Nov. 11, 2021 - Bannon's War Room
48:40
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♪♪ ♪ Over there, over there, set the word, set the word, over there. | |
| That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming. | ||
| The drum, drum, drumming everywhere. | ||
| So prepare, say a prayer, set the word, set the word, to beware. | ||
| It'll be over, we're coming over, and we won't come back till we're there. | ||
| Hey, welcome. | ||
| This is War Room Pandemic. | ||
| This is our special Veterans Day. | ||
| It is Thursday, 11 November, the year of our Lord 2021. | ||
| I want to apologize. | ||
| I just had a slight technical problem. | ||
| The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month is when the guns fell silent in Europe and throughout the world for the armistice of World War I. It was to bring the war to end all wars to an end. | ||
| We now commemorate this in the United States. | ||
| It's Veterans Day. | ||
| It's a day of commemorating the service. | ||
| Very different than Memorial Day. | ||
| Memorial Day is where we commemorate and honor our war dead. | ||
| Today is when we honor our veterans. | ||
| We've got a very packed show today. | ||
| Very special what's happening here. | ||
| In Washington, D.C., we're live right next to Arlington National Cemetery, where today is the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | ||
| For the last couple of days, which has never happened before, they've allowed civilians, they've allowed American citizens and others to go to Arlington and to lay flowers. | ||
| Very close, right next to the Tomb of the Unknown. | ||
| The Tomb of the Unknown is traditionally blocked off with a military guard called the Old Guard that 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, stands watch over the Tomb of the Unknown. | ||
| Known but to God. | ||
| So this is the 100th anniversary. | ||
| We've got Patrick K. O'Donnell, the top combat historian of his generation. | ||
| Patrick K. O'Donnell is going to be with us all day. | ||
| I don't know if we have Patrick. | ||
| We've had a slight technical problem. | ||
| As soon as we can get Patrick up, let me know. | ||
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Let me know when we get Patrick up. | |
| So we've got Patrick K. O'Donnell. | ||
| We've got Captain Bannon. | ||
| We're going to have General Bullock. | ||
| We're going to have Colonel Rogers. | ||
| We've got a whole host of people coming on today. | ||
| It's Patrick. | ||
| Sorry for the technical problem. | ||
| Let me bring in Patrick K. O'Donnell. | ||
| Patrick is a top combat historian. | ||
| He wrote a very special book about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | ||
| You know, Patrick joins us every Memorial Day. | ||
| Patrick joins us on Independence Day as we go through what it took to gain our freedom here in the United States. | ||
| But he wrote a book a number of years ago, very special, about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in World War I. Patrick, can you hear me? | ||
| I can hear you loud and clear, Steve. | ||
| It's great to be on with you, and it's always an honor. | ||
| Well, listen, this is very special. | ||
| I really want to thank Real America's Voice. | ||
| I want to thank the John Frederick Radio Network, GTV, and G News that are translating this into Mandarin right now for helping us. | ||
| We are out right next to Arlington National Cemetery. | ||
| We're very near where the Air Force Memorial is, the Air Force Memorial right next to the Pentagon, and we're going to have coverage. | ||
| We're going to pick up the feed. | ||
| Joe Biden is going to be at the Tomb of the Unknown at 11 o'clock, the 11th hour. | ||
| He's going to lay a wreath and he's going to say a few words. | ||
| We'll pick that up at 11 o'clock. | ||
| So, Patrick, this is such a special day. | ||
| You know, it's Armistice Day. | ||
| It was called Armistice Day for many, many years. | ||
| Tell our audience, and by the way, for the audience, you know, President Xi and China's consolidating power, Evergrande is going bankrupt. | ||
| Joe Manchin came out late last night and said, We're not, he doesn't feel because of inflation that we should go forward with the Build Back Better bill. | ||
| President Trump is really firing back on Liz Cheney. | ||
| Liz Cheney called him a domestic threat in New Hampshire. | ||
| She's clearly got presidential aspirations in 2024. | ||
| She's not spending time in Wyoming. | ||
| So we have all the things that are going on every day in geopolitics and finance and politics and culture. | ||
| And we will try to get to some of those during the day. | ||
| But we wanted to break this show out and just do a special just to commemorate our veterans. | ||
| We've got a lot of veterans, many of whom have been on the show before. | ||
| They're going to be here. | ||
| Veterans Day is not a day that we commemorate the war dead, but today's a little different. | ||
| And that's because it's the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. | ||
| Patrick, you've done so many great books about our veterans, about the combat fighting that took place in Korea, the revolution, Vietnam, and in Iraq and Afghanistan. | ||
| One of the most powerful books you've done is about World War I and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and if Denver could put up the cover as Patrick talks about it. | ||
| Patrick, why is today special? | ||
| It's the 100th anniversary to commemorate the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier here in the United States. | ||
| Walk us through how this came about. | ||
| This is arguably our greatest war memorial, Steve. | ||
