1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,640 All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio. 2 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:15,920 This is Veterans Radio. 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:17,840 Welcome to Veterans Radio. 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,560 I am Jim Fausone. 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:22,880 I'm the officer of the deck today. 6 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:24,720 We've got some great programs for you. 7 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,760 I think you'll find very interesting. 8 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:34,480 We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook site 9 00:00:34,480 --> 00:00:37,280 or at the web. 10 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:42,720 VeteransRadio.org is our new URL, VeteransRadio.org. 11 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:48,240 Where we're on the web 24-7, you can find a lot of our podcasts there as well. 12 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:55,520 We post new ones every Tuesday, so you can get a new story, a new interview, something 13 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:59,280 you didn't know before by going to VeteransRadio.org. 14 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:04,560 And before we get started, we want to thank our sponsors. 15 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:13,840 First up, we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org. 16 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:19,520 It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran owned businesses. 17 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:26,040 You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org. 18 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:29,560 We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans. 19 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:35,080 Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation. 20 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:46,840 You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at LegalHelpForVeterans.com. 21 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:51,880 We want to welcome to VeteransRadio today Michael Plunkett. 22 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:55,360 He is a Marine. 23 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:58,320 We're going to talk about his service and we're going to talk about an endeavor that 24 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:01,920 he's involved in called Literature of War Foundation. 25 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:03,920 Michael, welcome to VeteransRadio. 26 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:06,920 Hey, thanks for having me, guys. 27 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:08,440 Well, you know, it's interesting. 28 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:12,920 This is a topic we've talked, touched on a few times, and that is military service 29 00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:18,000 does give some guys and gals an opportunity to read some literature that they didn't 30 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,600 do in high school or college. 31 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:25,640 And so this is an area of interest to me. 32 00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:30,640 But before we get there, tell us how a nice kid from Long Island ended up in the Marine 33 00:02:30,640 --> 00:02:31,640 Reserves. 34 00:02:31,640 --> 00:02:32,640 Yeah, of course. 35 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:37,560 Kind of, I did a lot of things a little bit out of order in my life. 36 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:39,320 Graduated high school, 18 years old. 37 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:42,360 I told my parents I want to join the Marine Corps. 38 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:43,800 And they were like, absolutely not. 39 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,000 We want you to go to college. 40 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,920 So I looked around, didn't really like what I was seeing too much. 41 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:52,160 But I applied to Gettysburg College because I was a big Civil War guy. 42 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,840 And I said, if I don't get in here, I'm joining the Marine Corps. 43 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:58,880 And I got in, which looking back on it, that would have been 2009. 44 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:03,040 I think my life would have been a lot different if I had not gotten into the Gettysburg. 45 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:04,040 But I did. 46 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:09,200 I went, I took a look at ROTC, decided it wasn't really for me and kind of had four 47 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:10,200 years of college. 48 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:12,600 I had a wonderful time, really enjoyed myself. 49 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:16,160 Got out, I was an English teacher for a hot minute. 50 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:19,160 And then, I don't know, the desire never left me. 51 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:23,600 So I ended up bumping into a family friend who he had just gotten back from a deployment 52 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:26,160 as a reservist in the Marine Corps. 53 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:27,680 And he was telling me all about it. 54 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:30,400 And like I said, the desire just never left me. 55 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:34,040 So I put my papers into my teaching job. 56 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:38,080 In June 6th, I left for Parris Island to go become a machine gunner. 57 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:42,400 They tried talking me into looking at becoming an officer. 58 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:47,880 And I just, I don't know, I envisioned being an enlisted Marine that always appealed to 59 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:48,880 me. 60 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:53,600 Specifically, the infantry was something that I thought was, it had a certain appeal to 61 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:54,600 me. 62 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:55,600 And I went for it. 63 00:03:55,600 --> 00:04:00,240 It doesn't sound like that came out of sort of a family history of military service, 64 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:01,240 though. 