All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
This is Veterans Radio.
And now your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
I want to welcome you to our program.
We've had some wonderful technical issues already today.
As most of you out there that are listening live are well aware of.
So I'm going to get right into it.
We've got a number of guests today that I want to mention.
Number one is right off the top is we're going to be talking.
Excuse me.
There's a Medal of Honor Museum at Patriots Point.
They're reopening their museum and I've got Laura Jowdy with us.
She will be joining me shortly.
And then we're going to move right into an interview with Bob Taylor.
He's the CEO of the Patriots Promise Foundation in Michigan.
And so I'm really excited to talk to him and he's an Air Force guy.
So we're going to be talking, you know, big planes, little planes,
things like that.
As we turn the bottom of the hour, we've got an interview with Keith King of
the National Veterans Business Development Council.
They're celebrating their 10th anniversary and that will take us
probably up to toward the end of the program.
Also in the studio with me is Nick McBrien and Nick.
Welcome back.
Oh, he's frozen.
So it's always good to be here.
It's always good to be anywhere.
So before we get into the program real quick,
I got to make sure that we thank our sponsors because we can never do
this program without them.
Number one is legal help for veterans.
Legal help for veterans specializes in veterans disability claims.
Give legal help a call at 800-693-4800.
The National Veterans Business Development Council, better known as
NVVDC, is the nation's leading third party authority for certification
of veteran-owned businesses.
If you want to do business with a federal government and you want to
claim to be a veteran-owned business, you got to get certified.
So these are the people to talk to.
You can go to their website, that's NVVDC.org,
or give them a call at 888-237-8433.
Charles S. Kettles, VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
For more information about them, go to va.gov.
And Arbor Healthcare.
I also want to make sure that we thank our local veterans organizations
for their longtime support of Veterans Radio.
Almost 20 years, over 20 years now.
That's the Irwin Prescor and American Legion post-46.
And the Charles S. Kettles, Vietnam Veterans of America,
Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Hey, if you want to get in on the action and sponsor a really great
program for veterans, all you got to do is go to our website,
veteransradio.org, and click on the media.
And you'll find all kinds of information there if you would like to become
a sponsor, or if you just want to make a small donation.
A quick reminder is that Veterans Radio is a 501-C3 nonprofit corporation.
Okay.
So joining me on the line, and I'm not sure where she's going to be coming
from, either Zoom or the phone, is Laura Jowdy.
And Laura is the Society's resident archivist.
So Laura, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thank you.
I'm very happy to be here tonight.
Well, thank you for joining us.
So the Medal of Honor Museum at Patriots Point has,
sounds like you've done some remodeling.
Tell us all about that.
Well, it's entirely reimagined.
We more or less gutted what was there before.
And what we have now is a gym of a facility.
It's got something for everyone.
It emphasizes the recipients of people, which is, you know,
they did extraordinary things.
And of course, we're honored with our nation's highest military medal
for valor and combat, but they were people first.
And so what we've done is created a museum that honors them,
while also recognizing their humanity, which of course makes it
more inspirational for visitors.
I think it sounds really cool because this whole thing is on the,
it's on the USS Lexington, right?
Well, it's on the USS Yorktown,
which is a retired aircraft carrier at Patriots Point,
just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.
And we're on the hangar deck, which is, you know, a phenomenal location.
Patriots Point's been a wonderful host for the museum since 1994.
So we're just thrilled with the location and the number of visitors
we get and the chance to really reach the public in this manner.
So what's coming up with your celebration on the 25th?
On the 25th, we are going to have historical reenactors
for various conflicts from the Civil War,
although the Vietnam War.
So they'll be there, you know,
demonstrating their equipment to the public who maybe don't know,
you know, how things were used or what life was like.
We're going to have a completely restored World War II era of Jeep
on property for people to look at and investigate.
We're going to have some giveaways, a raffle or two, you know,
it is a celebration, the reopening of this museum,
and you know, it's highly interactive.
