Today's program is dedicated to all U .S. military
personnel serving throughout the world. Live
from the Veterans Radio Studios on the Ave Maria
Network in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this... is Veterans
Radio. And now, here's your host, Bob Gould.
In the future, if you happen, you're just going
to have to click on Listen Live, and it'll be
the live program because our program is live
right here from beautiful Ann Arbor, Michigan.
This is Bobby Gould, that's right, E3PFC, Robert
C. Gould, U .S. Military First Infantry Division,
101st Airborne. Yeah, all my trooper friends
out there. I do want to say a couple things.
There is no use stream today. No use stream.
So we're going to be delaying that for at least
a couple of weeks to see if we can get all the
technical information and all the little bugs
up to speed. Today's program, we're going to
be replaying the program that we pre -recorded
on March the 5th. We'll be right back after this
very important message. Okay, Bob Gould back
with you live on Veterans Radio and I want to
remind you today's program was pre -recorded
on the 5th of March with Gary Lilly your host
Sergeant David Hack will be our guest from US
wings and I do want to say there's no use stream
today and now the interview. and has gone on
to become an incredibly successful businessman.
I would like to this morning welcome Sarge Dave
Hack. Good morning Sarge. I told you guys don't
let me push buttons. Good morning Sarge. Welcome
to Veterans Radio. Thank you. Okay. Well, we
got a picture of you. Pretty good looking guy,
man. Where were you born? I was born in Louisville,
Kentucky, April 21st, 1940. When you went to
school there, you already had a family that had
been in the military. My oldest brother and second
oldest brother had served in Korea during the
Korean War in the United States Marine Corps.
What did they do? They were in aviation. My oldest
brother was a pilot and still is, and my second
oldest brother was in office work. in the first
air wing with the United States Marine Corps.
Okay. One of them is since deceased? The third
oldest brother is deceased. His name was Lloyd
Hack. Was he in the military also? No, he wasn't.
He died at a very young age. He died at 54 years
of age. I'm sorry to hear that. I thought one
of the ones serving in Korea had died. No sir.
Okay. Before you served in Vietnam, before you
served in the Army, you served in the Coast Guard.
Tell us about that and why did you join the Coast
Guard? I had entered the Coast Guard immediately
after high school in 1957. The Coast Guard was
extremely challenging. I still feel that way
today. I served four years in the Coast Guard.
Two of the four years I stayed seasick was on
ships. I had thought that the Coast Guard was
protecting the coast, but I was misled a little
bit there. The Coast Guard travels all over the
world in big ships. It was a rude awakening.
One of the hosts and producers on Veterans Radio's
father was in the Coast Guard in World War II.
He served on an LST that was eventually hit by
a kamikaze off of Okinawa. So they do range a
little ways away from our coast. They most certainly
do. When I was in the military, we used to joke
about the Coast Guard saying you had to be six
feet tall so you could wade ashore. And I've
heard that joke before too. I'm going to tell
you something. I have since learned about the
Coast Guard and they're brave. My gosh, they
go out when everybody else is in trouble. That
is a certified fact. They really do. So God bless
the Coast Guard. You guys are incredible, incredible
and brave. Sarge, what happened when you got
out of the Coast Guard? When I left the Coast
Guard, I still liked the military. I most certainly
enjoyed the time of the service with the exception
of spending a lot of time on the fantel, getting
seasick. Fantel meaning the back of the ship.
Right. I went into private business and that
wasn't too successful for me. What kind of business?
I owned a night club in Louisville, Kentucky.
