What Every Veteran Should Know About Benefits, Community, And Coming Home

***Recorded 03/11/2025, and we forgot to upload it***

The hardest part of service often begins after the uniform comes off. We open with the paradox of war—how it forges unbreakable bonds and leaves unhealed scars—then move straight into real tools veterans can use to build a stable, joyful life: VA home loans, Michigan benefits, and a community that shows up.

We bring a new voice to the mic and honor a friend whose memory fuels the work. From there, we dive into VA loans with clarity you can act on today: why VA default rates compare favorably, what appraisals really check for, how to navigate wells, septics, and county pest rules, and when IRRRL refinancing makes sense. We unpack the VA funding fee, the exemptions many vets qualify for, and the power of assumable VA mortgages that can transfer low COVID-era rates to eligible buyers. Michigan veterans get a crucial rundown on the property tax exemption for those rated permanent and total, plus county processes that make it stick.

Benefits aren’t the whole story. We spotlight the Michigan Veterans Trust Fund as a lifeline for urgent needs like furnaces and roofs, and we explain how accredited service officers—working in coalition across VFW, American Legion, DAV, and others—turn red tape into real outcomes. Community matters just as much: youth scholarships like Patriot’s Pen and Voice of Democracy, Camp Trotter service days, riders’ support, and family-first events that keep posts relevant. You’ll also meet Terry, “the Eagle,” whose faithful presence reminds us why posts are more than bars; they’re anchors.

If you’re a veteran, a spouse, or someone who cares about this community, this conversation is a roadmap: claim your benefits, find your people, and help carry the load for someone else. Subscribe, share this with a vet who needs it, and drop us a note with the one benefit question you want answered next. Your story belongs here.

Chapters

• 0:03 Opening: The Paradox Of War
• 1:14 Host Intros And New Voices
• 2:29 Service Stories And VFW Roots
• 7:28 Remembering Tim: Loss And Legacy
• 11:00 Youth Programs And Scholarships
• 16:47 Tech Glitches, Waivers, And Setup
• 20:55 Deep Dive: VA Home Loans 101
• 35:13 Appraisals, Inspections, And Myths
• 43:38 Funding Fees, Exemptions, And IRRRL
• 51:38 Assumable Loans And Tax Breaks
• 58:28 Michigan-Specific Rules And Savings
• 1:08:27 Safety, Sanitation, And Real Pitfalls
• 1:18:22 Michigan Veterans Trust Fund Aid
• 1:26:36 Service Officers And The Coalition
• 1:36:44 Growing Membership And Family Balance
• 1:48:17 Elections, Bylaws, And Meetings
• 1:58:20 Camp Trotter Stories And Service
• 2:09:55 Brotherhood Across Posts
• 2:18:22 Outreach Wins: Transfers And Trust
• 2:27:45 The Eagle: Chaplain Terry’s Impact
• 2:37:40 Relevance, Community, And Next Steps
• 2:51:05 Closing Thanks And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

War is a paradox. It has the power to bring nations together, to inspire heroism and sacrifice, and to forge bonds of camaraderie that will span a lifetime. But it also has the power to tear families apart, to shatter communities, and to leave scars that will never fully yield. And for those who have served, the transition back to civilian life can be one of the greatest challenges they will ever face. This is the typical life of military veterans, a world that is both familiar and foreign to most of us. It is a world that is shaped by unique experiences, values, and traditions of the military, and by the sacrifices and struggles of those who have served. But it's also a world that is constantly changing as new generations of veterans confront new challenges and new opportunities. Thank you for joining us at Soup Sandwich. Dig your foxhole, heat up your MRE, and spend some time with us.

SPEAKER_07: 1:14

We don't have the founder here yet, but he's supposed to be showing up at some point. My name is Charlie Klein. Tonight we got No Pain, 30-year Army VAT.

SPEAKER_09: 1:37

BFW 3033.

SPEAKER_07: 1:39

So when you say 30-year army bat, that's like six months in the Marine Corps, right? Yeah. That's like the same. Yeah. No. Well, you got two Marines here tonight, so you know.

SPEAKER_06: 1:50

And we also got Joe Gates, adjutant, secretary for the writers group, and I take care of the IT.

SPEAKER_07: 1:56

And for the very first time, the newest member of the podcast.

SPEAKER_05: 2:04

Ray Lopez, and I'm here drinking bourbon.

SPEAKER_07: 2:09

So, to start off the podcast, right? You always have to, any any new person that joins the podcast has to give a synopsis of their time and service, branch, uh anything that you've done with the VFW, all that stuff, so that our listeners can kind of get an idea of what you bring to the table tonight.

SPEAKER_05: 2:29

Well, I'm a Marine Corvette, surfed in the Gulf War. I started out in the VFW uh about 20 years ago. I've done everything from cleaning toilets, changing filters, washing dishes, taking trash out, uh, to becoming a state commander and everything in between. Uh now I'm retired and having a good time, having some drinks with people that I deeply care about.

SPEAKER_07: 2:57

So what uh so we're all we're all members of Post 3033 out of Mount Pleasant. Where's where's your home post?

SPEAKER_05: 3:03

My home post is 1136 out of Windot, Michigan. Uh Wineot is a small suburb south of Detroit.

SPEAKER_07: 3:10

Awesome. And now you're up in our neck of the woods in mid to lower northern Michigan because you have a uh cottage cabin.

SPEAKER_05: 3:20

And we got a house in Hillerson. Uh mid-Michigan is our happy place. We come up here often. Uh I've got a really good friends, friends I'm sure I'll have uh to my last days, and uh always good company hanging out with these guys. Uh we've rode together, hugged, cried, high-fived, drank, and all the above.

SPEAKER_07: 3:45

Yeah, so you know what's what's great about having you here tonight is uh your wife Natalie watches every single one of these things and comments uh and adds questions or or whatever to to our live feeds, uh, which we absolutely love. So Natalie, I'm sure you're already watching and listening, so we appreciate hopefully uh Ben's Ben's treating you well tonight. He's not being too rambuctious on you, um, or Benjamin. But uh uh yeah, Ray, Ray's uh was a member of our riders group out of uh Pulse 3033. So um we've done the Camp Trotter rides, we've done uh Blessing of the Bikes and Baldwin together, we've done we've done quite a bit together. So um yeah, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for being here. We've we've tried to get you on a couple times, but being up north or down south at at home has been been a little bit of a challenge. So I'm glad you guys uh happen to be up and stay up, and you're able to join us tonight. So welcome. So moving on. I know I know Brent had a couple things he wanted to go over uh with VA home loans and stuff, so he'll probably get into that when he gets here. Um Roy Thomas should be showing up later tonight. Uh Trey, that's normally with us. Uh his wife uh she's a medical doctor, so she's working tonight, so he's home with all the kids, probably listening, hopefully, so maybe he'll be commenting in. Um but uh what have you been up to, Billy? Anything good? We got some new eyeglasses. They look exactly like your old ones. No, they don't. These ones tin up. Oh, they tin up when you go outside, but we're inside, so they're not tinted. They're bigger, they don't have a frame underneath. They have the frame rather than the wire? Yeah. I didn't know your other ones had a wire. So we're all just a few points prettier now. I'm looking a little sexier than all. Yeah, and Billy's actually the uh he's the chairman of the house committee. You know, that's fucking amazing. So so we're we're we're working on some new post bylaws, we're working on some house committee bylaws to make things a little bit more clear, right? I mean that's the direction that we need to go in. So that's the direction we'd like to go in, but right now it's chaos. Well, you know, but that that comes with growing pains, right? I mean, your last name is pain, so it just makes sense that something you cheer is a pain in the ass.

SPEAKER_03: 6:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 6:18

So it is going to be a pain.

SPEAKER_03: 6:21

With the new beer goggles.

SPEAKER_07: 6:22

With the new beer goggles, yeah. All right, that needs to clean that needs to go on mute. You gotta clean bill of health at the doctor. Clean bill of all my levels are great. Well, that's because you lost like 40 pounds. Yeah. Which is phenomenal. Yeah. So it's doing really good. It's eat less, drink more. Is that is that the diet? Yeah, it is actually. I only eat once a day. Yeah. Bag of chips and then 30 beers, and you're good. Yeah. I like it. Low low calorie beer. Yeah. Light beer. Light beer. Ultras. That was Tim's favorite, it's ultras. I got him drinking one. So I actually I actually got him switched over and drinking Miller Lights with me. So he was cheating on you just so you know. So you can't well he he drank anything that was free. He definitely drank it. He would.

SPEAKER_09: 7:18

If it was free, he'd drank it.

SPEAKER_07: 7:20

So uh, you know, for all those, especially me that that miss listen to, I call him Big Dummy all the time. Um, but but Tim, uh, we just had his one year anniversary of his passing. Yeah. Um it was, yeah, it was last Wednesday. Um a lot of us uh rode down or drove down to the crash site, right? Where he crashed his motorcycle. Um he passed away the next day in in Midland at the hospital, but a lot of us went down there and there was a small gathering, or rather large gathering, I guess, uh just at the post for camaraderie and uh memory and jokes and storytelling and all that stuff. So um I always encourage people, like for me especially, when I really miss the guy, I love the fact that we have these podcasts because we have his voice for like 13 hours in podcasts going all the way back to some of the very first ones, right? So when you miss them, go back and listen to those because it's just phenomenal, right? Like, um, and actually I had to go up and visit my kids up by Ascoda, they live in a little town called Glenny. I had to go up there because we just got a new member from up that way. Um, he joined our post down here. So I went out and picked his paperwork and transfer stuff and whatever. And uh I listened to that podcast, his last one, uh, before his passing. So maybe laugh, maybe smile. Uh, you know, it was a couple days before that anniversary date, but uh yeah, sure missed that big dummy. But good new.

SPEAKER_05: 8:57

Yeah. I I got a story about him. Um I said this story over at the post last Wednesday. Tim would call me all the time.

SPEAKER_00: 9:05

Hey Hooker, I got a question.

SPEAKER_05: 9:08

So he'd ask me a question. It was usually bylaw related. He says, Well, Tim, I says, Don't call me no more unless you have the bylaws on you and you got them in front of you. I says, Better yet, put them next to next to the toilet. Lo and behold, he calls me the next day. I says, Tim, are you taking a shit? He goes, Yes, I am, Hooker.

SPEAKER_04: 9:26

I'm reading the book. I got a question. I tell you, am I reading this right? True story.

SPEAKER_07: 9:34

That sounds about like him. I would, I could, when I was the president of the group, uh, I had the blessing of working for myself, so intermittently throughout the day, depending on the week or what season it is, right? I I have a lot of free time sometimes, and sometimes I don't, but um, I'd have to go in and do paperwork or do something for the group, and I could guarantee Tim was always at the post. He was always there, and I'd walk in and he was on the phone with somebody, walking around, talking, it didn't matter if it was post commander stuff, district commander stuff, and at the point back then he was the writers group director. So it was always he always had something going on, and man, the conversations that I could overhear were humorous at best, sometimes borderline offensive with the way he talked, but I mean that's what we miss about him because one one second you could be laughing another, but you'd be like, what would just come out of your mouth? Yeah, we're calling it. You know, but it was always great. So and then I mean it was obvious in in the turnout for his funeral. I mean, uh the player post that put it on, I mean, their upstairs holds 250 people, and there was 200 people outside the building because you couldn't put another body inside, you know. So I mean that just goes to show. But uh yeah, it's kind of kind of bittersweet to have this as the first one after that, after his one-year anniversary. But uh yeah, I mean things things at the post are going pretty good. We just wrapped up mid-winter conference, so I know we've talked about this before. Um, we have some uh different programs. One's called the Patriot Pen, and that's uh middle school age kids write essays for scholarship money, and then we have uh Voice of Democracy, which are the high school aged kids. And uh as they go through the post to the district to the state level, um the the monies that they can earn uh escalate, they get larger. Um so we just wrap that up at the end of January down to Kalamazoo. Um really good essays, lots of money. I think we raised you remember how much$25,000.

SPEAKER_05: 11:38

If if they go to DC and they win on the national level, it's a$35,000 scholarship. Um I don't recall what the top pay is at the state of Michigan. Um I want to say it's yeah, I think it is. I think it's I think it's somewhere between three and five thousand. I should know that, but I just don't remember it.

SPEAKER_07: 11:57

So they win that at the post level, they might win$500. They go to the district level, they might win five to seven hundred and fifty. They go to the state level, they could win three or four thousand. They go to the national level, they can win another thirty, so it's compounding. I mean, if you went you went all the way from start to finish, some of those kids, if if you go all the way, they they could win forty thousand dollars for college. I mean, that's that's incredible.

SPEAKER_05: 12:23

The the voice of democracy, uh I've got a quick story to tell that total coincidence. In 2024, I I had the privilege of escorting our student from Michigan um to the finals in Washington, D.C. Our student, I'm not sure what place um, I want to say it was probably in the in the top 15, but uh that's really not the point of my story. The point of my story is after we went, we had that event, we were there for a legislative conference, we saw our all our elected officials in in D.C. And then we were gonna spend some vacation time with a family member. Upon uh doing that, we were in the D.C. area, my wife's got an uncle that works for the State Department. So he asked why we were in town, and I told him why we were in town. I told him about the voice of democracy. He goes, Hold that thought. He went into his room and he came back, and he had a voice of democracy second place winner, District 4, from 1967. What a coincidence. And uh it was ironic because who would have guessed? But uh there's a lot of uh there's been a lot of winners of this essay contest that's gone far in life. I I know that there's been celebrities that's done at as well. But it it's such an awesome program for the kids. And uh it's part of what we do and our mission in a VFW. Not only um we for veteran advocates, but we have a duty we have a duty in our communities, we have a we have a duty with the our children of our communities as well. Our youth activities program is quite large. There's a lot of things that we do in the community to help and bridge the gap and make sure that that we do everything we can for our children to have a normal childhood, uh, and maybe in form of of simple things like little league baseball. It could be many things like that. It also could be programs during the holidays, it could be a meal, it could be a Cub Scout or Boy Scout troop that that we sponsor as well.

SPEAKER_07: 14:36

Well, and that's what that's what is important with the VFW, you know. Uh to quote one of our past national commanders in chief, Dwayne Sarmignato. Did they say it right? Sarmignato, yep. Sarmignato. So first time I met him was at a fall conference. He was the junior national commander-in-chief. And he used to call VFW the geriatric gin joint. And Tim and I just thought that was the funniest thing ever, because that's what you think of a VFW. You don't really realize all the other programs that they have that's in the community and or for or for or for the kids, right? Like here, we're we're blessed with having Camp Trotter. Um, we're blessed with having the national home, right? So, I mean, we have two huge entities within the VFW specifically geared around children. You know, so most people have no idea what they're about. Um, but you know, the the support in the community is large, regardless of um, you know, what city you're in, but statewide or national level, uh super important, you know. So it's good to have them. We just finally got the founder. That's right. Well everybody, sound of freedom. Sorry. There it is. Well, unfortunately, that's not what Tim would approve as a sound of freedom. He would approve it for me. He probably would. I know you I know your wife does.

SPEAKER_01: 16:05

Well, hey. I brought a carbless. Is that a white claw? No, it's a carbless. What's a carbless? I've never heard of it. It's a vodka cocktail. So instead of a seltzer, it's an actual like.

SPEAKER_07: 16:17

If you want vodka, I got bottles sitting at the bar over there. No, you're not helping.

SPEAKER_05: 16:23

Zero carbs or zero carbonation? Or both.

SPEAKER_01: 16:26

No, it's carbonated. So it's zero carbs. I'm looking, I'm looking for my figure. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_07: 16:32

It's gonna be a race between you and Trey to see who slims down first. Something like that.

SPEAKER_05: 16:38

Getting back to that porn making weight.

SPEAKER_07: 16:41

Can I say that on the podcast? Sure. Sure. That's why we have the waiver at the beginning where it says that. Did you did you let me sue us? I I don't know, I didn't. Well, Joe was playing it through that. We didn't have it over the speaker. Yeah, oh man, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_01: 16:53

All right.

SPEAKER_07: 16:53

But we'll let you listen to it for I'll done if you've you've have you heard our waiver after we do the intro.

SPEAKER_04: 17:00

It doesn't matter if there's a waiver or not. I'll be in trouble if it gets out.

SPEAKER_07: 17:04

It's okay if it gets out. We we let everybody know, hey, we're this has no affiliation with Post 3033, Department of Michigan, andor the national VFW. It says it right in the beginning, and don't sue us.

SPEAKER_06: 17:15

Yeah, please don't sue us.

SPEAKER_07: 17:17

Yeah, this is this is what we all miss, right? We all miss this is what the best part about going to our individual posts for traveling. It's a bunch of guys, veterans, men, women, whatever, that sit around and just BS about anything and everything. But we talk about the important things too, so I know I'm not sure if you're ready for the VA um stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 17:37

That's why I brought my that's what brought I brought my computer. Um we can we can do a nice warm, yeah, you know, transition into that here in a few minutes. It doesn't have to be right this second.

SPEAKER_07: 17:47

Well that's why that's why we were talking until you got up here. Yeah you said you were running a few minutes late, but uh of course we wanted to have Ray introduce himself tonight.

SPEAKER_05: 17:55

Yeah, we kind of get things rolling, but so I did have a conversation today with our states, our state service officer over at the McNamara building in Detroit. And uh, you know, there's a lot of concern about if 70 to 80,000 employees of the VA system were to be terminated. It is a it is a huge cause. It'd be something to be alarming with, alarmed with. That being said, we all know that there's waste in in just about every entity in the government and whatnot. But to have 70 to 80,000 would will really we don't we don't see how services are gonna become better, much less stay the same. So it is a concern, and it's a concern with the VSOs. That's way better, and not just ours in Michigan, but across the country.

