Riding to Remember: Community, Camaraderie, and Military Memories

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Thank you and to leave scars that will never
fully heal and, for those whohave served, the transition back
to civilian life can be one ofthe greatest challenges they
will ever face.
This is the typical life ofmilitary veterans, a world that
is both familiar and foreign tomost of us.
It is a world that is shaped byunique experiences, values and

(00:40):
traditions of the military, andby the sacrifices and struggles
of those who have served, butit's also a world that is
constantly changing, as newgenerations of veterans confront
new challenges and newopportunities.
Thank you for joining us atSoup Sandwich.
Dig your foxhole, heat up yourMRE and spend some time with us.

(01:02):
This podcast is designed solelyfor entertainment and,
occasionally, informationalpurposes only, and is to be
regarded strictly as satireComprising of veterans.
It delves into their thoughtsand experiences in combat, as
well as their perspectives onvarious aspects of daily life
that may be unsettling forcertain listeners.
This podcast is not suitablefor individuals under the age of

(01:23):
18.
The views articulated in thispodcast may not necessarily
align with those of the NationalVFW, vfw Department of Michigan
or VFW Post 3033.
Additionally, we kindly requestthat listeners refrain from
pursuing legal action againstthe creators or contributors of
this podcast.
In other words, please don'tsue us.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Welcome back.
I know it's been all summer,basically since last time we've
had a soup sandwich podcast.
My name is Charlie Klein, alifetime member of the VFW Pulse
3033 and the director of theVFW Riders Group Department of
Michigan.
That's here tonight at the AJSky Lounge, as Tim would always

(02:09):
say, aj Sky Lounge, and tonightwe have with us.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
Tech or Joe, I do our RIT around the post.
I'm the adjutant and thesecretary of the Riders Group.

Speaker 5 (02:22):
Bill House, former VP of the Riders Group.
Bill house uh, former vp of thewriters group, um post member
lifetime.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Member lifetime member there, you go so in that
I waited, but in the traditionof tim not being here tonight.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yep, we're still gonna do the sound of freedom,
let's get it started right?

Speaker 3 (02:41):
uh, hopefully we're live on facebook.
Facebook tonight under the postFacebook page.
So anybody that listens to thishopefully you heard the
disclaimer 18 and under.
Please turn this off.
For those of you that are over18, you're more than welcome to
continue to listen, but we alsohave a Facebook page, so
unfortunately, Facebook'schanged a few things.

(03:03):
You know, in order to go liveunder our Soup Sandwich Facebook
page live, we have to have 100followers.
We're close to that.
So if you're listening tonight,please try to find that.
It might be under BrentHolbrook.
He was the founder, or is thefounder, of this podcast.
It might be under his name.
We're on Spotify iHeartRadio.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
I'm going to put a link under the comments too.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Please click that link on your Facebook.
Follow the page.
So we don't have to join on thepost Facebook page.
We can do it under our normalSoup Sandwich Facebook page.
More than welcome to go back.
We've got probably 10 or 12episodes logged in over the
years If you want to go back.
We've got probably 10 or 12episodes logged in over the
years if you want to go back andhear some of the different

(03:49):
things that we've talked about.
But just so you know, this iscomprised of a bunch of veterans
sitting around talking aboutveteran things.
Some of our language becomescolorful Depends on who's?
all in attendance during thenight, or even those that call
in.
So I know we're going to havewe call them affectionately two

(04:13):
parts Brent, our founder, theNavy man, because everything he
has to say always has a question, and then a follow-up question
that leads to it, or a statement.
Follow-up statement.
He should be calling in,hopefully shortly.
I'm sure he's logged in onlineright now, probably blowing up
the comments, because that'swhat he does he's home taking

(04:36):
care of the kids while his wifeis traveling, like a good little
boy.
That's right, he's at home,susie.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Homemaker.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
I was going to say Susie's not the word that we use
in the military, it's SusieRotten something.
I'm going to say Betty Crocker.

Speaker 5 (04:56):
Yeah, mr Mom, watch Full Metal Jacket, you'll know
what it is.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Maybe we ought to call him Mr Doubtfire.
There you go, mr Doubtfire.
There you go, mr Doubtfire,that's right, I bet he's got the
apron on already.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
He probably does Toodle-oo.
He's got a wig on or something.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
And unfortunately Halsey here served in the Navy,
so he's probably going to stickup for him, maybe Doubtful, but
maybe Probably will, probablywill.

Speaker 5 (05:20):
All right, so anybody got something they want to talk
about tonight before I getdiving into my stuff.
Well, it's been a long summer,it's been crazy, it's been a hot
summer, yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's been a good summer.
It's been a real good summer.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
Lots of miles on the road this summer.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
That's right.
Yeah, a couple out-of-statetrips.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Well, you know, we always talk about a lot of stuff
going on at the post and in thesame instance, we always talk
about a lot of things in theriders groups and stuff like
that.
But yeah, so my wife and somefriends my niece got married
down in Tennessee so we took abike trip, went down to
Tennessee, rode Tale of theDragon, sherlock Skyway, skyway,
foothills, parkway, stuff likethat.

(06:07):
We took a week and went downthere and did a lot of riding.
It was great.
I tell you, one of the coolestthings we just got into
Tennessee we had to stop and puthelmets on.
We got maybe five, six miles in.
We went to the rest area, theWelcome Center, we wore our cuts
, we were flying.
So for those, non-biker guys.

Speaker 5 (06:28):
That's the best.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, so we had our, we had our colors on the back,
which is our, our vfw riders.
Uh, back patch right.
Um.
We stopped there and put ourhelmets on.
You know, rest area, all thatkind of stuff, and I had so many
veterans come up to me and sayhow cool it was to see us there,
and Ken Bleaver from Michiganand all the way down there on

(06:50):
the bikes and all thosedifferent stuff, you know.
I mean it was really cool to seeit and and so many veterans
didn't even know that, that VFWin general even has a riders
group right, or there's guys outthere on motorcycles doing
things and they were drilling mewith questions.

(07:10):
You know what do you guys do andwhere are you all from and how
many groups do you have and allthe things.
And there's certain protocolthat we all live by, right?
Like I don't mind saying howmany groups we have in the state
of Michigan, but how manymembers we have.
I state of michigan, but howmany members we have.
I don't ever say yeah but uh Iknow, yeah, it's always enough,
right, but I, I always will tellthem all the good things we do,

(07:33):
right, we support cancer, wesupport you know, there's uh,
there's all kinds of eventswhere, uh, somebody's killed in,
like here in mount pleasant inmichigan we had a.
We had a road constructionworker get killed, and those are
the kinds of things we support.
Not only do we support ourposts with the kids' events and
charity events and evensupporting posts monetarily and

(07:54):
all the different things, butthere's always something out
there that we do.
And I am so proud of all theriders' groups in the state of
Michigan for all the things theydo, because I get to see those
reports now, which is cool,because, as the president of
Mount Pleasant when I was therea year ago, I knew what we did.
I never really understood whatall the other groups were doing.
And we're talking District 4,which is a big group, but it's

(08:20):
comprised of several VFW posts,but out of the Detroit area and
those guys are small.
They got not that many members15 I think.
We don't talk about numbers.

Speaker 5 (08:34):
We don't have very many members.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
But what I'm saying is those guys are so busy
They'll divide and conquer.
They might have four events inone weekend and they might take
their events in one weekend andthey might take their members
and it's like four go to this,six go to that, two go to this,
one goes to that.
And it's Friday and Saturday andSunday.
They're all over the place.
It's impressive.

(08:58):
Like I see their report at theend of the month and I'm like,
oh my God, like you've got thatmany people and you're doing all
these things.
It's insane, insane.
And I'm looking at mountpleasant.
We have like our numbers areexponentially larger and we're
in mount pleasant, middle ofmitt, right like you look at
michigan, you put your fingerright in the middle.

(09:20):
That's like where we are right.
There's nothing, so flat landsof michigan and there's nothing.
I mean it's hard to find stuffto go do, almost, and those guys
have three, four events aweekend.
It's just crazy and and they're,they're out there doing their
thing, man, and I'm I'm proud ofthem yeah like I mean, I'm

(09:40):
proud of them because those guysare dedicated down there and
their women are dedicated downthere and they do a lot of good
things.

Speaker 5 (09:49):
Yeah, it's fun to go ride with them, guys.
You know, just to change thepace different people.

Speaker 6 (09:55):
Well, you got a girlfriend down there.
Yeah, yeah, right.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
So I actually got lucky because I went down and
rode.
It's a Wall of Honor, oh yeah,which is the traveling
Vietnamietnam memorial wall.
The travel's been continuoustravel since like 1986 or
something that was amazing dayright, so we rode from.
I went down the night before westayed in saint claire shores,
went to the post down there,which is absolutely phenomenal.

(10:18):
Yeah, that was bruce post, ohmy god, you, you talk about, not
the district four that we'retalking about.

Speaker 5 (10:24):
You know that this is a separate yeah, it's, it's,
yeah, it's out st claire shoreyeah, it's outside their
district.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah, right, my girlfriend lives.
But we went down there, we hada great time, great hosts, yeah,
awesome post.
Uh, totally appreciate theirhospitality.
And then we rode up to brightonand we, we picked up this wall
ride and there was 200motorcycles.

Speaker 5 (10:45):
Oh yeah, probably, At least maybe 300 on this ride.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
And so for those of you who don't know, the Wall of
Honors, Vietnam wall, travelingwall, it's been in consistent
travel since, like, yeah, 1986,1988, whatever it is, and it
constantly moves around thecountry and it takes years and
years and years to get it is.
And it constantly moves aroundthe country and it takes years
and years and years to get itbooked.
And this was the Hamburg rideand they had a Huey helicopter,

(11:14):
a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter,fly over us and we escorted it
from Brighton, Michigan, toHamburg, Michigan, which is only
like 10 miles away, but we tooklike a 30-mile route.
We went through all theselittle towns and I tell you what
I was not any more proud ofmyself police escorted, so they
basically shut the whole.

Speaker 5 (11:32):
You know our path down, so where we were going
through, I mean a couple hundredmotorcycles.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
They shut they shut everything right down yeah, they
shut all the intersections down.
They shut all the curves down.
They did all the the curvesdown.
They did all the things.

Speaker 5 (11:45):
So all these businesses, you know, didn't
have any business because theroad was shut down.
So they all come out andwatched us drive by and waved
and flags everywhere.
It was amazing.
Every school.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, I was just going to say all the elementary
schools.
This was what was so cool,awesome.
You're riding through thesesmall town america.
Yep, right, elementary schools,middle schools.
They shut the schools down.
They had all the kids at on thestreet.
Yeah, along the roadside, yeah,american flags waving.
I bet you we went past a dozenschools.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
Yep, elementary, middle school lined up, teachers
, all the kids I mean, and notonly you couldn't even go 100
yards without even people intheir houses coming out and say,
not even just businesses, butpeople that you know lived along
the path.
I mean they would come out andand watch this, go by and wave
and you know, having their flagsout and everything it was.

(12:39):
It was awesome.
That was probably the best, oneof the best rides I've ever
been on.
Yeah, yeah I.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
I was so happy to be able to be there and then for me
, you know, to be able to do aride with District 4.
Right From being up in MountPleasant, to be able to go down
and ride with those guys andmeet who they are and hang out
and have lunch afterwards and dostuff with them, was really
cool, because I don't I'veactually been on a couple rides
with them, you know so.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (13:04):
Before that.
So yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
And you're lucky because we're all one team, one
mission Right.
One team, one mission right.
Regardless of where you're fromor what you're doing, we're all
on the same team and we have toget that and we have to realize
that.
But yeah, it was dealing withsome personal stuff, so for me
it was a little bit tough, youknow, getting in here to get

(13:37):
another podcast going, but I'mhappy to do it.
So Holberg's asking to get thevolume turned up.
So I don't know how we turn thevolume up for him, is it?
That's too far away, possibly?
All right, we're doing things alittle bit different.

Speaker 5 (13:54):
Unfortunately, it's been way too long since we've
done this podcast, we're goingto try to figure things out.
My sound check person said theycould hear it.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Maybe it's just two parts.
Is having a problem?
Two parts?
Maybe you need to turn up yourvolume.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Have them check both those volumes, check both your
volumes.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
I'm told Tech is saying this is on your end not
on our end.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
We got another.
Let's do another sound check.
I'll find out here.
Hold on One of these days.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
We're going to get this finally figured out, joe,
one of these days.

Speaker 6 (14:25):
We're gonna get this finally figured out, joe.
One of these days we're notgonna have these problems.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
We've been talking about these problems for like a
year now yeah, you know, butevery time it's a different
issue, it seems like to it'salways a different issue never
ends.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
Well, that's the part of it, that's the fun of it,
right?
So well, since we got a littlelull there, uh, charlie was
bragging about his uh trip totennessee and uh thought that
that sounded so good.
So, end of august?
Uh, liz and I have uh birthdaysat the end of august.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
As she says, she can hear us, so well, you know what
they always say right and uh, soin, it's not intimidation.
What do they say?

Speaker 6 (15:07):
Imitation is the best form of flattery yeah, yeah,
yeah.

Speaker 5 (15:10):
Is that what?

Speaker 3 (15:11):
it is.
Here's his story.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
So for our birthday weekend at the end of August we
pick some place and we just goand run away for the weekend and
as a joke I said, well, hell,let's just go to the dragon.
She says, okay, I'm like, areyou serious?
She goes, yeah, why not?
And I'm like I guess we'regoing to the Dragon.
So we went down there and I gotto back up a little bit.

(15:34):
We went to National Home and wehad their Michigan Days at
National Home.
I'm going to pause you realquick.
So those of you who don't knowthe National.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Home is the National Home for Children.
So it's in Eaton Rapids,michigan, and for a deployed
member of the military ordeceased member in distress that
has kids, they can come live atthe National Home and they have
.
It's like 800 acres the placeis huge, all these different
houses, all these differentthings 29?

Speaker 5 (16:07):
No more than 29 houses They've got quite a few.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
I mean it's like 30-something houses.
But houses could be like aduplex or a quadplex kind of
thing and each state kind ofsponsors a house.
But your kids can go there, youcan go there, you live for free
, you get training or it's likea displacement kind of thing 32,
42 42 and and, and.
At the end of the day, you knowyou, you right these, these

(16:34):
military members, and you canlive there for a long time, like
a couple years and years andyears especially if they're just
kids.
So, like you know, you think ofmom, mom and dad get deployed.
Single mom or dad, they get.
They get unfortunately killedin combat or in the military.
Their kids can go here, theyget raised right.
So the national home is is hugeand they have their own website

(16:56):
.
I always encourage people to goon and donate.
They always, they always needthings.
I mean, this is, this, is forthe kids.

Speaker 5 (17:01):
This, this place has been around 100 years coming up
in 100 years this year and I'mjust 100 years, yeah, so I'm,
I'm, I'm working on some stufffor some fundraising.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
As far as writers, groups that come from around the
country and it's going to be injune we're talking about dice
run, poker runs, differentthings to generate some income
for them.
But you know.
So I mean yeah, so go on withthe national so.

Speaker 5 (17:21):
So anyway, you know every so anyway, every year each
state kind of has their ownlittle weekend event.
So ours was one weekend.
We all went as the riders group, we all rode.
There was quite a few.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
In August.
Yep Third week of August.

Speaker 5 (17:39):
Almost all of us in the riders group from Mount
Pleasant went Well.
Anyway, the following weekendwas the VFW riders group, for
all of the riders groups in thewhole United States basically
had their riders group weekend.

(18:00):
Well, liz and I actually wentto represent Michigan and so we
went down there and we met somepeople.
Well, one of the gentlemen wemet was from Massachusetts, had
just moved to the NashvilleTennessee area, so we said, hey,

(18:21):
we're going to be down therehere, you know end of the month
or so.
And uh, he says, yeah, meet upwith us.
So we actually met up with himand rode with him and his wife.
That you know, and we rode the,uh, the skyway and a few other,
you know rides and whatever youhad the 28 right no, we did
that after the dragon, but no wedid.
We did that, uh uh, devil'striangle.

(18:44):
And then we did a couple otherones.
Uh, we, we rode quite a few ofthem, uh, spent three or four
days down there.
Anyway, we got to meet up withthem and actually ride with a
vfw riders group.
Member from somewhere elsewhile we were in tennessee, so
that was actually where we spenta whole day with them, met up
for breakfast and parted afterdinner, you know.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
So it was uh, and he probably hasn't caught you since
, because he realized who youreally were.

Speaker 5 (19:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
No, you know, and that's it was cool.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
So you get a chance.
You meet people all over thecountry.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
But we all have the same goal in mind Same mission.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
The brotherhood, the sisterhood, that's what we all
miss about the military.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
So, when we get a chance or an opportunity to go
do things and be aroundourselves.
Right, they might be 30 yearsolder or 30 years younger, or
you know different economicsthan what we live in, or
whatever their case may be, itdoesn't matter because we all
have that bond, yeah, so you meta guy on a Sunday in August and

(19:45):
a week later you're meeting upa thousand miles away from where
you met the first time andyou're hanging out for the day
and you guys formed a bond andthe wife formed a bond.
How cool is that that's whatit's about those are the things
that are.
You just can't.
They're blessings.

Speaker 4 (20:11):
I honestly feel sorry for those who didn't get the
chance to experience the sortsof stuff that we get to.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
You do and you don't, because it's definitely not for
everybody doesn't it If youserved in?
The Navy you served in the Army, or the Marines.
Like me, we all dealt with theBS.
Some people are cut for it,some people aren't Right.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
Definitely.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
You know, I mean I went out to Boston one time,
right, we took the girls out forholiday weekend, four-day
weekend my business partner andI and his wife and my wife and
we went out to Boston which iswhere some of my buddies were
when I was at Fast Company andmet up with them, you know, and
hung out, had lunch, had dinner,got to meet their significant

(20:52):
others or whatever, and it was agreat day.
But that's what we do and thatwas 15 years after the last time
I saw these guys.
But I tell you what 15 years islike?
15 minutes, and we get togetherand once a month on a sunday,
we all sit while we're watchingfootball, cracking beers and we
do a facetime messenger thing,right, and we all sit there and

(21:15):
bullshit and talk and I mean westill kind of keep up with each
other, right, everybody's.
A couple guys are state troopers, a couple guys are, you know,
they're working construction orthey're doing whatever.
So they're working on eventhose days because things are
good or things are busy orthey're hunting or they're
whatever.
So it's not always the samegroup of guys every time, but
like, how freaking cool is that?
You know, we can still sit downand still have a beer together.

