When Bart Bartholomew, a Navy veteran with an incredible life story, joins me, Thad David, you know you're in for a journey that traverses the depths of the ocean and the human spirit. Bart's unexpected draft notice at 17 thrust him into an adventure with the Navy, a tale of resilience he narrates with humor and honesty. His vivid recounting of boot camp antics, the camaraderie found on the flight deck, and the inter-service rivalries unfolds a tapestry of military life at sea that's both engaging and enlightening.
Throughout our conversation, we pay a special tribute to the unsung heroes of military conflict – the nurses and doctors whose dedication often goes unnoticed. Bart shares poignant stories of deployment, including a life-altering return home and the unpredictable nature of naval service during the Tet Offensive. His experiences shed light on the emotional toll of being away from family during critical moments and the complexities of reintegration into civilian life, while also emphasizing the profound bonds formed in service.
As the episode draws to a close, Bart and I tackle the necessity of support networks for veterans transitioning to civilian life. We discuss the imperative of immediate outreach to veteran organizations to combat the devastating issues of homelessness and mental health struggles. It's an intimate sign-off with a powerful reminder: veterans are valued, and their contributions to our society are immeasurable. Join us to honor their service and learn more about the remarkable work done by Veterans Honoring Veterans, ensuring the legacies of our service members are never forgotten.
Contact Thad - VictoriousVeteranProject@Gmail.com
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bart Bartholomew (00:00):
deployed to Vietnam in October.
And one story that's kind ofcute it I'm on the flight deck
and I'm no longer.
Can I see California?
California is gone, no land,can't see anything and there's
just water out there.
And I'm just a young, 18 yearold.
I'm just looking at all thiswater and an older Seder came up
(00:23):
to me and kind of looked, sawhow young I was, couldn't shave
stuff like that and he says alot of water out there in there.
I just I said yes, sir, thereis.
And he says that's just the top.
Thad David (00:38):
My name is Thad David.
I'm a former Marine recon scoutsniper with two deployments to
Iraq.
As a civilian, I've nowfacilitated hundreds of personal
and professional developmenttrainings across the country,
and it struck me recently thatthe same things that help
civilians will also helpveterans succeed in their new
roles as well.
Join me as we define civiliansuccess principles to inspire
(00:59):
veteran victories.
Welcome to another episode.
I'm here today with BartBartholomew, a Navy veteran.
How are you doing, bart?
Bart Bartholomew (01:08):
Hey dad, I'm doing great Good to meet you.
Thank you for doing this.
Thad David (01:11):
Oh man, absolutely Thank you.
I'm really happy that you'rejoining on the show and I'm
really excited to hear yourstory.
Bart Bartholomew (01:18):
Well, thank you.
Thad David (01:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
What's that?
Bart Bartholomew (01:21):
I say it's not that big of a story, but it's
kind of fun.
Thad David (01:26):
Well, I think it speaks to your humility, because
I think you've got a prettywonderful one.
But let's dive into it.
And when did you join the Navy?
What got you to join the Navy?
Bart Bartholomew (01:37):
Uncle Sam sent me a little piece of paper that
said you're drafted.
Thad David (01:41):
Okay, and then-.
Bart Bartholomew (01:43):
So when I got that piece of paper I talked to
some other people that had itlisted prior to this.
So I said, you know, I thinkthe Army sounds like a lot more
work, navy sounds like a lotmore adventure.
So I crossed the state linedinto Kansas, found a Navy
recruiter and said, hey, is itokay to do this kind of thing?
Is it legal?
(02:03):
He says absolutely.
So I joined the Navy.
Thad David (02:07):
Oh wow, so you actually got drafted and then
you just jumped over a differentstate and then enlisted into
the-.
Bart Bartholomew (02:16):
Well, there were recruiters in Colorado, but
they were in Denver, a longways away, and I knew there was
a recruiter over in Gooden,kansas, and that was only 30
miles from my hometown, so itwas just a convenient thing for
me to do.
It wasn't Right, it wasn'tbecause it was a state law or
anything like that.
Just got my draft notice anddidn't want to go to the Army.
Thad David (02:36):
Wow, what was it like to receive a draft notice.
It's something that we alwayshear about, but I've never
actually talked to anybody thatgot a draft notice.
Bart Bartholomew (02:46):
I'm 17.
I'm 17, going to be 18.
And it's a piece of paper.
Obviously, while you're in highschool, some of the people that
were graduated before you somegot drafted, some got enlisted,
so when they come home you hearsome of their stories.
But when I got my draft notice,I knew I was going to have to
(03:08):
talk, because it's one of thoseconversations that we all had
when we graduated from highschool, and it was.
I mean, it was like they had aradar on me.
You know, I get my high schooldiploma and I go out and smile
and I go to the mailbox andthere's a draft notice.
Didn't happen that fast, but itseemed like it happened pretty
(03:28):
quick because got out in Juneand went into the Navy in August
.
Thad David (03:34):
Wow, I mean, that's a very quick thing.
Bart Bartholomew (03:38):
What a big decision.
Thad David (03:40):
Yeah, what a big decision to have to make at 17
going on 18.
Bart Bartholomew (03:46):
Well, I was 17 when I graduated.
Okay, turn 18.
And then, and so my birthdaywas in joy.
So, graduation birthday.
Join the Navy.
Thad David (04:02):
All right, and so you joined the Navy.
And then what did you do in theNavy?
And what was that?
Like that you get deployedimmediately.
Bart Bartholomew (04:10):
Well, yeah, I can't talk about other military
service branches and how theirboot camp is, other than the
fact that when I was in SanDiego I usually got to sleep in.
But what woke me up was itwasn't a company commander
(04:30):
coming in, it was a Dan MarineCorps on the other side, because
they'd been up two hours earlyand they were making noise
because they were out thererunning and screaming and acting
like idiots over there.
So we said you know, could youhold it down?
We're trying to sleep over here.
What you guys don't have anyrespect.
But no, that was the MCDRMarine Corps Recruiting Depot.
(04:51):
That was right next to us.
So that's a joke.
We always send the Marines.
You know, I'd have been a lotbetter sailor if you guys would
let me sleep a little longer,but you guys got some for them
early, so anyway, go ahead.
Thad David (05:07):
Oh no, I was gonna say, and the feud starts that
quickly.
That's how quickly you realizedthat the feud between branches,
it's like man.
These guys, exactly basictraining, man.
Bart Bartholomew (05:16):
Right off, right off the bat.
So but anyway, went throughbasic training, scored high
enough for school to get aschool in New London,
connecticut.
I was gonna be a go to schoolfor sonar technician because I
had a buddy that was insubmarines and I thought, well,
you know, I visited him, gotinto his sub, got to look at
(05:38):
stuff like that, thought that'dbe a pretty cool thing to do.
So I did the school and Ididn't do the school.
I graduated from basic training.
And then to go back a littlebit, while I was in basic
training I was a pretty goodswimmer and you gotta graduate
(05:59):
the swimming class before youget out of the Navy, because in
the Navy you see water.
You better know how to swim.
And then, believe it or not,there was a ton, a ton of young
boys that did not know how toswim.
So there was a lot of swimminggoing on and teaching these kids
how to swim.
Well, I was good enough swimmerthat I was called.
(06:23):
While we were in basic trainingI was called over to the
swimming pool I swear to helpsome of the instructors with
some of these kids who washaving a struggle.
So I say that story becausewhen I got out of boot camp and
got my orders to New London,connecticut.
While I was home I got a letterfrom my home address from the
(06:49):
Navy department saying wechanged your orders.
You're going back to Coronado,California.
You're going to be in aswimming program.
We want you to probably go intoUDT, which is underwater
demolition, and then thateventually works into the SEAL
program which was just had beenstarted.
(07:09):
So my orders changed.
I go back to San Diego orCoronado and I get into that
program and found out that I wasnot as good a swimmer as they
needed because I never had achance to ring the bell, because
I never got into that programbut I could not pass some of the
tests that they had forunderwater demolition.
(07:31):
So that quickly changed andthat didn't take about three
weeks, close to a month.
And then I got some new ordersto go to Long Beach, california,
and get on a ship and all Iknew was the ship's name was USS
Valley Forge and didn't knowtoo much about it.
(07:52):
I mean, I'm from EasternColorado, dry land, biggest lake
of the Bonny Dam and biggestboat's, probably 18 feet long.
So that 18 feet's a big ship tome, you know.
So I get out there and I walkup the pier to my new ship and
I'm looking at this city it'sthree football fields long and I
(08:17):
don't know how many hundreds ofthousands of tons of steel and
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,I'm just overwhelmed, I and I'm
and I'm not the only one.
That happened to, I know would,no matter what branch, when you
see Ship that big, you got tostop and think a lot, of, a lot
(08:38):
of stuff.
So, anyway, got on the ValleyForge and and I Didn't have a
what the, what everybody elsecalls an MOS.
I, I was a swimmer but I didn'tget on the dive team there with
the ship, so I got into anoutfit called combat cargo and
Anytime you hear something youwant to interrupt that just go
(08:59):
ahead, because I'm like anenergized bunny.
You know you hit that switchand I just go and I don't shut
up until the battery dies or orsomething interrupts me.
Thad David (09:09):
So no, I will take note of that, but I'm really
just very interested in hearingyour story.
I love, I love where this isgoing and here and kind of the
trajectory of what it was likefor you in the military well, I
Enjoyed my time.
Bart Bartholomew (09:25):
To let everybody know it was.
It was a good three years andkind of like nine months of Of
time that I I'm glad I didn'tmiss, but I gotta think where I
was.
Thad David (09:39):
You're a combat cargo.
I believe you call that.
Bart Bartholomew (09:42):
Yeah, thank you, you're gonna have to do
that.
Once walk is the great, thegray matter outside kind of
curled in and kind of screwed upthe brains from me thinking
once well, that's, that's mystory, let's take it to it.
Anyway, I got the same the samething.
Thad David (09:59):
I'm my little graze that are coming in or doing.
I have to constantly ask people, so it's all good.
Bart Bartholomew (10:04):
Yeah, well, good, so keep, keep me on track.
So combat cargo was a group ofabout 12 to 15 sailors that
Worked with cargo, combat cargoand the combat part of it is we.
We did not go aboard land or goto land to do the cargo
(10:28):
replenishment stuff.
We did everything on the shipand ship has ships have, have
holes, hald Holes, and that'swhere they put stuff in the ship
in different compartments andthey do it through Different
levels of the ship.
Sometimes there might be 13 or14 levels on, like an aircraft
carrier, and we might go down todeck 3 and have certain stuff
(10:52):
on deck 3 and then Deck 4 hassomething else but it.
So we know where everything'sgoing to be and when we get it
on board we put it in thoseholes and then when we deploy
and we need something, we takethem out of those holes and we
put them up on the flight deck.
The flight deck is the very topplatform of the ship where the,
(11:13):
where the aircraft takes offand and let me keep me on track
About the, the cargo holes,because I'm going to divert to
something else the aircraftcarrier I was on was a CVA.
It's a combat vertical aircraftcarrier.
It had airplanes that took offfrom a catapult and Landed under
(11:37):
the tail hook.
Okay, well, that was built in1945.
Commission 1946 served all thetime in Korea Was.
The ship was very instrumentalin a lot of stuff in the very,
very, very beginning of theKorean War, so it's got a lot of
battle stars awarded to it forthe deployments they had.
(11:57):
So in 1960 Vietnam was reallyramping up.
There was a problem in thatcountry and and so the Navy
started looking at theseaircraft carriers and saying we
need something closer to land,with helicopters that can get in
(12:18):
, close to land and and do theirjob and then come back.
Because the plane aircraftcarriers were way out to sea but
they could go fast, do whatthey need to do and then come
back, and so they could be faraway.
Well, helicopters don't havethat much fuel and they're not
as fast as a jet.
So they decided they woulddevelop a LPH.
(12:42):
The, the aircraft carrier, was aCV Carrier, vertical now I'm on
an LPH landing platform andthen for helicopters.
So that's what the LPH standsfor.
So when we would get all thecargo up on the on the flight
deck where they would land, whatwe do is we put out a Probably
(13:04):
about a 20 by 20 cargo that it'sgot Rope intertwined with
itself and then it's got fourgreat big metal steel hooks,
twine intertwined with the, withthe cargo, that they would fold
all of them up and then wewould link them together.
Then the helicopter would comein and we put a a 20 foot pole
(13:26):
and Can I cast on my, on myvideo?
Thad David (13:30):
I Don't know that it would be a military veteran
podcast if we wouldn't allowcursing yeah.
Bart Bartholomew (13:38):
This 20 foot pole was made of cat fiberglass,
what we call the donkey dick,and Okay.
