WEBVTT 00:00:04.809 --> 00:00:08.630 All across America and around the world. This 00:00:08.630 --> 00:00:14.990 is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. And 00:00:14.990 --> 00:00:19.089 now your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry. 00:00:22.329 --> 00:00:25.789 Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry, 00:00:26.089 --> 00:00:30.210 a CW2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1969. I 00:00:30.210 --> 00:00:32.109 want to welcome you to our program today. We're 00:00:32.109 --> 00:00:36.259 going to be talking all about minorities and 00:00:36.259 --> 00:00:40.280 immigrants and so forth and women in the military. 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:43.039 I'm really excited to talk about this because 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:47.780 it's something that kind of got off track a couple 00:00:47.780 --> 00:00:49.640 of weeks ago when they had that big meeting at 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:52.039 the Pentagon. So I've got two authors that are 00:00:52.039 --> 00:00:54.219 going to join us today. One is Doug Sterner. 00:00:54.700 --> 00:00:57.420 His book is entitled Beyond Woke, the Diversity 00:00:57.770 --> 00:01:01.090 of the United U .S. military heroes and the other 00:01:01.090 --> 00:01:03.810 is David Yusuk and his book is Women in War. 00:01:04.150 --> 00:01:06.890 So I'm excited to get to both of those almost 00:01:06.890 --> 00:01:09.409 immediately but first you know we always got 00:01:09.409 --> 00:01:11.549 to thank our sponsors so we got to get this in 00:01:11.799 --> 00:01:14.620 really quickly here today. So before we start, 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:17.180 I wanted to thank our donors. Number one, Legal 00:01:17.180 --> 00:01:20.379 Help for Veterans. Legal Help for Veterans specializes 00:01:20.379 --> 00:01:23.140 in Veterans disability claims. Call Legal Help 00:01:23.140 --> 00:01:27.340 for Veterans at 800 -693 -4800 or go to their 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:30.760 website, legalhelpforveterans .com. The National 00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:32.900 Veterans Business Development Council, better 00:01:32.900 --> 00:01:36.079 known as NVBDC, is the nation's leading third 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:38.299 party authority for certification of veteran 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:40.780 -owned businesses. For more information, go to 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:44.579 their website, nvbdc .org, or give them a call 00:01:44.579 --> 00:01:51.099 at 888 -237 -8433. PuroClean, known as the paramedics 00:01:51.099 --> 00:01:53.659 of property damage, each PuroClean office is 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:56.480 independently owned and operated. In fact, PuroClean 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:59.140 is one of the nation's leading restoration franchise 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:02.420 networks and is made up of entrepreneurs, just 00:02:02.420 --> 00:02:05.760 like you. and veterans get 25 % off the franchise 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:09.280 fee more information go to the puro clean .com 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:11.659 the irwin press corps and american legion post 00:02:11.659 --> 00:02:14.900 46 in the charles s kettles vietnam veterans 00:02:14.900 --> 00:02:18.460 of america chapter 3 10 both of an arbor michigan 00:02:18.460 --> 00:02:21.199 hey if you'd like to support veterans radio please 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:24.340 go to our website veterans radio .org click on 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:27.719 the donate button thank you in advance all right 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:30.439 let's get right into it so joining me right now 00:02:30.889 --> 00:02:33.430 is a good friend of Veterans Radio. And as I 00:02:33.430 --> 00:02:36.509 mentioned, his book is titled Beyond Woke, The 00:02:36.509 --> 00:02:38.930 Diversity of U .S. Military Heroes. His name 00:02:38.930 --> 00:02:41.870 is Doug Sterner. He's a decorated former army 00:02:41.870 --> 00:02:45.229 combat engineer, did two tours in Vietnam, a 00:02:45.229 --> 00:02:47.689 life member of the Veterans of Foreign Legion. 00:02:48.770 --> 00:02:51.870 The main thing that Doug has done probably for 00:02:51.870 --> 00:02:55.449 the last going on. 30 years now is he writes 00:02:55.449 --> 00:02:58.849 stories and he writes stories about veterans 00:02:58.849 --> 00:03:01.870 from all areas and stuff. I think he's gotten 00:03:01.870 --> 00:03:06.289 about about 130 books out there now and he has 00:03:06.289 --> 00:03:09.870 there they range from army heroes to air force 00:03:09.870 --> 00:03:15.189 heroes to helicopter pilots to nurses just everything 00:03:15.189 --> 00:03:18.169 all the different branches and so forth. So I 00:03:18.169 --> 00:03:21.000 want to bring him on. So joining me right now 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.719 is Doug Sterner. Doug, welcome to Veterans Radio. 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:27.439 It's good to be back again. It's good to see 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:30.699 you. Well, it's nice to be on and I'm sitting 00:03:30.699 --> 00:03:33.520 here with my coffee and a Veterans Radio Cup. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:40.520 There you go. You can get one of those. OK, so 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:43.960 last week we did a story on on on women in the 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:46.800 military. and you know some of their opinions 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:49.780 about what was going on and then I you know I 00:03:49.780 --> 00:03:53.020 got this from you the book uh beyond woke what 00:03:53.020 --> 00:03:56.180 what do you what motivated you to write this 00:03:56.180 --> 00:04:00.539 particular book it came about actually in august 00:04:00.539 --> 00:04:02.960 this book was put together in six weeks believe 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:08.340 it or not 550 pages uh when uh laura loomer uh 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:12.340 pundit uh Take issue with the army the army did 00:04:12.340 --> 00:04:16.019 a story on florid grover the medal of honor recipient 00:04:16.019 --> 00:04:18.939 who got the medal of honor in the war on terrorism 00:04:18.939 --> 00:04:22.480 florid was actually born in france. Came to the 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:24.819 united states became a united states citizen 00:04:24.819 --> 00:04:27.680 and listed in the military enter in the medal 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:30.839 of honor and laura laura lumer's comment was. 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:33.819 Couldn't the army find somebody that was born 00:04:33.819 --> 00:04:37.680 in america to profile and it just stuck in my 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:40.329 car i know i met. Warren Groberg, he's an incredible 00:04:40.329 --> 00:04:43.110 man. And I thought, you know, I know so many 00:04:43.110 --> 00:04:47.290 heroes that were not born in America that don't 00:04:47.290 --> 00:04:51.930 fit the pattern of what she's looking for. And 00:04:51.930 --> 00:04:53.970 I tossed and turned that night and I got up the 00:04:53.970 --> 00:04:55.850 next morning and I contacted my team. I said, 00:04:55.930 --> 00:05:00.449 hey, can we do a book on nothing but women heroes, 00:05:01.329 --> 00:05:05.870 ethnic minorities and immigrants? To remind our 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:09.550 society of the tremendous contribution these 00:05:09.550 --> 00:05:13.910 often overlooked heroes have had in our preservation 00:05:13.910 --> 00:05:20.909 of American democracy. Well, I I was. fascinated 00:05:20.909 --> 00:05:23.629 when I started reading the stories about these 00:05:23.629 --> 00:05:25.910 men and women that you've got in here. And it 00:05:25.910 --> 00:05:27.750 wasn't just you, it's a collaboration. There's 00:05:27.750 --> 00:05:30.089 a whole bunch of other authors that contributed 00:05:30.089 --> 00:05:32.350 to it. And some of them have been on the program. 00:05:32.550 --> 00:05:35.170 Dwight Zimmerman has been on our show. Jim Falzone 00:05:35.170 --> 00:05:37.329 is one of my partners here at Veterans Radio. 00:05:37.730 --> 00:05:40.689 I've also contributed stories in here, but you 00:05:40.689 --> 00:05:43.410 start off at the beginning. You go back and you 00:05:43.410 --> 00:05:46.910 begin at the Revolutionary War and you start 00:05:46.910 --> 00:05:49.730 talking about women. Can you talk a little bit 00:05:49.730 --> 00:05:53.410 about that? You know, up to and through the Civil 00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:57.410 War, it was actually illegal, unlawful for women 00:05:57.410 --> 00:06:00.529 to serve in the U .S. military. However, we have 00:06:00.529 --> 00:06:02.910 all these women throughout history during the 00:06:02.910 --> 00:06:09.290 American Revolution that served in support of 00:06:09.290 --> 00:06:14.089 the military. For instance, you know, you have 00:06:14.089 --> 00:06:18.569 the women who Are covered by a specific title 00:06:18.569 --> 00:06:24.370 that they were the. You know they were the Molly 00:06:24.370 --> 00:06:29.769 pitchers that one of them was on the battlefield 00:06:29.769 --> 00:06:32.290 with her husband. She was carrying meals to the 00:06:32.290 --> 00:06:36.170 soldiers when her husband fell. She manned the 00:06:36.170 --> 00:06:39.790 gun and you have others that did similar actions. 00:06:40.189 --> 00:06:42.089 And then, of course, there is the one that really 00:06:42.089 --> 00:06:46.110 especially stands out, Deborah Sampson. Deborah 00:06:46.110 --> 00:06:50.189 Sampson actually fought as a soldier in uniform 00:06:50.189 --> 00:06:53.009 at a time when it was unlawful for women to serve 00:06:53.009 --> 00:06:56.430 in the military. She did so by disguising herself 00:06:56.430 --> 00:07:00.430 as a fellow named Robert Shurtley. And she served 00:07:00.430 --> 00:07:03.250 in combat throughout the American Revolution. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.339 Wounded three times the third time she was wounded 00:07:07.339 --> 00:07:10.899 so severely that she had to undergo extensive 00:07:10.899 --> 00:07:14.600 medical procedures during which it was found 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:20.040 out that Robert Shurtleaf was not a Robert. The 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:22.620 whole idea of Molly Pitcher really kind of turned 00:07:22.620 --> 00:07:27.000 out to be a term used for many of the women that 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.220 were. Yeah, you know, we're in a revolution. 00:07:30.899 --> 00:07:34.319 There was no Molly pitcher as a person. Okay, 00:07:34.540 --> 00:07:37.839 you know Margaret Corbin and others several that 00:07:37.839 --> 00:07:41.540 That served as civilians in support of the military 00:07:41.540 --> 00:07:46.240 in combat were identified as Molly pitchers All 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.439 right. Well, I thought that was cool. I just 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:51.660 I just you know, I mentioned before and I grew 00:07:51.660 --> 00:07:54.389 up in New Jersey and and we had You know, we 00:07:54.389 --> 00:07:57.970 have revolutionary war stories just going on 00:07:57.970 --> 00:08:01.089 everywhere. And you opened up a few new ones 00:08:01.089 --> 00:08:05.810 to me. I appreciate that. So let's move on to 00:08:05.810 --> 00:08:10.410 the Civil War and we can see what's going on 00:08:10.410 --> 00:08:12.110 there. You mentioned in the Civil War, and we 00:08:12.110 --> 00:08:14.490 talked about her last week on the program, was 00:08:14.490 --> 00:08:17.689 Dr. Mary Walker. Can you talk about her? Dr. 00:08:17.870 --> 00:08:20.589 Mary Walker was a contract surgeon to the U .S. 00:08:20.730 --> 00:08:24.129 Army, a civilian. She did wear a uniform and 00:08:24.129 --> 00:08:27.949 she wore a green sash major sash around her belt, 00:08:27.949 --> 00:08:30.569 but she was not You know an actual member of 00:08:30.569 --> 00:08:33.169 the military. She served as a spy. She was captured 00:08:33.169 --> 00:08:36.590 and did time as a prisoner of war She is the 00:08:36.590 --> 00:08:38.789 only woman in history to be awarded the Medal 00:08:38.789 --> 00:08:42.529 of Honor Right, but that turned out to be a little 00:08:42.529 --> 00:08:47.269 bit They took it away from her. Yeah, it was 00:08:47.269 --> 00:08:51.070 revoked because They did a review of the Medals 00:08:51.070 --> 00:08:56.350 of Honor in 1911 and revoked 9111 of them, including 00:08:56.350 --> 00:09:00.490 those two other civilians, like Bill Cody and 00:09:00.490 --> 00:09:02.970 other civilians that were serving as scouts with 00:09:02.970 --> 00:09:06.389 the Army. And Mary Walker, of course, was a civilian. 00:09:06.850 --> 00:09:11.629 And so they took hers away and they established 00:09:11.629 --> 00:09:14.129 that Medal of Honor can only be presented to 00:09:14.129 --> 00:09:20.779 a member of the U .S. military. I forget which 00:09:20.779 --> 00:09:22.919 president was it later. President Bill Clinton 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:25.860 restored Barry walkers. And following that she 00:09:25.860 --> 00:09:29.120 set the precedent and the other, uh, scouts, 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:34.000 including, uh, uh, Buffalo bill saw their medals 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:37.700 of honor also then subsequently reinstated. Okay. 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:40.259 Cause I know that, that, you know, some of the 00:09:40.259 --> 00:09:42.159 medal of honors from the civil war were kind 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:44.679 of giving away Willy nilly, uh, like, you know, 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:47.860 if you real listed. I can remember a whole company 00:09:47.860 --> 00:09:50.320 that got to theoretically that was offered the 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:52.440 Medal of Honor. Yeah, that was a regiment in 00:09:52.440 --> 00:09:54.519 Maine, but that was not that common. Sometimes 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:59.120 we have a tendency to read the citations, which 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:02.600 are very, very generic for the Civil War and 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:04.980 say, oh, they were giving these out like hotcakes. 00:10:06.299 --> 00:10:08.399 You know, he saved the flag of his regiment. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:10.940 In fact, when I did this book initially, I was 00:10:10.940 --> 00:10:13.659 going to do my cover story on William Harvey 00:10:13.659 --> 00:10:18.120 Carney. The first black american to earn the 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:21.659 medal of honor. When the color bear fell in the 00:10:21.659 --> 00:10:24.419 battle in south carolina he picked up the flag 00:10:24.419 --> 00:10:28.100 carried it to the port by himself alone. Add 00:10:28.100 --> 00:10:31.320 the port until it got dark and then he began 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:34.799 to race back across the sand to his comrades 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:38.279 he was wounded several times waited through a 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:41.940 waste deep ditch a member of a new york regiment 00:10:41.940 --> 00:10:44.909 saw him floundering and said. Here let me carry 00:10:44.909 --> 00:10:47.870 that for you william harvey carney said nobody 00:10:47.870 --> 00:10:50.169 but a member of the fifty fourth massachusetts 00:10:50.169 --> 00:10:53.450 will carry our colors he had that kind of pride 00:10:53.450 --> 00:10:57.110 and he stumbled into his lines far distant from 00:10:57.110 --> 00:10:59.730 the port before he collapsed he handed the flag 00:10:59.730 --> 00:11:01.490 off to one of the other soldiers and he said 00:11:01.490 --> 00:11:05.830 gentlemen i only did my duty our flag never touched 00:11:05.830 --> 00:11:09.370 the ground now he didn't receive his medal of 00:11:09.370 --> 00:11:12.710 honor until four decades later But he was the 00:11:12.710 --> 00:11:15.950 first black American to earn the Medal of Honor. 00:11:17.370 --> 00:11:19.450 I think it's important. And one of the things 00:11:19.450 --> 00:11:21.149 that we're talking today, we're talking with 00:11:21.149 --> 00:11:23.570 with Doug Sterner and his book is beyond woke 00:11:23.570 --> 00:11:26.870 the diversity of U .S. military heroes. We're 00:11:26.870 --> 00:11:30.789 talking to him because many of us don't understand 00:11:30.789 --> 00:11:33.610 it. Maybe we've never heard the stories of all 00:11:33.610 --> 00:11:36.830 of these different immigrant groups that have 00:11:36.830 --> 00:11:39.629 served during America's military and have served 00:11:39.629 --> 00:11:43.100 with great honor. Absolutely. You know, not only 00:11:43.100 --> 00:11:47.019 did the black soldiers during the Civil War, 00:11:47.620 --> 00:11:50.240 you know, they were freed and some of them, even 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:52.200 in the Confederate army, I know that some of 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:56.279 this, you know, the slaves were kind of drafted, 00:11:56.279 --> 00:11:59.120 you know, to serve in the Confederate army. And, 00:11:59.179 --> 00:12:00.820 you know, we really don't know the story of these. 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:04.879 And there are many examples in here. And Doug, 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:06.879 I want to thank you for putting those in there. 00:12:07.220 --> 00:12:11.000 We even had a let's go. I know. We'll move into 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.480 the Indian campaigns. I'm doing this kind of 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:15.879 different wars chronologically, I guess would 00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:20.759 be the term I'm using. So you had, uh, uh, was 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:24.820 it, uh, William. I'll, I'll just say, yes, he 00:12:24.820 --> 00:12:29.059 was an Indian scout, very, very prominent. And, 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:32.059 uh, uh, I got the medal of honor during the ending 00:12:32.059 --> 00:12:35.919 campaigns. And then subsequently he became a 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:41.679 great leader in. The Indian community and even 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:47.620 advised three presidents on Indian policy Okay, 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:53.539 and I remember reading his story said that It's 00:12:53.539 --> 00:12:55.879 it was like I was watching one of those, you 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:59.840 know cowboy Western things like Cheyenne on On 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:02.960 television where he's a scout and he's he's out 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:07.019 there doing everything and you know And the, 00:13:07.019 --> 00:13:09.779 uh, you know, the military couldn't really couldn't 00:13:09.779 --> 00:13:12.879 survive without him, but they also didn't want 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:14.860 to give them the recognition that they deserved. 00:13:16.279 --> 00:13:18.600 Yes. Did you see the story in there or read it 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:23.860 yet of Joseph Madison Crow? Yes. Yes. Fascinating. 