Welcome to the Voice of America's Veterans Program,
Veterans Radio. And now here's your host for
today's program, former Chief Warrant Officer,
195th Assault Helicopter Company, Republic of
Vietnam, 1969, and former CB Chu Lai, 1966, Republic
of Vietnam, Dale Throneberry and Gary Lilly.
Good morning America and welcome to Veterans
Radio the voice of America's veterans and we
are broadcasting live from the studios of WDEO
AM in Ann Arbor Michigan and on the internet
of course for those of you listening at veteransradio
.net welcome to an incredible program today joining
our whole crew is here this morning joining me
in the studio is Gary Lilly Gary welcome CB can
do He has a very limited vocabulary. Anyway,
Gary, thanks for coming in. Bob Gould is running
the board. Stand in the door, baby. 101st Airborne.
We've got so much to cover today. We're going
to probably have to jump right into the program.
We're going to be talking about the Military
Writers Society of America is going to be announcing
their nominees for their awards today. We have
Jerry Yellen on the program later on to talk
about, he's a member of the Military Writers
Society of America, and we're going to be talking
about his book of War and Weddings and his second
book, The Black and Canteen, and I'm really excited
to talk to him. But first of all, each week on
Veterans Radio we try to promote an event that
people are doing around the country to honor
veterans and those on active duty in the military.
is, I'm hoping, is Bobby Matthews, who is from
the We Do Care program. And Bobby, welcome to
Veterans Radio. Bobby? Well, he's supposed to
be on that. Okay. Well, I don't hear him. Let's
try, maybe we can try to reconnect somehow. Okay.
All right. Well, I'll go right into the EMU.
Well, okay. Let's do that. All of you veterans,
all of you active duty military and all of your
families to come on over to Eastern Michigan
University to Ryan Airson Stadium and to come
to our tailgate. We are going to be there from
four until seven. We're going to be recording
a program live between five and six and we're
hoping that you will come out and there are many
benefits to coming. Do you remember what they
all are? I do, I think. This is Gary. We're going
to have a hundred free tickets to pass out to
the Army Eastern Michigan University game, which
will follow right after our Program well actually
not we're doing our tailgate at four o 'clock
Yeah, so right after the tailgate at seven o
'clock will be the game. We've got a hundred
tickets to pass out We're going to have food
drink and live entertainment. Yes, Kelly Trudeau
is going to be playing And she's got incredible
talent and incredible music and some songs that
all of you veterans are going to really love
For those of you that do not get there soon enough
Well, we'll not get there in time to get the
free ticket. We want to make sure that you can
get a ticket for the game for $3. You go through
the Eastern Michigan website to emu .edu, it
is, and go to tickets and then put in the word
veterans, veterans, and you get the ticket for
$3, a dollar of which will go to benefit the
Eastern Michigan University ROTC program. And
the website again is, I'm sorry I messed that
up a little bit, is emueagles .com. Emueagles
.com and click on the tickets link, code word
veterans, and you'll get the tickets for three
dollars. You need to do that before game day
and they will have the tickets at the will call
office or we'll arrange to make sure that the
tickets are available to you. The fact that it's
a dot com and not a dot edu, this is for the
office of the veterans. a Ferris veteran service
office at Eastern Michigan University. Is that
right, Dale? Yes. And they're the ones that are
sponsoring the event. We're going to have a big
tent out there. When you approach the ticket
booth at the gates to Eastern Michigan University,
look over to the north to the left and you'll
see a 20 by 40 foot tent. We're going to be under
there and we want you to come out and say hello.
Take a look at us doing a pre -recording for
a future program. That's right. It's a great
opportunity. Eastern Michigan is in Ypsilanti,
Michigan, for those of you who are not familiar
with it, and you will be able to meet us, and
we're hoping to meet many, many of you. Again,
remember, go to EMUEagles .com to order your
tickets. Normally, they're $7 or $9. You're going
to get them for $3. They're going to have fireworks,
all kinds of acknowledgments to veterans and
active -duty military, so we're hoping that you
will come out and do that. And now, through the
magic of technology, We got it. Joining us on
the line, I've got him right now, is Bobby Matthews.