SPEAKER_01: 18:49

Right. So of course I can't name him or anything like that, but uh my counselor um had a and I had a conversation, quick conversation about this recently, and he said uh to his knowledge, what they've put out is those 70,000 people or whatever are the managers of the managers who oversee the overseers, and it's kind of sloppy. Um they were told for the most part, you know, Veterans Benefits Administration or Veterans Health Administration, the people directly involved with patient care, um, and you know, you know, benefits administration were were safe. Um the way he explained it was you know kind of how we're 15 minutes early to 15 minutes early, they're getting rid of the managers of the managers of the overseers who really you know don't have anything to do with anything. Um and one of the examples he gave was you know meeting a meeting an MD, a doctor, who never saw patients. You know, there's there's room for a medical uh director, right? But how many of them do you really need? You don't need 50 of them, right? You just need some for each area, and you know, but that essentially that was the way he explained it. So we'll see we'll see what happens, but you know many chiefs and not enough Indians, exactly, exactly. So um, but yeah, I've introduced myself, but I'll I'll throw myself out there. Um is that camera not working?

SPEAKER_06: 20:27

That camera's working fine for some reason. We did a little testing up to about 530 was good. We're trying to do the cell phone thing, and someone lost sound going too live. Okay, that's the soundboard and the uh audio.

SPEAKER_01: 20:41

Weird. Okay, all right. Well, looks like we're gonna get that set up so we can do that. But while he does that, I'll throw my introduction out. Um and uh I'm Brent Holbrook. I am the founder of this podcast. Um all around good guy. Debatable 2324, all-state quartermaster. Thanks to his post-membership. Who presented you that hat? Nobody. That's because you weren't there when I presented you.

SPEAKER_02: 21:12

I know.

SPEAKER_01: 21:15

Uh but I appreciate it though.

SPEAKER_07: 21:18

We appreciate you. Um on behalf of your post membership, you're welcome.

SPEAKER_01: 21:23

Yeah, yeah, thanks. Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_07: 21:25

And they're and your writers group. Extraordinary.

SPEAKER_01: 21:29

Um I I don't mind it recorded, what I want to say.

SPEAKER_07: 21:34

So, all right, you're more than welcome. Let us have none. What about me? He's just up here doing it affirmative.

SPEAKER_05: 21:43

Matter of fact, I'm gonna do the walk of freedom.

SPEAKER_01: 21:45

The walk of freedom, we sent them back over there. Hey, did you sign the banner yet?

SPEAKER_07: 21:49

No. Because we're gonna grab that cell phone and we're gonna go over the now.

SPEAKER_01: 21:54

We might as well do it. We might as well do that. All right, I gotta I gotta flip the light on real quick. All right, bring it on over. So, for those of you who don't know, right behind us over here, we have a banner. You'll see it in a second when he turns the light on. But we have a tradition here at Soup Sandwich that newcomers get a marker, they get to sign their name to our podcast banner, and uh get to write whatever they want up there. So you know it's a good thing you don't have the case mark.

SPEAKER_07: 22:26

So as you can see, there's some people just put whatever they want, some sign the name, some do whatever. So you may sign as you wish, sir. Don't burn yourself. Yeah, it's pretty high over there. I can probably turn those down this USMC, you know them jarheads are gonna put that up there. Alright, comrades, appreciate it. Thank you, man, thanks for having me. Welcome, welcome, thanks for coming up. It's been a long time coming for us to have you up here. All right.

SPEAKER_01: 23:15

Take your post back over there. Actually.

SPEAKER_07: 23:20

Thanks for the Woodford Reserve, by the way. We love we love it when we get we love it when we get new people to come up here to give us their thoughts, their ideas, their opinions, especially when it comes to the way our VFW or American Legion or MVETS, right? We we we don't discriminate, even though all of us, a lot of us are dual members of the American Legion.

SPEAKER_01: 23:45

Um because they were idiots and spent like$7,000. I I agree with that, but still, I did it nonetheless.

SPEAKER_05: 23:54

I could add to the collaboration that's done at the state level. I'm not sure if if anyone has heard of the Commanders Group. But the Commanders Group is a is made up of the state commanders of the the veteran service organizations in the state of Michigan, and they meet quarterly um to get on the same page uh and advocate for veterans. And um they they do it in if they pick their causes and they speak as one. So you have the weight of all veterans in the state, not just each organization. And there has been a lot of success, and uh frankly, it's it's it's something that that really, really works.

SPEAKER_01: 24:38

I wonder I wonder if that's the same commanders club. I'm I'm almost certain it is, but way back in the day uh when I joined the Navy, I joined as an E3 because I participated in the C Cadet program. And my unit was called the Michigan Commander's Battalion because it was sponsored by the Commanders Club of Michigan.

SPEAKER_05: 24:58

There's another organization. There's commanders, there's a commanders group, and I think there's commanders club.

SPEAKER_01: 25:02

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05: 25:03

Yeah. The commander's group is specific of this this the state commanders or presidents of each each organization. Um and uh that was something I really really enjoyed working with, and uh a lot of these guys, you know, I've met them years ago, and and I still see them around, and they're just a wealth of knowledge. Yeah, um I want to give a shout out to uh uh the state commander for the purple heart, Ron Allen. He's out of Ramos Post 78, past District 4 commander, and also the uh state president for the VVA, uh John Ryling. Okay.

SPEAKER_07: 25:52

Yeah, so Roy Roy Thomas um should be up here in a little bit. Uh he's actually uh I think he was a president of the local chapter for the Purple Heart. Yeah. Um he's an Iraq, Iraq war vet, my age guy. Um hopefully he makes it up here so you can meet him. So he'll be up here. Yeah, he was he was doing some mono mechanic work and he's on his way. Right. And if you ask him, he might do the party trick where he takes his eyeball out and puts it on the table.

SPEAKER_05: 26:28

I got a brilliant idea. I got a brilliant idea for your podcast, gentlemen. Yeah. When this town holds our fall conference, you're gonna have people from the national level of organization in town. Maybe perhaps you could ask them to participate in your podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 26:46

That'd be interesting. We'll have to close the post off for that one.

SPEAKER_07: 26:49

Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04: 26:51

Depending who it is, depending on who it is.

SPEAKER_07: 26:53

That's a common now.

SPEAKER_04: 26:55

If I can think of a few that would just be all over it.

SPEAKER_07: 26:59

Yeah. Well, we got we got party room. Yeah, pretty big space. We might need some new microphones and a couple other things, but that could be a good time, right?

SPEAKER_05: 27:10

We have to make sure everybody sees the waiver.

SPEAKER_07: 27:14

Sign it. Yeah, in the door.

SPEAKER_01: 27:17

That'd be cool.

SPEAKER_07: 27:18

Sign the board, sign the waiver, you can join.

SPEAKER_01: 27:22

I think um I think even one at one point uh it would be cool to you know join as a session. We used to do it. You know, maybe not an actual session, but at least have have a setup out there uh as part of it. That'd be that'd be kind of cool, I think. But I know National has a quote unquote podcast. It's mostly it's mostly informational. It's mostly it's not it's not conversational like this.

SPEAKER_05: 27:51

Um, but yeah, so your guys' town is hosting the event.

SPEAKER_01: 27:58

Uh so I'm trying to look up uh a few things in preparation for our real estate discussion.

SPEAKER_09: 28:27

Is the camera not working?

SPEAKER_06: 28:31

With the power or the soundboard. We had our testing fine about 5 30. I was up here just what? Just past four? Oh yeah. And it was working. We went to do the test with the phone for the Bluetooth piece to have phone call in, so we thought maybe Trey would call in. And then I lost all my sound.

SPEAKER_01: 28:49

Is he not uh is he not making it tonight?

SPEAKER_07: 28:52

No, uh Eva picked up a shift at uh hospital.

SPEAKER_03: 29:00

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_07: 29:11

Sound of freaking the sound of we're gonna try to get done what we gotta get done and make things happen.

SPEAKER_01: 29:20

Yep. And then once we uh go. Looks good. Yep.

SPEAKER_07: 29:30

Hey, look at that jar heads, duct tape, a hammer and some nails, we can make it happen. Yep. Whatever we gotta do. So you know we need, I think we need like a department budget for podcast stuff.

SPEAKER_04: 29:47

You're talking the wrong way. You should have hit me up last year.

SPEAKER_07: 29:50

So we have like two or three people sitting back there with a soundboard and computers, and we don't have to pull up chairs with ceiling tiles. in a homemade stand.

SPEAKER_04: 30:02

How about do a fundraiser?

SPEAKER_07: 30:04

We're rigging it up.

SPEAKER_01: 30:06

No, the writers group donates a lot for this, so software stuff and yeah this uh this soundboard was this is a pretty high end soundboard too who know it is numbers says hey hands from the back can I have your number oh you're getting hit on you get some comments my wife's watching yeah she's always watching we love it when Nile yeah my wife's got her and phone is she's it's it's star 69. Nice can I say that hi dear all right so I suppose let me get a little bit of this out of the way um talked to a couple friends of mine um who are also in real estate and got some got some talking points nothing nothing too crazy nothing more than uh you know I don't know maybe 15 20 minutes of chat time and maybe some Q ⁇ A if you guys have anything but um but basically in addition to some of the other stuff uh that I that I do I am a licensed real estate agent uh real estate salesperson state of Michigan um I am a realtor but I am not your realtor so this is just general information that's my disclaimer that's a disclaimer yeah um but I I specialize in the VA home loan uh helping veterans get their uh benefit um problem is in the industry it's got a little bit of a fear associated with it um why I don't really know but there are a lot of realtors who have had negative experiences with the program and in years past you know maybe some of those were founded to a certain extent um but also in the past few years there's been a lot of positive changes and a lot of things that have come down the pipeline and um and made it just a really a really competitive program so um there's some arguments out there uh pro and con so I'll get to those here in just a minute um but I'm just gonna pull up a little bit of information uh this is right on the VA website um but uh basically if you don't know uh if you are an honorably discharged military veteran um and there are some specific um criteria so please reach out uh with that um but uh between like national guard qualifications or active duty qualifications there's there's a little bit of nuance there so you have to reach out and and figure out your specific um uh qualification but nonetheless the program in in general uh allows you to um get a uh guarantee for a home loan not a guarantee as we guarantee you get a home loan that's not what that means it just means that the VA backs your home loan in the case of default um which is one of the first pros and cons. A lot of people argue that VA loans go delinquent a lot and everything else. Don't really know why that has anything to do with anything during the processing of a transaction but nonetheless if you are a listing agent and you are presenting offers to your client to accept and maybe you advise based on previous experience that you know hey VA loans haven't worked out for me and my prior clients maybe you sway them against a veteran trying to get a home you know so that's one of the arguments that I hear and just quick Google search um I I previously attended a continuing education um that uh that had a slide deck about some of the specific statistics but um I don't have access to that slide deck anymore uh I thought I did but anyway quick Google search um off the top of your head any ideas as to what loan type has the highest uh default rates in the country FHA very good very good um talking about VA I expected you to say VA but no you are correct FHA FHA has the highest loan default rates um of any other loan uh product um currently it sits at about 11% give or take uh versus conventional um at what was it uh 2.62% and VA at 4.7% so um that's one of the things that you know the CE that I attended uh about a year and a half ago talked about that was one of the pros and cons that they addressed pretty quickly in addition to that some of the other things that people argue about is you know the appraisal and that VA appraisals are really hard to get through and everything else um not true if you if you have a solid home you know homes age you know there's there's some wear and tear and maintenance that needs to be done and if you don't do it then yeah maybe you might have a problem but uh for the most part and in the uh all the VA loans that I've done uh in the past three years I have done over two million dollars in VA loans and out of all of those I can probably count on one hand how many transactions I've actually had that really stopped things up and off the top of my head I can really only count two and those things were still fixable so you know main things they look out for are you know whether or not the home is sanitary. If it's on uh a septic or a well they're gonna make sure those things are safe they're gonna want inspections um they're gonna make sure that the home's not infested with pests in certain areas of the country here in the state of Michigan only certain counties actually require a VA pest inspection Isabella County and where we are and our neighboring counties uh Macosta do not require a VA pest inspection but they do the they do the sanitary for septic now right yeah well yeah but it's not actually not required unless the loan uh company whoever you decide to go through your your lender unless they require it for underwriting purposes then you have a different story there but um but uh but at any rate continuing on um the main pillars uh of the VA home loan benefit is that you have no down payment requirement whereas conventional sometimes says 5% some of the other you know that in closing costs well I'm getting there that's another bullet point um but um the other you know like USDA or FHA or whatever they might have a 2% or 2.5% or whatever the percent might be um and then there's lenders that have different programs with those but um the down payment uh is not required there are limited closing costs um that does not mean you won't have closing costs uh there are you know property taxes prorated in the process there's fees you know to get a home inspection or a septic inspection or whatever those are costs that you gotta pay either up front or and potentially at closing if the inspector participates in that fashion um I utilized the VA loan oh you did back in in 1995 sweet I'm still in the home at the time I purchased I purchased a hundred and forty thousand dollar home in 95 and it cost me$2,000 to move in and I got a comp I got a a very comparable interest rate as well.

SPEAKER_05: 38:48

Right the big thing was a termite inspection believe it or not in Wayne County at the time myself and my wife were shopping for another home we have a real estate agent and our bankers specific to VA loans because I had such a such a good experience the first time and why not do it a second time right I thought you could only use it one time.

SPEAKER_01: 39:12

No you can use it multiple times really yes only a one time like first house nope nope now if you decide to buy a different house you know and you sell the first one then yeah your eligibility has to be cleared from the first one but yes so the first sale has to be complete before you can even do the next one is that what it is uh no I wouldn't say complete you know because if you're if you're listing your house for sale and buying another one then the though those timelines can overlap a little bit there's things that can be done okay so I don't want to say that it has to be completed but well the reason why is because like okay for instance I can coordinated I think is the better word I'd like to say the devil's advocate I could list it buy another house and they go like I'm just gonna pull that off the market and not actually sell the other house. Right. No that would definitely get caught that's what I'm asking you it would be coordinated and then upon close they would report it to the VA that it's been you know sold and then well there's another question to this you do a VA loan down the road your mortgage is sold several times over the years. For sure okay is that still recognized as a VA loan yes no matter who handle has that mortgage yep so when a mortgage is sold to another servicer they are legally not allowed to change the terms of your mortgage they buy it as is okay what if you refinance if you refinance it's technically a new okay mortgage but still the same thing. So if you refinance get a better rate or whatever you're still locked into a VA refinance loan if that's what you did. They call it the Earl the interest rate reduction loan IRR L I R R I think there's a third R in there. I don't know anyway but it's it's the V8 Earl loan um and uh now uh may is not probably not a good time I mean reach out to a local loan officer that you trust for at a lender but uh for the most part maybe now's not a perfect time to use the Earl but uh say the rates you know because we're we're floating anywhere between depends on your lender but anywhere between six seven percent ish right now so you go into a VA loan right now and say five ten years from now interest rates drop like they did in the COVID years. You know I'm in a home right now VA loan I got a 3% interest rate I'm pretty happy with it and I'm probably not going to do anything with it. However, you know that's not to say somebody who's buying today might not have that opportunity you know so say five ten years from now they get uh better rates they can do the VA Earl loan it is still a VA loan um and the uh purposes of that loan is to get a is it to get a better rate is there a fee with those loans when you do that there are some fees um however let me look that up as well because some of these fees closing um uh the VA funding fee and whatnot if you are uh rated disabled by the VA you are exempt from some of those on certain things so a hundred percent or just any rate let me look it up for you uh funding fee exemption VA um let me double check here it is it's oh it's okay so the VA home loan website is like 40 different pages depending on what you're looking at so I can't I can't pull everything up at the same time um so let me pull this up here well we thought you would have showed up with all the answers not have to look around excuse me you know he's open that up and says when is the current administration going to lower the interest rates who's this Trey Trey's being facetious when is the current administration going to lower the interest rates that's what Trey asked well as soon as China comes up with another virus we'll you'll have lower interest rates I hope that solves your question well inflation is going to really shoot up so they'll probably raise the rates again yeah as soon as Anthony Fauci your non-elected government official tells you to wear a mask and stay in home then your rate will go down all right so here's your answers about the funding fee so if you're using a VA home loan to buy build improve repair or refinance a mortgage you will need to pay a funding fee unless you meet certain requirements. If you meet the following requirements you won't have to pay the funding fee. If you're receiving VA compensation for a service connected disability you receive compensation for a service connected disability but you're receiving uh retirement or active duty pay instead um you're receiving dependency and indemnity compensation as a surviving spouse of a veteran or you I have a service or your service member who has received a proposed or memorandum rating before the loan closing date or your service member on active duty who before or on the closing date provides evidence of having received a purple heart. Also if you do pay the funding fee you may be eligible for a refund if you are later awarded VA compensation for a service connected disability the effective date of your VA compensation must be retroactive to before the date your loan closed. So if you have pending you know you're going through that whole process and it's pending and you don't have an answer and you close on your loan but they award you something you can go back and get that refunded so what a great program. Yeah so this is all available on the VA website all right on the on the thing there that put the link up oh look at you Go Tech man I'm so proud of you someone has to someone has to do your job no thanks appreciate that all right um so well we have the nerds yep uh there's a couple each other well and and here's the other thing I will um I will tell you when I'm not familiar with something or when I am that's the kind of realtor I am um but I will throw out there something um if you have a home in a VA loan that you are selling um and this is very sticky it depends on the lender and so I would definitely reach out to a loan officer to figure out how that works exactly on their end. But a VA loan is assumable if the buyer is also eligible for a VA loan. Wow so um if you have uh like take me for example let's say I sell my house and I got my 3% interest rate and you know certain criteria are met and all that uh there is a possibility that a buyer who is eligible for VA can inherit my loan my loan basically so um so that is also something I personally have not actually seen that happen in what I've done uh because you know a few years ago in the height of the COVID years everybody was just getting their loan and you know good rates easy peasy lemon squeezy and we didn't really have to deal with that but um I have a suspicion that now that the rates are higher we might see more uh loan assumptions so we'll see what happens with that so I did a refinance in 22 um with uh like a two and a half percent I went conventional but I'd have even done better if I went VA potentially um the the reason that you may or may not again loan rates are weird I don't understand how that works because I'm not a loan officer but I do know that on a general level uh VA loan rates sometimes are more competitive than a conventional because you have the VA backing your loan but I may have gotten out of a fee you got out of the fee I may have gotten out of the fee through the white to the through the refi what fee would you have got I had a I had a fee I can't remember what it was it wasn't I I want to say it cost me a thousand dollars it'd be interesting to look into but I'm just trying to do the all scenarios because we have veterans from from 20 to to every age group because of the desert wars so we've we we fit every bracket you know every decade at this point so what you're saying is is awesome and also the information that you're given if you're a young veteran and you're establishing your job and you have the potential to make even more money being that you can you can do the program and and get the lower rate I mean it's just a plus plus situation for these veterans right that maybe under 40 that are in their first home. Yeah right and then one of the other things that we uh we saw a lot um in the in the argument that I heard a lot of loan officers uh talk about um uh was again at the height of COVID when mortgages were cheap you know you got good rates and everything people are out there paying twelve fifteen hundred dollars for a two-bedroom apartment when for the same amount of money you can have your own home that was an argument for a long time for a couple of years and if you're a veteran and you're 100% right you're tax exempt right you're tax exempt and and you're probably your mortgage potentially could be taxed right so and actually that's a good point so um VA um uh excuse me property tax specifically only in the state of Michigan are you 100% exempt if you are rated 100% uh permanently and totally disabled by the VA in the state of Michigan you are exempt from property tax um this year uh is a little bit different um where if you previously every year you had to show proof that you were permanent in total um but this year is the last year that you will have to do that so um this year if you've already done it great um from this point forward you no longer have to do that annual filing um and you only have to change it if you sell the house or move and you know then you have to that that is absolutely true and and I was there when the governor had signed also the if you are our if you were the widow of a veteran 100% you only have to do it once because his disability is never going to change because he's passed away. Right.