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:27.840 His grandfather was a scout for Custer at the 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:32.679 little bighorn was the last surviving, uh, veteran 00:13:32.679 --> 00:13:35.970 of the battle of the little bighorn. And his 00:13:35.970 --> 00:13:39.549 father became a Crow Indian Scout at the age 00:13:39.549 --> 00:13:42.490 of 22. Now, when Joe came along, he was born 00:13:42.490 --> 00:13:45.509 in the 1920s, things were very different and 00:13:45.509 --> 00:13:47.909 it became almost impossible for someone to become 00:13:47.909 --> 00:13:50.809 an Indian Scout in the Crow Nation, because the 00:13:50.809 --> 00:13:53.250 Crow Nation had four things that a person had 00:13:53.250 --> 00:13:56.909 to achieve in order to become a Chief. You had 00:13:56.909 --> 00:13:59.990 to touch an enemy, dead or alive. You had to 00:13:59.990 --> 00:14:03.059 disarm an enemy and take his weapon. you had 00:14:03.059 --> 00:14:06.240 to sneak into the enemy's camp and steal a horse, 00:14:07.419 --> 00:14:10.620 and fourth, you had to lead warriors in combat. 00:14:10.659 --> 00:14:13.940 Now, what are the chances that a young soldier 00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:17.519 in the United States Army in Europe in World 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:19.740 War II would be able to accomplish those four 00:14:19.740 --> 00:14:23.340 things? I don't know. Did they steal a horse 00:14:23.340 --> 00:14:28.460 from the Germans? No, he stole 50 of them. That's 00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:35.879 great. Fantastic. The book was done. I was limited 00:14:35.879 --> 00:14:39.259 to 550 pages. The book was done when I tumbled 00:14:39.259 --> 00:14:42.220 to Joe Medicine Crowe's story. And I said, oh, 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:44.159 this has got to go in the book. So I went back 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:46.720 and I kind of did some creative editing on some 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:48.960 of the other stories to free up an extra four 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:53.350 pages so I could get Joe Crowe in there. That's 00:14:53.350 --> 00:14:55.690 great. As a matter of fact, let's talk a little 00:14:55.690 --> 00:14:57.529 bit about not only them, but let's talk about 00:14:57.529 --> 00:15:00.789 the Buffalo Soldiers. This is another whole group 00:15:00.789 --> 00:15:06.269 of minorities, black soldiers, that served during 00:15:06.269 --> 00:15:08.009 the Indian War. I mean, I guess that's where 00:15:08.009 --> 00:15:11.830 they got their nickname, right? Yeah, generally 00:15:11.830 --> 00:15:14.830 considered that they got that name from the Indians. 00:15:15.409 --> 00:15:17.730 Different tribes have been claimed to be the 00:15:17.730 --> 00:15:20.799 originators of it either. for their black curly 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:23.940 hair that reminded them of buffalo or from the 00:15:23.940 --> 00:15:26.539 large fur coats that they wore in the winter 00:15:26.539 --> 00:15:28.580 time that made them look like buffaloes have 00:15:28.580 --> 00:15:30.720 been confirmed where that sort of came from. 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:34.440 But they served with great distinction in the 00:15:34.440 --> 00:15:38.440 Indian campaigns. Trying to be a little bit woke 00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:41.320 myself when I did the story of the Indian campaigns. 00:15:41.779 --> 00:15:43.840 I didn't want to profile a bunch of heroes that 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:47.019 were killing a bunch of Indians. And, uh, so 00:15:47.019 --> 00:15:49.279 I had William Alps, you say, who served at the 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:51.240 army. But when I did the Buffalo soldiers in 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:55.419 world war two, I did the story of the three Buffalo 00:15:55.419 --> 00:15:57.960 soldiers that, uh, got the medal of honor in 00:15:57.960 --> 00:16:04.100 the wham payroll, uh, robbery where their enemy 00:16:04.100 --> 00:16:08.200 was all groups, a group of Mormon townsmen that 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:11.500 were trying to steal the army payroll. Right. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:14.539 Yes. Now I remember that one. But then I went 00:16:14.539 --> 00:16:17.500 on to. deal with the ones that also in the Spanish 00:16:17.500 --> 00:16:22.639 -American War. The Buffalo Soldiers in the Spanish 00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:27.399 -American War were the last Black Americans to 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:30.539 receive the Medal of Honor, none in World War 00:16:30.539 --> 00:16:34.000 I, none in World War II, two finally in Korea 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:38.980 after the services were desegregated. And then 00:16:38.980 --> 00:16:43.320 in Vietnam, the cover story, William Olive became 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:47.610 the first other than the two from Korea since 00:16:47.610 --> 00:16:51.450 the Spanish -American War. In the 1990s, the 00:16:51.450 --> 00:16:54.710 army went back and reviewed records. They subsequently 00:16:54.710 --> 00:16:57.970 awarded a Medal of Honor to Freddy Stowers for 00:16:57.970 --> 00:17:00.950 World War I. They awarded seven for World War 00:17:00.950 --> 00:17:03.529 II, and then they went on and did additional 00:17:03.529 --> 00:17:06.869 reviews, and there were additional soldiers from 00:17:06.869 --> 00:17:10.230 World War I and World War II, and Korea, and 00:17:10.230 --> 00:17:13.670 Vietnam that were belatedly awarded Medals of 00:17:13.670 --> 00:17:17.240 Honor. And you mentioned many of these in the 00:17:17.240 --> 00:17:19.599 book. Again, we're talking with Doug Sterning 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:21.799 here. The book is Beyond Wolk, the diversity 00:17:21.799 --> 00:17:24.519 of US military heroes. And we're kind of going 00:17:24.519 --> 00:17:27.400 through different wars to talk about different 00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:30.700 groups. And let's talk a little bit about some 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:37.079 of these immigration groups. Especially the, 00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:39.680 where do I want to go? Let's go to Code Talkers 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:42.710 first. Well, the Code Talkers, of course, were 00:17:42.710 --> 00:17:46.930 the Native Americans that their language was 00:17:46.930 --> 00:17:49.630 a code that was never broken. I was surprised, 00:17:49.809 --> 00:17:52.069 Scott Barron did the story for the book on Code 00:17:52.069 --> 00:17:54.230 Talkers. I was surprised to learn that there 00:17:54.230 --> 00:17:57.589 were actually Code Talkers in World War I. And 00:17:57.589 --> 00:18:02.329 then in World War II, the Code Talkers rose to 00:18:02.329 --> 00:18:05.769 prominence and had quite a distinguished service, 00:18:05.769 --> 00:18:09.670 primarily in the Pacific and working with Marines 00:18:09.670 --> 00:18:14.170 largely. Uh, and, uh, providing a secure means 00:18:14.170 --> 00:18:17.910 of radio communication with the code that was 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:20.730 never broken. Right. And the interesting thing 00:18:20.730 --> 00:18:22.789 that I found when I was reading this was that 00:18:22.789 --> 00:18:26.910 it wasn't just the Navajo code talkers. No, no. 00:18:27.029 --> 00:18:29.029 Chickasaw, I believe it was, was in world war 00:18:29.029 --> 00:18:32.809 one. And there were other, uh, Indian, uh, uh, 00:18:32.970 --> 00:18:35.789 tribes that contributed to that as well. And 00:18:35.789 --> 00:18:37.970 you mentioned. Uh, you've got some really good 00:18:37.970 --> 00:18:40.230 stories about these guys too, but you know, we, 00:18:40.230 --> 00:18:42.069 we don't want to, we can't, we don't have enough 00:18:42.069 --> 00:18:46.349 time to go into all of them, but they, um, you 00:18:46.349 --> 00:18:50.069 know, historically speaking, you know, many of 00:18:50.069 --> 00:18:52.450 these people at that time period were forced 00:18:52.450 --> 00:18:55.390 into these Indian schools where they were told 00:18:55.390 --> 00:18:58.789 to give up their language and so forth. But luckily, 00:18:58.789 --> 00:19:03.289 you know, from a spying standpoint, a radio standpoint, 00:19:03.329 --> 00:19:04.829 I guess it's a good thing that they didn't give 00:19:04.829 --> 00:19:08.900 it up. Also, before we run out of time, if you 00:19:08.900 --> 00:19:10.740 don't mind, I'd like to talk about the immigrant 00:19:10.740 --> 00:19:13.619 side of things too, because we're in a time right 00:19:13.619 --> 00:19:16.740 now when immigrants have become the boogeyman 00:19:16.740 --> 00:19:21.140 that we all want to gang up on. One of my greatest 00:19:21.140 --> 00:19:23.140 heroes, personal heroes, I knew him personally, 00:19:23.180 --> 00:19:25.440 was a fellow by the name of Silvestri Herrera, 00:19:25.539 --> 00:19:29.099 whose story is in the book. Silvestri was 24 00:19:29.099 --> 00:19:32.180 years old living in Phoenix, Arizona when he 00:19:32.180 --> 00:19:35.099 got his draft notice in World War II. And the 00:19:35.099 --> 00:19:37.640 first thing that Sylvester did was he walked 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:40.119 over to his father's house a few blocks away 00:19:40.119 --> 00:19:42.460 to tell his father that he had been drafted. 