All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry, CW2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam, 1969, centuries ago.
Welcome to our program. I'm really excited to have you on in with us. We're going to be talking about some Gold Star family from Operation Song.
Remember, we've talked to them in the past and they've got a just a wonderful story, an emotional story and so I'm looking forward to talking with them.
And then in the second half of the program, Dr. Rebecca Grant will be here to talk about what's going on in Israel in the Middle East and some other things as you know, she's our Foreign Affairs expert extraordinaire.
So just get ready to get yourself comfortable, sit back and relax. And first thing I have to do always is I have to thank our sponsors because without them we would never be here.
So I want to start off by thanking legal help for veterans legal help for veterans specializes in veterans disability claims.
For more information, you can go to their website that's legal help for veterans.com or give them a call at 800-693-4800.
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.
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You want to do business with the government and you're a veteran owned business, you got to get certified and these are the folks that will do that for you.
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For those of you that follow veterans radio, they were on the program last week, talking all about their services.
So I would encourage you to go to our archives and check out that story.
It's really very, very informative, not only for civilians, but especially for veterans families.
We also want to thank our long, long-term local veterans organizations for their support. That would be the Irwin Press Corps and American Legion Post 46.
And finally, the Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans of America chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
So we're going to get right into our story and we're having a little difficulty, I think, with the audio, but maybe not.
When are you there?
No, unfortunately, I cannot hear them.
While we're practicing this, I'm going to bring on the songwriter who helped them write the song. Let me back this up again.
I'm going to ask you to use your phone to call the station directly.
The number is 734-822-1600.
Wow, Aint Technology Grand.
So what we're asking the Pelhams to do, and this is Wendell and Dawn Pelham, the parents of John Pelham, who was killed in action in Afghanistan.
And we've been working or talking about Operation Song for a long time, but recently we started highlighting them on a regular basis.
And so I've got the writer of the music today, and that's Steve Williams. So Steve, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thank you. My pleasure to be here.
You know, we had the opportunity to talk with Steve a little bit more when the program, before we went on the air.
And he said that working with Dawn and Wendell was such a pleasure and such an amazing family.
I mean, that was the whole thing that you're talking about. The whole family got involved. How did you put that, the first song together, it's entitled Larger Than Life?
Well, I remember John's dad, Wendell, told me that he suspected that John would be bigger after his death, more popular than he was in life.
And, you know, the term larger than life came to mind.
And, you know, what it says in the song, the hook of the song says, you're bigger than death when you're larger than life.
And I think Wendell was right. From what I can tell, they have a program called Live Like John.
And a lot of people are, remember John more so than when he was among us, you know.
Now, and we were, we talked earlier a little bit about, you know, he's kind of be 22 forever.
I can't imagine that. I can't imagine it. Well, I've got Wendell on the phone line and hopefully I can hear both of you, Wendell and Dawn.
These are the mom and the dad in this story. So, Wendell, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Well, thank you. Thanks for having us on today. It's an honor to be with you.
Well, it's an honor for us to talk to you and Dawn, welcome as well.
Thank you so much.
Oh, good. It's a good connection. I like it. All right.
Here we go.
So, tell me a little bit about Army Specialist John Alexander Pelham.
Well, John was an awesome young man, full of potential and promise and always in a hurry once he made up his mind to do something.
You needed to get out of the way because he wasn't going to stop until he accomplished it.
And then he found himself struggling a bit in high school. Sports and girls were way more interesting than schoolwork.
And he ended up a few credits short the end of his junior year to be able to graduate.
So, he opted to go to a school about 300 miles away from us in Band, Oregon, called the Oregon Youth Challenge.
And it was run by the National Guard and he had the opportunity there to learn how to learn and to really grow into his potential.
And they really helped him turn his life around. He was into everything there.
He was the student government president. He was a, what was there?
The drill team leader.
The drill team leader. Anyway, he really excelled. He could have graduated from high school there.
