All across America and around the world, this
is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. And
now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Hey, welcome to veterans radio, my name is Dale
Throneberry Cw2 helicopter type pilot in Vietnam
1969 Welcome to veterans radio. We've got a really
good program today. I'm really excited to talk
with our guests Now we're coming up. Number one
is we've got Colonel Christine cook and we're
going to talk about the history of the army No,
yesterday was the 250th anniversary of their
founding. And she's really an expert on that
kind of stuff. So I'm excited to have her on
the program. And then later on, we've got a song
that's going to be coming up. And it's a song
called Raise It High. And it's a song from an
organization that produces Braille American flags.
And stay with me on that. Kind of cool. And so
it's a song that was commissioned by them. And
David Cayley is going to be on later on to talk
about his song. And we're going to play it for
you then. So we've got two things covered here.
We're going to be covering the birthday of the
United States Army, and we're going to be covering
Flag Day. So all for you. I've got to remind
you that, you know, in order to do this program,
we have to thank all of our sponsors and thank
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go to our website, veteransradio .org and click
on the donate button. Right now thinking you
in advance. Mark your calendar. I've got to remember
that, right? So September 28th is going to be
our fourth annual Radio on the River. And for
more information, you can go to our website.
That's veteransradio .org. We've got music, we've
got food, we've got all kinds of gifts and things
that we can raffle off. And we've got UH -1 Huey
that's going to be providing rides. You have
to pay tickets to ride on the Huey, but it's
from the Michigan Flight Museum So we're really
excited. So that's going to be on Sunday September
28th from 1 to 5 p .m. And you're all invited
no matter where you are in the country. Come
on out It's going to be at Freedom River. It's
a great organization. That's built this incredible
complex just north of Ann Arbor where they've
got games and fields and they're going to have
services for veterans. It's all going to be veteran
oriented. So I encourage you to look them up
too. Just go to freedomriver .org and they just
put up a 60 foot flagpole yesterday. It was really
cool. So, you know, we're going to be one of
their first events that they're going to have
out there. Alright, so let's get right into our
program today. Coming up, we're going to play
a little interlude of music, and then I'm going
to be bringing in Colonel Christine Cook. So,
Derek, let's play that little intro. All right,
so joining me on the program right now is a good
friend of Veterans Radio. Actually, she's been
on our program numerous times. Actually, we got
her shortly after she was deployed to over during
the Iraq thing over there and talking to her
about. being deployed as a woman in the military
and leaving a family at home. That was the first
time I talked with Christine. Christine, right
now, she is an associate professor of theories
and war and strategy, and Department of Distance
Education military historian at the US Army War
College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It's also
part of the Department of Distance Education.
She has received her PhD in history from the
Wayne State University. before entering the program
there. She served 30 years in the US Army Reserves,
retiring as a full colonel. She's got a bachelor's
degree in English from Princeton, master's of
strategic studies from the US Army War College,
and a master's of arts in women's and gender
studies from Eastern Michigan University. Anyway,
so she knows what she's talking about and I'm
really happy to have Christine back on the program.
So welcome to the show and go with your disclaimer
first. Sure, so I have to say that the views
that I have here are not necessarily those of
the US Army War College the Department of Defense
or the US government Okay, so we're covered All
right, well I asked Christine to come on the
program Today to talk about the United States
Army because she studied history and she's heavily
involved in it. So Let's talk about the army
and how did it get started? So as you might remember,
we were colonies first before we were a country.
So the first military that we had was actually
colonial troops. They were militias for each
of the states. And the very first one of those
was Massachusetts. Massachusetts militia got
started in 1636. So we can actually date our
army. back to 1636 if we're thinking about the
National Guard, because they track back all that
way. The reason that we think of the United States
Army as having a birthdate of June 14th, 1775,
has more to do with the fact that that was the
first continental non -British army that we had.
OK, so what did we do between 1636 and 1775?