SPEAKER_05: 50:18

However I I would give the advice of anybody that's doing that right now for 25 to do it one more time just so you don't get stung just because you have a municipality that that is unaware and you will win in the end but why put yourself to that aggravation we can simply go down and take care of it. I would recommend doing it one more time.

SPEAKER_01: 50:38

And all it takes is a quick Google search there is a document you can fill out on your computer you print it you sign it and then you print out a copy of your uh award letter from the VA and you just turn it into your local tax assessor and it's a done deal it it can take you no more than an hour to do you know uh and all that so jumping back to uh uh pest inspections just real quick uh I pulled up that website and forgot to mention it so wood destroying uh pest inspections are required for all properties in the following Michigan counties Allegan Barry Barrion Branch Calhoun Cass Hillsdale Ionia Jackson Kalamazoo Kent Leewin Lenough sorry Livingston McComb Mason Monroe Muskegon Oakland Oceana Ottawa St. Clair St. Joseph Van Buren Washtenau and Wayne any of the other counties unless your lender requires it as part of your underwriting process you do not have to have a VA pest inspection now is that going to save you a thousand dollars no a pest inspection you know if you if you have a home inspection with it it might be a hundred a fifty a hundred dollar extra charge it might be however the inspector wants to wants to charge for their service but um I've seen you know it saves you 60 bucks or um I've also seen some inspectors out there because they want to give a a veteran's discount but don't really know how to do that I've negotiated on behalf of my clients where I'm like hey person uh is a disabled veteran uh we need a home inspection for our own purposes to make sure it's a good home but in addition you know I'll ask do you offer a veteran's discount if you do great if you don't I've proposed are you willing to throw in just a pest inspection as part of it and nine times out of ten oh yeah sure I'll do that no problem you know so it's it's something uh super easy um uh that's that's easy to be handled so um and basically if if you're curious I'm dangerously curious but uh if you're curious why those uh those counties it's really the frost line yeah you know it's the frost line of you go so far north and you're not gonna have that problem when you uh when it gets so cold and you know like what gaylords had hundred and some odd feet or feet hundred and some odd inches of snow this year broke a record I mean everything's frozen those those insects are they're dead you know it's it's um interesting but and then uh one of the other things is uh private mortgage insurance VA loans do not have private mortgage insurance uh and so that is also something that saves you know a few hundred dollars in a monthly payment so uh between uh again if you're 100% permanent and total disabled by the VA um then you'd get your uh property tax exemption plus no PMI you know your home your home uh mortgage um payment every month could be floating around a thousand bucks you know so that's my situation yeah so I know we keep bringing up the whole uh 100% total disable but I just see a thing here saying that for anybody who's got a service connected no matter what percentage it is that they're exempt from paying the funding fee. Yep what is the VA funding fee the VA funding fee is the fee that funds the VA loan program. So what amount are we talking about? What on a on a particular loan what amount are we talking about? Read it right there for the next paragraph. For many first-time borrowers the fee is 2.15% which on a$250,000 loan is about$5300 bucks. But borrowers without an exemption can ask the seller to pay that fee or pay it themselves up front or over time by rolling it into the mortgage so there's options uh for affordability there's there's things and you know with with a client I would talk to them about that or actually maybe not even me maybe the more likely excuse me the loan officer would handle that conversation but at the end of the day on closing day when you go to sign your papers it's gonna be on your closing disclosure for you do we have any comments on this no I just I just kept hearing the 100% thing so I want to talk about outside of that sure sure okay I just want to make sure there wasn't someone else no with a question or something so yep so just in case there was cool um let's see let me check my uh notes here want to make sure I went over everything um so could you expenses inspections appraisal closing and repair costs yeah so I I pretty much went over everything let me ask you this yeah could you ever see a situation where it would be beneficial for a veteran to not use the gale mill I don't want to say that there would never be a situation but at the same time I was all I would always advocate to use your benefits because let's be honest Ray how many times do you see veterans go without using their benefits for whatever reason I mean and it doesn't matter what benefit just either they don't know about it or if they do they just don't want to participate you know how often have you seen more often than I'd like to see and and some of the instances that if they did use them they probably would not have put themselves in a predicament that they couldn't get out of.

SPEAKER_05: 56:38

So that that's the situation as well.

SPEAKER_04: 56:40

Right.

SPEAKER_05: 56:40

You earned them you you put your life on the line to to have these benefits and you didn't do it specifically for that you did it to serve your country but um that's part of um as our national commander was in Washington DC last week it is the contract honor the contract and that that's more geared to the federal government but it's the same thing. You signed the dotted line and the U.S. government signed that if something were to happen to you or if you were to become ill or wounded or disabled they'll make sure that that you will receive the benefits um that are promised to you. So please use the benefits that's what they're there for.

SPEAKER_01: 57:23

And then you had mentioned you know getting into a situation that you can't get out of later that reminds me of a situation that I actually had and this goes back to the point of uh people being scared of the process. So the appraisal process looks at the bones of the house they look at um excuse me not the appraisal they the appraisal process looks at the value of the house uh the home inspection process looks at the bones and make sure everything's healthy and safe you know I had a situation where um the uh well existing well on the property was only 25 foot deep and it wasn't registered by the county so the county health department had no idea it existed they you know and you know it fell through the cracks at some point somewhere uh somebody sunk the well didn't file the paperwork whatever well that's the whole point of going through this process to cross your T's dot your I's make sure everything's safe and kosher uh because that 25 foot well does not qualify uh under health department requirements so in this particular case um I was representing the buyer the seller was forced to drill a new well it was on a four-acre property the well uh the issue with the well they went all over this four acres and and tested dozens of spots and they could not find water and they finally found water in a far off section and they had to drill down it I think it cost the cellar eight grand or something to drill down I can't remember how many feet down they went but it was I think it was a couple hundred feet to get to the water and then the other thing is testing the water making sure it's safe making sure there's no lead or PFAS or nitrates or whatever you know that's these requirements may be annoying if you come across a situation where it holds up your loan but at the end of the day it's to protect you. We always at least I always say the three S's safety security and sanitation so those are the three things that a home inspector and an appraiser is going to be looking at an appraiser might call out you know hey you know your front steps are too high you need a railing because we're in Michigan right doesn't take much for ice to develop and And next thing you know, you're got an extra crack in your ass because, you know, you just fell down your front steps. So it's it's little things like that. Um, but they are important, you know. And so the other thing is think about uh maybe a septic. Um not all the time are septic inspections required, but I always recommend them because you don't know what's going on in there. When was the last time that that sewer line was Mr. Plumber over here? Roots growing into the sewer line, roots, you know, messing with a septic. Um maybe you have an old septic and it's collapsing. You how do you know? You know, so that stuff is important because off top of your head, what minimum 10 grand for a new septic system? Easy, right? So probably so talking about getting yourself into a situation that you can't get out of, allow this process to protect you because if you don't and you get mad and frustrated and you just power through it, you might have a situation like that where the county says, Well, you've got a whole bunch of sewage here, and now it's that sewage is you know not properly treated, it's creeping into you know your neighbor's well head, and you know, it's it's a whole thing.

SPEAKER_05: 1:01:21

So you're gonna have to call Mr. Plumber because they're Mr. Hanky. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:01:27

Just because it says they're flushable wipes, they're not. They are normal wipes. They will go down, but they will cost you a lot of money. Right. So please flush them by the bag and then give me a call. Daddy needs a new boat.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:46

I was just gonna say, those are job security for you. Um man, that's funny. Umny Martinez commented, it says, or was that or was that earlier?

SPEAKER_06: 1:01:58

A while ago. She's my uncle's a good example, not using his benefits.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:01

Oh, okay. All right. Who is that?

SPEAKER_07: 1:02:04

I don't know who that is.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:06

Manny Manny Martinez? Manny Martinez?

SPEAKER_06: 1:02:10

Oh. Where do you get Martinez from?

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:15

It was on my notifications. Maybe he talked earlier. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know who that is.

SPEAKER_05: 1:02:20

When you when you're done with the VA, I've got a a presentation I can give about state benefits.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:25

Oh, sweet. Yeah. Um I'm really hoping Bretton's about done. Yeah, I'm I'm um I'm almost done. Uh I just want to go over a couple more things. So purchase loans and cash out refinance loans are available.

SPEAKER_07: 1:02:40

Um refill. Yeah, excuse me. You know, the dispensary across the road if you run short. These are gonna be another two hours.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:47

I'm not, I'm almost done. There was a third R in there. So interest rate reduction and refinancing loan. Um is that uh there's also a Native American direct loan and adapted housing grants. Uh, if you have disabilities related to service and you need help getting your uh home adapted so you can live there safely and and whatnot and comfortably. Um that's all available too. So that's that's what I got for the VA loan. Like I said, uh as a real estate agent, I you know that's kind of my bread and butter. Um, so please reach out uh to a local realtor. Uh if you're here in Isabella County, please reach out to me. Um be more than happy to help. Uh, you can usually find me at uh VFW3033. Joe. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_07: 1:03:39

Oh man! You ready for one? I said yeah. I came back out with an empty one and tossed it.

SPEAKER_09: 1:03:44

That's a buddyfucker.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:46

Yeah. Yeah, blue falcon. Damn. Oh, here I'm bucks, Mark, but common sense. I don't know. All right. But all right, that's what I got. I'll shut up now since Charlie wants me to shut up. I I think all of America is tired of hearing you. You know what? Not all of America's listening.

SPEAKER_07: 1:04:09

Well, those that are. Those that are.

SPEAKER_05: 1:04:13

Michigan veterans.

SPEAKER_07: 1:04:14

Hold on a minute. There's only five people. Okay, I'm gonna wake everybody up now. Brent's done. Oh sh.

SPEAKER_05: 1:04:20

Michigan veterans. If we got a veteran or a widow of a veteran that has immediate needs, we have the Michigan Veteran Trust. Michigan Veteran Trusts, they're they're there for the reason of helping veterans that have that maybe need a roof in their house, a furnace, or something that happened that will change the dynamics of the household. The criteria for it is obviously an immediate need. And second is if this repair is done, will the veteran be able to resume their normal life? You fit that criteria, they're gonna help you. Obviously, they're not gonna throw money into an empty hole. They're not gonna they're not gonna help if you cannot save the household. You're not gonna put money into a big hole. But they are more than willing to help veterans that will be self-sustaining after the need is met. The way to access that is through your county service office. Um, in Isabella County, I don't know who your county uh service office is in Isabella County. Um, however, you can also go to the uh website of the state of Michigan, Michigan Veteran Trust. Yeah, um, it's through the Michigan Veteran Affairs Agency. Google it, you can apply online, or you can go to your county service officer. I would highly encourage. I sit on the board in Wayne County, and I can tell you that uh we have a lot more yeses than we have no's.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:04

Sound of freedom, sorry. Just to say for it, right?

SPEAKER_05: 1:06:08

That is it.

unknown: 1:06:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:10

He's gonna copy and paste the link into our comments.

SPEAKER_05: 1:06:13

It's an awesome program, and this is a program that truly has helped countless veterans, and we continue to help countless veterans. The initially, this was started by an endowment of a family in 1947 of a donation of$50 million for donated to the state of Michigan for to help World War II veterans. Today, um the money is protected, so it does not go into the general fund of the state of Michigan. Um, there is a board of trustees that protect the endowment of the money that is there. And um, being that it's a state program that our state is obviously too large for everything to go through Lancing, that is why you can apply through your county service office. Please, please, if you're in need of it, reach out. I see so many cases that have been approved that helped and enabled a veteran family to get through the hump so they can go ahead and carry on for the rest of their life. That's all I got on that.

SPEAKER_07: 1:07:25

So I want everybody to know that you know, at our VFWs we have a service officer, and you talk about a county service officer. Our post local to your, you know, wherever you live, there's typically a VFW probably within 10 or 20 miles of where you live. They all typically have a service officer. Those service officers are not bonded, right?

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:51

So or technically trained, right?

SPEAKER_07: 1:07:53

Basically, what they do is they'll they'll get your veteran, if it's you, your spouse, your your dad, your mom, whatever, in touch with a Department of Michigan VFW service officer who is licensed, bonded, uh, trained, um, to be able to get that information to you as well as your county uh service officer as well. So, you know, we we have them at our posts, but they're more or less a lack of better term, kind of a pass-through. They're they'll collect your information and get you in touch with a person that you need to be in touch with to do your your paperwork or or whatever option that you have. So I have a renter here at the storage unit side of the building, but um, so if you hear the door, but um yeah, so you know, don't get discouraged to go to your local VFW post to ask and ask about some information. Those people can get you in contact with. If you can't find somebody to get in contact with, they'll be able to get you in contact with the appropriate person or persons to get you get the ball rolling.

SPEAKER_05: 1:09:07

You brought a really good point with that. It's not just in it's not just the VFW, your American Legion Post, they all have service officers that that a title in the post. The VFW is going to change that title to some kind of resource officer so they can guide you to a service, credit accredited service officer that does this for a living. This is what they went to school for, this is what they do. They they specialize in this, and they those are the individuals that you want to be your advocate. Uh in the state of Michigan, we have got a unique situation. We have what they call the coalition. The coalition is made up of VFW, American Legion, the uh DAV, and V VA. I'm missing because I'm I'm drinking bourbon, folks. In any rate, we all work together as part of the coalition, and these are the best of the best. And they're there to help and to serve you. Utilize them, they will change your life. These individuals, that is what their passion is. That is what they do. They want to be your advocate to win these benefits for you. They know how to deal with the VA, they know what needs to be done, they they know the legal jargon, the medical jargon, and they're equipped to handle you. So please utilize them. Back to the Michigan Veteran Trust. That is a different program entirely. Um, the reason why I suggested to go to the County Service Office is because each county receives money from the state of Michigan, from the MVAA, and I want to say the Department of Human Services. And receiving that money, they are a network to go ahead and have these applications in hand and to assist you. But if you have any questions or you don't want to deal with that county service officer, to to go ahead and apply for the Michigan Trust, go online through the MVAA, and I know that that website is being put on the uh it's being displayed.

SPEAKER_07: 1:11:40

It's already been put on there. So for anybody that maybe if you're listening live right now on Facebook, then obviously you're gonna you're gonna see the comments. But when this gets out to Spotify and our other platforms, uh, we do have a soup sandwich post 3033 podcast on Facebook page. Um please try to find this uh this live um and then go into the comments and you'll find all those links for this information. Um, so I mean it's pretty incredible. We have listeners in Japan, we have listeners throughout Europe that have subscribed and follow us on these different things. So they might not know about the actual Facebook page that we have, they're just listening uh you know to a bunch of degenerate veterans. Can you uh talking? So make sure that you find us on Twitter.

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:30

Degenerates uh we have anybody from Kentucky? Because I'm drinking Kentucky bourbon. Can you uh link our here?

SPEAKER_07: 1:12:40

I'm gonna I'm gonna do this so you don't have to get up. So this is are you drinking a Jefferson?

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:44

Yes. No, the uh Woodford.

