November 11, 2023 • 29 mins
Ryan Gorman hosts an iHeartRadio nationwide special featuring the following veterans organizations:
- Colonel Duncan S. Milne (Ret.) - U.S. Marine Corps Veteran & President of the Dixon Center for Military and Veterans Services
- Dan Clare - US Marine & Air Force Veteran and Chief Communications & Outreach Officer at Disable American Veterans
- Jim Whaley - U.S. Army Veteran & CEO of Mission Roll Call
- Brigadier General Jack Hammond (Ret.) - U.S. Army Veteran & Executive Director of Home Base
- Matt Parrish - Green Beret Veteran & Executive Director of Task Force Dagger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you. This week. Here's RyanGorman. Thanks so much for joining us
here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm RyanGorman, and we have a very special
show for you as we honor ourveterans this weekend. We'll be joined by
a number of tremendous organizations doing crucialwork in communities all across the country for
(00:24):
veterans in need. We ask thatyou not only listen to how they're helping
veterans and their families, but thatyou also take action and support their mission
by checking them out online and offeringwhatever help you can so they can continue
to provide resources and care to thosewho served and sacrificed. And right now,
to get things started, I'm joinedby Colonel Duncan S. Milney,
(00:47):
the US Marine Corps veteran and presidentof the Dixon Center for Military and Veterans
Services. You can learn more aboutthis organization at Dixoncenter dot org. Colonel
Milney, thank you so much fortake a few minutes to come on the
show. So how did the DixonCenter first get started? And tell us
a little bit about the work youdo sure will, and thank you Ryan,
and thank you to your colleagues atiHeartRadio for doing this. Dickon Center
(01:11):
for Military and Veterans Services came aboutin reaction to a question, and the
question was when our chairman, DaveSuttland and I were working on the gun
Chies of Staff for ADMA Mike Molland Dave was working directly for the Admiral
in terms of reaching out to theveterans and military families and those impacted by
warfare, and it was a questionthat kept coming up. The American population
(01:34):
that time, we're talking about twothousand and eight nine kept asking we want
to help, but we don't knowhow. There's a perception in the country
that the DoD and the VA dideverything for veterans, and we all know
that while they provide a great amountof resources and backbone, there's always a
challenge in communities across the country whereveterans don't have ev access to the services
(01:55):
and fault between the gaps. Sothe idea was to create a center,
a center as a resource hub ofinfluence, ideas and actions where other organizations
that are direct service providers can cometo for ideas influence and actions can increase
of their impact in their communities acrossthe world. It really is kind of
(02:16):
a if you want to think ofnational reach and local impacts, it's kind
of a local insurgency, is whatwe're trying to create. So that's how
we started in twenty twelve. Herewe are in twenty twenty three, eleven
years later and going strong, andwe've helped millions of organizations and through our
work impact the veterans that they serve. Again, we provide strategic support in
(02:40):
people, institution, organizations, andcommunities committed to improving the lives of their
veterans and family. Is a bigpart of the problem. The awareness factor
here that there are resources and organizationsall across the country who are working to
help veterans, but it's connecting thoseresources with the veterans, letting them know
that help is out there for them. I think that is a big part
(03:02):
of it. There's almost too manyorganizations out there, and it becomes very
challenging for the most punch point militaryservice to access services and supports in their
community. Sometimes they don't know thatthey're welcome, and that's one of the
biggest challenges mine what we really tryto do is there are eleven million organizations
in this country across soul sectors,society, you know, academia, civic
(03:27):
organizations, public, private, allthat. What we really focus on doing
is working with organizations that don't includeveterans and military families into their services.
So we just want organizations to beinclusive and welcoming and culturally attuned to the
needs and the emergent evolving needs ofveterans and their families. As when we
(03:50):
look for what has the response beenlike from organizations who you've talked to about
that? Very good, quite honestly. One of the challenges is, you
know, as the wars received frompeople's minds, they forget about the warriors,
and we can't let that happen.So we have a lot of organizations
when we approach them, they're like, boy, we've always wanted to do
(04:10):
this, we just don't know how. And part of it's just an education
process. Part of it really ina lot of cases that I am quite
honestly, is organizations looking inward evenunderstand who they serve or who do they
employ. You know, most ofthe organizations a lot, I don't say
most, a lot of them havea really hard, difficult time making a
(04:30):
concerted effort to just be welcoming,put out the welcome app for veterans in
their animals. What are some ofthe different ways that everyone listening right now
can support the work you're doing atthe Dixon Center. Well, of course
you already mentioned our website Dixoncenter dotorg and encourage folks to take a look
at what we do. It's it'skind of a different model and we've been
very successful with it. We're nota direct service provider, as I like
(04:55):
to say. We don't give outcollect ticket stubs or work that we do.
We really focus on making the organizationsmore impactful that reach out to us
and trying to find the gaffs thatare out there across the country that we
can address and direct resources to orbe time or funds or just intellectual effort,
(05:19):
expertise and mentorship to organizations. Soif an organization is looking at how
they can include veterans and military familiesfor those touched by military service into their
enterprise, just contact us and we'dbe happy to have a conversation and make
you that welcoming organization and the welcomingfacility that says veterans are welcome here and
(05:45):
store their families. Colonel Duncan Milney, US Marine Corps veteran and president of
the Dixon Center for Military and VeteransServices again. You can learn more and
support the work they're doing at Dixoncenterdot org. That's Dixon Center dot org.
Colonel Milney, I want to thankyou so much for your service to
this country, for the work you'redoing on this issue, and for coming
on the show. We appreciate it. I appreciate it too, and I
(06:09):
just can't hang up without saying HappyBirthday to our nation's for marines. All
right, thanks again, Colonel.I'm Ryan Gorman, and now on this
Veterans Day weekend special, I wantto bring in our next guest. We're
joined by US Marine and Air Forceveteran and chief Communications and Outreach Officer at
Disabled American Veterans, Dan Claire.You can learn more about this organization at
(06:30):
DAV dot org. Dan. Thankyou for coming on the show. So
how did Disabled American Veterans get started? And explain the work you do.
