October 18, 2023 • 53 mins
This episode is one you don't want to miss - Paul Wade, a seasoned veteran and 10th generation Texan, joins us on the Hometown Hero Outdoors podcast. Paul, with over 22 years of military service and two Purple Hearts to his name, brings a wealth of wisdom and experience. As he shares how his deep family ties to the military have shaped his life, you'll feel a newfound appreciation for the dedication of our servicemen and women.
We also spotlight the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans organization. Paul, as the commander of the American Legion Post 196 in Texas, gives us an inside look at the organization's work, from maintaining social spaces and computer labs for veterans to arranging dinners during meetings. And it doesn't stop there. Paul lets us in on the myriad of grants, programs, and scholarships that many veterans might not even know exist. With touching stories of those who have benefited from these resources, it's clear that help is available in many forms.
Above all, we discuss a critical issue - suicide prevention among veterans. The American Legion's efforts to provide free seminars on this topic are crucial, and we delve into how we can all contribute to this cause. Paul emphasizes the vital role that family and community play in supporting our veterans, drawing from his own experience as a volunteer driver. We round off the discussion with details of the upcoming American Legion Post 196 Shotgun Shootout, a fundraiser dedicated to aiding veterans. Tune in to learn more about this noble cause and how you can support our hometown heroes.
Produced by Phil Ewert Productions
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
In the land of 10,000 lakes, a remarkable movement
was born.
Welcome to Hometown HeroOutdoors.
We are dedicated to honoringour military service members,
veterans and first responders byproviding them with
unforgettable outdoorrecreational opportunities.
We believe those who haveserved and sacrificed so much
(00:25):
for our country and communitiesdeserve a chance to reclaim
their spirit and find healing inthe great outdoors.
This is Hometown Hero Outdoors.
Welcome to the Hometown HeroOutdoors podcast.
(00:51):
Here is your host, chrisTaitrow.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And we have another Wednesday here at the Hometown
Hero Outdoors podcast.
Welcome back everyone.
I thank you for tuning in today.
We have a very good episode fortoday that we're going to
discuss an individual who has avery colorful history and we're
excited to have him here.
His name is Paul Wade and wealso have Sean Olesberg here who
is our serving vice president,so we're going to hop into
(01:32):
Paul's bio here.
Paul has quite the experience.
So Paul has 22-plus years ofmilitary service.
Plus he has 40 years ofexperience creating,
implementing and marketinginnovative training and research
programs for training OEMcompanies, aircraft
manufacturers if I can talk aircarriers, us and foreign
militaries, gaming,manufacturing and integration
(01:55):
companies, universities andvocational technology schools.
He has placed him in a uniqueposition of being one of the few
people in the world who hasworked in all five areas
military, gaming, entertainmentand commercial and manufacturing
, support of the virtualsimulation and training
industries.
These years of experience, plusan extensive background in
developing and running smallbusinesses, has provided him
(02:17):
with a totally uniqueperspective toward both the
marketing and implementation oftraining and support programs.
This experience and operationalexpertise is what is needed to
assist the American Legion andits different programs expand
the training and support roles.
They need to bring a strongworking knowledge of different
programs available to theveterans and their families
(02:38):
within the American Legion.
He has been approached by manypeople and companies and a
couple publications on how hemight use experience as a
consultant and small businessowner to assist these different
groups to structure their futurewithin the industry.
He has decided it's time forhim to take up the issue and
respond to these requests.
So, paul, thank you very much.
I'm just going to kind of goover a little bit here and we'll
(03:00):
touch on these things a littlebit throughout the evening.
So we have you as being formerArmy.
You have served in manydifferent roles being enlisted.
You're a non-commissionedofficer.
You ended up being a warrantofficer and a commissioned
officer.
So that's pretty unique for ourworld.
Yeah, wow is right.
He has an honorable discharge.
(03:21):
He's also retired and 90%disabled.
So, paul, thank you for beinghere and thank you for your
service and your time, yoursupport, and then also represent
the American Legion.
So thank you very much and aPurple Heart recipient.
Purple Heart.
I missed that part.
I apologize.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
You didn't even put it on.
Well, actually I have twoPurple Hearts, but yes, two,
thank you man.
Yeah, first one was in 69,second one was in 72.
It only took him 52 years togive me my Purple Hearts, from
when I was wounded.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
But Reps John.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Carter and his team actually got it for me.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That's awesome.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about yourself?
Who are you, where are you from, where do you live currently
and what does life look likecurrently?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Well, I'm 10th generation Texan.
My family moved into Texas in1802.
I live in a little town calledBrownwood, Texas, which is up
towards Abilene.
I've been a pilot, flew MedevacAir Rescue and Rescue
Helicopters, among other things,With the area that we're in.
(04:26):
That's pretty much where we arenow.
I'm the commander of theAmerican Legion Post 196 in
Texas.
I stress that because severalstates have a Post 196, but ours
is in Texas and Brownwood.
I'm also now have been honoredto be selected as the regional
lead for 19 posts throughoutthis region for the state of
(04:46):
Texas and the 21st district.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
That's phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
We're trying to work with people in this area.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
So that's phenomenal.
Let's touch on your upbringing.
So you said you're a 10thgeneration Texan.
I'm assuming you got somemilitary roots in your history.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
My dad, guadalcanal, iwo Jima, lady Gulf.
Both his brothers served oneverything from the enterprise
to the Yorktown to many otherneighbors.
All three of them were Navy.
I was Army and the familybefore I had my grandfather was
a Doughboy.
He was one of the 113th fieldartillery in World War One.
(05:28):
Back to you, go back from there.
One of my family members wasthe survivor of the Alamo.
He was the courier that wentout the 12th night with letter
and mails and systems.
It was the 13th night when itfell, and so my family's been in
the military and fought for therights of others for a long
time.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Wow, that's amazing.
I mean that's rich, that's alot of history and I appreciate
your family and you and yourservice and everything you've
done.
That's pretty amazing.
I know I'm one of the first.
Well, we have a couple in myfamily, but not that far back.
That's amazing.
So, paul, let's talk a littlebit about your upbringing in the
area and how.
(06:05):
I mean, obviously, your familyhas helped support the military
service in our republic over theyears and getting things for
our freedoms to be secure andwhatnot.
So what got you into themilitary, outside of your family
and the tradition and being ared blooded American?
Like how did you get throughthat?
And then what did you join?
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Pretty much.
That's exactly what that means.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Your military, your family.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I was, yeah, my family was.
But my father was with thegovernment service, with the FAA
, as an air traffic controllerand later worked in many other
areas with the FAA and wetraveled around the world some
with that.
The reason I got the military Iwas at the University of
Tennessee, played littlefootball, did little other
things there.
University of Tennessee, atMartin, tennessee, not Knoxville
(06:53):
it's the smaller of the twoschools, but the process of
doing that was an ROTC schooland we got more and more
interested in what we werecoming in.
Having been raised around themilitary and raised in strength
for the family, I decided that'sthe direction I wanted to go.
So in 1969, I joined themilitary.
68, excuse me.
(07:13):
I joined the military and I wasin Alto for 22 and a half years
Alto.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
So how did you pick to become a pilot?
Was that from your dad being inthe aviation field?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Well, I was flying crop dusters when I was 14 years
old and I was flying other oddsand ends as I was growing up
and my dad being in the aviationand I thought I could fly a lot
better than had to wade throughmud and water, so I wasn't
interested in being an infantryofficer.
So I went into the as aenlisted man and signed up to be
a crew chief, maintenance chiefon the helicopters.
I later, as an NCO, wentthrough Keesley Air Force Base
(07:50):
at Biloxa, mississippi, andbecame an air traffic controller
based at Henshey Tower at FortRooker, alabama.
From there I got a chance andwent to flight school and became
a warrant officer.
My first tour as you know fromthe bio that you've got there,
my first tour in Vietnam wasMarch of 69 through 70.
And then I came.
(08:12):
After that I came back to theStates.
I had gotten a battlefieldcommission from warrant to first
lieutenant never was a secondwent straight to first a
battlefield commission and afterthat I started with the 82nd
Airborne for a period of time asthe commander of Alpha Company,
the second aviation battalion,the second airborne Out of
Simmons Army airfield.
For those of you that ever werearound the 82nd, you know where
(08:35):
that airfield is, there on thebase at Fort Bragg.
But then then my second tour.
I was a captain and went backto Vietnam, flew Chinooks and
little birds A lot of guys don't, oh, it's sixes, the little
ones.
Then I became a Medevac AirRescue pilot.
I've got 1550, 1560 combatmissions, of which 400 plus are
(09:00):
Air Rescue.
A Medevac Air Rescue mission incombat.
I flew in with the, with theNorth, with the assigned to the
Air Force advisory team, one outof Da Nang, and I flew in
Vietnamese aircraft withVietnamese crews.
I taught the mechanics at nightand I've taught the pilots were
flying during the day.
Later I was assigned over withthe Air Force and flew A-37, the
(09:23):
Dragonfly we call them TweetyBirds but the A-37 fighter.
And then when, upon returning Iflew three different National
Guards, the Texas National Guard, the Georgia National Guard,
the Missouri National Guard overthe years and the US Army I'm
one of a very few men I hold theOklahoma Star Valor for life
saving as a Guardsman, the TexasMirator Service Award for life
(09:46):
saving as a Guardsman and theArmy Reserve Meritorial
Commodation Medal from theMissouri Guard for some work in
that same kind of area.
So I have a support in allthree of those zones.
My background in education came,as I did some training and
teaching at Georgia Tech inaerospace and engineering, but I
(10:06):
became pretty well known forbeing able to integrate
technology and systems.
So over the years as a pilot,then later working as a MACV
International Training withother militaries, I've trained
with the Brazilians, theJapanese, with the English and
other citizen instructor insupport Over the time developing
(10:30):
training programs andintegrating programs.
I didn't develop the computerbased training.
People worked and did that.
My job was to integrate thattechnology into the training
environment for the end user.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So just a couple things.
Is it what you're saying?
Just did a couple things.
You've been a busy man.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
One or two.
One or two and.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I sat on here too, you got some experience as a
military police officer.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
I commanded the 258th military police company at Fort
Polk, Louisiana.
It was a Stratforce comm unit.
Later was military policeinvestigation.
I flew the.
We did work on that area.
But we also did work, as in theMPI, on the ranges with the
helicopters doing recovery ofstolen equipment and this kind
of stuff on the ranges out ofFort Polk and elsewhere.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I've been to Fort Polk a couple times and it was,
it was Fort Polk.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
That's as good a word for it as any I could say in
public, but it was Fort Polk.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Glad I'm not at Fort Polk anymore, so I was at North
Fort.
So when we had hadpre-deployment we ended up in
North Fort.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
You always knew you were in trouble.
When you heard, you thought itwas the helicopters and it was
the mosquitoes coming in andmass.
But we'll leave that one.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Ain't that the truth, oh man.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, those things would carry you away.
It was the size of sparrows.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
After that resume.
Chris, it sounds like you and Imay need to step it up a little
bit.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, we got a few things to do here.
I think Paul's got us, but youknow, the cool part about Paul,
too, is, though, that you have avery colorful history, but also
that you're continuing to serve, you know, and I think that's
phenomenal.
So we know that you, like youmentioned before about the
American Legion and what you'recontinuing to do here, and you
share a passion with us, andthat's what our soldiers and our
(12:16):
troops making sure thateveryone is safe and they have a
good place to find theirresources, to go out and get the
help that they need Do you wantto talk about?
