(upbeat music) - Coming up next on Arizona Horizon, a Memorial Day special.

We'll hear about the national veterans memorial cemetery in Phoenix, we'll also learn about a Purple Heart community, and we'll rerun a heartfelt interview with Congressman and Iraq War veteran, Ruben Gallego.

It's our Memorial Day special next on Arizona Horizon.

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(upbeat music) - Good evening and welcome to this special Memorial Day edition of Arizona Horizon.

I'm Ted Simons.

We begin tonight with an update on the national veterans memorial cemetery in Phoenix and how cemetery officials dealt with the pandemic and what their plans are going forward.

We spoke with Jerald Nowdomski.

He's the memorial cemetery's administrative officer.

Gerald, welcome to Arizona Horizon.

Good to have you here on Memorial Day, and we're talking the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona.

Let's start with where the cemetery is.

- The cemetery is in North Phoenix, Cave Creek Road and Pinnacle Peak Road are the major crossroads.

- Okay, visitation hours?

- 8:00 to 4:30, Monday through Friday is actually office hours, but visitation is seven days a week, sunrise to sunset.

- Okay, now, was that always the case?

Did things change during COVID?

- It did.

The office was not actually open to the public for a certain period of months.

We actually restricted some of the burial services.

So we were only doing direct placements.

We weren't having visitors there.

We weren't having families there.

We had actually split our staff down to two separate crews so that we could limit the amount of contact we had with one another and to try to help in the... - Yeah.

- Avoiding the spread.

- Had to be difficult, huh?

- It was, it was, but we worked through it.

- Okay.

But things now are back to, are things back to fully operational and full normal situation?

- They are.

We are fully back, 'cause right now Arizona is actually considered green in terms of cases and the potential threat that's there.

So we are fully operational as we were from the beginning.

- When the COVID restrictions were in place people understood, did they?

I'm sure you had some outcry over that, but for the most part, did people understand?

- I think so.

A larger percentage of individuals I think were understanding.

'cause I think they were concerned themselves and were trying to limit their exposure of going out and being around.

But we did have some people that did struggle a little bit with it, but through communication and assistance customer service, we were able to help them and help them to get through it.

- Now, for this year Memorial Day, talk about what's planned for the day, for today, and are the ceremonies, full ceremonies?

- Full ceremonies.

- Wow, what does that entail?

- It's a lot.

So the cemetery is open.

We have services that start at 8:00 AM.

We have a committee that puts us on every year.

We haven't had one for a couple years because of COVID, so this will be the first year.

So everybody is excited about getting back to the norm.

We usually have about 5,000 visitors at the cemetery for the services, and then we usually estimate about 25,000 who visit.

- Wow.

- Over the weekend.

- And again, give us just a thumbnail sketch of what goes on.

- Well, it starts by, on Saturday we have volunteers that come out and place flags on all the grave sites.

Usually we have about 1200 people come out for that.

They usually place about 62,000 flags in just over an hour and a half.

So it goes pretty quick.

And then on Monday when we have the services, the committee has VSOs groups that are there to partake and they place.

Reese is part of that.

But they have the 100th Army Band there that plays music.

It's nice.

- Wow, wow, it sounds really cool.

Now, I know that the veteran's legacy memorial website was up there for a while.

I get it's still up there, true?

- It is, it is.

- Yeah, talk to us about that website 'cause that's kind of neat.

- Well, the NCA as a whole has a much larger plan for the legacy program, which is to really provide an experience and a customer service for our families and surviving family members, so when they come out to the cemetery they can look up information on their loved one.

It helps them locate the site very easy, but it also has pictures of the marker that are on the site, and anybody can access it.

- Yeah, that just seems like such a wonderful thing.

- It is.

- Especially makes it easier for a lot, for family, and survivors, and loved ones.

Who is eligible for burial at the cemetery?

- Well, there are some variances to the eligibility, but basically veterans and their eligible dependents are eligible to be in entered at the national cemeteries.

