Welcome to Perspectives from WFSU Public Media I'm Tom Flanigan this program using the Zoom platform which usually works really well it was pre-recorded on Tuesday April 27th for playback on Thursday April 29th to appear on WFSU fm and also a few little clips occasionally find their way onto our Public Media facebook page and we archive each and every show on WFSU.org well America's military veterans sure do face challenges and fortunately their situation is now a bit more universally recognized than at many times in this nation's history and uh Vietnam vessel know exactly what we're talking about there there are numerous agencies and organizations that can lend a hand when there are challenges and these include long-standing veterans service and advocacy organizations I'm speaking of such entities as the American Legion the veterans of foreign wars disabled American veterans and am vets just to name a few uh we also have branches of the service that have dedicated veterans outreach programs as well and so on today's Perspectives what we're going to be checking out what's available to provide help to veterans in our area who need it and we have an all-star panel of Tallahassee area advocates who are veterans themselves gentlemen thank you all for joining us today on this on this very special program and I guess we can go around and introduce everybody we'll start with a gentleman who kind of got the idea to put this presentation in motion and that is Frank Roycraft he is affiliated with the VFW post in Tallahassee 3308 along with a bunch of other things and uh and Frank can't see you but I know we can hear you so uh thank you again for helping put this together and give us a little bit of background of your your veterans experience and and what you've been up to well thank you Tom I really appreciate that and the idea is for us to get the word out to the general public a lot of times uh you know veterans sit around and you know even the veteran service organization's leaders and we chat and that is wonderful we get some things done but we want to get this out to the public so that's why I came up with this idea let's let folks know a little bit you know what we're all about and what we're trying to accomplish my background of course I went through the Marine Corps and retired from the Marine Corps the way that probably nobody should ever even think of doing I joined in 1963 went over to Vietnam spent some time there left the Marine Corps in 1966 18 years later in 1984 at 39 years old I was going in the Marine Corps again people get out of the Marine Corps 38 I'm going in at 39. so by the grace of god I finally finished up in 2005. most of that was reserved time I did regular end reserve time so I'm pretty familiar with what goes on in the Marine Corps and the different perspective that the different ranks have I started off obviously as a private and finished off again by the grace of god as a master gunnery sergeant that's e9 and I got to see a perspective and believe it or not I was able to understand why the Marine Corps was so upset with me with me by the many things I did when I was young in the Marine Corps it's always a you know a different look but we have a lot of wonderful organizations that people should really take a look at joining and I may get into trouble for this but I'm going to say it again I think every single person that has ever served in the military and been honorably discharged should be a member of the American Legion and or the VFW now the reason I say that is because they have a lot of programs and they're doing a lot of things and they're noticed by congress well I made that statement at a VSO meeting and Richard Dooley a wonderful person with the disabled American veterans very nicely told me that his organization is very large also and has over a million members and he's absolutely right about that that's a wonderful group and Richard is doing a phenomenal job so there's a lot of things out there that are getting done for veterans that people don't realize and hopefully groups like you know we have here small as they are we can get them large we can get other people in here some people to say why didn't you invite me well you know we'll get you next time because hopefully this is something that will will continue on so in order to let other people talk here at the beginning and mention who they are i'll pause well Frank I appreciate that and also I i need to tell folks you're you're kind of a uh a recovering broadcast journalist too but we won't hold that against you for sure thank you Tom I love broadcasting I really do and journalism is fantastic well welcome back to the radio Frank it's so good to have you here well let's talk to another uh former leatherneck uh here that we got gordon lightfoot uh with the Marine Corps League and also the AMVETS situation and gordon thank you for joining us here a little bit of your background and talk about ambits it may not have the local visibility that the the legion in the VFW has well I i wanted to take exception to uh Frank I was at that same meeting uh that that Richard Dooley spake spook spoke up at AMVETS is the fourth largest uh national veterans service organization in the country and I reminded Frank of that too we actually we actually have 18 veteran service organizations in in the big bend area and and I'm i'm proud to belong to at least four of them American Legion I'm a member a life member of VFW 3308 a life member of AMVETS said post 1776 and now life member of the Marine Corps League detachment 472. so there's a lot going on Tallahassee is a veteran friendly town and from the uh but let me give you my personal history real quick uh I'm i'm one of the old guys uh I just turned 75 and uh I joined Marine Corps in 1964 I spent four years in the corps I went to wife a couple years worked for general