So every time we would go outto get under a helicopter, we
would take our 20 foot donkeydick and stand under the CH46
which you Marines had in inVietnam, and they were a twin
(13:59):
rotor Helicopter similar to theCH47, but the CH47 was a four
pod landing wheels and theChinook CH46 was a was a three.
So the, the Chinook was a fourand the sea night was a was a
three.
Thad David (14:20):
They and I've been on several CH46's.
Yeah, so I'm very familiar withthem and repelled out of them
lots of different things likeyeah, very familiar with them.
Bart Bartholomew (14:30):
Oh, that's exactly what what we did.
So, when they were not carryingtroops, which we also helped
the deploying of the of theMarines when, when they would go
in country, we we would putthem on the hangar deck, which
is One level where they do allthe maintenance and stuff like
that for all the helicopters.
(14:50):
We would have the MarinesAssemble in a certain area, by
by certain, however, you guyslined up your, your squads or
companies, or your Platoons,whatever, whatever you did, but
you got these little clusters,and then we would take these
little clusters and put them onan elevator and what a big
(15:12):
elevator.
We'd lift them up and then wewould escort them to which
helicopters they would go to.
So that was part of our job too.
But what?
Once we would get done withthat, that we drove forklifts
and did all that well, once wegot done with all that, the
ships were Helicopter, were gone, and then we would wait until
they, they came back and theywould come back, someone, with
(15:35):
the same same thing.
They would come back and bringthat cargo net down and and
Whatever the stuff they broughtback was to be reused again.
And the only, the only, andthis is the toughest part of our
job is and it didn't happen toevery ship and I can't tell you
(15:59):
how many ships we became amortuary.
There was in 68.
There was a pretty Pretty heavybattle in country with both the
army and the Navy and theMarines, and it was called 10
offensive and that 10 offensivecaused an awful lot of
(16:20):
casualties and there was notenough space for the young boys
that were killed, so they would,they would bring them back on
on the Sea nights and then wewould, we would take them and
we'd put them on the on thehangar deck and we corded off an
area and roped it off and therewas a temporary morgue until we
(16:43):
we had, they had places to sendthe kis and we were, we were in
charge of Protecting Our fallenveterans and their brothers.
So it was kind of kind of toughwhen you you had to know that
there's 150, 200 body bags overthere, that there's 17, 18 year
(17:08):
old boys who did the same thingI did, signed up to serve their
country, but they, they did theultimate sacrifice, so that that
that that's lived with me for along, long time and I never
really brought that up when Iwhen I talked to other people,
but I remember that I didn'twant to talk about it because it
(17:29):
was.
It was sobering and they theywere there lesson eight to ten
to twelve hours, butnevertheless, what?
Once we, once we found, foundhomes for wherever they was
going I don't even know what wascalled once the ones they, they
were picked up, then we wouldget another batch and this, this
(17:50):
, this happened for about abouttwo weeks during so you were
getting rotating batches.
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, we, we, westayed.
We stayed In in that areathrough 10 offensive, the for
the first 10, and and I and Ibring this up because I, I
(18:15):
graduate basic training in 67,ended up on the Valley Forge in
in in October, deployed to toVietnam in October and one, one
story that's kind of cute it I'mon the flight deck and I'm on.
No longer can I see California.
(18:35):
California is gone, no land,can't see anything and there's
just water out there.
And I'm just A young, 18 yearold.
I'm just looking at all thiswater and an older satyr came up
to me and Kind of looks all howyoung I was couldn't shave
stuff like that.
And he says A lot of water outthere in there.
I said I said yes, sir, thereis.
(18:58):
He says that's just top.
So that put a whole newperspective on a lot of water
out there and because all I wasreally looking at was just a
large body of water, notthinking that's just the top, so
that stuck with me forever.
Every time I would get up thereand I'd look, I would say my
(19:20):
goodness gracious, how far wecan see without seeing land, how
long we're out there withoutseeing land, and I'm just one of
millions of sailors and Marineshave done the same thing.
Thad David (19:34):
Well, I think that, and that just made me think of
because one thing that I'mdiscovering as I talk to people
and I spoke with a womanrecently who had a gentleman
from Vietnam reach out to herbecause he was having issues
with his son because his son wasa mechanic in the Iraq war, and
he was like, well, what did yousee?
(19:54):
You didn't really see that much, and we tend to label what
somebody must have seen by theirtitle in the military, and that
just made me think of that.
It looks like it's far outthere, but the depth of service
is something that we don'treally get to see and just from
what you mentioned being incargo, I was not expecting you
(20:16):
to share that and that's a depthof which, like you said, is a
very sobering experience to seethat many bodies come in.
But what was that like towitness that, to be a part of
that at that young age?
Bart Bartholomew (20:30):
Well, that brings up a fact of just what
you're touching on.
You don't know what thatveteran saw because of that
veteran's title or area where hewent.
So when I talk to veterans andthey say I didn't do much, it's
(20:53):
a simple, simple thing.
I say anybody, anybody to raisetheir right hand and took that
oath to protect foreign anddomestic, go to basic training.
You have no idea where you'regoing to end up when you come
out of basic training.
You don't know if you're goingto be a mechanic turning a
rancher, a typist, a nurse, adoctor.
(21:15):
You don't know anything untilyou deploy.
So you gave that oath saying Iwill, and you wrote that blind
check right there and said Iwill do whatever you say to do.
So I did not go fight, I wasn'ta ground sailor, I was a fleet
(21:36):
sailor, and that story is comingup a little bit about being a
fleet sailor a little bit later.
But yeah, nurses, let's talkabout the wounded.
Soldiers and Marines andsailors and airmen get a lot of
the attention.
Okay, what about those nurses?
(21:57):
What about those doctors thattook in these hundreds of
injured some dying and some died, and worked on them hour after
hour after hour?
And we think about the combatveteran who was scared.
But do we think about thatnurse who was working on that
(22:18):
boy, keeping that boy from goinginto shock, talking to him,
holding his hand while thedoctor's taken off his leg or
both legs or his arm?
Those nurses don't get enoughcredit, as far as I'm concerned.
We just recognized a Vietnamnurse just a few months ago and
she came.
She received a statue.
(22:39):
She hadn't been back since.
Why Did she do it?
Just because I asked her to, orwe asked her to, and she got
post-traumatic stress?
We don't know.
But we got to give those nursesour thoughts every once in a
while.
So let's get back to the tentoffensive.
Thad David (23:04):
I just want to bring up really quick before you jump
into the tent offensive, whichI'm very excited to do, that as
well.
But I was very humbled.
I had a conversation, anotherinterview that I did with a
woman who she was working in theER and she was never in country
.
However, when you hear herstory of the Amuse 24-7 doing
(23:27):
some of the most gruesome workand amazing, amazing work, that
it's easy to think about thetitle and write off the service.
But when you hear the storyit's unbelievable I mean just
unbelievable that what she didwith her time in the military it
was fascinating.
It was very humbling to me.
Bart Bartholomew (23:46):
I'm so proud to say that we have nurses at
the Vietnam Wall.
We have a statue of nursestaking care of soldiers and
that's to be recognized andtalked about, looked at and
picture taken.
Because that's why I bring itup, because not only were we
more, we was close to twohospital ships and we saw
(24:08):
helicopter after helicopterafter helicopter go to these
hospital ships and not thinkingwhat was going on inside that
hospital ship until years after.
So, anyway, 10 of Fancy.
I'm 18 years old, I'm just afrech.
Over there we probably got intoour first action with combat
(24:28):
cargo supply and stuff incountry and I got a notification
from the Red Cross oh, by theway, you'll like this, those 12,
15 combat cargo guys.
My commander was a a, a, a, acaptain in the Marine Corps and
(24:48):
and my NCO was a tubby littlegunnery sergeant named Barnett
and and he, he was a character,he was just a round barrel and
he bar, he barked orders like a,like a true 100% Marine, and we
kept saying we are not Marines,do not treat us like Marines,
(25:11):
we are sailors.
You have to be nicer to us.
Well, he didn't get the message.
Thad David (25:17):
No.
Bart Bartholomew (25:17):
And the and the captain.
The captain was an enlisted, hewas a must anchor, he was a.
He was a staff sergeant when hewent to OCS and became a second
lieutenant.
Thad David (25:28):
But, anyway.
Bart Bartholomew (25:29):
So I get this, I get this Red Cross message
and my, my dad had a severeheart attack in Colorado and not
expected to live, so I hadn'tbeen deployed, hardly at all.
It was late, 67, now Early,we're getting ready to go into
68.
And so I go back home and Istay there a few weeks with my
(25:50):
dad and he makes it.
He comes out with okay, badthat he had a heart attack, good
that I went back to seem evenbetter.
Yet I met the girl that Imarried during that time that I
was home for those few weeks andmet her, went back to Vietnam,
(26:15):
had a few letters, met her again, had a few letters and the
third time in 1969, we gotmarried.
So we, we dated three times andthese long months and got
married into being married for51 years.
So a win for my dad for havinga heart attack for his son.
You know he, he did, he did, hedid what was necessary to get
(26:35):
me hooked up.
I told him.
I told him that I said hey, youknow, dad, you had this heart
attack for a reason, because Iwouldn't have found out if you
wouldn't have this heart attack.
I never came back home.
So, anyway, my emergency leavesover, I'm, I'm headed back to
Vietnam.
We go to Okinawa, and then wego to Clark Air Force Bay and
(27:00):
Clark Air Force Basin, and thenManila, and then Manila.
We finally get a transport toSaigon.
And while you're, while you'reflying, before you get back to
your, your, your units, you'reall unarmed, you're in your
class A uniforms and so, andyou're, you're flying with an
unarmed ship, it's a transportship, it's not a, it's not a
(27:22):
combat ship.
So we're in C-130 and we landin Saigon, taunton, taunton Air
Force Base, and we're taxiinginto where we get to the latter
to disembark, and we hear small,small, small arm fire and we
all, we can't take cover.
I mean, there's no, there's noplace to hide this airplane.
(27:43):
You know, just taking this, ifanything happened.
Well, the North Vietnamese shotout the tires to stop the
airplane from moving any farther.
And after it was all said anddone, the people we talked to
when we finally disembark saidwe think that their plan was to
(28:03):
disarm, disable the plane andthen and then move in and then
shoot up the plane and take outeverybody who was in there,
which would have reduced thenumber of people they was going
to have to fight later on.
So that's that's what ourpeople told us they thought was
going on, but they didn't happen.
Two Jeeps came out with 20s andtook care of Charlie and there
(28:28):
was a Sirenara song sung afterthe little pricks were shot and
killed.
And we got.
We got to all of our bases andwe went to a place called the
Annapolis Hotel, which is arundown hotel or place where
there was an incigon.
It was not really a hotel, itwas rickety racks and we were
(28:53):
bunks and two bunks to a rack.
But as we got there that nightwe were straight to our bunks
and everything like that.
Again, more small arms fire andthis we're on the second floor
and all enlist on the secondfloor and all the commission
officers on the first floor andwe hear small arm fire and now
(29:16):
we're grabbing mattresses andwhich not really a good piece of
protection, but it's the onlything we could think to hide
behind.
And and within 20 minutes we wewas.
We was told that the situation,we heard a lot of gunfire, we
heard the situation take care ofand then that next morning we
all got up, found that there wasan incident in the lieutenant's
(29:39):
AG that were both killed bycombat troops from North
Vietnamese and there were otherofficers wounded, but they had.
They had the bottom floor.
If it would wouldn't have, andI none of them were armed either
.
So that that that was.
That was my first experience ofof any kind of combat, firing
(30:02):
and nothing to do, just hope.
Hope you didn't get shotbecause you had no way to
protect yourself.
So the next morning we we go tothe Armory and there's a great
big old chief patty officer inthe Navy and he's barking out
orders and and issuing guns and16s to all of us.
(30:24):
And I'm saying this anyway youknow I would the hell they given
us guns for we I had.
I had my whole whole plan totell him.
When I got up there and I did,I said hey, chief.
I said I don't like youunderstand.
I said I'm a fleet sailor.
I said I went straight fromboot camp to an aircraft carrier
(30:44):
.
I never had anything to do withsmall arms fire, except for
training at boot camp.
I said I don't even know how tooperate that weapon.
I know how to pull the trigger.
I did that when I was a kid.
But I said plus, chief.
I said I'm a lover, not afighter.
I think I'm gonna be kind offunny.
He pushed that M16 to my chestlike I thought I was gonna come
(31:06):
out the backside.
There's a Marine corporal overthere who's the Asian, all the
ammunition.
He said hey, corporal, get toband and alert for this lover
and you escort him over to the,the embassy and show him where
his duty station is going to beuntil he gets out of here.
I got pissed him off.
Then, so off I go to theembassy and the embassy is the
(31:27):
famous picture where the CH-46is landing on the top of it and
you see that that ladder stepswhere all the Vietnamese are
trying to go up to get on theseaircraft, very ships.