- Okay, so and independents as well.

And this cemetery was dedicated way back like 1978, somewhere along those lines.

- Actually it was commissioned, I believe in 1976.

It didn't have its first internment until 1978, and then it became a national cemetery in 1989.

- And how has it grown over the years?

- Oh, it's grown immensely.

I believe now we're the 11th or the 12th largest national cemetery by volume of internment.

We're projected to do probably 4,000 internments this year.

- Wow, that seems like an awful lot.

I mean, talk about the involvement of the VA. Are they fully involved, or had they always been fully involved?

- Yes, well, previous to it being a national cemetery, it was a state veteran cemetery.

- I got you.

- So we have a number of state veteran cemeteries here in the state.

Some the state gets funding to support and they're part of a program that helps them with the processes.

But eventually those state cemeteries can become a national cemetery, and that's what happened with our cemetery.

- Yeah.

- And since it's been a national cemetery, we've just put, the VA has put a lot of money and resources into it to make sure all of those benefits are available for veterans.

- And with all those, I mean, that's a lot of burials out there, it's a lot of folks out there.

I don't know how much land you got left out there.

Are you close to capacity?

- No, we're expected to be in service for internments until the year 2055.

- Whoa.

- Based on the volume we do now, but that's only about 3,800 internments.

So as that internment rate goes up, those years will lessen a little bit.

We are just in the process now of completing our next 30 acres of development, but we still have another 70 acres that aren't developed.

- Oh my goodness.

Okay, so you got a long way to go then, even with the numbers increasing as they are.

The most important thing to know about the national cemetery.

- The most important thing to know is that we're there to honor veterans.

- Yeah, that basically that you're there.

- We're here, yeah.

- Yeah, well, you do a great job.

Thank you so much for joining us and telling us more about the national.

- You're welcome.

- Thank you for having me.

- Cemetery in Arizona.

Thank you so much, sir.

We appreciate it.

And up next on Arizona Horizon, a tribal community that is now a Purple Heart community.

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(upbeat music) - The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community was recently designated as a Purple Heart community, making it the first native American community in Arizona to be so honored.

We learn more from Jim Pomush, commander of local chapter 472 Military Order of the Purple Heart.

Jim Pomush, welcome to Arizona Horizon.

It's good to have you here.

Thank you so much for being here and talking about the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community.

We it see becoming a Purple Heart community.

Talk to us about this, and how this process happens, and why the community was so honored.

- The process is really involved because it's not easy with the community to coordinate everything.

And it's not easy because a lot of the people with the military order, the Purple Heart, don't know much about the community.

- Yeah.

- I happen to have worked out there a little bit.

So I'm familiar with the community.

And I know that it took a lot of people, a lot of the council members, a lot of their special interest groups that worked with the military order, the Purple Heart.

They had lots of questions for us.

I, myself was not directly involved in it, but our department commander and some of the national officers.

Everybody had a little bit to do with it.

And the selling point is, is that the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community have a lot of members who were part of the military.

And they have a lot of members who were wounded.

So, altogether we just wanted to work with Salt River.

We wanted to integrate them with our organization.

We wanted to have their support, because the community does a lot around the valley.

- Is this the first native American community with this designation?

- Yes, I know of no other.

- That's really something.

And again, to recognize those wounded in combat and members.

Given by the Military Order of the Purple Heart, tell us more about that order.

- Well, the Military Order of the Purple Heart is made up of the members of the United States of America's armed forces who have been wounded in combat or killed in combat.

And if they're killed in combat, then they're awarded the Purple Heart medal posthumously to their next of kin.

There's others that are wounded and who later die of their injuries, and the same thing, a next kin receives it for them.

It's the America's oldest military medal, and it's authorized by the president of the United States.

It was first actually awarded by General Washington back in the days we were fighting for our independence.

- Wow, that really is something.

And now that the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community receives the award, talk about the award ceremony.

I know it was a month or two ago.

Talk about the ceremony and how special that was.