Your DAV was founded in nineteen twentyby World War One veterans, and our
focus now is helping ensure we keeppromises to veterans, and we do that
by helping them with their benefits.We get them to and from their medical
appointments, we connect them with jobsand help them as entrepreneurs. And let's
(06:55):
start with caregivers Support and that specificprogram. Can you explain how that works?
Yeah, Around Veterans Day, everyonethinks about veterans, but we're thinking
this time of year about the peoplewho support veterans are caregivers. DV Caregivers
is a program that provides concierge services. Veterans. Caregivers can visit this website.
(07:19):
It starts with the website, itends up with one on one help.
They're able to connect with resources,find out things that are in their
community to help them out. Andyou know, these caregivers they share in
the sacrifices of military service and whenwe get them, we see they give
(07:41):
up their careers. It affects theirown health. They're putting the health of
the veteran first. So we're tryingto provide them with everything that they need
so that they don't face burnout,so that they don't deal with all the
anxiety, so they get a littlerested. So we're connecting with stuff in
their communities, says, and whythat's going to help them, And we
developed a plan for them so thatit's sustainable, their lifestyle sustainable, It
(08:05):
helps with their relationships, it helpsthem keep the veteran in their home longer,
and that saves the taxpayers money aswell. And when it comes to
navigating VA benefits, which can bedifficult for a variety of reasons, how
does da V play a role inassisting veterans with that. You know a
lot of people think that when aveteran is getting out, when they're when
they're leaving the military and entering theskilling world, their benefits are granted to
(08:30):
them and they walk away and they'rehappy. Unfortunately, that's not how it
works. Veterans have to go andprove that what conditions they might have are
service connected. So DAV has anationwide staff, nationwide core team of veterans
who have been through that VA process. They helped cut the red tape and
they walk veteran through the process,their advocates for them. They look through
(08:52):
their medical records, they talk tothem, they find out where the veteran's
hurting, what's what's going on withthem, and then they go and fight
with the VA. Sometimes fights,sometimes work together to make sure that that
it gets what they earn. Andthat's key, and that's the bare minimum
promise we have is to try andmake someone hole if their change. And
(09:13):
finally, how can those listening supportthe work DAV does, whether it's through
volunteer opportunities or donations things like that. What are some of the different ways
that they can support your work.Supporting DAV during this time here or any
other time is so important. There'sso many ways to help. You can
volunteer as a driver with the AV. You can volunteer in hospitals VA hospitals
(09:35):
with DAV, and you can volunteerthrough one of our twelve hundred chapters throughout
the country. Volunteering is so important, but you know a lot of people
don't have time necessarily. We haverecurring donations. You can be a monthly
donor to DAV. You can donateyour car if you want to, or
a vehicle. You can donate propertyto DAV if you want to. There's
(09:56):
a lot of different ways to supportthe AV through as a donor, through
philanthropy. And then finally, abig thing that we would like people to
do is refer people to DAV forhelp. We almost everyone who's listening knows
a veteran, knows someone who's connectedto a veteran, and we know that
a lot of people are facing challengesthere. So if you refer someone to
(10:20):
DAV, you could make a lifechanging You can make a life changing moment
for them, and we'll make surethat promises are kept to them and help
them on a path to a betterlife. US Marine Corps and Air Force
veteran and DAV Chief Communications and OutreachOfficer Dan Clare Again. You can learn
more and find all the different waysto help support disabled American veterans at DAV
(10:45):
dot org. Dan, I wantto thank you so much for the work
you're doing for DAV, for yourservice to this country, and for taking
a few minutes to come on theshow. We appreciate it. iHeart is
a huge supporter of veterans and we'regrateful as well. So I hope everyone
has a great Veterans Day weekend.All right, thanks again, Dan.
I'm Ryan Gorman here on this VeteransDay Weekend special and now let's bring in
our next guest. We're joined bya United States Army veteran and CEO of
(11:09):
Mission Role Call Jim Whaling. Youcan learn more about this organization at Missionrolecall
dot org. Jim, thank youso much for joining us. So how
did Mission Role Call First get startedand what is the purpose of your organization?
Yeah, well, thank you firstTrime. We started a few years
ago as a program and now we'restepping up to be a full nonprofit and
(11:33):
the mission is really to become thevoice of the American veterans. There's about
eighteen point five million veterans in ourcountry, half of which are not affiliated
with any organization. The voices arenot being heard, and our role is
to help that voice be heard inan unfiltered, a political way. That
(11:56):
helped Vecan's helping veterans, veterans tellingtheir story, and us helping veterans navigate
their next phase in life, whichis a challenge for something. What are
some of the issues that you hearabout from veterans that they need help with.
Well, there's a whole host ofit. You know. First of
(12:16):
all, you know, we havesuch a great country that supports their veterans.
Right, Americans, by a farmajority eighty five ninety percent have a
favorable feeling about veterans. Highly supportveterans, value what they've done for our
country. They understand that the veteranscommunity is a diverse one, it's resilient,
(12:41):
it's it's a vital demographic in ourcountry, and their service has helped
build and sustain the American way alife, and their sacrifice is really part of
the fabric which makes up our nationalcharacter. But to answer your question,
I think there's a number of areas. One and this may be a shock
(13:03):
to some listening, but we haveabout twenty five percent of both active duty
and military that are food insecure meansthey're not able to eat correctly, they
don't have the right resources money tobe able to buy the food that they
need. We're all familiar with thenumber of veterans suicides we have. That
(13:28):
number is commonly discussed around twenty totwenty two. It's probably higher than that
because some people are not identified asveterans for whatever reason. Sustained problem in
our society as veterans getting access toquality healthcare, you know, two thirds
(13:48):
of the American people strongly support thatveterans get access to civilian healthcare. If
the VA cannot serve those veterans inthe timely fashion. Most Americans right now
do not feel that veterans get asmuch support from the government as they search,
so we have a number of issuesthat face sence, the transitions to
(14:11):
survelian life is sometimes very difficult,and that's some of the things that we're
tackling at Mission roll Call is togive them a forum in switch they can
talk about the challenges they have,network with each other and tackle some of
these problems. You give veterans aproblem, you give a soldier or marine
(14:33):
or an airman, a Navy persona problem, they're going to go solve
it and they're going to go finda way to work together to get that
done. And that's what we're tryingto do with Mission roll Call. We're
really excited about a lot of energybehind it, a lot of nonprofits to
the military space, you're highly supportiveof it. So we're excited about the
(14:56):
work we're doing and every intent togrow it and become the nation's premier voice
of the veterans. Finally, howcan veterans make their voices heard through Mission
roll Call? And how can everyonewhether they served or not, help support
the work that you're doing. Thankyou Ron, it's so important first of
(15:16):
all, for anyone who's non activeduty, has been a veteran, is
the spouse of a veteran, hasa brother or sister in the service.