Okay. And ran that for how old she was, close
to four years, about three years plus. What years
would those be? 1961 to 1964. Okay, then I was
never in it. Yes, sir. And then I was in Phoenix,
Arizona. I was walking by this recruiting station
and the door was open and this army sergeant
was sitting there and he says, �Where are you
going ?� And I says, �I don't know.� He says,
�What are you doing ?� And I says, �I don't know.�
And he says, �Come here man, I want to talk to
you.� I went in, sat down, and he says, �How
would you like to join the Army ?� I said, �You
know, I really hadn't thought about it, but I
did enjoy the military.� He says, �Look, how
would you like to join the Army Rangers ?� I
said, �You know, I've heard about those guys,
and they don't go to sea, do they ?� He says,
�No, they don't.� I said, �Well, you know, sign
me up.� I enlisted at that time. I went to Fort
Ord, California. Tell me, how old were you at
that time? I was 24. Boy, you've done a lot before
you turned 24. You betcha. How old were you when
you enlisted in the Coast Guard? I was 17. Okay,
you were legal. Yes, I was. With my parents'
permission. been in Georgia to the 1st Ranger
Battalion. And there they said, ha ha, you were
in the Coast Guard. And I said, yeah. And they
said, the Coast Guard runs small boats, don't
they? And I said, yes. And he said, we're going
to send you to Eglin Air Force Base at the Army
Ranger Camp. And I said, great. And I said, what
about my Ranger training? And he said, don't
worry about it. We'll train you there. And I
said, oh, OK. This sounds like a winner. So I
went to Eglin Air Force Base to the jungle school
and I was there for two years and running small
boats and doing the training from the Army Rangers
and going into the back rivers and then coming
in from the Gulf of Mexico for the LCU and LCVP
and the Vandy Crafts and the rubber rafts. But
I never went to school. I kept asking my first
sergeant, I said, when are you guys going to
send me to school? And he says, well, you're
OJT. And I says, OJT? Yeah, home job training.
I says, gotcha. I says, but I know that I need
to go to school. And he says, don't worry about
it. It's needs of the Army right now. We don't
have time to send you to school. You're too busy.
So I wrote a letter to the president of the United
States at that time, Lyndon Baines Johnson, President
Johnson. I wrote a letter and I said, you know,
I've been down here two years, these guys are
working my butt off, you know, 24 -7, and I need
to go to school. And they said, well, forget
it, you know. And I wrote this, President of
the United States, and I said, you know, I want
to go to school. The letter came back through
the channels and the first sergeant called me
in and he says, hack, no one writes through the
President of the United States. He said, pack
your bags, you're going to Newfoundland. I said,
get out of here. No way. If I went to Newfoundland,
I was up there for six months. From Newfoundland,
I went to Vietnam and my stepfather had passed
away. They reassigned me in Louisville, Kentucky.
at the AFES, Armed Forces Examining Station,
on a compassionate reassignment for a year. And
then, I went to Vietnam in 1968, during Tet.
During Tet, and you entered off that live cave
right off the bat? I went to Cameron Bay first.
We flew into Cameron Bay. When we landed in Cameron
Bay, I said, wow, man, this is like Hawaii, you
know? Everybody was wearing beta suits and shark
shoes and there was no action whatsoever. I thought,
if this is Vietnam, this is great. The next day
they told all those guys to stand out and stand
in formation. We were all lined up. They called
our names out and they called my name out. They
said, �You're going to the 1st Infantry Division.�
I said, �Oh boy.� Big red one. And from there
I went to Zeon, the headquarters, and then from
headquarters after processing I went to IK. And
IK is the Michelin rubber plantation. Oh, I didn't
realize that. Huh? Yeah. It was a Michelin rubber
plantation and it was a very hot zone. It was
right in the arm triangle and it was the headquarters
for the first infantry division. Hi, keep a couple
of those photographs up there. You just showed
the village itself and now you've got a place
called the plaza. This is like the shops of America.
Sort of like a United States shopping plaza.
Well, not exactly. It was a little primitive
over there. But you know, I put that site up
on our webpage at USwings .com. I did that several
years ago to help people and we have received
such a tremendous positive response from that
because a lot of guys, for one reason or another,
the pictures that they had, if they had any,
were destroyed. So I put those pictures up. Like
I said, so guys could look at that and say, oh
yeah, I can relate to that no matter if they
were at IK or any other part of Vietnam. A village
looked like a village up there. A village is
a village over there. And Vietnam was extremely
permanent and it has been a healing process for
so many guys. And parents too. And parents too.