00:19:43.019 --> 00:19:44.960 His father said, Sylvester, let's go out in the 00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:46.779 backyard where we can talk privately. And so 00:19:46.779 --> 00:19:49.319 I walked out in the backyard and his father said, 00:19:49.500 --> 00:19:53.740 Sylvester, you know, I've raised you as my son 00:19:53.740 --> 00:19:58.220 all these years, but you are not my son. You're 00:19:58.220 --> 00:20:02.200 you were born in Mexico. Your parents were killed 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:04.700 when you were an infant. And your uncle brought 00:20:04.700 --> 00:20:07.980 you across the border at El Paso and asked me 00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:09.700 to raise you here where you would have greater 00:20:09.700 --> 00:20:12.200 opportunities. So, Silvestre, they can't draft 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:15.240 you. You're a Mexican nation. And Silvestre said, 00:20:15.259 --> 00:20:18.059 well, I had a wife, I had four kids with another 00:20:18.059 --> 00:20:20.420 one on the way. I wasn't going to let somebody 00:20:20.420 --> 00:20:23.579 else go and die in my place. He went into the 00:20:23.579 --> 00:20:26.259 Texas National Guard, 36th Infantry, fighting 00:20:26.259 --> 00:20:29.099 in Europe. His company was traveling down the 00:20:29.099 --> 00:20:31.059 road when they came under fire from a machine 00:20:31.059 --> 00:20:34.599 gun nest. He attacked the machine nest. Yes captured 00:20:34.599 --> 00:20:37.519 several Germans took them back to his command 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:40.220 company commander proceeded down the road when 00:20:40.220 --> 00:20:43.339 they approached another machine gun nest. And 00:20:43.339 --> 00:20:45.420 so best we started to attack the machine gun 00:20:45.420 --> 00:20:48.380 nest and found himself in the middle of a minefield 00:20:48.380 --> 00:20:52.079 blew off his right leg at the knee. Even after 00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:54.380 that he stumbled back up on the stump of his 00:20:54.380 --> 00:20:57.839 right knee and tried to continue to advance until 00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:00.299 he stepped on a mine with his left foot and blew 00:21:00.299 --> 00:21:04.039 his left leg off. at the knee, and then the blood 00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:07.519 unchecked, he laid there in that minefield and 00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:10.500 pinned that machine gun nest down until his men 00:21:10.500 --> 00:21:14.619 could flank it and knock it out. Came back to 00:21:14.619 --> 00:21:17.500 the United States for treatment. While he was 00:21:17.500 --> 00:21:20.000 undergoing treatment, the army actually assigned 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.420 tutors to him because Silvestre Herrera was a 00:21:24.420 --> 00:21:27.319 Mexican national and an illegal immigrant at 00:21:27.319 --> 00:21:30.420 the time he earned the Medal of Honor. and the 00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:32.660 army assigned tutors to get him his citizenship 00:21:32.660 --> 00:21:35.460 before he was wheeled in to meet President Harry 00:21:35.460 --> 00:21:37.500 S. Truman and have the Medal of Honor hung around 00:21:37.500 --> 00:21:40.700 his neck. These are the kind of stories that 00:21:40.700 --> 00:21:42.740 I'm encouraging people to go out and get this 00:21:42.740 --> 00:21:45.859 book for, because I mean, you can't even make 00:21:45.859 --> 00:21:49.740 this stuff up. There's just no way of doing that. 00:21:50.380 --> 00:21:53.099 I need to make sure as we come up toward the 00:21:53.099 --> 00:21:56.279 bottom of the hour, I want to get to the the 00:21:56.279 --> 00:21:59.839 Japanese Americans. Let's talk about them. a 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:02.059 little bit because they you know the niches they 00:22:02.059 --> 00:22:04.960 were not allowed to serve in military units many 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:07.059 of them their families and so forth were put 00:22:07.059 --> 00:22:11.240 in camps during world war two so tell me about 00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:14.700 them well of course uh those who were in the 00:22:14.700 --> 00:22:17.880 service many were summarily discharged uh more 00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:20.019 than a hundred thousand japanese even if they 00:22:20.019 --> 00:22:24.160 were one six japanese were interred in concentration 00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:26.039 camps they called them internment camps but they 00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:28.890 were concentration camps But there was a small 00:22:28.890 --> 00:22:32.690 group of Nisai warriors, first generation Japanese, 00:22:33.109 --> 00:22:36.849 from Hawaii that managed to convince the government 00:22:36.849 --> 00:22:40.269 to let them do a trial experiment, and they became 00:22:40.269 --> 00:22:43.269 the 100th Infantry Battalion, better known as 00:22:43.269 --> 00:22:46.150 the Purple Heart Battalion. And it was such a 00:22:46.150 --> 00:22:51.230 success that in 1943, the Army opened up for 00:22:51.230 --> 00:22:54.750 recruitment to an all -Japanese -American regiment. 00:22:55.539 --> 00:22:59.799 which became the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 00:23:00.039 --> 00:23:04.079 the most decorated unit of World War II. All 00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:06.779 Japanese, except for one officer who was Korean, 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:09.579 and I love him, Young Oak Kim, I profiled him 00:23:09.579 --> 00:23:15.500 in the book, led by white officers, and their 00:23:15.500 --> 00:23:19.859 history is incredible, and their stories are 00:23:19.859 --> 00:23:23.000 inspiring, and not only what they did included 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:26.019 among them, is Medal of Honor recipient Daniel 00:23:26.019 --> 00:23:32.059 Inouye, who became the first congressperson from 00:23:32.059 --> 00:23:34.579 the new state of Hawaii and later a senator. 00:23:36.039 --> 00:23:39.099 And Inouye and his friendship with Bob Dole and 00:23:39.099 --> 00:23:42.720 how those two, despite one being a Democrat and 00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:45.500 one being a Republican, should be an inspiration 00:23:45.500 --> 00:23:50.119 to all of us how even in our differences, we 00:23:50.119 --> 00:23:52.789 can make a difference for each other. and we 00:23:52.789 --> 00:24:00.529 can still come together. There are so many great 00:24:00.529 --> 00:24:07.650 stories in here. Let's end this by talking about 00:24:07.650 --> 00:24:10.450 why you feel that telling these stories about 00:24:10.450 --> 00:24:14.420 these immigrants are so important. I feel that 00:24:14.420 --> 00:24:16.660 telling the stories of all heroes is important. 00:24:16.940 --> 00:24:20.140 I've spent 53 years since I came home from Vietnam 00:24:20.140 --> 00:24:23.519 trying to atone for coming home alive and well, 00:24:23.799 --> 00:24:26.400 and in one piece when so many of my friends didn't. 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:28.619 And I've spent my life telling their stories. 00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:32.460 I love doing that, but this book, I think it's 00:24:32.460 --> 00:24:35.339 the best work I've ever done out of 123 books. 00:24:36.899 --> 00:24:40.119 because it's an important book for our time to 00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:43.660 help Americans realize the importance, the role 00:24:43.660 --> 00:24:46.900 that women have played in our military, that 00:24:46.900 --> 00:24:49.819 immigrants have played in our military, and that 00:24:49.819 --> 00:24:52.220 ethnic minorities have made in our military. 00:24:52.259 --> 00:24:55.859 In fact, I feel so strongly that this book needs 00:24:55.859 --> 00:24:59.380 to be read by everyone. I did something unprecedented 00:24:59.380 --> 00:25:02.720 with this book. My books are available on Amazon 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:05.380 in hardback, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook. 00:25:05.849 --> 00:25:09.509 This book is available free of charge as a PDF 00:25:09.509 --> 00:25:13.170 to anybody that either doesn't want to buy the 00:25:13.170 --> 00:25:15.650 book or can't afford to buy the book. All they 00:25:15.650 --> 00:25:17.690 have to do is go to my author website and they 00:25:17.690 --> 00:25:21.950 can download that PDF and read this book. Well, 00:25:21.950 --> 00:25:25.730 I think that's important and the website is herobooks 00:25:25.730 --> 00:25:29.279 .org. That you're here you go to hero books org 00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:32.339 and you click and he's got all of his books listed 00:25:32.339 --> 00:25:35.720 there So you won't get lost but it it's a book 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:39.400 is beyond woke the diversity of US military heroes 00:25:39.400 --> 00:25:43.880 Thank you Doug for writing this book. Thank you 00:25:43.880 --> 00:25:47.279 for coming on the program and I look forward 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:50.039 to the next book that's going to be coming out 00:25:50.039 --> 00:25:53.079 on Veterans Day cuz That's something I'm interested 00:25:53.079 --> 00:25:56.539 in, obviously, and because it's about helicopter 00:25:56.539 --> 00:25:59.559 pilots, but don't tell anybody. I'll get you 00:25:59.559 --> 00:26:03.539 here to PDF. Okay, no. And so anyway, I encourage 00:26:03.539 --> 00:26:05.980 you to go to the to the website. That's hero 00:26:05.980 --> 00:26:10.700 books .org. Great stories, many, many stories. 00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:13.700 You want to find out what's going on in the military 00:26:13.700 --> 00:26:15.819 and the history of the military. This is one 00:26:15.819 --> 00:26:18.400 of the sites to go to. So Doug Stern, thank you 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:21.539 so much for being on Veterans Radio today. Okay. 00:26:21.700 --> 00:26:25.059 Good to see you again. Good to do it. Okay. All 00:26:25.059 --> 00:26:27.099 right. We are going to take a quick break here 00:26:27.099 --> 00:26:29.059 and we're going to play a little segment that 00:26:29.059 --> 00:26:32.519 my partner, Jim Falzone, put together with NBBDC. 00:26:32.660 --> 00:26:36.400 They've got a conference coming up and Keith 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:40.259 King, who is the executive director of NBBDC, 00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:43.539 wanted to let you know about it. So here we go. 00:26:44.779 --> 00:26:47.539 We're talking today on Veterans Radio with Keith 00:26:47.539 --> 00:26:51.740 King, CEO and founder of National Veteran Business 00:26:51.740 --> 00:26:56.500 Development Council, better known as NVBDC .org, 00:26:57.180 --> 00:26:59.680 about an upcoming conference they have on October 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:03.279 29th and 30th. Keith, welcome back to Veterans 00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:06.259 Radio. Tell us about this upcoming conference. 