Bobby, welcome to Veterans Radio. Thank you very
much. Good morning, Dale. How are you doing today?
We're doing fine, thank you. Mr. Murphy showed
up for a second there. We'll take care of him.
Bobby, you are the executive director of the
We Do Care organization, is that correct? That
is. Tell us about We Do Care and what you've
got coming up. Okay, great, thanks. We Do Care
is an Illinois 501C3 non -political organization.
grassroots organization, basically founded by
Concerned Citizens in September 2004. Our mission
is really to provide tangible opportunities for
the American public to show their support to
active duty military personnel, national guardsmen,
reservists, veterans and their families while
acknowledging and appreciating the freedom needed
to our country. We believe that while our men
and women in uniform honorably fulfilling their
duties, so does every American have a duty to
fulfill. And that duty is to show those that
wear the cloth of the United States of America
that they're clearly supported back home. I mean,
we don't want any soldier to ever have to ask,
are my families being supported back home, are
they being taken care of, and am I being supported
back home, regardless of how you feel politically.
Right, and you've got a big event coming up on
the 12th of September, correct? We sure do. We
have our sixth annual Family Freedom Festival,
which is free to the public. Then we also have
a 9 .11 mile freedom run, which is being done
here in Barrington. And then we have shadow runs
in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at the Navy base, Esken
Village, Saudi Arabia, and then one of the Florida
operating bases in Afghanistan. Wow, this is
great. And your event in Illinois is going to
be held where? It will be held at the Barrington
Metra train station parking lot, which is right
in the downtown part of the village of Barrington.
Barrington is in which direction from Chicago?
So it's west of Chicago. So if you came out on
I -90, it's like northwest. And this will begin
when? What time? So the Freedom Run begins at,
actually kicks off at 9 -11 in the morning. And
then the opening ceremonies for the Freedom Festival
start at noon with a military color guard posing
in colors. We'll have some Gold Star families
lay a wreath. And then we usually have a military
flyover right at the end of that. Well, Bobby,
we want to thank you so very much for doing this
for people. And the organization again is We
Do Care. And what is the website for that? It's
www .we -do -care .org. and everybody can go
there and find out more information and that
is going to be on the 12th of September and it's
going to begin at around 9 -11 is when it kicks
off. That's central time. Gary, you had a comment?
A question. You're going to have active duty
military family running and is it open to the
public to run? It sure is. It's open to the public.
We actually have a lot of military units that
will be running in formation, believe it or not.
And all those fees are away for the military
families that are deployed and then we give veterans
and others a 50 % discount and stuff and that's
been underwritten by one of our gracious sponsors.
All right. Well, make sure those of you out in
Chicagoland out west in Barrington, registration
is at 8 a .m. Make sure you get out there to
the Barrington Metro Station and we'll hope to
talk to you again, Bob, Bobby, to find out more
about your organization and thanks so very much
for what you do. Well, thank you very much, and
thanks to all of our men and women in uniform.
We appreciate it. Airborne all the way. Stand
in the door, baby. Absolutely. Go Army. All right.
There we go. There we go. Thanks very much, Bobby.
All right. Take care. Have a great day. And you,
too. I got to see that running. I wonder if they'll
count cadence. I can only imagine. Road guards
out. That's the last time you heard that, boys.
It should be fun. Also, each week on Veterans
Radio, we like to welcome back the troops that
are coming back from overseas. Bob, you're on.
Thank you very much, Dale. Welcome home each
week on Veterans Radio. We welcome home servicemen
and women who are returning home back to this
country after being stationed around the world.
Dateline, New Jersey. About 500 soldiers with
the 56th Striker Brigade Combat Team arrived
at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Following a tour of
duty in Iraq, their arrival marks the second
wave of troops to return to the National Guard
of New Jersey. Dateline, Fort Eustis, Virginia.
About 130 soldiers from the Fort Eustis and 60
from Fort Story returned home today after completing
a 12 month deployment in Iraq. The group assigned
to the 155th Inland Cargo Transfer Company at
Fort Eustis was responsible for the distribution
of bulk cargo that supported 31 forward operating
bases. The Fort Story soldiers oversaw a container
receiving and shipping point in Balad, Iraq.
