What Every Veteran Should Know About Benefits, Community, And Coming Home

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
War is a paradox.
It has the power to bringnations together, to inspire
heroism and sacrifice, and toforge bonds of camaraderie that
will span a lifetime.
But it also has the power totear families apart, to shatter
communities, and to leave scarsthat will never fully yield.

(00:23):
And for those who have served,the transition back to civilian
life can be one of the greatestchallenges 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
traditions of the military, andby the sacrifices and struggles

(00:44):
of those who have served.
But it's also a world that isconstantly changing as new
generations of veterans confrontnew challenges and new
opportunities.
Thank you for joining us at SoupSandwich.
Dig your foxhole, heat up yourMRE, and spend some time with
us.

SPEAKER_07 (01:14):
We don't have the founder here yet, but he's
supposed to be showing up atsome point.
My name is Charlie Klein.
Tonight we got No Pain, 30-yearArmy VAT.

SPEAKER_09 (01:37):
BFW 3033.

SPEAKER_07 (01:39):
So when you say 30-year army bat, that's like
six months in the Marine Corps,right?
Yeah.
That's like the same.
Yeah.
No.
Well, you got two Marines heretonight, so you know.

SPEAKER_06 (01:50):
And we also got Joe Gates, adjutant, secretary for
the writers group, and I takecare of the IT.

SPEAKER_07 (01:56):
And for the very first time, the newest member of
the podcast.

SPEAKER_05 (02:04):
Ray Lopez, and I'm here drinking bourbon.

SPEAKER_07 (02:09):
So, to start off the podcast, right?
You always have to, any any newperson that joins the podcast
has to give a synopsis of theirtime and service, branch, uh
anything that you've done withthe VFW, all that stuff, so that
our listeners can kind of get anidea of what you bring to the
table tonight.

SPEAKER_05 (02:29):
Well, I'm a Marine Corvette, surfed in the Gulf
War.
I started out in the VFW uhabout 20 years ago.
I've done everything fromcleaning toilets, changing
filters, washing dishes, takingtrash out, uh, to becoming a
state commander and everythingin between.

(02:50):
Uh now I'm retired and having agood time, having some drinks
with people that I deeply careabout.

SPEAKER_07 (02:57):
So what uh so we're all we're all members of Post
3033 out of Mount Pleasant.
Where's where's your home post?

SPEAKER_05 (03:03):
My home post is 1136 out of Windot, Michigan.
Uh Wineot is a small suburbsouth of Detroit.

SPEAKER_07 (03:10):
Awesome.
And now you're up in our neck ofthe woods in mid to lower
northern Michigan because youhave a uh cottage cabin.

SPEAKER_05 (03:20):
And we got a house in Hillerson.
Uh mid-Michigan is our happyplace.
We come up here often.
Uh I've got a really goodfriends, friends I'm sure I'll
have uh to my last days, and uhalways good company hanging out
with these guys.
Uh we've rode together, hugged,cried, high-fived, drank, and

(03:44):
all the above.

SPEAKER_07 (03:45):
Yeah, so you know what's what's great about having
you here tonight is uh your wifeNatalie watches every single one
of these things and comments uhand adds questions or or
whatever to to our live feeds,uh, which we absolutely love.
So Natalie, I'm sure you'realready watching and listening,
so we appreciate hopefully uhBen's Ben's treating you well

(04:08):
tonight.
He's not being too rambuctiouson you, um, or Benjamin.
But uh uh yeah, Ray, Ray's uhwas a member of our riders group
out of uh Pulse 3033.
So um we've done the CampTrotter rides, we've done uh
Blessing of the Bikes andBaldwin together, we've done
we've done quite a bit together.
So um yeah, welcome.

(04:30):
Thank you.
Thanks for being here.
We've we've tried to get you ona couple times, but being up
north or down south at at homehas been been a little bit of a
challenge.
So I'm glad you guys uh happento be up and stay up, and you're
able to join us tonight.
So welcome.
So moving on.
I know I know Brent had a couplethings he wanted to go over uh

(04:53):
with VA home loans and stuff, sohe'll probably get into that
when he gets here.
Um Roy Thomas should be showingup later tonight.
Uh Trey, that's normally withus.
Uh his wife uh she's a medicaldoctor, so she's working
tonight, so he's home with allthe kids, probably listening,

(05:14):
hopefully, so maybe he'll becommenting in.
Um but uh what have you been upto, Billy?
Anything good?
We got some new eyeglasses.
They look exactly like your oldones.
No, they don't.
These ones tin up.
Oh, they tin up when you gooutside, but we're inside, so
they're not tinted.
They're bigger, they don't havea frame underneath.

(05:37):
They have the frame rather thanthe wire?
Yeah.
I didn't know your other oneshad a wire.
So we're all just a few pointsprettier now.
I'm looking a little sexier thanall.
Yeah, and Billy's actually theuh he's the chairman of the
house committee.
You know, that's fuckingamazing.
So so we're we're we're workingon some new post bylaws, we're

(05:59):
working on some house committeebylaws to make things a little
bit more clear, right?
I mean that's the direction thatwe need to go in.
So that's the direction we'dlike to go in, but right now
it's chaos.
Well, you know, but that thatcomes with growing pains, right?
I mean, your last name is pain,so it just makes sense that
something you cheer is a pain inthe ass.

SPEAKER_03 (06:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (06:18):
So it is going to be a pain.

SPEAKER_03 (06:21):
With the new beer goggles.

SPEAKER_07 (06:22):
With the new beer goggles, yeah.
All right, that needs to cleanthat needs to go on mute.
You gotta clean bill of healthat the doctor.
Clean bill of all my levels aregreat.
Well, that's because you lostlike 40 pounds.
Yeah.
Which is phenomenal.
Yeah.
So it's doing really good.

(06:43):
It's eat less, drink more.
Is that is that the diet?
Yeah, it is actually.
I only eat once a day.
Yeah.
Bag of chips and then 30 beers,and you're good.
Yeah.
I like it.
Low low calorie beer.
Yeah.
Light beer.
Light beer.
Ultras.
That was Tim's favorite, it'sultras.
I got him drinking one.

(07:04):
So I actually I actually got himswitched over and drinking
Miller Lights with me.
So he was cheating on you justso you know.
So you can't well he he drankanything that was free.
He definitely drank it.
He would.

SPEAKER_09 (07:18):
If it was free, he'd drank it.

SPEAKER_07 (07:20):
So uh, you know, for all those, especially me that
that miss listen to, I call himBig Dummy all the time.
Um, but but Tim, uh, we just hadhis one year anniversary of his
passing.
Yeah.
Um it was, yeah, it was lastWednesday.
Um a lot of us uh rode down ordrove down to the crash site,

(07:43):
right?
Where he crashed his motorcycle.
Um he passed away the next dayin in Midland at the hospital,
but a lot of us went down thereand there was a small gathering,
or rather large gathering, Iguess, uh just at the post for
camaraderie and uh memory andjokes and storytelling and all
that stuff.
So um I always encourage people,like for me especially, when I

(08:08):
really miss the guy, I love thefact that we have these podcasts
because we have his voice forlike 13 hours in podcasts going
all the way back to some of thevery first ones, right?
So when you miss them, go backand listen to those because it's
just phenomenal, right?
Like, um, and actually I had togo up and visit my kids up by

(08:30):
Ascoda, they live in a littletown called Glenny.
I had to go up there because wejust got a new member from up
that way.
Um, he joined our post downhere.
So I went out and picked hispaperwork and transfer stuff and
whatever.
And uh I listened to thatpodcast, his last one, uh,
before his passing.
So maybe laugh, maybe smile.
Uh, you know, it was a coupledays before that anniversary

(08:52):
date, but uh yeah, sure missedthat big dummy.
But good new.

SPEAKER_05 (08:57):
Yeah.
I I got a story about him.
Um I said this story over at thepost last Wednesday.
Tim would call me all the time.

SPEAKER_00 (09:05):
Hey Hooker, I got a question.

SPEAKER_05 (09:08):
So he'd ask me a question.
It was usually bylaw related.
He says, Well, Tim, I says,Don't call me no more unless you
have the bylaws on you and yougot them in front of you.
I says, Better yet, put themnext to next to the toilet.
Lo and behold, he calls me thenext day.
I says, Tim, are you taking ashit?
He goes, Yes, I am, Hooker.

SPEAKER_04 (09:26):
I'm reading the book.
I got a question.
I tell you, am I reading thisright?
True story.

SPEAKER_07 (09:34):
That sounds about like him.
I would, I could, when I was thepresident of the group, uh, I
had the blessing of working formyself, so intermittently
throughout the day, depending onthe week or what season it is,
right?
I I have a lot of free timesometimes, and sometimes I
don't, but um, I'd have to go inand do paperwork or do something
for the group, and I couldguarantee Tim was always at the

(09:57):
post.
He was always there, and I'dwalk in and he was on the phone
with somebody, walking around,talking, it didn't matter if it
was post commander stuff,district commander stuff, and at
the point back then he was thewriters group director.
So it was always he always hadsomething going on, and man, the
conversations that I couldoverhear were humorous at best,
sometimes borderline offensivewith the way he talked, but I

(10:21):
mean that's what we miss abouthim because one one second you
could be laughing another, butyou'd be like, what would just
come out of your mouth?
Yeah, we're calling it.
You know, but it was alwaysgreat.
So and then I mean it wasobvious in in the turnout for
his funeral.
I mean, uh the player post thatput it on, I mean, their
upstairs holds 250 people, andthere was 200 people outside the

(10:42):
building because you couldn'tput another body inside, you
know.
So I mean that just goes toshow.
But uh yeah, it's kind of kindof bittersweet to have this as
the first one after that, afterhis one-year anniversary.
But uh yeah, I mean thingsthings at the post are going
pretty good.
We just wrapped up mid-winterconference, so I know we've
talked about this before.

(11:03):
Um, we have some uh differentprograms.
One's called the Patriot Pen,and that's uh middle school age
kids write essays forscholarship money, and then we
have uh Voice of Democracy,which are the high school aged
kids.
And uh as they go through thepost to the district to the
state level, um the the moniesthat they can earn uh escalate,

(11:26):
they get larger.
Um so we just wrap that up atthe end of January down to
Kalamazoo.
Um really good essays, lots ofmoney.
I think we raised you rememberhow much$25,000.

SPEAKER_05 (11:38):
If if they go to DC and they win on the national
level, it's a$35,000scholarship.
Um I don't recall what the toppay is at the state of Michigan.
Um I want to say it's yeah, Ithink it is.
I think it's I think it'ssomewhere between three and five
thousand.
I should know that, but I justdon't remember it.

SPEAKER_07 (11:57):
So they win that at the post level, they might win
$500.
They go to the district level,they might win five to seven
hundred and fifty.
They go to the state level, theycould win three or four
thousand.
They go to the national level,they can win another thirty, so
it's compounding.
I mean, if you went you went allthe way from start to finish,
some of those kids, if if you goall the way, they they could win

(12:18):
forty thousand dollars forcollege.
I mean, that's that'sincredible.

SPEAKER_05 (12:23):
The the voice of democracy, uh I've got a quick
story to tell that totalcoincidence.
In 2024, I I had the privilegeof escorting our student from
Michigan um to the finals inWashington, D.C.
Our student, I'm not sure whatplace um, I want to say it was

(12:44):
probably in the in the top 15,but uh that's really not the
point of my story.
The point of my story is afterwe went, we had that event, we
were there for a legislativeconference, we saw our all our
elected officials in in D.C.
And then we were gonna spendsome vacation time with a family
member.
Upon uh doing that, we were inthe D.C.

(13:05):
area, my wife's got an unclethat works for the State
Department.
So he asked why we were in town,and I told him why we were in
town.
I told him about the voice ofdemocracy.
He goes, Hold that thought.
He went into his room and hecame back, and he had a voice of
democracy second place winner,District 4, from 1967.

(13:26):
What a coincidence.
And uh it was ironic because whowould have guessed?
But uh there's a lot of uhthere's been a lot of winners of
this essay contest that's gonefar in life.
I I know that there's beencelebrities that's done at as
well.
But it it's such an awesomeprogram for the kids.

(13:47):
And uh it's part of what we doand our mission in a VFW.
Not only um we for veteranadvocates, but we have a duty we
have a duty in our communities,we have a we have a duty with
the our children of ourcommunities as well.
Our youth activities program isquite large.
There's a lot of things that wedo in the community to help and

(14:09):
bridge the gap and make surethat that we do everything we
can for our children to have anormal childhood, uh, and maybe
in form of of simple things likelittle league baseball.
It could be many things likethat.
It also could be programs duringthe holidays, it could be a
meal, it could be a Cub Scout orBoy Scout troop that that we

(14:33):
sponsor as well.

SPEAKER_07 (14:36):
Well, and that's what that's what is important
with the VFW, you know.
Uh to quote one of our pastnational commanders in chief,
Dwayne Sarmignato.
Did they say it right?
Sarmignato, yep.
Sarmignato.
So first time I met him was at afall conference.
He was the junior nationalcommander-in-chief.

(14:58):
And he used to call VFW thegeriatric gin joint.
And Tim and I just thought thatwas the funniest thing ever,
because that's what you think ofa VFW.
You don't really realize all theother programs that they have
that's in the community and orfor or for or for the kids,
right?
Like here, we're we're blessedwith having Camp Trotter.
Um, we're blessed with havingthe national home, right?

(15:20):
So, I mean, we have two hugeentities within the VFW
specifically geared aroundchildren.
You know, so most people have noidea what they're about.
Um, but you know, the thesupport in the community is
large, regardless of um, youknow, what city you're in, but

(15:40):
statewide or national level, uhsuper important, you know.
So it's good to have them.
We just finally got the founder.
That's right.
Well everybody, sound offreedom.
Sorry.
There it is.
Well, unfortunately, that's notwhat Tim would approve as a
sound of freedom.
He would approve it for me.

(16:00):
He probably would.
I know you I know your wifedoes.

SPEAKER_01 (16:05):
Well, hey.
I brought a carbless.
Is that a white claw?
No, it's a carbless.
What's a carbless?
I've never heard of it.
It's a vodka cocktail.
So instead of a seltzer, it's anactual like.

SPEAKER_07 (16:17):
If you want vodka, I got bottles sitting at the bar
over there.
No, you're not helping.

SPEAKER_05 (16:23):
Zero carbs or zero carbonation?
Or both.

SPEAKER_01 (16:26):
No, it's carbonated.
So it's zero carbs.
I'm looking, I'm looking for myfigure.
That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_07 (16:32):
It's gonna be a race between you and Trey to see who
slims down first.
Something like that.

SPEAKER_05 (16:38):
Getting back to that porn making weight.

SPEAKER_07 (16:41):
Can I say that on the podcast?
Sure.
Sure.
That's why we have the waiver atthe beginning where it says
that.
Did you did you let me sue us?
I I don't know, I didn't.
Well, Joe was playing it throughthat.
We didn't have it over thespeaker.
Yeah, oh man, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_01 (16:53):
All right.

SPEAKER_07 (16:53):
But we'll let you listen to it for I'll done if
you've you've have you heard ourwaiver after we do the intro.

SPEAKER_04 (17:00):
It doesn't matter if there's a waiver or not.
I'll be in trouble if it getsout.

SPEAKER_07 (17:04):
It's okay if it gets out.
We we let everybody know, hey,we're this has no affiliation
with Post 3033, Department ofMichigan, andor the national
VFW.
It says it right in thebeginning, and don't sue us.

SPEAKER_06 (17:15):
Yeah, please don't sue us.

SPEAKER_07 (17:17):
Yeah, this is this is what we all miss, right?
We all miss this is what thebest part about going to our
individual posts for traveling.
It's a bunch of guys, veterans,men, women, whatever, that sit
around and just BS aboutanything and everything.
But we talk about the importantthings too, so I know I'm not
sure if you're ready for the VAum stuff.

SPEAKER_01 (17:37):
That's why I brought my that's what brought I brought
my computer.
Um we can we can do a nice warm,yeah, you know, transition into
that here in a few minutes.
It doesn't have to be right thissecond.

SPEAKER_07 (17:47):
Well that's why that's why we were talking until
you got up here.
Yeah you said you were running afew minutes late, but uh of
course we wanted to have Rayintroduce himself tonight.

SPEAKER_05 (17:55):
Yeah, we kind of get things rolling, but so I did
have a conversation today withour states, our state service
officer over at the McNamarabuilding in Detroit.
And uh, you know, there's a lotof concern about if 70 to 80,000
employees of the VA system wereto be terminated.

(18:17):
It is a it is a huge cause.
It'd be something to be alarmingwith, alarmed with.
That being said, we all knowthat there's waste in in just
about every entity in thegovernment and whatnot.
But to have 70 to 80,000 wouldwill really we don't we don't

(18:38):
see how services are gonnabecome better, much less stay
the same.
So it is a concern, and it's aconcern with the VSOs.
That's way better, and not justours in Michigan, but across the
country.

SPEAKER_01 (18:49):
Right.
So of course I can't name him oranything like that, but uh my
counselor um had a and I had aconversation, quick conversation
about this recently, and he saiduh to his knowledge, what
they've put out is those 70,000people or whatever are the
managers of the managers whooversee the overseers, and it's

(19:12):
kind of sloppy.
Um they were told for the mostpart, you know, Veterans
Benefits Administration orVeterans Health Administration,
the people directly involvedwith patient care, um, and you
know, you know, benefitsadministration were were safe.
Um the way he explained it wasyou know kind of how we're 15

(19:37):
minutes early to 15 minutesearly, they're getting rid of
the managers of the managers ofthe overseers who really you
know don't have anything to dowith anything.
Um and one of the examples hegave was you know meeting a
meeting an MD, a doctor, whonever saw patients.
You know, there's there's roomfor a medical uh director,

(20:01):
right?
But how many of them do youreally need?
You don't need 50 of them,right?
You just need some for eacharea, and you know, but that
essentially that was the way heexplained it.
So we'll see we'll see whathappens, but you know many
chiefs and not enough Indians,exactly, exactly.
So um, but yeah, I've introducedmyself, but I'll I'll throw

(20:24):
myself out there.
Um is that camera not working?

SPEAKER_06 (20:27):
That camera's working fine for some reason.
We did a little testing up toabout 530 was good.
We're trying to do the cellphone thing, and someone lost
sound going too live.
Okay, that's the soundboard andthe uh audio.

SPEAKER_01 (20:41):
Weird.
Okay, all right.
Well, looks like we're gonna getthat set up so we can do that.
But while he does that, I'llthrow my introduction out.
Um and uh I'm Brent Holbrook.
I am the founder of thispodcast.
Um all around good guy.
Debatable 2324, all-statequartermaster.

(21:04):
Thanks to his post-membership.
Who presented you that hat?
Nobody.
That's because you weren't therewhen I presented you.

SPEAKER_02 (21:12):
I know.

SPEAKER_01 (21:15):
Uh but I appreciate it though.

SPEAKER_07 (21:18):
We appreciate you.
Um on behalf of your postmembership, you're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 (21:23):
Yeah, yeah, thanks.
Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_07 (21:25):
And they're and your writers group.
Extraordinary.

SPEAKER_01 (21:29):
Um I I don't mind it recorded, what I want to say.

SPEAKER_07 (21:34):
So, all right, you're more than welcome.
Let us have none.
What about me?
He's just up here doing itaffirmative.

SPEAKER_05 (21:43):
Matter of fact, I'm gonna do the walk of freedom.

SPEAKER_01 (21:45):
The walk of freedom, we sent them back over there.
Hey, did you sign the banneryet?

SPEAKER_07 (21:49):
No.
Because we're gonna grab thatcell phone and we're gonna go
over the now.

