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.
Good afternoon and welcome to veterans radio.
My name is Dale Throneberry out of the cw2 helicopter
pilot in Vietnam in 1969 want to welcome you
to our program We've got a really special thing
going on today. We've got Tom Burke on and Tom
is the newest and most recently elected president
of the Vietnam Veterans of America. And we're
going to be talking about what's going on with
that organization. There are all kinds of stories
floating around there in the veteran atmosphere.
So forth about what's really going to happen
with the vva as it continues to go into the future
So we're going to have tom on in just a little
bit by the way If you'd like to ask tom a question
you can call us here at veterans radio The number
is seven three four eight two two sixteen hundred
seven three four Eight two two sixteen hundred
or you can send me an email direct to dale At
veterans radio .org that's dale at veterans radio
.org All right. Let's uh before we get to talk
to tom I gotta get in here and thank our sponsors
because we can't ever do this program without
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please go to our website veterans radio .org
and click on the donate button And thank you
for your your support over the years. I just
realized this morning. I hadn't even thought
about it today Historically speaking is our 22nd
anniversary on the air We started on November
15th, 2003 on WSDS here in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
And we've been going strong ever since. And so
we want to make sure that we thank all of you
out there for your support over these last 22
years. And we're going to continue this thing
on as long as we can go. Sounds like a theme
today, I think. All right. So here we go. Joining
me on the air right now is Tom Burke. Tom was
elected to serve as Vietnam Veterans of America
principal President, excuse me at the VVA 22nd
National Convention just a couple of months ago
He is a Navy veteran. He volunteered to join
the Navy back in 1963. He was sent to helicopter
combat support squad one at Ream Field, California,
and in his final year served aboard the aircraft
carrier USS Hancock. He's a Gold Star family
member who lost his brother during the Korean
War. Burke's VVA service includes three consecutive
terms as national vice president. He was first
elected to the VVA national board of directors
in 2009 and served as an at -large director for
one term and as a national region five director
for two terms. Region five is Michigan, Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois. Let's see what else we
got here. Oh, this is good. I like to read this
about you, Tom. Burke's dedication to veterans,
combined with his strength of leadership, earned
him the VVA Commendation Medal, VVA's highest
award in 2016. And he was inducted into the Ohio
Veterans Hall of Fame. So joining me on there
right now is President of the Vietnam Veterans
of America, Tom Burke. Tom, welcome. Thank you,
sir. Appreciate being here. Thank you for having
me. And enjoy talking to folks on the radio land
because I always seem to have a reaction from
radio land Well, there are people out there.
You never know how many are listening and and
who they are So Tom, let's let's talk about a
little bit about your service. I mentioned you
that you joined in 1963 what what was your job?
Well, I was I went to I originally was supposed
to go to Great Lakes for boot camp and because
they had something going on there they sent us
to San Diego. So I went to USNTC in San Diego
for boot camp and that was 16 weeks and I left
there and went to Memphis for A school and B
school and When we finished that, I was sent
to the fleet in California. Funny story I had
when I got my orders out of school. I had asked
the chief, what did H see me? And he said, well,
you're gonna love it. I always liked that thing
about your chiefs. They all say you're gonna
love it. But anyway, um, I finally found out
that it was helicopter combat support squadron
one. I was thrilled to death. I can imagine.
Yeah. But, uh, when I got there, I got out of
school. I was, I was what they called an AZ and
aviation maintenance administration. And basically,
uh, my job in the fleet was to, uh, take care
of all the maintenance schedules. I took care
of the pilot logs. I took care of the maintenance
schedules for the birds. I did a little flying
every now and then to fill in for different folks
when they were having problems, but basically
I was a maintenance guy and I worked out of the
maintenance office and then I I was one day came
along and they said We're gonna we're gonna ship
you ship you out and I wound up on the USS Hancock
and we went out and I came back and they had
They had they mustered me out in 1969 so I was
I took six years one was I have four active one
was One was reserve time and then I had a couple
of years in the active reserve, but I enjoyed
the time. I considered staying in at the time,
but because I lost a brother in Korea, my mother
was pretty adamant against that. I can understand
that. That's for sure. I decided that I better
go home and please mom. You know, we don't give
our moms enough credit They worry about us and
especially for our generation, you know, there
were fathers and you know and brothers and so
forth that went off the war and World War two
in Korea and now we're going off on our own and
I can't imagine that the emotional roller coaster
that they were on You know with what we were
up to I want to thank you for being a helicopter
repair guy I really am we I love those They kept
me safe for a whole you know for three years
seven months and two days, but who counted right?