Right. We're going to compress your service in
Vietnam. We're going to show a couple of pictures
of some hoochas. were yours in a couple of hundred
and twenty -two millimeter rocket near misses
and then one that where you got a hit on your
bunker. Tell us what your job was and what about
those rockets. Yeah, when I first went to VIK,
well not exactly. When I first went to Zeon in
processing, of course they had saw that I was
with the 1st Ranger Battalion. They sent me to
VIK. Hey, as a combat career counselor, and my
job was going around throughout the whole division,
flying in, flying out, and different base camps
counseling guys, as far as what jobs they were
doing, what job they wanted to do, if they wanted
to stay in the armed forces, relisting them,
if they wanted to go to school after they rotated
back. from Vietnam back to stateside because
things just didn't stop there. I was the counselor
for the division headquarters as far as career
counseling goes. The C .G. Major General Keith
Ware had heard about me. He was a two -star general
and a real neat guy, just a nice person. He had
heard about me. asked me to come down to his
office at IK and be interviewed for a position,
and I did. The job was in CLIC a protocol. I
would take care of all the protocol activities
that occurred with the 1st Infantry Division.
aid and also being his bodyguard. That was my
job with the CG about OOG. I was his bodyguard
for maybe about three and a half months. How
was it that you were wounded? You were wounded
quite hard. I was wounded twice. The first time
I was wounded by a 122 millimeter rocket. That
was at IK. And that was April the 10th, 1968.
And then the second time I was wounded was Friday
the 13th, September 1968. And I was on top of
an armored personnel carrier. And the word for
that particular vehicle was a track. And we received
a direct hit. from an RPG round. What's the range
of an RPG? You know, it's not a great deal. I
would say that 100 yards is really stretching
it. Really stretching it, yeah. So this is up
close and personal. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't like
a 122 rocket shot in the general vicinity. He
had something personally against you, did he?
Yeah. I don't know. I always joked around and
someone said shut up and I thought they said
stand up. A lot of those guys fired those things
from spider holes. They would dig a fox hole
just enough room for them to stand in. We've
got a half a minute left in this first segment
believe it or not. You were badly wounded. Do
you remember anything during the time of your
wounds? No. No, I was wounded in my leg, my face,
my back, my shoulder and my chest. I spent a
year in the hospital and then I stayed on medical
hold for five years. Were you unconscious? Yes,
sir. Okay. We're coming up on a break. You're
listening to Sarge Hack, who was wounded in Vietnam
and came back and made a very successful life.
Brady was flying Benavac helicopters on his second
tour in Vietnam when he volunteered to rescue
two badly wounded South Vietnamese soldiers in
enemy territory. When he arrived, the site was
shrouded in fog. He descended slowly until he
saw the tops of trees and then moved sideways
to the landing site. Despite heavy enemy fire,
he was able to locate the soldiers and evacuated
them. Brady was called to another fogged -in
area where American casualties lay close to enemy
lines. He lowered his chopper through the fog
and found a stream bed that led to the wounded.
In all, he made five flights to rescue 39 GIs.
On his third mission, the controls on his chopper
were hit, but he managed to get home. He got
a replacement chopper and returned. On his fourth
mission, Brady watched a mine explode near the
landing site, forcing another medevac to leave.
Brady went in and set his chopper in the skid
marks of the other craft. Two crew members were
carrying a stretcher to the chopper when one
stepped on a mine. The explosion blew a hole
in Brady's craft. He managed to get it off the
ground and delivered the six severely wounded
men to the aid station. He picked up another
helicopter and kept flying. In all, he evacuated
51 men that day. 400 bullet holes were counted
in the helicopters he flew that day. Brady went
on to become a major general in the United States
Army. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by President
Nixon on October 9, 1969. The Medal of Honor
series is a production of Veterans Radio. And
we're back on Veterans Radio talking to Sarge
Hack. Did you ever know who the medic was that
treated you? No, I don't. I did meet a medic
in Vietnam that, you know, I still remember his
name. His name was Vaughn. And I had gotten bit
by a blasted or stung by a scorpion. And I went
over to the tent and I told him what had happened
and that my leg was starting to swell up. He
said, Sergeant, heck, let's play some trunk.