So that was that, that was theembassy, that was my, my duty
station, and while I, while Iwas there, I I worked with
(31:49):
another corporal in the MarineCorps who basically gave me the
training of the nomenclature ofan M16 and and showed me how to
load it, how to ram a shell intothe chamber and aim it and fire
it if I needed to.
And I said, you know, I, I neverforgot that, that Marine,
because I honestly probablycould have figured it out, but
(32:10):
again, we had no training.
You know, we, we, we were Idon't about the rest of guys I
talked to rest of when we, whenwe were playing cards and having
fun, but most of them were inthe same boat, I was, you know,
they didn't have weapons.
So my two weeks there, that'sall.
It was my two weeks when, whenI was on the embassy, usually at
(32:32):
nighttime, my shift was lateafternoon, early evening, and
Charlie was char.
This was, this was the, thebeginning of 10 offensive, which
I found out probably two orthree months later after
listening to all it's going on.
And then, and then the body iscoming in.
We talked about a lot, what wasgoing on over there, and that
(32:54):
was a.
They was a month of February orMarch, they were March.
Then, when I was over there,then I found out about it and
then then we started talkingabout me being in Saigon during
that time and I told the boysthe stories.
You know, I say you, you neverwhat had, no, what happened on
(33:15):
my way to the grocery store.
You know type, type story, youknow.
So I told them all about it andthen they were all in jeez, no
shit, god damn, you're lucky tobe back.
I said that's kind of what Ithought you know, and it wasn't
wasn't quite.
You know, I did.
I didn't say I was in any goodfights, I didn't make any
stories up, but neverthelessthat and and not that I needed
(33:38):
credit for it there was no, noway for me to document this is
because you don't.
You don't have a, you don'thave orders to go to Saigon,
it's just a stop, okay.
So maybe somewhere in there itsaid Okinawa, clark Air Force
Base, philippines, and thenSaigon, vietnam.
(34:00):
It might say that somewhereshowing how, because they knew
where I was, I mean when I, whenI landed to get my orders, and
they knew how to get hold of theValley Forge and how the Valley
Forge was going to be close toSaigon at this certain time.
So I get another helicopter andI go back to my ship.
So I mean we're talking aboutpeople who are not doing the
(34:21):
fighting.
They do, they do theorganization to get everybody to
where they're supposed to be.
They, they, they operate theflight plans and the, the
convoys, whatever you're goingto be in.
So it's amazing how ourmilitary works.
I mean, we had all all fivebranches on that aircraft and
(34:44):
they had places for every branchto go.
You just want to have a place,you know.
So organization is so important.
So that's pretty much it therest of my story, other than the
fact that my wife and our andour dating.
I went back to the Valley Forgeand served up my my time there,
(35:08):
and when I went back to getmarried in 69, middle 69, when I
was getting ready to go back tothe Valley Forge I was, I was
told I picked up my new ordersthat the Valley Forge was going
to be decommissioned in 1970.
So they weren't going to wastemoney by buying an airplane
(35:30):
ticket and flying me back overthere and doing all the stuff
they had to do to give me backto my, my aircraft carrier.
So they assigned me to SanDiego to another ship.
So I was assigned to two otherships, one to help decommission
it and then the other one waswas a cargo ship.
That I spent about my last sixmonths on when we went back to
(35:50):
Vietnam one more time and thisis when my wife was two, two
weeks from having the baby and Idid another one.
I said, hey, you know, can'tyou just leave me here for two
weeks, I'll catch up with youlater?
And they kept saying you, youare, yeah, you are, government
issue.
You, we don't get specialfavors.
(36:11):
Boy, get on this boat, let's go.
So I was in, I was on the coastof Vietnam when I got the other
Red Cross message, his wife andbaby girl doing fine.
So.
Thad David (36:23):
But I here again, I among thousands of veterans who
were overseas when their wiveshad their, their babies
fascinating story and very, verysobering, very humbling, and I
love how you mentioned it takes,I mean, every single, every
(36:45):
single branch and every singlepiece of each unit inside of
that branch to make it all work.
I mean, without one or two ofthem, everything falls apart,
regardless of combat.
Not combat, no matter where youwere, and yet I think you
oftentimes hear people talkabout, especially with our
generation, with you know beingwhere, with my generation in
(37:06):
Iraq and people getting out.
Now that people aren't going,there's this big stigma about
not getting to deploy whereaspeople get really been on a
shape, about not getting thatopportunity to deploy.
Did you experience anythinglike that, or did anybody around
you did not, and did you seeanything like that?
Bart Bartholomew (37:26):
no, can't say that I, we would.
We would talk to some of theMarines that the did come back,
you know, because they they didtheir rotation and we get them
and we'd meet them on the messdeck and stuff like that.
We'd visit with them and we'dsee some of the the guys had
(37:46):
arms and shoulder in a sling andsome might be limping and stuff
like that.
So these were the woundedMarines that we would be sitting
with and talking to and wewould visit with them about
stuff like that.
But as far as and I I'll goback to it, to your story and
(38:09):
recall a couple things I'vetalked to many, many civilians
who walk up to me and see my hatand say, sir, I want to thank
you for your service, and Ialways come back and I say, well
, thank you very much for sayingthat.
Did you serve?
I want to find out.
They say, no, I didn't because,and I'm sorry, I did because,
and so I, so I.
(38:29):
So to go to your point, yeah, Iguess I have experience because
there's a lot of civilians thatdidn't, so I can understand how
there would be a lot, of, a lotof men and even women in
uniform, now that I'm one of thegals on my board of directors.
She was a, she was a supplysergeant in for six years.
She had orders to deploy toAfghanistan and they were at the
(38:55):
ready, you know, they were allramped up, ready to go and
something happened and heroutfit didn't have to go and she
talked about it.
So I guess you asked me thatquestion.
It has happened to me and Inever, I never remembered it
because it nobody really talkedabout it.
So you brought it up.
(39:16):
But yeah, so I've had.
I've had several people,civilians and and military,
saying I'm sorry, I didn't get a, get a, deploy and see action
hmm.
Thad David (39:29):
When it brings me back to your point, though, too,
when you said you signed thatblank check of hey, I'm gonna do
whatever.
You say that when you sign upyou don't.
There's a lot of choices thatyou don't get to make, in fact,
most of them.
You don't know where you'regoing, you don't know if you're
getting deployed.
You know, I know plenty ofpeople that are in traditional
quote unquote combat roles thatyou know didn't deploy.
(39:50):
When we did the initialinvasion in Iraq, the whole our
whole first recon battalion wentand they left an entire platoon
behind, and those I mean thoseguys were, they were heartbroken
, but that wasn't their choice,but that's what happened.
And now they got, they went anddeployed at a different time,
but they weren't, they weren'tin charge.
They know nobody, the militarydoesn't ask you what do you want
(40:11):
to do like when, frankly, theydon't?
Bart Bartholomew (40:13):
they don't really care and remember in my
generation and in Korea and inWorld War two draft.
You know we're grabbing yourneck and we're putting you in
the army and you're gonna go dowhatever we tell you to do.
Well, every one of those,especially in World War two.
(40:35):
I hear so many stories onYouTube and stuff like that.
When I heard about Pearl Harbor, I lied about my age, or I had
my parents signed that I was 17years old, so they were lying to
get in because they, theywanted to go and retaliate
(40:55):
against Japan and do whateverthey had to do.
Well, I could, I could be kindof considered a little coward.
You got drafted and you didn'tgo, you at the Navy and and I
would accept that I'd sayabsolutely right, I did not want
to go.
I mean, I wanted to serve.
I got my notice, I wanted to dowhatever I could and I did.
(41:19):
But I had, I had a choice and Ithink everybody that got
drafted had that same choice.
What, what, what, what theydidn't didn't do is it was up to
them.
But but going on your, on yourpoint, I, I Didn't look to be in
(41:40):
Saigon.
I didn't plan to be in Saigon.
I'm not happy that I was onSaigon.
I'm glad that I had that littlepiece that I could talk about.
I had no proof, so it's, it'sthat old joy, it's my story and
I'm sticking to it.
You proved me wrong, no, but Idon't have to worry about that,
(42:02):
because I know it's the truthand I am.
I am, I am so proud of of mythree years of six months that I
did not, I did not reenlistthem.
I'm like the guy that didn'tjoin I.
I, I wished I would havereenlisted, I wish that it
(42:23):
probably stayed for 20, but Iwas mad at the Navy because I
didn't get to see the birth ofmy daughter.
So I was I was Italian againstNavy, plus it was.
I'm making a hundred eighteendollars a month and now I got to
support a wife and a child andI'm not the only one, you know.
I mean Everybody's in the sameboat.
I am that had kids.
(42:44):
But I went to my, my chief pennyofficer on this, on this last
boat.
I said, uh, I want, I want toknow what I can do.
I said my wife's in real townin Kansas, pregnant or having
had a baby and and she's havetough time taking care of it.
I said, uh, what's the chancesof me getting Stationed
(43:08):
somewhere closer?
So what they ended up doing?
They, they.
I got an honorable dischargeunder hardship conditions.
So I my all.
My DD 214 says honorarydischarge.
And then you, you read downthere at the bottom it's not a
Black flag or anything like that, but if anybody wanted to know
(43:29):
what it was, it was a fact thatI was going to go back and take
care of my wife brand new baby,which was I got out too much,
and a few days before my my endof my career.
So I Figured I served fouryears with the hell.
Thad David (43:45):
Oh yeah, you did your time.
Bart Bartholomew (43:46):
I really liked it and it's something else I
wanted to think talk about.
But I here again.
That green matter Got in there,took it away.
Thad David (43:59):
I'd love to ask you about what you're currently
involved in it.
Veterans, honoring veterans, ohyeah, what do you do with that?
Bart Bartholomew (44:09):
Well, we'll start at the beginning on that.
When I was, we not every shipOnce it's decommission Creates a
, a reunion committee, but ourship did.
In 1970, there was a handful ofsailors that said we need to
get together every year and havea reunion and have a party.
(44:31):
There's a lot of army units andMarine Corps units and Air
Force units.
They all do the same thing.
So I joined, I joined the, thereunion committee, and I started
going to reunions in it in 2017.
I was in actually I was inColorado Springs at the reunion
there's holding there and as asailor got up during the banquet
(44:53):
, he was a, he was a lieutenantcommander and he went.
He went to the LDL programlimited duty officer.
He made it to I think she pennyofficer and Went over and got
commissioned.
As an incident went up to andhe became a I guess he's a
commander, but anyway, that makea difference he got up and and
(45:16):
he called up another center upto the podium.
When the other center got upthere, he he handed him this,
this little figurine.
I'm gonna step away for just asecond.
I'm gonna grab one of thesestats.
You can't give you any way whatthey look like.
Thad David (45:29):
Okay, I.
Bart Bartholomew (45:39):
Can want to bring it.
Two of them, one I'm jealous ofand the one that I have to
accept.
This is the one that I accept.
This is what they look like.
So we we hand whatever branchof service the person's in the
Marine Corps is a is a MarineScratch down, got a rifle in his
(46:02):
hand, fully combat ready, andreally a good-looking Got a, got
a K bar on the back of his hipand stuff like that.
But the one I'm jealous of isIs this one, if you look at the
detail of this, I mean this isfor the Air Force Mm-hmm, I mean
, is this?
(46:22):
Is this not a?
A well-done piece of of art toface?
beautiful the flat top haircut.
So so, going back to what I do,that this say, the sailor was
given these little statues outto other sailors For their
(46:42):
service in the Navy and afterthe bank was all done, I said my
wife and I went over to histable and I introduced myself
because I didn't know him.
He came, he came aboard theship after I was gone, but I
business with him.
He told me he did that his homestate and he.
I asked him my sister'sfranchise, you have paid to get
(47:03):
in.
He's no, so you want to do it.
So when I came back home toLoveland, I met with the about
four or five other veterans andone civilian and the one
civilian you might know is BradHoops and I Asked them about it,
told them what I wanted to do,and and they were all on board.
(47:24):
So I, with, with, witheverybody's help, we formed a
non-profit called veterans,honorary veterans, and we
started that 2017 and to date,we've We've presented close to
740 statues to veterans, mostlyin northern Colorado.
We've we've mailed some off, butwe are, we are really, really
(47:49):
excited at what we're doing andand we're we're excited because
we have and I hate to say this,I'm ashamed to say, but it's the
only thing I do.
We're 500 by 500 Statues behind.
We have people on the waitinglist that have signed up to get
one of the statues.
And number one we don't haveenough money.
Number two we don't have enoughtime, so we do a statue
(48:12):
presentation on the on the firstand third Saturdays at the
Golden Corral.
We'll be doing one thisSaturday.
You're invited to come down tosee it.
It's, but we just can't.
We just can't Do as many asthere are waiting and we got a
lot of veterans in northernColorado, but that's a really is
well there.