But he opted to go back for his senior year to his high school here in Portland and play baseball and show everyone that he wasn't a mess up and that he could do what he knew he could do, what we knew he could do.
So, he did really well. He was a scholar athlete, which had never happened before.
And played baseball after being academically ineligible for the prior years and got on as a senior, did really great, ended up getting a scholarship to a small college in Reading, California.
And went there to play baseball and about halfway into the first term, he came home one weekend, just showed up and just said, you know, I feel like I'm wasting my time here.
And we were just like, wait, what? You're playing baseball. You're in college. You're doing, you know, kind of living the dream.
And he said, no, I think I'm going to join the Army. And that's what I need to do. I'm going to finish this semester and then I'm going to get into the Army.
And that's what he did. He went in and saw the recruiter. He got the MOS that he wanted. And, you know, next thing we knew, he was going into the Army.
And again, he excelled. He loved that life. He loved his unit, the guys he worked with, and he loved what he was doing.
He was an intelligence analyst, really good at it. We found out after the fact that how really good he was.
And so, you know, he just made us really proud. And he loved what he was doing, serving the country, had two deployments, and just a few went short of the end of the second deployment was when he was killed in Afghanistan.
And so that is bio in a nutshell.
Well, it, you know, it said, you know, you're in a couple of medals. I'll fill in some of the blanks that I was able to find.
Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Commendation, Joint Service, Achievement Medal, National Defense Medal, Afghanistan, Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, Global War on Terrorism.
He was a combat action badge and a parachutist badge. And that takes a lot. That's a special person in the military to accomplish all that at, you know, 22 years old.
And I'm sure that I'm sure that this whole thing has been so difficult for you, but it's a fairly large family from what I understand.
And then this is where I'm going to go. I'm going to ask you to go to do Operation Song. And how did you get involved with them?
We have a group of different nonprofits that we partner with throughout the country. And one of them said, Hey, there's this organization in Nashville that helps veterans and Ghostar families have songs written about themselves, their experiences, or in our case, their loved ones.
And so I reached out and made contact with them and they reached back out and put Steven in our lives. And that's been up.
This is a boy you can tell. So, Steven, I'm going to jump up to you because you were telling me about how you tried to put this song together with the Pellum Clan to do this.
Could you kind of tell our audience about this on the first song? There are two songs, by the way, that they put together here and play both of them today.
Go ahead. I'm sorry.
If I remember correctly, Wendell, correct me and Don, if I'm wrong. But the first time that we wrote was the whole family involved, all the siblings?
Yeah, you had written the first song and we gave it to the family and then we had a Zoom call with all of them, and just so they could give you the last touch ups, if you would.
And that's when they mentioned Angel Versary.
Right. Well, okay, so now I recall. But I remember speaking to you after we finished Larger Than Life, and you said, This is perfect because John's Angel Versary is coming up in February.
I think you said the 12th, I think you said. And then as soon as you said the word Angel Versary, I went ding, ding, ding, ding. It just sounded like a song to me.
And I thought that's probably even going to be a better tribute to John than the first song. But I think they're both great, good songs.
I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish.
But that's how the second, but backtracking here, writing with all of John's siblings as well, I found that to be pretty challenging because there was a lot of emotions there that day.
Well, I can imagine.
Yeah.
So, why don't we play the first song? The first song is entitled, not entitled, it's titled, one of my critics out there says I'm saying it too often.
Anyway, it's entitled, titled, Larger Than Life. So Derek, let's play Larger Than Life.
When you're more than a memory, more than a smile, more than a soldier man ranking fire.
More than a mission, given your own, more than a picture, or a black on the wall. When you're larger than life, more than a name, seven years can go by.
Still you remain making me you to rest, no matter where you lie. They say you're bigger than death when you're larger than life.
When you're more than a specialist, medals and stars, when you're more than a brave soul, a rare purple heart, more than 22 years, two tours of combat.
John Pelham, you're more than a flag, it has staff, but you're larger than life, more than a name, seven years can go by. Still you remain making me you to rest, but no matter where you lie.
