Ep.- 39 - Nick Cannon, From Air Force Crew Chief to Veterans Advocate to Wounded Veterans Relief Fund

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What happens when a life marked by frequent transitions meets the rigid structure of military service? Meet Nick Cannon, the Director of Operations for the Wounded Veterans Relief Fund, who shares his extraordinary journey from a tumultuous childhood to becoming a crew chief for F-22s in the Air Force. Through personal stories, Nick illuminates the unpredictable paths life can take and how unexpected choices often lead to rewarding experiences. His narrative offers a unique perspective on adapting to change, an invaluable skill for both military and civilian life.

Nick and I tackle the pressing issues of transitioning from military life to civilian careers, a journey fraught with challenges that many veterans face. We discuss the alarming rates of veteran suicides and the critical need for structured support systems, comparable to those available to reintegrating inmates. Our conversation underscores the importance of establishing pathways for veterans to secure meaningful employment, emphasizing that finding purpose in post-military life is crucial for their well-being.

We also celebrate the impactful work of the Wounded Veterans Relief Fund, where I now serve after leaving a congressional career. Nick highlights their essential programs, like Urgent Financial Assistance and the Critical Dental Assistance Program, which have significantly improved veterans' quality of life. With over 300 participating dentists, the initiative addresses the dental health challenges veterans face due to inadequate VA coverage. Our episode concludes with a heartfelt call to support veteran-focused organizations, inviting listeners to connect with the WVRF's mission to transform lives.

Episode Transcript

Scott McLean (00:00):
Welcome to the podcast.
I'm Scott McLean.
My guest today is Nick Cannon.
Nick is the Director ofOperations for the Wounded
Veterans Relief Fund, located inwhere Nick North Palm.

Nick Cannon (00:13):
Beach, florida.
There you go, servicingveterans throughout the entire
great state of Florida.
Welcome back to the show.
It seems like I was just here,yeah, well, and for the
listeners.

Scott McLean (00:23):
He was, and I had the podcaster's nightmare.
I interviewed nick about a weekago and I had to make the
dreadful.
Well, first it was a text, sothis is where text messages come
in handy I didn't that, thatphone call.
I dreaded it.
But since nick and I have afriendship, I could just send
him the text where the file fromthe interview disappeared

(00:46):
because my laptop crashedPodcaster's nightmare.
Yeah, I lost the whole episode.
So Nick was nice enough to comeback and do a redo.

Nick Cannon (00:59):
The text was funny too.
Hey Nick, Sorry bro, I messedup, the laptop messed up.
What was my response?

Scott McLean (01:07):
It was the big f bomb, capital letters, f bomb.
Then the laugh emoji came afterit.
So I was like, oh good, so wecan redo this.
So, all right, let's get backinto our original interview
conversation.
Tell the listeners where you'refrom, when you went into the

(01:27):
military and what you did.

Nick Cannon (01:30):
So born in South Carolina up until about three.
Then we ended up moving with myfamily to West Palm.
My dad started working inFlorida so we brought the whole
family down and you know,unfortunately, parents went
through a bit of a divorce, tookturns living with both my mom
and my dad, and you know it.
Parents went through a bit of adivorce, took turns living with
both my mom and my dad, and youknow it was tough.
We went to right around 12, 13different schools by the time I

(01:52):
hit high school, living anywherebetween Sunrise to Jupiter,
West Palm, Boca del Rey, JensenBeach, Stewart and Port St Lucie
.
So it was at the time.
It was tough and poor St Lucie,so it was at the time.
It was tough, but looking backat it, I'm fortunate of it.
You know, being exposed to thatmany different, diverse groups
throughout all of it, it'sinteresting to see and it's

(02:13):
something that you know reallyprepares you for the military.
You know, when you show up toboot camp and you get on those
little, those steps, thosepainted steps, and you are with
everybody, right, You're witheverybody and with everybody
right, you're with everybody andit's either you're going to be
against it or you're going to befor it and I'm fortunate to be
exposed to all that that way,kind of just the flow was easy.
By the time we got there andyou went into the air force, I

(02:34):
did in air force, joined in 2013, going through high school.
The last two years about thetime I was able to drive, my dad
was, uh, traveling the world,getting some experiences.
So I lived by myself the lasttwo years and while fun, I
didn't really throw majorparties or anything like that, I
just kind of kept to my own.
But I didn't really understandwhat was next.

(02:57):
After high school, I was justkind of floating by and I ended
up going to a school that didn'tprioritize college too much and
the rule for my dad was eithergoing to go to college or going
to go to the military.
And by the time senior year hitaround, no SATs, no ACTs.
I think I took the ASVAB, butit was one of those things where
, if you take the ASVAB, youcould dip out of school pretty

(03:18):
early.
So I was like, yeah, let's dothat.
And then I signed some dots youknow, Christmas tree a bit, but
yeah, but by the time, you know, senior year hit around, he
comes back home.
He's like so what's the plan?
What's the plan?
Ooh well, I applied to collegetoo late Apparently, you have to
apply on time.
And I didn't know what to tellhim.
So I was like I'm going to jointhe military.

(03:38):
He's like all right, cool, whendo you leave?
Oh damn, Got me on that one too.
I guess I'm going to go talk toa recruiter.
I went to Jensen Beach HighSchool for, you know, two and a
half years, and I did the JROTCthing and I thought it was cool.
You know, I thought it wasinteresting.
We got to go to the Navy SEALMuseum and this, and you know,
got to experience it.
And even growing up, you know,you kind of you play the little

(03:58):
war video down and you see thatand it's, you know it, it, it
looks cool, it looks cool.
And when you don't have anyother options, it's a it looks
cool and it sounds cool and it'slike let's run with it.
So I enlisted at 19.
I got shipped out to uh, whatwas it?
Lackland air force base as anopen mechanical slot.
One thing that I kind of heardfrom other people is that the

(04:21):
military is going to teach yousomething.
So teach it, let them teach yousomething that you don't
already know how to do.
Like, I don't change my oil, Idon't really, you know, mess
with car stuff that much.
So let's do open mechanical onaircraft C-130s.
You know, sounds like a coolplane and yeah, they shipped off
January 15th of 2013, ended upgraduating in March and then

(04:43):
shipping out to Wichita Fallsfor for training on a F-22s to
become a crew chief.

Scott McLean (04:48):
You know that's funny.
I took the ASRAB also in theAir Force and they came back.
My recruiter said you, you knowwe have you.
After seeing your testing wecould we have me placed as a
like a jet engine mechanic orsomething like that.
I was like mechanic.
It's like I don't even know howto change a tire on my car.

(05:10):
Like, how did that come?
I said what I know aboutmechanics you put on the back of
a matchbook.
So I dated myself, because noone uses matchbooks anymore.
Books and matches it'sbasically a relic.
But I don't understand how theydo that.
I think they just needed tofill the spot, but I ended up
being security police.

Nick Cannon (05:28):
So yeah, it's funny about security, security police
.
When I talked to the recruiterI wanted to do osi, that was,
you know, go to go to yeah,office, special investigation,
fbi, training academy, all thatcool stuff and the the caveat.
That's how they got me to joinsix years.
They said, nick, you can eitherdo four years or six years, but
if you do four years they mightnot keep you.

(05:49):
That's not true at all.
If they're you're, they'regoing to keep you no matter what
, because you're not, you know,an insane person.
So I was like, all right, I'lldo six years, I'll do open
mechanical.
So I get the boot camp.
And during the first coupleweeks of boot camp you go talk
to some administrator about yourjob that you that you selected
for and I said, hey, I want tobe security police, I want to be
security forces, what theycalled it then and it was police

(06:10):
first, now it's security.
You know, maintainers call itSECFO.
I probably get punched out forfor saying that they take it
really seriously.
But uh, but you maintenance andsecurity forces were.
And I look, I get there areother branches that go through
worse.
I'm not saying that, but I amsaying that from the Air Force
side.
Yes, while we're eating atfive-star Michelin restaurants,

(06:31):
I will say security forces andmaintenance is the toughest ones
outside of special operations.
They are the toughest.
They're the ones that are onthe flight line, they're the
ones that are working.
You know, 12, 14, 16.

