All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
And welcome to Veterans Radio.
My name is Dale Throneberry.
I was a CW-2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1969.
Welcome to our program.
I think it's going to be pretty cool today.
We're going to be talking benefits with Paul Lawrence, who used to be the former Undersecretary
for Benefits.
That's an expert.
That's cool, right?
And then in the second half of the program, we've got our good friend Rebecca Grant is
going to be coming on to talk about what's going on in the world, which is a little bit
scary right now.
And we're going to see what we can find out about how America is involved in so many different
things that across the globe.
So make sure you stick around for that.
Before we get into the program, though, I got to make sure that we always thank our
sponsors.
Number one is Legal Help for Veterans.
Legal Help for Veterans specializes in Veterans disability claims.
Give Legal Help for Veterans a call at 800-693-4800 or go to their website, legalhelpforveterans.com.
The National Veterans Business Development Council, better known as NVBDC, is the nation's
leading third-party authority for certification of veteran-owned businesses.
For more information, go to their website, NVBDC.org, or give them a call at 888-237-8433.
The Charles S. Kettle VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
For more information, go to va.gov.
The Vietnam Veterans of America never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.
For more information, go to their website, vva.org.
And locally, the Irwin Prescor and American Legion posts 46 and the Charles S. Kettle's
Vietnam Veterans of America chapter 310 in Bolsa, Vanna Arbor, Michigan.
If you'd like to support Veterans Radio, please go to our website, veteransradio.org, and
click on the donate button.
Thank you in advance.
All right.
So here we go.
Into our program, my first guest coming up right now, as I mentioned, is Paul Lawrence.
Paul Lawrence, PhD.
His book is titled Veterans Benefits for You.
He's a former Undersecretary for Benefits during the Trump administration.
And I'm going to welcome him.
So Paul, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Hey, Dale.
Thanks for having me on.
Thanks for your service, and thanks for help getting the word out to our veterans about
their benefits.
I think it's always important.
That's something that we really focus on here on Veterans Radio.
So what led you to write this compendium of Veterans benefits?
Well as you indicated, I served as the Undersecretary for Benefits in the Trump administration,
and part of what you had to do was administer the benefits Veterans have earned.
So I got to learn all about them, sort of what it is, what it takes.
But I also dealt with when I was in office a lot of questions.
I don't understand these benefits.
Are they, how do I access them?
Am I eligible, and what is it?
And so when I got out, I thought certainly there must be a book out there about this.
And I found there were some books, but they weren't about all the benefits, and they were
written highly technical, generally by lawyers.
And quite frankly, they're hard to understand.
So I want to write one book, all the benefits, easy to understand.
So I'm going to pick it up and figure out how to apply or how to help someone else apply
for benefits.
Okay.
Well, as I said, the book is called Veterans Benefits for You.
And I guess we'll start at the very beginning.
And this is something that we constantly reinforce for our veteran listening audience and their
families, because it's really important that the families understand what's available as
well.
So how do I get started?
Let's suppose I was in Iraq or Afghanistan, and I was exposed to the burn pits.
Where do I begin?
That's right.
Or doesn't that, you don't have to be there.
It could be someone in your generation, Dale, said, Hey, I never applied for benefits.
I served 30, 40, 50 years ago, am I still eligible?
And the answer is yes.
What you can do to apply for benefits, perhaps for burn pits or for Vietnam veterans, Agent
Orange, if you're in the blue water, you finally realize something could be there.
One way to begin is to go to va.gov, their website, and begin to look and see what benefits
you'd be eligible for and what the process would be.
You can buy a book like mine to try to explain it, or you can get help from a service officer.
These are folks who help, or even one of your sponsors.
If I understand one of your sponsors helps veterans with their disability claims.
So that's one of the best ways to do it.
The thing to remember is in terms of, let's say, disability compensation, right?
There's three things you have to deal with.
Were you in the service when this happened?
I was exposed, or I hurt myself, or whatever.
So in the service, not in combat, just in the service.
Did something happen to you and do we have a record of it?
I hurt myself, I was exposed, and now does it continue to bother you?
Those three things are what make you eligible for disability compensation, right?
A monthly payment, tax-free to help you with expenses, maybe because it affects your wages,
and then if, under certain disability ratings, you'll be eligible for healthcare.
So get started.
It's never too late.
Okay?
If you had a difficult experience, go back and apply again if you think you didn't get
what you felt you deserved.
So do you kind of advise people to utilize a veteran service officer or VSO or something
like the American Legion somewhere along that line, rather than applying on their own online?
Generally, yes.
There's exceptions to everything, but here's what I observe.
This process is very complicated.
Laws, court cases and the like, and oftentimes people do it themselves.
They get denied for things they just didn't know.
A service officer has done this literally dozens, maybe hundreds of times, and they
sort of know the forms in the process.
What they also are good at knowing is asking the veteran, what did you do when you were
in service?
And then going, oh, you know, you were a pilot.
Here's what happens to pilots.
Do you have any of these conditions?