65 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:03,600 Well, actually, it's funny you mentioned that. 66 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:07,000 The reason I picked the Marine Corps is because of my grandfather. 67 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:11,240 He served in the Marines early in Korea. 68 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:12,760 He was actually at Incheong. 69 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:14,400 He was on the streets of Seoul. 70 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:18,120 And then he was up at the Chosun Reservoir when the Chinese came in. 71 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:20,240 So he didn't speak about it that much. 72 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:22,800 He was a 19-year-old kid when he went through that experience. 73 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:24,680 But he was a rifleman. 74 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:27,520 And towards the end of his life, he kind of opened up about it. 75 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:33,440 So I grew up hearing about the stories of what it was like to serve in the Chosun Reservoir 76 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:36,000 and being surrounded by the Chinese and all that. 77 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:37,800 Not that he didn't really idealize it. 78 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:41,960 He didn't romanticize it, but that was his lived experience. 79 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:45,320 So I definitely internalized some of that as a youngster. 80 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:48,160 And as I got older, it stayed relevant to me. 81 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:55,800 Well, that's interesting because those Marines, those young Marines, the frozen Chosun, wow, 82 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:58,480 what they went through is really quite incredible. 83 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:05,120 And so many people have forgotten about the Korean War and what all those guys went through 84 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:10,000 against the communists is something that we should not forget about. 85 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:11,600 So that sort of planted a seed. 86 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:18,040 But I'm wondering whether or not that maybe was also the seed for your going to school, 87 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:23,320 becoming an English teacher, moving on to be a writer. 88 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:29,920 You have a master's in creative writing from the College of Charleston, South Carolina. 89 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:32,120 Where did the writing bug come from? 90 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:35,920 Well, it's a great question. 91 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:41,200 Writing and more so storytelling has always been a big part of the way I communicate with 92 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,440 people is the way that my family communicates. 93 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:51,160 My grandmother, some of my most clear childhood memories are the stories that my grandmother 94 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:55,080 would tell me at the Christmas party or when we would go out to visit her over on summer 95 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:56,080 vacations. 96 00:05:56,080 --> 00:06:00,000 And that's the way we transfer our history from one generation to the next. 97 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,960 And I don't mean to make it too serious, I mean, most of these stories were very funny, 98 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:07,920 but she had a way of just making it so interesting. 99 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:12,360 Everything from her parents to, like honestly, like most of my grandfather's Marine Corps 100 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:16,160 stories came through her because he told all of them to her when they were younger. 101 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:19,320 And even though he was part of that generation that didn't talk about it that much, my grandmother 102 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:21,400 talked about everything. 103 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:24,120 She could make a monk talk. 104 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:27,120 And so she would relay these kind of stories to me. 105 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:28,200 And that always stuck with me. 106 00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:35,400 So when I was a typical writer kind of kid story, even when I was in elementary school, 107 00:06:35,400 --> 00:06:39,600 you give me a paper and pen, I would be scribbling away writing all sorts of stories that came 108 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:40,600 into my head. 109 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:41,760 And that just never really left, right? 110 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:47,040 So when I ended up going to get my master's in creative writing, it was one of these, 111 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:51,120 at that point I was the reservist, I was doing my once a month drill weekends, and I'd actually 112 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:53,000 switched over to working in finance. 113 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:54,080 I hated it. 114 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:56,160 I was really miserable. 115 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:58,560 The whole time I had kept writing. 116 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:03,440 I'd finished an entire novel in the odd hours early in the morning, late at night. 117 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:06,000 And I was finally like, you know what? 118 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:08,560 It's time to either do this or don't do it. 119 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:09,560 I'm going to take the next step. 120 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,280 And for me, that was getting a creative writing degree. 