But I really appreciate all the work that they
always did they did a whole lot more Than the
pilots did you know our job just get in you know
lock ourselves into the thing and go off and
do our job and come home and You guys you guys
had a rough job. Yeah Sometimes sometimes So
let's talk a little bit about the VVA and maybe
we can talk a little bit about the history of
it I I was looking at the website for the VVA.
It's VVA org for those of you out there who have
never been there It's a great site lots of wonderful
very informative information for you The one
that of course we always talk about is being
from being a part of that organization is never
again will one generation of veterans abandon
another and that's not only became it's our our
mission. It's our mantra. It's it's it's it's
everything that I think the VDA stands for Yes,
I agree the The motto if you want to call it
that really became a sacred oath in our in our
first convention in 81 was in Detroit and we
had people from New York, Michigan, Indiana,
Chicago, they were usually, and most of them
are in the upper, upper mid to upper east part
of the country. But they all met in Detroit and
they put this outfit together in less than four
days. And that was an amazing job. They had representatives
from a lot of different chapters that had formed
over the previous few years. But that's when
it really got started. The Constitution came
together, the way we were going to govern, how
the organization was set up. It was really an
amazing feat for a bunch of guys in four days.
And the motto came from one of our members that
showed up there. He was a congressman at the
time, and his name is Gatesby at the moment.
But he came up with the motto, never again shall
one generation abandon another. And that just
seemed to us, just seemed to say it all. I think
that that said everything to us in a few words.
We did not, as you all know, we came home, we
had nothing. We got nothing. We really didn't
expect anything, but we even had a GI Bill that
frankly sucked and there wasn't a lot we could
do about it. But then when we came together,
we decided that there was things that had to
be done. We had to decide what we were going
to do and how we were going to do it. There's
a lot of things that were undone and we set on
a course to make it right. We had people along
the way that, especially in Congress, that fought
us like crazy. But eventually we gained some
traction. Our first chapter was born up in Maine.
or Rutland, Vermont, I'm sorry, who said made
the building. Of course, Rutland, Vermont was
the first chapter. And that was the impetus to
start it growing. You know, today, we still have,
we currently have just shy of 95 ,000 members.
And the corporation is, it was good. We're in
good shape financially. We're still, amazingly,
we're still gaining Members I know even here
locally we've been Picking up quite a few members.
I mean for what I thought was a relatively small
chapter. I guess it's not with 220 people Approximately
in our organization. We picked up quite a few
over the last few years. I think because mainly
I think because some of them are finally retired
and That they're finally willing, you know, I've
got some time on their hands. Let's see what
what is going on out there and they they find
that there's a the great thing about this organization
is when you walk into the room everybody of course
you know they say welcome home which is kind
of our slogan another one of our slogans here
is that we still say welcome home to everybody
and every veteran doesn't make any difference
in fact i like to tell people when they thank
me for my service i say you know what thank you
but i'd really rather hear welcome home And some
of them are finally, you know understanding what
I mean by that and you know, we've we've been
trying to Convey that to the next generation
of veterans which you know, which we'll talk
about again I want to talk about a couple of
things that I got off of the VVAs website This
is for our listeners. This is kind of the goals
of what what we do as an organization So it says
aggressively advocate advocate for issues important
to veterans Seek full access to quality health
care for veterans. Identify the full range of
disability injuries and illnesses that occurred
during military service. Hold government agencies
accountable for following laws mandating veterans'
care. That's an important one right there. Create
a positive public perception of Vietnam veterans.
Seek the fullest possible accounting of America's
POWs and MIAs. Support the next generation of
America's war veterans And one thing that I know
that all the organizations are doing is support
their local communities. That's very true and
that's a good list. One of the sacred vows that
we had with POW MIAs, we wanted to have a full
accounting of all POWs and MIAs or at least the
best that we could have. My last I think my last
count there was 1 ,567 still unaccounted for.