So they tend to know stuff that can really help the veteran.
A lot of veterans are very smart.
They do it theirself.
They have no problem.
A lot of veterans don't.
It's a very frustrating process, and that can make it easier.
Okay.
Well, I agree with that.
You know, as a matter of fact, you brought up a thing there.
You know, I understand that, you know, if you are denied, that any, any denial can be
appealed or reviewed, correct?
That's exactly right.
VA is a very interesting organization.
I tried this with the IRS.
They don't let you do this, but at the VA, you can appeal any decision on your behalf.
I didn't.
I was denied my benefits.
I didn't get what I wanted.
You can appeal.
And there's a very easy way to appeal now.
It's called a higher level review.
It's kind of like in pro football, when they ask another person to look at what took place
and see if there isn't a simple error that can be fixed or a correction that can be made.
And in this process, the veteran gets to point out in a phone call where they think the mistake
was made.
So appeals used to take three to seven years.
You had to go before a judge.
This is done in like 90 to 120 days.
And there are other ways, but that's about, that's the amongst the easiest to do.
Wow.
I think what's, what's great, what you've done here, Paul, with this book and what other,
you know, VSOs across the country are doing is just trying to make people aware of these
benefits that you're entitled to.
And I think it's really important to remind those Vietnam vets, Korean vets are still
around that, that they're still entitled to, you know, some sort of benefit possibly as
a result of whatever occurred to them while they were in the service.
Absolutely.
And don't forget, as, as we talked before, the benefits can extend to your family because
of what happened to you.
So a lot of veterans, especially the young ones go, no, I'm good.
I don't need this.
Right.
And I say, that might be true now, but in five or 10 years, how's your hearing going
to be?
How's your back going to be?
What else is going on that you don't know about like exposure to toxins and the like?
So we tell everybody, you know, it never hurts to come and apply for benefits.
You're not taking money from anybody else.
The money comes from a fund that Congress has to put money in regardless.
And you know, you should think about, you know, think conditions get worse.
So you might be fine now, but maybe later you won't be.
Yeah.
You hit on that right there with some people won't take the benefits because they think
they're taking it from somebody else.
And it's not an endless pool of money, but there's plenty there.
So don't worry about it.
As far as that's concerned, one of the things that I did want to just touch on briefly, as
I mentioned before we came on the air is my daughter's father was in the National Guard
and was called up during a Detroit riots in 1967.
Now would he have been eligible?
If he had been injured during that all uptime period, would he have been eligible for benefits?
Yeah.
So let's talk about being in the National Guard because here's where things get tricky.
National Guard can be mobilized or activated by a couple of ways, right?
One is the governor does that.
And by law, that doesn't count towards your service to being a veteran or benefits.
When you're activated by the president, that counts towards your service for being eligible
for benefits.
So once you're activated by the president, the experience you're describing in Detroit
or more likely to go overseas in combat, once you're activated, just a few minutes into
that if something happens, you've been hurt while you've been on serve, while you've been
serving and you're eligible for benefits.
All the benefits that are available to veterans are available to National Guard members and
members of the reserve.
What they have to do is carefully look at the eligibility requirement.
How much time was I in service?
And that's where they often get tripped up.
So yes, an example you describe, your father had been activated by the president.
He got hurt while he was in this hypothetical example.
Well, he's hurt while he's active.
He would have been eligible for benefits.
Okay.
I just wanted to try and clarify that because and it's also in my mind, so many of these
National Guard units that were, you know, activated to go to Iraq and Afghanistan, they
would have, they were covered during that time period, but if they come back and then
they go back into regular National Guard units, that time doesn't count.
That's correct.
And what is counting towards is the rule of 180.
You have 180 days of federal service, you now qualify for benefits, right?
So the challenge is to get to that 180 days and you may never have it if you're in the
National Guard.
The governor might activate you for emergencies.
You might never be activated by the president.
Therein is the challenge.
That is a challenge for all of those people.
That's for sure.
Okay.
So let me think.
Uh, how about VA on loans?
Absolutely.
I think, you know, this is one of the best benefits for being a veteran.
You really have purchased a home with no money down.
So think about our civilian counterparts, right?
They'll say for a long time to come up with a down payment could be as much as 10 or 20
percent of the mortgage.
So on a $500,000 mortgage, that could be $50,000.
It could take years to save for that.
And you might never get that because you're a veteran, you could purchase that same home
with no money down.
This is a huge benefit.
You generally get a little bit lower interest rate and you don't pay private mortgage insurance.
About five years ago, the amount of money you could borrow using the VA home loan was
uncapped, which means you can borrow as much money as you are credit, credit worthy for,
right?
So your ability to purchase a larger and a home in a very hot market has really been expanded
for veterans.
There's a couple of other things there that help you adapt your house if you've been injured
in service.
So it's really a very powerful benefit.
And also if you think about step back, home ownership is one of the best rate ways to
create wealth in our country for most people owning a home is their biggest asset.
So always encourage veteran, think hard about owning a home.
It's really a great benefit.