You know what your involvementwas, how you got involved in
American Legion and how it'sprogressed over the years.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I'm going to start by the point that a lot of guys
been there, done that, as youwill and hear it.
I'm PTSD, I have the.
I have to go through some ofthe programs that are involved
If we have to understand thatwhen we talk to the people out
there, a lot of folks don'tunderstand what that means and
what how that fits in thestructure.
With that said, I was given thehonor of being elected the
(12:52):
commander of the post here inBrownwood about a year and a
half ago.
We only had 15 members I'm Ijust turned 76 and I was one of
the youngest ones at the timewhere, with great pride, say
that we now have 50, 58, 56, andgrowing.
We'll be over 100, lordWillemba, for the end of the
year.
The American Legion.
(13:12):
People look at it and say, well, is it?
Is it the VFW?
No, is it the?
Or you're funded by the USgovernment?
No, and as late as last week,people have asked me that very
thing oh well, you gotgovernment funding?
No, we don't.
Our funding is from the goodpeople and the that want to help
.
You've got 38 to 40 differentprograms and yours being one of
(13:33):
them that says get, got aproject, you can help.
You can help us with somefunding, help us with the
veterans and what we can do outthere, and that's great.
But the what we wanted to do isturn our post into a training
and standardization post.
It means we're the family theveteran can come in, they can
get.
We have computer labs, we havea day room where they can visit,
we have ability to have dinnerswhen we have our meetings and
(13:56):
we and we have a ability tobring VSOs, veteran service
officers.
The American Legion has its own,we've got the VA, you've got
the Texas Veterans Commission,you've got the DAV, but the
American Legion has its own theveteran service officers and we
wanted to make those availableto the people.
We've got some good folks inthis area trying to help.
(14:17):
I'm not going to knock those,but you got two men trying to
support over 3000.
It you just can't be everywhere, you can't do everything, and
we're trying to figure out howto do it.
One of the problems we have isthat the VA clinics don't have
social workers right now.
Most of them don't.
They don't have an on sitepeople to help to tell the
(14:38):
veteran or the veteran's familywhat kind of services, what kind
of help.
They can get Survivor benefits,where can they go get home
health care and this kind ofthing, and part of what I'm
trying to do is to to fix that,to try to get it where we can
put something together.
The American Legion received itscharter as an organization
March 6, 1919 in Paris, france.
(14:59):
We are the largest of theveterans organizations in the
nation.
The Legion itself has over twomillion members, the sons of the
Legion has another almostmillion and the auxiliary has
almost a million, and so we'relooking at close to four million
members in 12,000 posts in all50 states, nine territories and
(15:22):
five foreign countries, and anyof those a Legionary, can walk
in there and say I need help, Ineed a place, I've got a car
broken down, I need someone andcan get help from another
Legionary.
It'll happen anytime in anyplace.
We can do that.
But what we wanted to do wasprovide a mechanism where we
could provide the on site helpthat people need.
(15:44):
On the 21st of last month Ipresented two resolutions and
I'm going to read them thatwe're presented to the.
When I say state, I'm talkingthe American Legion State
Organization.
People hear that word and thinkit's state government and it's
not, it's the, the, the state ofwhat we have here in the state
of Texas.
And before I go, one thing Idon't know if you two men have
(16:09):
ever seen the Vietnam Memorialat the Capitol in in Austin, but
do you know what's in the baseof that state?
And the base of that state?
I haven't been the one in.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Austin, but I'm the one in the base of that statue
has 32, 38, over 3000.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Of the of the dog tags of every man and woman who
kid was died serving theircountry in Vietnam.
Their dog tags are in the baseof that statue.
The top of that statue isdepicting a group of men calling
in a Medivac, calling in rescuefor wounded.
I flew the Medivac.
I look at that and I can hearthe wop, wop, wop.
(16:45):
And people realize when theysee that I've seen men walk up
when I was in the NationalGuards and flying UIs.
I've seen men come up and justput their hand on the tail of
that UI and they say, when weheard you coming, that meant
life, that meant food, thatmeant I'm getting out of here,
that meant what it.
It meant that I'm alive andthat sound is something that has
stuck with me for all my lifeand that this is what they're
(17:09):
looking and they hear we've gotto give them the rights to do
that.
The two resolutions I put beforethe state, it won the first one
.
Whereas post 196, the brown onehas been approached multiple
times of veterans requestingassistance with their military
claims, awards of disabilitystatus and the numbers of
individuals requestingassistance is growing.
The VSO, the Texas Veterans,are trying to support over 3000
(17:33):
veterans in this area.
Now, when we're talking aboutthe number of veterans, now when
we say area, that doesn'tinclude just Brown County,
because of where we are itEastland, coleman, all around an
area coming in as part of whatthey have here.
We are requesting funding tosupport a VSO officer to come to
our facility periodically tomeet with the individuals who
feel they need additionalsupport and also provide
(17:55):
training to the post members andgraduate students from Howard
Payne University, which I'mhonored to say has agreed to
team with our post now todevelop a program of training
and training support for theveterans.
Who's team with us in theservice to support the
individuals with these requests.
The second resolution Ipresented to them was and we're
(18:17):
at post 196 of Brownwood, texasis requesting funding to support
and provide counseling andsocial work assistance in our
area.
Presently there are no socialworkers or counselors available
at the VA clinic in Brownwood orin the surrounding area to
support the clinics and veteransin the area and the director of
the VA clinic has indicated aninterest in working with us if
(18:38):
we can figure out a way to getit done.
We're requesting support tofunding to provide these
qualified individuals to workwith our members, the Howard
Paine students and the trainingmentor students and the social
work training courses to providecounseling, disability support
and other area of support asneeded by our veterans.
I'm proud to say that boththose resolutions passed and we
(19:00):
are now in the process of tryingto put together what would be
the funding issues, and thatmeeting will be in January this
next year and that'll be inAustin and I have to be there
for that, but what we're lookingat and we're working with other
organizations in the area toput this together.
I'm going to use a good example,without using the individual's
name A very smart andintelligent man who happens to
(19:22):
be one of the top leaders ofHoward Paine University.
His father was in Korea.
He said well, I took me threeand a half months or several
months calling, trying to findsomebody at the VA to help my
dad.
He's getting older, home healthcare and stuff With this social
work issue.
One phone call, 10 minutes, yougot it, not three and a half
months to find help.
(19:42):
We want to develop a programwhere we can give them this help
.
We want to develop a programwhere they can come to our post
or any post that wants to workwith us, and there's many good
posts.
I'm not saying that just happento be that we're the first that
are starting and set up atraining program when they can
come in.
We have computer labs have beengiven to us by the college and
other staff when they can comein, they can go through a course
(20:03):
, they can learn more about justwhat is available to them, what
are they eligible for, how canthey get the help they need, how
can they get the support theyneed?
In the same area with the dayroom and you both men, know what
a day room is you can sit down,you can be and watch a ball
game, you can watch a movie, youcan read a book, you can.
We have a refrigerator full ofcold drinks and iced tea and
(20:26):
everything else to help.
Now, I have to admit we don'thave alcohol because it's a city
building, but we do what we can, right.
But the key is they asked me tocome up with a motto for our
post and I'm going to read thisto you.
It's something that I puttogether recently and it is
(20:48):
important to me for everybody toknow just what we're trying to
do, the motto of our post andwhat we try to do in the area is
let no veteran feel alone.
The mission provide thefacilities and equipment
necessary to help the veterans,the caregivers and their
families improve their liveswhile feeling part of the
community.
I say it that way, with themission statement being to
(21:12):
provide a safe and caringfacility for veterans and their
families to come, interact andgrow while enjoying the company
of like-minded individuals.
We all get so tired of peoplesaying thank you for your
service, welcome home.
We've all heard it.
It's become almost a cliche.
We have to understand that.
We've got to tell these folkswe're not just their brother.
Come on in and take part and bepart of the family.
(21:34):
Come on in, we're here to helpyou with what we're doing, to be
available, to be where we canbe and assist you with what
we're trying to do.
It's the in my mind.
We have no choice but to try toget to the point where we can
be a voice, but to try togenerate the funding, generate
the capability that men andwomen know where they are.
(21:55):
I'm going to give you a goodexample.
Just yesterday we were talkingto some people at one of the
care facilities here and theyoung lady turned to me and she
said well, my father committedsuicide.
He was a vet I can't get helpfrom.
We tried and tried to get help,got a little bit from the VA,
but that was it.
I said you do know you qualifyfor the auxiliary, don't you?
She said what?
Yeah, that means your sons andyour grandsons and his kids
(22:17):
qualify for grants and programs.
She said I knew nothing aboutthat.
I met with a CEO of anotherhealth providing company in the
area.
Matter of fact, they're locatedin De Leon, as I told you.
When talking to them.
Her husband was a vet, her sonwas a chaplain of that, and both
of them qualify to be.
She qualifies to be.
(22:38):
Their grandkids qualified forthese scholarships, the grants,
the funding, the educationalprograms, all of the other
programs that we have in theAmerican Legion, and there are
hundreds of them.
The American Legion buy theirown numbers.
If you go to TXLegionorg on thewebsite TXLegionorg, it'll talk
(22:58):
about what National didNationally.
They came up with over $16billion in the year 2020, excuse
me, 2022 to help people provideassistance, but in this state,
there was money left in the bank.
Why Nobody asked for it?
We had funding for scholarships, what was called legacy grants
(23:20):
we had.
We found out in March that theyhad funded for 78 of them,
between 5,000 and 20,000 a yearand they're good for up to six
years for college and work.
Now every year you got to readwith your documents but you're
eligible the whole time.
71 of those were awarded.
When I asked some of the menwhy not the other seven, they
said nobody ever asked.
(23:42):
We came home back to our baseand the fine men at the Texas
Veterans Commission jumped on itwith us.
They found two of the youngfolks who qualified.
We jumped in there.
Their parents worked and I'llbe jiggered if one of the kids
they had three days to get itall in.
One of the kids out of Zephyrwon Now 5,000 a year and she's
eligible for five again for thenext six years and she has to go
(24:02):
back.
You know, reply each time butshe's eligible for those.
But she won.
We had never done it if wehadn't heard that it is
available.
People don't know.
It's like one of the thingsabout the American Legion if you
serve one day in the militarywith a DD 214, I don't care if
you're a merchant marine, ifyou're any branch of the service
, you are eligible to be amember of the American Legion.
(24:26):
Now, I bring that up becausethe CEO of the medical company,
her son, was a chaplain.
Well, he wasn't in combat.
He was.
Nope, doesn't matter.
I had a young man come to mehere recently.
Yeah, young to me, I'm 76, soeven not that young, but young.
He served in the militaryduring the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Well, I can't be a memberbecause I wasn't in combat.
(24:46):
Oh, yes, you can.
Oh, yes, you can.
And you come in.
And if you come in your family,the Sons of the Legion, the
auxiliary programs, all theseother programs and all, if you
go online you'll start to seesome of the different programs
and proposals and systems thatare out there.
You qualify for all of them.
(25:07):
Now, looking at me as enlisted,I've got a DD214 as enlisted.
Dd214 as an NCO, dd214 as awarren officer, dd214 as
commissioner Well, of course,you get one each time you go up
through the cycle.
But I've also got an NGB 22.
People don't understand.
If you're a National Guard andReserve, you qualify immediately
, exactly the same as if youwere active duty.
(25:29):
If you're retired active duty,national Guard and Reserve, an
NGB 22 is a DD214.
And it just happens to be theNational Guard 22, their version
, ngb, national Guard Bureau,their equivalent, and people
look at it and say, well, Idon't have a DD214.
