November 11, 2024 • 10 mins
Andrew Sullivan with the Omaha Chapter for Sons of the American Revolution talks about this effort, and how you can be a part of it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Vord. Right now, I want to welcome on to
the program a guy who's waiting very patiently here in
the studio, a son of the American Revolution, Andrew Sullivan.
Welcome back to eleven to ten kfab Thank you, Skytt,
glad to be here, and a wonderful Veterans Day to you, sir,
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I brought my father and his cousin. We're both in
World War two and today is a good day to
bring up all the history of the people who fought
for our country. I'm a member of the Sons of
the American Revolution, part of the Omaha Chapter in the
Nebraska State Chapter on here, and we've been digging up
the history and bringing it back to light. On there.
(00:39):
Not only do we preserve history, we're also trying to
recover history, a lot of it's been lost and forgotten.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
On there, you're also engaging something called read this is
across to America? What does that ends?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Across America's the effort to put ress cemetery graves of
veterans across the country. In fact, we now have a
fun using page at Nebraska SAAR dot org. Click on
the Omaha chapter and then click on this section that
says res across America. There are seven thousand graves at
(01:11):
the Omaha National Cemetery, and on December fourteenth, threes will
be laid there, and we were asking for donations as
well as volunteers. You'll find that on the Nebraska essaar
dot org site Omaha chapter and then click on reads
across America.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
What's the significance of doing that? On December fourteenth?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
That was how the tradition was started on there. I mean,
the tradition goes back back to about nineteen nineties when
a man business had these leftover reads and he realized
he had too many of them, and they decided to
just put him on veterans' graves. Well, people liked it,
they liked the scene, the end result of it, and
it continued on it and it has continued to spread
(01:51):
and expand on there. So it's become a tradition that
this time of the year that we remember the veterans
and do start doing the un raised and so forth,
to get the reason put out there and get the
volunteers to put them on those those.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
How much does a wreath cost for something like.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
This, Well, we're putting them by I think right now.
The cost is seventeen dollars. I can't remember exactly the
cost on there.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It's not an overwhelming amount per wreath. We're not trying
to put gold plated platinum wreaths there on grades, but
something good enough to last for a while. You don't
want to just get, you know, some honk of junk
and throw it out there. These are our nation's veterans
we're talking about. So how does someone donate to this cause?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, like you said the Nebraska essayar dot org site,
our state chapter is involved in some of this, but
it's locally our Omahal chapter. So you go to the
Omaha chapter, you're gonna find out we have link chapters
in Lincoln and North Platte as well, But the omah
Chapter is doing this because of the Omahall National Cemetery nearby.
(02:50):
If you haven't been there, that's out just east of
one hundred and forty fourth and Stram Road.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, it's amazing and if you.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Don't have the opportunity to donate or volunteer, at least
make a point of visiting it after the fourteenth and
see all the reeves that will be laid at those graves.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So someone wants to donate, they go to that website
and we'll give it out here again. In just a moment,
we're talking with one of the sons of the American Revolution,
Andrew Sullivan, with us here on news radio eleven ten kfab.
So give me an example of what some of your
research has turned up here about those heroes that we
know who the Kardashians are. We know, you know how
(03:26):
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey's wives and girlfriends are, and
all this stuff in pop culture, but when it comes
to these American heroes, we don't know as much as
we should, maybe unless it's a family member. So to
give me an example of some of that which you've
learned in trying to dig up this great American history.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Well, there's a couple of interesting aspects, particularly on the
genealogy side. A lot of people will do the mistake
of just checking their father's last name, the surname. They'll
chase that. But behind every mother is a maiden name,
another brand of your family tree. And we encourage people
to start checking all these branches because people just say,
I've heard so many sour grapes arguments, Oh there's no
(04:09):
veterans in my background. Oh, there's no Patriots on there,
there's nothing of this. But until you do the research,
you don't know. And the great thing in this information
age is all this stuff is out there. There's so
much of it out there. If you haven't done it,
some one of your cousins has. And so if you
just do enough research, you connect up and you start
seeing how much heritage.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I'm sure they don't even know where to start. Where
do you start.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Well, you've probably heard of ancestry dot com or FamilySearch
dot org, which is a free site run by the
Later Day Saints. But I often just take people to
find a Grave dot com and just start courage them
to look up their deceased relatives, and then they discover
that there's new information out there. You know, Charles O'Sullivan
(04:55):
who put the O back on his name. I didn't
know too much other than he had been a fireplate
pilot in the Pacific during World War Two. While I
found out by going through Find a Grave they actually
made a movie about him. Wild really yeah, so its
called Slightly Injured Please Advise, And so I ended up
getting this video and then it's like, no one in
(05:17):
our family knew about this, and so you find these
pieces of history and it reinvigorates what that history was about.
