1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,640 All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio. 2 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:15,920 This is Veterans Radio. 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:17,840 Welcome to Veterans Radio. 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,520 I am Jim Fossone. 5 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:22,840 I'm the officer of the deck today. 6 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:24,720 We've got some great programs for you. 7 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:29,520 We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook 8 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:35,240 site or at the web veteransradio.org where we're on the web 24-7. 9 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:38,360 You can find a lot of our podcasts there as well. 10 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:45,040 We post new ones every Tuesday so you can get a new story, a new interview, something 11 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:49,600 you didn't know before by going to veteransradio.org. 12 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,040 And before we get started, we want to thank our sponsors. 13 00:00:53,040 --> 00:01:00,880 Next up we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org. 14 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:06,560 It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran owned businesses. 15 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:13,080 You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org. 16 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,600 We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans. 17 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:22,120 Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation. 18 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:33,240 You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at legalhelpforveterans.com. 19 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,040 And finally, PuroClean. 20 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:38,680 PuroClean is the paramedics of property damage. 21 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:44,560 It provides water damage remediation, flood water removal, fire and smoke damage remediation, 22 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:48,000 mold removal, biohazard cleanup. 23 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,280 It also has a focus on veteran franchisees. 24 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:59,160 You can learn more about them by going to puroclean.com. 25 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:05,960 We want to welcome to Veterans Radio today Brigadier General Richard S. Miller, retired 26 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:13,040 Dick Miller's friend of Veterans Radio and has his multiple hats that he wears that 27 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:15,720 bumps him into our orbit. 28 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:24,240 He is the president of NVBDC, the nation's leader in certifying veteran owned businesses. 29 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:28,760 But we're having Dick on today to talk a little bit about his military career and his 30 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:32,800 position as president of AUSA Region 2. 31 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:35,480 Dick, welcome back to Veterans Radio. 32 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:36,880 Well, thank you. 33 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:37,880 Good morning. 34 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,200 Well, let's start with this. 35 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:48,040 How does a nice kid from Shelbyville, Indiana end up spending his career in the Army? 36 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:52,600 And did you have to do this because a judge chased you into it or what? 37 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:53,600 How'd this happen? 38 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:57,600 You know, it's funny as you and I are both of the era where I know a guy actually that 39 00:02:57,600 --> 00:02:59,760 that happened to you. 40 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:02,640 You got a choice, young man. 41 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:09,440 But no, I graduated from school in 1970 and had no future. 42 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:12,840 I mean, I didn't have the grades to go to college. 43 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:18,960 I didn't want to work in a factory and the Army was a good option for me. 44 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:26,840 And so I joined and which was rare back in 1970 and spent two years was a statutory station 45 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:27,840 in Germany. 46 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:33,480 Surprising I didn't get to go to Vietnam, but got out, went to school. 47 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:40,840 And then in 1980, I walked in the Army recruiter and said, I want to join, rejoin, and I'd 48 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:44,040 like to go to OCS. 49 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:51,320 And from Officer Kenneth's school to Brigadier General is quite a climb along the way you 50 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:56,720 picked up your bachelor's degree from Indiana University and a master's degree from U.S. 51 00:03:56,720 --> 00:03:57,720 War College. 52 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:01,160 And you've had assignments all over the world. 53 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:02,160 Right. 54 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:07,240 And while Germany was the first nice country they sent you to, they found a way to send 55 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:09,640 you to the sandbox a couple of times as well. 56 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:11,120 To balance that out. 57 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:12,760 You know, it's funny about that. 58 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:17,440 Every assignment I had after that was not a very nice place. 59 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:25,960 You know, from the jungles of South America to, you know, anyway, I ended up in Afghanistan. 60 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:29,960 I commanded all of Southern Afghanistan out of Kandahar. 61 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:34,040 And that was a nice place. 62 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:36,040 But anyway, yeah, I was very, very lucky. 63 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:42,960 I was, every assignment I had was a command assignment, which helped develop me for the 64 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:44,440 next assignment. 65 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:55,680 And after, after Afghanistan, I was a deputy, deputy chief of staff for the 38th Infantry 66 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:57,120 Division. 67 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:00,560 And then ultimately became the deputy commanding general. 68 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:06,240 And you spent, I think your final tour, if you will, with the Indiana Army National Guard? 69 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:07,240 Is that correct? 