1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,000 All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio. 2 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,200 And now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry. 3 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:24,200 And welcome to Veterans Radio. 4 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:30,200 My name is Dale Throneberry, a War Officer helicopter pilot in Vietnam, 1969. 5 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:34,200 Welcome to our program today. I am very excited to have you on. 6 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:37,200 It's all about a lot of entrepreneurs. 7 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:43,200 And we're going to be talking with a regular general, John Colavi. 8 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:47,200 And he has written a book titled No Soldier Left Behind. 9 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,200 It's a really cool story. 10 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:57,200 I'm anxious to talk to him on the air about his experiences, not only in the military, but afterwards, 11 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:04,200 because he's heavily involved in charity events and all kinds of different support things for veterans. 12 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,200 I think hence the title No Soldier Left Behind. 13 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:12,200 That's a great read. We also have a toward the end of the program, 14 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:16,200 we're going to be talking with another group from the Heritage Distilling Company. 15 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:22,200 And this is going to be Drew and Sarah Kellerman's story of their involvement with that. 16 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:30,200 They have just come out with a new war dogs edition of their whiskey, I guess you could say. 17 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:34,200 And so we're going to be talking about them and how they got started in that business. 18 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:38,200 And we're also going to be welcoming a new sponsor today. 19 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,200 And the new sponsor is Puro Clean. 20 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:48,200 And Puro Clean is a company leader in the property emergency services, helps families and businesses 21 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:53,200 overcome the devastating setbacks caused by water fire mold and other conditions. 22 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:56,200 They are known as the paramedics of property damage. 23 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:02,200 They provide water damage remediation, flood water removal, fire and smoke damage remediation, 24 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:05,200 mold removal and biohazard cleanup. 25 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:07,200 So we're really happy to have them here. 26 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:17,200 They also have a very special program of a franchises for veterans in which they offer 25% off their normal franchise fee. 27 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:29,200 And my partner Jim Fauston sent me a pre recorded interview that he did with one of their franchisees that we will be playing later on during the program. 28 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:36,200 So again, this is one of their statements from their website is Puro Clean is one of the nation's leading restoration franchise networks. 29 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:40,200 And it is made up of entrepreneurs just like you. 30 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:48,200 And the number if you're interested in finding out more information is 800 351 2282. 31 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:52,200 That's 800 351 2282. 32 00:02:52,200 --> 00:03:01,200 Or you can go to pure clean.com P U R O C L E I C L E A N dot com. 33 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:13,200 Well, we're real happy to have another sponsor always helps us out as we want to try to expand expand our world of affiliate stations out there and always helps to have sponsors to help us do that. 34 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:17,200 While I'm talking about sponsors, I better get into our regular sponsors. 35 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:30,200 So first of all, we have legal help for veterans specializing in veterans disability claims, give legal help a call at 800 693 4800 or go to their website legal help for veterans.com. 36 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:41,200 The National Veterans Business Development Council, better known as NVB DC is the nation's leading third party authority for certification of veteran owned businesses. 37 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:50,200 For more information, go to their website and VB DC dot org or give them a call at 888 2378 433. 38 00:03:50,200 --> 00:04:00,200 The Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for more information, go to va.gov slash and Arbor health care. 39 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:05,200 The Vietnam Veterans of America never again will one generation of veterans abandon another. 40 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:10,200 For more information, go to their website VV a dot org. 41 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:20,200 Locally the Irwin Prescor and American Legion post 46 and the Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans of America chapter 310 both of Ann Arbor, Michigan. 42 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:28,200 Hey, if you'd like to support veterans radio, please go to our website veterans radio dot org and click on the donate button. 43 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:32,200 Thanks in advance for your support. Now let's get right into the program. 44 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:42,200 So joining me right now by the magic technology of phone is Brigadier General John G. Colavi. 45 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:47,200 John is from Michigan and we'll talk about that a little bit as we get in there. 46 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:54,200 But he and his co author, let's see, I've got Dr. Donald steel as the co author of the book, no soldier left behind. 47 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:59,200 So let's give a veterans radio welcome to John Colavi. Hi, John. 48 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:02,200 Thank you so much. I appreciate it. 49 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:09,200 Hey, it's really great to get to get you on the program after reading your book. I figured I had to talk to you. 50 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:11,200 Well, thank you. 51 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:16,200 And let me tell you the reason I'm going to jump ahead a little bit. I was just finishing up. 52 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:24,200 Reviewing, you know, your book a little bit ago, and I saw that you were in charge of academics at Fort Walters, Texas. 53 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:28,200 Yes, I was. I was my side but after Vietnam. 54 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:31,200 When were you there? 55 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:38,200 I was in Vietnam from January 67 to January 68. And then I went to Fort Walters. 56 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:43,200 I stayed there until the end of August 69. 57 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:52,200 You must have been my academic leader because I was at Fort Walters almost all of 1968. 58 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:54,200 Possibly that would be great. 59 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:58,200 I was a red hat, a big red one, you know, they're going to be one. 60 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:00,200 Yeah, I was a gold hat. 61 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:11,200 Okay. So for our audience, when you went to Fort Walters for the Army primary flight school, they had, I think it was nine, nine companies, something like that. 62 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:14,200 And each company had a different colored hat. 63 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:21,200 So that's where these colors all come in. So let me go back to the beginning, John, and ask you. 64 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:28,200 So you're originally from Michigan. Tell me a little bit about your early life here in the state. 65 00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:33,200 I grew up in a small town in the northeast side of the state. 66 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:37,200 I went to Whittemore Prescott High School. 67 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:42,200 It was a consolidated school district of three towns, Whittemore Prescott and Skidway Lake. 68 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:49,200 I was sure Skidway Lake. That was considered the wrong side of the tracks, but I loved it. 69 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:55,200 Well, it sounded really like a very interesting childhood. 70 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:59,200 Yeah, interesting would be an understatement, I guess so, yeah. 71 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:05,200 My father left when I was 15, so I was the oldest of four children. 72 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:12,200 And my mother and the four kids lived in a one room cabin. We had virtually nothing. 73 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,200 But we, we all did fine. 74 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:20,200 Well, you weren't the biggest person in the world. 75 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:27,200 And at your high school, you were talking about that you tried, you know, you played on all sports. 76 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:34,200 Well, I went to school at West Branch through the ninth grade. 77 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:39,200 And then my sophomore year, they changed districts. I was going to go to Whittemore Prescott. 78 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:44,200 I didn't know any students from Whittemore Prescott, but the two things I did know, 79 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:48,200 they had very good athletes and they had good sports teams. 80 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:53,200 So I decided if I was to be accepted by my new classmates, I'd become an athlete. 81 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:57,200 The first thing I did was try it out for the football team. I made the team. 82 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:00,200 But at all candor, everyone had tried out for our bandit. 83 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:06,200 We never had more than 15 players. And at one time we were down to 12 because of injuries. 