All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
This is Veterans Radio.
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I am Jim Fausone.
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Two interesting stories today, we're going to talk to Allison Jaislow, who is the CEO
of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, better known as IAVA.
Then we're going to talk to Brigadier General Doug Odie Slocum, who is the President of
Michigan Air and Space Forces Association.
That's part of a national organization as well, so you're going to get a real national
perspective.
First, we're going to start with Allison Jaislow.
We want to welcome to Veterans Radio today Allison Jaislow, who is the CEO of Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America, better known as IAVA.
Allison, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thanks for having me.
We're thrilled to have the CEO of IAVA on and talk about a number of issues, but let's
sort of set this up a little bit.
How did a nice kid like you who graduated from the University of Central Missouri and
Wentworth Military Academy under ROTC scholarships end up in the U.S. Army?
Well, the Army was a dream of mine when I was a kid.
Starting when I was 13, I went on a career day field trip.
In fact, I regularly draw attention to the fact that I'm the only success story of career
day that I know of, and that's still the case.
But it was a year where at my school, you went on a field trip, and I picked a bunch
of other places to go because when you're 13, you want to go to a place where you can
get some free stuff or maybe some food, but ended up at Fort Meier, which is the military
base that's connected to Arlington National Cemetery.
From that day on, because the sort of ceremonial aspect of Fort Meier swept me off my feet,
I had wanted to be in the Army ever since.
In fact, the dream and goal, because I like to aim high.
At the time, the Army had yet to have its first four-star woman general, so that was
like the path that I thought I was going to walk in my life was join the Army, however,
which way I could do it, and climb, climb, climb until hopefully I could reach the pinnacle
of service in the Army.
With the school as you noted on an ROTC scholarship, I began school the fall of 2000.
So of course, my sophomore year was when September 11th happened, and of course the trajectory
of my career changed fundamentally.
I went in eyes wide open knowing that I could go to war someday, but of course, our country
and our military has dealt with a lot ever since.
But despite deploying twice to Iraq, it wasn't deployments that ultimately made me want to
get out, just some of the challenges that I faced while I was in the military.
But also, I had this sort of instinct or intuition that I could maybe make a better impact or
a greater impact for the greater good of my country and my fellow countrymen if I actually
did so out of uniform.
And so in the years since, I have crisscrossed the country, dabbling in political campaigns
and serving in a number of roles in government to include in the White House and on Capitol
Hill.
And I like to say that what I do today is sort of the perfect marriage of the skill sets
I have learned post service and then also my identity as a veteran myself because I now
have the great privilege of advocating on behalf of a generation of veterans that I belong
to in a community that I belong to on the national stage in the media and in Washington,
DC.
And you really do have a great blend of talent and experience for that, the work that was
done on the staff of several members of Congress and then in the White House communications
area sort of helps set all of that up so that you can walk the halls and talk to folks and
know how they think and how they react to certain challenges that they face.
Before we get a little deeper here, I want to talk to folks about what your experiences
in Iraq were about and you exited, I don't know the years, I guess I didn't track the
years down, but you were in from when to when and I know your terminal rank was as a captain
in the Army.
Yeah, so I was sworn in to active duty upon graduation in May of 2004, went to my office
for basic course in June of 2004, graduated in September and by the day after Thanksgiving
of that year was on a plane to Kuwait before heading north into Iraq.
I served just under a year during that deployment, I was actually attached to a reserve unit
from your neck of the woods.
It was a reserve unit that drew from across the Midwest but was based in Bay City, Michigan,
was able to get my platoon leader time running that platoon and what we had originally deployed
with was a warehousing mission.
I had four different warehousing operations that I was the accountable officer for but
within 60 days all the warehouses but one were contracted out to Kelley, Granham, Root
and so my platoon then became both a force protection platoon and a which included not
just only base force protection but also convoy security.
And so my platoon, myself included, did convoys up and down Iraq and provided basically the
convoy security element in between whether it was regular petroleum tankers or flatbed
trucks, you name it, on a battlefield where those particular trucks aren't as agile as
the gun trucks were but that there were basically IEDs everywhere.
I came home stateside to Fort Carson, Colorado for a little over a year after that and then
deployed again in January 2007 which was just ahead of the surge being announced and so
I was overseas for about 15 months that time.
