1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,000 All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio. 2 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:20,000 And now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry. 3 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:31,000 Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry, CW2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam, 1969, centuries ago. 4 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:40,000 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. 5 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:51,000 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. 6 00:00:51,000 --> 00:01:05,000 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. 7 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:16,000 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. 8 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:23,000 So I want to start off by thanking legal help for veterans legal help for veterans specializes in veterans disability claims. 9 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:35,000 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. 10 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:44,000 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. 11 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:53,000 And you can go to their website that's NVB DC.org or give them a call at 888-237-8433. 12 00:01:53,000 --> 00:02:00,000 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. 13 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:08,000 The Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan for more information, go to va.gov slash Ann Arbor Healthcare. 14 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:14,000 And finally, we've got residential home health and hospice care for veterans and their families. 15 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:22,000 For more information, go to residential health care group dot com or give them a call at 866-902-5854. 16 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:28,000 For those of you that follow veterans radio, they were on the program last week, talking all about their services. 17 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,000 So I would encourage you to go to our archives and check out that story. 18 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:38,000 It's really very, very informative, not only for civilians, but especially for veterans families. 19 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:46,000 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. 20 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:54,000 And finally, the Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans of America chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan. 21 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:03,000 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. 22 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:06,000 When are you there? 23 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:10,000 No, unfortunately, I cannot hear them. 24 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:18,000 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. 25 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:24,000 I'm going to ask you to use your phone to call the station directly. 26 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:36,000 The number is 734-822-1600. 27 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,000 Wow, Aint Technology Grand. 28 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:54,000 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. 29 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:06,000 And we've been working or talking about Operation Song for a long time, but recently we started highlighting them on a regular basis. 30 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:12,000 And so I've got the writer of the music today, and that's Steve Williams. So Steve, welcome to Veterans Radio. 31 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:15,000 Thank you. My pleasure to be here. 32 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:21,000 You know, we had the opportunity to talk with Steve a little bit more when the program, before we went on the air. 33 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:32,000 And he said that working with Dawn and Wendell was such a pleasure and such an amazing family. 34 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:41,000 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? 35 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:57,000 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. 36 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:02,000 And, you know, the term larger than life came to mind. 37 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:10,000 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. 38 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:20,000 And I think Wendell was right. From what I can tell, they have a program called Live Like John. 39 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:30,000 And a lot of people are, remember John more so than when he was among us, you know. 40 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:40,000 Now, and we were, we talked earlier a little bit about, you know, he's kind of be 22 forever. 41 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:47,000 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. 42 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:54,000 These are the mom and the dad in this story. So, Wendell, welcome to Veterans Radio. 43 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:59,000 Well, thank you. Thanks for having us on today. It's an honor to be with you. 44 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:04,000 Well, it's an honor for us to talk to you and Dawn, welcome as well. 45 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,000 Thank you so much. 46 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:10,000 Oh, good. It's a good connection. I like it. All right. 47 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,000 Here we go. 48 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:20,000 So, tell me a little bit about Army Specialist John Alexander Pelham. 49 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:32,000 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. 50 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:37,000 You needed to get out of the way because he wasn't going to stop until he accomplished it. 51 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:44,000 And then he found himself struggling a bit in high school. Sports and girls were way more interesting than schoolwork. 52 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:49,000 And he ended up a few credits short the end of his junior year to be able to graduate. 53 00:06:49,000 --> 00:07:00,000 So, he opted to go to a school about 300 miles away from us in Band, Oregon, called the Oregon Youth Challenge. 54 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:10,000 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. 55 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:16,000 And they really helped him turn his life around. He was into everything there. 56 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:21,000 He was the student government president. He was a, what was there? 57 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:22,000 The drill team leader. 58 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:28,000 The drill team leader. Anyway, he really excelled. He could have graduated from high school there. 59 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:42,000 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. 60 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:48,000 So, he did really well. He was a scholar athlete, which had never happened before. 61 00:07:48,000 --> 00:08:05,000 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. 62 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:18,000 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. 