So we're particularly interested in watching how children and families
embrace the museum and the stories that are told there.
Well, it sounds pretty cool.
Tell us about your, if not all of us can get to South Carolina.
Tell us where we can go and find more information.
You can always find more information at the Congressional
Medal of Honor Society's website, which is the initials of the organization,
cmoHS.org.
Okay.
And so, let's see, I'm going to get you out of here.
So you are involved in the archival work.
What is that?
How would you define that for our audience?
Well, in a capsule, it's like a librarian for old things.
My job is to take care of and preserve actual pieces of history.
And I also take care of, usually an archive is going to be, you know,
paper and books.
So I of course take care of those, but I also take care of the physical
artifacts we have as well, of which there are many in the museum.
And if you go to our website, you can also see a database of all 3,500
plus recipients of the Medal of Honor.
So there's a lot of sort of legacy and history to be taught on our website.
Well, it sounds like a great organization, obviously.
And I know that you are sanctioned by Congress in order to do this.
And so the website again is cmoHS.org.
There's all kinds of really great information there.
They're having their grand reopening on the 25th of the month.
And I would encourage people down in the South Carolina area to head
on over to Patriot's Point and check this whole thing out,
especially the deck of the York down.
These decks of these aircraft carriers are really cool.
I know I've been to the Intrepid in New York City.
And it's pretty fascinating.
So again, I encourage you all to thank you for all that you do,
obviously, for the organization and thank you for keeping alive the
stories of all these amazing men and women.
Oh, you're very welcome.
And it's my honor really to have this opportunity to preserve this
part of American history and hopefully inspire a new generation to
rise to service.
Absolutely.
Thank you very much.
Laura Chowdy.
You're welcome.
From the Medal of Honor Museum at Patriot's Point.
Okay.
So we kind of fell a little bit behind in our schedule here.
So joining me now right now is,
we've got Nick McBrien who's kind of joining in on the conversation as well.
And Bob Taylor and Bob, let me find your information here real quick.
And it says, according to your website, it says from service to
success, you share real life experiences.
You were, let's see, mechanical engineering degree from that school
of no, from Michigan State University.
Join the Air Force 1987 station at Griffith Air Force base in New York.
I hadn't heard of that one.
Deployed to Diego Garcia.
That's where it sounds pretty cool.
Or at least it sounds cool.
You flew 11 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm.
Of course, the mayor, mayor, muddle.
You started as a KC 135 navigator and finally as a liaison officer with
the Air Force Marines.
And in your civilian life, you,
these are great things.
We're going to ask to bring you right on.
So Bob Taylor, welcome to veterans radio.
Thank you, Dale.
Thank you for having me.
All right.
So let's, let's talk about, you know, your transition.
And that's, that's what we're going to be talking about today.
Mostly is your transition from the military into private life.
How did that go for you?
Sure. Well, I think with veterans, there's a kind of a vast difference in
the stories on how we all transition.
Actually, when I, when I left the Air Force, I was very fortunate.
My best friend in college was working for a medical device company in
Kalamazoo, Michigan.
And I was very fortunate to, to land a job there as a R and D engineer for
designing medical devices for surgery.
And by all indications, everything was, was going great.
And like many other veterans, as we go through some of our
experience, some of our combat experience, we kind of tuck away
some, some of our experience, some of our challenges and some of
those circumstances pop up later in life.
And for me, it, it caused some, some challenges and I was able to kind
of get through that with some help from the VA and, and over a long
period of time.
So, you know, some, some people transition very easily.
Some people, some veterans have challenges right out of the gate
and then some, some seem to be going along and then experience some
challenges down the road.
And that was, that was kind of my story.
Yeah, I know that there's, I can relate to that.
I thought, I thought everything was fine when I got out of their
service, and then it kind of got all screwed up midway, it seems like
out there somewhere 10, 15 years later.
And I know that you, you know, you've written a book about this and
you've also started a foundation.
Can you tell me a little about the Patriot promise and what, what that
promise was?