I said, play trunk? He said, yeah. We put this
five gallon gas can between us as a table. We
were sitting there playing. I said, okay, Vaughn,
what's going on? He said, well, it's like this,
Sarge. Sometimes a guy gets bit by a scorpion
and dies. Sometimes a guy gets bit by a script
and he just gets real sick. He says, I just want
to make sure that you're not going to die on
me. How old was he? I guess he was probably about
20, 21 years old. I lost it when he said that.
Well, this is what I was driving at. Some medic
who was 19, 20, 21 years old worked feverishly
over you to save your life and you don't know
who he is. I interviewed medics and corpsmen.
Sometimes there are 19, 20, 21 year old guys
and he did things that trauma surgeons don't
do and they did them out in the field saving
guys lives by stuffing cigarette filters in them
and putting cigarette wrappers over sucking chest
wounds and that. You know they get a little,
they get very emotional at times. Oh yeah? And
I said to them, I said to a real close friend
of mine, you know, he was going through hard
times and I said, Doc, there are young men and
women all around this country who would like
to know who you are so they could thank you for
saving their daddy's life. Absolutely. And so
you are a prime example of that. Do you have
children, do you? I do. Wouldn't they love to
be able to see that medic and thank him? No doubt
in my mind. No question about it. The thing about
it is I woke up and I think it was long been
because they medevaced me out. I woke up there
and then from there they transported me to Japan.
I was at the 106th hospital in Japan. After Japan
they stabilized me and I was there for a couple
of weeks or so. I woke up in Japan and I heard
these guys talking in Japanese and it was a TV
and I opened up my eyes and it was Lloyd Bridges
and he was talking in Japanese. They were translating
the TV show. I remember that when I was on the
Kanawha Nara Nara. That freaked me out. And then
from there, they sent me to Fort Bragg. And now
here's something that really, really drove home.
I'm going to Fort Bragg. My home is Louisville,
Kentucky. Fort Knox is right outside of Louisville,
Kentucky. And I'm at Andrews Air Force Base,
and they're refueling the hospital plane. And
this colonel, he comes aboard the plane, and
he says, any of you guys have any questions,
concerns, or problems? And it's a hospital plane.
And I raised my hand, and the colonel came back
to me and he says, what's your problem? And I
says, well, I'm going to Fort Bragg, I'm going
to be a long -term patient. No question in my
mind, because I was pretty well tore up. And
I says, you know, Fort Knox is right outside
of the way over in Kentucky. That's my home.
You know, this colonel called. the Pentagon and
took me off the plane and put me on a plane and
sent me to Fort Knox, Kentucky. As they are doing
this, he reaches down and shakes my hand and
says, �Welcome home.� I tell you what, that to
me stuck in my mind and will always be there
for the rest of my life. He says, �Welcome home.�
The first time I heard that was about 30 years
later when I finally joined Vietnam Veterans
of America at my first meeting. I think I know
who it was but I'm not sure. The guy said to
me, welcome home and he put a bear hug on me.
We happened to be standing next to a table and
I put my left hand on that table and it was that
and his bear hug that kept me from falling. I
got so dizzy at hearing those words. Extremely
emotional. Extremely emotional. Extremely emotional.
And what a meaning because it's all sincere.
It comes straight from the heart. Right. You
know, what a feeling, you know. And you know,
I always remember that. I always carried that
forward. And it was sincere. And this was in
1968. This is 2011. I still remember. I still
remember what the colonel looked like. I still
remember his words. I still remember everything.