| It commemorates all veterans that have fought in all wars, but also commemorates the end of World War I. | ||
| And initially, we did not have a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | ||
| The first Tomb of the Unknown Soldier comes about through France, and France wants a way to honor all of the veterans that fought in the Great War. | ||
| They lost millions in that war, and they create the first Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | ||
| It's followed by Great Britain, and then Later on, it's through the United States, and there's some really extraordinary stories about how that comes about here. | ||
| And it comes about here through grassroots movement. | ||
| It's something that The War Room knows all about, especially that audience. | ||
| It comes about through grassroots movement through a woman editor by the name of Marie Delaney, who had a magazine called The Delineator that was pretty powerful in its day, around the time of World War I. | ||
| And she sees what's going on overseas in France and England and suggests that this is something that we need to do. | ||
| And the War Department at the time pushes back and says, no, we can actually find all of our unknown and identify them. | ||
| And, you know, this is this is actually mission impossible. | ||
| That grassroots movement in the United States grows. | ||
| The War Department gives veterans, the mothers, the Gold Star mothers in the United States and fathers, the opportunity to bring home the bodies, the fallen members of their family, which some of them do. | ||
| But they also are honoring the unknown and Hamilton Fish, who's a very powerful Republican congressman from New York. | ||
| And Fish has a fascinating story, Steve. | ||
| He was initially a white officer in a black, nearly all black unit, the Harlem Hellfighters. | ||
| And these guys were incredible fighters. | ||
| And Fish saw sort of the injustice that went on with his unit. | ||
| He wanted a chance to honor his men, as well as all that served. | ||
| And he pushes it through Congress. | ||
| And it's today that Unknown from France in World War I is brought home. | ||
| And that's an amazing story as well. | ||
| So let me, just for the audience, I want to set the perspective. | ||
| Today is the 100th anniversary, the commemoration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. | ||
| Patrick and others have argued it's our greatest of all war memorials. | ||
| So in England and in France, They had, it's Francis right there, what, the Arcti Triumph right there. | ||
| It's the Tomb of the Unknown. | ||
| Also, they have it in the United Kingdom. | ||
| So they did it first. | ||
| Why was there a hesitancy again? | ||
| Why was there a hesitancy to do it here in the United States? | ||
| A lot of people believe that that was related to money. | ||
| And there was a pushback. | ||
| The families here wanted to bring back their fallen. | ||
| And the War Department pushed back initially, said that They didn't want to do that. | ||
| It was going to cost a lot of money to bring back the... They brought back nearly 40,000 Americans that had fallen in France. | ||
| The others have remained there, resting. | ||
| But the War Department also pushed back and said that they could identify the 3,000 or 4,000 Americans that were listed as unknown in the Great War, which was really kind of mission impossible, because World War I, as you know, Steve, is really one of the first... It's one of the first modern wars. | ||
| It's it deals with high explosive artillery, which can just shatter in the remains of bodies, gas, everything else. | ||
| So it's very difficult to identify, you know, service members that had been in the Great War. | ||
| But this movement prevails. | ||
| And the actual. | ||
| What the what's involved in the process is quite interesting, they go to The major cemeteries in Europe, which also correspond with the major battlefields in Europe, such as the Meuse Argonne, the area around Belleau Wood, San Miguel, and they identify Americans that are unknown. | ||
| And a graves registration unit goes there. | ||
| Exhume the bodies of these unknown soldiers and then double check to make sure that there is no dog tags or letters, anything that could identify them. | ||
| And then the graves registration unit then burns the burial card so that they're unable to identify where that body came from and which cemetery it came from. | ||
| They're all brought back to a city hall in France at a place called Chalon, and it's here that The five caskets are placed in this city hall, and they're flag-draped, and it's here that the unknown will be selected. | ||
| And that night, the plan was to have a general officer from the American Expeditionary Forces to make that selection. | ||
| But France interceded and said, no, you should really have an enlisted man. | ||
| The enlisted men always do the fighting in all wars. | ||
| And they sort of pushed us to have that selection process done by an enlisted man. | ||
| And Edward Younger, who was with the 2nd Infantry through the war, who had fought in all of the Great War's major battles near Belleau Wood, for instance. | ||
| He fights later at Saens, and then he's combat wounded at a place called Blancmont, which was this incredible fortress that the French could never take. | ||
| During the war but the second division in the Marine Corps take it in one of the greatest battles. | ||
| He's wounded and shot in the leg and Goes, you know comes back, but he's given that that awesome responsibility that night And that morning to actually make the selection and he goes into this room with the flag draped caskets of American unknowns and has to make the selection I'll never forget that I I found his handwritten notes of that moment in | ||