121 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:18,840 Well, I normally joke when I talk to my Marine interviews here about how a Marine thought 122 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,840 they could write something with crayons. 123 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:24,760 But obviously you were a writer before you became a Marine. 124 00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:29,200 So I think that gives you a pass. 125 00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:37,200 So let's turn to this idea of the literature of war foundation that you started with an 126 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:42,560 active duty Marine Lieutenant Colonel that you should talk about. 127 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:43,880 But get us started. 128 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:44,880 How did this happen? 129 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:45,880 Yeah. 130 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:51,840 So Lieutenant Colonel Tom Schumann, a good friend of mine, he had served, he had taken 131 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:57,640 an appointment as an English professor at the Naval Academy a couple of years ago. 132 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:00,240 He's kind of a unicorn in the Marine Corps. 133 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:02,680 He has done quite a few different billets. 134 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,120 He's had some interesting experiences. 135 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:09,280 And kind of on a whim, he'd applied to get a graduate degree through the Marine Corps. 136 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:12,720 They were offering a special English degree program. 137 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:15,040 And he was able to get that degree. 138 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:17,680 And then because of that, he was offered this appointment at the Naval Academy. 139 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:21,680 And he spent a semester or excuse me, a year teaching there. 140 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:25,040 And those experiences had a profound impact on him. 141 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:30,200 He was working with these young cadets and they were talking about literature, specifically 142 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:31,880 war literature. 143 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:36,760 And he started this Instagram account called literature war, war lit of war for short. 144 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:41,840 And he was just posting quotes, little red square with quotes from some texts that had 145 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:43,080 an impact on him. 146 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:44,360 And it took off, right? 147 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:46,080 And that's where he pulled me in. 148 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:48,720 And he said, you know, he's still an active duty Marines. 149 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:52,160 We had active duty Marine things to do and he's like, I can't be hanging out on Instagram 150 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:53,160 all day. 151 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:55,080 So why don't you take this over? 152 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:56,800 And it continued to grow. 153 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:03,680 And we ended up incorporating as a 501C3 nonprofit, right, through the IRS, with the idea of how 154 00:09:03,680 --> 00:09:05,400 do we take this to the next level, right? 155 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:10,040 Like how do we have immediate impact on our active duty serving men and women? 156 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:14,520 And all the branches, like what is the best way to do that through literature? 157 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:16,320 We did some book drives. 158 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:18,680 We've done, you know, a couple of little things like that. 159 00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:23,440 But when we did our book drives, we sent a lot of probably around 400 books out to various 160 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:24,920 active duty units. 161 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:29,560 And it was great, except we don't know what happened to the books after they were received. 162 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:30,560 You know what I mean? 163 00:09:30,560 --> 00:09:34,360 Like we don't know if there's in a library somewhere or they shoved in a closet. 164 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:35,360 We don't know. 165 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:40,160 So we had to go back to the drawing board and we came up with is a book club, right? 166 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:46,040 Like a book club is you sitting down with your teammates, with the people in your platoon, 167 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:48,720 with your friends, and you're reading the same text together, right? 168 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:52,760 And this came about because a pretty motivated staff sergeant reached out to me, a Marine 169 00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:56,040 Corps staff sergeant, part of an artillery battery. 170 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:59,640 And he said, I want to do a specific book with my platoon. 171 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:01,680 He wanted to do Matterhorn by Carl Barlandtus. 172 00:10:01,680 --> 00:10:06,080 And he's like, can you send me just this book instead of like a whole bunch of random books? 173 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,160 And at first I was like, ah, it's not really the way we work. 174 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:12,080 But the more I thought about it, I was like, that's actually a really good idea. 175 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:13,080 So I said, how about this? 176 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:14,080 We'll get you 25 copies. 177 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:15,080 We'll get you some notebooks. 178 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:19,040 We'll get you some merchandise from it, like, you know, with our logo on it and everything. 