June 11, 2019 • 23 mins
I've admired the acting skills of today's guest for years and I've been equally impressed (and entertained) with his musical abilities! But it is his devotion to our Veteran's, our First Responders, and their families that propelled my esteem for him into the upper stratosphere.
Gary Sinise is a man of talent, honor, and action. Join us as we talk about his new book, Grateful American, A Journey from Self to Service, and the work of The Gary Sinise Foundation, AND to hear of my own very personal (and profound) experiences with what Gary refers to as our "Freedom Providers."
The audio quality of our interview isn't the best, but the man and his message are FANTASTIC on this episode of LOVE SOMEONE. ~ Delilah
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Here we are together again, my friend for a new episode,
an exciting episode. I cannot tell you. I know I
say this every time, but I am so thrilled to
present this episode of Love Someone with you today. Uh.
This podcast is for grads and dads especially. I want
(00:28):
to honor all graduating seniors, whether it's from high school
or college, and I'd like to honor dad's as well.
And I'm going to do that by dedicating this podcast
to a couple of my sons. Isaiah, my oldest son,
happens to be the most amazing father I have ever met.
(00:49):
He's also a first responder who wears a police uniform
and bears the responsibilities of being an officer, not the
profession I would have guessed when who was a kid
because he was such a sensitive child. Can't believe he
decided to become a police officer and he has to
face so much heartbreak every single day. I don't know
(01:12):
how he bears up under it, but I understand without
those qualities, without him having that sensitive heart, he probably
would not be the sellar officer that he is serving
and protecting with admirable strength and incredible compassion. And he
is such a good committed, loving, nurturing, hands on, involved
(01:35):
in every aspect of their life daddy, and I'm so
proud of him. I also would like to dedicate this
podcast to my son, Thomas. Thomas graduated high school a
couple of days ago. He has had many hurdles to
overcome in life. He experienced childhood trauma before he came
(01:55):
to us in his forever family, and yet in spite
of is kind, he has emerged such a wonderful young man.
I'm so proud of him. I'm so proud of his
older brother Sonny. I'm so proud of all my boys
that our fathers, and so I just wanted to to
(02:15):
dedicate this podcast to them. Today's guest joins me from
the passenger seat of a car taking him to one
stop after another on a frantic press day. He's on
his cell phone, not in the studio with me, as
my guest usually are. So the audio quality of our
conversation isn't as good as it normally is, and I
(02:37):
do apologize for that, but the conversation is so powerful
and inspiring, so compelling. You will be grateful for these
stolen moments out of the life of an incredibly busy man.
Before I introduce you, I want to stop here for
a few moments and take a moment for a message
from our sponsor. Today, we have the privilege of talking
(02:59):
with a man admired by many for many different reasons.
He's an actor, it's a talented musician. He's an advocate
and activist and now an author, amongst many other titles
I could bestow upon him. He has spent his life
in the entertainment industry, playing brave and honorable characters to
(03:21):
great acclaim. Now, in addition to TV and movie roles,
he devotes his life to bettering the lives of our
service veterans, are first responders, and their families through his time,
his resources, his great works organization, the Gary Sinice Foundation.
(03:42):
Let's welcome Gary Sinice. Hi, Gary, I am so geeked
out to get to talk to you. Thank you for
taking time. So geeked out when I heard about your
new book that's just come out. Grateful American for himself
to service. I put my order in for a copyright away.
(04:04):
I did not know I could love you anymore than
I did when you played Lieutenant Dan. Now I love
you all the more so. Thank you for taking the
time Gary to be on our podcast. Oh my pleasure.
You're so inspiring. So say your name the way that
(04:24):
it was before it was changed. I love that. I
love that I was saying it out loud after I
read that in your book, and I see you in
a whole new light. Now. Yeah, getting pinched on your
(04:46):
cheek by a grandma, whether so grateful American is a
culmination of well it's a story of your life. But
it's a culmination of so many ways your heart has
been impacted by the men and women who are there
to serve. And I want to know, do you remember
(05:09):
that first time that you felt your heart grow like
ten times when it hit you or did you have
that moment like I did. Were the reality of that
kind of sacrificial love hit you full force? Well, sure,
in various ways over time. I have veterans in my family.
