On this week's program host, Phil Tower, welcomes Captain Paul Ryan, Vice-Chair, West Michigan Veterans Coalition, and Brad Dorland, founder and Director of Essential Patriot
The West Michigan Veterans Coalition is a collaboration between local military-friendly organizations that provide support, information, and resources to those who have served or are serving in the Armed Forces and their Families, employers, and other organizations throughout West Michigan.Online: West Michigan Veterans Coalition
About our guests: Captain Paul J. Ryan, a Retired U.S. Navy captain, is Vice Chair of the West Michigan Veterans Coalition. Paul served on active duty in the Navy for five years and made one peacetime deployment to the Western Pacific. His service in the Navy Reserve spanned twenty-five years, including seven tours as Commanding Officer of various Navy Reserve units. He retired from the Navy in 2005.
Brad Dorland is the founder and Director of Essential Patriot. Brad has served in the U.S. Marine Corps and is a Firefighter and fire alarm expert. Also, during the Great Recession, Brad served as Director of Service to the armed forces for the American Red Cross.
Online: Essential Patriot
The West Michigan Veterans Coalition is a collaboration between local military-friendly organizations that provide support, information, and resources to those who have served or are serving in the Armed Forces and their Families, employers, and other organizations throughout West Michigan.Online: West Michigan Veterans Coalition
About our guests: Captain Paul J. Ryan, a Retired U.S. Navy captain, is Vice Chair of the West Michigan Veterans Coalition. Paul served on active duty in the Navy for five years and made one peacetime deployment to the Western Pacific. His service in the Navy Reserve spanned twenty-five years, including seven tours as Commanding Officer of various Navy Reserve units. He retired from the Navy in 2005.
Brad Dorland is the founder and Director of Essential Patriot. Brad has served in the U.S. Marine Corps and is a Firefighter and fire alarm expert. Also, during the Great Recession, Brad served as Director of Service to the armed forces for the American Red Cross.
Online: Essential Patriot
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
iHeartMedia West Michigan Weekend a public affairsprogram. Hi, and welcome in.
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio.I'm so glad you have tuned in.
This is your host, Phil Tower. We want to remind you after you
hear this conversation on the radio,it will be available as a podcast at
woodradio dot com in the podcast section. You'll find that on the left hand
(00:29):
side of the page. I amvery pleased in this program. In fact,
we're going to dedicate the whole programto talking about the West Michigan Veterans
Coalition and focusing on the needs ofveterans in the greater West Michigan area,
focus on the Holland area, GrandRapids area, and really if you have
a veteran in your family or noveteran who might be in need of some
(00:53):
assistance, this is a great programthe issue you should stay tuned to.
Please to welcome to this entire program. Paul Ryan is vice chair of the
West Michigan Veterans Coalition. Paul isa native of Brooklyn, graduated from a
pretty esteemed university known as the Universityof Notre Dame. Was commissioned as an
ensign in the United States Navy throughNotre Dame's ROTC program. Navy ROTC program,
(01:19):
we should mention and Paul served onactive duty for five years, also
made a peacetime deployment to the WesternPacific. You had a subsequent service in
the Navy Reserve for twenty five years. You retired in two thousand and five.
Two five. Thank you very muchfor your service. And Brad Dorelyn
is a marine. Are you areserve Marine or are you retired US Marine?
(01:45):
I'm retired. Was reserve? Youretired? Was reserve? When was
your tour of duty? Brad?Two thousand and three I went to the
Horn of Africa with the one twentyfour Marines here in West Michigan. Thank
you for your service. Thank you. Brad is founder and director of Essential
Patriot. I don't know what that'sabout. You'll find out what that's about
as well. He also served inthe Marine Corps. You just heard he
(02:08):
was a firefighter. He's also afire alarms expert and probably will help sharpen
your knives somewhere along the way,because we learned he is an engineer as
well. Now, how did youguys connect? I'll start with you,
Brett, I believe that we actuallygo all the way back to my days
at the American Red Cross. Correctme if I'm wrong, Paul. But
if I remember correctly, we've actuallymet way back. Why I know that
(02:30):
we crossed paths back then. Itwas sort of a ship's passing in the
night kind of thing. But webegan to collaborate through the West Michigan Veterans
Coalition that goes back to the coalitionstarted in two thousand and nine. It
actually had a different name back then. It was called the Greater Grand Rapids
(02:51):
Veterans Services Forum. And this isa time when in Iraq and Afghanistan a
lot of Reserve component personnel were beingdeployed over there when they come back.
Because here in Michigan there aren't anyactive duty bases, the resources available for
(03:13):
those returning reservists and guardsmen were prettylimited, and so this group of nonprofits
and other organizations came together to figureout what could they do to assist these
veterans and families. And as timewent on, this forum changed its name
(03:36):
to the West Michigan Veterans Coalition.Around the time that the Michigan Veterans Affairs
Agency was established in twenty thirteen.As part of that development, MVAA wanted
to establish presence throughout the state throughpartnerships with various organizations, not state government.
(03:58):
Interesting, just going to ask youabout that, because I didn't think
this organization had been around that long. So roughly about a fifteen year history
then. Interesting. We should notethat, Brad, during that time period,
as you described a great recession twothousand and eight two thousand and nine,
you served as Director of Service tothe Armed Forces for the American Red
(04:19):
Cross. What did you do inthat role? The Red Cross's primary focus
for the service of the Armed Forcesis the Red Cross Message. Anytime there's
an incident back home with a familymember, we send the American Red Cross
sends an emergency message to the commandof the service member deployed overseas, and
(04:40):
that message is a call to actionfor the command of the service member.