Scott McLean (06:41):
Working the canine , like I was.

Nick Cannon (06:43):
It wasn't easy, it's just.
You know you're outside,exposed to everything, dealing
with every single chemical inthe world.
It's just part of life.

Scott McLean (06:52):
The law enforcement side of it also is a
whole other thing.
Yeah, you got to deal with it.
You got to deal with the people.
There were two separateentities.
When I came in you went undersecurity police, but that's the
umbrella.
But you were either securityspecialist or law enforcement.
I guess they eventually mergedthat and made it all.
Whatever you end up being underthat one umbrella or one thing.

Nick Cannon (07:14):
New administration comes in.

Scott McLean (07:15):
It's like we're going to do all.

Nick Cannon (07:16):
Now it's a multi-capable airman, so now
they're having.
You know, you came in as a crewchief, but we're also going to
teach you how to do electronics.
Yeah, do more with less, whichis unfortunate, because a lot of
more with less means higherworking hours and less people.
Yeah, you know, these jets gotto fly and that's ultimately,
you know why, for the Air Forceis why we're there.

(07:38):
So, you were up in Panama City.
I was.
I joined to leave Florida, toget out of Florida, and the big
Air Force had a different planfor me, so they put me in Panama
City.
After you know, getting out ofWichita Falls in Texas, went to
Panama City for hot training,did two months there and then I
got selected to stay in PanamaCity in the 43rd Maintenance
Unit, which meant that we tookcare and maintain the F-22s.

(08:02):
So whenever fighter pilotswould graduate from the Texan to
the T-38 Talon, they would cometo our F-22s, we would train
them on our F-22s and then wewould send them to deployable
units.
Nintendo was a hell of a thingand Panama City is a beautiful
place.
Yeah, not the worst place to beman in the midst of spring
break.
Oh, my goodness it was.

Scott McLean (08:21):
That would have got me in a lot of trouble.

Nick Cannon (08:23):
Well, in 2015, they had the alcohol ban on the
beaches, so they're trying tomake everything better, I guess.
But no, it was great.
It was just they called it theTyndall bubble and I knew guys
that went to Tyndall Stationthere on their first duty
assignment and then retired outof Tyndall.
The military is going to useyou how the military wants to
use you.
You either accept it or you tryto go against it and you get

(08:45):
out.
But for me personally, being anF-22 crew chief, it was fun.
Again, I don't change my oil inmy truck.
I'm not too gung-ho aboutfixing aircraft.
I love what the F-22 does.
There's no other aircraft inthe world that could even
compare to it.

(09:11):
But what I saw in themaintenance field was a lot of
people looking down on otherpeople that wanted to be better,
like to better themselves.
Not to better, to be betterthan other people, but to better
themselves, specificallythrough education.
Again, you join the military.
You think, all right, I don'thave to go to college.
Completely untrue, they'regoing to put you through college
.
You can't rank up unless you goto college.
At least specifically for theAir Force and for the
maintainers it was you want togo to school.
What you think you're betterthan us?
You think you're better thanthat?
No, I just you know trying to.

(09:31):
There's going to be a time wherewe get out of the military and
you need to build yourself up tobe as strong as possible to
compete with the outside world,because the moment you get to
the world, your militaryexperience minimal.
It doesn't reflect on a nationthat says that they support
veterans.
That's a fact.
We see that with veterans thatcan't even find actual purpose

(09:54):
and actual jobs and it's tough.
So I saw that at a young ageand, most importantly,
leadership that prioritizeplanes flying than their troops
eating food.
So I made that a point, that Imade it a point when I finally
became a supervisor and then CEO, a staff sergeant, I called it
sandwich time, right when if youbrought a sandwich to work, I'd

(10:16):
give you 30 minutes.
Go do whatever you go.
You want to go work on this?
You want to go work on this?
I don't care.
But you're going to take 30minutes to just just decompress
of here, because there is everysingle there.
You know day, on the flight lineto where your jet comes.
You send your jet off to eor totake a flight and then you try
to run to the queue real quickto get a sandwich and the next
thing you know you're waiting inline to get a quick sandwich or
a bite.
And then you see your jetcoming right back in.

(10:36):
You're like, oh my god, whatjust happened?
Yeah, so you are running toyour spot trying to get your
toolbox ready and try to getyour PMA out to make sure the
forms are all good, to seewhat's going on.
And then, all right, your jetjust came back with an engine
one failure.
Now you got to start preppingthat.
All right, what are we going todo?
And then nobody eats, right,and I know that sounds.
It sounds simple, but goinghungry out there while working a

(10:57):
12, 14 hour shift is going tomake or break your attitude and
the moment your morale is gone,you lose sign on what you're
doing.
So, as an NCO, I made it.

Scott McLean (11:11):
I made it people first people, first mission
always, and that's kind ofreflected my life.
Yeah, so you get out and whatwas the transition?

Nick Cannon (11:16):
So I got out terminally started in 2018.
I did a uh.
The DOD skill bridge had toconvince my entire chain of
command.
We talked about it a little bit.
That's hard yeah.
The entire chain of command thatit was a real thing.
It took me about six months todo that, which was funny because
after I convinced them that itwas real, then they all started
from my commander to my firstyear all started to follow in
line and do it too.
It's a great program thatallows veterans in a back home

(11:41):
or in whatever location theywant to do so.
A lot of big Fortune 500companies have jumped on the
bandwagon to support veteranswith it.

Scott McLean (11:48):
It's hard because the Air Force or the military
has to let that person go.

Nick Cannon (11:52):
It's not the military.
Well, it is the military, butit's not so much the big
military.

Scott McLean (11:55):
It's your command, your command has to let you go,
and now they're one person down, permissive TDY, yep.

Nick Cannon (12:01):
So you're being paid by the military to go
intern Right, and that's not aback filled spot, but once you
leave you are gone.
So if the mission doesn'tsupport it, you're not going to
go.
So I think it'd be a good ideato kind of figure out ways to,
to, to address that, to supportveterans finding purpose and
meaningful jobs before they getout, because too often it's a,

(12:21):
it's a final salute and agoodbye, the gates shut and then
you're on your own.
Somebody made a I don't want tosay it's a joke about it, but
somebody made a comment about itthe other day and they're like
inmates, right.
When somebody gets let out ofjail or prison, they have a
parole officer.
The parole officer kind ofhelps structure your life and
get you on track and they putyou here, put you here, put you

(12:42):
here.
They do that for inmates, right, but for the military you have
nobody.
You have nobody.
And that was such a simplething to kind of like why don't
we have somebody?
Why is there not a liaison thatcan support the veteran from
the time they got for maybe sixmonths or at least, until you
wave your hand and say, hey,look, or just wave it completely
Like I'm not interested and Ijust want to go.

(13:03):
But you always have the optionto kind of go back to it.
That's there for them.
That can kind of plug and playwith different opportunities,
specifically even federal jobs.
The one thing that I want topress for the rest of my life is
to get a pipeline going formilitary personnel to get during
their term of leave to get themstarted through a federal job
of their choosing that they'requalified for, or a training

(13:24):
pipeline to get them qualifiedfor.
So if you are a veteran and youhave, let's say, six months to
get out, awesome, you wave yourhand and you say I want to go
work at the VA, awesome, the VAis going to come in.
You're going to get a liaisonwith the VA and then you're
going to start a trainingprogram for whatever job that
the VA needs and that you chooseto work for the VA IRS, irs,
social Security passport pickand choose a federal agency, it
doesn't matter, there's enoughjobs around the country that

(13:45):
should be able to support that.
I know this because I worked inCongress and I saw it and I saw
the individuals that wereworking there and I said there's
no reason veterans shouldn't behaving these jobs either.
So have a pipeline to where yousay, yes, I'd like to join the
pipeline.
You get connected with afederal service and then there's
no gap in service.
It just goes from militaryservice straight to federal
agency service.