kulak and uh I'm one of these um not real smart marines I volunteered for Hawaii got that duty and then from Hawaii I volunteered for Vietnam and spent 13 months in Vietnam doing some interesting things like got out of service wasn't a welcoming home party for any of us in in 1968 used the GI bill went on to school became a teacher I went from teaching to grant work moved to Tallahassee in 1980 worked for I guess you might call me a worker advocate I did grants for the Florida FLCO for a bunch of years and worked for associate industries doing grants our grant writer and went back to school late in life I got my master's from FSU quite Frankly and uh went from there into state work and department of education and retired from there in 2013 um working for a division of vocational rehabilitation and that was another experience another advocacy and from at in 2013 I retired and decided to to devote my time to veteran services which i've been doing ever since uh and that's let me just start there because I'm i'm pretty proud it's a very small uh 30-member organization just like the Marine Corps League the small small detachment uh I like to think we we talk about our ambit organization as a small post doing big things uh in the past uh five years i've been working on a uh on the belt bringing a bell tower to the Tallahassee nest cemetery which we have done the February 12th we put a tower up it's actually singing now and we're waiting for the cemetery to open up so we can have a major uh uh dedication ceremony uh but it and memorial day I gotta give a plug memorial day we're gonna open up and do uh play songs throughout the day Saturday and Sunday memorial day weekend so for people that want to hear our bell tower scene uh it'd be a good time to come out and visit and see it we're in the middle of landscaping it right now and uh but it's quite a quite an honor to have been able to pull this off there's nine national cemeteries in Florida there's a hundred and fifty nationwide and AMVETS national uh from 1948 installed the first bell tower at Arlington so it's been a big big program for ambass throughout the country and then worldwide actually they've done bell towers in other places so a little known post little known veterans service organization but again smallpox doing big things and and we're we've got other projects moving on and that's one thing I just wanted to mention like Frank well knows each of the veteran service organizations have their own specialties uh Marine Corps League of course uh toys for tots I mean everybody knows about toys for tots uh and I think Jim Burke might be talking a little bit about the young marines and all the connection to rotc American Legion has boys state girl state baseball a bunch of things going on the VFW post actually I'm a post service officer for them and I write monthly articles in their dispatch reaching out to a larger membership the largest organization in town is American Legion and I think VFW is probably the second but I'm going to stop here too to give other people a chance to talk I deFrank knows I can talk uh on and on so well thank you I appreciate gordon but you already mentioned Jim Burke's name and I'm glad that technology has allowed you to rejoin us here Jim and since you were leatherneck number three here in the lineup that we got uh the the old guys here talking about Vietnam and Stuff but you're heading up the young marines so you're you're one of the youngsters of the group then well yeah I wouldn't say I'm a youngster but uh my tour in Vietnam started in 69 I enlisted uh in 67 I arrived at Paris island on Friday the 13th of October 1967 um and continued on from there uh did my tour in Vietnam yeah when I went in there were three kinds of marines marines on their way to Vietnam marines in Vietnam and marines coming home from Vietnam so when I went in we knew what we were getting into and when I got out I was sick of the Marine Corps I had to tell you the truth and I didn't want to have anything else to do with it but that was a that was a head talking not a heart when you when you uh connect with people on the level that we do when we go through things like that your heart is always open to them and it took me to me 1985 I joined the league here in Tallahassee and I haven't looked back and as part of the activities of the league we have a subsidiary organization called the young marines of the Marine Corps League and it's a gordon mentioned rotc and we are not associated with rotc reserve officer training corps is a government activity it comes under the recruiting command of all the services and we don't recruit kids for the Marine Corps we recruit kids to try to give them uh you know citizenship discipline some sort of idea of what they want to do with their lives we don't want them rolling around the streets footloose and fancy free because it's coming to them pretty soon and a lot of the kids that end up in trouble end up in trouble because they didn't know what they were supposed to be doing so the the league created this organization back in 64 I'm sorry 59 it was adopted uh nationwide in 64. and we haven't looked back since um here in I'm also the executive officer for the state of Florida regiment and we have quite a few kids in in Florida and a lot of them have done well as they graduate and they uh you know it's amazing how close they stay in touch and it's also amazing how come how some of them get out of the nest and never look back and you never know you won what happened to that kid and uh but it's a good thing to do i've been in it 20 years getting a little long in the tooth in the program and uh but it's it's a well you know it's a it's a it's a chore that gives you just like being a marine it gives you a deep down pride and I enjoy doing it I enjoy being in the Marine Corps League and listening to Frank and