Yeah, you do, it just has adifferent name on it.
I have a DD215 that goes withit.
(25:51):
Like we talked about the PurpleHeart, and I'm proud to say that
we already have the first ofthe men that have come to me
from Desert Storm that waswounded but never received his
mark.
We're working with AugustFluger and his team now to get
him his awards.
And then the process of doingit.
There's a huge queue.
It takes a long time to gothrough the cycle and get them.
Me it took over 1100 days and Ihappened to live in Georgetown
(26:15):
at the time, so RepresentativeJohn Carter and his fine people
helped me get those.
If you go to, you get a chanceto go on my on my Facebook, john
, you'll see it.
There's a picture of JohnCarter giving me on my fake,
giving me the medal.
It only took him 52 years toget it, but I got the medal.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
But you got it.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Yeah, you say, oh, it's just a piece of pretend.
No, it's not, why bring it uplike that?
The museum in Brownwood is theis a small town public museum.
It's one of, if not the first,public small town museum in the
nation to receive Purple Heartstatus.
Now, there's not many and we,you know, when they first looked
they said there weren't any,but I'm just going to say it was
(26:53):
one is one.
It's named after me.
The Purple Heart status is forthe, for the museum and what
they're doing, the people inthere.
God bless them.
They've got a set and you canbring in your father, your uncle
, your grandfather, the PurpleHeart.
They won their award.
They can put, they can puttheir awards down in the museum
that people can see, they canhear their story, they can see
them.
They're not giving it away.
(27:14):
They'll get it back, but for acouple of months their family's
on the table.
His story is here, it's notstuck in a box.
I saw Purple Heart one time onsale at an antique store for a
buck and a half and I thoughtthat thing, what did that man
have to go through to get thatthing?
So it's a very important thingthat we keep this in mind when
we go forward.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
We'll return to the podcast in a moment, but first
we want to thank SilencerCentral for supporting our
podcast.
Silencer Central has beenmaking Silencer Buying simple
since 2005 and works tirelesslyon behalf of suppressor owners
everywhere.
Go to silencercentralcom tolearn about how to buy a
(27:56):
suppressor and browse theirproduct catalog.
Now back to our podcast.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
You got me started.
Guys See what happens.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
It's all right.
No, it's all good.
Yeah, you know, and being aveteran from the area right next
to Brownwood, you know you wereso right.
I want to touch back.
You mentioned that there's nosocial workers and that's a big
problem, both in my county andother counties, obviously, but
(28:29):
this isn't just a Texas thing.
You know the American Legionnationwide, for all of our
listeners out there, you know.
Definitely go on to thelegionorg and get that
information.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
It's key to it.
Depending on the post youjoined, the annual fee is around
$45 to $50 a year to be amember and there is a lifetime
membership.
That's there.
But with that membership youget a monthly magazine with all
the salaries and programs and aweekly email from the American
Legion which talks about theseprograms you talk, talks about
(29:06):
the different systems, evengives you the ability to go
online at home and go throughthe training and learn what's
there.
Because one of the things thatwe have to go is people don't
realize there are programs forseverely handicapped folks for
long-term care in their home.
One couple and I admit they gotthe top of the line.
But one couple came in whenthere was still a social worker
(29:28):
here at Brownwood there isn'tnow and they met with them.
I talked to them and they wentin.
They met with them.
They needed help.
He was so fairly handicapped,she needed a day out, she needed
to go shopping.
They needed to take care of thehome they needed to.
They won $2,600 a month for therest of their lives to pay for
all that.
That's the top of the line.
I don't mean everybody's goingto get that, but there are
(29:50):
mechanisms, there are means ofgetting that help, long-term
care, via some of the differentorganizations that are here,
contract companies that are hereand this kind of programs.
The VA has those issues to helpfund and get them.
Now it won't always come fromthe VA.
The funds will in some cases,in some cases from the Legion,
(30:11):
but the people like visitingangels and others will be the
companies that will come in toassist.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
And with the support element for the families.
College education isn't gettingany cheaper.
There's a lot of us that mayhave used our GI bills or other
tuition assistance and don'thave that support for our
children, just hearing all themoney that's available for those
(30:38):
scholarships and grants thatgoes unused.
Boy, we got to do our job andget the word out for sure.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
It is very important to get the word out.
The American Legion is a C3, c9, c19, and C23 nonprofit
organization, depending on theprogram, but they fall within
all four of those and the way itis structured.
For example, every nickelexcept for what we pay for, just
a little bit for electricityfor the building we're in every
(31:06):
nickel we get goes to run theseprograms that we have and run
the systems that are here for us.
The posts are.
Some of them are getting older.
We need volunteers, we needpeople to help in the computer,
in our day room, in the computerlabs and this kind of stuff.
But with the interest of thecommunities to provide lighting,
(31:27):
to provide equipment, toprovide computers, to provide
systems.
There's no reason any postcannot have an educational part
to it, for their people cannothave the ability to fund it.
You'll find that if you goonline to join the American
Legion I'll use Texas because Iknow it better then if you went
online and just joined theLegion, you wind up in a post
(31:50):
345.
Now that's a holding post.
It's out of Austin, but it'sbasically just a holding post.
If you then have you find apost like ours or others around,
be it in Bangs, be it in any ofthe different cities that are
around that have posts SanAngelo and others in Curveville
(32:11):
and other posts then you canalways put the post number down.
But if you don't know thenumber doesn't mean that you are
not eligible or get involved,because each state has a holding
post, like Texas does.
I speak to Texas because I knowit better than others, but
every state has a holding post.
So even if you don't know thestate or if you don't have one
(32:32):
in your area, by joining you getall of those benefits and all
of that capability, but via thestate and you have that ability
and help that can fit that areafor you, because some people the
city or town there don't have apost.
Well, guess what?
There's a way to get aroundthat problem.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
And there's, yeah, there's posts everywhere.
I mean it's American Legion,like you said.
You said 1919, correct what?
Speaker 4 (33:00):
1919, it was.
It was chartered.
We have 12,000 posts around theworld right now we have in that
way it's set up.
The auxiliary is for thespouses of the veterans and I'm
glad they've changed it that way.
They've always for years it wastheir wives, but now husband
and wives of the veterans.
They qualify for that.
(33:21):
If that veteran is dead, ifthat gun helping me, if he's
gone, if he's whatever, they canstill join the auxiliary.
They can still provide all thatmedical and other support and
family support over the yearsand get involved with everything
from scholarships and grants tofunding to educational programs
.
All through the same thing,Even if that veteran is gone
(33:44):
because of them having beenthere, they qualify.
The son and the grandsonqualifies for the sons of the
veteran.
There's a program in Texas,nationwide, but I'll speak to
our base.
It's called Boy State and GirlState.
Every year the posts providefunding.
We have a very fine gentlemanthat works with us.
He prefers it would not goblatant in his name out, but he
(34:07):
provides the funding to help usand we send two young men and
two young ladies every year toAustin, All expenses paid.
They put together a mockgovernment.
They've worked with the realsenators, with the real
representatives.
They find out how governmentsare one, what civics is, how
they can develop the program.
And every year two folks fromeach of the states are picked
and they go to Washington assenators to that state and they
(34:30):
work with the real senators andrepresentatives and Washington
and a mock government to learnhow they're done, those programs
, their housing, theirtransportation, their food all
paid for by the legion andpicked from the systems.
We were one vote short thisyear of getting one of our two
young men sent to state, tonational as a senator.
(34:51):
We're going to fix that.
We're going to move forward.
Good people and they workedhard.
But it gives them the abilityto understand what is civics,
what is the government, what arethe rights we have, how do
people create a law, how do theystand up and go, Not somebody
saying on the radio well, thisis the way it works, because I
said so.
They get to see it firsthand,live it.
(35:14):
And those types of programsprovide one of those boxes to
check.
Many of those students that dothat are eligible and go on to
the different military academiesWest Point, Air Force and
others and they are able to getin their colleges.
It gives them the one more boxcheck that they have to put them
ahead of their peers in doingso.
In addition to that, we providescholarships.
(35:36):
We support four high schools.
We support Brownwood, Early,Blanket and Zephyr and each year
we give, we cycle between thefour and each year we give a
scholarship to the graduatingsenior, a young man and a young
lady, towards what they're doingfor their college and we
provide medals of honor andappreciation to the winners of
(35:58):
all of the different highschools and systems.
The only problem we have is I'masking the people to talk to us
in their junior year, not twoweeks before they graduate, so
we have time to get the systemsdone and get them through the
cycle.
But we provide that and some ofthe monies that we'll be
generating from the chute andfrom the others will go to that.
That money, I'm sorry, go.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
And other youth activities as well.
Right, Youth baseball.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
We've got ROTC, we've got Boy Scouts, we've got Youth
Chute.
We have oratory programsoratory programs where they have
, they speak, they have, theyget involved with all of those
programs.
The Legionorg will give you anidea of over 200 type programs
that we have available.
A good example is the LittleLeague.
This year 3500 teams weresponsored to go into the
(36:51):
American League Baseball season.
To go into it.
Espn had them on TV a couple ofweeks ago doing the final.
For the first time in 96 yearsa small town in Texas, between
Galveston and Houston, won theWorld Series.
These kids stood their line andthey won.
In the process they're winningscholarship grants, they're
winning other programs becausetheir family stood by them and
(37:14):
supported them.
The American Legion providedall of the uniforms and
equipment and support to helpthese young folks do that.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
That's wonderful.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
People don't know it's out there.
We were at the air show I madereference to in Brownwood
yesterday.
The lady said to me well, I'mremarried but my husband died.
He was dead but I was a veteran.
I said, hold it, you qualifyfor the auxiliary because you
were the wife of a veteran butyour son, who's standing right
beside you, qualifies for thesons of the Legion because he's
(37:47):
the son of the veteran and alsothe grandsons His son qualifies
for the sons of the Legion.
In that structure there's ahuge following and things they
can get and support they can getfrom that group that are also
available.
You don't know that that isavailable to them.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, it's phenomenal , it's deep and it's awesome
work that's been done.
There's been a lot of time thathas gone on, obviously since
1919.
Developing these programs andbeing able to stand these up to
support the people that need itis absolutely phenomenal.
That's the biggest thing iseducation.
There's a lot of people outthere that's still like worse,
(38:24):
going on six years fororganization.
We're very much in the infancy.
You have your organizationwhere it's so large and has so
many different facets, wherepeople still don't know, they
have no idea.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
They have no idea.
They come into me.
Oh, you're part of the VFW.
No, nothing against them, butwe're not.
We're totally different VFW.
You have to serve in a foreignwar, All you have to do for the
American Legion.
One day, with the DD214 andhonorable discharge, including
the merchant marines, you, yourfamily and your family's family
are qualified for the servicesthat we have under our
(38:57):
environment.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Is that true?
I recently heard that evenanyone, anyone who, even if he
didn't serve I think thatthere's some legions up here
that talked about that theycould join as members too, even
if they're not have served.
Is that accurate?
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Not really.
There are some programs wherethey work, but the way the
Legion works you've got to fallwithin.
Now they don't have to haveserved.
If their father served, iftheir, if the others, if their
father served, they could be inthe sons of the Legion and
everything, and they don't haveto have served to be in the
Legion via the sons of theLegion.
In that environment there areways they can be.
(39:33):
They're eligible, but it's fromtheir family history as how
they fit into that structure.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Makes sense.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
To be honest, I as a as a commander, have more than
once reached the mow wallet tohelp somebody or to do whatever
is necessary for a veteran ifthey're not a Legion member.
I am not going to leave a manhanging in the wind that needs
help.