84 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:10,200 If we'd lost a couple more, we had to pull somebody out of the band. 85 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:16,200 I was also in a marching band. So at half time of the game, I'd go to the locker room, take off my football uniform, 86 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:22,200 put on my band uniform, go out and perform, change clothes and go back, play the last half of the game. 87 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:26,200 We had four clarinet players in the band. I was fourth chair. 88 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:30,200 I know you're thinking fourth out of four is not very good, but let me tell you the good part. 89 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:34,200 No one, I mean no one ever challenged me for my chair. 90 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:39,200 The next thing I did was went off for Junior varsity basketball. I was the shortest guy on the team. 91 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:43,200 It didn't take me a long to conclude basketball wasn't my sport. 92 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:49,200 The only time the coach put me in the game was if we were ahead by more than 20 points with less than two minutes ago. 93 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,200 I played three and a half minutes the entire season. 94 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:57,200 Next game, baseball. Coach Fagan had a bottle of Kauhavi pitches. Everybody hits. 95 00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:03,200 Last but not least was my favorite sport, track. Once again, I was the shortest guy on the team. 96 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:11,200 And as if it was them, coach, do know maybe a hurdler. He may as well maybe a polebolter. That's the only way I was going to get over those hurdles. 97 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:13,200 But I enjoyed all of it. 98 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:21,200 I know it just cracks me up because my son is hard to believe now is a retired band director. 99 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:32,200 And he was at a small school here in southeast Michigan and he would have football players that would go out and run with the marching band as well. 100 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:34,200 And then go back and continue playing the game. 101 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:36,200 So that's the story. 102 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:41,200 You played offense and defense. I was left out back out of offense and I played safety and defense. 103 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:44,200 I loved being part of the team. 104 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:48,200 Well, sure. That was the whole thing. I remember I did the similar thing. 105 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:54,200 I was an end on offense and I was a safety on defense and you just played the whole game. 106 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:59,200 And I loved and probably you did too. I just loved running into people. 107 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:06,200 Well, if you were an end, you were much taller than me. I used to be 5'7". I'm shrinking. I'm now 5'6". 108 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:10,200 At the rate of going three or four years now, I may be a dwarf. 109 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:19,200 I hope not because I'm starting at 6'2". And I'm afraid of where I might end up with that story. 110 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:24,200 We are talking here with retired brigadier general John Colavi. 111 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:29,200 His book is titled No Soldier Left Behind and I should get to that right now. 112 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:33,200 So why the title, John? Why No Soldier Left Behind? 113 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:41,200 I was a huge believer in that and I flew many combat missions where we went in to extract soldiers 114 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:47,200 in a couple of occasions where they're out of ammo and just down to knives and bayonets 115 00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:51,200 that are killing each other and we landed right in the middle of full amount. 116 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:57,200 I was always a believer you could never direct a soldier to go on a patrol or on a combat mission 117 00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:01,200 knowing if he were captured, no attempt would be made to retrieve him. 118 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:10,200 So we made every attempt. I think if you read the book, of all the missions I flew and I flew over 300 combat missions, 119 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:17,200 as I'm sure you did too, I was the lead helicopter of 50 Hueys. 120 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:24,200 We flew in Cambodia in the middle of the night. We had an agent report. There were five captured Americans. 121 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:28,200 We found the remaining members of their patrol are all shot in the head. 122 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:38,200 So we determined they tried to surrender and they killed all but five. They took them captive and we retrieved them. 123 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:44,200 We got them out of a village in Cambodia and we flew back into South Vietnam. 124 00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:49,200 That was my very favorite mission. We accomplished what we were out to do. 125 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:54,200 Well, I can certainly understand, John, what you were talking about. 126 00:11:54,200 --> 00:12:02,200 And it was something I think maybe all of us learned during our time in the service that you never ever left anybody out in a field. 127 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:09,200 And, you know, in reading your description of your experiences in Vietnam is very similar. 128 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:22,200 The company I was when was a 195th assault helicopter company and we flew chemo camouflage aircraft as a matter of fact, with no identification, no numbers on the aircraft and no identification on us. 129 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:38,200 And so we went into Cambodia before it was, you know, popular and official and up north of Tainin and I know you were in Kuchy, which was in Srikor, which is where I was. 130 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:45,200 Tainin was in our area of operations and I often see it at Tainin because we pulled counter border. 131 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:49,200 We picked up sit reps in the middle of the night from our salary outposts. 132 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:59,200 We retrieved wounded soldiers. We brought bodies back. I mean, we did everything we were asked to do and we accomplished it to the best of our ability. 133 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:04,200 That's what they say about Army and Eaters above the best. 134 00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:11,200 That was our job. All right, so you obviously you survived Vietnam. 135 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:18,200 I want to go back just a little bit back to your college experiences over at Central Michigan. 136 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:20,200 Yep. 137 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:34,200 Nobody, my father agreed to pay for my first semester tuition, room and board books, anybody else on my own. And then after the first semester, I was 100% on my own. 138 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:42,200 I worked a minimum of three jobs all the way through college. And at one time I actually had five different jobs, but I was able to do it. 139 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:53,200 I believe anybody wants to get through college can do it if they want to pay the price and the price is hard work and additional effort. 140 00:13:53,200 --> 00:14:01,200 Absolutely. I can relate to that. I, before I was in the Army, I didn't have a very good experience college wise. 141 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:09,200 As soon as I when I was out, I went back and finished up the bachelor's masters in five, no, what three years. 142 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:16,200 Yeah, I got to do a class, go to class and do the work. It's not that hard. 143 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:24,200 That's right. Yeah. The jobs were there if you wanted them. I did everything. I worked the as a butcher at a supermarket. 144 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:31,200 And then it was a supermarket close at night. I had to clean all the meat cutting machines, which is you know, it's a kind of a job. 145 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:42,200 I worked at a fast food restaurant on Sunday afternoons. I drove or hitchhiked and bet on whether or not I had a car to a grocery store that I grew up in. 146 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:49,200 And Northern Michigan, I worked there Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, go back to my own pleasant. But it was a great experience. 147 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:55,200 I wouldn't trade it for anything. I think it made me appreciate more later in life. 148 00:14:55,200 --> 00:15:16,200 I agree. And in reading the stories of your experiences at Central Michigan, it sounded similar to a lot of people who went to college. Unfortunately, in the 60s, sometimes that animal house, the movie was the life story of, you know, the fraternity, whatever fraternity you were involved in. 149 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:31,200 When I saw that movie, I thought they patterned it after my fraternity, five things, the epsilon. And actually we had a reunion two weeks ago prior to homecoming. All the guys are over 80, but they're still above ground and moving and pretty sharp. 150 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:43,200 That's that's that's the great part. When when everybody's above ground, that's that's good. That is terrific. I wanted you, you know, this is kind of a biography autobiography. 151 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:48,200 Tell me about your relationship with with Don steel, Donald steel. 152 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:55,200 And Don and I were fraternity brothers in college and actually we were roommates for a period of time. 153 00:15:55,200 --> 00:16:05,200 We lived in the country upstairs in a older house and the elderly couple lived downstairs and four of us lived upstairs. 154 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:19,200 And Donald was a very accomplished musician. He kind of worked his way through college playing. He had a band, all the guys that lived there were in the band except me, and they would perform three, four nights a week at bars around while pleasant. 155 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:33,200 And they made enough money. He got through it. He is a very talented man. We got to be good friends. And then we lost track of each other. Many years later, Don became one of the premier motivational speakers in the country. 