SPEAKER_01 (21:54):
We might as well do it.
We might as well do that.
All right, I gotta I gotta flipthe light on real quick.
All right, bring it on over.
So, for those of you who don'tknow, right behind us over here,
we have a banner.
You'll see it in a second whenhe turns the light on.
But we have a tradition here atSoup Sandwich that newcomers get
a marker, they get to sign theirname to our podcast banner, and

(22:19):
uh get to write whatever theywant up there.
So you know it's a good thingyou don't have the case mark.

SPEAKER_07 (22:26):
So as you can see, there's some people just put
whatever they want, some signthe name, some do whatever.
So you may sign as you wish,sir.
Don't burn yourself.
Yeah, it's pretty high overthere.
I can probably turn those downthis USMC, you know them

(23:00):
jarheads are gonna put that upthere.
Alright, comrades, appreciateit.
Thank you, man, thanks forhaving me.
Welcome, welcome, thanks forcoming up.
It's been a long time coming forus to have you up here.
All right.

SPEAKER_01 (23:15):
Take your post back over there.
Actually.

SPEAKER_07 (23:20):
Thanks for the Woodford Reserve, by the way.
We love we love it when we getwe love it when we get new
people to come up here to giveus their thoughts, their ideas,
their opinions, especially whenit comes to the way our VFW or
American Legion or MVETS, right?
We we we don't discriminate,even though all of us, a lot of

(23:43):
us are dual members of theAmerican Legion.

SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
Um because they were idiots and spent like$7,000.
I I agree with that, but still,I did it nonetheless.

SPEAKER_05 (23:54):
I could add to the collaboration that's done at the
state level.
I'm not sure if if anyone hasheard of the Commanders Group.
But the Commanders Group is a ismade up of the state commanders
of the the veteran serviceorganizations in the state of
Michigan, and they meetquarterly um to get on the same

(24:16):
page uh and advocate forveterans.
And um they they do it in ifthey pick their causes and they
speak as one.
So you have the weight of allveterans in the state, not just
each organization.
And there has been a lot ofsuccess, and uh frankly, it's
it's it's something that thatreally, really works.

SPEAKER_01 (24:38):
I wonder I wonder if that's the same commanders club.
I'm I'm almost certain it is,but way back in the day uh when
I joined the Navy, I joined asan E3 because I participated in
the C Cadet program.
And my unit was called theMichigan Commander's Battalion
because it was sponsored by theCommanders Club of Michigan.

SPEAKER_05 (24:58):
There's another organization.
There's commanders, there's acommanders group, and I think
there's commanders club.

SPEAKER_01 (25:02):
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 (25:03):
Yeah.
The commander's group isspecific of this this the state
commanders or presidents of eacheach organization.
Um and uh that was something Ireally really enjoyed working
with, and uh a lot of theseguys, you know, I've met them
years ago, and and I still seethem around, and they're just a

(25:24):
wealth of knowledge.
Yeah, um I want to give a shoutout to uh uh the state commander
for the purple heart, Ron Allen.
He's out of Ramos Post 78, pastDistrict 4 commander, and also
the uh state president for theVVA, uh John Ryling.
Okay.

SPEAKER_07 (25:52):
Yeah, so Roy Roy Thomas um should be up here in a
little bit.
Uh he's actually uh I think hewas a president of the local
chapter for the Purple Heart.
Yeah.
Um he's an Iraq, Iraq war vet,my age guy.
Um hopefully he makes it up hereso you can meet him.

(26:13):
So he'll be up here.
Yeah, he was he was doing somemono mechanic work and he's on
his way.
Right.
And if you ask him, he might dothe party trick where he takes
his eyeball out and puts it onthe table.

SPEAKER_05 (26:28):
I got a brilliant idea.
I got a brilliant idea for yourpodcast, gentlemen.
Yeah.
When this town holds our fallconference, you're gonna have
people from the national levelof organization in town.
Maybe perhaps you could ask themto participate in your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 (26:46):
That'd be interesting.
We'll have to close the post offfor that one.

SPEAKER_07 (26:49):
Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 (26:51):
Depending who it is, depending on who it is.

SPEAKER_07 (26:53):
That's a common now.

SPEAKER_04 (26:55):
If I can think of a few that would just be all over
it.

SPEAKER_07 (26:59):
Yeah.
Well, we got we got party room.
Yeah, pretty big space.
We might need some newmicrophones and a couple other
things, but that could be a goodtime, right?

SPEAKER_05 (27:10):
We have to make sure everybody sees the waiver.

SPEAKER_07 (27:14):
Sign it.
Yeah, in the door.

SPEAKER_01 (27:17):
That'd be cool.

SPEAKER_07 (27:18):
Sign the board, sign the waiver, you can join.

SPEAKER_01 (27:22):
I think um I think even one at one point uh it
would be cool to you know joinas a session.
We used to do it.
You know, maybe not an actualsession, but at least have have
a setup out there uh as part ofit.
That'd be that'd be kind ofcool, I think.
But I know National has a quoteunquote podcast.

(27:44):
It's mostly it's mostlyinformational.
It's mostly it's not it's notconversational like this.

SPEAKER_05 (27:51):
Um, but yeah, so your guys' town is hosting the
event.

SPEAKER_01 (27:58):
Uh so I'm trying to look up uh a few things in
preparation for our real estatediscussion.

SPEAKER_09 (28:27):
Is the camera not working?

SPEAKER_06 (28:31):
With the power or the soundboard.
We had our testing fine about 530.
I was up here just what?
Just past four?
Oh yeah.
And it was working.
We went to do the test with thephone for the Bluetooth piece to
have phone call in, so wethought maybe Trey would call
in.
And then I lost all my sound.

SPEAKER_01 (28:49):
Is he not uh is he not making it tonight?

SPEAKER_07 (28:52):
No, uh Eva picked up a shift at uh hospital.

SPEAKER_03 (29:00):
Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_07 (29:11):
Sound of freaking the sound of we're gonna try to
get done what we gotta get doneand make things happen.

SPEAKER_01 (29:20):
Yep.
And then once we uh go.
Looks good.
Yep.

SPEAKER_07 (29:30):
Hey, look at that jar heads, duct tape, a hammer
and some nails, we can make ithappen.
Yep.
Whatever we gotta do.
So you know we need, I think weneed like a department budget
for podcast stuff.

SPEAKER_04 (29:47):
You're talking the wrong way.
You should have hit me up lastyear.

SPEAKER_07 (29:50):
So we have like two or three people sitting back
there with a soundboard andcomputers, and we don't have to
pull up chairs with ceilingtiles.
in a homemade stand.

SPEAKER_04 (30:02):
How about do a fundraiser?

SPEAKER_07 (30:04):
We're rigging it up.

SPEAKER_01 (30:06):
No, the writers group donates a lot for this, so
software stuff and yeah this uhthis soundboard was this is a
pretty high end soundboard toowho know it is numbers says hey
hands from the back can I haveyour number oh you're getting
hit on you get some comments mywife's watching yeah she's

(30:29):
always watching we love it whenNile yeah my wife's got her and
phone is she's it's it's star69.
Nice can I say that hi dear allright so I suppose let me get a
little bit of this out of theway um talked to a couple

(30:50):
friends of mine um who are alsoin real estate and got some got
some talking points nothingnothing too crazy nothing more
than uh you know I don't knowmaybe 15 20 minutes of chat time
and maybe some Q ⁇ A if you guyshave anything but um but

(31:10):
basically in addition to some ofthe other stuff uh that I that I
do I am a licensed real estateagent uh real estate salesperson
state of Michigan um I am arealtor but I am not your
realtor so this is just generalinformation that's my disclaimer
that's a disclaimer yeah um butI I specialize in the VA home

(31:35):
loan uh helping veterans gettheir uh benefit um problem is
in the industry it's got alittle bit of a fear associated
with it um why I don't reallyknow but there are a lot of
realtors who have had negativeexperiences with the program and

(31:56):
in years past you know maybesome of those were founded to a
certain extent um but also inthe past few years there's been
a lot of positive changes and alot of things that have come
down the pipeline and um andmade it just a really a really
competitive program so umthere's some arguments out there

(32:19):
uh pro and con so I'll get tothose here in just a minute um
but I'm just gonna pull up alittle bit of information uh
this is right on the VA websiteum but uh basically if you don't
know uh if you are an honorablydischarged military veteran um

(32:41):
and there are some specific umcriteria so please reach out uh
with that um but uh between likenational guard qualifications or
active duty qualificationsthere's there's a little bit of
nuance there so you have toreach out and and figure out
your specific um uhqualification but nonetheless

(33:04):
the program in in general uhallows you to um get a uh
guarantee for a home loan not aguarantee as we guarantee you
get a home loan that's not whatthat means it just means that
the VA backs your home loan inthe case of default um which is

(33:25):
one of the first pros and cons.
A lot of people argue that VAloans go delinquent a lot and
everything else.
Don't really know why that hasanything to do with anything
during the processing of atransaction but nonetheless if
you are a listing agent and youare presenting offers to your
client to accept and maybe youadvise based on previous

(33:49):
experience that you know hey VAloans haven't worked out for me
and my prior clients maybe yousway them against a veteran
trying to get a home you know sothat's one of the arguments that
I hear and just quick Googlesearch um I I previously

(34:09):
attended a continuing educationum that uh that had a slide deck
about some of the specificstatistics but um I don't have
access to that slide deckanymore uh I thought I did but
anyway quick Google search umoff the top of your head any
ideas as to what loan type hasthe highest uh default rates in

(34:35):
the country FHA very good verygood um talking about VA I
expected you to say VA but noyou are correct FHA FHA has the
highest loan default rates um ofany other loan uh product um
currently it sits at about 11%give or take uh versus

(35:00):
conventional um at what was ituh 2.62% and VA at 4.7% so um
that's one of the things thatyou know the CE that I attended
uh about a year and a half agotalked about that was one of the
pros and cons that theyaddressed pretty quickly in

(35:24):
addition to that some of theother things that people argue
about is you know the appraisaland that VA appraisals are
really hard to get through andeverything else um not true if
you if you have a solid home youknow homes age you know there's
there's some wear and tear andmaintenance that needs to be

(35:47):
done and if you don't do it thenyeah maybe you might have a
problem but uh for the most partand in the uh all the VA loans
that I've done uh in the pastthree years I have done over two
million dollars in VA loans andout of all of those I can
probably count on one hand howmany transactions I've actually

(36:08):
had that really stopped thingsup and off the top of my head I
can really only count two andthose things were still fixable
so you know main things theylook out for are you know
whether or not the home issanitary.
If it's on uh a septic or a wellthey're gonna make sure those

(36:28):
things are safe they're gonnawant inspections um they're
gonna make sure that the home'snot infested with pests in
certain areas of the countryhere in the state of Michigan
only certain counties actuallyrequire a VA pest inspection
Isabella County and where we areand our neighboring counties uh

(36:49):
Macosta do not require a VA pestinspection but they do the they
do the sanitary for septic nowright yeah well yeah but it's
not actually not required unlessthe loan uh company whoever you
decide to go through your yourlender unless they require it
for underwriting purposes thenyou have a different story there

(37:11):
but um but uh but at any ratecontinuing on um the main
pillars uh of the VA home loanbenefit is that you have no down
payment requirement whereasconventional sometimes says 5%
some of the other you know thatin closing costs well I'm

(37:33):
getting there that's anotherbullet point um but um the other
you know like USDA or FHA orwhatever they might have a 2% or
2.5% or whatever the percentmight be um and then there's
lenders that have differentprograms with those but um the

(37:55):
down payment uh is not requiredthere are limited closing costs
um that does not mean you won'thave closing costs uh there are
you know property taxes proratedin the process there's fees you
know to get a home inspection ora septic inspection or whatever

(38:16):
those are costs that you gottapay either up front or and
potentially at closing if theinspector participates in that
fashion um I utilized the VAloan oh you did back in in 1995
sweet I'm still in the home atthe time I purchased I purchased
a hundred and forty thousanddollar home in 95 and it cost me

(38:41):
$2,000 to move in and I got acomp I got a a very comparable
interest rate as well.

SPEAKER_05 (38:48):
Right the big thing was a termite inspection believe
it or not in Wayne County at thetime myself and my wife were
shopping for another home wehave a real estate agent and our
bankers specific to VA loansbecause I had such a such a good
experience the first time andwhy not do it a second time

(39:10):
right I thought you could onlyuse it one time.

SPEAKER_01 (39:12):
No you can use it multiple times really yes only a
one time like first house nopenope now if you decide to buy a
different house you know and yousell the first one then yeah
your eligibility has to becleared from the first one but
yes so the first sale has to becomplete before you can even do
the next one is that what it isuh no I wouldn't say complete

(39:32):
you know because if you're ifyou're listing your house for
sale and buying another one thenthe though those timelines can
overlap a little bit there'sthings that can be done okay so
I don't want to say that it hasto be completed but well the
reason why is because like okayfor instance I can coordinated I
think is the better word I'dlike to say the devil's advocate
I could list it buy anotherhouse and they go like I'm just
gonna pull that off the marketand not actually sell the other

(39:55):
house.
Right.
No that would definitely getcaught that's what I'm asking
you it would be coordinated andthen upon close they would
report it to the VA that it'sbeen you know sold and then well
there's another question to thisyou do a VA loan down the road
your mortgage is sold severaltimes over the years.
For sure okay is that stillrecognized as a VA loan yes no

(40:19):
matter who handle has thatmortgage yep so when a mortgage
is sold to another servicer theyare legally not allowed to
change the terms of yourmortgage they buy it as is okay
what if you refinance if yourefinance it's technically a new
okay mortgage but still the samething.
So if you refinance get a betterrate or whatever you're still

(40:42):
locked into a VA refinance loanif that's what you did.
They call it the Earl theinterest rate reduction loan IRR
L I R R I think there's a thirdR in there.
I don't know anyway but it'sit's the V8 Earl loan um and uh
now uh may is not probably not agood time I mean reach out to a

(41:04):
local loan officer that youtrust for at a lender but uh for
the most part maybe now's not aperfect time to use the Earl but
uh say the rates you knowbecause we're we're floating
anywhere between depends on yourlender but anywhere between six
seven percent ish right now soyou go into a VA loan right now
and say five ten years from nowinterest rates drop like they

(41:24):
did in the COVID years.
You know I'm in a home right nowVA loan I got a 3% interest rate
I'm pretty happy with it and I'mprobably not going to do
anything with it.
However, you know that's not tosay somebody who's buying today
might not have that opportunityyou know so say five ten years
from now they get uh betterrates they can do the VA Earl

(41:45):
loan it is still a VA loan umand the uh purposes of that loan
is to get a is it to get abetter rate is there a fee with
those loans when you do thatthere are some fees um however
let me look that up as wellbecause some of these fees
closing um uh the VA funding feeand whatnot if you are uh rated

(42:09):
disabled by the VA you areexempt from some of those on
certain things so a hundredpercent or just any rate let me
look it up for you uh fundingfee exemption VA um let me
double check here it is it's ohit's okay so the VA home loan
website is like 40 differentpages depending on what you're

(42:32):
looking at so I can't I can'tpull everything up at the same
time um so let me pull this uphere well we thought you would
have showed up with all theanswers not have to look around
excuse me you know he's openthat up and says when is the
current administration going tolower the interest rates who's
this Trey Trey's being facetiouswhen is the current

(42:55):
administration going to lowerthe interest rates that's what
Trey asked well as soon as Chinacomes up with another virus
we'll you'll have lower interestrates I hope that solves your
question well inflation is goingto really shoot up so they'll
probably raise the rates againyeah as soon as Anthony Fauci

(43:16):
your non-elected governmentofficial tells you to wear a
mask and stay in home then yourrate will go down all right so
here's your answers about thefunding fee so if you're using a
VA home loan to buy buildimprove repair or refinance a
mortgage you will need to pay afunding fee unless you meet

(43:37):
certain requirements.
If you meet the followingrequirements you won't have to
pay the funding fee.
If you're receiving VAcompensation for a service
connected disability you receivecompensation for a service
connected disability but you'rereceiving uh retirement or
active duty pay instead umyou're receiving dependency and

(43:58):
indemnity compensation as asurviving spouse of a veteran or
you I have a service or yourservice member who has received
a proposed or memorandum ratingbefore the loan closing date or
your service member on activeduty who before or on the
closing date provides evidenceof having received a purple
heart.

(44:20):
Also if you do pay the fundingfee you may be eligible for a
refund if you are later awardedVA compensation for a service
connected disability theeffective date of your VA
compensation must be retroactiveto before the date your loan
closed.

(44:40):
So if you have pending you knowyou're going through that whole
process and it's pending and youdon't have an answer and you
close on your loan but theyaward you something you can go
back and get that refunded sowhat a great program.
Yeah so this is all available onthe VA website all right on the

(45:01):
on the thing there that put thelink up oh look at you Go Tech
man I'm so proud of you someonehas to someone has to do your
job no thanks appreciate thatall right um so well we have the
nerds yep uh there's a coupleeach other well and and here's
the other thing I will um I willtell you when I'm not familiar

(45:25):
with something or when I amthat's the kind of realtor I am
um but I will throw out theresomething um if you have a home
in a VA loan that you areselling um and this is very
sticky it depends on the lenderand so I would definitely reach
out to a loan officer to figureout how that works exactly on

(45:48):
their end.
But a VA loan is assumable ifthe buyer is also eligible for a
VA loan.
Wow so um if you have uh liketake me for example let's say I
sell my house and I got my 3%interest rate and you know

(46:08):
certain criteria are met and allthat uh there is a possibility
that a buyer who is eligible forVA can inherit my loan my loan
basically so um so that is alsosomething I personally have not
actually seen that happen inwhat I've done uh because you
know a few years ago in theheight of the COVID years

(46:30):
everybody was just getting theirloan and you know good rates
easy peasy lemon squeezy and wedidn't really have to deal with
that but um I have a suspicionthat now that the rates are
higher we might see more uh loanassumptions so we'll see what
happens with that so I did arefinance in 22 um with uh like

(46:53):
a two and a half percent I wentconventional but I'd have even
done better if I went VApotentially um the the reason
that you may or may not againloan rates are weird I don't
understand how that worksbecause I'm not a loan officer
but I do know that on a generallevel uh VA loan rates sometimes

(47:17):
are more competitive than aconventional because you have
the VA backing your loan but Imay have gotten out of a fee you
got out of the fee I may havegotten out of the fee through
the white to the through therefi what fee would you have got

(47:38):
I had a I had a fee I can'tremember what it was it wasn't I
I want to say it cost me athousand dollars it'd be
interesting to look into but I'mjust trying to do the all
scenarios because we haveveterans from from 20 to to
every age group because of thedesert wars so we've we we fit

(48:00):
every bracket you know everydecade at this point so what
you're saying is is awesome andalso the information that you're
given if you're a young veteranand you're establishing your job
and you have the potential tomake even more money being that
you can you can do the programand and get the lower rate I
mean it's just a plus plussituation for these veterans

(48:23):
right that maybe under 40 thatare in their first home.
Yeah right and then one of theother things that we uh we saw a
lot um in the in the argumentthat I heard a lot of loan
officers uh talk about um uh wasagain at the height of COVID
when mortgages were cheap youknow you got good rates and

(48:43):
everything people are out therepaying twelve fifteen hundred
dollars for a two-bedroomapartment when for the same
amount of money you can haveyour own home that was an
argument for a long time for acouple of years and if you're a
veteran and you're 100% rightyou're tax exempt right you're

(49:04):
tax exempt and and you'reprobably your mortgage
potentially could be taxed rightso and actually that's a good
point so um VA um uh excuse meproperty tax specifically only
in the state of Michigan are you100% exempt if you are rated
100% uh permanently and totallydisabled by the VA in the state

(49:28):
of Michigan you are exempt fromproperty tax um this year uh is
a little bit different um whereif you previously every year you
had to show proof that you werepermanent in total um but this
year is the last year that youwill have to do that so um this

(49:50):
year if you've already done itgreat um from this point forward
you no longer have to do thatannual filing um and you only
have to change it if you sellthe house or move and you know
then you have to that that isabsolutely true and and I was
there when the governor hadsigned also the if you are our

(50:11):
if you were the widow of aveteran 100% you only have to do
it once because his disabilityis never going to change because
he's passed away.
Right.