(05:33):
It all begins there with you know, my side of
the family, my grandfather and my uncle's my dad, my
wife son of the family, of her brothers being non
veterans or sisters, served in the army as sister Mary
to be a non veteran. It was in the army
for twenty two years, and a son and served in
the army for thirteen years. A lot of veterans and
(05:55):
my family and to the kind of that that that
gets your engine. And then I just felt great compassion
back in the seventies and eighties after moving the Vietnam
venance on my wife's side of family, because they were
just slightly older than I was. And I've gone to
war and come come back in the nation of going
(06:18):
apart over the war, and the Vietnam veteran got out
in the middle of all that, and it was it
was a terrible period in our history when the way
we treated them when they returned home. And so I
felt great compassion there and I just tried to start
supporting Gunn in supers in various ways. And then I
(06:41):
played the veteran and in course Gump that that started
me working without wounded and I started meanings, you know,
multiple injured warriors, and you know, going back to World
War Two and all the way up until that time.
Forrest Gumps came out a few years after the Gulf
War and and that a lot of folks back then,
(07:02):
and then after September eleventh, I just you know, there
wasn't calling to serving a great capacity after that, and
it's just manifested itself into a full time commitment and
a full time foundation, the Garysonese Foundation. And if somebody
would like to volunteer, like to get involved, like to say, hey,
(07:23):
you use me, I'll help. I'll jump in there. How
can they do that? Those things to do is go
look at the website Gary Sonese Foundations down board and
I always recommend people go to the YouTube channel. It's
at the bottom of the homepage. You just click on
that little icon and then I'll take you to the
YouTube channel and you'll see all our programs and accident
(07:45):
videos from every one of our programs, ranging from building
homes for badly wounded service members to supporting World War
Two veterans, taking them down to the National World War
Two Museum in New Orleans and preparing about the high
school kids. It's an educational trip that we do. Are
Serving Heroes program. We're going into usls and b a
(08:09):
is all over the world and provide appreciation with a
big meal and everything, letting them know that we're forgetting
that they're serving out there. Only have multiple programs and
various capacities. Are Snowball Express program is focused on the
children of our fallen heroes, just dozens of things that
were going on at the Garyson EA Foundation. You can
(08:31):
learn more about it at Garyson Foundation dot org. So
before anybody goes there, I have to say, though, please
have a box or two of tissue, because when I
watched the videos, I was a wreck. So inspiring. There's
a lot of very moving things. You need. All these
(08:51):
various people that were working with and supporting, we learning stories,
and we have profiles of every one of the wounded
service members that we're building homes or all the special
profile on their life and what happened. Those profiles are
on on the YouTube channel. Um yeah, and you know
(09:14):
you can see us take We took over a thousand
children of our fallen Heroes down to Disney World last
December and treated them to four days of what we
call hope and healing. You know, when you bring these
kids together and they meet all these other kids who
are going through the same thing, having lost that a
parent in military service, it really is a very healing
(09:37):
thing for them to meet these other kids. And and
then we provide a lot of fun and joy and
love and just give them a lot of support which
they desperately need going through this grief. We can never forget,
you know, these families and what they go through so
and they do it, you know, selflessly in any ways,
and they don't ask for a lot. I just want
(09:59):
to take a proactive approach to making sure that they
get the services they need when they need him. And
you're not just building homes. When I was watching and reading,
I was fascinated Gary with the fact that you're finding
the latest technology that makes life livable for somebody who's
been seriously wounded. I mean everything from appliances that they
(10:23):
can work using computers and that sort of thing. I
was like, dang, you're not just putting in a ramp
for a wheelchair. You're giving back the fullness of life.
What we you know, I started doing this home building
back in two thousand and ten. We've got a soldier
who has blown up and we lost both his arms
in both his legs. He was opposed to surviveocros upal application,
(10:46):
so obviously he's going to have some special needs. And
we did a concert to raise money and stating on
to build him, especially at that the house that he
would be comfortable in and see a more end upon
of them because of the things that we provide inside there.
You know, he had obviously special needs, and that was
(11:07):
quite a while ago and in between them and now
we're with all the homes that we've completed and the
ones that are under construction, and then planning stages were
over about seventy houses now, so our guys that these
are all professional builders and we've learned a lot over
the years about the needs of these wounded service members.