70 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:08,240 Yeah. 71 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:12,960 Yeah, I was a deputy commanding general of the 38th Infantry Division. 72 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:18,600 We had 14,000, 14,100 roughly in that area. 73 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:25,200 Well, I might not have the math right, but it looks like you spent about what, 34 years 74 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,720 or something in one way or another in the Army. 75 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:29,720 33. 76 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:30,720 33. 77 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:31,720 Okay. 78 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:36,400 And along the way, picked up all the sort of awards and decks that one might expect from 79 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:42,880 combat infantry badge up to the Bronze Star, Meritura Service Medal, campaign medals for 80 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:49,120 Afghanistan, global war on terrorism, Army Commodation medals. 81 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:54,800 All of that's just to sort of set you up for, I don't know, are we on chapter three or four 82 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:59,160 of post-retirement, military retirement here. 83 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:03,240 And your wife is saying, I kicked him out of that kitchen to go do something. 84 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:05,520 I didn't know it was going to end up like this. 85 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:12,480 You are spent a number of years working, I'm sure, in a volunteer position initially, with 86 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,640 a USA. 87 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:19,480 Tell us about a USA, the Association of the United States Army. 88 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:24,320 Well, much like my military career, I started off with the Association of the United States 89 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:27,840 Army as a chapter president. 90 00:06:27,840 --> 00:06:30,640 And that was a chapter in Indiana, of all things. 91 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:38,400 And it's a very, very large, there are 1.8 million members of the Association. 92 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:45,760 And as a chapter, I think I had 256 people in the local chapter in Indianapolis. 93 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:47,840 And then they had one in South Bend, Indiana. 94 00:06:47,840 --> 00:06:53,680 And then I was transferred to Michigan for a job change in 1984. 95 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:57,600 And immediately was asked to join the chapter in Detroit. 96 00:06:57,600 --> 00:06:59,920 And that's kind of where I've been ever since. 97 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:08,320 But just this is an organization, just for those who are not aware, that lobbies on behalf 98 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:14,760 of the United States Army, the Army themselves cannot lobby Congress for anything. 99 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:16,680 It's against the law. 100 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:21,920 But we have a very, very strong bonds with Congress and the Senate. 101 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:27,560 And that's what we do, not me personally, but we all within that organization. 102 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:30,960 But it is a volunteer organization, primarily. 103 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:34,880 And just like me, most of these folks that serve, they serve because they want to serve 104 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:37,040 their country and they want to serve their Army. 105 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:43,360 Well, it's a really inspiring story when you look at a USA's history and it's a nonprofit, 106 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:48,280 educational, and professional development association that serves not only today's total 107 00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:53,480 Army active duty soldiers, reservists, National Guard veterans, retirees, Army civilians, 108 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:55,680 and their families. 109 00:07:55,680 --> 00:08:02,520 It's that unique voice because of those 1.8 million members who have affiliation with 110 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:11,200 the US Army that you have sort of some clout on lobbying or expressing, hey, how do we help 111 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:12,200 the troops? 112 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:14,200 And that's really the goal, isn't it? 113 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:20,760 It is, the soldiers and their families, and by the way, the families have come into recognition 114 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:23,040 the last 15 years or so. 115 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:27,480 People understand that if the soldiers aren't happy and the families aren't happy, it affects 116 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,440 their performance. 117 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:39,560 The region that I'm in, or the president of this second region, we have 415,000 members 118 00:08:39,560 --> 00:08:47,600 to Washington, D.C., Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West 119 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:48,600 Virginia. 120 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:54,440 So, when we go visit the hill and we want to go see those congressmen and senators, 121 00:08:54,440 --> 00:09:00,200 when you have 415,000 members, they tend to pay attention to you. 122 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:08,560 And is this all on national defense policy issues or is it troop pay or mental health? 123 00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:12,040 What issues does AUSA advocate for? 124 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:13,760 It's all the above. 125 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:19,120 And as a matter of fact, we were just now developing our 2025 focus areas. 126 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:27,960 But if you look at it, it's readiness, it's training, it's National Guard state partnership 127 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:28,960 programs. 128 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:39,800 It's Army families, civilians, survivors, caregivers, anything having to do with the 129 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:42,280 soldier and their family. 130 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:46,880 And housing is a big thing right now. 131 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:48,280 There's a lot of criticisms. 132 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:52,320 Some of the facilities are run down. 133 00:09:52,320 --> 00:10:02,960 And personnel pay and benefits, healthcare, housing, childcare, education, Army civilians, 134 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:06,960 which by the way, there are thousands upon thousands of Army civilians. 135 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:11,200 So you take Detroit, Tarnac up there. 136 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:15,520 The vast majority of the people on that base are civilians. 