There are probably six or seven hundred of those
that we were lost at sea and we may never find
them. The other part is that we are dedicated
to the fact that we make sure that we can account
for every one of the people that were there and
were lost. But we still send delegations to Vietnam
whenever we can. And for a while we were sending
delegations every year. The last one was two
years ago. They went back to Vietnam and the
impetus is to find areas where we may discover
the remains of people who fought in the war and
still remain unaccounted for. Grant Coats is
a great guy and he heads our PWMIA committee.
He has been back and Mokey Porter, who is our
Director of Communications. Mokey has been in
Vietnam 36 times. Really? Wow. In the time that
we have been sending delegations over there.
She's a protocol person, our comm officer, and
she does a great job. Grant has been over there.
Jack Devine, who you may know in Michigan, was
head of the PWMI committee or the AI committee.
And he There are many, many people that served
in that capacity to go back to Vietnam to find
or were dead. You know, we have committees on
suicide prevention, Agent Orange, government
affairs, homeless veterans, membership, minority
affairs, disciplinary, POWMIA, veterans benefits.
The list goes on and on. We have, if I remember
right, we have 21 committees that do various
things within the organization. And we cover
a myriad of applications to different things
that we're interested in. One of the things is
suicide prevention. That has been a big, big
thing going on over the last four or five years.
Homelessness. We're involved in West LA and the
big project out there. We have a homeless committee
that does a super job to make sure that legislation
is passed to help the homeless and We try to
give transition assistance when guys are coming
out of the service, transitioning to civilian
life, and we're trying to work with the VA to
get more people signed up with the Veterans Administration
so that they can get the benefits and job performance,
that kind of thing, to help them transition to
civilian life. You know, there's so many things
that the VVA is doing. We're talking with Tom
Burke here on Veterans Radio. He's the president
of the VVA. And if you'd like to ask him a question,
feel free to give us a call at 734 -822 -1600.
Or you can send me an email with your question
to dale at veteransradio .org. Tom, you were
mentioning all of the various committees. There's
also a Committee on Women Veterans. That's really
important and I know that You know there were
there were more than nurse nurses in Vietnam
that were women and I've had the privilege here
locally. We have two Vietnam nurses who are in
our chapter here and you know, they keep me informed
of what I'm supposed to be talking about on the
air About women veterans. So I figured I'd better
get that in there Well, let me give you a couple
of statistics. We have, as you may know, during
the war itself, there was about 10 or 11 million
individuals that raised their hand or were drafted
into the Vietnam conflict. Of that number, there
was about 10 ,000 women veterans that came over
and did their job for us as nurses and doctors
and so on so forth. We can't praise them enough
for what they did. They saved a lot of lives
and we owe them a lot. Absolutely. Absolutely.
I've had the privilege of talking to a number
of them on our program here and I think that
they were probably exposed to more trauma than
most of us who were even out in the fields. I
wouldn't question that for a second. I have another
thing that you might not know, whereas right
now there are 6 .2 million Vietnam veterans here
at home and abroad still living. Of that number,
men who are over the age of 65, one in three,
one in three is a Vietnam veteran. And that is
a significant number of people in this country.
So we take, I take this position as not only
representing all of our members, but also representing
any Vietnam veteran in this country that served
his served his country and came home to something
that he really didn't he or she really didn't
expect. Yeah, you know, I don't want to dwell
too much in that because everybody said, oh,
you know, they weren't welcomed home and so on
and so forth. Well, yeah, it's because of organizations
such as the VVA that many of us finally found
an outlet where we could talk about some of the
things that we had gone through. I tell this
all the time, the first meeting I ever went to,
I was dragged to by a local guy. I remember walking
into the room and just looking around and I said,
they all look like me. Imagine that. And you're
going you know, they're all they were all you
know We're all we were all the same age and you
know that that kind of thing and the next you
know You talk to somebody and you find out that
they were stationed somewhere near you and you
start talking about that and the next thing something
else comes out and I can tell you that I I feel
and through my own personal experience, and I'm
sure you have had the same thing A veteran to
veteran encounter is instantaneous camaraderie.
We have so much in common that it doesn't take
more than 30 seconds and you feel like you've
got a brother standing in front of you. One thing
I think I should mention is that I've run into
veterans in many categories and There are some
out there that feel that their record of service
is less important than others. And I find that
most of these guys that feel this way were non
-combatants. They were not combat vets. And I
had an instance where a fellow that came up to
me in a in a uh in a meeting and his wife and
she said something to the effect about uh his
service he didn't he did not feel that he was
part of the gang so to speak and i said what
did you do and it it was a non -combatant role
but it was a support role and i said look you
got to understand your service whether you were
combat or not, was just as honorable as the guy
on the front line. And why? Because you were
told what to do. You were ordered to go where
you went. And because of that, your service,
no matter what you did or where you served, was
an honorable role that you played for your government.