(14:06):
To me it makes sense.

Scott McLean (14:08):
When I was in toward the end of my tour, my
10th year, I got a TDY down toNogales Arizona work on the
border to supplement US Customscanine drug dogs.
I was a drug dog handler in NewMexico and I got hired while I
was there and I was still in theair force.

(14:28):
But what ends up happening is Iended up getting a job.
That's a long story, but how Igot hired was through the VRA,
the Veterans Rehabilitation Act.
I didn't have to test, I didn'thave to do anything.
I filled out a 612, which wasbasically my experience, what I
did in the military and Iprovide some paperwork and boom,

(14:49):
you're hired.
Like you're hired, you're aveteran, you're hired.
And that was how it went for alot of veterans that I worked
with.
And then I guess they did awaywith that for some reason or
another.
But the Veterans RehabilitationAct was really.
And then I started noticing,when they stopped, that I'm not

(15:09):
putting anybody down, but thequality of officers that we got
into customs, especially doghandlers.
We had no more military guys.
We had no more veterans Like.
There were guys worked at hissister's dress shop in New York,
another girl worked for FedEx,like so you lost that, that type
of worker.

(15:30):
But that's another story foranother time.
But yeah, I, I.

Nick Cannon (15:34):
I need to do something like that.
Yeah, you know, to me it makessense.
We have all these programs thatyou know that the country
taxpayers dollars go to.
I think that it would just becommon sense to have something
like that.

Scott McLean (15:43):
Yeah.

Nick Cannon (15:49):
With suicide rate to what it is right now.
We can talk about it anotherday, but the last reporting that
I had and unfortunately it'snot going to be published for
specific reasons, but it was 118a day and I know this because I
took a photo of it on my phonewhile attending a Veterans
Resource Network meeting withthe big VA, with National VA,
there was 99 plus veteranorganizations like Wounded
Veterans Relief Fund.
That was part of this call,just trying to brainstorm ideas
on how we can continue making animpact in the lives of our

(16:11):
veterans.
During that call the NationalSuicide Prevention Task Force
got on.
They started preaching theirnumbers and the individual said
and it had it on the slide itwas 118 veterans a day commit
suicide.
You'll never hear this on thenews, you'll never hear this
anywhere.
I wear 22 on my wrist everysingle day.
We hear 16 and a half from theNational Suicide Prevention Task

(16:34):
Force Suicide Impact Report.
But that individual briefed 118, and that comes directly from
the National Suicide PreventionDirector.
All of us said, hey, where didyou get these numbers?
He said his numbers came fromJanuary 1st of 2024 to June 25th
2024.
And this was the 118 a day.
Once he was done.
Big VA got on top and mutedeverybody and he said if you

(16:57):
have any questions about thisnumber, please let us know, but
do not report this number, donot tell anybody about this
number and do not let anybodyknow that this is the current
number.
And I take my phone out and Iscreenshot it.
Try to get it real quick.
I actually ended up requestingthe minutes of the recording,
the minutes of the meeting.
They denied me and then I filedtwo congressional inquiries,

(17:18):
one with Shafilis McCormick andone with Congresswoman Lois
Frankel.
Unfortunately, both officesdecided to not pursue it and as
somebody that works in theveteran field, that is, a
veteran that's dedicated my lifeto veterans, I want the truth
of that.
Now, if 118 a day wasn't true,there still is a true number and
for a live action agency likeWounded Veterans Relief Fund

(17:41):
that is doing its best to solvethis problem we try to solve it
through two different programsthe urgent financial assistance
program and the critical dentalassistance program we need to
know these numbers.
That way we can let thecommunity know, let the world
know, that this is such a direneed.
You would think, on Fox News,cnn, msnbc, whatever news agency
you can think of podcast thatthis would be a crisis, but it's

(18:04):
not.
It's not a crisis becausepeople aren't talking about it
and the people who areresponsible for it are hiding it
.
And it's not.
It's not a crisis becausepeople aren't talking about it
and the people who areresponsible for it, are hiding
it and it's got to stop.

Scott McLean (18:11):
I've talked to people and said that the 22
number is based on what theyknow as far as how the person
unalived themselves suicide bygunshot is typically the only
way that they can register orany other way.
But then there's the fringe ofthat which is overdoses and

(18:33):
stuff like that, that they can'treally pin on this.
And so I know that I didn'tknow the 118.
I knew it was more than 22.
But they somehow narrowed itinto solid.
This is this, this is the 22,and they left those outliers off

(18:55):
.
But they exist.
They definitely exist.
You know, for veteran overdoses.
How do you put that on?
You know, I guess there's a lotof stuff that goes into it.

Nick Cannon (19:08):
So they go off of the mortuary the medical
examiner.
So I was in another VA briefinga couple weeks ago and they
gave their 2024 suicide impactreport.
And please note, to everybodylistening, these numbers are
based off of two years ago.
So, the 2024, and even I waslistening to Henry's podcast
that you guys did a couple daysago.

(19:28):
His information was two yearsago as well too, and it's
difficult to go off of numbersfrom two years ago for live
action agencies as well.
So how to fix that, I don'tknow.
That's something that we haveto talk about.

Scott McLean (19:42):
We're all trying to figure out, but we have to
talk about it.

Nick Cannon (19:44):
Yeah, so 2024 suicide impact report

(20:09):
no-transcript.
So again, the goal for VA, forbig VA and it has been for the
past couple of years, it's beenmental health, again, mental
health, mental health, mentalhealth.
If you look at the individualsthat are having wait times for
mental health, it are havingwait times for mental health.
It's weeks, it's weeks.
And we see that through thecommunity care plan to where, if

(20:29):
you're a veteran that needsmental health services, you have
to wait.
There has to be a wait longerthan 22 days before you can be
seen by an outside provider.
And guess what, if you waitthat long doesn't mean the
outside provider is going to beconvenient for what you need,
and I've unfortunately had todeal with that personally.
Yeah, it's?

Scott McLean (20:46):
it just seems to be whenever you try to fix
something and something elsepops up, okay, we're going to
put out these outside providers.
Well, now there's this thatgoes with that, and then this is
a delay, and then that, likeyou said, it's the magic key.
It is, somebody has to figureout that lock.

(21:08):
But it starts with talkingabout it.

Nick Cannon (21:10):
Oh, absolutely, it starts with talking about it and
individuals specifically inCongress prioritizing it,
because we're not seeing thatright now.
The VA can't be changed withoutCongress.
That's the way that it is.
And to backtrack just a littlebit, I get really passionate
about this and emotional aboutit.
So after my time in the AirForce I got involved in politics

(21:32):
.
I knew I wanted to startsomewhere, so I volunteered to
go put out campaign signs anddoor knock with a state rep.
12 days into that he hired meto be his legislative aide and
fortunately I got to spend sometime in Tallahassee during a
first session his freshman year.
Fortunately the pay wasn't ableto live in Boca, so I had to
take a bit of a sabbatical.
In his freshman year.
Fortunately the pay wasn't ableto live in Boca, so I had to
take a bit of a sabbatical.
And that's kind of whenever myjourney took some ups and downs

(21:53):
losing that purpose, drinkingdrugs, alcohol, everything you
could think of just being lost.
And for me personally at thetime I didn't have a family,
didn't have a kid, didn't haveanything like that.
It was just me, nick, a formerSAS Sergeant in the Air Force,
who was now lost.
And the party lifestyle, thedrinking, the drugs, all of it

(22:13):
was, unfortunately, a way for meto forget and forget the ma'am
that I knew I could be, and itwas easy.
It was easy to be unaccountable,it was easy to do these things
and spend my days with peoplethat weren't bad people but they
were bad for me and that wastough and unfortunately it took
and spend my days with peoplethat weren't bad people but they
were bad for me and that wastough and unfortunately it took
me two years to figure that outand two years into that

(22:36):
lifestyle.
Thank God I didn't die.
I found out that I was going tobe a dad and my daughter saved
my life.