Well, as you might recall, we had indigenous
forces here that were not necessarily always
friendly. So the militia was often there for
the protection of the people who were living
in the colonial American area. And in addition,
you might recall that in 1754, The colonial americas
were basically involved in a world war it was
the seven years war otherwise known as the french
and indian war. Which got a lot of people around
the world kind of involved you know if we if
we want to talk about world war one this was
actually a world war before that right mostly
it was france versus the united. Britain, I should
say. But of course, because of the fact that
there were French in Canada, there were French
in the Louisiana area, and then there were British
colonists here in the, you know, the the 13 colonies
on the on the seaboard, that became a very big
conflagration. So the British Army was here,
and they also basically seconded the militias
to also fight in the British Army during that
war. And in fact, that's where George Washington
got his kind of chops, right? His experiences
were first in the French and Indian War. And
then it ended in 1763, but not in a happy fashion.
It was extremely expensive to Britain. They had
to figure out how to pay for it, so they taxed
us. And that did not go over very well, as you
might recall. They started having tea parties
and things. They started having tea parties.
That's right. That's right. So that actually
kind of led to the anger that the colonists had
over being taxed for something that was a war
that they didn't really want to be involved in
to begin with. They were kind of salty about
that, shall we say. And so in April 19th of 1775,
the Lexington and Concord battle kind of broke
out. And that was against British troops and
basically, you know, citizens that got kind of
added to with some of the Boston and Massachusetts
militia members. And that was kind of the first
major battle of the American Revolution. At that
point, the Continental Congress, which was beginning
to form at that point, decided that this was
becoming an actual revolution. They needed to
have their own army to fight against the British
Army. And so in June 14th, 1775, they decided,
okay, we're going to commit number one to forming
this Continental Army. and we are going to commit
to paying for it. So there were actually two
different documents that they signed during that
time period. They also decided that Washington,
George Washington, had some experience from that
French and Indian war. And so they decided he
was going to be the commander in chief of this
Continental Army. And they basically told him,
go ahead up to Boston. It looks like the British
are coming. Right. So he headed on up there without
any troops that actually were falling in under
him yet. And he ended up there probably slightly
after the conflagration at Bunker Hill, which
was actually Breeds Hill, but the British didn't
seem to know that it was that. So they called
it Bunker Hill. So the idea that Washington had
was we don't really want to fight with them.
At the time, they weren't really all that interested
in starting the United States. What they instead
wanted to do was to reconcile with the Brits
by basically whooping them on home turf and then
saying, hey, let's figure out how we can not
be taxed and this kind of stuff. But what ended
up happening was he was hoping for a short war.
He got a long war because the Brits did get whooped.
And then they basically went back onto their
ships, but they didn't leave. And so that was
when Washington realized, okay, we're gonna have
a little bit of a problem here. And then he had
to figure out how to get the military. One of
the first units actually came from the Carlisle
area. It was led by a guy by the name of, at
the time, Colonel, eventually he became a brigadier
general, but William Thompson. You know, basically
they were known as Thompson's Riflemen, but they
basically were a group of soldiers that fell
in under his company and he took them northward
toward Boston. But it took a couple of months
to form these various units, right? So for the
first couple of months, what they were dealing
with were militiamen. who basically decided that
they were going to try to help. So they got kind
of attached to the Continental Army and the Continental
Army took months to try to form. So that's one
of the reasons why it was important in Valley
Forge in 1770, you know, early 1776, 1777 that
they really formed into an actual Continental
Army because until then, you know, it was kind
of ad hoc. It was all malicious, wasn't it? Yeah,
by and large. And in fact, there was a group
of people who were trying to do the stuff in
battalions and in companies and in platoons and
looking like what you would think was a normal
army of today. But the other thing that we had
was the group of people who were basically kind
of, they had learned how to fight from the indigenous.
forces here, and so they were doing guerrilla
operations in addition to the conventional force
operations. So those were not technically, I
mean they were sort of part of the Continental
Army, but they were sort of apart from it as
well, and they weren't necessarily under the
command of Washington per se. I find that really
interesting when you think about, you know, here's
this guy, he's put in charge of an army that
isn't even there yet. And he's supposed to go
off and fight these battles. And, you know, I'm
trying to remember my history is, you know, when
they, you know, from Boston, they ended up in
Brooklyn and they got really whooped there as
far as the Continental Army was concerned. And
that's when he retreated back into New Jersey.