Sure.
So, it was about seven years ago, I started doing research on, on the
book that I wrote and, and it took me six years to, to finally write
it and it, and it was published, just came out about a year ago.
And the, the premise of the book for me was that if I was having
challenges, I figured that there were others.
And I wanted to do some research to find out just how prevalent the,
the issues were.
And I wanted to share my story, but not only my stories, but also
those of other veterans.
And then I wanted to, to make sure that I laid out in the book from,
from service to success, I wanted to lay out a roadmap that, you know,
if, if we do certain things, we have the potential to not only
survive, but to thrive and reach our highest potential.
And so that, based on the book, I started the Patriot promise
foundation.
And the, the primary effort of the foundation is to create an
academy called the Patriot promise academy.
And the, the purpose of the academy is to teach, you know, when we went
in to the military, we went in through either basic training or
officers training school or through one of the academies or
there, there's just a host of ways, but the, the foundation of the
training is the same.
They take us from all of our many different backgrounds and all of
our different personalities.
And they change us to be, change us to focus on one mission and one
purpose.
And that's to either fly fight win, you know, to go into combat, to
fight an enemy and to prevail and to overcome tremendous obstacles.
And they do a fantastic job of training us.
And as you know, as a helicopter pilot, you probably felt like you
were pretty prepared to do just about anything with that, with that
helicopter under some unbelievable challenges.
And so when we leave the military, we give up a lot of
things that we've become accustomed to.
One is the training that, that prepares us to be phenomenally
successful against all odds.
And the, the tribe that we formed, the camaraderie and the
friendships and the people that we rely on and, and who rely on us.
And there's, there's really very few things in the, in our life that
has as much meaning as making sacrifices for other people.
And when we leave the military, it's not really clear where we fit
and what we can do.
And so the purpose of the academy is to, is to kind of retrain our
mindset, retrain us to be prepared for this new life outside the
military. And like I said, not only to survive, but to thrive.
And I believe that military people have the raw materials to be as
successful as anyone else in society.
I think that's, you know, that's an interesting point that you make is
that, you know, while we are, while we are in the military, we're
provided with everything.
You know, our food, lodging, everything, everything.
And, you know, then we go to, you know, we go to back to civilian
life and it's suddenly we're, we're, we're on our own.
And our schedules were pretty, I don't know, you know, rigid, I
guess you could say, schedules were pretty rigid while we were in
the service. You know, again, we come out, we have all, you know,
all this free time and so forth.
And we're trying to figure out what it is that we're going to do.
And I know that this has changed dramatically over the years,
especially, you know, in talking with Nick that, you know, the
transition out of the service in today's world is a lot more efficient.
I guess you could say are hopefully more efficient, where there's
more opportunities, but if that way, for, for the military, people
that are transitioning out, but you still have that same thing.
You know, you, you, you, you lose your, that camaraderie you were
talking about in many cases. I mean, again, social media today can
still connect with people, but it's, it's, I don't know, it's just
not the same. So how can, how can we help these men and women that
are so talented? I mean, today's military has probably got the
most intelligent people in it ever.
And I think the training is even more highly effective and, and
targeted and focused. And so I think, you know, very intelligent
people that are going in the military and extremely highly
effective training that prepares us to do pretty unbelievable things.
Well, yeah. And I guess it because, you know, we've talked
about this before on veterans radio, and we're talking with Bob
Taylor here, he's CEO of an organization that is really out
there to help help veterans and just, I admire everything that
that you're, you know, that that you've done, and that you are
continuing to do. And I'm just trying to figure out, you know,
what, what else can we do? What else can, you know, you mentioned
you wanted to set up this Academy and I guess I kind of cut you
off. What are we going to do with this Academy?
So the Academy starts out with assessing where the veteran is at
that moment in time. You know, are they healthy? Are they kind
of in a good place in their mental health? Do they have the
basics, you know, with a job and, and, you know, just kind of
helping them assess where they are in their life. And then we
start to go into the program to explain what they went through.