156 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:44,200 He was under contract to the company I were for Merrill Lynch, but he came to our office. It was mandatory attendance. And that's how we kind of reacquainted ourselves with each other. 157 00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:49,200 And one of the times he came to our building and we've gotten to be very close friends. 158 00:16:49,200 --> 00:17:00,200 Well, I'm sorry he wasn't able to join us on this. We would have gotten some more inside stories on your real behavior at Central Michigan, probably. 159 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:11,200 But to move along from there, one of the great things I really enjoyed about the book, John, which is the book is No Soldier Left Behind. It's available everywhere. 160 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:23,200 If you wanted it was the use of songs from the era. And I wish I'd had time to put together a mixtape or something of the music that you have in here. 161 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:34,200 You've got John Prine in here. You've got clearance, clear water. You've got everything in here. And it was a really great up. It was fun just reading your book. 162 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:46,200 That was all Don's idea. Don's a very accomplished singer and musician. He cut it out many years ago. It's really, they all said one with Tammy Winnat and two of his own albums have come out in the last two years. 163 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:51,200 And they're both very, very good. And I enjoy listening to them on a regular basis. 164 00:17:51,200 --> 00:18:02,200 I have to go listen to them. I just opened the book to a page where he uses the song Crazy as a Loon by John Prine. 165 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:04,200 That's one of the songs. 166 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:15,200 And, you know, many people regarded helicopter pilots especially as being crazy as a loon and many other things that they call us. 167 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:23,200 I'd never seen a helicopter before and I was very inquisitive. My first day of flight school, I asked the instructor, I said, what do you do with the engine quits? 168 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:32,200 He said, you ought to rotate. I said, what exactly is that? He said, the power, the collective. That's in your left hand. You immediately lower that. 169 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:43,200 There's a centrifugal clutch. The transmission releases the blade. The blade becomes free willy. And as long as you maintain your rotor RPM, you guide the aircraft down. 170 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:50,200 And I said, what do you do with the rotor quits? He said, very simple. You immediately go into the helicopter pilot's emergency position. 171 00:18:50,200 --> 00:19:03,200 And I said, what exactly is that? You spread your blade, you spread your blade, you kiss your ass goodbye. I'd never forgot that. 172 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:11,200 Oh, the memories of those instructor pilots. I don't know how they put them close. 173 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:23,200 Chris Christofferson was a Huey pilot as you know. He flew out of Kuchy, my base camp. I was on one side with a 25th infantry. 174 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:33,200 He was on the other side of the airstrip with the 160 portents. And he wrote a song about his flight instructor called Skygate. 175 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:45,200 It's a lorry that has not said you the album. I'm sorry, I'm losing it. I'm not being very professional today. 176 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:49,200 Yeah, you are. You're having fun. That's what's out. 177 00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:59,200 That's exactly it. I hated Kuchy. Every time I flew past Kuchy, some guy from the rubber plantation would take a pot shot at us and we couldn't shoot back at him. 178 00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:09,200 You know, we flew as you know. We were off 52 pilots. We never had more than 46. We were always short pilots. We were flying on gobbly hours. 179 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:19,200 And almost every night when we fly, come in, they shoot at us from the village of Kuchy. We could not return fire because they had a pacification program going on. 180 00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:29,200 These guys are shooting at us night after night. We can't do anything about it. Some of them we have to retaliate. So we came up with a brilliant idea. 181 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:35,200 As you know, there's a lot of monkeys in Vietnam. We got a monkey. We put a collar on, a log rope, plodded him with a stick. 182 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:39,200 Made this monkey so mean. Everybody that walked by, he wanted to jump on it and bite you. 183 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:53,200 Anyway, what we thought he was good at, we took a parachute from the flares and he dropped the illuminator. We took the lanyard, the ropes to connect it and we rigged it easy to get out of harness. 184 00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:59,200 We put the monkey in harness and we pushed him out broad daylight over the village. Now this monkey is very inquisitive. 185 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:09,200 Halfway down, he climbs up the ladder, the ropes got on top of the parachute, neither say it collapsed, he went down like a bank of concrete. 186 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:17,200 We got a second monkey. That one was even better than the first one. But we thought he was good already. We dropped him over the village. 187 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:27,200 Now the 25th Division, about every two or two and a half weeks, published a newsletter about all the operations going on within our area of operations. 188 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:35,200 18.8 m, rabid monkey bite six villagers. Yay, we got back in those F.O.Bs. 189 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:38,200 That's the kind of stuff we did for laughs as you were... 190 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:52,200 No, I know. I understand it. You're sending 19 to 22, 23 year old boys over there and they're going to think of ways to solve their problems, which is retaliation. 191 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:57,040 And I still won't buy Michelin rubber tires again, you know, my son says I have to get 192 00:21:57,040 --> 00:21:58,040 over it. 193 00:21:58,040 --> 00:21:59,040 I can't. 194 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:00,040 I can't. 195 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:05,120 I was very fortunate three and a half months after I arrived in country, the flight, the 196 00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:10,840 primary flight leader rotate, it was a major and the company commander made me the primary 197 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:12,160 flight leader. 198 00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:13,720 So I got to pick every crew. 199 00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:17,880 I've talked about the aircraft commanders, the pilots, the crew chiefs and gutters every 200 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:21,680 day before all the combat missions we flew. 201 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:26,640 And if there were a full suppression mission where you're going in, go out, guns blazing, 202 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,480 coming out, guns blazing, the guys that I didn't think were upset. 203 00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:33,600 They loved the action and I love that about them. 204 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:38,800 They risked their lives every day of the week and they, but they loved the excitement of 205 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:39,800 it. 206 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:43,280 I mean, I depended on them to do their job. 207 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:47,720 Like they depended on me to fly the aircraft and we had great relationships. 208 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:57,400 Well, absolutely, I mean, I can never praise my crew chief enough for keeping me alive. 209 00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:04,000 I had a reunion in Florida last winter with my former crew chief and my favorite gutter. 210 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:06,240 Totally lost my gutter. 211 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:08,480 Bob Masterson was my crew chief. 212 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:11,040 And we got together for three or four days. 213 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:13,000 There was a great reunion. 214 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:18,280 He said, I saved your ass on me. 215 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:19,280 Okay. 216 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:20,840 I said, yes, you did because of me. 217 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:22,480 You never had to walk home. 218 00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:24,680 So we have a great relationship. 219 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:31,200 He wrote a book called highest tradition that I'm in that book, I think five times. 220 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:32,200 Okay. 221 00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:33,640 I'm not to check that one out. 222 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:39,000 We're talking here with retired brigadier general John Colhabi and his book is titled 223 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:43,480 no soldier left behind, which is, you know, for anybody who's been in the military and 224 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,520 whatever branch it is, you never leave anybody behind. 225 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:55,360 So when you got out of the service, well, shortly after you got home from Vietnam and 226 00:23:55,360 --> 00:24:00,560 you did your tour at Fort Walters, which is probably almost worse probably than Vietnam. 227 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:03,160 Actually, I really enjoyed it. 228 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:05,080 I love the people in Texas. 229 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:06,440 They were very friendly. 230 00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:11,080 I got to be friends with a lot of locals and I thoroughly enjoyed that assignment. 231 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:13,560 I enjoyed every assignment I had. 232 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:20,800 The worst one I had was the division I was in and the reserve was chosen for inactivation 233 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,440 in the early years of the Clinton administration. 234 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:28,600 I spent the last few years going around the states of Michigan to Indiana doing closing 235 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:33,000 ceremonies on units or in some case, a third generation family members. 236 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:34,520 That was my worst assignment. 