we have a good time together and I point out that and I think gordon pointed this out as well that the AMVETS and the legion and the VFW are the big and the dav are the big organizations and the organizations like the league and maybe the air force association we're service specific but still uh we want to bring in veterans you know that's our that's our chore is to make sure that we maintain that connection that we established how so many years ago which sometimes gets a little bit difficult as you operate over an intergenerational basis and I want to get into that here but but first this is not exclusive now to the core guys because we got some some guys here with us too so let's meet them right now and since you mentioned the American Legion let's talk to a district commander who is Stuart Scott also an air force vet uh Stu thanks so much for joining us on here and talk a little bit about uh again the uh the legion and also the air force uh group and we'll get some more on that from Tom in just a moment too well thanks Tom for the opportunity to be on today and thanks to everyone who set this up uh the American Legion probably one of the largest uh definitely in the Tallahassee area uh we were congressionally chartered by congress in 1919 so we've been around a minute we've seen a lot of things uh bios originally be uh becoming uh congressionally chartered it was a way to reconnect all of our service members coming back from world war one and from then we have not missed a beat and continuing to bring our service members together to ensure that we have a place of commonality that we can share stories and interests but those interests have grown over the years and we've now developed it into a many facet aspect we base most of our continued issues on our four pillars that was developed for the American Legion and that would be our veteran affairs rehabilitation pillar our national security pillar Americanism and children and youth and which I could also speak on those for hours unfortunately we don't have that long so maybe for another segment and another day but the American Legion here in department of Florida is just one of 55 departments that the American Legion has throughout the world we are in all 50 states to include the district of Colombia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico and the Philippines with these things uh that we're able to reach across the globe and to ensure that our service members who not just joins the American Legion but a service member in general has an avenue an outlet where they can be re-educated for the civilian world they have the ability to speak to service officers and things of that nature so it's a large organization we are well faceted and we're very well um I would say weaponized and the fact that we can help veterans and I know it was mentioned uh earlier that uh anybody was honorably discharged needs to join one of these organizations however we still also help our dishonorably discharge veterans as well not that they can join but we still assist them and giving them the hand up and not a handout so it's with a great passion and a great honor that I continue to serve our community and our nation because our oath is not something that has an expiration date on it so I shall yield the floor thank you so much Stu I appreciate it and let's talk to your air force compadre here Tom carney who is also an association member there Tom thanks for joining us today and talk a little bit about your background too please well thanks Tom and I appreciate being here uh yes so the air force association actually started out as a civilian um organization back in 1946 and its original purpose was to be an advocacy for air power because we just got through world war ii when you know we've seen pretty much what air power can do and of course we've have been a lot of strides since that time and a lot of improvements and of course that was the year before the air force became a separate branch in 1947 um but but since that time um the mission of the air force association has also uh at least in today's time um now pretty much focuses on what's called the aero excuse me um the aerospace education namely the stem the stem which is for science technology engineering and math and to that end most of our AFA chapters advocate and support members of the rotc okay here in Tallahassee we advocate and support the rotc cadets at Florida state university of the debt 145 and in addition we also support four different junior rotc groups in the local high schools in this area namely Godby high school and we also do a main bridge in Thomasville in south Georgia so we have a fairly good outreach here in north Florida and south Georgia as far as my personal background I joined the air force back in 1983 and I retired in 2014 after 31 years some of those years were inactive because there was a little bit of breaking service in the early 90s about going back to school I got a master's in management from Florida state as well as a second bachelor's in accounting and finance and of course and then I joined the Florida air national guard in 97 uh that was over at cinderella air force base so a lot of my service is not only active duty but it's also with both the Florida air national guard guard and also the new york air national guard because my last three years of duty was in Washington DC that's a little bit complicated to explain but sometimes if anybody wants to have a few beers or whatever it is i'll explain the whole situation there um but so but the Budwest chapter here in Tallahassee that's one of about 15 chapters statewide and all of our chapters are organized under what's called the Florida regional president Florida is one of the few states that has both a state and a region because we also then report to a national headquarters of the Washington uh up until