(11:27):
We try to provide each individual with, you know, the
special things that that person might need. We want them
to be able to be more independent in their home.
The program is called RISE Restoring Independence Supporting in Parliament
and we want to give them their independence back. You know,
they've kind of taken away and they have to depend
(11:48):
on people to help them, and we provide the smart
technology in the house that helps them kind of take
better care of themselves and that that provides more independence
for the people that are they're living with them, as
they can worry a lot less as the wounded service
man can care of themselves on their own. You're sharing
(12:09):
so much with me and my listeners, Gary, that I'm
having trouble wrapping my brain around all it is that
you and your foundation do for some of the most
deserving people in our country. We're gonna pause here and
let some of it sink in, and I'll take this
time to talk about my podcast sponsor, who is behind
(12:29):
you all the way they love our servicemen and women.
I want to talk about the Home Depot. I am
always proud to have the Home Depot sponsor my radio
show at night, and now proud to have them sponsor
this podcast. They help so many people in times of need,
in times of ambitious projects about to take off, in
(12:49):
times of changing your bank caller for the empty time,
no questions asked. The Home Depot staff includes more than
thirty five thousand men and women who have served our
ation within our military ranks. They came home and found
a career with the Home Depot. That's just one of
the things I think of when choosing where to go
for any home improvement project. I am thinking about taking
(13:13):
on the Home Depot more saving, more doing well the
Gary Soneese Foundation. Like you said, go to Gary Soneese
Foundation dot org and and don't just be touched. I really,
I really want to encourage people to step outside of
their comfort zone. Gary and raise their hand and say
I can do this, I can help, I can do this,
(13:35):
I can get involved with. You know, almost every state
has a hospital or someplace that you can go, a
naval base, a military base, or you can go and
get involved. The one thing that I always say to folks,
you know, they asked me, you know, who should you know.
While you can certainly donate to foundation and all the
(13:57):
great non profits, there's a different ways that you can
help if everybody in every neighborhood and every community in
every town and city just took a little responsibility to
pat their veterans on the back and ask them what
they need. These all freedom providers, they're out there all
the most sacrificing. Our first responders are doing that on
a great daily basis. You know, just consider this. We
(14:20):
we support first responders in my foundation as well. You
have police officers and firefighters that on a daily basis
that they could see a lot of bad things. I mean,
just consider a massive car rep and the firefighters that
have to go in there and they see those things,
and then they go home at night and have to
go to sleep and get up the next day and
(14:41):
do the same thing all over again. That can take
its total and so we know that the community is
behind them, supporting them and providing services or support that
can make a difference in the morale of somebody who's
going through some difficult problems like them. You know, my
oldest son is police officer and a member of the
(15:02):
SWAT team, and my stepdaughter is a police officer, and
her fiance is a police officer and an investigator. And
my husband is a former Green Beret and a former
police officer. So we love our first responders and the heroes,
but truly, Gary, unless you hear their stories. And I
(15:22):
talked to my son. I tried to talk to him
at least two or three times a week. My heart
is broken for him over what you just said. And
when he has to respond to a situation where a
child's been hurt or abused, his heart is broken. My
heart is broken for him physical stuff, and then they
(15:43):
have to put on a uniform again the next day
and go on go back out. So you know what
I mean. It can happen to know that people appreciate
what they're going through, and I don't take it for
then it and we want to do something. I wrote
a book called grateful American, a journey himself to service,
and it was really about the moments in my life
(16:05):
that have led to this farm service work on the
people who have inspired me along the way. And our
police officers of hirefighters are military Personnelity have met extraordinary
people there. They get a lot of self worth work.
They don't get a lot of paths on the back.
And if I can do something to help them, I'm
not a great where that I can serve. And you do,
(16:28):
you and your Lieutenant Dan band, which is really really good,
what don't you. Yeah, we've played hundreds of concerts over
the years. For the truth, I started taking a band
out about two thousand three, fifteen or sixteen years now.
We've just played hundreds and hundreds of shows and the
band is a program of the Gears in East Foundation.