(21:37):
See each other, but huggingeach other is totally different.

Speaker 5 (21:41):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
In person, right other is totally different.
Yeah, you know, I mean mytongue gets raw.
When I mean another marine, mytongue gets rock.
Is that that make out sesh?
I think canker sores for week.
That's another marine.

Speaker 5 (21:55):
You know, I'm saying we embrace that weirdness you
know that's what we do, so thatthat was so.
You know that's what we do, soyou say that though, a couple
years ago some of the guys fromthe boat you know, we partied
together, we did a lot togetherwhen we were in, and we'd all

(22:15):
talk to each other individuallyevery now and again Facebook and
whatnot.
Well, one day I called one ofthem and I says, hey, let me
call one of the other guys.
And then next thing, you know,there was four of us all on the
same phone call and that was thefirst time since 95 that we all
heard all of our voices at thesame time.

(22:38):
We were on the phone, so itwasn't quite in person, but man,
was that so cool, the four ofus just sitting there shooting
the shit for about an hour, hourand a half.
Man, it was just awesome.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Catching up.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
Yep Catching up.
So you know, we all talk onFacebook and whatnot, but it's
just not the same, Becausethey're like, well, how do you
do it?

Speaker 3 (22:58):
I'm like here let me add another call.
Let another call 100%.
That's why these podcasts areso important, because we all
miss this kind of banter.
We all miss this kind of talk.
We all miss just sitting aroundwith the boys and BSing Nobody
getting offended over stupidcrap.

Speaker 5 (23:14):
Well, yeah, I still get offended by you, joe.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Everybody gets offended by Joe.
Joe walks in, I call the cops.
I want him in the parking lotof AJ.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
AJ.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Sky Lounge.
If JC gets a little sideways,they can just come handcuff and
take him away.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
Funny you say that because I just told the police
officer it was okay.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
He was here on his conjugal visit.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
He's been trespassed twice.
That's why I have to bring himin the back door now.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
That's why I have a little hallway from home down
there.
Yeah, right, yeah, that's why Ihave to bring him in the back
door now.
That's why I have a littlehallway from home down there.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah, right, yeah, that's why he sleeps in the
storage unit downstairs.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
No, but you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
This is the big brother, little brother, right?
That's what we always miss, youknow.
And it's cool to be on thePulse Facebook page tonight
because it obviously has a lotof followers, right?
I mean, this has popped up andmaybe someone's listening and
they might stop into the VFW ifthey're on Dart League, or they
just stop up, or they've gotfriends, you know, that are

(24:13):
veterans and they come up andhave a couple beers and they
kind of hear what's going on atthe canteen or what's kind of
going on at the post.
They might not reallyunderstand it, right?
We're all a bunch ofdegenerates.

Speaker 6 (24:22):
We really understand it right, we're all a bunch of
degenerates.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
We're just normal people, man.
We all come from differentwalks of life.
What was that?
A basket of deplorables.
Huh Well, we're definitelydeplorables.
There's no.
Thank you, clint.
Thank you, clint.
Appreciate that.
And I know, hopefully, big popis listening tonight.
Come one week from now, he'sgoing to be crying.

(24:45):
His daddy Don is going to beputting his diaper on him.
Oh no.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
How mad would he get if I put a picture on his office
door?
Oh, 100%.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
I think he should 100%.
I would right at the end of thedriveway.
I would spray paint.
Spray paint Trump 2024 at theend of his driveway.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
So when he pulls into the office in the morning he
has to drive right over town100%, or put a big flag right in
front of where his truck parksevery morning, I know he hates.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Walking into my shop, I got about 12 flags hanging
right when you walk in the shop.
I got a two-story building andit's an open shop.
When you first walk in, I gotAmerican flag, marine Corps flag
what's it?
Trump 24.
I don't know what that blue oneis.
The Michigan flag?
Absolutely not Michigan CMU.
I think that's another Trumpflag.

(25:33):
It's an American flag.
Next to it, steelers Lions.
Yeah, that's Jeff, my businesspartner.
He's on his way back fromPittsburgh right now.

Speaker 5 (25:43):
He was at the Monday night game.
I wanted to see that game.
He's on his way back fromPittsburgh right now.
He was at the Monday night gamelast night.
Yeah, I wanted to see that game.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
I couldn't get it to broadcast.

Speaker 5 (25:50):
Yeah, so he's got some friends out of Shepherd.
At least he's got a Lions flag.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
That's good.
Well, absolutely, man.
That thing's been flying here.
The old 16 year it was flying.
You know what?

Speaker 5 (25:59):
I mean, they got a good year this year.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Number two in the nation right now.
When you're a diehard, you're adiehard man and I tell you what
suck it up because thosebandwagon fans.

Speaker 5 (26:07):
So now my buddy from the Navy.
He's a big Kansas City Chiefs.
He's from Wichita, kansas area.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Good for him Loser.

Speaker 5 (26:16):
I did have to rub it in a little bit on preseason
that the Lions beat the Chiefs.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Speaking of which you beat, beat the.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
Chiefs, you know, speaking of which, he beat them
at home opener last year.
The Chiefs didn't win a singlepreseason game this year, but he
says that doesn't count.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
So fun fact, Fun fact my ex-father-in-law he got
these T-shirts in their own 16year.
There was a radio station helistened to.
He was a UPS driver so helistened to radio during the day
.
The Lions were undefeated inthe preseason.
They went 4-0 in the preseason,then they went 0-16 in the Hot

(26:57):
Rod Marinelli year 0-16.
So he bought these t-shirtsPerfect, they had a perfect
season.
He bought these t-shirts and itsaid 4-shirts Perfect, they had
a perfect season.
He bought these T-shirts and itsaid you know, 4-0, had all the
games listed on the back.
So you know, 4-0 in thepreseason and 0-16 in the
regular season.
It said winning when it countsright on the back.
And it was I don't remember theradio station in you know 1957,

(27:20):
you know on the front, whichwas the last time that they won
a championship that was beforethe Super.
Bowls right.
So I mean, but it was just thebest year ever Winning when it
counts.
I'll never forget it.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
I'll tell you what they're playing.
Good, I hope they continue.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, Sunday's game was amazing.
Their last five games have beenamazing, right.
I mean, they dismantled DallasCowboys, which is great Actually
one of the guys I served inFast Company with.
He's an electrician down in theDallas area, houston area union
guy.
So we text each other duringthe game and the week before and
a couple weeks before and allthat he was like yep, I knew it.

(28:00):
Going in Dax is a $60 millionguy.
It sucks, they all want himgone and I hate to say it, jerry
Jones will only ever bring in acoach that's got experience and
a guy that's got some pedigreeto him.
So, they got McCarthy in therenow out of Green Bay.
He's a good coach, right?

(28:22):
But sometimes you've got togive the wild card a shot, right
, dan?
Yeah dan come out of neworleans as an offensive
coordinator right, never, neverhad coach, but he's got the fire
in the drive and he's a guy'sguy yeah military guys.
We want the guy's guy.
That's right.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
We're all alpha males and take chances, joe I.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
I mean we got Joe and we got two parts, yeah, well, I
mean, the rest of us are alphaguys.
You know what I mean, but Imean at the end of the day.

Speaker 7 (28:50):
I think we have a backlist of who the alpha guy is
.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
At the end of the day , we want the guy's guy, you
know what I mean.
We want the guy that's going tolay it out of times too.
Yeah, yeah, I, I sorry youcan't, you can't.
I mean no, I was gonna try tostick up for him, but I can't,

(29:13):
but I can't, sorry, buddy, big,yeah, big, big pop.

Speaker 5 (29:14):
Well, hey, you know, give him a shout out.
He did, uh, he did just make pagain.
So what the hell must be doingsomething, right, right?

Speaker 3 (29:20):
well, I don't know.
I see his reports.
I can't say he's doing thingsright.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.

Speaker 6 (29:25):
He's all right.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
And I even explained it to him.
He's not here though no, whichis great, so we could totally
pick on him.
Unless he calls my phone to geton the air.
He's going to have to listen tothis later.

Speaker 5 (29:38):
He's free game, right , he's definitely free game, but
you know I felt bad.
I feel like paybacks are goingto be hell on that, though,
After the hooker passed away.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
I just didn't have time to train him.
I was always like I'm alwaysavailable by phone.
You can come up to the shop.
We can do all kinds of thingsat the office.

Speaker 6 (29:57):
You know I'm here to help you.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
I'm not leaving you on an island, right, yeah, right
, and I can only do.

Speaker 5 (30:03):
I'm not gonna do any more than you asked me to do.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
I'm not gonna do anything more than what you
asked me to do.
Right, but if you, but if youneed help.

Speaker 5 (30:15):
I'm here to help because I'm not getting anything
.
But I see up there, there lookslike a bunch of messages he's
asked.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
He's asked great questions and you know I think
he's doing an okay job.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
Yeah, no oh yeah, they're coming through on here.
They're just a little, a littlelaggy on the page.

Speaker 5 (30:32):
It's not showing anything, so that's yeah, click
on the comments.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
So now we're gonna hear a feedback've got to hit
mute on your thing.
I'll get back out of there.
There's always any type oftransition.
It doesn't matter if ithappened again this year.
He's only going to probablyhave half the information,
because I was only able to givehim half the information.

(31:03):
We all have differentleadership styles.
We all have different ways wewant to do things, you know, and
I think he's doing an okay job,you know.
I mean there's always going tobe complaints man, people didn't
like it when I was a P andpeople probably don't like it
when I'm the director, becauseI'm pretty strict.
I want you to do your job right.
Don't be the guy if you don'twant to be the guy.
Don't be the guy.
If you don't want to be the guy, right.
I do the same thing to myforeman here at work Right.

(31:25):
If you want to push work, cool,I want you to push work.
Do your job.
I pay you to do it.
Right.

Speaker 6 (31:31):
If you don't want to do it, don't do it.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
You know what I mean.
Just be a hand on the tools.
I don't have to pay.
You don't want the pickup truck, don't get it, that's right.
Just be a hand on the tools.
That's cool.
Do the job.
That's really all I ever askfor man.
It's not that difficult, right?
I let you.
I don't micromanage, I don'tcomplain unless I need to

(31:55):
complain, right?
But you know we've been doing alot of good things at the Post.
I know the writers group waspart of the post.
Uh, um halloween, right?
You guys just passed out candyto the kids at the post.
You were there, right?
Yeah yeah, so what was going?

Speaker 6 (32:11):
on with that we.

Speaker 4 (32:13):
We had a lot of people coming through.
We didn't have as many tablesas we had last year, if I
remember, but I know we ended uphaving to have somebody bring
in brad brought in extra candyfor us.
We didn't get enough in thebeginning, which was good news
they came in and then we end uphaving an extra bag at the end
that we end up just kind ofdevouring through whatever was
there during a football game.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
Well, so that was always the thing.
You know.
I as the p there for threeyears, I always spend about 200
bucks in candy.
That's about what they did yeah, so that's good then you must
have a good turnout, yeah yeah,and last year we had four or
five bags left over, but we wereyou know we give.

Speaker 7 (32:47):
We have one this year .

Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah, I mean, which is good.
We give pretty generoushandfuls to the kids that want
to come up there.
It's like a trunk or treat atour VFW Post in Mount Pleasant.
We have three bowls and one fromeach one, so there's a lot of
people coming through, yeah,which that's a great way for
kids to get out early.
They get dressed up, they getexcited about Halloween.
It's a safe place for them tocome.
It might bring a couple moms ordads through that.

(33:09):
Oh, I didn't even know therewas a VFW here.
Everyone says it's the bingohall.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
What's that?
Everyone always says it's thebingo hall.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, which is what people think about our post for
sure.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
Although, talking about that sign, they did get an
LED sign put up over the summer, so it's put up across the now.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah, so I know the riders group approved to have a
sign made.
I wasn't at the last monthlymeeting but on that south end of
town or south end of thebuilding that faces Pickett
Street, the riders groupapproved $400 or $ dollars to
get a four by eight sign Put upon the building.

(33:48):
We kind of bring it up in frontof membership to get that voted
in.
I wasn't there last month andRoy Thomas, our quartermaster,
wasn't there either as he wascoaching football.
Yeah, so we'll get that doneand hopefully get that made and
get it up on the wall and youknow, just just more
advertisement, because thingsget hidden behind trees and
People don't know.

Speaker 4 (34:07):
So it's, and they're putting out like a bench or
something out there.
Now to the city.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
Yeah, so here in Mount Pleasant we have the M20
corridor that runs east of town,comes off our main road of
mission, which is 127 north, andthen we have M20 that runs east
and west out of town.
It's a two-year project.
They're ripping up the streettotally, redoing everything
water, sewer, storm, all thatdifferent stuff and, yeah, it's

(34:39):
part of the Michigan Departmentof Transportation.
Yeah, they're putting benchesin and you can put up new
signage and all kinds of grantsand different things for that
corridor, which is nice, andthat's like in the final stages
right now.
I mean it's like down tostriping and that's about it.
I mean they got all theconstruction done, the seating's
done, the curbs are done.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
I know the one side coming into town today they
finally took the cones down.
We have two lanes coming intotown now.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
On the east side, yeah coming in yeah that's
amazing, man.
I mean it's been a long twoyears, yes, it has.
I mean that's like, put them up, take them down, put them up,
take them down the main.

Speaker 5 (35:15):
basically, you know the secondary main drag, you
know the main drag north andsouth.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
This is south, this is the main drag, east and west,
yeah, but it ties into thenorth and south.
That's the worst part.
Yeah, it's, you know, I meanthat's, that's literally.
That's literally a stone'sthrow away from the sky lounge,
right?
So like for me to go that way.
I don't even go that way right,way north of town or way south
of town, and but everybody'sdoing the same thing, I'm doing
you know, so it's still uh yeah,it's been a cluster.
It's gonna be nice to have itdone and it's it's already nice
yeah, long, long, long, longtime in the making.

Speaker 5 (35:48):
Yeah, don't want to touch it for another 20 years
good, it's gonna be way good.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
Well, well, needed to be done, so like that two-lane.

Speaker 5 (35:57):
When they went from two lane to four lane on, I'm 20
, all the way to Midland, yeahthat was a hell of a project.
What was that?

Speaker 3 (36:03):
back in the 80s I was that back in the 80s 90s I was
a kid.
Yeah, it was back in the 90s,late 80s, early 90s, yeah.
So my mom and dad had a boat inBay City in the marina that
we'd stay on on the weekends.
It was a 30, 35-footer,whatever it was back then and
we'd be.
Yeah, we used to drive thatroad every weekend, man, friday
night.
Come home Sunday night, all theconstruction and all the

(36:25):
different stuff, man, I mean, Igrew up in that town.
That was a great town to growup in.
Man River goes right out to thebay and the crotch of the thumb
.
If you're looking at the map,you know Michigan, you know it
was a great place to grow up.
As a kid Spent all my summers,all my weekends, on the water.

(36:47):
Man, it was cool Back then.
It was like the Wild West, man.
There was no cell phones, nopagers.
I had a land-to-shore radio orshore-to-shore radio.
My mom and dad would hand melike 20 bucks and be like you're
home by 8 o'clock that's whendinner is and they'd be getting
hammered drunk with theirfriends, you know, at the marina
or whatever, and I'd jump onthe dinghy and I'm like up in

(37:08):
Linwood, up in Collin, I meanwe're out in the bay as kids 14,
15 years old on these you know,15-horsepower, rubber boats,
basically right.

Speaker 5 (37:18):
Yeah, and you've got to be careful.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
Hell we'd go all the to Saginaw man, it's like an
hour to get to.

Speaker 5 (37:22):
Saginaw down the river, and you've got to be
careful too, because the windpicks up and you can get some
pretty hefty waves on the bay.
That's why we had radios $20and a can of two-stroke oil.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
We were good to go, man.
We had lunch, dinner, a littleparty money.
It was a good time.
Man, you need a full tank andsnacks for $20.

Speaker 5 (37:43):
Apparently, you and I need to speak up a little bit,
I got you.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
It was like $0.95 a gallon back then, right?
So I had a four or five gallontank that sat in the dinghy.
So you're talking like $5.
I had $15 for lunch and pop andwhatever else I could get into.
You know what I'm saying Twice,once on Friday, once on

(38:09):
Saturday, and we going home onSunday man.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
So I was like making cash yeah, it was good stuff,
did it right.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
You take some home with you that never happened
because I had a couplegirlfriends in the marina.
So depends on who I took onFriday and who took on Saturday.
I always took the specs ofexpensive one on Friday because
I didn't have that much money.
So what was his name?
One time it was Tim, the nexttime it was Bill.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
I knew he had some skeletons.
Yeah, you know that's cool man.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
It was back in my exploratory days.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
So when I first came around, you guys, were grooming
me, then me being the young guy,that's right.
You being the young guy, that'sright.

Speaker 5 (38:46):
You are the young guy , that's right, so give us a
story, joe.
What was your militaryexperience?

Speaker 4 (38:56):
Well, I did commo and communications.
There you go.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
Talk to the people.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
Talk to the people.
I know a lot of it.
For me was it's a hobby.
I think I didn't really get todo a whole lot of it when I was,
uh, in high school or anythinglike that.
So I got in and I told therecruiter right away I know what
I want to do with life.
If you can't get me to that andI guess I'm going to college or
you can get me that positionand I'm signing up and we're
leaving.
So I know that part of it.
Um, it's good to start with.

(39:25):
But after doing it for a fewyears the help desk side of
things I don't really care forit.
No more.
You get a lot of, a lot ofstupid questions.
That can be, I guess, for metheir common sense can be doing
for so long at this point.
I've been going for almost 20years, but that's uh the IT part
, yeah there's.
There's a lot of interestingstuff you can do with equipment,

(39:48):
or probably even with yourcomputers and phones, that a lot
of people just have no idea.
That's even there.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
Well, the only thing I know about computers is I can
take a hammer to them, that'sabout it.

Speaker 5 (40:01):
They make a good a laptop makes a good Frisbee.
Good Frisbee, yeah.
Now I sit at a desk most of theday.
I work in an engineering office, so I think it's basically sit
at a computer.
It gets old sometimes, but it'sa job right.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
Yeah, Pays the bills In the beginning.
If you set everything upcorrectly, you should be able to
just sit there and just letstuff run for the most part.
Every so often do updates andand stuff like that.