Well, it certainly is.
And I was thinking when you were talking, excuse me, that in the hot markets, like you
said, I mean, here in Ann Arbor, the market is exploding.
And you know, a little 900 foot square foot house can go for $400,000 or more.
And I think that that's that they've opened that market up to the veterans.
And then cool.
Could you check a little bit more about the ability to adapt a home to the disabled veteran?
Right.
There's a program called specially adapted housing.
And what you can, what happens is you could imagine you've gone off and you come back
and now you're in a wheelchair.
Your home needs to be adapted to a wheelchair.
Your bathroom, your stairs, things like this, right?
And it could be other variations of it.
My site got affected, right?
So there's special mechanisms you can put in for sound and the like.
So you could apply for what's called specially adaptive housing grant.
And VA will give you a grant.
It's up to, I think it's about $150,000 to have your house adapted to make it more accommodating
for what you're going through.
So again, for folks who are service connected and their house needs to be altered so they
can live in it.
This is something worth looking into.
I think that's a great benefit.
I know so many people that have utilized that benefit.
And the other thing that maybe we should touch on real briefly is the dependent and independent
care, I guess, for the dependents.
So once the veteran, I'll let you explain it.
Once you have a certain percentage and you pass away from that condition, they continue
to receive some sort of benefit.
Right.
So it's called DIC because the word is dependency and dignity compensation, dependent and dignity
compensation.
So everyone just calls it DIC because that's so complicated.
You describe it exactly right, Dale.
If you are service connected and you pass relate because of something you're service
connected to.
So the example you made before, the person is connected for burn pits later passes because
of some cancer or something like that.
Your family would be eligible for a smaller benefit called DIC, a monthly payment to the
survivors, and then it also opens up perhaps education benefits for children, perhaps,
and also the ability to use the home loan for the survivors.
So this is where you really see that applying for benefits really can help your family.
That's another point you just brought up was, you know, correct me if I'm wrong in this.
If you are 100% disabled as a veteran, you can get educational benefits for your children.
Is that correct?
That's exactly right.
Now here's where the benefits crossover into state benefits.
Okay.
So states have states generally provide education benefits for 100% service connected, but it
varies by state.
So you have to look at that.
The other thing that varies by state is the exemption form taxes for our service connected
veterans.
So here in Virginia, you're 100% service connection.
You don't pay property taxes, which is a huge way the government collects money from veterans.
So I'd also tell people, pay attention not only to the benefits we're talking about from
VA, but what happens once you get service connected to the benefits you can have as
a veteran in your state.
Right.
That's the same in Michigan.
All property taxes and everything, you're exempt from all of that.
Let's go into actually into educational benefits because those are pretty, there are excellent
benefits available to our veterans today.
Can you go into those a little bit?
Right.
So of course, the one everybody knows is what we call the GI Bill or the education benefits.
Serve for three years honorably and you get the equivalent of a four year education at
a state university, a free ride to a state university.
So this is really a good deal.
People go to college often the first ones in their families and it really changes their
life in terms of better job and a better career and the like.
What's interesting about this compared to what you and I were just talking about before
we came on is that benefit used to be available only 15 years after you served.
Now it's available forever.
You served after January 1st, 2014, that benefit will not expire.
So you can come back later.
What's also interesting about this benefit is now it can be used for things like credentials
and certificates.
So you go to school or training for a short period of time and you get something that
tells everybody I am qualified to work in this field.
The most popular right now is a certificate for cybersecurity demonstrating you know about
this and these are six figure jobs.
So with a little bit of that, you can do that.
And so credentials can help you differentiate yourself in the job market.
There's also internships and even I would tell people think about training to do what
we now call the trades, blue collar jobs or as I say the fastest way to earn $100,000
in America, be an electrician, be a plumber, be an HVAC person.
All this is available through your GI bill.
And is that a set amount of money or because I'm thinking you mentioned you know you could
get a certificate now but what about 20 years down the road?
Yeah, sort of it's mostly through what's called eligibility.
How many months of education would you get?
So you're eligible for 36 months of education, about four years at nine months a year but
you could pull off a couple of those months to get a certificate, right?
And again, sometimes if you're already gone to college and now you can, this GI bill can
help you or you don't want to go to college, you can use it in piece parts in a bunch of
different ways.
So it is finite but it's more the time, the money is more related to the institution.
The last one that I wanted to mention about education is that monthly housing allowance.
I thought that was pretty neat.
Yeah, yeah, most people don't realize that if you're in getting you know on campus or
you know in person training, you are eligible for monthly housing allowance.
It's the equivalent of an E5 sort of you know pay rate.
But also what's interesting about this is it depends upon where you live so it's adjusted
for high cost areas, perhaps Ann Arbor, San Francisco, Boston and the like.
So it can be several thousand dollars a month or more to help with expenses while you're
getting while you're going to school.
So that's also something.
So you think about this, you know, three years honorable service, the tuition fees, all those
kinds of supplies are paid for and I get a monthly housing allowance for 36 months, right?