SPEAKER_05 (50:18):
However I I would give the advice of anybody
that's doing that right now for25 to do it one more time just
so you don't get stung justbecause you have a municipality
that that is unaware and youwill win in the end but why put
yourself to that aggravation wecan simply go down and take care
of it.
I would recommend doing it onemore time.

SPEAKER_01 (50:38):
And all it takes is a quick Google search there is a
document you can fill out onyour computer you print it you
sign it and then you print out acopy of your uh award letter
from the VA and you just turn itinto your local tax assessor and
it's a done deal it it can takeyou no more than an hour to do
you know uh and all that sojumping back to uh uh pest

(51:03):
inspections just real quick uh Ipulled up that website and
forgot to mention it so wooddestroying uh pest inspections
are required for all propertiesin the following Michigan
counties Allegan Barry BarrionBranch Calhoun Cass Hillsdale
Ionia Jackson Kalamazoo KentLeewin Lenough sorry Livingston

(51:27):
McComb Mason Monroe MuskegonOakland Oceana Ottawa St.
Clair St.
Joseph Van Buren Washtenau andWayne any of the other counties
unless your lender requires itas part of your underwriting
process you do not have to havea VA pest inspection now is that

(51:49):
going to save you a thousanddollars no a pest inspection you
know if you if you have a homeinspection with it it might be a
hundred a fifty a hundred dollarextra charge it might be however
the inspector wants to wants tocharge for their service but um
I've seen you know it saves you60 bucks or um I've also seen

(52:11):
some inspectors out therebecause they want to give a a
veteran's discount but don'treally know how to do that I've
negotiated on behalf of myclients where I'm like hey
person uh is a disabled veteranuh we need a home inspection for
our own purposes to make sureit's a good home but in addition
you know I'll ask do you offer aveteran's discount if you do

(52:34):
great if you don't I've proposedare you willing to throw in just
a pest inspection as part of itand nine times out of ten oh
yeah sure I'll do that noproblem you know so it's it's
something uh super easy um uhthat's that's easy to be handled
so um and basically if if you'recurious I'm dangerously curious

(52:58):
but uh if you're curious whythose uh those counties it's
really the frost line yeah youknow it's the frost line of you
go so far north and you're notgonna have that problem when you
uh when it gets so cold and youknow like what gaylords had
hundred and some odd feet orfeet hundred and some odd inches

(53:19):
of snow this year broke a recordI mean everything's frozen those
those insects are they're deadyou know it's it's um
interesting but and then uh oneof the other things is uh
private mortgage insurance VAloans do not have private
mortgage insurance uh and sothat is also something that

(53:41):
saves you know a few hundreddollars in a monthly payment so
uh between uh again if you're100% permanent and total
disabled by the VA um then you'dget your uh property tax
exemption plus no PMI you knowyour home your home uh mortgage

(54:02):
um payment every month could befloating around a thousand bucks
you know so that's my situationyeah so I know we keep bringing
up the whole uh 100% totaldisable but I just see a thing
here saying that for anybodywho's got a service connected no
matter what percentage it isthat they're exempt from paying
the funding fee.

(54:23):
Yep what is the VA funding feethe VA funding fee is the fee
that funds the VA loan program.
So what amount are we talkingabout?
What on a on a particular loanwhat amount are we talking
about?
Read it right there for the nextparagraph.
For many first-time borrowersthe fee is 2.15% which on a
$250,000 loan is about$5300bucks.

(54:46):
But borrowers without anexemption can ask the seller to
pay that fee or pay itthemselves up front or over time
by rolling it into the mortgageso there's options uh for
affordability there's there'sthings and you know with with a
client I would talk to themabout that or actually maybe not
even me maybe the more likelyexcuse me the loan officer would

(55:08):
handle that conversation but atthe end of the day on closing
day when you go to sign yourpapers it's gonna be on your
closing disclosure for you do wehave any comments on this no I
just I just kept hearing the100% thing so I want to talk
about outside of that sure sureokay I just want to make sure
there wasn't someone else nowith a question or something so

(55:29):
yep so just in case there wascool um let's see let me check
my uh notes here want to makesure I went over everything um
so could you expensesinspections appraisal closing
and repair costs yeah so I Ipretty much went over everything

(55:51):
let me ask you this yeah couldyou ever see a situation where
it would be beneficial for aveteran to not use the gale mill
I don't want to say that therewould never be a situation but
at the same time I was all Iwould always advocate to use
your benefits because let's behonest Ray how many times do you

(56:13):
see veterans go without usingtheir benefits for whatever
reason I mean and it doesn'tmatter what benefit just either
they don't know about it or ifthey do they just don't want to
participate you know how oftenhave you seen more often than
I'd like to see and and some ofthe instances that if they did
use them they probably would nothave put themselves in a

(56:34):
predicament that they couldn'tget out of.

SPEAKER_05 (56:38):
So that that's the situation as well.

SPEAKER_04 (56:40):
Right.

SPEAKER_05 (56:40):
You earned them you you put your life on the line to
to have these benefits and youdidn't do it specifically for
that you did it to serve yourcountry but um that's part of um
as our national commander was inWashington DC last week it is
the contract honor the contractand that that's more geared to

(57:02):
the federal government but it'sthe same thing.
You signed the dotted line andthe U.S.
government signed that ifsomething were to happen to you
or if you were to become ill orwounded or disabled they'll make
sure that that you will receivethe benefits um that are
promised to you.
So please use the benefitsthat's what they're there for.

SPEAKER_01 (57:23):
And then you had mentioned you know getting into
a situation that you can't getout of later that reminds me of
a situation that I actually hadand this goes back to the point
of uh people being scared of theprocess.
So the appraisal process looksat the bones of the house they
look at um excuse me not theappraisal they the appraisal

(57:47):
process looks at the value ofthe house uh the home inspection
process looks at the bones andmake sure everything's healthy
and safe you know I had asituation where um the uh well
existing well on the propertywas only 25 foot deep and it

(58:08):
wasn't registered by the countyso the county health department
had no idea it existed they youknow and you know it fell
through the cracks at some pointsomewhere uh somebody sunk the
well didn't file the paperworkwhatever well that's the whole
point of going through thisprocess to cross your T's dot

(58:29):
your I's make sure everything'ssafe and kosher uh because that
25 foot well does not qualify uhunder health department
requirements so in thisparticular case um I was
representing the buyer theseller was forced to drill a new
well it was on a four-acreproperty the well uh the issue

(58:50):
with the well they went all overthis four acres and and tested
dozens of spots and they couldnot find water and they finally
found water in a far off sectionand they had to drill down it I
think it cost the cellar eightgrand or something to drill down
I can't remember how many feetdown they went but it was I

(59:10):
think it was a couple hundredfeet to get to the water and
then the other thing is testingthe water making sure it's safe
making sure there's no lead orPFAS or nitrates or whatever you
know that's these requirementsmay be annoying if you come
across a situation where itholds up your loan but at the

(59:32):
end of the day it's to protectyou.
We always at least I always saythe three S's safety security
and sanitation so those are thethree things that a home
inspector and an appraiser isgoing to be looking at an
appraiser might call out youknow hey you know your front

(59:53):
steps are too high you need arailing because we're in
Michigan right doesn't take muchfor ice to develop and And next
thing you know, you're got anextra crack in your ass because,
you know, you just fell downyour front steps.
So it's it's little things likethat.
Um, but they are important, youknow.

(01:00:13):
And so the other thing is thinkabout uh maybe a septic.
Um not all the time are septicinspections required, but I
always recommend them becauseyou don't know what's going on
in there.
When was the last time that thatsewer line was Mr.
Plumber over here?
Roots growing into the sewerline, roots, you know, messing

(01:00:34):
with a septic.
Um maybe you have an old septicand it's collapsing.
You how do you know?
You know, so that stuff isimportant because off top of
your head, what minimum 10 grandfor a new septic system?
Easy, right?
So probably so talking aboutgetting yourself into a
situation that you can't get outof, allow this process to

(01:00:58):
protect you because if you don'tand you get mad and frustrated
and you just power through it,you might have a situation like
that where the county says,Well, you've got a whole bunch
of sewage here, and now it'sthat sewage is you know not
properly treated, it's creepinginto you know your neighbor's
well head, and you know, it'sit's a whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 (01:01:21):
So you're gonna have to call Mr.
Plumber because they're Mr.
Hanky.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:01:27):
Just because it says they're flushable wipes, they're
not.
They are normal wipes.
They will go down, but they willcost you a lot of money.
Right.
So please flush them by the bagand then give me a call.
Daddy needs a new boat.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:46):
I was just gonna say, those are job security for
you.
Um man, that's funny.
Umny Martinez commented, itsays, or was that or was that
earlier?

SPEAKER_06 (01:01:58):
A while ago.
She's my uncle's a good example,not using his benefits.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:01):
Oh, okay.
All right.
Who is that?

SPEAKER_07 (01:02:04):
I don't know who that is.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:06):
Manny Manny Martinez?
Manny Martinez?

SPEAKER_06 (01:02:10):
Oh.
Where do you get Martinez from?

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:15):
It was on my notifications.
Maybe he talked earlier.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know who that is.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:20):
When you when you're done with the VA, I've got a a
presentation I can give aboutstate benefits.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:25):
Oh, sweet.
Yeah.
Um I'm really hoping Bretton'sabout done.
Yeah, I'm I'm um I'm almostdone.
Uh I just want to go over acouple more things.
So purchase loans and cash outrefinance loans are available.

SPEAKER_07 (01:02:40):
Um refill.
Yeah, excuse me.
You know, the dispensary acrossthe road if you run short.
These are gonna be another twohours.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:47):
I'm not, I'm almost done.
There was a third R in there.
So interest rate reduction andrefinancing loan.
Um is that uh there's also aNative American direct loan and
adapted housing grants.
Uh, if you have disabilitiesrelated to service and you need
help getting your uh homeadapted so you can live there

(01:03:09):
safely and and whatnot andcomfortably.
Um that's all available too.
So that's that's what I got forthe VA loan.
Like I said, uh as a real estateagent, I you know that's kind of
my bread and butter.
Um, so please reach out uh to alocal realtor.
Uh if you're here in IsabellaCounty, please reach out to me.

(01:03:30):
Um be more than happy to help.
Uh, you can usually find me atuh VFW3033.
Joe.
Oh shit.

SPEAKER_07 (01:03:39):
Oh man! You ready for one?
I said yeah.
I came back out with an emptyone and tossed it.

SPEAKER_09 (01:03:44):
That's a buddyfucker.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:46):
Yeah.
Yeah, blue falcon.
Damn.
Oh, here I'm bucks, Mark, butcommon sense.
I don't know.
All right.
But all right, that's what Igot.
I'll shut up now since Charliewants me to shut up.
I I think all of America istired of hearing you.

(01:04:06):
You know what?
Not all of America's listening.

SPEAKER_07 (01:04:09):
Well, those that are.
Those that are.

SPEAKER_05 (01:04:13):
Michigan veterans.

SPEAKER_07 (01:04:14):
Hold on a minute.
There's only five people.
Okay, I'm gonna wake everybodyup now.
Brent's done.
Oh sh.

SPEAKER_05 (01:04:20):
Michigan veterans.
If we got a veteran or a widowof a veteran that has immediate
needs, we have the MichiganVeteran Trust.
Michigan Veteran Trusts, they'rethey're there for the reason of
helping veterans that have thatmaybe need a roof in their

(01:04:44):
house, a furnace, or somethingthat happened that will change
the dynamics of the household.
The criteria for it is obviouslyan immediate need.
And second is if this repair isdone, will the veteran be able
to resume their normal life?
You fit that criteria, they'regonna help you.

(01:05:07):
Obviously, they're not gonnathrow money into an empty hole.
They're not gonna they're notgonna help if you cannot save
the household.
You're not gonna put money intoa big hole.
But they are more than willingto help veterans that will be
self-sustaining after the needis met.

(01:05:28):
The way to access that isthrough your county service
office.
Um, in Isabella County, I don'tknow who your county uh service
office is in Isabella County.
Um, however, you can also go tothe uh website of the state of
Michigan, Michigan VeteranTrust.
Yeah, um, it's through theMichigan Veteran Affairs Agency.

(01:05:51):
Google it, you can apply online,or you can go to your county
service officer.
I would highly encourage.
I sit on the board in WayneCounty, and I can tell you that
uh we have a lot more yeses thanwe have no's.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:04):
Sound of freedom, sorry.
Just to say for it, right?

SPEAKER_05 (01:06:08):
That is it.

unknown (01:06:09):
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:10):
He's gonna copy and paste the link into our
comments.

SPEAKER_05 (01:06:13):
It's an awesome program, and this is a program
that truly has helped countlessveterans, and we continue to
help countless veterans.
The initially, this was startedby an endowment of a family in
1947 of a donation of$50 millionfor donated to the state of

(01:06:33):
Michigan for to help World WarII veterans.
Today, um the money isprotected, so it does not go
into the general fund of thestate of Michigan.
Um, there is a board of trusteesthat protect the endowment of
the money that is there.
And um, being that it's a stateprogram that our state is

(01:06:56):
obviously too large foreverything to go through
Lancing, that is why you canapply through your county
service office.
Please, please, if you're inneed of it, reach out.
I see so many cases that havebeen approved that helped and
enabled a veteran family to getthrough the hump so they can go

(01:07:18):
ahead and carry on for the restof their life.
That's all I got on that.

SPEAKER_07 (01:07:25):
So I want everybody to know that you know, at our
VFWs we have a service officer,and you talk about a county
service officer.
Our post local to your, youknow, wherever you live, there's
typically a VFW probably within10 or 20 miles of where you
live.
They all typically have aservice officer.

(01:07:47):
Those service officers are notbonded, right?

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:51):
So or technically trained, right?

SPEAKER_07 (01:07:53):
Basically, what they do is they'll they'll get your
veteran, if it's you, yourspouse, your your dad, your mom,
whatever, in touch with aDepartment of Michigan VFW
service officer who is licensed,bonded, uh, trained, um, to be

(01:08:14):
able to get that information toyou as well as your county uh
service officer as well.
So, you know, we we have them atour posts, but they're more or
less a lack of better term, kindof a pass-through.
They're they'll collect yourinformation and get you in touch
with a person that you need tobe in touch with to do your your

(01:08:36):
paperwork or or whatever optionthat you have.
So I have a renter here at thestorage unit side of the
building, but um, so if you hearthe door, but um yeah, so you
know, don't get discouraged togo to your local VFW post to ask
and ask about some information.
Those people can get you incontact with.

(01:08:56):
If you can't find somebody toget in contact with, they'll be
able to get you in contact withthe appropriate person or
persons to get you get the ballrolling.

SPEAKER_05 (01:09:07):
You brought a really good point with that.
It's not just in it's not justthe VFW, your American Legion
Post, they all have serviceofficers that that a title in
the post.
The VFW is going to change thattitle to some kind of resource

(01:09:27):
officer so they can guide you toa service, credit accredited
service officer that does thisfor a living.
This is what they went to schoolfor, this is what they do.
They they specialize in this,and they those are the
individuals that you want to beyour advocate.

(01:09:49):
Uh in the state of Michigan, wehave got a unique situation.
We have what they call thecoalition.
The coalition is made up of VFW,American Legion, the uh DAV, and
V VA.
I'm missing because I'm I'mdrinking bourbon, folks.

(01:10:10):
In any rate, we all worktogether as part of the
coalition, and these are thebest of the best.
And they're there to help and toserve you.
Utilize them, they will changeyour life.
These individuals, that is whattheir passion is.
That is what they do.

(01:10:30):
They want to be your advocate towin these benefits for you.
They know how to deal with theVA, they know what needs to be
done, they they know the legaljargon, the medical jargon, and
they're equipped to handle you.
So please utilize them.

(01:10:51):
Back to the Michigan VeteranTrust.
That is a different programentirely.
Um, the reason why I suggestedto go to the County Service
Office is because each countyreceives money from the state of
Michigan, from the MVAA, and Iwant to say the Department of

(01:11:13):
Human Services.
And receiving that money, theyare a network to go ahead and
have these applications in handand to assist you.
But if you have any questions oryou don't want to deal with that
county service officer, to to goahead and apply for the Michigan
Trust, go online through theMVAA, and I know that that

(01:11:36):
website is being put on the uhit's being displayed.

SPEAKER_07 (01:11:40):
It's already been put on there.
So for anybody that maybe ifyou're listening live right now
on Facebook, then obviouslyyou're gonna you're gonna see
the comments.
But when this gets out toSpotify and our other platforms,
uh, we do have a soup sandwichpost 3033 podcast on Facebook
page.

(01:12:00):
Um please try to find this uhthis live um and then go into
the comments and you'll find allthose links for this
information.
Um, so I mean it's prettyincredible.
We have listeners in Japan, wehave listeners throughout Europe
that have subscribed and followus on these different things.
So they might not know about theactual Facebook page that we

(01:12:23):
have, they're just listening uhyou know to a bunch of
degenerate veterans.
Can you uh talking?
So make sure that you find us onTwitter.

SPEAKER_05 (01:12:30):
Degenerates uh we have anybody from Kentucky?
Because I'm drinking Kentuckybourbon.
Can you uh link our here?

SPEAKER_07 (01:12:40):
I'm gonna I'm gonna do this so you don't have to get
up.
So this is are you drinking aJefferson?

SPEAKER_05 (01:12:44):
Yes.
No, the uh Woodford.

SPEAKER_07 (01:12:48):
Woodford.
So this is Jefferson in here, ifyou want it.
It's in my Marine Corps asMarines, we drink out of it, it
it matches your on-the-rocksglasses when you can't her.

SPEAKER_06 (01:13:07):
So it going back to your Michigan Trust Fund, just
kind of reading this site.
There's a couple other things ittalks about on here that they
have um additional freefinancial counseling, housing
counseling, head report review,final wellness tools.
So if people are needing helpwith it, there's a phone number
they got here and call andyou've helped 1-800-550-1961.

SPEAKER_05 (01:13:27):
Yes.
Now I'm gonna talk about eachcounty.
Each county in the state ofMichigan, they are they have a
burial allowance.
So if you have if you have aloved one that passes away,
that's a veteran.
There's a minimum of$300 eachcounty will go ahead and refund

(01:13:49):
the family member that paid forthe funeral.
Um, let's say the funeral isprepaid and the veteran did it,
and the veteran paid for it, andyou're a loved one.
You still want to go ahead, youmay have a receipt for something
or another.
I highly encourage you to goahead to your county service
office or veteran services withthe copy of the death

(01:14:10):
certificate and an invoice inthat you paid something and go
ahead and get that refund for$300.
I know I live in Wayne County,it's a thousand dollars.
My understanding is Washingtonis a thousand dollars.
Now you're talking a lot ofmoney.
Yeah, so$1,000 for a widowveteran that had paid for a

(01:14:31):
funeral is a lot of money.
So every state or every countyin the state of Michigan has
some kind of benefit, and I knowit's minimum of three hundred
dollars for the burialallowance.

SPEAKER_07 (01:14:43):
And probably one of the other things we should talk
about too, as far as uh youknow, some burial or death
benefits.
Oh, here you go.
That's right, dollars.

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:54):
Europe, Asia, and North America.

SPEAKER_07 (01:14:56):
Six six in Europe, one in Asia.
91 North America.