We get a lot of a textbooked Crayola cran history
from our academics in schools, but when you start getting
into it, you realize just how complicated and diverse history is.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Well, especially since a lot of families like you mentioned
your family name used to be O'Sullivan. My family name
used to be Van Vorhees. Then we sold the Van
ha But there used to be a time where you
just wake up and go, I'm tired of having this
part of my name. I want a new name. And
everyone's like okay, And that's just kind of how it went.
I mean, it would take an Act of Congress, I think,
(05:57):
anymore to change a surname.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
But people change their last names all the time. Is
sometimes it's a mare of convention, sometimes it's a mare
of of terrible family rival, and sometimes it's just because
they just don't like it. But the other part about
this doing this research is sometimes when we're kids, we
hear grandparents tell us tell us talk about their ancestors,
(06:22):
and we don't remember much of it, and then we
get older we realized geez. I wish they were around.
We wish we could ask them these we can't anymore.
And the great thing about genealogy is it helps recover
some of the stuff. When I was doing our research
on here, I found out about Charles Dixon. And this
was a surprise to me because here's a revolutionary soldier
(06:45):
who first fall in the Virginia Militia and then he
went into the Continental Army, the same army that Washington
was in, and then ended up being a spy for
the revolutionary cause. And he was in there for three years.
And the great there's there's markers from the Sons of
American Revolution of his of his honoring him on there.
(07:06):
So you find this stuff out. The rest of our
family didn't know about this, like you find it and
you're just it's great, it's exciting, it's fun, and then
you get more interested in what actually took place during
those time periods.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, I I need to do more of this. I
have an uncle who is kind of the family historian
for our family, and I've I've learned some stories. We
had a great uncle who was a World War two hero,
and the fact that I'm just like, oh, that's Nate.
You know, we'll talking about it for a few minutes
over a round of golf or something like that. It's
(07:41):
it's pretty shameful that I, like a lot of Americans,
haven't dug more into that which has nurtured our family
trees and given us the freedoms we enjoy today. And
I'm glad that you and your organization are pushing for
this as someone wants to be a part of the
Sons of the American Rebel? What they are you accepting
(08:02):
new members? Yes, there are thousands of dollars initiation fee,
what's it take?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
There is a bit of a fee on there, the
application fees one hundred and fifty and then the one
and fifty and then fifty membership fee on there. And
the interesting thing, as I would encourage people to do
so because it's in that port, it will get more
interest in the history that actually took place, and then
(08:28):
you have a bit more of authority to say something
and understand what took place. Our organization is growing in Nebraska,
and the great thing about all of this, compared to
previous generations, it was really difficult to do in past generations.
Trying to find your genealogy was fairly difficult. You'd have
(08:48):
to go to a different state, different courthouse, visits the church. Now,
so much of it is online that if you know
what you're looking for on there, and you have a
little bit of assistance with it, you find a whole
bunch of stuff that you've done know was there.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So if you had an uncle who say, was eaten
by Aborigines and New Guinea or something like that, you
know you could dig into it and find it out there. Right, Okay, yes,
whether or not that actually happened, it's a famous Joe
Biden story. So we all right, we got we gotta
run here. I want people to look more into this
and help out your cause. Here for wreaths across America
(09:22):
once again Andrew Sullivan Sons of the American Revolution. What's
that website? To get more details and donate to this campaign.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Go to Nebraska s R dot org. Click on the
Omaha chapter and then you'll see on the lower great
corner reads across America. Click on that and you'll see
the option to donate or volunteer.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
A both Nebraska Sars and suns American Revolution Nebraska SAR
dot org right, and then the Omaha Chapter right there
on the page there. This is fantastic and I hope
that December fourteenth is a good weather day, but I
know you'll be out there anyway putting these wreaths out there.