179 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:21,600 You guys do the book club on your own and then we'll meet up with you and we'll talk 180 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:22,920 about what the experience was like. 181 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:28,400 And that created our platoon book club initiative, which has been going for four or five months 182 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:30,760 now and doing pretty cool things within the community. 183 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:35,560 Well, it's a really interesting idea because it's a military book club, right? 184 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:36,560 It's a platoon. 185 00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:37,560 Right. 186 00:10:37,560 --> 00:10:41,200 You're operating it here at the platoon level, but it could be shipboard. 187 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:42,800 It could be a department. 188 00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:49,000 Now we all probably have heard about, you know, these three and four star generals and 189 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:53,440 animals who have a list of books they recommend you read. 190 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:54,440 Right. 191 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:57,760 How is what you're doing different than that? 192 00:10:57,760 --> 00:10:58,760 Right. 193 00:10:58,760 --> 00:10:59,760 That's a great question. 194 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:03,280 I mean, those lists are essential, right? 195 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:07,640 Those started coming about in the last couple of decades and they definitely serve a need. 196 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:11,720 Where we see that we separate ourselves as we're coming at it, sort of from outside the 197 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:13,040 community a little bit. 198 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,360 Like I'm out of the Marine Corps. 199 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,760 I've got maybe a different perspective. 200 00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:21,680 You know, I'm coming from more of an enlisted background, right? 201 00:11:21,680 --> 00:11:26,960 Like a lot of those, the commandant's reading lists, it's coming from a more top to bottom. 202 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:31,440 I like to see this as stuff that maybe these guys wouldn't have been exposed to if they 203 00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:33,600 hadn't partaken in this program. 204 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:37,160 You know, it's literally, they might not have ever even considered reading if they hadn't 205 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:38,160 gone through this program. 206 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,480 You know, we try and meet the needs of the unit. 207 00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:42,320 We also ask like, what do you want to read? 208 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:43,320 Right? 209 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,640 So we will take that suggestion as long as it has literary merit and we think it's, they 210 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:48,080 have a reason for wanting to read it. 211 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:53,120 It's not just some random book, but something that can help them bond as a platoon. 212 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:54,880 We're okay with that. 213 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:56,840 And we also have a curated list. 214 00:11:56,840 --> 00:12:03,280 And these are authors that have either done some work recently or ancient classics that 215 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:05,080 we think are of value to the community. 216 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:09,400 So in that way, we're looking to support, like tell us what you need as well as like 217 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:11,200 here's a curated list. 218 00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:13,240 If you're looking for something to choose from. 219 00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:16,520 It really sounds a little less stuffy to me, if you will. 220 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:19,280 Those are your words, not mine. 221 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:20,280 Okay. 222 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:21,920 You don't want to get in trouble with the generals. 223 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:22,920 I get it. 224 00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:25,040 I don't care. 225 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:31,000 But as you say, you're coming to meet the unit, the platoon, the department where it's 226 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:35,240 at, something they're interested in reading. 227 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:39,520 So it's kind of ground up rather than top down, isn't it? 228 00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:40,520 Yes, exactly. 229 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:45,680 And the idea here is it's not just explicitly military fiction all the time or military 230 00:12:45,680 --> 00:12:49,600 poems or it can be about stuff that at first glance you might think like, I don't see how 231 00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:52,880 this relates to the military or my experience in the military. 232 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:56,240 But then once you, if you sit there and you read it, you're going to start to see that 233 00:12:56,240 --> 00:13:01,960 like these experiences that we're listing there are not exactly, they're not too far 234 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:03,360 removed than what you're going through. 235 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:07,720 Maybe it's a different time period, maybe it's not exactly a war, but there's something 236 00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:11,840 you can get out of there that you can relate to your own experience in serving in the military. 237 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:14,800 Well the word literature is going to scare some folks off. 238 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:18,320 They're going to go, I'm not reading the classics. 