And I can't remember if you went to Mars. And
then into, you know, the Philadelphia area. Right.
Yeah. And then, and then they, of course, did
the, um, the first Trenton, um, thing, which
was on Christmas Eve, right, where they came
across the, yeah, they crossed the, the Delaware
and, um, the, the Trenton, the British troops
didn't think that they would fight on Christmas
day. So they were partying. And they got themselves
whooped again. And then the Continental Army
crossed back over into Philadelphia. And then
they waited about a week, and then, surprise
of all surprises, Washington decided to do it
again. And that's when the Princeton battle happened.
Again, the Brits got whooped, right? So that's
when they went back into New York and kind of
took over New York, because they had a fairly
strong contingent there. So we've got the beginnings
of the Army being set up here. And I think One
of the things was, of course, that Washington
didn't like the idea of all these militias going
off in 13 different directions. And, you know,
he was, I guess he was in favor of, you know,
with centralizing it, I guess, making it actually
a real army. Right. And so he actually was able
to take advantage of a couple of people. They
actually said that they had been generals in
their respective European forces, but they were
actually, most of them had been captains, right?
So you had people like Lafayette, you had people
like Kosciuszko, and I'm trying to remember.
the German guy, the Prussian guy, but they all
came over and they said, well, we work with the
European army. And remember this was kind of
a world, it had been a world war, right? And
this was beginning to become a world war again.
And so they were coming over because they all
hated the Brits. right? So they were trying to
show the Brits that they weren't as hot stuff
as they thought that they were. And so they brought
over some of the European tactics that were popular
during the time. And so, as I said, during these
winter encampments, they would actually teach
these which they were all basically volunteers,
right? And they had to be, you know, similar
to today. We had about 30 % who were rabidly
revolutionary and wanted to install this Republican
government. We had about 30 % who were loyal
to the crown and were constantly making it difficult
for these revolutionary soldiers because it's
like, you know, they were acting as spies sometimes.
And then you also had about 40 % who Just don't
bother me. I just want to be on my farm and take
care of my crops and leave me alone. So they
were having the same kind of situation. So they
were working around people. They had to be volunteers
because they had to be people who were pro -revolutionary.
And then you would have to try to train them
to be a part of an actual force. Well, I guess
they did it With the help of a lot of people
and a lot of major mistakes by the British I
think yes, I think that that is probably and
Really long as we would call them, you know lines
of communication, right? They they had a situation
where For a while it was the king and then it
was a general who was in Britain giving the giving
the orders It would have to come over. It would
take like six weeks sometimes to try to get the
ship over here. They would get the orders. By
that time, a battle or 10 had already happened.
They moved on. Yeah. Which was the problem with
the whole Saratoga campaign, right? The reason
that Ticonderoga ended up being so... desperately
bad for the British was because of the fact that
they were dealing with countermanding orders
because of things coming in after something had
already happened and so on and so forth. Being
from the East Coast, most of us are ingrained
with many of these stories of the Saratoga, the
Battle of Monmouth, Princeton, crossing the Delaware.
all these things and then you know there are
other parts of the country that you know are
they just read about them in the books and they
don't they don't get to go to Valley Forge and
or Morristown New Jersey and see the you know
where people stayed in the winters and so forth
so we've got the army now they won their their
war that we've won our independence now what
are we going to do what do they decide to do
with the army back to your farms Basically, the
Continental Army kind of fell apart and on purpose,
because if you read our Constitution, it basically
says that the Congress can call up an army for
up to two years for events. Otherwise, you can
go home. Now, they were almost all part of the
militias. um which when they became states they
became state militias um and and those people
you know if you are white and male you're part
of the militia congratulations right and the
and the officers came from the landed gentry
class um everybody else was going to be you know
enlisted um but but they were there you know
in case war breaks out that's where our our soldiers
are going to come from. Otherwise, we don't have
an army. So it was very ad hoc and it was purposely
so, which kind of messed us up when we suddenly
ended up having the War of 1812. Right, yeah.