You're bigger than death when you're larger than life.
When you're traveling down heroes highway, brought a tear to my eyes, you knew what they say sure is right. You're bigger than death when you're larger than life.
That was a Stephen Williams, the song was entitled larger than life, dedicated to John Alexander Pelham.
Every time I hear these songs that these operations song, people write along with the families and the veterans and stuff there. There's so much emotion in them. And there's so much truth to all of them.
I just think it's how did you feel when you heard that song of Don.
Well, I just felt like Stephen did such a great job just capturing the emotion and Wendell and I were talking earlier about you go to one of the national cemeteries and you just see the sea of headstones and, you know, each of those people had a story.
They have families, they have loved ones they left behind and and they have a personal song for our son.
And I can't imagine this whole thing. So Stephen, when you wrote the song.
And then you then they mentioned the word about the idea of the angel nursery and the bells went off. And so what this was this a joint effort with everybody in the in the family.
Well, I don't, as I recall, I don't.
We didn't really set out to write two songs.
But when Wendell said, this is perfect. This first song, he said, because John's angel, verse, we is coming up.
And I just felt compelled to write another note. You know, I thought, I can't just leave that title sitting there.
You know, I mean, this is worthy of being written on John's behalf, you know, and and actually I was just very inspired.
And whenever you have inspiration like that, you, you choose to get it done sooner than later, you know.
While while the fire is still hot, you know, so to speak.
I feel like you came back to us with that in about two days. Yeah.
Well, yeah, I, it was pretty quick because that's the way I didn't want to let it sit around for a month or two, you know, it probably wouldn't have been as good, you know, because like, you know, inspiration was there and.
And that's the thing about riding with the Gold Star families or any veterans, World War two guys.
If you can't be inspired by their stories, then you're probably not breathing, you know, you know, I sent, I sent my brother a CD once of all these operations song songs that I'd written with veterans and he, he wrote me back and said,
I said, you must have been inspired. And I said, you sit in a room for 20 minutes with any of these guys. And if you're not inspired, you know, there's something wrong.
You know, living. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
That was, you know, that was what was amazing about that song was all of the kids had a say in the conversation with Steve.
He was very gracious and listened to everything they had to say and then came back with that song. So each of them has a tie to that song.
Each of them can hear their emotion or their thoughts that he was so receptive to grab and and build both the songs really.
I mean, they're they're both really dynamic. And when we play them at events or play them for other people, you know, I will often say, Hey, by the way, I'm going to send you something really special.
Before you play it, I strongly encourage you to have at least one, if not two anchor chips and half a box, but a full box of Kleenex.
Because of that, there's that moving and that touching. And especially, especially angel nursery, because as Steven and I talked, it's not a song that's just for combat death or or training accident death in the military or self inflicted.
It's for cancer patients, if for heart patients, it's for anyone that loses a loved one, we all whether you want to put it this way or not get to have an angel nursery with them.
Exactly.
And how many how many of us go through an angel nursery, you know, when we think about our parents or, you know, people that we were in the service with our best friends and so on and so forth. And this really does.
And so, you know, we're going to go through our website veterans radio dot org, because we have the YouTube video that that's associated with this song up there for you. Don't do it right now.
But, you know, surely. And I think it's going to affect you the same way it's it's we're going to play this song, but we're a video that goes along with it.
And I think it's great family pictures and, you know, a lot of pictures of of John Pelham and, you know, you can, you can just see the potential in this young man's eyes.
Yep.
I don't know how you guys you were able to write that so I don't know how you could.
I'm so talented I just drive me nuts.
I agree with Wendell anyone that's lost a loved one can listen to this song and relate to it.
It's not just about a military death, but it is we wrote it on john's behalf but I think anyone can relate to this song.
I certainly agree with that. It's just, it's such a powerful story about a very courageous young man his life was cut way way too short.
Yes, you know, and Don and Wendell, you know, it sounds very cliched but you know our heart goes out to you on a daily basis that you know that your son was the one that was able to you know that was willing to pay that ultimate
sacrifice and you know we can we can we can feel good about that but you know that's fine.