63 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:24,000 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. 64 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:34,000 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. 65 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:46,000 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. 66 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:57,000 And again, he excelled. He loved that life. He loved his unit, the guys he worked with, and he loved what he was doing. 67 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:05,000 He was an intelligence analyst, really good at it. We found out after the fact that how really good he was. 68 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:21,000 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. 69 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:27,000 And so that is bio in a nutshell. 70 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:34,000 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. 71 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:45,000 Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Commendation, Joint Service, Achievement Medal, National Defense Medal, Afghanistan, Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, Global War on Terrorism. 72 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:58,000 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. 73 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:11,000 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. 74 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:24,000 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? 75 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:47,000 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. 76 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:58,000 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. 77 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:14,000 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. 78 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:26,000 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. 79 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:27,000 Go ahead. I'm sorry. 80 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:40,000 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? 81 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:52,000 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. 82 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:56,000 And that's when they mentioned Angel Versary. 83 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:09,000 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. 84 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:21,000 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. 85 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:32,000 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. 86 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:35,000 I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish. 87 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:48,000 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. 88 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:50,000 Well, I can imagine. 89 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:52,000 Yeah. 90 00:12:52,000 --> 00:13:05,000 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. 91 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:23,000 Anyway, it's entitled, titled, Larger Than Life. So Derek, let's play Larger Than Life. 92 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:53,000 When you're more than a memory, more than a smile, more than a soldier man ranking fire. 93 00:13:53,000 --> 00:14:13,000 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. 94 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:34,000 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. 95 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:51,000 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. 96 00:14:51,000 --> 00:15:15,000 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. 97 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:32,000 You're bigger than death when you're larger than life. 98 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:55,000 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. 99 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:17,000 That was a Stephen Williams, the song was entitled larger than life, dedicated to John Alexander Pelham. 100 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:33,000 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. 101 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:39,000 I just think it's how did you feel when you heard that song of Don. 102 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:59,000 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. 103 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:09,000 They have families, they have loved ones they left behind and and they have a personal song for our son. 104 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:30,000 And I can't imagine this whole thing. So Stephen, when you wrote the song. 105 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:45,000 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. 106 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:48,000 Well, I don't, as I recall, I don't. 107 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:51,000 We didn't really set out to write two songs. 108 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:59,000 But when Wendell said, this is perfect. This first song, he said, because John's angel, verse, we is coming up. 109 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:09,000 And I just felt compelled to write another note. You know, I thought, I can't just leave that title sitting there. 110 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:20,000 You know, I mean, this is worthy of being written on John's behalf, you know, and and actually I was just very inspired. 111 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:28,000 And whenever you have inspiration like that, you, you choose to get it done sooner than later, you know. 112 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:33,000 While while the fire is still hot, you know, so to speak. 113 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:37,000 I feel like you came back to us with that in about two days. Yeah. 114 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:54,000 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. 115 00:18:54,000 --> 00:19:02,000 And that's the thing about riding with the Gold Star families or any veterans, World War two guys. 116 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:21,000 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, 117 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:30,000 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. 118 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:35,000 You know, living. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 119 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:46,000 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. 120 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:55,000 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. 121 00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:08,000 Each of them can hear their emotion or their thoughts that he was so receptive to grab and and build both the songs really. 122 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:19,000 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. 123 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:28,000 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. 124 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:48,000 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. 125 00:20:48,000 --> 00:21:00,000 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. 126 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:01,000 Exactly. 127 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:21,000 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. 128 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:32,000 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. 