All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
This is Veterans Radio.
And now your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry, CW-2 helicopter type pilot in Vietnam, 1969.
Welcome to Veterans Radio. I think we've got a great program for you today.
We're going to be talking with Don Mann. And for anybody who wants to know anything about Navy SEALs, this is the guy that you need to talk to.
In addition to 22 books and being a Navy SEAL for many years, I'm really excited to talk to him about his introduction to the SEALs and also what he has been doing ever since he got out.
Because there's a whole lot of things going on that Don has done.
During the second half of the program, we're going to be replaying a little segment about the Kennedy assassination.
And now it's been 60 years now.
And we had a local chief petty officer who happened to be on the honor guard for the funeral for President Kennedy. So we're going to be replaying that. It was done back in 2008 with Gary Lilly.
So for those of you in the local area, you know, every time you hear Gary Lilly's name, he's a veteran's veteran. And this is a really nice interview that he does with George Peralta.
So before we get into the program, I'm going to get to talk with Don Mann here. I make sure that we thank our sponsors because we can't do this program without these folks.
So number one on the list is legal help for veterans, legal help for veterans specializes in veterans disability claims, give legal help for veterans a call at 800-6934800,
or go to their website legal help for veterans.com. The National Veterans Business Development Council, better known as NVB DC is the nation's leading third party authority for certification of a veteran owned business.
You want to do business with the federal government and you are a veteran owned business, you got to get certified. So make sure that these are the folks that can do that for you.
So the National Veterans Business Development Council, their phone number is 888-237-8433, or you can go to their website that's NVB DC.org.
The Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For more information about them, you can go to va.gov slash Ann Arbor Healthcare.
Also, we want to make sure that we thank the residential healthcare group. These people provide home health and hospice care for veterans and their families.
For more information, you can go to their website, that's residential health care group.com, or give them a call at 866-902-5854.
And finally, we want to make sure that we thank our local veterans organizations for their long time 20 year support.
That's the Irwin Prescott and American Legion Post 46 and the Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
And we want to make sure that we remind you as our listeners that this is our 20th year and we're having fundraiser of course throughout the 20 years.
It's going to be 20 on 20, we hope.
And so you can go to our website and you can click on the donate button and just, you know, 20 bucks if you'd like to, or any number will be more than welcome.
We encourage you to do that. So let me introduce our guest here.
Our guest today is Don Mann and Don is a decorated combat veteran, motivational keynote speaker, athlete and author.
His autobiography inside SEAL Team 6, My Life and Missions. I was a national best seller, Washington Post political bestseller.
Most frequent work. He's written 22 books about the SEALs probably more than that.
But it's just, I don't know, it's always fun to read books that are written by people who have actually been there.
So Don, I want to welcome you to Veterans Radio.
Thanks so much for having me. This is an honor.
Well, it's a privilege for us to talk to be able to talk with you.
And I wanted to kind of start this off a little bit, I guess chronologically would be the way to do it.
So how did you get into the Navy SEALs?
Well, you know, I was a bit of a troubled kid.
I was a kid who got in some trouble here and there.
Not a real bad kid, but I had this energy and it wasn't focused anywhere.
I loved working out. I loved racing motorcycles. I like adventure, high adventure.
I was a patriot. My father was a World War II. He was greatest generation.
He joined the Navy after we got attacked with Pearl Harbor.
And so I had the patriotism in me. I had the high adventure thrill seeking part in me.
And I loved working out. So when I found out about the SEAL program,
I knew I found the perfect avenue where I want to spend the rest of my life working.
It just was, I was blessed to have found the SEAL program when I was looking for something to do in the military.
Well, we know that the Navy SEAL program is, you know, unbearable for most people.
It's an endurance test forever and ever. It seems like every day is just another test to you.
How did you make it through all that training?
Well, you know, I believe the best way I know for anybody to make it through the training
and the way I made it through the training and made it somewhat not so difficult.
And what I did, Dale, I just did a lot of visualization while I worked out every day of my life.
Since seventh grade, I really haven't taken a day off.
But I visualized how hard it was going to be being on the grinder with the instructors yelling and screaming.
You're doing all the push ups and setups and everything.
You're tailbone, tailbone's bleeding from the setups on the concrete, jumping in the ocean and doing the cold water swims.
But I visualized every day for four years how difficult Bud's was going to be.
And here in the stories, which was hard to do back then because there weren't that many SEALs at that point.
It was still, you know, this was 82.
And so there wasn't the website and all the books and everything out on it.
So you just talk what you can find.
But what I could find, I visualized how difficult things were going to be.
And it helped me because every day I'd go back to my rack, back to my room after the workouts.
And the day was done and the nights were done.