I've got people that arewilling to step through the line
and God bless them and said youknow, if they need to get a gas
line fixed, if they needsomething in the house, you call
me Paul.
There'll be a check written infive minutes that will help if
(40:02):
we can.
We're not a long-term helpsystem.
We're not going to pay a guy'srent for a year.
We're not going to do this.
But, on the reverse, if aveteran comes into me and needs
help, I'm going to help him thebest I can.
I don't care if he's a Legionmember or not.
But to say that the Legionprograms that are available, yes
, you have to been in the Legionsomewhere within the structure.
(40:23):
You know, if your father was aveteran, even if he didn't join
the Legion, you can and youstill qualify across that if he
was in there.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
It's a very valid point too and that's something
that we do here at HHO too isthat you know our bylaws are
very specific about what we canand can't do, you know, with
outdoor adventures and helpingpeople out and mental health,
you know.
But there's some times where wehave people approach us who are
in need of things that areoutside that purview, and we
will rally the troops, so tospeak, to see how we can support
(40:51):
them and get them through theday or the next day or maybe the
month, you know, not long term,like you just said too, but we
do have a network of people thatwe have built over time that
will assist in those needs, andSean recently had a situation
where he helped out with aveteran that needed help, you
know, and we've done it severaltimes amongst many of our
members and people that haveserved, but it may not be in our
(41:12):
exact bylaws, but it'ssomething that is very admirable
for these organizations toinclude the Legion to do that
kind of stuff, and there arepeople out there that do want to
support in that way.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
So Paul, we talked briefly about PTSD suicide
prevention and I kind ofexplained, you know, some of the
programs that we use, theassist program, that we formally
train as many field staff as wecan to help out in time of need
, and you mentioned that you mayhave something coming up as
(41:44):
well.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
We are one of the corporations that's working with
us.
As a matter of fact, the CEO ofthe corporation, a member of my
post and a veteran some of hispeople are.
They sponsor, I think AmericanFamily.
It is a program of suicideprevention and support that do
seminars around the country.
They're out of Colorado andthey've offered in November to
(42:09):
come here to Brownwood.
We've got the Lyric Theater,We've got the auditorium there
at the college made availablewhere they're going to come in
for free and do a two-dayseminar on suicide prevention,
helping with people, what needsto be done and how that needs to
be done.
We all have our idea of what weneed to do and the best idea is
(42:31):
not hitting him in the back ofthe head with a brick to keep
him doing it.
We've got other things.
We have to make sure theyunderstand where they're coming
from, but these folks haveoffered to come in.
There are other programs likethat and some of the other
projects that are here.
The city manager in Brownwoodsaid when this comes in she
wants to see all of the firstresponders come to this program.
(42:52):
Veterans are not the only oneswith these problems.
We're not the only ones withPTSD.
We're not the only ones whosuffer in some of these issues
that go into it, and I want totry, via the best we can and the
resources that are madeavailable to us, to provide
assets to everyone, to all ofthe people that need it.
A good example with it isthey're talking about bringing
(43:15):
some suicide survivors in totalk about how they felt
afterwards, how they dealt withit, and it'd be a two-day
seminar.
Now, yes, the thing is going tobe free.
Yes, the admission is going tobe free.
Yes, I'm an old crem.
I'm going to have a tableoutside the door trying to get
contribution to the AmericanLegion, but that's a different
story.
I'm not going to deny it, I'mnot going to back away from it.
It's what we use to fund ourprograms.
(43:37):
But there are other programslike that that are out there.
There are veterans that justdon't know.
I remember one.
I'm one of the volunteerdrivers that drive from
Brownwood to Temple from the VAclinic to take people for
medical treatments, and we do ita couple of times a week and we
go just volunteers would drivea van and one of the men one
time that I was driving there hetold me he said well, all I got
(44:00):
is my dog and he doesn't reallytalk back to me that well, but
he just needed to have somebodyto talk to, somebody to listen.
We've all got war stories thatnobody believes.
We've all got places we've beenwe should never have been, and
they need a way to understandthat people care and people are
(44:21):
willing to be involved, andthat's part of what I want to do
now.
I'm not worried that the man isor is an event, an American
Legion member.
If we can sponsor this seminaror some like it, if we can put
together a program of its kindand support, come on, you don't
have to be vet, you don't haveto even be the veteran.
You can be the family of aveteran.
(44:41):
To me, there is no adjectivebefore veteran.
You're not a male veteran, afemale veteran, a family veteran
of the veteran, You're aveteran.
The families are as much aveteran as the veteran is to me,
because they got to put up withus and that goes a long ways
towards how we can deal with it.
And I don't care if the personis green or polka-dotted.
Come on, I'm proud to say wehave four lady veterans that
(45:04):
have now part of our post andwe're growing.
It comes through that door thatwants to be there.
We want them there.
We want to help them.
Any post out there would try todo their best to help.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Oh, it's absolutely phenomenal.
I mean, everyone's welcome,right?
No one knows what sex or genderor creed, race.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
I could care less, right, amen, no, sir.
In my way of thinking, thefirst person I got a judge is
myself, and I don't know if Ican pass that judgment.
So we'll deal with the others.
So, true, so true Well in 1972,my parents received a letter
from the Army informing themthat I was killed in combat.
They had the chaplain knock onthe door.
They had the people come to sayI'm sorry, well, and we got
(45:45):
shot down, a little run, blah,blah, blah.
Took us a couple of weeks, blah, blah, blah, and we managed to
get back and the first thingthey said was what will call
your parents to tell them you'realive?
I said no, you're going to callmy father.
They said why your father?
Well, I said what a canal youashamed.
Oh, he can handle the call.
I said no, well, yes, butthat's not why.
Why my mother's ninthgeneration Texan.
You call it up and tell her youscrewed this up.
(46:07):
She's going to come here andkick somebody's ass.
The key is we've got to be wherethat man can.
The man or woman or child orgrandchild or parent can feel
comfortable and saying they wantto go kick somebody's ass.
We need help, we need a program,and I don't mind being the man
standing there to say you knowwhat the blank, blank, blank is
(46:27):
going on.
I've got fine men that want tohelp.
I got good people that want todo the job.
I've got volunteers that arecoming and we need this kind of
help.
We need the support of theshootout that you've got and I
you said how are you putting itout through your site?
And I hope you do.
We need all the help we can geton that to get money to help
with.
That money will put the socialworker program on track and with
(46:51):
it, god willing, I intend touse the resolutions that I gave
to work to get one of that kindof structure and every post in
the state that's 230.
Now they may not always be atthat post, but available to that
post, and that's what I want totry to figure out.
But this is how I want to startthis program.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeah, to all of our listeners.
What Paul is talking about isis they have an American Legion
post 196 shotgun shootout?
That's going to be October 28,2023, from 8am to 2pm down at
the Brownwood clay club inClayburn, texas, or Clayburn
(47:29):
Club, yes.
Speaker 4 (47:30):
It's own the property of the country club.
It's $120 for each person, 45of it is for the shoot.
You get 100 plays, you get theshoot and you get a nice
barbecue lunch.
Everything else goes to to tous.
We've got sponsors that arefunding some more money to this.
We've got one grant is going tomatch fund for money that these
(47:50):
guys pay to come to do this.
We got a grant to match fundingso we can double that money to
help these people.
We can do it.
Now there's another piece tothis is what we call a resource
list.
There every post needs to paycloser attention to it.
Oh, thank you.
I'm glad you put that up.
I really am the resource listyou take here in Brownwood and I
(48:11):
only speak to it because I'mnot expert on everybody else.
But there's no real list thatsays go to Joe for food, go to
sue for clothes, go, it's 800number.
Well, you have to punch thesenumbers and a lot of elderly
vets can't work that you punchthis button, punch that button,
they quit.
We're creating a resource listwith the help of one of the
radio stations, k O X E here intown.
That's putting together withone of very fine gentlemen by
(48:33):
the name of Dennis Rumfield.
What they're trying to do isprepare a list that every
veteran, everybody that comesout of the hospital, every
veteran that comes out of themedical training facilities, be
it Excel, be it the Center forLife Management, be it the VA
clinic they have a list and itsays you can get transportation,
you can get food, you can getclothes, you can get furniture,
(48:56):
you can get equipment at thesenumbers.
Don't worry about calling this800 number for this county for
that thing.
But so they have a mechanism toreach out and get help.
And each of these people wereput together, even if it's the
wrong one.
They call person for food.
They're going to know where togo get clothes.
They're going to work with youto help you get those pieces
that are involved.
We've even got one of ourmembers that owns a pharmacy
(49:18):
here in town and he's got awarehouse.
He said here you are, we gotwalkers, we got daycare, we've
got electric wheelchairs.
We got hospital beds for freeif a veteran, if an American
Legion person needs them andthey need them in their home for
their family.
They're in a warehouse.
I got them.
I'm already giving them away.
Now that stuff is available.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
Well, hey, paul, we're about getting to the end
here.
Thank you so much for coming inand talking about American
Legion.
You're right, there's so manypeople that have no idea what
the organization is, what theorganization is about.
It's not just a bunch of oldguys smoking and drinking
sitting at the bar.
(49:58):
This is a bar.
This is this is the greatcommunity place for veterans and
families to come together andlearn, educate and get the
resources they need.
So please come out on the 28thof October down in Brownwood,
texas, and take part in thisshotgun shootout and meet some
(50:22):
of these amazing veterans fromthe area and let's show them
some support.
We have one of our.
Speaker 4 (50:29):
Medal of Honor winners.
He's got Bob O'Malley.
I don't know if you know thator not, but he'll be there too.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Great, I don't know.
That's awesome.
Yeah, paul, thanks for comingon and being able to share some
information about the AmericanLegion and all the different
programs that are available toour veterans and not only
veterans but their familymembers or media family and I
really appreciate the time andyour service that you've had
over the years and continuedservice.
It's impressive to be able tospeak with you and when I come
(50:55):
down we have to shake a hand andhave a beer.
I'll be down in December.
Speaker 3 (51:01):
So I was I was, but I've already.
Speaker 4 (51:03):
I was already told, you got something coming up.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Oh I say I was blessed to meet Paul two years
ago.
You know, as a, my daytime jobis I run a inspection company
and his wife is.
She likes to buy and sellproperty.
So we spend a lot of timetogether and I was able to meet
Paul and I just thanks for whatyou do.
I appreciate you sharing yourstory.
(51:28):
I appreciate what you're doingfor the community and for all of
the veterans.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
Thank you, gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Hey.
Paul any last words before weend the podcast tonight.
Speaker 4 (51:40):
Well, one last thing thank you, the veteran.
They we don't want them to feelalone.
We want them to have a place togo.
We need volunteers to help uswith what we're doing.
We're looking for people thatare willing to spend a little
time and put some effort intowhat we're trying to create.
As far as my wife, I'm gladthat you work with her, sean,
and she was RAF Red Cross, beingEnglish, but she actually the
(52:02):
US Marine Corps every year getsa takes an artist of note.
She's an artist and sculptorsand they sell their work and
they fund their CASA programsaround the world.
My wife was the US Marine Corpsartist of note for CASA
Children's programs around theworld in 2012 for the US Marines
.
She works hard, trying to helpthe families, as I'm trying to
do.
She puts me to shame in some ofthe work she does, but we're
(52:25):
trying to.
Where's a family want to dothis where we can, and thank you
, gentlemen, thank you both forletting me have this opportunity
.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yes, sir, absolutely.
Thanks for your service andeverything you do for us and for
our listeners.
Please check out the AmericanLegion and all programs that
they offer.