(16:50):
I played for free, but I have to pay the
expenses of paying the band members their own musicians, that's
how they make their living. I have to pay them,
and I have to say that production costs and things
like that. So much like when you donate to the USO,
you know, the USA provides entertainment to the troops. If
(17:10):
you donate to the foundation, one of our programs is Yours,
Anis and the Lieutenant Bandanna, and that allows me to
multiple times a year go on to military basis or
do fundraisers for first responders, support concerts all over the country.
I do maybe thirty some shows a year and it's
(17:31):
all for for the military and our first responder community.
John and Rossi and I just did a concert that
my foundation produced right down here in California in Thousand Oaks.
You know, we had those terrible shootings at Borderline Barn
Grill and then you know, tent within ten hours, the
hills were on fire, burning everywhere, and so we did
(17:55):
we did something called Concert for the Tenders and it
was just a free concert to support that community and
to bring our first responders some joy and to support
the Borderline families. The foundation allows me to do that.
The people that donate to the Gearason each foundation are
generously helping me to help other people, and that's that's
(18:15):
a good thing. So the book title again, Grateful American.
It's available everywhere. Now. I would say to listeners, even
if you are not an avid reader that you know,
you don't, you know, go to bed every night with
a book in your hand. This is a book that
you need to get and then you need to give
it away to bless somebody else that when you're done
(18:38):
with it. Well, it's a great endorsement and I really
appreciate and I hope they will pick up a copy,
and I hope they will be motivated, and I hope
every time they see police officer, a fireman, an e
M T. Member of the military, they sincerely thank them
(18:59):
and their Emily's Garyson, He's thank you so much for
being here on love someone with the Lilah, and God
bless you and your family and your wife, your kids,
your grandkids and everything that you put your hand to.
I just pray that God blesses you and protects you. Okay,
(19:21):
all right, thank you. Wow. Gary shared so much with
us about all that his foundation does. Now you know
why I ask you to listen to this podcast. Even
though there was some static over the line, many of
you know that I am allowed and proud supporter of
(19:41):
the men and women who serve our freedom providers, as
Gary calls them, and during our conversation, he and I
both mentioned all of our family members who were uniforms.
What many of you may not know is the story
of my own awakening revelation, the moment and when the
enormity of the sacrificial love that service members embody hit
(20:05):
me and changed me forever. It's one of the two
or three things that have happened in my life that
I believe changed me on a cellular level. Before I
went to Iraq and Afghanistan, before I was asked to
be a part of the Air Force Reserves, I loved
our servicemen and women I did. I thank them, I
(20:26):
respected them, I appreciated what they did. But I had
no clue. I truly had no clue what sacrificial love was,
because in my life and my experience, love happens between
people that are connected that our family members, or sweethearts,
(20:49):
or husbands and wives or uh in a committed relationship.
Love is demonstrated for your cousins or your best friends,
people you went to high school with. I never knew
what sacrificial love was until I went with our military
(21:09):
to Afghanistan and Iraq, and I met men and women
in our military that we're willing to lay down their
lives not just for their family members, not just for
a friend, but for complete strangers, for people that might
not even like them or respect them, and I saw
(21:31):
it in action. I saw it in action. I met
men and women on a Thursday night, Thanksgiving night, in
fact that I saw one week later, exactly one week later,
coming into Ramstein, Germany and to Ramstein the military hospital
missing limbs because they were at war and their lives
(21:52):
were forever changed for you, for me, for our country.
And even though I might disagree with what they are
asked to do, I love and respect our military men
and women so much and what they do for us.
Like I said, I was changed forever. I hope you
(22:14):
have been inspired by this podcast to become more involved
wherever your heart leads. Helping our veterans, helping first responders
might be what you're called to do. I hope it is.
I encourage you to pick up a copy of Grateful American.
It is such a good book, such a good read,
and to visit the Gary Sineese Foundation dot org. You
(22:35):
can also visit my American Forces Network section of Delilah
dot com for further inspiration and help a veteran bless somebody.
I'd also like to wish all the dad's out there
a very happy Father's Day. It's an important job this
dating business and deserves much applaud, recognition, and respect, as
(22:56):
do all the accomplishments of the cap tossing graduates like
my son t K. Tom is so proud of you,
Lindsay Piper, so proud of my niece. Good luck in
all that you do in life. Subscribe to my podcast
Love Someone with the Lilah for access to new episodes
as soon as they drop. Also tune into my nightly
(23:16):
radio show of course, thank you for joining me. My
friends will be back together soon. Do me a favor.