I'd think, wow, today was really hard.
But it wasn't nearly as hard as I visualized it would be.
So the visualization made Bud's much easier than I expected it to be.
Even though it was hard. I'm not saying it was easy.
It was hard. But I thought it was going to be harder.
Oh, okay. Well, that's a good way of looking at it.
So you were never tempted to ring the bell.
Never, never, never.
I mean, I didn't like looking at that bell. It was like evil over there.
To remind our audience that when a Navy SEAL trainee, I don't know what that's the right term.
I'm going to trainee decides to drop out of the Navy SEAL training program.
They have to, they ring this bell.
And I was, I was watching a speech by an admiral.
I can't remember his name off the top of my head right now.
And he's talking about that bell.
And, you know, they kept telling everybody, you know, if you don't like what we're doing here, you can ring the bell and you can go home.
Nobody's going to give you any, any hard time.
But I'm grateful that you went through the whole training.
And then you got sent pretty much around the world.
So you didn't start off in SEAL team six, did you?
No, you can't actually.
What you, what you do when you graduate buds, you go to one of the other teams and you go to SEAL team.
Back then, 1982, there were only two other SEAL teams that people knew about.
There was SEAL team one on the West Coast, Coronado, then there was SEAL team two on the East Coast, Little Creek, Virginia.
But what not many people knew about was also the secret maritime counterterrorist team had developed and it was called SEAL team six.
But you had to be at SEAL team one or SEAL team two for a number of years, do a number of deployments, be rated above your peers,
be recommended by your commanding officer to have a package sent to SEAL team six.
And SEAL team six, like what they saw, they'd come give you a interview, pretty intimidating interview.
And if you passed it, they just plucked you away from your team and you go to SEAL team six.
And it was a fun, exciting journey to go through all that.
I can only imagine. And so you were in the, you were with SEAL team six for a number of years. How long was that?
Yep. I was SEAL team six twice actually.
I had three goals. I wanted to serve the West side of the world, which was SEAL team one.
I wanted to serve the East side of the world, which was SEAL team two.
All the odd numbers did the West side of the world, even numbers to the Eastern side of the world.
But SEAL team six had a worldwide capability and they had, you had to be ready to go anywhere in the world.
Jungle, you know, desert, urban, winter, arctic, you had to be ready to prepare to train or fight anywhere in the world at a moment's notice.
So SEAL team six was worldwide capability. So I went to SEAL team one as an enlisted man, then to SEAL team six.
And then I went down for the Panama invasion and the drug wars down Central South America for four years.
And I was commissioned as a warrant officer. And then I went back to SEAL team six as a warrant officer.
So I was enlisted man and as an officer, warrant officer.
Okay. Warrant officer is a good branch. I like that.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I bet you do.
We were super specialists.
Yes. Because I knew you weren't, correct?
Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
There's the best place to be in the military. We always thought.
That's what I thought, you know, you really had no real command responsibility.
But you were, you know, you, you know, you were in charge of your, your crew, whatever crew you were, you know, you were working with, but that was pretty much it.
So, so while you were with, so when were we with SEAL team six? I guess that's what I'm trying to get to.
So I was there from 85 to 89, then went down Central South American. We started up a detachment down there.
10 of us from SEAL team six did that. So we did that for four years.
And then I went to team two for two years to do my time because you can't be a fully, a newly commissioned officer and go back to six.
So that's when I spent my time at team two and went back to SEAL team six 1995 and retired there in 1998.
Okay. Okay.
It's, you know, and reading your, your, your bio, Don, we're talking with Don Mann here.
It was written, I don't know, 20 some odd books on the Navy SEALs and a bunch of other books about just what's going on in the world in general.
And so I would encourage you to check out this, you know, go to Amazon.
It was just a page after page of books there and they're really exciting books.
I've had the opportunity to read a couple of them.
But so when you got out of the service, where did you go then?
I mean, this is this is that big transition that so many people have some difficulty with.
You know, it wasn't a hard transition at all for me.
Because what I did, I went right to work for the US government, the three letter agencies.
And when I got out, and I'm not trying to make my career sound easy, because it was, we thought we were busy and doing challenging things.
But it got much, much busier after I got out because 98 is when I got out.
And as soon as we got bin Laden, you know, we had the two wars, you know, Afghanistan, then Iraq 2003.
So when those wars started, that's when I got really busy for the teams.
And at that point, I was already in with the government.
So I was spending all my time.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, what we call the dirt circuit.
So I did that for 20 years after my 21 years in the military.
Wow.
Yeah.
Well, I was I was reading here, you know, that you were a trainer with steel team six and of course with the other steel teams.
And then as you mentioned, becoming a civilian and working with, you know, these three letter organizations that were roaming all around the Middle East at the time.