Scott McLean (22:43):
Oh, they have a tendency to do that, kids.

Nick Cannon (22:46):
Yeah, it wasn't.

Scott McLean (22:47):
That's no doubt a life changer.

Nick Cannon (22:49):
Yeah, it wasn't the ideal situation.
My daughter's mom, her and Iweren't we weren't together.
She was currently living inMaine and, yeah, I get a text
message of a pregnancy test andwhile for many people it would
be you know the best thing inthe world, for me at the time I
thought that it was going to endmy world.
You know we talk about veteransuicide and dealing with stuff

(23:11):
like that.
To backtrack a bit, my stepdadcommitted suicide.
I found that out about a yearas I was in the Air Force and my
stepdad and I's relationship itwas tough.
He was extremely abusive,alcoholic, but he also had a
loving side.
Was he a veteran?
He was not.
No, he flew, uh, for spiritairlines spirit, uh-huh yeah

(23:32):
another podcast, yeah, I know Ithink they're going to, they're
going bankrupt.
But no, he was um severealcoholic going through his own
demons and unfortunately,whenever he drank, uh, he, he
would, he'd beat on.
You know, beat on me up prettygood, just to see what it was
like.
But you flip that switch andthen he was a loving, caring
person.

(23:53):
It was.
You go through it and for solong, for so long, I could never
understand how somebody couldmake that decision, how you're a
coward, how could you do this?
You had a family, you had kids,you had all of that, up until
the moment that it made sense.
Wow, this actually does makesense.
And thankfully, instead of whatI thought at the time was

(24:15):
ruining my life, my daughtercame to me by the grace of God
and, uh, and she saved me.
She finally was that missinglink that I had.
She was, she was my purpose,the path of of after military.
I've done my best to figure waysto help individual, not just
through the organization, butliterally friends that I met on

(24:36):
Xbox Right.
But again, from the wait timesof the decisions of the VA
sometimes months, sometimesyears, sometimes longer than
that they get it wrong, whateverit may be have unfortunately
put them in situations that,yeah, they have committed
suicide.
Yeah, and it's a shame.
But to go back to understand,you kind of have to put yourself
in those shoes and when you seeyourself going down that spiral

(24:59):
, it's up to you to change it.

Scott McLean (25:02):
Yeah, that decision process weighs heavy on
people.
I didn't really understand ituntil I got a phone call from an
old friend who attempted andwhen I, when it got down to
brass tacks, it was based aroundhis denial letter.
You know, yeah it, yeah.

(25:23):
Some of us just say, ah, theydenied me, and others are like,
no, you can't deny.
So that's a very, verysensitive issue with some people
.

Nick Cannon (25:34):
Think about your.
In each branch, I'm sure, isdifferent.
Each situation, I'm sure, isdifferent as well.
You have individuals that getshunned for going to mental
health.
You have individuals that getshunned to go see a doctor for
some knee pain and what happensis that this stigma gets put on
you.
So if you are so afraid orunwilling to be seen, at that
time unfortunately there's nodocumentation to go to where you

(25:58):
file your VA claim and you'resaying, hey, I have you know,
ptsd, anxiety, depression,whatever it may be, and I'm
service connecting it to my timeat Tyndall Air Force Space.
So I got to Tyndall, our chief,our E9, set us all up and I'm
service connecting it to my timeat Tyndall Air Force Space.
So I got to Tyndall, our chief,our E-9, set us all up and I
didn't even touch an aircraft atthe time.
He lined us all up and he saidyou guys are about to crash
another aircraft, all to ourfaces.
That was the first thing that Iheard this guy say you guys are

(26:21):
about to crash another aircraft.
Two months before that, Ibelieve it was, aircraft 13
crashed.
I forget aircraft 13 crashed.
I forget what the probably ahydraulic issue pilot survived.
Thankfully, the jet went downand at the time, two months
later, we're going through aninspection from the big air
force, to call it the lravlogistics readiness assessment,
something I don't know.
But um, he will.
He lined us all out and he saidyou guys are about to crash a
plane.
I was like what the fuck?

(26:42):
What is going on?
Okay, whatever, let's try to dothis.
And they, our flight chiefs,pretty much just told us to not
show up to work for the nextcouple of days.
So me and my friend Kunz, wejust went back to our rooms and
finished our own processing andpretty much they called it
cowboy maintenance and we werejust not doing things properly
and it was unfortunate.

(27:02):
So that was the first kind ofhit I got was you guys are about
to crash an airplane.
Fast forward five and a halfyears of of maintenance.
Thankfully I never had anincident, but again, every
single time I go to sleep, closemy eyes, did I do this?
Did I do this?
I got tire on there at 19.
You're solely responsible foran aircraft.
You type in your man number,you sign it off, a pilot comes

(27:23):
in, flies the aircraft throughall time and space and it comes
back and then it's scott's turnto inspect it.

Scott McLean (27:30):
Scotter the tires, good oh, I know the feeling.
Yeah, when I was an explosivedetective dog handler in
southern california I was partof all the secret service
missions when the president,vice president, foreign
dignitaries came into the southsouthern california area and as
far as the president goes, liketheir suite where they stay in

(27:51):
whatever hotel, I go in therewith a EOD guy from the Navy and
I search that room.

Nick Cannon (28:00):
So the dog.
Just how does it let you know?

Scott McLean (28:03):
Well, the dog will sit Really.
Yeah, if they get on source,they're going to sit right at
the source.
You don't want a dog scratchingof fighting anything.
That might be an explosiveright.
So it's a passive response dog.
Well, when I leave that roomEOD guy first, then me they seal
that room off.
So I'm the last one to searchthat room If anything happens.

(28:25):
Guess who it's on?
It's on me.
So those were always very tense.
Any high situation issues thatpopped up while you guys were
doing it Not with the SecretService, but I did one night get
a call.
There was a seal was broken ona Special Forces C-130 at March
Air Force Base.
So they call me out at like 1in the morning.

(28:46):
I go out and I search.
I get on the plane.
I have my spotter with me.
You can't turn on any lights.
You can't go in there with theradio on.
You can't do any of that stuff.
It's just you, the dog and yourspotter who looks.
I'm watching the dog, he'swatching everything else
Flashlight.
I go up one side, I go aroundthe back of the c-130, I come

(29:09):
down the other side and the dogslows down.
And I had done a lot ofsearches.
Dog slows down.
I'm like, oh, this isn't good.
And he stays in one spot andhe's scared.
Now he's scanning back andforth on the skin of the wall of
the you know the wall of theaircraft and he looks at me and
he sits.
Oh my gosh, so what country isthis this?

Nick Cannon (29:29):
was in the United States.

Scott McLean (29:29):
Yeah, this was on the flight line at March Air
Force Base.
He sits and I'm like, oh shit,this has never happened before.
So what you're supposed to dois you're supposed to memorize
the spot that it's at, you dropyour beret like it's a mark or
whatever you have, throw it onthe ground and get out.
Just get the fuck out of dodge.

(29:50):
So I get out and I said the dog, you know.
Positive response in the hole.
Everybody around was like what?
And so up channel.
Communication of the pentagon itgoes that high, oh it, when you
, when a bomb dog sits on aspecial force the c-130 yeah,
that had the seal was broken itgoes all the way up and then it
comes down.
The base commander shows up,everybody shows up.

(30:12):
It's a big fucking deal, wow.
And so I'm done, my job is done, and I leave, and they come in
and they end up doing a searchon it.
They brought in an EOD team,they took the skin off the wall
and it ended up being some wireshad frayed inside the wall.