Speaker 5 (40:31):
But so did you uh.
So so you served.
Uh, when did you serve I?

Speaker 4 (40:37):
was 7 to 17 7 to 17.

Speaker 5 (40:39):
What did you see?

Speaker 4 (40:41):
um.
I went to iraq, afghanistan,afghanistan.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
The second that means he graduated high school and I
was like 27, yeah, oh seven youwere like 67 yeah, so you're the
old guy, now you're Tim

Speaker 4 (40:53):
no one of the interesting, what did?
You say 07?
, 07, yeah, I graduated.
Did you graduate 87?

Speaker 3 (41:06):
Honestly, when did you 92.
92?

Speaker 4 (41:10):
I was 93 to 95 when I was.

Speaker 5 (41:12):
I was four years old, it's all right.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
We all shit green at one time, that's right Doesn't
matter.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
Yeah, so the office I sit in is there's three in my
office that are 25, 26-ish,somewhere near 27 maybe, and you
know I don't feel like I'm theold guy, but double their age
down here.
It's like you know, I justlaugh, I just shake my head and

(41:41):
laugh.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
I say, yeah, life hasn't even hit them you know, I
got a question to ask why didyou end up going in the army?

Speaker 3 (41:52):
um, it was the job that I wanted for the most part,
but you couldn't do that job inthe Air Force.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
I didn't like the idea of the smallest bunks, so
that kind of took the Marines,the Navy and Air Force were off
the table and there's no way Iwas going Coast Guard, so kind
of defaulted me to the Army, soyou preferred a tent.
I'd rather have the tent thanhave those tiny-ass little
things you guys have to sleep onon the ships.

Speaker 5 (42:12):
Yeah, see, they sold the.
Called bunks In the Navy theycall that a coffin rack.
Yeah, so that's smaller thaneven a bunk bed.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
That and my uncle was Army, my grandfather was Army
and after I actually joined Ifound out that my father was
also Army.
Well, you must have liked it.
You put 10 in.
Yeah, I got out for my son.
Yeah, I had my paperwork allready to go to do the warrant
officer stuff and I was going togo that route.
I had eight months left of E-5time so I could actually put

(42:44):
that paperwork in.
But one of the warrant officersI was in Afghanistan with, we
got to talking.
I was down at an advancedleadership training in Fort
Worth, georgia, ran into him inthe hallway and we caught up.
He's like well, what's yourplans?
I told him I wanted to do sendhim all my packets and stuff
that I had ready to go.
He comes back and says, well,your stuff looks good.
I was like yeah, from what Iunderstand, I can have one item

(43:05):
and get a waiver for it.
I was like I figured I'd beable to do that for my NCO time.
He's like that's the only itemon the list that you can't get a
waiver for, so you have to waitthe three years?

Speaker 6 (43:12):
Oh, I was pissed.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
Yeah, that's a bummer .

Speaker 4 (43:17):
Sounds about right, though, so yeah there's, there's
parts of it in this and there'sparts of it I'm like, yeah, I'm
going to have to deal with thatcrap no more.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
Yeah, well, that's with anything.
I think yeah, so yeah, and thenyou, so are you from this area?

Speaker 4 (43:30):
Yeah, I grew up over in Coleman.
It's really tiny.

Speaker 6 (43:32):
Gotcha 53 people in my graduating class.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (43:35):
Yeah, I'm familiar.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
Yep, coleman.
And so then you came back homeand Found the VFW and joined the
writers group.
Yep, I was actually about tomeet in between positions.
So I called up Tim, picked up,we got to talking for a few
minutes and he said well, you'renot behind anything, so there's
nothing we really do.
And he started talking aboutthe writers group and I was like
well, I'm now, I'm aninstructor.
So I came up, talked to him fora bit and I was like you, know
that's a motorcycle motorcycleinstructor.
Yeah, riders instructor yeah,for the motorcycle safety
foundation.
I do it out of Grand RapidsCommunity College, doing it six

(44:10):
years now.
I took this last summer off.
I had a buddy that actuallytaught me to ride when I was in
that ended up dying a coupleyears later.
So I kind of do it as like amemorial for him nice beginning,
beginning of our classes, wealways go through a bunch of
questions with the uh, with thestudents.
You know where they're from andhow long they've been riding.
If they've been riding, findout what their experience is,
and usually something else.
Really all we care about is howlong they've been riding, so we

(44:32):
know who's been doing it for awhile and who we need to pay
extra attention to.
And when they come around to usinstructors, it's usually how
long we've been riding, how longwe've been teaching, and I
would throw that piece in that Ido as a memorial for my buddy
yeah kind of sets a perspective?

Speaker 5 (44:46):
yeah, so did he.
Did he pass on a bike?

Speaker 4 (44:50):
yeah, yeah he uh, I got back from afghanistan, he
was in iraq.
He's actually my roommate iniraq.
He got out.
When we got back, I went on adeployment.
He went down to I think georgiaand then when I got back from
deployment, he went down to Ithink Georgia and then when I
got back from deployment, he hisgirlfriend or fiancee, won got
orders for drum.
She came up and he's like hey,yes, prayer, remind.

(45:11):
Come up to like, yeah, come onup.
We came up.
He decided he wanted to startriding again and get a bike.
You know what?
I might as well get one too.
So we spent some a couple weeksafter we're going out riding,
which I shouldn't have beendoing.
So I wasn't licensed yet I Idon't remember what I found out
my ass was in the grass.
Yeah, I come back to Michiganand do the class for it and then
go back out.
And then, a couple years later,my supervisor was this same guy

(45:32):
that was in Iraq with us and hecalls me in the office one day
and he goes hey, white died.
I'm like bullshit.
He.
He's like no, yesterday therewas a bike accident going
through someone's rearwindshield.
Oh man.
So when I gathered, some oldlady like pulled out in front of
him and ran through her rearwindshield.
So Thought.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
maybe that was Shem ruling out.
Yeah, Married that loud bikeman.
There must have been a truckgoing by.
Yeah, you know, that's theheartbreak man.

Speaker 6 (46:05):
Now you've got, you got two losses on the bike yeah
you know, I mean you got yourboy, and then we got tim, you
know what I mean I've actuallygot a third one.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
He was this other guy that I met when I was up at
carson.
It wasn't the bike that heended up dying through, he had a
super corvette, um, but he waslike a cookie cutter version of
me.
We had the same hobbies, youknow motorcycling, video games,
all that crap.
We're both communications.

Speaker 5 (46:29):
I don't know if we could handle it.
He's on the satellite side ofthings where I did.

Speaker 4 (46:34):
You know the land management side of things, and
then you know I'm going on texas.

Speaker 6 (46:37):
So who was the big?

Speaker 4 (46:38):
spoon?
Oh, neither of us they eachother.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
We know they face each other.

Speaker 6 (46:44):
Crossing swords the whole time.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
There ain't no doubt about it, we know.

Speaker 6 (46:49):
They only pivoted right.
Nobody pivoted left.
That was a Tim joke, right?
He's like we all rotate right,nobody go left.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Yeah, he is.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
No, he got out about six, six, eight months later he
had his corvette out.
He was uh drag racing some dudeand I guess he had some alcohol
in the system and it was one ofthose uh like divided highways
where people could come in.
Take that left-hand turn andsomeone kind of yeah you call it
michigan and uh, this carpulled out in front of him and I
guess he just plowed right intohim, the car like crumpled up

(47:23):
big fireball, some kid, like17-year-old kid, and him
dragging him out of it.

Speaker 5 (47:27):
He was like yeah, he was dead on impact.
Yeah, there's not much in aquarterback.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
He's like well, at least he went out.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
Piece of fire glass.
He's like, oh, fuck his face,damn.
You know, that's always thehardship man For me and this is
what kind of pissed me off aboutTim, because I had a lot of
conversations with Tim over theyears and I said, man, one of
two ways I want to die One's incombat.
right, Die for my country.
Right?
I mean, that's why we allsigned on the line.

(47:55):
Right, Die for my country.
I was okay with that, Come back.
And the second way I said Ijust want to die with my hands
on the handlebars.
Motherfucker, beat me to it.
I was pissed, I was fuckingpissed, you know, and I was like
damn Brand new bike too.
But, yeah you know I mean it'ssad.
I get the heartbreak becauseyou know I mean I got a tattoo

(48:17):
on my arm.
I understand it, especially ifthis is a guy you're roomed with
or you've known for two weeks,but all of a sudden you click
with somebody.

Speaker 1 (48:29):

Speaker 3 (48:29):
I mean, it doesn't matter, it could be a civilian
out there, man, you meetsomebody, you click, it's like
that's my long-lost brother, mylong-lost sister.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
Whatever it is man.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
It's weird how you can click with another person.

Speaker 4 (48:42):
Even our upbringing, even our upbringing, even our
upbringing was with the one guy.
His name was Jesse.
Even our upbringing was reallyreally similar.
Yeah, which is crazy.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
And you know he might be from Oregon and you're from
Michigan, or he's from Floridaand you're from Michigan,
whatever it is.
I got one of my really goodfriends, damien Canale D I call
him D.
He's the state trooper out inMassachusetts.
He's a sergeant or lieutenant,whatever works at McCarran
Airport, mccarran Airport outthere.

(49:13):
So when we flew out there heactually worked the shift that
night so he could be at the gateto bring us off the plane.
But I mean I just built thatfriendship with him and it was a
pretty short friendship man.
We went to security forceschool together.
I went to FAST, he went down toBangor, he went to Kings Bay,

(49:34):
georgia, where they were loadingand unloading nukes.
I went up to FAST Company inVirginia and then we ended up
meeting back up in 29 Palms.
I was 3rd Battalion 7 Marines in29 Palms and we were both
corporals.
I was living in family housingso I was married and he was
single.
So you know I just left my shitin his room, never slept there,

(49:55):
right, but you know myday-to-day stuff was in his room
.
We knew each other.
So I mean we hung out all thedamn time, man.
I mean my wife would cookdinner and have D come over and,
you know, knew our daughter,since she was barely walking.
Like I mean, it was just thatkind of guy you know where.
You know he was the reason whywe flew to Boston for that that

(50:16):
Christmas trip, you know I meanbecause he was out there, you
know.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
So now, I see the guy you know.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
So mean, it was just those kind of relationships that
most people don't get, becausethey maybe know somebody from
here 20 miles away, 30 milesaway, 40 miles away.
Maybe they went to college withthem for some people.
So that range might expand alittle bit farther.
It might be 100 miles, 120miles we're talking thousands of
miles and different backgrounds, different upbringings,

(50:45):
different stuff, you know.
But when you serve with themand you're with them in certain
situations, be it combat or justbeing around each other on base
every day, working together, ina in a crazy short amount of
time, man, you can build some.
Build a bond, yeah crazy bonds,I mean when you went out on
float, the guys that wereworking in your shop, or when

(51:09):
you were out on deployment, likeme, the guys working in your
tent, or guys that I went onpatrol with, or whatever those
were.
Your boys, that's like showinggirls.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
Man, that's crazy I just talked to one of them
yesterday, the day before oneyeah, he just had his
anniversary, him and his wife.

Speaker 5 (51:24):
So, yeah, who did my buddy Sean from the bowl?

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Sucks to be him.

Speaker 5 (51:29):
Yeah, he didn't learn .
Huh, yeah, good dude.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
Might be, but he ain't very smart, yeah, well.

Speaker 5 (51:37):
I'm just kidding.
He is a friend of mine, right.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
He's definitely not smart of mine, right, he's
definitely not smart, I'm noteven your friend.
I don't even know why you'rehere.
I don't either.

Speaker 5 (51:48):
In fact, it might be past my bedtime.
Well, you're that old.

Speaker 6 (51:55):
You missed the early bird special down at Stans.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
Damn it.
That was at four.
It's time for second dinner forhim.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
It's time for his vanilla ice cream yeah, but I'm
a diaper ice cream sandwich headto bed.

Speaker 5 (52:09):
Yeah, yeah, surprising, there's still some
ice cream sandwiches left icecream don't last longer on me
well, shelby's been up to thehouse all week actually is that
your computer.
She didn't eat them all you'vebeen checking?

Speaker 4 (52:23):
You've been checking?
Yeah, I've been checking, butthat was for a five-minute
street drive.
I replied to.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
I know, but you've got to say it, though You've got
to hear what the comments are.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
He just said that AJ's the young guy, aj.

Speaker 6 (52:36):
I said you're right.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
And then he just said , careful, that was almost
alcohol abuse because of thething went.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
Oh, is he talking about AJ Boyle?

Speaker 4 (52:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Well.
Aj Boyle ain't never been here.
The kid?
Yeah, he is the kid.
This is AJ's sky lounge, not tobe confused with AJ Boyle I
didn't think about that, don'tever confuse that.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
We'll have to get him up here, just so inside AJ's.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
AJ at AJ's, aj's at AJ's, that's cool.

Speaker 5 (53:04):
I haven't seen him in a while.
Is he even around?

Speaker 4 (53:07):
Yes, he's working a lot down there now I gotcha Well
, I know he just had a baby,right, like?

Speaker 3 (53:11):
I mean, baby's only got to be at three, four months
old, yeah Right.

Speaker 5 (53:17):
Well, I know his bike broke down last.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
I knew he had that Kawasaki Yamaha.
He had something.
He had a fairing on the frontafter a marker fairing.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
Yeah, yeah.
But I thought it broke down.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
It did.

Speaker 5 (53:29):
He wasn't riding it this summer.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
Yeah, it was misfiring last year.
Something was going on with it.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
He said the amount to fix it was almost the amount to
just buy another bike.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
Yeah, yeah.
So some crazy news, right.
My son-in-law got in a bikewreck.

Speaker 5 (53:46):
Yeah, that was when I was in Tennessee.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
Yeah, he got in a bike wreck probably six, eight
weeks ago.
Yeah, lady pulled out in frontof him.
He had a 02 Ultra.
So full dresser Harley and ladypulled out in front of him.
He rear ends her, flies overthe car, broke his wrist 20 feet

(54:10):
past the car flew oh yes, nohelmet, no, nothing.
I mean he was bruised and brokea wrist, caught up, you know, I
mean it was.
It was pretty traumatic for formy daughter right and finally
got all those insurance stuffsettled, you know, got the bike
paid off, all whatever you know,medical bills done, missing

(54:32):
work stuff.
So they come down here a coupleweeks ago and what's, what's he
do?
Brand new 2024 street glide.

Speaker 6 (54:44):
Yeah, well, the cool thing about this show.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
Well, and so my wife and I are out riding and he
shows up with a buddy of hisfrom up north and he's wearing a
helmet.
So we rode over to Midland.
We rode over to Midland whereD-Rock's at Went to dinner and
stuff, you know, and you guysare with us.

Speaker 6 (55:08):
Yeah yeah, liz and I went too, yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
And so we rode over to Midland and he's wearing a
helmet.
And we were like you're wearinga helmet Because in Michigan
you don't have to wear a helmet.
And he was like yep, ever sincethe accident I'm wearing a
helmet.
We're like did Madison make youwear a helmet?

Speaker 5 (55:30):
He's like not really but yes, she kind of did.
I can't see it.

Speaker 4 (55:34):
I can't see it.
Leah says glad, are the peopleroasting?
You too, uncle Bill Francis?
He's usually the main target.

Speaker 5 (55:40):
Yeah, so my niece is watching the podcast.
She's an Air Force vet.
She's in the Air Force rightnow Awesome.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
Well, thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 5 (55:51):
Where's she watching from?
She's actually in Missouri, Ithink.
I don't know.
Tell her to post on it whereyou're at.
Lee, I don't know where thehell you're at, but anyways,
we're over state lines now.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
But anyways, now he's wearing a helmet.
So we were like, hey, why areyou wearing a helmet?
Just curiosity, I don't carewhat you do, right, whatever.
And he was like, yeah, justafter that, kind of put me in a
little bit of check yeah.
Because he got pretty wellunscathed.

Speaker 5 (56:23):
But I'll let you tell the story about his new harley.
Yeah, so so he goes to theharley dealer, right, and uh, he
wanted this.
Uh, what is that?
The shark skin blue color.
Well, the only way shark skinblue comes is with black.
It's all blacked out trim.
Well, somebody want, uh, wantedone of the green ones, and I
don't know what the color, theforest green, the dark green,
yeah, but they wanted black.

(56:43):
Well, that only comes in chrome, yep, so this guy that bought
this green bike paid to haveeverything pulled off of the
green bike to put on the bluebike and swap them out so that
so the trim on one bike wentfrom black to chrome and they
switched bikes, right.
So so he bought this blue youknow sharkskin blue bike, which

(57:07):
should be black, which should beblack now it's chrome, and the
only way to get that is you haveto actually flip flop with a
black one and pay.
I think the guy paid over, yeah, over three thousand dollars to
have this switch, which which,luckily for him, he didn't have
to pay.
He didn't pay it.
The guy that got the green bikepaid to have the chrome taken

(57:29):
off and the black put on it.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
Yeah, so he goes and buys this sharkskin blue 24
street glide Chromed out, whichyou can't have.

Speaker 5 (57:36):
It's all chromed out.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
So unless somebody else around the country has ever
done this right, he's going tohave the only one, one of one
bike, and it is sweet, the onlyone that's got that 24 street
glide with chrome on it, because, unless someone else paid that
cash, yep, or painted their bike, you know, painted it to be
different.
Yeah, painted it black in thechrome or whatever.
What advice?

Speaker 4 (57:56):
She says she's out in Whiteman.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
Still not as at.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
Missouri.
I have to look it up, don't?

Speaker 3 (58:02):
look it up, make her answer the question she's.

Speaker 6 (58:04):
Air Force for.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
Christ's sake, she can't take directions no she,
where are you?

Speaker 5 (58:12):
Yeah, where are you?
She's going to punch me.

Speaker 7 (58:17):
You deserve it.
Yeah, I do no she's I'm realproud of her yes, Missouri.

Speaker 4 (58:22):
she says uh, I'm real proud.

Speaker 5 (58:23):
I'm real proud of her .
She's uh, she's doing real wellgood uh, she called me tonight.
Actually, I just talked to hera little bit ago what's her name
?

Speaker 3 (58:28):
leah leah leah.
Thanks for your service, weappreciate it out.