137 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:19,480 It's really interesting because a lot of these issues are things which the families or the 138 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:26,720 troops might be reluctant to talk about up the chain of command, worrying about impacts, 139 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:28,640 maybe on careers. 140 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:35,000 But AUSA can say, hey, this base housing has mold or these kinds of problems or you're 141 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:42,560 not putting enough money into clean up environmental issues on base or educational funding for 142 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:46,000 the schools that the Army runs is slipping. 143 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,560 We got to pull those services up. 144 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:54,800 So it gives people another way to advocate for, I guess I'd call them sensitive issues? 145 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:56,840 Oh, yes. 146 00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,040 Some of it's just basic day-to-day kind of stuff. 147 00:10:59,040 --> 00:11:01,600 But the other part of it is just that. 148 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:07,120 Now, the soldier out there, just a normal soldier, is not likely going to be bringing 149 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:08,520 that stuff up. 150 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:14,000 Now, the AUSA, for example, Fort Knox is one of mine. 151 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:20,640 I'll go down and meet with the commanding general at Fort Knox and we'll discuss things. 152 00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:23,160 By the way, not everything's contentious. 153 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:25,800 Some of it's just basic stuff. 154 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:26,800 And supportive. 155 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:27,800 Absolutely. 156 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:28,800 Right. 157 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:34,080 What you're able to do at AUSA is be supportive of issues that the Army wants advanced. 158 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:35,080 Yep. 159 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:43,640 And then one of the big things right now I mentioned Fort Knox is what you call food insecurity. 160 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:48,280 You know, that's the big bullet item this year is food insecurity. 161 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:52,960 There are a lot of these youngsters out there that, you know, the pay isn't that great. 162 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:55,760 It's not bad, but it's not that great. 163 00:11:55,760 --> 00:12:00,760 And then all of a sudden the guy's got a wife, a couple of kids, and can't barely make ends 164 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:01,760 meet. 165 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:08,240 And so we're putting it, again, in our really sophisticated program for food insecurity. 166 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:11,600 You got to identify them first because a lot of these folks are, you know, embarrassed. 167 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:13,120 They don't want to talk about it. 168 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:21,640 But that's where, for example, at Fort Knox, we have a partnership with Denny's. 169 00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:25,120 Denny's is, you know, the restaurant. 170 00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:26,960 Yeah, restaurant chain. 171 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:34,040 We worked with Denny's down at Fort Knox last November to, they brought in their mobile 172 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:41,680 kitchen and we fed 900 soldiers in a single day. 173 00:12:41,680 --> 00:12:43,720 Or actually single morning. 174 00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:49,040 And then we gave 250 meals to the Red Cross on post. 175 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:52,480 So those are some of the kind of things that the AUSA does. 176 00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:57,400 Well, again, those are the sorts of things that I think people don't, you know, it all 177 00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:01,440 happens quietly in the background and the mobile kitchen shows up and nobody's paying 178 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:03,920 attention to how that happened or why they'd happen. 179 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:07,920 So getting the word out like this is really important. 180 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:13,200 Tell us about your region too, and you've told us the states involved in region two 181 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:14,200 for AISU. 182 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:21,280 How many regions are there and what does being president of region two deal with on a national 183 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:22,280 basis? 184 00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:31,880 Well, we have nine regions and we have a Pacific region that's Alaska, Guam, etc. 185 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:38,880 And then European region, which is Africa, Canada, Europe, Middle East. 186 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:48,600 And then we have a seventh, which is out west, Scotland, California is its own region. 187 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:54,920 And then fifth region, Illinois, there's a lot of, we're going to be looking at realigning 188 00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:59,600 this stuff because some of these things just don't make any sense from the geographic standpoint. 189 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:04,120 Now do each of the region presidents then sit on a national board? 190 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:05,760 Is there a national governing body? 191 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:06,760 How does that work? 192 00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:15,520 Yes, each of the regions, we have a seat on the board of directors at the national level 193 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:22,160 and we attend meetings virtually most, most of the time virtually. 194 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:28,280 And then once a year we have an in-person, but yeah, we all get together and we all 195 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:31,920 talk about the major issues affecting our soldiers. 196 00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:44,000 And we actually do speaking engagements, we promote and enhance the associations, goals 197 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,720 and objectives, all that sort of thing. 198 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:53,120 I spoke at Western Michigan's ROTC program a week ago Friday. 199 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:58,560 Those are the kind of things that we try to support the overall Army. 200 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:05,920 Well part of this too is just to get the word out to members, families, hey, there's somebody 201 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,520 who's got your back. 202 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:17,800 Tons of resources are available on the AUSA website, which is simply ausa.org. 203 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:24,120 And I noticed that like it has an annual meeting in the 2025 one, it's going to be October 204 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:26,600 in Washington, D.C. of 2025. 