Thad David (48:32):
I mean, they're absolutely beautiful.
What is it, if you don't mindme asking, just because, are you
accepting donations?
I mean, if somebody wanted togo to end out what yeah, thanks.
Bart Bartholomew (48:43):
Thanks for being there.
If somebody wants to donateEach, each one of these statues,
the statue itself cost $50 tomake and and the statue maker
does not Make these individualslike this he's got a mold.
It's pretty simple for him todo, but still a job.
As a matter of fact, the, theveteran that does these so the
(49:07):
guy does is a veteran fromnorthern Colorado, in Loveland.
So we can now say that this wasan American, made Colorado,
made love and made by a veteran.
Be very proud of it.
So this is $50 and then thelittle name plates that we put
on them is it's $10.
So it's a $70 statue and wehave a website.
(49:30):
If anybody is interested indonating it's.
It's veterans honoring veteransorg.
And when you open it up there'sa donate button.
But I really want you to openit up and I want you to look,
because we've got pictures ofeverybody that we've ever issued
(49:52):
a statue to and we got them ingroups of five or six and sevens
.
We got some videos in there,some of our presentations.
So feel free to go toveteransonveteransorg and take a
look and see what we've beendoing for the last few years.
Thad David (50:11):
I love it.
That's amazing work.
I would imagine that everybodywas very excited when they each
person individually is excitedwhen they get to receive one.
Bart Bartholomew (50:22):
That we've seen chairs literally.
And I say that, and I'm proudto say it, because a lot of
these veterans did not get athank you when they got home.
They got the ops, the patientof Vietnam soldiers.
They were mistreated a lot whenthey were in uniform by people.
(50:43):
So me and our organizationdoing this is just a way to say,
hey that, thank you for yourservice.
I appreciate what you did.
We had a little quick story.
We had an Air Force veteranthat declined to get one.
He said give it to someone thatis more deserving and I thank
(51:05):
you for your offer.
But well, he kept coming tobreakfast and pretty soon the
guys kept saying you know youreally need to get one of these.
So he finally called myprocurement officer and talked
to her and she started writingdown some of the information for
the statute, because we asked,obviously, what branch and if
(51:26):
you did deploy to a combat zoneand if you did, what kind of
achievements, did you makemedals or did you receive?
And we do that for the onesthat did deploy too, because
there's an awful lot of peoplethat have done so much in the
non-combat zone that they gotnoted for, they got awards or
medal, stuff like that.
So this guy ends up we only doone nameplate for every veteran.
(51:53):
Well, this guy that was sohumble to not take one ended up
with the front plate and two onboth sides, because he was
decorated with two purple hearts.
He had six airmen stars orairmenal insignias and they had
(52:16):
four or something else.
He had something to be veryproud of, but he was so humble
so when he received his statueduring the presentation he got a
little choked up about it whenhe said thank you and took his
picture.
When I came out after it was alldone, I come away from the
(52:37):
microphone and I try to shakeeverybody's hand and tell them
how proud I am of them.
And I said how do we do it?
I said we get your namesspelled right and everything on
their name.
He said yeah, I saw a littletear down there.
I said well good.
I said you know, every once ina while we'll screw up with
spelling a name.
I said did you like the sideplates?
(52:59):
He said what side plates?
I said well, with what you did,we did a little extra for you.
And he looked at both sideplates and had the other medals
that he earned and he literallyquit talking.
He just choked up, thought,said thank you and I let him go.
So yeah, that's wonderful.
(53:21):
We had a World War II veteranat a nursing facility and when
we gave his statue to him heheld it up like it was the first
place and we got a picture ofhim on the front page of our
local.
Well, a love of paper.
Thad David (53:36):
Yeah.
Bart Bartholomew (53:36):
And he was like the reporter.
Harold was there and God gothim doing that and he was.
That's what it's all about.
Thad David (53:44):
That's wonderful.
Bart Bartholomew (53:46):
Making people feel good and it's free to them.
They don't pay a nickel for it,and that's what we want.
We want to make sure, and sothat's yeah, that's why we take
donations and we don't turn themdown.
And the toughest part of my jobthat with this present, this
thatch brisk is having theseveterans come up and shake my
(54:08):
hand and and not have achallenge for it, but have a
check or a 50 or a hundred.
These veterans know it free,but they, they, they know what
we have to do to get it.
So they say no, no, no, youdon't have to, no, no, we have
to.
So I have to argue with theseguys about give me money.
And yeah, I'm told by my boardof directors quit arguing, just
(54:31):
take their damn money as well.
This is, this is my baby.
I don't want to take money fromhim.
So, but they, they, they've gota heart of gold A lot of them.
Thad David (54:45):
I think with that too, Number one, I'm imagining
you arguing with veterans,because that's definitely not a
stubborn bunch.
So you know, just theheadlocking.
Bart Bartholomew (54:56):
Yeah, that would have, yeah.
Thad David (54:58):
Yet it almost for me it seems like with taking the
money, and I don't know if thisgives a different perspective of
it, but for me I would imaginethem feeling like they're buying
the one for the next person,and it's not they're paying for
theirs, they're paying itforward.
I think it's a beautiful.
That's what my first thoughtwas that they're they're buying
(55:20):
the next person's.
I'm glad you put that.
That's pretty.
Bart Bartholomew (55:22):
That's exact.
That's exactly where, the wayI'll look at it.
You know it's a special.
Thad David (55:27):
Thing.
Bart Bartholomew (55:29):
I was, I was, I was, I was thinking that they
felt sorry for me.
But I don't think that's whatit is.
I, honestly, and they, they notsaid that, but that is, that is
a perfect, perfect explanation.
That's exactly what they'redoing when they, when they give,
when they give me the next,every year, I said you know, I
just, I, just, I, just, I, just,I, just, I, just, I, just, I,
just, I just two more statuesyeah, this is already paid for.
Thad David (55:49):
Yeah.
This is already paid forthey're.
Bart Bartholomew (55:51):
they're buying the next person's Yep, yep, so
yeah.
Thad David (55:55):
So there's literally veterans honoring veterans.
Bart Bartholomew (55:57):
Yeah.
And then, and there's a lot of,there's a lot of veterans
organizations out there, andthere's one other one we found
when we started looking at ourname in California and said
veterans, honoring veterans, andwe we did our due diligence to
make sure that we wasn'tinfringing on another
organization and making surethat what we did was not what
(56:19):
they did, so we wouldn't betaking somebody else's name, but
been going since 2017 and wekept our name and and we're
moving on.
Thad David (56:32):
Well, keep doing amazing work.
I love that you do it.
I'm excited.
I will make it down for one ofthese.
I've heard these two suchamazing things about these
breakfasts and and I amdefinitely going to make it down
and come check it out.
Bart Bartholomew (56:49):
Well, it's not a it's.
It's not a club.
You know, you don't have to paydues.
We don't have a president orthe CEO.
When I get on a microphone andthere's been a screw up before
me, I always say I said you gotto understand that you are in
the most unorganizedorganization that's ever been
(57:12):
put together.
This hand does not know whatthis hand's doing, and and we,
we've been doing it since 2008.
So we must be doing somethingright.
Thad David (57:23):
Oh, yeah, wow.
And speaking of unorganizedorganizations, it makes me think
of how unorganized the militarybeing in the actual military
can feel.
To sometimes is like how?
Bart Bartholomew (57:34):
they even get things.
We bragged about how it worked.
Thad David (57:37):
Yeah.
Bart Bartholomew (57:38):
But we can't tell these civilians how bad it
don't work sometimes.
Thad David (57:41):
Yes, exactly.
Bart Bartholomew (57:42):
That's really it.
Thad David (57:44):
People say oh, you got military great firearms Like
well, don't, don't insult myfirearms like minor yeah.
Let's talk about the.
Bart Bartholomew (57:51):
M16 about a military great firearm.
Right yeah, a long story aboutthat weapon.
Thad David (57:57):
That's and well, thank you so much.
I'm going to put a link in forveterans on veteransorg, if
anybody wants to jump on anddonate, at least to check it out
.
And as we, as we close this up,I'd love to ask you, knowing
that you've talked to, you'vemet, a ton of veterans.
One thing that we like to shedlight on, that I like to shed
light on is just get advice, orthings that help veterans as
(58:21):
they transition out of themilitary.
And what advice would you offerup to any veterans that are
getting out?
What do you see that veteransthat are being successful or or
and just having a successfulcivilian life?
What are the things they'redoing?
Bart Bartholomew (58:39):
Pretty easy to answer that.
But the problem of it is Idon't get to meet very many that
just get out.
So I meet them out.
They've been out for a whileand and they've already started
having some of their problems,and most of their problems were
were already there before theygot.
They got discharged.
So my, my first comment is themilitary is not doing a it never
(59:03):
has done a good job of of arelation of veteran back into
civilian life.
They do not spend enough timewith certain veterans, other
ones, the transition is fairlyeasy.
But when you, when you've beenin a military organization for
at least four years, your, your,your mechanics have totally
(59:23):
changed.
It's not mom letting you sleepin the morning and and mom not
fixing your supper and and momfolding your bed.
You know there's, there's noneof that stuff.
It all goes away.
And now people are screamingand yelling at you where dad
might have screamed yelling atyou a couple of times because
you didn't pick up the tools inthe garage or something like
(59:43):
that.
But nothing like the militarygives you.
So that transition is fairlyeasy for the, the common veteran
, but but the combat veteran,the pilot that's been flying and
and if he gets in, he or shegets into another job of flying
(01:00:04):
and that that's pretty easy.
But the the the ground grantindividual needs to needs to
hook up immediately with aveteran's group, the VA.
We have a place called separatecallers offer I can't think,
(01:00:32):
but it's for veterans that arestruggling with post-traumatic
stress and they get in theirgroups and they get therapy and
they get counselors and they doone-on-one, they do group
therapy.
If you're a veteran like that,reach out to those veteran
organizations immediately.
Get yourself somebody that canguide you on that road instead
(01:00:59):
of veering off and going placeswhere you shouldn't go.
And every veteran should beable to survive once they get
out.
We have so many homelessveterans that I can't believe
that there's so many homelessveterans.
Then I even hate to talk aboutthe 22.
(01:01:19):
There's so many organizationsthat acclimated with the 22 and
that had suicide.
I've got a lady on our board ofdirectors whose son was in the
Marines for six years, got outyear after he got out and
committed suicide.
(01:01:40):
Her and I sat down, not talkedabout it, but I knew what
happened.
I'm not going to call thosecounselors, but she needed
something like us to draw herinto the environment of
happiness and seeing people getstatues.
(01:02:02):
I gave her and her grandson astatue of a Marine soldier, a
Marine Corps Marine, and withall his information the grandson
thought that it was going to behis way.
First thought he argued withGrandma about who got the statue
of his uncle.
(01:02:23):
When she told me a story,obviously I got another one but
her and her family.
I met her family.
She was so impressed theytalked her into coming and
looking at us so she's avolunteer for us.
Now she's get to see thehappiness and come as a civilian
to our breakfast club and talkto other veterans and be part of
(01:02:43):
our family.
That was the win.
When she came Back to theveteran, find a buddy, find a
fellow veteran.
It doesn't have to be a Marineor a sailor or an airman or a
soldier.
Find somebody that you can talkto and share with.
If it is a civilian, great,most likely it's not going to be
(01:03:07):
a spouse.
Spouses sometimes don't want tohear and you don't want to talk
to them.
So don't hold it in, let it out, get it out, go somewhere.
It's a shame that we're havingthe problem we're having with
our young veterans.
I know that 22 numbers changed.
(01:03:29):
I hear worse numbers, but oneis too many.
That's why I go back to ourgovernment.
We've got to do something priorto releasing our veterans.
When I say our veterans, notthe combat veterans, but male
(01:03:50):
and female that have beenverbally abused, sexually abused
, male and female, the wholenine yards every one of them.
We don't know that from small ofthem, because not all of them
make claims.
Some of them keep it withinthemselves until after they get
out.
Then it's out, they're out.
It's kind of too late.
It's one of those things thatyour top NCO needs to watch
(01:04:17):
what's going on in theirparticular area of what's
happening.
If that young corporal isgetting mouthed by everybody,
then he's probably getting someproblems in his head.
I know we're tough.
I'm not saying don't be toughwhen you're in basic training,
(01:04:39):
even a little bit afterwards.
Let's let it go tough guys.
We don't need to beat thesehelpless little people because
you're making them more helpless.
When you do that it sounds likeI'm counseling and I'm not a
counselor.
Thad David (01:04:54):
I love the advice of reaching out, getting help.
Definitely reach out, talk tosomebody.
Don't hold it in which.
I think somebody once explainedit like shaking up a Coke
bottle you can only shake it upso much and it gets so much
pressure.