Slow down and love someone. Slow down and love someone
with love
Here we are together again, my friend for a new episode,
an exciting episode. I cannot tell you. I know I
say this every time, but I am so thrilled to
present this episode of Love Someone with you today. Uh.
This podcast is for grads and dads especially. I want
(00:28):
to honor all graduating seniors, whether it's from high school
or college, and I'd like to honor dad's as well.
And I'm going to do that by dedicating this podcast
to a couple of my sons. Isaiah, my oldest son,
happens to be the most amazing father I have ever met.
(00:49):
He's also a first responder who wears a police uniform
and bears the responsibilities of being an officer, not the
profession I would have guessed when who was a kid
because he was such a sensitive child. Can't believe he
decided to become a police officer and he has to
face so much heartbreak every single day. I don't know
(01:12):
how he bears up under it, but I understand without
those qualities, without him having that sensitive heart, he probably
would not be the sellar officer that he is serving
and protecting with admirable strength and incredible compassion. And he
is such a good committed, loving, nurturing, hands on, involved
(01:35):
in every aspect of their life daddy, and I'm so
proud of him. I also would like to dedicate this
podcast to my son, Thomas. Thomas graduated high school a
couple of days ago. He has had many hurdles to
overcome in life. He experienced childhood trauma before he came
(01:55):
to us in his forever family, and yet in spite
of is kind, he has emerged such a wonderful young man.
I'm so proud of him. I'm so proud of his
older brother Sonny. I'm so proud of all my boys
that our fathers, and so I just wanted to to
(02:15):
dedicate this podcast to them. Today's guest joins me from
the passenger seat of a car taking him to one
stop after another on a frantic press day. He's on
his cell phone, not in the studio with me, as
my guest usually are. So the audio quality of our
conversation isn't as good as it normally is, and I
(02:37):
do apologize for that, but the conversation is so powerful
and inspiring, so compelling. You will be grateful for these
stolen moments out of the life of an incredibly busy man.
Before I introduce you, I want to stop here for
a few moments and take a moment for a message
from our sponsor. Today, we have the privilege of talking
(02:59):
with a man admired by many for many different reasons.
He's an actor, it's a talented musician. He's an advocate
and activist and now an author, amongst many other titles
I could bestow upon him. He has spent his life
in the entertainment industry, playing brave and honorable characters to
(03:21):
great acclaim. Now, in addition to TV and movie roles,
he devotes his life to bettering the lives of our
service veterans, are first responders, and their families through his time,
his resources, his great works organization, the Gary Sinice Foundation.
(03:42):
Let's welcome Gary Sinice. Hi, Gary, I am so geeked
out to get to talk to you. Thank you for
taking time. So geeked out when I heard about your
new book that's just come out. Grateful American for himself
to service. I put my order in for a copyright away.
(04:04):
I did not know I could love you anymore than
I did when you played Lieutenant Dan. Now I love
you all the more so. Thank you for taking the
time Gary to be on our podcast. Oh my pleasure.
You're so inspiring. So say your name the way that
(04:24):
it was before it was changed. I love that. I
love that I was saying it out loud after I
read that in your book, and I see you in
a whole new light. Now. Yeah, getting pinched on your
(04:46):
cheek by a grandma, whether so grateful American is a
culmination of well it's a story of your life. But
it's a culmination of so many ways your heart has
been impacted by the men and women who are there
to serve. And I want to know, do you remember
(05:09):
that first time that you felt your heart grow like
ten times when it hit you or did you have
that moment like I did. Were the reality of that
kind of sacrificial love hit you full force? Well, sure,
in various ways over time. I have veterans in my family.