SPEAKER_05 (01:15:01):
My counterpart for the Department of Europe when I
was a state commander, he was aU of M graded Michigander.
He is a can he was a postcommander of Paris, France.
That's there for a bit.
Helsinki.

SPEAKER_07 (01:15:17):
Wow.
It's pretty it's pretty wildwhen you when you go.
Southampton it tells us on someof the platforms where people
are listening from.
But very humble.
Um you know what's what's what'scool is a lot of funeral
directors um know and understandthe funeral homes to get uh you
know a copy of the G214 to proveof service so you can get the

(01:15:41):
the bronze plaque and stuff forthe back of the headstone, and
or if they're you're not gonnado a headstone, it's the marker.
Um all those different things uhfree to veterans.
Um so there's there's a lot ofbenefits, uh burial benefits
that that coincide not justnecessarily in cash, but things
that they've earned.

(01:16:01):
So, like when my grandfather uhwas buried, he didn't he didn't
want a headstone, so he just hasthe the bronze marker on on a
slab of granite, you know.
Uh it's pretty cool.
So, and you you see those a lotin the cemeteries, but it's
always a good recognition ofthat veteran, and that's just
another benefit that's earned.
That's the history of ourcommunity, that's history of our

(01:16:23):
country.
Yeah, yeah, so there's a lot.
451 North America.

SPEAKER_01 (01:16:28):
These are across all of our episodes.
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_07 (01:16:31):
So, yep.
Yeah, pretty cool.
You know, so that's why that'swhy I want to make sure that
even you know, the 230, 450,even in North America, you know,
that have that have listened in,um, find it find us on Facebook
because we do we do post in thecomments a lot of links, as
you've heard tonight ontonight's episode, that if you

(01:16:53):
have anybody um in Michigan, orit doesn't matter if you're in
Missouri or Florida, your stateprobably has something very
similar to to what you're whatyou heard tonight, right?
And or with a realtor and orwith your county or state
service officers or whoever, um,to just to help guide through
the process for those earnedback.

(01:17:16):
Because you're right, you know,I mean, a lot of us don't take
advantage of the things that weshould until it's too late,
right?
And we want our family membersto know if it is too late that
it's not necessarily should beforgotten either, because they
can still get something at somepoint, right?
That you've earned.
So, and I hate to hear that, youknow, like you've won an award

(01:17:38):
or you go through this processand you won this.
I hate that.
You shouldn't you shouldn't bewinning anything.
You should be getting what'sentitled to you.
You should be getting the theother end of the contract that
you signed, right?

SPEAKER_05 (01:17:49):
That's honor of the contract.
Yeah.
That was the motto inWashington, D.C.
last week about our VFW NationalOfficers.
Honor of the contract.

SPEAKER_07 (01:17:58):
Yeah, which is what they would expect out of us.
So we should expect the same outof them, you know what I mean?
So at the end of the day, goodinformation.
Uh hopefully a lot of peoplestayed awake during it, but we
appreciate you, buddy.
I know you can flip me out infront of the camera on you want.
We gotta we gotta make fun ofyou for something.
We have to.

SPEAKER_05 (01:18:16):
I mean so when are you gonna be like a future
quartermaster at the district orthe department or anything else?

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:22):
Discussion.
I have had this discussionalready.
Um, and I don't really know.
Um, you know, it and actuallywith a former department
commander, uh, that'd be aperfect conversation to have.
Um, you know, we have a lot ofveterans entering um eligibility

(01:18:45):
um who are not partaking in theeligibility, um, and those that
are, a lot of them have youngfamilies and and cannot devote
time uh to the you know postsand whatnot.
And number one, it's it's reallysad.
It's really sad becauseespecially me, you know, I've

(01:19:06):
got I got three kids, uh 13, 8,and 3.
You know, uh two are for themost part, you know,
self-sufficient and can be leftat home alone for an hour or two
or whatever, but uhthree-year-old definitely not.
But when all three haveactivities going on and you
know, we're we're you knowspread 40 different directions,

(01:19:27):
I mean it's just not possible toto focus on you know everything.
And um, you know, I I have hadlots of conversations with
people, and usually the twoarguments that I hear are either
I don't have the time to devotebecause it does demand a lot of

(01:19:50):
time, you know, um, or they havesome bone to pick with the VFW,
and uh, and I actually had oneguy that I I couldn't help.
I was I was really trying topush for for a membership
opportunity, and you know,unfortunately, the gentleman

(01:20:11):
really needed um some help,mental health counseling help
because uh, and I quote hisexact words, I will never join
the VFW because quote, theykilled my father.
And he explained what happened.
He said his father was a Vietnamveteran, and he was never really

(01:20:33):
a drinker, but when he got back,he started drinking, and then he
joined the VFW to be with peoplethat understood him and drank
some more and drank some moreand eventually drank himself to
death uh and died of alcoholism.
And this gentleman blames uh hiscounterparts for allowing this
to happen.

SPEAKER_05 (01:20:52):
Well, I blame the VA exactly because this this this
comrade, this veteran neededtherapy.
Right.
So he sought therapy in a clubroom amongst other veterans, and
he's self-medicated.
Yes, he did.
He's self-medicated.

(01:21:13):
We have club rooms in our post,just like American Legions, just
like other organizations,fraternal organizations, they're
the purpose for us to be amongsteach other, but that's not our
primary existence.
No.
Our primary existence is what wediscussed earlier.

(01:21:37):
Veteran advocate claims, dealingwith VA, benefits, benefits,
right.
This is the club room side of itis a social room.
Right.
The VA failed this man, right?

SPEAKER_01 (01:21:55):
Or maybe he did not know how to navigate through
that system because it's redtape and it's bureaucracy and
it's confusion and you know.

SPEAKER_07 (01:22:05):
But back to my original sound meant to be easy,
unfortunately.

SPEAKER_05 (01:22:09):
My original comment was I know what you do at your
post.
You're a custodian of thefinancials of the post, and
you're a charitable man, you'rea veteran advocate, and you're
exactly what we need.

(01:22:30):
And and I hope and pray that Isee you go through the ranks
because of that.
Because it's not about holdingrank, it's about serving
veterans.
Right.
And you're all in all the time,every time.
And we need you, and we needpeople like you.

SPEAKER_07 (01:22:46):
Yeah, appreciate it.
Well, and this is kind of one ofthe things uh you know we Brent
and I had the conversationabout.
When you're at your local postin his position as the
quartermaster, especially herein Mount Pleasant, we're
extremely busy post.
Employees, prior quartermasters,colleagues, technology.
Well, yeah, prior quartermaster.
But we're an extremely busypost.

(01:23:08):
It is a lot of work.
When you have a canteen, you'rerunning a business, the business
side.
And when you move up to thedistrict level, now you're at
quarterly meetings.
There's not a lot that reallygoes on.
You have mileage, you have stufflike that for those officers
that get these things, right?
Stipend stuff.
You have to keep accountabilityof there's um, you know, some

(01:23:30):
investment accounts and thingsthat you have to keep account
on.
But majority of the time,sometimes the higher you go,
it's a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_04 (01:23:39):
That is a less it's I wanted to elaborate.

SPEAKER_07 (01:23:42):
It's less, it's less busy because I I as the director
of the writers groups, I couldtell you it's less busy for me.
I have more responsibilities,but it's a lot less busy work,
to be honest with you, right?
I I have to give monthlyreports, I have to do things, I
have to go to conferences,conventions, give reports over
the broad spectrum of whateverybody's doing, so I have to

(01:24:03):
keep accountability of them, butI don't have to keep a daily or
weekly accountability of them.
I keep a monthly accountability.
They turn a report into me, Iput it in a different
spreadsheet, I know whateverybody's doing, I send out a
couple emails, that's it.
It's pretty simple.
I mean, honestly, it's prettysimple.
When I was the president of theMount Pleasant group, I was busy

(01:24:23):
all the time.
I'm updating agendas every day.
Every day.
I'm on the phone with thecommander, I'm on the phone with
the quartermaster, I'm talkingto the membership, I'm doing
this, I'm doing that.
You're managing a business.
Now I'm just in the upperechelon of that business, it's
just less busy, you know what Imean?
So for you to go to from a postquartermaster, former post

(01:24:46):
quartermaster, if that makes itbetter, to a district
quartermaster, you're gonna seeyour workload cut by two-thirds,
if not more.
Right?
So you're gonna have to berequired to be at four meetings
a year, and you're gonna be onthe phone with you know your
district commander and stuff allthe time or whatever, but it's

(01:25:06):
gonna be a lot less work.
Right now, maybe when you get tothe state level stuff, you know,
that's probably a lot more busy,but you're gonna get this lull
period, right?

SPEAKER_05 (01:25:16):
Where it's but you mature and you learn how to
handle it.

SPEAKER_07 (01:25:20):
For sure.

SPEAKER_05 (01:25:20):
The thing is, is when you're a post commander, a
postcore, post quartermaster,when you go to bed at night, you
go to bed with all the problemsof the post.
Light bill, there's a ceilinglink, there's a cooler's work.
Oh shit, are we gonna haveenough people for a meeting?
We have employees.
Did we pay the did we pay theinsurance for the employees?

(01:25:41):
Trash.
Workmen's comp.

SPEAKER_10 (01:25:43):
Right.

SPEAKER_05 (01:25:44):
On and on and on.
Oh my gosh, we had a scuffle inthere.
What's gonna come over there?
I hope we don't miss somebodybecause we might have LCC come
in.
It's endless.
I had no gray hairs when I waspost commander when I started.
When I got done after being postcommander for three years, I had
gray hairs.

(01:26:08):
That's our next commander.
He looks just like Santa Claus.
He's a cross between Aziz Topguitarist and Santa Claus.
But uh when I was a districtcommander, I didn't have those
worries.
I you just don't, but you do,and then obviously everything's
changed as a state commanderbecause you worry about

(01:26:28):
everybody.

SPEAKER_07 (01:26:28):
Yeah, you just you just make sure that their
reports are in and you look attheir dashboards and you're
like, hey, how come you haven'tdone?
How come I don't have how comeyou it's easier?

SPEAKER_05 (01:26:36):
You grow with the job and you grow with the
stress, right?
But the district is gonna be theeasiest job you'll ever have.
And and I'm not being fair toyou because I whisper and I
chomp Scott Taylor's ear all thetime.
Hi Scott, if you're there.

SPEAKER_07 (01:26:51):
He's actually gonna be joining us uh probably in the
next one or two of these, too.

SPEAKER_04 (01:26:55):
So I I hope I can return for that one.

SPEAKER_07 (01:26:59):
I reached out to him tonight and said, hey, you know,
uh just what we want you to joinuh in one of the in one of the
podcasts.
I'll raise up tonight, so I'llget in touch with you the next
one.
Can I invite myself to that one?
For sure.
If you're up, if you're upnorth, I'll I'll always let you
know when we have them.

SPEAKER_05 (01:27:15):
I'll just I'll sit in the corner of drinking your
bourbon.

SPEAKER_06 (01:27:19):
Pretty bottles, she said.
Your sexy bottle?
What's that?
Natalie said that's a sexybottle we brought in.

SPEAKER_07 (01:27:24):
Well, because it's a Marine Corps bottle, yeah,
absolutely.
How do we do it?
The matching glass.

SPEAKER_01 (01:27:30):
And my dear.
Be careful, you might end upcutting glass there later.
You know.
Sorry.
Um, you know, and but going backto having young families and
stuff, and and the point I wasgonna make was by far, this

(01:27:54):
latest conflict was the longestin our country's history,
spanning over 20 years.
That's an entire generation.
There are people that were inthe tail end of the war who were
born after the war started, andwho had parents who served in
the same places.
Very true, you know, and sowe've got 20 years of people who

(01:28:15):
are all having their ownfamilies.

SPEAKER_05 (01:28:17):
If they're a life, if if they are a veteran family,
they may even have grandparents.
Exactly.
Right.
Do the math, I mean there couldbe veterans there, there is that
are old enough to be my mychild.

SPEAKER_01 (01:28:40):
Right.
So it's just like how do we getthese younger veterans involved
while also respecting, you know,family time.
Family time.
And it's it's like help me withthe words.
Because, you know, becauseespecially those of us who want

(01:29:02):
to advocate for for the post andfor there's things like we gotta
do like youth activities at thepost.

SPEAKER_09 (01:29:09):
Right.
You know, we gotta bring ourkids into the post.
Right.
That will that will help get theparents in there.
Right.
You know, like we should it'snot just a bar.
We should have had a we in thepost a long time ago.
You know, that's good for kidsand adults.
Oh we.
Oh, we, okay.

SPEAKER_06 (01:29:27):
Yeah, like that bigger game takes a lot of it.
Not a wee wee.

SPEAKER_09 (01:29:30):
Just a wee.
Don't get excited.
You know, because we could haveadult bowling tournaments,
right?
Yeah, that's something we cando.
Write that down for next one.
But that's a great idea.
It really is.
One time somebody was gonnadonate one and it just never
happened.
You know, we're doing thingslike Easter egg hunts and things

(01:29:53):
like that, but we're trying toget the kids to come in the post
and do a Non-drinking times.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30:03):
Right.
Oh, and you know, and holidays,like you lead up Thanksgiving
every year.

SPEAKER_09 (01:30:08):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30:08):
You know, that's great.
Which, by the way, I don't knowif you knew this, but our Google
page, somebody left a review acouple of months ago praising
how great it was.

SPEAKER_09 (01:30:18):
Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30:19):
So, and I happened to respond.
I happened to respond to it uhjust because I got a
notification about it.
I don't know why I didn't get anotification, you know.
So that was our 10th Scott.

SPEAKER_03 (01:30:33):
Okay, cool.
I hope you're part of thatgroup.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30:35):
We'll see.
We'll see.

SPEAKER_03 (01:30:37):
That was our tenth year.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30:39):
Yeah, so but you but you're right.
Um, you know, Thanksgiving,Easter, you know, our flag day
ceremonies, 4th of July,Memorial Day.
Those are all family events.
And we need more family.
But we need more family events.
Um, because I remember, and infact, we've got members, my boys

(01:31:00):
both were raised in the Post.

SPEAKER_05 (01:31:02):
Right.
You have that really goodHalloween, the trunk retreat.
Right.
There you also have an EasterEaster event.
Right.
Um I have a three-year-old, andand we've attended every Easter
at your post.
So I I love that bunny lookingEaster bunny.

SPEAKER_01 (01:31:20):
And I and I love the idea of getting a Wii or getting
an Xbox or a PlayStation orwhatever, doesn't matter what it
is.
But the point is, is you know,to have some stuff to you know
allow the kids to have fun, youknow.
Um and it's ice turn.

SPEAKER_09 (01:31:39):
I thought more a Wii because you could get like
bowling tournaments or othertennis tournaments, whatever.
More physical tournaments.

SPEAKER_01 (01:31:48):
That'd be that'd be so fun.

SPEAKER_09 (01:31:50):
Yeah, something the adults could do too.
Right.
So when we're looking for eventson uh Thursday nights when we
don't have anything going on inthe post, we could have a
fucking bowling tournament.

SPEAKER_07 (01:32:02):
Right.

SPEAKER_09 (01:32:03):
You know what I mean?
That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_07 (01:32:04):
Are we st are we still talking about adventures
with young kids and stuff?

SPEAKER_01 (01:32:08):
Yeah, we're we it it morphed into conversation about
you know what family events andstuff that we do and stuff like
that.

SPEAKER_07 (01:32:15):
You know, one of my and I think I've spoken to this
before, just it's just differentgenerations, right?
So I remember growing up as akid, my dad and my grandfather,
you know, going down to the clubafter work, having a couple
beers, go home, dinner wasready.
I was already dropped off topractice baseball, football,

(01:32:35):
soccer, whatever it was.
And then after dinner, mom came,picked me up, and that was it,
right?
Like nowadays, as fathers, whichis primarily the majority of the
veterans that are out there, Imean, there's a lot of service
women as well, veterans, but youknow, it's frowned upon if we're

(01:32:58):
not at every kid's event, andwe're not a thousand percent
into what everything that thekids are doing, you know.
If it's not 50-50, then it'sshame on you, you're you're a
bad parent, regardless if it'sman or woman.
Um, but the generational shiftis what's hurt organizations

(01:33:21):
like ours, the legions orwhatever, because you don't do
that anymore.
You don't work till five, godown and have a couple beers,
you know, with the buddies orwhatever, and then you go home
for dinner.
Now it's like you gotta racehome, grab the kids, run to
practice, do this, do that, dothis, do that, and if you do

(01:33:42):
anything any deviation fromthat, you're a terrible parent.
Well, some of it is a piecewe're missing.
Do the two, but do the kids haveto do baseball to soccer to
football to track to this?
Do the kids have to play 109sports?
No, they don't.
We allow them to do that asparents, rather than saying,

(01:34:04):
look, you know, you're gonnaplay baseball, then in the fall,
maybe you're gonna skip andyou're gonna wrestle in the
winter and you're gonna maybe dotrack in the spring.
But you don't need to play 19sports, and I don't need to run
my life around every singlething that you do, but we allow
that.

SPEAKER_06 (01:34:21):
Well, then too, if they're so if they're within you
know a short walking distance,be self-sufficient at a certain
age.
I remember fighting my parentsas a kid from like 12 years on,
like, can I just run home afterpractice?

SPEAKER_07 (01:34:33):
Right, but it's only three miles, but it goes from
you know swimming to dance tocheer baseball.
That's all I did is I walkedhome.
We allow the kids to do way morethan we did.
Like I had baseball, like letthem grow football, and then in
the spring, you're back tobaseball.
Like you didn't have dance, youdidn't have swimming, you didn't
have soccer, you didn't have allthese things.

(01:34:56):
So there was just a lot of it'sit's morphed into we let our
kids do a hell of a lot morethan we did as kids.
And then we complain that whenthey get home, they're so tired,
all they want to do is sitbehind the phone or the video
game, they don't want to go playoutside.
No, because they've been outsideplaying 109 sports that you
allow them to play, right?
So it's hurt our organizationbecause we don't interact as

(01:35:19):
adults anymore until you're 60and the kids are gone out of
school.
You know, we've just allowedthem to do too much as parents,
and right.
I mean, that's that's that's mytake on it.
And and I'm sure you know Ray'sseen it at his post and
sacrifice.

SPEAKER_05 (01:35:39):
My child, my children, my my son is raised in
a VFW.
I worked full-time when I was astate commander.
And I was a state commander andI had a I had a two-year-old at
the time.
It can be done if you want itwant to do it, without
sacrificing anything from yourson.

(01:36:00):
My son is three years old and heknows the pledge of allegiance.
My my son is three years old andhe has respect for the flag.
My my son is three years old andhe has how are you doing, sir?
Um, I can't think of a betterway to raise a son, to raise him
in a veteran organization thatthat that includes him with love

(01:36:22):
and tenderness and care.

SPEAKER_01 (01:36:24):
There is something beautiful about that.
Because how how many storieshave we heard where the public
school system has taken thePledge of Allegiance and the
flag out of the classroom?

SPEAKER_06 (01:36:35):
And then they put the rainbow flags on it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:36:36):
Yeah, and then they replace it with a rainbow flag
or whatever.
And I'm not I'm not trying tobash anybody, but I'm just
saying it it seems a little umhelp me with the word seems a
little oxymoronic.
Exclusive instead of inclusive.
Right.
Uh, you know, and what's what'swrong with having pride in your
country?
You know?

(01:36:57):
Um, and you know, that's that'sjust kind of my take on it
because uh I don't want to gettoo deep into the politics.
This the the intention of thispodcast was it was never to have
any kind of major politicsdiscussions, but um what's trade
doing here?

SPEAKER_07 (01:37:14):
Good luck with that.