I served on battalion staff for that particular deployment and that one was at Camp Liberty
or the Baghdad International Airport and my first deployment was to Taji, Iraq.
Well one of the things you learned in that first deployment is that responsibility shift
and change and you just roll with whatever the next assignment is and that's certainly
been the case in your post-military career.
You've had a lot of interesting assignments and now this most recent one here in 2023
is CEO of IEVA.
Why don't you tell our listeners and maybe there are some who are not familiar with what
the work and the mission of IEVA is.
So IEVA is the leading advocacy organization for the post-911 generation of veterans.
In fact we're commonly referred to as the leading voice of the post-911 generation of
veterans but essentially we are storytellers that tell the story of our generation whether
that's our needs or also our successes and oftentimes doing that work best in class means
we are telling that story and shaping that narrative in the media with the hopes of influencing
public opinion with the hopes of then influencing public policy action.
IEVA counts among its achievements the passage of the post-911 GI bill, the Clay Hunt Suicide
Prevention Act which was named after one of our member advocates who died by suicide and
also laws passed very recently like the PACT Act which helps veterans get care for exposure
to toxins which is a variety of different toxins over a number of generations but IEVA
really did spark the conversation around burn pitch exposure which are unique to our particular
generation.
Well certainly one of the aspects of IEVA is it's sort of a different veterans organization
than maybe the traditional nationally chartered ones like VFW, VVA which came out of a specific
generation, talk to us about how IEVA is intentionally a different type of organization.
Well our founder is usually the first to point out that we are the first digitally native
veterans organization.
We don't have it anymore but IEVA had a MySpace page back when MySpace was the thing but you
know our generation first of all we are much fewer in numbers but we're not congregating
necessarily in Legion halls and so we are more connected online than anywhere else whether
it's in a Facebook page whether it's you know on a group text between battle buddies or
a group chat of some sort and so I think that's one way that makes us unique both where our
constituency is living and breathing but also that we are uniquely capable of existing online.
You know IEVA I feel like has been a disrupter you know especially in Washington DC in a
way that has been necessary and I think this actually makes us similar to the VVA.
You know we stand in solidarity with other generations of veterans but we're there to
make sure that like our generation's needs don't get overlooked which is you know ever
more important because we're much smaller in numbers and I think you know organizational
posture aside something that also makes us a unique voice is that we're the only major
national veterans organization that represents exclusively volunteers.
You know every person who served in Iraq and Afghanistan or the other you know areas post-911
that we are still actually deploying troops to fight today they all stepped up to serve
and did so willingly some of them deployed like myself multiple times and we have very
unique needs for that reason and I think you know you and I were talking about this before
we jumped on I think that puts us in a unique position to also advocate around issues like
the recruiting crisis you know and what we should be doing to make sure that we have
a healthy all-volunteer force because we are veterans who were all volunteers whereas you
know some of the other organizations definitely have a mix right.
And again I think it's a it just made sense that this evolved IAVA evolved into this position
because you reference VVA Vietnam Veterans Association had to do the same thing for their
generation of folks to try to get heard for their issues so this organization for the
veterans who've served since post-911 and you know we've just only within the last year
or so ended the 20-year war IAVA has this unique responsibility to that group of veterans
which they're with their own set of issues and certainly it's a more digital more comfortable
on the internet sort of group more of an online sort of group and one of the things that you've
done with that is and I think this helps you become a better a policy advocate is when
you have data when walking the halls of Congress this is what probably one of those things
you learn because of your experiences on Capitol Hill and in the White House communication
but IAVA went out and surveyed its members about issues can we can we talk about the
2023 IAV member survey?
Sure you know I think over time IAVA has done two things really well with our our data
which is comprised of you know over 425,000 members and supporters and some of which are
verified veterans in other words like you haven't even just self identified but we have paperwork
that says you are 100% of that so when you're responding to our surveys we know for a fact
we've seen your DD 214 or we've seen your VA card etc and we have been able to field
the most comprehensive non-governmental survey of our generation but we also do what I like
to call flash polls which is what we did over the summer to just gauge where our membership
was on some of the issues of the day which you know it's funny people will like to pigeonhole
us on just veterans issues right but veterans veterans are like everybody they have opinions
about other issues of the day and I think that we believe that it's important that that
the veteran voice is heard as a part of other conversations as well.