| as he's walking into the room and there are literally he's given a bouquet of white roses and told to make that selection and he prays and his hand literally moves he says as onto one of those caskets he feels it's a man that he may have served with in the second division and he | ||
| makes that selection and the the remains are then brought to the USS Olympia Admiral Dewey's flagship and then they're brought back to the United States. | ||
| And the voyage on that ship is also pretty extraordinary, Steve. | ||
| We'll get to that in the next segment. | ||
| I want to make sure everybody understands, everybody comprehends what went into this. | ||
| This is the 100th anniversary, the commemoration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, one of the most iconic memorials in all the United States in Arlington National Cemetery. | ||
| Real quickly, Patrick, I just want to make sure people understand this, the power of grassroots movements. | ||
| The War Department made the argument at first, leave aside unknown soldiers, they actually made an argument at first about the cost of bringing back the war dead, the veteran, the war dead in Europe to come back and be buried here in the United States? | ||
| Yeah, they made the argument that they could identify all of these three or four thousand war dead And that was completely a, uh, that was a fantasy. | ||
| There's no way that they could identify those individuals. | ||
| And this Marie Delany, um, really pushed it and it, it became a grassroots movement in 1920 to, to bring back or to, to honor an unknown and also to create a memorial for it. | ||
| It also became the movement to bring back our dough boys or our boys that had fallen in France. | ||
| And the War Department does that. | ||
| Nearly 40,000 Americans. | ||
| are exhumed from France and then brought back and reinterred here in the United States, in there, wherever the family wanted that family member to be buried. | ||
| Patrick, just hang on. | ||
| Patrick, just hang on. | ||
| We're going to take a short commercial break. | ||
| We're going to be back. | ||
| We have Patrick K. O'Donnell, Captain Maureen Bannon. | ||
| This is Veterans Day 2021. | ||
| We're near Arlington Cemetery where there's going to be a ceremony at 11 o'clock this morning. | ||
| Honoring the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | ||
| We'll be back in The Worm in just a moment. | ||
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My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. | |
| He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. | ||
| He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. | ||
| His truth is marching on. | ||
| Glory, glory, hallelujah. | ||
| His truth is marching on. | ||
| I have seen him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps. | ||
| They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps. | ||
| I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps. | ||
| His day is marching on. | ||
| Glory, glory, hallelujah. | ||
| Oh Okay, welcome back. | ||
| It is Thursday, the 11th of November, the year of our Lord 2021. | ||
| We're here next to Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | ||
| It's Memorial Day, the 11th hour, the 11th day of the 11th month. | ||
| We've got our combat historian Patrick K. O'Donnell and Captain Maureen Bannon's with us. | ||
| We're going to bring her in momentarily. | ||
| Patrick, I want to continue on. | ||
| So it gets put on the USS Olympia, the unknown service member that was selected from the five at the church. | ||
| Tell us from there, when it gets on the Olympia, how does it get here to the United States and how does it end up at Arlington National Cemetery? | ||
| The Olympia, Steve, is still in existence. | ||
| You can actually visit the Olympia in Philadelphia And the port there and the casket of the unknown is so large that they're not able to put it below deck. | ||
| So they leave it on the deck of the Olympia as it crosses the Atlantic. | ||
| And this is a, you know, exceptionally hair raising journey. | ||
| The Olympia hits a major storm and the Marine detailer guard on the Olympia literally has to lash themselves with ropes To the to the casket of the unknown to prevent it from going overboard. | ||
| Eventually, the Olympia makes it to the Washington Navy Yard. | ||
| The pier is still there to this day on November 9th, where it's greeted by pretty much all of the dignitaries in the United States, President Harding, Speaker of the House, as well as General Pershing. | ||
| And the men that I detail in my book, the body bearers, are then There to escort the remains first to the Capitol Rotunda. | ||
| And what makes their story unique, Steve, is its combat history of World War One. | ||
| General Pershing selected eight men specifically to bring back the remains of the unknown for their combat service. | ||
| He wanted to tell the story of the American Expeditionary Forces through their service. | ||
| And their service is really quite extraordinary. | ||
| There are several members from the U.S. | ||
| Navy. | ||
| One man in particular, the Army was represented and the Marine Corps. | ||
| And within each of the branches were combat specializations of these men. | ||
| It was the field artillery, combat engineers, the infantry, as well as in the Navy. | ||
| And the stories of the Navy are really quite extraordinary. | ||
| The bodyguards there, for instance, One of those men literally saved his ship by his actions. | ||
| The ship was torpedoed in September 1918 by a German U-boat, and he had one of the dirtiest jobs in the Navy. | ||
| He was a coltender in the boiler room, and the torpedo hit that boiler room and exploded. | ||