(30:35):
And so I go back the next dayto get a debrief from the base
commander and the whole thing.
And I walked up to him and said, sir, I apologize for that.
And he looked at me.
He's like what are youapologizing for?
Your dog did its job, you didyour job and you know what?
Those wires were prettyimportant.

(30:55):
I guess that's what he said.
He goes, I guess they werepretty important.
So, no, we owe you a thank you.

Nick Cannon (31:02):
You get a coin out of it.

Scott McLean (31:04):
No, I got the good old letter of accommodation.
Yeah, the meta thing,accommodation thing, the whole
thing out of it, but it was uh,yeah.
So I know that feeling when yousend your jet off.
Yeah, shit, better be tight.
Yeah, you just have to be ableto compartmentalize yeah, all of
that, you know, yeah, butunfortunately there's a stress
factor that goes with that.

Nick Cannon (31:22):
Yeah, yeah, and it was just being a maintainer
wasn't what I wanted to do withthe rest of my life.
So I knew that there was gonnabe a point in time where I was
going to get out.
And you know, I tried to getother places.
I did my best to deploy.
I never had an opportunity todeploy being a Tyndall we were.
We were stuck there, especiallyin a training unit.
We had one situation where the95th closed down in Harlem in
New Mexico.
They moved it, which was adeployable unit, to right down

(31:44):
the street at Tyndall.
I begged my flight chief.
I said sorry, richie, sir, I'myoung, I'm single, I'm in the
dorms, please send me to the95th, that way I could deploy.
And they said no, they wantedto keep me there and they sent
some knuckleheads down to the95th to clean shop a little bit.
But I realized that for mepersonally, I saw the way the

(32:05):
Air Force was going to use meand I just didn't want to spend
my life like that.
I loved the people, didn't lovethe job, appreciated the job,
loved my time doing the job, butI wasn't in love with putting
planes in the sky.
So I decided to get out andthen jump in politics, get lost
for a little bit and thengetting back to the blessing of

(32:26):
my daughter, stella ended updoing my dream job and that was
helping people.
I ended up meeting with MikeDurkee with Wounded Veterans
Relief Fund, and we talked aboutall the great things that we
were going to be able to dotogether about being on as a new
hire, and we shook hands, youknow, and left it at that.
I was looking forward togetting a job with WVRF, but

(32:46):
time was running out.
My daughter's going to be bornany day now.
I moved her mom in with me inFlorida, got a two bedroom, two
bath apartment, setting up thenursery and whatnot.
Again, her and I we weren't.
We weren't together.
We're just trying to co-parentthe best way we could.
And for some odd reason, after Ileft my meeting with Mike, I
went on USAjobsgov.
I typed in veterancongressional, veterans,

(33:08):
legislative, and a job popped upand it was a green and gold
program with a spot in Miramarin South Florida.
I didn't even know whereMiramar was, I couldn't tell you
, I just applied to it and Isaid all you had to do was send
your resume out to mikeblot atushousegov.
I was like, oh, just a resume.
All you had to do was send yourresume out to mikeblatt at
ushousegov.
I was like, oh, just a resume,it's easy enough, I have

(33:29):
political experience.
So I sent it Roughly two weekslater again, my daughter is
about to pop out anytime now.
This is August.
My daughter was born inSeptember and Mike calls me back
.
I jump out of bed.
I say, hey, mike, how, how youdoing, sir?
I'm like I got a job, let's goand I finally have a career.
And he says, nick,unfortunately we have to go with

(33:52):
somebody else.
And I said, okay, if you knowanybody that's hiring veterans,
please let me know.
I need a job.
And he said, all right, so wehang up and you know the shame,
the guilt, everything.
I don't know what I'm going todo, it's just everything's
happening.
So I got to figure it out.
A day or two later goes by, I'msitting at my desk on USAjobsgov

(34:13):
trying to find another job andI get a call from DC.
I don't know anybody in DC, soI don't know who's going to call
me.
And I pick it up and it was thechief of staff, Mike.
Chief of Staff Mike McCurry forthe congresswoman's office.
I said, hello, hey, this isMike, chief of Staff.
We want to bring you on for aninterview.
And I said, oh my gosh, yes,please.
Whenever you're ready, next daywe do an interview.
We start going through you knowthe resume, the background, the

(34:36):
expectations and the job itselfis through the Green and Gold
Program, through the US House ofRepresentatives.
It allows gold star militaryand spouses to have jobs as a
legislative aide, congressionalaide and the US House of
Representatives Dream job.
Right.
Never got the fifth grade fieldtrip to DC, but just the.
I don't have enough words toexplain what it's like to be

(34:59):
there.
Whether you agree with thepolicies, agree with the
politics, whatever it is just tobe there is significant and
it's emotional.
Politics, whatever it is justto be there is significant and
it's emotional.
And I always tell people thatif you're, if you don't have a
tear in your eye by standingthere, you shouldn't be there.
Not at all, especially not as alegislator.
And so I interviewed with theindividuals.
I said have you guys seen mypast?
They were a Democrat officebefore I worked for Republican.

(35:20):
We'll run as a Republican inthe future and I think we don't
care.
We just want to bring you along.
All right, sweet Sunday, let'sdo this.
So sign the dotted line.
Everything was official.
I started on Veterans Day of2022.
My daughter was born onSeptember 25th of 2022.
And the moment that I started,I called Mike Durkee back and I
said hey, mike, I know you, andwhen Veterans Relief Fund
decided to go with somebody else, but how can I, from Congress,

(35:43):
help you in your organization?
And that was the start of afriendship, a mentorship a
brothership, everything inbetween Big Mike's a good guy.

Scott McLean (35:51):
He is Good guy, our fearlessly.
He's a standup guy, as we sayup in the Northeast.
He's definitely a standup guy.

Nick Cannon (35:59):
I've met very few people that has compassion,
loyalty, love and a true need towant to help people.
Yeah, not because there's anysort of underlying reasons why
he wants to help people, becausehe genuinely wants to help
people and that was the firsttime I and he's all in All, in,
he's all like.
He's a busy guy.
We, our days are spent doingeverything we can to continue

(36:23):
making a difference and roughlya year serving in the US House
of Representatives, working onthe Congresswoman's veteran
portfolio, buildingrelationships, figuring out ways
to help nonprofits, in learningthe awfulness that's the truth.
I learned the awfulness of whatmakes politics politics.
It's disgusting, it's terrible.
I hate everything about it.
But me personally, I can'tchange it.

(36:43):
But what I did figure out washow to navigate it.
I figured out how to navigatethat to then take that out, take
out that awfulness and makegood out of it and then save
people, save veterans, lives,back here in the community, back
here, because, unfortunately,these individuals they don't
care.
They don't care, and I don'tmean to simply specifically say

(37:04):
she doesn't care, I and I and Idon't mean to to simply specific
, specifically say she doesn'tcare.
I do believe she does care, butthe whole system doesn't care.
We see this because tax dollarscan go to anything and
everything.
We see this because veteransare dying.

Scott McLean (37:16):
Yeah.

Nick Cannon (37:16):
They're committing suicide.
We see this because we're inwars that we don't understand,
that we're dying for.
I didn't want to deploy to so Icould go fight bad guys.
I wanted to deploy and I stillsay this, that I will do
everything in my power to figureout how to go there to go pass
out towels to, to the men andwomen that are over there.
I'll go.
I'll go cook food.
I want to be there and lookthem in the eye to make sure
that I tell them that, that Ilove them, that I am there for

(37:41):
them.
Or California, wherever theywant to go, I don't care.
I want them to know thatthey're not forgotten, that this
is for something.
That's why I wanted to deploy.
It wasn't to put bombs onforeheads or do any of that
stuff because we saw that after20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan
, we are in a worse place nowthan we've ever been in Wars all
over the place, thousands andthousands of people dying All

(38:05):
for what, while people got richand we die.