And you know deal coming from coming from a military family.
My dad was a full Colonel retired and and passed away a couple years ago my older brother was a staff sergeant in the Ranger regiment.
He passed away last year. You know those those two were great inspirations for john.
They helped him see what a family of warriors looks like and feels like and acts like and and that was his opportunity to continue the legacy of the Pelham service to our countries.
And so, you know, at one at one side. Yes, it's devastating. And what I think we would like the listeners to hear is each of us are going to go through devastating and heartbreaking issues and situations and opportunities in our lives.
It's what we do after those situations or opportunities or devastating issues that make us who we are. And john's legacy is built around the opportunities that we've taken that we have been given to us to show the nation to show our neighbors or friends or family members that even in the most devastating of times can and will come if you're open to them.
Some of the most amazing blessings that we will have ever have had so having Stephen write the song amazing blessing. I got to serve for five years.
As a civilian advisor to the chief of staff of the army on all things related to how we take care of our ghost our families and the siblings and the moms and the dad.
And we have an amazing nonprofit that allows us to serve the veteran community. We just donated, I think 700 pairs of socks to a veteran homeless shelter.
We started to put the seed capital up for a endowment fund at South Carolina University in the name of a pilot of a of a Schenau helicopter.
You know, it's it's difficult at times it's extremely emotional most of the time, but the opportunities to serve are just endless.
And that's where, you know, with Operation song and with what you guys are doing on veterans radio. If, if folks will share the messages of be a great servant.
Serve your community do something to be a servant and your lives will be enriched beyond your absolute measure and imagination.
I'm assuming that you are pretty heavily involved with with the Gold Star family organization.
Yes, sir. Yeah, we we with what I got to do for the military and then what we do with our own nonprofit is, you know, we we we reach out to quite a few people and they reach out to us and, you know, we get to give great counsel, send them to their survivor outreach services
organizations in their cities or towns so they can make sure that they're getting all the features benefits and entitlements that they deserve and rightfully should have.
So in the five years I was on the survivors advisory working group for the chief of staff so I started with general Milley and ended with general McConnell and some of the legislation we got to pass for tax ramifications for kids who received some of their
fathers and mothers benefits was life changing some of the medical opportunities to have medical coverage and mental health changes for some of these families. So yeah, we we we're real proud of what we've done.
And proud of the fact that where the parents of John Pelham, who, through his death allows us to continue this legacy of of his, you know, somebody said, Well, what do you think, you know, about your son and I said, Well, the biggest example he's given to me is when I die, not if I need to I need to go
being as passionate about whatever it is I was doing at that moment, as john was when he kept kill. Then I think we could all look back and go. Yeah, we've had a pretty cool life.
That's great. I love the strength that that that all of you goal star parents have. And I want to thank you both so very much for being on our program today with an honor for me to talk with you.
And, you know, if there's ever anything we can do, please let us know here at veterans radio and we will be more than happy to promote whatever it is that you've got going on out there.
It's it's an honor for us to talk to people like you.
And we're going to play the angel verse and this is what we're going to go out on for this segment of veterans radio. So I want to make sure that I think, when though I think Don, I think your whole family for sharing john's life with all of us.
And I want to again thank you all very much and thank you Steve for the talent that you brought to the show.
Thank you my pleasure to be here.
Okay, we're going to play the song and when we had done with the song we're going to have a little break and we're going to be coming back here with Dr Rebecca Grant talk about what's still going on around the world folks.
So you're listening to veterans radio will be right back.
Close to my heart.
But there's one day I'm bound to take it hard.
Step time of year again.
Here come those tears again.
I'll raise my beer when toast your memory.
Each day since you've been gone.
I pray that I'll be strong.
Pray for mercy.
Your angel.
Some people keep their love wrapped in a letter.
Some plan a tree and say it makes them feel better.
I take your pictures and your favorite song.
I can't help thinking about you all day long.
Step time of year again.
Here come those tears again.