Please join us. Go to ourwebsite sign up. We have a number
of surveys that we do that wesend out the folks to gauge what are
the issues that they have. Weshare that survey data with elected officials,
(15:41):
people at built the federal, state, and local level that helped state college
policy to help tell the story.They can go to our website and do
that and join, and they canjust let all the veterans know about this
important endeavor that we're embarking upon.We've had a lot of success, but
(16:03):
we looked at twenty twenty four isto really be the year that we grow
this and continue the good work it'sbeen done so far. You know,
veterans are so important to our country. So few people now in our populace
have served or know someone served,and so it's important for us to be
(16:26):
able to tell that the impact ofwhat veterans do and what that'sence brings to
the table. You know, theybring highly transferable skills, they're more likely
to engage in civil organizations. Theywant to get back to work. They're
great role models, great coaches,great mentors, and they're very diverse.
(16:48):
They represent every facet of our societyand what makes our country so great.
Everyone can learn more about the workMission Role Call does and you can support
that work as well at Mission RoleCall dot org. That's Mission Role Call
dot org. CEO of Mission RoleCall Jim Whaley with us. Jim,
(17:11):
I want to thank you so muchfor the work you're doing with your organization
and also for your service to thiscountry. We really appreciate it, and
God bless you really appreciate it.Jim. I'm Ryan Gorman here on this
Veterans Day Weekend special and now let'sbring in our next guest. We're joined
by retired Brigadier General Jack Hammond,executive director of home Base. You can
(17:32):
learn more about this organization at Homebasedot org. General Hammond, thank you
so much for coming on the showand tell us the backstory to home Base
and the work that you do.Brian, and thanks for having us in
helping raise awareness for what we doand celebrate and honor and support our veterans.
So home Base is a very interestingconcept and initiative, and it began
(17:56):
with the Boston Red Sox visiting WalterReed on TUESDA for occasions after World Series
victories. And as some folks knowas either lovers or haters, the Red
Sox broke their eighty six year cursewith no World Series victories in two thousand
and four, and as we allknow, after the World Series wins,
you go to the White House andmeet with the President. What they did
(18:18):
that was kind of unique was theywent directly from the White House to Walter
Reed Army Medical Center before returning homeand spent some time with our wounded and
injured warriors. After the first intwo thousand and four, they brought the
They brought a group of wounded veteransup from Walter Reed to Fenway Park for
the ring ceremony on opening Day whenthey returned after the two thousand and seven
(18:40):
World Series in the spring of twothousand and eight, by then we were
in the height of the surge inIraq and the highest number of catastrophically injured
young men and women were at WalterReed and they were really moved to action
at that point. A one hourvisit ended up lasting almost four and a
half hours. They were completely takenback by what they saw, and they
(19:02):
committed to actually do something about it. The Red Sox chairman Tom Warner,
it was his vision to move forward. He reached back here in Boston to
the president of the Massachusetts General Hospital, which is Harvard's teaching hospital, and
doctor Peter Slevin. Slaven agreed topartner with the Red Sox in a joint
effort to help develop innovative solutions andcare for our veterans. Since that time,
(19:26):
we've cared for more than thirty thousandUS veterans, military family members,
and active duty service members, allat no costs one through fundraising. We've
developed several initiatives where we've we've reimaginedwhat's possible in that treatment, and fortunately,
by leveraging the faculty of Harvard MedicalSchool, Massachusetts General Hospital, and
(19:51):
the mass General break up system,we've been able to re imagine what's possible
and develop these compressed programs, likea two week intensive program for post traumatic
stress that compress us two years oftreatment into two weeks, enabling us to
fly veterans from anywhere in the worldto home base, and to date we've
(20:11):
cared for and treated veterans from allfifty states, and flown US veterans in
from thirteen different countries, again atall no costs. And I'll give you
the last two programs very quickly.Around twenty nineteen, the Naval Special Warfare
leadership approached us about developing a polytraumatraumatic brain injury program for our Navy Seals.
(20:33):
We expanded that to all Special OperationsTeam members and to date we've had
almost a thousand Spresial Operations Team memberssign up for programs. With home Base,
we treat the most injured Special OperationsTeam members, the most injured veterans,
and about five operators come to homeBase every single week. And then
finally to take care of our mostinjured military family members. The surviving family
(20:56):
members of suicide were extremely high riskfor suicide themselves, and too often these
military spouses of parents were in theroom when the veteran took their life.
About as tragic as it gets traumaticas you can imagine. So in a
partnership with the national organization called TragedyAssistance Program for Survivors, they tried the
(21:17):
great organization right. They triarize themost at risk military family members that need
our care, and we developed afourteen day intensive clinical program very similar to
the one from the Warriors, andwe dedicate that once every quarter to our
Tafts families. And the last thingwe do is we build local capacity.