SPEAKER_07: 1:12:48

Woodford. So this is Jefferson in here, if you want it. It's in my Marine Corps as Marines, we drink out of it, it it matches your on-the-rocks glasses when you can't her.

SPEAKER_06: 1:13:07

So it going back to your Michigan Trust Fund, just kind of reading this site. There's a couple other things it talks about on here that they have um additional free financial counseling, housing counseling, head report review, final wellness tools. So if people are needing help with it, there's a phone number they got here and call and you've helped 1-800-550-1961.

SPEAKER_05: 1:13:27

Yes. Now I'm gonna talk about each county. Each county in the state of Michigan, they are they have a burial allowance. So if you have if you have a loved one that passes away, that's a veteran. There's a minimum of$300 each county will go ahead and refund the family member that paid for the funeral. Um, let's say the funeral is prepaid and the veteran did it, and the veteran paid for it, and you're a loved one. You still want to go ahead, you may have a receipt for something or another. I highly encourage you to go ahead to your county service office or veteran services with the copy of the death certificate and an invoice in that you paid something and go ahead and get that refund for$300. I know I live in Wayne County, it's a thousand dollars. My understanding is Washington is a thousand dollars. Now you're talking a lot of money. Yeah, so$1,000 for a widow veteran that had paid for a funeral is a lot of money. So every state or every county in the state of Michigan has some kind of benefit, and I know it's minimum of three hundred dollars for the burial allowance.

SPEAKER_07: 1:14:43

And probably one of the other things we should talk about too, as far as uh you know, some burial or death benefits. Oh, here you go. That's right, dollars.

SPEAKER_01: 1:14:54

Europe, Asia, and North America.

SPEAKER_07: 1:14:56

Six six in Europe, one in Asia. 91 North America.

SPEAKER_05: 1:15:01

My counterpart for the Department of Europe when I was a state commander, he was a U of M graded Michigander. He is a can he was a post commander of Paris, France. That's there for a bit. Helsinki.

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:17

Wow. It's pretty it's pretty wild when you when you go. Southampton it tells us on some of the platforms where people are listening from. But very humble. Um you know what's what's what's cool is a lot of funeral directors um know and understand the funeral homes to get uh you know a copy of the G214 to prove of service so you can get the the bronze plaque and stuff for the back of the headstone, and or if they're you're not gonna do a headstone, it's the marker. Um all those different things uh free to veterans. Um so there's there's a lot of benefits, uh burial benefits that that coincide not just necessarily in cash, but things that they've earned. So, like when my grandfather uh was buried, he didn't he didn't want a headstone, so he just has the the bronze marker on on a slab of granite, you know. Uh it's pretty cool. So, and you you see those a lot in the cemeteries, but it's always a good recognition of that veteran, and that's just another benefit that's earned. That's the history of our community, that's history of our country. Yeah, yeah, so there's a lot. 451 North America.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:28

These are across all of our episodes. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_07: 1:16:31

So, yep. Yeah, pretty cool. You know, so that's why that's why I want to make sure that even you know, the 230, 450, even in North America, you know, that have that have listened in, um, find it find us on Facebook because we do we do post in the comments a lot of links, as you've heard tonight on tonight's episode, that if you have anybody um in Michigan, or it doesn't matter if you're in Missouri or Florida, your state probably has something very similar to to what you're what you heard tonight, right? And or with a realtor and or with your county or state service officers or whoever, um, to just to help guide through the process for those earned back. Because you're right, you know, I mean, a lot of us don't take advantage of the things that we should until it's too late, right? And we want our family members to know if it is too late that it's not necessarily should be forgotten either, because they can still get something at some point, right? That you've earned. So, and I hate to hear that, you know, like you've won an award or you go through this process and you won this. I hate that. You shouldn't you shouldn't be winning anything. You should be getting what's entitled to you. You should be getting the the other end of the contract that you signed, right?

SPEAKER_05: 1:17:49

That's honor of the contract. Yeah. That was the motto in Washington, D.C. last week about our VFW National Officers. Honor of the contract.

SPEAKER_07: 1:17:58

Yeah, which is what they would expect out of us. So we should expect the same out of them, you know what I mean? So at the end of the day, good information. Uh hopefully a lot of people stayed awake during it, but we appreciate you, buddy. I know you can flip me out in front of the camera on you want. We gotta we gotta make fun of you for something. We have to.

SPEAKER_05: 1:18:16

I mean so when are you gonna be like a future quartermaster at the district or the department or anything else?

SPEAKER_01: 1:18:22

Discussion. I have had this discussion already. Um, and I don't really know. Um, you know, it and actually with a former department commander, uh, that'd be a perfect conversation to have. Um, you know, we have a lot of veterans entering um eligibility um who are not partaking in the eligibility, um, and those that are, a lot of them have young families and and cannot devote time uh to the you know posts and whatnot. And number one, it's it's really sad. It's really sad because especially me, you know, I've got I got three kids, uh 13, 8, and 3. You know, uh two are for the most part, you know, self-sufficient and can be left at home alone for an hour or two or whatever, but uh three-year-old definitely not. But when all three have activities going on and you know, we're we're you know spread 40 different directions, I mean it's just not possible to to focus on you know everything. And um, you know, I I have had lots of conversations with people, and usually the two arguments that I hear are either I don't have the time to devote because it does demand a lot of time, you know, um, or they have some bone to pick with the VFW, and uh, and I actually had one guy that I I couldn't help. I was I was really trying to push for for a membership opportunity, and you know, unfortunately, the gentleman really needed um some help, mental health counseling help because uh, and I quote his exact words, I will never join the VFW because quote, they killed my father. And he explained what happened. He said his father was a Vietnam veteran, and he was never really a drinker, but when he got back, he started drinking, and then he joined the VFW to be with people that understood him and drank some more and drank some more and eventually drank himself to death uh and died of alcoholism. And this gentleman blames uh his counterparts for allowing this to happen.

SPEAKER_05: 1:20:52

Well, I blame the VA exactly because this this this comrade, this veteran needed therapy. Right. So he sought therapy in a club room amongst other veterans, and he's self-medicated. Yes, he did. He's self-medicated. We have club rooms in our post, just like American Legions, just like other organizations, fraternal organizations, they're the purpose for us to be amongst each other, but that's not our primary existence. No. Our primary existence is what we discussed earlier. Veteran advocate claims, dealing with VA, benefits, benefits, right. This is the club room side of it is a social room. Right. The VA failed this man, right?

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:55

Or maybe he did not know how to navigate through that system because it's red tape and it's bureaucracy and it's confusion and you know.

SPEAKER_07: 1:22:05

But back to my original sound meant to be easy, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:09

My original comment was I know what you do at your post. You're a custodian of the financials of the post, and you're a charitable man, you're a veteran advocate, and you're exactly what we need. And and I hope and pray that I see you go through the ranks because of that. Because it's not about holding rank, it's about serving veterans. Right. And you're all in all the time, every time. And we need you, and we need people like you.

SPEAKER_07: 1:22:46

Yeah, appreciate it. Well, and this is kind of one of the things uh you know we Brent and I had the conversation about. When you're at your local post in his position as the quartermaster, especially here in Mount Pleasant, we're extremely busy post. Employees, prior quartermasters, colleagues, technology. Well, yeah, prior quartermaster. But we're an extremely busy post. It is a lot of work. When you have a canteen, you're running a business, the business side. And when you move up to the district level, now you're at quarterly meetings. There's not a lot that really goes on. You have mileage, you have stuff like that for those officers that get these things, right? Stipend stuff. You have to keep accountability of there's um, you know, some investment accounts and things that you have to keep account on. But majority of the time, sometimes the higher you go, it's a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_04: 1:23:39

That is a less it's I wanted to elaborate.

SPEAKER_07: 1:23:42

It's less, it's less busy because I I as the director of the writers groups, I could tell you it's less busy for me. I have more responsibilities, but it's a lot less busy work, to be honest with you, right? I I have to give monthly reports, I have to do things, I have to go to conferences, conventions, give reports over the broad spectrum of what everybody's doing, so I have to keep accountability of them, but I don't have to keep a daily or weekly accountability of them. I keep a monthly accountability. They turn a report into me, I put it in a different spreadsheet, I know what everybody's doing, I send out a couple emails, that's it. It's pretty simple. I mean, honestly, it's pretty simple. When I was the president of the Mount Pleasant group, I was busy all the time. I'm updating agendas every day. Every day. I'm on the phone with the commander, I'm on the phone with the quartermaster, I'm talking to the membership, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. You're managing a business. Now I'm just in the upper echelon of that business, it's just less busy, you know what I mean? So for you to go to from a post quartermaster, former post quartermaster, if that makes it better, to a district quartermaster, you're gonna see your workload cut by two-thirds, if not more. Right? So you're gonna have to be required to be at four meetings a year, and you're gonna be on the phone with you know your district commander and stuff all the time or whatever, but it's gonna be a lot less work. Right now, maybe when you get to the state level stuff, you know, that's probably a lot more busy, but you're gonna get this lull period, right?

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:16

Where it's but you mature and you learn how to handle it.

SPEAKER_07: 1:25:20

For sure.

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:20

The thing is, is when you're a post commander, a postcore, post quartermaster, when you go to bed at night, you go to bed with all the problems of the post. Light bill, there's a ceiling link, there's a cooler's work. Oh shit, are we gonna have enough people for a meeting? We have employees. Did we pay the did we pay the insurance for the employees? Trash. Workmen's comp.

SPEAKER_10: 1:25:43

Right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:44

On and on and on. Oh my gosh, we had a scuffle in there. What's gonna come over there? I hope we don't miss somebody because we might have LCC come in. It's endless. I had no gray hairs when I was post commander when I started. When I got done after being post commander for three years, I had gray hairs. That's our next commander. He looks just like Santa Claus. He's a cross between Aziz Top guitarist and Santa Claus. But uh when I was a district commander, I didn't have those worries. I you just don't, but you do, and then obviously everything's changed as a state commander because you worry about everybody.

SPEAKER_07: 1:26:28

Yeah, you just you just make sure that their reports are in and you look at their dashboards and you're like, hey, how come you haven't done? How come I don't have how come you it's easier?

SPEAKER_05: 1:26:36

You grow with the job and you grow with the stress, right? But the district is gonna be the easiest job you'll ever have. And and I'm not being fair to you because I whisper and I chomp Scott Taylor's ear all the time. Hi Scott, if you're there.

SPEAKER_07: 1:26:51

He's actually gonna be joining us uh probably in the next one or two of these, too.

SPEAKER_04: 1:26:55

So I I hope I can return for that one.

SPEAKER_07: 1:26:59

I reached out to him tonight and said, hey, you know, uh just what we want you to join uh in one of the in one of the podcasts. I'll raise up tonight, so I'll get in touch with you the next one. Can I invite myself to that one? For sure. If you're up, if you're up north, I'll I'll always let you know when we have them.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:15

I'll just I'll sit in the corner of drinking your bourbon.

SPEAKER_06: 1:27:19

Pretty bottles, she said. Your sexy bottle? What's that? Natalie said that's a sexy bottle we brought in.

SPEAKER_07: 1:27:24

Well, because it's a Marine Corps bottle, yeah, absolutely. How do we do it? The matching glass.

SPEAKER_01: 1:27:30

And my dear. Be careful, you might end up cutting glass there later. You know. Sorry. Um, you know, and but going back to having young families and stuff, and and the point I was gonna make was by far, this latest conflict was the longest in our country's history, spanning over 20 years. That's an entire generation. There are people that were in the tail end of the war who were born after the war started, and who had parents who served in the same places. Very true, you know, and so we've got 20 years of people who are all having their own families.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:17

If they're a life, if if they are a veteran family, they may even have grandparents. Exactly. Right. Do the math, I mean there could be veterans there, there is that are old enough to be my my child.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28:40

Right. So it's just like how do we get these younger veterans involved while also respecting, you know, family time. Family time. And it's it's like help me with the words. Because, you know, because especially those of us who want to advocate for for the post and for there's things like we gotta do like youth activities at the post.

SPEAKER_09: 1:29:09

Right. You know, we gotta bring our kids into the post. Right. That will that will help get the parents in there. Right. You know, like we should it's not just a bar. We should have had a we in the post a long time ago. You know, that's good for kids and adults. Oh we. Oh, we, okay.

SPEAKER_06: 1:29:27

Yeah, like that bigger game takes a lot of it. Not a wee wee.

SPEAKER_09: 1:29:30

Just a wee. Don't get excited. You know, because we could have adult bowling tournaments, right? Yeah, that's something we can do. Write that down for next one. But that's a great idea. It really is. One time somebody was gonna donate one and it just never happened. You know, we're doing things like Easter egg hunts and things like that, but we're trying to get the kids to come in the post and do a Non-drinking times.

SPEAKER_01: 1:30:03

Right. Oh, and you know, and holidays, like you lead up Thanksgiving every year.

SPEAKER_09: 1:30:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:30:08

You know, that's great. Which, by the way, I don't know if you knew this, but our Google page, somebody left a review a couple of months ago praising how great it was.

SPEAKER_09: 1:30:18

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:30:19

So, and I happened to respond. I happened to respond to it uh just because I got a notification about it. I don't know why I didn't get a notification, you know. So that was our 10th Scott.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:33

Okay, cool. I hope you're part of that group.

SPEAKER_01: 1:30:35

We'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:37

That was our tenth year.

SPEAKER_01: 1:30:39

Yeah, so but you but you're right. Um, you know, Thanksgiving, Easter, you know, our flag day ceremonies, 4th of July, Memorial Day. Those are all family events. And we need more family. But we need more family events. Um, because I remember, and in fact, we've got members, my boys both were raised in the Post.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:02

Right. You have that really good Halloween, the trunk retreat. Right. There you also have an Easter Easter event. Right. Um I have a three-year-old, and and we've attended every Easter at your post. So I I love that bunny looking Easter bunny.

SPEAKER_01: 1:31:20

And I and I love the idea of getting a Wii or getting an Xbox or a PlayStation or whatever, doesn't matter what it is. But the point is, is you know, to have some stuff to you know allow the kids to have fun, you know. Um and it's ice turn.

SPEAKER_09: 1:31:39

I thought more a Wii because you could get like bowling tournaments or other tennis tournaments, whatever. More physical tournaments.

SPEAKER_01: 1:31:48

That'd be that'd be so fun.

SPEAKER_09: 1:31:50

Yeah, something the adults could do too. Right. So when we're looking for events on uh Thursday nights when we don't have anything going on in the post, we could have a fucking bowling tournament.

SPEAKER_07: 1:32:02

Right.

SPEAKER_09: 1:32:03

You know what I mean? That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_07: 1:32:04

Are we st are we still talking about adventures with young kids and stuff?

SPEAKER_01: 1:32:08

Yeah, we're we it it morphed into conversation about you know what family events and stuff that we do and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_07: 1:32:15

You know, one of my and I think I've spoken to this before, just it's just different generations, right? So I remember growing up as a kid, my dad and my grandfather, you know, going down to the club after work, having a couple beers, go home, dinner was ready. I was already dropped off to practice baseball, football, soccer, whatever it was. And then after dinner, mom came, picked me up, and that was it, right? Like nowadays, as fathers, which is primarily the majority of the veterans that are out there, I mean, there's a lot of service women as well, veterans, but you know, it's frowned upon if we're not at every kid's event, and we're not a thousand percent into what everything that the kids are doing, you know. If it's not 50-50, then it's shame on you, you're you're a bad parent, regardless if it's man or woman. Um, but the generational shift is what's hurt organizations like ours, the legions or whatever, because you don't do that anymore. You don't work till five, go down and have a couple beers, you know, with the buddies or whatever, and then you go home for dinner. Now it's like you gotta race home, grab the kids, run to practice, do this, do that, do this, do that, and if you do anything any deviation from that, you're a terrible parent. Well, some of it is a piece we're missing. Do the two, but do the kids have to do baseball to soccer to football to track to this? Do the kids have to play 109 sports? No, they don't. We allow them to do that as parents, rather than saying, look, you know, you're gonna play baseball, then in the fall, maybe you're gonna skip and you're gonna wrestle in the winter and you're gonna maybe do track in the spring. But you don't need to play 19 sports, and I don't need to run my life around every single thing that you do, but we allow that.

SPEAKER_06: 1:34:21

Well, then too, if they're so if they're within you know a short walking distance, be self-sufficient at a certain age. I remember fighting my parents as a kid from like 12 years on, like, can I just run home after practice?

SPEAKER_07: 1:34:33

Right, but it's only three miles, but it goes from you know swimming to dance to cheer baseball. That's all I did is I walked home. You know what I mean? We allow the kids to do way more than we did. Like I had baseball, like let them grow football, and then in the spring, you're back to baseball. You know what I mean? Like you didn't have dance, you didn't have swimming, you didn't have soccer, you didn't have all these things. So there was just a lot of it's it's morphed into we let our kids do a hell of a lot more than we did as kids. And then we complain that when they get home, they're so tired, all they want to do is sit behind the phone or the video game, they don't want to go play outside. No, because they've been outside playing 109 sports that you allow them to play, right? So it's hurt our organization because we don't interact as adults anymore until you're 60 and the kids are gone out of school. You know, we've just allowed them to do too much as parents, and right. I mean, that's that's that's my take on it. And and I'm sure you know Ray's seen it at his post and sacrifice.