You know, what happened when they went through basic training
or officers training or whatever their training was, what
happened when they went through advanced training. And then what
we start to discuss the differences about military life
and civilian life. And then what are some basic things that they
can do to really start to make their lives better? One of the
things, just a simple exercise of gratitude, for example.
It sounds silly, but being grateful for the things that you
have in the, in the situation that you're in, if, if you start
to really practice gratitude intentionally, like writing a
list of things that you're grateful for, all of a sudden, your
mind starts to shift and you start to recognize more and more
things that you're actually grateful for and that you're in a
better situation than you might really understand. And so the
practice of gratitude really does help us shift our mind from
you can't wallow in misery and be grateful at the same time. So
the effort is to kind of shift our mindset to be grateful.
The other thing is, like you said, we, we kind of lose some of
our camaraderie. And so what we have to do is we have to start
identifying people that we come in contact. We have to start
forming new relationships and appreciate the people that are
around us. Because chances are the people that are around us
when we leave the military, the ones that were praying for us
when we were off on our missions or the people that care deeply
about us. And we need to really kind of value those, those
relationships, even though they're not military, even though
they don't understand everything that we went through in our
military experiences or the stresses and the strains of life
that we're going through, they still care deeply about us. And
they're, they can bridge the gap of just being without those
same buddies that you were with when you were in the military.
And then the other thing is, we have to start devoting ourselves
to something that's greater than just ourselves. If we kind of
just focus on what our own needs are, and the challenges that
we face in the, in the difficulties of life, which, by the
way, everybody has, everyone experiences some, some tremendous
challenges. And if we just focus on our own needs and our own
wants, it's not as fulfilling. And so that's what I've dedicated,
you know, my life to is, is trying to help other veterans to
try and help, you know, and the, I, I'm the owner and CEO of a
medical device company. And I really focus on trying to help
the people that work for me to, to really achieve their, their
greatest potential. And when you can devote yourself to
something's great, that is greater than yourself, you start
to experience something that you didn't really expect. And so
those are some of the things that are in the academies to teach
people how to change their mindset to be more grateful, to
look around them and to, to find new relationships, new friends,
and then find a passion. And hopefully that passion is
serving people in ways that are just greater than what you can
accomplish on your own.
So if I wanted to go to your academy, maybe a little too late
for me, but it's never too late. It absolutely is not too late.
And I've, I've actually been approached and, and I've spoken
to groups where people year age, my age, you know, they, they're
still going through some of these challenges from decades ago.
My issues really didn't come into full light until 16 years
after I left. So we always are in a, in a time of our life that
we can benefit from some of these mindset changes.
We are talking with Bob Taylor here. He is the CEO and founder
of the Patriot Promise Foundation. And we're talking about
this academy. And I think this is sounds really interesting to
me. So is this in person or is it on like a zoom call or do you
have to, do I have to come to wherever you are?
So the academy is still being created, but it's designed to be
an online kind of learn on your own pace. There's another program
called civilian ready, which is a, which is a sounds like a very
very good program. They take veterans and they kind of put
them all together in a, in what they call a cohort and they go
through classes together. And there's some benefits in going
through a class together. Ours is designed to be more kind of
learn at your own pace. If you need to hear a certain lesson
multiple times, you can do that. If you want to kind of speed
through some sections and pick up some, some time, but it'll be
online learning. Everyone will receive a workbook. There's
certain books that we're going to recommend people read and
study as part of this program. So it's, it's about 10 to 12 weeks
to go through this online classes. Some can take longer, some
can probably go through a little bit faster.
I know I've taught online classes and sometimes it's okay.
You know, most of the time, especially if you do the work,
that's less like everything else, do the work, follow the
assignments and you'll be fine. What other things are you
planning to do with the Patriot Promise Foundation, Bob?