239 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:22,320 I'm not reading the Greek and Roman classics here. 240 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:28,680 So help us understand what you're talking about in terms of books that have literary 241 00:13:28,680 --> 00:13:29,680 merit. 242 00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:33,440 So give us some examples of what's on your curated list. 243 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:34,440 Yeah, of course. 244 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:40,040 We've got, for instance, we just did our first actual debrief session where once the platoon 245 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,920 reads their book, right, they get a chance to sit with us on Zoom because keep in mind 246 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:47,680 these units, they're coming and going, some of them are halfway across the world. 247 00:13:47,680 --> 00:13:50,120 So we sit down on Zoom and we say like, what do you think of the book? 248 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:51,680 How was the experience? 249 00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:53,360 What did you learn from bonding? 250 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:57,800 And like we just did our first one with Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield, which is a 251 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:02,280 novel that came out a couple of decades ago and it's about the Spartan 300, right? 252 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:07,720 It's about the famous battle where they faced off against insurmountable odds. 253 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:11,560 They were completely outnumbered and they held against them for a prolonged period of 254 00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:12,560 time. 255 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:19,200 Now these were probably 1920, 21 year old infantry Marines in Okinawa and they were 256 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:21,160 looking at this and it was interesting. 257 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:22,640 The group was all divided, right? 258 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:24,800 Some of them were like, this was amazing. 259 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:26,080 There's a lot of action in it, right? 260 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,000 There's a lot of combat, ancient combat. 261 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,760 While like the other half of the room was like, this has no bearing on anything I'm 262 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:32,760 doing here. 263 00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:37,080 Like I'm serving in the 21st century Marine Corps and it was interesting to see the division 264 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:41,280 there because in my mind it's like one of the guys said, you know, there's a scene where 265 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:46,840 this one character, he's basically standing in a field being rained on and he's looking 266 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:52,080 up at the gods kind of like contemplating his, you know, his fortune to be sitting here 267 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:55,360 in this kind of uncomfortable, unpleasant situation. 268 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:59,480 I'm like, that's relatable regardless of what time period you're serving in the military. 269 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:03,040 It doesn't matter if you're serving today or a couple of thousand years ago, you can 270 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:07,640 relate to that experience of being uncomfortable and being like out of your comfort zone in 271 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:08,640 the elements, right? 272 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:14,040 So and look into the god, whoever that is for you and sing, what the hell am I doing 273 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:15,040 here? 274 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:16,040 Exactly. 275 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:20,080 And that and that I think that's a perfect example of how it's like, okay, so that's 276 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:21,400 an example of empathy, right? 277 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:26,840 When you can suddenly bridge that connection between your situation and yes, it's a fictional 278 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:29,360 character, but it's based on a real occurrence, right? 279 00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:32,560 The Spartan 300 were a real, a real historical event. 280 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:35,320 Steven Pressfield just turns it into historical fiction, right? 281 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:37,320 He adds drama. 282 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:39,680 You're bridging a connection there and I think that's the power. 283 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:42,880 One of the things, one of the great things about fiction is like you can take yourself 284 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:44,120 out of your mind a little bit. 285 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:47,600 You can realize I'm not the only person who's been through this situation before. 286 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:52,000 This is something that's a tried and true experience of, you know, in this particular 287 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,800 example of the infantryman, the boots on the ground. 288 00:15:55,800 --> 00:16:01,480 What would give me maybe a more recent example that's on your curated list that, you know, 289 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:04,320 was written about maybe more modern times? 290 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:05,440 Yeah, of course. 291 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:10,440 We've got the fifth acts was on there by Elliot Ackerman, who is a Marine Corps veteran 292 00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:11,440 as well. 293 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:12,720 He had, he served, he's decorated. 294 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:17,840 He's a good friend of mine and he's written quite a wide variety of books. 295 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:18,840 He's written fiction. 296 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:20,240 He's written kind of thrillers. 