You served your country. Be proud of it. Absolutely,
and I've run into folks like that and the one
thing that we all have in common though is that
we all went to basic training somewhere and as
soon as you open the question about basic training
there's always about 200 ,000 stories right there
because you met the crazy person from wherever
it was, the short guy or the heavy set guy or
the string bean guy or whoever it was. We all
have those stories in common. And I, and I think
it's like you said, I mean, earlier we, you know,
I thanked the idea of crew chiefs and door gunners
and so forth of being able to keep our aircraft
going. But when I came back and was an instructor
pilot, the same crew chiefs and everything kept
our birds flying. And if it hadn't been for them
and not, not every one of them had served overseas,
but the idea is that you know, we wrote, you
know, they that proverbial blank check that they
talk about, they could have sent us anywhere
that you want to, you know, wherever they needed
us is where they sent us. Correct. And, you know,
we, at that, you know, we didn't question it,
we didn't, you know, you just want you did your
duty. Yeah. I think that that's, you know, the
reluctance of some Vietnam, very Vietnam era
veterans to Utilize their benefits is something
that you know I know that you do and I know that
I do and many of us around here We harp on them
all the time you you you earn these benefits.
You are entitled to these benefits They promised
you that if something happened as a result of
your service that they would take care of you
Well, and you're not taking money or benefits
away from anybody else. No, that's the other
argument one of the things you mentioned that
I want to address is the era of veteran. If you
look at any other conflict, World War I, World
War II, Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, the only conflict
that we got tagged with era is Vietnam. And why
that happened, I have no idea. because there
really is no era veteran. There is Vietnam veterans
in any capacity that they served in. They are
still a Vietnam veteran. In my book, there's
no era. You served during the Vietnam War, you're
a Vietnam War vet, regardless of whether you're
in Germany or on the front lines in Vietnam.
Let me point out to our listening audience that
the VVA accepts all of those people. Anybody
who served during that time period, what is it,
62 or 50, I don't know anymore, up until 75,
is encouraged to join. Yeah, it's actually 58
to 75. So I thought we need to take a break right
now again and so stick around when we're talking
with Tom Burke President of the Vietnam Veterans
of America again, if you have any questions,
please give us a call. Let us know You know,
there's a lot of issues that are going on as
a result of that Of our aging process. I'll put
it that way So you're listening to veterans radio.
We'll be right back after our Medal of Honor
segment 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. Army Captain Ed Freeman
flew 14 rescue missions under intense enemy fire,
saving 30 seriously wounded soldiers. 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. As a flight leader,
Freeman supported a heavily engaged American
infantry battalion in the Ai Trang Valley in
the Republic of Vietnam. The unit was almost
out of ammunition after taking some of the heaviest
casualties of the war, fighting off a relentless
attack from a highly motivated, heavily armed
enemy force. When the infantry commander closed
the helicopter landing zone due to intense direct
enemy fire, Freeman risked his own life by flying
his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of
enemy fire time after time, delivering critically
needed ammunition, water and medical supplies
to the besieged battalion. His flights had a
direct impact on the battle's outcome by providing
the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition
critical to their survival. After medical evacuation
helicopters refused to fly into the area due
to intense enemy fire, Captain Freeman flew 14
separate rescue missions providing life -saving
evacuation of an estimated 30 seriously wounded
soldiers, some of whom would not have survived
had he not acted. All flights were made into
a small emergency landing zone within 100 to
200 yards of the defensive perimeter where heavily
committed units were perilously holding off the
attacking elements. 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. We're back here on Veterans Radio and we're
talking with Tom Burke, President of the Vietnam
Veterans of America and trying to figure out
what we can do to let people know how important
this organization is, especially to the Vietnam
Veterans generation, but also to the future.
of the organization itself. So let's, Tom, let's
kind of get into that with, as you mentioned
when we were talking earlier, before we went
on the air, you said the average age of the member
of the Vietnam Veterans of America is 78 years
old. That's correct. Which, of course, none of
us would ever admit to. But I don't know how
that happened. Seems more like yesterday than
I am you know grass side up as they say but the
or Tell us a little bit about some of the plans
that are being discussed and thrown around out
there because I know that the One of the things
that you mentioned is that somebody some people
don't want to do anything and just let the the
organization go away as once everybody's gone.