If you're in the Texas area,please look into the shoot that
they have going on on the 28th.
And for everybody else ourlisteners, you know, if you're a
first responder or a militarymilitary service member or
veteran, if you're feeling likeyou're in a dark time at this
point in time, please reach outto us.
(52:53):
We have individuals who do careabout you and we are here to
listen to you.
We have our individuals who aretrained in cis training applied
suicide intervention skillstraining and we are here to
listen and help you get throughthat dark moment.
If that's something that youcannot do, 988-988, you can call
or text that for the crisisintervention line and they'll
get you the help that we need.
(53:13):
But thank you for tuning intoday and Paul and Sean, thank
you for being here and untilnext time, the HHO World, we
will see you next week.
In the land of 10,000 lakes, a remarkable movement
was born.
Welcome to Hometown HeroOutdoors.
We are dedicated to honoringour military service members,
veterans and first responders byproviding them with
unforgettable outdoorrecreational opportunities.
We believe those who haveserved and sacrificed so much
(00:25):
for our country and communitiesdeserve a chance to reclaim
their spirit and find healing inthe great outdoors.
This is Hometown Hero Outdoors.
Welcome to the Hometown HeroOutdoors podcast.
(00:51):
Here is your host, chrisTaitrow.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And we have another Wednesday here at the Hometown
Hero Outdoors podcast.
Welcome back everyone.
I thank you for tuning in today.
We have a very good episode fortoday that we're going to
discuss an individual who has avery colorful history and we're
excited to have him here.
His name is Paul Wade and wealso have Sean Olesberg here who
is our serving vice president,so we're going to hop into
(01:32):
Paul's bio here.
Paul has quite the experience.
So Paul has 22-plus years ofmilitary service.
Plus he has 40 years ofexperience creating,
implementing and marketinginnovative training and research
programs for training OEMcompanies, aircraft
manufacturers if I can talk aircarriers, us and foreign
militaries, gaming,manufacturing and integration
(01:55):
companies, universities andvocational technology schools.
He has placed him in a uniqueposition of being one of the few
people in the world who hasworked in all five areas
military, gaming, entertainmentand commercial and manufacturing
, support of the virtualsimulation and training
industries.
These years of experience, plusan extensive background in
developing and running smallbusinesses, has provided him
(02:17):
with a totally uniqueperspective toward both the
marketing and implementation oftraining and support programs.
This experience and operationalexpertise is what is needed to
assist the American Legion andits different programs expand
the training and support roles.
They need to bring a strongworking knowledge of different
programs available to theveterans and their families
(02:38):
within the American Legion.
He has been approached by manypeople and companies and a
couple publications on how hemight use experience as a
consultant and small businessowner to assist these different
groups to structure their futurewithin the industry.
He has decided it's time forhim to take up the issue and
respond to these requests.
So, paul, thank you very much.
I'm just going to kind of goover a little bit here and we'll
(03:00):
touch on these things a littlebit throughout the evening.
So we have you as being formerArmy.
You have served in manydifferent roles being enlisted.
You're a non-commissionedofficer.
You ended up being a warrantofficer and a commissioned
officer.
So that's pretty unique for ourworld.
Yeah, wow is right.
He has an honorable discharge.
(03:21):
He's also retired and 90%disabled.
So, paul, thank you for beinghere and thank you for your
service and your time, yoursupport, and then also represent
the American Legion.
So thank you very much and aPurple Heart recipient.
Purple Heart.
I missed that part.
I apologize.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
You didn't even put it on.
Well, actually I have twoPurple Hearts, but yes, two,
thank you man.
Yeah, first one was in 69,second one was in 72.
It only took him 52 years togive me my Purple Hearts, from
when I was wounded.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
But Reps John.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Carter and his team actually got it for me.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That's awesome.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about yourself?
Who are you, where are you from, where do you live currently
and what does life look likecurrently?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Well, I'm 10th generation Texan.
My family moved into Texas in1802.
I live in a little town calledBrownwood, Texas, which is up
towards Abilene.
I've been a pilot, flew MedevacAir Rescue and Rescue
Helicopters, among other things,With the area that we're in.
(04:26):
That's pretty much where we arenow.
I'm the commander of theAmerican Legion Post 196 in
Texas.
I stress that because severalstates have a Post 196, but ours
is in Texas and Brownwood.
I'm also now have been honoredto be selected as the regional
lead for 19 posts throughoutthis region for the state of
(04:46):
Texas and the 21st district.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
That's phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
We're trying to work with people in this area.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
So that's phenomenal.
Let's touch on your upbringing.
So you said you're a 10thgeneration Texan.
I'm assuming you got somemilitary roots in your history.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
My dad, guadalcanal, iwo Jima, lady Gulf.
Both his brothers served oneverything from the enterprise
to the Yorktown to many otherneighbors.
All three of them were Navy.
I was Army and the familybefore I had my grandfather was
a Doughboy.
He was one of the 113th fieldartillery in World War One.
(05:28):
Back to you, go back from there.
One of my family members wasthe survivor of the Alamo.
He was the courier that wentout the 12th night with letter
and mails and systems.
It was the 13th night when itfell, and so my family's been in
the military and fought for therights of others for a long
time.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Wow, that's amazing.
I mean that's rich, that's alot of history and I appreciate
your family and you and yourservice and everything you've
done.
That's pretty amazing.
I know I'm one of the first.
Well, we have a couple in myfamily, but not that far back.
That's amazing.
So, paul, let's talk a littlebit about your upbringing in the
area and how.
(06:05):
I mean, obviously, your familyhas helped support the military
service in our republic over theyears and getting things for
our freedoms to be secure andwhatnot.
So what got you into themilitary, outside of your family
and the tradition and being ared blooded American?
Like how did you get throughthat?
And then what did you join?
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Pretty much.
That's exactly what that means.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Your military, your family.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I was, yeah, my family was.
But my father was with thegovernment service, with the FAA
, as an air traffic controllerand later worked in many other
areas with the FAA and wetraveled around the world some
with that.
The reason I got the military Iwas at the University of
Tennessee, played littlefootball, did little other
things there.
University of Tennessee, atMartin, tennessee, not Knoxville
(06:53):
it's the smaller of the twoschools, but the process of
doing that was an ROTC schooland we got more and more
interested in what we werecoming in.
Having been raised around themilitary and raised in strength
for the family, I decided that'sthe direction I wanted to go.
So in 1969, I joined themilitary.
68, excuse me.
(07:13):
I joined the military and I wasin Alto for 22 and a half years
Alto.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
So how did you pick to become a pilot?
Was that from your dad being inthe aviation field?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Well, I was flying crop dusters when I was 14 years
old and I was flying other oddsand ends as I was growing up
and my dad being in the aviationand I thought I could fly a lot
better than had to wade throughmud and water, so I wasn't
interested in being an infantryofficer.
So I went into the as aenlisted man and signed up to be
a crew chief, maintenance chiefon the helicopters.
I later, as an NCO, wentthrough Keesley Air Force Base
(07:50):
at Biloxa, mississippi, andbecame an air traffic controller
based at Henshey Tower at FortRooker, alabama.
From there I got a chance andwent to flight school and became
a warrant officer.
My first tour as you know fromthe bio that you've got there,
my first tour in Vietnam wasMarch of 69 through 70.
And then I came.
(08:12):
After that I came back to theStates.
I had gotten a battlefieldcommission from warrant to first
lieutenant never was a secondwent straight to first a
battlefield commission and afterthat I started with the 82nd
Airborne for a period of time asthe commander of Alpha Company,
the second aviation battalion,the second airborne Out of
Simmons Army airfield.
For those of you that ever werearound the 82nd, you know where
(08:35):
that airfield is, there on thebase at Fort Bragg.
But then then my second tour.
I was a captain and went backto Vietnam, flew Chinooks and
little birds A lot of guys don't, oh, it's sixes, the little
ones.
Then I became a Medevac AirRescue pilot.
I've got 1550, 1560 combatmissions, of which 400 plus are
(09:00):
Air Rescue.
A Medevac Air Rescue mission incombat.
I flew in with the, with theNorth, with the assigned to the
Air Force advisory team, one outof Da Nang, and I flew in
Vietnamese aircraft withVietnamese crews.
I taught the mechanics at nightand I've taught the pilots were
flying during the day.
Later I was assigned over withthe Air Force and flew A-37, the
(09:23):
Dragonfly we call them TweetyBirds but the A-37 fighter.
And then when, upon returning Iflew three different National
Guards, the Texas National Guard, the Georgia National Guard,
the Missouri National Guard overthe years and the US Army I'm
one of a very few men I hold theOklahoma Star Valor for life
saving as a Guardsman, the TexasMirator Service Award for life
(09:46):
saving as a Guardsman and theArmy Reserve Meritorial
Commodation Medal from theMissouri Guard for some work in
that same kind of area.
So I have a support in allthree of those zones.
My background in education came,as I did some training and
teaching at Georgia Tech inaerospace and engineering, but I
(10:06):
became pretty well known forbeing able to integrate
technology and systems.
So over the years as a pilot,then later working as a MACV
International Training withother militaries, I've trained
with the Brazilians, theJapanese, with the English and
other citizen instructor insupport Over the time developing
(10:30):
training programs andintegrating programs.
I didn't develop the computerbased training.
People worked and did that.
My job was to integrate thattechnology into the training
environment for the end user.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So just a couple things.
Is it what you're saying?
Just did a couple things.
You've been a busy man.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
One or two.
One or two and.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I sat on here too, you got some experience as a
military police officer.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
I commanded the 258th military police company at Fort
Polk, Louisiana.
It was a Stratforce comm unit.
Later was military policeinvestigation.
I flew the.
We did work on that area.
But we also did work, as in theMPI, on the ranges with the
helicopters doing recovery ofstolen equipment and this kind
of stuff on the ranges out ofFort Polk and elsewhere.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I've been to Fort Polk a couple times and it was,
it was Fort Polk.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
That's as good a word for it as any I could say in
public, but it was Fort Polk.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Glad I'm not at Fort Polk anymore, so I was at North
Fort.
So when we had hadpre-deployment we ended up in
North Fort.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
You always knew you were in trouble.
When you heard, you thought itwas the helicopters and it was
the mosquitoes coming in andmass.
But we'll leave that one.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Ain't that the truth, oh man.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, those things would carry you away.
It was the size of sparrows.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
After that resume.
Chris, it sounds like you and Imay need to step it up a little
bit.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, we got a few things to do here.
I think Paul's got us, but youknow, the cool part about Paul,
too, is, though, that you have avery colorful history, but also
that you're continuing to serve, you know, and I think that's
phenomenal.
So we know that you, like youmentioned before about the
American Legion and what you'recontinuing to do here, and you
share a passion with us, andthat's what our soldiers and our
(12:16):
troops making sure thateveryone is safe and they have a
good place to find theirresources, to go out and get the
help that they need Do you wantto talk about?
You know what your involvementwas, how you got involved in
American Legion and how it'sprogressed over the years.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I'm going to start by the point that a lot of guys
been there, done that, as youwill and hear it.
I'm PTSD, I have the.
I have to go through some ofthe programs that are involved
If we have to understand thatwhen we talk to the people out
there, a lot of folks don'tunderstand what that means and
what how that fits in thestructure.
With that said, I was given thehonor of being elected the
(12:52):
commander of the post here inBrownwood about a year and a
half ago.
We only had 15 members I'm Ijust turned 76 and I was one of
the youngest ones at the timewhere, with great pride, say
that we now have 50, 58, 56, andgrowing.