Speaker 5 (58:32):
We totally appreciate it, her husband's in the air
force also and he just, uh, justhad surgery that a little bit
of a cancer scare oh no, but uh,she told me she called me
tonight and said that cancer, no, cancer it's all good.
So yeah, it was a little scarethere for a minute.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
Yeah, well, that's good to hear, yeah.
And tell your husband thanksfor his service as well.
Man, we totally appreciate itbecause you know, all too often
there's not enough of us right?
We talked about the 1 percent.
We talked about the one percentbefore, you know, and nowadays
it's almost probably just as bad.
You know how long she's been inthe air force or he's been in

(59:08):
the air force, but you know wehad a recruiter at our post that
refused the covid shot rightand then that was a mandated, so
he got out yep and luckily inhis instance, jake, when he got
out he had served enough timethat he didn't get a hit on his
DD-214.

Speaker 5 (59:24):
Oh good, you know what I?

Speaker 3 (59:25):
mean when?
If he was like two years beforethat, I think he got out at
eight or nine years.
If he was like six years, hewould have took a huge hit, I
mean it would have been ageneral discharge rather than an
animal discharge.
Oh that's not cool.
No, no, no.

Speaker 5 (59:41):
I think she's been in six-ish years-ish.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
Okay, she says thank you, you guys too yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Awesome.
Well, we appreciate it.
Thanks for listening.
Tell Lily to quit eating all mydamn chocolate.
By the way, that's only thereasons, yeah, reasons.

Speaker 5 (59:57):
Reasons, reasons.
Is that what it is?
Yeah, yeah, you got me hookedon those for a bit.
Oh man, them are good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
I had to stop walking into the gas station because I
was getting those reasons alltoo often.

Speaker 5 (01:00:07):
So every time Leah calls me her daughter Lily, I
can hear her in the background.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
Uncle Bill, Uncle Bill, I ate all your chocolate.
She said 10 years in January 10, okay, a little off, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
I'm kind of an uncle to you.
You don't even have any clue.
You're off like a decade.

Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
Well, I mean, time flies when you're having fun.
But yeah, I figured she was inArizona for, I guess, four.
But maybe it was six, maybe itwas eight, maybe it was eight,
maybe it was you know, maybe shewas in somewhere else before
that.
I tell you what 10 years manshe's only like she's half way
there, man, that's awesome sheplans at least I'm hoping she

(01:00:48):
plans to stay in for the full,she said, as long as it still
works for her so 20 years in theAir Force relates to like 9
months in the Marine Corps.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Right like I, mean 9 months is 20 years in the Air
Force, because I actually wentto Mildenhall, england.
I'm way back from Iraq and Itell you what.
They abandoned the barracks.
They built new barracks there.
Right, we stayed in their oldbarracks.
We walked into their old.
They're like sorry guys, wedidn't expect you to come in, we

(01:01:18):
don't have accommodations.
I was at Fast Company, Like youknow, there's only 40 of us.
Right, you got to stay in ourold barracks.
We're like all right, you knowwhatever you know.
I'm getting the word down fromthe staff sergeant LT.
You know, the captain, whatever.
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:01:32):
Club med.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
We go into this thing and we were like the fuck,
these are their old barracks.
Drywall, carpet, shit's made ofwood.
You had your own bathroom.
Like what is going on?
There's no gang bathrooms atthe end of the hallway, you know
, like shower trees and stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:01:54):
So I heard rumor, though, if Air Force people have
to stay at Marine Corpsaccommodations.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
They get hazardous duty pay?

Speaker 5 (01:02:01):
I don't know maybe she'll chime in and say, if
that's true, they actually getit's called sub get hazardous
duty pay.
I don't know, maybe she'llchime in and say, if that's true
, no, they do, it's calledsubstandard living pay?

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
No, they do.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
Literally, if they come out to 20 and Palms, they
get substandard living pay.
I mean that's legit.

Speaker 5 (01:02:13):
Bad day for the Air Force is when the Wi-Fi is going
to glitch.
Our daughter actually almostwent to the Air.

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
Force Academy for swimming.
She Our daughter actuallyalmost went to the Air Force
Academy for swimming, yeah, andshe decided to go to Northern
Michigan University.
But she almost went and I'mlike kid, this is the way to do
it.
I try to talk my son before heenlisted in the Marines.
I try to talk him into evengoing to the Air Force.
I'm like look man you get greattraining great living.
You get paid the same, but yourtechnical skills like that is

(01:02:45):
where you go if you want, likeb2 bombers.
Like what's her clearance towork on a plane?

Speaker 5 (01:02:51):
well, I know her husband's an airplane mechanic.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
So yeah, like I had, I had a secret clearance that
fast she does say yes, we gethotels, or Straight up.

Speaker 5 (01:03:03):
So when she talked about going in the military, you
know she was talking about itand, and and my sister was in
the Marines, you know as welland uh, both of us told her if
you're going to go in and youwant to do this, go in the Air
Force, because they treat youbetter.
That's just straight up.
They just treat you better, youknow.
So that's what she did, so goodfor her.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Yeah, no 100%, and we all have a different mission to
do.
Yeah, Right, so you know whenpeople come up.

Speaker 5 (01:03:31):
It fits her better though.

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
Well, but when people come up to our VFW right, we're
all military, we're allveterans they don't maybe
understand.
So part of it is teachingpeople especially younger people
that decide they maybe want todo the military what the
differences are, because mostpeople don't understand what the
differences are Right, like whywould you join the Marines over
the Army?

Speaker 6 (01:03:51):
Why would you join the Navy over the?

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
Air Force.

Speaker 5 (01:03:57):
He was thinking about it, I was going to say
something snappy.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
Then I realized we're on the post Facebook.

Speaker 5 (01:04:04):
So I'm trying to keep it kind of no, really.
He just had a flashback to thatblue crayon that he ate earlier
today.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
Because it tastes like blueberry.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
Grape's my favorite.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
At the end of the day , we all have a mission.
We all have different technicalskills, depending on what you
want to do in life depends onwhat fits you.
To do in life depends on whatfits you.
Some people are not mentallystrong enough to be in one
service, even though they mighthave the same technical thing,
might be on a little bitdifferent level, but if you're a

(01:04:37):
comm guy in the Army comparedto a comm guy in the Marine
Corps, it's probably pretty muchthe same.
We're using the same type ofequipment Pretty close you know
what I mean.

Speaker 6 (01:04:45):
I mean they're probably pretty close.

Speaker 4 (01:04:47):
I'm going to give it to you guys.
You guys are probably stillgetting our hand-me-downs.
No, no, no.

Speaker 5 (01:04:51):
Radar tech in the Navy.
I mean, it would be prettyclose to that too.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
Same type of scenario , but for your, so I.
So I actually had a cousin'shusband Depends on what boat
you're on?
He was an air traffic controlguy, went in the Army.
He could have been air trafficcontrol in the Air Force.
Yeah, of course.

Speaker 5 (01:05:12):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
And they're probably pretty similar, right.
Like a commo guy in the Marinesinfantry unit, probably the
same as the Army, right.
I mean they're pretty onparallel.
But different missions,different attitudes and some guy
would probably should have gonein the army, joined the marines
and couldn't hack it a littlebit more hardcore than the other
guy.
So I mean we're all a littlebit different but we're the same

(01:05:35):
.
Kind of depends on yourattitude and who you are as a
person.
But you know there's.
You ain't gonna be in theMarine Corps working on a B-2,
right.
You're not gonna be in theMarine Corps working in a shop
on a Navy ship, you know.
I mean we all have a differentjob to do.
That all complements each otherand gets the mission done, and
that's what I love about the VFW, right.
So we have people that, like JoeJoe's the tech guy at the post,

(01:05:58):
you got Brent two parts.
That was, you know,quartermaster in leadership of
the post.
He brought good things to thetable.
You had Tim running the post.
You got Trey or myself as awriter's group bringing stuff to
that entity.
So it takes people from allover the place that have an
expertise in something as thewillingness to do something for
the common good of all of us Inthe heart, right, you know, and

(01:06:22):
some people are better at otherthings, like we're talking about
.
Like, I could take a hammer tothat laptop.
I work in an office 10 10 hoursa day.
Right, I'm not a tech guy.
My computer breaks down.

Speaker 5 (01:06:33):
I yell at my business partner.

Speaker 3 (01:06:34):
Yeah, yeah hey call cms.
My, you know, my computer'sdown like what the fuck's going
on.
I couldn't even link.
I got two, two printers in myoffice and I couldn't get one to
work.
For six months I had to go intohis office to scan stuff to put
onto my computer because we'reall networked together why?

Speaker 6 (01:06:51):
didn't you call me.

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
It's that ridiculous 15 minutes would add you up, but
I'm not that guy.

Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
You have your strengths.

Speaker 6 (01:07:01):
Everybody has their strengths.

Speaker 5 (01:07:02):
But you're a master plumber.
Not everybody knows how to.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
I'm glad you said master plumber, not master
fisherman.

Speaker 5 (01:07:09):
Plumber plumber, Not fisherman Plumber.
Damn Marines.
They're always in the gutter,ain't they?
That's why we went in theMarines, that's right.
We're not that smart, but Imean, you know, going back to
that, you know that's what I didin the Navy.
I was a plumber.
So I mean I did pipe fitting, Idid, you know plumbing work,

(01:07:33):
but did you do it right?
Probably not.
There you go, you know, becausenothing was right anyway.
So what did it matter?
There it is, there it is, soyou know.
But I, I mean I learned a lotof it.
I a lot of it was morecommercial actually believe it
or not type plumbing than thanwhat you would find in

(01:07:53):
residential.
You know, growing up with uhrentals I learned some of the
residential stuff, probably allwrong anyway, so it doesn't
matter.
But uh, you know, everyone hastheir little niche.
I actually like doing themaintenance part of it, so I
worked on a lot of the pumps anda lot of the you know the the
inline garbage grinders and alot of the you know the things

(01:08:14):
that were were part of theplumbing system that you would
never see because it was down ina pump room.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
So it's actually kind of crazy because my daughter
works for an airplane supplycompany and they build tools and
parts and all that kind ofstuff.
She's kind of got into their oh, hold on a minute, Holberg's
calling.

Speaker 5 (01:08:38):
Uh-oh, two parts Got to talk.
Two stories, two parts you on.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
Yep, can you guys hear me?

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
yeah, I can hear you.
Good, how are you doing tonight?

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
oh, I'm doing.
Okay, how are you doing?
Did you get the kids to bedfinally no, I got one sitting on
my lap as we speak.
She's wondering who I'm talkingto.

Speaker 5 (01:08:59):
Santa Claus, you're gonna put that Christmas list in
early.
She's on the naughty list,santa Claus, I was just going to
say You're going to put that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:06):
Christmas list in early.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
She's on the naughty list.
No, you've been good.

Speaker 5 (01:09:12):
How old is this?

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
one, she's three.

Speaker 5 (01:09:15):
Oh, yeah, fun.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
Yeah, but you guys are.
I got you on my Bluetoothearbuds, so I can't trust you
guys to be on the speaker.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
I'm being good tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:09:29):
Good call that's why we have a disclaimer I've been
watching a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Yeah, I've been watching a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
so anyway, well, we just want to make sure, since
you've been watching a littlebit have you followed our Soup
Sandwich podcast on Facebook?
We do follow our Soup.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Sandwich podcast on Facebook.
We absolutely need to geteverybody to watch.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
There you go.
We need people to follow usbecause we've got to get to 100
people, so we can do live onthere rather than do it live on
the post.

Speaker 5 (01:10:00):
I'm looking at this and it says 84 plays.
I don't know what that meanshere, but so apparently 84
people are watching this.
Is that what that means?

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Apparently up here it says 84 plays.

Speaker 5 (01:10:11):
I don't know what that means.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
That's probably people that looked in and jumped
out, maybe, or that yeah, okay,but anyways, they're probably
like oh, these guys.
Oh, probably like oh, theseguys, oh yeah, these idiots,
these idiots.

Speaker 4 (01:10:24):
Never mind, we'll pass.
Yeah, that's when a videostarts to play, either
automatically or after someoneclicks on it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
Yeah, so you got to follow us, and then we can start
doing those lives on that Share, like and subscribe, just like
YouTube.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
You know, I'm just going to.

Speaker 4 (01:10:39):
They clicked on the page, saw our ugly mugs and said
nope.

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
Not today.
Don't you always hear that whenyou're watching YouTube, share,
like and subscribe?
Yeah, that's what I say In.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
Joe's case.
They saw the back of his headand said I know that guy Never
mind.

Speaker 5 (01:10:55):
Oh, jesus Christ, I thought we were going to keep it
clean.
Here you are.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
Hey, I didn't say nothing, I just assumed't see
you.

Speaker 5 (01:11:02):
Yeah, part two.
What's up?
Give us the second story.

Speaker 3 (01:11:07):
They might have saw the back of his head and said,
yep, I remember that, I likethat.
I'm going to follow that one.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
I don't have a second part on that one.
That was pretty straightforward.

Speaker 4 (01:11:21):
Nothing straight about that.
That's pretty straightforward.

Speaker 5 (01:11:24):
Nothing straight about that.
That's a first.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
I'm watching this live as I'm on the phone.
I just see Margaret Pratt justpopped in.
Hey boss, lady.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
Oh, she's definitely the boss lady.
Yeah, she's probably wonderingwhy we're on the.

Speaker 5 (01:11:41):
How come I don't see all that?

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
She's probably wondering why we're on that,
because you're just looking atit on that page.
You got to click on it.
Yeah, but I did that, but thenyou just hit mute.

Speaker 5 (01:11:51):
Where's the mute button?

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
He's also not an admin on that page.
I don't know if everybodywatching is able to see who all
is watching.
Does that make sense?
I?

Speaker 4 (01:12:02):
think it's just the live one.

Speaker 5 (01:12:04):
Oh, it's 165 plays now.
I think he can hit mute on hisphone though.
Yeah, but I don't know how to.
It's muted here, but I don'tknow how to.

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
Now you need to mute it again I have a word of way to
mute it, just like you do onyour YouTubes.

Speaker 6 (01:12:18):
There, you go See, just like on YouTube.

Speaker 5 (01:12:20):
Just like on YouTube, Just like there.
Now I can see everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
See look at that.

Speaker 6 (01:12:25):
You're teaching old dog new tricks.

Speaker 5 (01:12:27):
Army ain't ready for.

Speaker 3 (01:12:28):
Marines, yet Well, okay.

Speaker 5 (01:12:32):
Brent, you say Army's ain't ready to be a Marine yet.
What does Navy stand for?
Let's see.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
Forever again volunteer yourself.

Speaker 5 (01:12:40):
You got that right.

Speaker 3 (01:12:42):
Choose your fate, that's right.

Speaker 5 (01:12:44):
Choose your fate.
That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
USMC Uncle Sam's misguided children.
Yep See, death before dishonor.
And that's Roy Thomas' listtonight.
Old, freaking mad eye, one eyeout there.

Speaker 5 (01:13:03):
What the hell.
I thought he was getting here.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
Well, he's actually had his sister's birthday.
Oh that's right.
They had a dinner for hertonight and he thought he might
be able to pop up afterwards.
Be too late.
You never know.
He lives like 20 miles south ofhere, so he's got a little bit
of travel, jim.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
That was the funniest thing when I told him that I
changed his name in our chatgroup to Mad-Eye Moody.

Speaker 5 (01:13:29):
Well, now my comments aren't streaming as they go
through.
Is that because nobody'scommenting?

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
Yep Roy's a good dude .
He's a huge member of thecommunity of Shepard.
They had an issue a year ago.

Speaker 5 (01:13:48):
Air Force rejected me yesterday.
Might have been a year ago.
That's a new one for the Army,yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
That's a new one.
That's really good, Leah.

Speaker 3 (01:13:58):
Might have been a year ago.
They were short on crossingguards for their school.
Oh and Roy Volunteered theirschool.
Oh and Roy volunteered.

Speaker 5 (01:14:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:14:06):
He was crossing kids.
Man, I mean, that's what we do.
You know, there's a wholecommunity that we recognize or
see Shepherd's such a smallcommunity that they're so
tight-knit.
I love that small town.
I mean, when I talk small town,they don't even have a flashing
light, maybe.
No, I don't think they evenhave a flashing light.

(01:14:28):
Who's that Shepherd?
It's like Rosebush, just northof us.
I don't think they even have aflashing light.
I don't think Shepherd's got aflashing light.
That small of a community man,but they're crazy tight, I don't
think so, but they've got aMcDonald's.

Speaker 5 (01:14:44):
Rosebush doesn't even have a restaurant, hardly
They've got a part-timerestaurant.
Hey, speaking of volunteer,tell them about that ride.
We just went on with PatriotRiders.

Speaker 4 (01:14:56):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:14:58):
Yeah, so one of the cool things we did, cool.
Yeah, cool Appreciate youcalling in tonight.
I know you got the rugrats whywife is gone, but uh, yeah, I'm
good with it well, you know, wetalked about your apron earlier,
so hopefully you're stillwearing it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
Hey do you.

Speaker 5 (01:15:14):
You got the dishes done and dessert in the oven.
Got your wig on no flashinglight.

Speaker 3 (01:15:18):
Three four-way stops in shepherd, yeah we're actually
going to call you Mrs Doubtfire.
Might have changed your name, nobut so you know, one of the
really cool things is I was downat the Department of Michigan,
we had a VFW conference, fallconference, and we got word of a

(01:15:41):
Medal of Honor winner from theIndian Wars which is in the
1800s, right.
So this guy's been deceased for100 years.
He was in an unmarked grave inan abandoned cemetery in Owasso,
michigan, which is down in theFlint-type area between Lansing,
which is our state capital, andFlint to the east, and they

(01:16:02):
found his grave, dug him up andfound enough bones to actually
for a coroner to say this isactually a body and he was a
Medal of Honor recipient fromthe Indian Wars and they put him
in a funeral home there inOwasso and between the Patriot

(01:16:25):
Guard riders here in Michiganand the VFW riders in Michigan
and Michigan State Police, weescorted the body from the
funeral home in Owasso to theGreat Lakes National Cemetery in
Holly, michigan, which is about40, 45 miles away 40 miles away
which is about 40, 45 milesaway.
40 miles away, yeah, and thenhad him re-interned with full

(01:16:46):
military honors as he'swell-deserved Right Medal of
Honor recipient.
Yeah, medal of Honor recipient,but we left here in Mount
Pleasant.
It was about 36, 37 degreesthat morning when we left Mount
Pleasant.
If that and we got down toOwasso, which is about an hour
and a half away.
It maybe touched 40 degrees bythe time we got there.