You could say we are people too yeah.
Yes I know I will tell you a great deal of my advocacy is I was actually at a conference
last week where I highlighted this I was like we aren't this like you can't look at the
veterans population and like put us over in this corner as though like you know all the
vets are there it's like we are both veterans and part of like a variety of other constituency
groups you know and we are everywhere in terms of like geography socioeconomic status you
know.
One of the things you did in your poll and I think this was interesting because you know
folks in the military say hey we are always say we are the last ones who want more we
are peacekeepers we know the cost of war we don't we're not you know war mongers and
one of the questions you asked folks was about authorization of use of military force I thought
that was an interesting statistic talk to us about it.
Well actually nothing unifies our membership more than a desire to see the 2001 and 2002
authorizations of military force either repealed or reformed they've been open ended since
they were passed to authorize you know retaliation for 9-11 and then also to go into Iraq and
frankly those open ended authorizations have been exploited by administration after administration
and I think two things you're right in the sense that members of the military because
they understand the consequences of wars more so than people who aren't emotionally connected
to it are perhaps more inclined to be more thoughtful and judicious when we even go to
war but more importantly leaders should be doing the same right and so I think the beginning
and end of the AUMF isn't saying that like nobody still you know doesn't want to fight
terrorism you know where we have troops deployed right now in Syria and Iraq there may be a
very good reason why troops are deployed there to you know make sure that ISIS doesn't get
out of control or fill in the blank other threat that we're fighting across the globe
right now but what we do owe those troops and what we do owe their families is to have
a constant conversation about where they're going under what terms and what for what purpose
and we're not having that conversation at least Congress isn't and that is like their
most you know solemn responsibility in effect they've been advocating excuse me abdicating
their responsibility to our troops and their families for you know going on decades as
you say that that open-ended authorization 85% agreed or strongly agreed that that ought
to be reduced or eliminated again that was probably the highest highest thing everybody
agreed on on this 550 or so verified veterans that were surveyed another one that's you
know in the news is how your members felt about Ukraine and the US involvement in Ukraine
again not as high not not 85% but 67% either agreed with us involvement strongly or agreed
to it so so while there is experience there's also understanding that if you don't do something
the bad guys always win right so that led me to your results on China which is something
I worry about talk about how your members felt about the China situation I mean a majority
of IVA members you know over 50% indicated that they are only partly confident in the
ability of the US to deal with press from China and 30% don't believe that we're prepared
at all so to your earlier point even if vets and IVA veterans specifically want sort of
checks and balances on how and when we go to war and how we combat threats and or want
you know political leadership specifically to be thinking through how and when we go
to war they also want to make sure that we are you know protecting for the threats of
the future and honestly the China is a good example like if we effectively protect ourselves
from the threats we could also avoid a war with China absolutely absolutely and your
members certainly the early ones in Iraq went there with unarmored vehicles right we weren't
ready for it at all and you don't you know I know the slogan was you fight the war with
what the equipment you've got but that just showed poor planning poor thinking ahead and
I kind of read this result where 30% of the survey says hey we're not ready we're leading
ourselves back into a situation where once if it does happen we're going to have folks
in unarmored vehicles if you will so it's an interesting observation I think from folks
who've been there and done that.
Well and I also think our generation to your point about unarmored vehicles not just like
unarmored vehicles like the the enemy was always one step ahead of us and so we needed
to be able to innovate in real time and I think our generation has sort of lived seeing
how the DOD is not very good at doing that you know the DOD is still very much like in
their procurement process is still very much stuck in the olden days of being able to like
you know plan out for wars in certain timelines that we just can't you know we need to be
able to move and shake like they do in Silicon Valley to keep up with war fighting these
days and I don't know that our our government and the bureaucracy is totally there and I
think that our our generation of veterans has a unique appreciation for that and I think
that would give us a higher anxiety level when it comes to like fighting the threats
of the future you know.