So the, the, the primary purpose was, you know, I spent so much
time writing this book from service to success. Tagline of it
is new mission, new purpose and a great new great journey to a
great life. And so all I want to do is get that information in
the hands of the veterans. And so our website, the Patriot
Promise Foundation, people can go there, they can buy a book and
donate several copies. And we do what we do is we take those
books and we take them to different VAs. We send them to
different organizations and they distribute them out to
veterans. And I'm very honored and I'm very happy that as people
have read through the book, I've gotten a lot of positive
feedback that for, you know, you write a book and you hope that
people kind of can benefit from it. And I don't expect that
people are going to turn it into a manual of how to live their
lives. But if you can get one or two profound messages from that
book, that's all I, that's all I can ask for. And I've, I've
gotten some messages from people that were, you know, kind of
thinking about, you know, ending their lives and have found
motivation from what they read to, to dedicate themselves to
learning some new ways. And that's all I could ever hope for.
If that's the only person I reached out to and made a
difference, that's, that's all I could ever ask.
I think that's so important that the veteran community as well as
the civilian community realize that there are people out there
who really do care about you. And we'll do anything that, that
they can or we can to help you, you know, get through whatever
it is that's dragging you down and, you know, making you think
about ending it at all. So I would encourage you to, to go to
Bob's website, it's patriotpromise.org. And I understand
that you are a nonprofit organization. And can we make a
donation there? Absolutely. Just go on the, on the website.
You can go right to the, the part of the website for donations.
And we're, you know, every penny that we get, we turn into
either getting the books in the hands of the veterans or we're
using those funds to, to get veterans through this
patriotpromise academy. We are having a big golf event.
We've joined forces with the, the organization called Folds of
Honor, which is well known all over the United States.
And they have a mission of, you know, for Gold Star families
of educating their children, giving them scholarships so that
they can go through college. And so as we spoke to them,
you know, teaching the Gold Star, you know, getting the
Gold Star families into their education and also helping to
teach veterans how to transition and, and pursue the highest
level of performance in their lives seemed like a very good
synergy. And so we've partnered up and we're having a golf
outing called the greatest honor golf classic, which is August
19. And we're, I'm just, I'm looking forward to seeing what
we can raise and, and get veterans into this academy.
Well, I'm going to support this. I've got, I've, next, let me
note here is that it's on the 19th. Oops. Go up there we go.
Golf event August 19, Monday, August 19 at the American
Dunes Golf Course in New York and even Michigan.
And if you, if you've never been to that golf course, there's a
you walk through an entrance and it's almost hallowed ground.
It's a memorial for, for different veterans and the
sacrifice they've made. It's actually difficult for me to go
through there multiple times. So it's just very captivating and
it's humbling. And, but it is a absolute gorgeous golf course.
And it's kind of the home of the folds of honor and the
American Dunes is just a beautiful place.
All right, well, I would encourage you to go put that
information up on our website and Bob Taylor, I want to thank
you so very much for being on Veterans Radio. The book is
from Service to Success. You can get it on their website,
PatriotPromise.org. And if you buy one, they give away two.
If you buy a bunch, they give away a bunch more. So I
encourage everybody to go to that website, PatriotPromise.org
and Bob, thank you so much for your time and your patients
today. And I look forward to talking to you again sometime
soon.
Oh, it's a great pleasure. And in spite of all the technical
challenges, you guys made me feel right at home and very
gracious host. So thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Bob.
Hey, thank you.
All right, we are going to take a real quick break here and for
our Medal of Honor segment. And then when we come back, I'll
introduce the interview with Keith King from the National
Veterans Business Development Council. So you're listening to
Veterans Radio. We'll be right back.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in combat
given a member of the Armed Forces of the United States.
There have been over 3,400 recipients of the nation's
highest award. This is one of them.
Morehouse, your Frederick Ferguson led a force ship helicopter
formation into a South Vietnamese Army compound under heavy
fire. Details after this.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans
Appeals, contact Legal Help for Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.
They're experts in handling cases before the U.S.
Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Their number again,
1-800-693-4800. After completing a hitch on the Navy,
Ferguson got his commercial pilot's license and then joined
the Army to fly helicopters. Two weeks after graduating from
helicopter school, he was in Vietnam. On January 31, 1968,
Ferguson heard that a first cavalry helicopter had gone down
in way and another had been badly shot up trying to rescue
them. Ferguson and his crew agreed to go get them.
While refueling, he asked three Huey gunships if they wanted
to accompany him. They did. The GIs and the compound
reported they were under heavy fire. Ferguson circled until
the fire abated, then began a low-level high-speed run into
the compound. He descended blindly in a dust storm from his
rotors. When he touched down, he saw there was only one foot
clearance on each side of his blades. The GIs jumped aboard
and Ferguson pulled up. A mortar shell exploded under his
aircraft, spinning at 180 degrees. One of the Hueys was
shot down and the crew rescued. The other two were so badly
shot up by the time they landed, they were no longer able to
fly. Ferguson received his Medal of Honor from President
Nixon on May 17, 1969. The Medal of Honor series is a
production of Veterans Radio.
Military veterans touch everyone's life. I'm guessing right now
you're thinking of a veteran, a close friend, relative.
Maybe it's you. Even the toughest among us sometimes need
help, but don't know where to turn for support. You don't
need special training to help a veteran in your life. If you
know a veteran in crisis, don't wait. Reach out. Call the
Veterans Crisis Line at 988, then press 1. 988, press 1.
A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
We're back here on Veterans Radio, and as many of you know
over the last couple of years, one of our main sponsors and
supporters has been NVBDC, the National Veteran Business
Development Council. Coming up right now is kind of a review
of what they've been up to for the last 10 years. My partner
Jim Fauston interviewed Keith King, founder and CEO of NVBDC
last week, and so we're going to play that interview right now.
Stick around after we've got some announcements that we need
to make here on Veterans Radio. So here's Jim Fauston and
Keith King.
Hi, I'm Jim Fauston, and this is Veterans Radio's spotlight on
the National Veteran Business Development Council, well known
as NVBDC.org, and we're honored today to have with us its
founder and CEO, Keith King. Welcome back, Keith, to Veterans Radio.
Well, thank you, Jim. It's always a pleasure to be with you.
Well, as our regular listeners know, NVBDC is the nation's
leading third party authority for certification of veteran-owned
businesses, really of all sizes, and we're kind of talking today
because it's about 10 years that this nonprofit that got
started back in 2013 has been certifying companies. I think
that's a great place to start, Keith. Give us a little, hey,
what's going on after this decade of certifying veteran-owned
businesses? Well, you know, we never, you know, we talk to
obviously a lot of businesses and small or any business that's
been in, up and operating for a few years. The 10th year always
seemed to be one of those, you know, anniversaries that you should
pause and say, hey, I know we made it 10 years, but we actually
have been certifying our veteran-owned businesses for 10
years now, and, you know, people have said, well, we've done it
10 years, you know. And that's one of these things that really
what we're trying to do is put out some of the information I
think is surprising to not only our veterans, but to our corporate
members. And I know one of them is we went back into our files
and we have actually certified over 3,000 veterans. So, you
know, we're there, we're pounding and we continue to grow.
Well, that level of certification has certainly also turned into
a lot of contracts for certified veteran-owned businesses. And
I know the billion dollar roundtable did some analysis,
and there's some other analysis of how big the market is for
certified veteran-owned businesses. And as I said, NVBDC is the
gold standard for this. Give us some sense of how big the market is.
Well, I'll start with the one that probably is the closest to my
heart in the sense of they did, they being the BDR, did a
impact study. And in that impact study, what they do, among
all the other information they gather, is they have each of
their members report the contract amount of what we call the
spend per category of women, minorities, veterans. And when
they came out and said, well, the members of the billion
dollar roundtable reported that they have spent 4.3 billion
with our veteran-owned businesses. And we went, well,
that's even bigger than I could dream.