| Hot ash and steam scalded his body, killed many of the men there. | ||
| But he had the presence of mind of actually closing the watertight door that sealed the compartment of the ship. | ||
| And it's a transport ship that's about two thirds the size of the Titanic. | ||
| And it had those same kind of watertight compartments and it would have capsized and sunk had it not been for his efforts. | ||
| But that's just one of the stories in the unknowns that I tell. | ||
| And the body is then escorted to the Capitol Tundra where it lies in state. | ||
| And then it's brought to Arlington Cemetery today, this morning. | ||
| And it goes across the bridge and makes its way to Arlington. | ||
| And it's there that this is an incredibly important event. | ||
| And it's healing the wounds of the country in many, many ways, Steve, by who they have. | ||
| Yeah, I want to go into that. | ||
| It came across right by the Lincoln Memorial from the Capitol, right by the Lincoln Memorial, across that magnificent Memorial Bridge there. | ||
| As you go across, it's the ancestral home of George Washington, what Mary Custis, Robert E. Lee, it was his home. | ||
| That's why during the Civil War, they took it over and made it into a national military cemetery. | ||
| And then, so tell us about what happens when it comes across the bridge, it gets up to Arlington National Cemetery, because I think today people, you know, they say we're so divided. | ||
| There was a lot of division about even going into World War I, and particularly the high casualty rate for the limited amount of time we were there, very high casualty rate. | ||
| In an incredibly bloody and awful conflict that the people in the United States had seen what had happened to France. | ||
| I think France lost four million troops, you know, had mutinies towards the latter part of the war after, you know, having such carnage. | ||
| Obviously, the United Kingdom, the Battle of the Somme, what, 60,000 people in one day, casualties in one day. | ||
| The killing because of the technology was so horrific and the tactics hadn't caught up with it. | ||
| It was just really a Sure. | ||
| I think the thing that, you know, people might be asking, who cares about World War I? | ||
| The reality is, this is a war that changes the world. | ||
| How did the politicians of the time, the culturalist of the time, try to heal the wounds of the nation by the ceremony itself at Arlington? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| I think the thing that people might be asking, who cares about World War I? | ||
| The reality is, this is a war that changes the world. | ||
| I mean, in so many ways, Steve. | ||
| It's the dawn of the American century. | ||
| It's the dawn of a modern military in the United States, the modern Navy, the Marine Corps. | ||
| It makes the United States the supreme industrial power around the world and really effectively a superpower in many ways. | ||
| It changes the world, especially the Middle East is completely changed. | ||
| And we're still dealing with the ramifications of World War One to this day. | ||
| Voting changes for women in the United States. | ||
| There's so many societal changes that flow from World War One, making it one of the greatest events, if not the greatest event of the 20th century. | ||
| So it's worth understanding. | ||
| But indeed, you're right. | ||
| There were a tremendous amount of divisions internally. | ||
| People were very reluctant, and rightfully so, of entering the war. | ||
| But the point that's important is America Was the deciding factor in many, many ways in the Great War. | ||
| It was stalemated. | ||
| And in fact, Germany was at its height prior to our entry. | ||
| They had just defeated the Tsar on the Russian front and they were able to bring all of their troops to bear on the Western front. | ||
| And it was here that they were about, they were poised to defeat the Allies. | ||
| But it was American money that changes it. | ||
| I mean, our financing of the war, And we were an industrial powerhouse, and that was also supplying the munitions and arms, and then we supply an army that becomes the decisive factor on the Western Front and changes the course of the war. | ||
| And, you know, there is a number, a great number of casualties from gas and heavy artillery, and the war has divided Americans. | ||
| But the memorial is a way to heal, and it's very symbolic in the way it heals Another war, with the war with Native Americans that we had been waging. | ||
| And the government actually, a key figure in the Tomb of the Unknown ceremony is Chief Plenty Clues, who is a Crow Warchief that is brought into the ceremony and has made a key figure. | ||
| And he presides over the ceremony and provides some incredible Native American aspects to the ceremony. He puts his war bonnet and his war hammer on the casket. | ||
| And I mean the NAACP is represented here. Pretty much all walks of American life converge on this day 100 years ago. By the way, I think the Crow chief is a part of the big part of the ceremony today in commemoration of the 100th anniversary. Remember, it's very controversial at the end of it. | ||
| A lot of Americans said, hey, that not only should we have gone, it was a slaughter. | ||
| Why are we in European wars? | ||
| And it's almost like today, there's a very big push to say, you know, Woodrow Wilson had this grand scheme of how, you know, it was the war to end all wars. | ||
| It was going to be this international, the League of Nations, which he went over, obviously, at the Paris conference and negotiated for many months. | ||
| And it was not It was not the Senate never ratified it. | ||