Scott McLean (38:08):
Nature of the beast.
So let's say it's the nature ofthe beast, you know?
Yeah, so then you get and youend up working for Wounded
Veterans Relief Fund.

Nick Cannon (38:21):
Yeah, so you know I don't take many things
personally.
When Mike and WVF decided to gowith somebody else,
strategically that was the bestoption.
You know, we already had ourhome bases in North Palm Beach
but we service veteransthroughout the entire state so
we needed somebody else in Tampa.
Strategically, that's the bestoption.
So they hired somebody in Tampaand I completely understand
that he had her because heneeded a job, you know.
But no, it's business, and thatwas the best thing at the time

(38:45):
for WVF to go forward To thisday.
I give Mike a hard time as muchas I can, but no, everything
happens for a reason and for himsaying, no, we're not hiring me
.
On that day I got to live mydream job.
I, going to DC and working inCongress, working for the US
House of Representatives, madeyou a better person when you
came back to work for themAbsolutely More well-rounded

(39:06):
person, absolutely, andunderstanding that.
And then, roughly a year later,I'm sitting at Bonita Blast,
which was one of our events thatwe do every year.
This year it's going to be inAugust, so if you like to fish,
please let me know, mike.
And at the time, our board vicepresident, russ Consola, who is
now our president and chairmanof the board, took me to the
side and said hey, nick, wethink it's time for you to come
to WVRF.
And I said let's do it.

(39:27):
My letter of resignation isalready in my car.
I will sign it right now.
I'm done, send me over to theright side of history.
And so, sure enough, ithappened.
A couple weeks later, Iresigned from Congress.
Again, thank you for all theopportunities that you allowed
me to have, but it's time tomake a bigger impact, and that's
my rule in life I go where Ican make the biggest impact to
help as many people as possible.

Scott McLean (39:48):
And let's give the listeners that might not have
listened to it and I don't knowwhy you haven't listened to all
my episodes Be better.
Listeners did an episode withMike Durkee on the Wounded
Veteran Relief Fund, and so forthe people that might not have
listened to that, go listen toit.
Give them an idea of what theWounded Veteran Relief Fund does
.

Nick Cannon (40:07):
So Wounded Veterans Relief Fund, WVRF.
It saves lives, right.
We save lives by twounbelievable programs the Urgent
Financial Assistance Programand the Critical Dental
Assistance Program.
What we do as an organizationis we fundraise money and then
put that money directly back toveterans that are in need.
So for our origin financialassistance program, we focus on
veterans needs to preventhomelessness.

(40:29):
How do we do that?
We pay directly to thecreditors utility payments,
water, electric, sewage gas,housing payments, mortgages,
payments, rental assistancefirst, last, last, also car
payments and insurance paymentsthese, you know, these higher
priced bills that wouldultimately change the direction
of a veteran's life.

(40:49):
We have no income base.
Everything is a case-by-casesituation.
We focus on the needspecifically for that veteran
and we solve that problem right.
We don't.
We don't believe in puttingband-aids on on problems.
That's just not going to makethe difference.
If we look at the entiresituation for that veteran in
that situation and then we solveit right, We'll write a check
directly to their creditors andmake sure that they know that

(41:10):
they're taken care of, Again,100% free to the veteran.
That's how WVRF was foundedback in 2009.
So let me clarify that you don'twrite them a check, correct and
that protects not just theveteran but specifically the
donors as well.
We write checks to veterans forthem to go utilize that and to
get a bit more in the weeds ofhow the process works.

(41:31):
The veteran goes to the VA andthey say, hey, I need a problem.
The VA then refers that veteranback to Wounded Veterans Refund
and then we send that veteranan application.
They qualify the veteran at theVA to ensure that they are
service-connected.
Disability 30% or higher,that's the qualifier.
Our goal is to get that to 10%,our amazing goal to be at.
If you are an honorablydischarged veteran, then you

(41:52):
would qualify.
But again, funding, funding,funding.
You say it all the time Givethem money Give them money.
That's my favorite thing ever Istarted using it.
Give them money.
Give them money that's myfavorite thing ever.
I'm going to start using it.
Give them money.
Give us money, but not just us,other organizations right?
We're all in this together.
This is your podcast, yourepisode man.
Give them money.
Give wwwwvrforg.

Scott McLean (42:11):
That's right.
Donate now.

Nick Cannon (42:12):
That's right.
So we send the application tothe veteran.
It's for the Urgent FinancialAssistance Program.
They fill it out and then theysend us the last three months of
their bank statements.
Our case management team Holly,jade, nalina, jason
unbelievable Tammy, now Directorof Veterans Programs the most
incredible team.
I love all of you so muchindividually.

(42:33):
I couldn't do any of thiswithout you.
Wvrf wouldn't be here withoutyou.
So thank you for all the workthat you all do, including Abby
and Penny and, of course, ourfearless leader, mike.

Scott McLean (42:43):
Some shout-outs I think I've had shout-outs on the
podcast.

Nick Cannon (42:46):
Look at you.
I tell them all the time.
So my job director ofoperations, formerly development
communications I couldn't behere tomorrow and the job would
still get done.
That's the truth.
So who's the most importantpart?
It's Tammy Jade, holly Nalina,jason right, those are the
individuals that are actuallytalking to the veterans.
Every single day.
They go through the worstthings.

(43:08):
You know they're the ones thatare having to deal with it.
Make the payments go through it.
If I didn't show up to worktomorrow probably wouldn't
change anything.
They're the ones that pack yourparachute.
That's it.
That's it.
And Mike's is.
You know he says it all thetime too it's we are a team.
We are a team.
Nobody is better than anybodyelse.
We have titles and we have jobdescriptions, but working in the
nonprofit field, you have to beflexible.

(43:29):
You have to be flexible tounderstand this and actually
make a true difference.
So I could not be more thankfulfor all of them.
I love all of them dearly andthey just make this the best
place in the world, especiallyto do such an incredible job
together.
But anyway, we reviewed the lastthree months of their bank
statements and to make sure theydon't have any sort of
underlying issues.
Now we can tell if they'regambling.

(43:51):
We can tell if they are sendingmoney to Ukraine.
We can see if they have moneyto other extracurricular
activities.
Ukraine.
Yeah, I beat up on them prettybad last time so I've got to
throw it in there, but anyways,I'm not picking sides.
So we make sure that they don'thave, you know, some sort of
addiction problem, and if theydo, that's OK.

(44:13):
We put them on a hold statusand we refer them back to the VA
to get the help that they need.
So it's not just, hey, best ofluck, no, we refer them back to
the social worker and makeanother contact and then we get
through that situation.
Once their checks and balancesare good, then we can support
them, whether it's first andlast for rent, get them in a
house Nowadays you need like$6,000 to get into a rental spot
first and last, sometimessecurity deposit.

(44:35):
So that's what we're able to do.
And then you get accepted.
We write the check directly tothe creditor or to the landlord
mortgage office, fpnl, utilitypayment, port St Lucie water
sewage, whoever it is.
We contact them directly,either write them a check or pay
in line, and at that point it'sbest of luck to you.
We are here.
If you need anything else,Please stay in contact.

(44:57):
If you want to volunteer at anyof our events, let us know and
come out and hang out with us,give them that sense of support
that maybe they didn't have.
Maybe it was like that for you,but when I got out, I threw all
my stuff away.
I did too.
I threw everything.

Scott McLean (45:09):
I didn't keep you know, I look back, I'm kind of
that guy like I did it, I livedit.
I don't really need memorabiliafrom what I did.
You know it was a livedexperience.
I'm proud of what I did.
I did some amazing stuff withamazing people and amazing dogs
and I just, kind of buddy ofmine, said hey, you know, when I
moved out of the house I wasrenting, he's like you got this

(45:32):
whole bag of like things.
I'm like, nah, it's all right,yeah, yeah, I'm good, I'm good.