The unit also worked in an air sustainment cell
where it was responsible for the loading and
unloading of aircraft cargo. Dateline, Ohio.
Welcome home ceremony at the Reynoldsburg Air
Force Base is planned to mark the return of the
Ohio Army National Guard unit from Afghanistan.
About 30 soldiers from the operational mentor
and liaison team 9 .1, 174th Air Defense Artillery
Brigade are expected at the ceremony. The unit
was mobilized in December of 2008. Its mission
was to train and mentor members of the Afghan
National Army. society and listening and learning
who their nominees are for their awards this
year. And then we're going to end up the program
delivering or announcing two large award winners
and also going to be talking about the conference
that's going to be going on in Orlando, Florida
in October, October 9th and 10th in Orlando.
Veterans Radio will be there to make sure that
we're going to do a live program, hopefully.
from 9 to 10 on the 10th of October, which will
be really exciting. We're very excited to be
invited to go down there and to talk to the group.
And then we will also be, as I said, having a
program on the 12th of September where we will
announce all of the winners for the Military
Writers Society Award winners. And right now
I'm going to be going to our first guest who
is Not quite there on the line yet. Let me introduce
Jerry before I get him on the line. Jerry Yellen
was born in 1924, completed high school in June
of 1941. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps on
his 18th birthday in 1942 and graduated from
Luke Field in 1943 as a fighter pilot. He was
in combat in the Pacific Theater and at Iwo Jima.
with the 78th Fighter Squadron and participated
in the first land -based fighter mission over
Japan on April 7th, 1945 and participated in
the last mission of the war on August 14th, 1945.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
and an Oak Leaf Cluster and the Air Medal with
four Oak Leaf Clusters. He was discharged as
a captain in December of 1945. We're trying to
make contact with Jerry right now, and we're
having a little bit of difficulty, it looks like.
But let me tell you about what I know about the
two books that he has written. The first one
that we're going to be talking about is called
Of War and Weddings. I got him. Okay. Here we
go. Anyway, welcome to Veterans Radio. Jerry?
Jerry Yellen. Welcome to Veterans Radio. Hi,
Jerry. Hi, Earl. Well, we've had it. It looks
like the Gremlins are about today, it looks like.
I just introduced you, telling people about what
you did during the war and what your job was,
that you were a fighter pilot. You flew as an
escort, didn't you? We started out flying escorts
of B -29s from Iwo Jima. The first mission was
on April 7, 1945, and there were 150 B -29s dropping
their bombs on Tokyo. stopped sending fighter
planes up, so after that we just went up on strafing
missions. I want to talk about not only your
experiences, but let's talk about your book.
That's the main reason that we asked you to come
on, of war and weddings. Tell me a little bit
about how this idea came about. Well, in 1983,
I was asked to go to Japan to talk to the Mitsui
bank group. about investing in American real
estate. I didn't want to go. Japan was not a
place I wanted to visit, and the Japanese certainly
weren't people that I wanted to meet or know.
But Helene, my wife of 40 some odd years at that
point, was enamored with Japanese artifacts and
screens and gardens, so we went. And my first
experience in Japan, other than flying over it,
in October of 1983, and we got in at midnight,
went to sleep in a small hotel, got up in the
morning, and I walked out onto the Kinza, which
was closed to traffic, and I saw incredibly beautiful
people, friendly people. I looked up through
the buildings, and I saw the B -29s in my mind's
eye, and they were dropping their bombs on me,
and it was a frightening and horrifying experience.
And we gave our youngest son, Robert, a graduation
present to go to Japan, which he did for six
weeks. And he went back to Japan in 1984 for
a year to work as an English teacher. He's listening,
by the way, as is my 17 -year -old grandson,
my 18 -year -old grandson, Simon, the second
son. And he went back to Japan and he hasn't
come back yet. In 1988, he got married to a young
Japanese lady whose father was in the Imperial
Japanese Air Force. We met at the wedding and
we discovered that we had a lot in common as
human beings, as people. I had never spoken about
my wartime experiences to any of my children
or my wife. I came back to America after the
wedding in 1988 and I put my thoughts down at
became the book of war and weddings. It's a memoir.