We'll be over 100, lordWillemba, for the end of the
year.
The American Legion.
(13:12):
People look at it and say, well, is it?
Is it the VFW?
No, is it the?
Or you're funded by the USgovernment?
No, and as late as last week,people have asked me that very
thing oh well, you gotgovernment funding?
No, we don't.
Our funding is from the goodpeople and the that want to help
.
You've got 38 to 40 differentprograms and yours being one of
(13:33):
them that says get, got aproject, you can help.
You can help us with somefunding, help us with the
veterans and what we can do outthere, and that's great.
But the what we wanted to do isturn our post into a training
and standardization post.
It means we're the family theveteran can come in, they can
get.
We have computer labs, we havea day room where they can visit,
we have ability to have dinnerswhen we have our meetings and
(13:56):
we and we have a ability tobring VSOs, veteran service
officers.
The American Legion has its own,we've got the VA, you've got
the Texas Veterans Commission,you've got the DAV, but the
American Legion has its own theveteran service officers and we
wanted to make those availableto the people.
We've got some good folks inthis area trying to help.
(14:17):
I'm not going to knock those,but you got two men trying to
support over 3000.
It you just can't be everywhere, you can't do everything, and
we're trying to figure out howto do it.
One of the problems we have isthat the VA clinics don't have
social workers right now.
Most of them don't.
They don't have an on sitepeople to help to tell the
(14:38):
veteran or the veteran's familywhat kind of services, what kind
of help.
They can get Survivor benefits,where can they go get home
health care and this kind ofthing, and part of what I'm
trying to do is to to fix that,to try to get it where we can
put something together.
The American Legion received itscharter as an organization
March 6, 1919 in Paris, france.
(14:59):
We are the largest of theveterans organizations in the
nation.
The Legion itself has over twomillion members, the sons of the
Legion has another almostmillion and the auxiliary has
almost a million, and so we'relooking at close to four million
members in 12,000 posts in all50 states, nine territories and
(15:22):
five foreign countries, and anyof those a Legionary, can walk
in there and say I need help, Ineed a place, I've got a car
broken down, I need someone andcan get help from another
Legionary.
It'll happen anytime in anyplace.
We can do that.
But what we wanted to do wasprovide a mechanism where we
could provide the on site helpthat people need.
(15:44):
On the 21st of last month Ipresented two resolutions and
I'm going to read them thatwe're presented to the.
When I say state, I'm talkingthe American Legion State
Organization.
People hear that word and thinkit's state government and it's
not, it's the, the, the state ofwhat we have here in the state
of Texas.
And before I go, one thing Idon't know if you two men have
(16:09):
ever seen the Vietnam Memorialat the Capitol in in Austin, but
do you know what's in the baseof that state?
And the base of that state?
I haven't been the one in.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Austin, but I'm the one in the base of that statue
has 32, 38, over 3000.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Of the of the dog tags of every man and woman who
kid was died serving theircountry in Vietnam.
Their dog tags are in the baseof that statue.
The top of that statue isdepicting a group of men calling
in a Medivac, calling in rescuefor wounded.
I flew the Medivac.
I look at that and I can hearthe wop, wop, wop.
(16:45):
And people realize when theysee that I've seen men walk up
when I was in the NationalGuards and flying UIs.
I've seen men come up and justput their hand on the tail of
that UI and they say, when weheard you coming, that meant
life, that meant food, thatmeant I'm getting out of here,
that meant what it.
It meant that I'm alive andthat sound is something that has
stuck with me for all my lifeand that this is what they're
(17:09):
looking and they hear we've gotto give them the rights to do
that.
The two resolutions I put beforethe state, it won the first one
.
Whereas post 196, the brown onehas been approached multiple
times of veterans requestingassistance with their military
claims, awards of disabilitystatus and the numbers of
individuals requestingassistance is growing.
The VSO, the Texas Veterans,are trying to support over 3000
(17:33):
veterans in this area.
Now, when we're talking aboutthe number of veterans, now when
we say area, that doesn'tinclude just Brown County,
because of where we are itEastland, coleman, all around an
area coming in as part of whatthey have here.
We are requesting funding tosupport a VSO officer to come to
our facility periodically tomeet with the individuals who
feel they need additionalsupport and also provide
(17:55):
training to the post members andgraduate students from Howard
Payne University, which I'mhonored to say has agreed to
team with our post now todevelop a program of training
and training support for theveterans.
Who's team with us in theservice to support the
individuals with these requests.
The second resolution Ipresented to them was and we're
(18:17):
at post 196 of Brownwood, texasis requesting funding to support
and provide counseling andsocial work assistance in our
area.
Presently there are no socialworkers or counselors available
at the VA clinic in Brownwood orin the surrounding area to
support the clinics and veteransin the area and the director of
the VA clinic has indicated aninterest in working with us if
(18:38):
we can figure out a way to getit done.
We're requesting support tofunding to provide these
qualified individuals to workwith our members, the Howard
Paine students and the trainingmentor students and the social
work training courses to providecounseling, disability support
and other area of support asneeded by our veterans.
I'm proud to say that boththose resolutions passed and we
(19:00):
are now in the process of tryingto put together what would be
the funding issues, and thatmeeting will be in January this
next year and that'll be inAustin and I have to be there
for that, but what we're lookingat and we're working with other
organizations in the area toput this together.
I'm going to use a good example,without using the individual's
name A very smart andintelligent man who happens to
(19:22):
be one of the top leaders ofHoward Paine University.
His father was in Korea.
He said well, I took me threeand a half months or several
months calling, trying to findsomebody at the VA to help my
dad.
He's getting older, home healthcare and stuff With this social
work issue.
One phone call, 10 minutes, yougot it, not three and a half
months to find help.
(19:42):
We want to develop a programwhere we can give them this help
.
We want to develop a programwhere they can come to our post
or any post that wants to workwith us, and there's many good
posts.
I'm not saying that just happento be that we're the first that
are starting and set up atraining program when they can
come in.
We have computer labs have beengiven to us by the college and
other staff when they can comein, they can go through a course
(20:03):
, they can learn more about justwhat is available to them, what
are they eligible for, how canthey get the help they need, how
can they get the support theyneed?
In the same area with the dayroom and you both men, know what
a day room is you can sit down,you can be and watch a ball
game, you can watch a movie, youcan read a book, you can.
We have a refrigerator full ofcold drinks and iced tea and
(20:26):
everything else to help.
Now, I have to admit we don'thave alcohol because it's a city
building, but we do what we can, right.
But the key is they asked me tocome up with a motto for our
post and I'm going to read thisto you.
It's something that I puttogether recently and it is
(20:48):
important to me for everybody toknow just what we're trying to
do, the motto of our post andwhat we try to do in the area is
let no veteran feel alone.
The mission provide thefacilities and equipment
necessary to help the veterans,the caregivers and their
families improve their liveswhile feeling part of the
community.
I say it that way, with themission statement being to
(21:12):
provide a safe and caringfacility for veterans and their
families to come, interact andgrow while enjoying the company
of like-minded individuals.
We all get so tired of peoplesaying thank you for your
service, welcome home.
We've all heard it.
It's become almost a cliche.
We have to understand that.
We've got to tell these folkswe're not just their brother.
Come on in and take part and bepart of the family.
(21:34):
Come on in, we're here to helpyou with what we're doing, to be
available, to be where we canbe and assist you with what
we're trying to do.
It's the in my mind.
We have no choice but to try toget to the point where we can
be a voice, but to try togenerate the funding, generate
the capability that men andwomen know where they are.
(21:55):
I'm going to give you a goodexample.
Just yesterday we were talkingto some people at one of the
care facilities here and theyoung lady turned to me and she
said well, my father committedsuicide.
He was a vet I can't get helpfrom.
We tried and tried to get help,got a little bit from the VA,
but that was it.
I said you do know you qualifyfor the auxiliary, don't you?
She said what?
Yeah, that means your sons andyour grandsons and his kids
(22:17):
qualify for grants and programs.
She said I knew nothing aboutthat.
I met with a CEO of anotherhealth providing company in the
area.
Matter of fact, they're locatedin De Leon, as I told you.
When talking to them.
Her husband was a vet, her sonwas a chaplain of that, and both
of them qualify to be.
She qualifies to be.
(22:38):
Their grandkids qualified forthese scholarships, the grants,
the funding, the educationalprograms, all of the other
programs that we have in theAmerican Legion, and there are
hundreds of them.
The American Legion buy theirown numbers.
If you go to TXLegionorg on thewebsite TXLegionorg, it'll talk
(22:58):
about what National didNationally.
They came up with over $16billion in the year 2020, excuse
me, 2022 to help people provideassistance, but in this state,
there was money left in the bank.
Why Nobody asked for it?
We had funding for scholarships, what was called legacy grants
(23:20):
we had.
We found out in March that theyhad funded for 78 of them,
between 5,000 and 20,000 a yearand they're good for up to six
years for college and work.
Now every year you got to readwith your documents but you're
eligible the whole time.
71 of those were awarded.
When I asked some of the menwhy not the other seven, they
said nobody ever asked.
(23:42):
We came home back to our baseand the fine men at the Texas
Veterans Commission jumped on itwith us.
They found two of the youngfolks who qualified.
We jumped in there.
Their parents worked and I'llbe jiggered if one of the kids
they had three days to get itall in.
One of the kids out of Zephyrwon Now 5,000 a year and she's
eligible for five again for thenext six years and she has to go
(24:02):
back.
You know, reply each time butshe's eligible for those.
But she won.
We had never done it if wehadn't heard that it is
available.
People don't know.
It's like one of the thingsabout the American Legion if you
serve one day in the militarywith a DD 214, I don't care if
you're a merchant marine, ifyou're any branch of the service
, you are eligible to be amember of the American Legion.
(24:26):
Now, I bring that up becausethe CEO of the medical company,
her son, was a chaplain.
Well, he wasn't in combat.
He was.
Nope, doesn't matter.
I had a young man come to mehere recently.
Yeah, young to me, I'm 76, soeven not that young, but young.
He served in the militaryduring the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Well, I can't be a memberbecause I wasn't in combat.
(24:46):
Oh, yes, you can.
Oh, yes, you can.
And you come in.
And if you come in your family,the Sons of the Legion, the
auxiliary programs, all theseother programs and all, if you
go online you'll start to seesome of the different programs
and proposals and systems thatare out there.
You qualify for all of them.
(25:07):
Now, looking at me as enlisted,I've got a DD214 as enlisted.
Dd214 as an NCO, dd214 as awarren officer, dd214 as
commissioner Well, of course,you get one each time you go up
through the cycle.
But I've also got an NGB 22.
People don't understand.
If you're a National Guard andReserve, you qualify immediately
, exactly the same as if youwere active duty.
(25:29):
If you're retired active duty,national Guard and Reserve, an
NGB 22 is a DD214.
And it just happens to be theNational Guard 22, their version
, ngb, national Guard Bureau,their equivalent, and people
look at it and say, well, Idon't have a DD214.
Yeah, you do, it just has adifferent name on it.
I have a DD215 that goes withit.
(25:51):
Like we talked about the PurpleHeart, and I'm proud to say that
we already have the first ofthe men that have come to me
from Desert Storm that waswounded but never received his
mark.
We're working with AugustFluger and his team now to get
him his awards.
And then the process of doingit.
There's a huge queue.
It takes a long time to gothrough the cycle and get them.
Me it took over 1100 days and Ihappened to live in Georgetown
(26:15):
at the time, so RepresentativeJohn Carter and his fine people
helped me get those.
If you go to, you get a chanceto go on my on my Facebook, john
, you'll see it.