SPEAKER_05: 1:35:39

My child, my children, my my son is raised in a VFW. I worked full-time when I was a state commander. And I was a state commander and I had a I had a two-year-old at the time. It can be done if you want it want to do it, without sacrificing anything from your son. My son is three years old and he knows the pledge of allegiance. My my son is three years old and he has respect for the flag. My my son is three years old and he has how are you doing, sir? Um, I can't think of a better way to raise a son, to raise him in a veteran organization that that that includes him with love and tenderness and care.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36:24

There is something beautiful about that. Because how how many stories have we heard where the public school system has taken the Pledge of Allegiance and the flag out of the classroom?

SPEAKER_06: 1:36:35

And then they put the rainbow flags on it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36:36

Yeah, and then they replace it with a rainbow flag or whatever. And I'm not I'm not trying to bash anybody, but I'm just saying it it seems a little um help me with the word seems a little oxymoronic. Exclusive instead of inclusive. Right. Uh, you know, and what's what's wrong with having pride in your country? You know? Um, and you know, that's that's just kind of my take on it because uh I don't want to get too deep into the politics. This the the intention of this podcast was it was never to have any kind of major politics discussions, but um what's trade doing here?

SPEAKER_07: 1:37:14

Good luck with that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37:15

And it's I mean, it's okay if it comes up every once in a while. I'm just saying it this is not a politics podcast.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:22

There you go.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37:22

Um wait for the comment to come in. So yeah, me too. Um, but you know, stop listening. You maybe, maybe not. I hate. I don't know who it is though. Yeah. My buddy Mike is watching. Hi, Mike. Um, but anyway, so you know, it there's a give and a take.

SPEAKER_07: 1:37:41

There's there's, you know, you know, you you you just got done talking about yourself individually and how much time it takes away from family things, right? And then you hear Ray say, look, I was state commander with a little baby, right? And I was able to do it and work full time. I and work full time and I was able to do it. So what's and granted, one child to three, right? There's a difference, and ages are difference as well, right? But if that's what you want to do, and you have a support system at home that agrees with that, and is willing, and your children are willing to have some sacrifices, because maybe they're not gonna be able to do dance. Only two kids can be in something at a time. So every you know, fall, it's gonna be these two, spring are gonna be the other two. The next fall, the third kid's out, and it's gonna be you know what I mean. You might have to rotate around where it might not seem fair to the kids, but no offense. Why does it have to be fair for the kids? Right, they're your kids. Life isn't fair. We all talk about life isn't fair. You have to make sacrifices, you have to do things. Right. So you might as well start that at a young age where they realize and they understand and they get the respect and they have the understanding.

SPEAKER_09: 1:38:55

You can't with a participation award that sometimes that's the way it is.

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:59

And my kids were able to do everything they want to do, and it was to my detriment that I didn't get involved at the VFW earlier, like I should have. Right. You know what I mean? Because I'm the same guy that turns around and says, Well, you know, why don't you do it? But I didn't do it, but I wasn't really even involved. I think Andy was probably, he's my oldest 19 now, is probably like 10, 11, 12 when I started getting involved at the post. Right. So it was easier for me. I didn't have a three-year-old, right? So what I'm saying is, you know, I mean, we as veterans, if we want to see these entities exist for the community action stuff that we do, for the veteran service stuff that we do, we talk about, right? We have to be involved and engaged, but you have to have that support system at home that allows you to do it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39:47

Right. And, you know, and she's watching, so I'm gonna shout it out. Not because I'm held to any standard or anything, but hi Tiffany, my better half is watching. Uh Bill House is here. Hey Bill, nice to see you. I don't know why you're not sitting here, Bill. He works in Detroit, lives in Detroit now. Yeah. Well, what the hell'd you do that for, Bill? I'm just kidding, actually. I knew that. I knew that. I'm just messing with you. But um you forgot. You're right, I did forget.

SPEAKER_06: 1:40:16

He's wasted off the carburetor.

SPEAKER_01: 1:40:18

I got I got a carbus. I'm I'm a little wasted over here. Um no, but uh, you know, it you're right. There's a support structure, there's there's you know, viewpoints both ways. Um but you know, when I'm at the podcast recording an episode, or I'm at the VFW or whatever, uh, my three-year-old, you know, I walk back in the house and you know, she's getting ready for bed, and um she will look at me and goes, Did you have fun at the BFW? You know, and her cute little three-year-old voice. And you know, yeah, you know, I have a great example last night, right?

SPEAKER_07: 1:40:58

So we're we're developing that though. Well, we're on on I always do the devil's advocate thing. So your your kids are only young once.

SPEAKER_09: 1:41:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:41:08

And if you're gone, right, you're not participating in their younger years and all things. So I I totally understand. And I'll one side argue that we need to be away from the kids or restrict what they do to be involved at the post, but then the same instance I'm gonna sit here and tell you when the kids are little, they're only little once, and you need to be involved in it. So it's the oxymoron, right? It's like how do you juggle it? But I was in the military for when they were little, yeah. And trust me, I was deployed for a year or two, right? So I mean I I get it.

SPEAKER_09: 1:41:37

Well, I was in the military when they were little, right? But that's what I'm trying to say. So you're talking about 90% of their fucking life when they were little, right?

SPEAKER_07: 1:41:45

That's and that's what I'm trying to say. Is like, you know, when you get deployed for a year or 16 months or 12 months, you miss the second birthday, the third birthday, and they're almost four years old by the time you get home, you know what I mean? Where now you're just talking about, oh, I had to miss a couple hours. Right, three or three or four times a month, or five times a month, or whatever it is. Last night, right, we're developing post and house bylaws. Brent was on the phone, he had his daughter on his lap, and we're hacking away on a Google Doc or whatever, on the phone with each other for an hour and ten minutes where he's at home with the kids, you know, and I'm sitting in my living room and we're going over stuff for over an hour on the phone. So it's a sacrifice that you take where he could have been reading a story or watching a show or doing whatever with his daughter. Right. Instead, we're at home, he's at home working on stuff, and I'm just sitting in the living room by myself, you know what I mean? So it's easier for me to say it than it is for him to do it when he's got those things standing in front of you, right?

SPEAKER_01: 1:42:42

So um I want to do a quick shout out. I see my sister's watching. What's up, sis? Sorry. Haven't talked to her in a little bit. I'm sorry. I had to say it. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_07: 1:42:53

That's what I'm saying. We're I'm sorry. I was apologizing because apologizing to his sister. Right, that's what that's what we're saying. We're sorry that she has to be a sister, even though it wasn't your choice, that was your mom and dad's sister. I had to take that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:43:04

That was Barry when Barry called. That's all right.

SPEAKER_07: 1:43:08

Oh, yeah. Um did you tell them what you were doing?

SPEAKER_03: 1:43:11

No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_07: 1:43:12

Thank you. Because I don't want them to know what we got going on. This thing is shut down tomorrow. They never invited me to that.

SPEAKER_06: 1:43:24

Oh man. We have to change the name. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:43:27

Even though we have the disclaimer, no affiliation with anything. I don't want to go down that road. Thanks for thanks for until it's in the dark.

SPEAKER_01: 1:43:37

I think it's hilarious. Like, uh, and I don't, I really don't know if this is a policy now or not, but with social media being what it is, you know, you see a whole bunch of these people on TikTok, and they'll post videos of themselves in uniform.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:43:50

Which, but in their little description, it says no affiliation with the DOD. It's like, can't you just take your uniform off? Can't, you know, can't you just you know, but their identity comes from them wearing the uniform and they get the views because of the uniform, and so put it in the background. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:09

But I initially text Barry while we're standing here who says, Scott wanted me to install the officers at your next district meeting. Also, they got an event on Saturday. So I says, Well, I've got my district on Saturday, so I'm thinking Kentucky bourbon is kicking in. He says, you know what? I want to be the 11th district on Sunday morning. So I text them, I'm your Huckleberry.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:35

We called him right away.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:38

How did you know we got a request for Saturday?

SPEAKER_04: 1:44:42

Barry, believe me.

SPEAKER_07: 1:44:44

And here in and this is a great example of the needs of the VFW. Right. Right? Barry Walter. He's your age, a little older. Oh, a little older than that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:55

He's ultimately much older than you. Oh, he's 20 years older than me. Is he?

SPEAKER_07: 1:44:59

Oh wow. And and here it is, 8 o'clock.

SPEAKER_01: 1:45:02

Hey, we better we better be careful about talking about Barry's age on this podcast because then we will get shut down.

SPEAKER_07: 1:45:10

But I mean, he's a Vietnam. I will I will email him my stuff for my directorship at 5 in the morning. And by like 6, 6, 6:30, I get a response. He doesn't sleep. It's 8 o'clock at night on a Tuesday night. And he's working.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45:26

But Barry Walter.

SPEAKER_07: 1:45:27

He doesn't shut down.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45:28

He we have the best quartermaster adjutant in the whole country. He was a quartermaster adjutant when this Department of Michigan VFW had 85,000, 90,000 members. Now he he was in total retirement, and I brought him out of retirement, and we are sitting around 31,000, and he's over there working harder than he ever did. He's not a spring chicken, and he just thrives on it. He's a Vietnam veteran. My understanding, he's a tunnel rat, and the man does not sleep. Which tells me he does not sleep. You go into his vehicle, he has news going on, blaring. You call him at his house, there's news going on blaring. It's just what he does. He is a true American patriot, and we are so much better with him. He has done so much for veterans. And also, he is a career veteran service officer. In his retirement, he never retired. I go to the office, my office, I'm the state commander, and he's over there with clients writing their claims or asking questions. So what do I do? I walk into another office because he's taking care of business. Because it ain't about me, it's about veterans and it's about what he does.

SPEAKER_01: 1:47:05

And I want to throw out one thing as well, because you know, Barry does do that, but uh, you know, speaking about our advocacy in general and whatnot, I just want to throw something out there. Uh, a huge, huge benefit that is used nowadays is the GI Bill. Right? To to get us veterans, you know, college educated and and all that. And uh I just want to throw it out there. Who is responsible for getting the GI Bill and bringing it into existence?

SPEAKER_07: 1:47:36

Yeah, veterans organizations.

SPEAKER_01: 1:47:38

Exactly. It was the VFW, it was the Legion, it was the AMVETS. I don't know exactly who had it way back in you know 50s, 60s, 40s when it was passed. I guess I'd I'd have to do the research, but it was the veterans organizations. And so here we are with veterans organizations that you know in in some areas are are struggling for membership, and they're forgetting who gave them, who advocated, who who lobbied, who got them the benefits that they have now that they're enjoying.

SPEAKER_07: 1:48:08

And you know the worst thing is like you just said we're struggling. And and I would actually like to send Barry an email, just like, hey, test, is my email working? To see how fast he responds to it. Because I almost guarantee you within about 10 minutes I'll get a response. Yeah, I got your email. What's up? You know what I mean? Just just that's that character of the guy that he works, works, works, works, works, right? But when we when we when we talk about that struggle, we have probably more veterans now than just shy of what we had during World War II, right? Yeah, you had the draft system, you had a lot of things going on back then. Um, and two major wars. Well, we've had over 20 years of wars at this point, right? 23, 24 years worth of war. So we have a ton of veterans out there.

SPEAKER_04: 1:48:58

The Vietnam era had tons because they had a draft.

SPEAKER_07: 1:49:00

Yeah. But I still think Gulf War era guys, I think there's still more. I think I read an article. Maybe but maybe. But it very well could be close. Um, I just think it's just a different time, right? With the way family structures run. That that's the reason why we struggle. Roy Thomas, our member, our quarter, current quartermaster, purple heart recipient, um, which he calls the enemy marksmanship badge. Right. That's what that is. And he's the guy with the party trick. It's like, hey man, he's out of the bar. You buy me a beer, I'll put my eyes on the table, he'll pull an eye out, set it on the table, you gotta buy him a beer. Uh he's he's he's he's stand up, stand-up, great guy. He's at the post. Uh he's 100% disabled, uh, mechanic on the side, kind of thing, and uh, and he's he's a good quartermaster. He had a great system coming in when Brent left him. Um but um you know he has been a member of our post. So I had to take it. Probably probably 15 years, 12, 15 years. Was never active because his kids were younger. And he was, you know, the baseball coach and was at the soccer games and the dance recitals and the things. And now his kids are getting older, it's easier for him to and I hate to use the word less present. I think the kids, you know, like you throw them in everything and find out what they're good at and what they like, and then you kind of they kind of make their path in the sports or the arts or whatever, right? So you just throw them in everything when they're little, right? Um, so I think his time is becoming more available as the kids get older and they they narrow down what they want to do, right? Right. So, um, and he's he's been a valuable asset, but he'll be the first one to tell you I wasn't around because the kids were older, you know. So now I'm becoming more active to grow around and engaging. Natalie, don't worry, I'll drive him home.

SPEAKER_09: 1:51:03

You just you just toasted a white claw or whatever the fuck that is. No, he's the marine class.

SPEAKER_04: 1:51:10

Well, you know what I did.

SPEAKER_09: 1:51:11

No, he I know he toasted it. He tainted, I know, but he toasted him with a white claw or whatever the fucking ding.

SPEAKER_01: 1:51:20

Here, let's try it again. I'll make it ding.

SPEAKER_09: 1:51:23

There it is. No, it's not toast in a sissy drink.

SPEAKER_04: 1:51:27

Well, you gotta remember, I remember when you were walking Billy's bluff.

SPEAKER_07: 1:51:31

Oh man. I actually stayed in that room one time and I almost slipped on it still. It was still up there. What? You puke all over the upper deck.

unknown: 1:51:41

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_07: 1:51:44

What haven't you? I gotta hear this story now. Okay. So let me finish the story. So, anyways, uh, you know, having having a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01: 1:51:51

Natalie says, thank you, Charlie.

SPEAKER_07: 1:51:54

Really to drive him home. Yeah, to drive him home. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. I said, Don't worry, Natalie, I'll drive him home tonight. You guys can come get the car to move. I'll park it inside, it'll be safe. But uh, yeah, so it's it's it's just one of those things where um, you know, I think we have just as many veterans when you're talking about Barry having 80,000 members or 60,000 members, and we're down to 30. I think we have that. We we could we could still get to the 60 number, the 80 number. We have the veterans in the state to do it. We just don't allow it because the way the family units work nowadays, the social stuff after work or whatever else just interferes with family life and is not acceptable to do anymore. It's not until those kids get older.

SPEAKER_05: 1:52:41

And you brought up a valid point, and and that is the dynamics of our posts across the state or or or of the country. I was just talking about the guy.

SPEAKER_01: 1:52:52

Yeah. Sexy man just walked in.

SPEAKER_07: 1:52:55

He did. He just went, I think he hit the head.

SPEAKER_06: 1:52:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:52:59

Um, so, anyways, we're talking about Camp Trotter and Billy's Bluff. So, Camp Trotter, which we've talked about on this podcast before, is in the state of Michigan. Um, we have a kids' camp that runs from like June to August. This year, uh, they're not gonna have there's some maintenance issues and some things that we need to do. We can only do in the summertime. We can't work on the camp in the wintertime, so we need to do it during the summer. So there's not gonna be kids at the camp this year, so we can get some electrical water things figured out. Uh, we can only do during the summertime, so kids will be back next year, but runs typically June through August, end of July. Uh six, seven weeks, yeah. Um, but uh anyways, so the riders' groups throughout the Department of Michigan, Mount Pleasant, specifically, Harrison. Um, we had uh a few guys from Holland come over over the last couple trips over there. We do a lot of maintenance work, picking up sticks, raking grass, blowing off the roofs, putting in the dock, all those things. So donated training. Have you ever met Ray Lopez? I haven't. Nice to meet you. So uh Ray Ray Lopez, bro.

SPEAKER_01: 1:54:13

Uh never happens. Former state commander. Army guys are best.

SPEAKER_07: 1:54:17

Never department commander, but former past.

SPEAKER_01: 1:54:21

We always out numbers.

SPEAKER_07: 1:54:22

We always say past. Jar heads, jar heads are always outnumbered. I like that where you've got numbers except for five, brother. I I hate to tell you, even if there's eight of you in one Marine, you're still on number two. Well, always. That's the attitude we have. So, um, so the camp camp trouters, like I say, we've talked about it a hundred times. So riders' groups uh participate, donate money, buy equipment stuff there all the time. So we typically go to the camp in in May, we do some cleanup, put the dock in. We go back in September, we pull the dock out, do some more cleanup. Very active there. So uh years ago, probably three or four years ago, really before the riders groups really got into it, Tim, Billy, and Travis and Sencio went over for something and they stayed at the camp. And the camp was closed. When we go there, there are no kids, no campers there. Um I don't know why you guys were there. Do you want to tell the story? But what are you guys doing over there?

SPEAKER_09: 1:55:23

There's no puking at all.

SPEAKER_07: 1:55:25

So they proceed to go to Camp Trotter, and there's a fire pit. And I'm not kidding you, if this fire pit's not 14 foot around, you could put about four quarter wood in that thing. It is humongous. And it's for the safety of the kids. So they're partying by the bonfire, and when the kids aren't there, obviously we like bourbon, we like beer. You know, we sit around, we cook steaks, we do all kinds of shit. These three idiots go over there and they get hammered. Hammered. And Billy's Bluff is upstairs above the kitchen, is a couple bedrooms, three bedrooms up there. I've stayed in them one time and I stayed in Billy's Bluff room. And it has an emergency stairwell that goes down to the first floor in case of fire, and you can't go down through the kitchen.

SPEAKER_09: 1:56:14

And me and Travis were sharing a room. Uh-huh. And in the middle of the night I had to go to the bathroom. And you thought the bathroom was I thought the bathroom was the balcony. At first you thought it was the closet. There is no closet.

