All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
This is Veterans Radio.
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I am Jim Fossone.
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We want to welcome to VeteransRadio today Allison Jaislow, who is the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America,
better known as IAVA.
Allison, welcome to VeteransRadio.
Thanks for having me.
Well, 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 US 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.
And 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, our military, it's 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, D.C.
Yeah, 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, you know,
walk the halls and talk to folks and know how they think and how they react to certain challenges that they face.
But 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.
You know, 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, you know, 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 IAVA.
Why don't you tell our listeners and maybe there's someone who are not familiar with what the work and the mission of IAVA is?
So IAVA 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, you know, doing that work best in class means we are telling that story and shaping that narrative in the media with the host of influencing public opinion,
with the hopes of them influencing public policy action.
IAVA, you know, 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, you know, IAVA really did spark the conversation around burn pitch exposure,
excuse me, which are unique to our particular generation.
Well, certainly one of the aspects of IAVA 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 IAVA 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 IAVA 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, IAVA, 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 9-11
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 referenced 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 9-11, and, you know,
we've just only within the last year or so ended a 20-year war, IAVA has this unique responsibility
to that group of veterans 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
policy advocate, is when you have data when walking the halls of Congress.
This is 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 talk about the 2023 IAV member survey?
Sure.
You know, I think over time IAVA has done two things really well with 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 DD214,
or we've seen your VA card, et cetera.
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 are like everybody.
They have opinions about other issues of the day.
And I think that we believe that it's important that the veteran voice is heard as a part
of other conversations as well.
You could say we are people too.
Yeah.
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 just 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.
Well, 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're always say, we're the last ones who
want more.
We are peacekeepers.
We know the cost of war.
We don't we're not, you know, warmongers.
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's 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 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, advocating their responsibility to our
troops and their families for, you know, going on decades.
Well, as you say, that open-ended authorization, 85% agreed or strongly agreed that that ought
to be reduced or eliminated.
But again, that was probably the 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 U.S. involvement in Ukraine.
Again, not as high, not 85%, but 67% either agreed with U.S. involvement strongly or agreed
to it.
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 to us how your members felt about the China situation.
I mean, a majority of IAV members, you know, over 50% indicated that they are only partly
confident in the ability of the U.S. to deal with threats from China, and 30% don't believe
that we're prepared at all.
So to your earlier point, even if vets and IAV 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, protected for the threats of the future.
And honestly, China is a good example.
Like if we effectively protect ourselves from the threats, we could also avoid a war with
China, right?
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 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.
The DOD is still very much like in their procurement process is still very much stuck in the olden
days of being able to 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 warfighting these days.
And I don't know that our government and the bureaucracy is totally there.
And I think that 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?
Do we have the right types of ships?
Do we have the right technology to be able to fight China 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 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 atalium 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 products,
but also because it is being legalized in 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 prescribe.
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
it 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 friends.
Probably it will and I think this problem will solve itself, it's just taking too long.
We're talking to Allison Jaislow who is the CEO of IAVA 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 not all veterans of the IAVA 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 particularly interesting because 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 got you.
Yeah, I mean what I like to say is the veteran vote is a jump ball, at least among IAVA members.
I mean we're about a third Democrat, a third Republican and the third not overly impressed
with either party.
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.
Again, our generation is unique.
I like to say I feel like we're a combination largely of millennials and Gen Z. Of course
there are other veterans who serve post 9-11 who don't count themselves as so far as those
generations, but the median IAVA member is actually the same age as I am, it's 41.
I think most people of our age and generation are more either small P progressive or libertarian
than maybe you'd find in other generations.
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, it'll be interesting to see specifically and this is something that's important to
me leading our organization is like we, the candidates need to be speaking us or they
will risk losing a very important voting, very important because it's a reliable voting
block.
Well, in that regards, 88% or so said they will vote in the 2024 election without question.
There you go.
Right.
That's a high percentage of folks that, hey, I'm going to, I've done my job here serving.
I'm going to 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 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 going to go out and vote.
So yes, I agree.
The candidates ought to be speaking with IAVA members and veterans in general and not just
lip service, which we get all too much of at election times, don't we?
Yeah.
And 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 going to 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 Jaislow who's the CEO of IAVA and an army captain served a couple
of 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 IAVA 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
in 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 serve 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 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 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 not getting the recognition has this ripple effect 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 this is the last one when we talked about it 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.
They 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 a sense of 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 the solution in.
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 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.
Dr. Lawyer, Baker, Candlestick.
Exactly.
And so maybe your parents didn't serve although, you know, the military today is a good example
of like families who are serving.
You know, 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 it 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 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 100% 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.
Some 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 imagine what our country would be like today if more people were stepping
up to serve a common cause and meeting people from different backgrounds?
Look, 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 Alison Jaislow, the 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 IAVA?
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 in support
of our work.
Alison, thank you for your time today.
Thank you for having me, Jim.
And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.
I am Jim Fawson.
It's been a pleasure to be your host.
I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us at
800-693-4800 or LegalHelpforVeterans.com on the web.
You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio
shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org.
That's veteransradio.org.
And until next time, you are dismissed.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for
Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.
They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.
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S. Kettles Chapter, Ann Arbor, Michigan, VFW Graf O'Hara Post 423 in Ann Arbor, and
the American Legion Press Corn Post 46 also in Ann Arbor.
We appreciate all your support.
You can go to veteransradio.net.
Click on the sponsor level and continue to support keeping veteransradio on the air.
And until next time, you are dismissed.
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