Everything. And then, as I'm a patient there
in Fort Knox, at Ireland Army Hospital, all these
guys, you know, that became a healing process
for us. Because, you know, we joked around and
we compared war stories and it helped us. honestly
helped us to go forward. Then these guys came
around to my bed and they came from the Department
of the Army. They said, Sergeant Hack, how would
you like to be an Army recruiter? I looked at
them and I said, you guys are crazy. Me, a recruiter?
There is no way, Jose. I said, get out of here.
This one colonel, he says, no. We want you to
become an Army recruiter. From there on out,
it's all history because I did become an Army
recruiter. We want to see a picture of your jeep
up there. If you would put that up, please. Your
recruiting jeep is enshrined in the museum. At
Fort Campbell, Kentucky. That's only one of two
jeeps in there, is it? No, there's one General
Patton's jeep that's at Fort Knox and my jeep
is at the Pratt Museum. What had happened, the
101st Airborne Division came to me and they said,
you know, heck, we would like for you to recruit
for the 101st Airborne Division because we need
men in Vietnam. Bad. I was the number one recruiter
out of 6 ,000. or maybe recruiters throughout
the nation. And I said, okay, I'll do the deal
and I'll put the extra effort in for you. And
I said, but how about giving me a jeep? And the
captain said, negotiate a right from the start.
He says, you know, if we do this deal, it's got
to be between us. So the captain brought the
jeep up from Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I met him
in Columbus, Ohio. They signed the Jeep over
to me, signed over the books, everything. I took
the Jeep, took it to Akron, and then I painted
it. Red, white, and blue, put mag wheels on it,
wide tires, airborne on the front, airborne on
the back, a white top, did the whole nine yards
and really decked it out. And I used that Jeep
for three years. Newsweek had done a story about
me. And the commanding general heard about it,
and he called the command sergeant major in.
And he says, sergeant major, I would like to
have a jeep done up just like that. The command
sergeant major looked at the CG, and he says,
general, I got to tell you something. He says,
what's that? He says, that's our jeep. And the
CG says, what? He says, that's our jeep? And
he says, yes, that is our jeep. So he says, I
want that jeep down here now. The CG called the
USARC, US Army Recruiting Command's CG, said,
�What the blaze is you guys doing with my jeep?
That's my jeep.� Make the story short, the 101st
Airborne Division's CG cut the jeep back to Fort
Campbell. They used it on tours. for the 101st
and then afterwards they enshrined it into the
Pratt Museum. That's incredible. We're running
out of time on this segment too. You had something
to do with Muhammad Ali when you were recruiting?
I gave him the test. I gave Cassius Clay the
armed forces test when I was at APHES in Louisville,
Kentucky on a compassionate reassignment. We
got a photograph up there now of you passing
the word on to Top Sergeant. What was the word
you were passing on? That there was no way that
he would ever have been drafted because he flunked
the test. And there was one of those stories
behind the story. Yes, sir. There's another photograph
of you swearing in a kid that volunteered to
go to Vietnam. Yes. I've got a personal reason
for asking this. You ever think about these people
that you recruited and what might have become
of them? After an awful lot of research of every
person that I enlisted into the Armed Forces,
99 .9 % went into the Army and received trades.
I lost only one applicant and his name was Louis.
and he was killed in his sleep by a mortar round.
We're talking to Dave Hack, wired together, going
strong, successful, and when we get back we're
going to talk about his business and then a remarkable
thing that he is doing on his own. We'll be right
back. And now, back to the interview with Vietnam
veteran, Sergeant David D. Hack, that was pre
-recorded March 5th. The reason why I asked,
why I said I had a personal reason, for asking
about, did you ever wonder? As Vietnam vets,
we are invited in to talk to the high schools.