And I know that that's not what you want. And
I'm sure it's not what anybody in the organization
really wants. Well, maybe a little history. Back
in 2017, the then president, John Rowan, had
discussed with the board members that he felt
it was necessary that we start planning for the
future or our demise as it was. And he had a
couple of committees put together. One was pretty
straightforward. It was come back and tell us
how we can dilute dissolution. And the second
committee was, hey, is there anything else we
can do besides go away? The first one was pretty
easy. The guys that were on that committee and
gals did a fantastic job putting together a desolation
plan. The second guys, their charge is a little
tougher trying to figure out what we could do
as we move forward. We didn't really get a really
good answer from that, but in any case, it started
out telling us that we had to look to the future
to decide what and where we were going to go
Were we going to go away? Were we not going to
go away? And in my travels over several years
as vice and now as president, one outstanding
thing became spectacularly clear that the chapters,
even though they may have had a struggle trying
to keep Members that would stand up and lead
the course in the chapter level State level but
we had We had chapters that were struggling which
was and they still said Regardless, we are going
to continue on and I heard that message over
and over and over again So, you know, I have
I got the message These guys do not want to go
away. And we have what everybody feels is a drop
dead date. That was March 1st of 28. We did not,
let me put it this way. I did not see that as
a drop dead date. I saw that as a target date
for planning. And we have a number of folks that
say we're a last man standing organization and
why are we talking about this and why are we
doing that? Well, anybody with any moxie is going
to realize that regardless of whether we're going
away or not, we need to plan for the future and
we need to set up a plan that tells us how we're
going to get there. What is our goal and how
long is it going to take well? We have been talking
about What we will do Into the over the next
two years and I'm Endeavoring to have whatever
that plan may be With Up and running let me put
it that way up and running or at least we're
at a point where I can explain it to our members
at our leadership conference next summer. The
idea being that if I put the message out and
people have a chance of seeing what we would
like to do and where we would go and giving the
membership the opportunity to weigh in. and say,
okay, this is good, this is not, et cetera and
so on. So that they feel that they are a part
of the decision making. I think that's very important.
I think that the members, we're kind of like
the government because our members decide how
we're gonna go and where we're gonna go and how
we're gonna get there. And so our constituents
are really ones that have the ultimate power
in conference or in convention to decide the
future of the organization. We are the ones who
provide the ideas, what we think is right for
the organization, and we are moving in that direction.
My hope is that we're looking at a possibility
of a merger with perhaps another organization
that would be stronger than us or maybe equal
to. And if we come together, we would be stronger
than either one of us put together. It's kind
of an idea that we're kicking around. It's not
locked in stone. The original plan was that we
would have an umbrella organization made up of
AVVA, VVA, Mission POW, MIA, and SDIT. We have
determined that legally we can do that, but we
have to do a lot of things before we can make
it happen. I don't mean to interrupt you but
it means you know, it's it sounds as though there's
there's so many potential Possibilities split
it that way that I know that you've got a plan
quote was presented at the Convention just a
couple of months ago, but I think that didn't
go well Mainly I think because many of the members
were not really aware of what you folks were
planning? Well, I think a lot of it was, to me,
this is my opinion only, that I don't think it
was presented properly to the membership. The
membership was confused for sure. Some said that
the plan failed miserably, but the plan was never
presented. because we never got to it, because
the resolutions that were on the main floor for
some time were being kicked around and talked
about. We got through the resolutions, but we
never really got to the plan. So the plan never
failed because it was never presented. Yeah,
because one of the things that I got, one question
that we did get was that they wanted this was
from a couple of members is that they wanted
to just have more input into it and That you
know instead of saying here, you know vote yes.
No on this particular plan Which as you've just
pointed out they never really got to and this
is the other thing I heard You know is that we
never really got to discuss the plan because
of all the other things took so much time and
effort and You know just just that kind of thing.