- The ceremony was awesome in a couple of ways.

First of all, the number of people involved in pulling it off.

This is members, well, the president of the community, the council members, all the support staff that they have.

It seemed like from what we could see, the whole community was involved in it in some manner.

The nicest thing that I saw out there was the USS Arizona Memorial that they have built out there.

And it was just simply awesome.

- Wow.

- I don't wanna say too much about it because I would rather people just go there.

The hours of the museum are like, I think it's 10 to three.

- Okay.

- And they just did a beautiful job of it.

- It's really something, isn't it?

- Yes, it is.

- And so obviously the community felt that it just, it seems like it's the right thing to do, doesn't it?

It must have just felt like a very rewarding experience.

- It is and in a number of ways, but I think the biggest one is that people have a different outlook on military and law enforcement, emergency service personnel today.

It used to be that everybody welcomed you with open arms and we're friendly and wanted to speak with you, and then we have a time where they got away from it.

And now, that's one of the things that the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community, by becoming a supporter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

Again, we're building this relationship between people, the organization, law enforcement, (murmurs) military groups, and the emergency services.

- Yeah, yeah.

Last question, before you go, and we thank you again for your time and your service, and we thank you so much for being here.

The idea of being a servant, the idea of being in service, that overrides everything, doesn't it?

- Oh, by tons.

I happened to be an individual that didn't know much about the organizations like the veteran.

I'm sorry, the FW Club, the American Legion, the Jewish War Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart.

And yet when I got out and met people that were in the same situation I was in, they wanted to help me, and they did.

And that's the way I first got involved with it.

I get involved with the Marine Corps League.

And next, I get involved with the Purple Heart and Jewish War Veterans, et cetera.

And I find myself involved in the work and enjoyed it, and I still am.

The satisfaction you get out of, whether it's building a ramp for a veteran, donating to a youth sports program.

We do a lot of work with the junior ROTC programs.

Our chapter alone, 472, we have 20 high schools in the east valley and southern part of the area that we go to.

We give them a national certificate award, a national certificate award medal.

And it's for leadership.

- Yeah.

- And there are the officers that run those programs and enlisted men that work with them.

They choose the cadet.

My organization, chapter 472, we give each of those cadets that receive that award a hundred dollars.

And it's not much by today's standards, but still we wanna give to them and thank them and their parents for the work that they put into it, the support that the parents give them, et cetera.

- Well, you sound like a busy man.

We thank you for taking time to talk to us.

I mean, again, congratulations on all of this Military Order of the Purple Heart.

Commander of local chapter 472, Jim Pomush, thank you.

- Thank you, and thank you for having me on today.

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(upbeat music) - We end our Memorial Day special with a conversation we had with Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego about his military experiences.

Gallego served with the third battalion 25th Marine Regiment in Iraq.

His company saw some of the worst fighting of the Iraq War, losing 22 Marines and a Navy corpsman to enemy action in eight months.

Congressman Gallego talked to us about what Memorial Day means to him.

Hey Congress, good to see you again, thank you for joining us on Memorial Day here.

What does Memorial Day mean to you?

- I mean, for me, it's a very rough day.

I remember all my friends that I lost, but it gives me time to pause and actually think about them and remember who they were.

I don't remember their sacrifice.

I don't think about it that way.

I remember who they were, what men they were, and the lives that they lived.

And so guessing that day in that way it does fulfill the goal of Memorial Day, but it is not a pleasant day for me.

- Yeah, yeah, I would imagine.

Tell us your story, why you decided to join the Marines and what you found when you got there.

- I think I had always wanted to join the military.

And largely it's just because being a first generation American, my parents were both immigrants, I felt very patriotic, and I felt that I owed the nation a debt of gratitude and service.

And being of sound body and mind, I felt that it was my responsibility to do it.

And I joined and didn't think it'd be a big sacrifice.

It's not like I went full time, active duty.

I didn't.

I joined the reserves, Marine Corps reserves.

And unfortunately, we did find ourselves in a lot of combat, but that's part of the job.