Nick Cannon (45:38):
So, as far as not keeping anything, You'd like
disassociate yourself with allof it and I was beyond blessed
for my time.
The most frustrating part thatI couldn't experience more,
whether it was deploying or goto other bases, this just wasn't
in the cards for me.
But, again, I was beyondblessed to have the experience
that I did and I'm thankfulevery single day to God that I

(45:59):
was able to have that experienceand specifically meet those
people that I got to meet.
Lifelong friends, lifelongfriends.

Scott McLean (46:05):
So the dental aspect very, very big deal, Very
big deal.

Nick Cannon (46:11):
Yeah, so in 2021, we had a veteran come in that
needed dental assistance.
Again, the prioritization andthe mission of Wounded Veterans
Relief Fund was urgent financialassistance.
So the veteran comes in, neededdental care.
We ended up saying, hey, youknow, maybe we can help you out
a little bit.
So we ended up going to, at thetime, our board president,
lieutenant General Shelberg.
He had a dentist that waswilling to help out.

(46:33):
So we plugged and played, putthe veteran in with the dentist,
took care of the cause for it,and that gave us the light bulb.
And again, mike, our fearlessleader, took it upon himself,
along with Jade, to buildsomething out of it.
Right, let's build out a dentalprogram.
What does that mean?
Well, first, we need dentists.
Okay, well, if we have dentists, we need somebody to help.
That's from the dental field.

(46:54):
Come on to Wounded VeteransRelief Fund to make it work.
So we brought on Tammy.
Tammy is a freaking rock star.
Everyone on our team is a rockstar, but I give everybody like
different separate shout outsbecause I love them all so much.
But Tammy Martin, she's over inTampa.
30 plus years of dentalexperience, working front end,
back end.
Every portion of the dentaloffice comes in teams up with

(47:15):
Jade and between Jade, mike andTammy they build the dental
program critical dentalassistance program, we call it
CDAP and they started to make afee schedule.
So the fee schedule for a crownwould be and I'm not a dentist,
tammy, I'm sorry I'm going tomess up these numbers, but I
love you anyways $30 for a rootcanal is about $300 for a root
canal For a cap.
So say you would pay, a regularcivilian would pay $100, wvrf

(47:39):
would pay 50.
So it was roughly 40 to 60% offthe normal service cost.
So we started with one dentist.
I am proud to say, with thededication, the passion that
these amazing ladies have done,we are now over 300 dentists
throughout the entire state ofFlorida.
Yeah, and just for roughnumbers, for conversation's sake

(48:00):
, we last year alone we spent$1.78 million directly on
veterans and their families andwe were able to service 234
veterans specifically throughthe dental program.
And this is everything from aroot canal all the way up to a
complete and total mouth restore.
So veterans that have lost alltheir teeth by being exposed to

(48:21):
Agent Orange back in Vietnam,you know they can't even chew,
they can't even smile.
We talk about mental health.
If you can't smile, if youcan't kiss your wife, your
husband, your kids, you can'tget that job, that meaningful
job that you've been wantingyour entire life, because you
can't go interview for it.
You talk about suicide and allthese other things.
You know, you talk aboutsuicide and all these other
things.
I like to look at suicide asit's not just one situation that

(48:42):
puts it over the top.
It's a lot of situations,compounding factors, compounding
factors, smaller situationsthat lead up to one bigger
situation that puts you over thetop.
So what Wounded Veterans ReliefFund does is comes in and
solves those other issues.
If you're losing your house, wecan come in and make the
payment for you and then you'regood, you have some breathing
room, you can get back on track.

(49:04):
And it's not just you know thesecompletely down and out
individual.
These are everyday veterans.
Veterans that maybe broke theirankle, can't go to work for two
weeks or a month.
There's an application process,correct?
Yeah, absolutely.
There's qualifying factors.
There are 30% VA disabilityrating or higher for the dental
program.
If you're at a hundred percent,the VA takes care of that.

Scott McLean (49:25):
And that's it, that's it.
So, even if financially they'reworking.
And so it's just 30%, yeah, 30%or higher, yeah.

Nick Cannon (49:34):
And it's not income based as well.
We look at every situation.
That's right there.

(49:55):
That's amazing.
Great.
You have a job?
Awesome.
If you don't have a job, we canconnect to a career source to
get you in solid employment andthen we can come in and take
care of you, know the first andlast, and get you on your feet.
That way you're not diggingyourself a hole to create bigger
problems down the road.
Same thing with utility water,electric switch, gas.
The dental program is a beastof its own.
Yeah Right, because we'retalking about the health care of

(50:17):
individuals, specificallydental.
The fact that the VA doesn'tprovide dental care to 85% of
veterans, it's hard to get.
Wild but again, we can sendmoney to anybody and everybody.
It doesn't make any sense.
But yet our veterans are herestruggling, specifically the
veterans that were exposed toburn pits, agent Orange, toxic
fumes that years down the roadhave deteriorated their teeth to

(50:40):
the point to where they'refalling out.
They can't eat.
And then you look at the cardioissues that go along with
dental as well.
It's unreal.
It makes no sense that we can'tprioritize Infections
infections lead to sepsis.

Scott McLean (50:51):
All of it.
I've seen it.
All of it.
I've seen it in people I know,yeah, because of their teeth,
their teeth falling out and theydon't have the proper dental
hygiene or the proper dentalcare and it's, it's bad.

Nick Cannon (51:09):
Yeah, and then add that onto the world, the
inflation costs, the cost ofliving.
So you have a veteran that hasa family, or just by themselves,
and it's either you're going togo to the dentist for a root
canal or your tooth just hurts.
You don't even know it's a rootcanal, it just hurts, right.
But it's like, oh, I have topay my car payment, which is
$500.
I have to pay rent, which isnow $2,800.
So I'm just going to push thatpain in my tooth, just going to
take some ibuprofen.
Military does the best.

(51:29):
We'll get some 800 milligramsand we'll send you on your way,
you know.
But we'll take some antibiotics.
Hopefully the pain goes away,but it doesn't.
And that $500 root canal turnsinto a $2,000 treatment.
Now you had a difficultsituation turn into an
impossible situation, right?
So what does Wounded VeteransRelief Fund does?
That veteran that gets referredby the VA comes to us in a

(51:50):
simple application process forthe dental side and then, once
you are approved to join ourdental program, we plug and play
you with the dentist closest toyou.
So if you are in Tallahassee,we have a Tallahassee partner,
whether it's a specialist or ageneral dentist, whatever it may
be, we plug and play you andthen you are seen by the dentist
, a treatment plan occurs, thetreatment plan gets sent back to

(52:11):
us, we review it to make sureit makes fiscal sense right,
because, again, we're protectingall of our dollars and making
sure that they go to the rightplaces.
And then, once the dentaltreatment plan is approved by
Tammy and Jade and Holly andNalina, then we will make
payment and the veterans beingseen right then and there, out
of the comfort.
Dr Cohen, you're amazing.
She is part of the Jupiterdentist, jupiter mobile dentist,

(52:33):
and she has her dental van andshe drives up to our veterans
houses.
Wow, yeah, everything,everything is done in her van,
from no teeth to all teeth,right, right then and there.
Amazing, it's beautiful.
So if you are a dentistlistening or if you know any
dentists that would like to beable to partner or specialty
labs, anything in between in thedentist field, please let us
know.
We are growing over 300throughout the entire state now,

(52:57):
but again, everyone counts andwe couldn't do it without their
help.
We couldn't do it at all.
So we're grateful for you.

Scott McLean (53:04):
So what's on the horizon for Wounded Veterans
Relief Fund Fundraisers, etcetera?

Nick Cannon (53:09):
Yeah, fundraisers, we have a salute and shoot on
Saturday, which is at OKShooting Corral or, excuse me,
ok Shooting Center.
Oh, don't crucify me.