It is again one of those things where you say boy I hope somebody's planning the right
way on this stuff and we don't get caught short and you can hear a lot of that about
does the Navy really have enough ships are we going to do we have the right types of
ships if we do we the right technology to be able to fight China in the on the seas and
by the Philippines and down by Taiwan and Australia it's a big theater to fight in a
much different theater than the desert much different theater than urban warfare we're
seeing in Ukraine so you've got to think about it a different way.
I want to move to another part of your survey which was domestic policy because this is
something that I've certainly anecdotally noticed every time I talk on the issue of
cannabis on veterans radio but talk to us a little bit about what you found in terms
of support on legalizing cannabis.
Well you know I'd say from the jump that something that you're listening to me to remember is
our generation of veterans has lived through the opioid crisis and so whether it's a cannabis
or other forms of alternative therapies our generation is more eager to get access to
alternative therapies than generations of the past so that's the first thing and something
we have advocated for for some time is that minimum research into cannabis and atailing
properties not just for managing your PTSD but maybe also chronic pain because we do
know that there are veterans who are benefiting from use of cannabis you know products but
also because being legalized and many states across the country which I'm sure your listeners
have seen on the landscape but the reality is if you get your care through the VA in
a state that's legalized it your VA doctor still can't prescribe it to you or even say
you know I can prescribe you this medication or that medication or I can't prescribe you
cannabis but you do live in a state where it's available and some veterans have seen
positive effects from using cannabis for their PTSD or positive effects for using cannabis
to relieve their back pain after you know two different deployments with a bunch of gear
on and convoys and so our members more than I'm looking at the data right now but it's
an overwhelming number of our members would like to see legalization at the national
level because it's holding back veterans who want to get access to this care I mean we
have a we have one of our veteran leaders who lives in Indiana and regularly drives
to Illinois to access cannabis products that he pays for on his own dime after spending
time and gas money to go get the cannabis that has really helped his PTSD specifically
and I think our fellow vets even if you don't want to use cannabis yourself you don't want
your buddies like having to bend over backwards to get something that says that they or that
they tell you really makes an improvement in their quality of life and usually somebody's
by the time they've gotten there they've right they've gone through all the prescription
drugs and other treatments that the VA can prescribed it was only 10% of the polling
that was opposed or strongly opposed to legalizing it everybody else fell in the you know 90%
or something 85% fell in the supporting legalization of cannabis and we really need to you know
the federal government needs to get on with this in part because so that the VA can say
we've done the research and these drugs and this cannabis use has interactions doesn't
have interactions and we can put some strength and dosages issues and around it I mean I
think that's part of what's missing and part of what you were commenting on we just need
to do more research don't we definitely and I think you know what you're speaking to
is sort of the broader like conversation around regulation period like there is a there is
positive incentive even people who aren't cannabis fans to because of where we are right now
both in cultural acceptance and legalization state by state to just get the federal government
there because once you do then we know that everybody's going to be using safe cannabis
to your point they'll be using the right amount of of dosage because we'll be we'll have research
behind it and we'll be able to give people that information because nobody would want
to you know if the purpose is to improve your quality of life and you want the right amount
of dosage to be able to do that versus you know just shooting from the hip right but
lots of people to your point who have already tried and knocked down success with pills
and or you know there are people who've taken pills and then you know maybe got addicted
to them and like don't want to keep taking them and they would want another therapy because
of you know what opioids are doing to some people these days then why wouldn't we want
to be able to at this moment in time regulate an industry and change the laws so people
can get access to what is already very readily available but also in the right quantity and
dosage that's fit for whatever condition they have you know and research will get you there
my friend it will and and I think this problem will solve itself is just taking too long
we'll come back and talk some more with the CEO of IVA but a few words from our sponsors
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before the U.S. Court of Appeals for veterans claims their number again 1-800-693-4800 we're
talking to Allison Jaislow who's the CEO of IVA about their 2023 member survey we still
have a few more items there and then we've got a couple of other areas we want to cover
about women veterans and recruiting issues Allison one of the things that you I think
busted open in your data here was the we were joking about it earlier we're all people
too so yeah not all veterans of the IVA era if you will vote one way or the other way
they're not all woke and they're not all strict right wing conservatives I thought
the statistics here were there were you know particularly interesting because it it helped