SPEAKER_07: 1:56:31

There is a closet. Is there a closet? There is a closet. You thought the bathroom was a closet. Travis threw you out onto the balcony. And then I finally got my bearing. But the but the best part was Billy, in in the state of condition he was in, goes down the stairs into the into the kitchen. Let's remind everybody I take sleeping medicine. Yeah, okay. Well, you can have your disclaimer however you want.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:55

Billy goes down sneakers into the kitchen, post campers.

SPEAKER_07: 1:57:01

There's ice cream toppings. Squeeze squeeze tubs. Decides at like two or three o'clock in the morning, he gets hungry. He's like, he opens the fridge. Oh, here's butterscotch ice cream topping in a squeeze tube, proceeds to put it over his face, squeezes the shit out of it. Eat it. The camp director at the time, who was there so that we could be there, or they could be there. Isn't it Orville? Orville was there. He comes in and he's like, What the hell are you doing? And Billy goes, I'm hungry. He's like, hey, put it back. Whatever. Billy goes back upstairs and goes to bed. Gets up in the morning, and he's talking to Tim and Travis. And he's like, Billy's running his hands, and if you can see him on the live, he's got the Billy Goat goatee go already. And he goes, What the fuck is in my beard? Stuff all in his fucking beard. All over the teeth. I mean, it was like a boy jacked off or not. Well, if you're seeing if you do that color, you need to see a doctor.

SPEAKER_05: 1:58:34

Minimal, you scratch your balls.

SPEAKER_04: 1:58:37

So it was a no container.

SPEAKER_07: 1:58:38

It was like a it was like a what about Mary movie where her hair is like combed all fucked up. So Billy's original road name was Butterscotch after that. And then he proceeds to go to this might be a year later, might be six months later, they go to the pool tournament because Billy's a member of the pool league at our post.

SPEAKER_09: 1:59:03

So is Ray.

SPEAKER_07: 1:59:04

They have a state tournament, and it was in Muskegon. So they play, and it's you're you're there all weekend. I guess it's a great time. I'm not a fool shooter. Um great camaraderie. Uh it's post against post.

SPEAKER_09: 1:59:18

It's a three-day tournament.

SPEAKER_07: 1:59:19

They do all it, it it's it's huge. It's crazy, it's crazy how big it is.

SPEAKER_09: 1:59:23

We're the only state that has one.

SPEAKER_07: 1:59:25

Really?

unknown: 1:59:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:59:27

So they go over to Muskegon and of course, Tim, staying with Billy and Amy, I think, at the time.

SPEAKER_09: 1:59:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:59:32

All right. So they come to ride back on Sunday after getting hammered Saturday night. So they're leaving the parking lot, and Bill has a uh coughing fit, your choking thing that you were doing. Yeah. So he goes to open the door to like choke or puke out the door, right, in the truck, and driving through the parking lot at idle speed, falls out of the truck. In the parking lot, and the truck continues to roll toward the intersection. Tim's in the back. Tim's in the front. Amy's in the back trying to dive over the seats. They're trying to throw it in the park, and it's like grinding the gears, trying to get it in, and they're trying to get to the floor. Billy's laying in the parking lot. They finally get the truck stopped. Billy gets up and goes, What the fuck happened? Is he bleeding like a son of a bitch out of his face? Shows up to the pulse, he's all scabbed to hell. So now he's got the new name, new road name of Humpty.

SPEAKER_09: 2:00:35

Humpty.

SPEAKER_07: 2:00:36

Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall or fell out of the truck, and here it's a little bit. I would have called him Scarf. And I'm thinking to myself, you fall out of a truck while you're driving.

SPEAKER_02: 2:00:46

That's like the other two had to get the truck in the park before it went in the road.

SPEAKER_09: 2:00:55

Well, I was I was in the stopped position. I was literally stopped. No, I didn't have it parked. And you fell out when it started rolling? Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 2:01:06

Okay. So, and I very well could have the details wrong, but I wasn't there.

SPEAKER_09: 2:01:12

And I broke my nose for the third or fourth time.

SPEAKER_07: 2:01:15

And then you fell down some stairs.

SPEAKER_09: 2:01:20

Dislocated my shoulder.

SPEAKER_07: 2:01:21

Dislocated your shoulders for it. Yeah. So yeah, you're definitely not allowed to walk by yourself. So that's how he got Humpty. Okay. I will carry you down the stairs here at the Sky Lounge tonight to make sure that's true. Liability for sure.

SPEAKER_09: 2:01:34

I don't I don't trust you at this point. That's probably not a good thing.

SPEAKER_07: 2:01:37

And as a matter of fact, I don't like you sitting at the high top bar. You need to go sit in one of those chairs over there. That might be too high for you at this point. Oh shit. Did you sign did you sign the waiver when you walked in? Yeah. Okay, I just want to make sure.

SPEAKER_05: 2:01:52

You you were a district commander with Roger Fader.

SPEAKER_09: 2:01:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 2:01:56

Yeah. And Jerry Gorsky was your department commander.

SPEAKER_09: 2:01:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 2:02:00

Yeah. I remember that.

SPEAKER_09: 2:02:01

Oh, I hated that.

SPEAKER_04: 2:02:03

I remember that. Roger loves you.

SPEAKER_09: 2:02:06

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04: 2:02:06

Yes. Roger's your brother.

SPEAKER_09: 2:02:08

Yeah. Jerry didn't like it. Jerry would. Jerry, I love Jerry. He he's a great guy. Don't get me wrong. But Jerry would call me while I was at work. And the phones didn't work at work.

SPEAKER_07: 2:02:22

There might be like a mountain. So he'd be mad at me. If I didn't answer him. And my phone wouldn't go off until I got in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_09: 2:02:30

Cool. And he'd always go, Bill, this is Jerry Gorsky, State Commander. And I'd be like, I only know one Jerry Gorsky. And first of all, we have cell phones now, so I know who's called caller ID? Yeah, yeah. But he'd always throw in the disclaimer, Jerry Gorsky, State Commander.

SPEAKER_07: 2:02:55

I tell you, that's a very prestigious position. It is. It's not it's a job.

SPEAKER_05: 2:03:01

It's not to be done.

SPEAKER_07: 2:03:03

Right, but it's also not a given position.

SPEAKER_05: 2:03:06

Charlie, if your post says, hey, that trash can't full and I'm standing next to it, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna freaking get that bag. I'm gonna say, where's the dumpster? They're gonna say over there. I'm gonna say, oh fuck. And I'm gonna go take the trash out.

SPEAKER_07: 2:03:25

Yeah, but that's that's the way it is. But I mean it's we love it.

SPEAKER_05: 2:03:29

It's it's a very humble position, okay? Like I said, I've cleaned toilets, worked on air conditioning machines, doesn't, and everything in between. It's just what we do. Yep. You know what? It's it's it's all volunteer, okay? But the pyramid is like this, okay. All the work is done at the base, not at the top.

SPEAKER_07: 2:03:53

No. So it's exactly what we said about him moving up to district quartermaster. We told him the same thing. It's gonna be a little bit easier than what you're used to. Right. And if who is a district quartermaster?

SPEAKER_09: 2:04:03

Is it colon?

SPEAKER_07: 2:04:04

Yeah, colon right up. And I I don't know if colon's gonna run again or not. I haven't heard that. Unfortunately, we were down in mid-winter. So we were checking out on Sunday, and then we had our false meeting. Or we had our district meeting, and I didn't think I could get Jen out of bed early enough to make the trip all the way up there. So everybody's like, You can make a district, you're making them probably not. How was your rep? I made it.

SPEAKER_05: 2:04:28

Well, I'm not hounding you because you know what? The only reason I made it is because I went to bed like at 10 o'clock. Oh it was it sucked because the roads were horrible coming up. Oh horrible, horrible, horrible.

SPEAKER_07: 2:04:42

Yeah, they weren't they weren't much better when we left it. Like your head up now.

SPEAKER_05: 2:04:46

Um yeah, and and uh you know you can't cancel it, just hold it, and whoever shows shows if they don't, you don't hold you don't hold it against them.

SPEAKER_07: 2:04:55

Yeah, especially if you have bad weather.

SPEAKER_05: 2:04:57

No, it was bad weather. It was it was it was bad. And and I know that I wasn't the only one that came from Kalam Zoo. There was a couple people.

SPEAKER_07: 2:05:03

Well Scott Taylor did, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 2:05:04

It was it was horrible.

SPEAKER_01: 2:05:05

Yeah. So I that that actually brings up a question. Um bylaws talk about how uh you know proxy voting or absentee voting is is not allowed. There's no proxy vote. No proxy vote at any level, but um, or absentee voting, even you can't vote absentee on stuff. So, but especially those of us in the northern states where blizzards are a common thing, and maybe not so much lower peninsula, Michigan, but you know, anyway, northern states, snow, horrible weather, whatnot. Um, is there any particular reason why National has not authorized anything like that? Or maybe even only for partial year, right?

SPEAKER_05: 2:05:52

Well, here's our here's our talk about voting. Our state convention is held in June. Unless you're in the Arctic Circle, it's not a factor.

SPEAKER_08: 2:06:01

Right.

SPEAKER_05: 2:06:03

District meetings the they're they're well may, but they're quarterly. So it's it's it's a judgment call. If I'm a state commander and in I monitored attendance at every post in the state that went to district meetings, I was very adamant about it. And I was prior to that, and I am now. But my gosh, you know what, there's a human factor here. If a post in Marquette in the district meeting is is 25 miles down a snow belt and and they just receive 20 inches of snow, my God, they're not gonna make it. It's just the way it is. So you you you know you got the human element, and I know every state commander that we've had that they understand that and and they they're forgiving of it. Our bylaws say that you need to make, if you miss two meetings as a district commander, or I'm sorry, as a post commander, you're relieved. I've had I've had that happen numerous times. I didn't relieve them, and and nor did anybody, because you got the human element. I've had accidents on the way, I've had heart attack on the way, I've had snowstorms, I've had everything. You just you know, it is what it is, and and that's fine. I don't think it has to be rewritten. We just have to be human beings.

SPEAKER_07: 2:07:31

Well, it well it wouldn't work because the way that our national bylaws are written, you open up nominations the month before. So, for instance, at the post, in in March you open up nominations, and then in your April meeting, when you actually vote, you do nominations again. So you can't do an absentee ballot because somebody nominated in March, right? They're still not in that well, right? But then you have somebody new nominated in April. Sure. How do you get a ballot out to somebody that's not at the meeting to vote for?

SPEAKER_05: 2:08:01

Well, they can't no, they got to be there to vote.

SPEAKER_07: 2:08:03

Well, well, that's what I'm saying. That's why we don't do absentee because we don't we don't have snowstorms. We don't I understand that, but when he was saying, why don't they do absentee ballots? Because you don't know who's gonna be on the ballot because we gotta be there.

SPEAKER_06: 2:08:15

Now with right, that's why we don't have technology and stuff like that. Why isn't there a method for like like Zoom meetings, people log in?

SPEAKER_05: 2:08:22

There there is meetings that are acceptable at the post level that can be done electronically, and they have their own set of rules at the post level.

SPEAKER_01: 2:08:30

Okay. Um this is the first time I'm hearing about this because now I'm really interested.

SPEAKER_05: 2:08:34

They they exist, and and but I'm not gonna quote them because I have drink so much Kentucky bourbon here.

SPEAKER_06: 2:08:40

So in that capacity though, so let's say we're doing a Zoom meeting, we had some weird storm that came through for the April um voting.

SPEAKER_05: 2:08:50

Because you're you're cuz you're because you're RN Marquette.

SPEAKER_06: 2:08:53

Yeah. So you're at the Arctic Circle. You log into that meeting, so you're not at the post building, and you need to vote. Can you vote through the system? Or do you have a couple of things? What's your post bylaws on the day?

SPEAKER_05: 2:09:06

There's a post-bylaw with this as well.

SPEAKER_06: 2:09:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_05: 2:09:10

But post bylaws dictate that if electronic meetings are acceptable. That the the national organization has already went ahead and made those mechanisms in place during COVID that electronic meetings are acceptable.

SPEAKER_06: 2:09:27

Because there was one other type of event that we were talking about to where you get some of the older generations that still want to vote, but they don't like to drive it for dark.

SPEAKER_07: 2:09:37

So, how do you get them in there to be able to do the voting when unless you want to hold your meeting at one o'clock in the afternoon, but that's gonna eliminate anybody that works. But that works.

SPEAKER_09: 2:09:45

Yeah, so the government aren't capable of zooming anyway because they don't know how to do it. No, yeah, but like when we're old, we're gonna be able to.

SPEAKER_07: 2:09:51

The issue that you're gonna have with electronic meetings that I don't like. I don't either. Because here's here's the problem. You might have auxiliary members that are your family. Yeah. Okay. So here's the deal. Here's the deal. Everybody sees me right now? Yeah, what do you mean, man? Okay, go ahead and meet me so much for converter. How are you voting that's gonna go get us up the round button auxiliary? I'm standing behind the camera with a 40-mile drive. You have no idea. Those meetings are for post members. Yeah. So if you're doing it on a computer, you want to talk about you think our meetings are two hours or long. Imagine doing a Zoom meeting. Yeah. Where now you've got people trying to comment in. How does anybody at the meeting hear who's commenting in? Yeah. Like, we have no idea who's commenting right now unless you read it. Yep. With a delay. Now there's a question. Now there's a bunch of people on the floor that want to talk about it. Now this person's got to wait for the delay, then re-comment back. I mean, you you you would take you would take a two-hour meeting and make it a four-hour meeting by doing Zoom. Right. You want to be superhero?

SPEAKER_05: 2:10:56

Then you have people that you if you have old timers that that maybe attend maybe every other post meeting or every third post meeting, and but they want to be a part of that election process. Pick them up. Pick them, you damn frickin' right. You're damn fucking right. You go ahead and you pick them up. You pick them up. And and you do that. Because you know what? You know what they're gonna do? Gosh darn it. I love this post. You want to do a real trip? And everything that I've done in the last 50 years just solidify it. Because I'm gonna be in, I'm gonna be there, okay? I'm gonna be there with my frickin' diaper in my in my frickin' living room. He's gonna pick me up, and I got three hours before I ship myself, and I'm gonna go to that post meeting. And they're gonna pick me up and I'm gonna vote and I'm gonna be part of this freaking thing.

SPEAKER_07: 2:11:48

I'll pick up and pick them up. Literally, guys, I need to pick 'em up. I'm just I'm just saying, I think if you went, you went electronic, you can't dictate who's in the room in here and post.

SPEAKER_05: 2:11:57

I I I I want to see that in person. Now, post meetings, there is mechanisms in in place, and it's all cornered in the bylaws. Because we would we would not have been able to function during COVID if we didn't have it. But it's got to be in your bylaws.

SPEAKER_07: 2:12:12

I don't I don't want a four-hour meeting. No, that's what's gonna happen if you put people on Zoom and they're trying to comment and you're trying to they're asking questions and making pick those guys up. You know what? They want to get out too. Because anybody else in the meeting can't hear what they're discussing. They want to get out of the house.

SPEAKER_05: 2:12:27

You know what? So, so they're gonna in worst case scenario, and I I had World War II veterans when I was a district commander. They're gonna say, back in this, the back and that. They're gonna they they want to spew for five minutes. Let them spew, let them fucking do this, let them do that, let them cut a wet fart, let them scratch their balls, let them do whatever they're gonna do. When they leave that meeting, he says, Honey, they pick me up, they drop me off, I got to speak what I want to speak, and I'm going to bed a happy man.

SPEAKER_07: 2:12:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_05: 2:12:56

Mm-hmm. Come on.

SPEAKER_07: 2:12:58

Yep, yep, yep. We always use the analogy I always do is for the older members, right? Yeah. We that we have to do things differently, right? So we don't walk over to the kitchen and take the phone off the wall anymore. We do it with a cell phone, right? We pick the phone up, we we make a call. The phone call's not wrong. We just do it differently. So what you guys did in the past, the way we used to do it, the way we used to do it, it's not wrong. We just do the same thing, just different.

SPEAKER_05: 2:13:28

God my god, that is the best.

SPEAKER_07: 2:13:30

So the only way I can get it through the older membership is the telephone, right? It doesn't hang on the wall. We just do it differently in the pocket.

SPEAKER_05: 2:13:36

We just do it different.

SPEAKER_07: 2:13:37

Same mission, we're still doing the same thing. But it would be nice to be able to go online with some sort, but I think that's gonna create a lot of laziness, and you're gonna have two people at a meeting. Well, you know, 40 years from now because everybody's well, I can just get on a meeting and just sit at home and do the meeting. 30, 40 years from now, they'll do it. But right now, be responsible for talking about it.

SPEAKER_05: 2:13:55

There's still V, there's still World War II veteran and there's still career war veterans. And you know what? They were the pillars.

SPEAKER_07: 2:14:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 2:14:03

Put a smile on our face and put on the vat, man.

SPEAKER_01: 2:14:05

Absolutely. My uh very simple logical compromise would be uh not while we wouldn't be required to, but we have the option to make our you know meetings, a zoom meeting. You may not be allowed to vote, but you can at least hear the deliberations. That's the solution. But his his point still stands of who's allowed to hear the deliberations, you know. I mean, so that's a good point.

SPEAKER_05: 2:14:31

Well, how many old timers do you guys have over at your post?

SPEAKER_07: 2:14:34

That are over to what's what's an old timer? I mean, no, they come to two meetings.

SPEAKER_05: 2:14:40

They come to two meetings a year, three meetings a year. Well, even then, even then, maybe like three. Right. Because you guys were Vietnam heavy, not World War II heavy.