Wow.
So how did how did you do that?
I mean, that's that's my question is, I mean, you are all over the world.
You know, but, you know, like people like you, people like me, people like us.
That's why we joined the military.
And you asked about the transition for me.
You know, actually, when I got out of the teams, I realized a lot of people set their goals low.
They've achieved these really easy low set goals and they go home and they're happy with themselves in the teams and in the aircrew community, the pilot community.
We know what it's like you set your goals high.
And you strive to reach some high reaching goal. I wasn't seeing that in the civilian population, but I did see it in the government because now we're going, you know, we're doing the work and, you know, war torn countries war zones, working with the enemy.
And so you had to stay 100% focused and you had to have high goals to come out of their life too.
And that's kind of what drove us all to go in the military.
So for me, there wasn't a hard transition because when I left the teams one way to the government, I was working with a lot of the same people.
And actually what I felt was sadness for the people in the army and the Marines and because you'd see them how hard they were living, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan,
when us government people are driving around in nice cars and rental, you know, armored vehicles and all, we had a lot nicer way to live there than the military did and they had a much harder job than we did.
But it was still still a nice feeling being part of the whole effort, the war effort. And I love that.
I think that's one of the things that we all kind of, you know, we relish that role. We really feel like we're useful when we are doing those types of things.
Yeah. Yeah, because we didn't choose our careers to go out and try to make money or, you know, anything else we did it, we love our country and we love the thrill and excitement of the work that we could be involved with, I think.
Yeah, there's that. And of course, there's that incredible camaraderie that you build up over your time in the service. I mean, these people are friends for life.
That's right. That's right. That's so right. Yeah. I love that.
So after, you know, while you were doing, you know, the Iraq Afghanistan thing as you mentioned before, you also were getting into becoming a motivational speaker in addition to your writing all these books. I mean, what was it that motivated you to start writing these books?
Nothing at all.
You know, to tell you the truth, that was all an accident and becoming a speaker. None of that was planned and none of that was thought about.
And but I've always had two careers. I've always been a an extreme athlete. You know, I love the difficult 500 to 600 mile nonstop adventure races where you're really pushing yourself to the point of passing out bleeding, bonking or hallucinating.
And I never pushed myself that hard in the SEAL teams, but I was able to do it during a 10 mile race in the Himalayas where you're also doing a 20,000 foot mountain climb in the middle of the race and doing a 200 mile mountain bike ride and a 15 mile whitewater swim all back to back to back.
I mean, whenever we had a low in the workload at the SEAL teams, I'd go off and do a 10 day adventure race somewhere in the world.
And I absolutely loved it. But whatever the biggest races were in the world, that one time I was Hawaii Iron Man, I was always doing these events.
And so I was in the media since the 70s, just little bits and pieces in the media, because the sports I was doing was very, very extreme and rare.
And people could care less about it to tell you the truth. And people didn't relate to these distances and the things we were doing.
And so I was in the media off and on all my life. I still am, you know, the last one when I was on Mount Everest a couple of years ago.
So just the media likes to hear these stories. I like to know SEALs are doing these things.
So I was asked by our admiral, he said, Don, you put on a lot of athletic events.
The SEALs are having a hard time getting guys to sign up to go to Bud's basic underwater demolition SEAL school.
And we need some help. You put on a lot of events. Would you come up with some event for the SEAL community?
So I came up with this event called the SEAL Adventure Challenge. Actually, Navy Admirals, Navy Captains sent their kids to it.
They went on to go to Bud's and become officers in the SEAL team. So it was a very successful program.
It was televised around the world. And I did this for about 10 years.
And some executives came through it from Domla Chrysler. They said, you got to come to Domla Chrysler and come talk to us.
I said, no, I don't know anything about business. I can't talk to business people. I just like talking to extreme people, people like that.
They said, no, no, just what you said, we need to hear it at Domla Chrysler.
So eventually I went to Domla Chrysler and that caught on that talk. They rated it the best talk they ever had, actually.
And then that word started spreading that I do motivational speaking.
And then I was asked to write a book on what I talk about and about the events I do.
And then I was asked by the Navy, they said the Marines have a survival manual. The Air Force has one.
The Army has one. SEALs don't have one. Can you do a survival manual for us?
I said, no, I don't want to do that. I don't want to write another book.
They said, we'll pay you up front. We'll give you an extra year to write it.
I said, okay. And then as a weapons and tactics instructor for the government and my boss said, Don, man, you got all this material.
Why don't you write another book? I said, Jimmy, I don't want to write a shooting book. I don't want to do it.
He said, come on, you got all the material. I said, okay, I'll write a shooting book.