129 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:41,000 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. 130 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:53,000 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. 131 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:54,000 Yep. 132 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:58,000 I don't know how you guys you were able to write that so I don't know how you could. 133 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:03,000 I'm so talented I just drive me nuts. 134 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:11,000 I agree with Wendell anyone that's lost a loved one can listen to this song and relate to it. 135 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:22,000 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. 136 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:36,000 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. 137 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:51,000 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 138 00:22:51,000 --> 00:23:00,000 sacrifice and you know we can we can we can feel good about that but you know that's fine. 139 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:04,000 And you know deal coming from coming from a military family. 140 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:13,000 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. 141 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:21,000 He passed away last year. You know those those two were great inspirations for john. 142 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:36,000 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. 143 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:56,000 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. 144 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:22,000 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. 145 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:33,000 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. 146 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:44,000 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. 147 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:57,000 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. 148 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:09,000 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. 149 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:19,000 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. 150 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:32,000 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. 151 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:43,000 Serve your community do something to be a servant and your lives will be enriched beyond your absolute measure and imagination. 152 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:51,000 I'm assuming that you are pretty heavily involved with with the Gold Star family organization. 153 00:25:51,000 --> 00:26:10,000 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 154 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:20,000 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. 155 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:36,000 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 156 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:55,000 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. 157 00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:15,000 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 158 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:29,000 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. 159 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:44,000 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. 160 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:59,000 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. 161 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,000 It's it's an honor for us to talk to people like you. 162 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:20,000 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. 163 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:27,000 And I want to again thank you all very much and thank you Steve for the talent that you brought to the show. 164 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,000 Thank you my pleasure to be here. 165 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:40,000 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. 166 00:28:40,000 --> 00:29:03,000 So you're listening to veterans radio will be right back. 167 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:13,000 Close to my heart. 168 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:19,000 But there's one day I'm bound to take it hard. 169 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:22,000 Step time of year again. 170 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,000 Here come those tears again. 171 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:31,000 I'll raise my beer when toast your memory. 172 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,000 Each day since you've been gone. 173 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,000 I pray that I'll be strong. 174 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,000 Pray for mercy. 175 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:44,000 Your angel. 176 00:29:54,000 --> 00:30:00,000 Some people keep their love wrapped in a letter. 177 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:06,000 Some plan a tree and say it makes them feel better. 178 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:12,000 I take your pictures and your favorite song. 179 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:18,000 I can't help thinking about you all day long. 180 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,000 Step time of year again. 181 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,000 Here come those tears again. 182 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:30,000 I'll raise my beer when toast your memory. 183 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:36,000 Each day since you've been gone. 184 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,000 I pray that I'll be strong. 185 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,000 Pray for mercy. 186 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:45,000 Your angel. 187 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:56,000 There's a time of year again. 188 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,000 Here come those tears again. 189 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:05,000 I'll raise my beer when toast your memory. 190 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,000 Each day since you've been gone. 191 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,000 I pray that I'll be strong. 192 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,000 Pray for mercy. 193 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,000 Your angel. 194 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:23,000 I pray for mercy. 195 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,000 Your angel. 196 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:55,000 Your angel. 197 00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,000 You have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals. 198 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:04,000 Contact Legal Help for Veterans at 1-800-693-4800. 199 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:08,000 They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. 200 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:12,000 Their number again, 1-800-693-4800. 201 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:17,000 On April 4th, 2003, a call went out for a place to put some Iraqi prisoners. 202 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:23,000 Sergeant First Class Paul Smith volunteered to create a holding pen inside a walled courtyard. 203 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:29,000 Soon, Iraqi soldiers, numbering perhaps 100, opened fire on Smith's position. 