SPEAKER_07: 2:14:50

We're probably three, maybe. Pick her ass up. But I mean, real realistically, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 2:14:56

We I just pulled our pick them up two hours early, take them to the Sellys, take them back into the post.

SPEAKER_01: 2:15:03

Here we go. Roy. Roy is our current post quartermaster. Um three. I helped him pull our membership roster, and I highlighted the number of vet members that we have on our roles that are over the age of seven. And I would say there's probably 20, 25. Yep. Yeah. There was quite a few that were in their high 90s, and I'm like, eh.

SPEAKER_05: 2:15:35

But you know who you have at your post who is such a man of faith. I want the podcast to hear me. It's our department chaplain, Terry. Terry Koontz. Mm-hmm. Terry Koontz.

SPEAKER_01: 2:15:50

Yep. Give me one second.

SPEAKER_05: 2:15:52

When he's in a room, he makes us all better with our faith and how we are. I'm gonna tell you what. You are you guys are so blessed to have Terry Koontz in your life. I love Terry.

SPEAKER_08: 2:16:04

He's such a selfless, you know, oh my god. Like he's he's a sermon. Like, he just wants everything around and everybody around him to be better.

SPEAKER_07: 2:16:14

And and and for some of the stuff he's been through, absolutely health-wise, yeah, lately. Still going through. He's still going through. And still, well, as positive as he is still, yeah, always still him and his wife doing everything to do. Well, hell, they were on when the writers groups escorted the Medal of Honor recipient from Owasso to uh to Highway. He he followed with us. He could have just drove down to Ali, but he did the whole escort and did all the stuff with us and his wife, right? That's just how dedicated to the cause that they are. They didn't have to do that. I mean, that took hours out of their day. They could have just left two hours later and just drove straight there, and he could have done his department stuff and left. They went to lunch with us, they did everything, you know. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_05: 2:16:58

One of the very first conflicts I had was when I was a state commander was we had our elections, our chaplain died. Mouse Terry Koontz. He says, we need Ray. Who could fill this billet? I says, going through the whole fucking state of Michigan. I use the word fuck and the word chaplain in the same sentence, but I'm going to. Our fucking chaplain. This is Joe Brenner. Terry Koontz. From from Weedman. God damn it. Horrible thing to say. Terry Koontz. Terry Koontz. So I call Terry Koontz. I said, Terry, um, I would love to appoint you as as as the for the remainder of the year as our interim chaplain, and then you run. He says, Why me? Because that's how humble Terry is. I says, Because Terry, I don't want to tell him that he's a bad motherfucker. I want to say, Terry, I says, you enlighten us and and you bring us to a spiritual guidance, everything that you do. I says, you you make every human being a better human being when you walk in that room. I says, you are a man. I says, it's a privilege and an honor.

SPEAKER_07: 2:18:19

So Well, the the kind of man he is, every time he walks in, he's happy and excited to see you. Yeah. Me, Roy, Joe. Everybody. He's like, hey brother, how's it going? Like, he is. Embrace that man. Yes. He is that man. He's always in a good mood, regardless of what he's got going on in personal life or anything else. He's excited to see somebody, and that's joy.

SPEAKER_05: 2:18:40

We all know about his cancer. We all know that that it it it goes in remission and then it goes, it goes for the dive bomber to get him. And what does he do? I go through the therapy, I go through through the treatment, and I pray. And God is gonna do what he's gonna do. And guess what? God brings them up every time. And we're blessed with Terry Coontz from Wheatman, Michigan, VFW post 3033, and you guys are lucky to have him because he is not just your spiritual guidance, he's mine and everybody in the department of Michigan. Yep. My bourbon is talking, but I would say the same thing if I didn't drink bourbon.

SPEAKER_01: 2:19:23

It is it is good to see him sitting at the at the tables up there. Oh my gosh. I um just throw something out. My my better half sent me a text message. I just took that phone call and I didn't realize. She said that you guys could hear me on the podcast, so uh my bad. Can hear you a what? I took that phone call out there. Oh, they're listening to your phone call. She said that they could hear me. She called me a big mouth. So he's kind of right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 2:19:53

Fucker. I'm surprised. I'm surprised. Are you sure that's all she really said? What did she really call you? I don't think it's a big mouth. I think she probably called you something though. There you go. I'm gonna listen. I can't wait till this is Spotify.

SPEAKER_05: 2:20:08

Actually, me and I looked at a house on Lake Isabella for us to move up here. And it the price was right, everything was right, it was perfect, but it's just too far from grandma's house. Yeah, everything was perfect. Because I mean Natalie, if Benjamin wasn't born, we we would we would be in mid-Michan. It wasn't a question. But I but now that you have a kid.

SPEAKER_07: 2:20:31

Yeah, right. Where's where uh are you on are you on a lake up there? I am not on Bud Lake.

SPEAKER_05: 2:20:37

What's no no I'm I'm a small lake. Um I'm on Deer Lake. You you have you were you there the one time?

SPEAKER_07: 2:20:44

No, Tim, Tim went up there. I didn't I didn't go. I think Tim and Terry and Sentio probably.

SPEAKER_05: 2:20:48

We had a district 11 a meeting over at the Harrison Post, and I says, you know what? I says, hey guys, because they're all my everybody's my friends up here. I says, why don't you come to my house? I went and got a couple slabs of New York strip, had them had them cut, and we we drank like fishes, we barbecued and everything, and Tim ate three steaks.

SPEAKER_07: 2:21:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 2:21:09

Yep, and he plugged my toilet. Nice.

SPEAKER_04: 2:21:17

That's some bitch. Was this guy there to help you out?

SPEAKER_09: 2:21:20

I wasn't there. No, I wasn't there, never been there. I was there.

SPEAKER_05: 2:21:23

You know, Tim was a lightweight, all I do is throw a feather in it. No, he plugged the shitter. He had three steaks. But but they were done. Everybody ate it. I said, Who wants? We got three steaks. He goes, Hey, look at all the eat them some bitches. Yeah, I need a beer though. John Griffith cooked all the steaks. Because he's your neighbor, right? Yeah, he was well, he wasn't at the time, but no, he wasn't. He was he was running for junior vice at the time. Okay. So this is oh my god, this has been how many years ago?

SPEAKER_07: 2:21:54

Oh, yeah, quite a few.

SPEAKER_05: 2:21:56

So we we had Johnny Wadd for me, yeah. Johnny, Johnny Waddington, we had Bill Scott, we we had we had, I don't know, there was about 25 of us there that went there, Bill. Well, we had a good old time.

SPEAKER_07: 2:22:07

And let me tell you that. So the Claire VFW is about 20 miles north of us, and then probably about 10 miles north of that's the Harrison Post. And between Mount Pleasant on the south end and Harrison on the north end, with Claire Smack Dab almost in the middle, our three posts work so well together. So, you know, we were going through developing bylaws for the House Committee or the Post, getting our district commander, uh Scott Taylor, and John Waddington out of the Clare Post uh to come down and give insight and depth, right, from all their years of experience and stuff. Um, it just goes to show how you know there's there's times there's competition between posts, and then there's times that it's the brotherhood and the sisterhood. You just help each other out, right? From as as fellow comrades. For the betterment of the order. You know, and it's it's it's it's cool to see because all too often, you know, you go down these department things and there's a lot of awards getting flown around, and you know, you're wearing a white hat, you're wearing an all-American, and you got people coming up, hey, congratulations on your post getting that award, and they're kind of jealous because they didn't get it or they can't get it, or whatever. And and they'll tell you congratulations, but you know, it's always kind of a competition, and it's it's a huge sense of pride when your post commander, district commander gets these awards, it's on behalf of their membership, right? Right, membership is the reason why they're getting them. They're they're they they have a big part of it too, because they have to get reports in, they've got to do all the stuff, but it's though they they wear those covers on on behalf of their memberships. But, you know, there's some jealousy that goes on, but when it comes to us three, straight going north. That's a sibling rivalry. It is it is a brother, and if we have a problem or they have a problem, we'll do what we gotta do. They're gonna help us out with what we need. That's the way it's supposed to be. That's the way the VFW is supposed to work. It's not always us against you.

SPEAKER_08: 2:24:04

I mean, speaking on shenanigans, I mean look at look at your recent uh transfer.

SPEAKER_07: 2:24:11

Yeah, so you know, I so my daughter and son-in-law live up in a tiny town called Glennie.

SPEAKER_05: 2:24:18

I know Glenny.

SPEAKER_07: 2:24:19

Okay, so I had to go up there, uh, and I'm I put a long track kit on my snowmobile. So I go up there on a Monday, Tuesday, stay with the kids. I go to the Glenny Tavern, which is about a mile or less from the kids' house. They're working. So I I go to the tavern, I have lunch, I'm sitting there, and here comes this old timer and with a uh Marine Corps cover on. And I'm like, I'm like, oh, you serving the Marines? And he's like, Yeah. And I'm like, oh no shit, you know, I'm Charlie, it's number five, brother, you know, and it's like we get this conversation going. I'm like, oh. He's like, wait a minute, giving the story. And I'm like, you know, I go, hey, you remember the BFW? Like, where'd you serve? Well, I serve Vietnam. I'm like, oh, you remember the BFW? And he goes, I am, a life life member out of Arizona. And I'm like, I'm like, why don't you transfer over here to like Oscoda, Bob, Barton City, the two that I knew were close, right? I think St. Helen's not too far. Ross Commons not too far, probably, but and he's like, Well, I put my paperwork into Oscoda and I haven't heard nothing back. I'm like, oh no shit, when'd you turn it in? Like six months ago. Oh, I get out of my bar stool, leave my food, I call Scott Taylor, and I who's our district commander said, Who is the post commander? I need a number. And he's like, Why? And I'm like, there's a guy that turned in his transfer paperwork, says it's with the DD214. I've seen his life membership card for the VFW. Yep. So I call the commander there, and I leave the voicemail, he calls me right back, and he's like, Well, there was something kind of a hanky or we didn't understand his DD214 or something, right? I get the excuse. So we're going back and forth for a couple days with me and Scott here. And anyways, long story short, I call the guy back and I said, Hey man, we're working on stuff, you know, but worst case scenario, I can get you to Barton City, get you at Harrison, get you Russ Common somewhere else. He goes, No, I want to come to your post. And I'm like, dude, I'm like two hours south. I said, We I let me get you somewhere, right? Okay, and just let's be done with it. Because he was like, at this point, they've jacked me around. You're the only guy that's helped me out, right? Trying to figure this out. So I want to go to your post. And I'm like, Okay. All right, are you sure? So I drove back up there and picked up his, I had him sign his transfer paperwork, picked up a copy of his D214, brought it back. I sent copies to the quartermaster, said, hey, here's his stuff. I'm gonna bring his copies in, but I wanted, you know, you scribble out the Social Security and all the different stuff, right? But I wanted to send a copy just so that if for some reason I got killed or sick or whatever, he had copies of everything for the membership committee to look at. And then he he joined our post as a transfer life member. But he just did it solely for the fact of that I was like the only guy that cared about my name. Our district commander, like you need to be part of District 11, that's where you live. But let me try to get you somewhere closer, right? He's he's gonna be a great member, he's a retired guy, he'll he'll come down, visit the post, you know, but he's hours away. But that's that's just it just made me mad. Yeah, right. Made me mad that you're not gonna, and I I I don't and I'm not trying to slam on Oscoda, but or the commander or their membership or anything else. It makes me mad that nobody cared.

SPEAKER_05: 2:27:48

It should have been all about him.

SPEAKER_07: 2:27:49

It sounds like nobody cared, right? It should have been all about him. And this is the reason why the guy came here because I was like the only guy that cared. Scott cared. Scott, he can deal with Scota's commander, their membership, or whatever else because of this. I mean, you could just look at that guy's DD 214, you knew that it was no joke. He was that thing was older than half the post. He was a Vietnam service service title with star, so he spent two tours there, and he had a Marine Corps Combat Action.

SPEAKER_03: 2:28:17

Fuck.

SPEAKER_07: 2:28:17

So there was every which way around. Fuck. It's not even that, it wasn't even that difficult to look at. No, it wasn't something stinky in it.

SPEAKER_01: 2:28:24

And you know, and so the point is outreach matters. Willing to have that conversation matters, and that is not the only story that floats around our post with an example like this. Wasn't it wasn't it the ego? It was Terry and Essencio who reached out to a guy who was just floating through town. Doesn't he live in like Texas or something? But he's joined our post as a life. Do you remember who I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_07: 2:28:47

Yeah, kind of. Yeah, I don't think it was Texas, but it was somewhere way that like Missouri or something. Right. But Terry cared, and nobody else is nobody else has ever cared, right? So that's why this guy joined our post. That's one person cared.

SPEAKER_05: 2:29:00

That's another guy from your post that we haven't talked about. We talked about Terry Koontz. Yep. Terry and Sensio. Right on bar. That's right. Terry and Sencio, um, there's a lot of veterans at your post that if something were to happen to Terry Insencio, that would devastate them. Because Terry Insencio is a father figure in your post. Yes, he is. Not only is he a veteran, he's a father figure in your post.

SPEAKER_08: 2:29:33

That post to the to those guys is you know, a second home. They they dedicated so much time, it was life to them. So I can remember going back how many years have you been a member of a post?

SPEAKER_07: 2:29:48

I was talking like since 2004.

SPEAKER_08: 2:29:51

You're talking 20 some years ago.

SPEAKER_07: 2:29:52

That's a long time. Okay, so you got in right. I got my life. We were talking about you earlier. I'm like, it was like 12 or 15 years you've been a member of the long time.

SPEAKER_08: 2:29:59

I moved. The way up to UT, I followed my wife for almost eight years, and then as I moved back, I jumped back into you guys, so I was gone for a period of time. Plus, my kids were young. Yeah. My kids were old enough. That's what we were talking about. That's that's how we got together. But uh, I've been a member since 04. Um, how right around you know the turmoil time I was around when I first got out and stuff, you know, when Billy started coming around. I've had a lot of old school memories with Billy, you know, and at the post. Um but going back, I got Denny White. Another great, great, great man of our post.

SPEAKER_05: 2:30:37

I remember him.

SPEAKER_08: 2:30:39

I would go see Denny when he was at the nursing home. Because I used to live right down the street from Denny. I had a great relationship with Denny, I love Denny. So I'd go and visit him there, and all he'd want to do is he was just asking questions. How's the post? How's the post? How's the post? How's it doing? Let's have a beer. How's the post? You know, they just cared so much that they were so concerned and they just wanted to succeed. And Terry Sentio. You know, he comes in there doing his charitable games. I'm in there, you know, doing the quartermaster stuff, and Terry will just come up to me and stop and dead sign, or you know, and just like dead seriously, hey man, how's it post to? Are we good? Are we gonna make it? You know, blah blah blah. Just so concerned that he wants this place no matter what, to succeed. Nothing's changed. No. So I mean those guys just they put their living life into that post.

SPEAKER_07: 2:31:35

And that's why that's why we always call Terry the Eagle. There you go. He's in my phone. The second somebody walks in that he doesn't recognize he's the first guy to go over and shake them. Yeah, and welcome them to the post.

SPEAKER_05: 2:31:48

I only poured the drink because can we do a podcast of salute to the eagle? Sure. Because I don't need no more bird, but I poured a drink.

SPEAKER_08: 2:31:59

You want to pour it to the eagle. To the eagle.

SPEAKER_07: 2:32:02

I got people talking on it. No, but that's the easier to go. Well that's the thing. So, like, if so, like if Terry's not at the post, the eagle's not there, be the eagle. That's what Tim and I always said. Go shake a hand, welcome somebody. You don't know who they are, you don't know what they're about. That's Terry and Sensio. So I transfer that everywhere I go. So when I travel for work or personal, I shake a hand. Guy just happens to walk in with a cover, which is weird, right? Like uh, I mean, who who walks around with a Marpak cover? Right. Right? Starched out and everything. Yeah. Well, probably a fucking Marine, right? So it's like old school. Yeah, yeah, right. So it's like I start talking, and that's just how it works. And it's it's simple. Like, I I don't recruit a lot of people. I don't try because I don't want to push something on somebody. I'm not that guy.

SPEAKER_04: 2:32:51

That's our flaw.

SPEAKER_07: 2:32:52

I'm the same stuff. What I do is I start a conversation. And it's hey, you member the VFW? Yep. And if they say no, I said, Well, why not? So, man, it's great, you know. And then you kind of give them, and then you let them marinate with it, and you walk away, and at least you got that seed maybe planted. I'm not pushing membership, I just don't do that stuff. But I get a lot of people by that because I'm not aggressive. Too, you know. Right. And that's that's kind of part of it, you know. Hey guys, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 2:33:22

I'm sorry. I know your post and the dynamics that made your post run 20 years ago. Current, and what I think is gonna run today. What worked 20 years ago will never work. Will never work. You guys know what I'm talking about. They were the custodians of your post, and they were in good faith, and and and we send them off under death with with the ritual. But times have changed.

SPEAKER_08: 2:33:58

Right. It's tough to see these giants fall. Because, like, I know when I first come home, as most of us were, like, I was just blown up, I was fucked up, I was lost, I got kicked straight out of the Marine Corps, like, no transition, no nothing. I was just drinking and Billy can attest. I did a lot of the shit with Billy. You know, he was there, he saw it. He a lot of tears and fucking kicking my ass. But uh, you know, we had Dick Fish. Dick Fish was a guy downtown. They did a big purple heart ceremony downtown. They awarded me my purple heart, you know, right townsware Mount Pleasant, and Dick Fish, and a lot of the well, there was Sandra Cole, like or some congressman and uh John Molinar, I think, was there. Um, but uh Dick Fish, Denny White, you know, those guys, um John Goffnet, Bob Lackey, a lot of those, you know, Colonel Water. Colon, Ralph, like those guys were the guys that I grew up like looking up to in the post. Like, as I as I grew up, you know, Billy. Those guys were all my heroes. Those guys were my leaders, like they're all my heroes. But to see them fall, it's like it's giants crashing down from the world. They were giants.

