kind of got the concept of what's
going on because I'm naive about it. I just think
it's one guy. He's got a team of thirteen people
working under him in every county and they all working.

(29:19):
He's got twenty year olds working on welfare, homelessness, drug abuse,
I mean, all these major topics. He doesn't have time. Look,
I have enough trouble taking care of what little I do,
and I'm a one man. Well I have a little
team of three people and I'm getting more volunteers. But
here's a guy dealing with the whole state, No I agree,

(29:41):
and all these issues. So for him to focus on
one thing, I get it, you know, because somebody that's
given him money or somebody they need a bridge because
a bridge blew up. You know, then this goes on
the back burner because we're reactive. You know, something happens.
I got to take care of it now. This Hey,
the veteran thing has been going on for one hundred years.

(30:01):
You know we can we can slough that off. That's
why I want people to work with us, so they
can see, Oh, this is votes. If I don't do
something because all these people are behind it, I might
not get elected next year.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
We'll find somebody who will. Yeah, hopefully preferably another veteran.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
Oh yeah, yeah, because they know the cost of one.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yes, most definitely. And one of the things you touched
on earlier today was treatment versus prevention. I think treatment
is too late. If you're treating something that means you've
passed the rubicon. We're beyond. We're trying to treat whatever
you got going on right now, whereas prevention is just

(30:46):
before you hit that slip down that slope. We can
grab or give your hand up and ask the question
what's going on and then prevent that eventual demise and fall.
Could you explain to us kind of how you feel
about that, your philosophy, and we spoke on that earlier,
well treatment versus.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
Yeah, well if you get that's why I when I
originally went, I went to Washington to get it. In
the military before they left mandatory, everybody gets it. We've
put you in lockdown for two weeks because like, if
we can put you in boot camp to kill for
twelve weeks, maybe we could spare two weeks to have

(31:24):
you go through intensive programs on you know, a lot
of issues and to self reflect because if you don't
self reflect, and it might be difficult because when you're
at that age getting out, you're still bulletproof and you're
just thrilled you're going to get out. But you have
to I believe, you really have to put it on

(31:45):
their radar. And what like we do is we just
make you shift your perception. And since you would have
all these therapists, I would rather see them spend tons
of money on therapists and then have these guys in
lockdown and you do like a program for like one
hundred and something people a clip and then you have
all these therapists around. We see somebody that's he's struggling,

(32:05):
you pull him aside and work on him, and you
help them so when they go home, I mean, I
still deal with anger, but back then it was off
the hook. I mean, I quit drinking because my wife,
my ex wife, was pregnant, but our first child. She

(32:27):
slapped me and I was drunk. When the fog cleared,
I had her on the ground, my hand on her throat,
and I was about to smash her face. And then
I realized I just became my old man, and I
did not want my children to grow up ashamed of me.

(32:49):
That's today, I quit drinking. So if you get guys
before that, I might still be married to the first
one because I would have been the same because I
blamed her. It's her fault.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
We got to work.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
No, it's you your ahole. But I couldn't see that
because I was in denial. So they have therapists that
have it. Ours, like I said, is a little bit,
and I would do like a program like that to
empower them, to help them shift because you're going from
a world where extreme prejudice. Now we're going to a

(33:24):
world where it's got gray and white and black. And
you know, you got to be careful what you say
in the militaryation brief. Yeah, you know, Okay, somebody bothers.
You you annihilate them. That's it, We're done with it.
You can't do that out here. And then you got
to be careful because people are so sensitive, you know.
Oh my god, you know your pronoun or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
I hate to say it, but it's like that in
the military nowadays too. So right before I'm retired, you
had to be extremely careful.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
What you said, well, I really got to tag when
you get stressed. You can hold card.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
That's an army thing. I can't. The Air Force can't
vouch for that. They have stressed cards and they have
time out cards.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Right, sergeant, you are I feel you're stressing me out.
An I'm a car to leave you alone, I might
go well. In the military, if you if you have
to go down range and defend our country's honor, you're
gonna be stressed out.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Oh yeah, your feelings will be hurt. You won't be
able to hand the enemy a stress card and go
can you come back in ten minutes? You can't do that.
So but yeah, it's it is a different world for sure,
where you know, you can't just be as straightforward as
people used to be, you know, and people would at
least take that for what it was and not be