204 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,000 Smith was accompanied by 16 men. 205 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:36,000 Smith called for a Bradley, a tank-like vehicle with a rapid-fire cannon. 206 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,000 It arrived and opened up on the Iraqis. 207 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,000 The enemy could not advance so long as the Bradley was in position. 208 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:47,000 But then, in a move that baffled and angered Smith's men, the Bradley left. 209 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:51,000 Smith's men, some of whom were wounded, were suddenly vulnerable. 210 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:55,000 Smith could have justifiably ordered his men to withdraw. 211 00:32:55,000 --> 00:33:03,000 Smith rejected that option, thinking that abandoning the courtyard would jeopardize about 100 GIs outside, including medics at an aid station. 212 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:08,000 He manned a.50 caliber machine gun atop an abandoned armored personnel carrier 213 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:12,000 and fought off the Iraqis, going through several boxes of ammunition. 214 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,000 As the battle wound down, Smith was hit in the head. 215 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:19,000 He died before he could be evacuated from the scene. 216 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:22,000 The Medal of Honor series is a production of Veterans Radio. 217 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,000 A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 218 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:03,000 And we're back here on Veterans Radio, and I hope you really enjoyed that segment I did. 219 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:07,000 That was Operation Song. 220 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,000 They get together with the Gold Star families, obviously. 221 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:18,000 They also get together with veterans, and they just sit down and within a day or two, they write a beautiful song. 222 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:19,000 Just a beautiful song. 223 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:24,000 So I encourage you to go to operationsong.org and help them out. 224 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:29,000 Obviously, feel free to make a donation to keep that program going. 225 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:33,000 It's something we're really pleased to be associated with. 226 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:39,000 Coming up right now is where we're going to be talking to with our very good friend, Dr. Rebecca Grant. 227 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:47,000 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. 228 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:49,000 Anything that has to do with the military. 229 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:52,000 And she always knows. 230 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:56,000 I don't know. She must have a lot of good inside connections and so forth there. 231 00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,000 But she is a national security analyst based in Washington, M.C. 232 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:05,000 She earned her Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics. 233 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:12,000 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. 234 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:17,000 She has founded her own Iris Independent Research Organization. 235 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:21,000 She specializes in research for government and aerospace industry clients, 236 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:26,000 ranging from the analysis of military campaigns to projects on major technology, 237 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,000 acquisition such as the B211 bomber. 238 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:32,000 She has written many articles for the Air Force magazine. 239 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:39,000 She appears regularly on Smithsonian, Fox News, CNN, and thankfully Veterans Radio, 240 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,000 and other media outlets talking about air power and national security. 241 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,000 So Dr. Grant, welcome back to Veterans Radio. 242 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:53,000 Thank you, Dale. I'm delighted to be back on the air with you and talking from Veterans Radio. 243 00:35:53,000 --> 00:36:01,000 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. 244 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:05,000 And of course, the main one right now is Israel and Hamas. 245 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:07,000 What's going on? 246 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:09,000 Dale, I'm telling you, the world is on fire. 247 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:19,000 I know everybody is watching this in the press, just as a quick overview of where the military piece of this stands. 248 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:25,000 Big development in the last couple of days is Israel has continuing their air campaign, 249 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:32,000 which they've been running mainly against the Hamas tunnel system and other command and control points. 250 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:40,000 But Israeli defense forces have also moved through to the sea coast there in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. 251 00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:50,000 Dale, it turns out that about 70 to 80 percent of Hamas's military capability and their ammunition storage and all that bad stuff 252 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:53,000 is up in the northern part of Gaza. 253 00:36:53,000 --> 00:37:02,000 So about a million civilians have moved away and out of that area. That is where the key operations are right now. 254 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:08,000 You know, overall Israel is trying to destroy Hamas's military capability. 255 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:19,000 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? 256 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:31,000 The big concern, of course, is up in the north Lebanon's Lebanese Hezbollah, who has 100,000 missiles and rockets of various types. 257 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:42,000 Their leader, Nasserullah, actually a couple of days ago, gave a highly anticipated speech, but he pretty much kept his options open. 258 00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:52,000 There are attacks coming down from Lebanese Hezbollah into Israel, but it's been fairly low key so far. 259 00:37:52,000 --> 00:38:01,000 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. 260 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:08,000 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. 261 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,000 We need to talk about that too. 262 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:21,000 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. 263 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,000 So where are we US troops right now? 264 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:28,000 Or where do you think they're going to be? 265 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:35,000 Right. Well, before that surprise Hamas attack on October 7th, the memorandum, we have a lot of forces in the Middle East. 266 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:40,000 They are there as part of the continuing anti-ISIS mission. 