SPEAKER_01 (01:37:15):
And it's I mean, it's okay if it comes up every
once in a while.
I'm just saying it this is not apolitics podcast.

SPEAKER_02 (01:37:22):
There you go.

SPEAKER_01 (01:37:22):
Um wait for the comment to come in.
So yeah, me too.
Um, but you know, stoplistening.
You maybe, maybe not.
I hate.
I don't know who it is though.
Yeah.
My buddy Mike is watching.
Hi, Mike.
Um, but anyway, so you know, itthere's a give and a take.

SPEAKER_07 (01:37:41):
There's there's, you know, you know, you you you just
got done talking about yourselfindividually and how much time
it takes away from familythings, right?
And then you hear Ray say, look,I was state commander with a
little baby, right?
And I was able to do it and workfull time.
I and work full time and I wasable to do it.

(01:38:02):
So what's and granted, one childto three, right?
There's a difference, and agesare difference as well, right?
But if that's what you want todo, and you have a support
system at home that agrees withthat, and is willing, and your
children are willing to havesome sacrifices, because maybe
they're not gonna be able to dodance.

(01:38:23):
Only two kids can be insomething at a time.
So every you know, fall, it'sgonna be these two, spring are
gonna be the other two.
The next fall, the third kid'sout, and it's gonna be you know
what I mean.
You might have to rotate aroundwhere it might not seem fair to
the kids, but no offense.
Why does it have to be fair forthe kids?
Right, they're your kids.

(01:38:44):
Life isn't fair.
We all talk about life isn'tfair.
You have to make sacrifices, youhave to do things.
Right.
So you might as well start thatat a young age where they
realize and they understand andthey get the respect and they
have the understanding.

SPEAKER_09 (01:38:55):
You can't with a participation award that
sometimes that's the way it is.

SPEAKER_07 (01:38:59):
And my kids were able to do everything they want
to do, and it was to mydetriment that I didn't get
involved at the VFW earlier,like I should have.
Right.
Because I'm the same guy thatturns around and says, Well, you
know, why don't you do it?
But I didn't do it, but I wasn'treally even involved.
I think Andy was probably, he'smy oldest 19 now, is probably

(01:39:21):
like 10, 11, 12 when I startedgetting involved at the post.
Right.
So it was easier for me.
I didn't have a three-year-old,right?
So what I'm saying is, you know,I mean, we as veterans, if we
want to see these entities existfor the community action stuff
that we do, for the veteranservice stuff that we do, we
talk about, right?
We have to be involved andengaged, but you have to have

(01:39:42):
that support system at home thatallows you to do it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:39:47):
Right.
And, you know, and she'swatching, so I'm gonna shout it
out.
Not because I'm held to anystandard or anything, but hi
Tiffany, my better half iswatching.
Uh Bill House is here.
Hey Bill, nice to see you.
I don't know why you're notsitting here, Bill.
He works in Detroit, lives inDetroit now.
Yeah.
Well, what the hell'd you dothat for, Bill?
I'm just kidding, actually.

(01:40:08):
I knew that.
I knew that.
I'm just messing with you.
But um you forgot.
You're right, I did forget.

SPEAKER_06 (01:40:16):
He's wasted off the carburetor.

SPEAKER_01 (01:40:18):
I got I got a carbus.
I'm I'm a little wasted overhere.
Um no, but uh, you know, ityou're right.
There's a support structure,there's there's you know,
viewpoints both ways.
Um but you know, when I'm at thepodcast recording an episode, or
I'm at the VFW or whatever, uh,my three-year-old, you know, I

(01:40:42):
walk back in the house and youknow, she's getting ready for
bed, and um she will look at meand goes, Did you have fun at
the BFW?
You know, and her cute littlethree-year-old voice.
And you know, yeah, you know, Ihave a great example last night,
right?

SPEAKER_07 (01:40:58):
So we're we're developing that though.
Well, we're on on I always dothe devil's advocate thing.
So your your kids are only youngonce.

SPEAKER_09 (01:41:07):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:41:08):
And if you're gone, right, you're not participating
in their younger years and allthings.
So I I totally understand.
And I'll one side argue that weneed to be away from the kids or
restrict what they do to beinvolved at the post, but then
the same instance I'm gonna sithere and tell you when the kids
are little, they're only littleonce, and you need to be
involved in it.
So it's the oxymoron, right?

(01:41:28):
It's like how do you juggle it?
But I was in the military forwhen they were little, yeah.
And trust me, I was deployed fora year or two, right?
So I mean I I get it.

SPEAKER_09 (01:41:37):
Well, I was in the military when they were little,
right?
But that's what I'm trying tosay.
So you're talking about 90% oftheir fucking life when they
were little, right?

SPEAKER_07 (01:41:45):
That's and that's what I'm trying to say.
Is like, you know, when you getdeployed for a year or 16 months
or 12 months, you miss thesecond birthday, the third
birthday, and they're almostfour years old by the time you
get home, you know what I mean?
Where now you're just talkingabout, oh, I had to miss a
couple hours.
Right, three or three or fourtimes a month, or five times a
month, or whatever it is.
Last night, right, we'redeveloping post and house

(01:42:07):
bylaws.
Brent was on the phone, he hadhis daughter on his lap, and
we're hacking away on a GoogleDoc or whatever, on the phone
with each other for an hour andten minutes where he's at home
with the kids, you know, and I'msitting in my living room and
we're going over stuff for overan hour on the phone.
So it's a sacrifice that youtake where he could have been
reading a story or watching ashow or doing whatever with his

(01:42:29):
daughter.
Right.
Instead, we're at home, he's athome working on stuff, and I'm
just sitting in the living roomby myself, you know what I mean?
So it's easier for me to say itthan it is for him to do it when
he's got those things standingin front of you, right?

SPEAKER_01 (01:42:42):
So um I want to do a quick shout out.
I see my sister's watching.
What's up, sis?
Sorry.
Haven't talked to her in alittle bit.
I'm sorry.
I had to say it.
I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_07 (01:42:53):
That's what I'm saying.
We're I'm sorry.
I was apologizing becauseapologizing to his sister.
Right, that's what that's whatwe're saying.
We're sorry that she has to be asister, even though it wasn't
your choice, that was your momand dad's sister.
I had to take that.

SPEAKER_03 (01:43:04):
That was Barry when Barry called.
That's all right.

SPEAKER_07 (01:43:08):
Oh, yeah.
Um did you tell them what youwere doing?

SPEAKER_03 (01:43:11):
No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_07 (01:43:12):
Thank you.
Because I don't want them toknow what we got going on.
This thing is shut downtomorrow.
They never invited me to that.

SPEAKER_06 (01:43:24):
Oh man.
We have to change the name.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:43:27):
Even though we have the disclaimer, no affiliation
with anything.
I don't want to go down thatroad.
Thanks for thanks for until it'sin the dark.

SPEAKER_01 (01:43:37):
I think it's hilarious.
Like, uh, and I don't, I reallydon't know if this is a policy
now or not, but with socialmedia being what it is, you
know, you see a whole bunch ofthese people on TikTok, and
they'll post videos ofthemselves in uniform.

SPEAKER_02 (01:43:50):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:43:50):
Which, but in their little description, it says no
affiliation with the DOD.
It's like, can't you just takeyour uniform off?
Can't, you know, can't you justyou know, but their identity
comes from them wearing theuniform and they get the views
because of the uniform, and soput it in the background.
So I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 (01:44:09):
But I initially text Barry while we're standing here
who says, Scott wanted me toinstall the officers at your
next district meeting.
Also, they got an event onSaturday.
So I says, Well, I've got mydistrict on Saturday, so I'm
thinking Kentucky bourbon iskicking in.
He says, you know what?
I want to be the 11th districton Sunday morning.

(01:44:32):
So I text them, I'm yourHuckleberry.

SPEAKER_02 (01:44:35):
We called him right away.

SPEAKER_05 (01:44:38):
How did you know we got a request for Saturday?

SPEAKER_04 (01:44:42):
Barry, believe me.

SPEAKER_07 (01:44:44):
And here in and this is a great example of the needs
of the VFW.
Right.
Right?
Barry Walter.
He's your age, a little older.
Oh, a little older than that.

SPEAKER_05 (01:44:55):
He's ultimately much older than you.
Oh, he's 20 years older than me.
Is he?

SPEAKER_07 (01:44:59):
Oh wow.
And and here it is, 8 o'clock.

SPEAKER_01 (01:45:02):
Hey, we better we better be careful about talking
about Barry's age on thispodcast because then we will get
shut down.

SPEAKER_07 (01:45:10):
But I mean, he's a Vietnam.
I will I will email him my stufffor my directorship at 5 in the
morning.
And by like 6, 6, 6:30, I get aresponse.
He doesn't sleep.
It's 8 o'clock at night on aTuesday night.
And he's working.

SPEAKER_05 (01:45:26):
But Barry Walter.

SPEAKER_07 (01:45:27):
He doesn't shut down.

SPEAKER_05 (01:45:28):
He we have the best quartermaster adjutant in the
whole country.
He was a quartermaster adjutantwhen this Department of Michigan
VFW had 85,000, 90,000 members.
Now he he was in totalretirement, and I brought him
out of retirement, and we aresitting around 31,000, and he's

(01:45:50):
over there working harder thanhe ever did.
He's not a spring chicken, andhe just thrives on it.
He's a Vietnam veteran.
My understanding, he's a tunnelrat, and the man does not sleep.

(01:46:13):
Which tells me he does notsleep.
You go into his vehicle, he hasnews going on, blaring.
You call him at his house,there's news going on blaring.
It's just what he does.
He is a true American patriot,and we are so much better with
him.

(01:46:33):
He has done so much forveterans.
And also, he is a career veteranservice officer.
In his retirement, he neverretired.
I go to the office, my office,I'm the state commander, and
he's over there with clientswriting their claims or asking
questions.
So what do I do?

(01:46:54):
I walk into another officebecause he's taking care of
business.
Because it ain't about me, it'sabout veterans and it's about
what he does.

SPEAKER_01 (01:47:05):
And I want to throw out one thing as well, because
you know, Barry does do that,but uh, you know, speaking about
our advocacy in general andwhatnot, I just want to throw
something out there.
Uh, a huge, huge benefit that isused nowadays is the GI Bill.
Right?
To to get us veterans, you know,college educated and and all

(01:47:28):
that.
And uh I just want to throw itout there.
Who is responsible for gettingthe GI Bill and bringing it into
existence?

SPEAKER_07 (01:47:36):
Yeah, veterans organizations.

SPEAKER_01 (01:47:38):
Exactly.
It was the VFW, it was theLegion, it was the AMVETS.
I don't know exactly who had itway back in you know 50s, 60s,
40s when it was passed.
I guess I'd I'd have to do theresearch, but it was the
veterans organizations.
And so here we are with veteransorganizations that you know in
in some areas are are strugglingfor membership, and they're

(01:48:01):
forgetting who gave them, whoadvocated, who who lobbied, who
got them the benefits that theyhave now that they're enjoying.

SPEAKER_07 (01:48:08):
And you know the worst thing is like you just
said we're struggling.
And and I would actually like tosend Barry an email, just like,
hey, test, is my email working?
To see how fast he responds toit.
Because I almost guarantee youwithin about 10 minutes I'll get
a response.
Yeah, I got your email.
What's up?
Just just that's that characterof the guy that he works, works,

(01:48:30):
works, works, works, right?
But when we when we when we talkabout that struggle, we have
probably more veterans now thanjust shy of what we had during
World War II, right?
Yeah, you had the draft system,you had a lot of things going on
back then.
Um, and two major wars.
Well, we've had over 20 years ofwars at this point, right?

(01:48:53):
23, 24 years worth of war.
So we have a ton of veterans outthere.

SPEAKER_04 (01:48:58):
The Vietnam era had tons because they had a draft.

SPEAKER_07 (01:49:00):
Yeah.
But I still think Gulf War eraguys, I think there's still
more.
I think I read an article.
Maybe but maybe.
But it very well could be close.
Um, I just think it's just adifferent time, right?
With the way family structuresrun.
That that's the reason why westruggle.

(01:49:20):
Roy Thomas, our member, ourquarter, current quartermaster,
purple heart recipient, um,which he calls the enemy
marksmanship badge.
Right.
That's what that is.
And he's the guy with the partytrick.
It's like, hey man, he's out ofthe bar.
You buy me a beer, I'll put myeyes on the table, he'll pull an

(01:49:41):
eye out, set it on the table,you gotta buy him a beer.
Uh he's he's he's he's stand up,stand-up, great guy.
He's at the post.
Uh he's 100% disabled, uh,mechanic on the side, kind of
thing, and uh, and he's he's agood quartermaster.
He had a great system coming inwhen Brent left him.
Um but um you know he has been amember of our post.

(01:50:05):
So I had to take it.
Probably probably 15 years, 12,15 years.
Was never active because hiskids were younger.
And he was, you know, thebaseball coach and was at the
soccer games and the dancerecitals and the things.
And now his kids are gettingolder, it's easier for him to
and I hate to use the word lesspresent.

(01:50:25):
I think the kids, you know, likeyou throw them in everything and
find out what they're good atand what they like, and then you
kind of they kind of make theirpath in the sports or the arts
or whatever, right?
So you just throw them ineverything when they're little,
right?
Um, so I think his time isbecoming more available as the
kids get older and they theynarrow down what they want to
do, right?
Right.

(01:50:46):
So, um, and he's he's been avaluable asset, but he'll be the
first one to tell you I wasn'taround because the kids were
older, you know.
So now I'm becoming more activeto grow around and engaging.
Natalie, don't worry, I'll drivehim home.

SPEAKER_09 (01:51:03):
You just you just toasted a white claw or whatever
the fuck that is.
No, he's the marine class.

SPEAKER_04 (01:51:10):
Well, you know what I did.

SPEAKER_09 (01:51:11):
No, he I know he toasted it.
He tainted, I know, but hetoasted him with a white claw or
whatever the fucking ding.

SPEAKER_01 (01:51:20):
Here, let's try it again.
I'll make it ding.

SPEAKER_09 (01:51:23):
There it is.
No, it's not toast in a sissydrink.

SPEAKER_04 (01:51:27):
Well, you gotta remember, I remember when you
were walking Billy's bluff.

SPEAKER_07 (01:51:31):
Oh man.
I actually stayed in that roomone time and I almost slipped on
it still.
It was still up there.
What?
You puke all over the upperdeck.

unknown (01:51:41):
Holy shit.

SPEAKER_07 (01:51:44):
What haven't you?
I gotta hear this story now.
Okay.
So let me finish the story.
So, anyways, uh, you know,having having a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 (01:51:51):
Natalie says, thank you, Charlie.

SPEAKER_07 (01:51:54):
Really to drive him home.
Yeah, to drive him home.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.
I said, Don't worry, Natalie,I'll drive him home tonight.
You guys can come get the car tomove.
I'll park it inside, it'll besafe.
But uh, yeah, so it's it's it'sjust one of those things where
um, you know, I think we havejust as many veterans when
you're talking about Barryhaving 80,000 members or 60,000

(01:52:18):
members, and we're down to 30.
I think we have that.
We we could we could still getto the 60 number, the 80 number.
We have the veterans in thestate to do it.
We just don't allow it becausethe way the family units work
nowadays, the social stuff afterwork or whatever else just
interferes with family life andis not acceptable to do anymore.

(01:52:39):
It's not until those kids getolder.

SPEAKER_05 (01:52:41):
And you brought up a valid point, and and that is the
dynamics of our posts across thestate or or or of the country.
I was just talking about theguy.

SPEAKER_01 (01:52:52):
Yeah.
Sexy man just walked in.

SPEAKER_07 (01:52:55):
He did.
He just went, I think he hit thehead.

SPEAKER_06 (01:52:58):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:52:59):
Um, so, anyways, we're talking about Camp Trotter
and Billy's Bluff.
So, Camp Trotter, which we'vetalked about on this podcast
before, is in the state ofMichigan.
Um, we have a kids' camp thatruns from like June to August.
This year, uh, they're not gonnahave there's some maintenance
issues and some things that weneed to do.
We can only do in thesummertime.

(01:53:20):
We can't work on the camp in thewintertime, so we need to do it
during the summer.
So there's not gonna be kids atthe camp this year, so we can
get some electrical water thingsfigured out.
Uh, we can only do during thesummertime, so kids will be back
next year, but runs typicallyJune through August, end of
July.
Uh six, seven weeks, yeah.

(01:53:40):
Um, but uh anyways, so theriders' groups throughout the
Department of Michigan, MountPleasant, specifically,
Harrison.
Um, we had uh a few guys fromHolland come over over the last
couple trips over there.
We do a lot of maintenance work,picking up sticks, raking grass,
blowing off the roofs, puttingin the dock, all those things.

(01:54:03):
So donated training.
Have you ever met Ray Lopez?
I haven't.
Nice to meet you.
So uh Ray Ray Lopez, bro.

SPEAKER_01 (01:54:13):
Uh never happens.
Former state commander.
Army guys are best.

SPEAKER_07 (01:54:17):
Never department commander, but former past.

SPEAKER_01 (01:54:21):
We always out numbers.

SPEAKER_07 (01:54:22):
We always say past.
Jar heads, jar heads are alwaysoutnumbered.
I like that where you've gotnumbers except for five,
brother.
I I hate to tell you, even ifthere's eight of you in one
Marine, you're still on numbertwo.
Well, always.
That's the attitude we have.
So, um, so the camp camptrouters, like I say, we've
talked about it a hundred times.
So riders' groups uhparticipate, donate money, buy

(01:54:44):
equipment stuff there all thetime.
So we typically go to the campin in May, we do some cleanup,
put the dock in.
We go back in September, we pullthe dock out, do some more
cleanup.
Very active there.
So uh years ago, probably threeor four years ago, really before
the riders groups really gotinto it, Tim, Billy, and Travis

(01:55:06):
and Sencio went over forsomething and they stayed at the
camp.
And the camp was closed.
When we go there, there are nokids, no campers there.
Um I don't know why you guyswere there.
Do you want to tell the story?
But what are you guys doing overthere?

SPEAKER_09 (01:55:23):
There's no puking at all.

SPEAKER_07 (01:55:25):
So they proceed to go to Camp Trotter, and there's
a fire pit.
And I'm not kidding you, if thisfire pit's not 14 foot around,
you could put about four quarterwood in that thing.
It is humongous.
And it's for the safety of thekids.
So they're partying by thebonfire, and when the kids
aren't there, obviously we likebourbon, we like beer.
You know, we sit around, we cooksteaks, we do all kinds of shit.

(01:55:49):
These three idiots go over thereand they get hammered.
Hammered.
And Billy's Bluff is upstairsabove the kitchen, is a couple
bedrooms, three bedrooms upthere.
I've stayed in them one time andI stayed in Billy's Bluff room.
And it has an emergencystairwell that goes down to the

(01:56:10):
first floor in case of fire, andyou can't go down through the
kitchen.

SPEAKER_09 (01:56:14):
And me and Travis were sharing a room.
Uh-huh.
And in the middle of the night Ihad to go to the bathroom.
And you thought the bathroom wasI thought the bathroom was the
balcony.
At first you thought it was thecloset.
There is no closet.

SPEAKER_07 (01:56:31):
There is a closet.
Is there a closet?
There is a closet.
You thought the bathroom was acloset.
Travis threw you out onto thebalcony.
And then I finally got mybearing.
But the but the best part wasBilly, in in the state of
condition he was in, goes downthe stairs into the into the
kitchen.
Let's remind everybody I takesleeping medicine.

(01:56:52):
Yeah, okay.
Well, you can have yourdisclaimer however you want.

SPEAKER_02 (01:56:55):
Billy goes down sneakers into the kitchen, post
campers.