If you don't have a releasevalve, it's not going to get
better on its own.
Bart Bartholomew (01:05:14):
Perfect, yeah, bart, thank you.
Anyway, just remember thatyou're loved out here and we
need you.
There's a job for you.
There's a place in the civilianworld for you.
Thad David (01:05:34):
I love it.
Thank you so much, Bart.
I really appreciate you takingsome time today and I appreciate
and just absolutely love andrespect what you're doing for
veterans to this day.
Thank you so much.
Bart Bartholomew (01:05:48):
I don't need thanks, but I appreciate it.
Thank you for taking the timeto visit with me, and the next
time I see you, I hope it's abreakfast.
Thad David (01:06:00):
I'm looking forward to it.
deployed to Vietnam in October.
And one story that's kind ofcute it I'm on the flight deck
and I'm no longer.
Can I see California?
California is gone, no land,can't see anything and there's
just water out there.
And I'm just a young, 18 yearold.
I'm just looking at all thiswater and an older Seder came up
(00:23):
to me and kind of looked, sawhow young I was, couldn't shave
stuff like that and he says alot of water out there in there.
I just I said yes, sir, thereis.
And he says that's just the top.
Thad David (00:38):
My name is Thad David.
I'm a former Marine recon scoutsniper with two deployments to
Iraq.
As a civilian, I've nowfacilitated hundreds of personal
and professional developmenttrainings across the country,
and it struck me recently thatthe same things that help
civilians will also helpveterans succeed in their new
roles as well.
Join me as we define civiliansuccess principles to inspire
(00:59):
veteran victories.
Welcome to another episode.
I'm here today with BartBartholomew, a Navy veteran.
How are you doing, bart?
Bart Bartholomew (01:08):
Hey dad, I'm doing great Good to meet you.
Thank you for doing this.
Thad David (01:11):
Oh man, absolutely Thank you.
I'm really happy that you'rejoining on the show and I'm
really excited to hear yourstory.
Bart Bartholomew (01:18):
Well, thank you.
Thad David (01:19):
Yeah, absolutely.
What's that?
Bart Bartholomew (01:21):
I say it's not that big of a story, but it's
kind of fun.
Thad David (01:26):
Well, I think it speaks to your humility, because
I think you've got a prettywonderful one.
But let's dive into it.
And when did you join the Navy?
What got you to join the Navy?
Bart Bartholomew (01:37):
Uncle Sam sent me a little piece of paper that
said you're drafted.
Thad David (01:41):
Okay, and then-.
Bart Bartholomew (01:43):
So when I got that piece of paper I talked to
some other people that had itlisted prior to this.
So I said, you know, I thinkthe Army sounds like a lot more
work, navy sounds like a lotmore adventure.
So I crossed the state linedinto Kansas, found a Navy
recruiter and said, hey, is itokay to do this kind of thing?
Is it legal?
(02:03):
He says absolutely.
So I joined the Navy.
Thad David (02:07):
Oh wow, so you actually got drafted and then
you just jumped over a differentstate and then enlisted into
the-.
Bart Bartholomew (02:16):
Well, there were recruiters in Colorado, but
they were in Denver, a longways away, and I knew there was
a recruiter over in Gooden,kansas, and that was only 30
miles from my hometown, so itwas just a convenient thing for
me to do.
It wasn't Right, it wasn'tbecause it was a state law or
anything like that.
Just got my draft notice anddidn't want to go to the Army.
Thad David (02:36):
Wow, what was it like to receive a draft notice.
It's something that we alwayshear about, but I've never
actually talked to anybody thatgot a draft notice.
Bart Bartholomew (02:46):
I'm 17.
I'm 17, going to be 18.
And it's a piece of paper.
Obviously, while you're in highschool, some of the people that
were graduated before you somegot drafted, some got enlisted,
so when they come home you hearsome of their stories.
But when I got my draft notice,I knew I was going to have to
(03:08):
talk, because it's one of thoseconversations that we all had
when we graduated from highschool, and it was.
I mean, it was like they had aradar on me.
You know, I get my high schooldiploma and I go out and smile
and I go to the mailbox andthere's a draft notice.
Didn't happen that fast, but itseemed like it happened pretty
(03:28):
quick because got out in Juneand went into the Navy in August
.
Thad David (03:34):
Wow, I mean, that's a very quick thing.
Bart Bartholomew (03:38):
What a big decision.
Thad David (03:40):
Yeah, what a big decision to have to make at 17
going on 18.
Bart Bartholomew (03:46):
Well, I was 17 when I graduated.
Okay, turn 18.
And then, and so my birthdaywas in joy.
So, graduation birthday.
Join the Navy.
Thad David (04:02):
All right, and so you joined the Navy.
And then what did you do in theNavy?
And what was that?
Like that you get deployedimmediately.
Bart Bartholomew (04:10):
Well, yeah, I can't talk about other military
service branches and how theirboot camp is, other than the
fact that when I was in SanDiego I usually got to sleep in.
But what woke me up was itwasn't a company commander
(04:30):
coming in, it was a Dan MarineCorps on the other side, because
they'd been up two hours earlyand they were making noise
because they were out thererunning and screaming and acting
like idiots over there.
So we said you know, could youhold it down?
We're trying to sleep over here.
What you guys don't have anyrespect.
But no, that was the MCDRMarine Corps Recruiting Depot.
(04:51):
That was right next to us.
So that's a joke.
We always send the Marines.
You know, I'd have been a lotbetter sailor if you guys would
let me sleep a little longer,but you guys got some for them
early, so anyway, go ahead.
Thad David (05:07):
Oh no, I was gonna say, and the feud starts that
quickly.
That's how quickly you realizedthat the feud between branches,
it's like man.
These guys, exactly basictraining, man.
Bart Bartholomew (05:16):
Right off, right off the bat.
So but anyway, went throughbasic training, scored high
enough for school to get aschool in New London,
connecticut.
I was gonna be a go to schoolfor sonar technician because I
had a buddy that was insubmarines and I thought, well,
you know, I visited him, gotinto his sub, got to look at
(05:38):
stuff like that, thought that'dbe a pretty cool thing to do.
So I did the school and Ididn't do the school.
I graduated from basic training.
And then to go back a littlebit, while I was in basic
training I was a pretty goodswimmer and you gotta graduate
(05:59):
the swimming class before youget out of the Navy, because in
the Navy you see water.
You better know how to swim.
And then, believe it or not,there was a ton, a ton of young
boys that did not know how toswim.
So there was a lot of swimminggoing on and teaching these kids
how to swim.
Well, I was good enough swimmerthat I was called.
(06:23):
While we were in basic trainingI was called over to the
swimming pool I swear to helpsome of the instructors with
some of these kids who washaving a struggle.
So I say that story becausewhen I got out of boot camp and
got my orders to New London,connecticut.
While I was home I got a letterfrom my home address from the
(06:49):
Navy department saying wechanged your orders.
You're going back to Coronado,California.
You're going to be in aswimming program.
We want you to probably go intoUDT, which is underwater
demolition, and then thateventually works into the SEAL
program which was just had beenstarted.
(07:09):
So my orders changed.
I go back to San Diego orCoronado and I get into that
program and found out that I wasnot as good a swimmer as they
needed because I never had achance to ring the bell, because
I never got into that programbut I could not pass some of the
tests that they had forunderwater demolition.
(07:31):
So that quickly changed andthat didn't take about three
weeks, close to a month.
And then I got some new ordersto go to Long Beach, california,
and get on a ship and all Iknew was the ship's name was USS
Valley Forge and didn't knowtoo much about it.
(07:52):
I mean, I'm from EasternColorado, dry land, biggest lake
of the Bonny Dam and biggestboat's, probably 18 feet long.
So that 18 feet's a big ship tome, you know.
So I get out there and I walkup the pier to my new ship and
I'm looking at this city it'sthree football fields long and I
(08:17):
don't know how many hundreds ofthousands of tons of steel and
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just,I'm just overwhelmed, I and I'm
and I'm not the only one.
That happened to, I know would,no matter what branch, when you
see Ship that big, you got tostop and think a lot, of, a lot
(08:38):
of stuff.
So, anyway, got on the ValleyForge and and I Didn't have a
what the, what everybody elsecalls an MOS.
I, I was a swimmer but I didn'tget on the dive team there with
the ship, so I got into anoutfit called combat cargo and
Anytime you hear something youwant to interrupt that just go
(08:59):
ahead, because I'm like anenergized bunny.
You know you hit that switchand I just go and I don't shut
up until the battery dies or orsomething interrupts me.
Thad David (09:09):
So no, I will take note of that, but I'm really
just very interested in hearingyour story.
I love, I love where this isgoing and here and kind of the
trajectory of what it was likefor you in the military well, I
Enjoyed my time.
Bart Bartholomew (09:25):
To let everybody know it was.
It was a good three years andkind of like nine months of Of
time that I I'm glad I didn'tmiss, but I gotta think where I
was.
Thad David (09:39):
You're a combat cargo.
I believe you call that.
Bart Bartholomew (09:42):
Yeah, thank you, you're gonna have to do
that.
Once walk is the great, thegray matter outside kind of
curled in and kind of screwed upthe brains from me thinking
once well, that's, that's mystory, let's take it to it.
Anyway, I got the same the samething.
Thad David (09:59):
I'm my little graze that are coming in or doing.
I have to constantly ask people, so it's all good.
Bart Bartholomew (10:04):
Yeah, well, good, so keep, keep me on track.
So combat cargo was a group ofabout 12 to 15 sailors that
Worked with cargo, combat cargoand the combat part of it is we.
We did not go aboard land or goto land to do the cargo
(10:28):
replenishment stuff.
We did everything on the shipand ship has ships have, have
holes, hald Holes, and that'swhere they put stuff in the ship
in different compartments andthey do it through Different
levels of the ship.
Sometimes there might be 13 or14 levels on, like an aircraft
carrier, and we might go down todeck 3 and have certain stuff
(10:52):
on deck 3 and then Deck 4 hassomething else but it.
So we know where everything'sgoing to be and when we get it
on board we put it in thoseholes and then when we deploy
and we need something, we takethem out of those holes and we
put them up on the flight deck.
The flight deck is the very topplatform of the ship where the,
(11:13):
where the aircraft takes offand and let me keep me on track
About the, the cargo holes,because I'm going to divert to
something else the aircraftcarrier I was on was a CVA.
It's a combat vertical aircraftcarrier.
It had airplanes that took offfrom a catapult and Landed under
(11:37):
the tail hook.
Okay, well, that was built in1945.
Commission 1946 served all thetime in Korea Was.
The ship was very instrumentalin a lot of stuff in the very,
very, very beginning of theKorean War, so it's got a lot of
battle stars awarded to it forthe deployments they had.
(11:57):
So in 1960 Vietnam was reallyramping up.
There was a problem in thatcountry and and so the Navy
started looking at theseaircraft carriers and saying we
need something closer to land,with helicopters that can get in
(12:18):
, close to land and and do theirjob and then come back.
Because the plane aircraftcarriers were way out to sea but
they could go fast, do whatthey need to do and then come
back, and so they could be faraway.
Well, helicopters don't havethat much fuel and they're not
as fast as a jet.
So they decided they woulddevelop a LPH.
(12:42):
The, the aircraft carrier, was aCV Carrier, vertical now I'm on
an LPH landing platform andthen for helicopters.
So that's what the LPH standsfor.
So when we would get all thecargo up on the on the flight
deck where they would land, whatwe do is we put out a Probably
(13:04):
about a 20 by 20 cargo that it'sgot Rope intertwined with
itself and then it's got fourgreat big metal steel hooks,
twine intertwined with the, withthe cargo, that they would fold
all of them up and then wewould link them together.
Then the helicopter would comein and we put a a 20 foot pole
(13:26):
and Can I cast on my, on myvideo?
Thad David (13:30):
I Don't know that it would be a military veteran
podcast if we wouldn't allowcursing yeah.
Bart Bartholomew (13:38):
This 20 foot pole was made of cat fiberglass,
what we call the donkey dick,and Okay.
So every time we would go outto get under a helicopter, we
would take our 20 foot donkeydick and stand under the CH46
which you Marines had in inVietnam, and they were a twin
(13:59):
rotor Helicopter similar to theCH47, but the CH47 was a four
pod landing wheels and theChinook CH46 was a was a three.
So the, the Chinook was a fourand the sea night was a was a
three.
Thad David (14:20):
They and I've been on several CH46's.
Yeah, so I'm very familiar withthem and repelled out of them
lots of different things likeyeah, very familiar with them.
Bart Bartholomew (14:30):
Oh, that's exactly what what we did.
So, when they were not carryingtroops, which we also helped
the deploying of the of theMarines when, when they would go
in country, we we would putthem on the hangar deck, which
is One level where they do allthe maintenance and stuff like
that for all the helicopters.