And that's not over the 10-year period we're talking about, right?
That's an annual spend.
Yes, that was last year, 23. And now that we're working with
them even closer with all of these things, one of the side,
if you will, you know, the guys who love the numbers, we, in
this impact study said, does anybody know how much money is
in the supplier diversity market, if you will, as a whole?
And they actually said, yeah, it was a $122 billion market.
And as you know, Jim, I keep talking about, I want a bigger
piece of this pie.
Yep, that's what our veteran business owners want, absolutely.
Well, at $122 billion, I think I'm finally getting people's
attention.
Well, I would hope so. And that's, that's a, is that a
corporate spend or is that a government spend or a combination?
Well, neither. Strictly the 30, now 32 at the time was 26, 27
corporations that spent that much with our veterans.
And I know in the opening, you mentioned, you know, that we
certify, you know, small, medium, and large.
And we have a corporation now that is over $2 billion,
veteran owned.
You know, we had one that was at a 900 million a year.
We had 1800 employees in five countries.
So that was one of the, one of the issues, I think, right from
the beginning, that our corporate members really drove home,
really helped us.
They said, don't ever get caught up in the small business.
You know, everybody loves a small business, but if you're
sitting here talking to, you know, some of the largest
corporations in the world, we need to make sure that if we're
hiring somebody as a supplier, that they can, in fact, meet
our demands, you know, and do whatever they need to do to
have the ability to, you know, expand and, and meet our goals.
And that's how we got to the point we are.
Well, and it's important because the government had some
programs not very successful in ways of certifying, and, and
they were for small business, veteran owned businesses, and
you kind of could grow out of them, which wasn't really good
for the, anybody in the sequence, but that's sort of the
problem with a government run program.
And last time we talked, the Congress was moving certification
out of the hands of the VA and over to the SBA, but that
really hasn't gotten up and running very well, has it?
Well, I hesitate only because...
Okay, I can say it, hasn't.
Well, that's okay.
What are they going to do?
You know, can't fire me.
What they did is they had, and I know we discussed that,
that originally the plan was that the SBA was not going to,
in essence, raid the VA, that they were going to go and build,
you know, the whole new team, build a whole new program.
That was a lie.
And unfortunately in that form, they brought, and that's
been a lot of time with these guys, they basically brought
the key executives of the VA running the CVE or their
verification program to the SBA.
And I was like, well, what happened to, you're not going
to be allowed?
Well, I guess, you know, depending on your point of view,
if you cry and whine enough, maybe somebody else will say,
yeah, okay, go ahead and hire them.
Yeah, they just took the easy way out rather than creating,
and this is what the beauty of NVBDC is, it's really a
rigorous certification process.
You really got to prove yourself up.
And then there's some comfort to the corporate America that
this certification was rigorous enough to withstand scrutiny,
isn't it?
Yeah, and, you know, again, I always try to acknowledge the,
you know, the National Women's Group called WeBank and the
National Minority Group who were truly our mentors.
You know, I joke about it, that, you know, they said,
yeah, we'll take pity on you, come on, we'll teach you.
But they did.
And, you know, it took, that was like a 15 month process for
us to take, learn what the rules are, learn why they do what
they do, then write up the SOP and write up, you know,
the whole program, design it, and then implement it.
And that's what we did basically 10 years ago in April.
So, you know, it was just a few weeks ago, we'd have been
actually spied on 10 years.
So we're always acknowledging and always thinking those groups
for teaching us in food corporations, for accepting us
because I get these calls more often than that.
You know, somebody will ask me a question and I'll jump into it
and they'll go, no, that's enough.
Okay, we believe you.
Okay.
Well, and that's really important and that's why you should
celebrate 10 years of success because when you have that kind
of rigorous standard and people say, well, that's a gold standard,
we don't have to look any further, you get opportunities to do
things and partner with other groups that have similar
reputations and you have one of those going on at the moment
with the International Trade Association.
Tell me what that's about.