00:27:12.109 --> 00:27:14.250 When you hear something like that on the radio, 00:27:14.250 --> 00:27:18.390 it's another conference. No, it isn't. This is 00:27:18.390 --> 00:27:21.250 the greatest opportunity most veterans will ever 00:27:21.250 --> 00:27:26.250 have to work with our corporate members. And 00:27:26.250 --> 00:27:31.430 I say that because in two dates, October 29th 00:27:31.430 --> 00:27:35.809 and 30th, down in Spartanburg, South Carolina, 00:27:37.130 --> 00:27:43.579 we have currently 33. Corporations already signed 00:27:43.579 --> 00:27:48.460 up to it, not only attend, but they are specifically 00:27:48.460 --> 00:27:51.400 looking for veteran -owned businesses to talk 00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:55.799 to. And we call that one -on -one. And those 00:27:55.799 --> 00:28:00.940 one -on -one meetings have proven so successful 00:28:00.940 --> 00:28:11.140 that our corporations love them. At the end of, 00:28:11.140 --> 00:28:15.839 well it was yesterday, I got three emails from 00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:19.339 our corporate members asking me to send them 00:28:19.339 --> 00:28:24.380 the 26 conference details and I know I should 00:28:24.380 --> 00:28:27.480 have them myself. Hey, let's get through October 00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:32.059 29th and 30th, 2025 down in Spartansburg, South 00:28:32.059 --> 00:28:35.859 Carolina first. And actually, I didn't read the 00:28:35.859 --> 00:28:37.799 title of this conference. It really goes back 00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:39.960 to what you said. This isn't just a, oh boy, 00:28:40.019 --> 00:28:42.500 another boring conference. This is the National 00:28:42.500 --> 00:28:45.980 Veteran Business Matchmaking Conference and Veteran 00:28:45.980 --> 00:28:49.339 Marketplace. As you say, you have 33 corporations 00:28:49.339 --> 00:28:52.299 coming there to talk to veteran business owners 00:28:52.299 --> 00:28:56.920 and do business. I see Sunoco on the list. I 00:28:56.920 --> 00:28:59.440 see Denny's on the list. I see Stellanus on the 00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:02.420 list. I mean, this is cutting across all industries, 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:06.769 isn't it? Of course. And, you know, I mean, I 00:29:06.769 --> 00:29:10.630 don't like necessarily, you know, pointing out 00:29:10.630 --> 00:29:13.910 the, what I would call the cherries, you know, 00:29:13.930 --> 00:29:17.569 on top, but, you know, I got a little company 00:29:17.569 --> 00:29:20.710 as I'm sure most people have heard about called 00:29:20.710 --> 00:29:28.650 like Walmart, Coca -Cola. Oh, wait, that little, 00:29:28.769 --> 00:29:32.119 Oh, that's Amazon. You know, so when you start 00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:35.539 looking at who is actually here, or not here, 00:29:35.619 --> 00:29:40.579 but will be in Spartanburg on the 29th and 30th, 00:29:40.579 --> 00:29:44.019 this is an opportunity, regardless of what you 00:29:44.019 --> 00:29:47.440 do, to come in and sit down and actually have 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:52.299 a one -on -one with these various corporate people. 00:29:53.799 --> 00:29:59.480 And the good news of this is that they... have 00:29:59.480 --> 00:30:03.539 chosen, and I mean, they select, you know, on 00:30:03.539 --> 00:30:06.799 a one -on -one because they want to know what's 00:30:06.799 --> 00:30:08.700 new. They want to know what's great. They want 00:30:08.700 --> 00:30:12.740 to know what our veterans are bringing to the 00:30:12.740 --> 00:30:18.380 table. So, you know, we just find it to be one 00:30:18.380 --> 00:30:21.579 of those things where, well, I know you've been 00:30:21.579 --> 00:30:24.039 there and it kind of takes on its own energy. 00:30:24.279 --> 00:30:28.059 It takes on its own. Oh, there's so much networking 00:30:28.059 --> 00:30:31.480 that you could never do otherwise by getting 00:30:31.480 --> 00:30:36.180 all these big shots and purchasing agents in 00:30:36.180 --> 00:30:38.440 a room where veteran business owners can talk 00:30:38.440 --> 00:30:41.319 to them. Keith, if they want to know more, I'm 00:30:41.319 --> 00:30:45.720 going to direct them to nvbdc .org slash events. 00:30:47.819 --> 00:30:50.400 This National Veteran Business Matchmaking Conference 00:30:50.400 --> 00:30:54.250 and Veteran Marketplace. is coming up, it's October 00:30:54.250 --> 00:30:57.690 29th and 30th, but go to the website, click on 00:30:57.690 --> 00:31:00.250 the conference registration. They've got hotel 00:31:00.250 --> 00:31:03.890 information. They've got the agenda there. As 00:31:03.890 --> 00:31:06.150 you say, I've been these things and the energy 00:31:06.150 --> 00:31:10.170 is dynamic. Nobody will really walk away disappointed. 00:31:11.230 --> 00:31:15.109 No. Well, the other thing here too is that I've 00:31:15.109 --> 00:31:20.220 upset my entire staff because they have wanted 00:31:20.220 --> 00:31:23.160 to, and basically put out, Hey, registration 00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:28.220 is closed. No, it's not. It's never closed. If 00:31:28.220 --> 00:31:33.079 you hear my voice saying, Hey, registration is 00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:36.119 open. And one of my people say it's closed. You 00:31:36.119 --> 00:31:39.880 say, I heard Keith King say it's open and then 00:31:39.880 --> 00:31:45.819 I'll take the heat. So you can show up on the 00:31:45.819 --> 00:31:49.970 morning of the 29th. and register and join the 00:31:49.970 --> 00:31:53.430 rest of these corporations, but frankly, our 00:31:53.430 --> 00:31:57.630 fellow veterans. We're back now. That was Jim 00:31:57.630 --> 00:32:01.109 Falzone talking with Keith King from NVBDC, talking 00:32:01.109 --> 00:32:05.009 about their upcoming conference at the end of 00:32:05.009 --> 00:32:08.609 this coming week. So if you need more information, 00:32:08.730 --> 00:32:13.210 go to nvbdc .org. All right. So continuing our 00:32:13.210 --> 00:32:16.170 story about people in the military that have 00:32:16.170 --> 00:32:19.869 just done extraordinary things. My next guest 00:32:19.869 --> 00:32:23.609 is David Yusuk, and David is the author of a 00:32:23.609 --> 00:32:25.990 book entitled Women in War. Let me give you a 00:32:25.990 --> 00:32:29.589 little background on David. He is from Brooklyn, 00:32:29.670 --> 00:32:32.730 New York. Okay, he's an East Coaster, attended 00:32:32.730 --> 00:32:36.109 University at Stony Brook, was a police officer 00:32:36.109 --> 00:32:42.359 for 20 years. He did a 2017 he produced a documentary 00:32:42.359 --> 00:32:45.579 the giant killer based on the epic life of his 00:32:45.579 --> 00:32:49.039 friend Green Beret captain Richard Flaherty And 00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:51.359 he's just recently taken that I believe and he's 00:32:51.359 --> 00:32:54.220 written a book Called the giant killer giant 00:32:54.220 --> 00:32:56.960 killers were heroes and special forces legends 00:32:56.960 --> 00:33:00.039 Wow, I'm anxious. They read that one, too So 00:33:00.039 --> 00:33:02.180 anyway said David welcome to veterans radio. 00:33:02.480 --> 00:33:05.599 Thank you so much for having me on Well, it is 00:33:05.599 --> 00:33:07.799 a pleasure to have you on the book as I mentioned 00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:11.670 is titled uh women in war so what what drove 00:33:11.670 --> 00:33:15.130 you to write this particular book i appreciate 00:33:15.130 --> 00:33:18.869 that uh my journey into military history was 00:33:18.869 --> 00:33:20.890 a little bit of a strange one i'm not sure if 00:33:20.890 --> 00:33:24.410 any of your uh listeners know how i got involved 00:33:24.410 --> 00:33:27.990 but i was a police officer in miami and i became 00:33:27.990 --> 00:33:30.630 friends with a homeless man try to get him off 00:33:30.630 --> 00:33:32.930 the streets do what i could for him that's the 00:33:32.930 --> 00:33:37.240 gentleman on we know as richard flarity He was 00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:40.660 unique because he was also only four foot nine. 00:33:40.660 --> 00:33:45.779 So a very small demeanor diminutive man After 00:33:45.779 --> 00:33:47.599 15 years of friendship and I couldn't get him 00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:50.559 off the streets He just said one day in 2015 00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:53.759 here I got to tell you my life story and he goes 00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:55.680 into this whole story about him being a green 00:33:55.680 --> 00:33:58.019 beret and working undercover operations around 00:33:58.019 --> 00:34:00.460 the world and You know, I've dealt with homeless 00:34:00.460 --> 00:34:02.599 people. I know about delusions and I've never 00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:04.980 heard of something more delusional than a four 00:34:04.980 --> 00:34:07.720 foot nine homeless man saying he's a green beret. 