(05:33):
It all begins there with you know, my side of
the family, my grandfather and my uncle's my dad, my
wife son of the family, of her brothers being non
veterans or sisters, served in the army as sister Mary
to be a non veteran. It was in the army
for twenty two years, and a son and served in
the army for thirteen years. A lot of veterans and
(05:55):
my family and to the kind of that that that
gets your engine. And then I just felt great compassion
back in the seventies and eighties after moving the Vietnam
venance on my wife's side of family, because they were
just slightly older than I was. And I've gone to
war and come come back in the nation of going
(06:18):
apart over the war, and the Vietnam veteran got out
in the middle of all that, and it was it
was a terrible period in our history when the way
we treated them when they returned home. And so I
felt great compassion there and I just tried to start
supporting Gunn in supers in various ways. And then I
(06:41):
played the veteran and in course Gump that that started
me working without wounded and I started meanings, you know,
multiple injured warriors, and you know, going back to World
War Two and all the way up until that time.
Forrest Gumps came out a few years after the Gulf
War and and that a lot of folks back then,
(07:02):
and then after September eleventh, I just you know, there
wasn't calling to serving a great capacity after that, and
it's just manifested itself into a full time commitment and
a full time foundation, the Garysonese Foundation. And if somebody
would like to volunteer, like to get involved, like to say, hey,
(07:23):
you use me, I'll help. I'll jump in there. How
can they do that? Those things to do is go
look at the website Gary Sonese Foundations down board and
I always recommend people go to the YouTube channel. It's
at the bottom of the homepage. You just click on
that little icon and then I'll take you to the
YouTube channel and you'll see all our programs and accident
(07:45):
videos from every one of our programs, ranging from building
homes for badly wounded service members to supporting World War
Two veterans, taking them down to the National World War
Two Museum in New Orleans and preparing about the high
school kids. It's an educational trip that we do. Are
Serving Heroes program. We're going into usls and b a
(08:09):
is all over the world and provide appreciation with a
big meal and everything, letting them know that we're forgetting
that they're serving out there. Only have multiple programs and
various capacities. Are Snowball Express program is focused on the
children of our fallen heroes, just dozens of things that
were going on at the Garyson EA Foundation. You can
(08:31):
learn more about it at Garyson Foundation dot org. So
before anybody goes there, I have to say, though, please
have a box or two of tissue, because when I
watched the videos, I was a wreck. So inspiring. There's
a lot of very moving things. You need. All these
(08:51):
various people that were working with and supporting, we learning stories,
and we have profiles of every one of the wounded
service members that we're building homes or all the special
profile on their life and what happened. Those profiles are
on on the YouTube channel. Um yeah, and you know
(09:14):
you can see us take We took over a thousand
children of our fallen Heroes down to Disney World last
December and treated them to four days of what we
call hope and healing. You know, when you bring these
kids together and they meet all these other kids who
are going through the same thing, having lost that a
parent in military service, it really is a very healing
(09:37):
thing for them to meet these other kids. And and
then we provide a lot of fun and joy and
love and just give them a lot of support which
they desperately need going through this grief. We can never forget,
you know, these families and what they go through so
and they do it, you know, selflessly in any ways,
and they don't ask for a lot. I just want
(09:59):
to take a proactive approach to making sure that they
get the services they need when they need him. And
you're not just building homes. When I was watching and reading,
I was fascinated Gary with the fact that you're finding
the latest technology that makes life livable for somebody who's
been seriously wounded. I mean everything from appliances that they
(10:23):
can work using computers and that sort of thing. I
was like, dang, you're not just putting in a ramp
for a wheelchair. You're giving back the fullness of life.
What we you know, I started doing this home building
back in two thousand and ten. We've got a soldier
who has blown up and we lost both his arms
in both his legs. He was opposed to surviveocros upal application,
(10:46):
so obviously he's going to have some special needs. And
we did a concert to raise money and stating on
to build him, especially at that the house that he
would be comfortable in and see a more end upon
of them because of the things that we provide inside there.
You know, he had obviously special needs, and that was
(11:07):
quite a while ago and in between them and now
we're with all the homes that we've completed and the
ones that are under construction, and then planning stages were
over about seventy houses now, so our guys that these
are all professional builders and we've learned a lot over
the years about the needs of these wounded service members.
(11:27):
We try to provide each individual with, you know, the
special things that that person might need. We want them
to be able to be more independent in their home.