recently uh our local chapter we would hel we held four uh quarterly meetings um but of course with a pandemic recently um this year we're preparing that down to two meetings on a semi-annual basis uh we've got just over 100 members in our chapter obviously we're looking for it for new members um to pretty much be an advocacy you know not only for air power but also for uh aerospace education and in addition to the stem and the rotc organizations um we also support a teacher of the year uh for each of the chapters uh we nominate some of the chief teachers from any of the schools in the area uh we also support the science fairs at two of our middle schools uh swift creek middle school as well as cobb middle school uh we get most of us from the AFA to be active science fair judges and that's really a great thing I'm always amazed at what young people these days are are pretty much putting forth for a science experiment but um I'm just amazed and it sounded that we've got some really good sharp minds out there and it gives me hope that our future is in good hands and it really is um and as everyone knows uh it's been almost two years now but we had a brand new service recently the space force uh which was born on the air force so um we can finally say that we've got a branch of service that's actually younger than I am so that's always kind of a good thing so but anyway um no it's a great organization uh we've got some great folks in it um you know we're looking forward to having a lot more folks join us and uh next year in 2022 we will be hosting the state convention uh here in Tallahassee so we're definitely looking forward to that uh this year it'll be in Jacksonville and we like to rotate each year in and out so the different you know members can or different chapters that can host it in their home towns um but that's pretty much all I have I'm also a member of the American Legion um as Stu was saying um and that's pretty much all I have and I do appreciate the time thank you well thank you Tom and this round robin has been really instructive as far as I'm concerned in getting a like 30 000 foot overview for the various organizations that we're talking about here that provide services and advocacy for veterans and it just seems like an almost endless variety of things that veterans can avail themselves of which which kind of brings us back around to the main question and that is in the years immediately following the two world wars certainly but also korea and to an extent Vietnam you had a lot of veterans who just you know they muster out become civilians and immediately head down to the legion hall or the VFW post or the am vets lodge and they get involved with those organizations and it was just a glory day for recruitment for those for those places we don't seem to see that as much right now and is it a factor of a different type of veteran who's coming back from from middle east deployments and other places that we have uh military forces around the world or have the organizations change for Frank roy craft you and I had a discussion about this not too long ago what's your take on it what's going on here well uh I can always stir the pot here with what I say I think one of the situations with the Vietnam vets I believe you have three separate groups of Vietnam veterans each group has a different opinion of the war and different emotions about the war the first group they were in uh roughly say going up to say 65 66 time period when the united states was going in there with advisors we all hear about the green berets and they were going into villages and setting up defenses against the Viet Cong that was kind of the era that I was in when I was there then it started really building up and then it became excuse me north Vietnam versus the united states then it was decided we need to get out of there then it was like you know kind of just holding the ground until things get settled and the peace talks are done and we can move on out I believe each of those groups have a different attitude I'm in that first group and I volunteered to go I was in a very special company we provided air naval gunfire and uh close air support for the united states army and allied forces we were marines and sailors the Marine Corps had people to do that the army and the allied forces over there didn't so we went off in teams and did that kind of thing and uh you know I came back and we were told only so many people are going to get to go to Vietnam this go round this first round and if you want to go you're going to have to put your name on this list and then you're going to have to compete physically mentally every way you can imagine you're going to have to be the best of the best for us to send you to Vietnam and for whatever reason I got on that group and I went uh so the attitude was different there of course you had the draft getting back to you your question I came back and I ended up in broadcasting in port saint joe and a group of veterans much older than myself wanted to start a VFW post and they did so I'm a charter member of the 1069 post in port saint joe I left port saint joe to come to Tallahassee you know moving up and broadcasting start a small station work your way up I got here and I went over to the VFW and I left notes on the door I sent letters I left phone messages and nobody would call me back they wouldn't as far as I could tell and I don't know they're not here to defend themselves they didn't want anything to do with me and I thought wow that I wasn't expecting that so then many many many years later I did join the VFW but it was a situation where you had again three different groups of veterans some like myself probably the more quiet ones we did our time nothing to apologize for came back the war wasn't all that unpopular when I came back then all of a sudden the other