(14:50):
We would have the MarinesAssemble in a certain area, by
by certain, however, you guyslined up your, your squads or
companies, or your Platoons,whatever, whatever you did, but
you got these little clusters,and then we would take these
little clusters and put them onan elevator and what a big
(15:12):
elevator.
We'd lift them up and then wewould escort them to which
helicopters they would go to.
So that was part of our job too.
But what?
Once we would get done withthat, that we drove forklifts
and did all that well, once wegot done with all that, the
ships were Helicopter, were gone, and then we would wait until
they, they came back and theywould come back, someone, with
(15:35):
the same same thing.
They would come back and bringthat cargo net down and and
Whatever the stuff they broughtback was to be reused again.
And the only, the only, andthis is the toughest part of our
job is and it didn't happen toevery ship and I can't tell you
(15:59):
how many ships we became amortuary.
There was in 68.
There was a pretty Pretty heavybattle in country with both the
army and the Navy and theMarines, and it was called 10
offensive and that 10 offensivecaused an awful lot of
(16:20):
casualties and there was notenough space for the young boys
that were killed, so they would,they would bring them back on
on the Sea nights and then wewould, we would take them and
we'd put them on the on thehangar deck and we corded off an
area and roped it off and therewas a temporary morgue until we
(16:43):
we had, they had places to sendthe kis and we were, we were in
charge of Protecting Our fallenveterans and their brothers.
So it was kind of kind of toughwhen you you had to know that
there's 150, 200 body bags overthere, that there's 17, 18 year
(17:08):
old boys who did the same thingI did, signed up to serve their
country, but they, they did theultimate sacrifice, so that that
that that's lived with me for along, long time and I never
really brought that up when Iwhen I talked to other people,
but I remember that I didn'twant to talk about it because it
(17:29):
was.
It was sobering and they theywere there lesson eight to ten
to twelve hours, butnevertheless, what?
Once we, once we found, foundhomes for wherever they was
going I don't even know what wascalled once the ones they, they
were picked up, then we wouldget another batch and this, this
(17:50):
, this happened for about abouttwo weeks during so you were
getting rotating batches.
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, we, we, westayed.
We stayed In in that areathrough 10 offensive, the for
the first 10, and and I and Ibring this up because I, I
(18:15):
graduate basic training in 67,ended up on the Valley Forge in
in in October, deployed to toVietnam in October and one, one
story that's kind of cute it I'mon the flight deck and I'm on.
No longer can I see California.
(18:35):
California is gone, no land,can't see anything and there's
just water out there.
And I'm just A young, 18 yearold.
I'm just looking at all thiswater and an older satyr came up
to me and Kind of looks all howyoung I was couldn't shave
stuff like that.
And he says A lot of water outthere in there.
I said I said yes, sir, thereis.
(18:58):
He says that's just top.
So that put a whole newperspective on a lot of water
out there and because all I wasreally looking at was just a
large body of water, notthinking that's just the top, so
that stuck with me forever.
Every time I would get up thereand I'd look, I would say my
(19:20):
goodness gracious, how far wecan see without seeing land, how
long we're out there withoutseeing land, and I'm just one of
millions of sailors and Marineshave done the same thing.
Thad David (19:34):
Well, I think that, and that just made me think of
because one thing that I'mdiscovering as I talk to people
and I spoke with a womanrecently who had a gentleman
from Vietnam reach out to herbecause he was having issues
with his son because his son wasa mechanic in the Iraq war, and
he was like, well, what did yousee?
(19:54):
You didn't really see that much, and we tend to label what
somebody must have seen by theirtitle in the military, and that
just made me think of that.
It looks like it's far outthere, but the depth of service
is something that we don'treally get to see and just from
what you mentioned being incargo, I was not expecting you
(20:16):
to share that and that's a depthof which, like you said, is a
very sobering experience to seethat many bodies come in.
But what was that like towitness that, to be a part of
that at that young age?
Bart Bartholomew (20:30):
Well, that brings up a fact of just what
you're touching on.
You don't know what thatveteran saw because of that
veteran's title or area where hewent.
So when I talk to veterans andthey say I didn't do much, it's
(20:53):
a simple, simple thing.
I say anybody, anybody to raisetheir right hand and took that
oath to protect foreign anddomestic, go to basic training.
You have no idea where you'regoing to end up when you come
out of basic training.
You don't know if you're goingto be a mechanic turning a
rancher, a typist, a nurse, adoctor.
(21:15):
You don't know anything untilyou deploy.
So you gave that oath saying Iwill, and you wrote that blind
check right there and said Iwill do whatever you say to do.
So I did not go fight, I wasn'ta ground sailor, I was a fleet
(21:36):
sailor, and that story is comingup a little bit about being a
fleet sailor a little bit later.
But yeah, nurses, let's talkabout the wounded.
Soldiers and Marines andsailors and airmen get a lot of
the attention.
Okay, what about those nurses?
(21:57):
What about those doctors thattook in these hundreds of
injured some dying and some died, and worked on them hour after
hour after hour?
And we think about the combatveteran who was scared.
But do we think about thatnurse who was working on that
(22:18):
boy, keeping that boy from goinginto shock, talking to him,
holding his hand while thedoctor's taken off his leg or
both legs or his arm?
Those nurses don't get enoughcredit, as far as I'm concerned.
We just recognized a Vietnamnurse just a few months ago and
she came.
She received a statue.
(22:39):
She hadn't been back since.
Why Did she do it?
Just because I asked her to, orwe asked her to, and she got
post-traumatic stress?
We don't know.
But we got to give those nursesour thoughts every once in a
while.
So let's get back to the tentoffensive.
Thad David (23:04):
I just want to bring up really quick before you jump
into the tent offensive, whichI'm very excited to do, that as
well.
But I was very humbled.
I had a conversation, anotherinterview that I did with a
woman who she was working in theER and she was never in country
.
However, when you hear herstory of the Amuse 24-7 doing
(23:27):
some of the most gruesome workand amazing, amazing work, that
it's easy to think about thetitle and write off the service.
But when you hear the storyit's unbelievable I mean just
unbelievable that what she didwith her time in the military it
was fascinating.
It was very humbling to me.
Bart Bartholomew (23:46):
I'm so proud to say that we have nurses at
the Vietnam Wall.
We have a statue of nursestaking care of soldiers and
that's to be recognized andtalked about, looked at and
picture taken.
Because that's why I bring itup, because not only were we
more, we was close to twohospital ships and we saw
(24:08):
helicopter after helicopterafter helicopter go to these
hospital ships and not thinkingwhat was going on inside that
hospital ship until years after.
So, anyway, 10 of Fancy.
I'm 18 years old, I'm just afrech.
Over there we probably got intoour first action with combat
(24:28):
cargo supply and stuff incountry and I got a notification
from the Red Cross oh, by theway, you'll like this, those 12,
15 combat cargo guys.
My commander was a a, a, a, acaptain in the Marine Corps and
(24:48):
and my NCO was a tubby littlegunnery sergeant named Barnett
and and he, he was a character,he was just a round barrel and
he bar, he barked orders like a,like a true 100% Marine, and we
kept saying we are not Marines,do not treat us like Marines,
(25:11):
we are sailors.
You have to be nicer to us.
Well, he didn't get the message.
Thad David (25:17):
No.
Bart Bartholomew (25:17):
And the and the captain.
The captain was an enlisted, hewas a must anchor, he was a.
He was a staff sergeant when hewent to OCS and became a second
lieutenant.
Thad David (25:28):
But, anyway.
Bart Bartholomew (25:29):
So I get this, I get this Red Cross message
and my, my dad had a severeheart attack in Colorado and not
expected to live, so I hadn'tbeen deployed, hardly at all.
It was late, 67, now Early,we're getting ready to go into
68.
And so I go back home and Istay there a few weeks with my
(25:50):
dad and he makes it.
He comes out with okay, badthat he had a heart attack, good
that I went back to seem evenbetter.
Yet I met the girl that Imarried during that time that I
was home for those few weeks andmet her, went back to Vietnam,
(26:15):
had a few letters, met her again, had a few letters and the
third time in 1969, we gotmarried.
So we, we dated three times andthese long months and got
married into being married for51 years.
So a win for my dad for havinga heart attack for his son.
You know he, he did, he did, hedid what was necessary to get
(26:35):
me hooked up.
I told him.
I told him that I said hey, youknow, dad, you had this heart
attack for a reason, because Iwouldn't have found out if you
wouldn't have this heart attack.
I never came back home.
So, anyway, my emergency leavesover, I'm, I'm headed back to
Vietnam.
We go to Okinawa, and then wego to Clark Air Force Bay and
(27:00):
Clark Air Force Basin, and thenManila, and then Manila.
We finally get a transport toSaigon.
And while you're, while you'reflying, before you get back to
your, your, your units, you'reall unarmed, you're in your
class A uniforms and so, andyou're, you're flying with an
unarmed ship, it's a transportship, it's not a, it's not a
(27:22):
combat ship.
So we're in C-130 and we landin Saigon, taunton, taunton Air
Force Base, and we're taxiinginto where we get to the latter
to disembark, and we hear small,small, small arm fire and we
all, we can't take cover.
I mean, there's no, there's noplace to hide this airplane.
(27:43):
You know, just taking this, ifanything happened.
Well, the North Vietnamese shotout the tires to stop the
airplane from moving any farther.
And after it was all said anddone, the people we talked to
when we finally disembark saidwe think that their plan was to
(28:03):
disarm, disable the plane andthen and then move in and then
shoot up the plane and take outeverybody who was in there,
which would have reduced thenumber of people they was going
to have to fight later on.
So that's that's what ourpeople told us they thought was
going on, but they didn't happen.
Two Jeeps came out with 20s andtook care of Charlie and there
(28:28):
was a Sirenara song sung afterthe little pricks were shot and
killed.
And we got.
We got to all of our bases andwe went to a place called the
Annapolis Hotel, which is arundown hotel or place where
there was an incigon.
It was not really a hotel, itwas rickety racks and we were
(28:53):
bunks and two bunks to a rack.
But as we got there that nightwe were straight to our bunks
and everything like that.
Again, more small arms fire andthis we're on the second floor
and all enlist on the secondfloor and all the commission
officers on the first floor andwe hear small arm fire and now
(29:16):
we're grabbing mattresses andwhich not really a good piece of
protection, but it's the onlything we could think to hide
behind.
And and within 20 minutes we wewas.
We was told that the situation,we heard a lot of gunfire, we
heard the situation take care ofand then that next morning we
all got up, found that there wasan incident in the lieutenant's
(29:39):
AG that were both killed bycombat troops from North
Vietnamese and there were otherofficers wounded, but they had.
They had the bottom floor.
If it would wouldn't have, andI none of them were armed either
.
So that that that was.
That was my first experience ofof any kind of combat, firing
(30:02):
and nothing to do, just hope.
Hope you didn't get shotbecause you had no way to
protect yourself.
So the next morning we we go tothe Armory and there's a great
big old chief patty officer inthe Navy and he's barking out
orders and and issuing guns and16s to all of us.
(30:24):
And I'm saying this anyway youknow I would the hell they given
us guns for we I had.
I had my whole whole plan totell him.
When I got up there and I did,I said hey, chief.
I said I don't like youunderstand.
I said I'm a fleet sailor.
I said I went straight fromboot camp to an aircraft carrier
(30:44):
.
I never had anything to do withsmall arms fire, except for
training at boot camp.
I said I don't even know how tooperate that weapon.
I know how to pull the trigger.
I did that when I was a kid.
But I said plus, chief.
I said I'm a lover, not afighter.
I think I'm gonna be kind offunny.
He pushed that M16 to my chestlike I thought I was gonna come
(31:06):
out the backside.
There's a Marine corporal overthere who's the Asian, all the
ammunition.
He said hey, corporal, get toband and alert for this lover
and you escort him over to the,the embassy and show him where
his duty station is going to beuntil he gets out of here.
I got pissed him off.
Then, so off I go to theembassy and the embassy is the
(31:27):
famous picture where the CH-46is landing on the top of it and
you see that that ladder stepswhere all the Vietnamese are
trying to go up to get on theseaircraft, very ships.
So that was that, that was theembassy, that was my, my duty
station, and while I, while Iwas there, I I worked with
(31:49):
another corporal in the MarineCorps who basically gave me the
training of the nomenclature ofan M16 and and showed me how to
load it, how to ram a shell intothe chamber and aim it and fire
it if I needed to.
And I said, you know, I, I neverforgot that, that Marine,
because I honestly probablycould have figured it out, but
(32:10):
again, we had no training.
You know, we, we, we were Idon't about the rest of guys I
talked to rest of when we, whenwe were playing cards and having
fun, but most of them were inthe same boat, I was, you know,
they didn't have weapons.
So my two weeks there, that'sall.