demonstrate or prove what I think most of us knew anyway it's not a monolithic block
so tell us what your results on elections to get you yeah I mean what I like to say
is the veteran vote is a jump ball at least among IVA members I mean we're about it a
third Democrat a third Republican and the third you know not overly impressed with
either party so I think that that also flies in the face I think of what a lot of people's
assumptions would be about the veteran population yes you know again our generation is unique
I'd like to say I feel like you know we're a combination largely of millennials and Gen
Z of course there are other people who serve or other veterans who serve post 911 who don't
count themselves as so far as those generations but you know the median IVA member is actually
the same age as I am it's 41 but I think most people of you know our age and generation
are more either small p progressive or libertarian then maybe you'd find another generation and
so I think there are more than anything else looking for a candidate that can I don't know
match their values and are probably open to somebody who's outside of the traditional
box that we've been fed in the past well but it'll be interesting to see specifically
and this is something that's important to me leading our organization is like we are
the candidates need to be speaking of or they will risk losing a very important voting very
important because if they were liable voting block you know in that regards 88 percent
or so said they will vote in the 2024 election without question you know that's a high percentage
of folks that hey I'm gonna I've done my job here serving I'm gonna make sure I vote on
who's there but it was as you say a jump ball on presidential candidates and Democrats and
Republicans sort of split right down you know into thirds and so I'm not you know this
far out I'm not sure it tells us a whole lot but it does tell us they're gonna go out and
vote so yes I agree the candidates ought to be speaking with IVA members and veterans
in general and not just lip service which we get all too much of it election times don't
we yeah and I think our I think our generation specifically is kind of over it you know a
lot of my contemporaries their entire adult lives have been shaped by elected leaders
failing us and so I think the hunger right now is for real authentic leadership I think
not just among our generation of veterans but I think we're hopefully getting to a tipping
point where the American electorate is gonna demand it too you know I think people have
talked like they've really wanted it but haven't necessarily voted that way and then I think
this is an exciting time for our generation of veterans because I think we're well positioned
to step in and be those leaders now you know it's taken some time for whether it's in the
private sector or the public sector for you know many of us to actually build up a resume
to be quote unquote qualified or you know worthy of elected office at this point but
I think that I think we're really hitting a moment when it comes to some of the best
among us being in positions to lead us forward and that actually gives me hope these days
no that's good that's a good point we're talking to Allison jaslow who's the CEO of IVA and
an army captain served a couple times over in Iraq and certainly at a time when women
veterans weren't always treated the same or women military members service members weren't
always treated the same as their male counterparts so being in this position of leadership at
IVA I think helps communicate the value and that there are women veterans out there but
you probably experienced that Allison where women weren't in combat units there technically
although everywhere in Iraq was a combat unit essentially and you didn't get the same sort
of maybe awards and decorations as male counterparts and sometimes that can impact competitive promotions
or other career opportunities so this is this having the badge of CEO gives you a sort of
a leg up to talk to folks about some of these distinctions doesn't it it sure does you know
I think we've come a long way since when I served women can now you know serve and combat
designated roles which even though I'm here to say you know there were bullets flying
over the convoys I was riding in and there were also IEDs hitting the convoys that I
was riding in when I deployed but I was a logistics officer by school training and so
even though I was you know in combat it was you know in a way that wasn't at least foreseen
by the people who made policy around women prior to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars this
created you know some cascading effects when it comes to you know whether women's wartime
service was appropriately acknowledged the way that a male peer would I think there are
many women who service and especially some women who really served with distinction and
valor in combat did get acknowledged but many women who got overlooked and maybe weren't
given the awards or recognition that you know a man who was running the same platoon or
the same company would otherwise have gotten but you know hopefully times have changed
and I think it is important that we continue to lean into this conversation in part because
it does come down to not just policy change but leadership as well and you know step one
is getting in more women into combat designated roles but also into combatant leadership posts
as well which you're seeing a few women you know today serving in and that was also key
to getting we just celebrated the first woman who's a member of the Joint Chiefs and having
women continue to ascend into those types of leadership roles I think will help women
fully get the recognition that they deserve and will have earned the next time we go to
war. Oh absolutely and it's it means a lot not only to the service member but I've certainly