So you were busy doing that.We were quite busy at the time,
yes, I'll tell you. Andone piece time deployment I had we had
probably half a dozen of those RedCross messages come to my ship to inform
the member of the ship's company abouta birth of death something like that.
That happened in the family. That'sreally interesting that a lot of our listeners
(05:02):
did not know that really important andvery vital service and they're still provided today.
Yeah, provided by the American RedCross. Okay, I get to
ask some tough questions occasionally, andmost of these will be softballs. What
is the state of service to theveterans of Kent County so far? You've
been at this a while, Paul, how are we doing? I think
(05:25):
relatively well, but there's always roomfor improvement. And the reason I say
that, Phil, is that mybelief and what I've encountered in the I've
been at this volunteer activity helping veteransgame for twenty five years now. The
level of interest and appreciation for supportof veterans and military families in Western Michigan
(05:49):
is really pretty strong. I couldcite examples of that, not only through
the Coalition, but some of theother organizations that I've volunteer with. It's
very different, in my opinion,here, stronger here than in other parts
(06:09):
of the state. Having said that, the Coalition, even though we've been
around for a while, as youjust mentioned, we can still be kind
of a carefully guarded secret. Wego around and we talk to people all
the time and ask have you everheard of us? And you know,
if we get the deer in theheadlights, look, well, no we
haven't. So the Coalition and allof its partners have a wealth of resources
(06:30):
to offer, but getting the wordout is still something that we have to
work very hard on. I'm reallyglad you said that because a lot of
people hearing us on the radio mayhave heard of the West Michigan Veterans Coalition
really don't know what you're all about, what you do, what services are
available there. Really, advocacy isa big piece of it, and that's
(06:53):
really important to mention. I dowant to again, this is what we
call ats for staying too. Iwant to mention there are a couple of
very important events. One happening onAugust twenty third, the Holland Area Veterans
stand Down or Resource Fair. We'llbe talking about that. And then one
happening on September sixth here in KentCounty in the Grand Rapids area. These
(07:15):
are stand downs, which sounds likea military term, it's actually a term
used to describe an event we're gatheringinvolving service to the military. I had
to look that up before we hadthis conversation because I know what it means
to stand down, but I actuallyhad to look that up because a lot
of people might hear then go hmmm, what does that mean? We're going
to talk about that. I'd liketo, if you would, for our
(07:38):
listeners give an overview of the kindsof services outreach available through the West Michigan
Veterans Coalition. Yeah, I'll start, and Brad is going to really provide
the details. But just to yourpoint, Phil about the term stand down.
Interesting you made those comments I've seenon Facebook some individuals question is what's
(07:59):
the at all about? I don'tknow what that means. Those of us
in the military, and you knowmy experience in the Navy. Let's say,
ah, some kind of a safetymishap occurs somewhere in the fleet and
it's considered significant enough that what wewould term big Navy, you know,
the top leadership of the Navy wouldsay, Okay, we're gonna pause all
(08:22):
of our operations and have a safetystand down, which means you don't do
anything else. You focus on whatthis particular problem is and how to fix
it. That's I believe where wehave we this this volunteer group that is
putting together both of these standowns.That's where the why we adopted that term
time out for everything else. Let'sfocus just on these things that we have
(08:46):
planned for the standout. Now,did I hear that term during the flag
presentation and flag retirement ceremony at theArmed Forces Thanksgiving event? Did the did
the military actually members of that flagcolor guard say stand down? Is that
a part of that command? No, that's that's a different type of ritual.
(09:07):
Is this is something that is moresort of operational on it? Okay,
you know it's sort of anti dayto day Okay, all right,
Before we confuse all of our listenerswith that, it's important we let you
know this is a gathering. Itis important for members of the military.
We'll talk about that, But Iwant to go back to the purpose the
outreach why the Veterans Coalition exists,especially for members of our listening audience who
(09:33):
may not know some of the servicesavailable to veterans. There are really two
main functions, two core missions thatthe Coalition has. One is to connect
resource providers, those organizations who provideservices or information to veterans, and we
(09:54):
have a very liberal definition of veteransand military families. Can those service organizations
with each other so that we allknow what the other person is, the
other organization's doing, and then connectingdirectly to those veterans and military families.
For the first several years of thecoalition's existence, that connection function was really
(10:18):
all we did. Probably twenty nineteenor so, when the Coalition became affiliated
with Armed Forces Thanksgiving, that thefundraising that Armed Forces Thanksgiving has been able
to accomplish provided us money to doother things to provide direct benefits to veterans'
(10:43):
military families. The first of thosewas our scholarship program, where we provide
scholarships to the person with military experiencehim or herself as well as any of
their dependents. That's been going onnow since twenty nineteen. We've given out
over one hundred those in a lifetimeof the program. Then twenty twenty,
(11:05):
as the COVID lockdowns started, Iget a call from the commanding officer of
the Marine Reserve unit here, thesame unit that Brad was in, First
Battalion, twenty fourth Marine Regiment,who said that a number of his Marine
reservists had gotten laid off from theircivilian jobs. The Marine Corps reserved demographically
(11:28):
is the youngest reserve component in themilitary. So you have either guys that
are girls, that are college students, or a very junior in their jobs.
If you're junior, you're going tobe the first one to go.