Speaker 5 (01:17:11):
The temperature of that day was 50 degrees.
It was 50 degrees, yeah, atleast it was dry.

Speaker 7 (01:17:16):
Yeah, it was dry, it was dry.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
Yeah, we pulled out of Mount Pleasant about 09, 9
o'clock in the morning, four ofus, and we escorted them from
Owasso at 11.

Speaker 5 (01:17:27):
Four bikes, yeah, four bikes.

Speaker 3 (01:17:29):
There was five people , six people and yeah, I mean
you know it was on a Tuesday,you know short kind of notice
because they had to wait to getthe arrangements to get them in
the National Cemetery, which ispretty tough to get in.
I mean it's very structured,Like you pull in there and it's
like to the second as themilitary order works.

(01:17:50):
You know there's four lanes, sothere's four funerals and then
30 minutes later there's fourmore funerals and then 30
minutes later I mean like youget to set a lot of time and if
you're there, you're there.
If you time, yeah, and ifyou're there, you're there, if
you're not, you're sol like Imean it's very regimented, which
is the way we like it.
Yeah, you know, nothing's drawnout, nothing's anything
happening, but I mean it was.
It was a really cool thing tobe able to do and it was.

(01:18:13):
It was cool as, uh, you know,the, the vfw, as well as the
midland riders group, districtfour riders group, the mount
pleasant riders group, to beable to be a part of that,
because I will never, probablyin my lifetime ever, have the
chance to be able to escortanother Medal of Honor recipient

(01:18:34):
to their final resting place.
So just to have the opportunityto give my time, give myself as
well as all those other membersI know, you know Bill and Liz
were on the ride.
I was Joe.
Joe shot Joe yourself, right.
I mean for us to be able totake the time, trey was there.

(01:18:57):
Another guy with Joe shot got amiddleman.
Was there.
Guy had a district for BillSchaefer.
Was there?
Guy out of District 4.
Bill Schaefer was there, yeah,and I mean he wrote a cage up.

Speaker 5 (01:19:10):
But I mean all the VFW people there, well, and
Terry Koontz Terry Koontz wasthe chaplain.
Yeah, so he's our post-chaplain.

Speaker 3 (01:19:17):
He's our district chaplain and he's the Department
of Michigan State of Michiganchaplain that did the invocation
and stuff.
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:19:24):
Department of Michigan State of Michigan
chaplain that did the invocationand stuff.
I mean it was just cool to beable to.
He followed us in the cagebefore us to come out of Mount
Pleasant.
He followed us.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
Hey, I got a question about that.
Yeah, sorry, I'm still watchingthe live.
You guys have a couple seconddelay.
Hey, how did they find him?
He was in an unmarked grave,but was he next to anybody else
in unmarked graves?
Like, how did that all go?

Speaker 5 (01:19:49):
down there was.
There was people searching forfor this gentleman.
For like two years theysearched for him and when they
they finally found him, therewas a, there was a marker on the
grave so you can actually findwhere it's at.
If you go to Google Mapsbecause I did this and I went in

(01:20:11):
the grave site that he was at,you can Google search it and
it's like four-foot-tall grassyou can kind of see that there's
a cemetery there.
So they spent a couple yearsfinding him and I caught bits
and pieces of what they weretalking about.
But it took up to once theyfound him, up to a year to

(01:20:35):
actually get him to the cemeteryand get him exhumed.
Because, there was so muchpolitics involved.

Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
So kind of go along with that.
And I'm going to paraphrasefrom Barry Walter at Department
of Michigan.
He's our state quartermasteradjutant at the VFW of Michigan.
He is somehow right through hisposition.
He's in with the National Medalof Honor Society, obviously,

(01:21:03):
american Legion, he's workingwith all these different
entities but through thoseorganizations that he's a part
of, they had found out aboutthis guy, I think part of that
National Medal of Honor Societygroup.
I think they're trying to makesure or find missing members.
That's exactly it, and it tookthem quite a while to even find

(01:21:27):
where he was at, much less allthe paperwork to, through the
government right, be able toexhume somebody and then
re-intern them.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
So it's, it's.
This is like a two-year,three--year deal finding him,
getting him out of the ground,actually having enough to say

(01:21:47):
there's a body there, and thengetting him re-interned with all
the honors that he deserves.
I'm sure the first time he wasburied, you know he probably had
the honors.
Who knows?
I mean it was 100 years ago,right.
So I mean, but I know there's alot of vfw members around, uh,
the state um, that were in umsearching, not only searching

(01:22:13):
online or or through the publicrecords and all those different
things, but I mean literallysearching through the ground
with shifters right, trying tofind enough of this guy, because
they were pine boxes back thenyeah right to be able to say
that they could find enoughbones or whatever, to actually
say there was a person buriedthere, so that was yeah it was

(01:22:35):
quite.

Speaker 5 (01:22:35):
It was quite the I mean this first time I'd ever
seen a ceremony to that extent.
You know that was.
That was pretty cool.
Yeah, it was very cool.

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
Like I say, I'll probably never have the
opportunity to do it again, so Iwasn't going to miss it for the
world.
I was super proud of all thewriters groups around the state
of Michigan.
On short notice, I put out anemail blast to all the
presidents about a week or twoahead of time saying, hey, it's
going to be this day.
I have no idea the times.

(01:23:06):
Who knows what the weather isgoing to be this time of year
and I'm not expecting someone toride 300 or 400 miles that day
when it's 30 degrees out.

Speaker 5 (01:23:16):
Luckily it was sunny.
I mean, it was cold, but atleast it was sunny too.

Speaker 4 (01:23:23):
So yeah, I just pulled my cold stuff out of the
shed.

Speaker 3 (01:23:28):
I literally put my cold weather windshield on my
bike the night before.

Speaker 5 (01:23:33):
I did it that morning .

Speaker 3 (01:23:34):
Yeah, yeah, so you know, that's what we do.
Because you know if that was us, right, you know, say we get
buried in a family plot tomorrowand 100 years from now.
Someone's like, hey, they'redoing something different for
veterans now and there's goingto be guys in 100 years that
take the time to do that for us.

(01:23:54):
Yeah, I would hope so.
Well, right, so we would wantthe same respect that we gave
this guy.
We don't know this guy.
There wasn't even a familymember there.
Who knows right?
But just out of the respect youknow that that guy that gave the
flag to wasn't a family member.
No, he was.
He was part of the the michiganuh national okay medal of honor
society.

Speaker 4 (01:24:15):
You wouldn't have thought any different though no,
I mean, it was like cool,there's a.
It was presented like, I meanit was presented just like a
family, like you know we presentthis flag and yeah, yeah, full
military it was full.
It was awesome as it should beright, it was uh, yeah but no, I

(01:24:35):
actually when I was when I wasactive duty still we actually
had a living guy that had wonthe Medal of Honor come through
from Afghanistan.
I did a big speech.
There is no winning it Well, Iearned it, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:24:49):
Sorry, you don't wake up one day.
I'm not bagging on you, but youdon't win shit, because most of
those guys will always tell youyou said that earlier too,
though, Charlie, no.
I didn't say win, I said he wasa recipient.
Yes, you did.
Yes, you did Rewind the tapes.

Speaker 5 (01:25:06):
Oh shoot.

Speaker 4 (01:25:07):
Here we go, you got a mission there, part one.

Speaker 7 (01:25:12):
I'm going to hang up on you, part one.

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
No, that's all right.
Wouldn't be the first time.

Speaker 3 (01:25:17):
It's not going to be the last, no, but I mean, at the
end of the day, most of thoseguys will always tell you I
don't want it, I didn't do itfor myself.
I did it for the guys to theright and the left of me the
ones that didn't make it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:31):
That's the ones that should be getting it yeah so you
know, what story I really wantto hear about Medal of Honor,
though, because they have it onYouTube.
It was the first ever Medal ofHonor action to be recorded and
witnessed, because I think itwas a predator drone that was

(01:25:51):
recording it, and he, the guywho was awarded it, was a war.
I think.
He was awarded two medals ofhonor for two separate
incidences within like 10 or 15minutes of each other, and the
entire thing was caught on aPredator drone camera.
It's on YouTube.

Speaker 3 (01:26:10):
So I would be interested in that, because I
heard and I don't know, it'slike getting a Purple Heart and
this.
I wish Roy was here tonight,because Roy is a recipient of a
Purple Heart One of my goodbuddies is too.

Speaker 5 (01:26:25):
Aka, the enemy's marksman badge as he likes to
call that.
Liz could probably chime in.

Speaker 3 (01:26:31):
I think he actually has two, but from what I
understand is they have to betwo different engagements.
So, for instance, say Roy getsshot and then 15 minutes later
he gets hit by a grenade orroadside bomb, that's going to
be considered the sameengagement same engagement right

(01:26:52):
right.
But if he gets hit today andthen you know, seven hours later
, nine hours later, he gets hitagain.
Oh, look at you there's thelink.

Speaker 5 (01:27:02):
There's the link, maybe.
What's the link?
Joe, just put the link of thatvideo.
That two parts was one.

Speaker 3 (01:27:09):
Yeah, no, I'm not saying it's not happening.
I always thought they had to betwo separate engagements.
Not a clue.

Speaker 4 (01:27:16):
Yeah, I have no idea.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
Yeah, that's why I wish Roy was here, because Roy
might be able to chime in on hisbehalf of because literally say
you got shot twice, do you gettwo Purple Hearts or is that
still considered the sameengagement?
You got shot twice?
Well, the part in the video.
Say for instance you gotfragged by a grenade and you got
30 pieces of shrapnel.
Do you get 30 Purple Hearts?
No, no, you get one from theone grenade, right?

(01:27:40):
I'm generally curious becauseI've never earned that.

Speaker 4 (01:27:44):
You hear about it too , like during, like World War I,
world War II, where these guysgo up and destroy a machine gun
nest and they're riddled withfragments, you know, from the
grenades and bullets and allsorts of stuff but they get one,
I believe.

Speaker 3 (01:27:55):
Right.
So what?
My question is but I don't know, is it what do you define an
engagement?
Because I've always heard thisengagement, right?
So now you've got a guy that'sgot two Medal of Honors from 15
minutes apart.
Is that two separateengagements?
I don't know.
I mean, is it okay you shot meand then he shot me?
Is that two different?

Speaker 5 (01:28:16):
How do you justify it ?
Two acts of heroism.

Speaker 3 (01:28:18):
I don't know.
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:28:27):
I mean, I'm generally curious.
Same engagement maybe I don'tknow, but I know a friend of
mine.
I want to say he has two purplehearts.
But yeah, he just retired fromthe Army.
He was one of the few Army guysthat actually was Secret secret
service to defend the president.

Speaker 4 (01:28:45):
Oh nice.

Speaker 5 (01:28:45):
Yeah, usually it's Marines.
I mean it's pretty exclusive,but this guy, he was the guy.

Speaker 4 (01:28:53):
When I got done with one of my Well still the guy I
mean.

Speaker 5 (01:28:55):
I'm not.
When I got done with one of myNCOERs that they gave me for the
year they actually put down thebottom of the bullets.

Speaker 4 (01:29:01):
for it I got recommended to do the.

Speaker 6 (01:29:04):
White House communications okay, yeah, I
thought about it I was like I,want to do the morning thing
first.

Speaker 5 (01:29:09):
He spent some time, as you know.

Speaker 4 (01:29:11):
Secret Service that would have been a cool, cool gig
too.
Go ahead, everybody seteverything up.

Speaker 5 (01:29:17):
They come in, do their stuff, tear it down and he
, he got the badges andeverything when he, when he
retired from that assignment,they gave him all his badges in
a shadow box nice pretty cool.
I don't know.
I don't know how much he wantshis stuff advertised, so I'll

(01:29:40):
just keep it as that.
Oh, so now I know, like the dayafter he had surgery to remove
shrapnel from his knee, hebecause I trained martial arts
with him and he was doing somekicks into some padding that I
was holding on and he wasblowing me back like 10 feet,

(01:30:01):
laughing, batting that I washolding on and he was blowing me
back like 10 feet, laughing,saying how upset his doctor
would be if he knew what he wasdoing.
At this point in time, guy isjust an absolute beast.
I mean just absolute beast, allI can say is.

Speaker 6 (01:30:15):
I'm glad he was on our side.

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
I've seen a few of them like that out there.

Speaker 5 (01:30:21):
Yep, I'm glad you're on my team Hand-to-hand combat
instructor of the year for thewhole US Army.
You know, a few years back,hell of a guy, nicest guy you
ever met, but man.

Speaker 4 (01:30:39):
Who the heck is pwning on what that's W Charlie.

Speaker 3 (01:30:44):
What are you pin' on?
Well, you know, the kid neededbacon, cheddar, popcorn
flavoring.
And it hasn't been used at theSky Lounge in quite a while, so
you had to punch him in the face.
Three times I didn't punch himin the face.

Speaker 5 (01:30:59):
What?

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
I did was I had to take the container and get it on
the table to break it.
He's in there punchin' himselfin the face what I did was I had
to take the container and onthe table to break it points and
himself in the face.
No, I had to break it up in thepowder because it gets clumped
up if you don't use it forever.
You know compacts, right sugar.
You know you look like a Suzyhome baker.
You should know what that'slike.
Who's that?

Speaker 5 (01:31:19):
two parts, yeah he knows what that's like he wears
an apron.

Speaker 3 (01:31:21):
It's cool.

Speaker 5 (01:31:26):
He didn't deny it Still with us, or did you fall
down I?

Speaker 4 (01:31:29):
fell asleep.

Speaker 2 (01:31:33):
Oh he's probably warming up a bottle or something
.
No, currently I am drinking teathat my daughter is making in
her little play kitchen.

Speaker 5 (01:31:40):
Oh, you got a little tea party going on.
Huh, that's cool.

Speaker 3 (01:31:43):
I miss those days when the kids were little.

Speaker 4 (01:31:45):
Oh man, to be honest with you, I think they get more
difficult the older they get itdefinitely gets harder,
Definitely for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:31:54):
I miss the tea parties.
I miss the little fake kitchens.

Speaker 5 (01:31:58):
You just miss the Barbie Jeep.
You're not kidding anybody.

Speaker 3 (01:32:02):
I did put an 18-volt battery in that thing.
It did about 30 miles an hour.

Speaker 6 (01:32:07):
We didn't make the adult version of those things.

Speaker 3 (01:32:15):
I rewired it, Rewired it.
Well, I do have the toiletgo-kart downstairs.
Yeah, I've seen that.
Yeah, I think I'll toiletgo-kart downstairs.
Yeah, I've seen that.
Yeah, I think I'll pull awheelie man.
My boy actually rode that inthe homecoming parade for small
engines class.

Speaker 5 (01:32:30):
Oh, that's funny.

Speaker 6 (01:32:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:32:32):
Oh, I've never seen that.
See, most people have the barstool go-kart.

Speaker 3 (01:32:37):
He's got a toilet seat go-kart.
So we did my company, I don'tknow plumbing company,
mechanical contracting company,and uh, we did a renovation on a
church down in St Louis, about20 miles from here.
I mean it was big.
They put a big addition on Imean those mega churches, right,
oh yeah.
So they did this huge.

(01:32:58):
It was like on our end it waslike Bathroom men's and women's.
I mean it was big.
So they a guy had this barstool go-kart.
They took that off and they puta toilet on it and they did
like I mean they had their techguy.
It was like pre-recorded.

(01:33:19):
You know, the pastor went inthere, comes rolling out of a
stall on this go-kart and thenthey had him lined up in the
doorway and everybody's watchingthe big mega screens and all
that shit.
And he come rolling out rollingdown the aisle in this go-kart
right and flames are flying andall this stuff.

(01:33:41):
So I asked him because they hada second phase coming up right
that we wanted to be a part of.
And I said hey, you know whatare you doing with that go-kart?
Still hooking and jabbing.
They go.
Well, you know, probablynothing.
You know we just you know guyhad this.

(01:34:01):
You know, we just made thistoilet on it, whatever you know
for this thing.
And I said, hey, well, what doyou want for it?
X amount of dollars, I'm likewe'll buy it, heck, yeah.
So we bought it from the churchand guess what?
We got the second phase of theproject too.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
You know they're the only bidder on it, but so that's
that cost of business stuff wedo you know so I still have it.

Speaker 3 (01:34:20):
It's been down there in the lower bay for 15 years,
yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:34:24):
I've seen that the other day and it still runs.
Man, it's cool.

Speaker 3 (01:34:26):
So actually, if you go up to my house, I have the
Budweiser.
There's a Budweiser bar stoolgo-kart.
I actually have that stool atmy house that sits up against my
workbench, so yeah, but it haslike a creeper gear for parades
that the pastor used, becausethat thing will do like 30 miles
an hour.

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
It's scary, dude.

Speaker 3 (01:34:46):
It's scary, I was 15 years ago I was early 30s.
I was scared to get on it.
Dude, it would do 40 miles anhour.
Man, it was crazy fast.
Wow, you put that creeper gearon and you hit the gas, it'll
pull a wheelie in a heartbeat.
So the boy rode it in thehomecoming parade for the high

(01:35:06):
school, his senior year.
So I'm sitting on it.
My sister lives on the paraderoute, Nice beautiful porch.
You know all the stuff.
I'm sitting out there, I'mtaking pictures and they get all
my boys that are downtown, allpleasant, sending me pictures of
the boys.
They're like that was thecoolest thing of the whole
parade.
You know the boy riding thetoilet, you know.

Speaker 6 (01:35:26):
I knew that was your kid, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:35:29):
That's awesome, well, of course.
So we've never put it in aparade, but we should put it in
a parade.

Speaker 5 (01:35:34):
What was that?
Your poker hand?
What's that?
Well, it popped up.

Speaker 4 (01:35:38):
That was for the other thing.
I just put that away so I couldfigure out what that was.

Speaker 3 (01:35:41):
Oh, the other thing Playing poker, it was the other
thing.

Speaker 5 (01:35:48):
That's your poker league going on Look like cards.

Speaker 4 (01:35:50):
No, it was the chat.