So it just went like this. Nothing was planned. It was 22 books later. And I look back thinking that was not planned at all, but it was enjoyable.
And then the talks came about because of the books and the first few talks that I gave.
So now that's what I do more than anything. I give talks now around the country.
But what I love about it is if you get to influence anybody, especially kids is my favorite, try to help young guys who are struggling.
Or struggling about, you know, which way they want to go in life. Because it's so easy to go bad when it's kind of fun that way.
But you could take that wild energy and you could take it to something good like the military, the teams or whatever branch you're going to go in.
So that's why I find fulfillment in life now. And also, I host a TV show as well.
And again, it wasn't my idea. It was an accident. A friend of mine said, you know, you write all these books, you do all these talks, you compete, you train, you shoot.
Why don't you be the host of my TV show? I said, no, I don't want to do that. He said, come on. Then he got a sponsor.
He said, we're going to call it Surviving Man, my last name, M-A-N-N.
So now I take everything I've ever learned, really, survival, training, budge training, shooting, everything, all of that, obstacle course racing, adventure racing.
And I put it in a five day program. And now it might be the toughest challenge out there right now in the U.S.
And I love doing that. And now I love doing that as well.
Obviously, you can't sit still. I mean, that's certainly what's happening here. And I was reading about, you know, sort of these reality programs that you are doing these survival shows.
And you're still out there doing many of these events, aren't you?
Yep. Yep. I just came back from Belize a few weeks ago and we did one out there on a dive boat.
And man, these guys, we got the logs, we did log PT, we did the push-ups with the scuba tanks on the backs, had them doing night swims, underwater night swims, long swims, long snorkels.
And I even had them disabling a ship underwater in the middle of the night, these new divers.
And then we finished it up with a 140 foot dive swimming with the sharks.
It was just intense and wild and fun. And they all loved it. And I have some really great co-hosts.
Randy Couture, who a lot of people know from MMA Fighting, he's a legend.
And he did movies with Sylvester Stallone and guys like that.
He was my first co-host. And that guy, what a patriot he is. Just a good, good man and a solid patriot.
And he's still in really good shape. And then I did my other one with a sheriff, Mark Lam, who might be the next senator for Arizona.
He's America's sheriff. He's always on Fox News. And we had a great time working together. He's a good, hard-core patriot.
And then in Belize, my co-host, it was different. And you probably remember America's top 40, Casey Kasem.
Oh, yes.
Well, his daughter, who's absolutely beautiful, what a knockout. His daughter, Terry Kasem was my co-host.
She's a Grammy Award winner and a singer. And she does all the stuff.
And her boyfriend is the lead guitar player for Guns N'Roses, which was so different than what I'm used to.
And we had so much fun out there. And actually I got them into training and got them into working out, which was even more fun.
I can only imagine, we're talking with Don Mann here, adventurer, producer, physical, you know, exercise guru and so forth.
But also you're pretty well knowledgeable in what's, you know, what's going on in the political system in the world.
And I, you know, I've only got a couple of minutes left with you, Don. And I just wanted to get, you know, some of your comments about what you think is going on with Israel and Hamas.
Well, thanks. It's been on my mind pretty much 24 hours a day.
I used to wonder when I was a boy how we could let the Holocaust happen.
And now I'm getting a feel for how that happened, you know, I can't believe we have people supporting the terrorist organization.
Some of those people in Congress and in our universities.
And I remember, and you remember, I'm sure too, with Jane Fonda when she sided with the North Korea, the North Vietnamese, we thought, how could American do that?
And now to see so many Americans, so many people in the world, siding with a terrorist organization.
It's tearing my heart out, actually.
And, you know, I feel for both sides, the Palestinian people who are just living their life, who have these Hamas leaders and they're ruining their lives.
And what the people in Israel, they're fighting every day for just their existence.
And the world, a lot of the world is turning against them. And I don't understand how that can be.
But I've been, you know, and then of course we got Ukraine and Russia going on at the same time.
And we have China and Russia, you know, rattling their swords, getting ready to do their thing in South Korea and Taiwan.
So the world's probably the most dangerous it's ever been in my lifetime. And every day it gets more and more dangerous.
And I don't, you know, I don't lose sleep.
I don't like, I'm not in panic attacks or anything.
But I do pay very, very close attention to it. And I do quite a few talk shows and TV, just discussing this.
To me, it's so very important that we know what's going on with this big event.
I agree. And it's so hard in today's world to get the, you know, the quote, the real true story of what's happening, you know, in the world, because it's, you know, it's coming from, you know, left field, right field everywhere.
And, you know, how do we distinguish, you know, what is true and what is not.
I would like to make sure that our audiences know where they can find you. So where would we go if we wanted more information about Don Man?