Those Marines who were married, theirspouses also got laid off. So here
are these people who all of asudden one day they were doing all right
(11:52):
financially. The next day all theyhave is drill pay, and for a
junior listed person, that ain't much. So this this Marine officer asked me,
can you guys help us out somehow? So the coalition's board took a
look at our budget. We moveda few things around. We wound up
(12:16):
purchasing I don't know, sixty orseventy one hundred dollars gift cards to Myron
Walmart so these people could buy food. We thought, okay, this is
going to be a one and donething just for COVID, But that eventually
morphed into what we now call ourMilitary Family Assistance Fund, and that's a
permanent part of our budget now.In the life of that program, we've
(12:41):
spent over one hundred thousand dollars.I think it's closer to one hundred and
ten thousand dollars directly to venterors andmilitary families for a very wide variety of
needs. Speaking of those one hundreddollars gift cards, I would assume that
need is still there even in Julyof twenty twenty four. There are families
who could use one of those.If someone is listening to us and motivated
(13:03):
to support that military Veterans Family assistantsfun, how can they make a donation?
Can they do that through the ArmedForces site or what's the best way
to do that? Probably the bestway to do that is directly through the
coalition's website West Michigan Veterans dot org. There is a donate button and click
on that and they take it fromthere. Brad, we were talking about
(13:28):
military reservice. What was your perspectiveof watching that happen? And just you
know, I think a lot ofpeople are concerned about veterans, whether they're
Marine or Navy, Army, whateverbranch of the service, falling through the
cracks. We hear about this fartoo often. What did you see very
much unfortunately the world that we livein the reservists are called up on a
(13:52):
moment's notice. Even the National Guardhere in West Michigan get called up quite
regularly, and sometimes the employers aren'twilling to be very flexible with some of
these gentlemen, some of these servicemembers. So it's part of the job
at some point, but also it'sthese people are getting called up to stand
(14:13):
in a place where we wouldn't wantthem to be. So yeah, that's
what the Military Veterans, the MilitaryVeteran Families Assistants Fund is for in situations
like that. But you do morethan that. You provide access, you
advocate for people who may have atough situation. It's a wide range of
(14:35):
services, right, Yeah. Inaddition to that, we have a transportation
program, we have combat food andsecurity. We reach out to employers just
earlier this well, earlier this summer, we had an event at Grand Valley
where we invited employers in to talka little bit about military ca culture.
(15:00):
We had a session on military culturalcompetents. Because if you look at the
population today, less than one percentcurrently serves in uniform and less than about
seven or eight percent have their ownmilitary experience. So with I'm saying this
with respect Phil that other ninety pluspercent of the nation's population are in various
(15:24):
stages of clueless about what the militaryis like, and so we want to
educate, right, I'm so gladyou said that, and you sense the
need that I wanted to jump inthere and say a major disconnect, especially
with manager's Brad, who are cluelessabout that gap that happens when somebody is
called up out of the reserves whodon't have that military mindset. So I'm
(15:48):
so glad you guys mentioned that that'sa huge need for education across West Michigan.
Again, that's not maligning any industryor corporation. It's just saying,
hey, there are a lot ofpeople in positions of leadership who have no
idea what life in the military islike. And Brad alluded to this earlier
that the understanding of what reservists dois even thinner. Some employers may still
(16:17):
be under the impression that a reservistobligations are limited to one weekend a month
and two weeks a year. Thatis not only is that not true,
that hasn't been true for a longtime. The Michigan Army National Guard,
for example, has troops in Syriaright now. So the reserve components continue
(16:41):
to do worldwide missions. It maybe a little bit less than it had
been, you know, ten yearsago, but my personal opinion is that
the days of one weekend a monthand two weeks a year, they're gone
forever. Yeah. Well, I'mfrom Greenville and we had a very active
guard there at the armory that Ithink it was the ten sixty third.
(17:03):
They made a lot of news backof the day during the war in Afghanistan,
and I know people saw that firstand even the non military families had
a great amount of respect for thehardship that those reservists went through, their
families went through. Brad, youwant to add anything in terms of just
that disconnect and about military culture,just to let the people know that there
(17:26):
are resources out here. There's alot of information for not only for employers,
but families and service members, andthere's a lot of wonderful things.
If you get called up on amoment's notice, and some of these service
members and more importantly families that areleft here without anything going on, come
reach out. We've got a lotof support. If you're in the Marine
(17:47):
Reserve, do you know when youget that call. Do you know exactly
how long that term of call upis going to be? I had three
days when I got called up.Yeah, okay, so not a lot
of notice. Sometimes there's more,sometimes there's less, depends on what the
actual mission is for each unit.But yeah, I was given three days
notice. Onmind, did they giveyou the length of the mission or is
(18:08):
that usually classified? Ours was classifiedgoing over, it was classified coming home.
So we didn't know, really,we didn't know until the mission was
done, until the mission was complete, that we were actually when we were
coming home. So once we gotback here, back here to the United
States, we had a pretty goodidea when we were going to be home,
but for the majority of the timethat we were over there, we
(18:30):
didn't We didn't really know. Ican imagine the disruption that would cause in
a family with someone who's called up. I've got three days to notice?
What about this? What about thevacation we had with the kids? I
mean, major disruption, And I'mso glad we had a chance to talk
about this. We probably should havebooked two hours for this conversation, but
we are going to move on becauseI don't want to miss the opportunity to
(18:53):
talk about this really important stand downand resource fare happening in Holland. We're
speaking with Paul he is Vice chairof the West Michigan Veterans' Coalition, and
also Brad Dorlin is here founder anddirector of Essential Patriot. Before we jump
into that issue, that big standownhappening in Holland, Brad, can you
(19:14):
give us a quick overview of whatEssential Patriot is about. Yes. So,
in twenty twenty, I was displacedfrom my home on a very short
notice, and as the former directorof the service the Armed Force of the
American Red Cross, I looked forservices and available different options for me to
(19:34):
seek as a veteran, and Ihad a very hard time finding the resources
that were out there. So Istarted the Essential Patriot as sort of a
transitional housing initiative transitional services initiative tohelp veterans that weren't don't know where all
these services are. If a guylike me, who was the former director,
(19:57):
didn't know where to go, how'sa regular guy off the street not
nowhere to go? The program thatI started is transitional housing involves we do
help with some financial assistance, wedo help with some mental health issue assistance.