Speaker 3 (01:35:51):
Hey man, I hit a five-leg parlay.
I don't know what that means.
Bet on the Steelers game lastnight.
Five-leg parlay Put a buck on.
It Won like 54 bucks.
Really, when I bet on sports Ijust put a buck here, a buck
there.
I don't bet serious money.
Try to win money.

Speaker 6 (01:36:09):
Yeah just for fun, but it makes the game fun when
I'm watching them.

Speaker 5 (01:36:12):
That guy scored all Kind of like the squares.
When you buy the squares, theSuper Bowl will take them.

Speaker 4 (01:36:17):
Imagine if you put 20 .

Speaker 3 (01:36:19):
Right, but I didn't lose 20.
The worst case scenario, I losea dollar.
So I don't do it to make money,I do it just to make any game.
Well, it's like playing fantasy,football, fantasy football man
when Jen and I used to play thatstuff when we had like a
neighborhood thing going on.
She doesn't know a lot aboutfootball.

(01:36:40):
She's pretty well versed infootball though Wow I mean.
But it makes you watch thegames and get better at watching
games and you're tradingplayers and you're starting
people and you're doing stuff,but it made every game
throughout a sunday an importantgame.
Is he coming up?

Speaker 4 (01:36:56):
so I didn't say it, but uh yeah you know what I?

Speaker 3 (01:37:00):
mean he's pulling in.

Speaker 6 (01:37:02):
Is he?

Speaker 4 (01:37:02):
pulling in he's pulling in Roy, oh cool.

Speaker 2 (01:37:09):
Good old one-eye.
Hey guys, I'm going to jump offthe phone here because it's
time to bake some muffins in ourplay kitchen.

Speaker 6 (01:37:17):
Yep, no worries brother, All right Nice to hear
from you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:37:19):
We'll catch you on the next one Yep, sounds good,
brother, we'll catch you.
On the next one Yep, soundsgood, brother, We'll catch up.
All right, bye, bye, all right,roy Thomas, pulling in AJ
Skylounge, we're going to take aquick break.

(01:37:40):
I see you texting me, but thatwas the guy that had a.
You still looking or jabbing.

Speaker 4 (01:37:45):
We are what is that high-pitched squeal?

(01:38:08):
I'm not the only one hearingthat squeal?

Speaker 3 (01:38:11):
No, I'm hearing it right now too.
I'm like you're doing that crapagain.
I hope yeah, that's calledtendonitis when you're a veteran
for sure.
Here he is, old Mad-Eye Moodycoming in.
Sorry that you hear that beepnoise.
That's garage door shutting.
I get to do that stuff on myphone nowadays, that technology
thing.
Try to keep the noise down hereat the Sky Lounge.

Speaker 4 (01:38:34):
Be careful, because you can capture that and someone
else can use it.

Speaker 5 (01:38:37):
What's that?

Speaker 4 (01:38:38):
Your wireless stuff to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:38:41):
Yeah, get past all my cameras in this shop.
Good luck with that.
Lions football.
That's what I'm talking about,killer Hell yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:38:52):
Good good, it's great to see you, man.
Yeah, sorry, took forever.
No, you're all good.

Speaker 3 (01:38:58):
Birthday party.
All good.
If you want to grab a set ofearphones, you can.
If you don't really need them,if you want them you can take
them.

Speaker 5 (01:39:06):
Everybody can hear you.
They should be plugged in, canyou?

Speaker 3 (01:39:09):
hear?
Yep, I'm going to listen out ofthis ear, just in case I've got
to play with the machine.

Speaker 5 (01:39:19):
All right, you've got to introduce Tell the world who
you are, who you are what youknow.

Speaker 3 (01:39:29):
You're an hour and 40 minutes late.
Are you dead?
Fashionably?

Speaker 7 (01:39:34):
late, fashionably late.
I'm Roy Thomas, quartermasterpost-303333, united States
Marine lifetime member lifetimemember since Civil War.

Speaker 3 (01:39:49):
Purple Heart recipient.
We talked about you earlier.
Were you listening online?

Speaker 7 (01:39:54):
no, because I was at a birthday party doesn't mean
anything well, welcome.
Hey, thanks, how are you good?
Good, good, good to see you.

Speaker 4 (01:40:06):
Joe, good to be back.

Speaker 3 (01:40:08):
Absolutely.
It's been a while so one of thequestions you brought up and
I'm glad you're here to answerthe question.
So two parts Brought up a Medalof Honor recipient that got two
in the same within like 15minutes.
It was caught by Medal of Honorrecipient that got two In the

(01:40:29):
same within like 15 minutes.
It was caught by Predator drone, reaper drone, something For
the Purple Heart.
Right, I was always told, and Idon't know if it's correct.
Right, you're the guy.

Speaker 1 (01:40:40):
There had to be two separate incidences.

Speaker 3 (01:40:43):
Is that correct?
So like for instance, say, joeshot you and then I shot you
Right, do you get two, or isthat considered the same
incident.

Speaker 5 (01:40:54):
Yeah, in the same law In the same firefight.

Speaker 6 (01:40:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:40:59):
Or do you get fragged and then you get shot.
I mean, did you get two purplehearts for that or did you just
get one?
Because it was the sameconflict at the time.

Speaker 7 (01:41:08):
It went down.
I guess it's really on how itgets written up, you know.

Speaker 6 (01:41:13):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (01:41:13):
You know whether it's your platoon commander or you
know your XO or whoever.
You know, after all theafter-actions reports, how they
write it up.
Do they write it up as one orwill they write you up, you know
, as separate, because you knowfrom a fragmentation to a bullet
.
I mean that's obviously twocompletely separate wounds.

Speaker 3 (01:41:34):
Right, but does that mean it's from the same person
or a different person?
I?
Guess is what my perspective isBecause we've all thrown frags
Right and we've straight up goneto firing rounds down range.
So you might frag a guy andstill shoot the same guy.
So is that considered too likewe were?
Just we don't know, and you'regoing to be the best expert to

(01:41:57):
answer the question yeah, Ithink.

Speaker 7 (01:42:02):
I think that just boils down to how it's written
up with your platoon, commander.

Speaker 3 (01:42:07):
Because for me it was kind of weird.
When I hear a guy getting aMedal of Honor or even put up
for it twice, or even putting upfor it twice as being something
, 15 minutes apart, it seemslike it's the same.

Speaker 5 (01:42:24):
If you open that, you can mute it.
I had an issue with it too.

Speaker 3 (01:42:29):
To me that kind of feels like the same interaction.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, Maybe, maybe not.

Speaker 7 (01:42:41):
Yeah, no, I think that's a valid, legit.
That's a tough question.
Generally for a Purple Heartyou get wounded.
So if you get wounded twice, Imean generally you'd think you'd
myself, I mean you'd be amultiple recipient award,

(01:43:01):
whether same battle or again Ithink within that battle
situation.
It just goes down to how it'swritten out.

Speaker 3 (01:43:08):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (01:43:08):
Well, that's why we're asking the question.

Speaker 3 (01:43:10):
I mean we're not yes, no, I mean just from my opinion
.

Speaker 7 (01:43:14):
I think that's that's so.

Speaker 3 (01:43:17):
If you took a, frag and then you get shot.
If that's written twice, youcould get two but if you get
shot twice, it might only getwritten up once.
It might be from two people,two separate insurgents, I think
right there it boils down tohow it's written up.

Speaker 5 (01:43:36):
That's the reason why I kind of question that there
might be a time frame if you'rein the beginning of the
excursion or towards the end ofthe excursion and there's a
notable difference in time sayit's a 6 hour firefight or
something you get shot in thebeginning.

Speaker 4 (01:43:58):
Those are clearly two separate instances that may say
it's a six hour firefight orsomething you get shot in the
beginning.
Those are clearly two separateinstances.
My mind was going right toduring the World Wars, where
guys were running up to machinegun guns and getting shot.

Speaker 5 (01:44:10):
They just called it one At that point they're done
anyway, most of those guys.
They're done anyway.
Yeah, most of those guysperished in that.

Speaker 7 (01:44:17):
So, unfortunately, yeah, and you know the, the
qualifications, you know for the, for the purported change as
well, due to, you know, thisIraq war with the VBIEDs and
stuff, the concussions, you know, you don't, you don't got to

(01:44:37):
have been shot or Generally itwas like if you got shot or shed
blood, you know, on a foreignwar, but you had to essentially
shed blood, not no more, likenow.
You know, if you get aconcussion you can still get
written up for a purple heart.
Oh really.

Speaker 5 (01:44:50):
Yeah.
Yeah, well, that's because theyknow so much about concussions
now, more than they did.

Speaker 3 (01:44:55):
Right, you can get TBIs and different stuff right
from traumatic brain injuriesand stuff from football players.

Speaker 7 (01:45:03):
Yeah, but I want to say, I don't know 08-ish, I
think, somewhere in there,somewhere in that time frame,
they started changing thestipulation of the purple heart
just because we had so many youknow, vb, ieds, not, you know
ieds that were, you know,traumatically cut concussions

(01:45:25):
and just taking, you know, uh,military members right out of
the game.
So and they started, theychanged the purple heart to, you
know, if you got a concussiondue to a blast or whatever you
were eligible now.

Speaker 3 (01:45:38):
I love the fact that you're here, because these are a
lot of questions that we havefrom those that aren't
recipients of the Purple Heartor even understand especially in
my time being before, or Billthat just floated around the
earth.

Speaker 6 (01:45:51):
He didn't really do anything but fix boilers,
apparently.
But for the rest of us, youknow what?

Speaker 3 (01:45:57):
I mean it's nice to know because I have questions.

Speaker 7 (01:46:02):
I mean I don't know everything, so the fact that
we've got which, unfortunatelyyou know I think it's you and
Terry Incencio- are the twomembers of our post that are
Purple Heart recipients you knowwhat I mean, which is a great
distinction to have you knowwhat I mean, which is a great
distinction to have you knowwhat I mean, which I understand.

Speaker 3 (01:46:21):
it's unfortunate that you've got that distinction.

Speaker 7 (01:46:24):
Enemy marksmanship badge.

Speaker 3 (01:46:25):
Well, I said that earlier right Ray calls that the
enemy marksmanship badge.
But, you know, I mean it's ahuge honor to get it, but at the
same time I mean I know it's adisservice to have it too,
because you know, obviouslyyou're injured in combat, which
isn't always a cool thing.
But you know, chicks dig scars.
So I mean, at the end of theday.

(01:46:46):
You know I mean there's areason why you're with Melissa,
right, because she digs scars.

Speaker 7 (01:46:51):
She's giving you two great kids.

Speaker 3 (01:46:57):
You know life is good .

Speaker 7 (01:46:57):
Yeah, life is great, you're one of the lucky ones,
you know, given my experience,I'm blessed, you know, and I'm
lucky just to be alive, and eachday, you know, I'm thankful
that I'm still here because Ishouldn't be.
You know, and so I live.
You know each and every day now, as a blessing that I'm still
here and able to, you know,enjoy life still, because

(01:47:19):
there's many others that aren't.

Speaker 3 (01:47:21):
You're one of our great members and I was telling
a story about you earlier that Ican remember, in the Morning
Sun, which is our localnewspaper, where you were
brought up as kind of a featuredstory, where you filled in as a
crossing guard at the schools,you know, as like the hometown
hero of Shepherd.
You know when they were short,either short or people were sick

(01:47:43):
.
It was a couple years ago, Ithink.

Speaker 7 (01:47:46):
Yeah, it was like a year and a half ago.

Speaker 6 (01:47:47):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:47:48):
The elderly lady there.
She got breast cancer, Is that?

Speaker 3 (01:47:51):
what it?

Speaker 7 (01:47:51):
was and as she was going through her treatment she
wasn't able to you know, standthe post there.
Luke Sawyer, you know theShepherd Police Chief.
He made a post out on Facebook.
You know that there wasn'tgoing to be a crossing guard
there for a while due to, youknow, her being sick.
So I sent him a message likehey, man, if you guys need help.

(01:48:13):
You know, let me know and I'llfill in and help.
I go there to drop my kids off.
I go there to pick my kids up.
I'm there.
You know what's an extra 15, 20minutes, you know to help kids
get across the road safely.
Yeah, that's awesome yeahthat's where I filled in.
He calls me every now and then,like I just did last Thursday,
that same lady.
I don't know what was going on,but they needed me, you know,

(01:48:36):
after school last thursday.
So you know I did it lastthursday.

Speaker 3 (01:48:39):
So just help out where I can and give back to
your community, you know whichis always awesome because you
know for me, when I drive downthe road and I see a crossing
guard sitting there, I'm like,oh my god, I gotta wait in line
oh my god, crossing sessionsgonna take forever I mean come
on I mean we all Like.
We drive down the road and yousee the school bus ahead of you.
You're like how fast can I goto pass it before the lights

(01:49:02):
come on?

Speaker 6 (01:49:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:49:03):
And I have to stop behind it.
I mean, we all do it right.

Speaker 7 (01:49:05):
I can't trust me, especially when they stop every
other house.

Speaker 5 (01:49:09):
Please, please that's when it gets crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:49:16):
The third or fourth stop, you're like, okay, this is
ridiculous.

Speaker 6 (01:49:17):
I just want to make sure I'm not the only one who
thinks that, but to have.

Speaker 5 (01:49:19):
You're the only one to have the guy that takes
selfish time right.

Speaker 3 (01:49:25):
Selfless time, not selfish time, selfless time to
actually go do that stuff.
And it was great to see thatyou were featured for stepping
up and helping someone out andfilling a void when it needed to
be done, because there's a lotof people that would love to do
it but can't do it.

Speaker 6 (01:49:39):
You're fortunate enough, right the situation
you're in you're able to go doit you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:49:45):
And you took the time to do it, because yeah, but a
lot of people have the time ormay have the time and say I'm
not doing that they don't eventhink to do that they don't even
think to do that.
So to take it upon yourself todo that, that's awesome, that's
commendable.

Speaker 3 (01:50:02):
And you should be recognized for doing that stuff.
And you're right, luke Sawyer,which is the Shepherd Police
Department chief, is a great guy.
He's always been a hugesupporter of our post and I know

(01:50:23):
the Shepherd VFW which isliterally just around the block,
almost from where his office is.
I think they do a lot withtheir VFW.
They're in a different districtthan Mount Pleasant, is Nine
and we're 11 or whatever it is.
But last year our riders groupand we're fortunate because we
had uh lisa beal princess and,um, tammy meyer, little red, we

(01:50:47):
call her at the riders group uh,little red works at walmart.
I think she's a manager, yeah,some sort, I don't know.
I mean I'm sure they have like100 managers, right or whatever.
I'm not quite sure.

Speaker 5 (01:51:01):
A manager at least.

Speaker 3 (01:51:02):
yeah, yeah and so she gets a big discount at Walmart.
She'll actually go to theirmanager and say, hey look, we
want to come purchase gifts forfamilies or whatever, and they
give her big discounts and allthese different things.
We've bought stuff for Camptrotter yeah, the the trampoline
.
This last summer we boughtbikes a year ago.
We've done stuff and last yearwe went and spent, I think,

(01:51:24):
thousand dollars.
The riders group did purchasegifts on behalf of the post.
We gave some to shepherd, wegave some to the post up here
for toys for tots, which washuge.
So we put that on our ReyersGroup Facebook page last year
and Luke was great because hecame in on his time off and my
wife Jen, when she was aprosecutor's officer Isabel

(01:51:47):
County, who I obviously workwith Shepherd Police Department
quite a bit.
Luke actually came in.
We went down 5, 6 o'clock atnight, got pictures with the
bags full of toys and all thestuff.
You know what I mean andthey're just so grateful to have
those things.
And when you get that smalltown right and I talked about
small town earlier, it doesn'tmatter if it's Rosebush or

(01:52:07):
Shepherd, I love that small town.
You guys don't even have ablinking light, do you In?

Speaker 7 (01:52:11):
Shepherd.
No, in Shepherd.

Speaker 3 (01:52:15):
Yeah right.

Speaker 7 (01:52:15):
So not even a blink of light in that town.

Speaker 3 (01:52:16):
It's that small right , but it's like six blocks long.

Speaker 5 (01:52:19):
Leah said no flashing light.
Three four-way stops inShepherd.
That's where she grew up inShepherd.
My niece did.

Speaker 3 (01:52:25):
So what I'm saying is that small-town mentality where
everybody shows up for Fridayfootball.
Everybody shows up for thespaghetti dinner for someone
with cancer.
People show up for all thethings.
You know what I mean?
It's incredible the way thesmall town works.
We come from Mount Pleasant.
We're too small but yet too bigwhere we struggle to do stuff.
But you go 10 minutes north or10 minutes south and it's a

(01:52:47):
whole different animal.
I mean, the local kid hasleukemia they raise $100,000.
A local kid up here hasleukemia they barely can raise
$100,000.
A local kid up here hasleukemia they barely can raise
$10,000.
We're too big even thoughthey're small, those different
things.
So when we go down there andable to help and donate and be a
part of that community is sobig.

(01:53:08):
So for a guy like you, that'spart of that community to step
up.
You know, as far as a veteran Imean I'm sure your picture I
love.
Veterans Day is coming up, so Igo to the Mount Pleasant one
which Luke Epple's kid Luke nowdoes the Mount Pleasant one it's
his second year does aphenomenal job here in Mount

(01:53:28):
Pleasant for Veterans Day.
I'll go up to Clare I doClare's and I come down to
Shepherd, do Shepherd's forVeterans Day.
And I love those small townsbecause they'll take their local
veterans and they'll havepictures of them up on a big
display.
You know where it's rotating.
It might be their boot campphoto, it might be a photo of
them in the military, whateverit is that the family submits.

(01:53:50):
That's awesome.
They don't do that here inMount Pleasant.
We're too big but yet too small.

Speaker 4 (01:53:56):
When I was coming home from my first deployment.
Like I said earlier, I grew upin Coleman They'd actually done
a thing to where they gave me anescort from the Flint Bishop
Airport all the way to Coleman.
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:54:10):
That was probably the Patriot riders.
Yeah, it was some of them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:54:16):
So the Patriot Guard Riders and I get a blast from
their state president wheneverthey're doing a flag line.
They're doing a welcome home,they're doing different things.

Speaker 4 (01:54:24):
Yeah, I get emails from them too.

Speaker 5 (01:54:25):
Yeah, so I forward, I join their group too, so I get
them all too.