things started happening well it's interesting because gordon and I have talked about people joining VSOs and the typical thing is when you we were talking and gordon said well Frank how long did it take you to join a VSO well there was the initial one but after that it was probably another 20 years so typically people were being in the service leaving the service then get a yearning for it and come back in nowadays of course the situation is different we got guys in gales going to war coming back and it's hard to label I mean they're veterans they combat veterans they're wonderful people they deserve all the benefits so on and so forth but it's hard to put a label on them and our mission today all the groups is try to form some sort of contact with these people to get them to come in and one of the things about the veterans I want to you know make this clear I went to graduate school at FSU late in life I finally finished up around 70 years old and I remember one day I was over there and I was registering for a class and I'm there at the registry and there was a fella he had a little rubber ball and he was bouncing it up against this this wall it was kind of annoying it really was I kept thinking what is with this guy and I kept my mouth shut thank the lord and eventually he turned around and he said I hope I'm not bothering anybody this helps me with ptsd and the important thing for a lot of these folks that are coming back they need somebody to talk to and you mentioned well Frank I hope that people can have success stories well we have success stories certainly I'm sure all the groups can mention some of this but I want to mention this with a VFW and I don't want to give the names away we've got members out there if they hadn't spoken to somebody they probably wouldn't be alive today so it's important for some of these guys to get in these groups and to talk and to get it out where if they don't belong to these groups they're not going to go anyplace they're not going to get any help so all these groups are helping these guys in a lot of ways that kind of stay in the background but they're very very important so i'll just kind of leave it at that let the other guys talk oh okay yeah yes since you mentioned gordon is is that your perception too gordon that there maybe is a different political viewpoint on the part of some folks or like Jim Jim had mentioned this before too you know you you muster out and for a lot of folks it's like that part of my life is done it's over I don't want to think about it no more and I certainly don't want to go hang out with other veterans it just reminds me how miserable I was or bad experiences I had what do you think when I got down to Marine Corps in 1968 I was raised fairly poor and uh I i saw enough in americorps and I did the Marine Corps a lot of credit for for my discipline and for my education I jumped on the GI bill I ended up going to school and uh I i was too busy I was raised in the family going to school working doing jobs I didn't have time and I wasn't even aware of the service organizations back then I mean it took my whole work career to to be i've always been a vol volunteer I volunteered for Marine Corps volunteer Vietnam I you know so that wasn't new to me but you know the awareness factor the public relations that we're doing nowadays is a lot different than it was back in the 60s and 70s and even 80s and I just think that and i've got i've got my son as a former marine and he's he's not a joiner i've got nephews all my whole family has been in and out of the military um but they're not I'm the only joiner you know so uh it's uh it takes a special effort number one to take away from family to take away from work I mean all these things were doing so when I retired is when I i devoted myself to service organizations the other other thing and Frank and I have talked about this quite a bit is that uh we have other groups like I said we've got 18 veteran service organizations we have to give a shout out to Claude Shipley for example he he helps with the moa military officers association in west point there's a lot of activity around helping young people get into the military most of these young people aren't real familiar with what when they get out of the military where they can go and what they can do um I write uh an article for the dispatch for the VFW and my focus for the past five years has been benefits to to veterans uh from from cemetery benefits uh I write about these things in in and we have a limited uh audience I mean our membership is the one that reads these articles but we have a a beautiful VA clinic here we've got a national cemetery here we've got monuments all over town it's a veteran friendly town but a lot of our youth especially well a lot of our military or might be going to school here but they're they transition from school to to work in other places so it's hard even if we've got FSU's got a veteran organization and some of those are members of our Marine Corps League Chris Meinhardt we have a brand new uh commandant at the Marine Corps League uh Daniel Barber I don't think he'd mention my mention me mention his name but he's a an afghan vet and uh and youth and and we all all of our organizations are trying to bring the youth in and uh it's a big marketing campaign nowadays that we we we have to get more professional uh social media things like we're doing today uh you know making make them aware of what's going on I'm doing a military heritage program with AMVETS that will be reaching out to youth and in high schools and church groups uh youth groups to teach them about the the military history here in in Tallahassee one last thing uh there's there's efforts there's a group and and we're on the board for the new Dale Mabry air force museum here in town that's that's an another effort we've got to get Camp