But for the most part, yes, we do transitional housing. How
can people support essential patriot? Thebest way is through getting out and helping
(20:21):
your fellow veterans next to you,where if a veteran is going through a
hard time, be there for themis the greatest thing. Transitional housing isn't
just for the low income. It'sthere's all kinds of reasons why why veterans
are displaced and more importantly, theirfamilies. I'm going to say something is
not very popular, and it probablywas something you were thinking about, Bratt.
(20:42):
You might need to probe a littlebit. There are a lot of
pride involved here. People don't wantto mention that they need help, especially
a veteran, and anyone for thatmatter, may be you know, embarrassed
to say, hey, I needsome help, especially if it is an
emotional health is mental health issue,housing issue? There you know a lot
(21:03):
of pride involved in that, andthat's a very normal thing. So maybe
probe a little bit of that veteranin front of yours right. Absolutely,
service members are taught from the verybeginning stages of boot camp that self reliance
is one of our major foundations.So for a service member or veteran to
come out and say, hey,I'm in a bad spot is usually point
(21:25):
beyond the point of no return.So if you know veterans and having some
stressful situations, if you know something'sgoing on and you can tell, ask
a couple questions. Though, Ithink that's really helpful advice. I want
to talk about this Holland area Veteransstand Down and Resource Fare. It's happening
on August twenty third. I believethat's a Friday, as I recall,
(21:49):
ten am to two pm at theHolland Civic Center. Paul, you stressed
when we were talking about having thisconversation on West Michigan Weekend on iHeartRadio.
You stread, this is a reallyimportant event, first time it's happened in
Holland, right, Yeah, thisis the first event of its kind in
Ottawa County. Ottawa County, Ithink is pretty fortunate that they recently hired
(22:15):
a director for their county n AnAffairs office. Brad and I both know
him, Jason Schenkel, and he'sbeen very diligent about reaching out to various
localities in Outawa County. The Coalition. While we're part of the planning team
(22:38):
for this standown on August twenty third. I'd really look the Brad as the
driving force behind getting all of theresource providers identified and sort of engaged in
where's it going to be and whatis it going to look like and all
the various resources. There's a tonof logistics that go into these kinds of
(23:00):
things, and Brad is I don'twant to put him on a spot,
but he's been the one that's behindthe controls on all of that. Well,
it's great, And I don't knowwhat caused you to say, all
right, it's time we got todo something. Was there a factor that
said, okay, we got todo something. Yeah, Really, the
driving factor was the fact that Iwas displaced from my house on a short
(23:22):
notice, trying to find the availableresources that were out out in Outawa County.
There are some, and they're certainlygrowing. Outawa County is massively growing
with their Veterans Service Department. Butmore importantly, getting this information out to
the veterans was a big thing.Getting them all in one location where everybody
(23:42):
can see what's really out there andavailable, letting veterans know that they don't
have to sit at home and thatthere are these resources that are available,
and sadly there's some homeless and unhousedveterans who might not be hearing this on
the How can we help those people? I mean, you're offering free food,
(24:06):
clothing, haircuts, hygiene products,information and veterans benefits, always needed
housing resources, something very important foryou. But some of these guys are
you know, maybe they've lived outof a car or something like that.
Is their outreach there? I mean, do you have a plan for that?
(24:27):
Sure, there are a lot ofservices in the Oadawa County Holland area
that are for homeless low income andI certainly work with the majority of them
out in Holland. If there's anybodythat has any needs, if you're living
out of a car, please callthe Ottawa County Veteran Service Office called Jason.
(24:47):
Jason will get you in touch withme and we will get you a
place to go. There's no yahIs there any registration required for the Soland
area of Veterans stand Down or ResourceFare on August twenty third? Not required,
but certainly a what's the best waythey can find out about this online?
There's two ways Facebook. The eventhas posted on Facebook on the Essential
(25:10):
Patriot Facebook page, okay, andalso the Autommission am Ottawa dot org backslash
or forward slash Veterans will put bothof those links in the podcast page to
make sure that's there so people canhave that information. We'll also put all
the details about this helland Area Veteransstand Down and resource fair August twenty third.
(25:32):
Then there's a Kent County event happening. We've got about a minute or
two left here on September sixth,so I need the abbreviated version of this
event. Paul Ryan. Yeah,the Kent County Homeless Veterans stand Down has
been around for a couple of years, and in terms of what it offers,
it's pretty much the same as theOttawa County. We want to have
(25:52):
as many of these as possible indifferent locations because we realize that transportation to
and from can be a bit ofa challenge. But the same types of
services, information, resources, anditems will be provided at the September sixth
Kent County Standdown as we plan onfor the August twenty third stand down in
(26:14):
Ottawa County. Right, two reallyimportant events again. The Holland standdown is
on August twenty third, and theKent County Standdown for Homeless Veterans is on
September six that is Friday, Septembersixth, are both Fridays. As a
matter of fact, I want tothank you Paul Ryan, vice chair of
the West Michigan Veterans Coalition, RealQuickly West Michigan Veterans dot org. West
(26:38):
Michigan Veterans dot org. You canmake a donation there to help out a
veteran family in need, a veteranin need, all kinds of opportunities.