237 00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:35,520 That was very sad. 238 00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:39,040 I'm sure I can certainly relate to that. 239 00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:44,800 So my point was I was going to say that when you and your wife at the time decided that 240 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:51,600 you would take a year off to decide if you wanted to stay and go back to civilian world 241 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,600 or eventually go back to the Army and you ended up with Merrill Lynch. 242 00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:58,200 Can you talk us about that a little bit? 243 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:04,200 Well, you know, my last assignment at Fort Walters, I was to see your captain in the 244 00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:06,000 academic division. 245 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,800 We had a major and sometimes he was there and he, my first day there is the job. 246 00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:11,800 You're capable of running it. 247 00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:13,280 I'm capable of running it. 248 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,120 We both don't have to be here every day. 249 00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:19,560 So we took turns running the academic unit. 250 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:25,280 I had 27 captains that reported to me, but by virtue of time and grade, I was a ranking 251 00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:26,280 one. 252 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:31,000 At the end of the month, I had the most responsibility put in the most time and we all got the same 253 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:32,000 pay. 254 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,520 So I decided what I was going to leave active duty. 255 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:41,280 I'd like to find a job that would reward me for my effort and my ability rather than 256 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:42,800 those of the masses. 257 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:48,640 I turned down multiple offers from General Motors because that didn't fit that criteria. 258 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,840 Great company, but it wasn't what I was looking for. 259 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:56,040 I didn't know much about the brokerage business other than what I learned from a couple of 260 00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,160 my instructors at Fort Walters. 261 00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:01,240 And it sounded interesting to me. 262 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:06,480 I sent letters to the five Maryland office forms that thanks for no thanks. 263 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:10,520 The fifth one said we'd like to have you in for an interview. 264 00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:15,640 And in the early years of the war, if you're in uniform, you got a discounted airfare. 265 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,680 Later, they told you not to because you'd be harassed. 266 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,040 Well, this was before that. 267 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:24,600 So I flew from Texas to Detroit, Michigan. 268 00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:26,120 My flight was later arriving. 269 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:28,960 I was in khaki uniform. 270 00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,320 I was going to go to my mother's house, put a suit on and go in. 271 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:34,040 I had a preliminary interview. 272 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:35,800 I have to take two tests. 273 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,480 One of them had to do with one of the intelligence. 274 00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:39,480 The flight was late. 275 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:42,040 I told my brother, take me straight to the Maryland office. 276 00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:43,840 I don't want to be late. 277 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:47,760 The manager of the office was a former naval officer. 278 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,760 I think he recognized some of the remnants. 279 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:53,240 And I believe that's what got me the job. 280 00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:57,800 I didn't have any of the traits or experiences they were looking for. 281 00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:03,280 I had no background other than working at a grocery store and finance, banking, anything 282 00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:06,240 to do with that, even sales. 283 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:08,920 But he gave me an opportunity and that's all I was looking for. 284 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:11,520 And I had a wonderful career. 285 00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:16,760 Five months after leaving Astroduty, I was recruited to come in the Army Reserve and 286 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:22,360 infantry-created division headquartered in Lavonia, Michigan at Forman Aviation Unit. 287 00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:25,560 They were authorized ones, but they didn't have a pilot. 288 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:32,080 So I spent the belt and I spent the next year, year and a half writing letters to the world, 289 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:36,560 getting an alert hangar itself for Geron� National Guard Base, recruiting pilots, crew 290 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,440 chiefs, mechanics. 291 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:41,680 And I had a hangar full of aircraft. 292 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,880 Anything can be done if you try hard enough. 293 00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:51,920 I got aircraft, old Healers, OH-23s from the Boneyard in Arizona. 294 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:56,920 I got rebuilt to U.E. from the rebuilt facility in Corpus Christi, Texas. 295 00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:02,160 I got a fixed-week twin-engine beach baron from the California Department of Natural 296 00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:03,160 Resources. 297 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:05,520 It was all orange naturally. 298 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:06,880 We repaid them. 299 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:11,360 I got aircraft from the customs that were confiscated in Florida. 300 00:28:11,360 --> 00:28:14,600 Really problem with those, most of them had salt corrosion. 301 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:17,200 But we had a hangar full of aircraft. 302 00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:18,200 We got the job done. 303 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,400 It was challenging, but it was interesting. 304 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:26,440 After Vietnam, buddies of mine had stayed on board and were flying 30, 40 hours a year. 305 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,840 I was flying two to 300 hours a year in the reserve. 306 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:35,320 The funds that they took from the active component, the reserve, we were able to get them. 307 00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:40,200 The air section, I was in charge of, I think, great pride and saying, we won the Fifth Army 308 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:41,700 Aviation Award. 309 00:28:41,700 --> 00:28:48,600 I don't remember, five or six years in a row, the best aviation company in the country. 310 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:55,120 And it may be because all of the guys were Vietnam veterans, all but two had over a thousand 311 00:28:55,120 --> 00:29:00,680 hours combat time, half were dual-readed, several instructor qualified, all of us became 312 00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:01,680 extra-readed. 313 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,000 It was a pleasure to fly with these guys. 314 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:05,000 They were good. 315 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:06,000 They were pros. 316 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,000 Wow. 317 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,120 I wish I'd run into you about 50 years ago. 318 00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,120 Yeah, a while before. 319 00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:16,920 That would have been great. 320 00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:23,920 One regret is that when the last time I landed at Carnes Army Airfield in Fort Rocker, Alabama, 321 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:25,960 I said, I'm done. 322 00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,960 I just felt like I'd pushed that envelope far enough at that time. 323 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:36,160 But I wanted, John, before I let you go, I wanted to find out what you're up to right 324 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:38,240 now because I know that you've retired. 325 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,360 I think you've retired from Merrill Lynch, according to your book. 326 00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:46,000 What is it that you're doing now and how does the no soldier left behind come into play 327 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,360 again? 328 00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:53,400 The reason for the book, Don Steel said, of all the people I've known in my life, you 329 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:58,080 have by far the most interesting background, I'd like to write a book about you. 330 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:03,840 The biggest reason I did it, my wife and I combined, have 15 grandchildren. 331 00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:08,240 None of them know anything about my background, and only one has ever even asked me about 332 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:09,240 it. 333 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:10,240 So I wrote the book. 334 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:14,440 If my grandkids will know more about me, I'll give a copy of the book and they can read 335 00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:15,440 it. 336 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:17,320 I was very fortunate. 337 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:18,960 I had a great career at Merrill Lynch. 338 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:21,240 I had a great career in the Army. 339 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:26,560 And I've always maintained a say that I have been blessed and I really believe that. 340 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:30,000 I'm a very positive person. 