297 00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:23,080 He's written more literary stuff. 298 00:16:23,080 --> 00:16:26,240 But this book, the fifth act, was written very quickly. 299 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:30,800 It's kind of like sprung from an essay that he was starting at the time when Afghanistan 300 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:33,480 was at the fall of Kabul, right? 301 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:35,280 So he had served. 302 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:39,680 He had emotions about that experience and he started writing it out as writers do and 303 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:42,040 then the situation got exasperated. 304 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:43,880 We all know it was happening at that point. 305 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:45,440 Everybody was trying to get out of there. 306 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:47,680 We had the bombing at the Abbey Gate. 307 00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:51,800 A lot of horrible stuff and he wrote about it and very quickly overnight it turned into 308 00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:57,280 a book, you know, and he was able because he was an author that had a reputation ready. 309 00:16:57,280 --> 00:16:58,440 That book sold very quickly. 310 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:04,080 A publisher wanted it and we've got some cadets up at Norwich University in the United States. 311 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:07,680 They're reading that book right now and that's his, he does an interesting job of blending 312 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:11,640 his personal lived experience with having served in the global war on terror. 313 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:16,360 While also providing like a wider context for a war that's very controversial, right? 314 00:17:16,360 --> 00:17:21,080 It's like providing some political context, some socioeconomic context for this event 315 00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:23,400 that's going to shape future generations, right? 316 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:27,600 So cadets right now are going through that book and discussing this very relevant experience. 317 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:29,240 Now, like I said, they're cadets. 318 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:32,960 They didn't serve in that war, but that war, that legacy is hanging right over them and 319 00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:37,400 they have access now to this book, to this author who's giving us thoughts in almost 320 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:38,400 real time. 321 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:48,000 We're talking to Michael Plunkett, a Marine writer, author, part of the startup core group 322 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:50,520 of literature of war foundation. 323 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:57,920 And it sounds, Michael, that you're not just looking for the unit, the platoon, the group 324 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:04,200 of cadets to kill a few hours reading, but you're trying to promote and stimulate conversation 325 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:08,320 and maybe as deeper thinking by them on some topics. 326 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:09,920 How do you get that going? 327 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:15,480 Because you're not in the room as you would be as a teacher asking those questions on 328 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:17,120 a daily or weekly basis. 329 00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:20,480 Yeah, no, that's the challenge, right? 330 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,480 Like I said, when we were doing these book drives, it's one thing to pass books off, 331 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:24,480 right? 332 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:27,400 And a couple of units that we did the book drives with were kind of like, listen, we've 333 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:33,120 done this with other foundations before, but we literally got boxes of used cookbooks 334 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:35,080 and romance novels that nobody wanted to read. 335 00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:36,320 That's not good programming, right? 336 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:40,280 So in addition to providing good curated list of books, right, where we're working 337 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:45,160 with the unit to see what they actually need to read, we provide external support as well. 338 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:48,080 So that comes in the form of discussion questions, first and foremost. 339 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:51,320 So you're trying to figure out, how do I even talk to these guys about this? 340 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:52,480 How do we even get the ball rolling? 341 00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:57,360 Well, we'll give you 10, 20 discussion questions to kind of use as you're going through the 342 00:18:57,360 --> 00:19:00,080 book to stimulate conversation, you know? 343 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:04,880 Like I said, I taught high school briefly after I first graduated from undergrad. 344 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:07,000 I realized that people don't all learn the same way. 345 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,640 Not everybody's going to sit down and read a book cover to cover and be able to talk 346 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:12,600 eloquently about it or get something out of it. 347 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:16,680 They need other stimuli to kind of push them a little bit in one direction or another. 