00:34:07.859 --> 00:34:12.039 Just doesn't know no such thing. So I asked him, 00:34:12.039 --> 00:34:13.960 you know, Richard, why are you telling me this 00:34:13.960 --> 00:34:16.519 now? And he said, Well, I want you to get my 00:34:16.519 --> 00:34:19.380 story out to the world. And I just, you know, 00:34:19.380 --> 00:34:21.639 I kind of felt real bad because I thought he 00:34:21.639 --> 00:34:24.239 was just making this whole thing up. And then 00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:26.199 he's telling me about an undercover operation 00:34:26.199 --> 00:34:31.139 he did with the ATF. So Because I was police 00:34:31.139 --> 00:34:33.679 officer and detective I looked into it and I 00:34:33.679 --> 00:34:35.880 was pretty shocked I started finding old stories 00:34:35.880 --> 00:34:38.539 about smallest man joins the military smallest 00:34:38.539 --> 00:34:41.840 man becomes a green beret and Then I contact 00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:44.880 the undercover agent He said that he did an operation 00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:48.219 with ATF agent and then the next day which was 00:34:48.219 --> 00:34:51.179 a week after he told me this revelation He was 00:34:51.179 --> 00:34:55.119 killed and a hit -and -run So I spent the next 00:34:55.119 --> 00:34:58.570 three years crossing the country, interviewing 00:34:58.570 --> 00:35:01.550 people, trying to find out what's true about 00:35:01.550 --> 00:35:04.590 this incredible story. I mean, him just being 00:35:04.590 --> 00:35:07.510 the smallest man would be making into the military 00:35:07.510 --> 00:35:09.610 would have been incredible. But then he made 00:35:09.610 --> 00:35:11.829 it into the hundred and first airborne. He fought 00:35:11.829 --> 00:35:14.869 in the Tet offensive. Then he went to the third 00:35:14.869 --> 00:35:19.309 special forces as a green beret. So that that 00:35:19.309 --> 00:35:22.190 I did the initially, I mean, I made the man a 00:35:22.190 --> 00:35:24.210 promise. I'd get a story out to the world. I 00:35:24.210 --> 00:35:26.380 thought. Think initially when he was telling 00:35:26.380 --> 00:35:28.559 me as a cop his story He wanted me to introduce 00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:31.679 him to a news reporter and he it was really all 00:35:31.679 --> 00:35:36.239 about He wanted to talk about how he became homeless 00:35:36.239 --> 00:35:39.920 how the PTSD took over and you know, maybe he 00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:43.639 knew that this was 2015 we still had Iraq and 00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:47.460 Afghanistan vets and and he wanted to Kind of 00:35:47.460 --> 00:35:50.380 make it a cautionary tale, but it ended up he 00:35:50.380 --> 00:35:52.219 ended up getting killed in this hit and run and 00:35:52.440 --> 00:35:55.579 I made him a promise. So I made a documentary 00:35:55.579 --> 00:36:00.400 about his life in 2016 and then I thought I was 00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:03.800 done with all this military stuff. I just retired 00:36:03.800 --> 00:36:07.519 from police work, had a bad back injury and I 00:36:07.519 --> 00:36:10.519 thought I was done. But then information from 00:36:10.519 --> 00:36:13.019 around the world started coming in about Richard 00:36:13.019 --> 00:36:16.539 doing undercover operations in Rhodesia and working 00:36:16.539 --> 00:36:20.400 for the CIA and then helping get weapons to South 00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:24.239 America. And so I ended up writing the book the 00:36:24.239 --> 00:36:28.260 giant killer and it did pretty good. So I had 00:36:28.260 --> 00:36:32.079 a bunch of social media pages and I just would 00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:35.380 want to learn about because. I came from basically 00:36:35.380 --> 00:36:37.500 nobody in my family talked about the military. 00:36:37.719 --> 00:36:39.420 My brother was in the Navy and I had a great 00:36:39.420 --> 00:36:41.960 uncle that was actually one of the first guys 00:36:41.960 --> 00:36:44.800 on the beach in D -Day, but we didn't really 00:36:44.800 --> 00:36:46.760 talk about the military. So I wouldn't say I 00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:49.639 came from like a military family or had any military 00:36:49.639 --> 00:36:52.500 history. So I'm kind of learning along and I 00:36:52.500 --> 00:36:54.659 create these social media pages because initially 00:36:54.659 --> 00:36:56.679 I was just trying to get Richard's story out 00:36:56.679 --> 00:36:58.800 there. And then I realized other people were 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:01.460 telling me about other people, the smallest Navy 00:37:01.460 --> 00:37:04.289 seal on this. And then one story led to the next. 00:37:05.030 --> 00:37:07.989 Fast forward five or six years and I'm it's almost 00:37:07.989 --> 00:37:10.110 you know my little thing every day is to honor 00:37:10.110 --> 00:37:14.389 heroes. I look for stories of heroes so I don't 00:37:14.389 --> 00:37:18.150 know why but I didn't really pay too much attention 00:37:18.150 --> 00:37:20.510 about women and their service in the country. 00:37:20.650 --> 00:37:22.469 I think you just always constantly think about 00:37:22.469 --> 00:37:25.230 men in war and it's it's rare you start you know 00:37:25.420 --> 00:37:27.599 You're thinking about it. And then once I wrote 00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:30.280 a story about, I saw an interesting story and 00:37:30.280 --> 00:37:32.900 I watched her interview. So I condensed it down 00:37:32.900 --> 00:37:35.440 into a nice little article about a nurse in Vietnam 00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:39.320 named Virginia Lee Dornhagen. I wrote it. I put 00:37:39.320 --> 00:37:42.000 one on one of my social media sites on LinkedIn. 00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:44.179 And what do you know, a couple of weeks later, 00:37:44.579 --> 00:37:47.280 Ms. Dornhagen contacts me and she's like, Dave, 00:37:47.539 --> 00:37:49.599 no one's ever written an article like that. It's 00:37:49.599 --> 00:37:52.340 made me, it's so healing, you know, because in 00:37:52.340 --> 00:37:55.440 the comments she's reading How many Vietnam vets 00:37:55.440 --> 00:37:58.380 are thanking her and something, you know, I never 00:37:58.380 --> 00:38:01.320 ever thought about. You think about PTSD, you 00:38:01.320 --> 00:38:03.860 think about combat vets, but what about the nurses? 00:38:04.059 --> 00:38:05.960 What about the nurses from Vietnam when they 00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:08.800 came home and they got the same treatment where 00:38:08.800 --> 00:38:11.079 they're told not to even wear their uniforms? 00:38:11.519 --> 00:38:14.829 Uh, nobody would acknowledge their service. And 00:38:14.829 --> 00:38:18.690 on the front lines is horrific. And patching 00:38:18.690 --> 00:38:22.329 up people missing limbs is horrific. So I really 00:38:22.329 --> 00:38:26.170 felt compelled. I asked her, can I do a story? 00:38:26.250 --> 00:38:29.809 And she introduced me to another Vietnam vet, 00:38:29.989 --> 00:38:32.750 her best friend, Laura Heinz Kern. And they just 00:38:32.750 --> 00:38:35.449 really let me in, let me do a whole bunch of 00:38:35.449 --> 00:38:38.190 phone interviews with them to get their stories. 00:38:39.730 --> 00:38:42.190 i like to do you know based on my social media 00:38:42.190 --> 00:38:44.630 pages i like to do like compilation books i like 00:38:44.630 --> 00:38:46.550 to just get straight into the heart of the matter 00:38:46.909 --> 00:38:49.789 Some writers like to go deep into backstory and 00:38:49.789 --> 00:38:51.510 explain, you know, their, their upbringing. I 00:38:51.510 --> 00:38:53.789 like to just get straight to Vietnam. You know, 00:38:53.789 --> 00:38:55.530 you have a little bit of a background about the 00:38:55.530 --> 00:38:57.550 person. So that's why I like the compilation 00:38:57.550 --> 00:38:59.369 books where I can just get right into the heart 00:38:59.369 --> 00:39:01.769 of the matter and what they saw, what they smelled, 00:39:01.829 --> 00:39:05.150 what they felt in Vietnam. And, uh, when I did 00:39:05.150 --> 00:39:07.989 the book, women in war, I started out with a 00:39:07.989 --> 00:39:10.710 couple of Vietnam war nurses. There's a really 00:39:10.710 --> 00:39:13.190 incredible story. I ended up interviewing this 00:39:13.190 --> 00:39:16.409 nurse, uh, Maureen Robinson, and she ended up 00:39:16.199 --> 00:39:20.639 adopting a young boy from I believe it's from 00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:23.780 the Hmong tribe and it's such a harrowing and 00:39:23.780 --> 00:39:26.599 horrific story the child was supposed to be child 00:39:26.599 --> 00:39:29.480 almost died a few times from disease and trying 00:39:29.480 --> 00:39:32.280 to get the adoption papers and it's just it's 00:39:32.280 --> 00:39:35.059 a heart -wrenching story but thank God at the 00:39:35.059 --> 00:39:38.539 end it all worked she got him home she adopted 00:39:38.539 --> 00:39:40.440 him she brought him back and it was the all -american 00:39:40.440 --> 00:39:43.730 dream successful young man running businesses 00:39:43.730 --> 00:39:46.389 and, you know, just living the American dream. 00:39:46.409 --> 00:39:49.869 So I'd love to be inspired by stories like that. 00:39:50.650 --> 00:39:54.960 And my book Women in War. Like following my path, 00:39:55.519 --> 00:39:58.760 I wanted to look into some of the nurses in World 00:39:58.760 --> 00:40:01.039 War II. I wanted to learn a little bit more about 00:40:01.039 --> 00:40:03.579 prisoners of war, women prisoners of war. And 00:40:03.579 --> 00:40:06.860 you saw that obviously a little bit in World 00:40:06.860 --> 00:40:09.980 War II, but you saw it in Iraq and Afghanistan. 