Speaker 3 (01:54:30):
I forward all that stuff on to all the presidents
throughout the state.
So then that way, if they'vegot members that are available
or want to do something and Iknow they've got something
coming up here in about a month,a little bit less there's a
group coming through MBS, sothey're looking for three-hour
shifts around the 15th, 16th,something like that.

(01:54:51):
They'll have to go back throughand see.
But yeah, just welcome them andtroops home For the holidays,
thanksgiving Day is the one Iseen.
Yeah, it was somewhere towardthe middle of the month, not
quite sure.
I think it was a day or twobefore, are you guys?

Speaker 7 (01:55:09):
aware of the.
I think it's November 6th atthe high school the Medal of
Honor recipient coming to speak.

Speaker 3 (01:55:15):
No, where here?

Speaker 7 (01:55:17):
in Montpaisant High School.

Speaker 3 (01:55:18):
No, I haven't got any notification.

Speaker 7 (01:55:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:55:21):
Send that to me.

Speaker 5 (01:55:22):
Yeah, send that to me as well.
I'll get you guys?

Speaker 7 (01:55:24):
Yeah, november 6th, I can't remember his name, but
he's coming to speak, it's opento the public or whatnot, but
he's coming to speak atMontpaisant High School.

Speaker 3 (01:55:37):
Pretty sure.
I'm pretty sure it's the 6th.
Yeah, send that information tome.
I'll be there for sure, becausethat's right around our
national holiday of the bestbirthday ever, that's already
passed.

Speaker 5 (01:55:44):
No, no, no.

Speaker 7 (01:55:47):
Everybody knows.

Speaker 3 (01:55:49):
Everybody knows, not everybody, everybody knows.

Speaker 4 (01:55:53):
The 6th at 150 at the high school.

Speaker 6 (01:55:56):
It's what.

Speaker 4 (01:55:57):
It's what?

Speaker 3 (01:55:58):
What website do you?

Speaker 4 (01:56:02):
want AARP, aarp, hit that.

Speaker 3 (01:56:07):
That's about to happen.

Speaker 6 (01:56:08):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:56:09):
Yeah, send that to me .
Number 6, 145 at Mount Pleasant, yeah, send that to me so you
know, and here's the thing,Everybody likes.
Joe, your phone's off oh shoot.

Speaker 5 (01:56:23):
Yeah, it died, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:56:27):
I was just seeing it.
Might have just timed out itwas scrolling oh it just died.
It was scrolling.

Speaker 7 (01:56:32):
Can't keep up.
I had it plugged in Can't keepup, can't keep up.
I think we lost speed becauseit's scrolling.

Speaker 3 (01:56:41):
All right, now she's.
I'm going to unplug it Earlier.

Speaker 7 (01:56:44):
Do you need to connect?

Speaker 4 (01:56:44):
another phone Say again Do you need?

Speaker 5 (01:56:47):
another phone, just slide it forward.

Speaker 3 (01:56:50):
Slide that other.

Speaker 5 (01:56:50):
Yeah, or move it back , do something, just slide the
computer forward.

Speaker 3 (01:56:57):
Just move the other chair forward.
Joe, yeah, put it right whereyou're standing, move the
computer forward.

Speaker 5 (01:57:02):
There you go.
I don't know if we're stilllive or not.

Speaker 4 (01:57:06):
No, it just dropped off.

Speaker 5 (01:57:07):
It says we're live, but I just noticed the phone was
dark.
Yeah, this thing startedspinning.
So oh no, it's not, it's dead.
Yeah, started spinning, so ohno, it's not it's dead, yes,
dead key.
Why'd you?
Unplug it so how'd you?

(01:57:31):
How'd you hear about that?

Speaker 7 (01:57:34):
actually my wife work uh, one of her co-workers uh
was telling her about it becausethere was also um.
There was like some veteransrun um last saturday at the uh
high school football stadiumfootball field?
Yeah, there was.
There was a run there, you know, and I'm a big runner, so my

(01:57:55):
wife sent me that as well.
Yeah, run for veterans at MPHSSaturday at 10 am.
This live video has ended yeahproviding a raising awareness
and some money for the DAVdisabled American, disabled
American Veterans Associationorganization.

Speaker 3 (01:58:23):
Yeah, it's already 8, but we should at least have a
sign-off, yeah, which I don'tknow.
Well, we got to get.
Well, I can do it on here.
I can hit the buttons, it'llrecord it.
It just won't be on the live.
Live's done, wives done.

Speaker 6 (01:58:38):
Jennifer Ann is watching.

Speaker 5 (01:58:43):
She just popped on just as it kicked off.
It ended.
Yeah, liz said it ended.
Yeah, it froze, it froze.

Speaker 3 (01:58:59):
No, that's all right.
We have two hours in the night,which is a good podcast for us,
you know, yeah, and then I'llleave everything out.
We just got to make sure thatwe get some technical
difficulties squared away.
So I guess you know one of thethings I'm kind of disappointed
in.
I know Cadillac does it, I knowShepard's already done it, but

(01:59:20):
they do veterans before the game, recognition stuff.
I don't think Mount Pleasantdoesn't do it.
I'm assuming.
Claire does it, but I knowMount Pleasant doesn't?

Speaker 5 (01:59:36):
they did not when I was going to Claire schools.

Speaker 6 (01:59:40):
we never had that that wasn't really a thing, so
maybe Claire doesn't back then.

Speaker 5 (01:59:45):
I don't know so.
I went down.
But now I do know the Clairesuperintendent is a guy.
I went to school with JimWalter, so if they wanted it
done.
I could get a hold of them andsay hey, man, when you guys have
veterans in country, you shouldhonor them at a football game

(02:00:06):
if they show up.

Speaker 3 (02:00:08):
You do like your end of October game, especially like
homecoming.

Speaker 7 (02:00:12):
Yeah, when it's packed, someone before the game
doesn't you know, yeah,especially like homecoming doing
veterans so yeah, when it'spacked, yeah one of our
something for the game doesn'thave to take a lot of time yeah,
one of our well, like that onethat AJ went to at the baseball
game the loons, oh loons.

Speaker 3 (02:00:30):
Yeah, something similar to that.

Speaker 7 (02:00:31):
Yeah, we had Terry and Sensio there a year ago so
one of our local KAA back in 05,justin Ellsworth, his dad was
the police chief down inWolverine Lake.
Well, they started a non-profitMilitary Family United.
But they're big into helping,but down at Walled Lake, I think

(02:00:53):
it's Walled.
Lake and like Walled LakeCentral when they play they have
special jerseys for this gameDown at Walled Lake.
How do you get there?
I think it's Walled Lake and,like Walled Lake Central, when
they play it's got a charge.
They have special jerseys forthis game.
It's Military AppreciationNight and what they do is, you
know, through the year they getnames, you know, of veterans
currently serving.
You know whatever you know ofthese military families and they

(02:01:15):
put these names on the back ofthese jerseys, you know.
And then they invite thefamilies there and they do a
pregame ceremony and then afterthe game, you know, they bring
all these veterans.
You know that names are onjerseys and the players take
those jerseys off and they givethem to that veteran.

Speaker 3 (02:01:37):
That's awesome yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:01:38):
I know I talked to.
Well, it would have been lastyear.
I talked to the superintendentin Shepherd, Terry Starr, about
it.

Speaker 5 (02:01:51):
That's what my niece said.
When you're finished, you readwhat she said.

Speaker 7 (02:01:54):
So I mean it's a really cool gesture and I mean
obviously, I know there's, youknow some financial, you know
situations.
They're obviously buyingbrand-new jerseys, you know each
year.

Speaker 1 (02:02:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:02:06):
You know, and having names put on them.
But you know what a tradition,what a way to you know, honor
your local veterans.

Speaker 3 (02:02:13):
I would actually love the fact that you've just
separate jerseys.
You don't ever have to givethem away.
Just keep that name rollingevery year, man.
I mean I get what it would costto put 65 or 70 or 80 jerseys
out, man, it's going to bethousands and thousands of
dollars.
But keep those as a specialuniform for that day and just

(02:02:35):
keep putting them on, because 30years from now, that veteran
that you were 30 years ago isstill the same veteran today.

Speaker 7 (02:02:42):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (02:02:42):
You know, maybe you might have to replace a few
every 10 years.
Sure Right.

Speaker 7 (02:02:48):
But you know, but you know, still cheating the
upfront cost of buying new onesevery year.

Speaker 3 (02:02:51):
Yeah, right, you're just yeah.
So I mean even that.

Speaker 7 (02:02:54):
I think you know that would be a massive tradition
and, you know, I think MountPleasant's a big enough school
to do something like that.

Speaker 3 (02:03:00):
Well, they got good sports boosters just like Clare,
just like Mount Shepherd, youknow where they could easily do
it.
Yeah, I think that would bewell worth it.

Speaker 7 (02:03:09):
I think it's just sitting down with their AD and
you know, either puttingpressure on them or asking Maybe
they've never even beenapproached.

Speaker 3 (02:03:17):
Could very well be.
I guarantee you they've neverbeen approached.
I bet you Mount Pleasant'snever been approached for a
veterans night.

Speaker 7 (02:03:24):
Maybe it's just going in and trying to sit down with
them and bringing up thesituation.

Speaker 5 (02:03:28):
Get with the athletic director and get with the
school board.

Speaker 3 (02:03:32):
Take in front of the board and say hey, Even if you
had a private fundraise forjerseys say, we need $2,000 for
jerseys I guarantee you couldwalk three places in Mount
Pleasant and get the money sothe athletic director used to be
the coach.

Speaker 5 (02:03:46):
He was the assistant coach when I went to school.
I think he's now the newathletic director he was a.
I don't know if he was CMU.
I don't know if that was CMU orif he was.
I don't know if that's stillgoing.
Is it still going?
I don't know if he was CMU orNorthwood, but anyway he would
do something like that.

(02:04:06):
He's big into veterans.

Speaker 3 (02:04:09):
So it's pretty cool.
I just want to say this realquick so Bill's niece, her and
her husband are active duty AirForce.
Yeah, this is what she justcommented on.
She commented after our livedropped off.
She had to get off.
She's a somehow is working withthe B-2 bombers out in Missouri
.
Her husband is some sort ofmechanic.

(02:04:30):
Yeah, he's an airplane mechanicIf he's on those planes or
whatever he's on.
But she appreciated it tonightlistening to the podcast and us
just up here BSing she's goingto share amongst her flight
crews or whatever that she's gotgoing on out there.
That's cool.

Speaker 5 (02:04:49):
She's out in Missouri .

Speaker 3 (02:04:51):
That's cool.
So you know, it's just good tohear, you know that there's
people out there listening to us.

Speaker 5 (02:04:57):
Yeah she just happened to call me tonight
because, her husband just had acancer scare so he just got out
of surgery and found out it'snot cancer, it's benign or
whatever you say, but it's notcancer so he's laid up for the
next couple weeks, you know.

Speaker 7 (02:05:12):
Sure, but with everything going around and
going on nowadays, I mean what ascare.

Speaker 5 (02:05:17):
yeah no, cancer is just popping up everywhere.
Yeah, you know, and it was uh,so it was a testicular cancer,
you know so he should have beenin the marines.

Speaker 3 (02:05:26):
That means he's got big balls.

Speaker 5 (02:05:28):
Yeah, so he so they did like she was saying the
surgery was like having a theycall that elephantitis don't
they.
Yeah, so he's laid up for acouple weeks.
But yeah, I'm good to hear thathe's doing all right.

Speaker 3 (02:05:45):
Yeah, that's not Pretty weird, All jokes aside.

Speaker 5 (02:05:47):
Nonetheless she called me tonight and I said oh
yeah, I'm here.
And then she jumped right onand I sent her the link and she
jumped on tonight, awesome.

Speaker 3 (02:05:57):
So it actually contributed a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, she was commenting,we were following her stuff.
Yeah, we were talking about herstuff or his stuff, or whatever
, and she was, yeah, commentingright along, which is cool.
I mean, that's what weappreciate, man, I mean that's
why we're on here for hoursbecause we want to have the
comments, ask us the questions,you know, give us stuff to talk
about, rather than us justsitting up here for hours and

(02:06:18):
talking about whatever Wastingoxygen.
Well, you know we're notwasting oxygen, but you know we
want.
Well, you are.

Speaker 6 (02:06:26):
We want.

Speaker 3 (02:06:28):
Come on, man, you're not going to be invited up to
the AJ Sky Lounge.

Speaker 6 (02:06:32):
No, you know what I mean, but we have to remember.

Speaker 3 (02:06:35):
There's just a lot of people out there that might not
know Right or you know.
That's why I had some of myfriends that were active duty
come on in the earlier episodes,because things have changed so
much in the 20 years since I'vebeen gone.

Speaker 5 (02:06:48):
Maybe I'll see if I can get a hold of Sean next time
we have one, if I know a littlebit of him.

Speaker 3 (02:06:53):
I'll call Sean my buddy from the Navy.

Speaker 5 (02:06:55):
You know Well, we had , we had.
He lives out in.

Speaker 3 (02:06:57):
Wichita, we had your boy from Washington came in for
an episode Bullshit.
You know I mean it's what we do.
You know I mean you know, let'shave people come in and talk.

Speaker 7 (02:07:11):
And I brought an active duty recruiter online one
time yeah, or two parts buddy,jimmy, or James, jimmy, jimmy,
jimmy, two parts buddy.

Speaker 3 (02:07:18):
But yeah, you know, I had my friend that was an
active duty Army recruiter.
Still Come on and you know Imean, but things have changed so
much.
You know you talk Joe right,joe's out in 11?
.

Speaker 4 (02:07:32):
Just under 10.

Speaker 3 (02:07:33):
2010?
.

Speaker 4 (02:07:34):
Oh no, I got out in 2017.

Speaker 3 (02:07:36):
I'm a year 17?

Speaker 4 (02:07:36):
Oh no, I got out in 2017.

Speaker 3 (02:07:39):
I'm a year, just a week ago.
You think about how much haschanged since Dark Shit and
Green.
Since I got out in 02, you were06.
I was 05.
05, right, you were 75.

Speaker 5 (02:07:49):
93 to 95.
Yeah sorry, 19, 60.
Yo fucker 19.
18, 74.

Speaker 3 (02:07:54):
I remember them straight up drag Bell-bottom
fucking dungarees, themmotherfucking dungarees.

Speaker 5 (02:08:01):
God, I hated them fucking things, you know what
I'm saying God, I hateddungarees.
I wore coveralls.
90% of the time I was in, Iwore coveralls.
Yeah but you looked good indungarees.
I had bell-bottoms.
I looked so good in them,bell-b Bell Bottom jeans.
I bet you killed them 1970 wascalling and baby, I rocked them.

Speaker 3 (02:08:19):
I bet you did, I'm shined up black boots.

Speaker 5 (02:08:22):
My fucking Dixie cup man.
I wish I still had it.
If I had a Dixie cup, I'd wearthat fucker nowadays.
You look good with it, justlike Gilligan.
That motherfucker pulled itdown.
That was a Dixie cup, surewe'll believe you motherfucker,
pulled it down.
That was a Dixie cup.
Sure, we'll believe you, mostpeople don't know that Gilligan
wore a Dixie cup.
He just pulled it down.

(02:08:43):
It wasn't flipped up.
The sun hats.

Speaker 3 (02:08:46):
The white hat.
Gilligan's Island Jill's like.
What are you talking?

Speaker 4 (02:08:50):
about.
I remember watching Gilligan'sIsland with my grandmother.

Speaker 5 (02:08:52):
That would be awesome , sweet Well, we're already in.
She's going to be on our nextpodcast.
Oh shit, what do you call it?
A Navy cover?

Speaker 3 (02:09:04):
It'll probably be a couple weeks till we're on again
.

Speaker 6 (02:09:08):
Navy Dixie cover.
We'll try to get a few morepeople up here.

Speaker 3 (02:09:13):
We'll try to make sure that the Facebook Live is
off.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 5 (02:09:14):
But how he wore it, how Gilligan.
A few more people up here.
We'll try to make sure that theFacebook live is off.
Okay, but how he wore it, howGilligan wore it.

Speaker 3 (02:09:21):
He pulled the outer brim down.

Speaker 5 (02:09:23):
He pulled it all the way, fucking down.

Speaker 3 (02:09:24):
But we'll try to make sure we get a couple other
different people on here whenthe time comes, see.

Speaker 5 (02:09:32):
Same hat.
Yeah, the outer brim is pulleddown instead.

Speaker 6 (02:09:34):
And.

Speaker 4 (02:09:34):
Gilligan himself wore it.

Speaker 5 (02:09:36):
That's how Gilligan wore it.

Speaker 3 (02:09:37):
We spent a lot of time to make sure we had the
lounge right, made sure we hadbar stools and all the different
things, because I think this isa better set up.

Speaker 5 (02:09:44):
I do too we had the tables and went down there so
one thing we didn't talk aboutwas the case for the bike.
Is this shut off now?

Speaker 3 (02:09:54):
no, we're still rolling until that turns green,
that record button goes green.

Speaker 5 (02:09:58):
We're still, we're still rolling two hours and ten
minutes exactly.
Is it going?

Speaker 4 (02:10:03):
it's not online it's not online because that's down.

Speaker 3 (02:10:05):
I gotta take him home soon but anybody that wants to
log on to Spotify, iheartradio,they'll still hear this.

Speaker 5 (02:10:12):
Yeah, we didn't talk about the case, so we'll have to
talk about that.
Next time Brett gets it.

Speaker 4 (02:10:17):
I need to make sure I post that too, so that they
know where to go listen to it atagain.
It's been a while.

Speaker 5 (02:10:23):
Time to be when it's finished, so we still got to get
that top.

Speaker 3 (02:10:27):
Yeah, well, we got to make sure that all that stuff
gets posted on Facebook pagesand all the different things.
Right, we have enough lead timeso we can have a bunch of
people come up to it from othergroups.
Well, we have to get.
Uh, we gotta get, yeah, wegotta get.
Uh, we're gonna actually bring.
So for all those people outthere listening uh, tim are to
be former post commander, uh,rise group director for the

(02:10:51):
state of michigan.
Um, we repurchased his HarleyDavidson that he bought from
another VFW post member at 3033,gary Gass, beautiful paint job
on it.
I mean, it's a veteran's bike.

Speaker 4 (02:11:11):
It's.