In fact, one of the partners who was in here
earlier, as I mentioned to you, made a trip back
to Vietnam and found out that they were a wonderful,
warm people and that it was a country, not just
a war. It's an interesting thing about World
War II. From my perspective and my memory, Dale,
we fought the war in Europe against Hitler. We
fought the war in Japan against the Japanese
people. We were completely ignorant. of anything
about the Japanese people. And knowledge about
human beings and not demeaning them, we had to
demean every enemy that we ever had in war and
as every fighting, every country who battles
another country demeans their enemy because we
all are human, we all come from the same way,
same place. We all share the same intelligence
of nature in every one of ourselves. We just
have to hate the guy we're going to kill. I know,
and it's unfortunate. It's very difficult sometimes
for ordinary citizens, and I don't mean ordinary
civilians, to understand that mindset that you
have to get yourself into sometimes in order
to go to war. It takes its toll later on. I just
think that your whole story, so let me go back
to the story of war and weddings, is that you
go to the wedding of your son and future daughter
-in -law and you meet a Japanese fighter pilot.
No, he was a fighter pilot in training. Okay.
And when they stopped the training, his entire
squadron, other than he and another man, went
to kamikaze school. Oh no. And he and another
man went to China. They spent the war in China,
the rest of the war. This obviously has worked
out very well for your son and for you, it sounds
like. Well, it's worked out for more than just
us. I've been to schools all over the country
and I've been to schools in Hiroshima. I think
I've influenced a few people by telling them
my story of healing. I love my Japanese grandchildren
not so much as I love anybody else in the world.
They love me and what I've discovered in my 85
years of life and having been a warrior is legend
has it that David slew Goliath 5 ,000 years ago
with a slingshot and a pedal and all the progress
that we've made in life is we've invented better
slingshots and better pedals. I was interviewed
in 2005 by National Public Radio in Japan, NHK,
and they asked me why I was such for peace, why
I was such a proponent for bringing Japan and
America closer together, even though they were
very close. And I said, which was in my heart,
I said early on in Robert's marriage, I had a
nightmare, that my American grandchildren were
getting into a bomber and flying across the Pacific
to bomb Japan, and my Japanese grandchildren
were getting into a bomber and flying across
the Pacific to bomb America, and they crossed
in the night, and I couldn't let that happen.
That's really when I started, in the early days
of Robert's wedding, of marriage, when I started
to write of war and weddings and tell the story
of what happened to me. I've heard this story
before from you and it still gives me goosebumps.
It's such a powerful, thought -provoking thing
that you went through, processed. You couldn't
help but write it down once you had that dream.
The most powerful experience that I had. in all
of this was Mr. Yamakawa and I and a translator
went into a real con and we went into the hot
bath and we sat and talked for three hours. We
spoke about everything that was important. He
asked me questions, I asked him questions about
race, religion, education, family. Everything
that he wanted to know about me, including the
war, I asked him the same questions and when
we left he said in Japanese to the translator
that he never knew as a Japanese man that there
were other people in the world that felt the
same way that he and the Japanese people felt
about life and everything that was important.
We became family. I can't speak his language,
I can't speak mine, but we look at each other
and we just have been very fortunate because
of what I've learned. most about life I've learned
from my children. And now I have three productive,
wonderful grandchildren living in Japan, three
living in America. Our oldest grandson is in
Hokkaido University in Japan studying to be a
physicist. And Simon, who is listening, is a
senior in high school. I've been in an international
baccalaureate high school program and doing extremely
well. My 14 -year -old granddaughter, of course,
daughters are different than grandsons, but she's
a member of a pom -pom dancing team that won
the national championship. get into the other
book, because I found the review of it just amazing.
It's called The Blackened Canteen, and we've
got about, unfortunately we only got about four
minutes to talk about it, but can you tell me
about The Blackened Canteen? Yes. When I made
that statement on NHK, it resonated with Dr.