I'm looking at some of my notes here and I see
it looks like around 1800, 1802 or somewhere
in that neighborhood that they they decided that
they needed to establish an officer corps. And
so West Point was founded. So and this is something
that Washington, I think, implied as he was leaving,
you know, this is what we got to do. And so they
started that. But as you mentioned, now, we're
into the war of 1812. And that didn't go well
for us. No, we didn't lose, but we didn't win
either. It was pretty sad. A lot of war of 1812
was actually fought on the water because the
Brits knew that they had a very strong Navy and
we didn't have such a strong Navy. And they were
actually trying to take our ships and make them
part of the British fleet again. Right. And that
was what the fight was really over. Now, that
didn't mean that there weren't skirmishes on
the ground. There were. But we, again, had to
basically create the army sort of out of whole
cloth. As you said, we had a couple of officers
that had gone through the military academy. At
the time, it was basically the only military
academy. Over time, we also built things like
there was a Valley Forge military academy. There
was a Citadel, there was the VMI. But by and
large, for a while, the Military Academy was
kind of the only person on the block. And we
had a Navy Academy. So those were the people
who kind of ended up sort of collecting people
under them. to create units. And then those units
would fall in under this kind of scaffolding
style military. Okay, we want to run out of time
today. So I think we, we got to move forward.
So the army really, from the revolution up until
the Civil War wasn't that big of as far as numbers
was concerned. Right. Right. And in fact, because
of that statutory, we lose the army when we're
not in a war kind of thing. That was really the
case all the way up to the 1900s. So we had a
situation where basically they had to do a draft
and have volunteer soldiers for the Civil War.
And of course, then we had two You know because
the confederate states decided that they needed
to have their army and then there was the US
army was actually the northern army right so.
So the US Army continued to be the US Army, but
they were really only in the North. And so basically
they had to do a number of things to try to get
the number of people that they needed to have
for that Civil War. But then once that happened,
they all basically, other than the occupational
forces that went down to the South to try to
get them to come back into the fold. There was
a very small occupational force that was doing
that, otherwise not doing much. By the time of
the Spanish -American War, we had a situation
where people were basically, if you're rich enough
to create your own military, then they're going
to go to the Spanish -American War. This was
why the Rough Riders were under Teddy Roosevelt.
He basically said, I want to fight. I'm going
to take my own people and my horses, and I'm
going to go over there. And he did. And there
was not much in the way of professionalism when
it came to this stuff. And so the people who
were involved in that war were all like, we have
got to do something better than this. This ad
hoc business is not going to work for us. So
we started to have a more professionalized army
starting in the early 1900s, post -Spanish American
War. And Ilahou Root, who was the Secretary of
War at the time, was the one who said, we've
got not just to have this U .S. Military Academy.
We have to have an education system for our troops,
both officers, especially officers, but also
more training for soldiers writ large. So in
1905, he started the war colleges. And so that
started to get, you know, the people who were
colonels and generals were having more uh, strategic
level thinking about the way that they would
run things. But even between, you know, not World
War I and World War II, we still had a situation
where they went down to a skeletal crew of just
a few officers and a few enlisted who would basically
be the seed for if we had another war where they
would be the ones training the the troops that
fell in with the with the draft that we ended
up having. Yeah and that's where you know people
like Eisenhower came into play because you know
he was you know later obviously became a great
general but he got stuck training during World
War II World War I. Yeah. And during that time
period in the 20 years between the wars he really
didn't get advanced too quickly. Well, he was
a colonel when World War Two started. And yeah,
from there he went, you know, went to great heights.
So our army went from, I think it was a little
over a million or so during World War One down
to a couple of hundred, maybe 100 ,000 max. I
think it was 250 ,000, but yeah. Okay. And then
up to 13 ,000, 13 million eventually for World
War Two. Yeah. And how did, in that World War
II, we had a couple of other things that changed.
We had black units. We also had Japanese units.