| People forget at the end of World War One, it was very contentious, very contentious about America's role in the world, very contentious about the direction of the United States. | ||
| Did we want to really continue to get drawn back into these conflicts in Europe? | ||
| And obviously, with what an interregnum of 20 years, we're back into it in 1941, the war there started. | ||
| Really, what, 1939? | ||
| And you could argue in Spain in 1935. | ||
| So, amazing part of history. | ||
| Just want to make sure everybody understands that today's a very special Veterans Day because it's the 100th commemoration of the anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown. | ||
| Of course, Patrick will be back during the next two hours to tell us about not just World War I, but the other unknown soldiers that are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown. | ||
| Short commercial break. | ||
| When we return, we've got General Baldick, Colonel Rogers, Captain Maureen Bannon, Joe Kent, Tej Gill, veterans all throughout the next couple hours. | ||
| So stay with us here on Real America's Voice, The War Room. | ||
| We'll be back with our special edition of Veterans Day 2021. | ||
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♪♪♪ | |
| When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah, hurrah! | ||
| We'll give him a hearty welcome then, hurrah, hurrah! | ||
| All the men will cheer, the boys will shout, the ladies they will all turn out, And we'll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home. | ||
| And we'll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home. | ||
| ♪ Get ready for the jubilee. | ||
| Hurrah! | ||
| Hurrah! | ||
| To give the hero clean thanksgiving! | ||
| Hurrah! | ||
| Hurrah! | ||
| Oh, the laurel wreath is ready now To place upon his loyal crown And we'll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home And we'll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home In 1861 Okay, welcome back to our special coverage of Veterans Day. | ||
| 11 November, Year of Our Lord 2021. | ||
| We're here next to Arlington National Cemetery at 11 o'clock. | ||
| There'll be a ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | ||
| I want to thank you, thank all of Real America's Voice, John Frederick's Radio Network, GNews, GTV, everybody help us get this stood up today. | ||
| I want to bring in now, and by the way, we see in the live chat across all the different platforms, people sharing stories of service, their family, their own service. | ||
| Want to continue that. | ||
| We're going to try to push out as much of that today. | ||
| as possible on our social media platforms. | ||
| I want to bring in now General Don Bolduc, a legend in special forces, served our country for his entire professional life. | ||
| General Bolduc, you join us today from New Hampshire. | ||
| Talk to us about, for you, Veterans Day is different than Memorial Day. | ||
| What does Veterans Day mean to you, General Bolduc? | ||
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Well, Veterans Day is an opportunity for us to respect the service and sacrifice of our veterans writ large, and that means those that served and those that gave the ultimate sacrifice, unlike Memorial Day, where we specifically focus on those that have died in the service of their nation. | |
| Folks, obviously, are very, very important because we know, and as the quote goes, nation that forgets its fallen for those that serve. | ||
| is a nation that is soon to be forgotten and that goes all the way back to ancient Sparta where the only people in their society that got their names put on their tombstones were mothers that died in childbirth and their warriors who died in battle. | ||
| So this is hugely important time that we remember and that we remember our unknown. | ||
| Those that have sacrificed and those that have come back That we do not know who they are. | ||
| Now today, you know, we have technology and other means that makes that less likely to happen. | ||
| But nonetheless, we have three remains in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | ||
| And the east, west, and north portions of that memorial stand for peace, victory, and valor. | ||
| Because those of us that have fought in war know that we want to do everything General Bullock, thank you. | ||
| We know you're slammed today. | ||
| You're in many, many ceremonies up in the great state, the great granite state of New Hampshire. | ||
| Live free or die. | ||
| I want to thank you very much for joining us today on our special coverage of Veterans Day. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
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You're very welcome. | |
| Thank you and God bless. | ||
| And thank you really, Steve, for doing this. | ||
| You're the only one that can do this. | ||
| You're the only patriot that can put this on and really capture the essence of it because of your service and what you believe and what you stand for. | ||
| So thank you very much. | ||
| Thank you, General. | ||
| Appreciate it. | ||
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God bless you and live free or die. | |
| Love the Granite State. | ||
| Those flinty Yankees up there. | ||
| Very, very impressive. | ||
| Great group. | ||
| Let's go now to in Arizona. | ||
| We've got Wendy Rogers. | ||
| She's actually traveling. | ||
| Colonel Wendy Rogers. | ||
| Colonel, do we have Colonel Rogers? | ||
| Are you there? | ||
| Yes, I am. | ||
| Hi, Steve. | ||
| Hey, Colonel. | ||
| Listen, you know, you've gotten to be so well known over the last year. | ||
| I had a chance to meet you in the 18 campaign when you were flying around. | ||