Sugano, who was 12 years old when a bombing raid
of 123 B -29s bombed his city of Shizuoka. and
23 Americans were killed when their two B -29s
crashed. And in the wreckage, the man, Fukumatsu
Ito, who buried the Americans alongside the 2
,000 Japanese, they found a blackened canteen
with a handprint of the American owner who was
using it when he was killed. And Mr. Ito erected
a monument on top of a mountain and every year
has honored it. ceremonies honoring the Americans
by the Japanese. I went to the ceremony in 2006
and I just had to tell that story. So I started
to write The Black and Canteen, which was published
in October 2008. It's a true story of 23 Americans,
of a number of Japanese people, but four Americans
who were killed. killed in the B -29 crash, and
one, Robert Richard Fisk, who was a bugler on
the West Virginia, and three Japanese men, Mr.
Ito, who buried the Americans, created a monument.
Dr. Sugano, who has conducted a ceremony there
every year on this Saturday closest to June 20th,
and a man by the name of Takashi Maeda, who dropped
a torpedo that sunk the West Virginia on the
50th anniversary Harbor when Mr. Maeda and Richard
Fisk met on the Arizona and became friends, even
though one guy sunk the ship that the other man
was on. Right, but just think about the coincidences
that go on in the world where you run into people
that you knew or that you were fighting against
40, 50, 60 years ago and that you find out that
they're just human beings just like you. the
ugly part of war and the pure purpose of war
from the military is to destroy your enemy as
fast as you can, as efficiently as you can, so
that somebody on the other side will say we've
had enough. That's what war is. We're at that
today. We're in a war, two wars, where there
is no enemy that can say they've had enough.
the other side that we're fighting, we're fighting
ideologies. Right. That's a whole other program,
Jerry. It is, but the purpose of life from my
perspective after all of these years is to connect
with all of humanity, to live in unity with all
of humanity and harmony with all of nature. It's
as simple as that. Everybody needs three squares
of meals, three meals a day and someone to love,
something to do and something to look forward
to. They might speak another language, they might
worship another way, but they're all human beings.
We all come from the same place and come here
in the same way that nobody comes any differently.
on Amazon and Borders and so forth, and he's
also a member of the Military Writers Society
of America. Jerry, I'm looking forward to meeting
you at the convention in October, and thank you
so very, very much for being on Veterans Radio
today. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. We'll
be talking to you again. Bye, Jerry. Bye -bye,
Jerry. We're going to be coming right back. We're
going to be talking and announcing the nominees
for the Military Writers Society of America awards.
You're listening to Veterans Radio. 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. Major Bud Day's F -100 was hit by ground
fire, destroying his hydraulics and putting the
plane into a steep dive. Details after this.
Day ejected from his damaged plane. He smashed
against the plane and broke his arm in three
places. North Vietnamese militiamen captured
him when he landed. When he refused to answer
questions, they staged a mock execution and then
hung him from a rafter by his feet for several
hours. On his fifth day in camp, he untied himself
and escaped. On his second night on the run,
a bomb landed near the sleeping day, leaving
him bleeding from his ears and sinuses and sent
shrapnel into his leg. Between the 12th and 15th
day, he heard helicopters and stumbled to the
sound. The choppers left just before he got to
the landing zone. The next morning, he ran into
a North Vietnamese patrol. As he looped toward
the jungle, he was shot in the leg and hand and
captured soon afterward. He was moved to the
Hanoi Hilton. His untreated wounds were infected
and he suffered malnutrition. The fingers on
both hands were curled into fists as a result
of torture. He regained some motion by peeling
them back down the muzzles of the guns and began
to sing the Star -Spangled Banner. The other
men, including Admiral James Stockdale, joined
him. They were released on March 14, 1973, and
President Ford presented the Medal of Honor to
both Day and Stockdale on March 6, 1976. The
Medal of Honor series is a production of Veterans
Radio. of the Military Writers Society of America,
Joyce Faulkner. Joyce, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thank you for having me. How are you doing? I'm
doing great. This has been fun so far. I really
enjoyed talking with Jerry. Amazing man, isn't
he? He certainly is. Well, Joyce, tell me a little
bit about your organization. Okay. The Military
Writers Society of America was founded by Bill
McDonald a few years back, and the idea was that
we wanted to be able to support and recognize
people who are writing in the military genre.