So it's all right there to help veterans get an education.
You know, we've been talking with Paul Lawrence here, PhDs, former Undersecretary for Benefits.
He's got a book titled Veterans Benefits for You.
I know it's available on Amazon and they can get that.
Is there anything you know as we end this up that you would like our audience to know
about?
I just would I just would emphasize the two quick things.
One is don't forget your family, right?
That's a really important thing.
And the other thing too is maybe you have this where you all live.
I used to drive down the street and you see the folks holding up the sign say homeless
veterans at the stoplight and whatever you want to do.
Let me give you this number.
This is the VA homeless hotline.
It's 877-424-3838 again 877-424-3838.
If you're like me, you don't know what to do.
You want to help, you want to do something.
If you call that number and tell them I'm seeing a veteran at first in Maine, the location,
they will send somebody try to figure out their veteran and get them help.
So that number I tell people put in your speed dial.
Yeah.
Now just call because there's lots of resources for homeless veterans.
We just got to connect them to those resources.
Well, I couldn't agree with you more, Paul.
That's really important.
That number is 877-424-3838.
And I know that I have, you know, we all see these these people on the side of the road
that say that they are veterans and I hate to be cynical.
When I see them and I'm going, don't you guys know that there's all kinds of things that
we can give you to help you?
And maybe just a card that says here, call this number or maybe I'll pull into a parking
lot now and call that number and say, Hey, there's a guy on the island between the express
ways.
No.
That's exactly it.
And the most powerful thing you said is they can call, but we can call for our buddies
and they don't have to be homeless.
They could be on the cusp of being homeless, right?
Someone lost their job sleeping in your couch or whatever.
You can call this number for them and get them help.
Absolutely do.
Wow.
Well, I thought, well, there's a whole lot of great stuff inside your book, Paul.
And I really want to thank you so much for, for, uh, you know, coming on veterans radio
and helping our audience again to find out what benefits that they're entitled to where
they can go and all kinds of things.
There's just an unlimited supply of things in there.
I'm stretching here a little bit because I'm waiting for my other guests to show up, but
I'm trying to think of, is there any hidden benefit that we need to know about?
Sure.
So here's something perhaps, cause you're of the Vietnam, uh, the era generation, right?
Um, if you know elderly folks in your ecosystem, maybe in your neighborhood who are veterans,
but maybe they're draining their resources and you're wondering how they could live.
VA offers a benefit called the, the veterans pension.
Okay.
That if your assets fall below a certain level, you can get a tax free monthly payment that
will help you survive.
So the classic example is the old guy in your neighborhood appears to have no family, lives
in their house and you're wondering how can he possibly continue to survive?
Well, when they measure your assets, they don't count your house and they don't count your
car.
So folks who own a home may be eligible for this benefit cause the number, the cutoff
number is like about a hundred and fifty one or $2,000.
So you can see if you own a home, but you don't have much more, this can really help
them survive.
So again, this is one of those in your neighborhood, in your ecosystem, you know, are you sure
these folks are okay?
Check in on them because this is something I got asked by, I get asked about a lot.
Hey, my distant uncle, I've worried about him.
I don't know how he's doing.
Is there anything available?
This is one is called veterans pension.
So I would tell, I would tell every, I would tell everybody about that.
I'm writing this down right now.
And of course, if that is example, the uncle in my example passed and had a wife, there's
a, there's a similar version called the survivor pension where the veteran spouse under certain
circumstances and that the trick on this one is the veteran had a serve during periods
of war, so called wartime, but since 1990, we've technically been at war.
So it's very current as well as the dates for Vietnam are clear, the dates for Korea
clear and the like.
So again, it's one of those things where you're really having a concern for older veterans
in our life.
Yeah, I was, I was thinking when you were talking about that, we, we have talked with
a couple of even World War II veterans that we were, we were trying to get benefits for
and it turned out that this veterans pension thing was the thing that we were able to get
them some money to help them along, especially their spouse.
Right, right.
That's exactly, that's exactly right.
I think it's really good.
The other kind of thing to think about too is it's not just enough to say, tell your
family or think about your family.
Yasha should tell your family if you are a veteran receiving benefits, like what's going
on with your relationship with the veterans administration, because when you pass, you
know, your, your family will be grieving, but you don't want them to be surprised now
to have to go and deal with a bureaucracy.
So if you explain, these are my benefits.
Here is the pieces of paper that explain it.
When I pass, here's what you're eligible for.
Here's how this will work.
It really can help make it easier for them.
So there's a really, there's really a best practice of explaining to them what's going
on.
Well, I think this has been really helpful.
And I'm excited, excited to finish reading your book, Paul.
So I've been talking with Paul Lawrence.
The book is veterans benefits for you.
Every time I sit down and talk with somebody who knows more about benefits than I do, I
learned something new.
And I think that's part of the advantage of having this radio audience that we can talk,
we can talk to so that we can get this information out.
So Paul Lawrence, veterans benefits for you available probably anywhere, but I know I
saw it on, on Amazon.