| I just want to get your input today on what Veterans Day means to you. | ||
| You're someone that's very much identified with our veterans as you've gone around the country for the last year. | ||
| What does Veterans Day mean to Colonel Wendy Rogers? | ||
| Well, thanks for having me on, Steve. | ||
| I'm actually on your side of the country here in Florida at the moment. | ||
| I get emails and texts every day as an Arizona Senator now, just this morning, of a veteran who needs help, who is struggling, and this is my solemn honor and oath to represent Arizona and to travel the nation to try to restore election integrity so that all of this blood and treasure and sacrifice that so many veterans have given | ||
| means something and veterans today feel as though you know that their blood and sacrifice isn't really sometimes being honored or appreciated and so my charge in life has been to uphold them to help them and to shine a light on the treasure that our veterans are. | ||
| As fewer and fewer parts of the population you know we're down I think somebody told one percent because it's an all-volunteer force today. | ||
| How can veterans like you, myself, Captain Bannon, all the veterans we have on here, how can we do a better job of making sure that people understand the importance of service and the benefits of service, the personal benefits? | ||
| And I don't mean the monetary benefits of college and stuff like that, but every The person I talked to that served always tells me it was the best time of their life. | ||
| And then you talk to so many people in their 40s and 50s and said, you know, the one thing in my life I wish I'd done is serve is be in the service. | ||
| How can we do a better job of letting people know how important it is to serve? | ||
| Well, it's a service above self. | ||
| It's transcendent. | ||
| It's really our family. | ||
| It's our country and all the thousands of doors I've knocked in Northern Arizona and a big shout out to my veteran friends who are watching from my VFW and Flagstaff right now. | ||
| This is something where you knock on someone's door and they say this exact thing. | ||
| I served and then there's this instant bond between them and me. | ||
| And then you run into other people who say, I wish I had served. | ||
| And this is the true American ethos to, uh, suborn yourself to the greater good, to the team. | ||
| And we have that still absolutely vibrant in the, in the nature of our country. | ||
| And I celebrate that today. | ||
| There is a revival occurring across this country. | ||
| Love of country, love of that independent, as you call it, called it that flinty spirit. | ||
| And that's what a soldier, a sailor, an airman, a marine, a Coast Guardsman, a guardian now of the Space Force. | ||
| These are the things that we ennoble and these are the things that we should celebrate and encourage young people to embrace when they can serve their country because they'll never regret it. | ||
| They'll never look back and say they wish they hadn't. | ||
| They'll thank us for encouraging them to do so. | ||
| Colonel, how do people follow you on your travels on social media? | ||
| How do people get to you? | ||
| Well, I'm on about every platform there is because I'm a big believer in backups. | ||
| So Wendy Rogers AZ on Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram especially is where I drop my truth bombs first. | ||
| But my main website is my name, WendyRogers.org, and that's got a great resources tab on it for you veterans and for you military who are trying to apply for exemptions. | ||
| I have great information on the resources tab of WendyRogers.org. | ||
| God bless you, Steve, for doing this show today. | ||
| Thank you, Colonel. | ||
| It's an honor. | ||
| I want to go to Captain Bannon. | ||
| By the way, for all the posse, we're just getting tremendous feedback into all the different chat rooms and forums, sharing stories about your own service and service of your parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, buddies, etc. | ||
| So that's what this is all about. | ||
| Captain Bannon, do we have Mo there? | ||
| Mo, are you with us? | ||
| Okay, we don't, do we? | ||
| How you doing, Captain Bannon? | ||
| I'm good. | ||
| For this younger generation, Doing great. | ||
| Tell me about, I wish you were up here riding shotgun, but I understand you're tied up in some stuff. | ||
| Walk us through, this younger generation, I'm very impressed, and the reason I'm so impressed with, and I've said for a long time, your generation, | ||
| The next or the new greatest generation because these wars in the in the Middle East Afghanistan Iraq have been so brutal and so tough and so long and and and really with a lot with no support really no support a very little support for the American people just kind of forgotten that this generation unlike in World War II with this country was kind of united people have gone and served and just done a tremendous what is what is Veterans Day mean for you and your generation? | ||
| It means not only to honor those that have served before us, but to honor each other that, you know, we signed up during a time of war. | ||
| When I went to West Point, I knew that there was a chance that when I graduated, I would go over to Iraq or Afghanistan. | ||
| So today is truly a day to honor those that signed up during a time of war, knowing the risk that could happen. | ||
| Tell me about your generation, particularly after the withdrawal from Afghanistan. | ||
| Do people feel that their service and their sacrifice had meaning to it, had purpose to it? | ||
| Today we're commemorating obviously one of the most sacred moments in American history, the entombment of the of the unknown soldier after World War I that led to an unknown soldier in both World War II and Korea. | ||