Thanks, though. I have a website which is www.usfrogman.com.
Don at US Frogman, maybe seal frogman.com and man is spelled with two N's.
Right. And I know that they can find you on Facebook as well.
Yes, yeah.
Well, I think it's great, Don. And I want, I appreciate you taking the time out of probably some endurance race that you're going to be doing shortly to come on Veterans Radio for the first time.
And hopefully we can have you back again. So I wanted to make sure that I thank you very much for taking the time out of on a Sunday to do this with us.
It's an honor to be here with you, Dale, at Veterans Radio. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that I would do in front of this. I mean, the workout already happened.
I'm so happy to be here with you. And I thank you for having me.
Thank you very much, Don Man. And as I said, we'll be having you on again probably in the new year.
I look forward to it.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Don.
Okay, Dale.
All right, that was Don Man. I really do suggest that you go to go to his website. And also that you go to Amazon. I mean, all you got to do is punch in his name and really great page of book covers that are pretty exciting.
And there's either that, you know, that like all these great adventure stories of what the seals do. And, you know, when we're not, you know, leaving out, you know, the Delta Force and Green Berets and everything else like that.
There are so many specialized men and women out there that are protecting us all over the world. And so I encourage you to read some of these books and, you know, find out more information and make sure that you can determine what is really going on in the world.
We're going to take a break right now with our Medal of Honor segment. When we come back, I'll be introducing our recorded interview with George Peralta and Gary Lilly talking a little bit about the under guard for President John F. Kennedy's funeral.
You're listening to Veterans Radio. We'll be right back.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in combat given a member of the Armed Forces of the United States. There have been over 3400 recipients of the nation's highest award. This is one of them.
First Lieutenant Deming Bronson was struck by an exploding enemy hand grenade, receiving deep cuts on his face and the back of his head, but continued to lead as men. Details after this.
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.
Bronson, although injured, participated in the action that resulted in the capture of an enemy dugout with a great number of prisoners. On the afternoon of the same day, he was painfully wounded in the left arm by an enemy rifle bullet, and after receiving first aid treatment, he was directed to the rear.
Disregarding these instructions, Bronson remained on duty with his company throughout the night, although suffering from severe pain and shock.
The next morning, his regiment resumed its attack. Bronson's company was left in support of the attacking line. In spite of his wounds, he joined in the capture of the village. After the capture, he remained and participated in the capture of an enemy machine gun, he himself killing the enemy gunner.
Shortly after this encounter, the company was forced to retire due to the heavy enemy artillery barrage. Bronson, who was the last man to leave the advanced position, was again wounded in both arms by an enemy high explosive shell.
He was then assisted to cover by another officer who applied first aid. Although bleeding profusely and faint from the loss of blood, Bronson remained with the survivors of the company throughout the night of the second day, refusing to go to the rear for treatment.
The Medal of Honor series is a production of Veterans Radio.
A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
We're back here on Veterans Radio and we're going to go straight into our recorded interview. This was done in 2008. Gary Lilly, for those of you that have been following Veterans Radio over the last 20 years, one of the founding members of Veterans Radio,
had the opportunity to interview retired Chief Petty Officer George Perrault, who had been on the Honor Guard for the Kennedy funeral. So we're going to play that right now and when we come back, I'll talk to you then.
So here we go. Here's Gary Lilly and George Perrault.
And we're back on Veterans Radio and we've switched seats and this is Gary Lilly and we're 45 years ago today. Anybody that was alive remembers what they were doing when they heard that President Kennedy was assassinated.
As I mentioned earlier, I worked in a factory. Do you guys remember all the jokes that were going on? It was like every day there'd be a new joke about President Kennedy. And I walked back in after lunch and a guy working on a press said,
did you hear the President's been shot? And I broke into a big grin. I was waiting for the punchline. He said, no, I'm serious. He was shot. And I asked, was he killed? And he said, we don't know yet. Later on, of course, we learned he was.
And the next few days, it was all the nation mourned. There was an amazing presidential funeral. And this morning we have George Perrault, who was a young Navy enlisted man at that time. He was part of the Honor Guard serving in the Rotunda.
George, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Pleased to be here, Gary.
When you first were named to the Honor Guard, how did that come about?
Well, I'll give you a little background here. My first duty station in the Navy, I'm a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer. I served from 1957 to 1982.
Like I say, hi to all the fellow veterans out there. A special hello to Al and Barb Wood in Tasmania, Australia. Good day, mate. Colonel Valentine, if you're still listening, I'm sorry the Navy lost you, but at least you had a good codame, Klondike.
It happens to be a Navy ship named the USS Klondike, which was a repair ship. And that was still in commission when you were in Vietnam.