SPEAKER_05: 2:35:17

But the issue, the issue is we need to take the torch. But the but the way they did no. I'm gonna reserve my conversation before we go through a podcast. Okay. Okay. Oh no, I like a warm. Okay. Um, we'll talk about this after the podcast. Because me and you, my brother. You're my brother. Damn, right.

SPEAKER_07: 2:35:41

He's my sister, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_05: 2:35:45

But anyway, that's not what I say about it. I have an answer to all that. Um but but let me go back to Ray. You're all over the state. You've been all over the state for 25 years. What post do you belong to? Well, my membership, I'm gonna go star member to this post, but the membership that I belong to is a post that I'm sitting to right there, right at that time. He says, Well, you're all over the fucking place. I said, You're goddamn right. Because if that guy says, Hey, we're having our fish fry, you need to fill that cooler up. Guess what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna fill that cooler up. Hey, that that trash can is full. Fill that goddamn trash can. God damn right. Okay. I'm digging in. Goddamn right. Okay. Because what we're really about is we're really about veteran advocacy. Because we could put a smile on a face of a widow, we're gonna do it. If we can go pick up a veteran that that has diapers and we're gonna pick them up to vote for a meeting that he's gonna go once a year, we're gonna pick them up and we're gonna smell shit in our car because that's what we're gonna fucking do. Right. That's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_08: 2:36:53

You know, it's it's it's the sacrifices to make you know our post and and post around everybody else succeed. Like, I know myself, I I've had long talks to these guys, and Brett, you know, when this whole position, the the quartermaster came about, I started, you know, I started getting phone calls, and they're like, hey, your name, your I'm like, how the fuck did my name get thrown in this mix? Like, I've never said anything about wanting to be a quartermaster. Like, somehow I started getting phone calls, and you know, the ball rolled, and Brent stepped down, and next thing you know, the post had 30 days and we needed somebody, and they really started to hammer me, and I'm like, listen, if nobody's stepping up and somebody's gotta do it, I'll step up. I'll I'll take it on. I'm no I was I was no financial guy, like I'm willing to I'm willing to step up to do the good of the post. Like, I don't I want this place to last succeed, so if I gotta step up and do it because nobody else is, sign me up. And it, you know, and carry on.

SPEAKER_07: 2:37:49

But you've been you've been great at it, and what it takes is a younger guy like yourself, right, who has the time available. Right, so you know, you're 100%, you're 100% disabled, you do a lot for the schools, you do a lot for your kids, you know, you mechanic stuff, you know what I mean? But you have, right, yeah, that's why you weren't here, right? You're doing shocks on something tonight. But I mean you you have time available, and unfortunately that position requires somebody that has general time available. It's not like it's a scheduled thing or whatever, but you got four hours here, two hours there, whatever to do the business for the post. We needed somebody that has a determination and has a want and a will to have the post succeed in that position. Brent did a great job to get us started. Then once the full-time job kicked in, right, or was coming, it was gonna be a lot more difficult because you can't escape at 8 o'clock in the morning or 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock or 2 o'clock or 4 o'clock. Right. Because he has a job. That job needed to be somebody that's semi-retired, basically. I was handed the keys to a Ferrari.

SPEAKER_08: 2:39:08

Like, let's let's not let's not you know sugarcoat this. Like, I was handed a turnkey operation, the Ferrari was warm and ready to go. So it's been, I mean, obviously a learning curve, learning, you know, certain things, and I still am, but you know, nothing that that this guy went through or wherever, like well, he he was through a lot of growing pains too much. He streamlined a lot of this process and a lot of things, so it's what he got turned over was a ship sandwich, right?

SPEAKER_07: 2:39:37

And that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_08: 2:39:38

The soup sandwich, it was a soup sandwich, but he streamlined a lot of these things and got a lot of stuff figured out. And so I I got handed over pretty good operation, but it still takes a lot of time on it.

SPEAKER_07: 2:39:48

It was well lubricated. I don't think you're doing that. Don't be referenced either because it's noticeable. And the reason why the membership wants you to continue in it if you want to continue in it, because we need to have something to do it, and it should only get easier as time goes on.

SPEAKER_08: 2:40:08

And that's the thing. I I I'm as I'm picking up, I'm going, I mean, I got no inclination to walk away. Uh I'm here. I'm here for a good good haul.

SPEAKER_07: 2:40:16

You know, which we appreciate your support and your wanting and your ability to continue to do it because that's an extremely important position. I would almost say, probably with the backing of Ray, to probably say the quartermaster is almost the most important position, if not the most important position at the post.

SPEAKER_05: 2:40:34

You can overcome a shitty commander, but you can never overcome a shitty quartermaster.

SPEAKER_07: 2:40:39

So that's is my exactly my sentiment.

SPEAKER_05: 2:40:42

So probably Let me let me rephrase that. You can you never you you will never really you can you can recoup a fucked up commander, but you can never recoup a fucked up quartermaster.

SPEAKER_08: 2:40:55

No, I would agree to that. Yeah, sorry. A lot of shit behind.

SPEAKER_05: 2:40:58

Yeah, so we appreciate your efforts covering for but back to back to the old timers, you know, they don't think with us, and they won't because no, I mean that's a whole different old school mentality.

SPEAKER_08: 2:41:09

Like you know what, and it's a right mentality. It is, it is. We get that. I love I I love colon, but man, sometimes he gets so fired up over some of these topics at our meetings and he goes off on these rants, and I just sit there and like shit because you're talking about colon. He's part of the colon for the last 20 years. I love colon. He's a great guy. But colon is a colon. Well, you get him worked up and he will fucking go off. What happened last time?

SPEAKER_06: 2:41:33

You forced me to go learn some stuff. Sure. I'm gonna go. Oh, I think that's great.

SPEAKER_05: 2:41:37

Yeah, but here's the thing. At the end of the day, you your post, because colon is already old, and and I don't want to I don't want to wipe anything out because colon has got a lot of knowledge. He does. It says you guys need to maintain and be relevant in your community. Because what's relevant in your community? Your veteran organizations, your barber, your fucking everything else that falls in place. It says when casual conversations happen in Isbella County, oh yeah, I was at the VFW the other time, they had a good steak fry. By the way, we had this one guy talk about veteran legislation. It was pretty interesting. And that's relevant. I think you know and when you would well I don't mean to interrupt you, but when you're a sponsor to their little league team, or you're a sponsor to this, he says, holy cow, can you imagine the God the the fucking VFW being a part of of of of of uh of of my son or my daughter or whatever and and their soccer team? And and oh my god, we went over there, we had a great time. Matter of fact, we had a steak, we got drunk, we had a great time. We're coming back tomorrow. I mean, does it have anything to do with your officers?

SPEAKER_01: 2:43:02

No, but it has to do with your relevancy, yes, right, and I think our our you know some posts have canteen, some don't. So some have that businessy side and some don't. But I don't think that's our business.

SPEAKER_08: 2:43:16

We just recruited another member because of that situation, right? That was the second one at our meeting because his previous post didn't have a canteen, right? And when he comes to Tim's benefit or well, the the memorial night, he's like, Holy shit, I'm I love this place. I want to come here and transfer.

SPEAKER_07: 2:43:31

That well, we've also picked up members from our our truck retreat with the kids for Halloween. Your truck retreat's awesome! We've picked up we've picked up members with the uh uh Easter stuff that we do with the exile back where we run all the kids through, picked up members from that. The bike night, we picked up members from that. So, I mean, these are the things that we do throughout the community. Involve kids or whatever, too.

SPEAKER_01: 2:43:53

So, but our our the point I just wanted to make the point I just want to make real quick is that we may have a canteen, but that's not the business of our post. No, the business of our post is to look out for each other and to be advocates for each other. That's the reason why I joined. I was going through a hell of a mental health, you know, originally from Grand Rapids, moved to this area, didn't know a single person, and it was my better half Tiffany who said, you know, maybe you should think about, you know, doing VFW. And you know she's famous last words, yeah. She probably regrets that she regrets that one.

SPEAKER_08: 2:44:26

I want to circle back, I want to circle back, you know, and in later topic of discussion, you know, for us to post, but sponsorship of Little Leagues. Yeah, we don't do that. I've already mentioned that we haven't, and I would love to. Yep. I I'm a former coach. I just coached my son's football team last year. Like their sponsorship for these teams held so far along. They will never forget that. We should we will never forget that. I'll look into it.

SPEAKER_07: 2:44:53

Once again, uh, as they stand up at every pulse meeting. Oh, yeah. Make sure the Ryers group knows about it. Let them sit down. I'll sit down with Trey Community.

SPEAKER_08: 2:45:08

Trey, if you're listening, because I saw you're watching, I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna talk with you.

SPEAKER_05: 2:45:12

So I'm gonna go off the recipe here. They go, Ray, you're a state commander. What post do you belong to? I says, What's the what what post I belong to? I says, what post am I sitting here right here right now? I says, I bel I says, I belong to the post that I'm sitting here right now, right here today. Yep. That's where I belong. I says, I don't have geographical boundaries. I never have. Charlie, have I ever had geographical boundaries?

SPEAKER_08: 2:45:40

And that's that's a that's across the board. So we went across the board. We went last year uh statewide. Like we went last year. We went on a cruise and um was down in Florida at Pork and Avril. And uh I jumped in with my with my buddy, and we ran to the we were heading towards the liquor store to buy some more beer so we could back at the hotel to pull everyone you know we were drinking, and I'm driving, and all of a sudden I look over and I'm like, I saw a VFW haul. Pork and Avro VFW. I'm like, and my buddy's like, what the fuck? I'm like, we're stopping. Man, we stopped in there, and two hours later we're still at the VFW hall.

SPEAKER_07: 2:46:16

They just carried over and tonight's great example. Shem Thompson, our senior vice. Yeah, he's down in Myrtle Beach golfing with a buddy of his. They took off on Sunday night, they're golfing, I think, through the week. I think he flies home either Friday or Friday. Friday, yep, can't remember Friday, Saturday. But he loves the Myrtle Beach post. Okay, and that's where they're gonna be hanging out a lot after they're done golfing. Well, they're still there now, believe me.

SPEAKER_08: 2:46:43

Yeah, so yeah, he gets home Friday because he's my new partner for the VOD on Saturday at the bowling tournament.

SPEAKER_07: 2:46:49

Yeah, he loves that post. He's still there because they're there. Yeah, which is crazy. That happens to be the weekend, St. Patty's Day, and then my kids are down, so that's the reason why I'm gonna go. No, you're good. I I never questioned go. I know you got reasons. I I threw it in, and the kids were like, Dad, why you why are you bowling? We're in town. I'm like, oh fuck. Fair. So yeah, that I want to let you know right away as soon as I she saw that in the calendar.

SPEAKER_08: 2:47:14

Brother, I I when you said you couldn't, I never questioned you. I knew sorry, brother. Not a question at all.

SPEAKER_07: 2:47:20

Shem stepped up, we're good. Yep. Well, I wanted to give you time too, but you know, so I I do the same thing, right? Like, I used to go up north, I was part of my my union on the management side. We have an apprenticeship training committee. It's managed mutually by the labor side and the management side for all of our apprentices. 200 apprentices that we have to do that program at any one time. We have a school up in Travis City, so we would go up to Traverse City for like uh Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We meet with some of the students up there, we golf, we do whatever. We have our um a meeting up there, a monthly meeting up there. And I would always go to the Cherryland Post. So I'd go up on Wednesday, and I go early, I'd go to the post. Because it's like check-in day on Wednesday, basically, you check in the hotel and great posts, great post. Yeah, so I stop into the post and you gotta buzz yourself in, and I have to card, right? Order a beer, and I get the old geriatric gin joint. The regular sitting at the end of the bar. Go in there and I get talking to the girl. Okay, you know, yep, take beer, whatever, you know. And I'm there for a couple hours. Buy chips for people down the down at the bar, like you always do, right? So I had to head to dinner that night with everybody and then go to the room next day, school, after we're all done, meeting or golf or whatever we're doing that day, back to the cherry lamp post. There a couple hours, buzz in, same bartender, of course. Can I see your card? Second day. Card again, buy all the chips for the regulars, you know, three o'clock, buy all their shit. Last day, I go in there. Finally, she's like, hey, welcome back. And then I get a couple, you know, hey, thanks for the chips. But it took two days of buying them drinks to even get the wave at the end of the table. So then, what's crazy is I leave the very next weekend I go up there for our contractors association meeting up there, and it's on a weekend. Jen goes up with me. I'm like, we gotta go to the post. So we go to the post, same bartender, and she's like, hey, welcome back. Oh, this must be your wife, you know. They get to talking and doing all the shit. But they finally, after like five times being in there, do they recognize me or realize, you know, it's not like a fucking change. You know what I mean? Clothes are all the same, you know. You know what I mean? But it just takes a while, and they have such a beautiful pulse up there. Great, really nice people, but when you're the outsider, it's like, why are you in my post? You should never be an outsider. Our pulse is so different. You should never be an outsider. I agree. Our pulse is so different. You walk in, you're friends and pisses me off.

SPEAKER_05: 2:49:56

Well, this is not conducive to the podcast. I will tell you after the podcast. Everything's conducive to the podcast. But I've no, this is not okay.

SPEAKER_08: 2:50:04

That's but but this is what are you? You you you you yanked my chain. You got my. I've had these encounters, and that's been a that's been an ongoing thing. It's like the right void, the separation from like the older generation to the younger generation, like the acceptance, so to say. Like, there's always like a fine line there where they're like, eh.

SPEAKER_05: 2:50:23

Yeah, when they want the when they want when they want my endorsement to come for department, and I hear that.

SPEAKER_07: 2:50:30

You want to wait until after we're offline?

SPEAKER_05: 2:50:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 2:50:33

Okay. I I had a feeling where you're gonna go with this and you want to do it offline. I better cut you off. Probably the only time in your life or my life I've ever cut you off and said, You probably should. You cut me off any time. After hours, you had a bottle of water and I'm driving it home.

SPEAKER_05: 2:50:50

No, you're not driving my home because I got a 40-mile drop. That's okay. I'm gonna have another bottle of wine and then maybe one after.

SPEAKER_01: 2:50:58

You guess me we have to leave right away. No, no, I got nowhere to be. Is that a good time, you think, Charlie, to want to wrap it up? And we're almost at our three-hour limit that we usually try to strive for. Um, so do you guys want to uh do a little bit of an outro? And so we'll just say uh thank you, Charlie. We'll just say thanks for joining us tonight. Um, especially you, Ray. You're our special guest. Open invitation. You're welcome to come back anytime.

SPEAKER_07: 2:51:26

Uh wait a minute. I'm gonna make a caveat to that. You have to let me know. Apparently, it's a semi-open invitation. Yeah, you have to let me know so I'm gonna make sure there's enough bourbon here for you. You gotta give me a little bit of advance not.

SPEAKER_04: 2:51:44

I saw I saw that. Wood for reserve. Holy shit. I I have a bottle of bourbon that I'm gonna present here to you. Oh no, just bring it with you next time you get it. No, it's a really good bottle of bourbon.

SPEAKER_07: 2:51:58

Maybe I'll take you up on it. Oh no, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 2:52:03

Appreciate you being up here.

SPEAKER_07: 2:52:04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05: 2:52:04

Thank you, guys. I guess I I just you you you guys know every element of me. You guys know my my my worst, my best, and everything in between. And you still welcome me and you still recognize me, and I'm very thankful for that.

SPEAKER_01: 2:52:18

Race kryptonite is a little bit of a good bourbon. I mean, no matter what, you're you're big funny. Your brother is the age of the brother. All right. I love that. But yeah, um, thanks for joining us tonight. Uh those of you who were watching live, thank you so much. Um, and uh sorry about the uh wait between the last couple of episodes, but we were trying to get all of this stuff figured out. So we're in the final stages of that, and we'll be here more often soon.

SPEAKER_06: 2:52:49

It was work until 5.30.

SPEAKER_01: 2:52:50

It was working until 5.30 when he dropped it back off. So uh but anyway, yeah, thanks for coming, and uh, we'll see you again soon. Peace out. Are we done?

SPEAKER_06: 2:53:01

I gotta drop off two more things. Right?

SPEAKER_00: 2:53:06

War is thank you for joining us at Soup Sandwich, a podcast that explores the complex and compelling world of veterans in the United States. Through interviews with veterans themselves, military experts, and advocates, we'll dive deep into the issues that matter most to this community, from mental health and employment to the history of the U.S. military, the future of military service, and everything in between. Whether you're a veteran yourself, a spouse or family member of a veteran, or simply interested in learning more about this community, this podcast is for you. So come with us on a journey into the heart of the veteran experience and discover the stories, struggles, and triumphs that have shaped our nation's grave after they've returned home. This podcast is designed solely for entertainment and occasionally informational purposes only, and is to be regarded strictly as satire comprising a veteran that delves into their thoughts and experiences in combat as well as their perspectives on various aspects of daily life that may be unsettling for certain listeners. This podcast is not suitable for individuals under the age of eighteen. The views articulated in this podcast may not necessarily align with those of the national VFW or VFW Department of Michigan or VFW Host 3033. Additionally, we kindly request that listeners refrain from pursuing legal action against the creators or contributors of this podcast. In other words, we don't do