I'll raise my beer when toast your memory.
Each day since you've been gone.
I pray that I'll be strong.
Pray for mercy.
Your angel.
There's a time of year again.
Here come those tears again.
I'll raise my beer when toast your memory.
Each day since you've been gone.
I pray that I'll be strong.
Pray for mercy.
Your angel.
I pray for mercy.
Your angel.
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.
On April 4th, 2003, a call went out for a place to put some Iraqi prisoners.
Sergeant First Class Paul Smith volunteered to create a holding pen inside a walled courtyard.
Soon, Iraqi soldiers, numbering perhaps 100, opened fire on Smith's position.
Smith was accompanied by 16 men.
Smith called for a Bradley, a tank-like vehicle with a rapid-fire cannon.
It arrived and opened up on the Iraqis.
The enemy could not advance so long as the Bradley was in position.
But then, in a move that baffled and angered Smith's men, the Bradley left.
Smith's men, some of whom were wounded, were suddenly vulnerable.
Smith could have justifiably ordered his men to withdraw.
Smith rejected that option, thinking that abandoning the courtyard would jeopardize about 100 GIs outside, including medics at an aid station.
He manned a.50 caliber machine gun atop an abandoned armored personnel carrier
and fought off the Iraqis, going through several boxes of ammunition.
As the battle wound down, Smith was hit in the head.
He died before he could be evacuated from the scene.
The Medal of Honor series is a production of Veterans Radio.
A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
And we're back here on Veterans Radio, and I hope you really enjoyed that segment I did.
That was Operation Song.
They get together with the Gold Star families, obviously.
They also get together with veterans, and they just sit down and within a day or two, they write a beautiful song.
Just a beautiful song.
So I encourage you to go to operationsong.org and help them out.
Obviously, feel free to make a donation to keep that program going.
It's something we're really pleased to be associated with.
Coming up right now is where we're going to be talking to with our very good friend, Dr. Rebecca Grant.
Dr. Grant, as many of you know, who have been listening to Veterans Radio over the last 20 years, is our go-to person for foreign affairs.
Anything that has to do with the military.
And she always knows.
I don't know. She must have a lot of good inside connections and so forth there.
But she is a national security analyst based in Washington, M.C.
She earned her Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics.
And she worked for the Rand Corporation, was on the staff, the secretary of the Air Force, and the chief of staff of the Air Force.
She has founded her own Iris Independent Research Organization.
She specializes in research for government and aerospace industry clients,
ranging from the analysis of military campaigns to projects on major technology,
acquisition such as the B211 bomber.
She has written many articles for the Air Force magazine.
She appears regularly on Smithsonian, Fox News, CNN, and thankfully Veterans Radio,
and other media outlets talking about air power and national security.
So Dr. Grant, welcome back to Veterans Radio.
Thank you, Dale. I'm delighted to be back on the air with you and talking from Veterans Radio.
It's always very interesting to talk with you and there are many things going on in the world that we wanted you to address.
And of course, the main one right now is Israel and Hamas.
What's going on?
Dale, I'm telling you, the world is on fire.
I know everybody is watching this in the press, just as a quick overview of where the military piece of this stands.
Big development in the last couple of days is Israel has continuing their air campaign,
which they've been running mainly against the Hamas tunnel system and other command and control points.
But Israeli defense forces have also moved through to the sea coast there in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Dale, it turns out that about 70 to 80 percent of Hamas's military capability and their ammunition storage and all that bad stuff
is up in the northern part of Gaza.
So about a million civilians have moved away and out of that area. That is where the key operations are right now.
You know, overall Israel is trying to destroy Hamas's military capability.
And then the big question again in the tactical side is, will any of the other Iranian backed groups in the region jump into this conflict?
The big concern, of course, is up in the north Lebanon's Lebanese Hezbollah, who has 100,000 missiles and rockets of various types.
Their leader, Nasserullah, actually a couple of days ago, gave a highly anticipated speech, but he pretty much kept his options open.