205 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:32,640 So lots of ways to get involved, a lot of professional development opportunities, which 206 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:34,720 is really interesting. 207 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:37,560 And I also found it interesting. 208 00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:41,240 Part of this is AUSA is focused on the total Army. 209 00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:45,240 So there's no distinction here about, oh, you were National Guard, oh, you were a serviced, 210 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:47,240 oh, you were active duty. 211 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,400 And that cohesiveness is really important, isn't it? 212 00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:51,400 It is, absolutely. 213 00:15:51,400 --> 00:16:00,720 You know, the War on Terror just brought the units together, all throughout the National 214 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:02,800 Guard Army Reserve, everybody. 215 00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:10,360 You know, when you were looking at the 38th Infantry Division, 100% of our soldiers deployed 216 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:15,760 during the War on Terror, many of them multiple times. 217 00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:22,040 Yeah, it really changed the way in which National Defense is bolstered by the National 218 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:23,040 Guard and Reserve. 219 00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:26,320 I don't think people fully appreciated that previously. 220 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:35,480 And at one point, the 38th Infantry Division, the only organization that had more combat 221 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:39,480 infantry badges was the 101st Airborne. 222 00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:41,040 The 38th was second. 223 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:50,720 Well, that talks about the number of tours that it had to endure during that period. 224 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:58,680 I do notice that there is an area for military families to get information on how AUSA helps 225 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,400 in that regard, so I'd certainly direct people to that. 226 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:08,080 And I also see that AUSA gives out scholarships, which is something that families are always 227 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:12,880 interested in as they're trying to get kids maybe through college and possibly that's 228 00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:16,760 also through a trade school, that sort of thing. 229 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:21,600 Tell us about those kind of hidden programs that AUSA does, Dick, that people might not 230 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:22,600 know about. 231 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:27,600 Well, as you said, the military families is a big one. 232 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:34,240 And the military families with scholarships and all these sorts of things, they have a 233 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:39,440 woman named Holly Daly that runs the family programs. 234 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:47,120 And they have stuff going on all the time, training events, forums, events, family resources. 235 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:52,320 They have a local area wants her to come out with her team. 236 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:54,000 They'll be happy to do it. 237 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:56,720 Health and wellness. 238 00:17:56,720 --> 00:18:01,080 The big thing is military spouse career and employment. 239 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:08,560 Being a spouse become qualified to be able to, for example, help write a resume. 240 00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:13,480 Now the other big thing for families is financial readiness. 241 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:19,040 Is there's a lot of folks out there that are, especially the young ones, are shy about asking 242 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:20,560 for help. 243 00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:22,920 And they may need somebody to help them. 244 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:27,320 As a matter of fact, I know for a fact it was one of the things, helping a young lady 245 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:29,960 balance a checkbook, if you will. 246 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:40,160 The child education coalition, there's a number of things that a soldier can reach out and 247 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:42,160 the USA's got something for them. 248 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:46,680 Yeah, the financial readiness seems so simple, but we've all been in service with somebody 249 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:51,640 who is the first time in their life they got a paycheck with some money and they spent 250 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:53,640 it like drunken sailors. 251 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:54,640 Yes, exactly. 252 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:55,640 Speaking of myself. 253 00:18:55,640 --> 00:19:01,040 And it's only later that you said, I should have put a little bit of that away because 254 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:04,560 there's a time when this ends and I got to go do something else. 255 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:08,480 But again, it can be as simple as I've never managed money before. 256 00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:10,440 I've never had a checkbook before. 257 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:15,840 So those kind of programs are really helpful to the young army. 258 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:22,280 Well, one of the other things that the USA does well is they support children education. 259 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:26,360 The military educational system is pretty good. 260 00:19:26,360 --> 00:19:34,040 For example, I was again in Fort Knox, their high school is by comparison as good as any 261 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:37,000 outside the military. 262 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,280 And they take it serious. 263 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:42,960 So there's a lot of stuff that the USA does. 264 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:47,600 You mentioned our annual event is in October. 265 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:53,880 For those who don't know, every defense contractor worldwide comes to this thing. 266 00:19:53,880 --> 00:20:00,000 It's in the convention center downtown Washington, D.C. 267 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:05,320 On average, there's 30,000 people a day come through this thing. 