seen it over the decades how much it means to the veterans family the veterans community
their associates so so not getting the recognition has this ripple effect that that can be interpreted
as well as something less than and that's certainly not the case so I'm glad to hear
that it's still an issue that people are leaning in on. One more issue and I promise
is the last one we talked about when we started that I wanted to get some comments on because
of the recruiting misses that every branch of service is suffering at the moment as we
you talked earlier one of the unique things about IAVA is its members were all volunteers
we obviously have to have volunteers at full strength for our military it becomes a national
security issue so give us I know you've been talking and thinking about this issue give
us some thoughts on how does the military in the country do a better job of recruiting
into these spaces. Well I certainly don't have all the answers but because this is something
that I've personally been spending time on that I feel like that's a responsibility as
you noted leading me the largest national veterans organization that represents exclusively
volunteers that I feel a sense of responsibility to be a part of a solution and you know I
think first and foremost I think service needs to be hip you know I think culturally instead
of just like you know otherizing the troops you know I wish we could foster in young people
a desire to be one of them and I think that that can happen two ways I think it can happen
just because America is what it is through Hollywood you know sure it's cultural the
Air Force will tell you that they saw a little bit of a bump after a top gun Maverick came
out but I also think as veterans especially because a lot of veterans that I know aren't
necessarily like self promoters who will like talk about themselves or their service I think
we need to be get more comfortable doing it we are fewer and fewer in numbers the American
people know less and less of us and I think you know how many people do you know who went
into a profession because that's what their parents did or somebody else who they knew
absolutely you know doctor lawyer Baker candlestick exactly and so maybe your maybe your parents
didn't serve although you know the military today is a good example of like families who
are serving you know it's sons and daughters brothers and sisters are making up a disproportionate
amount of the military even with this few of people serving these days but the more people
who know us and see us and who can get familiar with what it is to serve the more we can like
get young people in America curious about what that might be for them whether it's a
career or whether it's you know just a part of their you know adult lived experience and
that also gives like the conversation allows people to be more curious and interested and
maybe even see themselves in uniform but also allows them to understand some of the benefits
that can come from service whether it's the leadership training that I got or the education
that I got you know and I think that's one of the things we need to all talk more about
is that that growth those things we got the intangibles we got when we served that kind
of carried on through life maybe it's showing up on time and realizing you're going to have
to work hard and not everything's going to be a hundred percent fair but those are all
life skills right that you have to learn to keep moving forward and you can learn them
in the military and you can serve a higher purpose in the military if you know it's
something that you know if you love your freedoms somebody's got to protect those freedoms and
I don't know that we do a great job of expressing those ideas and I think it'd be a wonderful
thing for IAVA to keep promoting out there and that is the real value of service to people.
Even if you get out and there are many people who are career soldiers you know I don't know
many of that who don't still carry a part of their service experience with them and hold
it near and dear to their heart even people who you know went out guns and blazing you
know not looking back they still have you know battle buddies or friends from that time or
memories from that time whether you serve peacetime or in wartime that profoundly change
you for the rest of your life and I think anybody who wants to serve should consider
it and I think veterans should be encouraging young people to consider service but also
non-veterans you know I hate hearing stories about parents who sometimes think that their
kids are too good for serving in uniform I don't know where that mentality comes from
but you know parents even if you come from a very privileged background if you have a
kid who says you know I feel like I'm being called to enlist in the Marines you should
support them doing that it is very inspiring especially to see children from privileged
backgrounds who want to roll up their sleeves and serve something greater than themselves
and think themselves no better than the other enlisted Marines you know.
Oh absolutely and you'll get a if you do that if you join up you're going to meet people
from all across the country all kinds of different approaches and experiences in life and that
will make you a richer person as a result.
Well and could you could you imagine what our country would be like today if more people
were we're stepping up to serve a common cause and meeting people from different backgrounds
like I feel like some of the problems we're facing in our country today could be ameliorated
if more people served together whether it's in military service or in other ways towards
a common mission and a common goal that worked to make this country a better place than it
was yesterday.
Absolutely we create a commonality not build barriers in between folks.
Well we certainly appreciate the extra time that Allison Jaislow CEO of IAVA gave us.