And I'm assuming that we can find you on Facebook, LinkedIn and the rest of them.
LinkedIn, that's where I tend to use.
Yes.
Okay.
Well, thank you, Paul, very much for being on veterans radio.
Hey, thanks, Dale.
Thanks so much.
Okay, we'll be talking to you again.
All right, we're going to take a quick break.
And when we come back, we're going to be joined by Dr. Rebecca Grants.
We've got two doctors on today.
So you're listening to Veteran Radio.
We will 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.
Captain Lewis Millett was wounded by grenade fragments, but refused evacuation.
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.
While personally leading his company in an attack against a strongly held Korean position,
Millett noted that the first platoon was pinned down by small arms, automatic, and anti-tank
fire.
Millett ordered the third platoon forward, placed himself at the head of the two platoons,
and with fixed bayonet led the assault up the fire-swept hill.
In the fierce charge, he bayoneted two enemy soldiers and boldly continued on throwing
grenades, clubbing and bayonetting the enemy while urging his men forward by shouting encouragement.
Despite vicious opposing fire, the whirlwind hand-to-hand assault carried to the crest
of the hill.
His leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile
position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild
disorder.
During this fierce onslaught, Millett was wounded by grenade fragments but refused evacuation
until the objective was taken and firmly secured.
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 of 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.
We can all help someone going through a difficult time.
Learn how you can be there for veterans.
Visit VeteransCrisisLine.net VeteransCrisisLine.net A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs.
We're back here on Veterans Radio and we're being joined by my favorite national security
analyst from Washington, D.C., Dr. Rebecca Grant.
Dr. Grant has been on Veterans Radio, I think more than anybody I can think of other than
me.
We're really excited to have her on to find out what's going on in the world because there's
an awful lot of stuff that's happening out there.
Dr. Grant, welcome back.
I'm glad to be back with my favorite Veterans Radio host, Dale.
It's wonderful to talk to your Veterans Radio audience again.
Thank you very much.
This is a way we really finally can understand what the world is going on out there.
I suppose let's just start right in the Middle East because that seems to be the hot spot
right now of everything that's going on with the killing of a Zinwar and just ceasefire
talks breaking down and not even starting or anything.
What a situation and the first thing that I want to mention, especially to your audience,
Dale, is that we have nearly 40,000 U.S. forces in the region under U.S. Central Command spread
across that region and it really goes all the way from the Eastern Mediterranean, sure
technically that's European command, but there you find the USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group,
which is actually with a Marine unit that is special operations capable.
They've been there quite some time.
From there you go all the way through to the land-based fighters across the region.
We of course have American ground forces still in small numbers, both in Syria and in Iraq,
helping with the anti-ISIS mission and other things.
Every type of fighter in the United States Air Force inventory is currently deployed
from the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 right down indeed to the A-10.
These are at various spaces throughout the Middle East and finally wrapping up with the
aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is down in the North Arabian Gulf.
Lincoln is actually the fifth aircraft carrier that's been rotated through there since October
7th of 2023 when the war began.
An amazing amount of forces.
I want to talk about the B-2s a little bit later on, but all these forces are there for
deterrence and as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says they are there to try to keep
a lid on Iran and of course to provide protection and mutual support for our US forces there.
It is just an unbelievable situation.
Of course as you said the big news this week, the killing by Israel of Yaya Sinwar and I
don't know Dale did you see any of the online video or images around that?
I did.
A drone kind of flew into the guy's living room of a blown out building it looked like.
Yes.
Just incredible.
No surprise to the veterans listening from Afghanistan and Iraq, but I think for a lot
of the rest of us just such a reminder of how important drones have become in all the
sensing and urban operations.
There's something the US had been planning and training for for well at least 20 years,
but you see this drone fly into basically a blown out maybe a second or third floor
apartment building Sinwar it turns out is there hiding in the corner in the dust.
What had happened was Sinwar had been living like a rat like the rat and the murderer that
he was down with a small team of other Hamas operatives in Gaza and a relatively young
group of Israeli soldiers conducting operations there engaged them and killed Sinwar and it
took Israel about a day to identify the body and figure out that they had actually hit
Sinwar himself.
Sinwar was born in Gaza died in Gaza and everyone from President Biden, Vice President Harris,
Secretary of Defense on down have made it very clear that the world is better off without
him.
Of course now the question is, you know, the State Department kind of leapt out and said,
Sinwar was the one the Hamas leader who would not agree to the ceasefire.
And so I think for a moment even there with Secretary of State Blinken and National Security
Advisor Jake Sullivan, there is this sort of flare of hope that maybe without Sinwar,
the ceasefire talks would get going again.
But I haven't seen that develop out Iran's Ayatollah Hamanee came out and said, Nope,
Biden will carry on.
And another Hamas leader who lives in Qatar, Khalid Masha'a, has said, you know, we are
going to continue and to create more modders than Hamas will go on.
So really not a good situation.
The ceasefire talks had broken down pretty completely over the last couple of weeks.