267 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:45,000 You know, that was really achieved and finished back in 2018, early 2019. 268 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:52,000 But for instance, we have, you know, about 1500 forces still in Syria. 269 00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:58,000 A group is up there guarding the oil fields to make sure that no one tries to take those again. 270 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:04,000 There's a really well known little base at Atan, which is sort of a forward point. 271 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:10,000 And US forces are there still as part of a multi-nation coalition. 272 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:25,000 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. 273 00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:34,000 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. 274 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:43,000 So we already had forces in the region and then Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin deployed another wave of forces there. 275 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:48,000 First aircraft to kind of beef up the surveillance and keep an eye on things. 276 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:54,000 So your A-10s, F-16s, I think the F-35s in Jordan got extended. 277 00:39:54,000 --> 00:40:01,000 And then about 1200 additional personnel. These are described as command and control folks. 278 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:11,000 So, you know, there's an also additional missile defenses like Patriot and FAD, the Theater High Altitude Interceptor. 279 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:18,000 Those are going to our locations where we have US forces in the Middle East. 280 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:25,000 We've had actually Patriot missile batteries in, at our base in Iraq since Iran attacked it back in January of 2020. 281 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,000 It seems like a long time ago. 282 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:33,000 Beefing that up and then of course to not one but now two aircraft carrier strike groups. 283 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:42,000 The carrier USS Dwight Eisenhower was actually in the region doing an exercise with the Italians there in the Mediterranean. 284 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:51,000 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. 285 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:55,000 And they actually sent Dwight Eisenhower, which is a ship out of Norfolk. 286 00:40:55,000 --> 00:41:00,000 They sent that aircraft carrier and her strike group over to the med as well. 287 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:07,000 Although, you know, indications may be that one of those can shift down into the North Arabian Gulf if necessary. 288 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:20,000 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. 289 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:26,000 So they're helping there with surveillance, command and control, but also there is ample striking power there. 290 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:29,000 If Iran chooses to escalate. 291 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:41,000 Also, a detachment from the Marines, the 26 Mu, which is a special operations capable unit, they were in Kuwait. 292 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:49,000 When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, they were doing a preplanned exercise and they got back, they stopped the exercise. 293 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,000 They got back on their ship, which was I think the USS Baton. 294 00:41:52,000 --> 00:42:02,000 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. 295 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:09,000 So, and that is without even going into though I'd love to talk about the, the folks that have been into Israel itself. 296 00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,000 We want to talk about that as well. 297 00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:17,000 But, you know, of course, number one priority for US policy is ensuring the safety of these forces. 298 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:28,000 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. 299 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:38,000 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. 300 00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,000 You, that's only part of it. 301 00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:44,000 Yeah, we are talking with Dr. Rebecca Grant here on Veterans Radio. 302 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:49,000 And you mentioned, do we have troops right now in Israel as far as you know? 303 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:51,000 Well, I wouldn't say troops. 304 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:53,000 I know no one's on the ground. 305 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:56,000 But here's who's kind of been in and out of Israel. 306 00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:04,000 First, a Marine Lieutenant General James Glenn, who was a veteran of the combat in Fallujah with the Marines. 307 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:11,000 He went over in late October to discuss urban warfare with the Israeli Defense Forces. 308 00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:13,000 He's back, I believe at this point. 309 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:19,000 We also apparently have a soft team of some variety there. 310 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:21,000 The Pentagon kind of just lets a little information out. 311 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:25,000 They're not super clear, of course, it's soft, so they're not going to tell us too much. 312 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:31,000 And we seem to have some individuals too involved in a kind of an air oriented planning element. 313 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:40,000 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. 314 00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:49,000 So what we have is some individuals there who are working with the Israeli Defense Forces really at their headquarters or at specific bases, 315 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:52,000 helping US security assistance flow in. 316 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:58,000 And I think doing a little de-conflicting, making sure our aircraft are getting in there fine. 317 00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:12,000 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. 318 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:14,000 I would assume so. 319 00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:20,000 Are we sending supplies into Israel yet? 320 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:21,000 Oh gosh, yes. 321 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:23,000 That started really quick. 322 00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:33,000 Interesting, and it kind of just runs the gamut from something called Small Diameter Bomb, which is an air dot munition that's small, 323 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:36,000 but with a really, packs a wheel punch and it's very precise. 324 00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:38,000 You can even use it on moving targets. 325 00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:40,000 That's for the Israeli Air Forces. 326 00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:48,000 We've sent one five five millimeter shells because like everybody, Israel sent a bunch of theirs up to Ukraine. 327 00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:57,000 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. 