Some of the teachers tell us that even after
kids graduate, they ask if they can come back
when the Vietnam veterans visit the class. I
think we do a real good job. Then one day in
the town of Chelsea, Michigan, we got word that
a young boy had been killed over in Iraq, and
it haunted me. Did we do anything that caused
him to enlist? You know, it's a good thing if
we did, but boy, it's something that weighs on
me. And you said you actually researched all
the people that you recruited. Yes, I did. Astounding,
astounding. And I guess you had, and you know
how the one died, killed by a mortar. Yes, I
did. And like I said, the young man's name was
Louis. I remember him very very well and I researched
it and he was killed in his sleep. He was with
the 9th Infantry Division and he was in personnel
and a mortar round came through the roof and
I killed him in his sleep. He was a good person
and the other men that enlisted with him all
came back home to Ackman, Ohio. The neat thing
about being a recruiter at that time in my life
is that I gave it 110 % and I was extremely proud
to serve my country. I was extremely proud of
the men that I enlisted and women. Like I said,
there were over 6 ,000 Army recruiters and I
was the nation's number one recruiter for four
straight years. To me, I felt that by giving
my all for my country and helping other men,
that was the bottom line. Just plain and simple.
People misunderstand their true meaning. It really
isn't what you do for yourself. It's what you
do for others. That's what counts. It's what
you do for others. I've read and arrived my 70
years and by golly that's the way it's going
to be all the way up until the time that I punch
out. It's what I can do for others. And we're
going to have a good example of that. We're going
to be talking about it in a minute and we're
only going to be able to spend about a minute
on US Wings. Tell us about your business. Our
business is USwings .com and we were the first
company to go on the internet. I'm a government
contractor. I also sell to the civilians. We're
a bomber jacket manufacturer. We also sell Hawaiian
shirts, but we do all kinds of neat stuff. There
again, we help an awful lot of people. We help
a lot of Vietnam vets, and we reach out and do
anything and everything that we can for our fellow
man. And how many hits do you get on your website?
Over a million a month. A million a month? Over
a million a month. How do you accomplish that?
By being on the internet since 1986, 1994 when
we first really formed our website. by owning
over 200 URLs and all of those 200 URLs pointing
to uswings .com and by being so well known and
so well respected. A lot of people know about
us. It's astounding. That's how I discovered
you. I don't remember exactly what I was looking
for, but I ended up at USwings .com and I saw
the story on it and I said, I've got to talk
to this guy. I called him from my mobile phone
and he was sitting in my car in a parking lot.
That's where we talked. Well, I'm glad you did.
If you look on our website, you'll see a picture
of myself and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. And if you look
on our website you'll see me with a picture of
our General Wagner which is the Lieutenant General
in charge of Special Forces and the United States
Army Rangers. That kind of association most certainly
does not hurt U .S. wings. No. It most certainly
doesn't. How many of your jackets do you sell?
Well, tens of thousands because we supply all
the armed forces. We supply the Coast Guard,
the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force. We
also reach out and supply the New Zealand Air
Force and the Australian Air Force. And we do
about 99 % of all the aviation movies plus Civil
Air Patrol. And the list just goes on. And I
see that we're showing one hand painted Flying
Tigers on the back of it. You've got somebody
that actually hand paints them for you. Yes,
sir. Our Flying Tigers jacket. was worn by Dick
Ross. He just passed away. Dick was the president
of Flying Tigers and he and Chanel formed the
Flying Tigers and that jacket is in the museum
over in China, in the Flying Tigers Museum. Really?
All right, now tell us what you're doing for
the Vets with all your success. Something coming
up. We have a rally coming up the 21st of May
and it's the 50th anniversary rally. This is
Vietnam, sorry. The beginning of the Vietnam
War. Beginning of Vietnam, 1961. And we're kicking
it off here in Hudson, Ohio. If you go to our
website and look under US Wings and then go to
the Vietnam Rally, it tells all about it. And
we're extremely excited about it. And like I
said, it's a kickoff for it. And it's something
that is totally free. and it's open to the whole
entire world. Now there's two big reunions that
take place for Vietnam vets, one in Kokomo, Indiana
and one in Melbourne, Florida. There might be
some over on the west coast but I've never heard
of them, if there are. You pay for camping at
least at Kokomo and it's 20 acres and it is filled
up with campsites. You've got 27 acres and you're
opening it up. Yes, they're free. And vendors.