341 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:31,000 You certainly sound like it. 342 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:36,240 I look forward to, I'd like to look forward to meeting you in person since I noticed that 343 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:39,200 you have a Michigan phone number. 344 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:40,200 Maybe we can arrange that. 345 00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:43,720 Yeah, I live in White Lake, Tautra. 346 00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:44,720 Okay. 347 00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:50,240 Well, I thought it was between Waterford and Heartland, not far from Brighton, very close 348 00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:52,640 to Milford, at the small community. 349 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:54,120 I've been there 53 years. 350 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:55,840 I'll die there. 351 00:30:55,840 --> 00:31:01,560 And I also take great pride in saying I've been the president of the White Lake Tautra 352 00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:03,040 Civil Service Board. 353 00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,520 This is my 46th year. 354 00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:10,520 So I do the testing and the interviews for the place of fire department, promotion boards, 355 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:12,360 grievance hearings, and so on. 356 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:14,960 That's my contribution to my community. 357 00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:17,080 Well, you're doing a great job, John. 358 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:20,120 And I want to thank you so much for being on Veterans Radio. 359 00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,440 The book is No Soldier Left Behind. 360 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:27,720 I strongly encourage, especially our Vietnam-era veterans out there listening to check this 361 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:28,720 out. 362 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:33,440 I mean, if you were listening earlier on and you got me laughing, there's some stuff in 363 00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:37,760 here that will just crack you up in addition to the serious stories. 364 00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:40,240 So John, thank you very much for being on Veterans Radio. 365 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:45,280 I'm looking forward to meeting you and hopefully having you on again in the future. 366 00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:46,280 You have my number. 367 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:47,280 Call me anytime. 368 00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:48,960 I'll drive to wherever you're at. 369 00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:53,560 I retired from Peral Age at the end of 2017. 370 00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,320 But I own a number of businesses and that's spent. 371 00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:57,320 I don't golf. 372 00:31:57,320 --> 00:31:59,040 I own three golf courses. 373 00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,640 Someday I'll tell you my theory why I stopped buying golf courses. 374 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:06,320 But I would love to have the opportunity to meet you personally. 375 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:07,320 You have my number. 376 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:08,320 Call me. 377 00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:09,320 You're available. 378 00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:13,360 Okay, John, thank you very, very much for being on the program today. 379 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:17,160 Again, the book No Soldier Left Behind is available everywhere. 380 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:19,080 I encourage all of you to read this. 381 00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:25,480 It's very enlightening and it's also very uplifting and it's very motivational too. 382 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:33,400 So I just want to say what I think of that Afghanistan debacle and the way we left there, 383 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:36,480 that saddens me and actually sickens me. 384 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,720 That would have never happened in our era and our day. 385 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:41,960 It just wouldn't have happened. 386 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,640 It saddens me that we left so many good people behind. 387 00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:47,840 But anyway, we'll move on. 388 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:49,360 Thank you so much for being here. 389 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:54,160 It's been an honor, a pleasure, and I look forward to meeting you personally at your 390 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:55,160 caveat. 391 00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:56,160 Thank you, sir. 392 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:57,160 All right. 393 00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:58,160 Thank you, sir. 394 00:32:58,160 --> 00:32:59,160 All right. 395 00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:00,800 We're going to take a quick break here. 396 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:04,360 As I mentioned earlier on at the beginning of the program, now we have a new sponsor, 397 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:11,280 Puro Clean, and my partner, Jim Faustone, interviewed Jesse Wines, who is one of the 398 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:13,760 franchisees for Puro Clean. 399 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:17,040 So we're going to play that interview. 400 00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:21,640 And then after the interview, we'll play our Medal of Honor segment, and then we will 401 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:27,280 come back and we will join where they go, Drew and Sarah Kellerman from the Heritage 402 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:29,040 Distilling Company. 403 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:30,760 So you're listening to Veteran Radio. 404 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:34,440 We'll be back live again in about seven or eight minutes. 405 00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:35,440 All right. 406 00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:39,480 You are listening to Veteran Radio. 407 00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:45,280 This is Veteran Radio's spotlight on Puro Clean and its franchisees. 408 00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:50,480 Puro Clean is a leader in property emergency services, helping families and businesses 409 00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:55,920 overcome the devastating setbacks caused by water, fire, mold, and other conditions that 410 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,280 result in property damage. 411 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:03,760 It's independently owned by franchisees that do the real work in their communities. 412 00:34:03,760 --> 00:34:06,960 Puro Clean is known as the paramedics of property damage. 413 00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:14,400 It provides water damage remediation, flood water removal, fire and smoke damage remediation, 414 00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:19,000 biohazard cleanup on commercial and residential customers. 415 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,400 PuroClean.com is where you can check this out. 416 00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:24,840 And by the way, there's a Veterans discount on the franchise. 417 00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:29,920 But today we get to talk to two business owners, Jesse and Jennifer Wine. 418 00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:31,000 Welcome to Veterans Radio. 419 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:32,000 Thank you. 420 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:33,640 We're happy to be here. 421 00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:34,640 Thank you. 422 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:41,120 Well, we're going to talk a little later about your time in the Wisconsin National Guard. 423 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:45,920 Jesse, you served, I think it was eight years, came out as a sergeant. 424 00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:51,280 Jennifer, I think you had a 12-year career in the Army National Guard, and we want to 425 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:53,840 talk about those experiences. 426 00:34:53,840 --> 00:35:00,480 But here we're talking to you specifically because you are business owners. 427 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:04,040 You have a franchise with PuroClean. 428 00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:07,240 Why did you settle on a business with PuroClean? 429 00:35:07,240 --> 00:35:10,120 Jennifer, I'm going to toss that one to you. 430 00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:12,640 Sure. 431 00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:20,000 So we decided to go and because we were looking for a franchise that's kind of exhibited 432 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:23,280 like all of our values. 433 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:27,560 And when we settled on PuroClean, we had gone to the Meet the Team Day. 434 00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:32,720 And when we walked into the front office for the first time, they had brought all of the 435 00:35:32,720 --> 00:35:34,480 employees out to greet us. 436 00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:37,800 So we got to meet everybody from the top down. 437 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:43,360 And we were accepted as if we were already family members. 438 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:49,200 And that experience is very similar to the experience you have as a military member, 439 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:54,920 no matter where you are, where you come from, if you're in the service, Marines, National 440 00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:58,560 Guard, Army, Navy, it doesn't matter who you are. 441 00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:03,400 You walk into a room with prior service veterans and you are instantly family. 442 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:07,480 And that is the connection that I felt the moment I walked into PuroClean. 443 00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:10,760 And from that point, there was no other choice. 444 00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:12,280 This was the only place for us. 445 00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:17,240 Well, and I should mention that Steve White, Chief Operating Officer of PuroClean, is 446 00:36:17,240 --> 00:36:21,880 an Army vet, served in the US Army, was a captain. 