00:40:10.320 --> 00:40:13.159 There were a few women taking prisoners. And 00:40:13.159 --> 00:40:18.159 then lastly, I wanted to end. the book with like 00:40:18.159 --> 00:40:20.119 somebody that I really looked up to because I 00:40:20.119 --> 00:40:22.619 was watching a lot of her interviews. It's a 00:40:22.619 --> 00:40:25.480 woman named Francis Liberty, a nurse that served 00:40:25.480 --> 00:40:28.980 in three wars from Vietnam to the Korean War 00:40:28.980 --> 00:40:34.050 to I'm sorry, World War II to the Korean War 00:40:34.050 --> 00:40:36.949 to the Vietnam War. And she landed on the beaches 00:40:36.949 --> 00:40:41.670 of Anzio. I think it was in 1944 in an LST. And 00:40:41.670 --> 00:40:43.829 I never, I never in a million years would think 00:40:43.829 --> 00:40:46.349 a nurse would be on the front lines and that 00:40:46.349 --> 00:40:48.730 they were in Foxholes for the first few months 00:40:48.730 --> 00:40:52.030 and Anzio getting pounded by bombs. And there 00:40:52.030 --> 00:40:54.929 was a lot of nurses injured and a few killed 00:40:54.929 --> 00:40:59.869 in that landing. So, um, you know, People ask 00:40:59.869 --> 00:41:02.730 me because I was a cop a lot of times what my 00:41:02.730 --> 00:41:05.289 thoughts are women in military or women police 00:41:05.289 --> 00:41:08.469 officers and if if if you want to jump in with 00:41:08.469 --> 00:41:11.250 a question they'll Jump in at any point. I don't 00:41:11.250 --> 00:41:14.869 want to run too much Fascinated by what you're 00:41:14.869 --> 00:41:18.210 talking about because the stories are so interesting 00:41:18.210 --> 00:41:20.170 that we've had the privilege here on veterans 00:41:20.170 --> 00:41:23.619 radio of talking to a couple of these um nurses 00:41:23.619 --> 00:41:26.679 that you that you highlighted in your book so 00:41:26.679 --> 00:41:29.380 in fact i think i just had sarah bloom on earlier 00:41:29.380 --> 00:41:34.699 this year and um they're fascinating you know 00:41:34.699 --> 00:41:38.320 and and it's it's it's mike theory about women 00:41:38.320 --> 00:41:40.340 in the military or women in police or wherever 00:41:40.340 --> 00:41:42.360 it happens if they can do the job they can do 00:41:42.360 --> 00:41:45.820 the job you know they i don't i don't care about 00:41:45.820 --> 00:41:48.719 you know their gender when it comes to that and 00:41:48.719 --> 00:41:50.559 you you mentioned some of these and you talk 00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:55.260 about some of the things that we've, you know, 00:41:55.300 --> 00:41:57.139 that we just talked about with Doug Sterner a 00:41:57.139 --> 00:41:59.260 little bit, a couple of the women that were mentioned 00:41:59.260 --> 00:42:04.219 in there too. But you've done such a good job 00:42:04.219 --> 00:42:07.400 of telling these stories. You know, we are, I'm 00:42:07.400 --> 00:42:10.480 talking with David Yusuk and the book is Women 00:42:10.480 --> 00:42:14.969 in War. Let's let's kind of jump ahead because 00:42:14.969 --> 00:42:17.510 I don't want to run out of time getting you know 00:42:17.510 --> 00:42:19.869 I'm talking with you about some of these women 00:42:19.869 --> 00:42:22.829 especially the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan if 00:42:22.829 --> 00:42:25.269 there's any particular one you'd like to mention 00:42:25.269 --> 00:42:30.610 to us You know, there's there's the there's a 00:42:30.610 --> 00:42:34.750 native Native American Laurie PS or that was 00:42:34.750 --> 00:42:40.070 killed and she was taken hostage In Iraq also, 00:42:40.070 --> 00:42:42.980 I believe is with Jessica Lynch and she didn't 00:42:42.980 --> 00:42:47.079 survive. She was in a Humvee and it's a pretty 00:42:47.079 --> 00:42:52.179 tragic story. I really just wanted to jump real 00:42:52.179 --> 00:42:55.079 quick back to Francis Liberty, the one who ends 00:42:55.079 --> 00:43:01.179 the whole book. As a police officer, you know, 00:43:01.219 --> 00:43:02.920 you just saying about, you know, if somebody 00:43:02.920 --> 00:43:05.929 is good to do the job. I wish I would have met 00:43:05.929 --> 00:43:08.210 a Francis Liberty a little bit earlier in my 00:43:08.210 --> 00:43:10.429 career because maybe I was a little sexist about 00:43:10.429 --> 00:43:12.769 I wasn't sure if women were right for the job. 00:43:12.909 --> 00:43:14.989 I'm thinking complete, you know, as a police 00:43:14.989 --> 00:43:18.010 officer, it's a complete physical job. I remember 00:43:18.010 --> 00:43:21.110 one of my first big fights I had outside of a 00:43:21.110 --> 00:43:23.650 grocery store and there's a pretty strong guy 00:43:23.650 --> 00:43:26.130 and I'm wrestling with him and a tiny female 00:43:26.130 --> 00:43:28.289 cop showed up and I'm trying to handcuff him 00:43:28.289 --> 00:43:30.710 and she jumped on the pile and she was getting 00:43:30.710 --> 00:43:32.909 knocked a few feet away, but she had a whole 00:43:32.909 --> 00:43:35.739 heart. whatever she could give, she did and she 00:43:35.739 --> 00:43:38.699 jumped in. And, you know, later in my career, 00:43:38.699 --> 00:43:42.079 I remember some of the big guys who talked a 00:43:42.079 --> 00:43:44.619 big game. I've seen a few of them hesitate to 00:43:44.619 --> 00:43:46.920 jump into fights and be afraid. So it really 00:43:46.920 --> 00:43:52.059 opened my eyes to it's all about heart. And that 00:43:52.059 --> 00:43:54.820 that woman, Frances Liberty really forced me 00:43:54.820 --> 00:43:57.300 to write that book because she's also from New 00:43:57.300 --> 00:44:00.599 York and you just hear her. I love a humble hero. 00:44:00.760 --> 00:44:04.480 And she just From her beginnings in New York 00:44:04.480 --> 00:44:08.780 to World War two to in Korea and working in the 00:44:08.780 --> 00:44:12.619 mash units and to in Vietnam I can't think of 00:44:12.619 --> 00:44:15.320 the base right now, but they were overrun and 00:44:15.320 --> 00:44:18.539 she just kept her cool the whole time and and 00:44:18.539 --> 00:44:21.639 and that that's a another story that I actually 00:44:21.639 --> 00:44:24.460 open up the book with with Virginia Dornhagen 00:44:24.460 --> 00:44:29.489 is that there She was with the 67th evac that 00:44:29.489 --> 00:44:32.570 they were being overrun and their ammo dump, 00:44:32.630 --> 00:44:34.670 which was right next door to them. I don't know 00:44:34.670 --> 00:44:37.110 why you put ammo so close to a hospital. I believe 00:44:37.110 --> 00:44:39.929 it was 5 ,000 tons was detonated and it blew 00:44:39.929 --> 00:44:41.809 out everything. It blew out the power, blew out 00:44:41.809 --> 00:44:44.670 the windows, blew out the doors. And the men 00:44:44.670 --> 00:44:47.409 are fighting, but the nurses, their first goal 00:44:47.409 --> 00:44:49.869 is to protect the men. They didn't have weapons 00:44:49.869 --> 00:44:52.769 back then, but they were doing everything they 00:44:52.769 --> 00:44:55.260 could to protect the US soldiers. who were in 00:44:55.260 --> 00:44:57.539 those cots, shielding them, putting mattresses 00:44:57.539 --> 00:45:01.179 on them. It's just, it's a really remarkable 00:45:01.179 --> 00:45:04.019 thing of bravery. And if I can open up some other 00:45:04.019 --> 00:45:06.519 people's eyes that my eyes were open because 00:45:06.519 --> 00:45:10.619 I just didn't think about it. I think, you know, 00:45:11.780 --> 00:45:13.860 when I've had the opportunity to talk, especially 00:45:13.860 --> 00:45:15.599 to the nurses, and we've had the opportunity 00:45:15.599 --> 00:45:20.019 also of talking to the women who were in Iraq 00:45:20.019 --> 00:45:22.300 and Afghanistan on the ground most couple of 00:45:22.300 --> 00:45:25.079 more pilots and you know helicopter pilots even 00:45:25.079 --> 00:45:28.280 jet pilots and and You know when they get involved 00:45:28.280 --> 00:45:30.039 and I think it comes back to what you just said 00:45:30.039 --> 00:45:33.179 about it all being about heart and You know, 00:45:33.340 --> 00:45:37.000 they had this such a sense of mission And they're 00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:40.980 not gonna let anybody get in their way the when 00:45:40.980 --> 00:45:47.039 you were talking about Francis Liberty it's it's 00:45:46.639 --> 00:45:49.880 you know, she was, as you said, in three wars. 00:45:50.059 --> 00:45:53.139 I mean, this is unheard of. You know, I've only 00:45:53.139 --> 00:45:56.780 heard of two or three other men who were in all 00:45:56.780 --> 00:46:02.000 three wars. So, I mean, it's just another story 00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:05.960 of incredible women. And again, it's a preconceived 00:46:05.960 --> 00:46:09.139 idea that they can't do the job. And I think 00:46:09.139 --> 00:46:12.239 that, you know, we have to get past that because, 00:46:12.440 --> 00:46:17.409 as you mentioned, Even though your partner was 00:46:17.409 --> 00:46:19.849 jumping into the fight and getting thrown out 00:46:19.849 --> 00:46:22.010 of the fight, she kept jumping back into it. 00:46:22.550 --> 00:46:25.489 Yeah, I recently started reading up about these 00:46:25.489 --> 00:46:28.750 CST teams. I'm not sure what the acronym stands 00:46:28.750 --> 00:46:31.969 for in Afghanistan. These were women that would 00:46:31.969 --> 00:46:35.329 go out with the special forces. because due to 00:46:35.329 --> 00:46:37.889 cultural reasons, the women wouldn't talk to 00:46:37.889 --> 00:46:40.409 the special forces soldiers as they're looking 00:46:40.409 --> 00:46:43.929 for subjects. So the women would accompany them 00:46:43.929 --> 00:46:47.110 and they were so useful. So it's just like, how 00:46:47.110 --> 00:46:49.690 many times do we have to relearn how amazing 00:46:49.690 --> 00:46:52.969 and incredible our women warriors are and what 00:46:52.969 --> 00:46:58.650 they're capable of? Yes, you are still so correct 00:46:58.650 --> 00:47:00.889 when it comes to that, because some of them, 00:47:01.170 --> 00:47:03.130 you know, when they go out on those those missions 00:47:03.130 --> 00:47:05.250 because as you mentioned the cultural problems 00:47:05.250 --> 00:47:07.690 over there is that you know the women were not 00:47:07.690 --> 00:47:10.769 allowed to be seen by men or touched by men or 00:47:10.769 --> 00:47:13.570 talked to by men and you know they even got into 00:47:13.570 --> 00:47:16.369 some serious firefights out there and i was one 00:47:16.369 --> 00:47:21.670 of your stories i thought was about uh maybe 00:47:21.670 --> 00:47:26.989 it was the one where they got um the two humvees 00:47:26.989 --> 00:47:30.369 got got hit by an ied And, you know, they had 00:47:30.369 --> 00:47:32.190 to kind of jump out. I think it was the woman 00:47:32.190 --> 00:47:35.190 you mentioned who didn't survive. Lori Piestor. 