Well, what we have been talking to them about is really how many,
if you will, expats, how many patriots do we have all over the
world and a lot of the guys who got out of the military in Germany
is probably one of the ones, England definitely, Philippines,
Guam, there are a lot of Americans living overseas, running
what they call a veteran-owned business and our whole, you know,
position is really, how do you know they're veterans?
Right.
So, you know, the ITA said, you know, the knowledge and I think
that's one of the things that we've been really proud of is when
you see the knowledge and you actually jump into what our veterans,
well, soldiers, if you will, are being taught today, you know,
I make the comment all the time, where do you think cybersecurity
came from?
You know, I mean, this is all military technologies, right?
And so we have some very highly trained, very sophisticated
people, you know, running businesses all over the world.
And the ITA said, first off, we would love to know if they're
really veterans and secondly, you know, we'd love to work with you
and see how many other people we have here, stateside, who would
like, you know, to start looking at doing, you know, international
trade and they have, man, these guys got some incredible
programs.
And so, you know, what we said is what was, start putting programs
together, put webinars together, put meetings together.
We're involved with the UN weekly program.
You know, besides the ones I've told you about, another group
called Betsco Global.
So between the ITA and Betsco Global and the UN, we are definitely,
you know, building it and trying to make sure that whatever we do,
in the sense of going international, we've got to be the key players
who will help us.
So.
Well, one of the things I want to do before we get into two other,
three other areas I want to talk about is I want to say to veteran
owned business owners who are listening, if you think certification
is something that you ought to go on and do, go to NVBDC.org, they
will help you through this process.
It is important that you realize it'll be rigorous.
You'll have to provide a lot of information, but that's exactly
what you want coming out the other end so that when you have work
opportunities, bid opportunities with corporate America, they
know you're the real deal.
So go to NVBDC.org.
That's the easiest way to get started and reach out because it'll
help you get going.
That was Jim Fousone talking with Keith King from NVBDC,
National Veteran's Business Development Council.
With an interview a couple of weeks ago, they're celebrating their
10th anniversary of certifying veteran owned businesses.
I've got a couple of things that I want to talk to you real quickly
about.
Veteran's Radio has a fundraiser coming up next Sunday, the 26th
of May.
It's going to be at the Carlisle Grill in Ann Arbor on Jackson
Avenue.
You'll be able to find more information on our website, but
they're going to be splitting their proceeds with us as part of our
fundraiser.
We're going to be doing a little bit of a review of the
501C3.
I would really like you to come on out.
You get to meet all the people that seem to enjoy Veterans Radio
around here.
The other thing that's coming up next week is Memorial Day is
going to be a Memorial Day program as well.
We're going to try something new this year.
I need your help to accomplish this.
I'm going to be doing a little bit of a review of the 501C3.
We've had a lot of people that have been in the past.
It can be either a relative of yours.
We've got, obviously, we have names of veterans that we can read out
that we've lost here in our local area.
But I would really like you to, if you'd like to honor a family
member or something along those lines,
to just send an email to info at veteransradio.org.
It's info at veteransradio.org.
I think that would be great.
I appreciate you doing that.
I would really like you to send an email to the veteransradio.org
and I think that would be great.
I appreciate you doing that.
And I would also like you to send your email to the veteransradio.org.
If you have any questions, feel free to send them to us.
And we'll be happy to answer them.
I would really like you to send them to veteransradio.org.
I think that would be great.
I appreciate you doing that.
Also, I want to thank Nick Bryan for being on the program today
and for promoting the, I keep looking at it.
Patriots Promise Foundation and their upcoming golf outing.
So, Nick, thanks very much.
Keep bringing those stories to us.
Hey, that's what I'm here for.
I'm going to keep rolling for the rest of the year.
I'm excited.
I am excited.
Nick has opened up a whole new audience to us
and a whole access to more people.
So, we've got to go right now.
So, until next week, this is Dale Thronebray
for all of us here at Veterans Radio.
You are dismissed.
Thank you.