If people are able to donate enough to help you
guys do this. Thanks to you and your organization, Andrew
(10:01):
for this great conversation, and again a wonderful Veteran's day
to you.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Scott Voices mornings nine to eleven, our News Radio eleven
ten KFAB
Scott Vord. Right now, I want to welcome on to
the program a guy who's waiting very patiently here in
the studio, a son of the American Revolution, Andrew Sullivan.
Welcome back to eleven to ten kfab Thank you, Skytt,
glad to be here, and a wonderful Veterans Day to you, sir,
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I brought my father and his cousin. We're both in
World War two and today is a good day to
bring up all the history of the people who fought
for our country. I'm a member of the Sons of
the American Revolution, part of the Omaha Chapter in the
Nebraska State Chapter on here, and we've been digging up
the history and bringing it back to light. On there.
(00:39):
Not only do we preserve history, we're also trying to
recover history, a lot of it's been lost and forgotten.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
On there, you're also engaging something called read this is
across to America? What does that ends?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Across America's the effort to put ress cemetery graves of
veterans across the country. In fact, we now have a
fun using page at Nebraska SAAR dot org. Click on
the Omaha chapter and then click on this section that
says res across America. There are seven thousand graves at
(01:11):
the Omaha National Cemetery, and on December fourteenth, threes will
be laid there, and we were asking for donations as
well as volunteers. You'll find that on the Nebraska essaar
dot org site Omaha chapter and then click on reads
across America.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
What's the significance of doing that? On December fourteenth?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
That was how the tradition was started on there. I mean,
the tradition goes back back to about nineteen nineties when
a man business had these leftover reads and he realized
he had too many of them, and they decided to
just put him on veterans' graves. Well, people liked it,
they liked the scene, the end result of it, and
it continued on it and it has continued to spread
(01:51):
and expand on there. So it's become a tradition that
this time of the year that we remember the veterans
and do start doing the un raised and so forth,
to get the reason put out there and get the
volunteers to put them on those those.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
How much does a wreath cost for something like.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
This, Well, we're putting them by I think right now.
The cost is seventeen dollars. I can't remember exactly the
cost on there.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
It's not an overwhelming amount per wreath. We're not trying
to put gold plated platinum wreaths there on grades, but
something good enough to last for a while. You don't
want to just get, you know, some honk of junk
and throw it out there. These are our nation's veterans
we're talking about. So how does someone donate to this cause?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, like you said the Nebraska essayar dot org site,
our state chapter is involved in some of this, but
it's locally our Omahal chapter. So you go to the
Omaha chapter, you're gonna find out we have link chapters
in Lincoln and North Platte as well, But the omah
Chapter is doing this because of the Omahall National Cemetery nearby.
(02:50):
If you haven't been there, that's out just east of
one hundred and forty fourth and Stram Road.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, it's amazing and if you.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Don't have the opportunity to donate or volunteer, at least
make a point of visiting it after the fourteenth and
see all the reeves that will be laid at those graves.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So someone wants to donate, they go to that website
and we'll give it out here again. In just a moment,
we're talking with one of the sons of the American Revolution,
Andrew Sullivan, with us here on news radio eleven ten kfab.
So give me an example of what some of your
research has turned up here about those heroes that we
know who the Kardashians are. We know, you know how
(03:26):
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey's wives and girlfriends are, and
all this stuff in pop culture, but when it comes
to these American heroes, we don't know as much as
we should, maybe unless it's a family member. So to
give me an example of some of that which you've
learned in trying to dig up this great American history.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Well, there's a couple of interesting aspects, particularly on the
genealogy side. A lot of people will do the mistake
of just checking their father's last name, the surname. They'll
chase that. But behind every mother is a maiden name,
another brand of your family tree. And we encourage people
to start checking all these branches because people just say,
I've heard so many sour grapes arguments, Oh there's no
(04:09):
veterans in my background. Oh, there's no Patriots on there,
there's nothing of this. But until you do the research,
you don't know. And the great thing in this information
age is all this stuff is out there. There's so
much of it out there. If you haven't done it,
some one of your cousins has. And so if you
just do enough research, you connect up and you start
seeing how much heritage.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I'm sure they don't even know where to start. Where
do you start.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Well, you've probably heard of ancestry dot com or FamilySearch
dot org, which is a free site run by the
Later Day Saints. But I often just take people to
find a Grave dot com and just start courage them
to look up their deceased relatives, and then they discover
that there's new information out there. You know, Charles O'Sullivan
(04:55):
who put the O back on his name. I didn't
know too much other than he had been a fireplate
pilot in the Pacific during World War Two. While I
found out by going through Find a Grave they actually
made a movie about him. Wild really yeah, so its
called Slightly Injured Please Advise, And so I ended up
getting this video and then it's like, no one in
(05:17):
our family knew about this, and so you find these
pieces of history and it reinvigorates what that history was about.