00:47:35.369 --> 00:47:38.530 Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, 00:47:38.610 --> 00:47:42.449 like the CST team thing, it really resonates 00:47:42.449 --> 00:47:45.630 as a police officer because, yeah, we talked 00:47:45.630 --> 00:47:47.530 about women jumping into a fight and whatever 00:47:47.530 --> 00:47:50.699 heart they have. But the, you know, how much 00:47:50.699 --> 00:47:53.699 else they offer to the job many times on domestic 00:47:53.699 --> 00:47:56.739 violence scenes the the women wouldn't talk to 00:47:56.739 --> 00:47:59.739 me but if i had a female officer they would and 00:47:59.739 --> 00:48:02.300 same thing with with kids they just had a just 00:48:02.300 --> 00:48:05.280 a more natural rapport with the kids you know 00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:07.599 a bunch of big tall guy cops and then there's 00:48:07.599 --> 00:48:09.480 a little four -year -old kid and you need to 00:48:09.480 --> 00:48:12.239 get information uh sometime i mean it's just 00:48:12.239 --> 00:48:14.800 they're they're worth their weight in gold so 00:48:15.050 --> 00:48:19.289 You know, it's just, it's amazing how your conception 00:48:19.289 --> 00:48:22.809 can, can change. And, um, I'm, I'm really, I 00:48:22.809 --> 00:48:25.730 feel blessed to be able to tell these people 00:48:25.730 --> 00:48:27.769 stories, to be able to, cause it's like, I'm 00:48:27.769 --> 00:48:30.389 learning as I'm telling the stories and every 00:48:30.389 --> 00:48:32.070 day I'm learning. I didn't know anything about 00:48:32.070 --> 00:48:34.650 Vietnam and I didn't know you don't call a U 00:48:34.650 --> 00:48:37.309 S Marine, a soldier. And there was like a million 00:48:37.309 --> 00:48:39.670 rules. There's a million rules. I mean, it's, 00:48:39.670 --> 00:48:42.650 it's a different, the military has all its rules 00:48:42.650 --> 00:48:45.239 and you know, words and, and. If you want to 00:48:45.239 --> 00:48:47.199 write about these people, you better, you better 00:48:47.199 --> 00:48:49.760 do your homework because you know, it's, it's, 00:48:49.760 --> 00:48:52.000 it's their lives. It's their careers. They're 00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:56.179 they lost friends. Um, I, I heard the other guest 00:48:56.179 --> 00:48:58.820 talking a lot about survivor guilt at the end 00:48:58.820 --> 00:49:01.019 of his interview. He was talking about, you know, 00:49:01.019 --> 00:49:03.340 I'm writing these books to tell, to honor these 00:49:03.340 --> 00:49:06.639 heroes because I survived and my friends who 00:49:06.639 --> 00:49:10.340 couldn't, uh, tell their stories didn't. So it. 00:49:10.820 --> 00:49:14.340 I was never in the military, but these are the 00:49:14.340 --> 00:49:16.780 people I really look up to. And just I want to 00:49:16.780 --> 00:49:19.519 jump into one last thing. When I was doing my 00:49:19.519 --> 00:49:21.800 research for the Giant Killer book, and once 00:49:21.800 --> 00:49:25.980 again, being non -military, I can't tell you 00:49:25.980 --> 00:49:29.059 how incredible the Vietnam vets that opened up 00:49:29.179 --> 00:49:32.539 their, their, their reunions to me that I wasn't 00:49:32.539 --> 00:49:34.679 a military, I didn't serve with them. And yet 00:49:34.679 --> 00:49:37.239 they were so generous with their time. So they 00:49:37.239 --> 00:49:39.440 welcomed me like a brother. And I, you know, 00:49:39.440 --> 00:49:43.599 I just felt really incredible. Well, I think 00:49:43.599 --> 00:49:46.519 one of the things that people are becoming more 00:49:46.519 --> 00:49:48.960 and more aware of is that police officers go 00:49:48.960 --> 00:49:52.420 through many stressful situations on a daily 00:49:52.420 --> 00:49:56.610 basis. And that there are You know, there, there 00:49:56.610 --> 00:49:59.130 are similar things. I think that that can result 00:49:59.130 --> 00:50:01.630 from that. I mean, possibly a little post -traumatic 00:50:01.630 --> 00:50:04.010 stress, you know, you're exposing yourself. You 00:50:04.010 --> 00:50:06.389 never know exactly where the bad guys are, who 00:50:06.389 --> 00:50:10.409 the bad guys are on a regular basis. And that's 00:50:10.409 --> 00:50:12.369 one of the things that they know that we knew 00:50:12.369 --> 00:50:15.730 in Vietnam is that we didn't, we didn't trust 00:50:15.730 --> 00:50:20.900 anybody. That was something that carried over 00:50:20.900 --> 00:50:23.559 for a long time for many of us when we got home, 00:50:24.119 --> 00:50:29.900 is how do we adjust to not being super vigilant 00:50:29.900 --> 00:50:33.260 every minute of the day, which I'm sure that 00:50:33.260 --> 00:50:35.840 you had, especially probably right after you 00:50:35.840 --> 00:50:38.340 retired, you see something and you go, no, I 00:50:38.340 --> 00:50:44.519 don't have to do that anymore. 100%, 100%. The 00:50:44.519 --> 00:50:48.400 best way I could describe it is, Working as police 00:50:48.400 --> 00:50:50.599 officers, like working in a nuclear power plant, 00:50:50.820 --> 00:50:53.079 you really just don't realize you're getting 00:50:53.079 --> 00:50:56.019 hit with dosage or radiation. Now, maybe in the 00:50:56.019 --> 00:50:58.119 military, it's only two years and you get a really 00:50:58.119 --> 00:51:00.940 high dosage. But in police work, it's so gradual 00:51:00.940 --> 00:51:03.800 and so slow and all the negativity and all the 00:51:03.800 --> 00:51:06.940 hyperactive and seeing all the going on all these 00:51:06.940 --> 00:51:11.079 scenes. So it's a slower ingestion of the poison 00:51:11.079 --> 00:51:13.840 that the vets who serve one or two tours and 00:51:13.840 --> 00:51:17.159 it's just... horrific two years, but we do 20 00:51:17.159 --> 00:51:21.099 years. I think that's sometimes, you know, I 00:51:21.099 --> 00:51:23.880 just had one of my great friends I serve with 00:51:23.880 --> 00:51:26.199 a young guy about to retire just passed from 00:51:26.199 --> 00:51:30.739 a heart attack, and Andy Smith and memorial to 00:51:30.739 --> 00:51:34.840 him. But a lot of cops just don't believe it 00:51:34.840 --> 00:51:38.940 that the stress is getting to them. And it's 00:51:38.940 --> 00:51:41.440 a sad thing. Well, it sounds like these books 00:51:41.440 --> 00:51:44.380 are kind of therapy for you too a hundred percent 00:51:44.380 --> 00:51:47.880 I listen my feet were put on that path by that 00:51:47.880 --> 00:51:51.000 little tiny dude and and i've been i've been 00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:54.460 uh trying to honor veterans You know since because 00:51:54.460 --> 00:51:56.860 even cops have to look up to some some people 00:51:56.860 --> 00:52:00.519 and I look up to our veterans Well, we certainly 00:52:00.519 --> 00:52:04.420 appreciate that and I think it's um It's admirable 00:52:04.420 --> 00:52:06.679 that you know what you're doing i'm anxious to 00:52:06.679 --> 00:52:08.940 read your the next book that you that you're 00:52:08.940 --> 00:52:13.420 putting out The giant killer, right? The giant 00:52:13.420 --> 00:52:15.860 killer, the giant killers out. It's the book 00:52:15.860 --> 00:52:18.679 and movie are both out worldwide and it's done 00:52:18.679 --> 00:52:21.619 well. I was pretty, it's my first book and I 00:52:21.619 --> 00:52:23.579 got super lucky. It was an Amazon bestseller 00:52:23.579 --> 00:52:25.480 for a couple of years. I think we're about to 00:52:25.480 --> 00:52:29.579 hit 5 ,000 positive reviews. So how I got it 00:52:29.579 --> 00:52:31.539 right. The only thing I can say is to be, because 00:52:31.539 --> 00:52:33.960 I was an officer and a detective. you know i'm 00:52:33.960 --> 00:52:36.019 writing all the time i'm writing narratives of 00:52:36.019 --> 00:52:38.840 what happens as a detective i used to write narratives 00:52:38.840 --> 00:52:41.300 so i just kind of wrote that book as a police 00:52:41.300 --> 00:52:45.440 narrative of exactly what happened well and as 00:52:45.440 --> 00:52:48.320 you just mentioned you can get your books on 00:52:48.320 --> 00:52:52.440 amazon um dale i lost her for a second okay i'm 00:52:52.440 --> 00:52:54.320 just saying you can get these books on amazon 00:52:54.320 --> 00:53:00.289 and you are uh david uh Is that nice pronouncing 00:53:00.289 --> 00:53:04.329 that correctly? Why use the UK look it up? Right 00:53:04.329 --> 00:53:06.250 and it looks like we're having a little technical 00:53:06.250 --> 00:53:08.889 difficulty as we run out to the end of the program 00:53:08.889 --> 00:53:12.349 Anyway, the book Today we started off with was 00:53:12.349 --> 00:53:14.730 women in war a gripping collection of untold 00:53:14.730 --> 00:53:17.610 stories of the women's the history's bravest 00:53:17.610 --> 00:53:20.210 women warriors Dave I want to thank you so much 00:53:20.210 --> 00:53:22.889 for being on veterans radio. I really encourage 00:53:22.889 --> 00:53:25.920 people to go out and get this book and check 00:53:25.920 --> 00:53:28.679 out the one on the giant killers too. Cause you 00:53:28.679 --> 00:53:32.440 know, as we mentioned in Doug's segment, some 00:53:32.440 --> 00:53:35.219 of the biggest heroes are the smallest people 00:53:35.219 --> 00:53:37.780 you'll ever meet. And I think that that's something 00:53:37.780 --> 00:53:40.739 that we wanted to do that. So we encourage you 00:53:40.739 --> 00:53:45.199 to go to Doug Sterner's website and look up all 00:53:45.199 --> 00:53:47.300 of his books that are there. We encourage you 00:53:47.300 --> 00:53:50.679 to go to Amazon and find these books. Next week 00:53:50.679 --> 00:53:53.400 is our monthly benefits program. So we encourage 00:53:53.400 --> 00:53:57.800 you to Tune in if you have any questions, please 00:53:57.800 --> 00:54:00.699 Send your questions to me. That's dale at veterans 00:54:00.699 --> 00:54:03.480 radio .org And we'll try to answer them as best 00:54:03.480 --> 00:54:05.980 we can, you know with a shutdown going on It's 00:54:05.980 --> 00:54:08.519 tough to get any answers from anybody right now. 00:54:08.719 --> 00:54:10.880 So we're going to try and get some representative 00:54:10.880 --> 00:54:15.199 What's going on in the va? You know kind of inform 00:54:15.199 --> 00:54:18.699 you as to what's happening so Coming up to the 00:54:18.699 --> 00:54:20.440 end of the program. We're going to be playing 00:54:20.440 --> 00:54:24.050 our favorite song here at Veterans Radio, which 00:54:24.050 --> 00:54:26.969 of course is God Bless America. And I think that 00:54:26.969 --> 00:54:29.269 you're going to enjoy, this version is one of 00:54:29.269 --> 00:54:32.329 our favorites. So until next week, this is Dale 00:54:32.329 --> 00:54:34.670 Thromery for everybody here at Veterans Radio. 00:54:35.010 --> 00:54:38.250 You can catch this program online. Tomorrow we're 00:54:38.250 --> 00:54:40.929 going to drop the podcast. You are dismissed. 00:54:53.539 --> 00:55:04.599 Land that I love Stand beside her and guide her 00:55:04.599 --> 00:55:10.900 Through the night with a light from above From 00:55:10.900 --> 00:55:19.659 the mountains to the prairies To the oceans white 00:55:19.659 --> 00:55:34.400 with foam God bless America, my home sweet home 00:55:34.400 --> 00:55:41.480 God bless America, my home