348 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:22,040 So we will source some podcast episodes, some interviews, maybe there's a film version of 349 00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:25,560 the book and maybe that helps you if you can read and then watch the film. 350 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:27,800 Maybe that kind of informs some of your perspective as well. 351 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:33,040 So we provide those support materials as well as once they're finished and we do that debrief 352 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:35,920 session on Zoom where we sit down and we talk to them. 353 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:39,520 I'm trying to encourage guys to write about their experience and this way we've got a 354 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:45,080 couple of connections to some publications that are geared towards the military community 355 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:48,880 and we want to try and get a couple of people to publish whatever their experience was, 356 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:52,680 whether that's more of like a book report about the book itself or maybe even just the 357 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:58,120 experience of having sat down and discuss these books with their fellow soldiers, sailors, 358 00:19:58,120 --> 00:19:59,120 marines, what have you. 359 00:19:59,120 --> 00:20:01,680 So that's some of the ways we do it. 360 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:06,520 It's an interesting, as I say, military book club if you will. 361 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:12,440 Do you see this springing up from an NCO who says, I need something like this to help pull 362 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:20,600 the guys, have them on a common ground or is it an officer down kind of thing? 363 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:23,400 Where does that first, hey, can we do this? 364 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,800 Can you do this for us come from? 365 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:28,520 It's been kind of scattered, honestly. 366 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:31,280 We have 50 units that are working through it right now. 367 00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:38,400 We have successfully funded about 20 of them and we've got another 30 waiting for funding. 368 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:43,240 But we've got, when I look at the list of who's requested it, it's everything from your NCOs 369 00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:44,240 to your officers. 370 00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:45,880 It's mostly the younger guys though. 371 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:50,760 We have our younger NCOs who have just taken on that ability, who have just taken on that 372 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:54,880 responsibility to the young lieutenants who are just coming out of academies. 373 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:59,000 They're coming out of training and they're looking to make a good impression on the unit 374 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,640 and figure out ways to motivate the troops. 375 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:07,440 It's been an interesting kind of spread between rank but definitely more on the younger side. 376 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:13,680 Well, certainly it's like they're more likely to say, let's try something different. 377 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:15,240 We don't have to do what we've always done. 378 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,120 Let's do something different. 379 00:21:17,120 --> 00:21:22,040 This is a great segue to, you got 20 funded, you got 30 waiting. 380 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:27,480 Let's talk to the veteran radio listeners about how funding works, what's it cost, maybe 381 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:29,400 how people can help out. 382 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:30,960 Yeah, of course. 383 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:35,120 So if you go to our website, litofwar.com, you'll see that we've got some of the units 384 00:21:35,120 --> 00:21:37,160 that are looking for funding up. 385 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:38,880 There's ways to donate. 386 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:41,200 It's a simple click, click a button. 387 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:45,120 And listen, at this point, we're accepting any level of donation, what I will say, just 388 00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:48,000 to give some clarity around how those funds work. 389 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,000 If you are willing to sponsor a platoon, an entire platoon, that's $1,000. 390 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:57,800 Now that takes care of getting the books to them, all shipping and charging costs and 391 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:00,080 all that, as well as merchandise. 392 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,640 That takes care of any incidentals, any hiccups along the way. 393 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:07,600 And it goes to supporting this foundation, keeping our website going, keeping the whole 394 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:08,600 thing up. 395 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:09,640 We are all volunteer here. 396 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:12,560 So nobody's taking a cut of any of this money. 397 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:14,760 It goes entirely to the program. 398 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:19,960 Now down from that, if you do about half of that, let's say $500, that's about maybe 399 00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:21,000 a squad or two. 400 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,000 That helps out about half a platoon or so. 401 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:27,720 Down from that, if you go to like 250, you're looking at like a fire team. 402 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:31,600 And even if you want to just donate $25 or $50, you're getting down to the individual 403 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,120 Marine Soldier Sailor that you're supporting. 404 00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:35,120 And you can earmark. 405 00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:38,000 If you want to see like, hey, what units are out there? 406 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:43,200 And you want to see like, hey, I want to donate specifically to this particular Army unit, 407 00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:44,520 this Marine Corps unit. 408 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:45,520 We can earmark that. 409 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:46,520 It's there. 