And I also want to thank BradDorlin, founder and director of Essential Patriot.
And there is an Essential Patriot Facebookpage. Like I said earlier,
just search Essential Patriot on facebok book. We'll also put the link up in
(27:00):
our podcast section. Brad, thankyou for your time. Thank you for
helping a lot of people today withthis conversation. Thank you so much for
having us on. Well, wereally appreciate it very much. And let's
not wait five years or six yearslike we did last time. That probably
is my fault. And yes,COVID was a part of it as well.
That's our program for this week.Thank you so much for listening.
(27:23):
Please, if you tuned in Halfwaythrough this program, a lot of important
things discussed to help veterans in KentCounty and Ottawa County. Go back and
grab the podcast at woodradio dot comand for iHeartRadio and West Michigan Weekend.
I'm Phil Tower. Thank you forlistening. iHeartMedia West Michigan Weekend a public affairs program
iHeartMedia West Michigan Weekend a public affairsprogram. Hi, and welcome in.
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio.I'm so glad you have tuned in.
This is your host, Phil Tower. We want to remind you after you
hear this conversation on the radio,it will be available as a podcast at
woodradio dot com in the podcast section. You'll find that on the left hand
(00:29):
side of the page. I amvery pleased in this program. In fact,
we're going to dedicate the whole programto talking about the West Michigan Veterans
Coalition and focusing on the needs ofveterans in the greater West Michigan area,
focus on the Holland area, GrandRapids area, and really if you have
a veteran in your family or noveteran who might be in need of some
(00:53):
assistance, this is a great programthe issue you should stay tuned to.
Please to welcome to this entire program. Paul Ryan is vice chair of the
West Michigan Veterans Coalition. Paul isa native of Brooklyn, graduated from a
pretty esteemed university known as the Universityof Notre Dame. Was commissioned as an
ensign in the United States Navy throughNotre Dame's ROTC program. Navy ROTC program,
(01:19):
we should mention and Paul served onactive duty for five years, also
made a peacetime deployment to the WesternPacific. You had a subsequent service in
the Navy Reserve for twenty five years. You retired in two thousand and five.
Two five. Thank you very muchfor your service. And Brad Dorelyn
is a marine. Are you areserve Marine or are you retired US Marine?
(01:45):
I'm retired. Was reserve? Youretired? Was reserve? When was
your tour of duty? Brad?Two thousand and three I went to the
Horn of Africa with the one twentyfour Marines here in West Michigan. Thank
you for your service. Thank you. Brad is founder and director of Essential
Patriot. I don't know what that'sabout. You'll find out what that's about
as well. He also served inthe Marine Corps. You just heard he
(02:08):
was a firefighter. He's also afire alarms expert and probably will help sharpen
your knives somewhere along the way,because we learned he is an engineer as
well. Now, how did youguys connect? I'll start with you,
Brett, I believe that we actuallygo all the way back to my days
at the American Red Cross. Correctme if I'm wrong, Paul. But
if I remember correctly, we've actuallymet way back. Why I know that
(02:30):
we crossed paths back then. Itwas sort of a ship's passing in the
night kind of thing. But webegan to collaborate through the West Michigan Veterans
Coalition that goes back to the coalitionstarted in two thousand and nine. It
actually had a different name back then. It was called the Greater Grand Rapids
(02:51):
Veterans Services Forum. And this isa time when in Iraq and Afghanistan a
lot of Reserve component personnel were beingdeployed over there when they come back.
Because here in Michigan there aren't anyactive duty bases, the resources available for
(03:13):
those returning reservists and guardsmen were prettylimited, and so this group of nonprofits
and other organizations came together to figureout what could they do to assist these
veterans and families. And as timewent on, this forum changed its name
(03:36):
to the West Michigan Veterans Coalition.Around the time that the Michigan Veterans Affairs
Agency was established in twenty thirteen.As part of that development, MVAA wanted
to establish presence throughout the state throughpartnerships with various organizations, not state government.
(03:58):
Interesting, just going to ask youabout that, because I didn't think
this organization had been around that long. So roughly about a fifteen year history
then. Interesting. We should notethat, Brad, during that time period,
as you described a great recession twothousand and eight two thousand and nine,
you served as Director of Service tothe Armed Forces for the American Red
(04:19):
Cross. What did you do inthat role? The Red Cross's primary focus
for the service of the Armed Forcesis the Red Cross Message. Anytime there's
an incident back home with a familymember, we send the American Red Cross
sends an emergency message to the commandof the service member deployed overseas, and
(04:40):
that message is a call to actionfor the command of the service member.
So you were busy doing that.We were quite busy at the time,
yes, I'll tell you. Andone piece time deployment I had we had
probably half a dozen of those RedCross messages come to my ship to inform
the member of the ship's company abouta birth of death something like that.
That happened in the family. That'sreally interesting that a lot of our listeners
(05:02):
did not know that really important andvery vital service and they're still provided today.