It was my two weeks when, whenI was on the embassy, usually at
(32:32):
nighttime, my shift was lateafternoon, early evening, and
Charlie was char.
This was, this was the, thebeginning of 10 offensive, which
I found out probably two orthree months later after
listening to all it's going on.
And then, and then the body iscoming in.
We talked about a lot, what wasgoing on over there, and that
(32:54):
was a.
They was a month of February orMarch, they were March.
Then, when I was over there,then I found out about it and
then then we started talkingabout me being in Saigon during
that time and I told the boysthe stories.
You know, I say you, you neverwhat had, no, what happened on
(33:15):
my way to the grocery store.
You know type, type story, youknow.
So I told them all about it andthen they were all in jeez, no
shit, god damn, you're lucky tobe back.
I said that's kind of what Ithought you know, and it wasn't
wasn't quite.
You know, I did.
I didn't say I was in any goodfights, I didn't make any
stories up, but neverthelessthat and and not that I needed
(33:38):
credit for it there was no, noway for me to document this is
because you don't.
You don't have a, you don'thave orders to go to Saigon,
it's just a stop, okay.
So maybe somewhere in there itsaid Okinawa, clark Air Force
Base, philippines, and thenSaigon, vietnam.
(34:00):
It might say that somewhereshowing how, because they knew
where I was, I mean when I, whenI landed to get my orders, and
they knew how to get hold of theValley Forge and how the Valley
Forge was going to be close toSaigon at this certain time.
So I get another helicopter andI go back to my ship.
So I mean we're talking aboutpeople who are not doing the
(34:21):
fighting.
They do, they do theorganization to get everybody to
where they're supposed to be.
They, they, they operate theflight plans and the, the
convoys, whatever you're goingto be in.
So it's amazing how ourmilitary works.
I mean, we had all all fivebranches on that aircraft and
(34:44):
they had places for every branchto go.
You just want to have a place,you know.
So organization is so important.
So that's pretty much it therest of my story, other than the
fact that my wife and our andour dating.
I went back to the Valley Forgeand served up my my time there,
(35:08):
and when I went back to getmarried in 69, middle 69, when I
was getting ready to go back tothe Valley Forge I was, I was
told I picked up my new ordersthat the Valley Forge was going
to be decommissioned in 1970.
So they weren't going to wastemoney by buying an airplane
(35:30):
ticket and flying me back overthere and doing all the stuff
they had to do to give me backto my, my aircraft carrier.
So they assigned me to SanDiego to another ship.
So I was assigned to two otherships, one to help decommission
it and then the other one waswas a cargo ship.
That I spent about my last sixmonths on when we went back to
(35:50):
Vietnam one more time and thisis when my wife was two, two
weeks from having the baby and Idid another one.
I said, hey, you know, can'tyou just leave me here for two
weeks, I'll catch up with youlater?
And they kept saying you, youare, yeah, you are, government
issue.
You, we don't get specialfavors.
(36:11):
Boy, get on this boat, let's go.
So I was in, I was on the coastof Vietnam when I got the other
Red Cross message, his wife andbaby girl doing fine.
So.
Thad David (36:23):
But I here again, I among thousands of veterans who
were overseas when their wiveshad their, their babies
fascinating story and very, verysobering, very humbling, and I
love how you mentioned it takes,I mean, every single, every
(36:45):
single branch and every singlepiece of each unit inside of
that branch to make it all work.
I mean, without one or two ofthem, everything falls apart,
regardless of combat.
Not combat, no matter where youwere, and yet I think you
oftentimes hear people talkabout, especially with our
generation, with you know beingwhere, with my generation in
(37:06):
Iraq and people getting out.
Now that people aren't going,there's this big stigma about
not getting to deploy whereaspeople get really been on a
shape, about not getting thatopportunity to deploy.
Did you experience anythinglike that, or did anybody around
you did not, and did you seeanything like that?
Bart Bartholomew (37:26):
no, can't say that I, we would.
We would talk to some of theMarines that the did come back,
you know, because they they didtheir rotation and we get them
and we'd meet them on the messdeck and stuff like that.
We'd visit with them and we'dsee some of the the guys had
(37:46):
arms and shoulder in a sling andsome might be limping and stuff
like that.
So these were the woundedMarines that we would be sitting
with and talking to and wewould visit with them about
stuff like that.
But as far as and I I'll goback to it, to your story and
(38:09):
recall a couple things I'vetalked to many, many civilians
who walk up to me and see my hatand say, sir, I want to thank
you for your service, and Ialways come back and I say, well
, thank you very much for sayingthat.
Did you serve?
I want to find out.
They say, no, I didn't because,and I'm sorry, I did because,
and so I, so I.
(38:29):
So to go to your point, yeah, Iguess I have experience because
there's a lot of civilians thatdidn't, so I can understand how
there would be a lot, of, a lotof men and even women in
uniform, now that I'm one of thegals on my board of directors.
She was a, she was a supplysergeant in for six years.
She had orders to deploy toAfghanistan and they were at the
(38:55):
ready, you know, they were allramped up, ready to go and
something happened and heroutfit didn't have to go and she
talked about it.
So I guess you asked me thatquestion.
It has happened to me and Inever, I never remembered it
because it nobody really talkedabout it.
So you brought it up.
(39:16):
But yeah, so I've had.
I've had several people,civilians and and military,
saying I'm sorry, I didn't get a, get a, deploy and see action
hmm.
Thad David (39:29):
When it brings me back to your point, though, too,
when you said you signed thatblank check of hey, I'm gonna do
whatever.
You say that when you sign upyou don't.
There's a lot of choices thatyou don't get to make, in fact,
most of them.
You don't know where you'regoing, you don't know if you're
getting deployed.
You know, I know plenty ofpeople that are in traditional
quote unquote combat roles thatyou know didn't deploy.
(39:50):
When we did the initialinvasion in Iraq, the whole our
whole first recon battalion wentand they left an entire platoon
behind, and those I mean thoseguys were, they were heartbroken
, but that wasn't their choice,but that's what happened.
And now they got, they went anddeployed at a different time,
but they weren't, they weren'tin charge.
They know nobody, the militarydoesn't ask you what do you want
(40:11):
to do like when, frankly, theydon't?
Bart Bartholomew (40:13):
they don't really care and remember in my
generation and in Korea and inWorld War two draft.
You know we're grabbing yourneck and we're putting you in
the army and you're gonna go dowhatever we tell you to do.
Well, every one of those,especially in World War two.
(40:35):
I hear so many stories onYouTube and stuff like that.
When I heard about Pearl Harbor, I lied about my age, or I had
my parents signed that I was 17years old, so they were lying to
get in because they, theywanted to go and retaliate
(40:55):
against Japan and do whateverthey had to do.
Well, I could, I could be kindof considered a little coward.
You got drafted and you didn'tgo, you at the Navy and and I
would accept that I'd sayabsolutely right, I did not want
to go.
I mean, I wanted to serve.
I got my notice, I wanted to dowhatever I could and I did.
(41:19):
But I had, I had a choice and Ithink everybody that got
drafted had that same choice.
What, what, what, what theydidn't didn't do is it was up to
them.
But but going on your, on yourpoint, I, I Didn't look to be in
(41:40):
Saigon.
I didn't plan to be in Saigon.
I'm not happy that I was onSaigon.
I'm glad that I had that littlepiece that I could talk about.
I had no proof, so it's, it'sthat old joy, it's my story and
I'm sticking to it.
You proved me wrong, no, but Idon't have to worry about that,
(42:02):
because I know it's the truthand I am.
I am, I am so proud of of mythree years of six months that I
did not, I did not reenlistthem.
I'm like the guy that didn'tjoin I.
I, I wished I would havereenlisted, I wish that it
(42:23):
probably stayed for 20, but Iwas mad at the Navy because I
didn't get to see the birth ofmy daughter.
So I was I was Italian againstNavy, plus it was.
I'm making a hundred eighteendollars a month and now I got to
support a wife and a child andI'm not the only one, you know.
I mean Everybody's in the sameboat.
I am that had kids.
(42:44):
But I went to my, my chief pennyofficer on this, on this last
boat.
I said, uh, I want, I want toknow what I can do.
I said my wife's in real townin Kansas, pregnant or having
had a baby and and she's havetough time taking care of it.
I said, uh, what's the chancesof me getting Stationed
(43:08):
somewhere closer?
So what they ended up doing?
They, they.
I got an honorable dischargeunder hardship conditions.
So I my all.
My DD 214 says honorarydischarge.
And then you, you read downthere at the bottom it's not a
Black flag or anything like that, but if anybody wanted to know
(43:29):
what it was, it was a fact thatI was going to go back and take
care of my wife brand new baby,which was I got out too much,
and a few days before my my endof my career.
So I Figured I served fouryears with the hell.
Thad David (43:45):
Oh yeah, you did your time.
Bart Bartholomew (43:46):
I really liked it and it's something else I
wanted to think talk about.
But I here again.
That green matter Got in there,took it away.
Thad David (43:59):
I'd love to ask you about what you're currently
involved in it.
Veterans, honoring veterans, ohyeah, what do you do with that?
Bart Bartholomew (44:09):
Well, we'll start at the beginning on that.
When I was, we not every shipOnce it's decommission Creates a
, a reunion committee, but ourship did.
In 1970, there was a handful ofsailors that said we need to
get together every year and havea reunion and have a party.
(44:31):
There's a lot of army units andMarine Corps units and Air
Force units.
They all do the same thing.
So I joined, I joined the, thereunion committee, and I started
going to reunions in it in 2017.
I was in actually I was inColorado Springs at the reunion
there's holding there and as asailor got up during the banquet
(44:53):
, he was a, he was a lieutenantcommander and he went.
He went to the LDL programlimited duty officer.
He made it to I think she pennyofficer and Went over and got
commissioned.
As an incident went up to andhe became a I guess he's a
commander, but anyway, that makea difference he got up and and
(45:16):
he called up another center upto the podium.
When the other center got upthere, he he handed him this,
this little figurine.
I'm gonna step away for just asecond.
I'm gonna grab one of thesestats.
You can't give you any way whatthey look like.
Thad David (45:29):
Okay, I.
Bart Bartholomew (45:39):
Can want to bring it.
Two of them, one I'm jealous ofand the one that I have to
accept.
This is the one that I accept.
This is what they look like.
So we we hand whatever branchof service the person's in the
Marine Corps is a is a MarineScratch down, got a rifle in his
(46:02):
hand, fully combat ready, andreally a good-looking Got a, got
a K bar on the back of his hipand stuff like that.
But the one I'm jealous of isIs this one, if you look at the
detail of this, I mean this isfor the Air Force Mm-hmm, I mean
, is this?
(46:22):
Is this not a?
A well-done piece of of art toface?
beautiful the flat top haircut.
So so, going back to what I do,that this say, the sailor was
given these little statues outto other sailors For their
(46:42):
service in the Navy and afterthe bank was all done, I said my
wife and I went over to histable and I introduced myself
because I didn't know him.
He came, he came aboard theship after I was gone, but I
business with him.
He told me he did that his homestate and he.
I asked him my sister'sfranchise, you have paid to get
(47:03):
in.
He's no, so you want to do it.
So when I came back home toLoveland, I met with the about
four or five other veterans andone civilian and the one
civilian you might know is BradHoops and I Asked them about it,
told them what I wanted to do,and and they were all on board.
(47:24):
So I, with, with, witheverybody's help, we formed a
non-profit called veterans,honorary veterans, and we
started that 2017 and to date,we've We've presented close to
740 statues to veterans, mostlyin northern Colorado.
We've we've mailed some off, butwe are, we are really, really
(47:49):
excited at what we're doing andand we're we're excited because
we have and I hate to say this,I'm ashamed to say, but it's the
only thing I do.
We're 500 by 500 Statues behind.
We have people on the waitinglist that have signed up to get
one of the statues.
And number one we don't haveenough money.
Number two we don't have enoughtime, so we do a statue
(48:12):
presentation on the on the firstand third Saturdays at the
Golden Corral.
We'll be doing one thisSaturday.
You're invited to come down tosee it.
It's, but we just can't.
We just can't Do as many asthere are waiting and we got a
lot of veterans in northernColorado, but that's a really is
well there.
Thad David (48:32):
I mean, they're absolutely beautiful.
What is it, if you don't mindme asking, just because, are you
accepting donations?
I mean, if somebody wanted togo to end out what yeah, thanks.
Bart Bartholomew (48:43):
Thanks for being there.
If somebody wants to donateEach, each one of these statues,
the statue itself cost $50 tomake and and the statue maker
does not Make these individualslike this he's got a mold.
It's pretty simple for him todo, but still a job.
As a matter of fact, the, theveteran that does these so the
(49:07):
guy does is a veteran fromnorthern Colorado, in Loveland.
So we can now say that this wasan American, made Colorado,
made love and made by a veteran.