I always kind of assumed that may have happened.

But my initial goal was just to be able to just serve my country.

- You mentioned combat, your company saw some of the worst fighting of the Iraq War, and 22 Marines and a Navy corpsman killed.

- Yeah.

- You talked about being a rough day for you.

Talk more about what you said in that, how you remember these soldiers, because there are variety... - Marines.

- You can remember these Marines, I'm sorry, these Marines.

- Marines.

- There's a variety of ways to remember.

And you tend to remember what, the better times?

Talk to us about this.

- Yeah, I tend to remember them as I knew them when they were alive.

I don't try to remember the causes of their death.

I do grieve obviously for them.

I think it's really important, especially if you have PTSD like I did, grieving is part of the process.

But I don't know if I'll do it this year, but I usually go to go to mass to give them, give a little prayer for them and for their families.

But I try to, you know, I basically try to just relax on that day, 'cause it's a very stressful day for me.

And so I try not to really do anything that would require me to, I guess, like go out and be a member of Congress 'cause it's a hard day for me.

- Yeah, yeah.

You mentioned PTSD.

Losing Marines, losing friends, how did it change you?

(Gallego clicks) (Gallego sighs) - Well, they don't necessarily all go hand in hand, you have PTSD for many reasons.

But I am a different person from before the war and to who I am now.

And that does not necessarily mean that a worse person, I'm just changed, and I'm learning to cope with this disease.

It doesn't make me irrational, mad, or anything like that, but it is a part of my life now.

But it has also, not it has, not PTSD, but war has made me appreciate life more than anything else, and what is worth fighting for, and also what is worth enjoying.

I now take the pleasures in the little things that I never took pleasures in before.

I now love spending uncommitted time with just friends and family and my son and my fiance.

These are the things that I should have really appreciated before and I didn't.

And I think I also appreciate the country more.

And even though I was against Iraq War and I think, for a lot of reasons, we lost men because of bad planning, bad administration, not enough equipment.

I have a great appreciation of this country because of what I saw and what my friends were willing to do, and what I was willing to do for this country.

And it makes me feel more committed to making sure that this country continues going in the right direction.

- With that being said, as a Marine, how did just being a Marine change you?

I mean, do you see it every day of your life, the discipline, the things that you learned?

- Yeah, I mean, it's interesting.

I remember before the Marine Corps, I grew up without a father and really no male figure in my life except for my grandfather.

And then he died when I was in seventh grade.

And what that does, like I never really got to develop like the confidence that I think that I needed growing up, and eventually I faked the confidence, right?

And fake it till you make it.

But deep down internally at the core, I never really had a confidence I think that I needed to really push me and propel me.

The Marine Corps, I think really helped me get that confidence that I was maybe seeking or trying to find.

And it made me I think the man that I am today, I have been able to be very successful in my life, both in politics and in the private sector and in many areas, because I have this basic understanding of who I am and that, that helps me propel forward.

Especially if you're a person of color and you're operating in a world that's not really made for you, you need to have more confidence than not to kind of break through.

So it has made me a better person.

It's made me a more courageous person.

It's made me a better politician, not because it helps me say I'm a Marine, but I also am not afraid to buck the party line, whether it's the Democratic Party line, the Republican Party line, or just anything, and stick to my core values because at the deep, deep down inside, I know who I am, right?

And one of the things you, when you get pretty close to death, and I came pretty close to dying, a lot of times, actually, you internally started looking at yourself and you started asking yourself like who you are in this world.

And if you die tomorrow, would you be proud of yourself?

So when you have those conversations as a young man, they don't ever leave you.

And when you become an older man, now I'm at 41, it sticks to you.

And it certainly has helped me make some very hard decisions.

- Well, Congressman we thank you very much for sharing your story on this special day, and we wish you the best on this day.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you, have a good one.

- And that is it for now, I'm Ted Simons.

Thank you so much for joining us on this special edition of Arizona Horizon.

You have a great evening.

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