Yeah, provided by the American RedCross. Okay, I get to
ask some tough questions occasionally, andmost of these will be softballs. What
is the state of service to theveterans of Kent County so far? You've
been at this a while, Paul, how are we doing? I think
(05:25):
relatively well, but there's always roomfor improvement. And the reason I say
that, Phil, is that mybelief and what I've encountered in the I've
been at this volunteer activity helping veteransgame for twenty five years now. The
level of interest and appreciation for supportof veterans and military families in Western Michigan
(05:49):
is really pretty strong. I couldcite examples of that, not only through
the Coalition, but some of theother organizations that I've volunteer with. It's
very different, in my opinion,here, stronger here than in other parts
(06:09):
of the state. Having said that, the Coalition, even though we've been
around for a while, as youjust mentioned, we can still be kind
of a carefully guarded secret. Wego around and we talk to people all
the time and ask have you everheard of us? And you know,
if we get the deer in theheadlights, look, well, no we
haven't. So the Coalition and allof its partners have a wealth of resources
(06:30):
to offer, but getting the wordout is still something that we have to
work very hard on. I'm reallyglad you said that because a lot of
people hearing us on the radio mayhave heard of the West Michigan Veterans Coalition
really don't know what you're all about, what you do, what services are
available there. Really, advocacy isa big piece of it, and that's
(06:53):
really important to mention. I dowant to again, this is what we
call ats for staying too. Iwant to mention there are a couple of
very important events. One happening onAugust twenty third, the Holland Area Veterans
stand Down or Resource Fair. We'llbe talking about that. And then one
happening on September sixth here in KentCounty in the Grand Rapids area. These
(07:15):
are stand downs, which sounds likea military term, it's actually a term
used to describe an event we're gatheringinvolving service to the military. I had
to look that up before we hadthis conversation because I know what it means
to stand down, but I actuallyhad to look that up because a lot
of people might hear then go hmmm, what does that mean? We're going
to talk about that. I'd liketo, if you would, for our
(07:38):
listeners give an overview of the kindsof services outreach available through the West Michigan
Veterans Coalition. Yeah, I'll start, and Brad is going to really provide
the details. But just to yourpoint, Phil about the term stand down.
Interesting you made those comments I've seenon Facebook some individuals question is what's
(07:59):
the at all about? I don'tknow what that means. Those of us
in the military, and you knowmy experience in the Navy. Let's say,
ah, some kind of a safetymishap occurs somewhere in the fleet and
it's considered significant enough that what wewould term big Navy, you know,
the top leadership of the Navy wouldsay, Okay, we're gonna pause all
(08:22):
of our operations and have a safetystand down, which means you don't do
anything else. You focus on whatthis particular problem is and how to fix
it. That's I believe where wehave we this this volunteer group that is
putting together both of these standowns.That's where the why we adopted that term
time out for everything else. Let'sfocus just on these things that we have
(08:46):
planned for the standout. Now,did I hear that term during the flag
presentation and flag retirement ceremony at theArmed Forces Thanksgiving event? Did the did
the military actually members of that flagcolor guard say stand down? Is that
a part of that command? No, that's that's a different type of ritual.
(09:07):
Is this is something that is moresort of operational on it? Okay,
you know it's sort of anti dayto day Okay, all right,
Before we confuse all of our listenerswith that, it's important we let you
know this is a gathering. Itis important for members of the military.
We'll talk about that, But Iwant to go back to the purpose the
outreach why the Veterans Coalition exists,especially for members of our listening audience who
(09:33):
may not know some of the servicesavailable to veterans. There are really two
main functions, two core missions thatthe Coalition has. One is to connect
resource providers, those organizations who provideservices or information to veterans, and we
(09:54):
have a very liberal definition of veteransand military families. Can those service organizations
with each other so that we allknow what the other person is, the
other organization's doing, and then connectingdirectly to those veterans and military families.
For the first several years of thecoalition's existence, that connection function was really
(10:18):
all we did. Probably twenty nineteenor so, when the Coalition became affiliated
with Armed Forces Thanksgiving, that thefundraising that Armed Forces Thanksgiving has been able
to accomplish provided us money to doother things to provide direct benefits to veterans'
(10:43):
military families. The first of thosewas our scholarship program, where we provide
scholarships to the person with military experiencehim or herself as well as any of
their dependents. That's been going onnow since twenty nineteen. We've given out
over one hundred those in a lifetimeof the program. Then twenty twenty,
(11:05):
as the COVID lockdowns started, Iget a call from the commanding officer of
the Marine Reserve unit here, thesame unit that Brad was in, First
Battalion, twenty fourth Marine Regiment,who said that a number of his Marine
reservists had gotten laid off from theircivilian jobs. The Marine Corps reserved demographically
(11:28):
is the youngest reserve component in themilitary. So you have either guys that
are girls, that are college students, or a very junior in their jobs.
If you're junior, you're going tobe the first one to go.
Those Marines who were married, theirspouses also got laid off. So here
are these people who all of asudden one day they were doing all right
(11:52):
financially. The next day all theyhave is drill pay, and for a
junior listed person, that ain't much. So this this Marine officer asked me,
can you guys help us out somehow? So the coalition's board took a
look at our budget. We moveda few things around. We wound up
(12:16):
purchasing I don't know, sixty orseventy one hundred dollars gift cards to Myron
Walmart so these people could buy food. We thought, okay, this is
going to be a one and donething just for COVID, But that eventually
morphed into what we now call ourMilitary Family Assistance Fund, and that's a
permanent part of our budget now.In the life of that program, we've
(12:41):
spent over one hundred thousand dollars.I think it's closer to one hundred and
ten thousand dollars directly to venterors andmilitary families for a very wide variety of
needs. Speaking of those one hundreddollars gift cards, I would assume that
need is still there even in Julyof twenty twenty four. There are families
who could use one of those.If someone is listening to us and motivated
(13:03):
to support that military Veterans Family assistantsfun, how can they make a donation?