We work with local hospital systems andclinical programs to build up their clinical programs,
(21:42):
and to date, we've worked withprograms across Florida, starting in Arizona
a little bit, beginning with theTribal Lands of Navajo Nation, and soon
to be in Montana again, justworking with local organizations, trying to share
some of the expertise we've developed,learn what they're doing, and then connect
the Warriors in those states to ourprogram. And then finally, for those
(22:03):
listening who want to support all ofthis tremendous and vital work for our veterans
and their families, how can theygo about doing that? Way is to
go to homebase dot org. Ifyou know a veteran that needs help,
there's a button that says connect Care. If you want to support our veterans,
there's another one that says donate hereanything helps. If they can give
(22:25):
five ten dollars, that'd be great. If they can give a million,
that's even better. But every dollargoes to help support our wounded and injured
warriors, active duty service members andfamilies. So thank you in advance for
anyone that does take me up onthat retired Brigady Your General Jack Hammond,
executive director of home Base again.You can learn more and offer your support
at home Base dot org. That'shome Base dot org. General Hammond,
(22:49):
thank you so much for your serviceto this country, for the work you're
doing with home Base, and fortaking a few minutes to come on the
show. We really appreciate it.Well, I appreciate you, and thank
you to Radio for the support theyget us. It's our pleasure. General,
thanks so much. And now ourfinal guest here on this Veterans Day
weekend special, we're joined by greenberet veteran and executive director of Task Force
(23:10):
Dagger Matt Parrish. You can learnmore about this organization at Taskforce Dagger dot
org. Matt, thank you somuch for coming on the show. How
did Task Force Dagger first get started? And tell us about the mission you're
on? Absolutely no, thanks forhaving me ran. You know, Task
Work Stagger's been around a little overa decade. You know, our bread
(23:30):
and butter is we service all activeand former members of the Special Operations community
and their families, no matter whatbranch they served in. So every branch
Army, Navy, Air Force,Marine Corps has their own kind of version
of special Operations, and we coverall of them and as I said,
their families as well, because whatwe found over the years is, you
(23:52):
know, if someone's going through ahardship, it's not just affecting them,
it's certainly affecting their family as well. So we do that across three primary
missions. First one is immediate needs, which is you know, everything from
hey, you know, we're havinga financial heartshit because of a death in
the family, or hey we needto you know, get airline tickets to
go and visit a stick relative.All those things, you know, are
(24:15):
just things that unfortunately, there's nota lot of financial margin for most folks
that are active duty, and sowe want to you know, provide kind
of a safety net there to takecare of special operators and their families when
the you know, kind of crisiscomes. And then health initiatives, we
stay on the cutting edge and kindof next gen things across behavioral and mental
(24:36):
health, across traumatic brain injury,post traumatic stress, and things like that.
And so we we we stand atthe front edge of things that aren't
covered by insurance yet, but thereare showing a lot of usefulness and utility
and really saving people's lives. Andso we want to be the pathfinder to
help folks get connected to those treatmentsand then hopefully ultimately advocate through Congress and
(25:00):
through other things for those things tobe covered in the future. And then
finally we do rehability of adaptive events, which is really focused around injured or
ill or wounded you know again activereformer SOFT members in their families. We
did that across a couple of differentevents, but our flagship event is down
in Key West every year it's calledDagger Dive, where we take these families
(25:22):
and have them learn how to scubadive together. And so you've got a
family that's undergone a lot of stressover the course of a career and now
they get a chance to do somethingas like a shared a shared task,
a shared learning of something. Andas you take you know, take your
take your you know, service memberin there and their spouse underwater, you
know, you take away the abilityto speak. You're all hand, an
(25:45):
arm signal if you're learning a newtask, all these things, and you
know, we've had a lot offamily members who have come back and said,
you know, hey, my myhusband or my father, you know,
is in a wheelchair from his service, or he's got all these mounted
or you know, different things goingon, and this is the first time
we've been able to do something withDad similar to how he was before.
(26:07):
You know, he underwent all ofthese injuries and things like that. So
really awesome, impactful stuff that we'reproud to we're proud to be able to
support our community with. And Ithink what's really important is the family component
to this, because it isn't justthe special operators who are dealing with something
the families. They're right in themiddle of this too, for set.
(26:30):
And you know, if you're goingto make positive and proactive change and help
someone's life, it needs to befrom all aspects. It needs to be
holistic, and it definitely needs tobe including the family because they've been included
across all of these different deployments andtraining things and injuries. You know,
they oftentimes are dealing with it,you know, just as much trying to
(26:52):
make sure that you know again,mom or dad or you know, spouse
is taken care of, but alsotaking care of just the average to day
you know, day to day stufffor you know, whether the kids are
getting to school or any you know, something's going on where dad gets injured
and mom has to go somewhere fora month to take care of him.
(27:14):
You know, there's a lot ofstress on a family over the course of
over the course of a special operationscareer. So we're happy to be able
to provide you know, both bothopportunity to to you know, do these
different things and try to heal,but also also a supportive atmosphere of other
people who understand the challenges and canhelp walk people through with their families.
(27:37):
You know. Again, we're alwayspointing people in a positive and proactive direction
because it's not about having a bunchof you know, victims as veterans,
about getting these amazing people a littlebit of a help back into showing all
the amazing things they can do isnow citizens in their post military career.
And finally, what are some ofthe different ways that everyone listening can help
(27:57):
support the work to task force Daggerdoes absolutely you know Ryan mentioned earlier,
if you go to task Force Daggerdot org. You can join our email
list, get linked into all thesedifferent things that we're doing over the course
of a year. We are onehundred percent donor funded. We are a
private foundation, and so we relyon you know, patriotic Americans across the
(28:19):
country and across the world, someof which who have served, some of
which have family that have served,and some who haven't at all but want
to support. You know, overthe course of a global war and terrorism,
special operations has been really used andat times overused, and so we're
trying to piece those things back togetherand make sure that we take care of
the folks that have served, andthat we are proactively looking for the folks
(28:41):
that are going to serve in thefuture and helping them out. And so
we're always looking for folks to donate, but also looking for volunteers for some
of our different events as I mentioned, like things at Dagger Dive or other
events that we put on across thecountry. We're always looking for volunteers.
And so if you check out TaskforceDagger or hit us up on your Instagram
(29:02):
or Facebook or LinkedIn in any ofthose places, we can get tied in
and show you ways to get involved. For sure, Green Beret veteran and
executive director of task Force Dagger,which again you can learn more about and
support at Taskforce Dagger dot org.Matt Parish with us. Matt, thank
you so much for your service,for the work you're doing with task Force
Dagger, and for coming on theshow. We appreciate it, right,
(29:23):
appreciate you, brother. All Right, that's going to do it for this
Veterans Day weekend edition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap things up, I
want to offer a big thanks toall of our guests, and of course
to all of you for listening andespecially all of you support these veterans organizations
and so many others across the country. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman.