There's a picture of JohnCarter giving me on my fake,
giving me the medal.
It only took him 52 years toget it, but I got the medal.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
But you got it.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Yeah, you say, oh, it's just a piece of pretend.
No, it's not, why bring it uplike that?
The museum in Brownwood is theis a small town public museum.
It's one of, if not the first,public small town museum in the
nation to receive Purple Heartstatus.
Now, there's not many and we,you know, when they first looked
they said there weren't any,but I'm just going to say it was
(26:53):
one is one.
It's named after me.
The Purple Heart status is forthe, for the museum and what
they're doing, the people inthere.
God bless them.
They've got a set and you canbring in your father, your uncle
, your grandfather, the PurpleHeart.
They won their award.
They can put, they can puttheir awards down in the museum
that people can see, they canhear their story, they can see
them.
They're not giving it away.
(27:14):
They'll get it back, but for acouple of months their family's
on the table.
His story is here, it's notstuck in a box.
I saw Purple Heart one time onsale at an antique store for a
buck and a half and I thoughtthat thing, what did that man
have to go through to get thatthing?
So it's a very important thingthat we keep this in mind when
we go forward.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
We'll return to the podcast in a moment, but first
we want to thank SilencerCentral for supporting our
podcast.
Silencer Central has beenmaking Silencer Buying simple
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(27:56):
suppressor and browse theirproduct catalog.
Now back to our podcast.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
You got me started.
Guys See what happens.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
It's all right.
No, it's all good.
Yeah, you know, and being aveteran from the area right next
to Brownwood, you know you wereso right.
I want to touch back.
You mentioned that there's nosocial workers and that's a big
problem, both in my county andother counties, obviously, but
(28:29):
this isn't just a Texas thing.
You know the American Legionnationwide, for all of our
listeners out there, you know.
Definitely go on to thelegionorg and get that
information.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
It's key to it.
Depending on the post youjoined, the annual fee is around
$45 to $50 a year to be amember and there is a lifetime
membership.
That's there.
But with that membership youget a monthly magazine with all
the salaries and programs and aweekly email from the American
Legion which talks about theseprograms you talk, talks about
(29:06):
the different systems, evengives you the ability to go
online at home and go throughthe training and learn what's
there.
Because one of the things thatwe have to go is people don't
realize there are programs forseverely handicapped folks for
long-term care in their home.
One couple and I admit they gotthe top of the line.
But one couple came in whenthere was still a social worker
(29:28):
here at Brownwood there isn'tnow and they met with them.
I talked to them and they wentin.
They met with them.
They needed help.
He was so fairly handicapped,she needed a day out, she needed
to go shopping.
They needed to take care of thehome they needed to.
They won $2,600 a month for therest of their lives to pay for
all that.
That's the top of the line.
I don't mean everybody's goingto get that, but there are
(29:50):
mechanisms, there are means ofgetting that help, long-term
care, via some of the differentorganizations that are here,
contract companies that are hereand this kind of programs.
The VA has those issues to helpfund and get them.
Now it won't always come fromthe VA.
The funds will in some cases,in some cases from the Legion,
(30:11):
but the people like visitingangels and others will be the
companies that will come in toassist.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
And with the support element for the families.
College education isn't gettingany cheaper.
There's a lot of us that mayhave used our GI bills or other
tuition assistance and don'thave that support for our
children, just hearing all themoney that's available for those
(30:38):
scholarships and grants thatgoes unused.
Boy, we got to do our job andget the word out for sure.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
It is very important to get the word out.
The American Legion is a C3, c9, c19, and C23 nonprofit
organization, depending on theprogram, but they fall within
all four of those and the way itis structured.
For example, every nickelexcept for what we pay for, just
a little bit for electricityfor the building we're in every
(31:06):
nickel we get goes to run theseprograms that we have and run
the systems that are here for us.
The posts are.
Some of them are getting older.
We need volunteers, we needpeople to help in the computer,
in our day room, in the computerlabs and this kind of stuff.
But with the interest of thecommunities to provide lighting,
(31:27):
to provide equipment, toprovide computers, to provide
systems.
There's no reason any postcannot have an educational part
to it, for their people cannothave the ability to fund it.
You'll find that if you goonline to join the American
Legion I'll use Texas because Iknow it better then if you went
online and just joined theLegion, you wind up in a post
(31:50):
345.
Now that's a holding post.
It's out of Austin, but it'sbasically just a holding post.
If you then have you find apost like ours or others around,
be it in Bangs, be it in any ofthe different cities that are
around that have posts SanAngelo and others in Curveville
(32:11):
and other posts then you canalways put the post number down.
But if you don't know thenumber doesn't mean that you are
not eligible or get involved,because each state has a holding
post, like Texas does.
I speak to Texas because I knowit better than others, but
every state has a holding post.
So even if you don't know thestate or if you don't have one
(32:32):
in your area, by joining you getall of those benefits and all
of that capability, but via thestate and you have that ability
and help that can fit that areafor you, because some people the
city or town there don't have apost.
Well, guess what?
There's a way to get aroundthat problem.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
And there's, yeah, there's posts everywhere.
I mean it's American Legion,like you said.
You said 1919, correct what?
Speaker 4 (33:00):
1919, it was.
It was chartered.
We have 12,000 posts around theworld right now we have in that
way it's set up.
The auxiliary is for thespouses of the veterans and I'm
glad they've changed it that way.
They've always for years it wastheir wives, but now husband
and wives of the veterans.
They qualify for that.
(33:21):
If that veteran is dead, ifthat gun helping me, if he's
gone, if he's whatever, they canstill join the auxiliary.
They can still provide all thatmedical and other support and
family support over the yearsand get involved with everything
from scholarships and grants tofunding to educational programs
.
All through the same thing,Even if that veteran is gone
(33:44):
because of them having beenthere, they qualify.
The son and the grandsonqualifies for the sons of the
veteran.
There's a program in Texas,nationwide, but I'll speak to
our base.
It's called Boy State and GirlState.
Every year the posts providefunding.
We have a very fine gentlemanthat works with us.
He prefers it would not goblatant in his name out, but he
(34:07):
provides the funding to help usand we send two young men and
two young ladies every year toAustin, All expenses paid.
They put together a mockgovernment.
They've worked with the realsenators, with the real
representatives.
They find out how governmentsare one, what civics is, how
they can develop the program.
And every year two folks fromeach of the states are picked
and they go to Washington assenators to that state and they
(34:30):
work with the real senators andrepresentatives and Washington
and a mock government to learnhow they're done, those programs
, their housing, theirtransportation, their food all
paid for by the legion andpicked from the systems.
We were one vote short thisyear of getting one of our two
young men sent to state, tonational as a senator.
(34:51):
We're going to fix that.
We're going to move forward.
Good people and they workedhard.
But it gives them the abilityto understand what is civics,
what is the government, what arethe rights we have, how do
people create a law, how do theystand up and go, Not somebody
saying on the radio well, thisis the way it works, because I
said so.
They get to see it firsthand,live it.
(35:14):
And those types of programsprovide one of those boxes to
check.
Many of those students that dothat are eligible and go on to
the different military academiesWest Point, Air Force and
others and they are able to getin their colleges.
It gives them the one more boxcheck that they have to put them
ahead of their peers in doingso.
In addition to that, we providescholarships.
(35:36):
We support four high schools.
We support Brownwood, Early,Blanket and Zephyr and each year
we give, we cycle between thefour and each year we give a
scholarship to the graduatingsenior, a young man and a young
lady, towards what they're doingfor their college and we
provide medals of honor andappreciation to the winners of
(35:58):
all of the different highschools and systems.
The only problem we have is I'masking the people to talk to us
in their junior year, not twoweeks before they graduate, so
we have time to get the systemsdone and get them through the
cycle.
But we provide that and some ofthe monies that we'll be
generating from the chute andfrom the others will go to that.
That money, I'm sorry, go.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
And other youth activities as well.
Right, Youth baseball.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
We've got ROTC, we've got Boy Scouts, we've got Youth
Chute.
We have oratory programsoratory programs where they have
, they speak, they have, theyget involved with all of those
programs.
The Legionorg will give you anidea of over 200 type programs
that we have available.
A good example is the LittleLeague.
This year 3500 teams weresponsored to go into the
(36:51):
American League Baseball season.
To go into it.
Espn had them on TV a couple ofweeks ago doing the final.
For the first time in 96 yearsa small town in Texas, between
Galveston and Houston, won theWorld Series.
These kids stood their line andthey won.
In the process they're winningscholarship grants, they're
winning other programs becausetheir family stood by them and
(37:14):
supported them.
The American Legion providedall of the uniforms and
equipment and support to helpthese young folks do that.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
That's wonderful.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
People don't know it's out there.
We were at the air show I madereference to in Brownwood
yesterday.
The lady said to me well, I'mremarried but my husband died.
He was dead but I was a veteran.
I said, hold it, you qualifyfor the auxiliary because you
were the wife of a veteran butyour son, who's standing right
beside you, qualifies for thesons of the Legion because he's
(37:47):
the son of the veteran and alsothe grandsons His son qualifies
for the sons of the Legion.
In that structure there's ahuge following and things they
can get and support they can getfrom that group that are also
available.
You don't know that that isavailable to them.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, it's phenomenal , it's deep and it's awesome
work that's been done.
There's been a lot of time thathas gone on, obviously since
1919.
Developing these programs andbeing able to stand these up to
support the people that need itis absolutely phenomenal.
That's the biggest thing iseducation.
There's a lot of people outthere that's still like worse,
(38:24):
going on six years fororganization.
We're very much in the infancy.
You have your organizationwhere it's so large and has so
many different facets, wherepeople still don't know, they
have no idea.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
They have no idea.
They come into me.
Oh, you're part of the VFW.
No, nothing against them, butwe're not.
We're totally different VFW.
You have to serve in a foreignwar, All you have to do for the
American Legion.
One day, with the DD214 andhonorable discharge, including
the merchant marines, you, yourfamily and your family's family
are qualified for the servicesthat we have under our
(38:57):
environment.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Is that true?
I recently heard that evenanyone, anyone who, even if he
didn't serve I think thatthere's some legions up here
that talked about that theycould join as members too, even
if they're not have served.
Is that accurate?
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Not really.
There are some programs wherethey work, but the way the
Legion works you've got to fallwithin.
Now they don't have to haveserved.
If their father served, iftheir, if the others, if their
father served, they could be inthe sons of the Legion and
everything, and they don't haveto have served to be in the
Legion via the sons of theLegion.
In that environment there areways they can be.
(39:33):
They're eligible, but it's fromtheir family history as how
they fit into that structure.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Makes sense.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
To be honest, I as a as a commander, have more than
once reached the mow wallet tohelp somebody or to do whatever
is necessary for a veteran ifthey're not a Legion member.
I am not going to leave a manhanging in the wind that needs
help.
I've got people that arewilling to step through the line
and God bless them and said youknow, if they need to get a gas
line fixed, if they needsomething in the house, you call
me Paul.
There'll be a check written infive minutes that will help if
(40:02):
we can.
We're not a long-term helpsystem.
We're not going to pay a guy'srent for a year.
We're not going to do this.
But, on the reverse, if aveteran comes into me and needs
help, I'm going to help him thebest I can.
I don't care if he's a Legionmember or not.
But to say that the Legionprograms that are available, yes
, you have to been in the Legionsomewhere within the structure.