My first duty station in the Navy, I was on a Euler tanker named the Salamone AO-26. And after five years at sea, I got orders to the Naval Station Washington, D.C.
And I worked in the supply department. I was the second class Petty Officer at the time. I had approximately about six years in the Navy, the time I got to Washington.
What is the Army equivalent of a Petty Officer second class? E-5. E-5, which would be Sergeant? Sergeant. Sergeant. Okay.
And at the time, President, all the armed services in Washington have an Honor Guard. The Army, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard, they all have a separate Honor Guard.
I'm sure you've seen them at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Arlington Cemetery, the State Dinners and the White House, the heads of department, I mean heads of state that come to Washington.
Each service has their own ceremonial guard, if you might call it that.
At the time, President Hoover and General MacArthur were both ill, and they wanted to supplement the ceremonial guard, knowing that there possibly might be two state funerals at the same time.
So my name went in and a fellow sailor in my division, his name went in and you think nothing of it. Your names went in on a list.
And come that Friday afternoon, I got a phone call from my wife that said the President had been assassinated. Every President had been shot.
And we dropped everything and we rushed for radio and to listen to some of the details.
And then you think nothing of it, because my name went in as part of the ceremonial guard, not knowing that would be the President Kennedy.
And the short patrol come and picked us up from our office and the base police, I believe it was, and off we went.
And we went off to the ceremonial guard barracks in Washington, which was right across the way from my work.
And we did a little practice and believe it or not, my fellow division guy and I, at least we knew some military commands and so forth.
But we put a trash can and the ceremonial guard chief was there, who trains his sailors all the time.
So he had a train in us. So we put a trash can in the middle of the room. We grabbed broom handles, mop handles and everything to simulate rifles.
And we did a few minutes of practice that the chief said, this is basically how it's going to go. You're going to be on President Kennedy's detail. Here's how it's going to go.
Off we went from there for reasons unknown. We went to a funeral home just down the street from Bethesda Navy Hospital, a place called Galler's Funeral Home.
And a few of us were put in there for reasons we still don't know and find a mistake and I can't remember if it was evening or by that time,
but all the drapes were drawn in the funeral home and they tell us not to look outside.
That's all you need to do is tell the sailor not to do it. So we looked behind the drapes and all the press was out there.
We could see all the enormous lights and everything. We couldn't figure out what we were doing in the funeral home.
So after the funeral home, we just stayed there for a few hours. After the funeral home, we were escorted to the White House.
And I might tell you the first entry into the White House is really something.
We went down in the basement and in the old days they tell me it was a civil defense bunker like in the White House.
It's all cement. There's racks, if you're familiar with the Navy ships, there were racks four high that folded up.
That's where the White House police is at now. I remember seeing all their trophy cases and whatever you have down there.
If any mass threat with the White House, that's where all the police would be stationed down there and so forth.
So we walked through there and then it took us to the Presidential Theater. We were housed in the theater.
Then approximately 4.30 in the morning, they brought in President Kennedy from Dallas. They brought in President Kerr from Bethesda.
They brought in President Kennedy to the White House. He had a private room for a while. Then he was in the East Room.
But then this was Saturday daytime. Then he was in the East Room of the White House.
What were you doing during that time?
We were in the Presidential Theater just waiting for what to do. I had the fortune of standing one watch in the East Room of the White House.
So you did stand watch over the President's casket in the White House.
That basically was for a lot of the dignitaries. I have pictures of President Eisenhower and a few others and so forth.
I suppose a lot of your senators and whatever have you. That was not open to the public in the White House.
So the dignitaries were in the White House. I vaguely remember that.
Then he went from the White House to the Capitol Rotunda. Again, I had the good fortune. I stood the very first watch when they brought him into the Capitol Rotunda.
I brought some pictures with me and I know it's going to be hard to describe.
The Capitol Rotunda has a huge room in the middle with a very high domed ceiling.
You had brought along a National Geographic. One of the most famous photographs taken of the President as he was laying in state has four servicemen.
One from each major branch of the service standing about 15 feet off, 20 feet off from each corner.
You were the Navy man in that photograph.
All five services are represented. There are four in each corner and there is an officer at the head of the casket.
So the Coast Guard was included.
The commands are all silent when you're standing there.
The officer at the head of the casket gives the most remote nod of his head where each guy in the corner can see it.
Then we silently count to three and then we go to parade rest.
Then again back to attention.
Then when our relief comes in, it's the same way. It's all done by a very slight nod of the head.
Then we change the guard and we were approximately on a half hour and two hours off on the watch.
So you guys did an hour or two of practice about that.
You basically knew what you were going to do and you did it.