So it was a state of confusion for sure Yeah,
well, you know You know we talked about this
earlier in that the main thing that I think you
have heard I'm sure you know what I have heard
is that they want to continue this mission Yes
of helping veterans doesn't make any difference
what generation of veterans they are You know,
we've we've all Most of us anyway, you know have
evolved into this helping the next generation
of veterans. We do a lot of work with Iraq Afghanistan
veterans and they're very grateful that we just
make ourselves available to talk about some of
the issues that many of us went through in our
transition and You know, I think we have had
a lot of input into the army and all the other
services Transitional programs that they actually
offer these men and women now, you know, as you
said we didn't have anything we got out that
was it In my book, I think VVA is now considered
elder statesman by the veteran community. And
one of the things that I've been kicking around
is the possibility of us being a mentor organization
to other groups of younger veterans that are
coming along. many people who've been in business,
we have people who have done a myriad of things,
and we're considering at our level to perhaps
come up with a plan to have our folks mentor
other organizations in things that they want
to do. And all the things that we've done, as
I mentioned before, POWMA, suicide, You mentioned
the Board of Veterans' Appeals. The Board of
Veterans' Appeals came to be by VVA itself. We
were the ones that gave Congress the idea, and
we were the ones that developed it over time.
So that was one of the things that we did that
was very, very positive and kind of a mentorship
type of thing. I've been thinking in that order
that perhaps we could set up some kind of mentorship
program that would make our guys available for
that out there in the field. I'm sure that many
of the locals or you've heard from many of the
local chapters of suggestions of what they can
do and what they can't do. And I know one of
them was to open the membership to the organization
to other veterans and I think we'd have to I
know we have to change our Structure and and
of course our constitution and everything else
in order to do that but That seemed like a logical
possibility yeah, we the the Stuff of the constitution
and the other things we'd have to do to change
it is possible, but it would take some time but
That's another facet we're looking at. We're
in a, for lack of a better way to put it, we're
in a discovery mode. And we're looking at a number
of different avenues that we may be able to take
into the future that we can make it work and
come up with a plan that is acceptable to a majority
of our members. I would love to find out more
about some of the options that are out there.
And maybe if we can put together local meetings
or regional meetings or something along those
lines, where not only can you and your board
of directors suggest what you may want. Well,
we do have regional meetings in election years.
And you may know about that, but all nine regions
usually have a regional meeting in election years,
which would be in 27. But that is an option for
us to, again, like the conference in the summer,
that would be a backup option for us to go out
to the regions and explain whatever plan we come
up with. But I've started that, actually. I sent
a letter out to all of the chapters and state
councils asking them about a possible name change.
If you can believe, I actually got 600 responses
about what they thought about a name and a name
change. Some came up with some pretty good names
that we were looking at. I guess probably 40
to 45 % didn't want to change at all. They wanted
to keep the same name, which I understand. It's
well established. People know us. They know who
we are, what we do. And we spent a lot of time
making that main what it is. No, I agree. I hate
to have to go out there and rebrand everything
that you and all the other members of this organization
have done over the years. I just think it's...
I know that there are many people that are so
strongly believe in the organization that they,
you know, they, they don't want it to change,
but they know it has to change. And I think that
you're going to find, we're going to have to
have you back on to talk more about this, but
I think we're going to find that if we can get
the membership fired up a little bit more to,
you know, if they don't like something to offer
a suggestion. There are no bad ideas out there.
We get a lot of suggestions, but people don't
stop to think what those suggestions mean in
terms of having to fulfill them. I can tell you
that we have suggestions that are really off
the wall. we have suggestions that people have
really given some thought to and we have and
those we've taken and said okay let's look at
these for because again I say I want I want the
membership to feel part of this decision that
we have to make and it is important to me to
make sure that people have an opportunity to
give us their ideas in what direction they think
we should go in. Well, luckily, we've got some
time. We don't have to make, you know, we don't
have to decide this whole thing, you know, tomorrow.
And, you know, we're all we're all planning on
being here for a lot longer. And I want to thank
Tom Burke for being on Veterans Radio today.
And even though we didn't get any questions,
I think we answered a lot of questions, I hope.
And we'll, you know, we'll have Tom on again
next, you know, maybe in the first quarter of
next year to talk about what's being discussed,
you know, at the higher levels of the organization.