| What is it For instance, what does it mean today to your generation, and is there still that kind of spirit of, hey, we can get this done, or is there a lot of disappointment? | ||
| You know, there's a lot of veterans out there that, with what happened in Afghanistan, question, is their service in vain? | ||
| And their service is not in vain. | ||
| We were given a mission. | ||
| We completed that mission in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our service is not in vain. | ||
| And I want to make that clear to every Iraq and Afghanistan veteran. | ||
| I think that we need to do a better job of getting veterans the care that they need upon returning, because we sent multiple people over there Deployment after deployment after deployment and coming back with PTSD, you know, people that never served don't understand the things that the service members saw over there. | ||
| So we need to push for better care for our veterans to include mental health care. | ||
| And currently, with the people still serving, we need to address that as well. | ||
| And we need to do a better job of getting them the care that they need while in service instead of waiting until after they get out. | ||
| Okay, great. | ||
| What is your social media? | ||
| How do people follow you? | ||
| You can follow me on Instagram at Real Maureen Bannon, and then on Twitter and Getter at Maureen underscore Bannon. | ||
| Okay, thank you, Captain. | ||
| Appreciate it. | ||
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| Talk about multiple tours. | ||
| Do we have Tej Gill? | ||
| Tej Gill, a Navy SEAL, a veteran, runs a marketing company now. | ||
| Tej, are you with us? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yep, I'm here, Steve. | |
| Tej, we only got a minute. | ||
| We're going to hold you over through break, but just when Mo talks about the multiple tours and the veterans, the modern veterans today, how many tours did you do in the wars in the Middle East? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I did 16 times between Iraq and Afghanistan, active duty and a contractor. | |
| 16 times. | ||
| I think we're going to have Joe Kent on following you. | ||
| I think Joe is 11 or 12. | ||
| I'll let that stand, and we'll come back in commercial break. | ||
| For Veterans Day, I want everybody in this audience to understand the intensity of the commitment of this young generation of veterans. | ||
| It is something that has really been unprecedented in American history. | ||
| 16 tours. | ||
| Joe Kent, I think, 11 or 12. | ||
| Just incredible. | ||
| Incredible patriotism. | ||
| Okay, short commercial break. | ||
| It's our Veterans Day special, 11 November, the Year of the Lord 2021. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We'll be back in a moment. | |
| Boys, we'll rally once again. | ||
| Shouting the battle cry of freedom. | ||
| We will rally from the hillside. | ||
| We'll gather from the plain, shouting the battle cry of freedom. | ||
| The Union forever! | ||
| Hurrah, boys, hurrah! | ||
| Down with the traitor and up with the star! | ||
| While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again! | ||
| Shouting the battle cry of freedom! | ||
| We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before. | ||
| Shouting the battle cry of freedom. | ||
| And we'll fill the vacant ranks with a million free men more. | ||
| Shouting the battle cry of freedom. | ||
| The Union... | ||
| Okay, welcome back to War Room, our coverage. | ||
| We're right next to Arlington National Cemetery, where in a few minutes they're going to begin the ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | ||
| We're going to have Patrick K. O'Donnell, our combat historian, is going to come back, understand from the chat room. | ||
| People are incredibly interested in the backstory to the Tomb of the Unknown, so we're going to get Patrick back here in a moment. | ||
| We want to get a couple of combat vets in right now for these current wars in the Middle East. | ||
| Also, A lot of requests. | ||
| As you know, every time we do Memorial Day or the 4th of July, we have the recordings of Diane Taraz. | ||
| You should go to her website, T-A-R-A-Z. | ||
| Incredible music of the Revolution, the Civil War, Americana. | ||
| Diane Taraz is the singer. | ||
| She's got a website. | ||
| You can order her CDs or order her, get it digitally. | ||
| I want to bring back in Tej Gill, a Navy SEAL. | ||
| Tej, tell us about, what, 16 tours? | ||
| For your generation of veterans, the men and women that serve time and time and time again, what does Veterans Day mean? | ||
| When you come to Veterans Day, different than Memorial Day, what does Veterans Day mean to you guys? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Veterans Day, it's a day to celebrate all veterans that have served. | |
| Not just the people that died, but everybody. | ||
| World War I, World War II, Civil War. | ||
| Everybody from all time that served in the military. | ||
| Today is a day to honor them. | ||
| Fly flags, thank a veteran, however you're going to do it. | ||
| You can donate to a 501c3 that helps veterans, but today is just a day to honor all veterans that have served in the military. | ||
| And it's not just combat veterans, it's all veterans that have worn the uniform. | ||
| Yeah, that's right. | ||
| The combat veterans, by the way, are a special group, but it takes a big, it takes a big team to make everything happen. | ||
| Also on Veterans Day, it's our day also to remember those that were wounded in battle, and particularly with modern warfare, really starting with the Civil War, the wounds were, the casualties, you know, it's been said so many times that so many of the wounded wish they were dead. | ||