The current state of play there is Netanyahu and Israel have agreed to the terms on the
table which are pretty much what they were in late May when Biden put the plan forward.
But they were fairly close and that there were just some technical points to do with
Israeli forces on the southern border and a possible corridor across Gaza to prevent
Hamas from repositioning.
And then also some issues about the terms of when the ceasefire would actually begin.
It was hoped that some progress would come out of that, but at this point, you know,
the bottom line is Hamas just won't agree to a ceasefire in Gaza.
It's really tragic.
It was very tragic and considering Hezbollah has gotten in on the action itself.
Yes, Hezbollah, you know, for so many months, and I think the last time we talked, Hezbollah
had remained relatively out of the action conducting small attacks across the border
down into Israel.
Of course, all that changed over the summer when Hezbollah began to conduct far larger
attacks.
And, you know, Dale, the situation there, it's Israel's northern border, Lebanon's southern
border.
The Lattani River is a UN-decreed line.
Hezbollah is not supposed to have forces below the line, but they do.
And so Israel had pulled about 60,000 residents back from the border area, and the two sides
have been trading attacks.
Now, we know Hezbollah has upwards, still upwards, of 100,000 various weapons ranging
from old World War II-style Kattusha rockets right up through some of the most modern drones
and scud-type ballistic missiles.
They have enough weapons to continue to attack for a long time.
Israel is conducting now a ground operation to try to get the kind of Hezbollah special
forces, if you will, out of that area and also hitting other leadership targets.
But so now we really are looking at a multi-front fight.
Of course, behind all this is Iran, and behind all that is Iran's biggest international supporter,
which would be China, who buys 90 percent of their oil.
It makes me speechless to think about what is going on over there.
And then you got Iran, what firing, how many hundreds of rockets into Israel.
And Israel doesn't take to those kinds of things kindly.
I am sure there's going to be some massive retaliation here.
That's right.
We saw the strike, a direct strike from Iran against Israel back in April.
And then another strike carried out in October.
And the thing is, Israel just has to conduct the type of strike that will reestablish deterrence
with Iran.
I mean, Dale, the alternative is Israel looking at a barrage of incoming Iranian missiles every
five or six months.
I mean, that is just not a way forward.
And so when Israel retaliated back in April, it was a very, very, very long-term strike.
It was a very technologically impressive, but very small and precise strike, mainly against
an Iranian military base and some nuclear sites that the nuclear target set in Iran
is sprawling and huge and very different.
But Israel conducted a very precise and restrained strike.
Now Iran having attacked again in October.
The question is, for Israel, I think, what type of strike will really get the Ayatollah's
attention?
And to my mind, this time Israel does have the initiative and they'll have to go smash
more of Iran's military capability.
I expect them to still really prioritize legitimate military targets like missile production,
drone production sites, Iranian military bases.
But I wouldn't rule out seeing some attacks on various portions of Iran's nuclear enterprise
and possibly even their new oil terminal, which is down in the south at JASC that's
been running for a couple of years.
But the question is, what can Israel do that will really reestablish deterrence?
Reports are that the Israelis have actually talked with the U.S. a little bit about the
target set and that they have targets ready to go.
Now the question around Washington is, what is everybody waiting for?
And I think one issue here, of course, is the deployment of FAD, our very elite missile
battery.
That's getting involved actually 100 U.S. Army soldiers on the ground in Israel manning
the FAD battery to help make sure that we have really good air defense coverage, partly
for Israel but also for our U.S. forces in that region.
Yeah, we certainly don't want to have another repeat of what happened at a hotel with a
Marines were back in the 80s.
It's just amazing to me that all of these things are continuing to go on.
You mentioned that you wanted to talk about the B-2s on the Houttuys.
Oh, on those guys.
Okay.
That's right.
The B-2 are elite stealth bomber.
You know, the Houtties, as you remember again, another Iran client and they are the rebels
in Yemen, not recognized by the UN, but they control a lot of Yemen and they have been
holding up Red Sea shipping by attacking and they attack with all kinds of things.
Sometimes it's a drone, sometimes it is a missile, sometimes it's an unmanned surface
vessel.
And the U.S. Navy there has been doing an amazing job, the destroyers particularly,
and then an aircraft carrier that has kept an air wing pretty much in place.
There was an incredible incident back in the spring of a hoodie attack on an oil tanker
that set this ship on fire and a U.S. Navy helicopter came in with the smoke and the
flames and picked up some of the sailors off this burning ship.
So that's the situation in the Red Sea.
Most of the major shippers have routed around and are not using the Red Sea anymore.
The U.S. Navy is sort of playing its own defense against the Houtties, helped by several allies,
Britain, South Korea, Germany, several allies have ships there as well.
But periodically, Central Command has conducted strikes against Houtti ground targets in Yemen.
There was a big strike carried out by Navy planes along with Air Force land-based fighters
back in the wintertime.
But now they have used the B-2 bomber which is based at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri,
probably a pair of B-2 bombers.