We'll talk to you again real soon.
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you. This week. Here's RyanGorman. Thanks so much for joining us
here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm RyanGorman, and we have a very special
show for you as we honor ourveterans this weekend. We'll be joined by
a number of tremendous organizations doing crucialwork in communities all across the country for
(00:24):
veterans in need. We ask thatyou not only listen to how they're helping
veterans and their families, but thatyou also take action and support their mission
by checking them out online and offeringwhatever help you can so they can continue
to provide resources and care to thosewho served and sacrificed. And right now,
to get things started, I'm joinedby Colonel Duncan S. Milney,
(00:47):
the US Marine Corps veteran and presidentof the Dixon Center for Military and Veterans
Services. You can learn more aboutthis organization at Dixoncenter dot org. Colonel
Milney, thank you so much fortake a few minutes to come on the
show. So how did the DixonCenter first get started? And tell us
a little bit about the work youdo sure will, and thank you Ryan,
and thank you to your colleagues atiHeartRadio for doing this. Dickon Center
(01:11):
for Military and Veterans Services came aboutin reaction to a question, and the
question was when our chairman, DaveSuttland and I were working on the gun
Chies of Staff for ADMA Mike Molland Dave was working directly for the Admiral
in terms of reaching out to theveterans and military families and those impacted by
warfare, and it was a questionthat kept coming up. The American population
(01:34):
that time, we're talking about twothousand and eight nine kept asking we want
to help, but we don't knowhow. There's a perception in the country
that the DoD and the VA dideverything for veterans, and we all know
that while they provide a great amountof resources and backbone, there's always a
challenge in communities across the country whereveterans don't have ev access to the services
(01:55):
and fault between the gaps. Sothe idea was to create a center,
a center as a resource hub ofinfluence, ideas and actions where other organizations
that are direct service providers can cometo for ideas influence and actions can increase
of their impact in their communities acrossthe world. It really is kind of
(02:16):
a if you want to think ofnational reach and local impacts, it's kind
of a local insurgency, is whatwe're trying to create. So that's how
we started in twenty twelve. Herewe are in twenty twenty three, eleven
years later and going strong, andwe've helped millions of organizations and through our
work impact the veterans that they serve. Again, we provide strategic support in
(02:40):
people, institution, organizations, andcommunities committed to improving the lives of their
veterans and family. Is a bigpart of the problem. The awareness factor
here that there are resources and organizationsall across the country who are working to
help veterans, but it's connecting thoseresources with the veterans, letting them know
that help is out there for them. I think that is a big part
(03:02):
of it. There's almost too manyorganizations out there, and it becomes very
challenging for the most punch point militaryservice to access services and supports in their
community. Sometimes they don't know thatthey're welcome, and that's one of the
biggest challenges mine what we really tryto do is there are eleven million organizations
in this country across soul sectors,society, you know, academia, civic
(03:27):
organizations, public, private, allthat. What we really focus on doing
is working with organizations that don't includeveterans and military families into their services.
So we just want organizations to beinclusive and welcoming and culturally attuned to the
needs and the emergent evolving needs ofveterans and their families. As when we
(03:50):
look for what has the response beenlike from organizations who you've talked to about
that? Very good, quite honestly. One of the challenges is, you
know, as the wars received frompeople's minds, they forget about the warriors,
and we can't let that happen.So we have a lot of organizations
when we approach them, they're like, boy, we've always wanted to do
(04:10):
this, we just don't know how. And part of it's just an education
process. Part of it really ina lot of cases that I am quite
honestly, is organizations looking inward evenunderstand who they serve or who do they
employ. You know, most ofthe organizations a lot, I don't say
most, a lot of them havea really hard, difficult time making a
(04:30):
concerted effort to just be welcoming,put out the welcome app for veterans in
their animals. What are some ofthe different ways that everyone listening right now
can support the work you're doing atthe Dixon Center. Well, of course
you already mentioned our website Dixoncenter dotorg and encourage folks to take a look
at what we do. It's it'skind of a different model and we've been
very successful with it. We're nota direct service provider, as I like
(04:55):
to say. We don't give outcollect ticket stubs or work that we do.
We really focus on making the organizationsmore impactful that reach out to us
and trying to find the gaffs thatare out there across the country that we
can address and direct resources to orbe time or funds or just intellectual effort,
(05:19):
expertise and mentorship to organizations. Soif an organization is looking at how
they can include veterans and military familiesfor those touched by military service into their
enterprise, just contact us and we'dbe happy to have a conversation and make
you that welcoming organization and the welcomingfacility that says veterans are welcome here and
(05:45):
store their families. Colonel Duncan Milney, US Marine Corps veteran and president of
the Dixon Center for Military and VeteransServices again. You can learn more and
support the work they're doing at Dixoncenterdot org. That's Dixon Center dot org.
Colonel Milney, I want to thankyou so much for your service to
this country, for the work you'redoing on this issue, and for coming
on the show. We appreciate it. I appreciate it too, and I
(06:09):
just can't hang up without saying HappyBirthday to our nation's for marines. All
right, thanks again, Colonel.I'm Ryan Gorman, and now on this
Veterans Day weekend special, I wantto bring in our next guest. We're
joined by US Marine and Air Forceveteran and chief Communications and Outreach Officer at
Disabled American Veterans, Dan Claire.You can learn more about this organization at
(06:30):
DAV dot org. Dan. Thankyou for coming on the show. So
how did Disabled American Veterans get started? And explain the work you do.
Your DAV was founded in nineteen twentyby World War One veterans, and our
focus now is helping ensure we keeppromises to veterans, and we do that
by helping them with their benefits.We get them to and from their medical
appointments, we connect them with jobsand help them as entrepreneurs. And let's
(06:55):
start with caregivers Support and that specificprogram. Can you explain how that works?