The program is called RISE Restoring Independence Supporting in Parliament
and we want to give them their independence back. You know,
they've kind of taken away and they have to depend
(11:48):
on people to help them, and we provide the smart
technology in the house that helps them kind of take
better care of themselves and that that provides more independence
for the people that are they're living with them, as
they can worry a lot less as the wounded service
man can care of themselves on their own. You're sharing
(12:09):
so much with me and my listeners, Gary, that I'm
having trouble wrapping my brain around all it is that
you and your foundation do for some of the most
deserving people in our country. We're gonna pause here and
let some of it sink in, and I'll take this
time to talk about my podcast sponsor, who is behind
(12:29):
you all the way they love our servicemen and women.
I want to talk about the Home Depot. I am
always proud to have the Home Depot sponsor my radio
show at night, and now proud to have them sponsor
this podcast. They help so many people in times of need,
in times of ambitious projects about to take off, in
(12:49):
times of changing your bank caller for the empty time,
no questions asked. The Home Depot staff includes more than
thirty five thousand men and women who have served our
ation within our military ranks. They came home and found
a career with the Home Depot. That's just one of
the things I think of when choosing where to go
for any home improvement project. I am thinking about taking
(13:13):
on the Home Depot more saving, more doing well the
Gary Soneese Foundation. Like you said, go to Gary Soneese
Foundation dot org and and don't just be touched. I really,
I really want to encourage people to step outside of
their comfort zone. Gary and raise their hand and say
I can do this, I can help, I can do this,
(13:35):
I can get involved with. You know, almost every state
has a hospital or someplace that you can go, a
naval base, a military base, or you can go and
get involved. The one thing that I always say to folks,
you know, they asked me, you know, who should you know.
While you can certainly donate to foundation and all the
(13:57):
great non profits, there's a different ways that you can
help if everybody in every neighborhood and every community in
every town and city just took a little responsibility to
pat their veterans on the back and ask them what
they need. These all freedom providers, they're out there all
the most sacrificing. Our first responders are doing that on
a great daily basis. You know, just consider this. We
(14:20):
we support first responders in my foundation as well. You
have police officers and firefighters that on a daily basis
that they could see a lot of bad things. I mean,
just consider a massive car rep and the firefighters that
have to go in there and they see those things,
and then they go home at night and have to
go to sleep and get up the next day and
(14:41):
do the same thing all over again. That can take
its total and so we know that the community is
behind them, supporting them and providing services or support that
can make a difference in the morale of somebody who's
going through some difficult problems like them. You know, my
oldest son is police officer and a member of the
(15:02):
SWAT team, and my stepdaughter is a police officer, and
her fiance is a police officer and an investigator. And
my husband is a former Green Beret and a former
police officer. So we love our first responders and the heroes,
but truly, Gary, unless you hear their stories. And I
(15:22):
talked to my son. I tried to talk to him
at least two or three times a week. My heart
is broken for him over what you just said. And
when he has to respond to a situation where a
child's been hurt or abused, his heart is broken. My
heart is broken for him physical stuff, and then they
(15:43):
have to put on a uniform again the next day
and go on go back out. So you know what
I mean. It can happen to know that people appreciate
what they're going through, and I don't take it for
then it and we want to do something. I wrote
a book called grateful American, a journey himself to service,
and it was really about the moments in my life
(16:05):
that have led to this farm service work on the
people who have inspired me along the way. And our
police officers of hirefighters are military Personnelity have met extraordinary
people there. They get a lot of self worth work.
They don't get a lot of paths on the back.
And if I can do something to help them, I'm
not a great where that I can serve. And you do,
(16:28):
you and your Lieutenant Dan band, which is really really good,
what don't you. Yeah, we've played hundreds of concerts over
the years. For the truth, I started taking a band
out about two thousand three, fifteen or sixteen years now.
We've just played hundreds and hundreds of shows and the
band is a program of the Gears in East Foundation.
(16:50):
I played for free, but I have to pay the
expenses of paying the band members their own musicians, that's
how they make their living. I have to pay them,
and I have to say that production costs and things
like that. So much like when you donate to the USO,
you know, the USA provides entertainment to the troops. If
(17:10):
you donate to the foundation, one of our programs is Yours,
Anis and the Lieutenant Bandanna, and that allows me to
multiple times a year go on to military basis or
do fundraisers for first responders, support concerts all over the country.