(34:51):
upset about it nowadays, you.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
Know, like you said, you know, I mean I look,
I see things evolve in a way, and then I
see things going downhill. So it's hard to say. I mean,
I always hope, being the eternal optimist, that things are
getting better and we have to go through some hard
times till we get that, because yeah, I mean, look,
when I was in school, I'm Polish and there was

(35:14):
a lot of Germans, and it was not too long
after World War Two when they're talking about we're going
to burn the rescue, We're going to cook the rescue,
and gracious, you know, so I get it. Each race has, like,
you know, their things, you know, the Black and the Whites,
and the Irish and the English. I mean, you know,
but we're all humans at the end of the day.

(35:36):
I mean, I'm sorry, I just kind of got off
on a tangent here.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
No, not at all, because one thing that you learned
in the army, and one of the things I'm a
big proponent of old school boot camp is because it
breaks you. It breaks down the civilian that you had,
all those misconceptions, all those pressures that you made you
came with. They're going to break it out of you.
And after nine weeks you're not going to learn whatever
your mos is going to be, or wherever your job

(36:01):
will be in the military, and you learn very quickly
you need air, you need blood. Legs have been one
color red and your battle next to you. Mtight me
give you a quick pint. If it's the same blood type,
that's what you need to care about. The flag on
your right shoulder is a thing you need to protect
at all times, and go remember this, your battle buddy
is your savior. Unfortunately, I fear that since we mistreated

(36:23):
our past veterans, has kind of reverberated up saying, well, OK,
the only veterans, they are expendable, we'll just get more. No,
it's very simple. Society goes, well, I'm not going to
join the military, and now your number to no. Lack
of appreciation of the veterans who we have still with us,
we'll have an effect of how we take care of
our youth today.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
I think also it's a matter and this is speaking
as a parent of an eighteen year old. They see
how military members and veterans are treated. Yes, that is
another that is probably one of the biggest deterrence to
recruiting is honestly, a lot lot of military kids they
don't want to serve because they saw what their parents
went through. They saw what happened after their parents left

(37:06):
the military, and they don't feel inclined to deal with
that themselves. And to some degree, I understand that.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Well. Also, look, I didn't realize what I put my
parents through. And when my boys came of age, I'm like,
please God, I don't want them to go in a
peace corps or anything. You know, why when you you
know the statistics, you know eighty five percent of the
women are sexually abused that go in the military ten
times as many guys kill themselves after they get out.

(37:36):
Why would you want to subject your son to that?
And after they come home it wasn't like they defended
our freedom. And you know what, I apologize. I shouldn't
even make comments like this because I don't have the
intel to make even have an intelligent conversation. Because there
are a time where you need to defend yourself and
you need you need that period, and I get that,

(37:59):
but it doesn't look like it's that way all the time.
Like in the Middle East from what I understand. The
war was over in three weeks. To drag it out
for twenty years. I mean, what's that all about?

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Politics and money?

Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah, so that that upsets me. So I know we
have a war. You let the generals want it, not
a politician. That's like having your twelve year old that
failed me through your taxes.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
One of the things I want to touch on, Ron
is that I would say thank you. One of the
things I've learned in this journey of the rally point
is that one of the reasons for it is because
there's been a deafening silence, suffering in silence, and veterans arelike,
we've just become masters of this. Unfortunately, we never thought

(38:45):
how impactful our science of our you know, I mean
by living in suffering in science, our personal issues we
kept buried down and locked up, even we dealt with
them when it started intervere. It's ugly head with booze.
Drugs are alcohol, and it's time for us to break
that silence down because right now, in my opinion, that

(39:10):
we are so needed in our natural consciousness that until
we learn to appreciate ourselves and see the vow that
we have with our past experience is bad or good,
than our civilian communities cannot grasp the valuary that they're losing.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
You know. The other thing too, is we have learned
skills that the civilians don't have. So we have a
bigger impact than we think we do because when we
as a group collectively do something, even though we're a
small percentage, it changes the needle on what's going on
in this country because we're disciplined, we know how to lead,