Yeah, Around Veterans Day, everyonethinks about veterans, but we're thinking
this time of year about the peoplewho support veterans are caregivers. DV Caregivers
is a program that provides concierge services. Veterans. Caregivers can visit this website.
(07:19):
It starts with the website, itends up with one on one help.
They're able to connect with resources,find out things that are in their
community to help them out. Andyou know, these caregivers they share in
the sacrifices of military service and whenwe get them, we see they give
(07:41):
up their careers. It affects theirown health. They're putting the health of
the veteran first. So we're tryingto provide them with everything that they need
so that they don't face burnout,so that they don't deal with all the
anxiety, so they get a littlerested. So we're connecting with stuff in
their communities, says, and whythat's going to help them, And we
developed a plan for them so thatit's sustainable, their lifestyle sustainable, It
(08:05):
helps with their relationships, it helpsthem keep the veteran in their home longer,
and that saves the taxpayers money aswell. And when it comes to
navigating VA benefits, which can bedifficult for a variety of reasons, how
does da V play a role inassisting veterans with that. You know a
lot of people think that when aveteran is getting out, when they're when
they're leaving the military and entering theskilling world, their benefits are granted to
(08:30):
them and they walk away and they'rehappy. Unfortunately, that's not how it
works. Veterans have to go andprove that what conditions they might have are
service connected. So DAV has anationwide staff, nationwide core team of veterans
who have been through that VA process. They helped cut the red tape and
they walk veteran through the process,their advocates for them. They look through
(08:52):
their medical records, they talk tothem, they find out where the veteran's
hurting, what's what's going on withthem, and then they go and fight
with the VA. Sometimes fights,sometimes work together to make sure that that
it gets what they earn. Andthat's key, and that's the bare minimum
promise we have is to try andmake someone hole if their change. And
(09:13):
finally, how can those listening supportthe work DAV does, whether it's through
volunteer opportunities or donations things like that. What are some of the different ways
that they can support your work.Supporting DAV during this time here or any
other time is so important. There'sso many ways to help. You can
volunteer as a driver with the AV. You can volunteer in hospitals VA hospitals
(09:35):
with DAV, and you can volunteerthrough one of our twelve hundred chapters throughout
the country. Volunteering is so important, but you know a lot of people
don't have time necessarily. We haverecurring donations. You can be a monthly
donor to DAV. You can donateyour car if you want to, or
a vehicle. You can donate propertyto DAV if you want to. There's
(09:56):
a lot of different ways to supportthe AV through as a donor, through
philanthropy. And then finally, abig thing that we would like people to
do is refer people to DAV forhelp. We almost everyone who's listening knows
a veteran, knows someone who's connectedto a veteran, and we know that
a lot of people are facing challengesthere. So if you refer someone to
(10:20):
DAV, you could make a lifechanging You can make a life changing moment
for them, and we'll make surethat promises are kept to them and help
them on a path to a betterlife. US Marine Corps and Air Force
veteran and DAV Chief Communications and OutreachOfficer Dan Clare Again. You can learn
more and find all the different waysto help support disabled American veterans at DAV
(10:45):
dot org. Dan, I wantto thank you so much for the work
you're doing for DAV, for yourservice to this country, and for taking
a few minutes to come on theshow. We appreciate it. iHeart is
a huge supporter of veterans and we'regrateful as well. So I hope everyone
has a great Veterans Day weekend.All right, thanks again, Dan.
I'm Ryan Gorman here on this VeteransDay Weekend special and now let's bring in
our next guest. We're joined bya United States Army veteran and CEO of
(11:09):
Mission Role Call Jim Whaling. Youcan learn more about this organization at Missionrolecall
dot org. Jim, thank youso much for joining us. So how
did Mission Role Call First get startedand what is the purpose of your organization?
Yeah, well, thank you firstTrime. We started a few years
ago as a program and now we'restepping up to be a full nonprofit and
(11:33):
the mission is really to become thevoice of the American veterans. There's about
eighteen point five million veterans in ourcountry, half of which are not affiliated
with any organization. The voices arenot being heard, and our role is
to help that voice be heard inan unfiltered, a political way. That
(11:56):
helped Vecan's helping veterans, veterans tellingtheir story, and us helping veterans navigate
their next phase in life, whichis a challenge for something. What are
some of the issues that you hearabout from veterans that they need help with.
Well, there's a whole host ofit. You know. First of
(12:16):
all, you know, we havesuch a great country that supports their veterans.
Right, Americans, by a farmajority eighty five ninety percent have a
favorable feeling about veterans. Highly supportveterans, value what they've done for our
country. They understand that the veteranscommunity is a diverse one, it's resilient,
(12:41):
it's it's a vital demographic in ourcountry, and their service has helped
build and sustain the American way alife, and their sacrifice is really part of
the fabric which makes up our nationalcharacter. But to answer your question,
I think there's a number of areas. One and this may be a shock
(13:03):
to some listening, but we haveabout twenty five percent of both active duty
and military that are food insecure meansthey're not able to eat correctly, they
don't have the right resources money tobe able to buy the food that they
need. We're all familiar with thenumber of veterans suicides we have. That
(13:28):
number is commonly discussed around twenty totwenty two. It's probably higher than that
because some people are not identified asveterans for whatever reason. Sustained problem in
our society as veterans getting access toquality healthcare, you know, two thirds
(13:48):
of the American people strongly support thatveterans get access to civilian healthcare. If
the VA cannot serve those veterans inthe timely fashion. Most Americans right now
do not feel that veterans get asmuch support from the government as they search,
so we have a number of issuesthat face sence, the transitions to
(14:11):
survelian life is sometimes very difficult,and that's some of the things that we're
tackling at Mission roll Call is togive them a forum in switch they can
talk about the challenges they have,network with each other and tackle some of
these problems. You give veterans aproblem, you give a soldier or marine
(14:33):
or an airman, a Navy persona problem, they're going to go solve
it and they're going to go finda way to work together to get that
done. And that's what we're tryingto do with Mission roll Call. We're
really excited about a lot of energybehind it, a lot of nonprofits to
the military space, you're highly supportiveof it. So we're excited about the
(14:56):
work we're doing and every intent togrow it and become the nation's premier voice
of the veterans. Finally, howcan veterans make their voices heard through Mission
roll Call? And how can everyonewhether they served or not, help support
the work that you're doing. Thankyou Ron, it's so important first of
(15:16):
all, for anyone who's non activeduty, has been a veteran, is
the spouse of a veteran, hasa brother or sister in the service.