I do maybe thirty some shows a year and it's
(17:31):
all for for the military and our first responder community.
John and Rossi and I just did a concert that
my foundation produced right down here in California in Thousand Oaks.
You know, we had those terrible shootings at Borderline Barn
Grill and then you know, tent within ten hours, the
hills were on fire, burning everywhere, and so we did
(17:55):
we did something called Concert for the Tenders and it
was just a free concert to support that community and
to bring our first responders some joy and to support
the Borderline families. The foundation allows me to do that.
The people that donate to the Gearason each foundation are
generously helping me to help other people, and that's that's
(18:15):
a good thing. So the book title again, Grateful American.
It's available everywhere. Now. I would say to listeners, even
if you are not an avid reader that you know,
you don't, you know, go to bed every night with
a book in your hand. This is a book that
you need to get and then you need to give
it away to bless somebody else that when you're done
(18:38):
with it. Well, it's a great endorsement and I really
appreciate and I hope they will pick up a copy,
and I hope they will be motivated, and I hope
every time they see police officer, a fireman, an e
M T. Member of the military, they sincerely thank them
(18:59):
and their Emily's Garyson, He's thank you so much for
being here on love someone with the Lilah, and God
bless you and your family and your wife, your kids,
your grandkids and everything that you put your hand to.
I just pray that God blesses you and protects you. Okay,
(19:21):
all right, thank you. Wow. Gary shared so much with
us about all that his foundation does. Now you know
why I ask you to listen to this podcast. Even
though there was some static over the line, many of
you know that I am allowed and proud supporter of
(19:41):
the men and women who serve our freedom providers, as
Gary calls them, and during our conversation, he and I
both mentioned all of our family members who were uniforms.
What many of you may not know is the story
of my own awakening revelation, the moment and when the
enormity of the sacrificial love that service members embody hit
(20:05):
me and changed me forever. It's one of the two
or three things that have happened in my life that
I believe changed me on a cellular level. Before I
went to Iraq and Afghanistan, before I was asked to
be a part of the Air Force Reserves, I loved
our servicemen and women I did. I thank them, I
(20:26):
respected them, I appreciated what they did. But I had
no clue. I truly had no clue what sacrificial love was,
because in my life and my experience, love happens between
people that are connected that our family members, or sweethearts,
(20:49):
or husbands and wives or uh in a committed relationship.
Love is demonstrated for your cousins or your best friends,
people you went to high school with. I never knew
what sacrificial love was until I went with our military
(21:09):
to Afghanistan and Iraq, and I met men and women
in our military that we're willing to lay down their
lives not just for their family members, not just for
a friend, but for complete strangers, for people that might
not even like them or respect them, and I saw
(21:31):
it in action. I saw it in action. I met
men and women on a Thursday night, Thanksgiving night, in
fact that I saw one week later, exactly one week later,
coming into Ramstein, Germany and to Ramstein the military hospital
missing limbs because they were at war and their lives
(21:52):
were forever changed for you, for me, for our country.
And even though I might disagree with what they are
asked to do, I love and respect our military men
and women so much and what they do for us.
Like I said, I was changed forever. I hope you
(22:14):
have been inspired by this podcast to become more involved
wherever your heart leads. Helping our veterans, helping first responders
might be what you're called to do. I hope it is.
I encourage you to pick up a copy of Grateful American.
It is such a good book, such a good read,
and to visit the Gary Sineese Foundation dot org. You
(22:35):
can also visit my American Forces Network section of Delilah
dot com for further inspiration and help a veteran bless somebody.
I'd also like to wish all the dad's out there
a very happy Father's Day. It's an important job this
dating business and deserves much applaud, recognition, and respect, as
(22:56):
do all the accomplishments of the cap tossing graduates like
my son t K. Tom is so proud of you,
Lindsay Piper, so proud of my niece. Good luck in
all that you do in life. Subscribe to my podcast
Love Someone with the Lilah for access to new episodes
as soon as they drop. Also tune into my nightly
(23:16):
radio show of course, thank you for joining me. My
friends will be back together soon. Do me a favor.
Slow down and love someone. Slow down and love someone
with love
Host
Delilah
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