(39:53):
you know, we know how to stick with something, we
know how to show up on time. That's huge and
we we need this country. But we have to create
a new mission. My mission has changed. Okay, I'm not
in the military anymore to defend the country in that aspect,
but now now is the time to be turned from
warrior to leader because you cannot be a good leader,

(40:17):
in my opinion, unless you've been a warrior. Then you
know every facet of it. So that's why I say
like to not have the politicians run over more have
the military because that's what they were trained for, that's
what they do and they're better served to it to
do it. But you know that's just me.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Well, so, in speaking about the long walk home, what
can you tell our listeners about, like the kind of
support that your group has received from the community and
how that's helped you guys accomplish your mission.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
Well, we've had people become mentors, and.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
What does that entail is that in the prison groups.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Well, that's what they do is on our website, we
have ten Challenges service and they can sign up and
do that with another person and it's like I said,
it's ten questions and you have this conversation and that
helps you shift. You know, we used to have like
people want to volunteer and say okay, but now if
you want to volunteer for me, so you've got to

(41:21):
take the ten challenges first, because what I found that
people say oh I want to volunteer, that doesn't mean
they're going to volunteer. And also a lot of these
people that say oh I want to volunteer, I want
to come to the party your having, eat all your food,
listen to the entertainment, and go and they have no
idea what we do. So if you don't take the

(41:42):
challenges and understand what we're doing, why we do it,
then you're not on board with me and why waste
your time? In mind fair.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
So that's and what was the.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Question As far as what kind of support have you
gotten from the community to the.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Well, they Englewood has been phenomenal with us, the Chamber
of Commerce there, let's me use their building whenever we want.
They you know, they help promote us. You know they're
gonna have people go walk with us. You know they
have they help us raise money, They raise money for us.

(42:19):
They raise money because you know, it's not cheap to
do these programs and then go to administer it to
the prison because we have the same expenses as a
regular business.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
Absolutely, and I think a lot of people think that
when you're you know, a nonprofit or some kind of
certain entity, that it just means that, like all your
bills are paid, like you you've written your own ticket,
and that's that's really couldn't be further from the truth.
I mean, if you really want a program run right,
once the public funding runs out or whatever kind of
funding you receive, there's still a need if you're doing

(42:52):
it right. So that's wonderful to hear that the community
has come together around you. And as far as for
your big walk coming up from QYS to San Diego,
what is what is your timeline for that? So you're
going to start your walk to.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
Go back just a second. And you asked how I
got support in the community, like the post one point
fifine they gave us money towards this cause.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Awesome.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
Yeah, so there everybody steps up and mainly individuals who
have been impacted by what we do. Absolutely they are
the ones because they see what we do and they
impacted their lives. And just a story like the police
department called me up. They said, we have a vet

(43:42):
we'd like you to talk to and they've tried talking
to him. They get nowhere in house. I go talk
to this guy and this was a guy. Okay, just
to give you a little background, this kid was an
honor student, like one of these, you know, like the
one you want to see in the uniformal addressed and yeah,
the poster child. That's the word I'm looking for. So

(44:04):
he was the poster child and he was an honor student.
He goes over there, he comes back, he's got mental
couple of mental illnesses going on because of the stress
of what happened. He's running around the streets screaming, talking
to invisible people. And then I talked to him and

(44:25):
he calmed down and he says, how did you do it?
We've been working for days with this guy, sat down
with him for two hours. You come here in fifteen
minutes and you've got this guy and what happened is
he says, I know you. A week ago I saw
a guy struggling with a bike. I stopped and said,