447 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:27,800 So he probably had some of those same values and experiences and wanted to make sure that 448 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:29,000 you felt them as well. 449 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:30,960 So it's good to hear that you did, Jennifer. 450 00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:33,840 Yes, absolutely. 451 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:35,800 You know, that gets us to another question. 452 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:43,240 And I'll toss this, Jesse, your way, which is, what's the best part of owning your own 453 00:36:43,240 --> 00:36:44,240 business? 454 00:36:44,240 --> 00:36:46,520 That's a great question. 455 00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:51,840 Obviously, running, being able to call the shots is important. 456 00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:58,840 Being able to expand my business in the way I want to grow it, to how I want to grow it, 457 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:04,400 is very important to us as new business owners. 458 00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:08,840 And what's great about that is PuroClean corporate, they don't stand in our way. 459 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,800 They support us and encourage us. 460 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:19,080 And, you know, sure, you have some bumpers, some guide reels, but it's for your own good. 461 00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:23,960 You know, and so, you know, it's really great. 462 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:26,280 You know, I enjoy helping people. 463 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:33,040 You know, it's a very satisfying job to go in and help people with, you know, their homes, 464 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:37,240 you know, some of their biggest purchase they're ever going to make, you know, and we come 465 00:37:37,240 --> 00:37:40,920 in and when it's destroyed and we rebuild it. 466 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:46,680 And, you know, it's just a very fulfilling job, you know, and, you know, it's just a 467 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:54,640 great part of, you know, what I want to do, you know, in my life to help people. 468 00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,600 Well, Jesse, you have a long history in construction. 469 00:37:57,600 --> 00:37:59,000 We'll talk a little bit about that later. 470 00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:07,080 But one of the things franchises have are sort of standard operating procedures. 471 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,560 And you're meeting people on the worst day of their life. 472 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:13,960 They've had a flood, they've had a water break, they've had a fire. 473 00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:16,680 And you've got a process. 474 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:21,200 Explain how standard operating procedures, not unlike in the Army, kind of help you go 475 00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:24,880 through and fix the worst day of somebody's life. 476 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:25,880 Sure. 477 00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:28,000 Yeah, you wear a lot of hats. 478 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:32,320 So your SOPs, you know, we keep them in the trucks, you know, like, hey, we're dealing 479 00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:35,480 with a situation, you know, we got to follow the steps. 480 00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:39,600 You know, it's important because a lot of people don't do this every day. 481 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:44,280 You know, we can look at a situation and know exactly how it's going to end, you know, two 482 00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:45,280 months from now. 483 00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:47,480 But the homeowners have no idea. 484 00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:53,480 And so we're there to educate, to help, sometimes, a shorter to cry on. 485 00:38:53,480 --> 00:39:00,480 You know, and having guidelines in place, your SOPs, it just helps when you have no 486 00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:01,480 employees. 487 00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:08,280 It allows the experienced guys to have a resource, just like your dashed chin and your humbies, 488 00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:12,480 you know, you got, where do you go if you need something. 489 00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:17,200 Yeah, I want to, before we're on time, I want to talk about one other thing, is you mentioned 490 00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:22,760 you like helping people, but you get to do it in your community in Wisconsin. 491 00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:29,280 Talk a little bit about how that's the most, certainly a satisfying part of the business. 492 00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:31,720 Yeah, I don't know. 493 00:39:31,720 --> 00:39:33,800 Jim, you want, okay, I'll take it. 494 00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,280 Well, I mean, you know, why'd we join the Army? 495 00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:40,880 We wanted to help, we wanted to serve, you know, we joined the National Guard, you know, 496 00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,000 we helped people in our own communities through disasters. 497 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:49,560 And I've been deployed on multiple scenarios and fields of operation, but you know, nothing 498 00:39:49,560 --> 00:39:51,280 beats helping your neighbors. 499 00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:53,960 You know, it's a very satisfying feeling. 500 00:39:53,960 --> 00:40:00,400 Well, let's, let's point people to, if they're interested, you can go to PuroClean.com, read 501 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,600 more about what this business opportunity looks like. 502 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:08,160 As I mentioned earlier, they have a veteran's discount on being able to get in. 503 00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:12,320 So it's PuroClean.com. 504 00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,840 The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in combat, given a member of the Armed 505 00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:17,600 Forces of the United States. 506 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:22,080 There have been over 3,400 recipients of the nation's highest award. 507 00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:23,480 This is one of them. 508 00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:28,240 Navy Captain John Cromwell gave his life to preserve the security of his mission. 509 00:40:28,240 --> 00:40:31,720 Details after this. 510 00:40:31,720 --> 00:40:35,600 If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for 511 00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:39,800 Veterans at 1-800-693-4800. 512 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:43,840 They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. 513 00:40:43,840 --> 00:40:47,560 Their number again, 1-800-693-4800. 514 00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:52,080 Cromwell was aboard the USS Sculpin during the ninth war patrol of that vessel in enemy 515 00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:54,800 controlled waters off Truck Island. 516 00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:58,400 Undertaking this patrol prior to the launching of our first large-scale offensive in the 517 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:02,760 Pacific, Captain Cromwell possessed secret intelligence information of our submarine 518 00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:09,080 strategy and tactics, scheduled fleet movements, and specific attack plans. 519 00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:13,080 Constantly vigilant and precise in carrying out his secret orders, he moved his undersea 520 00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:18,760 flotilla forward despite savage opposition and established a line of submarines to southeast 521 00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:22,160 ward of the main Japanese stronghold at Truck. 522 00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:26,560 Cool and undaunted as the submarine rocked and battered by Japanese depth charges sustained 523 00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:29,840 terrific battle damage and sank to an excessive depth. 524 00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:34,360 He authorized the Sculpin to surface and engage the enemy in a gunfight, thereby providing 525 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:36,800 an opportunity for the crew to abandon ship. 526 00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,920 Determined to sacrifice himself rather than risk capture and subsequent danger of revealing 527 00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:47,040 plans under Japanese torture or use of drugs, Cromwell stoically remained aboard the mortally 528 00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:49,400 wounded vessel as she plunged to her death. 529 00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:53,000 The Metal of Honor series is a production of Veterans Radio. 530 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,280 Military veterans touch everyone's life. 531 00:41:55,280 --> 00:42:00,560 I'm guessing right now you're thinking of a veteran, a close friend, relative, maybe 532 00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:01,720 it's you. 533 00:42:01,720 --> 00:42:06,480 Even the toughest of us sometimes need help but don't know where to turn for support. 534 00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:09,040 You don't need special training to help a veteran in your life. 535 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:11,920 We can all help someone going through a difficult time. 536 00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:14,000 Learn how you can be there for veterans. 537 00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,960 Visit veteranscrisisline.net. 538 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:21,960 A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 539 00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:31,040 Hey, we're back here on Veterans Radio and today we've been talking all about entrepreneurs. 540 00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:39,280 Our first guest, John Colavi, another helicopter pilot, but when he got out he worked for Merrill 541 00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:45,880 Lynch for years and was very successful and he's continued offering opportunities to veterans 542 00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:50,120 ever since he got out of the service and so forth. 543 00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:56,880 You just heard Jim doing a little spiel with Puro Clean about their franchise opportunities 544 00:42:56,880 --> 00:43:02,680 for entrepreneurs and joining me right now on the line are some more entrepreneurs. 