Your mission that you're supporting is really important and we are glad to be able to broadcast
it out a little further and help bring folks to you.
You got an easy website for folks to find you why don't you give them that if they want
to know more about it.
Sure you can visit us at IAVA.org.
We are a nonprofit that grinds away advocating on our generation of veterans.
Please visit IAVA.org and learn more about us and if you so choose donate and support
of our work.
Allison thank you for your time today.
Thank you for having me Jim.
Let's have a quick update on the Air and Space Forces Association.
We want to welcome to Veterans Radio today Brigadier General retired Doug Odie Slocum
who is going to talk to us about the Michigan Air and Space Forces Association.
General welcome to Veterans Radio.
Okay it's great to be here Jim I look forward to talking with you how are you doing today.
We are doing great and this is some new things going on that we want to share with the Veterans
Radio audience not only here in the state of Michigan but really this is affiliated
with the AFA Air and Space Forces Association nationally.
Tell us a little bit about your career in the military how many years you served and
I know that you have had a pretty distinguished career and we don't have time to go through
it all but I want people to understand from where your enthusiasm for AFA comes from.
Well sure and thanks for the opportunity and no we're not going to spend a lot of time
on this topic but I was blessed to spend 35 years in uniform.
One of the greatest things was being able to serve some of the most amazing men and
women you'd ever want to meet and if there's one part of my career that I would have to
say is a highlight it's a lot of opportunities to run what I would call caring for people
types of programs.
Although I spent my career as a fighter pilot I also got to be involved with many things
associated with safety, suicide prevention, resiliency, those types of things and then
of course being the commander out at Michigan's hometown air base at Selfridge where we were
able to implement some real world down to earth community based types of caring for
our people programs and I tell you that's just the highlight.
Okay well I started off in the love of my life I call her the F-4 Phantom, the legacy
platform there that fighter jet then I converted over to the F-16 and I spent most of my career
flying that more than 4,000 hours in the different models of the F-16 and then I got to top it
off out at Selfridge being a pilot of the A-10 Warthog with the big bad gun that does
all the neat things that it does supporting the ground troops.
We've had more than one program on the A-10s it seems like every few years they say we're
going to get rid of it and we have another program about the vital importance of the
A-10 to the ground game but again we could get all of our time spent on your interesting
military career and the different airframes you've flown but I want folks to understand
that's kind of where your passion comes from for your involvement with the Air and Space
Forces Association it's hard to get space forces in there my mind just wants to go into the
Air Force Association.
Well they changed it about a year and a half ago so it still kind of has a hard time coming
out of my mouth too plus we still use the AFA abbreviation so you know to add air and
space forces in there just to let everybody know we represent both of those branches
of our military now.
Well you know and that's something we need to talk about more on what space force is
all about but AFA is really supposed to be the force behind the force.
Tell us about the purpose of AFA.
You know that is a grand question that I don't think we spend enough time talking about that
essentially after World War II as the very founders of air power you know the Army Air
Corps that was about to become the US Air Force realized that they needed to have a voice
beyond those who are wearing the uniform because those that are in uniform are very constrained
on what they can say how they can advocate.
So Jimmy Doolittle you know from the Doolittle raid General Doolittle was the one who was
actually one of the primary founders of the Air Force Association and it was started to
be the voice behind the force the ones that can talk to Congress that can keep us from
reducing our strength for example we did between World War I and World War II where we pretty
much ended up having to start everything over again.
So the very founders of the Air Force founded the Air Force Association to be that voice
to be that advocate to go out there talk to the community talk to Congress basically we
have three verbs it's about education advocacy and support.
You know teaching people about the air and space forces advocating for things that they
need to be able to be that dominant force that they are and supporting the men and women
who do or have worn that uniform.
And General this is an organization at a national level who's it open up to is it just you
general officer types?
Oh absolutely not we're open to the public you don't even have to have an Air Force
affiliation to be part of the Air and Space Forces Association.
Anybody can go to aFA.org you know the website there's a membership tab there's lots of different
ways to get involved to join the resources that just where the think tank of the Air
Force the advocacy arm for the Air Force there are so many different resources and ways to
get engaged at this point but the key the first step is that membership which is easy
to do inexpensive aFA.org.