Be very proud of it.
So this is $50 and then thelittle name plates that we put
on them is it's $10.
So it's a $70 statue and wehave a website.
(49:30):
If anybody is interested indonating it's.
It's veterans honoring veteransorg.
And when you open it up there'sa donate button.
But I really want you to openit up and I want you to look,
because we've got pictures ofeverybody that we've ever issued
(49:52):
a statue to and we got them ingroups of five or six and sevens
.
We got some videos in there,some of our presentations.
So feel free to go toveteransonveteransorg and take a
look and see what we've beendoing for the last few years.
Thad David (50:11):
I love it.
That's amazing work.
I would imagine that everybodywas very excited when they each
person individually is excitedwhen they get to receive one.
Bart Bartholomew (50:22):
That we've seen chairs literally.
And I say that, and I'm proudto say it, because a lot of
these veterans did not get athank you when they got home.
They got the ops, the patientof Vietnam soldiers.
They were mistreated a lot whenthey were in uniform by people.
(50:43):
So me and our organizationdoing this is just a way to say,
hey that, thank you for yourservice.
I appreciate what you did.
We had a little quick story.
We had an Air Force veteranthat declined to get one.
He said give it to someone thatis more deserving and I thank
(51:05):
you for your offer.
But well, he kept coming tobreakfast and pretty soon the
guys kept saying you know youreally need to get one of these.
So he finally called myprocurement officer and talked
to her and she started writingdown some of the information for
the statute, because we asked,obviously, what branch and if
(51:26):
you did deploy to a combat zoneand if you did, what kind of
achievements, did you makemedals or did you receive?
And we do that for the onesthat did deploy too, because
there's an awful lot of peoplethat have done so much in the
non-combat zone that they gotnoted for, they got awards or
medal, stuff like that.
So this guy ends up we only doone nameplate for every veteran.
(51:53):
Well, this guy that was sohumble to not take one ended up
with the front plate and two onboth sides, because he was
decorated with two purple hearts.
He had six airmen stars orairmenal insignias and they had
(52:16):
four or something else.
He had something to be veryproud of, but he was so humble
so when he received his statueduring the presentation he got a
little choked up about it whenhe said thank you and took his
picture.
When I came out after it was alldone, I come away from the
(52:37):
microphone and I try to shakeeverybody's hand and tell them
how proud I am of them.
And I said how do we do it?
I said we get your namesspelled right and everything on
their name.
He said yeah, I saw a littletear down there.
I said well good.
I said you know, every once ina while we'll screw up with
spelling a name.
I said did you like the sideplates?
(52:59):
He said what side plates?
I said well, with what you did,we did a little extra for you.
And he looked at both sideplates and had the other medals
that he earned and he literallyquit talking.
He just choked up, thought,said thank you and I let him go.
So yeah, that's wonderful.
(53:21):
We had a World War II veteranat a nursing facility and when
we gave his statue to him heheld it up like it was the first
place and we got a picture ofhim on the front page of our
local.
Well, a love of paper.
Thad David (53:36):
Yeah.
Bart Bartholomew (53:36):
And he was like the reporter.
Harold was there and God gothim doing that and he was.
That's what it's all about.
Thad David (53:44):
That's wonderful.
Bart Bartholomew (53:46):
Making people feel good and it's free to them.
They don't pay a nickel for it,and that's what we want.
We want to make sure, and sothat's yeah, that's why we take
donations and we don't turn themdown.
And the toughest part of my jobthat with this present, this
thatch brisk is having theseveterans come up and shake my
(54:08):
hand and and not have achallenge for it, but have a
check or a 50 or a hundred.
These veterans know it free,but they, they, they know what
we have to do to get it.
So they say no, no, no, youdon't have to, no, no, we have
to.
So I have to argue with theseguys about give me money.
And yeah, I'm told by my boardof directors quit arguing, just
(54:31):
take their damn money as well.
This is, this is my baby.
I don't want to take money fromhim.
So, but they, they, they've gota heart of gold A lot of them.
Thad David (54:45):
I think with that too, Number one, I'm imagining
you arguing with veterans,because that's definitely not a
stubborn bunch.
So you know, just theheadlocking.
Bart Bartholomew (54:56):
Yeah, that would have, yeah.
Thad David (54:58):
Yet it almost for me it seems like with taking the
money, and I don't know if thisgives a different perspective of
it, but for me I would imaginethem feeling like they're buying
the one for the next person,and it's not they're paying for
theirs, they're paying itforward.
I think it's a beautiful.
That's what my first thoughtwas that they're they're buying
(55:20):
the next person's.
I'm glad you put that.
That's pretty.
Bart Bartholomew (55:22):
That's exact.
That's exactly where, the wayI'll look at it.
You know it's a special.
Thad David (55:27):
Thing.
Bart Bartholomew (55:29):
I was, I was, I was, I was thinking that they
felt sorry for me.
But I don't think that's whatit is.
I, honestly, and they, they notsaid that, but that is, that is
a perfect, perfect explanation.
That's exactly what they'redoing when they, when they give,
when they give me the next,every year, I said you know, I
just, I, just, I, just, I, just,I, just, I, just, I, just, I,
just, I just two more statuesyeah, this is already paid for.
Thad David (55:49):
Yeah.
This is already paid forthey're.
Bart Bartholomew (55:51):
they're buying the next person's Yep, yep, so
yeah.
Thad David (55:55):
So there's literally veterans honoring veterans.
Bart Bartholomew (55:57):
Yeah.
And then, and there's a lot of,there's a lot of veterans
organizations out there, andthere's one other one we found
when we started looking at ourname in California and said
veterans, honoring veterans, andwe we did our due diligence to
make sure that we wasn'tinfringing on another
organization and making surethat what we did was not what
(56:19):
they did, so we wouldn't betaking somebody else's name, but
been going since 2017 and wekept our name and and we're
moving on.
Thad David (56:32):
Well, keep doing amazing work.
I love that you do it.
I'm excited.
I will make it down for one ofthese.
I've heard these two suchamazing things about these
breakfasts and and I amdefinitely going to make it down
and come check it out.
Bart Bartholomew (56:49):
Well, it's not a it's.
It's not a club.
You know, you don't have to paydues.
We don't have a president orthe CEO.
When I get on a microphone andthere's been a screw up before
me, I always say I said you gotto understand that you are in
the most unorganizedorganization that's ever been
(57:12):
put together.
This hand does not know whatthis hand's doing, and and we,
we've been doing it since 2008.
So we must be doing somethingright.
Thad David (57:23):
Oh, yeah, wow.
And speaking of unorganizedorganizations, it makes me think
of how unorganized the militarybeing in the actual military
can feel.
To sometimes is like how?
Bart Bartholomew (57:34):
they even get things.
We bragged about how it worked.
Thad David (57:37):
Yeah.
Bart Bartholomew (57:38):
But we can't tell these civilians how bad it
don't work sometimes.
Thad David (57:41):
Yes, exactly.
Bart Bartholomew (57:42):
That's really it.
Thad David (57:44):
People say oh, you got military great firearms Like
well, don't, don't insult myfirearms like minor yeah.
Let's talk about the.
Bart Bartholomew (57:51):
M16 about a military great firearm.
Right yeah, a long story aboutthat weapon.
Thad David (57:57):
That's and well, thank you so much.
I'm going to put a link in forveterans on veteransorg, if
anybody wants to jump on anddonate, at least to check it out
.
And as we, as we close this up,I'd love to ask you, knowing
that you've talked to, you'vemet, a ton of veterans.
One thing that we like to shedlight on, that I like to shed
light on is just get advice, orthings that help veterans as
(58:21):
they transition out of themilitary.
And what advice would you offerup to any veterans that are
getting out?
What do you see that veteransthat are being successful or or
and just having a successfulcivilian life?
What are the things they'redoing?
Bart Bartholomew (58:39):
Pretty easy to answer that.
But the problem of it is Idon't get to meet very many that
just get out.
So I meet them out.
They've been out for a whileand and they've already started
having some of their problems,and most of their problems were
were already there before theygot.
They got discharged.
So my, my first comment is themilitary is not doing a it never
(59:03):
has done a good job of of arelation of veteran back into
civilian life.
They do not spend enough timewith certain veterans, other
ones, the transition is fairlyeasy.
But when you, when you've beenin a military organization for
at least four years, your, your,your mechanics have totally
(59:23):
changed.
It's not mom letting you sleepin the morning and and mom not
fixing your supper and and momfolding your bed.
You know there's, there's noneof that stuff.
It all goes away.
And now people are screamingand yelling at you where dad
might have screamed yelling atyou a couple of times because
you didn't pick up the tools inthe garage or something like
(59:43):
that.
But nothing like the militarygives you.
So that transition is fairlyeasy for the, the common veteran
, but but the combat veteran,the pilot that's been flying and
and if he gets in, he or shegets into another job of flying
(01:00:04):
and that that's pretty easy.
But the the the ground grantindividual needs to needs to
hook up immediately with aveteran's group, the VA.
We have a place called separatecallers offer I can't think,
(01:00:32):
but it's for veterans that arestruggling with post-traumatic
stress and they get in theirgroups and they get therapy and
they get counselors and they doone-on-one, they do group
therapy.
If you're a veteran like that,reach out to those veteran
organizations immediately.
Get yourself somebody that canguide you on that road instead
(01:00:59):
of veering off and going placeswhere you shouldn't go.
And every veteran should beable to survive once they get
out.
We have so many homelessveterans that I can't believe
that there's so many homelessveterans.
Then I even hate to talk aboutthe 22.
(01:01:19):
There's so many organizationsthat acclimated with the 22 and
that had suicide.
I've got a lady on our board ofdirectors whose son was in the
Marines for six years, got outyear after he got out and
committed suicide.
(01:01:40):
Her and I sat down, not talkedabout it, but I knew what
happened.
I'm not going to call thosecounselors, but she needed
something like us to draw herinto the environment of
happiness and seeing people getstatues.
(01:02:02):
I gave her and her grandson astatue of a Marine soldier, a
Marine Corps Marine, and withall his information the grandson
thought that it was going to behis way.
First thought he argued withGrandma about who got the statue
of his uncle.
(01:02:23):
When she told me a story,obviously I got another one but
her and her family.
I met her family.
She was so impressed theytalked her into coming and
looking at us so she's avolunteer for us.
Now she's get to see thehappiness and come as a civilian
to our breakfast club and talkto other veterans and be part of
(01:02:43):
our family.
That was the win.
When she came Back to theveteran, find a buddy, find a
fellow veteran.
It doesn't have to be a Marineor a sailor or an airman or a
soldier.
Find somebody that you can talkto and share with.
If it is a civilian, great,most likely it's not going to be
(01:03:07):
a spouse.
Spouses sometimes don't want tohear and you don't want to talk
to them.
So don't hold it in, let it out, get it out, go somewhere.
It's a shame that we're havingthe problem we're having with
our young veterans.
I know that 22 numbers changed.
(01:03:29):
I hear worse numbers, but oneis too many.
That's why I go back to ourgovernment.
We've got to do something priorto releasing our veterans.
When I say our veterans, notthe combat veterans, but male
(01:03:50):
and female that have beenverbally abused, sexually abused
, male and female, the wholenine yards every one of them.
We don't know that from small ofthem, because not all of them
make claims.
Some of them keep it withinthemselves until after they get
out.
Then it's out, they're out.
It's kind of too late.
It's one of those things thatyour top NCO needs to watch
(01:04:17):
what's going on in theirparticular area of what's
happening.
If that young corporal isgetting mouthed by everybody,
then he's probably getting someproblems in his head.
I know we're tough.
I'm not saying don't be toughwhen you're in basic training,
(01:04:39):
even a little bit afterwards.
Let's let it go tough guys.
We don't need to beat thesehelpless little people because
you're making them more helpless.
When you do that it sounds likeI'm counseling and I'm not a
counselor.
Thad David (01:04:54):
I love the advice of reaching out, getting help.
Definitely reach out, talk tosomebody.
Don't hold it in which.
I think somebody once explainedit like shaking up a Coke
bottle you can only shake it upso much and it gets so much
pressure.
If you don't have a releasevalve, it's not going to get
better on its own.
Bart Bartholomew (01:05:14):
Perfect, yeah, bart, thank you.
Anyway, just remember thatyou're loved out here and we
need you.
There's a job for you.
There's a place in the civilianworld for you.
Thad David (01:05:34):
I love it.
Thank you so much, Bart.
I really appreciate you takingsome time today and I appreciate
and just absolutely love andrespect what you're doing for
veterans to this day.
Thank you so much.
Bart Bartholomew (01:05:48):
I don't need thanks, but I appreciate it.
Thank you for taking the timeto visit with me, and the next
time I see you, I hope it's abreakfast.
Thad David (01:06:00):
I'm looking forward to it.
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