545 00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:08,920 I'm going to introduce you to Drew and Sarah Kellerman and they are with the Heritage Distilling 546 00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:14,280 Company and they have just come out with a salute. 547 00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:16,880 This is to America's salute, War Dogs Edition. 548 00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:19,160 So let me bring them on here right away. 549 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:20,480 It's another helicopter pilot. 550 00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:23,200 So if I start laughing again, folks, I apologize. 551 00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:25,960 It's just too much talking to broderheads. 552 00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:27,040 I love it. 553 00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:32,520 So Sarah and Drew, Sarah first, welcome to Veterans Radio. 554 00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:33,520 Thank you, Dale. 555 00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:37,680 True pleasure to be on the show and thank you so much for all that you are doing for veterans 556 00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:38,680 and veterans causes. 557 00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:40,840 It's a true privilege to be asked. 558 00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:46,080 Thank you for your interest in the distillery and Sir, especially being a former instructor 559 00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:52,560 at Fort Rocker, Alabama, those are memories that are near and near to my heart and serenity 560 00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:55,960 for your bio was very fun for me and it's just a pleasure to talk with you and I thank 561 00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:58,200 you sincerely for your service. 562 00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:02,640 Thank you and to remind our audience, you also flew helicopters. 563 00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:03,640 I did. 564 00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:10,560 I was lucky enough to be assigned UH-60 Blackhawks and I flew that at Schofield Barracks on the 565 00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:14,400 beautiful island of Oahu for about four years. 566 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:18,600 I know it was tough duty but someone had to do it right. 567 00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:23,880 And then transition over to the EH-60 platform and finish my career over at Fort Wachuken, 568 00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:24,880 Arizona. 569 00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:25,880 Okay. 570 00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:29,000 And husband Drew, Drew, welcome to Veterans Radio. 571 00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:30,560 Dale, a pleasure. 572 00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:31,560 Thank you very much. 573 00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:34,520 Thank you and tell me a little bit about your background. 574 00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:39,680 I know that both of you met each other as second lieutenants at the University of Colorado, 575 00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:40,680 the ROTC program. 576 00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:47,120 Yeah, we were both commissioned out of the ROTC program, met there as cadets in training. 577 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:49,680 We proceeded then into active duty. 578 00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:54,440 Both of us were able to go the honor of being regular Army commissions and so we ice her 579 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:59,240 to the infantry, light infantry with 27th Infantry Wolfhounds and at the 25th Infantry 580 00:44:59,240 --> 00:45:04,360 Division Light in Schofield and as part of the Army and Marine Couples program, that 581 00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:08,960 allowed Sarah to get out of a forced deployment to Korea to come join me in Hawaii. 582 00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:12,280 Oh, her fellow pilots weren't real happy about that. 583 00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:18,200 But we both, yeah, we ended up both at the 25th Infantry. 584 00:45:18,200 --> 00:45:23,640 She was with the Salt Battalion and I was with the infantry company and we trained together 585 00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:25,320 all the time actually, which was a lot of fun. 586 00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:26,320 My guys loved it. 587 00:45:26,320 --> 00:45:30,200 They knew that if we ever really got in trouble, we had our unit was going to get pulled out 588 00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:33,280 because we had a pilot who was really going to get us in it. 589 00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:34,280 Right, yeah. 590 00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:37,960 We were newly married and I was motivated to come get him wherever he was at. 591 00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:38,960 So that's right. 592 00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:39,960 Yeah. 593 00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:40,960 We were on the airfield there. 594 00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:41,960 Yeah. 595 00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:43,520 Well, I think that's great. 596 00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:44,520 That's great. 597 00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:49,080 So let me get into this thing about this heritage distilling company. 598 00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:52,240 Who would like to tell me the history of this? 599 00:45:52,240 --> 00:45:54,240 Sure, I'd be happy to. 600 00:45:54,240 --> 00:45:55,680 Yeah, go ahead, Sarah, please. 601 00:45:55,680 --> 00:46:00,640 Yeah, I know we've got a limited time here, so we'll make it rather brief, but we have 602 00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:05,040 a president and CEO who are also a married couple, Jennifer and Justin Stiefel and I 603 00:46:05,040 --> 00:46:08,600 met Jennifer on a field trip when our boys were in the first grade. 604 00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:13,600 Our sons are about to turn 21 this year, so it's been a very long and fruitful friendship. 605 00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:19,480 And as friendships grow, the moms get, moms enjoy each other's company, the kids get along. 606 00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:21,520 The next step is to see if the husbands get along, right? 607 00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:27,160 So we were, hadn't known them for very long, had them over the house for dinner, a beautiful 608 00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:31,880 spring night in the Pacific Northwest and we were deep in our cups, the whiskey and the 609 00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:37,920 cigars were flowing and Justin held his glass up to the night sky and said, this is great 610 00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:40,000 whiskey but we can do it better. 611 00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:44,560 We had no idea what he was talking about, but Washington State was just about to allow 612 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:50,760 the rule of change for that craft facilities could be allowed and legal in Washington State. 613 00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:54,360 And so I said, if we're going to do this, we need to get ahead of the game and get ahead 614 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:57,600 of the ball game and beat everybody else to the punch. 615 00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:02,760 So we were fascinated by the idea, weren't quite sure if you were serious or not. 616 00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:07,400 And the next morning when the haze of the previous night were off, so to speak, we had 617 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:12,320 a multiple page business plan in our inboxes and during I looked at each other and we said, 618 00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:15,600 my goodness, these people were serious. 619 00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:19,600 And we learned rather quickly that the steeples are people of action and a lot of people talk 620 00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:23,320 about starting their own business or person in the American dream. 621 00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:28,680 These are people of action and we thought, what a fantastic entrepreneurial idea. 622 00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:31,280 Let's hitch our cart to their wagon, if you will. 623 00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:35,440 And 13 years later here we are, we're the most awarded craft distillery in North America 624 00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:36,440 for the last decade. 625 00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:41,760 So we're really proud of not only having survived COVID and being on the other side of that 626 00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:45,840 fence, a lot of small companies didn't make it, but we persevered. 627 00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:48,720 It's going to be on the other side of that fence and we're just proud of the quality 628 00:47:48,720 --> 00:47:49,760 that we're producing. 629 00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:53,440 And great to be here and share a story. 630 00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:54,440 Yeah. 631 00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:55,440 Well, it is. 632 00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:57,640 So, Drew, how did you feel about this? 633 00:47:57,640 --> 00:47:59,640 What were you doing before Paradig? 634 00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:02,120 Yeah, no, it's a great question. 635 00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:05,560 So, you know, Sarah had been doing some my jobs. 636 00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:10,120 She was a state-owned mom for many, many years and had re-entered the workforce and was doing 637 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:16,280 some small projects with some local communities, companies and nonprofits. 638 00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:22,560 And I had my own firm as an investment advisor, financial planner, doing retirement planning, 639 00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:24,120 and so kind of set my own schedule. 640 00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:27,600 So when this opportunity came along, you know, being an entrepreneurial, we jumped at it. 641 00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:29,760 We thought this sounded just fantastic. 642 00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:31,280 We had no idea how to get started. 