It's a fairly narrow niche and up until that
point there had been no organization that could
focus on that. Since then we've grown in our
range and our perspective significantly and right
now we are focusing on a variety of genres. And
we accept about anybody into the organization
who feels that our interests and our perspective
will help them reach their goals. And the award
program is part of that. Joining us on the line
with us right now is Bill McDonald. Bill, welcome
to Veterans Radio. Well, top of the morning from
California. Oh, thank you so very much for getting
up so early. So tell me why you, Joyce just mentioned
that you started the organization. You are the
founder. Are you also a writer? Yes, I am. I'm
an author. I've got several books out there and
I do documentary films and a bunch of other stuff.
And I'm a minister as well. And it was my work
with the American Authors Association, which
I'm the founder of also. We have about 2 ,000
members in that group, which encompassed a lot
of different authors. But we found that there
was a group of men. at the beginning that were
veterans and you know there was groups for mystery
writers and groups for thriller writers and fantasy
writers and sci -fi fiction and romance writers
and all these different groups out there but
nobody was really taking serious the genre of
the military and these veterans were coming back
and I gathered, I started off with a dozen of
them and we went to Austin, Texas because the
Texas Book Fair that was put on by Mrs. Bush,
they didn't make a table for us. They didn't
invite us so I did my own event there and we
had 800 people come for a dozen riders which
I thought was pretty successful and from there
it just kind of blossomed and it grew and became
an organization and we didn't want it just to
be an organization, an association, that's why
it's called society because we wanted to fellowship
where people that are patriotic and had common
interests, the military, supported the military
in particular, could gather and do their thing
together. So that's kind of where it went and
why I started it. We've used this program, well
I did, on PBS television a number of years ago.
We developed a PTSD program called the Art of
Healing for the VA in which the use of writing
memoirs, poetry, art, music, things like this
were helping veterans get back in touch with
themselves and helping to recover and heal much
quicker. It was all kind of tied in together.
So military writers, yeah it's writers but it's
also peripherally a lot of other things, all
of it in support of the military. We've been
so grateful to work with you and with Joyce,
especially with the military writers. Obviously,
I've provided you with incredible guests and
my library is growing exponentially. I can't
read enough. It seems like right now. How many
members are in the military writer society? At
this moment, we have around 735 that are participating
in one way or another. There are about 350 that
are actual active members in any one year. Usually
that year depends on if they have a book out
that year. Okay. Well, we're going to be going
into your nominations in just a second, but I
want to let everybody know that the first part
that we're going to be talking about are your,
I want to say, general nominations. But in the
last segment of the program, we are going to
be announcing the Society's Founder's Award and
President's Awards. So we want to make sure everybody
sticks around for that. And we're also going
to be finding out more about your convention
in Orlando in October. So right now, as I go,
this is more people on the phone than we've ever
had. I'm going to be going to, who am I talking
with now? Rob. Rob Ballester. That's you, Rob?
That's me. Good morning. Good morning. How are
you? And I understand that you are the head reviewer
for the Military Society. That is true. Morning,
Bill. Good morning to you, sir. Hey, good morning,
boss lady. I am the head reviewer. I have about
12 reviewers, all volunteers that we farm out
our members' works to. And we have a review process
where we go ahead and read the book and score
it and get some feedback to the members and get
it up on our site. And at the end of every year,
we try to award the best of the best through
our award process. Okay, well why don't we get
right into this and let you announce who your
nominees are for 2009. Okay. How about a drum
roll? There we go, okay, we have ten categories
this year We the nominees are in the anthology
category first We have three nominees home of
the brave by Hess Where Marines Dammit by Gail
Chatfield and Uncle John's bathroom reader salutes
the military by Uncle John's that's actually
an anthology by several authors, one of whom
is a member of our society, Andrew Lubin. So
that's our anthology category. Moving on to the
children's category. We have the Buck Ballot
series by Linhart, Memories of Me by Lisa Campbell,
You and Your Military Hero by Zitzow, and If
I Had a Daddy, by Sullivan and I'd like to comment
that these are written uh read in no particular
order so each book will get a clean a clean review
when we uh when we sit down and do the the final
awards process moving on to the fiction category
we have the first book is The Take by Tackix
second is The Sandman by Lucero, third is Childfinder
by Angley, and fourth is Honor Defended by D
.H. Brown. Because we have so many military works
that come in, we also have a historical fiction
category, a little bit different from our fiction.