Yeah, and in fact, when they started realizing
that there was going to be an issue and that
they were going to have to have all hands on
deck, basically, that's when units like the African
American units, they were sitting there saying,
you need to have us, we need to be able to volunteer
and we wanna have better rights when all is said
and done because we're pushing it in. But they
were not allowed to do combat. So most of them
were like transportation units, they were driving
the trucks, they were cooking the food, they
were doing the laundry. and it was rare, like
the Tuskegee Airmen were one example, that they
were able to do some combat, but they were really
supposed to be supporting the big bombers by
protecting the big bombers so that the bombers
could go through and drop their load and then
come back without being shot at. So yes, we started
having a much more you know, more variety of
soldiers, right? So we had the Women's Army Corps,
of course, came in during that timeframe, first
as an auxiliary, and then they became a part
of the military, supposedly going to be left,
you know, leaving as soon as the war was done.
But they actually, as my own research works,
you know, they became a part of the Cold War
Army as well. So. Yeah, there were a number of
things that happened then. The other issue that
happened was it was not too long after 1945 that
they started realizing there would never be a
point at which we could actually go back to 250
,000 soldiers. you know, we were having a situation
where we had to occupy Germany and we had to
occupy Japan. That took quite a few soldiers
to do right in and of itself. And then we had
a situation where shortly thereafter, the Soviet
Union decided that they were not going to leave
their section of Germany. And they started kind
of rattling their sabers. And that was when the
army in general and the military writ large,
they were all sitting there saying, we have to
be ready to fight at a moment's notice with them
because they're not backing down. So they never
did get back to the 250 ,000 soldiers. They were
in the process of trying to deactivate a lot
by 1947 -48 when they realized that they had
to start rebuilding their military and then shortly
thereafter Korea occurred and so they instituted
a constant draft starting in the 1950 time frame
that continued in some form or fashion all the
way till 1973. Right and that's where I got caught.
And many and many people obviously did so if
you know what we've gone I don't want a short
change Korea because what's what's occurring
during all of these Wars that we've gotten involved
with is that the technology is changing so dramatically
And so we need to we need to be get become more
and more educated as far as not only our officer
corps But also the enlisted personnel as well,
right? You know everything and especially in
today's army. As you know, every day, it's, you
know, it's very high tech. Well and it's interesting
because you know that that is part of what ended
up happening with the all -volunteer force as
well. So the all -volunteer force happened in
1972, really got going in 1973, but the idea
was after the Vietnam War they really did not
want to have a draft. They knew that that had
really angered a lot of people. It had created
a situation where there were a number of people
who, instead of being the top, the cream of the
crop, they had been convicted for a crime and
they basically said, go to work or go to jail.
We were not getting people who were necessarily
high school graduates or a variety of other things.
A lot of the college level people were able to
defer out of the draft. So it was really a number
of issues that were kind of creating a situation
where we were not getting the best soldiers.
And at the same time, we were, as you were saying,
having more and more fancy equipment, more technology,
you know, and we needed to have the people who
are high school graduates or college graduates
in order to just run the equipment. A really
classic example is the multiple launch rocket
system, which has a computer system that you
have to be able to use. And that was a big difference
from, you know, the gun bunnies who had the artillery
and, you know, just stuff that thing in and,
you know, have a go, right? It's very, very different.
Things are a little bit more precise these days.
Yes, exactly. Exactly. We're you know, I've got
about five minutes more to go has gone really
fast, but Where you know, where do we see the
army, you know in the next ten years would you
say? That's uh, you know, it's always kind of
hard there's there's a lot of stuff that's going
on with you know drones and A lot of people are
talking about AI changing things a lot. We've
got unmanned systems that go in. But there's
always got to be the brains behind the operation,
right? So it's never going to be 100%. a military
that is clones. That is very unlikely. But we
are going to see even more high -tech going on.
We're going to see what are known as non -kinetic
operations, where you've got cyber warfare that
might jam the equipment that we have. um and
and make us go back to more of a manual thing
um and so we have to kind of be ready for everything
but it's definitely that the technology is not
going to go away and it's just going to keep
building kind of in Moore's law you know exponentially
how many how many i don't know if you know the
answer to this but how many people are in the
army right now approximately So 435 ,000 are
on active duty. We've got about 200 ,000 roughly
in the U .S. Army Reserve, and we've got about
500, I want to say 538 ,000 in the various National
Guards. So it's 1 .1, I think it's like 1 .1
million total. Just in case. Right. Well, and
most of them are on part -time, right? Yeah.