(40:23):
You know, if your father was aveteran, even if he didn't join
the Legion, you can and youstill qualify across that if he
was in there.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
It's a very valid point too and that's something
that we do here at HHO too isthat you know our bylaws are
very specific about what we canand can't do, you know, with
outdoor adventures and helpingpeople out and mental health,
you know.
But there's some times where wehave people approach us who are
in need of things that areoutside that purview, and we
will rally the troops, so tospeak, to see how we can support
(40:51):
them and get them through theday or the next day or maybe the
month, you know, not long term,like you just said too, but we
do have a network of people thatwe have built over time that
will assist in those needs, andSean recently had a situation
where he helped out with aveteran that needed help, you
know, and we've done it severaltimes amongst many of our
members and people that haveserved, but it may not be in our
(41:12):
exact bylaws, but it'ssomething that is very admirable
for these organizations toinclude the Legion to do that
kind of stuff, and there arepeople out there that do want to
support in that way.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
So Paul, we talked briefly about PTSD suicide
prevention and I kind ofexplained, you know, some of the
programs that we use, theassist program, that we formally
train as many field staff as wecan to help out in time of need
, and you mentioned that you mayhave something coming up as
(41:44):
well.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
We are one of the corporations that's working with
us.
As a matter of fact, the CEO ofthe corporation, a member of my
post and a veteran some of hispeople are.
They sponsor, I think AmericanFamily.
It is a program of suicideprevention and support that do
seminars around the country.
They're out of Colorado andthey've offered in November to
(42:09):
come here to Brownwood.
We've got the Lyric Theater,We've got the auditorium there
at the college made availablewhere they're going to come in
for free and do a two-dayseminar on suicide prevention,
helping with people, what needsto be done and how that needs to
be done.
We all have our idea of what weneed to do and the best idea is
(42:31):
not hitting him in the back ofthe head with a brick to keep
him doing it.
We've got other things.
We have to make sure theyunderstand where they're coming
from, but these folks haveoffered to come in.
There are other programs likethat and some of the other
projects that are here.
The city manager in Brownwoodsaid when this comes in she
wants to see all of the firstresponders come to this program.
(42:52):
Veterans are not the only oneswith these problems.
We're not the only ones withPTSD.
We're not the only ones whosuffer in some of these issues
that go into it, and I want totry, via the best we can and the
resources that are madeavailable to us, to provide
assets to everyone, to all ofthe people that need it.
A good example with it isthey're talking about bringing
(43:15):
some suicide survivors in totalk about how they felt
afterwards, how they dealt withit, and it'd be a two-day
seminar.
Now, yes, the thing is going tobe free.
Yes, the admission is going tobe free.
Yes, I'm an old crem.
I'm going to have a tableoutside the door trying to get
contribution to the AmericanLegion, but that's a different
story.
I'm not going to deny it, I'mnot going to back away from it.
It's what we use to fund ourprograms.
(43:37):
But there are other programslike that that are out there.
There are veterans that justdon't know.
I remember one.
I'm one of the volunteerdrivers that drive from
Brownwood to Temple from the VAclinic to take people for
medical treatments, and we do ita couple of times a week and we
go just volunteers would drivea van and one of the men one
time that I was driving there hetold me he said well, all I got
(44:00):
is my dog and he doesn't reallytalk back to me that well, but
he just needed to have somebodyto talk to, somebody to listen.
We've all got war stories thatnobody believes.
We've all got places we've beenwe should never have been, and
they need a way to understandthat people care and people are
(44:21):
willing to be involved, andthat's part of what I want to do
now.
I'm not worried that the man isor is an event, an American
Legion member.
If we can sponsor this seminaror some like it, if we can put
together a program of its kindand support, come on, you don't
have to be vet, you don't haveto even be the veteran.
You can be the family of aveteran.
(44:41):
To me, there is no adjectivebefore veteran.
You're not a male veteran, afemale veteran, a family veteran
of the veteran, You're aveteran.
The families are as much aveteran as the veteran is to me,
because they got to put up withus and that goes a long ways
towards how we can deal with it.
And I don't care if the personis green or polka-dotted.
Come on, I'm proud to say wehave four lady veterans that
(45:04):
have now part of our post andwe're growing.
It comes through that door thatwants to be there.
We want them there.
We want to help them.
Any post out there would try todo their best to help.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Oh, it's absolutely phenomenal.
I mean, everyone's welcome,right?
No one knows what sex or genderor creed, race.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
I could care less, right, amen, no, sir.
In my way of thinking, thefirst person I got a judge is
myself, and I don't know if Ican pass that judgment.
So we'll deal with the others.
So, true, so true Well in 1972,my parents received a letter
from the Army informing themthat I was killed in combat.
They had the chaplain knock onthe door.
They had the people come to sayI'm sorry, well, and we got
(45:45):
shot down, a little run, blah,blah, blah.
Took us a couple of weeks, blah, blah, blah, and we managed to
get back and the first thingthey said was what will call
your parents to tell them you'realive?
I said no, you're going to callmy father.
They said why your father?
Well, I said what a canal youashamed.
Oh, he can handle the call.
I said no, well, yes, butthat's not why.
Why my mother's ninthgeneration Texan.
You call it up and tell her youscrewed this up.
(46:07):
She's going to come here andkick somebody's ass.
The key is we've got to be wherethat man can.
The man or woman or child orgrandchild or parent can feel
comfortable and saying they wantto go kick somebody's ass.
We need help, we need a program,and I don't mind being the man
standing there to say you knowwhat the blank, blank, blank is
(46:27):
going on.
I've got fine men that want tohelp.
I got good people that want todo the job.
I've got volunteers that arecoming and we need this kind of
help.
We need the support of theshootout that you've got and I
you said how are you putting itout through your site?
And I hope you do.
We need all the help we can geton that to get money to help
with.
That money will put the socialworker program on track and with
(46:51):
it, god willing, I intend touse the resolutions that I gave
to work to get one of that kindof structure and every post in
the state that's 230.
Now they may not always be atthat post, but available to that
post, and that's what I want totry to figure out.
But this is how I want to startthis program.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeah, to all of our listeners.
What Paul is talking about isis they have an American Legion
post 196 shotgun shootout?
That's going to be October 28,2023, from 8am to 2pm down at
the Brownwood clay club inClayburn, texas, or Clayburn
(47:29):
Club, yes.
Speaker 4 (47:30):
It's own the property of the country club.
It's $120 for each person, 45of it is for the shoot.
You get 100 plays, you get theshoot and you get a nice
barbecue lunch.
Everything else goes to to tous.
We've got sponsors that arefunding some more money to this.
We've got one grant is going tomatch fund for money that these
(47:50):
guys pay to come to do this.
We got a grant to match fundingso we can double that money to
help these people.
We can do it.
Now there's another piece tothis is what we call a resource
list.
There every post needs to paycloser attention to it.
Oh, thank you.
I'm glad you put that up.
I really am the resource listyou take here in Brownwood and I
(48:11):
only speak to it because I'mnot expert on everybody else.
But there's no real list thatsays go to Joe for food, go to
sue for clothes, go, it's 800number.
Well, you have to punch thesenumbers and a lot of elderly
vets can't work that you punchthis button, punch that button,
they quit.
We're creating a resource listwith the help of one of the
radio stations, k O X E here intown.
That's putting together withone of very fine gentlemen by
(48:33):
the name of Dennis Rumfield.
What they're trying to do isprepare a list that every
veteran, everybody that comesout of the hospital, every
veteran that comes out of themedical training facilities, be
it Excel, be it the Center forLife Management, be it the VA
clinic they have a list and itsays you can get transportation,
you can get food, you can getclothes, you can get furniture,
(48:56):
you can get equipment at thesenumbers.
Don't worry about calling this800 number for this county for
that thing.
But so they have a mechanism toreach out and get help.
And each of these people wereput together, even if it's the
wrong one.
They call person for food.
They're going to know where togo get clothes.
They're going to work with youto help you get those pieces
that are involved.
We've even got one of ourmembers that owns a pharmacy
(49:18):
here in town and he's got awarehouse.
He said here you are, we gotwalkers, we got daycare, we've
got electric wheelchairs.
We got hospital beds for freeif a veteran, if an American
Legion person needs them andthey need them in their home for
their family.
They're in a warehouse.
I got them.
I'm already giving them away.
Now that stuff is available.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
Well, hey, paul, we're about getting to the end
here.
Thank you so much for coming inand talking about American
Legion.
You're right, there's so manypeople that have no idea what
the organization is, what theorganization is about.
It's not just a bunch of oldguys smoking and drinking
sitting at the bar.
(49:58):
This is a bar.
This is this is the greatcommunity place for veterans and
families to come together andlearn, educate and get the
resources they need.
So please come out on the 28thof October down in Brownwood,
texas, and take part in thisshotgun shootout and meet some
(50:22):
of these amazing veterans fromthe area and let's show them
some support.
We have one of our.
Speaker 4 (50:29):
Medal of Honor winners.
He's got Bob O'Malley.
I don't know if you know thator not, but he'll be there too.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Great, I don't know.
That's awesome.
Yeah, paul, thanks for comingon and being able to share some
information about the AmericanLegion and all the different
programs that are available toour veterans and not only
veterans but their familymembers or media family and I
really appreciate the time andyour service that you've had
over the years and continuedservice.
It's impressive to be able tospeak with you and when I come
(50:55):
down we have to shake a hand andhave a beer.
I'll be down in December.
Speaker 3 (51:01):
So I was I was, but I've already.
Speaker 4 (51:03):
I was already told, you got something coming up.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Oh I say I was blessed to meet Paul two years
ago.
You know, as a, my daytime jobis I run a inspection company
and his wife is.
She likes to buy and sellproperty.
So we spend a lot of timetogether and I was able to meet
Paul and I just thanks for whatyou do.
I appreciate you sharing yourstory.
(51:28):
I appreciate what you're doingfor the community and for all of
the veterans.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
Thank you, gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Hey.
Paul any last words before weend the podcast tonight.
Speaker 4 (51:40):
Well, one last thing thank you, the veteran.
They we don't want them to feelalone.
We want them to have a place togo.
We need volunteers to help uswith what we're doing.
We're looking for people thatare willing to spend a little
time and put some effort intowhat we're trying to create.
As far as my wife, I'm gladthat you work with her, sean,
and she was RAF Red Cross, beingEnglish, but she actually the
(52:02):
US Marine Corps every year getsa takes an artist of note.
She's an artist and sculptorsand they sell their work and
they fund their CASA programsaround the world.
My wife was the US Marine Corpsartist of note for CASA
Children's programs around theworld in 2012 for the US Marines
.
She works hard, trying to helpthe families, as I'm trying to
do.
She puts me to shame in some ofthe work she does, but we're
(52:25):
trying to.
Where's a family want to dothis where we can, and thank you
, gentlemen, thank you both forletting me have this opportunity
.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yes, sir, absolutely.
Thanks for your service andeverything you do for us and for
our listeners.
Please check out the AmericanLegion and all programs that
they offer.
If you're in the Texas area,please look into the shoot that
they have going on on the 28th.
And for everybody else ourlisteners, you know, if you're a
first responder or a militarymilitary service member or
veteran, if you're feeling likeyou're in a dark time at this
point in time, please reach outto us.
(52:53):
We have individuals who do careabout you and we are here to
listen to you.
We have our individuals who aretrained in cis training applied
suicide intervention skillstraining and we are here to
listen and help you get throughthat dark moment.
If that's something that youcannot do, 988-988, you can call
or text that for the crisisintervention line and they'll
get you the help that we need.
(53:13):
But thank you for tuning intoday and Paul and Sean, thank
you for being here and untilnext time, the HHO World, we
will see you next week.
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