Fiction would be things like thrillers and mysteries.
Historical fiction would be something written
against the background of something in history,
usually in our case some sort of military action.
Okay. So in that category we have Hollywood Buzz
by Margaret Leitch, True Colors by Erin Rainwater,
The Final Salute by Rogers, and Virginia's War
by Jack London. V Jack London? I don't think
it's V Jack London. It's another guy who's fortunate
enough to have Give them credibility right away.
Exactly, and a similar amount of talent apparently.
Okay, and next. Next we have memoir. Embedded,
a Marine Corps advisor inside the Iraqi Army,
by Gray. The Lady Gangster, members of a sailor,
by Del Staker. Kat Lowe, a memoir of invincible
youth, by Irwin. An immeasurable spirit, lessons
of a wounded warrior. I apologize that I don't
have all of the first names. But the last name,
that'll give us some... All of these nominees
will be up on your website later this afternoon.
Is that correct, Joyce? Yes, that's correct.
And each person will be notified, too. Okay.
Moving right along. Moving right along. We have
one nominee in the music category, and that's
Jeff Jellerson for his CD, Going Home. And in
the non -fiction category, we have Sacred Ground,
Tribute to Veterans by Tom Ruck, The Aether Zone,
U .S. Army Special Forces Detachment B -52 by
Morris, Fire in the Night, Creative Essays from
an Iraq War Vet by Lee Kelly, and a Vietnam Trilogy
by Skrfield. Going to poetry. Three nominees
in that category. Tears for Mother Earth by Jim
Greenwald. Tomes of Passion and Songs for the
Soul by Jeff Jellerson. The multi -talented Jeff
Jellerson, apparently, because he also submitted
the CD. And Sugar Zeros and Lemon Drops by Jim
Greenwald again. Moving on to our reference category.
Strike from the Sea by Tomason. U .S. Air Force
prototype jet fighters by Jenkins and Landis.
The Book of War by Don Zimmerman. And America's
Film, America's Film Vault by Stuart. And our
last category this year is the spiritual slash
religious category. God in the Foxhole by Sasser.
Battlefields and Blessings, stories of Faith
and Courage from World War II by Larkin Spivey,
Bible Promises for Soldiers by Barnes, and I
Will Never Give Up on God Again by Clark. Wow,
sounds like a great list. We're going to be having
that up on their website shortly. We're going
to need to take a real quick break. We're going
to be announcing the awards for the Military
Writers Society, for the Founders Award, and
the President's Award as soon as we come back
from our break. And we're back on Veterans Radio
and we're digging into the vaults of our musical.
You like that one, huh? Our musical library.
You know who that was? That was Bing Crogby,
by the way. By Bonds. Anyway, we are talking
with a couple of people from the Military Writers
Society. We've just announced their nominees
for their awards this year. And right now we're
going to be going back and announcing two of
their big awards. And Joyce, I'm going to turn
it over to you. And for the first time this year,
it goes out to two individuals. The award recognizes
writing ability, but it's much more than that.
MWSA strives to support and recognize our members,
and that takes a lot of work. And somebody has
to do that work. And this year was a transition
year where we're really making some big strides
building on the shoulders of the giants that
came before us. And I'd like to recognize two
people. The first one is John Cathcart. His book,
it's a terrific thriller. It's called Delta Seven.
And he has donated his time and talents and an
unfailing sense of humor to the MWSA. And without
our website, that's kind of the core of our communications
device. And I was a webmaster before John, and
it is a heck of a job. And I'd like to recognize
John for that. And he is our first of two President's
Award winners. The second one, and unfortunately,
Rob had to leave. I want to announce that Rob
Ballester also has received the President's Award.
He's our lead reviewer. He's been a reviewer
for many years. He is also our past webmaster
and his book is called God Does Have a Sense
of Humor. The key quality that both of these
gentlemen share is their ability to bring people
together. And as Bill has mentioned before, the
whole concept of MWSA is a sense of brotherhood
and support. and cheerleading and recognition
and education and encouragement. And these two
people, John Cathcart and Rob Bavister, winners
of the 2009 President's Award, embody those particular
qualities. Congratulations to them. And now Bob
is going crazy. He wants me to queue him up here.