Gordon Johnson Museum if the young people visit some of these monuments to to veterans into the military I think they begin to understand the history of it and then associate that history with our veteran service organization so we're all pretty busy uh uh us old guys well good points all gordon and I'm thinking that as a follow-up to what you and and Frank just said and let me get you involved in this here too Jim maybe the more traditional paradigm of okay we've got the legion hall and the VFW post and the AMVETS are over here and they have dances and uh social interaction and all that kind of thing but if you talk to someone like and and I will name check my nephew who right now is being trained even though he's in the army the navy's training him over in panama city they're turning him into a skin diver who knows how to do welding or something I don't know i'll find out when I talk to him next week but I knew we were going to do this program and I asked him I said hey well you know you know the legion hall back home and these other things you're interested in that when you get I said that's where the old guys go to drink I'm not going to go there are you kidding her and so that's that seems like you got as gordon said Jim you got a little pr thing you got to overcome there with with some of the younger folks to get them involved and to realize that these services are available without having to go out and hang out at the VFW or the legion hall right you have to be where they are and um that brought to mind a something that i've read in a book about the uh wall in DC and I think it's called the things they left and you you may know that people go to visit their uh family and friends who didn't make it home and in one letter there's a guy a marine saying to his dead friend he said you remember those old guys and the funny hats that we used to make fun of that's us now and you know that's one of the things we that we don't get across to the younger veterans is you're going to grow up you're going to get older and you're going to be us you know we were you now you're going to be us and uh and one of the things of uh in the young marines program instead of been doing it 20 years so i've got longer than the war has gone on i've got kids that i've known who are a couple of kids or field grade officers couple kids who are senior enlisted and a whole bunch of junior enlisted and who have and they all make the trip to one place or the other and they are just turned off by the disconnect you know the there was a sign that was internet meme that was popular among the young service members that when America when the Americans send their troops to war the rest of them go to the mall yeah and it's that and I think it began in Vietnam that lack of uh public support kind of turns adds an extra added philip to the uh alienation that some veterans some people might feel as they leave the service either because you know they're alienated because of their experiences uh they're ready just to get back to freedom where they're governed by the constitution and not the uh articles of war as it used to be and they're ready to go just get away from it and most of the kids I have talked to because we're trying to recruit to replace ourselves you know I'm 72 in this young marine program I'm not I'm not going over any obstacle courses to show them how they're done anymore so we we need younger people and they're going man I don't know if I want to get involved in that because now they're also building their own family building their careers and you know it's it's as you get older like as I said I was you mentioned how long did it take to join a VSO after getting out mine was I was first approached about five years after getting out and then I finally signed up 10 years after that so uh but of course when we got that when I got out the Marine Corps said an open hour I left banang went to okinawa had a formation gunnery sergeant called out this is your mos fall in over here to the left and he called out about a bunch of mosses and when he's done he turned to the people they were on the right and said okay you go back to the barracks said you people over here you go back to the barracks pack your bags get ready to go you're getting out when you get home you might want to check in with the VFW or the American Legion and that was our the extent of our talk out you know brief out yeah heavy-duty recruitment there yeah yeah you might want to talk to these organizations they might be able to help you and then it was home and you know four days later hey mom how you doing I'm home and it was yeah that was amazing yeah Stu Scott can can organizations like the American Legion survive though given their long history and doing things in one particular way since you've got all these new factors and and younger folks coming along who may not really fit in with the way that things have been I i believe so and unfortunately a lot of these VSOs are the best kept secrets and once someone finds these jewels of uh post levels and and and different things they start to understand the camaraderie that happens and you know if we could put out a message to a lot of our younger veterans that are still serving by the way if you're still if you're serving now you can still join you don't have to be out of the military that's another key factor that we need to drive home and uh in 2019 the legion act was passed uh for at least on the American Legion side and that is if you served at least one day one day underneath title 10 uh orders which typically is going even to boot camp that uh since uh 1943 you can join the American Legion uh where there was used to be only times of war that you'd be able to join but through this uh interaction with a lot of our general uh ladies and gentlemen coming back from uh different war structures uh we have