Vendors is free. Food. Free. Non -alcoholic beverages.
Pass on that. We do not drink here. We do not
smoke here. No, I said non -alcoholic beverages.
Right. You are supplying beverages? We are. Yep.
Free. Free. I asked you how long can somebody
stay camped there because a lot of people will
come in and set up camps. It looks like the Crusades
with all the flags flying. They can stay here
a week. One week. So get there early, camp out,
be with your brothers and your sisters. You betcha.
What a time. What a time. It's easy to find your
place. It's extremely easy because we're right
on the Ohio Turnpike. There's a map there. between
Ackland, Ohio and Cleveland. You can come in
from Michigan straight on the Turnpike. You can
come in from New York straight on the Turnpike.
Or you can fly in at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
Or you can fly in at the Ackland Canton. And
we even have a private airport here over at Kent
State. and that will accommodate jets. So it's
going to be easy for anybody to get to. You are
well positioned and I have never heard of anybody
doing this and flipping the whole bill. We are
definitely flipping the whole entire bill. Alright,
we got about 30 seconds left for you. Is there
anything that you wanted to say that we didn't
cover, Sarge? I'd like to say something to all
the veterans, no matter what branch of service,
no matter what conflict or war, welcome home.
Well, thank you very much, Gary, and thank you
very much, Sarge. So, we've just got a few minutes
left before the conclusion of our program today,
and on the line with me is my partner, Mr. Gary
Lilly. Gary, how are you doing this morning?
I'm doing great. It's great to be a partner in
Veterans Radio with Bob Gould and Dale Thornberry.
I just got pumped up listening to you talking
to Bob Crudy this morning and to relisting to
that interview. Sarge Heck is an amazing person.
What an amazing, exactly, Mike. And he's even
nicer than he sounds in the interview when you're
with him in person. Well, I could imagine if
you were a youngster and you're sitting across
the table from thinking about going in the Army
and what his demeanor must have been. You know,
a sergeant's a sergeant, so when he was a sergeant,
I'm sure that he had command of things, but I
don't think he was the kind of a sergeant that
was brutal. You and I have both met both sides
of the E -4, E -5, E -6 ranks, but I got a feeling
that he was a fair but firm person. That reunion,
I've been to the Kokomo reunion a number of times
and I've not been to Melbourne. I've always wanted
to go there. What they're talking about is a
Kokomo or a Melbourne style reunion. They call
it a rally and for all of you people that have
been to one, here's one for the beginning of
summer. It's just a great opportunity for brotherhood,
sisterhood. Take the families, the camping. What
I love the most about the Kokomo is just wandering
through the campsites. All those fires going
and I'll never forget one 82nd Airborne group
had a great big huge cast iron pot of beans and
I don't know if it was bean soup or beans but
it was you know kind of a spin the train and
invite anybody passing by that looked at them
you know. Lots of beans gone over. So I sat down,
and I got some beans from them, and sat down,
and we chatted about the 82nd Airborne stuff,
and they asked me about CB stuff. And then after
a while, I wandered on, and, geez, there was
Native American groups there. There were, you
know, every unit, it seems, has a group reunion,
the dusters, you know, those are those twin 40
millimeter self -propelled guns. Quad 50s, 101st
Airborne, Big Red Blond. Gary, it sounds exciting
and we've only got 12 seconds so I'm going to
have to cut you loose and I'm going to go to
the coffee shop. So Gary, take care. You're all
listening to Veterans Radio. We'll be back next
week. You are dismissed. All views and opinions
expressed on this program are not necessarily
of Veterans Radio or this station. Veterans Radio
is a production of Veterans Radio Network. your
particular case. So make that call today to Legal
Help for Veterans at 800 -693 -4800 for your
no charge consultation.