268 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:06,320 Holy cow. 269 00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:08,880 Yeah, it's huge. 270 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:11,520 And we hold our annual meetings. 271 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,800 We have a, like the regions, we all get together. 272 00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:22,440 We meet and if somebody's in one of these chapters or regions and again, if you go to 273 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,920 the website, you can find a chapter near you. 274 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:26,920 Right. 275 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:31,120 How does one say, Hey, you know what, I should be involved in this. 276 00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:35,520 How do I become a member of a USA and get involved? 277 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:41,280 Well you can go out to the, for example, like second region. 278 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:46,880 You can just go out to the second region area or for example, Detroit, there's the arsenal 279 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:54,680 of democracy chapter and you can reach the chapters and then just call them up and say, 280 00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:56,400 or email text doesn't matter. 281 00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,720 Say, look, I really want to become a member of this. 282 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:00,720 What do I got to do? 283 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,600 They're always looking for volunteers. 284 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:06,200 Well it's like most of life, right? 285 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,880 The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. 286 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:09,880 Right. 287 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:16,400 As you move forward here, you're probably seeing the insides of the organization a little 288 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:17,400 bit. 289 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:20,240 We mentioned at the outset it's a non-profit. 290 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:25,480 So how does a USA get funded? 291 00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:28,480 Primarily corporate sponsors. 292 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:29,480 And that's what you'd expect. 293 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:34,240 A little bit probably comes from membership dues and signing up for events and paying, 294 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:36,360 going to the annual meetings and those sorts of things. 295 00:21:36,360 --> 00:21:43,080 Well, as a matter of fact, the annual meeting is a big opportunity to gain funding. 296 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:49,680 But when you're looking at general dynamics, you're looking at McDonald Douglas and these 297 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:57,000 major corporations, they're, keep in mind, we're a lobbying organization for Congress. 298 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,000 And so they want to make sure that we represent them as well. 299 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:01,000 Oh, certainly. 300 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:02,000 Yeah. 301 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:06,120 And so we have a lot of different weapons systems and things like that and the funding 302 00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:07,880 of programs. 303 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:11,400 So we're talking to Dick Miller. 304 00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,080 He's the president of AUSA Region 2. 305 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:20,320 He sits on the national board and is giving us some insights into what AUSA does and why 306 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:21,320 it does it. 307 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:26,920 Dick, any final comments here that you'd like to make to our veteran radio listeners? 308 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:35,400 Well, like I said, the AUSA is an organization supporting our soldiers, their families, pay, 309 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:40,320 you know, healthcare, all of those things that support the United States Army. 310 00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:43,800 Very complex program. 311 00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:44,800 Professional development. 312 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:49,680 I mean, you know, meetings and events, publications, by the way, they put out a really nice magazine 313 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:51,000 every month. 314 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:52,000 But nope. 315 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:59,280 AUSA is a long-term, wonderful, wonderful job supporting our soldiers and we'll hopefully 316 00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:01,280 continue. 317 00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:04,560 So I'm going to direct people to ausa.org. 318 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,920 Hit the About Us click on button there. 319 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:11,760 It'll show you where you can jump over to join AUSA. 320 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:16,240 I think you'd find it very beneficial if you want to continue your service to the country 321 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:20,080 and service to the United States Army by being supportive. 322 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:25,880 Dick, General Miller, we appreciate the time that you've made available for Veterans Radio 323 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:28,600 today to talk about AUSA. 324 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:34,040 Well thank you again and look forward to working with you in the future. 325 00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:36,960 And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today. 326 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:38,040 I am Jim Fossone. 327 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:40,800 It's been a pleasure to be your host. 328 00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:45,560 I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us at 329 00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:53,120 800-6934800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web. 330 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:58,000 You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio 331 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:02,600 shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org. 332 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,240 That's veteransradio.org. 333 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:10,840 We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development 334 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:14,760 Council, NVBDC.org. 335 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:21,720 Legal Help for Veterans, a Veterans Disability Law firm with a national practice before the 336 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:26,920 VA can help you on your claims and your appeals. 337 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:35,680 It can be 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