410 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:48,520 Your $25 will put it in the bucket for them. 411 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:53,080 And when they get fully funded, you're part of the support for that specific unit. 412 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:54,080 This is a great idea. 413 00:22:54,080 --> 00:23:01,640 I think it's a great way to get quality literature out to the troops and help them build some 414 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:08,400 commonality by reading the same thing, having those support questions to get the conversation 415 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:12,920 started and then debrief afterwards. 416 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:17,520 So let's give it again, Michael Plunkett, Marine. 417 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:23,280 I'm the co-founder of Literature of War Foundation. 418 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,480 What's the website? 419 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:27,720 Litterofwar.com. 420 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:32,400 And before we get out of here and run out of time, because this always goes too fast, 421 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:39,320 did I read somewhere you've got a debut novel that's going to get published maybe next year? 422 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:40,320 I do indeed. 423 00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:41,320 Yeah. 424 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:43,720 Just a little while ago, we signed a contract. 425 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:49,120 My debut novel, Zone Rouge, which is a modern reimagining of the Sisyphus myths set in the 426 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:50,320 fields around Verdun. 427 00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:51,320 They're over there. 428 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:52,320 It's kind of crazy. 429 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:57,640 But today, they are still cleaning up all the unexploded ordnance from World War I. 430 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,880 The French government literally has paced people to go out there and take care of that. 431 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:05,160 And I wrote a novel about what keeps a person going in a profession where they think it's 432 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:09,120 going to take another couple hundred years before they're able to really clean the land 433 00:24:09,120 --> 00:24:12,000 from this war that was fought over a century ago. 434 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:15,360 And it's coming out through unnamed press sometime next year. 435 00:24:15,360 --> 00:24:16,880 Well, that's great to hear. 436 00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:20,920 We're glad to be able to plug it a year from now, get back to us. 437 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:26,160 And maybe we can have a discussion about that. 438 00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:32,480 What a wonderful connection, almost kind of a full circle thing here from your grandfather, 439 00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:39,240 your grandmother, the storyteller, his time in Korea, storytelling in the family. 440 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:44,760 And that's now worked through your life to where you're helping passing along the love 441 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:47,120 of storytelling to other troops. 442 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:48,120 Absolutely. 443 00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:51,320 It really is a full circle moment. 444 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:56,040 Michael Plunkett, thank you for taking some time today to talk to Veterans Radio about 445 00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:00,760 this really cool operation and literature of War Foundation. 446 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:02,600 Yeah, thanks very much, guys. 447 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:03,920 I really appreciate the support. 448 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:06,240 Thanks for having me on. 449 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,160 And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today. 450 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:10,760 I am Jim Fausone. 451 00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:13,000 It's been a pleasure to be your host. 452 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,920 I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans. 453 00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:25,320 And you can reach us at 800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web. 454 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:30,240 You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio 455 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:34,880 shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org. 456 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:38,240 And until next time, you are dismissed. 457 00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:42,520 If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for 458 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:43,520 Veterans at 1-800-693-4800. 459 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:47,120 They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. 460 00:25:47,120 --> 00:25:51,120 Their number again, 1-800-693-4800. 461 00:25:51,120 --> 00:25:56,640 We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development 462 00:25:56,640 --> 00:26:01,120 Council, NVBDC, and the National Veterans Business Development Council. 463 00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:08,120 The Vietnam Veterans of America, Charles S. Kettles, chapter, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 464 00:26:08,120 --> 00:26:13,320 VFW, Graf, O'Hara Post, 423 in Ann Arbor. 465 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:19,400 And the American Legion Press Corn Post, 46 also in Ann Arbor. 466 00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:21,360 We appreciate all your support. 467 00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:25,040 You can go to veteransradio.net. 468 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:31,560 Click on the sponsor level and continue to support keeping Veterans Radio on the air. 469 00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:55,560 And until next time, you are dismissed.