(44:45):
can I help you out? He says no, I'm fine.
So you don't know the impact you have if you
reach out to a stranger and like you say, hey,
how's things going? You know, can I help you? We're
so afraid of one another now, But just to do that,
look at the impact.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
And I have the that kit exactly, so.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
You know, people think, oh, you know, I didn't do anything.
You have no idea. I'm just lucky once in a
while to find out the impact I had. But that's
up to all of us. That's what we should all do.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
That's how you mentor absolutely well with that. How can people,
you know, for our listeners today, if they want to
support the long walk home, how can they do that?
But before we get to that, to back up for
a second, you're walking from QS to San Diego, Like
we said, what is your timeline for.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
That, Well, I'm starting nine to eleven and I'm going
to do twelve miles a day, but that you know,
it's a fluid thing, a live thing, because I know
the first day there's no way I'm walking twelve miles
because I'm starting at three. I just know that, because
I'm going to be stopped. And we have like a
bunch of people with us.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Typical military operation. Keep it realistic. But build yourself some cushion.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
Yeah yeah, well well I don't have much of a
cushion right now. So but that's that's the plan. And
you know, and people can help support us by walking
with us. They can come in a golf cart on
a horse. They can go online take the challenges.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Where can they find your route so that they can.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
Will be online.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
It'll'll be on the long walk home Dotor okay.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
And then they can help support us, you know, because
we have all sorts of donate buttons on there and
they can wonder if that because you know, we spend
twenty grand on the camper. We spent a couple grand
on the workbooks that we're going to be handing out
to people. Plus we've got gas, plus you know, I
would like to eat, right. I just went and bought
two pairs of sneakers to see how civilians do it. Yeah,

(46:53):
you know, so there's a lot of expenses people don't see.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
They think, oh, you're going to need more than that.
You're going to need more skin, You're gonna eat. No,
I'm kidding. Who am I kidding? You used to walk
around barefoot. You probably have callouses thicker than any mole
skin out there.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
Not now, but back then I did. I had one
day when I was on the trail, I've had some
gum on my foot. So I scraped the gum off
and there was something shiny under it. I had a
three sixteen inch staple in my foot.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Oh my god, and that gum helped get it out.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
No, the gum just hid it. Oh gosh. I just
didn't know it was there because my calluses was so thick.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Holy cow. Well, we just honestly, it's been fantastic talking
with you and hearing your story. You definitely I was
going to say, I think your story kind of covered
a lot of the bases, like the good, the bad,
the ugly, the heartbreaking, but also realistic. Yeah, the triumphant.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
We gotta be real. We keep lying to ourselves and
one another. We're not going to go anywhere. If I
buy your excuse, you're gonna buy mine. So let's just
lie to one another and little smoke exactly.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
The thing I like about it is that you don't
try to talk about it like you're on the other
side of it, like there is no other side. It's
a it's a constant walk. It's a constant journey. That's
what life is. And I love that through even just
the name of the Long Walk Home, you capture that
and so people know that they're not alone, that they
don't have to walk alone.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Yeah, and our website is the Loongwalkhome dot org. And
I also wrote a book and Being Polish in a Marine.
It took me fourteen years to write the books.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Daring that spell check that was hard and all the
krans you went through. No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
They had to explain that to me because I'm you know,
we're using rocks and sticks, so we're talking about crans.
What are you guys talking about.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
I had a senior and CEO one time when I
was an airman who he would say stuff like a
long time ago and dinosaurs around the Earth, and I
hunted them with spears and we were like, didn't get it.
But as I got further in my career, I ended
up becoming that person who wants hunted dinosaurs with spears
in the eyes of my airman's yeah it happens. But yeah,

(49:12):
thank you so much for being on the show. We
are excited to follow your journey and just get a
chance to circle back with you after you make your
walk and just talk to you more about all the
good stuff that's to come with a little when I come.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
I'll be coming through here in October, so I'll be
coming right up forty one, so i'd love.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
To sounds like we got to make a date. Yeah, sure,
spoken like a trumery all right, Ladies and gentlemen, Ron's
aleski at the Long Walk Home. Please go on at
the Long Walk Home dot org to see his route
for his walk from Key West to San Diego, California,
and how you can help support, whether it's through donations,

(49:53):
walking with Ron, whatever the case might be. Take those
ten challenges. That's homework for me as well. So I'm
preaching to the choir, I guess in some regards, Serges too.
So yes, so we will be on this journey with you.
Thank you again so much for being on the show today.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
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(51:16):
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Speaker 1 (51:33):
Up and roll out, and that's all the time we
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(51:58):
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And with that, Rally Pointers fu out.

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Speaker 5 (52:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
Every day the men and women of the United States
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Speaker 2 (53:08):
The few, the proud, The Marines