328 00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:13,000 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. 329 00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:21,000 Speaking of Ukraine, which nobody speaks about anymore right now, how do you see things going there? 330 00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:41,000 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. 331 00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:47,000 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. 332 00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:59,000 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. 333 00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:08,000 Russia did end up taking that city, but Ukraine has attacked on the flanks and they are in fact attacking again today. 334 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:24,000 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. 335 00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:39,000 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. 336 00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:45,000 But definitely Ukraine is looking to kind of change its operating concept. 337 00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:50,000 The fact remains they need to take back more territory, kick some more Russians out in order to get to a stable peace. 338 00:46:50,000 --> 00:47:03,000 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. 339 00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:06,000 Oh, that's pretty interesting. 340 00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:09,000 So you mentioned Putin and I keep seeing you. 341 00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:16,000 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. 342 00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:32,000 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. 343 00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:43,000 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. 344 00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:55,000 Of course Russia is continuing to purchase drones from Iran and to, you know, pledge their support for Iran. 345 00:47:55,000 --> 00:48:06,000 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. 346 00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:19,000 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. 347 00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:35,000 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. 348 00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:41,000 Discussing future investment opportunities makes me sick just to think about it. 349 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:45,000 Not doing me any good either. 350 00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:59,000 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. 351 00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:15,000 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. 352 00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:20,000 It's been going on for a while and you know Japan has lived with this for a long time as is Taiwan. 353 00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:32,000 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. 354 00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:44,000 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. 355 00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:55,000 So there they are, you know, you probably crew five aboard and out of nowhere comes this hot dog in Chinese J11 pilot. 356 00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:56,000 Okay. 357 00:49:56,000 --> 00:50:14,000 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. 358 00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:28,000 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. 359 00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:35,000 Amazingly, it was Pentagon got it all on video so you know you Google it and see it it's just unbelievable. 360 00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:45,000 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. 361 00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:55,000 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. 362 00:50:55,000 --> 00:50:57,000 This is international airspace. 363 00:50:57,000 --> 00:51:06,000 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. 364 00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:26,000 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 365 00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:31,000 have a tailgun and they took him out many many years ago. Maybe it's time to put him back on. 366 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:41,000 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? 367 00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:56,000 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. 368 00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:14,000 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. 369 00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:28,000 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. 370 00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:39,000 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. 371 00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:51,000 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. 372 00:52:51,000 --> 00:52:55,000 So no good news for North Korea. 373 00:52:55,000 --> 00:53:10,000 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. 374 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:14,000 I got one more minute. Is there anything else that you would like to add? 375 00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:36,000 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. 376 00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:46,000 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. 377 00:53:46,000 --> 00:54:05,000 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. 378 00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:10,000 Occuring off the Middle East until Israel can get its security back. 379 00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:20,000 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. 380 00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:23,000 Thank you, Dale. Love talking with Veterans Radio. 381 00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:26,000 Thank you. No, all right, folks. 382 00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:39,000 It's another Veterans Radio program. We've got music. We've got information for you. We encourage you to go to our website, veterans radio.org to listen to this program or other programs that are in our archives. 383 00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:45,000 Also, if you'd like to support us, we'd love you to go on the website, click the donate button. 20 years, 20 bucks. 384 00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:48,000 That's all we're asking for it at this time. 385 00:54:48,000 --> 00:55:01,000 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. 386 00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:09,000 So that's what we're doing. We will all be back next week on here on Veterans Radio until then you are dismissed. 387 00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:21,000 And now for the singing of God Bless America. Please welcome retired United States Marine Sergeant Dan Clark. 388 00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:50,000 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. 389 00:55:50,000 --> 00:56:09,000 White with home. God Bless America, my home sweet home. 390 00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:38,000 God Bless America, my home sweet home. 391 00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:49,000 Hello, it is Ryan and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. 392 00:56:49,000 --> 00:57:00,000 That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. 393 00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:07,000 That should brighten your day a lot. Actually a lot. 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