643 00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:36,000 And none of the four of us came from the spirits or beverage background in any way. 644 00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:41,720 So Justin's a chemical engineer and an attorney. 645 00:48:41,720 --> 00:48:45,040 So he's got those two disciplines, which actually are a perfect pairing for the distilling 646 00:48:45,040 --> 00:48:46,520 industry. 647 00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:50,440 And so we just literally started learning, took some classes, read a bunch of books, 648 00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:54,440 bought us still, got some commercial space, raised some money, you know, wrote strokes 649 00:48:54,440 --> 00:48:57,680 and big checks, you know, a big gulp. 650 00:48:57,680 --> 00:49:03,400 But no, it really was a small startup, you know, community-supported, community-driven. 651 00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:07,800 We decided to call ourselves Heritage Distilling Company because we want to celebrate the heritage 652 00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:09,240 of whatever community we're in. 653 00:49:09,240 --> 00:49:12,200 And, you know, the tagline is every spirit has a story. 654 00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:15,520 We really wanted to create something unique and different, create an experience for our 655 00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:19,120 customers, create the highest quality spirits we could, even though we didn't know what 656 00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:21,160 we were doing when we started. 657 00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:22,840 And then also create the spaces. 658 00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:27,200 We have tasting rooms, six of them now, that we're visually intoxicating, you know, for 659 00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:32,680 people to come in and really enjoy and celebrate their community when they come in. 660 00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:40,800 Well, it sounds like you're doing a really wonderful job of, you know, not only as entrepreneurs, 661 00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:47,120 but offering up a good product for those people who like, you know, like they're fine whiskey 662 00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:49,200 and bourbon and so forth. 663 00:49:49,200 --> 00:49:50,480 And you mentioned that. 664 00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:54,440 But tell me about the service to America salute that you're doing. 665 00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:56,440 That's what got my attention. 666 00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:58,520 Yeah, absolutely. 667 00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:01,400 Well, real quick backstory on that. 668 00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:03,560 So we're in Gig Harbor, Washington. 669 00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:07,120 We're small, little town, but we're in the shadow of Joint Base Lewis McCord, or Fort 670 00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:08,120 Lewis. 671 00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:13,320 And the Air Force Base McCord just down the street from us. 672 00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:19,880 And a couple of years after we'd gotten started as a distillery, we had a company sergeant 673 00:50:19,880 --> 00:50:24,240 major from First Special Forces Group, which is headquartered out of Fort Lewis. 674 00:50:24,240 --> 00:50:28,320 They came walking into our office one day and said, hey, I love what you guys do. 675 00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:29,320 Love your whiskey. 676 00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:34,240 Love to partner up with you and do a tribute whiskey to the First Special Forces Group that 677 00:50:34,240 --> 00:50:39,440 can then, of course, the proceeds can support the nonprofits that support our unit. 678 00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:43,440 And at the time, 2014, operational tempo was incredible. 679 00:50:43,440 --> 00:50:45,560 You know, the deployment schedule was crazy. 680 00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:51,880 There was lots and lots of opportunity, unfortunately, to support Gold Star families at the time 681 00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:53,720 and the other nonprofits. 682 00:50:53,720 --> 00:50:56,520 So we jumped to that chance. 683 00:50:56,520 --> 00:51:00,600 And it was just a fantastic opportunity for Sarah and I as veterans who hadn't really 684 00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:06,000 been connected to the military community to jump back in and be a part of something that 685 00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:08,640 was really meaningful and support First Group. 686 00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:13,240 And they really adopted us as kind of one of the companies that support them and just 687 00:51:13,240 --> 00:51:14,240 really fantastic. 688 00:51:14,240 --> 00:51:19,400 So we got started. 689 00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:23,600 And with that, we've raised about $150,000 of last eight years for them. 690 00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:27,320 But that led to a lot of other folks saying, hey, what about us? 691 00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:29,680 It's nice you guys are supporting First Special Forces Group. 692 00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:36,680 So this past year, about a year ago now, this month, we launched our salute series, which 693 00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:42,760 is a much broader, larger, very top shelf whiskey fundraising project that has both 694 00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:47,880 our special operations salute side of it and the service to America salute side of it, 695 00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:52,920 using our highest quality whiskies to basically it's whiskey that honors the worthy. 696 00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:58,480 It's whiskey designed to honor and celebrate different communities of folks that are willing 697 00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:01,200 to put their lives on the line for us. 698 00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:06,120 And then raise a bunch of money for the nonprofits that directly support them and their families. 699 00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:11,760 I'm running out of time here, so I got to make sure that I get you in here. 700 00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:17,200 So the latest new one is the it's called service to America salute war dogs edition. 701 00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:18,320 So Sarah, why war dogs? 702 00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:19,960 I got two minutes. 703 00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:20,960 Absolutely. 704 00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:25,680 Well, it's a little known fact to a lot of people out there that war dogs have saved. 705 00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:32,240 The current statistic is about 40,000 soldiers since World War II era. 706 00:52:32,240 --> 00:52:37,280 And we've been partnering with fantastic nonprofits who their mission is to treat 707 00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:42,240 those war dogs like the veterans that they should be treated post service, caring for 708 00:52:42,240 --> 00:52:45,640 them, paying for health care needs, that sort of thing. 709 00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:49,120 It's a very much overlooked segment of the population. 710 00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:51,080 They're four-legged warriors, quite frankly. 711 00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:55,040 And in Vietnam, I'm sure you're well aware, there were dogs there and they were left 712 00:52:55,040 --> 00:52:56,040 behind. 713 00:52:56,040 --> 00:52:59,680 And we've talked to some of those folks and they still can't get through a sentence without 714 00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:03,560 breaking down talking about their war dogs. 715 00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:06,000 We were really in passion to start this. 716 00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:14,000 Our technical advisor, Rick Hogg is a almost 30 year US Army special forces veteran. 717 00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:16,240 He had a war dog named Dukoe. 718 00:53:16,240 --> 00:53:18,600 His paws on the label. 719 00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:24,480 It's 98.6 proof to honor the temperature of the human body for all the lives saved. 720 00:53:24,480 --> 00:53:29,360 35 years, age 35 years and dog years, which we were pleased the federal government let 721 00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:30,360 us put on the label. 722 00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:33,400 So we just want to honor that very special population. 723 00:53:33,400 --> 00:53:34,400 Okay. 724 00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:38,400 So for people who want to find out more, they go to Heritage. 725 00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:39,400 www.saluteseries.com. 726 00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:40,400 All right. 727 00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:41,400 Saluteseries.com. 728 00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:46,520 And if it's legal, you will send it to them. 729 00:53:46,520 --> 00:53:47,520 That's right. 730 00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:50,160 We ship direct to 45 states across the country. 731 00:53:50,160 --> 00:53:53,040 And so appreciate the opportunity to be on the show, Dale, and all your support. 732 00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:54,720 All right, thank you very much. 733 00:53:54,720 --> 00:53:55,720 Thank you. 734 00:53:55,720 --> 00:53:59,720 I'm sorry to make this short, but we are coming up to our regular. 735 00:53:59,720 --> 00:54:02,280 This week, it's going to be America the Beautiful. 736 00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:04,920 And it's going to be Alan Jackson's version. 737 00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:06,640 So next week is our benefits program. 738 00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:10,200 I encourage everybody to tune in next Sunday to find out what's going on. 739 00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:35,200 Well then you are dismissed. 740 00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:50,360 That's right. 741 00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:57,640 Thank you. 742 00:54:57,640 --> 00:55:15,640 God shed his grace only and crowned the good with brotherhood from sin to shallowness. 743 00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:30,640 O youth, for a page you drew that sees beyond the years, 744 00:55:30,640 --> 00:55:43,640 thy laughter bastard is green, undemmed by human tears. 745 00:55:43,640 --> 00:56:09,640 America, America, God shed his grace only and crowned the good with brotherhood from sin to shallowness. 746 00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:27,640 And crowned by good with brotherhood from sin to shining sea. 747 00:56:27,640 --> 00:56:43,640 Oh beautiful.