Speaker 3 (02:11:11):
POWMA bike.
I mean it's absolutely, 100%,beautiful.
A bunch of us from theridersiders Group, after Tim
passed away, went back to theHarley shop after he traded in,
purchased the bike.
It actually sits downstairshere at the Sky Lounge.
You can look through the windowand see it down there.
We got some great donationsfrom some companies, which we'll

(02:11:35):
throw their names out later onthe next podcast.
Donated materials thanks.
Liz donated their time, donatedtheir labor, all the different
things.
One of the companies actuallydoes work for SpaceX and they're
they're extremely highaerospace capable company.

(02:12:02):
They've got contract work thatcame up, delayed this project a
little bit, but through alltheir connections down in the
Detroit area they were able toget materials donated, their
labor donated.
They have some veteransactually fabricating and working
on this project for us and atour post we're going to take
this motorcycle and actuallyencase it and turn it into a

(02:12:25):
high-top bar.
So there's not going to be anylost space at our post.
Our post will be the only postI know of in national the United
States will be the only post Iknow of in national the United
States that actually has aveteran's motorcycle inside the
post, our post here in MountPleasant.
We don't have the room for anairplane, a tank, a Jeep or

(02:12:49):
anything sitting out front, sothis might be something that
maybe brings people into ourpost to see being the only one
in the country that has it,which is cool, yeah, and it was
owned by two former members ofour VFW post, so it's going to
be cool.
So as soon as this case getsfabricated, I'm going to bring
it up, put it in my garage atthe house.

(02:13:12):
I have a heated garage, sowe'll pre-build it, put the bike
in it, make sure things fit,know what we have to do to get
it inside the building and then,sometime toward the end of next
month, which will be November,we'll set it up, probably for a
Saturday.
We've got to just clear it withthe post and we'll do a grand,
revealing.

Speaker 5 (02:13:30):
It might even be into December yet Okay.
As soon as we know closer,we'll definitely put feelers on
and let everybody know.

Speaker 3 (02:13:39):
When we do our PWMIA program every year, we should
find a way to incorporate itinto that oh yeah, well, you
know, this bike last was ownedby Tim, previously owned by Gary
, which had it painted and allthe things.
So it's not another memorial toTim, right?

(02:14:00):
I mean, this is a veteran'sbike, just in lieu of the paint
job, in lieu of the two guysthat were previous owners of the
bike, as a owner of this bike,as well as amongst 16 of us
probably that all bought intothis bike.

Speaker 5 (02:14:15):
There's about 10 of us.

Speaker 3 (02:14:17):
Yeah, which is cool.
I mean, that's where it shouldbe.
Our post needs to havesomething that sets us apart
from Shepard.

Speaker 5 (02:14:24):
Three of the gentlemen sitting here at the
table right now are, you know,part owners of the bike?
Yeah, and you know.

Speaker 3 (02:14:30):
I mean, it's going to be something cool that
hopefully brings people into ourVFW and I was happy, as well as
the other nine owners of thebike, uh, to be able to put some
money down and actuallypurchase it back right, um,
that's been sitting down here Iit's only been ridden once.
Uh, we had bike night at thepost in july, right around the

(02:14:51):
fourth of july I think it was onthe second actually of july.
I actually rode it out of hereand took it up to the post and a
bunch of people sat on it,cried on it, took pictures with
it yeah I mean, it was the onlythe only other time it was rode
before.

Speaker 5 (02:15:04):
That was when I wrote it off the trailer into your
garage probably your shop, yeah,after tim's funeral, yeah, yeah
I mean the day after.

Speaker 3 (02:15:13):
Yeah, we had it up at his funeral, you know, which
was a pretty cool sign.
So if you go to Tim's, obituary.

Speaker 5 (02:15:20):
you know you can see the bike because I do believe
that's a picture of it in theobituary.

Speaker 3 (02:15:26):
Might be, I think so, so, but yeah, I mean it's just
you know, these are the thingsthat we do for the Brotherhood.

Speaker 4 (02:15:34):
Before we went on tell them about his site.

Speaker 3 (02:15:37):
You got the details.

Speaker 4 (02:15:38):
On what?
When you went out and thefamily came out for where the
accident happened.

Speaker 5 (02:15:46):
Yeah, so.
Oh yeah, we talked about thatbefore the podcast.

Speaker 6 (02:15:52):
I think that's really cool.

Speaker 3 (02:15:53):
Yeah, so I said this before we got on the podcast
earlier tonight.
About a week ago we're talkingmid-October we had a beautiful
day.
I left the office early, wentriding for the day.
Tim's crash site is about 15,20 miles from Mount Pleasant,

(02:16:17):
down in the Elma area Road downto his cross that we have on the
side of the road, and I'msitting there having a beer with
him Maybe a couple, but thatwas Monday.
Anyways, I'm sitting there atthe cross and all of a sudden I
hear this golf cart pull upbehind me and it was the family

(02:16:38):
right.
So it's the daughter of theproperty owner, her kids and
niece's nephews.
So I stand up and I'm like, oh,I'm so sorry to be here, blah,
blah, blah.
She's like no, she goes intothis diatribe, basically of you
know, this is my mom and dad'sproperty.
My brother and I have houseshere on the property.

(02:17:01):
They have like whatever 60acres or something you know.
So they all live together in anarea.
And she goes we love havingthis cross here and I said, well
, thank you for allowing it.
If you want us to move it,please let us know.
And she goes no, my father, who, I'm going to guess she's my

(02:17:25):
age, in her 40s maybe mid toyounger 40s goes.
My dad checks on this crossevery week.
He gets on the golf cart,drives around, always checks on
this cross to make sure no one'smessed with it, it's clean, no
one's stolen anything off it.
Blah, blah, blah.

(02:17:45):
And then she goes in to tell mewhich I love our Harrison Riders
group, which is about 20 milesor so north of us they made like
a bookmark and it has Tim's VFWpicture on it and then his
obituary on it and it's doublesided.
So we glued two of those, onefront facing and one back facing

(02:18:05):
on his cross so that wayanybody that ever sees it along
with his birthday and day todeath, all the things on it and
our writers group from MountPleasant all signed it when we
put it in the ground.
Basically it said my dad lovesthis because he actually knows

(02:18:26):
who this person is.
So the first time he saw it I'mgonna imagine he was a little
bit upset, right, because we'reon his side of the ditch where
Tim had crashed and all thethings, right.
Here's someone coming on theirproperty and putting something
in it.
But he walked around the frontand read it and he was like I

(02:18:46):
actually know who this person is, not because he actually knew
who Tim was, but because he wasable to read it.
And then he knows who Tim wasand what he did and how good he
was and all the things.
You know what I'm saying.
Now he checks on it once a weekjust to make sure no one's out
there screwing with it.
Yeah, and I just said hey, justso you know if it ever becomes

(02:19:07):
a problem, right, she's likestraight up, interrupts me it
won't and I'm like they werehonored.

Speaker 5 (02:19:13):
It was like he was honored.

Speaker 3 (02:19:14):
Yeah, yeah, and I just said, there's going to be a
lot of people over the nextyears and years stopping by
might be planting stuff.
We'll take care of it.
We'll make sure you know thingsare done.
She's like you guys are good,trust me, and my dad's going to
be so happy that we actually ranacross somebody didn't know
right, yeah so I was down theremaybe half hour hour.

(02:19:36):
I was down there for quite a fewhours that day and and housey
messages me hey, what are youdoing?
You know it's this beautifulday.
I was like 80 degrees that day.
Yeah, it was gorgeous which iscrazy for october and I'm like,
well, I'm heading down to seetim and he's like I'm on my my
way.
So I was down there a half hour45 minutes and all of a sudden

(02:19:57):
Halsey shows up, you know, andit was 15, 20 minutes after this
lady leaves, right?
Yeah, but they were honored tohave Tim's Cross on their
property and I thought it wascool that you know the dad which
, like I say once again, I'mgoing to go off my dad's age
right, late 70s, early 80s,probably right, probably a

(02:20:18):
veteran himself, right?
Was like honored to have Tim'sCross there as much as he didn't
want to see it there, yeah, butI'm honored to the fact that
the family is going to bechecking on it all the time.
That bell that we hung on isstill there and she goes.
My dad actually got upsetbecause he thought someone stole
the beer bottle.

(02:20:38):
Tim loved McUltra.
I got him in and drinkingMiller Lights toward the end
right, but we always put a beerbottle.
It had fallen over in theweather.
So he was like someone stolethe beer bottle so he gets out
of the golf cart and goes andstands it up All worried about a

(02:21:00):
beer bottle, went.
I actually stopped at the storeand I of course I'm gonna go
down and have a beer with my boy, right, so I stopped grab a six
pack.
So I'm like I cracked a new oneand gave it to him and took the
old one back with me, you know.
But yeah, and it was all fadedfrom the sun and the weather and
stuff, you know.
But I mean I mean it was reallycool, like he was concerned
that someone stole his beerbottle.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Like I mean that's how muchthis guy cares about it, which
is impressive, that's awesome,you know.

(02:21:22):
So I mean it was a huge honorto be able to go down there and
actually meet part of the familyand hopefully she relayed that
to her dad or brother.

Speaker 4 (02:21:29):
that, hey, these guys , you know, and I would, I'd
like to do like a card orsomething like that for them,
for the family, just to tellthem thank you, yeah, but I
actually tried to.

Speaker 3 (02:21:38):
I tried to find an address like they're back in the
sticks man, there's not even amailbox let me figure it out on
the main road or yeah, I meanyou might, you might, you might
have to go to grassy county.
You know maybe well what Ifigured out yeah yes, yeah, go
to go to property texas yeah,you might have to do that and
find out who they are, and Iwould love our riders group to
send something to them.

(02:21:59):
Thank you for allowing this.
And we all sign a card and sendit down to them as an
appreciation, right, right,that's the least we can do
because they don't have to allowthat man that's got to be off
their property.

Speaker 4 (02:22:09):
That's way above and beyond what I would ever expect
anybody to do it.

Speaker 5 (02:22:12):
Yeah, most people are pretty.
I mean they're pretty coolabout it.
I mean you see those all over,you know, so it's not unusual.

Speaker 4 (02:22:21):
To go out and check on it like that.

Speaker 5 (02:22:23):
But to do that and go above and beyond, it's one
thing.
To let it be there, it's awhole other to guard it and
honor it.

Speaker 6 (02:22:30):
That's a whole other animal?

Speaker 3 (02:22:31):
Oh yeah, for sure, that's way above and beyond.
I love the fact that we put hisobituary those cards from
Harrison on it so that theyactually looked at it, read it
and realized it's got hispicture on it.

Speaker 6 (02:22:45):
It makes it so much more personal.

Speaker 5 (02:22:46):
They can relate and understand and know who it is
and what the whole story is.
Yeah, which was awesome.
You know what?

Speaker 3 (02:22:53):
I'm saying so, you know, I 100% agree.

Speaker 5 (02:22:56):
Hopefully if you want to spearhead that?

Speaker 3 (02:22:59):
I would love that, because I actually drove around
the corners trying to find out,and I would love the fact that
maybe we do some landscaping,plant a couple trees, do
something to make it look alittle bit better than what it
is.
It looks bad, but it shows themthat we're down there and we

(02:23:20):
care.

Speaker 5 (02:23:21):
Maybe something this spring.
We set a date and just go cleanthat ditch, because when we
were out there, the other day Iwas still finding plastic.
There was all kinds of garbageand plastic in that ditch from
previous wrecks and cars thatslide off into that ditch and
just clean that ditch up.

Speaker 3 (02:23:37):
I actually wonder if you could go online and you
always see like the adopt ahighway I was just thinking
actually so.
So I actually looked at doingthat here at the company, but
there was nothing remotely closeto this place that I could get
my people to.
But I don't know if you coulddo that on that mile stretch
because you have to do a mile ata time.
If you could do that milestretch, but even if we just

(02:24:00):
cleanthat little area up.

Speaker 5 (02:24:03):
Just clean that up.
It wouldn't take nothing totake a wee whip out there and a
couple big heavy-duty garbagesacks.

Speaker 3 (02:24:10):
That's the least we can do for that family.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5 (02:24:14):
And clean that whole eighth of a mile stretch, you
know?
Yeah, clean that up.
I think that'd be a hell of athing.

Speaker 3 (02:24:21):
But if you're gonna fetch gis or whatever, yeah, you
find out what this guy owns.

Speaker 5 (02:24:26):
Right, we could do all his property yeah I mean
even if yeah, but you know, yeah, just at least that from the
corner back to where the curvestarts.

Speaker 4 (02:24:36):
Yeah, that eighth of a mile or whatever it is I mean,
maybe we can uh get them up forwhen we do the feeling of the
bike.

Speaker 3 (02:24:43):
It's like a thank you for them there too yeah I have.
I have no idea who they are.
I mean, I was just sittingthere and all of a sudden the
golf cart pulls up right and Iwas like, oh shit, I'm on your
property you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:24:52):
Like I mean, it was weird for me.

Speaker 3 (02:24:54):
I was man, they were so appreciative.
It was just cool.
She was like my dad feels likehe knows this guy.

Speaker 5 (02:25:03):
That's kind of like the deal when we went to Bill
Cox's funeral in Saginaw.
We were thanking them and theywere like what are you talking?
About.

Speaker 1 (02:25:13):
Thank you for doing what you're doing.

Speaker 5 (02:25:16):
When Joe ande and I and and liz and tabitha went and
escorted that 100 year old yeah, do you hear about that?

Speaker 7 (02:25:25):
ah, vaguely yeah, so there was a.

Speaker 3 (02:25:26):
There was a veteran supposed to go to his birthday
party that morning of hisbirthday, his hundred yeah,
because we birthday.

Speaker 7 (02:25:34):
Yeah, because at the post-meeting we all signed the
card.

Speaker 5 (02:25:38):
Yeah, yeah, well, he passed that morning.
Yeah, well then.
So the daughter I was incontact because I set it up.
Somebody put me in touch withhim and I called and set it all
up to where we could go as awriter's group there was like 15
of us was going to go and givehim that card and wish him a

(02:25:59):
happy birthday.
Well, he passed that morning.
So I think it was like aTuesday or a Thursday or
something, I can't remember.
It was middle of the week.
Well, nobody had availabilityto take that time off.
Well, I was going, I didn'tcare.
So Liz took the day off.
She come up from detroit and,uh, joe and tabitha, we rode

(02:26:20):
over and escorted the, the thecasket, to his final resting
place.
And they were just, theycouldn't believe that we did
that they just so.
So the two daughters came to thepost later and sent us cards,
sent them cards sent, sent uscards donated to our post.
And then they came to the postand met me there and had a

(02:26:43):
couple drinks with me and said,man, thank you so much for doing
that.
I'm like you don't understand.
That was my honor.
I should be thanking you forletting me do it Us as you know,
like Military Code and theBrotherhood.

Speaker 7 (02:26:56):
Like you, you know it's our honor to be able to
help, especially, you know, onesthat paved the way for us to be
able to do what we did.
You know, that's right, um, butyou know I get it on the other
side of you know we're.
You know, generally most of usman, we're pretty humble yeah we
don't, hey, we want to do theright thing.
We want to honor, you know, ourbrothers.
You know before and after that'sright, you know us um, but I

(02:27:19):
mean you know that family, I'msure you know just appreciative
of you guys taking your timebecause, again, as we go back to
this subject of giving yourtime, it's not a common thing
anymore in today's society rightyou know, so for you guys to
take time out of your scheduleto ride an hour over there.
You, you know, and escort youknow their father, this World

(02:27:39):
War II vet.
I'm sure you know they werejust oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:27:43):
I mean it was fun.
I don't want to say it's fun, Imean that's not, it was just,
it was a good thing, it justWell, it's an honor.

Speaker 7 (02:27:53):
Yeah, to be able to escort a world war ii veteran.
I mean, those guys are ourhistory, that's right, that's
right, right, they're really farbetween you know, and it was
just amazing, I mean, that'stheir american history, that's
right yeah, you know, so thatfamily was so appreciative it
was just so awesome, as a proudmilitary member, to be able to
help with something like that,like it's an honor for us that's

(02:28:14):
right.

Speaker 5 (02:28:15):
Yep, yep, it was just a cool event.

Speaker 6 (02:28:17):
It was a cool thing Kind of like that Medal of Honor
recipient 100%.
Get it All right, boys.

Speaker 5 (02:28:25):
We're at two and a half hours.

Speaker 3 (02:28:27):
It's time to shut her down.
It's time to shut her down.
We'll pick up, hopefully herein a couple weeks.
Hopefully we get the live wherehe doesn't die on us and all
that stuff.

Speaker 6 (02:28:35):
Yeah, hopefully we get the live where it doesn't
die on us and all that stuff.
Yeah, I think this one wentbetter than some of the others.
Yeah, for anybody out therelistening.

Speaker 3 (02:28:41):
Make sure you follow Soup Sandwich Podcast on
Facebook.
It's going to be the BordleyHandle Post 3033.
If you go to that Facebook pagethere will be a link or the
last live that's posted.
Follow us Then.
That way, once we get to the100 followers on the Soup

(02:29:01):
Sandwich podcast Facebook page,we can go live there.
We appreciate everybodylistening tonight.
Does anybody got any?

Speaker 5 (02:29:09):
final comments.
Click that like icon.

Speaker 7 (02:29:13):
Click like tell your friends that's right.

Speaker 1 (02:29:15):
Get us going Do the stuff we appreciate everybody
thanks yep, thanks, thanks thispodcast is designed solely for
entertainment and, occasionally,informational purposes only,
and is to be regarded strictlyas satire.
Comprising of veterans, itdelves into their thoughts and
experiences in combat, as wellas their perspectives on various

(02:29:36):
aspects of daily life that maybe unsettling for certain
listeners.
This podcast is not suitablefor individuals under the age of
18.
The views articulated in thispodcast may not necessarily
align with those of the NationalVFW, vfw Department of Michigan
or VFW Post 3033.
Additionally, we kindly requestthat listeners refrain from

(02:29:57):
pursuing legal action againstthe creators or contributors of
this podcast.
In other words, please don'tsue us.
Military experts and advocateswill dive deep into the issues
that matter most to thiscommunity, from mental health
and employment to the history ofthe US military, the future of
military service and everythingin between.
Whether you're a veteranyourself, a spouse or family

(02:30:22):
member of a veteran, or simplyinterested in learning more
about this community, thispodcast is for you.
So come with us on a journeyinto the heart of the veteran
experience and discover thestories, struggles and triumphs
that have shaped our nation'sbrave after they've returned
home.

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