You thought that probably you had been performing this, doing that all your career.
I remember seeing that and it was very, very professional.
None of the gentlemen I stood watch with were part of the Navy ceremonial guard.
For the most part, all the ceremonial guard kids are what we call non-rated E3 and below.
They have senior petty officers in charge of the ceremonial guard.
But all these guys around the casket were guys like me.
They got put on the detail unaware of what kind of detail was going to be with the president.
We've got a little over a minute left in this segment, but one of the things I always wondered about is
when you're doing that, your uniform has to be really squared away and your shoes have to be really shiny.
Were they already that way or did you have a little bit of time to prep for it?
We had to work in our service dress uniform at the naval station, our service dress blues.
So needless to say, you had to look good for work every day when you had inspection of the mortars and so forth.
That's true. So off we went.
So you were already all set?
I was already all set.
I remember being able to look down and see my reflection in my shoes when I was standing in ranks.
In between the daytime men, we stayed over at Fort Myers.
We had no toiletry articles with us for shaving and everything.
So that was lent to us by other soldiers over at Fort Myers.
We stayed over there and had sack lunches and whatnot over at Fort Myers.
We're going to come back to that, George.
In the next segment, you're listening to Veterans Radio on Ave. Maria Radio.
And we'll be right back after these messages.
We're back on Veterans Radio.
Forty-five years ago today, President Kennedy was assassinated and we're talking to George Perot,
who was a Navy Honor Guard over President Kennedy's casket as he was laying in state in the Rotunda.
And we've got about ten minutes to pack in three days of funeral.
George, you said guard over the casket in the Rotunda.
What was the mood in the room?
That was when the people, the general public, got to file past and see him.
Having stood the very first watch, I have in front of me a centerfold of one of my magazines,
but standing the very first watch, the entire heads of state of the world was basically there,
probably except Castro and Khrushchev of Russia.
But very, very quiet, you could just hear a pin drop, even the small children were there.
You didn't even hear them fussing and so forth.
And looking back at the pictures in front of me, Jackie and Caroline, when they knelt at the casket
and reviewing all my other pictures, I don't see little John John.
They were both almost identical outfits on like in a, I don't see little John John.
So maybe he was fussing and he had to go home or something.
But it was really solemn, so quiet and to look around and see all these people
and try to figure out who's who, which you can't do a lot of head turning and so forth.
So we just had to look around.
But you know, President Eisenhower and President Johnson, Jackie yourself and Bobby Kennedy,
just looking at all these people.
George, there were people, I remember seeing the huge lines that were outside for the people to walk past.
And it was a procession of the general public.
You'd get in line and you'd get to walk past the casket.
So for the dignitaries, did they have their own place to stand or sit?
No, they're all surrounded in the rotunda.
They had the media, of course, the media wasn't as big back then as it was nowadays.
But the media, but practically three-quarters of the rotundas in a circle were all the dignitaries and senators and everything were in that rotunda.
They were going to not have the rotunda open, I believe, it was after midnight.
But they estimated the line outside for the public was some 40 blocks, 40 city blocks long,
people waiting to come in to see, pass back, pass by the President.
Another thing, when standing watch, the public, when they come through,
you see people in crutches, you see soldiers, you see people of the cloth, you see nurses, you see people of America.
Right, you see America coming in, just so solemn.
So it was solemn, you guys were on for an hour and then you were off, you'd get relieved for an hour or was it two hours?
We were on half an hour and two hours off.
Oh, okay, I was wondering how could you stand at attention for a full hour, that's hard on the body.
Well, again, the officer at the head of the casket, however he timed it at his will, he would give us an odd, we'd go to pray and rest.
So when you were off, you'd go to a room and sit there for a break, is that right?
We were in the old Senate chambers back in the 1800s, right off of the Rotunda.
One interesting story, I don't have the time to explain how you...
No, you don't have to explain, you were in the room, but I want to hear the story about Ethel Kennedy.
Well, there's a rubber grommet that goes on the bottom of your trousers to make it look like a stovepipe when you're standing up, so you look very military.
And when you sit down in the old Navy 13 button uniform, it comes very tight on your stomach.
So you undo your 13 buttons when you're sitting down to relax.
So I have my 13 buttons down and a few other ones when you're sitting in the old Senate chambers to relax in between watches.
And lo and behold, Ethel Kennedy comes in looking for a telephone.
Almost every guy in the room just jumps to attention naturally, but not being a couple of my buddies because their trousers would have fell down.
Your pants down, right?
I remember we used to do that before big inspections.
When you sat down, you'd pull your trousers down so they didn't get wrinkled up, and then you'd redo them when you'd go falling for inspection.