SPEAKER_07 (01:57:01):
There's ice cream toppings.
Squeeze squeeze tubs.
Decides at like two or threeo'clock in the morning, he gets
hungry.
He's like, he opens the fridge.
Oh, here's butterscotch icecream topping in a squeeze tube,

(01:57:21):
proceeds to put it over hisface, squeezes the shit out of
it.
Eat it.
The camp director at the time,who was there so that we could
be there, or they could bethere.
Isn't it Orville?
Orville was there.
He comes in and he's like, Whatthe hell are you doing?
And Billy goes, I'm hungry.

(01:57:45):
He's like, hey, put it back.
Whatever.
Billy goes back upstairs andgoes to bed.
Gets up in the morning, and he'stalking to Tim and Travis.
And he's like, Billy's runninghis hands, and if you can see
him on the live, he's got theBilly Goat goatee go already.
And he goes, What the fuck is inmy beard?

(01:58:09):
Stuff all in his fucking beard.
All over the teeth.
I mean, it was like a boy jackedoff or not.

(01:58:30):
Well, if you're seeing if you dothat color, you need to see a
doctor.

SPEAKER_05 (01:58:34):
Minimal, you scratch your balls.

SPEAKER_04 (01:58:37):
So it was a no container.

SPEAKER_07 (01:58:38):
It was like a it was like a what about Mary movie
where her hair is like combedall fucked up.
So Billy's original road namewas Butterscotch after that.
And then he proceeds to go tothis might be a year later,
might be six months later, theygo to the pool tournament

(01:58:59):
because Billy's a member of thepool league at our post.

SPEAKER_09 (01:59:03):
So is Ray.

SPEAKER_07 (01:59:04):
They have a state tournament, and it was in
Muskegon.
So they play, and it's you'reyou're there all weekend.
I guess it's a great time.
I'm not a fool shooter.
Um great camaraderie.
Uh it's post against post.

SPEAKER_09 (01:59:18):
It's a three-day tournament.

SPEAKER_07 (01:59:19):
They do all it, it it's it's huge.
It's crazy, it's crazy how bigit is.

SPEAKER_09 (01:59:23):
We're the only state that has one.

SPEAKER_07 (01:59:25):
Really?

unknown (01:59:26):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:59:27):
So they go over to Muskegon and of course, Tim,
staying with Billy and Amy, Ithink, at the time.

SPEAKER_09 (01:59:32):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:59:32):
All right.
So they come to ride back onSunday after getting hammered
Saturday night.
So they're leaving the parkinglot, and Bill has a uh coughing
fit, your choking thing that youwere doing.
Yeah.
So he goes to open the door tolike choke or puke out the door,

(01:59:53):
right, in the truck, and drivingthrough the parking lot at idle
speed, falls out of the truck.
In the parking lot, and thetruck continues to roll toward
the intersection.
Tim's in the back.
Tim's in the front.
Amy's in the back trying to diveover the seats.
They're trying to throw it inthe park, and it's like grinding

(02:00:16):
the gears, trying to get it in,and they're trying to get to the
floor.
Billy's laying in the parkinglot.
They finally get the truckstopped.
Billy gets up and goes, What thefuck happened?
Is he bleeding like a son of abitch out of his face?
Shows up to the pulse, he's allscabbed to hell.
So now he's got the new name,new road name of Humpty.

SPEAKER_09 (02:00:35):
Humpty.

SPEAKER_07 (02:00:36):
Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall or fell out of the
truck, and here it's a littlebit.
I would have called him Scarf.
And I'm thinking to myself, youfall out of a truck while you're
driving.

SPEAKER_02 (02:00:46):
That's like the other two had to get the truck
in the park before it went inthe road.

SPEAKER_09 (02:00:55):
Well, I was I was in the stopped position.
I was literally stopped.
No, I didn't have it parked.
And you fell out when it startedrolling?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (02:01:06):
Okay.
So, and I very well could havethe details wrong, but I wasn't
there.

SPEAKER_09 (02:01:12):
And I broke my nose for the third or fourth time.

SPEAKER_07 (02:01:15):
And then you fell down some stairs.

SPEAKER_09 (02:01:20):
Dislocated my shoulder.

SPEAKER_07 (02:01:21):
Dislocated your shoulders for it.
Yeah.
So yeah, you're definitely notallowed to walk by yourself.
So that's how he got Humpty.
Okay.
I will carry you down the stairshere at the Sky Lounge tonight
to make sure that's true.
Liability for sure.

SPEAKER_09 (02:01:34):
I don't I don't trust you at this point.
That's probably not a goodthing.

SPEAKER_07 (02:01:37):
And as a matter of fact, I don't like you sitting
at the high top bar.
You need to go sit in one ofthose chairs over there.
That might be too high for youat this point.
Oh shit.
Did you sign did you sign thewaiver when you walked in?
Yeah.
Okay, I just want to make sure.

SPEAKER_05 (02:01:52):
You you were a district commander with Roger
Fader.

SPEAKER_09 (02:01:56):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (02:01:56):
Yeah.
And Jerry Gorsky was yourdepartment commander.

SPEAKER_09 (02:01:59):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (02:02:00):
Yeah.
I remember that.

SPEAKER_09 (02:02:01):
Oh, I hated that.

SPEAKER_04 (02:02:03):
I remember that.
Roger loves you.

SPEAKER_09 (02:02:06):
Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 (02:02:06):
Yes.
Roger's your brother.

SPEAKER_09 (02:02:08):
Yeah.
Jerry didn't like it.
Jerry would.
Jerry, I love Jerry.
He he's a great guy.
Don't get me wrong.
But Jerry would call me while Iwas at work.
And the phones didn't work atwork.

SPEAKER_07 (02:02:22):
There might be like a mountain.
So he'd be mad at me.
If I didn't answer him.
And my phone wouldn't go offuntil I got in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_09 (02:02:30):
Cool.
And he'd always go, Bill, thisis Jerry Gorsky, State
Commander.
And I'd be like, I only know oneJerry Gorsky.
And first of all, we have cellphones now, so I know who's
called caller ID?
Yeah, yeah.
But he'd always throw in thedisclaimer, Jerry Gorsky, State

(02:02:52):
Commander.

SPEAKER_07 (02:02:55):
I tell you, that's a very prestigious position.
It is.
It's not it's a job.

SPEAKER_05 (02:03:01):
It's not to be done.

SPEAKER_07 (02:03:03):
Right, but it's also not a given position.

SPEAKER_05 (02:03:06):
Charlie, if your post says, hey, that trash can't
full and I'm standing next toit, you know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna freaking get that bag.
I'm gonna say, where's thedumpster?
They're gonna say over there.
I'm gonna say, oh fuck.
And I'm gonna go take the trashout.

SPEAKER_07 (02:03:25):
Yeah, but that's that's the way it is.
But I mean it's we love it.

SPEAKER_05 (02:03:29):
It's it's a very humble position, okay?
Like I said, I've cleanedtoilets, worked on air
conditioning machines, doesn't,and everything in between.
It's just what we do.
Yep.
You know what?
It's it's it's all volunteer,okay?
But the pyramid is like this,okay.

(02:03:50):
All the work is done at thebase, not at the top.

SPEAKER_07 (02:03:53):
No.
So it's exactly what we saidabout him moving up to district
quartermaster.
We told him the same thing.
It's gonna be a little biteasier than what you're used to.
Right.
And if who is a districtquartermaster?

SPEAKER_09 (02:04:03):
Is it colon?

SPEAKER_07 (02:04:04):
Yeah, colon right up.
And I I don't know if colon'sgonna run again or not.
I haven't heard that.
Unfortunately, we were down inmid-winter.
So we were checking out onSunday, and then we had our
false meeting.
Or we had our district meeting,and I didn't think I could get
Jen out of bed early enough tomake the trip all the way up
there.
So everybody's like, You canmake a district, you're making

(02:04:25):
them probably not.
How was your rep?
I made it.

SPEAKER_05 (02:04:28):
Well, I'm not hounding you because you know
what?
The only reason I made it isbecause I went to bed like at 10
o'clock.
Oh it was it sucked because theroads were horrible coming up.
Oh horrible, horrible, horrible.

SPEAKER_07 (02:04:42):
Yeah, they weren't they weren't much better when we
left it.
Like your head up now.

SPEAKER_05 (02:04:46):
Um yeah, and and uh you know you can't cancel it,
just hold it, and whoever showsshows if they don't, you don't
hold you don't hold it againstthem.

SPEAKER_07 (02:04:55):
Yeah, especially if you have bad weather.

SPEAKER_05 (02:04:57):
No, it was bad weather.
It was it was it was bad.
And and I know that I wasn't theonly one that came from Kalam
Zoo.
There was a couple people.

SPEAKER_07 (02:05:03):
Well Scott Taylor did, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (02:05:04):
It was it was horrible.

SPEAKER_01 (02:05:05):
Yeah.
So I that that actually bringsup a question.
Um bylaws talk about how uh youknow proxy voting or absentee
voting is is not allowed.
There's no proxy vote.
No proxy vote at any level, butum, or absentee voting, even you
can't vote absentee on stuff.

(02:05:27):
So, but especially those of usin the northern states where
blizzards are a common thing,and maybe not so much lower
peninsula, Michigan, but youknow, anyway, northern states,
snow, horrible weather, whatnot.
Um, is there any particularreason why National has not
authorized anything like that?

(02:05:50):
Or maybe even only for partialyear, right?

SPEAKER_05 (02:05:52):
Well, here's our here's our talk about voting.
Our state convention is held inJune.
Unless you're in the ArcticCircle, it's not a factor.

SPEAKER_08 (02:06:01):
Right.

SPEAKER_05 (02:06:03):
District meetings the they're they're well may,
but they're quarterly.
So it's it's it's a judgmentcall.
If I'm a state commander and inI monitored attendance at every
post in the state that went todistrict meetings, I was very

(02:06:23):
adamant about it.
And I was prior to that, and Iam now.
But my gosh, you know what,there's a human factor here.
If a post in Marquette in thedistrict meeting is is 25 miles
down a snow belt and and theyjust receive 20 inches of snow,

(02:06:44):
my God, they're not gonna makeit.
It's just the way it is.
So you you you know you got thehuman element, and I know every
state commander that we've hadthat they understand that and
and they they're forgiving ofit.
Our bylaws say that you need tomake, if you miss two meetings
as a district commander, or I'msorry, as a post commander,

(02:07:06):
you're relieved.
I've had I've had that happennumerous times.
I didn't relieve them, and andnor did anybody, because you got
the human element.
I've had accidents on the way,I've had heart attack on the
way, I've had snowstorms, I'vehad everything.
You just you know, it is what itis, and and that's fine.

(02:07:27):
I don't think it has to berewritten.
We just have to be human beings.

SPEAKER_07 (02:07:31):
Well, it well it wouldn't work because the way
that our national bylaws arewritten, you open up nominations
the month before.
So, for instance, at the post,in in March you open up
nominations, and then in yourApril meeting, when you actually
vote, you do nominations again.
So you can't do an absenteeballot because somebody
nominated in March, right?

(02:07:52):
They're still not in that well,right?
But then you have somebody newnominated in April.
Sure.
How do you get a ballot out tosomebody that's not at the
meeting to vote for?

SPEAKER_05 (02:08:01):
Well, they can't no, they got to be there to vote.

SPEAKER_07 (02:08:03):
Well, well, that's what I'm saying.
That's why we don't do absenteebecause we don't we don't have
snowstorms.
We don't I understand that, butwhen he was saying, why don't
they do absentee ballots?
Because you don't know who'sgonna be on the ballot because
we gotta be there.

SPEAKER_06 (02:08:15):
Now with right, that's why we don't have
technology and stuff like that.
Why isn't there a method forlike like Zoom meetings, people
log in?

SPEAKER_05 (02:08:22):
There there is meetings that are acceptable at
the post level that can be doneelectronically, and they have
their own set of rules at thepost level.

SPEAKER_01 (02:08:30):
Okay.
Um this is the first time I'mhearing about this because now
I'm really interested.

SPEAKER_05 (02:08:34):
They they exist, and and but I'm not gonna quote them
because I have drink so muchKentucky bourbon here.

SPEAKER_06 (02:08:40):
So in that capacity though, so let's say we're doing
a Zoom meeting, we had someweird storm that came through
for the April um voting.

SPEAKER_05 (02:08:50):
Because you're you're cuz you're because you're
RN Marquette.

SPEAKER_06 (02:08:53):
Yeah.
So you're at the Arctic Circle.
You log into that meeting, soyou're not at the post building,
and you need to vote.
Can you vote through the system?
Or do you have a couple ofthings?
What's your post bylaws on theday?

SPEAKER_05 (02:09:06):
There's a post-bylaw with this as well.

SPEAKER_06 (02:09:09):
Okay.

SPEAKER_05 (02:09:10):
But post bylaws dictate that if electronic
meetings are acceptable.
That the the nationalorganization has already went
ahead and made those mechanismsin place during COVID that
electronic meetings areacceptable.

SPEAKER_06 (02:09:27):
Because there was one other type of event that we
were talking about to where youget some of the older
generations that still want tovote, but they don't like to
drive it for dark.

SPEAKER_07 (02:09:37):
So, how do you get them in there to be able to do
the voting when unless you wantto hold your meeting at one
o'clock in the afternoon, butthat's gonna eliminate anybody
that works.
But that works.

SPEAKER_09 (02:09:45):
Yeah, so the government aren't capable of
zooming anyway because theydon't know how to do it.
No, yeah, but like when we'reold, we're gonna be able to.

SPEAKER_07 (02:09:51):
The issue that you're gonna have with
electronic meetings that I don'tlike.
I don't either.
Because here's here's theproblem.
You might have auxiliary membersthat are your family.
Yeah.
Okay.
So here's the deal.
Here's the deal.
Everybody sees me right now?
Yeah, what do you mean, man?
Okay, go ahead and meet me somuch for converter.
How are you voting that's gonnago get us up the round button

(02:10:13):
auxiliary?
I'm standing behind the camerawith a 40-mile drive.
You have no idea.
Those meetings are for postmembers.
Yeah.
So if you're doing it on acomputer, you want to talk about
you think our meetings are twohours or long.
Imagine doing a Zoom meeting.
Yeah.
Where now you've got peopletrying to comment in.
How does anybody at the meetinghear who's commenting in?
Yeah.
Like, we have no idea who'scommenting right now unless you

(02:10:35):
read it.
Yep.
With a delay.
Now there's a question.
Now there's a bunch of people onthe floor that want to talk
about it.
Now this person's got to waitfor the delay, then re-comment
back.
I mean, you you you would takeyou would take a two-hour
meeting and make it a four-hourmeeting by doing Zoom.
Right.
You want to be superhero?

SPEAKER_05 (02:10:56):
Then you have people that you if you have old timers
that that maybe attend maybeevery other post meeting or
every third post meeting, andbut they want to be a part of
that election process.
Pick them up.
Pick them, you damn frickin'right.
You're damn fucking right.
You go ahead and you pick themup.

(02:11:18):
You pick them up.
And and you do that.
Because you know what?
You know what they're gonna do?
Gosh darn it.
I love this post.
You want to do a real trip?
And everything that I've done inthe last 50 years just solidify
it.
Because I'm gonna be in, I'mgonna be there, okay?
I'm gonna be there with myfrickin' diaper in my in my

(02:11:39):
frickin' living room.
He's gonna pick me up, and I gotthree hours before I ship
myself, and I'm gonna go to thatpost meeting.
And they're gonna pick me up andI'm gonna vote and I'm gonna be
part of this freaking thing.

SPEAKER_07 (02:11:48):
I'll pick up and pick them up.
Literally, guys, I need topick 'em up.
I'm just I'm just saying, Ithink if you went, you went
electronic, you can't dictatewho's in the room in here and
post.

SPEAKER_05 (02:11:57):
I I I I want to see that in person.
Now, post meetings, there ismechanisms in in place, and it's
all cornered in the bylaws.
Because we would we would nothave been able to function
during COVID if we didn't haveit.
But it's got to be in yourbylaws.

SPEAKER_07 (02:12:12):
I don't I don't want a four-hour meeting.
No, that's what's gonna happenif you put people on Zoom and
they're trying to comment andyou're trying to they're asking
questions and making pick thoseguys up.
You know what?
They want to get out too.
Because anybody else in themeeting can't hear what they're
discussing.
They want to get out of thehouse.

SPEAKER_05 (02:12:27):
You know what?
So, so they're gonna in worstcase scenario, and I I had World
War II veterans when I was adistrict commander.
They're gonna say, back in this,the back and that.
They're gonna they they want tospew for five minutes.
Let them spew, let them fuckingdo this, let them do that, let
them cut a wet fart, let themscratch their balls, let them do
whatever they're gonna do.
When they leave that meeting, hesays, Honey, they pick me up,

(02:12:50):
they drop me off, I got to speakwhat I want to speak, and I'm
going to bed a happy man.

SPEAKER_07 (02:12:56):
Yep.

SPEAKER_05 (02:12:56):
Mm-hmm.
Come on.

SPEAKER_07 (02:12:58):
Yep, yep, yep.
We always use the analogy Ialways do is for the older
members, right?
Yeah.
We that we have to do thingsdifferently, right?
So we don't walk over to thekitchen and take the phone off
the wall anymore.
We do it with a cell phone,right?
We pick the phone up, we we makea call.
The phone call's not wrong.
We just do it differently.
So what you guys did in thepast, the way we used to do it,

(02:13:23):
the way we used to do it, it'snot wrong.
We just do the same thing, justdifferent.

SPEAKER_05 (02:13:28):
God my god, that is the best.

SPEAKER_07 (02:13:30):
So the only way I can get it through the older
membership is the telephone,right?
It doesn't hang on the wall.
We just do it differently in thepocket.

SPEAKER_05 (02:13:36):
We just do it different.

SPEAKER_07 (02:13:37):
Same mission, we're still doing the same thing.
But it would be nice to be ableto go online with some sort, but
I think that's gonna create alot of laziness, and you're
gonna have two people at ameeting.
Well, you know, 40 years fromnow because everybody's well, I
can just get on a meeting andjust sit at home and do the
meeting.
30, 40 years from now, they'lldo it.
But right now, be responsiblefor talking about it.

SPEAKER_05 (02:13:55):
There's still V, there's still World War II
veteran and there's still careerwar veterans.
And you know what?
They were the pillars.

SPEAKER_07 (02:14:01):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (02:14:03):
Put a smile on our face and put on the vat, man.

SPEAKER_01 (02:14:05):
Absolutely.
My uh very simple logicalcompromise would be uh not while
we wouldn't be required to, butwe have the option to make our
you know meetings, a zoommeeting.
You may not be allowed to vote,but you can at least hear the
deliberations.
That's the solution.
But his his point still standsof who's allowed to hear the

(02:14:26):
deliberations, you know.
I mean, so that's a good point.

SPEAKER_05 (02:14:31):
Well, how many old timers do you guys have over at
your post?

SPEAKER_07 (02:14:34):
That are over to what's what's an old timer?
I mean, no, they come to twomeetings.

SPEAKER_05 (02:14:40):
They come to two meetings a year, three meetings
a year.
Well, even then, even then,maybe like three.
Right.
Because you guys were Vietnamheavy, not World War II heavy.

SPEAKER_07 (02:14:50):
We're probably three, maybe.
Pick her ass up.
But I mean, real realistically,yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (02:14:56):
We I just pulled our pick them up two hours early,
take them to the Sellys, takethem back into the post.

SPEAKER_01 (02:15:03):
Here we go.
Roy.
Roy is our current postquartermaster.
Um three.
I helped him pull our membershiproster, and I highlighted the
number of vet members that wehave on our roles that are over

(02:15:23):
the age of seven.
And I would say there's probably20, 25.
Yep.
Yeah.
There was quite a few that werein their high 90s, and I'm like,
eh.