| It was so horrific. | ||
| So it's a time to remember all of our veterans. | ||
| And if you've got a veterans group, you can help out. | ||
| We're going to have a couple of veterans group on in the second hour. | ||
| Tej, real quick, you've got a veterans-run company. | ||
| We always try to promote that. | ||
| Tell us about your company and how do people get to your site? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I wanted to say one other thing also. | |
| It's not just the wounds that happen on the battlefield, it's the wounds that happen off the battlefield. | ||
| Since 9-11, 30,177 veterans have committed suicide off the battlefield. | ||
| So we need to help our veterans out, especially the war veterans with the invisible wounds, the PTSD. | ||
| And the way you can do that is find a good 501c3 that helps out veterans. | ||
| One that I know and that I went through was called America's Mighty Warriors and it's run by Debbie Lee. | ||
| She's a gold star mother. | ||
| Her son Mark Lee was the first SEAL killed in Iraq and she helps out hundreds and hundreds of guys a year that are having problems. | ||
| The invisible wounds of the war, you know, guys are getting arrested, getting divorced, committing suicide. | ||
| So I think that's the biggest way you can help a veteran. | ||
| You know, thanking for your service is great, flying a flag is great, but if you can help these guys with the invisible wounds after the war, that's how you can really help these guys. | ||
| Tej, fantastic. | ||
| Can you give us your website so people can go to it? | ||
| By the way, Debbie Lee is as good as they get. | ||
| I mean, this is a gold star mom that just represents every day. | ||
| We'll put her site up too. | ||
| How did they get to your site, your veterans company that is the marketing company? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, we're Project Warpath. | |
| It's projectwarpath.com. | ||
| Project Warpath on Facebook, Instagram, we're on Twitter also, but projectwarpath.com. | ||
| We're a veteran patriotic t-shirt company. | ||
| Tej, thank you. | ||
| Thank you for being on here today. | ||
| And thank you particularly talking about the invisible wounds. | ||
| So we can get Debbie Lee's Thank you, Steve. | ||
| America's Mighty Warriors. | ||
| Thanks, brother. | ||
| Tej Gill. | ||
| I want to bring in Joe Kent. | ||
| Joe lost his wife in the fight against ISIS in the Middle East. | ||
| She was a service member, a senior enlisted that gave her life in combat. | ||
| Joe, thank you very much for joining us. | ||
| Joe Kent, you had 11, 12 tours, I think it was, combat tours. | ||
| What's Veterans Day mean to you and your buddies? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a lot, Steve. | |
| So thank you so much for having me on and for honoring my late wife, Shannon. | ||
| I had 11 combat tours. | ||
| The greatest honor of my life was to serve this country, especially in combat. | ||
| To me, Veterans Day is a day to reach out to your fellow veterans and thank them for their service and let them know that they're not alone. | ||
| For me, my special message on this Veterans Day is that if you're a veteran of the global war on terror, Thank you for your service, but our job is not done. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Our political class absolutely squandered the valor of our generation with their lies, and we saw it all come unravel in Afghanistan. | |
| And I know a lot of people have mixed feelings. | ||
| They have bad feelings about that, but our service is not done. | ||
| This is our country. | ||
| It's our responsibility now to lead the great revival of our nation. | ||
| So that's my call to action. | ||
| That's why I'm running for Congress. | ||
| I want to reach out to all of our veterans and say, Hey, I know everyone is feeling very distraught about the way that things ended But this is our nation. | ||
| We are the greatest generation of this era. | ||
| It's time to do what our grandparents did. | ||
| When the war was over, they came home, they put their shoulders to the wheel, and they rebuilt our country. | ||
| It's our turn to do just that. | ||
| I think that's the whole reason we wanted to do this Veterans Day today, is to understand that veterans, we still got a lot more work to do. | ||
| Joe, how do people, that message I think resonates, how do people get to you on social media? | ||
| How do they get to your website? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely. | |
| JoeKent4Congress.com is the place to do that. | ||
| So if people want to help out my campaign, I'm running against one of the impeachment voters, Jamie Hurra-Butler. | ||
| JoeKent4Congress.com. | ||
| I'm running on all small contributions. | ||
| The War Room Posse has greatly helped us take the lead in the race. | ||
| So JoeKent4Congress.com. | ||
| Thank you very much, Steve. | ||
| No Joe, and this is the thing, I want all veterans to listen, not just involved in politics, but I want what Joe Kent said, in every generation we've had the veterans come back and it's the veterans that put their shoulder to the wheel. | ||
| The veterans and their family put their shoulder to the wheel to rebuild the country. | ||
| Joe Kent from Washington III, thank you very much for joining us and thank you brother for everything you've done for this country. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you Steve, my honor. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Short break. | ||
| We're going to come back to Arlington National Cemetery. |
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