And they were used to attack underground targets where the Houtties had an underground
weapons, cash, or other type of military target.
So the fact that they had to use the B-2, partly because it's stealthy and long range,
but mostly because it can carry things like the massive ordinance penetrator and some
of the biggest air dot bombs that we have in the U.S. inventory.
Those are the B-2 specialty.
The B-2 hadn't been used in a strike since 2017 when it hit some terrorist targets in
Libya.
So it's quite dramatic that the situation in the Red Sea has gotten to the point where
the B-2 bomber has been called in.
Where do you see this going?
I mean, there was an article today in the paper, George Will wrote a column, and I don't
know if you had a chance to see it or not, but he's just saying that World War III is
already underway and neither of our presidential candidates have seen to notice what's happening
over there.
And he talks about many of the things we have talked on the program about, you know, we've
got, you know, we've just been spending, you know, 10 minutes on the Middle East.
We haven't even gotten to Ukraine yet, and then we have China, you know, doing their
stuff again.
And, oh, God, I don't know what, what would you do?
My wife thinks you should be president.
So let's imagine, what would you do if you were in that situation?
I tell you, that is a very tough question because unfortunately, the situation has really
drifted.
In the case of our relationship with Iran, it's been decades and of course, over the
past few years, we released, took off a lot of sanctions, done a lot of things that have
allowed Iran to build up its terrorist network around the world.
And the fact, you know, Iran is the one that trains and supplies Hamas, trains and supplies
Hezbollah and Lebanon, trains and supplies the Houdis in Yemen.
And it barely even gets any notice, but we do still carry out occasional strikes up in
Syria or within Iraq against resurgent ISIS forces.
So what would we do?
I think the one thing that has to happen is we have to see Israel really reestablish its
security without a secure Israel.
We don't have much chance for anything in the Middle East.
I think actually what both, from President Trump and Vice President Harris want to see
is to get back to President Trump's Abraham Accords that had normalized relations between
Israel and some of the regional partners.
The big one that yet to come was improved relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
They were very close to a rapprochement back last fall.
And I believe that is part of the reason that Iran and Hamas instigated the attack into
Israel was to throw that off.
So we need to see Hamas's military capability ended.
They are pretty decimated.
I think finish that.
The Lebanese has one need to get back north of the Lulutani River.
In the Red Sea, you know, we cannot keep this big of a chunk of our Navy there forever.
I think there either has to be a more coherent operation to knock out some of that Yemeni
capability or something else to be arranged.
And then as I said, I think what anybody who's really touched this diplomatic situation
wants is to get Israel and Saudi Arabia back on track to normalized relations.
That will help a lot of the other regional partners fall into place.
Unfortunately, this is also going to mean, I think, an international authority of some
kind in Gaza because clearly Gaza cannot be left to Hamas.
I think one of the real tragedies of Sinwar and his type is that he's had, he cared not
at all for the people of Gaza to look what they have been subjected to in the 17 years
that Hamas has run that place.
And you know, when you start hearing people talking about, well, you know, we can't support
Israel and so on and so forth.
I think as you just pointed out, we have no choice.
Well, and I'll tell you the support for Israel.
The Biden administration used the words iron clad, President Trump's position is no different.
And more importantly, perhaps the United States Senate is 100% behind Israel.
So that support is very strong and it does include weapons as it always has.
And I think also some operational advice and intelligence that said, you know, there's
now time for Israel to look at wrapping up that campaign and to start to move in the
humanitarian aid that is poised to go into Gaza, but very, very tough until they can
find somebody to sign on the dotted line for the Hamas part of the deal.
The only other option is really to just completely eliminate Hamas and essentially occupy Gaza.
No one wants to see that happen.
But Israel believes that they must maintain firm military pressure on Hamas in order to
get any resolution whatsoever.
And they seem to be right about that.
All right.
Well, let's let's know the world is a mess.
Moving along, you know, we were talking about Iran earlier and, you know, and that they
are supported by the Chinese because the Chinese are buying all the Iranian oil and the Chinese
are just kind of acting like the puppet master back there.
I don't know how involved is Putin in any of this?
I mean, he's busy with Ukraine.
Well, and don't forget, Putin is buying Iran's drones to use against Ukraine.
Not only does Russia purchase drones from Iran, but apparently Russia has set up a factory
to do a co-production of a lot of these Shahid and other drone types inside Russia.
So it really is at this point an alliance between Russia and Iran and China, you know,
backing all of this.
And if you if you took any one piece of it out, but particularly the Chinese piece, because
there are a number of international sanctions on Iran, I mean, the stack would be three
feet high if you looked at them.
There could be more.
But the fact is the sanctions aren't effective as long as China is there to provide a secondary
market.
So and then, of course, China as say every day, they will tell you that they support Russia's
war in Ukraine.
So we are in fact dealing with this terrible alliance and latest reports that there may
be North Korean soldiers fighting with the Russians against Ukraine.
Oh, man.
Holy.
How did all this happen?
I don't know.
I mean, you think we would have learned our lesson 80 years ago, but I guess we haven't.