uh in Florida put together what's known as project vet relief and that alone stays in Florida we're able to raise money and and give money to a lot of our veterans and veterans families but another portion of that is our challenge 22 events that helps out with suicide prevention and we've kind of touched based on that as well all this to be mentioned that um um one of our biggest concerns of dealing with the younger veterans is that they kind of like our Vietnam veterans and the Korean veterans when they came back they saw things that does not translate to the current situation uh in the civilian world and we have programs set up in our service officers and things of that nature that can help these transitioning veterans or even the ones who are currently serving that may not have the benefits uh to deal with a lot of this and and knowledge uh when I joined in 1989 uh I didn't think we were ever going to go to war I thought I would just serve my quiet time and grab a hold of my GI bill and rock through but then we had that thing desert and uh so after two tours of desert storm I came back and I was contemplating whether or not I was going to stay in the military or not but it was one of those things where my dad being a 26-year veteran of the air force I grew up in the military and knowing what I saw that the veterans organizations that my dad participated in he was part of the American Legion he's a lifetime member there as well as the VFW um I knew I knew there was a place for me and probably being one of the youngest probably on today's panel I'm not even 50 yet uh I gotta say that it was a day uh about seven years ago when I was at my local post over in cherry lake uh which is in Madison Florida I understood that there was a calling for younger veterans to one serve at the department level so that we could get our point of views across to our aging generation although we're extremely grateful for how they have found informed all of these VSOs there is newer information newer ways of doing things uh there's definitely a different way to create outreach to our younger veterans that used to be things of the you know the traditional picnic on the company grounds that's that may have fallen off where I think Jim had just mentioned it where we need to go meet the veterans where they're at so if we are going to certain locations to where we know there may be a congregation of younger veterans maybe we're setting up tents and things of that nature so that we can showcase absolutely showcase what we are able to do and how we're able to do it and we can meet their needs where they are needed and just by being a member doesn't mean we're going to put you to work either that's another key thing if you're going to join you know the American Legion VFW or you know any of these organizations it doesn't mean that you're going to have to go to work for us your membership dollars helps us fund our abilities to get legislation passed and to create proper pay structures and scales and benefits that we put against uh our bill put towards the VA that we lobby for the GI bill was created simply by a thought process and the American Legion got that passed so as you can see there's many things that are are generated through these VSOs that a lot of people that are taking advantage of it in the military didn't understand that it was a membership at a post your simple less than traditionally less than fifty dollar annual membership can help not only yourself families of those who are no longer with us as well as those who are going to be in front of us one day and we're going to be saving their lives uh through either some intervention or some benefit that a medical aspect that they could be able to receive because we've lobbied the VA to have it happen so thank you I think I think we have a home okay for our younger veterans let's get uh some thoughts from Tom carney on this is it just a matter of letting the younger veterans know hey here are some things that are really helpful for you that VSOs veterans service organizations can provide kind of tell them and they will come what do you think needs to be done okay well yeah those are good points um and kind of like what Stu was just saying um when a person joins the AFA you know we don't expect them to go to work immediately um in fact every like anything else that's pretty much on a volunteer basis um but like most other organizations usually about ninety percent of the members do about ten percent of the work and about ten percent of the members do about ninety percent of the work I think we've all kind of heard that before um but but regardless you know we have a good um camaraderie of a lot of good veterans um in fact with the AFA you don't even have to have serve in the military we do welcome civilians so we welcome members of the other branches of service to come in um but while we don't necessarily um do outreach per se maybe like the other organizations do um we do pretty much focus on like I said the uh the aerospace education aspect of it uh as well as um giving those individuals a chance to maybe be a mentor uh maybe toward the rotc cadets um maybe they themselves might have family members who are also rotc so among those things you know that's you know kind of what we pretty much advocate you know going in for um and of course we also do from time to time um work with the other veterans organizations um gordon had just mentioned about the upcoming jail maybe airfield uh our local chapter with the AFA also advocated strongly um from a historic perspective that we would um you know be there for them um whether it's like monetary donations whether it's donation of relics because we do have quite a few world war ii veteran well maybe not very many but we still have of several world war ii veteran era type members who belong to AFA and they probably