There are attacks coming down from Lebanese Hezbollah into Israel, but it's been fairly low key so far.
And so right now we don't see a major move from Lebanese Hezbollah to join in this conflict, but the situation is still very, very dangerous.
And of course, I'll let you get in here for a minute, but we of course have a lot of US military forces in that region.
We need to talk about that too.
I was just going to ask that question because when you were out here for our fundraiser, we were talking about what was going on in Syria and the other areas surrounding Israel.
So where are we US troops right now?
Or where do you think they're going to be?
Right. Well, before that surprise Hamas attack on October 7th, the memorandum, we have a lot of forces in the Middle East.
They are there as part of the continuing anti-ISIS mission.
You know, that was really achieved and finished back in 2018, early 2019.
But for instance, we have, you know, about 1500 forces still in Syria.
A group is up there guarding the oil fields to make sure that no one tries to take those again.
There's a really well known little base at Atan, which is sort of a forward point.
And US forces are there still as part of a multi-nation coalition.
We also of course have forces in Iraq still under a status of forces arrangement and focused, of course, on two major air bases there, Al-Assad out to the west and then another base up towards the Kurdish regions in the north.
We've had forces in and out of Jordan air forces for quite some time and when this kicked off, we had F-35s there.
So we already had forces in the region and then Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin deployed another wave of forces there.
First aircraft to kind of beef up the surveillance and keep an eye on things.
So your A-10s, F-16s, I think the F-35s in Jordan got extended.
And then about 1200 additional personnel. These are described as command and control folks.
So, you know, there's an also additional missile defenses like Patriot and FAD, the Theater High Altitude Interceptor.
Those are going to our locations where we have US forces in the Middle East.
We've had actually Patriot missile batteries in, at our base in Iraq since Iran attacked it back in January of 2020.
It seems like a long time ago.
Beefing that up and then of course to not one but now two aircraft carrier strike groups.
The carrier USS Dwight Eisenhower was actually in the region doing an exercise with the Italians there in the Mediterranean.
So it was moved rapidly to the eastern med and then they actually sent, I'm sorry, that was the Gerald Ford that was there doing the exercises.
And they actually sent Dwight Eisenhower, which is a ship out of Norfolk.
They sent that aircraft carrier and her strike group over to the med as well.
Although, you know, indications may be that one of those can shift down into the North Arabian Gulf if necessary.
And so those are big signals to Iran and to the Iran backed militias and to Iran saying, hey, this means the US has plenty of strike power in this region.
So they're helping there with surveillance, command and control, but also there is ample striking power there.
If Iran chooses to escalate.
Also, a detachment from the Marines, the 26 Mu, which is a special operations capable unit, they were in Kuwait.
When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, they were doing a preplanned exercise and they got back, they stopped the exercise.
They got back on their ship, which was I think the USS Baton.
And they are also now in the region and because they are special operations capable that 26 Mu really brings a lot of capability in the area.
So, and that is without even going into though I'd love to talk about the, the folks that have been into Israel itself.
We want to talk about that as well.
But, you know, of course, number one priority for US policy is ensuring the safety of these forces.
There have been about 32 attacks out of into Iraq, those are the Iranian back malicious in Iraq, and then a group coming out of attacks from Syria as well.
But you know, our forces in the Middle East, they're they are used to these attacks and, you know, they can take whatever these malicious have to dish out.
You, that's only part of it.
Yeah, we are talking with Dr. Rebecca Grant here on Veterans Radio.
And you mentioned, do we have troops right now in Israel as far as you know?
Well, I wouldn't say troops.
I know no one's on the ground.
But here's who's kind of been in and out of Israel.
First, a Marine Lieutenant General James Glenn, who was a veteran of the combat in Fallujah with the Marines.
He went over in late October to discuss urban warfare with the Israeli Defense Forces.
He's back, I believe at this point.
We also apparently have a soft team of some variety there.
The Pentagon kind of just lets a little information out.
They're not super clear, of course, it's soft, so they're not going to tell us too much.