We're going to come back to Bill in just a second
for your President's, no, Founder's Award. Hold
on just a second. The Founder's Award. for the
military writer society is like, that's the award
that has the most prestige, the most recognition.
And this is given by the society and by the founder,
that's me, to recognize someone who's written
a book or created something that goes beyond
just their own personal journey. Even though
the book may be about them, it reaches greater
issues and the message is bigger than just about
themselves. So it's more universal. It's something
that helps heal, something that inspires, something
that moves people, something that supports the
image and the recognition for veterans in some
way. So I kind of consider all these factors
into it, not just that it's a good story or just
a good memoir, but what's it that's in there
for everyone else? What would other people get
reading this book? So we try to pick something
that is really outstaying. I had five books in
mind and I see two of those renominated to another
category, which I'm happy to say. But the book
I did end up selecting was called Stand 2, A
Journey to Manhood, by E. Franklin Evans. It
really is a journey to manhood. The way he writes
the book, he starts off talking about his good
friend from high school getting the news that
he got killed in Vietnam and having to deal with
that and then going into service, becoming an
officer and leaving his own patrols just a couple
years later in Vietnam itself. with all these
things and how he is under fire at a special
forces camp. A lot of the personal observations
and introspects that he makes throughout his
journey and how he looks back, writing this as
an adult, he tries to capture his essence of
his thoughts and his minds and his feelings back
when he was that age. It's a beautifully well
written story and it's his life story and it's
the kind of story that you read that and you
are moved. Some places moved into tears, some
places just inspired, some places you might get
a chuckle. So it's a real great book. It's called
Stand To, A Journey to Manhood, and I'll be sending
that in Orlando, Florida to Mr. Evans and him
in person. Well, congratulations to all of your
nominees and especially to those two winners.
And speaking of Orlando, for your conference
that's coming up in October, we've got Richard
Lowry on the phone right now. Richard, tell us
what's going to be happening in Orlando in October.
Good morning. Thanks for having me. The Military
Writers Conference is going to be held here in
Orlando from the 9th through the 11th of October.
The main day of the conference is on the 10th.
For details on the conference, if you're interested
in learning more about it, you can go to militarywriters
.com. And you can see who all the nominees have
been and learned lots more about our organization
on that site. But at the conference we're going
to have book signings, we're going to have workshops,
we're going to have screenings of two powerful
documentaries, Troopers and the GI Film Festival's
award winning Perfect Valor that's narrated by
Fred Thompson. For information on that film you
can go to perfectvalor .com. And then we're going
to have the awards banquet. And the highlight
of the conference this year, I believe it was
Joyce's idea, is that we have a People's Choice
Award that I have been asked to make the presentation
for that award. And what we've done, again, you
can go to our website and look for the People's
Choice Award. We have posted five photographs
that embody some theme of military service. We've
asked writers and poets and musicians to submit
a piece that exemplifies one of those photographs.
We're going to judge all those pieces. I think
Joyce can correct me if I'm wrong. We're going
to limit it to about ten. Once we pick the ten
finalists, we're going to have eight. Once we
pick the eight finalists, we're going to have
a People's Choice Award. And at the conference,
people will be able to vote on who they believe
is the best entry. They'll also be able to vote
online at our website. They'll be able to vote
online through Twitter and Facebook accounts
from members. And the goal is to get a million
people voting. and we'll be displaying a total
of the votes as they come in at the conference
and then on Saturday night at the awards banquet
we will award the winner of that award. We think
that this is going to encourage lots of people
to participate in our organization and give recognition
to artists in our genre as well. Also, I want
to make sure everybody knows that we're going
to be doing a live show from Orlando on October
10th. We encourage you to do that. We want to
thank all of you for being on Veterans Radio
today. Some of you will be back on the 12th of
September as we announce the winners in all of
those categories. And I'm so excited just to
have the military writers on board with Veterans
Radio. It sounds like Bill and I have similar
goals in the world. There are a lot of radio
programs out there, but nothing that was specifically
geared toward veterans and military. So on behalf
of a happy, happy crew here at Veterans Radio,
and for all of you out there, until next week,
you are dismissed.