Yeah, I was I was reading something about about
about that especially with the guard and the
difference between active duty is you know, that's
your 24 7 What is the reserves how does that
work versus the guard? Yeah, they they have operationalized
so they have sometimes if they know that they're
going to be deploying they have a little bit
more training time, but the average is a weekend
a month, which is two days, sometimes two and
a half days. And then two weeks per summer, usually
in the summer, not always in the summer for their
annual training. And then they also, they will
come onto active duty to get the schooling that
they need to get here and there along the way.
But by and large, it's a part -time job. you
know, 16 hours per month and then 24 -7 for two
weeks. Okay. And the Guard is the same approximately?
That's both Guard and Reserve. Okay. But the
Guard, theoretically, from my understanding,
the Guard is mostly controlled by the governors
of the various National Guard units. Except when
federalized, yeah. The President has overall
control over all of them. They do but the you
know, basically it's it's serving two masters,
right? So the National Guard primarily Goes with
the governor Unless they have been federalized
on orders for a and usually an overseas mission
Okay So I'm assuming based on what you're doing
and everything that the are the next 50 years.
And we don't have to worry about anything after
that. So I'd be very old. Yes, we would all be
very old by then. So I'm trying to think, you
know, we had that they had that big parade yesterday
and You know, which is kind of cool I you know,
I like the idea that people get to see some of
the things that the army is actually doing or
showing I guess you could say Equipment wise
and so forth. I mean, they're never gonna See
everything they can do but it's it's kind of
interesting. I think That they did that I'll
give you any anything you'd like to wrap up Yeah,
well, you know hopefully the Army will continue
to function for another 250 years. You and I
will not be here to see it, but I am assuming
that we will always need to have defense forces
and the occasional offense too, so. Okay, well,
let's see that we're trying to have a little
difficulty getting ahold of my next guest, but
Christina wanted to thank you so much. for joining
us here on Veterans Radio again. I wish you all
the good luck that that you can that you need
and that you can be successful in what you're
doing. Hopefully, they'll let you come home someday.
I come home occasionally to Ann Arbor. I know.
It's crazy, I tell you. It's crazy. Yep. All
right. Well, thank you very much. Colonel Christine
Cook, United States Army and War College. She
teaches out there and we're just kind of talking
a little bit about the Army over the last 250
years and how it's developed, you know, from
kind of a one man show to two million. or a million.
So hopefully we won't have to use them all again
too much. Right. Well, yeah, they're there to
protect us in case of bad things that happen
overseas. They do. All right. Well, we're going
to take a break here. It looks like we made contact
with the people we're supposed to make contact
with. So Christine, thank you very much. Thank
you very much. All right. Hopefully as soon as
we get an opportunity we're going to be doing
our Medal of Honor break here and then when we
get back on we are going to be talking with more
and more hopefully that we've got David Cayley
here here to talk about his song for that he
put together for the American Braille Flag Project
and this is kind of an interesting organization
that I thought was kind of cool. in that they
make flags out of bronze. And so, oh, I see he's
on the phone so I can stop stalling here. And
so we're gonna do our Medal of Honor. And when
we come back, we've got David Kaley here on our
program. So you're listening to Veterans Radio.
We'll be back in just a couple of minutes. The
Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor
in combat given a member of the Armed Forces
of the United States. There have been over 3
,400 recipients of the nation's highest award.