SPEAKER_05 (02:15:35):
But you know who you have at your post who is such a
man of faith.
I want the podcast to hear me.
It's our department chaplain,Terry.
Terry Koontz.
Mm-hmm.
Terry Koontz.

SPEAKER_01 (02:15:50):
Yep.
Give me one second.

SPEAKER_05 (02:15:52):
When he's in a room, he makes us all better with our
faith and how we are.
I'm gonna tell you what.
You are you guys are so blessedto have Terry Koontz in your
life.
I love Terry.

SPEAKER_08 (02:16:04):
He's such a selfless, you know, oh my god.
Like he's he's a sermon.
Like, he just wants everythingaround and everybody around him
to be better.

SPEAKER_07 (02:16:14):
And and and for some of the stuff he's been through,
absolutely health-wise, yeah,lately.
Still going through.
He's still going through.
And still, well, as positive ashe is still, yeah, always still
him and his wife doingeverything to do.
Well, hell, they were on whenthe writers groups escorted the
Medal of Honor recipient fromOwasso to uh to Highway.

(02:16:35):
He he followed with us.
He could have just drove down toAli, but he did the whole escort
and did all the stuff with usand his wife, right?
That's just how dedicated to thecause that they are.
They didn't have to do that.
I mean, that took hours out oftheir day.
They could have just left twohours later and just drove
straight there, and he couldhave done his department stuff
and left.

(02:16:55):
They went to lunch with us, theydid everything, you know.
It was awesome.

SPEAKER_05 (02:16:58):
One of the very first conflicts I had was when I
was a state commander was we hadour elections, our chaplain
died.
Mouse Terry Koontz.
He says, we need Ray.

(02:17:20):
Who could fill this billet?
I says, going through the wholefucking state of Michigan.
I use the word fuck and the wordchaplain in the same sentence,
but I'm going to.
Our fucking chaplain.
This is Joe Brenner.
Terry Koontz.
From from Weedman.
God damn it.
Horrible thing to say.
Terry Koontz.

(02:17:40):
Terry Koontz.
So I call Terry Koontz.
I said, Terry, um, I would loveto appoint you as as as the for
the remainder of the year as ourinterim chaplain, and then you
run.
He says, Why me?
Because that's how humble Terryis.
I says, Because Terry, I don'twant to tell him that he's a bad
motherfucker.

(02:18:00):
I want to say, Terry, I says,you enlighten us and and you
bring us to a spiritualguidance, everything that you
do.
I says, you you make every humanbeing a better human being when
you walk in that room.
I says, you are a man.
I says, it's a privilege and anhonor.

SPEAKER_07 (02:18:19):
So Well, the the kind of man he is, every time he
walks in, he's happy and excitedto see you.
Yeah.
Me, Roy, Joe.
Everybody.
He's like, hey brother, how's itgoing?
Like, he is.
Embrace that man.
Yes.
He is that man.
He's always in a good mood,regardless of what he's got
going on in personal life oranything else.
He's excited to see somebody,and that's joy.

SPEAKER_05 (02:18:40):
We all know about his cancer.
We all know that that it it itgoes in remission and then it
goes, it goes for the divebomber to get him.
And what does he do?
I go through the therapy, I gothrough through the treatment,
and I pray.
And God is gonna do what he'sgonna do.
And guess what?
God brings them up every time.

(02:19:02):
And we're blessed with TerryCoontz from Wheatman, Michigan,
VFW post 3033, and you guys arelucky to have him because he is
not just your spiritualguidance, he's mine and
everybody in the department ofMichigan.
Yep.
My bourbon is talking, but Iwould say the same thing if I
didn't drink bourbon.

SPEAKER_01 (02:19:23):
It is it is good to see him sitting at the at the
tables up there.
Oh my gosh.
I um just throw something out.
My my better half sent me a textmessage.
I just took that phone call andI didn't realize.
She said that you guys couldhear me on the podcast, so uh my
bad.
Can hear you a what?
I took that phone call outthere.
Oh, they're listening to yourphone call.

(02:19:45):
She said that they could hearme.
She called me a big mouth.
So he's kind of right.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (02:19:53):
Fucker.
I'm surprised.
I'm surprised.
Are you sure that's all shereally said?
What did she really call you?
I don't think it's a big mouth.
I think she probably called yousomething though.
There you go.
I'm gonna listen.
I can't wait till this isSpotify.

SPEAKER_05 (02:20:08):
Actually, me and I looked at a house on Lake
Isabella for us to move up here.
And it the price was right,everything was right, it was
perfect, but it's just too farfrom grandma's house.
Yeah, everything was perfect.
Because I mean Natalie, ifBenjamin wasn't born, we we
would we would be in mid-Michan.
It wasn't a question.

(02:20:29):
But I but now that you have akid.

SPEAKER_07 (02:20:31):
Yeah, right.
Where's where uh are you on areyou on a lake up there?
I am not on Bud Lake.

SPEAKER_05 (02:20:37):
What's no no I'm I'm a small lake.
Um I'm on Deer Lake.
You you have you were you therethe one time?

SPEAKER_07 (02:20:44):
No, Tim, Tim went up there.
I didn't I didn't go.
I think Tim and Terry and Sentioprobably.

SPEAKER_05 (02:20:48):
We had a district 11 a meeting over at the Harrison
Post, and I says, you know what?
I says, hey guys, becausethey're all my everybody's my
friends up here.
I says, why don't you come to myhouse?
I went and got a couple slabs ofNew York strip, had them had
them cut, and we we drank likefishes, we barbecued and
everything, and Tim ate threesteaks.

SPEAKER_07 (02:21:09):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (02:21:09):
Yep, and he plugged my toilet.
Nice.

SPEAKER_04 (02:21:17):
That's some bitch.
Was this guy there to help youout?

SPEAKER_09 (02:21:20):
I wasn't there.
No, I wasn't there, never beenthere.
I was there.

SPEAKER_05 (02:21:23):
You know, Tim was a lightweight, all I do is throw a
feather in it.
No, he plugged the shitter.
He had three steaks.
But but they were done.
Everybody ate it.
I said, Who wants?
We got three steaks.
He goes, Hey, look at all theeat them some bitches.
Yeah, I need a beer though.
John Griffith cooked all thesteaks.

(02:21:44):
Because he's your neighbor,right?
Yeah, he was well, he wasn't atthe time, but no, he wasn't.
He was he was running for juniorvice at the time.
Okay.
So this is oh my god, this hasbeen how many years ago?

SPEAKER_07 (02:21:54):
Oh, yeah, quite a few.

SPEAKER_05 (02:21:56):
So we we had Johnny Wadd for me, yeah.
Johnny, Johnny Waddington, wehad Bill Scott, we we had we
had, I don't know, there wasabout 25 of us there that went
there, Bill.
Well, we had a good old time.

SPEAKER_07 (02:22:07):
And let me tell you that.
So the Claire VFW is about 20miles north of us, and then
probably about 10 miles north ofthat's the Harrison Post.
And between Mount Pleasant onthe south end and Harrison on
the north end, with Claire SmackDab almost in the middle, our
three posts work so welltogether.
So, you know, we were goingthrough developing bylaws for

(02:22:30):
the House Committee or the Post,getting our district commander,
uh Scott Taylor, and JohnWaddington out of the Clare Post
uh to come down and give insightand depth, right, from all their
years of experience and stuff.
Um, it just goes to show how youknow there's there's times
there's competition betweenposts, and then there's times

(02:22:53):
that it's the brotherhood andthe sisterhood.
You just help each other out,right?
From as as fellow comrades.
For the betterment of the order.
You know, and it's it's it'sit's cool to see because all too
often, you know, you go downthese department things and
there's a lot of awards gettingflown around, and you know,
you're wearing a white hat,you're wearing an all-American,
and you got people coming up,hey, congratulations on your

(02:23:14):
post getting that award, andthey're kind of jealous because
they didn't get it or they can'tget it, or whatever.
And and they'll tell youcongratulations, but you know,
it's always kind of acompetition, and it's it's a
huge sense of pride when yourpost commander, district
commander gets these awards,it's on behalf of their
membership, right?
Right, membership is the reasonwhy they're getting them.
They're they're they they have abig part of it too, because they

(02:23:36):
have to get reports in, they'vegot to do all the stuff, but
it's though they they wear thosecovers on on behalf of their
memberships.
But, you know, there's somejealousy that goes on, but when
it comes to us three, straightgoing north.
That's a sibling rivalry.
It is it is a brother, and if wehave a problem or they have a
problem, we'll do what we gottado.
They're gonna help us out withwhat we need.

(02:23:58):
That's the way it's supposed tobe.
That's the way the VFW issupposed to work.
It's not always us against you.

SPEAKER_08 (02:24:04):
I mean, speaking on shenanigans, I mean look at look
at your recent uh transfer.

SPEAKER_07 (02:24:11):
Yeah, so you know, I so my daughter and son-in-law
live up in a tiny town calledGlennie.

SPEAKER_05 (02:24:18):
I know Glenny.

SPEAKER_07 (02:24:19):
Okay, so I had to go up there, uh, and I'm I put a
long track kit on my snowmobile.
So I go up there on a Monday,Tuesday, stay with the kids.
I go to the Glenny Tavern, whichis about a mile or less from the
kids' house.
They're working.
So I I go to the tavern, I havelunch, I'm sitting there, and

(02:24:39):
here comes this old timer andwith a uh Marine Corps cover on.
And I'm like, I'm like, oh, youserving the Marines?
And he's like, Yeah.
And I'm like, oh no shit, youknow, I'm Charlie, it's number
five, brother, you know, andit's like we get this
conversation going.
I'm like, oh.
He's like, wait a minute, givingthe story.
And I'm like, you know, I go,hey, you remember the BFW?
Like, where'd you serve?

(02:25:00):
Well, I serve Vietnam.
I'm like, oh, you remember theBFW?
And he goes, I am, a life lifemember out of Arizona.
And I'm like, I'm like, whydon't you transfer over here to
like Oscoda, Bob, Barton City,the two that I knew were close,
right?
I think St.
Helen's not too far.
Ross Commons not too far,probably, but and he's like,
Well, I put my paperwork intoOscoda and I haven't heard

(02:25:22):
nothing back.
I'm like, oh no shit, when'd youturn it in?
Like six months ago.
Oh, I get out of my bar stool,leave my food, I call Scott
Taylor, and I who's our districtcommander said, Who is the post
commander?
I need a number.
And he's like, Why?
And I'm like, there's a guy thatturned in his transfer
paperwork, says it's with theDD214.

(02:25:42):
I've seen his life membershipcard for the VFW.
Yep.
So I call the commander there,and I leave the voicemail, he
calls me right back, and he'slike, Well, there was something
kind of a hanky or we didn'tunderstand his DD214 or
something, right?
I get the excuse.
So we're going back and forthfor a couple days with me and
Scott here.
And anyways, long story short, Icall the guy back and I said,

(02:26:08):
Hey man, we're working on stuff,you know, but worst case
scenario, I can get you toBarton City, get you at
Harrison, get you Russ Commonsomewhere else.
He goes, No, I want to come toyour post.
And I'm like, dude, I'm like twohours south.
I said, We I let me get yousomewhere, right?
Okay, and just let's be donewith it.
Because he was like, at thispoint, they've jacked me around.
You're the only guy that'shelped me out, right?

(02:26:29):
Trying to figure this out.
So I want to go to your post.
And I'm like, Okay.
All right, are you sure?
So I drove back up there andpicked up his, I had him sign
his transfer paperwork, pickedup a copy of his D214, brought
it back.
I sent copies to thequartermaster, said, hey, here's
his stuff.
I'm gonna bring his copies in,but I wanted, you know, you

(02:26:50):
scribble out the Social Securityand all the different stuff,
right?
But I wanted to send a copy justso that if for some reason I got
killed or sick or whatever, hehad copies of everything for the
membership committee to look at.
And then he he joined our postas a transfer life member.
But he just did it solely forthe fact of that I was like the

(02:27:11):
only guy that cared about myname.
Our district commander, like youneed to be part of District 11,
that's where you live.
But let me try to get yousomewhere closer, right?
He's he's gonna be a greatmember, he's a retired guy,
he'll he'll come down, visit thepost, you know, but he's hours
away.
But that's that's just it justmade me mad.
Yeah, right.

(02:27:32):
Made me mad that you're notgonna, and I I I don't and I'm
not trying to slam on Oscoda,but or the commander or their
membership or anything else.
It makes me mad that nobodycared.

SPEAKER_05 (02:27:48):
It should have been all about him.

SPEAKER_07 (02:27:49):
It sounds like nobody cared, right?
It should have been all abouthim.
And this is the reason why theguy came here because I was like
the only guy that cared.
Scott cared.
Scott, he can deal with Scota'scommander, their membership, or
whatever else because of this.
I mean, you could just look atthat guy's DD 214, you knew that
it was no joke.
He was that thing was older thanhalf the post.

(02:28:09):
He was a Vietnam service servicetitle with star, so he spent two
tours there, and he had a MarineCorps Combat Action.

SPEAKER_03 (02:28:17):
Fuck.

SPEAKER_07 (02:28:17):
So there was every which way around.
Fuck.
It's not even that, it wasn'teven that difficult to look at.
No, it wasn't something stinkyin it.

SPEAKER_01 (02:28:24):
And you know, and so the point is outreach matters.
Willing to have thatconversation matters, and that
is not the only story thatfloats around our post with an
example like this.
Wasn't it wasn't it the ego?
It was Terry and Essencio whoreached out to a guy who was
just floating through town.
Doesn't he live in like Texas orsomething?
But he's joined our post as alife.

(02:28:46):
Do you remember who I'm talkingabout?

SPEAKER_07 (02:28:47):
Yeah, kind of.
Yeah, I don't think it wasTexas, but it was somewhere way
that like Missouri or something.
Right.
But Terry cared, and nobody elseis nobody else has ever cared,
right?
So that's why this guy joinedour post.
That's one person cared.

SPEAKER_05 (02:29:00):
That's another guy from your post that we haven't
talked about.
We talked about Terry Koontz.
Yep.
Terry and Sensio.
Right on bar.
That's right.
Terry and Sencio, um, there's alot of veterans at your post
that if something were to happento Terry Insencio, that would

(02:29:23):
devastate them.
Because Terry Insencio is afather figure in your post.
Yes, he is.
Not only is he a veteran, he's afather figure in your post.

SPEAKER_08 (02:29:33):
That post to the to those guys is you know, a second
home.
They they dedicated so muchtime, it was life to them.
So I can remember going back howmany years have you been a
member of a post?

SPEAKER_07 (02:29:48):
I was talking like since 2004.

SPEAKER_08 (02:29:51):
You're talking 20 some years ago.

SPEAKER_07 (02:29:52):
That's a long time.
Okay, so you got in right.
I got my life.
We were talking about youearlier.
I'm like, it was like 12 or 15years you've been a member of
the long time.

SPEAKER_08 (02:29:59):
I moved.
The way up to UT, I followed mywife for almost eight years, and
then as I moved back, I jumpedback into you guys, so I was
gone for a period of time.
Plus, my kids were young.
Yeah.
My kids were old enough.
That's what we were talkingabout.
That's that's how we gottogether.
But uh, I've been a member since04.
Um, how right around you knowthe turmoil time I was around

(02:30:20):
when I first got out and stuff,you know, when Billy started
coming around.
I've had a lot of old schoolmemories with Billy, you know,
and at the post.
Um but going back, I got DennyWhite.
Another great, great, great manof our post.

SPEAKER_05 (02:30:37):
I remember him.

SPEAKER_08 (02:30:39):
I would go see Denny when he was at the nursing home.
Because I used to live rightdown the street from Denny.
I had a great relationship withDenny, I love Denny.
So I'd go and visit him there,and all he'd want to do is he
was just asking questions.
How's the post?
How's the post?
How's the post?
How's it doing?
Let's have a beer.
How's the post?
You know, they just cared somuch that they were so concerned

(02:31:03):
and they just wanted to succeed.
And Terry Sentio.
You know, he comes in theredoing his charitable games.
I'm in there, you know, doingthe quartermaster stuff, and
Terry will just come up to meand stop and dead sign, or you
know, and just like deadseriously, hey man, how's it
post to?
Are we good?
Are we gonna make it?
You know, blah blah blah.
Just so concerned that he wantsthis place no matter what, to

(02:31:27):
succeed.
Nothing's changed.
No.
So I mean those guys just theyput their living life into that
post.

SPEAKER_07 (02:31:35):
And that's why that's why we always call Terry
the Eagle.
There you go.
He's in my phone.
The second somebody walks inthat he doesn't recognize he's
the first guy to go over andshake them.
Yeah, and welcome them to thepost.

SPEAKER_05 (02:31:48):
I only poured the drink because can we do a
podcast of salute to the eagle?
Sure.
Because I don't need no morebird, but I poured a drink.

SPEAKER_08 (02:31:59):
You want to pour it to the eagle.
To the eagle.

SPEAKER_07 (02:32:02):
I got people talking on it.
No, but that's the easier to go.
Well that's the thing.
So, like, if so, like if Terry'snot at the post, the eagle's not
there, be the eagle.
That's what Tim and I alwayssaid.
Go shake a hand, welcomesomebody.
You don't know who they are, youdon't know what they're about.
That's Terry and Sensio.
So I transfer that everywhere Igo.

(02:32:23):
So when I travel for work orpersonal, I shake a hand.
Guy just happens to walk in witha cover, which is weird, right?
Like uh, I mean, who who walksaround with a Marpak cover?
Right.
Right?
Starched out and everything.
Yeah.
Well, probably a fucking Marine,right?
So it's like old school.
Yeah, yeah, right.
So it's like I start talking,and that's just how it works.

(02:32:44):
And it's it's simple.
Like, I I don't recruit a lot ofpeople.
I don't try because I don't wantto push something on somebody.
I'm not that guy.

SPEAKER_04 (02:32:51):
That's our flaw.

SPEAKER_07 (02:32:52):
I'm the same stuff.
What I do is I start aconversation.
And it's hey, you member theVFW?
Yep.
And if they say no, I said,Well, why not?
So, man, it's great, you know.
And then you kind of give them,and then you let them marinate
with it, and you walk away, andat least you got that seed maybe
planted.
I'm not pushing membership, Ijust don't do that stuff.

(02:33:12):
But I get a lot of people bythat because I'm not aggressive.
Too, you know.
Right.
And that's that's kind of partof it, you know.
Hey guys, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (02:33:22):
I'm sorry.
I know your post and thedynamics that made your post run
20 years ago.
Current, and what I think isgonna run today.
What worked 20 years ago willnever work.
Will never work.
You guys know what I'm talkingabout.

(02:33:46):
They were the custodians of yourpost, and they were in good
faith, and and and we send themoff under death with with the
ritual.
But times have changed.

SPEAKER_08 (02:33:58):
Right.
It's tough to see these giantsfall.
Because, like, I know when Ifirst come home, as most of us
were, like, I was just blown up,I was fucked up, I was lost, I
got kicked straight out of theMarine Corps, like, no
transition, no nothing.
I was just drinking and Billycan attest.
I did a lot of the shit withBilly.

(02:34:18):
You know, he was there, he sawit.
He a lot of tears and fuckingkicking my ass.
But uh, you know, we had DickFish.
Dick Fish was a guy downtown.
They did a big purple heartceremony downtown.
They awarded me my purple heart,you know, right townsware Mount
Pleasant, and Dick Fish, and alot of the well, there was

(02:34:41):
Sandra Cole, like or somecongressman and uh John Molinar,
I think, was there.
Um, but uh Dick Fish, DennyWhite, you know, those guys, um
John Goffnet, Bob Lackey, a lotof those, you know, Colonel
Water.
Colon, Ralph, like those guyswere the guys that I grew up

(02:35:03):
like looking up to in the post.
Like, as I as I grew up, youknow, Billy.
Those guys were all my heroes.
Those guys were my leaders, likethey're all my heroes.
But to see them fall, it's likeit's giants crashing down from
the world.
They were giants.