We get a lot of a textbooked Crayola cran history
from our academics in schools, but when you start getting
into it, you realize just how complicated and diverse history is.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Well, especially since a lot of families like you mentioned
your family name used to be O'Sullivan. My family name
used to be Van Vorhees. Then we sold the Van
ha But there used to be a time where you
just wake up and go, I'm tired of having this
part of my name. I want a new name. And
everyone's like okay, And that's just kind of how it went.
I mean, it would take an Act of Congress, I think,
(05:57):
anymore to change a surname.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
But people change their last names all the time. Is
sometimes it's a mare of convention, sometimes it's a mare
of of terrible family rival, and sometimes it's just because
they just don't like it. But the other part about
this doing this research is sometimes when we're kids, we
hear grandparents tell us tell us talk about their ancestors,
(06:22):
and we don't remember much of it, and then we
get older we realized geez. I wish they were around.
We wish we could ask them these we can't anymore.
And the great thing about genealogy is it helps recover
some of the stuff. When I was doing our research
on here, I found out about Charles Dixon. And this
was a surprise to me because here's a revolutionary soldier
(06:45):
who first fall in the Virginia Militia and then he
went into the Continental Army, the same army that Washington
was in, and then ended up being a spy for
the revolutionary cause. And he was in there for three years.
And the great there's there's markers from the Sons of
American Revolution of his of his honoring him on there.
(07:06):
So you find this stuff out. The rest of our
family didn't know about this, like you find it and
you're just it's great, it's exciting, it's fun, and then
you get more interested in what actually took place during
those time periods.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, I I need to do more of this. I
have an uncle who is kind of the family historian
for our family, and I've I've learned some stories. We
had a great uncle who was a World War two hero,
and the fact that I'm just like, oh, that's Nate.
You know, we'll talking about it for a few minutes
over a round of golf or something like that. It's
(07:41):
it's pretty shameful that I, like a lot of Americans,
haven't dug more into that which has nurtured our family
trees and given us the freedoms we enjoy today. And
I'm glad that you and your organization are pushing for
this as someone wants to be a part of the
Sons of the American Rebel? What they are you accepting
(08:02):
new members? Yes, there are thousands of dollars initiation fee,
what's it take?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
There is a bit of a fee on there, the
application fees one hundred and fifty and then the one
and fifty and then fifty membership fee on there. And
the interesting thing, as I would encourage people to do
so because it's in that port, it will get more
interest in the history that actually took place, and then
(08:28):
you have a bit more of authority to say something
and understand what took place. Our organization is growing in Nebraska,
and the great thing about all of this, compared to
previous generations, it was really difficult to do in past generations.
Trying to find your genealogy was fairly difficult. You'd have
(08:48):
to go to a different state, different courthouse, visits the church. Now,
so much of it is online that if you know
what you're looking for on there, and you have a
little bit of assistance with it, you find a whole
bunch of stuff that you've done know was there.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So if you had an uncle who say, was eaten
by Aborigines and New Guinea or something like that, you
know you could dig into it and find it out there. Right, Okay, yes,
whether or not that actually happened, it's a famous Joe
Biden story. So we all right, we got we gotta
run here. I want people to look more into this
and help out your cause. Here for wreaths across America
(09:22):
once again Andrew Sullivan Sons of the American Revolution. What's
that website? To get more details and donate to this campaign.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Go to Nebraska s R dot org. Click on the
Omaha chapter and then you'll see on the lower great
corner reads across America. Click on that and you'll see
the option to donate or volunteer.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
A both Nebraska Sars and suns American Revolution Nebraska SAR
dot org right, and then the Omaha Chapter right there
on the page there. This is fantastic and I hope
that December fourteenth is a good weather day, but I
know you'll be out there anyway putting these wreaths out there.
If people are able to donate enough to help you
guys do this. Thanks to you and your organization, Andrew
(10:01):
for this great conversation, and again a wonderful Veteran's day
to you.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Scott Voices mornings nine to eleven, our News Radio eleven
ten KFAB
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