And we seem to have some individuals too involved in a kind of an air oriented planning element.
That is probably for a couple of reasons, but one of which is we do have C-17s going in and out of Israel on a pretty regular basis.
So what we have is some individuals there who are working with the Israeli Defense Forces really at their headquarters or at specific bases,
helping US security assistance flow in.
And I think doing a little de-conflicting, making sure our aircraft are getting in there fine.
And I'm sure giving some overall advice as I anticipate our military sharing a lot of surveillance and intelligence information with the Israeli Defense Forces too.
I would assume so.
Are we sending supplies into Israel yet?
Oh gosh, yes.
That started really quick.
Interesting, and it kind of just runs the gamut from something called Small Diameter Bomb, which is an air dot munition that's small,
but with a really, packs a wheel punch and it's very precise.
You can even use it on moving targets.
That's for the Israeli Air Forces.
We've sent one five five millimeter shells because like everybody, Israel sent a bunch of theirs up to Ukraine.
I mean, you know, all the one five five is on the planet have practically gone to Ukraine and so we're back filling some of the one five five that Israel had originally as well.
And then there's been other types of assistance going in and that started in fact almost right away with the additional munitions and other security assistance that has that the Biden administration started sending to Israel immediately.
Speaking of Ukraine, which nobody speaks about anymore right now, how do you see things going there?
Well, big topic of conversation in Washington because you know as usual here in DC we're in a, you know, where there's a budget countdown going on and the Biden administration had sent to Congress a bill that combined the next tranche of aid for Ukraine along with the aid for Israel and the house with the new speaker.
There's there wanting to pick that apart and do those as two separate bills. So there's a good bit of discussion about Ukraine.
As it was actually going on at the moment there is renewed fighting around the town of Bakhmut, which was a scene of a really long grinding campaign involving the Wagner group.
Russia did end up taking that city, but Ukraine has attacked on the flanks and they are in fact attacking again today.
And the good part about that this is up in the east, but it's it's keeping Russia and the eastern part from advancing any further towards areas particularly like the key road junction in the city of Kramatorsk.
And then down in the south we're continuing to see small attacks, you know, Vladimir Zelensky really pushed back this week on accusations that it's become a stalemate and he says no, that's not the case.
But definitely Ukraine is looking to kind of change its operating concept.
The fact remains they need to take back more territory, kick some more Russians out in order to get to a stable peace.
There's no sign that Putin wants to negotiate and the good news if there is some here is that the first of the Ukraine pilots are arriving in the US to be trained on the F16.
Oh, that's pretty interesting.
So you mentioned Putin and I keep seeing you.
I don't know I guess the rumors. I'm sure that they are that he's not in good health. Have you heard anything along those lines.
The rumors pop up all the time and yet I tell you he's done a lot this year you know look what happened to you gaining pre-Gosin who died in that very mysterious plane crash after leading that mutiny against Putin back in in June.
And so you know there he is and Russia has been pretty active because you know no surprise here. Russia is on the side of Hamas.
Of course Russia is continuing to purchase drones from Iran and to, you know, pledge their support for Iran.
And of course Russia has the forces of their own down in Syria and at Latakia, which is one of their key bases in that region.
So what are you as forces continue to have you know eyeballs on the Russians that are still in that eastern part of Syria so Russia is still very active whether Putin is healthy or not.
There's still a lot of Russian activity and of course meeting with Putin and Xi Jinping of China that took place several days ago when they had a big meeting in Beijing with over 100 nations attended.
Discussing future investment opportunities makes me sick just to think about it.
Not doing me any good either.
Speaking of China, you know, you know you mentioned when we when I asked you to come on this week that you wanted to talk about this, this Chinese aircraft that kind of buzzed a B-52 bomber.
Oh my gosh, yes. Let me just set the stage here the Pentagon actually released a report saying that China has been buzzing our aircraft out in the Pacific over the last really especially over the last 18 months and two years.
It's been going on for a while and you know Japan has lived with this for a long time as is Taiwan.