SPEAKER_05 (02:35:17):
But the issue, the issue is we need to take the
torch.
But the but the way they did no.
I'm gonna reserve myconversation before we go
through a podcast.
Okay.
Okay.
Oh no, I like a warm.
Okay.
Um, we'll talk about this afterthe podcast.
Because me and you, my brother.

(02:35:39):
You're my brother.
Damn, right.

SPEAKER_07 (02:35:41):
He's my sister, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_05 (02:35:45):
But anyway, that's not what I say about it.
I have an answer to all that.
Um but but let me go back toRay.
You're all over the state.
You've been all over the statefor 25 years.
What post do you belong to?
Well, my membership, I'm gonnago star member to this post, but
the membership that I belong tois a post that I'm sitting to

(02:36:07):
right there, right at that time.
He says, Well, you're all overthe fucking place.
I said, You're goddamn right.
Because if that guy says, Hey,we're having our fish fry, you
need to fill that cooler up.
Guess what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna fill that cooler up.
Hey, that that trash can isfull.
Fill that goddamn trash can.
God damn right.
Okay.
I'm digging in.

(02:36:28):
Goddamn right.
Okay.
Because what we're really aboutis we're really about veteran
advocacy.
Because we could put a smile ona face of a widow, we're gonna
do it.
If we can go pick up a veteranthat that has diapers and we're
gonna pick them up to vote for ameeting that he's gonna go once
a year, we're gonna pick them upand we're gonna smell shit in

(02:36:49):
our car because that's whatwe're gonna fucking do.
Right.
That's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_08 (02:36:53):
You know, it's it's it's the sacrifices to make you
know our post and and postaround everybody else succeed.
Like, I know myself, I I've hadlong talks to these guys, and
Brett, you know, when this wholeposition, the the quartermaster
came about, I started, you know,I started getting phone calls,
and they're like, hey, yourname, your I'm like, how the
fuck did my name get thrown inthis mix?

(02:37:15):
Like, I've never said anythingabout wanting to be a
quartermaster.
Like, somehow I started gettingphone calls, and you know, the
ball rolled, and Brent steppeddown, and next thing you know,
the post had 30 days and weneeded somebody, and they really
started to hammer me, and I'mlike, listen, if nobody's
stepping up and somebody's gottado it, I'll step up.
I'll I'll take it on.
I'm no I was I was no financialguy, like I'm willing to I'm

(02:37:39):
willing to step up to do thegood of the post.
Like, I don't I want this placeto last succeed, so if I gotta
step up and do it because nobodyelse is, sign me up.
And it, you know, and carry on.

SPEAKER_07 (02:37:49):
But you've been you've been great at it, and
what it takes is a younger guylike yourself, right, who has
the time available.
Right, so you know, you're 100%,you're 100% disabled, you do a
lot for the schools, you do alot for your kids, you know, you

(02:38:11):
mechanic stuff, you know what Imean?
But you have, right, yeah,that's why you weren't here,
right?
You're doing shocks on somethingtonight.
But I mean you you have timeavailable, and unfortunately
that position requires somebodythat has general time available.
It's not like it's a scheduledthing or whatever, but you got
four hours here, two hoursthere, whatever to do the

(02:38:34):
business for the post.
We needed somebody that has adetermination and has a want and
a will to have the post succeedin that position.
Brent did a great job to get usstarted.
Then once the full-time jobkicked in, right, or was coming,
it was gonna be a lot moredifficult because you can't

(02:38:55):
escape at 8 o'clock in themorning or 10 o'clock or 11
o'clock or 2 o'clock or 4o'clock.
Right.
Because he has a job.
That job needed to be somebodythat's semi-retired, basically.
I was handed the keys to aFerrari.

SPEAKER_08 (02:39:08):
Like, let's let's not let's not you know sugarcoat
this.
Like, I was handed a turnkeyoperation, the Ferrari was warm
and ready to go.
So it's been, I mean, obviouslya learning curve, learning, you
know, certain things, and Istill am, but you know, nothing
that that this guy went throughor wherever, like well, he he

(02:39:29):
was through a lot of growingpains too much.
He streamlined a lot of thisprocess and a lot of things, so
it's what he got turned over wasa ship sandwich, right?

SPEAKER_07 (02:39:37):
And that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_08 (02:39:38):
The soup sandwich, it was a soup sandwich, but he
streamlined a lot of thesethings and got a lot of stuff
figured out.
And so I I got handed overpretty good operation, but it
still takes a lot of time on it.

SPEAKER_07 (02:39:48):
It was well lubricated.
I don't think you're doing that.
Don't be referenced eitherbecause it's noticeable.
And the reason why themembership wants you to continue
in it if you want to continue init, because we need to have
something to do it, and itshould only get easier as time
goes on.

SPEAKER_08 (02:40:08):
And that's the thing.
I I I'm as I'm picking up, I'mgoing, I mean, I got no
inclination to walk away.
Uh I'm here.
I'm here for a good good haul.

SPEAKER_07 (02:40:16):
You know, which we appreciate your support and your
wanting and your ability tocontinue to do it because that's
an extremely important position.
I would almost say, probablywith the backing of Ray, to
probably say the quartermasteris almost the most important
position, if not the mostimportant position at the post.

SPEAKER_05 (02:40:34):
You can overcome a shitty commander, but you can
never overcome a shittyquartermaster.

SPEAKER_07 (02:40:39):
So that's is my exactly my sentiment.

SPEAKER_05 (02:40:42):
So probably Let me let me rephrase that.
You can you never you you willnever really you can you can
recoup a fucked up commander,but you can never recoup a
fucked up quartermaster.

SPEAKER_08 (02:40:55):
No, I would agree to that.
Yeah, sorry.
A lot of shit behind.

SPEAKER_05 (02:40:58):
Yeah, so we appreciate your efforts covering
for but back to back to the oldtimers, you know, they don't
think with us, and they won'tbecause no, I mean that's a
whole different old schoolmentality.

SPEAKER_08 (02:41:09):
Like you know what, and it's a right mentality.
It is, it is.
We get that.
I love I I love colon, but man,sometimes he gets so fired up
over some of these topics at ourmeetings and he goes off on
these rants, and I just sitthere and like shit because
you're talking about colon.
He's part of the colon for thelast 20 years.
I love colon.
He's a great guy.
But colon is a colon.
Well, you get him worked up andhe will fucking go off.

(02:41:32):
What happened last time?

SPEAKER_06 (02:41:33):
You forced me to go learn some stuff.
Sure.
I'm gonna go.
Oh, I think that's great.

SPEAKER_05 (02:41:37):
Yeah, but here's the thing.
At the end of the day, you yourpost, because colon is already
old, and and I don't want to Idon't want to wipe anything out
because colon has got a lot ofknowledge.
He does.
It says you guys need tomaintain and be relevant in your
community.
Because what's relevant in yourcommunity?

(02:42:00):
Your veteran organizations, yourbarber, your fucking everything
else that falls in place.
It says when casualconversations happen in Isbella
County, oh yeah, I was at theVFW the other time, they had a
good steak fry.
By the way, we had this one guytalk about veteran legislation.

(02:42:21):
It was pretty interesting.
And that's relevant.
I think you know and when youwould well I don't mean to
interrupt you, but when you're asponsor to their little league
team, or you're a sponsor tothis, he says, holy cow, can you
imagine the God the the fuckingVFW being a part of of of of of

(02:42:44):
uh of of my son or my daughteror whatever and and their soccer
team?
And and oh my god, we went overthere, we had a great time.
Matter of fact, we had a steak,we got drunk, we had a great
time.
We're coming back tomorrow.
I mean, does it have anything todo with your officers?

SPEAKER_01 (02:43:02):
No, but it has to do with your relevancy, yes, right,
and I think our our you knowsome posts have canteen, some
don't.
So some have that businessy sideand some don't.
But I don't think that's ourbusiness.

SPEAKER_08 (02:43:16):
We just recruited another member because of that
situation, right?
That was the second one at ourmeeting because his previous
post didn't have a canteen,right?
And when he comes to Tim'sbenefit or well, the the
memorial night, he's like, Holyshit, I'm I love this place.
I want to come here andtransfer.

SPEAKER_07 (02:43:31):
That well, we've also picked up members from our
our truck retreat with the kidsfor Halloween.
Your truck retreat's awesome!We've picked up we've picked up
members with the uh uh Easterstuff that we do with the exile
back where we run all the kidsthrough, picked up members from
that.
The bike night, we picked upmembers from that.
So, I mean, these are the thingsthat we do throughout the
community.

(02:43:51):
Involve kids or whatever, too.

SPEAKER_01 (02:43:53):
So, but our our the point I just wanted to make the
point I just want to make realquick is that we may have a
canteen, but that's not thebusiness of our post.
No, the business of our post isto look out for each other and
to be advocates for each other.
That's the reason why I joined.
I was going through a hell of amental health, you know,
originally from Grand Rapids,moved to this area, didn't know
a single person, and it was mybetter half Tiffany who said,

(02:44:16):
you know, maybe you should thinkabout, you know, doing VFW.
And you know she's famous lastwords, yeah.
She probably regrets that sheregrets that one.

SPEAKER_08 (02:44:26):
I want to circle back, I want to circle back, you
know, and in later topic ofdiscussion, you know, for us to
post, but sponsorship of LittleLeagues.
Yeah, we don't do that.
I've already mentioned that wehaven't, and I would love to.
Yep.
I I'm a former coach.
I just coached my son's footballteam last year.
Like their sponsorship for theseteams held so far along.

(02:44:48):
They will never forget that.
We should we will never forgetthat.
I'll look into it.

SPEAKER_07 (02:44:53):
Once again, uh, as they stand up at every pulse
meeting.
Oh, yeah.
Make sure the Ryers group knowsabout it.
Let them sit down.
I'll sit down with TreyCommunity.

SPEAKER_08 (02:45:08):
Trey, if you're listening, because I saw you're
watching, I'm gonna sit down andI'm gonna talk with you.

SPEAKER_05 (02:45:12):
So I'm gonna go off the recipe here.
They go, Ray, you're a statecommander.
What post do you belong to?
I says, What's the what whatpost I belong to?
I says, what post am I sittinghere right here right now?
I says, I bel I says, I belongto the post that I'm sitting
here right now, right heretoday.

(02:45:32):
Yep.
That's where I belong.
I says, I don't havegeographical boundaries.
I never have.
Charlie, have I ever hadgeographical boundaries?

SPEAKER_08 (02:45:40):
And that's that's a that's across the board.
So we went across the board.
We went last year uh statewide.
Like we went last year.
We went on a cruise and um wasdown in Florida at Pork and
Avril.
And uh I jumped in with my withmy buddy, and we ran to the we
were heading towards the liquorstore to buy some more beer so
we could back at the hotel topull everyone you know we were

(02:46:02):
drinking, and I'm driving, andall of a sudden I look over and
I'm like, I saw a VFW haul.
Pork and Avro VFW.
I'm like, and my buddy's like,what the fuck?
I'm like, we're stopping.
Man, we stopped in there, andtwo hours later we're still at
the VFW hall.

SPEAKER_07 (02:46:16):
They just carried over and tonight's great
example.
Shem Thompson, our senior vice.
Yeah, he's down in Myrtle Beachgolfing with a buddy of his.
They took off on Sunday night,they're golfing, I think,
through the week.
I think he flies home eitherFriday or Friday.
Friday, yep, can't rememberFriday, Saturday.
But he loves the Myrtle Beachpost.
Okay, and that's where they'regonna be hanging out a lot after

(02:46:40):
they're done golfing.
Well, they're still there now,believe me.

SPEAKER_08 (02:46:43):
Yeah, so yeah, he gets home Friday because he's my
new partner for the VOD onSaturday at the bowling
tournament.

SPEAKER_07 (02:46:49):
Yeah, he loves that post.
He's still there because they'rethere.
Yeah, which is crazy.
That happens to be the weekend,St.
Patty's Day, and then my kidsare down, so that's the reason
why I'm gonna go.
No, you're good.
I I never questioned go.
I know you got reasons.
I I threw it in, and the kidswere like, Dad, why you why are
you bowling?
We're in town.
I'm like, oh fuck.
Fair.

(02:47:09):
So yeah, that I want to let youknow right away as soon as I she
saw that in the calendar.

SPEAKER_08 (02:47:14):
Brother, I I when you said you couldn't, I never
questioned you.
I knew sorry, brother.
Not a question at all.

SPEAKER_07 (02:47:20):
Shem stepped up, we're good.
Yep.
Well, I wanted to give you timetoo, but you know, so I I do the
same thing, right?
Like, I used to go up north, Iwas part of my my union on the
management side.
We have an apprenticeshiptraining committee.
It's managed mutually by thelabor side and the management
side for all of our apprentices.
200 apprentices that we have todo that program at any one time.

(02:47:42):
We have a school up in TravisCity, so we would go up to
Traverse City for like uhWednesday, Thursday, Friday.
We meet with some of thestudents up there, we golf, we
do whatever.
We have our um a meeting upthere, a monthly meeting up
there.
And I would always go to theCherryland Post.
So I'd go up on Wednesday, and Igo early, I'd go to the post.

(02:48:03):
Because it's like check-in dayon Wednesday, basically, you
check in the hotel and greatposts, great post.
Yeah, so I stop into the postand you gotta buzz yourself in,
and I have to card, right?
Order a beer, and I get the oldgeriatric gin joint.
The regular sitting at the endof the bar.
Go in there and I get talking tothe girl.
Okay, you know, yep, take beer,whatever, you know.
And I'm there for a couplehours.

(02:48:25):
Buy chips for people down thedown at the bar, like you always
do, right?
So I had to head to dinner thatnight with everybody and then go
to the room next day, school,after we're all done, meeting or
golf or whatever we're doingthat day, back to the cherry
lamp post.
There a couple hours, buzz in,same bartender, of course.

(02:48:47):
Can I see your card?
Second day.
Card again, buy all the chipsfor the regulars, you know,
three o'clock, buy all theirshit.
Last day, I go in there.
Finally, she's like, hey,welcome back.
And then I get a couple, youknow, hey, thanks for the chips.
But it took two days of buyingthem drinks to even get the wave
at the end of the table.

(02:49:07):
So then, what's crazy is I leavethe very next weekend I go up
there for our contractorsassociation meeting up there,
and it's on a weekend.
Jen goes up with me.
I'm like, we gotta go to thepost.
So we go to the post, samebartender, and she's like, hey,
welcome back.
Oh, this must be your wife, youknow.
They get to talking and doingall the shit.
But they finally, after likefive times being in there, do

(02:49:31):
they recognize me or realize,you know, it's not like a
fucking change.
Clothes are all the same, youknow.
But it just takes a while, andthey have such a beautiful pulse
up there.
Great, really nice people, butwhen you're the outsider, it's
like, why are you in my post?
You should never be an outsider.
Our pulse is so different.
You should never be an outsider.

(02:49:51):
I agree.
Our pulse is so different.
You walk in, you're friends andpisses me off.

SPEAKER_05 (02:49:56):
Well, this is not conducive to the podcast.
I will tell you after thepodcast.
Everything's conducive to thepodcast.
But I've no, this is not okay.

SPEAKER_08 (02:50:04):
That's but but this is what are you?
You you you you yanked my chain.
You got my.
I've had these encounters, andthat's been a that's been an
ongoing thing.
It's like the right void, theseparation from like the older
generation to the youngergeneration, like the acceptance,
so to say.
Like, there's always like a fineline there where they're like,
eh.

SPEAKER_05 (02:50:23):
Yeah, when they want the when they want when they
want my endorsement to come fordepartment, and I hear that.

SPEAKER_07 (02:50:30):
You want to wait until after we're offline?

SPEAKER_05 (02:50:32):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (02:50:33):
Okay.
I I had a feeling where you'regonna go with this and you want
to do it offline.
I better cut you off.
Probably the only time in yourlife or my life I've ever cut
you off and said, You probablyshould.
You cut me off any time.
After hours, you had a bottle ofwater and I'm driving it home.

SPEAKER_05 (02:50:50):
No, you're not driving my home because I got a
40-mile drop.
That's okay.
I'm gonna have another bottle ofwine and then maybe one after.

SPEAKER_01 (02:50:58):
You guess me we have to leave right away.
No, no, I got nowhere to be.
Is that a good time, you think,Charlie, to want to wrap it up?
And we're almost at ourthree-hour limit that we usually
try to strive for.
Um, so do you guys want to uh doa little bit of an outro?
And so we'll just say uh thankyou, Charlie.

(02:51:18):
We'll just say thanks forjoining us tonight.
Um, especially you, Ray.
You're our special guest.
Open invitation.
You're welcome to come backanytime.

SPEAKER_07 (02:51:26):
Uh wait a minute.
I'm gonna make a caveat to that.
You have to let me know.
Apparently, it's a semi-openinvitation.
Yeah, you have to let me know soI'm gonna make sure there's
enough bourbon here for you.
You gotta give me a little bitof advance not.

SPEAKER_04 (02:51:44):
I saw I saw that.
Wood for reserve.
Holy shit.
I I have a bottle of bourbonthat I'm gonna present here to
you.
Oh no, just bring it with younext time you get it.
No, it's a really good bottle ofbourbon.

SPEAKER_07 (02:51:58):
Maybe I'll take you up on it.
Oh no, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (02:52:03):
Appreciate you being up here.

SPEAKER_07 (02:52:04):
Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 (02:52:04):
Thank you, guys.
I guess I I just you you youguys know every element of me.
You guys know my my my worst, mybest, and everything in between.
And you still welcome me and youstill recognize me, and I'm very
thankful for that.

SPEAKER_01 (02:52:18):
Race kryptonite is a little bit of a good bourbon.
I mean, no matter what, you'reyou're big funny.
Your brother is the age of thebrother.
All right.
I love that.
But yeah, um, thanks for joiningus tonight.
Uh those of you who werewatching live, thank you so
much.
Um, and uh sorry about the uhwait between the last couple of

(02:52:42):
episodes, but we were trying toget all of this stuff figured
out.
So we're in the final stages ofthat, and we'll be here more
often soon.

SPEAKER_06 (02:52:49):
It was work until 5.30.

SPEAKER_01 (02:52:50):
It was working until 5.30 when he dropped it back
off.
So uh but anyway, yeah, thanksfor coming, and uh, we'll see
you again soon.
Peace out.
Are we done?

SPEAKER_06 (02:53:01):
I gotta drop off two more things.
Right?

SPEAKER_00 (02:53:06):
War is thank you for joining us at Soup Sandwich, a
podcast that explores thecomplex and compelling world of
veterans in the United States.
Through interviews with veteransthemselves, military experts,
and advocates, we'll dive deepinto the issues that matter most
to this community, from mentalhealth and employment to the

(02:53:27):
history of the U.S.
military, the future of militaryservice, and everything in
between.
Whether you're a veteranyourself, a spouse or family
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

(02:53:48):
that have shaped our nation'sgrave after they've returned
home.
This podcast is designed solelyfor entertainment and
occasionally informationalpurposes only, and is to be
regarded strictly as satirecomprising a veteran that delves
into their thoughts andexperiences in combat as well as
their perspectives on variousaspects of daily life that may

(02:54:11):
be unsettling for certainlisteners.
This podcast is not suitable forindividuals under the age of
eighteen.
The views articulated in thispodcast may not necessarily
align with those of the nationalVFW or VFW Department of
Michigan or VFW Host 3033.
Additionally, we kindly requestthat listeners refrain from
pursuing legal action againstthe creators or contributors of

(02:54:34):
this podcast.
In other words, we don't do

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