And which is what the Will article talks about, you know, back in the late 1930s, everybody
could see it was coming, but nobody really did anything about it.
But I think by having you on to talk about it is really important so that, you know,
at least we can be an educated audience that knows what is going on and maybe what could
be looking at.
And I wanted to talk about China, you know, again, being active, you know, around Taiwan
and the Philippines.
And I know that's another, another potential hotspot in the world.
Very much so.
And you're right, Dale.
You know, China enjoys being the puppet master and having US horses racing hither and yawn
is just benefits them.
It took us so long to see that China was not our friend economically.
And then Xi Jinping is really ramped up his military pressure.
So specifically with Taiwan, this happens every so often there have been some, again,
some big exercises of air and naval forces around Taiwan.
Kinmen Island, which you may dimly remember what used to be called Kimoy and Matsu, and
there were big crises over these two little islands.
They're very close to the Chinese mainland, but they actually belonged to Taiwan.
And there was a big crisis back in the Eisenhower administration over these.
Well, China's been added again.
Now what they like to do is use their so-called Coast Guard ships to harass, you know, the
ferry going back and forth from Kinmen to the mainland.
And the same thing is happening in the Philippines, where China claims certain shoals and terrain
features.
The UN, the Hague, every international body says, nope, those belong to the Philippines,
but China continues to press.
And so frequently we see really scraping of paint between a Chinese, quote unquote, Coast
Guard vessel and the Philippine Navy.
We've seen the Chinese use high pressure water hoses or water cannons against the Philippine
sailors.
And why is this a problem?
Well, the United States has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines.
We are obligated by treaty to go to the defense of the Philippines if they ask us.
And President Marcos, for Nen Marcos Jr. there is the one who will make that decision.
And he has said that if these incidents with China cost the life of a Filipino serviceman,
that he will invoke that mutual defense treaty.
Now, guarantee you we have our Navy P-8 surveillance planes and some other ships out in the Western
Pacific that are keeping a very close eye on what's going on.
But we really are just a little incident away from having a miniature fight with China over
the Philippines.
And it's going to be something that we have to do.
We dare not let China have their way if it comes to a set two with the Philippines.
And maybe you listeners don't know, but we've really rebuilt a lot of our basing with the
Philippines.
There was a time when the Filipinos were more pro-China.
That has all changed.
And that U.S. alliance has been rebuilt.
And we have a lot of American contractors there making sure all the runways are ready
and that we have the ability to get back and use the Philippines as a base if we need to
to help defend the Philippines.
We've only got about two minutes left.
This has been an amazing topic to talk about.
The one last thing in those two minutes is you mentioned that the U.S. shipbuilding,
everything seems to be delayed and that the China's Navy is bigger than ours.
This Navy is bigger than ours and set to grow soon to over 400 ships.
We have about 290.
So let's make some more.
Well, unfortunately, the Navy budget slipped the next aircraft carrier, which was to be
a CVN-82.
It doesn't have a name.
The couple new carriers are being built down at Newport News, CVN-79.
The Kennedy is ready to go.
But the next one, CVN-80, is sort of just a shape at the pier.
And the one after that hasn't even been started yet.
The COVID workforce shortages, delays with a lot of the suppliers have really hurt the
aircraft carriers and the submarine industrial base.
And so the Senate has some plans to try to really put some money into this and get it
going, but it's a major problem in shipbuilding.
It's been building over the years and over the decades, but we've got to fix it.
We can see how important our Navy is and they have to use the contracting flexibility,
the extra dollars, recruit and pay that workforce and get them building our new carriers and
submarines.
No, absolutely.
Dr. Grant, thank you so much for being on the program again today.
We just touched the service.
I would love to talk to you again after the election to see where we're going from there.
All right?
Great to have you.
Always a pleasure to talk to Veterans Radio.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
All right.
So that was Dr. Rebecca Grant.
As everybody knows, that's our resident foreign affairs expert and I was really pleased to
have her on at this time.
Also don't forget we talked with our expert on VA benefits, so we want to make sure that
you check those out.
Contact your local VSO.
Find out what your benefits and what you're entitled to.
We will be back next week with another, hopefully, a live program that things should work out
pretty well for that.
The song that we're going out on today is a kind of a combination of God bless America
and America the beautiful.
It's going to be performed by the brothers of the heart.
So until next week, this is Dale Throneberry for all of us here at Veterans Radio.
Thank you so much for listening.
You are dismissed.
God bless America.
Land that I love.
Stand beside her and guide her.
Through the night with the light from above.
From the mountain to the prairie to the ocean.
White with foam.
God bless America.
My home sweet home.
God bless America.
My home sweet home.
Oh beautiful for spacious skies.
For amber waves of green.
For purple mountains majesty.
Above the fruited plains.
America, America.
God shed his grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood.
From sea to shining sea.
And crown thy good with brotherhood.
From sea to shining sea.
From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans.
White with foam.
God bless America.
My home sweet home.
God bless America.
My home sweet home.