This is one of them. Lieutenant J .G. William
Hall pressed the attack although seriously wounded
during the Battle of the Coral Sea. Details after
this. If you have a VA claim denied by the Board
of Veterans' Appeals, contact Legal Help for
Veterans at 1 -800 -693 -4800. They're experts
in handling cases before the U .S. Court of Appeals
for Veterans Claims. Their number again, 1 -800
-693 -4800. Hall was the pilot of a scouting
plane in action against enemy Japanese forces
in the Coral Sea. In a determined attack on 7th
of May, 1942, Hall dove his plane at an enemy
Japanese aircraft carrier, contributing materially
to the destruction of that vessel. On 8th of
May, facing heavy and fierce fighter opposition,
He again displayed extraordinary skill as an
airman and the aggressive spirit of a fighter
in a repeated and effective counter -attacks
against the superior number of enemy planes in
which three enemy aircraft were destroyed. Though
seriously wounded in this engagement, Hall succeeded
in landing his plane safe. The Medal of Honor
series is a production of Veterans Radio. Military
veterans touch everyone's life. I'm guessing
right now you're thinking of a veteran, a close
friend, relative. Maybe it's you. Even the toughest
of us sometimes need help, but don't know where
to turn for support. You don't need special training
to help a veteran in your life. We can all help
someone going through a difficult time. Learn
how you can be there for veterans. Visit VeteransCrisisLine
.net VeteransCrisisLine .net A message from the
U .S. Department of Veterans Affairs. And we
are back on Veterans Radio and it is a grand
old flag. And we're going to be talking with
a gentleman who has recorded just a wonderful
song about the flag. So joining me on the line
right now is Dave Kelly. And he is a songwriter,
a singer and everything else. Hi, Dave. Welcome
to Veterans Radio. Hey, Dale. How are you doing,
my man? I'm doing well. Where are you located?
Are you in Nashville? No, I'm in North Carolina,
Gastonia, North Carolina, just outside of Charlotte,
about 10 miles. But I spent a lot of time driving
back and forth there. But no, we've lived in
North Carolina for, oh, I don't know, five years
now. So when I was in the Marine Corps, I was
just down the road in New Bern, which is an air
facility. And of course, I always loved to the
south anyway and one of our daughters lives down
here with five grandchildren so we decided to
move here great place well happy father's day
then well same to you young man oh by the by
the way by the way just so you know and no offense
intended my last name is pronounced Kaylee I've
got it written down here and I messed it up again.
I just feel privileged to be on your show. Well,
it's a privilege to have you on. So let's talk
about this organization that you and Keith wrote
this song called Raise It High. It's for the
American Braille Flag Project. Can you tell our
audience what that's about? Well, what it's about
is the organizers which is Paul Kaminsky and
Walt Peters. They live in Florida. They put Braille
flags. They do ceremonies in all VA hospitals
and anything to do with like, they're going to
be up at that Memorial and where was that? Oh,
I can never remember this stuff when I'm supposed
to. It's a Memorial where they crashed that plane
on September 11th. Just down the road from here,
but they do ceremonies like that. They're in
Washington DC and, and anywhere that they want
it. They try to get a, uh, they're made out of
bronze and placed in, you know, like, uh, VA
hospitals and VA facilities wherever. So they're
trying to get them all over the United States.
Well, they've already actually got them in different
places in the United States. And I'm kind of
new to this organization, but. It's for blind
VA, you know veterans and anybody actually It's
for everybody, but they emphasize as far as I
know they emphasize the veterans It allows it
allows somebody that that is sightless to With
Braille to read the the the Braille the stuff
about Braille and about the flag and That kind
of stuff so it's it's quite a neat organization
actually Yeah, I was just gonna let people know
and what's kind of cool about it from what I
could see is that it's it's a Braille plaque
With a flag with with the stars and everything
is are kind of raised up Right, right I'm new
to this This group and Keith Bradford out of
Nashville a very talented songwriter I've been
working with Keith now for over 20 years on different
projects and He says we need to write a song
for these guys and he's he's uh, he knows both
of the Guys that are the leaders of this right
now and he knows them real well and he got me
involved with it and we He wrote this song and
my goodness they loved it and so that's their
theme song now And I couldn't be more flattered
to be involved with something like that Well,
I think that's that that's a cue to let's see
if we can hear this song so we're gonna play
this song it's called raising the flag and Raise
it raise it raise it and higher. Yes, right and
So let's listen. This is David Cayley singing
a song written by Keith Bradford. So here we
go. Raise it high, let freedom ring, for every
heart that served and sings. Oh, eyes may fade,
the soul can see, the flag stands tall for you
and me. Bronze and Braille beneath his touch,
a pledge and brave me. so much from Arlington
to schoolyard walls the flag unites it calls
to all With braille and bronze we testify Their
legacy will never die Raise it high, let freedom
ring For every heart that served and sings Though
eyes may fade, the soul can see The flag stands
tall Yeah, the flag stands tall for you and me
All right, that's a David Cayley and raise it
high that's a great song Dave Thank you. Thank
you and please call me Dave. That's a little
less formal And the Pledge of Allegiance is involved
in that too so they can you know, it's I can't
imagine being blind because, you know, those
people are wonderful that, I mean, I don't know
how they get around and stuff. And I couldn't
be more pleased in being involved with these
folks. They're so genuine. And of course, I'm
a, I'm a U S Marine veteran and I'm a patriot
and a patriot. And I just love this sort of stuff.