Can they do that through the ArmedForces site or what's the best way
to do that? Probably the bestway to do that is directly through the
coalition's website West Michigan Veterans dot org. There is a donate button and click
on that and they take it fromthere. Brad, we were talking about
(13:28):
military reservice. What was your perspectiveof watching that happen? And just you
know, I think a lot ofpeople are concerned about veterans, whether they're
Marine or Navy, Army, whateverbranch of the service, falling through the
cracks. We hear about this fartoo often. What did you see very
much unfortunately the world that we livein the reservists are called up on a
(13:52):
moment's notice. Even the National Guardhere in West Michigan get called up quite
regularly, and sometimes the employers aren'twilling to be very flexible with some of
these gentlemen, some of these servicemembers. So it's part of the job
at some point, but also it'sthese people are getting called up to stand
(14:13):
in a place where we wouldn't wantthem to be. So yeah, that's
what the Military Veterans, the MilitaryVeteran Families Assistants Fund is for in situations
like that. But you do morethan that. You provide access, you
advocate for people who may have atough situation. It's a wide range of
(14:35):
services, right, Yeah. Inaddition to that, we have a transportation
program, we have combat food andsecurity. We reach out to employers just
earlier this well, earlier this summer, we had an event at Grand Valley
where we invited employers in to talka little bit about military ca culture.
(15:00):
We had a session on military culturalcompetents. Because if you look at the
population today, less than one percentcurrently serves in uniform and less than about
seven or eight percent have their ownmilitary experience. So with I'm saying this
with respect Phil that other ninety pluspercent of the nation's population are in various
(15:24):
stages of clueless about what the militaryis like, and so we want to
educate, right, I'm so gladyou said that, and you sense the
need that I wanted to jump inthere and say a major disconnect, especially
with manager's Brad, who are cluelessabout that gap that happens when somebody is
called up out of the reserves whodon't have that military mindset. So I'm
(15:48):
so glad you guys mentioned that that'sa huge need for education across West Michigan.
Again, that's not maligning any industryor corporation. It's just saying,
hey, there are a lot ofpeople in positions of leadership who have no
idea what life in the military islike. And Brad alluded to this earlier
that the understanding of what reservists dois even thinner. Some employers may still
(16:17):
be under the impression that a reservistobligations are limited to one weekend a month
and two weeks a year. Thatis not only is that not true,
that hasn't been true for a longtime. The Michigan Army National Guard,
for example, has troops in Syriaright now. So the reserve components continue
(16:41):
to do worldwide missions. It maybe a little bit less than it had
been, you know, ten yearsago, but my personal opinion is that
the days of one weekend a monthand two weeks a year, they're gone
forever. Yeah. Well, I'mfrom Greenville and we had a very active
guard there at the armory that Ithink it was the ten sixty third.
(17:03):
They made a lot of news backof the day during the war in Afghanistan,
and I know people saw that firstand even the non military families had
a great amount of respect for thehardship that those reservists went through, their
families went through. Brad, youwant to add anything in terms of just
that disconnect and about military culture,just to let the people know that there
(17:26):
are resources out here. There's alot of information for not only for employers,
but families and service members, andthere's a lot of wonderful things.
If you get called up on amoment's notice, and some of these service
members and more importantly families that areleft here without anything going on, come
reach out. We've got a lotof support. If you're in the Marine
(17:47):
Reserve, do you know when youget that call. Do you know exactly
how long that term of call upis going to be? I had three
days when I got called up.Yeah, okay, so not a lot
of notice. Sometimes there's more,sometimes there's less, depends on what the
actual mission is for each unit.But yeah, I was given three days
notice. Onmind, did they giveyou the length of the mission or is
(18:08):
that usually classified? Ours was classifiedgoing over, it was classified coming home.
So we didn't know, really,we didn't know until the mission was
done, until the mission was complete, that we were actually when we were
coming home. So once we gotback here, back here to the United
States, we had a pretty goodidea when we were going to be home,
but for the majority of the timethat we were over there, we
(18:30):
didn't We didn't really know. Ican imagine the disruption that would cause in
a family with someone who's called up. I've got three days to notice?
What about this? What about thevacation we had with the kids? I
mean, major disruption, And I'mso glad we had a chance to talk
about this. We probably should havebooked two hours for this conversation, but
we are going to move on becauseI don't want to miss the opportunity to
(18:53):
talk about this really important stand downand resource fare happening in Holland. We're
speaking with Paul he is Vice chairof the West Michigan Veterans' Coalition, and
also Brad Dorlin is here founder anddirector of Essential Patriot. Before we jump
into that issue, that big standownhappening in Holland, Brad, can you
(19:14):
give us a quick overview of whatEssential Patriot is about. Yes. So,
in twenty twenty, I was displacedfrom my home on a very short
notice, and as the former directorof the service the Armed Force of the
American Red Cross, I looked forservices and available different options for me to
(19:34):
seek as a veteran, and Ihad a very hard time finding the resources
that were out there. So Istarted the Essential Patriot as sort of a
transitional housing initiative transitional services initiative tohelp veterans that weren't don't know where all
these services are. If a guylike me, who was the former director,
(19:57):
didn't know where to go, how'sa regular guy off the street not
nowhere to go? The program thatI started is transitional housing involves we do
help with some financial assistance, wedo help with some mental health issue assistance.
But for the most part, yes, we do transitional housing. How
can people support essential patriot? Thebest way is through getting out and helping
(20:21):
your fellow veterans next to you,where if a veteran is going through a
hard time, be there for themis the greatest thing. Transitional housing isn't
just for the low income. It'sthere's all kinds of reasons why why veterans
are displaced and more importantly, theirfamilies. I'm going to say something is
not very popular, and it probablywas something you were thinking about, Bratt.