If you have any concerns about this talking to
the audience right now as far as the members
are concerned, you know if you have a question
you Contact Tom, you know contact the other members
of the board. I'm sure that they you know They'll
get any all you got to do here you go. All you
got to do is you go to vva .org click on the
Board of Directors and they're all there and
you're there and their emails and you can you
know You can send a letter out and you know an
email out and contact them or get it or no better
yet is to get onto the list of the Newsletter
that comes out every week. I you know, this is
where the information is folks You can't really
make any suggestions unless we're informed and
we're educated about what's going to happen.
So Please take advantage of all of the information
that they've got on that website for the civilians
that are out there Go look at it. There's some
great things on there. If you want to know what
happened in the vietnam war It's all there if
you want to know what books to read. It's all
there It's a it's a really user -friendly site
I think and I think that you'll have a great
time tom again Thank you so much for being on
the program and taking your time out from a sunday
afternoon And I look forward. Thank you so much
for having me. It was my pleasure. OK, folks,
we're going to. As I mentioned at the beginning
of the program, I had forgotten that this is
our anniversary show, so I want to play a little
clip for you from our very first introduction.
November 15th, 2003, go. Live from WSDS 1480
AM Studio B serving southeastern Michigan, it's
Veterans Radio. Good morning America, how are
you? Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale
Throneberry, former Army aviator with the 195th
Assault Helicopter Company in Vietnam in 1969.
My wingmen today are Bob Gould, an airborne medic
with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell,
Kentucky in 1962. And trying to keep us on time
is Ken Rogge, former Air Force Senior Master
Sergeant with the Armed Forces Radio for over
20 years in Thailand and Germany, just to name
a few places. Holy mackerel, that's awful. I'm
glad you all stuck around to listen to us, but
I want to thank everybody that's ever been concerned
and affiliated with Veterans Radio for all the
work and the effort that you've put into not
only getting our program past that first episode.
But to, you know, continue it on for 22 years,
and I never dreamed that we would be able to
stay on the air for 22 years. I want to make
sure that I thank Bob Gould. Bob and I were the,
you know, the ones that came up with this idea.
You know, if you want to reach out to Bob, please
do. You can find him. It's Bob at veteransradio
.net and see how he's doing. Ken Rogge. helped
us put together all of our musical information.
He's also the voice of our Medal of Honor segments
that we do, and I want to thank Ken so much for
that. Gary Lilly, who we lost too soon in a tragic
accident, maybe CB can do. Are one of our mottoes
our missions have always been, you know when
we came up with a story idea What would Gary
do and it was the one like that and all of our
friends and families? That helped us with what
we called buddy money to get us on the air and
to keep us on the air It's just been an amazing
trip and an amazing adventure We've been so privileged
to be able to talk to you and to talk to so many
veterans out there and we're not even done yet.
The next generation of Veterans Radio is coming
along as Jim Falzone, much younger than I am.
He does a podcast every week of Veterans Radio,
does a program every month, he does a great job.
And whoever else out there that is interested
in Contributing to veterans radio not just monetarily
but story wise we're always looking for contributors
I want to get us some airtime if you'd love to
do me on the radio We're more than happy to introduce
you to the process and get you On the air, you
know, we're on across the country around the
world So come on down and tell us a couple of
stories, you know, we've only done 1150 programs
now over the last 22 years and we'd like to get
at least another thousand or more in there just
like the VVA We've got a contingency plan that
we're working on right now to get that succession
going So I again if you'd like to support veterans
radio monetarily You can just go to our website
veterans radio org and click on the donate button
You want to listen to any of our programs? from
2003 most of them are up on our website. And
you can find them there we are now podcasting
our programs so today's program will be launched
tomorrow about 11 o 'clock I think it is when
it goes off. But in the meantime, you'll be able
to listen to all of our programs. So please,
thanks for tuning in. We greatly appreciate it.
Coming up next week, we got our wonderful friend
Rebecca Grant to kind of tell us what is going
on in the foreign policy of the United States
of America right now, which is kind of as we
all know, it's kind of interesting, right? So
I'm real happy to have Rebecca on next week.
And we're going to go out today with our normal,
God bless America. Today's version is going to
be Jimmy Fortin and Sonia Isaac Yeary, God bless
America. You know how this important song is
so important to me, but it's mostly important
to you. So God bless America, and we will see
you next week. You are dismissed. God bless America
Land that I love Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with a light from above From
the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white
with foam. God bless America, my home sweet home.
God bless America, my home.