I want to turn our attention to the specific work that you're involved in as president
of the Michigan Air and Space Forces Association.
There are aFA groups or chapters whatever you want to call them all over the world there's
a reported to be a couple hundred of such aFA chapters and you're in the process of
helping build out the Michigan aFA organization.
So talk to us a little bit about the Michigan aFA.
You bet you know like a lot of these advocacy organizations around the country I think that
inherently right now there are some struggles that these organizations are going through
so it's very nice here in Michigan we've kind of flipped the script a little bit on this
whole thing.
We have monthly get togethers I wouldn't call them necessarily meetings because we don't
talk internal business but this is how we engage with the public how we engage with
our membership primarily right now which a lot of times well one it's always a great
meal whether it's a breakfast or a lunch that we put together.
You gotta have food in there right.
Oh you gotta get the food the coffee those types of things in there but then the networking
you get to meet some of the most amazing people from the state of Michigan in all different
aspects you know the very diverse from you know political involvement community leaders
business leaders veterans all that and in our Sterling Heights location we have between
80 and 100 people every month that we get together and then we dive into different topics.
You know after what happened in the Middle East we very specifically jumped into let's
talk about Gazel's talk about Israel Middle East not only did I get an opportunity to
kind of frame the discussion but then we brought in the senior defense out of shape from the
embassy in Israel and then we brought in an Israeli general to come in and talk to us
and this is just one example of current relevant information that will leave people with a greater
understanding of our air and space forces and what's going on in the world when they
walked in the door.
This model has been very effective we continue to grow, create memberships, we're opening
new locations starting down in Ann Arbor and we're looking at expanding both west and
north here in the state and we're going to jump into the virtual.
We're going to start doing virtual events every month and then even expanding that possibly
into a podcast here in the near future that will allow us to touch more topics bring in
more expertise and just help people out whether they're trying to raise the business or just
be part supporters of the men and women that wear the uniform.
Well it's so important these days to try to get word out and educate the general public
about what it is our air and space forces do and what needs they have so I think this
is a really exciting time to be expanding the footprint, the geographic footprint of
Michigan AFA and moving into the virtual world as we've all kind of become so used to zoom
or teams or what have you to attend a program that we might not otherwise be able to drive
to.
So is that the thinking to reach that larger class that way?
Well the way people engage nowadays is completely different some like in person, some like the
virtual, some like a podcast, some through social media.
So we're trying to meet people that the way they communicate so we're using all of these
to be able to reach out and tell the story about our Air and Space Forces Association.
So LinkedIn, certainly Facebook were involved there and like we said through the virtual
options that are coming up here shortly as well as podcasts, emails, etc.
Communication is the tough one and that's what we're pushing out there is to get the
word out.
You can hear my full interview with the President of the Michigan AFA, Brigadier General Odie
Slokum retired.
You can find more on their website at afa-mi.org and check them out.
We also always want to thank our VSO sponsors.
So thanks to the VVA Kettles Chapter 310 in Ann Arbor, the VFW Graf O'Hara Post 423 in
Ann Arbor, American Legion Press Conference post 45 in Ann Arbor.
You can help us out on Veterans Radio by donating.
Go to our website veteransradio.org and help us out.
Throw a little money our way to keep us on the air.
This is a non-profit organization and your money is used to bring you this kind of programming
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We'd like to spread the word to different affiliates, radio stations around the country
and boost our internet podcasting, but we need your help to do that.
This is Jim Fausone.
It's been a privilege to be your host today on Veterans Radio.
Dale Throneberry will be back next week and will bring you more great stories of interest
to veterans and their friends and family members.
We always have a benefits program at the last Sunday of every month.
So if you have a question, throw it to us by email.
We'll try to answer it, veterans benefits, whether they be disability or healthcare,
can be kind of confusing.
So throw us the question.
We'll try to answer it on air or call on in at that time.
But it's always a privilege to serve you, those that served our country, as we like
to say.
It's our obligation to continue our service even when we become civilians and to remember
all those who are currently serving.
So until next time on Veterans Radio, I am Jim Fosona.
Dale Throneberry will be back again next week.
And until then, you are Dismissed.
Well, thanks for watching.