(20:42):
You might need to probe a littlebit. There are a lot of
pride involved here. People don't wantto mention that they need help, especially
a veteran, and anyone for thatmatter, may be you know, embarrassed
to say, hey, I needsome help, especially if it is an
emotional health is mental health issue,housing issue? There you know a lot
(21:03):
of pride involved in that, andthat's a very normal thing. So maybe
probe a little bit of that veteranin front of yours right. Absolutely,
service members are taught from the verybeginning stages of boot camp that self reliance
is one of our major foundations.So for a service member or veteran to
come out and say, hey,I'm in a bad spot is usually point
(21:25):
beyond the point of no return.So if you know veterans and having some
stressful situations, if you know something'sgoing on and you can tell, ask
a couple questions. Though, Ithink that's really helpful advice. I want
to talk about this Holland area Veteransstand Down and Resource Fare. It's happening
on August twenty third. I believethat's a Friday, as I recall,
(21:49):
ten am to two pm at theHolland Civic Center. Paul, you stressed
when we were talking about having thisconversation on West Michigan Weekend on iHeartRadio.
You stread, this is a reallyimportant event, first time it's happened in
Holland, right, Yeah, thisis the first event of its kind in
Ottawa County. Ottawa County, Ithink is pretty fortunate that they recently hired
(22:15):
a director for their county n AnAffairs office. Brad and I both know
him, Jason Schenkel, and he'sbeen very diligent about reaching out to various
localities in Outawa County. The Coalition. While we're part of the planning team
(22:38):
for this standown on August twenty third. I'd really look the Brad as the
driving force behind getting all of theresource providers identified and sort of engaged in
where's it going to be and whatis it going to look like and all
the various resources. There's a tonof logistics that go into these kinds of
(23:00):
things, and Brad is I don'twant to put him on a spot,
but he's been the one that's behindthe controls on all of that. Well,
it's great, And I don't knowwhat caused you to say, all
right, it's time we got todo something. Was there a factor that
said, okay, we got todo something. Yeah, Really, the
driving factor was the fact that Iwas displaced from my house on a short
(23:22):
notice, trying to find the availableresources that were out out in Outawa County.
There are some, and they're certainlygrowing. Outawa County is massively growing
with their Veterans Service Department. Butmore importantly, getting this information out to
the veterans was a big thing.Getting them all in one location where everybody
(23:42):
can see what's really out there andavailable, letting veterans know that they don't
have to sit at home and thatthere are these resources that are available,
and sadly there's some homeless and unhousedveterans who might not be hearing this on
the How can we help those people? I mean, you're offering free food,
(24:06):
clothing, haircuts, hygiene products,information and veterans benefits, always needed
housing resources, something very important foryou. But some of these guys are
you know, maybe they've lived outof a car or something like that.
Is their outreach there? I mean, do you have a plan for that?
(24:27):
Sure, there are a lot ofservices in the Oadawa County Holland area
that are for homeless low income andI certainly work with the majority of them
out in Holland. If there's anybodythat has any needs, if you're living
out of a car, please callthe Ottawa County Veteran Service Office called Jason.
(24:47):
Jason will get you in touch withme and we will get you a
place to go. There's no yahIs there any registration required for the Soland
area of Veterans stand Down or ResourceFare on August twenty third? Not required,
but certainly a what's the best waythey can find out about this online?
There's two ways Facebook. The eventhas posted on Facebook on the Essential
(25:10):
Patriot Facebook page, okay, andalso the Autommission am Ottawa dot org backslash
or forward slash Veterans will put bothof those links in the podcast page to
make sure that's there so people canhave that information. We'll also put all
the details about this helland Area Veteransstand Down and resource fair August twenty third.
(25:32):
Then there's a Kent County event happening. We've got about a minute or
two left here on September sixth,so I need the abbreviated version of this
event. Paul Ryan. Yeah,the Kent County Homeless Veterans stand Down has
been around for a couple of years, and in terms of what it offers,
it's pretty much the same as theOttawa County. We want to have
(25:52):
as many of these as possible indifferent locations because we realize that transportation to
and from can be a bit ofa challenge. But the same types of
services, information, resources, anditems will be provided at the September sixth
Kent County Standdown as we plan onfor the August twenty third stand down in
(26:14):
Ottawa County. Right, two reallyimportant events again. The Holland standdown is
on August twenty third, and theKent County Standdown for Homeless Veterans is on
September six that is Friday, Septembersixth, are both Fridays. As a
matter of fact, I want tothank you Paul Ryan, vice chair of
the West Michigan Veterans Coalition, RealQuickly West Michigan Veterans dot org. West
(26:38):
Michigan Veterans dot org. You canmake a donation there to help out a
veteran family in need, a veteranin need, all kinds of opportunities.
And I also want to thank BradDorlin, founder and director of Essential Patriot.
And there is an Essential Patriot Facebookpage. Like I said earlier,
just search Essential Patriot on facebok book. We'll also put the link up in
(27:00):
our podcast section. Brad, thankyou for your time. Thank you for
helping a lot of people today withthis conversation. Thank you so much for
having us on. Well, wereally appreciate it very much. And let's
not wait five years or six yearslike we did last time. That probably
is my fault. And yes,COVID was a part of it as well.
That's our program for this week.Thank you so much for listening.
(27:23):
Please, if you tuned in Halfwaythrough this program, a lot of important
things discussed to help veterans in KentCounty and Ottawa County. Go back and
grab the podcast at woodradio dot comand for iHeartRadio and West Michigan Weekend.
I'm Phil Tower. Thank you forlistening. iHeartMedia West Michigan Weekend a public affairs program
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.