Scott McLean (53:16):
Yeah, which is?
It's a nice fun one too.

Nick Cannon (53:19):
That Saturday we have our Running for Heroes
event, which is a 5K up at RiverBend in Jupiter.
So if you're interested inrunning or want to sponsor for
the 5K, please go on wwwwvrforg,slash events.
You can register right then andsponsor right then on the
website.
As well as our Bonita Blastupcoming in August, we do that
in Stewart at Pirate's CoveResort and Marina.

(53:42):
It's an amazing time.
If you have anybody that wantsto go fishing or sponsor that
event, you'll check it out rightthere on the website.
And then, leading up to our endof the year Night of Honor Gala
, which is held at the KravisCenter, which is going to be
November 1st.
Again, information is on ourwebsite and if you have any
questions, please feel free tocontact me, not just about WVRF,
but about anything Veteransissues, personal, whatever you

(54:07):
need.
I've seen enough, I've beenthrough enough to understand
where people come from and it'snot like they need a lifeline.
They just want somebody tolisten and maybe help them out
and help guide them to what theyneed.
So if you need anything, emailis ncannon C-A-N-N-O-N at
wvrforg and the phone number is772-214-7001.

(54:31):
I got one phone so it's alwayson me 24-7.
And I mean that wholeheartedly.
We got enough problems in theworld.
You are a priority, you areloved and I and I mean that with
every uh inch of me.

Scott McLean (54:46):
Yes, and we would be remiss if we didn't mention
the big boy, the devil dog, 5kand wade waddick.

Nick Cannon (54:54):
Yeah, hundred thousand hundred and four
thousand dollars last year.
Wade, wade.
Funny enough, was the firstperson when I moved to boca that
I contacted.
Yeah, I don't know how we.
Then I found out his gym wasmore or less like a CrossFit
type, hit by intensity.

Scott McLean (55:06):
Yeah, I'm not into that I ain't built for that.

Nick Cannon (55:09):
No, no, no.
I work out every day, but Inope, nope, nope, he didn't get
me, nah.
But, wade Waddick, you are amentor, a brother a leader.

Scott McLean (55:24):
Our community is so fortunate to have you.
Yeah, and we love you more thanhe's very humble itself.
Yeah, he's outgoing, he's alive wire.
He can be what way it is, buthe's he's actually humble.
He's very nice, easygoing dudeyes, you know yeah so, all right
, well, listen, I'm glad we gotthis episode in and I I on the
uh the safety net, so I have twodevices recording this.
So this, this, this, thisinterview won't happen again for

(55:47):
another year.

Nick Cannon (55:47):
Yeah, I mean maybe sooner than that.

Scott McLean (55:49):
That's right.

Nick Cannon (55:50):
Maybe the storytelling will not, but um.

Scott McLean (55:52):
Oh yeah, you'll be part of that, yeah.

Nick Cannon (55:54):
But I gotta, I gotta end it with this.
That way she can.
She can hear it.
Stella, my beautiful daughtershe's a little bit over two now.
I love you, I love you, I loveyou.
I am so proud of you and youare the smartest, most beautiful
Stellasaurus roaring andsoaring and exploring through
the cosmos.
Baby, I love you, my life isdedicated to you and I'm
fortunate for you.
Thank you for saving me and,Scott, thank you for giving me

(56:15):
the opportunity to be here.

Scott McLean (56:16):
Oh, buddy, you know anything for you guys, man?
And just so, there's atimestamp for your daughter it's
January 28th 2025.
And it is 10 51 morning.
Perfect that she has that.
You said this.

Nick Cannon (56:29):
So I say that that phrase right there.
I've been saying that since shewas probably two months old and
I I've.
That's what I say every time Igo off the phone with her.
I'll be in public and be likewhat the hell are you talking?

Scott McLean (56:40):
about.
It's a beautiful thing.

Nick Cannon (56:41):
Mind your business.
Yeah, it's a beautiful thing.

Scott McLean (56:43):
Yeah, well, again, nick, thank you for coming back
and redoing that 40 episodes.
It's the 40th episode, is it?
It's pretty crazy.
Popped through champagne.
Yeah, 40 episodes.
It just like a grind, like Iwant to.
I'm like a doer, I want to getmore, more, more.
But you have to wait for peopleto do this Right.

(57:05):
So it was a slow grind, but allof a sudden I turn around and
40 episodes in.
I think this is.
This isn't going anywhere.

Nick Cannon (57:13):
If we're lucky to have you, I appreciate it.

Scott McLean (57:15):
And I want to give back.
That's what this is my way.
Along with.
Here comes the cheap plug oneman, one mic foundation.
Go to the.
Go to the website one man, onemic foundationorg if you want to
see what we're doing over there.
We're doing this we're teachingveterans how to podcast and
we're also teaching them the theimportance of actual
storytelling, because aveteran's story is their biggest

(57:37):
strength, as I say.
So that's my cheap plug for theone man, one mic i-microvision.

Nick Cannon (57:41):
I love it.
I'm happy to be a part of this.

Scott McLean (57:43):
Yeah, I got like three.
See, the thing about that is Ican't do a lot of veterans at
once, because when you'rebreaking down and teaching
people from concept topublishing their podcast, you
have to focus on each veteran.
It's not like a group thing andso the smog like I have three
veterans going right now.
So it's just interesting thatthe ideas that they come up with

(58:04):
for their podcast is amazing,sure.

Nick Cannon (58:07):
It was so beautiful about it.
It's you having a creative, youhaving a podcast and supporting
other people to live that dream.
And it reflects on thenonprofit side too, to where we
have a nonprofit but we supportother nonprofits because we
can't do it alone.
We are stronger together.
We have to do it together toeventually and really make that
bigger impact.
And we're fortunate to live ina place with such incredible

(58:28):
veterans like you, like WadeWaddick, that step up to make
the difference.
Do our part.

Scott McLean (58:34):
That's it, and we do our part and have fun
Absolutely.
I love podcasting, so this iskind of like you know.
But again, my friend, thank youvery much.
We'll have to have lunch againNext time.
Lunch is on me.
Yeah, thank you, yeah, so justdon't take me to Ruth's Chris or
anything, Just don't you knowbe reasonable with me.

Nick Cannon (58:51):
See, yeah, cheers to another 40.

Scott McLean (58:54):
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah, number 40 and goingstrong.
So for the listeners, thank youfor listening.
I appreciate your time.
I appreciate you listening tothe podcast and the numbers are
growing and that's a good sign.
I want you to, if you like it,share it, tell another veteran
or another nonprofit about it.
Go to the websitevetsconnectionpodcastcom.

(59:16):
It's a great resource page.
Now there's about 28 nonprofitsthat are listed with it and
what makes it unique is not onlydo you get the website and the
logo from the foundation, butyou get to listen to an episode
of what they actually do, and itgives you a good background on
each foundation.
So I'm building that resourcepage, one foundation at a time.

(59:37):
And, as I always say, listen tothe end of the podcast.
There's a good public serviceannouncement for 211 and 988.
And, as I always say, listen tothe end of the podcast, there's
a good public serviceannouncement for 9, for 2, 1, 1
and 9, 8, 8.
And it's good for veterans,families of veterans, friends of
veterans or just anyone ingeneral.
It's good information.
It's 30 seconds long, so giveit a listen and with that we
built another bridge.
Today, wounded Veterans ReliefFund makes another appearance on

(59:58):
the Vets Connection podcast,and it won't be the last, I'm
sure.
Go to their website one moretime, nick wwwwvrforg.
Give them money, all the money.
Give them money.
It's a great foundation.

Nick Cannon (01:00:14):
Let's save lives together.
Last year 1,324 veterans, sotogether we're making a
difference, absolutely.

Scott McLean (01:00:21):
All right, everybody.
As I say, you will hear me nextweek.