But the Pentagon really went to Great Lakes and released a report listing out specific incidents. And then you know about a week later, an American B-52 is on a mission.
It's nighttime. They're up over the South China Sea is probably for them these that B-52 they fly 1012 14 hour missions very routinely.
So there they are, you know, you probably crew five aboard and out of nowhere comes this hot dog in Chinese J11 pilot.
Okay.
Remember, it's dark. And this J11 pilot has, you know, practically the afterburner slit and he closes up underneath the B-52. And in front of that point the pilot cannot even see the J11.
He comes within 10 feet of the B-52. I'm telling you those Air Force officers in that B-52 great airmanship but that was that was a brush with death as far as I'm concerned that is so close.
Amazingly, it was Pentagon got it all on video so you know you Google it and see it it's just unbelievable.
Scary thing about this is the Pentagon tells us that these pilots are doing this on orders. This is not a rogue or some young fellow out to prove himself.
This is probably, you know, your J11 real experience pilot deciding he's going to close with this trying to create an incident and this is down over the South China Sea.
This is international airspace.
Really, really bad and I accept it despite that we saw California Governor Gavin Newsom go meet with Xi Jinping in Beijing I think it happened the same week.
And we may be seeing a visit by Xi Jinping to San Francisco but so so so scary what happened to that B-52 is just completely unprofessional unacceptable and it's frankly just deliberate they're just trying to provoke that B-52 I think maybe you know the B-52 used to
have a tailgun and they took him out many many years ago. Maybe it's time to put him back on.
I think they might want to do that too but that only about three minutes ago. I'm going to use a lot of information today. Tell us about our friend in North Korea. How's he doing?
He's doing good in North Korea. Well, you know, business is good in North Korea because turns out he can sell his ammunition back to Russia to use in Ukraine and this and that if that isn't just the worst.
And you know Kim Jong-un continues to work on his nuclear weapons development and you know the concern is that in these arrangements you know the Russian defense minister has gone to Pyongyang and they're making a deal where North Korea is supplying artillery rounds.
What's Russia giving them in return? Well, unfortunately, possibly some help and advice on adapting those older Soviet design systems to accommodate nuclear warheads. You know, North Korea does have nuclear weapons.
What they're trying to do is to get them onto submarines, onto longer range missiles and possibly even onto aircraft and they're still struggling with some technical issues.
So the concern is that this trade of ammunition so Russia can use it against Ukraine that the payoff will be some assistance with their technical development and of course China helps them too.
So no good news for North Korea.
No good news anywhere right now. Everybody seems to be in these constant conflicts and territorial spitting contests out there and especially in the Middle East.
I got one more minute. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Just back to the Middle East for a moment. We've had Secretary of State Blinken actually there today and talking with the Palestinian Authority leader in the West Bank, Makhmud Abbas, who's an older gentleman about, you know, they say they're not talking about how to get the Palestinian Authority to take control in Gaza, but I think they probably are.
So furious diplomacy behind the scenes as the U.S. is still working to try to get the hostages out as well. Government of Qatar helping there.
But really the only path forward here is for Israel to complete its military objectives. I do think we can contain Iran and praise to our U.S. forces there, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Special Forces and Space Force watching over all of this to try to contain that and make sure that we don't see escalation.
Occuring off the Middle East until Israel can get its security back.
Well, that's a lot of information. Dr. Rebecca Grant, always a pleasure to talk with you and get caught up on really what's happening in the world. So thank you very, very much.
Thank you, Dale. Love talking with Veterans Radio.
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We're going to be going out on another version of God Bless America. This one happened to be retired Marine Dan Clark and he was singing at the World Series in 2013.
So that's what we're doing. We will all be back next week on here on Veterans Radio until then you are dismissed.
And now for the singing of God Bless America. Please welcome retired United States Marine Sergeant Dan Clark.
God Bless America, land that I love, stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above, from the mountains to the prairies to the ocean.
White with home. God Bless America, my home sweet home.
God Bless America, my home sweet home.
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