Please join us. Go to ourwebsite sign up. We have a number
of surveys that we do that wesend out the folks to gauge what are
the issues that they have. Weshare that survey data with elected officials,
(15:41):
people at built the federal, state, and local level that helped state college
policy to help tell the story.They can go to our website and do
that and join, and they canjust let all the veterans know about this
important endeavor that we're embarking upon.We've had a lot of success, but
(16:03):
we looked at twenty twenty four isto really be the year that we grow
this and continue the good work it'sbeen done so far. You know,
veterans are so important to our country. So few people now in our populace
have served or know someone served,and so it's important for us to be
(16:26):
able to tell that the impact ofwhat veterans do and what that'sence brings to
the table. You know, theybring highly transferable skills, they're more likely
to engage in civil organizations. Theywant to get back to work. They're
great role models, great coaches,great mentors, and they're very diverse.
(16:48):
They represent every facet of our societyand what makes our country so great.
Everyone can learn more about the workMission Role Call does and you can support
that work as well at Mission RoleCall dot org. That's Mission Role Call
dot org. CEO of Mission RoleCall Jim Whaley with us. Jim,
(17:11):
I want to thank you so muchfor the work you're doing with your organization
and also for your service to thiscountry. We really appreciate it, and
God bless you really appreciate it.Jim. I'm Ryan Gorman here on this
Veterans Day Weekend special and now let'sbring in our next guest. We're joined
by retired Brigadier General Jack Hammond,executive director of home Base. You can
(17:32):
learn more about this organization at Homebasedot org. General Hammond, thank you
so much for coming on the showand tell us the backstory to home Base
and the work that you do.Brian, and thanks for having us in
helping raise awareness for what we doand celebrate and honor and support our veterans.
So home Base is a very interestingconcept and initiative, and it began
(17:56):
with the Boston Red Sox visiting WalterReed on TUESDA for occasions after World Series
victories. And as some folks knowas either lovers or haters, the Red
Sox broke their eighty six year cursewith no World Series victories in two thousand
and four, and as we allknow, after the World Series wins,
you go to the White House andmeet with the President. What they did
(18:18):
that was kind of unique was theywent directly from the White House to Walter
Reed Army Medical Center before returning homeand spent some time with our wounded and
injured warriors. After the first intwo thousand and four, they brought the
They brought a group of wounded veteransup from Walter Reed to Fenway Park for
the ring ceremony on opening Day whenthey returned after the two thousand and seven
(18:40):
World Series in the spring of twothousand and eight, by then we were
in the height of the surge inIraq and the highest number of catastrophically injured
young men and women were at WalterReed and they were really moved to action
at that point. A one hourvisit ended up lasting almost four and a
half hours. They were completely takenback by what they saw, and they
(19:02):
committed to actually do something about it. The Red Sox chairman Tom Warner,
it was his vision to move forward. He reached back here in Boston to
the president of the Massachusetts General Hospital, which is Harvard's teaching hospital, and
doctor Peter Slevin. Slaven agreed topartner with the Red Sox in a joint
effort to help develop innovative solutions andcare for our veterans. Since that time,
(19:26):
we've cared for more than thirty thousandUS veterans, military family members,
and active duty service members, allat no costs one through fundraising. We've
developed several initiatives where we've we've reimaginedwhat's possible in that treatment, and fortunately,
by leveraging the faculty of Harvard MedicalSchool, Massachusetts General Hospital, and
(19:51):
the mass General break up system,we've been able to re imagine what's possible
and develop these compressed programs, likea two week intensive program for post traumatic
stress that compress us two years oftreatment into two weeks, enabling us to
fly veterans from anywhere in the worldto home base, and to date we've
(20:11):
cared for and treated veterans from allfifty states, and flown US veterans in
from thirteen different countries, again atall no costs. And I'll give you
the last two programs very quickly.Around twenty nineteen, the Naval Special Warfare
leadership approached us about developing a polytraumatraumatic brain injury program for our Navy Seals.
(20:33):
We expanded that to all Special OperationsTeam members and to date we've had
almost a thousand Spresial Operations Team memberssign up for programs. With home Base,
we treat the most injured Special OperationsTeam members, the most injured veterans,
and about five operators come to homeBase every single week. And then
finally to take care of our mostinjured military family members. The surviving family
(20:56):
members of suicide were extremely high riskfor suicide themselves, and too often these
military spouses of parents were in theroom when the veteran took their life.
About as tragic as it gets traumaticas you can imagine. So in a
partnership with the national organization called TragedyAssistance Program for Survivors, they tried the
(21:17):
great organization right. They triarize themost at risk military family members that need
our care, and we developed afourteen day intensive clinical program very similar to
the one from the Warriors, andwe dedicate that once every quarter to our
Tafts families. And the last thingwe do is we build local capacity.