have a lot of stories that they could probably tell okay then hopefully that would become a part of the museum okay when it's supposed to be completed in 2024. so that would then give us the FAA members a a great chance to like I said maybe donate some of the relics so it could be anything from flight uniforms the way it was back then uh it's maybe um maybe letters written home from overseas um you know these types of things you know those are the things that we would be willing to donate when the time does come and again um it's also a way to reconnect uh with our history with our heritage and to give the young folks pretty much a good appreciation and understanding for from where we've come and more importantly where we're heading so I think those are good aspects to look forward to thank you Tom we are just about out of time folks if I could just prevail on everyone to just keep it short like about 30 seconds or so let's get some final comments from everybody on the panel right now and let's uh start off with you Frank roy craft you got 30 seconds Frank okay I would just say I think what everybody else has said we're all in this together we've got a lot of great groups we need to support them we need to do a real good sales presentation to the young people to get them involved and reasons to get involved that's it very good uh final thoughts gordon lightfoot I i I think the term like connectivity is important I i joined several organizations but one of them led me to meeting the director of the national cemetery that led me to being the founding chairman of the support committee for the cemetery which led me to a uh a seat on the advisory board to the national seminary administration which took me all over the country visiting the national cemeteries I know a lot about the national cemeteries which is a tremendous benefit to our veterans and so being joining our VSOs you get connected to other VSOs all these five people on on the screen here I know personally now and so it's it's really worthwhile to to get involved with one of the VSOs to to to start a whole new education and you're not you're never too old and you're sure not too young to join us thank you thank you gordon Jim Burke your turn okay connectivity I think that are one of the big uh elements that we can lean on in trying to recruit new members among the younger veterans is service said look you guys are true volunteers there's no draft you didn't have to step up continue your service the country needs you your city needs you your neighborhood needs you and there are there is strength in numbers Semper Fidelis all right good dodge Jim stewart Scott your turn sir well it's forums like this that are definitely the needed thing and that connectivity and understanding and for people to understand there's a place for you there you you provide and have a niche that every veteran service organization can utilize whether it's logistical thinking analytical thinking hands-on abilities to fix something for a veteran there's always something that you can do that's going to help your fellow brothers and sisters out that served as well as helping their family members out that's the one the one veteran that we always forget and that is the spouses of our veterans that they still need the help of our brothers and sisters so we're here for the entire family just like the American Legion says we're one family with the auxiliary and sons of the American Legion or one family and we can help almost anyone that's out there so find you a place find you a niche and find your home we have a post locator and we'll we'll find you a location thank you sir Tom carney bring us in for a landing okay very well um it's often been said that whenever we serve in an organization we always like to leave it better than when we found it and I think that that's true of all the members who are pretty much representing their respective organizations um and whether it's AFA whether it's the Marine Corps League whether it's American post you know what we like doing um is to pretty much bring in members um who not only have worn the uniform but but they also still have a vision and and the thing is you know we need you know memory you know strength in numbers you know that they can pretty much keep that vision going and make improvements to the to the things that were they're already there because in some ways you really never hang the uniform up you still kind of wear it even when we're in our post-military days and serving in these organizations and it's that's really good feeling to know that so you're surrounded by lots of folks from different backgrounds who have many different strengths many different skills they bring to the to the game so to speak and it's really good to utilize their skills so that we can make this all a better place for a better place for everyone and their families gentlemen thank you for a great discussion on VSO's veterans service organizations and uh we hope that the folks who are listening here who have served or maybe some who are civilians who want to get involved with a cause greater than themselves will take advantage of that thank you all for being a part of Perspectives today which is produced by WFSU Public Media in Tallahassee Taylor Cox, Paul Dam, Amy Diaz de Villegas, Brandon Brown, Trisha Moynihan and Lydell Rawls helping us out there in the back shop and our director of content Kim Kelling is our executive producer I'm Tom Flanigan and a criminal offense especially if it's a felony has traditionally meant a life sentence when it comes to things like finding a job or a place to live and certainly a return to respectability in society but now there are a multitude of service providers to help offenders get their lives back on track we're going to talk about that next week right here on Perspectives from WFSU Public Media