When you went back on, how long were you there? Were you just the rotunda or were you other parts of the funeral?
Just a road to the White House, then when we shipped it to the rotunda.
Then after the rotunda, I got dismissed and the President's casket went to the church and then on to Arlington.
And to this day, Gary, I still can't remember how I got home from the rotunda.
I lived probably 10 miles from the Capitol. I can't remember how I got home.
Because your mind has so many images. I'm watching you as you're talking and your mind is going back and seeing all those pictures in your mind so I can understand that.
I think it was the most incredible time in American history up until today when we were watching that as children and as adults.
Just the drum sound of the funeral once they left the rotunda. It still sticks in my head as we're looking at these pictures.
I just wanted to remind our audience that Google has signed a deal with Life Magazine to show all of their photographs throughout history.
You can go on Google and type in Life Photos. You can get access to all of these photographs that many of them that George has here.
I think it's amazing what you'll be able to see.
Bob and I were talking at breakfast earlier. Air Force One is down in Wright-Patterson, Urbese, and Ohio. Is that right?
That's right.
I remember what you were talking about. There was a huge delay while they were getting the casket in the plane.
What happened was there was a bulkhead that was in the way. They had to cut the interior bulkhead out of the plane to get the casket in there and make the turn.
With a saw.
I mean, you know, like a rick.
If you want to see Air Force One that carried the President and where President Johnson was sworn in, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and if you want to see the limousine that President Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated,
it's at the Henry Ford Museum, formerly Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.
Back to George. We've got about a minute and a half left. Where did you watch the funeral, George?
At home.
At home. I got home just as they were arriving at Arlington. So I watched the rest of it in Arlington.
We didn't have color TVs back then. It was all black and white.
That's the thing that sticks in your mind is all of our televisions were black and white.
So we thought we were watching a newsreel, but it was real. It was real time.
I took a day off work of the factory and got chewed out the next day and I said, hey, fire me if you want. I wanted to watch the, see the President's funeral.
I have a picture in front of me when President Johnson was sworn in on Air Force One and reading the article, I guess for almost three hours we were without a president because they had to wait for a federal judge to come in and swear in to LBJ.
Well, this time has flown past. We've been talking to George Perrault, who was one of the members of the Honor Guard of President Kennedy when he was assassinated 45 years ago today.
George is in possibly the most famous photograph taken from high up in the rotunda looking down. He's the Navy guy in there.
If you go to Google Life Magazine pictures, you'll see him.
We're back here on Veterans Radio and that was Gary Lilly and you could hear the voices of Bob Gould as well as we were talking with George Perrault about his participation in the funeral for President Kennedy's funeral.
But even listening to that again, all the whole thing came back. The black and white TV screens, the constant drumming of the drums and then boom, boom, boom.
That was on for three solid days and I'm sure that there are many of you out there who can remember that and are picturing in your own mind right now what was happening at that time right after November 22, 1963.
And we talk about it 60 years ago. It's so hard to believe that. But I'm really grateful that we have that little segment there available for you to listen to.
And here at Veterans Radio, we keep talking about how important stories are. And some of the stories are so, I don't want to say ordinary because many of us have experienced the same things while we were in the service.
But here's a, you know, just a petty officer at the time being tapped to, you know, participate in one of the most watched events of last century.
And, you know, in talking with George since then, you know, we find out that all of these world leaders, as they pointed out, were there and you know, you can go to the Google pictures of her Life Magazine.
You can see what the world was like 60 years ago and it wasn't all black and white, you know, things were in color in reality. But it's just an amazing time to be alive just like everything else is, you know, it's amazing time to be alive today as we, you know, as we're watching, you know, what happens in the world.
You know, it's never going to be a peaceful time, it seems, whatever, you know, men of the world and men and women of the world just never seem to let things just be peaceful.
It would be so nice of that. But yeah, getting back to the idea of stories. So with Thanksgiving coming up this coming week, here is an opportunity for you to talk with your family.
Get some more of these great stories out there. And, you know, actually, in reality, in some tables, I know they leave an empty chair at the table on Thanksgiving and that chair symbolizes all of the relatives, obviously, who were no longer around.
But that symbol is there to talk about them and to tell the fun things that they did. And I encourage you to do that. Talk about your relatives. Talk about the history that you have had because your grandchildren, they're not aware of they were born.
Some of them after that show was done in 2008.
So I encourage you to do that. We're going to be playing a version of God bless America today. This one is a Karen messengers to the United States Army Band. I think you're going to really enjoy this version.
I play these now every week because I think they're so important for us to remember that we live in the greatest country in the world.
So until next week, this is Dale Thromary for all of us here. You are dismissed.
God bless America.
And that I love.
And I love.
And that I love.