And like I said before, I'm proud to be involved
with them. Well, it sounds like a great organization
and I'm going to try and get them on at a later
date to talk about it. The organization is called
the American Braille Flag Project and their website
is abfp .us. and I'm looking at on their website
right now. And as you mentioned before, this
plaque is so amazing. And I tried to close my
eyes and imagine what it'd be like to be blind
and touch this thing. I know, I know. It's amazing,
isn't it? How people do that. And like I say,
I just I'm proud to be involved with it because,
you know, this country, this is a wonderful country.
And like I said, I was in the Marines a long
time ago, but I'll tell you what, I'd do it again,
let's just put it like that. Well, I think there's
a lot of us that would do it again. Yeah. I tried
to get this on the Armed Forces radio, but you
know, there's so much politics involved in the
music and with everything actually. And I didn't
have much luck. with that boat. When I contacted
you, Dale, Ann Arbor, I'm actually from Kalamazoo,
Michigan. I grew up there. I saw that. Well,
let me tell you where people are going to be
able to listen to your song. Number one, they're
going to be able to listen to it live right now,
obviously. We're on four stations. We're on WAND
in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We're on a station in
Detroit. We're on a station out in California
and one in Minnesota. We are also on the Wreaths
Across America radio, which now has an agreement
with a station in Maine. And they replay our
program on Wednesdays, I think it is. And so
that's going to get out there. We're going to
post it on our website so people can come and
listen to it later this evening. And then tomorrow
we upload it as a podcast. So, there's gonna
be more and more people hearing this great song,
Dave, and I'm just happy to be able to help you
spread the word. And there's actually, if you
go to these people's website, people can buy
a copy of this along, they have a CD out with
a couple of other songs on it too. Yeah, I don't,
see we got a video on this song too. Yeah, that's
on YouTube. Did I send you that? I found it.
That's being proactive, Dale. I love it. I love
it. Do you see my ugly old face on there? I did.
I did. You're like me. We have, you know, a face
for radio. Yeah. You know, I am so humbled by
all of this that I'm all, you know, I was born
in Blackpool, England, and my dad was in the
war over there. and for five years and I came
along and then they brought me here and I'm very,
a very lucky man. I spent 14 months in Okinawa
when I was in the Marine Corps and believe me,
that was an eye -opener there with the difference
in cultures and everything. And I always tell
these kids, you know, you ought to go live in
a third world country. once and see how good
we've got it here because it was split in Okinawa
you had the the soldiers camp, you know the the
base and then you had the regular People that
were natives there and it was like day and night
Of course, that's been a long time ago it might
have changed by now, but it opened my eyes big
time Believe me to know, you know, I was 18 years
old and you know everything at 18 years old,
you know Until I got over there and I found out
how much I didn't know Dave I have to let you
go. We're coming up to our program We're gonna
play your song a little bit of it again when
we go out But I want to thank you so much for
letting me have this and again to remind our
audience. It's the American Braille Flag project
the website is a B a B F P US the song is Raise
it high singers Dave and Kaylee. So Dave, thanks
very much for being on the program. Thanks for
having me, Dale. I appreciate it very much. Be
safe. Okay. All right. We got to get out of here
because we're going to play the song. So until
next week, Rebecca Grant's back on next week
to talk about what's going on in the world. Until
then, you are dismissed. A soldier stands with
sightless eyes Yet through his hands he feels
the stars Each drive a story, each scar apart
Raise it high, let freedom ring For every heart
that served and sang Though eyes may fade, the
soul can see The flag stands tall for you and
me Bronze and Braille beneath his touch A pledge
and grave meaning so much From Arlington to schoolyard
walls The flag unites it calls to all