We work with local hospital systems andclinical programs to build up their clinical programs,
(21:42):
and to date, we've worked withprograms across Florida, starting in Arizona
a little bit, beginning with theTribal Lands of Navajo Nation, and soon
to be in Montana again, justworking with local organizations, trying to share
some of the expertise we've developed,learn what they're doing, and then connect
the Warriors in those states to ourprogram. And then finally, for those
(22:03):
listening who want to support all ofthis tremendous and vital work for our veterans
and their families, how can theygo about doing that? Way is to
go to homebase dot org. Ifyou know a veteran that needs help,
there's a button that says connect Care. If you want to support our veterans,
there's another one that says donate hereanything helps. If they can give
(22:25):
five ten dollars, that'd be great. If they can give a million,
that's even better. But every dollargoes to help support our wounded and injured
warriors, active duty service members andfamilies. So thank you in advance for
anyone that does take me up onthat retired Brigady Your General Jack Hammond,
executive director of home Base again.You can learn more and offer your support
at home Base dot org. That'shome Base dot org. General Hammond,
(22:49):
thank you so much for your serviceto this country, for the work you're
doing with home Base, and fortaking a few minutes to come on the
show. We really appreciate it.Well, I appreciate you, and thank
you to Radio for the support theyget us. It's our pleasure. General,
thanks so much. And now ourfinal guest here on this Veterans Day
weekend special, we're joined by greenberet veteran and executive director of Task Force
(23:10):
Dagger Matt Parrish. You can learnmore about this organization at Taskforce Dagger dot
org. Matt, thank you somuch for coming on the show. How
did Task Force Dagger first get started? And tell us about the mission you're
on? Absolutely no, thanks forhaving me ran. You know, Task
Work Stagger's been around a little overa decade. You know, our bread
(23:30):
and butter is we service all activeand former members of the Special Operations community
and their families, no matter whatbranch they served in. So every branch
Army, Navy, Air Force,Marine Corps has their own kind of version
of special Operations, and we coverall of them and as I said,
their families as well, because whatwe found over the years is, you
(23:52):
know, if someone's going through ahardship, it's not just affecting them,
it's certainly affecting their family as well. So we do that across three primary
missions. First one is immediate needs, which is you know, everything from
hey, you know, we're havinga financial heartshit because of a death in
the family, or hey we needto you know, get airline tickets to
go and visit a stick relative.All those things, you know, are
(24:15):
just things that unfortunately, there's nota lot of financial margin for most folks
that are active duty, and sowe want to you know, provide kind
of a safety net there to takecare of special operators and their families when
the you know, kind of crisiscomes. And then health initiatives, we
stay on the cutting edge and kindof next gen things across behavioral and mental
(24:36):
health, across traumatic brain injury,post traumatic stress, and things like that.
And so we we we stand atthe front edge of things that aren't
covered by insurance yet, but thereare showing a lot of usefulness and utility
and really saving people's lives. Andso we want to be the pathfinder to
help folks get connected to those treatmentsand then hopefully ultimately advocate through Congress and
(25:00):
through other things for those things tobe covered in the future. And then
finally we do rehability of adaptive events, which is really focused around injured or
ill or wounded you know again activereformer SOFT members in their families. We
did that across a couple of differentevents, but our flagship event is down
in Key West every year it's calledDagger Dive, where we take these families
(25:22):
and have them learn how to scubadive together. And so you've got a
family that's undergone a lot of stressover the course of a career and now
they get a chance to do somethingas like a shared a shared task,
a shared learning of something. Andas you take you know, take your
take your you know, service memberin there and their spouse underwater, you
know, you take away the abilityto speak. You're all hand, an
(25:45):
arm signal if you're learning a newtask, all these things, and you
know, we've had a lot offamily members who have come back and said,
you know, hey, my myhusband or my father, you know,
is in a wheelchair from his service, or he's got all these mounted
or you know, different things goingon, and this is the first time
we've been able to do something withDad similar to how he was before.
(26:07):
You know, he underwent all ofthese injuries and things like that. So
really awesome, impactful stuff that we'reproud to we're proud to be able to
support our community with. And Ithink what's really important is the family component
to this, because it isn't justthe special operators who are dealing with something
the families. They're right in themiddle of this too, for set.
(26:30):
And you know, if you're goingto make positive and proactive change and help
someone's life, it needs to befrom all aspects. It needs to be
holistic, and it definitely needs tobe including the family because they've been included
across all of these different deployments andtraining things and injuries. You know,
they oftentimes are dealing with it,you know, just as much trying to
(26:52):
make sure that you know again,mom or dad or you know, spouse
is taken care of, but alsotaking care of just the average to day
you know, day to day stufffor you know, whether the kids are
getting to school or any you know, something's going on where dad gets injured
and mom has to go somewhere fora month to take care of him.
(27:14):
You know, there's a lot ofstress on a family over the course of
over the course of a special operationscareer. So we're happy to be able
to provide you know, both bothopportunity to to you know, do these
different things and try to heal,but also also a supportive atmosphere of other
people who understand the challenges and canhelp walk people through with their families.
(27:37):
You know. Again, we're alwayspointing people in a positive and proactive direction
because it's not about having a bunchof you know, victims as veterans,
about getting these amazing people a littlebit of a help back into showing all
the amazing things they can do isnow citizens in their post military career.
And finally, what are some ofthe different ways that everyone listening can help
(27:57):
support the work to task force Daggerdoes absolutely you know Ryan mentioned earlier,
if you go to task Force Daggerdot org. You can join our email
list, get linked into all thesedifferent things that we're doing over the course
of a year. We are onehundred percent donor funded. We are a
private foundation, and so we relyon you know, patriotic Americans across the
(28:19):
country and across the world, someof which who have served, some of
which have family that have served,and some who haven't at all but want
to support. You know, overthe course of a global war and terrorism,
special operations has been really used andat times overused, and so we're
trying to piece those things back togetherand make sure that we take care of
the folks that have served, andthat we are proactively looking for the folks
(28:41):
that are going to serve in thefuture and helping them out. And so
we're always looking for folks to donate, but also looking for volunteers for some
of our different events as I mentioned, like things at Dagger Dive or other
events that we put on across thecountry. We're always looking for volunteers.
And so if you check out TaskforceDagger or hit us up on your Instagram
(29:02):
or Facebook or LinkedIn in any ofthose places, we can get tied in
and show you ways to get involved. For sure, Green Beret veteran and
executive director of task Force Dagger,which again you can learn more about and
support at Taskforce Dagger dot org.Matt Parish with us. Matt, thank
you so much for your service,for the work you're doing with task Force
Dagger, and for coming on theshow. We appreciate it, right,
(29:23):
appreciate you, brother. All Right, that's going to do it for this
Veterans Day weekend edition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap things up, I
want to offer a big thanks toall of our guests, and of course
to all of you for listening andespecially all of you support these veterans organizations
and so many others across the country. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman.
We'll talk to you again real soon.
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